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.

August Goals

My goals for July were:-

1. Complete Hickory Dickory Dock - DONE 15.07.12
2. Stitch 10  hours on Ink Circles Secret Project - DONE 24.07.12
3. Stitch 10 hours on gerbera daisy cushion - Not managed 10 hours but did stitch on it.

My August goals are:

1. Stitch 20 hours on Ink Circles Secret Project
2. Stitch 10 hours on gerbera daisy cushion
3. Stitch 10 hours on Chatelaine

Update 25th July 2012

I've spent my last 10 stitching hours on my secret ink circles project so no photos this time.

I can share with you the chart I chose in the HAED reward programme for completing Hickory Dickory Dock.  I chose one of the new Randall Spangler Story Keeps - Cooking for your Dragon.

Just couldn't resist the combination of dragons, chocolate and biscuits.

I also bought myself a new chart in Bob's birthday sale - as well as sending a few RAKs.

The one I bought for myself was QS Orchid Pink Spotted by Nene Thomas.

I don't know what I'm going to stitch on next.  I'm torn between my Gerbera Daisy or a new start.  I guess you'll see what I decided in my next post!

Keep stitching and smiling

My first HAED Happy Dance - Hickory Dickory Dock QS

I am so excited to have just put the final stitch into Hickory Dickory Dock.  I started this in November 2010 and finished today 15th July 2012.  It's also another one I can cross of my WIPocalypse list!

I've loved stitching this design and I think the colours are gorgeous.  It is stitched on 20 count aida 3 over 1 tent stitch.  It's a birth sampler for my niece so I am going to add her name and birth details to the bottom before I get it framed.

I'm so glad to finally finish a HAED I have so many WIPs that sometimes I don't think I'll ever finish anything!  The good news is I also managed to complete it in time to submit it to the HAED reward program.  I've not decided which chart I will get yet but am enjoying looking through all the lovely designs while making my choice.

Here are the WIP pictures and of course the final completed picture.

July Goals

My goals for June were:-

1. Stitch 10 hours on Chatelaine - didn't touch
2. Stitch 10 hours on Hickory Dickory Dock - completed 07.06.12 - 20 hours completed 17.06.12
3. Stitch 10 hours on Ink Circles Secret Project - didn't touch

My July goals are:

1. Complete Hickory Dickory Dock
2. Stitch 10  hours on Ink Circles Secret Project
3. Stitch 10 hours on gerbera daisy cushion

Blogaversary - 2 years blogging

Well it seems I missed my 2 year blogaversary - according to the widget on my site it's my blogaversary in 361 days so I missed my 2 years by 4 days!

Thanks for sharing my stitching journey with me and I very much hope to share my future stitching with you.

WIPocalypse - 03.07.12

Hickory Dickory Dock now 88.83% complete.

Before:

After:

Rules for Life now 28.51% complete.

Before:

After:

Hickory Dickory Dock as of 17.06.12

I managed to get another 10 hours stitched on Hickory Dickory Dock and did another 1,800 stitches which means it is now 88.83% complete.  I really don't want to put this down but I'm going to rotate and do 10 hours on my Chatelaine.

So here's the latest picture.

Rules for Life as of 15.06.12

We've been on holiday to Wales for a week so I wanted to take a fairly simple project to work on.  I chose Rules for Life and here's where I am now up to with it.

I've now completed over 6,500 stitches which makes this project 28.51% complete.

I really struggled to find a comfortable sitting position to stitch in while we were away.  I don't think hubby will be too pleased if I tell him I need to take my reclining sofa away with us next time as it's too uncomfortable to stitch otherwise!

I'm now rotating back to Hickory Dickory Dock really hoping to get it finished before the end of August.

Hickory Dickory Dock as of 07.06.12

It has been a long time since I stitched on this piece but it is now my main focus piece and I am hoping to have it finished before the end of August so I can submit it to the HAED reward programme.

In this 10 hour rotation I have stitched just over 1,600 stitches bringing the total stitches done to 21,960 out of 26,775 which means it is now 82.02% complete.

I'm going to be away for the next week so I am taking Rules for Life with me to stitch on as it is one of my simpler WIPs.

WIPocalypse - 04.06.12

I had another finish this month - Baby Patchwork by Cinnamon Cat.

