12 Days of Christmas - Satsuma Street - 31.12.16

I have been working on this project for a couple of weeks now and I was intending to work on it throughout the 12 Days of Christmas and into January but it's New Year's Eve and my New Year New Start project is shouting at me very loudly!

So here is my current progress on the 12 Days of Christmas.  I have subbed out some of the colours called for with floss I had in stash from Jodyri Designs.  I just wanted to add a little individuality to the project and make it truly unique to me.

My New Year start is going to the Mirabilia's At The Met.  I have drooled over this chart for a long time and this year I had some extra cash and was able to kit it up (minus the beads) so I will be starting her a little bit early on New Year's Eve but still a New Year start.

My stitching plans for 2017 are a bit up in the air at the moment.  I have signed up to do lots of stich a longs in lots of different Facebook groups.  I have been planning and kitting projects up and matching projects to SALs etc etc.  But now tonight I sit here thinking I'm not sure I want to start multiple projects during January just because there are lots of different SALs I think maybe I just want to stitch on At the Met for a while.

During 2016 I have been busying cataloguing my stash and now have 267 projects in my X Stitch App.  53 - Started, 18 - Kitted and 174 on my Wish List.  This does not account for the other charts I have that I don't want to start any time soon!

I have also signed up to Stitch from Stash 2017 and have allocated myself a budget of £25 per month.  This is on top of subscriptions I have already signed up for.  As I have a full set of DMC and lots of other speciality floss, lots of fabric and well over 267 charts this should be easy for me to stick to.  I took part in the warm up in November and December and have done quite well.  Finishes mean you can add money to your budget which is an incentive to get current projects finished.

So we will see how my stitching pans out in 2017.  All I am sure of right now is that I will always be stitching on something.

I would like to thank all my subscribers and those who comment on my blog for coming on this stitchy journey with me.  I would also like to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.

Keep stitching and smiling

Stitch from Stash - March

Month: March 2015
Brought forward from February - £11.20 + March £25 = £36.20
Spent: £25.67
Earned: Nothing
Carried forward to March: £10.53

This month I bought myself some threads from Jodyri Designs and a Passione Ricamo chart called The Prosperity Fairy.

I am currently model stitching the Jodyri Mystery SAL for Michelle and also helping her administer the Facebook group - in return she has given me the chart free of charge.  I am so lucky to have some really great stitchy friends.  I needed to purchase some Jodyri threads for this chart and also treated myself to one of Michelle's newest themed packs Feathered Friends.  I also rejoined the Jodyri monthly thread club and after having checked with Mel this doesn't count towards my Stitch from Stash budget even though I have joined part way through the year.

When my threads from Michelle arrived I was started stitching with them straight away and forgot to take pictures!!  So I will use the pictures from Michelle's website to show you what I purchased.

I purchased the Feathered Friends pack which contains:- Peacock Feathers, Lovebirds, Hyacinth Macaw, Rose Ringed Parakeet, Island Jay, Indian Ringneck, Robin Redbreast, Violet Parakeet, Bee Eater and Lilac Breasted Roller Bird.

I also got Moon and Stars, Diligence (one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues) and Autism Awareness.

I also received the 5 monthly thread pack and this months limited edition.  All the colours are gorgeous.

I don't remember ever seeing this chart before but when I saw it I had to get it straight away.  I got mine from Sew and So and once again their service was second to none.  I ordered the chart on a Saturday and received it on the Monday without paying any extra for quick delivery.

It will take me a while to purchase all the Petite Treasure Braid needed for this project so although it was an immediate I have to purchase it won't be a start in the near future.

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing

Stitch from Stash - February

Month: February 2015
Brought forward from January - £24.10 + February £25 = £49.10
Spent: £37.90
Earned: Nothing
Carried forward to March: £11.20

I couldn't resist treating myself to some of the gorgeous threads from Jodyri Designs and three charts from Papillon Creations.  I also bought some fabric from Willow Fabrics when they were having a sale.

The first photo shows a theme pack of threads I got from Jodyri Designs.  It's the Butterfly and Moths thread set.  The colours from left to right are:-  Purple Emperor Butterfly, Chinese Moon Moth, Emperor Moth, Millonia Paradise Moth, Atlas Moth, Blue Morpho Butterfly, Green Birdwing Butterfly, Swallowtail Butterfly, Madagascar Sunset Moth and Peacock Butterfly.

The next photo is a selection of threads that I loved the colours for and just had to have.  From left to right they are:-  Mardi Gras (Silk), Lavender Fields, Kingfisher, Jaded Amethyst and Tanzanite Nebula.

As always I was so pleased with them and can't wait to stitch with them.

