Cocktails and a Joker

 

Hi Stunners!

I hope you are all well. I decided I will post a weekly update of my progress on Drinks on the Beach. If you read my previous post, I have to finish 6 full pages to qualify for the 11 other charts in the SAL. According to StitchPal I started with having to complete 540 stitches per day. However, I had some really good days where I busted out well over 600 stitches, and then some days where I barely got any in. So my daily average requirement fluctuated accordingly. I am currently sitting at 549 per day. So here is what it looked like on 1st October:

And here is where it's at on 12th October. I managed 4,293 stitches. 

The edge of blue sky on the fifth row is the page break and the bottom is where the gap is on the red straw. So I will have the first page completed by my next update.  When I got a little blue sick and as a reward, I worked on some of the brighter colours. 

If I was a good girl and completed my targeted stitches in a day, I picked up Joker. I finished the diagonal and made a start on the next one last night. I have decided to stick with this one for a bit longer. The diagonals are set at 10 stitches wide. After I finish this one I would like to try another diagonal on him but this time with a 20 stitches wide one. The reason behind it is that I don't stick strictly within the diagonal. As long as there is a stitch above, I keep going. And I found I was doing this a lot so I thought maybe a 20 x diagonal would be a better fit for this design. I'm absolutely loving working on him. I love how the steampunk pipe things in the background stitched up. It looks really effective in real life. 

Before

662 stitches later

This next diagonal will be so much fun as it's starting to attack his hair. And I love purple!

I will post another update next week. I will take pictures in the daylight next time as the colours look a bit washed out when taken at night under my daytime lamp.  But trust me they are both very vibrant. 

I hope you all had a great week, stitching or otherwise.

Take care and may life be magical for you!

Alicia

Happy October!

 

Hi Stunners!

Happy 1st of the Month!

I joined the HAED 2025 SAL which technically began in December 2024. It is the only SAL I'm doing this year as 2025 is my no new stash and no new starts year.  And as HAED released part 1 in December, it allowed me a little loophole so that I could participate, without blowing my self imposed rule.

We had a choice of 12 charts and I chose Drinks on the Beach by Lars Stewart. Part of the SAL is that if you finish your chosen chart or at least 6 full pages by the end of the year, you will receive all of the charts in the SAL for free as your reward. 

This design has 9 full pages, I will be stitching pages 1-3 and 5-7. There is no way that I could finish the whole chart by the end of the year now. 

I use an app called StitchPal:

StitchPal App

It's an absolute godsend for my stitching. As I have 158 wips (at last count 😝) it's a great way for me to keep track of them all as well as my progress on each project. Also it gives you the stats on how much you have stitched in a selected period. I like to try and beat the previous months effort. But what I love about it the most is that it can calculate how many stitches you need to complete daily to reach a goal. 

So StitchPal tells me that I currently have to complete 540xx a day to finish 6 full pages by the end of the year. I started last night and managed to put in, 633xx. So obviously if you stitch more than required it reduces the daily tally and vice versa if you don't hit your daily goal on a particular day. 

Hopefully when I go home today after work I can reach my 540 goal. It's not too bad as this chart has a lot of one colour chunks, especially in the sky. So on days when I have less time to stitch I will attack the sky to reach my goal. 

Here are our the rest of the charts. I won't stitch them all. I will definitely stitch 2 of them. Steampunk Portal (the one next to Drinks on the Beach) and Jelly World ( bottom left corner)

I am truly not a monogamous stitcher. So as a reward, when I reach my target stitches per day I will then work on one of my wips. The Tiny Decisions wheel has been spun and it landed on Joker by Thread Geeks Design.

This is where it's currently at. I would love to finish another diagonal before moving onto the next spun up wip. 

So that's it for me for now. I will post weekly to show my progress on Drinks On the Beach. I'm determined to keep up with it. Wish me luck!

Take care everyone.

May life be magical to you, always and thank you so much for stopping by.

Love 

Alicia

Happy 2025 Stunners!

I'm back!!! Some of you haven't truly missed me as we are friends on FB. But I have missed interacting in the blog world. FB is ok, but I love the stories behind everything. The highs, lows, stresses, mistakes, achievements, and just nailing stuff! Also I much prefer to keep up with everyone's progress on a more personal level. And you just can't get all of that in a FB post or an Instagram pic and comment. 

So it's back to my homeland. My original contact with the cross stitch community. 

There are things I will only post here and not on other media. Here I will post all my progress, whereas on other media, I will only be posting significant progress or new starts, or that elusive thing (for me anyway) the FINISH!! 🤗

This is what's been happening since I last posted. I've had quite a few new starts! Those of you that know me won't be surprised. My friend Diane, celebrated her 50th birthday last year and roped me into doing 50 new starts for her 50th. To be honest she didn't really have to twist my arm too hard LOL! 

