Take a look ...

Hello there

My friend Steph from Stephies Stitching Blog and I have been having a big chat about all out WIP's and UFO's that we have and needless to say we are a little shocked at what we have started lol!!

Steph has posted on her blog asking about how other stitchers do rotations etc and do they work.

She has explained it better in her post :-

Help!! So many WIP's!!

so have a read and if you have any suggestions please post a comment on her blog and let her (and me) know :-)

Rotation/routine/organisation for us both is required hahaha!!

No1 rule - don't start anything else before finishing something! Oh that reminds me I need to start Ryan's dragon ooooo!!!

Thanks!!

Not much stitching going on here.  Roll on 3rd September when normal routine starts again!

Bye for now

Love me
xxxxxx

Weekend of stitching

Hello there!

What a lovely weekend of stitching I had.  I got the biscobud for a birthday present finished and lots done on my Fairy Grandmother by Lavender and Lace.  Delighted with myself.

Lovely red and green and metallic red hearts biscobud

Birthday Biscobud

I feel like I have made fantastic progress on Fairy Grandmother.  She looks yummy!  I have done quite a bit on her face but the stitches are teeny tiny and I can do about an hour at a time.  The detail is brilliant and i am glad I decided to stitch her face 1 over 1 on the 32 count rather than 2 over 2 with backstitch.  The time and eye strain will be well worth it lol :-)

Fairy Grandmother at the end of 22nd October

Now to stitch a biscornu that a friend has ask for .... Think I could make a business out of the ornies I make lol

Happy stitching and crafting all.

Giveaway for blogoversary coming ASAP :-)

Love me xxxxxx

A finish and a little bit more

Good Evening all,

Hope you are all well!  I have had a busy few weeks with the kiddies.  They have also enjoyed the Summer Scheme.  Brilliant fun for them all.  I just hope the weather improves so we can get out and about for the last few weeks of the holidays.

I finally finished 'Gone Fishing' whooooop!

Gone Fishing

I have started a baby sampler for one of the teachers in the Nursery that Katie went too.  A very good friend of mine is also having a baby so must get a little something done for her and baby too :-)

I have made a very small dent in HAED Universe in a Jar .... I mean a small dent but it is about 800 stitches lol!  Just a few million trillion to go!!!

Universe in a Jar

Rainbow of threads for
Universe in a Jar

My daughter and her boyfriend got engaged on Sunday.  Totally delighted for them both!  I suppose I had better get an engagement sampler sorted out!!

Until next time.... all be good and happy crafting

Love Heather
xxxx

Prize Winning Stitching :-)

Good Evening Bloggers

Yesterday I took my completed Biscobud (photo below) to the Omagh Show and entered it into the Cross Stitch (Home Industries) section.

Complete Biscobud

And my Biscobud won FIRST PRIZE!!!!  I am so delighted particually because I stitched the 2 squares for the Biscobud about a year ago and only stitched it together last week! :-)

My Prize winning Biscobud

I have a fantastic spring in my step now and I feel my stitching bug coming back!! I did stitch a little on my Universe in a Jar HAED the other night and I could feel that itchy stitching finger feeling coming back and I was ready for a mega session lol!

So you never know what happens when you enter a show .... get entering!  I know how good it is to have a FIRST PRIZE next to something created with hours of love!!

Happy Stitching and Crafting

Love to all
Heather
xxooxx

Lots to report! :-)

Hello there bloggers!

How are you all doing?  All is fine and dandy in my part of the world lol

First of all I have decided to concentrate on my Fairy Grandmother and Universe In A Jar plus a few of my WIP's and UFO's.  More the WIP's and UFO's during the day but as soon as I can when kids settled out will come the big projects :-)  Oh I would be silly to waste the nice lighter nights and not stitch my 'biggies' lol

I completed the two presents for the Nursery teachers and they will be given them tomorrow.  I must take a photo of them before I take them in!!  I have also done lots more on M'Ladys Strawberries and Gone Fishing so I am delighted with myself.  My stitching bug is back in full swing I am pleased to say!!