My next purchase was some charts from Papillon Creations.  I have admired Around the World in 80 Stitches for a long time and I think it will be a great way to use some of my gorgeous hand dyed threads.  Unfortunately I can't find a stock photo for this chart and don't want to use someone else photo without there permission but I will link here to the gallery of completed stitches.

The second chart I got from them was Celtic Beauty.  Again I think this chart could lend itself nicely to hand dyed threads.

And last but not least I also purchased Celtic Warrior.

My final purchase this month was some fabric from Willow Fabrics as they were having a sale.  I got a full metre of 28 Count Jazlyn in Mushroom for £15 which I think is about half the price it would normally be.  It's a lovely neutral colour and will lend itself to lots of different projects.

All in all an amazingly good haul and I stayed within my budget!

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing!

Stitch from Stash - January

Month: January 2015
Spent: 90p
Earned: Nothing
Carried forward to February: £24.10

I am going to be setting my stash budget as £25 UK pounds as I feel the cost of items are far higher in the UK and if I convert $25 to £ it will only give me about £15 per month.

I was extremely lucky to receive a secret RAK of two charts from KLT Charting - these are the ones I got:-

I'm very grateful to whoever sent them to me and would like to say a big thank you right here.

Here is what I spent in January

1 skein of DMC 780 from Hobbycraft - 90p

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing

Twisted Band Sampler - Northern Expressions Needlework - 18.01.15

I can't tell you how many times I have had to frog sections of this since I last updated.  All due to my own carelessness either missing out a section of cross stitch which doesn't show up until you try and stitch the next colour next to it - this resulted in frogging nearly half a band of cross stitch, or using the wrong colour - I did this twice - the first time I just picked up the wrong colour and stitched for about an hour before I realised and the second time either it was a difference in dye lot from DMC or I had somehow wrapped a thread from a different colour skein round the wrong bobbin.  The is still some of this "wrong" colour stitched into one of the bands and at the moment I am leaving it there as it would be too difficult to unpick.  When I have finished the entire piece I will look at it again and decide whether I can live with it or if it needs unpicking.  Knowing my OCD tendencies it will be unpicked but I cannot face it at the moment.

Anyway less talking and here's the latest update picture.

I'm doing well so far with the Stitch from Stash although we are only 18 days into the New Year!  I will do a separate post later in the month regarding Stitch from Stash and showing the stash I have acquired so far (within my budget of course!).

You may remember my last blog post where I talked the big talk about my stitching plans for 2015 and at the time I had all the good intentions of sticking to it.  However I am so enjoying stitching the Twisted Band Sampler that I don't want to rotate onto anything else at the moment.  

Also I am currently undecided about the AAN Christmas Mystery SAL.  It is a beautiful design so far as all Alessandra's designs are but I think I am going to wait until a few more parts come out before I decide whether or not I am going to stitch it.  It is going to be such a large piece that I don't want to start stitching and decide in a few months that I'm not going to finish it so for the time being that one has been put on the back burner.

I'm hoping to receive my order from Crafty Kitten in the next couple of weeks that I paid off last year before I started Stitch from Stash.  It's got everything I need to stitch Plum Pudding by Glendon Place and also everything for the new Lizzie Kate Mystery - Things Unseen which I have only seen the first part stitched of so it may still be somewhat of a mystery by the time I get all three parts.

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing

Model for Northern Expressions Needlework as of 21.02.14 & February Stitch from Stash

I've been working on the model for Northern Expressions Needlework this week.  Here's my before and after photos.

I'm going to be stitching on this next week as well but I have decided to change my rotation slightly.

So each month in the evenings I will work on the following:-

Week 1 - Chatelaine
Week 2 - Northern Expressions Needlework Model
Week 3 - Northern Expressions Needlework Model
Week 4 - Learning Sampler
Week 5 (if there is one) - Free choice

Then if I get chance during the days to stitch on a Wednesday and at the weekend I'm going to firstly work on my Lizzie Kate Christmas Mystery and when that is finished I have two small designs from Jodyri Designs and KLT Charting that I want to stitch for a SAL I'm participating in.

My stitch from stash budget this month was £15.19 as I had nothing to carry forward from last month.  I am really pleased to say that this month I've only spent £8!  I bought two new charts from KLT Charting:

Tribal Butterfly

Tribal Owl

I was also lucky enough to be RAKd two charts

Tribal Heart

Valentine Peacock

So having only spent £8 of my £15.19 budget I have £7.19 to carry forward giving me a budget for March of £22.38.

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing

Learning Sampler - Northern Expressions Needlework as of 14.02.14

I've had the Learning Sampler on my frame for the last two weeks as I've not really had as much time to stitch as I would like.  Here's my before and after pictures.

