Winter Stitching Wrap up!

Hi stunners!!

Apologies for the long hiatus. 

This post is dedicated to the lovely Amanda our stunning Cross Stitch Angel. Amanda has been scolding encouraging me to put out a post. So here it is. Thanks for pushing me Amanda I really need it as you can see. Thanks so much for the support too stunner.

We have just finished Winter down Under and this is what I got up to.

Three appears to be my lucky number lately. I have two page three finishes. Firstly I have completed 3 pages on Alisha. So happy to see the end of all that blue and lookie that's her foot, well the bottom of her shoe anyway, so she has technically made an appearance. The next page is going to be so cool as it's Alisha's head. And I am really enjoying diagonal stitching.

Next is Carnival Moon, another HAED.  

I haven't worked on this since 2016 and I remembered how much I love it, so have made it a focus piece. I completed page 3 as well on this beauty. I love the colours, such a fun stitch. 

Also still getting some love is Theatre of the Absurd and I pray to the cross stitching Goddesses to help me get a September finish.  Just a partial page to go and some ninja stitches on the second last page. I've forgotten what it's like to actually finish something. So it would be wicked cool to get one under my belt to spur me on. 

I was cleaning out the craft room and let me tell you that was no mean feat. I found my old old old wip of Vanity, which I started in 2010!!!! My beautiful friend Jayne from NZ RAK'd me the Max Colours version of this which I am working on as a diamond painting so I actually had no intention of finishing this as a cross stitch. But when I picked it up to throw out I just couldn't do it. All those lush purples and the bright blue in the circles that just pops against them. My cross stitching soul just wept at the thought of  abandoning her. So I have decided to keep going and gift it or maybe just keep it as a solo feature in my bedroom...you know when I finish it. Ha ha. This is where I left her and as you can see I'm working across the entire row. 

So that's where I am at. I'm currently doing the Mini Million Marathon on the Ultimate cross stitching FB challenge so I will be a busy Princess over the rest of September as it's a team effort to get a Million stitches in 3 weeks. So can't let the team down. 

That's all for now stunners. Thanks for visiting and I promise on all my stash to be a better blogger and blogger friend. I have set aside Thursday for blog reading so I will catch up with you all and your adventures. 

Take care stunners and may life be magical. 

xoxo Alicia

July's Journey

Hi Stunners!! 

I hope everyone had a Jubliant July.

Just popping in to share my cross stitch progress for July. 

I finally started my biggest cross stitch wip to date. This is "Our House" by Colin Thompson. The designer Kimberley Hill from Gecko Rouge believes it's the largest kit in the world and at 857 x 1189, which is a total of 1,018,973 stitches, I believe she is right. 

I have finished page 1 and made a wee start on the second page. My aim is to complete this room by room. So I will be stitching the boys room first and I'm not sure which way I will go after that. It's stitched on 18ct white Aida and the finished stitched size is 119cm x 165cm. The hardest thing to deal with is all the fabric when I'm working on it. 

Our House

I completed 3 rows of page 3 on my HAED Carnival Moon by Aimee Stewart. Page 4 is the one I will be submitting for the HAED FB Parking Challenge #3.

Sorry it's a bit dark, the colours are closer to the top pic in reality 

And for any Sydey siders I have discovered a shop called  "Achieve Australia" and it's a secondhand craft store with a difference. It is run by volunteers and all the items are donated and all the profits go to people living with disabilities. It is such an awesome shop.  Some are obviously from deceased estates where the next of kin did not have any interest in nanna's and great nanna's craft projects. There were sewing patterns from 1920!!! 

But this is what I encountered when I first walked in - rolls of cross stitch fabric starting at $1 a metre. See that long lemon one in the background? I snagged that baby - BOOM! 

This one made me laugh - had to take a photo of this - Note the "For Women Only" on the front. LOL!

And for those of us that need a bit of a kick start, here are some cross stitches and kits that were in different progress stages that you can buy and finish. 

I bought a few kits for friends that were brand new and unopened? Who are these people that get kits and don't open them to play with at least. But my bonza score was this beautiful brand new (and yes unopened!!) Maia kit - Misaki which retails for about $80AUD for $18.  

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit.  I will be back soon with the next Gifted Gorgeousness SAL post for the 15th of August...yeah right I hear you say LOL! 

Take care and keep being your beautiful selves. 

P.S. Don't forget about the Tilton Crafts Sale. The owner Shelley is having a hard time at the moment with medical issues and it will really help her out.

Love ya stunners 

xoxo Alicia

The Organised Princess

Hi Stunners!!!

I have been a busy little Crafty Princess Beaver over the last 2 months. Yes with stitching but more with organising my stitching. I have updated my Wip's menu (see the tabs above) and added my Supersized Babies. So now you and I can see at a glance how I'm working through my myriad of wip's. I have made a promise to myself and the Craft Gods that I won't deviate from this rotation. So these are the only wips I'm allowed to work on. 

From the advice of my good friend Sharine I tried to whittle it down and have focus projects. So I have developed a rotation that ensures that a few of them are deemed as such and are worked on more often than the others. Plus I have engineered the rotation so that finishes are the goal. It's too long and boring to explain the plan, you're just going to have to trust me on this....please please xo

Anyway to the stitching!!!  I managed quite a few page finishes over the last couple of months.

