OMG HOLEY OF HOLES!!!

My heart is heavy as I write this. As my previous entry I mentioned that I had to frog approx 600 stitches on Fragile Heart. Well I completely and utterly screwed up. I had managed to frog about 450 stitches when I got a tad impatient and started to snip. And yes you guessed it I managed to snip a massive hole in the fabric.

So after many tears and glasses of wine and a phone call to my mummy I googled fix its for holes. I tried glueing , weaving excess fibers from the edge and crossed my fingers. The next day when the glue dried I tried to stitch through it and.....sob, cry, throw things, stamp foot,  it didn't work. Now the poor fragile hearter looks like she had a bad nose job done by a backyard quack.

So today I drove out to my local craft shop bought some black dye and will have to (wail wail more sobbing) RESTART!! I decided to stick to 22ct hardanger but will try it on dark/black fabric so it will kinda feel like a new start on a new project and not a (gulp) restart. I'm hoping all that vibrant pink will just pop on a black fabric. Had to dye it as I have over 2 metres of the stuff and no one sells black 22ct fabric anywhere!!!!

Very very sad Princess this week .

So no progress on this weeks HAED Freebie SAL in fact I'm 2 pages behind now. All good I think I will buy another chart or two from the HAED sale to cheer myself up.

There feeling better already!

I hope everyone else is having a much better crafty time this week than me. Love u all!

Alicia xo

A gift for Princess and some Wips

Wow can't believe it's been 2 weeks. Time can really fly and it's hard to ascertain what exactly I've been up to that I haven't blogged for 2 weeks. Well it hasn't been stitching unfortunately. The only real stitching I've managed to get done has been whilst at work. Love that paid employment that allows you to stitch as well as servicing the community. Ooh that sounds a little suspect but its really above board. Just ask Mrs. Dibble.

I worked on Spring to Life mainly because it coincided with the HAED SAL theme of Seasons but also because I love all the colours. I will have to put her down for this week as it's the Freebie SAL week and I really haven't done as much on Fragile Heart as I would have liked. And sob sob I'm about to sit down and do a bit of frogging on her. Due to a batch colour discrepancy for the skin I really couldn't let it go. I wish I hadn't stitched as much before deciding the colour lot was too different. So sadly I have to frog about 600 stitches otherwise she looks like she has a dirty nose. Oh well I am armed with a bottle of Tempus Two chardonnay and the house to myself. Which is a good thing as no one likes the sound of a Princess crying.

Probably the highlight of the week was meeting up with my parents in Fingal Bay and taking the brand new car for it's first long drive. She held up beautifully and I was even more proud that I didn't smoke at all whilst driving. Yay Princess!!

Also I here is a picture of my new bobbins chest. I thought I was well overdue for a present to myself so I indulged in a wooden bobbin chest. It's so beautiful. It will (eventually) hold the bobbins that I have finished with when a project has been completed. So will be empty for a bit LOL!! Hopefully the bobbins from Faces of Faery 88 will be it's first guests in June. It holds 450 bobbins...sweeetttt!

I managed to get 2000 stitches put into Spring to Life for the week so happy at least about that. Which means I'm very near to completing page 4. Can I hear another YAY!  Also managed to finish all the confetti stitches on faeries left eye and now she has 2 eyebrows...I think another "oh yeah!!" for that achievement.

Spring to Life - working on Page 4

But back to another Hannah Lynn for the week. Here's a photo of her pre frog, can you see the difference in the colour. Hint it's the last column down her face. It probably doesn't look so bad in the photo but in reality it's just too noticeable for my liking. And though at times I cut corners essentially I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my cross stitching and I can't let it go. Plus she is too beautiful to let her down now!! That baleful eye stares out at me and the guilt sets in. So I will do her the honour of fixing her makeup afterall next to cross stitch makeup is another obsession of mine, which is how I got the nickname of Princess at work in the first place.