Before:

After and finished:

With the birth details:

I'll tell you the story behind this birth sampler now.  I have a friend who I've known since school.  She and her husband tried for 7 years to get pregnant and on their last round of IVF she discovered she was pregnant and was over joyed.  At the 20 week scan they were told their little boy had a serious heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, they were told they could end the pregnancy there or they could continue and the baby would have to have many surgeries.  There was no decision to make as far as they were concerned and they continued with the pregnancy.  Matthew was born in March 2010 and unfortunately only lived for 3 weeks it was an absolutely devastating time for them!  Then about 18 months later a miracle happened and they became pregnant naturally with no assistance.  Their miracle rainbow baby Zachary was born in March 2012 three days after his brother's 2nd birthday.  So this is why I've added the name Matthew to the star to remember the precious boy who could only stay with his family for three weeks.

My Memories Digital Scrap Booking - Give away Winner

So for the big announcement about the winner of my giveaway.  There were 9 entries by 4 people so I used a random number generator to pick a winner between 1 and 9 and the number generated was 2.

So the winner is Lou!

You may or may not know that Lou is my sister and I hope no one feels that this giveaway was rigged but I can assure you this was the number the random generator produced.

The good news is that My Memories have informed me that I can hold a giveaway three times a year so in four months time there could be another giveaway here.  I'm going to see what the response is to my digital scrap booking posts and hopefully hold another giveaway in four months.

June Goals

My goals for May were:-

1. Stitch 10 hours on Baby Patchwork - completed 05.05.12 - completed project 27.05.12
2. Stitch 10 hours on Chatelaine - completed 12.05.12
3. Stitch 10 hours on Hickory Dickory Dock - didn't touch

My June goals are:

1. Stitch 10 hours on Chatelaine
2. Stitch 10 hours Hickory Dickory Dock
3. Stitch 10 hours on Ink Circles Secret Project

Bucket List Scrap Booking

The My Memories Blog are having a Bucket List Challenge - create a page to show something you have on your bucket list.  Thought this would be a fun challenge to take part in so here's what I created.

Don't forget about my giveaway - it ends tomorrow at midnight GMT

Baby Patchwork as of 27.05.12 - Happy Dance

Well I am delighted to say that yesterday I stitched the final stitch on Baby Patchwork.  I still have to stitch the baby's birth details but I won't be sharing the pictures here once I've done that.

So here are all the pictures of my progress ending up with the finished piece.

I started stitching this on 21.12.11 and finished on 27.05.12 - just over 5 months stitching on and off with other pieces.  It is stitched on 14 count cream aida 2 over 1 full crosses.

I've really enjoyed stitching this piece.  The simplicity of the design makes a change from what I normally stitch as do the vibrant colours.

Trip to Chester Zoo

My husband and I share the same birthday so we always try and take the day off work together and do something special.  This year it was also Russell's 40th birthday so it was a little bit more special.  We decided to go to the zoo for the day and as it was Samuel's first visit to the zoo it was very exciting (for me anyway!).

I decided to have a play with the My Memories digital scrap booking to see what I could make with the photos we took on the day.  It was so easy - I selected a layout and chose for the program to automatically insert the photos so all I had to do was say which photos I wanted to be included.

I then exported the finished scrap book to a DVD and uploaded it to You Tube.  Here's the link if you want to take a look at my little project.

Chester Zoo Movie

I haven't worked out how to add music or anything yet but for a first attempt I'm really happy with it.

Don't forget I'm hosting a giveaway for another copy of this software - you can see all the details here.

I'd love to hear what you think of my movie and any tips from experienced scrap bookers would be most welcome.

A Review and a Giveaway - My Memories Digital Scrap Booking

I was very interested and excited to receive an e-mail recently from My Memories which is a digital scrap booking site.  They offered me a copy of their software My Memories Suite Scrapbook which is a digital scrapbooking software to download and try out and an additional copy to give away to one of my blog readers.  I've never done any scrap booking digital or otherwise so I was really interested to see what this involved.

I went to the site and followed the instructions given to me and easily downloaded the software.  When you download the software you also get a $10 voucher to spend on anything else on the site.  I chose to download a designer pack called Zoo Time as we are taking my son to the zoo for the first time later in the week and I thought this would be a good project to use for a digital scrap booking project.  I also downloaded the Sweet Tooth - Combo designer pack as you have to use all your $10 in one transaction otherwise you will lose the balance.

There are also lots of free kits to download and I spent ages just browsing through these and downloading more content.

Then I started to play around with the software.  There are lots of templates set up where all you have to do is add your photos.  There's even a feature where you just select the photos you want and the software adds all your photos to the templates for you.

