An Update

So, I have the first page of Secret Garden complete with part of of the little elfie showing and part of a leaf. Only 35 pages to go!






And with the SAL I am now into the second row of pages on Pine Cone:






As for my yearly goals, I am getting there:

Pine Cone Fae complete
Wizard of Oz complete
Angel 1/3 of a page to go
Blossom Fae complete
Mask of Colours on hold
Tahliana on hold

A New Start

So I finally caved and have a new start. Nadia's Secret Garden screamed and screamed!






It will be a while before there are any pictures of my stitching-the first page is about three quarters 3865 (Winter White) and 3756 (Ultra-lite blue) and I am working on 28 count Barely Blue so nothing will show up very well

I'm Back Again

I know it has been a while but I am going to try to post regularly again.
I have been madly stitching working on a variety of things so here are the most current pictures:
Pine Cone Fae




Wizard of Oz




Angel




I am also working on Wanda' RR, with Mask of Colours and Tahliana on temporary hiatus since they are not currently yelling at me

Doggy Update

The cortizone shot worked wonders and Bella is back to her normal self. We have a prescription for prednizone that just like humans she must finish. This will keep the muscles in her back loose and pain free so that they can heal. So at this point it is NOT a slipped disk, so no xrays or surgery.

Our New Addition

We had to take our dog to the vet today; every time we tried to pick her up she would yelp. It is either pulled muscles in her lower back or get this- a slipped disc! She has had a cortisone shot and is significantly better tonight. She has to go back tomorrow to be checked again.
While at the vet my son noticed they had kittens for adoption but I managed to get out of there without a kitten...but... his sister showed up for a visit, drove him back to the vet and low and behold we have a kitten. This is Snoop:





He is long haired grey and black and very cute and also very vocal and friendly!

Wizard of Oz Blitz

Wizard of Oz has been monopolizing my attention lately. I have managed to complete 6 pages total- 2 this year which was one of my goals.

Too busy to blog

It has been a while since life has been just a little crazy. I decided to redecorate two rooms- my daughter's and son's former bedrooms that were the regulation teenage disasters. Lindsey has now moved out to her own place and Ryan has taken over the basement. As well, we took down the pool and deck in our backyard. I am certifiable to do it all at once.
So, now the rooms are done, for the most part and here are some pictures

This was Ryan's room that I am now calling the den:







And this is Lindsey's room that I am now calling the spare room:











The pool and deck are down but the yard is a mess- that will be the next project. We got rid of all the resulting waste by hiring a giant bin, parked in the driveway for the weekend- now gone. The added benefit of this was I also got rid of lots of crap from the house as well

5th Weekend SAL again

So by the magic of the calendar we got two 5th weekends in a row. I finished the flower from Salamander and started the flower from Pandora. There will be other flowers added eventually

Taj Mahal

I have finished the centre of Taj Majal without the beads since they cannot be done until the end. I put some of the beads on it to see the effect and it will be good- it seems a little bland without them. So here is the picture

Other Stitching

So I haven't posted in a while. I finished the first 3 SAL's with a week before the 4th! So I decided to take a break from my HAEDs and work on Chatelaine Taj Majal. I have the centre complete and just working on the border around the centre. As soon as the border is complete I will post a picture. I could not stand it with so many holes for beads and specialty stitches that I completed the special stitches to see a more complete centre.

Three SAL done

So the third SAL of April is now complete. I managed to finish page 1 of Pine Cone Fae and I am loving the colours.





See Fudgey green is wonderful.

I now have a week with no SAL so I will be working on my RR to complete before the May 7 mailing date.

Then we are back to the fifth weekend SAL!

Two SAL done

So after the Easter Creature SAL here is kitty Fae. I am pleased with the progress. Back to Blossom for the week and SAL challenge this coming weekend.

One SAL, two SAL

three SAL soon. This weekend I worked on the 5th weekend SAL and started the flower from Salamandar. Here is the progress:






This coming weekend is the Easter Creature SAL and I will be starting Kittie Fae on my Nadia Project, beside Blossom Fae.

Then in the not too distant future is the SAL Challenge and Pine Cone Fae will be back up.

A Good Day

Yesterday my daughter Lindsey and I went out. Although the weather was not nearly as good as they were originally calling for- we work around her schedule as a nurse working two part time jobs, a common occurence in Ontario.

Our first stop was at Rona Home and Decor to look for paint for her old room here. We found a pinky mauve and a darker raspberry that are going to look wonderful together (I hope at least). Now I just have to get the room ready for painting, and hopefully painting in the next couple of weeks.