SOB SOB

Faces of Faery 88

Once I have finished FOF 88 I will definitely get back to my rotation. I got caught up with the HAED SAL's and abandoned it. But this means that I only work on HAED's. Though I love them, I truly adore and miss my other projects namely my Scarlet Quince project - Medea, which is a woman that poisoned her treacherous lover (what is there not to love about that???) and my Golden Kite project - Coign of Vantage. These projects involve alot of blended colours which is 2 strands of 2 different colours for one stitch and that provides a level of challenge that HAED doesn't. One day I will purchase the Coign of Vantage offered by HAED and complete it as well. Just as an experiment to see whether blending works better than the use of just solid colours. Why you may ask well the answer is in my profile. I am a lunatic. But hopefully in a good way! LOL!

Happy stitching everyone and enjoy everything you do this week.

xoxo Alicia

My quote for the week is :

I wish I was a glow worm,
A glow worm's never glum.
'Cos how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum!
~Author Unknown



Update on my Hannah's!

This fortnight appears to have become a Hannah Lynn fortnight! Possibly due to having the second page of "Fragile Heart" sent to us by HAED in the first week of March. I managed to get 2 and a half columns completed but I was a little side tracked by the delivery of my new car. It's so beautiful and the colour matches the background of "Spring to Life" (DMC 995) love that blue!

So here are my girls....

Spring to Life
Pages 3 and 6 complete

The pic for Spring to Life doesn't do the colours justice. They are so vibrant in reality but this could possibly be that I took the photo at night under the daylight lamp. Next time I won't be so impatient and just wait till the next morning to do it. As for Fragile Heart - the little heart on her forehead and the white bits on her eyeball has sparkly Krenik thread on it which doesn't show up in the pic either. I will have to ask my photographer friend Danni Nix how to photograph these Wips' to reflect their real colours and bling bling.

Had a busy week with my return to work on the 6th March. Though not a bad thing as I missed my team and since I can cross stitch at work it wasn't a chore to have to go back.

Thursday I went to the Craft show at Rosehill racecourse with mummy (aka Crafty Queen - good one Mrs D), Mrs Dibble and Jen. I refused to make promises to myself to NOT buy any more charts or kits because I knew I would. Although in my defence I went to buy fabric for 5 new charts I have in my stash however, Stitches and Spice didn't have a stall at the show (pout pout). So I had to spend my hard earned cash on something. SO you guessed it I bought 3 new kits from the "gorjuss" range, 2 small Gold dimensions kits, and a Heaven and Earth designs chart by Steve A Roberts - Lady in the Woods. I seem to like this forest and woods theme.

Luckily, Wayne and Pete from sewitall.com.au had their stall there. They are these 2 awesome guys who sell a variety of fabrics in a variety of colours. Pete even developed and patented his own stitching frame - I think it's called grab and stitch or something like that where it actually pierces the fabric so unlike Qsnaps it always remains taunt without any adjustment required. Wayne is the mathematical genius who can calculate fabric sizes for different counts in seconds without a calculator.

They both think Mrs Dibble and I are crazy to even attempt HAED charts so they were flabbergasted when Mrs. D divulged that I had 15 in my rotation. So promises were made (not by me mind you but somehow I am involved!!!) that by the next show which is in June we will both have to produce a finished cross stitch. So I will be working hard on Faces of Faery 88 as it's the closest to finishing and ironically it is being stitched on the fabric "purple haze" which I bought from Pete and Wayne last year at the show. Good god another deadline!!!

Lady of the Woods

Gorjuss Girls :-  Puddles of Love; Ruby; Winter Friend

       

All in all it was a great day and when I got home my new car had arrived so had all these new toys to play with.

Truly awesome week!

Happy stitching everyone and love to you all!

xoxo Alicia

New Start (D'oh) + Progress on Hannah Lynn Swip - Intervention required STAT!

Hi Stunners! Firstly welcome to my new followers! Thanks so much for taking an interest, it's greatly appreciated. I didn't realise that comments were blocked on my blog but I fixed the prob and received all of your fun remarks. Thank you!! I hope I don't scare you away too quickly. LOL!!

Okay I know this blog was started as a means for me to cure or at least curb my addiction of new starts, buutttttt - Heaven and Earth designs keep extending the damn Valentines Day sale end date and now I have found myself to be the proud but ashamed owner of 15 new charts!!! Good GOD. It's not my fault. Myself thought that since I cleaned my bedroom she would reward me with 3 new charts, and you can't return a gift that would be so rude! So thanx to me for the charts. Sigh!

