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. 

Wipocalypse and IHSW #4

Hi Stunners!!

Sorry for the lateness (again) but I have lots of pics so I hope that makes it up to you!

Wipocalypse 

Before

After

IHSW 

Before

After

Here is my new start "Lady Hatter" from Gecko Rouge. This is page 6 completed. I really love working on her, it's a very relaxing project with just enough confetti for detail but not so much that it drives you crazy. She is being worked on 18ct white Aida 2 over 1 full crosses.

I always forget to answer Measi's questions for the Wipocalypse. So I thought I would combine March and April's questions as they are kind of related in my case. 

March: Show us your favourite places to stitch.

My favourite place to stitch is in my Craft Room! It's nice and bright and as it faces north it gets the sun all day long. 

Here is my Rachel Anderson wall which helps keep me inspired and in a magical and creative mood.

The opposite wall has my Jasmine Becket-Griffith poster print and my 40" TV. Which I totally could not live without. Plus some random painting. I was watching Dr Who at the time of this pic and David Tennant is my favourite Dr. 

This is my "love" section. It's some of the gifts, cards and lil trinkets that my friends and family have given me. Plus my fairy calendar with all my important craft dates. So I always know how late I am with my updates at a glance.

And here is where the magic happens! Laugh.

I love my large chart holder. It allows me to attach all my fav magnets, needles, winning lottery tickets, girly tweezers, needle minders, threaders and have just enough space left over for the chart page that I'm currently working on.

My craft bed for wee naps when I get a little weary from all the stitching. That's my new chair, it's called The Bathurst Racer. So so comfortable and I love that it's red as it gives me a sense of speed to help me get through my ever growing stash!

April: How do you keep your stash organised?

Each project has it's own bag which contains a floss box with the chart pic on the front and all threads wound onto plastic bobbins, a re-seal-able plastic bag containing the skeins of colours that needed multiples, fabric, and a plastic folder containing the chart. I love storing the chart in a plastic sleeved folder because it's really cool to be able to just flip ahead and see what I have to look forward to without ruining the pages from too much handling.  I also try and match the box and folder to the main colour of the chart. 

All the charts that are in my focus rotation are stored in the bookshelf near my desk for easy access. Along with my fav DVD's (which I watch over and over again) and the Xbox games that I'm playing. 

My other wips are stored in 2 large nylon barrels - one is a HAED barrel but as the new starts kept increasing they kinda spilled over into the other barrel.

 The 2 plastic bags on top of my wooden bobbin chest is the full range of DMC threads (including the 16 new colours) which I ordered from 123 stitch. I intend to just work from this bobbin chest and not kit up each chart individually. I will only buy threads that need multiple quantities and put them on the bobbin ring to keep with each project. I have 16 new starts planned and as you can see those poor barrels are full to bursting, so storage has become an issue, something had to be done. I'm hoping this solves some of my storage dramas.

The only danger of having a full set of threads to work from is that it makes new starts a little too easy and for an new start addict like me, it could get feral. 

That's all from this Princess. Thank you for visting!

To those stitchers that are involved in the stitch-a-thon for Sophia, I'm looking forward to playing with you all over the next week. 

Take care stunners and I will see you for YOTA!

Alicia xo