Wipocalypse #10

Hi Stunners!

This is getting to be a bad habit of mine, being such a bad blogger.  Sorry but it's going to be a little big this post, but I promise it's mostly pics and not a lot of my stuff and nonsense rambling.

I guess first up should be the Wipocalypse wip so here is my progress on Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf - HAED

Just over half a page progress. I blame the new Jason Statham Needle Minder for not quite getting the page finish. There were way too many ogling stops, but that stern look gets me back on track pretty quickly now.

Monthly SAL with KIM



For My August SAL with Kim, I decided to restart Rose Cerise, the 2 over 2 on 28ct was not working for me. The stitches looked too big and I found it hard doing over 2 on a chart that was not the traditional HAED shape. The counting did my head in and I made a few counting errors as a consequence, which led to...urgh frogging! Now she is being worked 1 over 1 on 28ct Swallow even weave from the lovely boys at Sew it all Australia.



Rose Cerise - August 2014 SAL

For the September SAL we worked on Magical World from Tilton Crafts. I was happy enough with my progress though I would have loved to have achieved a page finish.

My focus wip for August had been "Lost In You". I managed to get a page finish which satisfies one of my Goals for the HAED BB. Only 4 more to go!

There's her thumb in the lower right corner. The next page has alot and I mean alot of white for her hand and lower arm. So it will be time to don those white cotton gloves! 


THANK YOU TO ALL THE BEAUTIFUL EARTHBOUND ANGELS IN MY LIFE.

I'm always humbled by the generosity of all the beautiful crafty people that I am honoured to know. I just want to sing out another thank you to these ladies that gifted me these charts for no occasion. Thank you so much girls I am so grateful and appreciate these lovelies!


A Night of Enchantment from the stunning Downunder Julie



Sharine the gorgeous girl from  Charbella Stitching chose Castle Fest Wendalin Aotenshi


The magnificient lady from Pull the other thread gifted me with the beautiful Peacock my Love


The lovely Helvi chose the gorgeous mystical chart Le Petit



and the fabulous Nguyen of Spices of your of Life sent Wishing on Stars. Which will be my Tilton Crafts new start which Kim has organised in the FB group.



and the naughty little minx also sent me the Lovely Lady Macbeth from Eclectic Blokes Designs.

I want to start them allllll! Do these girls know my taste or what? Thank you so much ladies, you are the stars!

A quick aside, Helvi has recently started "The Key" by Melissa Dawn (HAED) if you get a chance pop over to the site http://firstheavenandearthdesign.blogspot.com and check it out. It's a magnificent chart and Helvi is one of those crazy stitchers that only works one project at a time!!!!! I know right, weird! So Helvi progresses really quickly through her wip and so far it's absolutely beautiful.

On a bit of a sadder note my big sister has been struggling with some womanly issues and has just been advised by her Gyno she will not be able to have her own children. As you can imagine she is devastated. I feel so helpless and so sorry for her.

So I am stitching this chart for Gail (sis) it's called Rose Zircon - October birthstone by Maxine Gadd and the chart is from Mystic Stitch.  And yes as you have probably guessed she's an October baby. The fabric is an ice dye from Colour Cascade fabrics. It's a bit of a lucky dip as you choose up the colours and Tammy dyes it. I think it turned out perfectly for this chart. I chose hot pink, grey, and lilac. I will be stitching all the black background so I think it will really pop on this fabby. Yes? No?

Okay that's all from me stunners. I'm off to start working on Rose Zircon. I'm almost caught up with reading all your blogs, I have about 20 posts to go. So please bear with me. Take care stunners and may only the magical encounter your life.

xoxo Alicia

HAPPY 2014!!!

Hi Stunners!!!



Happy New Year. I love the start of the year as it's a time to wipe the slate clean and forget about the past. For me it's like shedding the skin of the mistakes and regrets of the year gone and coming out the other side with renewed vigour, love of life and all things crafty!  So don't worry about the goals that weren't met, the promises not kept and the stash that was added to the list...it's all good!!

Firstly thank you to my new followers it's a good year to join as I am endeavoring to post a lot more as I've joined a few SAL's that will ensure I post at least once or twice a month (maybe more but let's not get ahead of oneself hee hee).

By the end of the year I will have 48 wips in my rotation as I've kitted up quite a few newbies which I will start along the way as well as continuing with my current golden oldies.


THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
 I have made some amazing friends along the way since starting this blog and the generosity that people show in the blogosphere never ceases to astound me. You guys are truly awesome, even just taking the time to comment and also cheer me up when I've made some terrible boo boos is greatly appreciated, all your support makes my day. Thank you everyone.

I would love to take this opportunity to publicly thank Johanna stitchstitchknit,  and Nina Pistellen-Stitching for their beautiful and very generous gifts of HAED charts.

This is the chart I received from Johanna in November and I started her straight away.  I finished the first page on Christmas Night whilst at work. It's called Feel the Magic by Little Fairy Art. Isn't she amazing?? I'm stitching her on 28 ct Purple Mist evenweave 1 over 1 using DMC cotton strands. The fabric is a show piece from the lovely boys at Sew it all so unfortunately it's not available on their website.

Feel the Magic

Page 1 completed

Nina kindly gifted me the mesmerising chart "Fallen Angel" by Michael Hayes. Nina chose the full version as she rightly guessed that I'm a lover of detail. I can't wait to start her. She will be my next start after my next finish (no matter how small LOL!)

Fallen Angel

Thank you to Angela (Miamina's Musings) for the awesome gift certificate to one of my favourite Aussie fabric websites Colour Cascade Fabrics. It's just what I needed Angie, thank you so very very much.