On the family front .... Cara decided to give Larry the laptop a nice drink of milk but unfortunately Larry was not thirsty and decided he didn't like ilk and stopped working on a permanent basis :-(   oooo my poor poor Larry the Laptop but I decided that with the summer hols coming up I would be a crazy woman not to have a computer for the kids (cos the old,old,very old desk top computer packed in a few weeks ago too!!) so I bought a new Laptop which has been named Larryette by by 16 year old son!!  Yes out stuff gets names lol!!

We had a big change around of bedroom and got Cara a Peppa Pig Toddler bed and Cara is now sharing a room with Katie which they both love!!  Laura and I swapped bedrooms too which I'd great because now Cara is in with Katie when I go to bed I can either stitch or read .... normally sleep lol

Lots of Photos came home from school the last week so I will get a few up on here.  I also got the school reports and I an so proud of my little ones Ryan, Conor, Mark and Katie as they have done so well this year.  Vast improvements in them all not only with their school work but also their social development which reminds me my little Cara has done so well with her social development and has won the hearts of many at the children's school.

The children finish tomorrow for 8 weeks summer holidays and we have lots planned!!  First off the whole of July is covered as I have managed to get them into a Summer Scheme at our local Community Center.  The 3 boys go to one part of the Summer Scheme whilst Katie goes to another but next year when Katie will be able to go to the same one as the boys.  I have the boys going out on trips at separate times with the scheme whilst others stay at the center just so they are not together all the day,every day. Summer Scheme ends at 1.30pm each day so we will have activities planned for the afternoons too!  lets hope the rain stays off!!

Other than all that above (not much lol) I have not been upto much ha ha :-)

Off to the last Craft Club of the school year tomorrow but we have plans for meeting up so we don't escape each other that much!!  My friends are my rock and I would miss them so much if I didn't see them.

Right I think it is time for bed.  I will up load pics asap.  Thanks for reading my ramblings!!

Bye for now,
Happy Crafting,
Take care

Love me xxxxx

Oh P.S  I have taken up a few exchanges on Swap-Bot again ....  lovely  I have missed doing exchanges .... now are there any nice relaxing reliable exchanges going on on blogger? lol

News from my corner of the world

Hello fellow bloggers

News from my corner of the world is that my husband and I split last week.  I am now a single mother of  7 children, well I say children but my eldest girl, Laura, is 22 and my eldest boy, James, is 16.  The 5 youngest are from this marriage but even so all 7 children are at home.  Thank goodness Laura is here as she is my rock!

So my stitching time is totally cut to next to nothing at the moment but the children are far more important.  I have put my HAED's away for now and hope that they do get finished this life time lol!

I am going to solider on with my Fairy Grandmother and Charlie Bear SAL as and when I can.  I have a few of my UFO's out to finish as and when I can.  I hope to keep blogging even if it is about life more so than stitching!

On that stitching front I do have a few things to sell at the School Summer Fete this weekend.  I will post a photo asap.

My plan of action is to finish of M'Ladys Strawberries that I started last June lol! It should have taken me a few days to stitch this chart but yet nearly a year later .....  Then onto the fishing stitch I also started towards the end of last summer.  The idea is to get the smaller pieces I started finished and maybe do a few smaller kits for now.  Life without stitching is a little sad!  Life without him is good ha ha!!

I have spent the last week clearing out jumk and rubbish then having a small re-arrange of the house.  So when all that is complete I might get some stitching into the day.  Time will tell, but like I say there are more important things at the moment but stitching will always be there!

Bye for now
Keep up the good work, I'll be looking lol

Lots of love

Heather
xxxxxx

Catch Up

Hello to you all!

Oh wow it has been a long time since I last blogged ... what can I say other than just not enough hours in the day plus not much stitching time at all.