I made it, but it was a close call, as I started my final one on the 31st December. I  will show the 50 as they come up in this years rotation. 

2025 GOALS

This is one of my focus on a finish wips, Mini Sisters Max Colours by Amy Brown and charted by Heaven and Earth Designs. It is a gift for my sister so you will be seeing it a lot in Gifted Gorgeousness which is held by the lovely Jo of Serendipitous Stitching.

This is where I am currently at with it. 12.28% completed 8,590/69,975

Another focus on a finish. The 2025 HAED SAL

Drinks on the Beach by Lars Stewart

Drinks on the Beach

So far only 843 stitched. This quarter we have 24,735 to stitch. So I need to get a motor on!

The requirement is that you have to stitch 6 full pages minimum, to qualify to receive all of the charts that were offered on the SAL. There are 4 I love and it was a hard choice. It was between Jelly world, Flamingos and Steampunk Portal. I figured that Drinks on the Beach would be the easiest stitch that would help me get 6 pages completed in order to get the others. Jelly world is the biggest chart amongst them all!! What do you think? Which one do you like?

I have started a daily rotation. On my last count I have 148 wips and 30 of them are supersized or even bigger! And they just haven't been getting the love they deserve. So I'm hoping dedicating a day on each of them will help get things moving. The rotation will kick in on Monday 10th February.

This week has been all about Supersized Past Present Future by Aimee Stewart and designed by Heaven and Earth Designs. This was my new start #32 in 2024 for the 50 new start challenge. 

Total stitched for February was 1,541

I am doing this in diagonal stitching across the entire chart. It may be a little ambitious, but I want to stitch an entire diagonal each time it comes up in the rotation. Including when the diagonal is across the whole chart. It's okay at the moment as the diagonals are reasonably small. Let's see shall we 😜

January was not a great month for stitching. I flew interstate to attend my friend, Sharine's birthday. You may remember her, she is a blogger (which is how we first met) called Charbella Stitching, and like me she has let it lapse a little. Click on the link to see her blog. Her last post was in August 2024 and the one before that was in 2020. I'm going to try and get her to go back to it.

Sharine and I have known each other for at least 12 years and last year was the first time we met in person. It was so surreal. We attended a retreat in NSW and the poor thing had to catch a train that took 13 hours. She does not like flying. Luckily I do, as it only took me 90 minutes to fly to her. 

We are both working on a chart together, Ghosts in the Forest by Charting Creations and the artist is one of my favourites, Dusan Markovic.

Sharine is stitching across the chart page by page and I am stitching down in columns. One day we will happily meet somewhere in there 🤞💕

This is not an updated photo of mine. I will have to dig it out. I have completed the first full column of pages and now I am back up the top and halfway through technically page 2.

I took it with me to Victoria and it was so cool to work on it with Sharine in the same room whilst watching movies together. I was there for a week and when I returned to Sydney I haven't picked it up again 😢

Mine

Sharine's

This was what I mostly worked on in January. Castle Cutaway XL by Steve Crisp and charted by Artecy.

From this

To this

I just wanted to finish at least one of the boys!!

I love how Tereena from Artecy, charts nature. I have seen so many finished pieces by other stitchers that have worked on Autumnal trees, and beautiful water designs and it looks like a photograph. Even the trees in this picture, even though the original illustration is an obvious drawing, it still looks quite realistic. 

Total stitched 1,406 in this session. 

This currently sits at 22,276/645,050 or 3.45%. So it's one of my biggest babies!

Rotation

This is my 2025 rotation. But it is subject to change 😆

Monday: Samplers (5)

Tuesday: Focus Gift - Mini Sisters 

Wednesday: Gifted Gorgeousness (stitch on a gift to give to someone - 7)

Thursday: Supersized Babies (31)

Friday: SAL's (14)

Saturday: Ghosts in the Forest

Sunday: One of my regular size or smaller wips (last count - 85)

I  use an app called Tiny Decisions. And I have loaded all my wips by category into the wheels. I spin it up on each day that category is due and work on whatever wins the spin. I love all my wips so it won't matter which one I land on! (I say that now 🤣)

The only thing that changes is that every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month I go to a stitching group. The first one is at an RSL club where we hire the room for 4 hours and the second one is a little more local and we hire the hall for 6 hours. On these days I will be working on Drinks on the Beach 

2025 is a no new start and no purchasing of charts. I have allowed myself to buy things to kit up a stash chart only, but I'm not allowed to start it until 2026. Of which there are currently 36 charts waiting to be started. I know, I know but as my blog description states, it's about a lunatic that loves to cross stitch 😜🤣

I will be updating the accompanying pages soon too.

Ok, that's it from me. Now I'm going to dive into all your blogs.

Enjoy all your stitching and everything else that life has to offer.

QUOTE: The expert in anything, was once a beginner 💖

Love Alicia