July Jaunts!

Hi Stunners!


I've fallen in love with cross stitching again, and it helped that I found time to actually do it. 
I almost had a page finish with Ghosts so very happy about that.

The exciting bit is that the lighter blue wisp down the right hand corner is the appearance of my first Ghost!! I will definitely finish this page in August. 

I have really gotten into diagonal stitching. And I had to re-start "Lost In You" by Rachel Marks as unfortunately the original was damaged and stained. I have tried every kind of fabric cleaner and the white floss (which is alot) has been yellowed. So sadly I had to re-start it. But as I'm doing it diagonal across the whole chart I won't be technically re-stitching parts that I have already done any time soon.

This is where I got on the first one, 

And here is my re-start. I'm also now stitching on 18 count white Aida and the first one is stitched on 22ct. 

So I will be finishing the female elf first as the diagonal progresses. 

I decided to have a work project as so many stitcher's seem to get a lot done on their work wips. So I chose "Lady Butterfly" by Alessandro Della Pietra. I am a Crystal Club member with Paine Free crafts and this kit was one of my club choices.  

It's perfect for work as it's being stitched on 18ct Magic guide fabric and the chart you receive with the kit is printed out in a very large format so no need for any magnifying lamps. This is what I have achieved so far. I've converted it into another diagonal stitched piece to keep it simple but will only be doing it page by page and not across the whole chart. Only reason being is that it's mounted on a Stitch Ezi Frame and it's difficult to have to keep moving the fabric in the hoop. 

It's great to have a work project that I love stitching as it motivates me to actually GO to work. And if I get stuck on a channel with someone that I don't really like, well then it's head down and I cross stitch like mad. Pretty cool right?

That's all for now. I will be back for the GG SAL as I am working on Mini Sisters which is a gift for my sister. So hoping to have something worthwhile to show.

Take care everyone. May life be magical to you always. And thank you for stopping by. 

love

Alicia

IHSW November SAL

Hi Stunners!

I'm still here, sorry for the long hiatus. I've had a busy few months with work, overseas holiday and a cargo load of family flying down under for our Nan's birthday. But I have been stitching.

IHSW is back in action - yay!! Joyse and Jo are running it through Facebook but I will post here as well.

I was on nightshift during the weekend but luckily I am allowed to stitch whilst at work when it gets quiet. So I got a bit done.

First up is Gecko Rouge Halloween SAL. I had a bit of frogging and I (gulp) made a hole in the fabric. But it's easily fixed so I'm not freaking out...yet!

Before

After

At home I worked on Snow White also a Gecko Rouge Design by Omri Koresh. It's been recently retired so I'm glad I bought it when I did. Now this is my kind of fairytale!!

This wasn't my actual start point for IHSW I had a bit more done, but this is where I started at the start of the month.

Before

After

For most of August and September I was working hard on HAED - Lost in You. I managed to get 2 full page finishes. So I'm really happy with this ones progress.

One more full page and a teeny tiny partial and it's a row finish. Which will be the first HAED BAP that I will have managed to accomplish this, you know when I do. 

Thanks for visiting stunners. I've got a lot more time for stitching now so hopefully I will have more to show for it.

Take care and may life be magical for you all.

xoxo 

Alicia

New Start - Fail!

Hi Stunners!!!!

Welcome Meggie and Shauna Locke to the blogowship of the Crafty Princess and thank you for joining us. 

And to Nina L from Pistellen-Stitching thank you so much for the lovely package I received in the mail. Nina sent me some chocolates from Finland, a bag of Salmiakki (which is a salty liquorice lolly) , and a Star De-Tailor which is awesome as you can use it to grab those lil short tails and finish off the thread and I also use them as needle threaders. I had just snapped my turtle de-tailor as I can be a little heavy handed with those pesky short tails so it was such a lovely gift as it's just what I needed. Thank you Nina that was such an amazing gesture. I can't post pics of the chocies as they were consumed as soon as they came out of the parcel...hee hee!

Star De-Tailor

 

I know I said in my last post that I would be showing off my new starts...well....

New start 1 - Into the Deep Passione Ricamo Mystery SAL 2013 - All kitted up and ready to go. I stitched the first page and was just loving it, until I realised in my excitement to get started I must have turned the square frame  around and started in the wrong corner. So after an hour of frogging I took it off the frame and put it back in it's bag.

New start 2 - Apocalypse Princesses - Paine Free Crafts (oh the irony of that name as it was far from Pain free). I completed about a third of the first page and didn't like the colour I had chosen for the background stitches so I started to frog them (sigh - my unpicker was working overtime) and as the thread was white and I was stitching on white aida - yep you guessed it I frogged the fabric and the thread.....d'OH!!! So mega big hole. Luckily the fabric was large enough to be chopped and still fit the entire project... I took it off the frame and put it away too as I just didn't have the heart to start all over again straight away!

Decided it may be safer to stick with current wip's so I picked the sunniest one I could find to try and cheer myself up and so up first was....

Spiders Queen - Enamorte (HAED)

Before

After 

Page 1 completed on my Beautiful Queen! Yay. I'm stitching her on 18ct White Aida using 2 over 1 full crosses but using 3 strands of DMC for the black in the mask. It makes it really stand out against her hair and looks a little 3D but it's hard to see in the photo. I think I'm going to go down the chart and stitch page 7 next instead of 2 as I can't wait to get my needle into the mask bits. 