I am really enjoying learning the new speciality stitches and hope to incorporate them into lots more projects in the future.

I've signed up to join in with the Stitching Bandits Chatelaine Challenge.  So I'm committed to working on one of my Chatelaines at least one week each month.  I think for consistency and so I remember I will work on it the first week of each month.  I'm going to be concentrating on the Seaside Mystery and look forward to making progress with it.

I'm slowly but surely starting (again!) to make an inventory of all the charts I own so that when I come to start a new project I can see all the ones I have.  I'm trying to categorise them by size and type so that if I finish a small project I can add another small one in it's place so I'm not constantly stitching BAPs!  Will have to see how it goes!

I'm hoping in the next few months we will have sorted things out enough in our house that I can finally transform our spare room into my crafting room.  I'm also hoping that once everything is organised and in one place it will make it much easier to see where I am up to with all my projects.

The next rotation on my frame is the model stitch for Northern Expressions Needlework and this is going to be my focus project which I intend to work on for two weeks out of every month.  I think I may put those two weeks together so I see more progress.

My next update will also include my update on the Stitch from Stash challenge.  We have been given an exemption this month and are allowed to spend an additional $100 dollars.  Unfortunately as much as I would like a splurge there is no actual money in my budget to allow me to do so and I'm just sticking to the original budget.

And last but not least I would love it if you would head over and check out my cousins brand new cross stitching design business.  It's called KLT Charting and the website can be found here and the Facebook page here.  Thanks for looking.  I'll show you in my next post the two charts I bought this month out of my stitch from stash budget.

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing

Too many projects too little time

No stitching update from me this week as I didn't get much stitching done.

I have a question though and I'd love to hear any ideas you might have.  How do you work out what projects you want to work on?

I currently have four projects in rotation.  Numerous WIPs and UFOs and too many to even contemplate projects I want to start.  From one minute to the next the project that is calling me the loudest changes.  At the moment I've got another three projects that I want to start "right now".

Then I'm browsing on line and I see more and more gorgeous projects that I would like to do.  Thoughts pop into my head of stitching certain things for certain people and then I spend hours (like this afternoon) browsing the internet looking for suitable things for me to stitch.  If I actually looked at the patterns, fabric and threads I already have I could probably find a suitable project for any person/occasion.

So please comment and let me know if you've found the magical solution to organising your projects so that you don't spend time you could be stitching looking at new stash and thinking about all the extra things you could be buying.

If anyone comes up with the solution there will be a prize!

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing

Learning Sampler - Northern Expressions Needlework as of 03.01.14

This week I've been working on the Learning Sampler from Northern Expressions Needlework.  I've now completed part 3 and have started on parts 4 and 5 - part 6 has just been released so I'm trying to catch up.  I was keeping up to date as each part was released but then I decided to change the colours I was stitching with.  I am also slowly unpicking what I previously stitched so I could use the same piece of fabric I just started again at the opposite end.

I'm currently rotating three projects the Learning Sampler, the model I'm stitching and Lizzie Kate's Christmas Mystery.  I'm picking up the model next.

So far this month (I know it's only 3rd January!) I haven't spent any of my stitching budget.

Keep stitching and smiling

Stitch from Stash and Blog Plans for 2014

I have decided to take up the challenge from Mel to Stitch from Stash in 2014 - you can see all the details here and you can join up if you want to before 2nd January.

The budget for each months stitching stash is $25 which works out as £15.19.  I'm quite lucky that I paid off a large lay away with Crafty Kitten with my Christmas money so will have that to look forward to receiving in January without having to worry about taking it out of my stitching budget.  The rules are that if you don't spend the total each month you can carry it forward - basically my total stitching spend for the year must be less than £182.28.  Having had a quick review of my stash earlier today this really shouldn't be a problem as I have enough threads, fabrics and patterns to last me a life time which is the main reason for doing this.  I may need to be the odd thread here or there to finish off a project or a piece of fabric if I don't have something suitable but I don't think that will happen often.

So my blog plan (hope) for the year is a weekly post detailing what I have been stitching that week and a monthly post detailing what (if any) money I have spent that month.  I hope you enjoy watching my diminishing stash pile during 2014.

Also I am hoping that early on in 2014 we will finally sort out our spare bedroom so it can become my craft room.  I will try and post some pictures of me organising my stash in a way that works for me and trying to keep some sort of inventory so that I don't spend money on items I already have.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Happy New Year - thanks for sticking with me through 2013 even though I didn't post as much as I wanted to.  I hope 2014 brings you everything you wish for.  I wish for health and happiness for all my friends, family and blog readers.  Happy New Year!

Keep stitching, smiling and destashing