Lady Hatter - Sandra Vargas - Gecko Rouge.  

This was one of the projects that has been culled from the current rotation. But don't worry once I finish King Tut and Frank the Frog she will be back in play. Those 2 charts are the SAL charts and Frank is only 4 partial pages and Tut is 6 even smaller partial pages. 

Pages 6 & 7 Completed

So Many Books So Little Time - Randal Spangler - HAED

This is another one that got the chop. I had 8 HAED Bap's on the go and I had to halve this number to be reasonable. It killed me to do it but he'll be back one day!!

Page 1 completed

Nancy Goodaim _ Space Ranger - Aly Fell - Eclectic Blokes Design

I finished off page 2 and managed to complete the whole of page 3. Not a great deal of confetti so that was a nice change. 

Pages 1,2 and 3 completed

Carnival Moon - Aimee Stewart - HAED

This is one of my focus pieces and I'm aiming for the row finish by the end of the year (at least anyway) I love the way this is stitching up. The next page is full of blocks of colour so should be a bit quicker than all that confetti in the flowers on the first 2 pages.

Page 1 and 2 completed

Bookshelf - Colin Thompson - Gecko Rouge

I have joined the Gecko Rouge Gold Club plus and this was my Gold Kit choice. As soon as it arrived, wild tornado's and half naked firemen could not hold me back from starting this. It's massive!! The below wip pic is Page 1 completed so you can see how much I have to go. But it's so cool, if you look closely amongst the shelves you find some quirky characters and weird little objects or ordinary objects doing strange things. It's alot of fun. 

Page 1 Completed

I have added 3 new starts to my rotation. They are all tribute charts so I can be forgiven. My world fell apart at the news of David Bowie and Alan Rickman's death. I have loved Bowie since forever and I only got a chance to see him once in concert. So I was devastated. 

This chart was on my Gecko Roughe WL and I bought it on the day of his death. (*Sob*)  It arrived today so I will be making an immediate start. R.I.P Bowie. Forever a legend and forever missed!! The artist is Sara Bowersock.

David Bowie

Another tribute chart to Bowie, it's about one of my favourite movies of all time "Labyrinth" It's another Gecko Rouge and I already had it in my stash including the hand dyed fabric I had bought for it, so what better time than to bring it out. I'm going to watch Labyrinth over and over whilst stitching this one.  It's only Forever by Medusa Dollmaker

It's Only Forever

And for the late great Alan Rickman a tribute to him by Daniel Kordek and charted by Shelley Lee of Tilton Crafts. Snape! I've ordered the fabric from the lovely boys at Sew it All and as soon as I gather the floss I will be inserting this awesome chart into my rotation. 

Snape 

Thank you for all your lovely comments and encouragement on my previous post. I will be posting at least twice a month. Once midway on the 15th for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL run by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and once at the end with the monthly progress. 

I know this will be a good year for me stitching wise as it's the first time I'm actually organised. I've even started a journal to record hours worked on each chart, recorded goals that are achievable unlike all those previous years and most importantly - CLEANED the CRAFT ROOM!!!!! Oh man that was a week long job.

So thank you for joining me in this journey stunners. I promise there will be more to see this year.

Love you lots and thanks for making my life the rainbow filled playground that it is. 

I'm going to spend the next day reading blogs and replying to all my emails. And then it's down to some serious DVD watching and hard core
stitching!!

Take care stunners and I hope life is magical and enchanting for you all!


xoxo Alicia

P.S. Just noticed that this is my 69th post which is also the age both David Bowie and Alan Rickman were at their time of passing. 

Gifted Gorgeousness

HELLO STUNNERS!!! 

I've said in the past that one day I would start my blog post without an apology about lateness. Definitely not going to happen today, my last post was in July and this post is 5 days late for December Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. FAIL!!! 

Sorry sorry sorry for the total AWOL from blogworld. No excuses really but I will blame facebook. Joining (well technically being added) to new groups has led me to overindulge in SABLE and be so spoilt by my amazing and too generous Crafty brothers and sisters, as it has led to way too many new starts and new start SAL's. Something had to give and blogging paid the price eeek.

So I have decreed that in 2016 I'm going to be returning to my roots and also the place I met most of my stitching friends and that is blogging. I've missed reading blogs and keeping up with everyone that way. FB is very instantaneous, yes, but it also is just a quick pow of updates and it's a little hard to keep up with everyone. 

Whereas blogging feels more like a long journey and adventure with friends. So I will be spending more time here than on fb type of social media. 

So let's get to it stunners.

Firstly is the update for my sisters gift. Mystic Stitch - October Rose Zircon by Maxine Gadd. Not much progress I'm afraid but I've changed my way of stitching this. 

If anyone has stitched a MS you will know the pain of their symbols. They are so so so hard to read and the confetti is incredible. I've decided to do it using cross country page by page. I think it's faster for this particular project, and the only way that I can do it without going insane. So unfortunately I've had to abandon my beloved parking technique. 