Kiddies and myself have not been very well.  Bugs and germs flying around us all then back again!!  Then it was Easter, which was great fun! Loved seeing the children with their chocolate Eggs.  This year the Easter Bunny even left paw prints in the house lol :-)

Good news though, My 7 Year Old Conor passed his grading for his Red Belt in Karate.  I can now admit I did some secret stitching for him. I did a design by Margaret Sherry 'Karate Dog' from the Bookazine that was printed some months ago. Needless to say Conor is totally delighted with his red belt and his Karate dog!!  I must get a photo of the piece and post it!

I have done a few small designs as our Craft Club are doing a stall at the school summer Fete in May.  I cannot wait to sell some of what I have stitched!

I have stitched a little on my Fairy Grandmother.  I spent hours stitching her face 1 over 1 on 32 count evenweave but it looks like I have hardly done anything on her! I early gave myself eye strain lol.  I will post a photo of her too.

I cannot think what else I have done except housework, shopping, see to sick children and a little stitching ... ooo eat chocolate too!!

I will post photos asap!

Bye for now

Love me xxxxx

A bit of this and that

Hello, a long time with no blogging again for me!  Hope you are all well.

I have done quite a bit of stitching the last week but it does not feel like it!  I think since my main projects are all big pieces it seems like I have not done much with not having any finishes, so I am cracking on with Gone Fishing today and the rest of the week to see if I can get this one finished and off my pile!  I did quite a bit last night.

Gone Fishing as at 6th March 2012

I worked the weekend on my Charlie Bear SAL and I am delighted at my progress.  I plan to stitch a few more letters then do some back stitching.  Steph stephs blog has already back stitched some of hers and it is looking fantastic .... oh and go to her blog to see her news!!  Cant wait to add detail to mine now.

Charlie Bear SAL

Next I would like to show off my Fairy Grandmother!  Her wing is very slow going and lots of colour changes every few minutes so I have decided to make progress on her body and face for now and do the wings as I go along!  She is looking beautiful I will admit and the photo does not do her justice at all.

Fairy Grandmother at 5th March 2012

To add to the mix of my stitching I have been asked to do a baby sampler for my friend niece who is expecting her baby in about 8 weeks time.  So the Sampler kit is being posted to me today so this will be my main project for the next few weeks.  Also I am going to be doing some stitching for my daughters Nursery. Then ... I found out a friend of mine is expecting so hey why not add a bit more stitching to my growing list lol!  I cant wait!  So I think I will have to adjust my target times and add to my to-do list!  With all this stitching being asked for I think I could start up my own little business :-)  Could not think of a nicer job!

Happy stitching to you all
xxxxx

The past week

Hello there,

I did not do any 'real' stitching until Friday.  I spent Monday chasing my tale, Tuesday evening at James' school at an A-Level Options evening, Wednesday I was worn out, Thursday and Friday running about again.  I did a little on my Fairy Grandmother for a couple of hours during the whole week but at craft club on Friday Morning (no way was I missing that!!) I did some more on Charlie Bear SAL that Steph stephiesstitching and I are doing of a weekend.

Tell you something exciting .... go and look at Stephs blog (link above) and see her fab stitching and for those of you who do HAEDS you will be amazed!  Brilliant work :-)

Charlie so far ... this is what he looked like when I started stitching this afternoon.

Charlie at the start of session 25th Feb 2012

I plan to do some more on Charlie tomorrow and then spend every spare second working away at Fairy Grandmother in the week.  I forgot to take an updated photo of her so will do one and show her off ASAP!!

Lovely post today ... I ordered the rest of the the threads I needed for Universe in a Jar and they arrived today along with a Punch Needle kit!  I have never tried this at all so this will be something new to me.  I looked it up and it seems really easy to do, lets hope it is as easy as it looks!

rest of the threads for Universe in a Jar

Punch Needle kit and tool
(Can't wait to start!!)

