Shy Baby as of 30.12.10

Here's the latest update on Shy Baby.  I have now completed 15,102 of 164,850 which is 9.16% complete.  Still love stitching this as much as ever.  Only moving on so I can start on the 2011 SAL.

With regards to my 2011 goals I am about half way to completing the Shy Baby goal.

So here's the picture update.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that you have a lovely New Year.

My Awesome Sister

This week a project I have been working on for a long time has finally been finished.  Unfortunately I cannot take credit for the finish.

In May 2009 I found out I was pregnant and began searching for cross stitch designs that I could stitch for my child.  At the beginning of September 2009 I found out I was expecting a boy and that helped me decide which designs I wanted to stich.  I decided to stitch the 8 animals in the Charlie's Ark series.  My sister also chose a bigger design that she was going to stitch as a birth sampler.  So about 15 months ago I started on these designs.  I found them very difficult to motivate myself to stitch and I think it is because the pattern is not the best quality.  It is difficult to see what colour some of the stitches should be because of the back stitch.  I wish pattern designers would provide two copies of a pattern, one without the back stitch and one with.  I am sure it would make it so much easier but probably more expensive.

Anyway I had completed all but two of the designs and they have been hung up in my sons room.  About two weeks ago I finally admitted to myself that I would probably never find the motivation to get these two projects finished so I asked my awesome sister if she would do them for me.  She hadn't really enjoyed stitching the birth sampler that she had done but she agreed to do them as she knew how much I had been avoiding completing them. 

So on Christmas Day we all went to my parents house for the day and my sister arrived with the two finished designs.  What had taken me nearly 15 months to do six designs took her less than 2 weeks to complete two.  I was so grateful to her for taking this project on for me and very happy to see them finally finished.

So here are the pictures of the two designs my sister completed for me.

And here is the whole display on my son's bedroom wall.

I am so happy that this project is complete before my son is old enough to say he doesn't want them on his wall anymore!!  I am sure as he gets older he will enjoy looking at them and I will love telling him that his Aunty Louise and I stitched every little cross with love just for him (I might not mention how much we hated doing it!!)

So this is just a big big thank you to my awesome little sister for helping me out with this.  She is the best sister in the world and also my best friend.  Love you Lou xxx

Second Finish for 2011 (yes I know it's still 2010!)

Well last night I finished the Christmas Card I previously posted about and started my first bookmark.  I couldn't do it straight from a pattern as the aida band I have is only 26 stitches wide and all the patterns I have are much bigger.  So I adapted two patterns and came up with this.  It is for my mum to sell at the next Church Fair so I hope people will like it.  I'm not sure if it is too simple but I think it's ok for my first try and it's another step towards completing my goals.

I have now moved onto working on Shy Baby which is one of my favourite projects.  I will probably work on this until I get the first page for the 2011 SAL which is January 1st.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year.

Nxx

First Finish for 2011 (I know it's still 2010)

So I have been working on my first Christmas Card for 2011.  I know it's a bit early but I wanted to get a head start.  So the design I have done is called "Snowman and Deer" and it is from a pattern book by Leisure Arts called "Fast & Festive 50 Christmas Designs".  I bought it from a company called Sew and So.  I have ordered quite a few items from this company and they have amazing customer service and fast delivery.  I really like the designs in this book and can see myself stitching all 50 of them over time.  I normally find with a pattern book that I like about 50% of the designs so was very happy when I looked at this one.  So here is a picture of my first Christmas Card for 2011.  I have another 5 to stitch to complete one of my goals.

The pattern stated to do all the white in B5200 but for the white of the snowman I used one strand of B5200 and one strand of E5200 (metallic pearl).  I wanted to differentiate between the white on his hat and scarf and the white of the snow.  I'm not sure it shows up very well on the photo but I am pleased with the result.

Samuel as of 17.12.10

I started work this week on the photo of my son which I paid for Michele from HAED to chart for me.

Here is the original picture.

I didn't start in the top left hand corner as I usually do but actually started on his face as I want to see how well this turns out. I am a bit unsure about the colours so far as they have been quite dark pinks, salmon and terracotta. I have faith in Michele's work though and I am sure that once I get a bit further and see some details emerging it will be as amazing as the art she charts. Anyway here is my progress so far with this.  The blue lines you can see are the Sulky Metallic Thread which I am so far finding really great to use.  I have unpicked one row of gridding so far and it came out very cleanly and easily, I hope it continues to work so well.

