Gifted Gorgeousness SAL and IHSW February

Hi Stunners!

Yep I'm late again. 

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for their amazing comments and cheering on my last post. You guys are the best and absolutely become my muses. Mwah. 

I wanted to reply to each of you individually, which I will, but my computer was struck by lightning! Luckily it was 4am and I wasn't using it at the time not that I would have during an electrical storm. My whole street lost alot of electrical equipment, so for a week all we saw were delivery vans delivering new TV's. Woo Hoo!!

GIFTED GORGEOUSNESS

First up I managed to finish another page on my diamond painting - Galaxy Girl from HAED. This was a gift from my lovely stitchy friend Helvi. So only 3 more pages to go for the row finish. So sparkly I love it. Thanks to Jo from Serendipitous Stitching for organising this SAL. 

IHSW

I'm so loving that IHSW has returned to the realm. Thanks to Joysze and Jo for organising this brilliant SAL. IHSW February I worked on a new start but it was technically a re-start of Rose Zircon. I bought this chart by Maxine Gadd from Mystic Stitch to stitch for my sister. However, I was really really detesting the Mystic chart. It was so hard to read and the symbols were frustrating, which led to it being neglected.

Luckily Maxine decided to open her own cross stitch company Imaginarium and she updated the chart so it's more detailed and with a bizzillion more colours, however the best thing about it, is the chart. It's large print and the symbols are really cool. The symbol key is colour coded so you'll find alot of the similar colours in one section, so there is not alot of page flipping. Love it! Here's the difference in the charts.

Mystic Stitch

Imaginarium

This is where I left the Mystic Chart so I'm looking forward to get to that section to compare.

Mystic Stitch

And this is what I stitched for IHSW, the bottom row of 10x10 grids. Unfortunately the bobbinating took longer than expected so this is more just a Sunday stitch of 600 stitches. I've decided to start in the middle as I am not doing the black background beyond the silver frame. And considering leaving the word "Rose Zircon" off the wip altogether, so I didn't want to have to figure out all the calculating and measuring, I just wanted to START!! 

The needleminders are symbolic too. David Bowie was the first concert I had ever been to and it was with my sister. We have seen Episode IV V VI of Star Wars together and it continues to be our favourite out of all of them so far. As for the Angel Wings, well I have to have some bling and I thought they fitted the colour scheme.

That's all stunners.

I hope everyone is enjoying February so far and may March be even more magical.

Thanks for visiting, you guys are too cool.

xoxo Alicia

June's Journey

Hi Stunners

This is what I got up to in June for my cross stitching journey.

I finally managed to finish the first page of Afterglow. This was such a fun stitch. I'm really looking forward to getting to those beautiful blues and purples in the sky. 

Afterglow - Charting Creations

Page 1 - completed

And here is Lost In You - which I started on the 6th May 2010 (gulp). I am aiming to finish page 3 and 4 by the end of July as this is a goal for the HAED Yearly bulletin board challenge. So I'm stitching them together. I would love to get the full row done by the end of the year though. 

Page 1 & 2 completed

Working on pages 3 & 4

And as from the previous post I finished page 5 on Galaxy Girl Diamond painting. 

It was also my birthday on the 25th June and I received so many beautiful wishes from family and friends, which was so greatly appreciated. But one of my favourites was from a colleague/friend who is currently in the US on holidays. Sally used her kids to make a legendary birthday pic. Oh man can you imagine trying to get 4 kids to stand still and hold up paper signs in the middle of Disneyland??!! Very cute! 

I joined the Gecko Rouge Fox Gloves Halloween SAL. This will be the last SAL I sign up for until I finish every SAL I have ever signed up for in the past. I'm so far behind on all of them, but I'm determined to keep up with this one. We get a page on the 15th of each month. So next time you see it, I will have at least both the first 2 boxes completed. 