Now bearing in mind I have never done any scrap booking before digital or otherwise, this is my first attempt and I have to say I am really pleased with it.

The great thing about this software is once you've finished your design you can decide what format you want it to be in for example I could chose to print this as a greeting card, as the start of an album or even as an interactive slide show.  I'm thinking that at Christmas time I can make our own personalised cards or make invitations to a birthday party - the possibilities are just endless.

I am very impressed with how easy this software is to use and my only criticism of it is that I think I will want to spend more time using it which will eat into my stitching time!  I would encourage anyone to give it a try as I never thought I would be able to make something like this.  When it comes to creativity I am happy to follow someone else's instructions, for example with cross stitching you are following a chart, but when it comes to putting things together myself I've always struggled.

Now comes the exciting part.  I have another copy of this software to give away to one of my blog readers.

So the way to enter this give away is as follows:

1. You must be a follower of this blog - it doesn't matter if you are a new follower or have been reading my blog for a while.
2. You need to go to the my memories website - click here - and choose your favourite digital paper pack or layout and then leave a comment on this blog post telling me which is your favourite.
3. For additional entries follow My Memories on their blog, on facebook or on twitter (or all three for three extra entries) and leave me another comment telling me where you have followed them.
4. The giveaway will end on 31st May at midnight GMT and the winner will be announced here on my blog soon after.

My Memories are also offering all my readers a $10 discount off the scrapbooking software if you chose to buy it yourself and a $10 coupon for the My Memories store.  Just enter the code STMMMS38740 when you check out.

I think I've remembered everything you need to enter but please let me know if you need any more information.  Good luck!  

Sleeping Beauty's Castle as of 12.05.12

I've spent my last 10 stitching hours working on Sleeping Beauty's Castle.  I'm still working on the cross stitching on part 1 but have started using some of the recommended silks.  I've never sewn with silks before so didn't really know what to expect but I absolutely love them - they glide through the fabric so easily and I love love love them.  I keep telling myself not to get too used to sewing with them as I can't afford to switch all my projects to silk - plus I've got hundreds of skeins of DMC and Anchor that need using up!

So here's the most recent picture of my chatelaine and if you want to see all the progress pictures up to this point please see my chatelaine page.

Secret Project Revealed

You may remember earlier in the year I had a secret project I was working on which I finished.  Well I can now reveal what that secret project was.  Jo from Serendipitous Stitching approached myself and another friend, Hannah, to see if we would be interested in stitching on an Afghan for Dawn's (from Crafty Kitten Fabrics) baby.  We both jumped at the chance and agreed we would both stitch two squares on a six square afghan.  I'm happy to say that Dawn has now received the afghan so I can now show the pictures.  Here's the pictures of the two squares I stitched.

This is the first square I stitched and was done over 1 square.  I have a cross stitch design programme and picked a font I liked on word and translated it into cross stitch for the name and stitched it with a variegated thread.  I have to say working on the afghan was quite tricky as unless you completed one cross at a time the thread slipped under the weave.

I then chose this cute little snail from one of the cross stitching magazines.  I think it was an issue of Cross Stitcher but when I find the magazine I will put the correct details here.  As I had struggled a bit doing over one on the previous square I decided to do this one over two which in itself was a first for me as I've only done over one before.  I like to think it was a practice for the chatelaine I'm currently doing over 2.

And here is the whole afghan in all it's glory with it's gorgeous recipient Sam modelling it.

I just love his expression in this picture it's like he's saying "Ta da".  

I'd like to say here as well that my reason for stitching this for Dawn was simply because I see her as a friend.  I've only "known" her through Facebook, a joint love of HAED, and her business Crafty Kitten where she makes the most gorgeous hand dyed fabrics.  Her customer service is amazing and I'd recommend everyone to give her hand dyed fabrics a try.

So there's the reveal of my secret project finish.  Hope it was worth waiting for!

WIPocalypse - 05.05.12

Baby Sampler - Cinnamon Cat - progress as of 05.05.12 - 80% complete.

Before:

After:

Rules for Life - Kincavel Crosses.  New start this month so no before picture.  Currently at 13.84% complete.

May Goals

Just a short post today, thought I would give setting myself some goals another try so here are my goals for May:

1. Stitch 10 hours on Baby Patchwork
2. Stitch 10 hours on Chatelaine
3. Stitch 10 hours on Hickory Dickory Dock

Hopefully setting myself goals I will be able to achieve this month.