So progress so far for the week

Emerald Forest - almost half page done

Spring to Life by Hannah Lynn (another HAED chart) is an ongoing project. I haven't really included this one in the rotation as I'm completing 2 sets of her. One is a gift for a work colleague's daughter as a present for when she was born (The kid is now 3!!) and the other one is for me. The featured project is my one as I haven't started the gift one yet - I'm so hopeless!!! So I kinda pick her up every now and then when I get bored of the one currently being worked on in the rotation and try and chuck about 500 or so stitches into her. It's 6 pages but only 2 are full ones so hopefully won't be too long.

Page 6 completed



Progress for the week 

The lovely fairy is being completed on 25ct Fairy Forest (how apt) Lugana from Stitches and Spice, using 1 strand over 1 full crosses. It's really fun to stitch as the colours are so vibrant and loving the fabric.

And now (drum roll) for the new start. It's another HAED from Jessica Galbreth's "The Vintage Angel" collection called "Release." It's such a beautiful collection. I had to buy "release" as I'm working through the Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin and it's all about releasing negative feelings and letting go in order to reach a level of peace in your life surrounded by an ocean of love yadda yadda yadda and I thought in my infinite wisdom this would be perfect to remind me to just let go...unfortunately that meant a new start. But I promise to the universe, god and everyone this will be my last start (fingers crossed) until I finish one of my forever seemingly ongoing cross stitches. Honest!



See so pretty. I'm trying out tent stitching for the first time. She's being completed on 28ct White Lugana 2 over 1 tent. So far not so sure how I feel about this method. I've only completed 500 or so stitches so early days. It does of course stitch up much faster but I'm worried about the coverage. What do you think??

Have a great week stunners! Thanks for reading (that's is if you're still reading!) Happy stitching and enjoy every day to the fullest. Mwah xox Alicia





Happy Valentine's Day

Hi Stunners!

I managed to complete Page 1 of Fragile Heart on Valentine's Day weirdly enough. Not that I have a fragile heart or anything.

Fragile Heart - progress as of V Day!

I received an awesome Valentine's gift.  TWELVE new charts from the HAED website for their Valentine's Day sale. How lucky am I? And I hear you asking what thoughtful person would give me such a wondrous gift??? Well ME of course. 

I just couldn't help but reward me for my friendship to myself. I always feed me when I'm hungry, provide beverages when I'm thirsty, I know just what I'm thinking and going to say next, I always make sure I have fun things planned for me to do everyday, I enjoy the same movies, music, games and books as myself. And most importantly I'm obsessed with craft just like me! So therefore had to give myself the kind of Valentine's day gift that I would have loved to receive. Makes sense??? Well it does to me and I did warn you as stated above - I am a lunatic!!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Happy stitching and always have fun in whatever you are doing!

Going to do a bit of stitching on Emerald Forest before making myself a beautiful meal for me. I hope myself can make it as I've got enough ingredients to feed an army not to mention a few bottles of champas - Yum!

xo Alicia

Going to the Forest and not the Wood



Page 1 completed

Well this is what I have accomplished on my "Valentine" rotation.
It kinda dragged over 2 weeks as I had a swing shift in the middle of my days off and it really throws your energy and body clock around. So instead of only getting 2 days on another project I just continued with her.  I managed to complete page 1 (yay - take celebratory sip of charddy) and a column and a bit of page 2. A bit excited as I've actually made a start on her, that's the top of her pigtail on the bottom right. Awesome!

Fragile Heart

This week is the Heaven and Earth designs freebie SAL (stitch a long) finishing on Friday morning. So I have been working on "Fragile Heart" a Hannah Lynn design.  I need to complete at least one row per day to finish the page. It's a really cool idea. Sign up on the HAED bb was end of last year. They send you the stash chart first and then on the 1st January 2011 the SAL began and page one only was emailed to you. We receive one page every 2 months. The entire chart is 6 pages so with this one hopefully everyone that joined in will have a completed cross stitch by the end of the year. The next page is due in March so I want to get her finished this week and then I don't have to worry about her for a while. There were 183 participants and 7 different charts to choose from. All you have to do is post a few Wips (works in progress) on the bb and you will qualify to have all 7 charts emailed to you for free, even if you don't finish you're chosen design. How good is that???