And den...

Lost In You - Rachel Marks (HAED)

Before



After



I really missed working on this one. I think I will concentrate on it for a bit longer...well that's today's decision what happens tomorrow will be another tale again! Once again the evidence of the improved quality of the photos with the new camera. Love it!

  

And den...

Purple Orchid - Drazenka Kimpel (retired chart -HAED)

Before

After

I worked on my lovely Orchid as part of the HAED retired chart/artists BB SAL so that's a weeks effort, though I only really got to work on it sporadically over 3 days. I'm slowly buying the thread for this as I stitch page by page as it uses Anchor thread and has 3 and half pages of required colours. So I bought the first lot of purples and couldn't wait to get to the bottom so I started working on her very bodacious purple collar. Ooooohhhhh!

 

 

And den....

 

 



QS Theatre of the Absurd - Ciro Marchetti (HAED) Freebie SAL 2013

Before

After

Page 1 of this chart has been dubbed "the never-ending page" I just can't seem to finish it. I keep plugging away and there's always more to do. So after a week that's where I am.

And den.....

 

 

 

No more and Den!!

And what would a post from me be without some stash enhancements!!!

HAED 50% SALE - STASH ENHANCEMENTS

Mini Eros - Rachael Marks

Nightwing - Renee Biertempfel

Carnival Moon - Aimee Stewart

Inspire - Lisa Steinke

Garlic - Lisa Steinke

  

Next week I'll be working on Guardian Angel as I had another Angel visitation which was really cool. So in honour of him I will stitch the 3rd page. See you soon stunners and have an awesome week!

xoxoxo
Alicia

Still Lost but one page closer to a finish!



Page 1 Complete

Lost in You - Rachel Marks





I managed to finish page 1 on Lost in You! It's beginning to feel alot like progress. I also entered this project in the HAED confetti SAL so killed 2 birds so to speak. For my next rotation it will be another Jasmine Becket-Griffith (sorry Mrs. D I know you don't like her artwork) "Where is my Valentine?" This chart was the very first chart that I bought off the HAED website. I just fell in love with it. What's not to love she reminded myself of me! A little impudent girl with a hand on her hip demanding her Valentine!!! Plus it was sooo PINK.

However she also served in the beginning of my demise. There was a time believe it or not when I was only a one project at a time girl. But I couldn't wait to start her and once she was downloaded I was in my car and on the way to Spotlight to buy all the required stuff.

Now if you get away with convincing yourself to start a project whilst another is still going once then trust me you can do it 15 times. Which is why I find myself in a position where rotations are required if I'm ever going to achieve a finish in my lifetime!!!

I also realised that I haven't added the links to all the projects. So I have gone through my blog and added the links. If you click on the title of a chart in the text that is blue it will take you to the website I purchased it from and you can also view other charts by the same artist.

Where is my Valentine?

 

Isn't she gorgeous?? Got a long way to go though but she is fun to stitch and that's all that counts.

 Golden Wood was next in the rotation but after stitching for over a week on a monochrome project I just needed to work on a vibrant project. Golden Wood is pretty but with all the browns and yellow hues it was just not calling to me. So decided to swap those 2 in the rotation. Will head to the Woods next week.

I hope everyone is enjoying life and only seeing rainbows. Happy stitching to my sisters and brothers of the thread. Good to see some males are into cross stitching and breaking those gender stereotypes. I will speak to you next week. Take care stunners!

xox Alicia



The Eyes have it!



Faces of Faery 88




This is my progress after 2 weeks Faces of Faery 88. I wanted to get two pages completed but this pesky thing known as Christmas kinda got in the way. But at least she now has 2 eyes and I don't feel so freaked out whilst working on her having this one baleful river eye staring back at me.

Had such an eventful Christmas - my car broke down on Christmas Eve. Luckily I was with my friend Lori Angel because those 2 hours turned into one of my most memorable and hilarious moments of my Christmas. Even the tow truck driver said that he has never picked up anyone from the side of the road that was so cheerful (nice word for lunatic maybe??). I guess our happiness was infectious because when we finally got home he stopped and posed for pics with us and didn't charge us a red cent for the tow. How's that for awesome Christmas spirit!! Thanx Andy from Metro Towing. Sometimes mine and Angels lunacy does pay off in a good way. I sorely wish I had photos of Lori pushing the car with one hand and smoking a ciggie with the other. She's only a tiny slip of a girl and this sight caused 3 young men to stop and once they finished laughing at her they pushed my car off the road. Good times, good times.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and Santa was generous. One thing I love about Christmas is all the time spent with family and friends. It's a magical time.

Now onto Craft business - this weeks rotation is Lost in You by Rachel Marks another HAED chart. This is my first monochrome project as I saw some completed in the gallery and thought they look amazing. I was a bit concerned I might get bored of it easily because I love working with lots of colours but surprisingly it's just as much fun to see the picture unfold. I'm hoping to get 3 full stitch days in this week, see how I go.

Lost in You

 

That's it for now and will probably be my last post for 2010.

Have a Happy and safe New Year everyone and will see you next year! xoxox