So I have currently completed 2,516 of 87,953 stitches which is 2.86%.  My goal is to have completed 20% of this project by the end of 2011 so this means I have 17.14% to go which is the equivalent of another 15,074 stitches.  Another way to look at it is that I have completed 1/10 of my goal which I am quite pleased with (especially as it is still 2010!!).

I am super excited this weekend as tomorrow is the drawing for the HAED "lottery".  The winner gets to choose 25 charts, if I were to win I would be so happy but would also be sharing the prize with my sister to one of us would get 12 charts and one of us 13 charts.  Also all the participants get a free chart tomorrow regardless of whether they win so I'm really looking forward to seeing what the free chart is as well.

I'm also currently playing Christmas Bingo on the HAED BB and up to  now have 1 out of the 10 needed to win.  I'm not hopeful that I will win on this but it is fun taking part.

Stitching Goals for 2011

So I've been thinking recently about what I would like to achieve with my stitching in 2011.  I have 8 projects on the go at the moment and when I add in the 2011 SAL that will make 9.  I enjoy having lots of different things to stitch so I don't get bored but I do sometimes feel like I am not getting anywhere with any of the projects.  So the goals I am setting myself for 2011 are to:-

1. Masquerade SK - complete - this was the June to Dec 2010 SAL and I have currently completed 61.83%
2. Butterflies Galore SK - complete 75% - I have currently done 45.21%
3. Christmas Stocking - complete by Christmas 2012 - I find this quite hard going sometimes as it is a very simple pattern and has huge blocks of the same colour so my goal is to have completed it by Christmas 2012 when Samuel will be nearly 3
4. Hickory Dickory Dock QS - complete 50% - I have currently done 10.44%
5. Christmas Cards & Bookmarks - I would like to have 5 bookmarks for my mum to sell at next years Church Christmas Fair and I would like to have 6 Christmas cards to be able to send to family members
6. Train of Dreams - complete 1 page - I have currently done 3.51%.  I am finding this project quite hard to motivate myself to stitch.  It's a strange one because I love stitching it when I get started but I never want to start sewing it.  The really odd thing is it is one of my most favourite designs so I can't understand why I find it so hard getting started on it.
7. Shy Baby - complete 3 pages - I have currently done 6.86%.  I love stitching this design and have to stop myself from stitching on it all the time to do some stitching on other projects.
8. Samuel - complete 20% - I have currently done 2.63%.  This is a photo of my son that Michele charted for me.
9. Blue Rose Fairy QS - complete 2 pages - this is the 2011 SAL so I haven't currently started it.

So it will be very interesting to look back this time next year and see how much I have accomplished in relation to these goals.  I don't know if they are realistic or not as I have never set goals for myself before.  If I complete half of the goals I will be very happy.

I have been working on the photo of my son this week and am going to work on it a couple more days before I post an update.

Masquerade SK as of 11.12.10

Well it's been quite a while since I last posted but this last week I have been working on the SK Masquerade for the July-Dec SAL.  I am sad to say that I still haven't completed page 1 (I have about 7 stitches left to do) but I have been working over the whole chart and have now completed 11,633 of 18,919 stitches which is 61.49%.  I always love stitching on this design and never get bored with it.  I don't know if it's because it is mainly purples as this is my favourite colour.  Anyway even though the SAL is over now I will continue this design until it is finished.  It may well be that this turns out to be my first HAED finish.

Anyway here is my progress picture up to now.

So coming up soon is the drawing for the HAED Christmas contest for the chance to win 25 charts.  Anyone who has entered also gets a free chart so I am looking forward to seeing the free chart and also hoping that I might be the lucky winner for the 25 charts!!  I've also just entered the Christmas bingo and selected my chart for the 2011 SAL so all in all lots of stitchy things to look forward to.  Not forgetting that Christmas is coming and it is my little boys first Christmas so I am super excited about that.

Can't quite make my mind up what to stitch next but I do have to finish a knitting project before Christmas so might concentrate on that first before picking up my stitching again.

So for anyone reading this just in case I don't post again before Christmas - I wish you a happy christmas and a healthy new year!