And finally,  I have framed Spring to Life. I actually finished this wip years ago but have been slack about framing her. I painted the matting and my dad drew in the vines and butterflies. And I stuck on the flowers. I'm so proud of our little effort together. I'm so happy to actually have a cross stitch that's hanging on my wall. All the other finishes I've framed have been baby samplers and they are with the family I stitched it for.

Next on my framing agenda is QS Lovers, Faces of Faery 88 and I found my family in a book. These are my other 2017 goals. I have the frames but they are the ones I bought from Sew it all where you have to paint and decorate them yourselves. Which is actually fun so I don't know why I keep procrastinating. 

That's all stunners! I hope you are all well and that life is magical for you

xoxo Alicia

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - June

Hi stunners!!

I'm not so so late this month - Woo Hoo! 

I worked on Galaxy Girl DP for this GG. I managed to get the page finished and made a wee start on page 4. I'm pretty excited as I have reached her hair so it's getting to the good bits. The chart was a gift from my beautiful friend Helvi. 

It doesn't show up as sparkly as it is in real life. I'm starting to love it again, but have to admit I can work on it for a day or 2 but then miss stitching.

For the next months I have to knock out 3 baby samplers and a Wedding Gift, which has become an anniversary gift ( hangs head in shame)  as it's been 3 years since the wedding. But I will post an update at the end of the month of all my non GG wips. I have managed to get quite a bit done thanks to the Ultimate Cross stitch group and their challenges.

Thanks for your visit stunners.

Hope life is being magical to you in every way

Lots of love

Alicia xox

Very late GG for April

Hi Stunners 

I'm late again. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! 

This GG SAL I worked on 2 projects. My SS MC Masque of Love from HAED and my new Diamond Painting, Galaxy Girl. 

I hope everyone had a nice Easter break. I worked over most of it but I did manage a nice Sunday lunch with my parents and sister. After lunch we all pulled out our diamond painting. Well not dad, he had a nap.

This chart was a gift from Helvi - thank you again honey, and I bought all the materials from a shop on Ali Express. It's massive. Below is a very small partial page and almost completed full page. 

Ooh so shiny!!

And I still haven't managed to complete the 2nd page of Masque of Love. It's ironic that when I work on normal wips with 89 colours, I sometimes fudge it. If the colours are close enough and I can not be bothered threading a new colour for one stitch. But when it's for a Max Colours wip, in this case it's 239 colours, I don't fudge at all. And there are a million single stitches throughout it all. My thinking is that if I decided to pick the Max Colours version then I should put up with the confetti.

Which is why it's taking so so long. But in my defence I haven't had as much time to stitch this month. So I'm just over halfway on page 2. This chart was a gift from my beautiful sister.

Finishing point March GG SAL

That's all from me. For next GG SAL I will continue with these 2 projects until I finish the current pages.

Thanks again Jo for running this SAL.

Take care stunners, be good to yourselves and I hope that life is magical to you all!

xoxox 

Alicia

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - March

Hi Stunners!

Sorry I'm late...again! 

For this month I worked on Rose Zircon which is a gift for my sister. I didn't quite get the page finish that I wanted as I had to swap to SS Masque of Love for the HAED FB challenge wahoo which ends on April 1 - I think. 

So this is October - Rose Zircon:

Before

After

And here is Masque of Love which ironically was a gift chart from my sister. I managed to complete page 1 and I have to stitch just under half of page 2 to qualify for the challenge finish. 

Before

After

I am also starting a Diamond Painting project using this beautiful chart - Galaxy Girl - from HAED which was a gift from my beautiful friend Helvi . So next GG SAL I'm hoping to get page 2 of Rose and Masque finished and show you my new start with this diamond painting. It was a little tricky ordering the tiles and canvas as you had to work it out for 10ct chart. Needless to say it is freaking HUGE!!!! I can't wait to see how it turns out. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. 

To my friends in the UK, my thoughts are with you guys and I was sorry to hear about the recent attack in London. I hope you and all your loved ones are safe and well. 

Take care my amazing and magical stitchy friends. 

xoxo Alicia