And to Ewa (Cross stitch and other Musings) and handsome and helpful fiancée for the lovely Christmas card that I received yesterday in the mail. Very sweet of you both, thank you.

See now you guys understand why I'm a Princess, it's not really my self indulgent behaviour (well not much) but it's because I have such beautiful and generous people in my life that makes me feel like one.

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

Now for more stitching. Since my last post back in Halloween last year (gulp I've been so slack huh?) I've started Large Treasure Hunt Bookshelf by Aimee Stewart from HAED. It's a whopping 168 pages in the large chart format so I've decided to make it my focus piece and also my Wipocalypse wip so will be working steadily on this one for a long long while!

I'm stitching it on 20 count white evenweave purchased from Sew it all. Using 2 over 1 DMC cotton thread. I think I have discovered that my favourite count is 20, it suits my stitching tension and it's not too large and not too small, but Goldilocks just right!

ROSE CERISE SAL WITH KIM

Kim and I have decided to work on Rose on a bi-monthly basis and post our progress on the first of every second month starting from January 1. So here is my progress in the last 2 months. I seem to have misplaced one of the colours that's why there are a few holes in the ribbon. Still looking for the little bugger. If you click on the picture of Rose Cerise in the side bar I've linked Kim's blog...she should be posting her update any day now!

I have loved reading all the blog posts that have demonstrated their progress for the year 2013. I will be posting mine no matter how shameful it is on the Wipocalypse post on Jan 16. I'm back at work tomorrow, man those days off really fly by. So I will have 12 hours (between doing actual work) to go through everyone's blogs. I'm looking forward to it.

Take care my beautiful followers and guest stars.

Enjoy everything you do and I will see you soon!

xoxo Alicia

Happy Halloween!

Hi Stunners!!!

Happy Halloween to you all. I hope you have a ghoully, ghostly and witchy time! I'm stuck at work tonight dressed as Morticia with a Princess twist (namely pink bling shoes, and metallic pink eyelashes - Hee hee!) I just couldn't do the full black.

Thank you to everyone that left a comment on my previous post. I wanted to reply to you all but when I sat down at the computer to send reply emails they were all gone! Not sure what happened there. I just wanted to let you all know that I appreciated all of your kind, funny and awesome comments. You guys so rock! 

Ok onward to the stitching!

Here is how I have been spending the latter half of October. I needed to complete page 3 of Guardian Angel for a HAED yearly goal. And I did it!!! Woo hoo. I'm using bling thread Petite Treasure Braid PB23 in lieu of DMC B5200 on the Angels wings to give them a little bit of heavenly sparkles... 

Before

After

I'm not sure why the pic came out so shiny but I kinda like it. I can't wait to work on page 4 as the Angel himself makes an appearance. 

And here is my SAL piece that Kim and I are completing, the beautiful Rose Cerise by Karen Middleton (HAED). Kim is starting from the top left and I'm coming from the other end. 

Before

After

The before pic was taken with my old camera that's why there is such a marked difference between the two, and what a difference 10 pixels make!  I love working on Rose! I'm stitching her using Victoria Clayton's HDF thread. Stitching with silk thread is absolutely brilliant. It just glides through, no thread heaven required and the stitches just sit so neatly on top of each other. 




This week I will be working on the freebie SAL piece from HAED. I will get that damn first never ending page finished if it's the last thing I do!!!!!

Oooh I can feel my sugar crash about to kick in. I guess I had better go and refuel on some Halloween candy...Maybe it will also help me to stitch faster! Anythings worth a try! 

Take care my beautiful, supportive and stunning followers and guest stars! Have fun in everything you do.

See you soon
Alicia xoxo 

And the results are in...Pic heavy post stunnners!!

 Hi STUNNERS!!!

Well here it is finally the results of my January Extravaganza of no work all cross stitching and gyming.

Firstly though welcome to my lastest victims, I mean followers Tazzy, Chris, qtknits and Simona. Enjoy stunners and thank you for taking an interest in my stitching!

Well as usual life plays a hand in every plan no matter how well laid and the extravaganza technically didn't commence until the 12th January and finished on 13th February.  As for the gym, well that hardly got off the ground at all. So no more on that story!

So without further ado here are the before and after pics of all the wips on the stitching schedule. 

Passione Ricamo Mystery Faery SAL

Rose Cerise - (the hand dyed threads only arrived in the last week so this is only 4 hours worth of progress)

Golden Wood

QS Theatre of the Absurd Haed Freebie SAL 2013

QS Fragile Heart HAED Freebie SAL 2011

Managed to finish the first 3 pages, so only the bottom row to go! YAY!

And now for the BAPS!!


Vanity

 Faery 2

Faery Ball

Where is my Valentine?

A Coign Of Vantage (Golden Kite)

And I FINISHED QS Spring to Life!!!!

And what is a post from the Crafty Princess without a bit o stash enhancement pics...

Stash

Heaven and Earth Designs

Spider Queen

I loved her so much that I was in Spotlight the day after I bought her, buying all the supplies. When I got home I wound all the threads on bobbins, quaffed a glass of chardonnay and started her. I'll post a pic when I complete the first page! She's so much fun to stitch so far.

Tuscan Serenade

                         Tilton Crafts

Promise to Heart

Buttercup

So there you go stunners, a few page finishes and one complete finish. I'd thought I would get more done but I found there were days in there where I just didn't want to stitch. And instead of making it a chore and forcing myself I went and played games on the Xbox360.  

I've got a few new starts that I've commenced since the end of the extravaganza but I don't want to overload you all with wip's so until next time.

Take care stunners and find happiness in every minute of every day no matter where you are, and no matter what you're doing!!!!

Love 

Alicia xoxo