WIPocalypse - 31.08.12

Progress was made this time on the gebera daisy cushion.

Before:

After:

Stitched another 20 hours on my secret project.

Made a start on a new project - Welcome Banner by Emily Peacock.

Another new start - Merry Christmas by the Letter by Lizzie Kate

Merry Christmas by the Letter - 23.08.12

I've had a new start this week it's Lizzie Kate's design Merry Christmas by the Letter.  Here's what I've done up to now.  I do love Lizzie Kate designs they are so simple but so effective.  Before anyone thinks I've spelt favourite wrong it's the American spelling and the O is going to be represented with a button which I will add at the end.  I've also changed the colour of the border as it was originally meant to be in DMC 712 which is the same colour as the M and the E and it wouldn't have shown up on the fabric I'm using.

I've been having a tough time in my personal life in the past few weeks.  I've got a history of depression and anxiety and unfortunately it's all flared up again.  I think it's because we are in the middle of moving house and I really don't cope well with stress.  There is also an emotional element to the move which I'm finding more difficult to cope with than I thought I would.  We are buying my grandparents house, my grandma passed away nearly 4 years ago and my grandad passed away earlier this year.  On one hand I am so happy and excited to be moving but on the other hand I feel a great sadness that we are only able to buy the house because my grandparents are gone.

I've got so much I need to do for the house move it seems to overwhelm me and I feel paralysed and end up doing nothing.  I don't even seem to be able to keep up with the normal everyday household jobs like washing the pots and ironing etc let alone do anything towards the move.  Even my stitching hasn't been able to calm me recently.  I just can't seem to settle on a project and I've ended up addling lots more WIPs to my rotation.  It's a complete contradiction when with all things domestic I don't want to do anything yet with my stitching I just want to keep starting new projects.

We met with our solicitor yesterday and went through all the paperwork and there are just a few loose ends that need tying up and then hopefully we will be moving before the end of September.

I'm trying to set myself small goals everyday but find that most days I don't even accomplish half of them.

Welcome Banner - 11.08.12

You may remember in my last post that I asked if anyone knew where I could get hold of Celtic Banner my Butternut Road or if anyone had a copy they would be willing to sell.  Well imagine my surprise when within 5 minutes of publishing the post I had a comment from Kim saying she had a copy that she wouldn't stitch and would send it to me.  I just love the generosity of the stitching community.

After my first 10 hours stitching the Welcome Banner here is my progress.  I've had to change some of the colours as I don't have all my stash of threads available at the moment so just picked colours I had.  Really pleased with how it's looking so far.

Next 10 hours stitching will be done on my secret project and then I'm going to work on my Chatelaine as it's been a bit neglected recently.

Update - 08.08.12

I completed another 10 hours on my secret project and so it was time to look at the poll and begin my new start.  The results of the poll were as follows:

Woodland Guardian - HAED - 37.5%
Emerald Dragon - HAED - 25%
Welcome Banner - Emily Peacock - 18.8%
Mini Irish Sampler - HAED - 12.5%
Celtic Banner - Butternut Road - 6.3%
Don't be ridiculous you've got enough WIPs - 0%

Firstly I want to thank everyone who voted and secondly I was very happy that no one voted for the don't have another start option - just shows what enablers us stitchers are!

I went to my fabric stash box to look for the hand dyed fabric I had planned to stitch Woodland Guardian on and realised I had packed it (I'm in the process of moving house at the moment and unfortunately that box has already been moved to the new house).  I knew the fabric for Emerald Dragon (another hand dyed) was in the same box so I couldn't start those to.

So I've had to go with option three the Welcome Banner by Emily Peacock.  However when I sat down and looked at the threads I haven't packed I realised I was missing some for this design.  However I've decided to swap out some of the colours required for other colours I do have.  As it is quite a simple bright design I'm hoping this won't make too big a difference.

I'm also thinking about changing part of the design so I can stitch our family name on the banner to personalise it.  I can already picture it hanging in the porch of our new house!

I am also really disappointed because I had ordered the chart for Celtic Banner by Butternut Road but had a phone call yesterday to say the company I ordered from no longer stock this chart and are not going to be getting anymore copies.  So I am sending out a plea to all my stitchy friends - if anyone knows where I could get a copy of this chart or has a copy themselves that they would be willing to sell please let me know as I have fallen in love with this design and would very much like to stitch it.

I should also mention that I have been extremely lucky over the past couple of weeks to have received two RAKs of charts from Heaven and Earth Designs.  Firstly I received Handle with Care by Katerina Koukiatis and then I also received Lily by Ching Chou Kuik.  I have sent several RAKs myself and I really can't decide which gives the better feeling giving or receiving RAKs.  I know it restores my faith in human kindness when complete strangers can be so generous.

Handle with Care - Katerina Koukiatis

Lily - Ching Chou Kuik

Sorry there's no pictures of my stitching progress this time but I should be back soon with a picture of my new start.

Keep stitching and smiling.

Gerbera Daisies as of 04.08.12

So I decided to stitch some more on the gerbera daisies rather than starting a new project this week.

Here's gerbera daisies before I worked on it.

And after.  I've now completed 23,848 of 28,224 which means it is 84.5% complete.

As a few people have expressed an interest in seeing my secret project I will share with you that I am posting pictures on another blog.  If you would like details of the blog please e-mail me at obsessivecrossstitcher@gmail.com and I'll send you a link to the other blog.  I can't publish pictures of it on here as I don't know if the recipient reads my blog or not.  

I will be rotating back to the secret project next and then I think I will treat myself to a new start and I'd like you to help me decide.  So below are the images for the possible new starts please let me know which one you think I should start next or choose option 6 and I'll have to stick with what I've already got as WIPs!!

Celtic Banner - Butternut Road

Woodland Guardian - HAED

Welcome Banner - Emily Peacock

Mini Irish Sampler - HAED

QS Emerald Dragon - HAED

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WIPocalypse - 01.08.12

Managed to complete one of my WIPs this month so I can strike another one off my WIPocalypse list.  My finish was Hickory Dickory Dock QS.  This is my fourth finish for 2012.Here's the before and after pictures.

Before:

After:

I've done another 10 hours on my secret project but can't show pictures here.

Also did some more stitching on gerbera daisy cushion but not done enough yet to share a photo.  Here's what it looked like the last time I stitched on it.

I'm hoping to have a finish on this in the next couple of months but my main focus piece at the moment is my secret project as it has a deadline.