Notice the beautiful Tardis Qsnap cover and fabric keepers. They were a gift from my lovely friend Kim Howe. Aren't they amazeballs?  The fabric keepers are the best they just keep all that excess fabric outta the way.  

Here is the second one Kim gifted me. I love love love them both but this is my favourite one. Look how regal King Tut looks amongst all the Tardii (is that the plural of Tardis LOL). Thank you so much Kim, I'm truly grateful.

And now for more Gifted Gorgeousness - my Christmas package from the McDougall family. Head McDougall being Sharine. I'll have to post another pic with the Qsnaps in action they look amazing and the horsey one doesn't really show up. And check out the Magical Unicorn that grows in water. I'll have to post a pic when that magic happens too!!! 

And thank you to the littlest McDougall, Hannah for choosing the butt crack Santa card. That kid cracks me up...oooh pun there. Thank you so much Sharine and the McDougall clan you guys are rock stars. 

Now to a bit of stitching. I almost got to the end of page 2 of Carnival Moon. Why is it that the last 1000 stitches always seem to take the longest. Or is that just me? 

The next page is the building and the tower bit. And there are big chunks of colour so hopefully it won't take too long. But once I finish page 2 I'm going to be concentrating on my 2 gift projects.

Ewa's wedding anniversary project which was due in October (hangs head in massive massive shame) and my cousin's baby sampler which I haven't touched since I first started it. See below...head still in shame hang mode. 

So this

Has to become this

I'm determined to make 2016 a year of finishes. As I never managed ONE not even a tiny finish in 2015. It's been a year of new starts, re-starts and total abandonment. Not a good year for the Crafty Princess. I may even have to abdicate the title!!

Nah.

I have plans for a rotation that will help ensure this, but I think I've rambled on enough for one post. Check you later and now I'm off to reaquaint myself with all of your blogs. Sorry if you get comments on blogs that are months old but I want to see all that I've missed. 

To all that celebrate Christmas. I wish you a very very Merry one and may it be magical, special and full of laughter and love. I hope you all had a fantastic 2015 but I wish you an even better 2016.  See you next year stunners. Love you heaps and muchly.

Gotta go Santa is calling me! 

xoxoxo Princess Alicia

Wipocalypse #8

Hi Stunners!!

I'm BACK! Sorry for the long hiatus, I won't bore you with the details but it was pretty much due to house/dog sitting duties and a fiasco involving a staircase. Anyway I'm back now and the best thing about being holed up with an injury is that there was more time for stitching!

So here is what I have been working on: 

Firstly for my Wipocalypse piece Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf. I finished page 2 so that's 3 and 3/4 pages done.

My SAL #2 with the magnificent and talented Kim is Magical World by Igor Morski at Tilton Crafts. We will post on the first of every/other month. This is half of page 1 completed and is being worked on 28ct white linen 1 over 1. I can't wait to get across to that magical world!!! 

Another new start is Carnival Moon by the beautiful and very talented Aimee Stewart - HAED. This is a bit of a focus piece because I can't put it down. The colours are amazing to work with and every sttich reveals a bit of detail. It's mad! I love it. I'm stitching on Opal Turquiose Swirl 28ct from those lovely boys at Sew it all and working it 1 over 1. 

My beautiful and generous friends!

I was completely spoilt for my birthday by my awesome and very generous crafty friends. 

Mary Moore gifted me Enchanted and Santa's Workshop from Tilton Crafts!

    

Margaret Hislop gifted me Vintage Toy store also from Tilton

Witchfest another Tilton gem (this one was a gift from the Crafty Princess :>)

 

Nikki Northup RAK'd Awakening from one of my fav artists Enamorte (HAED). Dearest Nikki you know me so well. I love love love this chart!!!! 

Angie, Mark and Charlie RAK'd  Esmerelda from Paine Free Crafts and if that wasn't enough sent me a Gift Voucher for Colour Cascade fabrics 

      

with which I bought the chart "I've been waiting for so long"

Kim Howe sent me a very generous Gift voucher for Colour cascade fabrics which I have ordered the fabric for "I've been waiting for so long" and some thread. New start here I come!!!

And Nina my lovely friend and the beautiful author of Pistellen-Stitching sent me a stunning Pink blingy key ring and bookmark set. And a large block of chocolate which I devoured straight away. Yummy! 

Thank you so much stunners I was so touched and humbled by your thoughtfulness. It totally made my birthday! Thank You Thank You!!

Apologies

I have to apologise to you all for being so behind in catching up with all your blog posts. Due to the injury sustained by falling down said staircase I was forced to languish in my craft room and as the computer room is downstairs I had to use my phone for internet access and I hate reading/commenting on blogs from the phone. It just doesn't do your posts justice. So I will be spending the next few days solely and holy reading and commenting on blogs so I apologise if you get comments from me for posts almost 2 months old. It's okay if you don't reply as I will probably inundate you LOL!!

That's it for now stunners! I hope you have all been well and for my fellow Aussies that the Winter wasn't too harsh for you. 

Take care and be kind to yourselves.

Lots of love and hugs

Alicia xo