Our second stop was Queen St in the Beach. We parked and started our walk. Lots of interesting little stores with all kinds of things and delightfully no major chain stores with all the same stuff. My main mission was to find the tea shop that sells all kinds of flavoured teas. You have to understand I am a major coffee drinker with decided preferences- for all those Canadians- it has to be Tim Hortons. I buy it whenever I am out and have their ground coffee at home. I do NOT like flavoured coffee; but I like flavoured teas. And like my coffee I am very particular about tea as well. I dislike teabags and like loose tea and it is hard to find anywhere close to home. My internet search turned up a few in Toronto and the Beach was the most interesting shopping area. Well I found the tea shop and the ladies there were very friendly and could not believe I had come all this way for tea- it was only a 30 minute drive so in my mind no big deal. Anyway we spent some time looking and smelling the teas and I ended buying several. . I ahve tried some of them and they are delicious.

So all and all it was a good day!

My Weekend Plans

This will probably be a weekend short on stitching, but sometimes that is OK. On Saturday I am going to The Beach (aka Beaches) a lovely neighbourhood in Toronto with a boardwalk along the water and some interesting shopping. It is only the start of spring here but the weather is supposed to be mild and hopefully no rain so it will be fun. Then on Sunday I need to get some work done for work. There will be a little stitching in between though- still working on Blossom and Sheri's RR. I am seriously thinking about focusing on Blossom for the next little while. A Multi Finisher blinkie has become an obsession and it would complete one of my yearly goals. Am I trying to justify this- Oh yes!
Also in just over a week the Tranquility Sampler starts- I know I will not be stitching a page a week on this but I am sooo looking forward to the chart. Thank you Fudgey.

I decided I should share my furbaby with the world. This is Bella, she is almost 2, weighs about 3.2kg and is half chihuahua and half poodle!

Blossom Fae is calling

Yes, she is. I have one full page and a small page left to finish her and she wants to be done. More lovely flowers. So I think I will alternate her with Sheri's RR this weekend. Then I will have to make a decision on the fae to complete the top row. It has to be facing right and preferably not in purples, pinks or greens since those colours are well represented already.

This week

Here is Pince Cone Fae after the March SAL Challenge- now 80% of page 1




I am working on Sheri's RR this week which is Sacred Hour by Vacher- sory no pictures yet.

And what a nice surprise in the mail. I got the artwork from Nadia today for Mushroom Bee Fae and she also sent a Special Edition of Eve of Enchantment for my daugther. I love her art and she is such a nice person. Boy would I like to meet her in person.

Happy Dance Today

My Rainbow Borders Sampler arrived today!!! It is not on my immediate to stitch list but just having it in my stash is making me very very happy.

Thinking about Charts

Fudgey's comment about Gustafson made me think about charts and the differences in what you can see. I currently have 1 Gustafson, 1 Ravenscroft, 1 Sanderson and 3 Tates in my rotation and there really are differences. When I work on Wizard of Oz there is often only one or two things that you can really identify when you look at a page of the chart, Angel is better because you can at least see the outline of some areas and Mask and all of the Tates have easily identifiable things like wings, eyes and flowers. It sometimes makes for interesting stitching since you are using colours that often don't seem to make sense then boom out pops all of the features on the page. It is such a delightful experience when I can sit back and do a WOW there's the boys head or the ribbons on Angel. I think that is why I keep stitching and why my HAED's continue to scream so much louder than my non-HAED's.

I did it

I completed another page of Wizard of Oz. This is now 5 pages complete (of a total of 21 pages) so it is 24% complete.






I am going back to Patchwork Sampler for a little while and putting the Fae's back on the floorstand in preparation for the March Challenge SAL-coming soon.

One Fae Silenced Temporaily

Blossom Fae now has a complete face and most of both wings...another page complete. She seems content for the moment. On to the Wizard of Oz. I have about 30% of another page complete and would like to get this page finished. ALL of this chart is detail stitching (NOT confetti) so it is definitely slower going.
Anyway here is Blossom

Taj Mahal

Here is my update on Chatelaine's Taj Mahal Mandala Garden. The centre is complete except for the beads and specialty stitches, as is the upper right corner. I have put it away again since the Fae's are screaming. I am going to try to get another page of Blossom Fae completed

Almost a Week Again

But a very productive week!
Here is Leigh's RR. The theme is Ian Daniels and I selected Midnight Orchard.





I have actually worked on Taj Mahal also and will hopefully post a picture tomorrow

This Week's Stitching

I have completed this months SAL challenge and half a page of Pine Cone Fae complete





I will now put it away again till next month. This week I want to stitch on my HAED Round Robin. I am working on Midnight Orchard for Leigh's Ian Daniels piece. I also hope to do a little stitching on Taj Mahal so I have enough done to post a picture.

We will see how the week goes...

Taj Mahal silks

I finally have all of the silks for Chatelaine's Taj Mahal. It has taken awhile-over a month while Stitching Bits and Bobs waited for the missing items. I have done some stitching on it but got fristrated without all of the colours. Now I can bring it back out and stitch on it again. Here they all are:





Yes- I bobbinated which I normally hate but I wanted to separate these from all other threads .