I will post updated photos on Monday of Charlie and Fairy Grandmother and lets hope next week gives me a good run at stitching her as I cannot wait to see her progress.  I want to try and get her face completed next week when the kiddies are at school.  I can do her face 2 over 2  or 1 over 1 on the 32 count evenweave.  I am opting for 1 over 1 as the detail will be spectacular so i think i need full daylight and no distractions lol  oh and my glasses :-)

Have a great weekend folks, we what is left of it

Bye for now

Love Heather :-)

xxxxxxxx

What I have been up to the last week or so ...

Hello fellow bloggers and crafters

I hope you are all well.  This posting might be a little long but plenty of photos to look at, so that must mean I have been up to lots of mischief lol :-)

First of all I would love to show off a wonderful gift my 4 year old and I got of a very good friend of ours ... a crotched flower for our coats.  mine was meant to be the yellow and any daughters the cream but Katie liked the yellow one (probably because she knew it was mine lol)  so we swapped.  we just love these flowers and we wear them with pride.

Mine and Katie's flowers ... just beautiful

I made lovely hangers for 2 of the ladies at the craft club I got to on a Friday morning.  One of the ladies was the one who made the flowers for Katie and I.  Both of them where totally delighted with their gifts!  This was the first time I had attached tassels so I was delighted and I think they look fantastic. Lets hope the weather improves and we get to see some lovely blooms very soon .... roll on Spring!

For 2 'Blooming' crafty ladies 

I have made good progress on my Charlie Bear SAL.  Its going to a long SAL but a very enjoyable SAL with Steph who writes stephiesstitching.blogspot.com

Charlie SAL as at the end of 5th Feb 2012

I have been busy working through my WIP's and this is another one I have been working on. It is called 'Gone Fishing' and the kit is a Heritage Crafts kit from the Silhouette series.  I think its going to look fantastic when finished.

Gone Fishing

As I said in a post a while ago I have taken up Latch Hooking.  I got a small kit from Hobbycraft back in October.  Its is meant to be a rug kit but I would call it more a place mat as it is tiny lol!  Its a great size to start off with as it was only a few pounds and I would rather have spent a few pounds having a practise and making a mess than buying a fantastic large kit and not enjoy latch hook rug making.  I can say that I love every minute of it but have to do it when my youngest daughter is not about as she likes the wool and runs away with it!!  

Umbrella and Hearts latch Hook 'rug' 

Other news

My friend Jan and I are doing a 'Valentines' Friendship Exchange, so I have stitched and made up her gift but I cannot show it to you all just yet ... you will have to wait until she has opened it!!

I have done about 400 stitches on my HAED Fireside Fairytales.  Its not much but its 400 stitches more than I had last week :-)

Fairy Grandmother has also had a few extra stitches put on her.  I must take photos of both of them.  

Happy Stitching and crafting everyone

xxxxxxx

My HAED Fireside Fairytales update

I have noticed a few have asked for an up to date picture of my HAED.
I have not stitched on it since November 2011 so this is how it looks at the moment ...

Page one completed and the little 'smudge' of black
in the top right is the start of page two

I have a little more done on Marks Pirate so should be on my target of finishing next week :-)

Happy crafting all xxxx

Last weeks stitching

Good Morning Bloggers,

I must say a huge thank you to you all for joining in the Giveaway (posted on my blog Thursday 5th Jan 2012) and to you all for re-posting on your on blogs.  A big thank you too to all the new followers my blog now has.  I am totally delighted!! :-)

The last week I have been busy stitching on the Charlie Bear SAL with Steph.  We are stitching him as and when we can Fridays to Sundays. He really is going to be a pleasure to stitch.  Here is a progress picture of last weekends SAL on my piece.  Take a look at Steph's progress on her blog stephies stitching

Charlie Bear Alphabet SAL at the end of 8 Jan 2012

I have spent most of my time stitching Marks Pirate for him.  I hope to finish the main picture by Tuesday.  I will carry on stitching this today and then put it away for the Charlie Bear SAL over the weekend.  The plan then will be to stitch more on Conor's Penguin to have a breakfrom the 'brown' of the boarder.  I am half way through the first Penguin.  The second Penguin is slightly smaller.  With luck and sheer stubbornness I hope to have both pieces near enough done by the next weekend!!  Fingers crossed lol (please excuse the quality of some of the photos, my camera is not my friend today)  