I was supposed to start Golden Wood this week but unfortunately those lovely ladies in the wood have been bumped yet again to the next rotation. Reason being is that I am very far behind Mrs. Dibble in the competition to finish Golden Wood. So wanted to work on them when I only had to concentrate on them and not on Fragile Heart as well.

So this week will be working on Emerald Forest as I am up to "Other" category on my rotation list. Other is pretty much made up of charts that are not Mystic stitches, Heaven and Earth designs or other BAP's (big ass projects).  So all my Mirabilia's, Passione Ricamo's, Dimensions etc etc charts come under this rotation. 

Emerald Forest is design by Collin Bogle. It's being completed on 14ct Khaki Aida 3 over 1 full crosses. This was purchased by my ex boyfriend back in mid 2009 as he loved it upon sight, but of course I was meant to stitch it. Well in the redistribution of property during the break up. I forgot all about it and so it's still in my possession.  I was going to give it away to someone else to do but as I had already started it when we were together and recall how much I actually enjoyed stitching it. I've decided to keep it. Besides there is no hard feelings between us, but when finished I think I may give it away as a gift to someone else. Or keep it as I would like to have an African animals collection...sigh...someday!





Well that's all for now. I've just started a month's leave so hopefully this blog will get updated more often and that I will have a hellava lot to show.

Take care my sisters and brothers of the thread

Happy stitching

xox 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



Tragedy in Queensland

I watched the tragedy unfold on the news all day today whilst at work. The floods in Queensland are devastating. At the last count 8 people were killed including children and 72 are missing. It was horrible to witness a family trapped in a car and then being whisked away by the torrential water. I only pray that they are now safe and we didn't watch their demise. To all those affected by this my heart goes out to you and I hope that all Australians rally together in support of our northern neighbours. I recall in the Victorian fires that women bought and sent cross stitch kits to the families that lost all their belongings in a bid for them to start new heirlooms. I think crafters have the greatest hearts.

I pray the waters subside and the families can find each other and rebuild their lives. It is a lesson in gratitude and reminds me to be grateful for all the wonderful family and friends that I have, especially my sisters of the thread.

Everyone give your loved ones an extra special hug tonight and eat a huge gob of icecream just because you can.

On a lovely note though, congratulations to my parents Brian and Jeannie on their 41st wedding anniversary. They are celebrating this monumental event in Bali. Have a Pina Colada for me guys I love you very much.

xoxo Crafty Princess - 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

L for LOVE!



"L" - Selina Fenech



 


Well it's been a week and this is how much I have completed in the L sampler letter by Selina Fenech. I have decided to continue the Letters as a work project. The big blocks of colour make it easier to work at when you are required to frequently stop and start. Plus I want to get these finished ASAP and I can't wait the 13 weeks it will take to come back into my rotation. Although, I have used a sparkly Aida fabric I don't think it pops as much as it should. So I have bought the sparkly version of DMC 819 and will do a bit of the dreaded frogging on the pink background. I tried just using the sparkly on the top cross only to avoid frogging but it looks weird. But I will do this on the black letter and put another round of crosses on the border in some sparkly thread. The colours aren't very vibrant so had to add my Bling Princess touch.

Now for this weeks rotation it's Faces of Faery 88 by one of my fav artists - Jasmine Becket-Griffith. Below is the before pic. I have the next 4 days that will be devoted to craft and just a bit of cleaning when I need a little break so I'm hoping to get page 1 and 2 completed. As you can see I'm doing them simultaneously as there are big chunks of skin colour and parking was not required with this project. Makes it faster to stitch the 2 pages together. I'm loving the green in her eyes it really sets off all the purple in the background and the purple dragon that will be coming along soon.

Have an awesome weekend everyone. Good luck with your stitching or whatever will be filling your time. Just remember to always find time to do something you love no matter what!