Tree

You scored as The Holly. In Celtic astrology, you're a Holly. The animal symbol that accompanies this tree is the unicorn. The ancient Druids say Holly people are cautious, capable, steadfast, efficient, supportive and protective. However, Hollies may be prone to perfectionism, loss of direction and possessiveness, especially toward people. The Ash 65% The Holly 65% The Oak 60% The Ivy 60% The Reed 55% The Rowan 55% The Alder 55% The Hawthorn 55% The Willow 50% The Elder 50% The Vine 45% The Birch 45% The Hazel 35% What Tree Are You? (Celtic astrology) created with QuizFarm.com

Another Week

Another week has passed and with work being very busy and needing to stitch to unwind, not much posting. The stitching has been productive. I have completed another page of Angel and I still remain loving this piece.






I now have Blossom Fae and Pine Cone Fae on the stand. I will work on Blossom until the weekend then Pine Cone for the SAL.

A Quick Update

I have been stitching and not blogging this week it seems. I have finished about 1/3 of a page on Wizard of Oz and now moved Angel back on the stand. It is going well and should be able to post an update this week sometime. It does bring out an interesting point. This was my first HAED start and I followed the suggestions and used 25 count. It is a very dark picture and is being stitched on white Lugana. Everything else I am working on is on 28 count various fabrics. It is amazing as I go back to the 25 count how much easier it is to stitch on. Not so much the visual, I can see the 28 count but more the ease of getting the needle through the fabric. The coverage is not as dense but part of that is because the fabric is white. So now I have to decide when I start my next piece, not in the near future, what count to use!

Bits and Pieces

Fudgey is missing Angel so I am being re-assuring- she is not completely ignored; I have done some stitching on her but do not have an updated picture. She will be worked on again shortly.
Yes... there are certain Fae's with Type A personalities screaming as well, but they will have to wait a short while. Wizard of Oz is currently on the floorstand and is actively being worked on. Leigh's RR is on the Q-sanps and is being worked as the alternative to Oz.
But... I have another new start. I received the beads and some of the threads for my Chatelaine- Taj Mahal Mandala Garden so that has been started because I simply could not resist. I am doing it on 16 count Aida; certainly not a favourite but I simply cannot stitch over 2 so 32 count was not an option. I have a total and complete mental block about over 2 and constantly miscount so over 2 is a no go.
So as it stands right now I will stitch Oz for another few days and then Angel then the screaming Faes, with the RR and Taj Mahal as alternatives.

Current Works

So, I have sadly taken Pine Cone Fae off the stand and put Wizard of Oz on the frame. I really love Wizard and glad to be stitching on it again but Pine Cone is sooo calling me too. I am trying to ignore it! I will also be working on Leigh's RR whose them is Ian Daniels. It is on the Q-snaps. So again Patchwork will have to wait.

As Promised

As promised here are Pine Cone and Patchwork

I like this one better

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Lady Madame Teresa the Omnipresent of Under Yockenthwaite Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Even if I don't like being called Teresa

From Fudgey- My Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Noble Excellency Terri the Woebegone of Fishbourne Sneething Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

SAL Challenge Weekend

This was the first weekend for the HAED SAL Challenge- involving 12 weekends over the year. I have spent the weekend stitching on Pine Cone Fae and lots of lovely greens. I have finished almost the third row of ten blocks- not too bad. It will have to be put away for a while as I work on other projects. I think I am going to put Wizard of Oz back on the stand!
This week while I was waiting for the SAL I did a little work on Patchwork Sampler.
I will post pictures tomorrow.

Blossoms and Pine Cones

With Pine Cone Fae taking place below Butterfly Fae (complete) and Blossom Fae (incomplete) I had to finish Blossom fae's third page to get rid of my parked threads. Gee that was a hardship! So page 3 is complete, sorry no picture but it was only 2 rows of blocks of 10. So now I can go at Pine Cone for the SAL Challenge this weekend without battling parked threads.
Pine Cone with 45 shades of green! As I said in my last post it is a really good thing I like green!

Good thing I like green

I just did the first 10x10 block of Pine Cone Fae. In the one hundred stitches there are 15, count them, 15 different greens! I do think this one is going to be amazing to stitch and hard to put down to work on other projects.

Some Interesting Numbers

I have updated my spreadsheet with all of the HAED charts I own and some interesting numbers popped out.
I own 71 charts (gulp!)
The most common colour is 823 (navy).
There are only 16 DMC colurs not used in any of the charts.
There are 30 colours in only one chart.
Sparkles are in 33 of the charts.
And of course, I own more Nadia's than any other artist!

2007 Goals

So, Fudgey wants our goals for 2007 soon! I know at least some of the stitching I want to do but new charts will come out and how to fit everything in and how much of each? Here is the list of what I will be working on, I just have to figure out how much of each:

HAED:
Angel
Wizard of Oz
Mask of Colours
Tahliana Flower Bud Fae
Blossom Fae
Pine Cone Fairy

OTHER:
Patchwork Sampler
Taj Mahal Mandala Garden

I have ordered the threads and beads for Taj Mahal- ouch! Thank goodness for Christmas money. I just have to figure out the fabric since the expectation is over two which is NOT my favourite.

Now I will sit down over the next few days and decide how much of each!