Marks Pirate picture as at 11.20am 12 Jan 2012

Conor's Penguin as 12 Jan 2012

I feel quite mean with the pieces I am stitching as the Horse picture for Katie was massive but I am stitching what they have chosen and they haven't complained!!  Link to Katie's Horse photo on blog

I must choose some thing for my wee darling Cara who is nearly 19 months old. I have the idea, like the other Children did, of letting her choose her own kit or chart from my stash but I do have the worry that she will just run off with the lot :-) ... Not such a good plan I don't think!! I will have to think of something nice for her.  My eldest son has been hinting at a Lion kit I brought home last Summer .... now can I squeeze another piece in :-P

Once I have finished the 2 pieces for the younger boys I will carry on with Fairy Grandmother for me and rotate between the HAED Fireside Fairytales and start HAED Universe In A Jar.  Once I have Fairy Grandmother completed I will work through a few of my WIP's or if I fancy a quick simple stitch I will do my WIP's.  So long as I have the boys pieces finished and my goal for both the HAED stitches complete by the end of the year I will be a happy bunny.  My stitching goals for 2012 blog page

Fairy Grandmother as 12 Jan 12

Looking forward to Craft Club again tomorrow morning!  Probably wont get much stitching done whilst there but we have a laugh and over dose on coffee lol

Hope you have enjoyed reading my post and I will catch up with you all very soon.

Happy Stitching and crafting everyone

Love me xxxxx

News, Stitching and Stuff

Good Morning to you all!  I hope you are all in the festive spirit.  Last weekend myself and 7 kiddies put up some of the Christmas decorations and the Christmas tree!!  We had great fun :-)

I bought a new tree this year which already had the light on it, how lazy am I? lol

Our Christmas Tree

I am totally delight because a couple of the mums  from my kiddies Primary School and myself are setting up a Craft Club which will run every Friday Morning at the kiddies school.  I am so exited, it will be so nice being able to sit and craft, chat, drink coffee and eat cake with some lovely people!! We take our own crafting stuff with us so needless to say I will be taking my stitching with me.  You never know I might even convert a few to stitching and I hope to learn a few new crafts myself!

Finally my stitching over the last week or so!!  I have done a few things for Christmas, which I need to make something out of them before Christmas has come and gone ... which it tends to do in the blink of an eye lol

I have stitched 2 of the LHN ornies again for presents, plus a few other things.  I have stitched a little bit more on my Fairy Grandmother and Mark's Pirate stitching.

Christmas Stitching

Fairy Grandmother

Pirates Life for my son Mark

Catch Up Time

Hello followers,

Hope I find you all well and crafting away.  It has been such a long time since I blogged but I am back.

My stitchy bug seemed to have ran off for a good few months but it is back and catching up will all I missed out on :-)

I have actually finished the page on my Heaven and Earth design Fireside Fairytales so I am delighted with myself.  I aim to get at least half way down the second page by he New Year .... start 2012 with a bang lol

I have stitched a few Christmas presents but I wont be able to show them until after Christmas .... don't want any surprises spoiling.  Also completed is a Birthday present for my friend Gail.  Her birthday is tomorrow so I will post a photo in the morning or once she has opened her gift!  I love it and think I will be stitching a few more for me and other friends.

Page 1 of HAED completed
and page 2 started

In between Fireside Fairytales I have started Lavender and Lace Fairy Grandmother which is to Me from Me as my Christmas present!!  I have had this chart in my stash for a very long time and wished to stitch it as a reminder of my lovely Grandma xxxx  I have made a little start but hey its a start ha ha ha!!

Chart Picture of L & L Fairy Grandmother

My little start on Fairy Grandmother.
This part is the top of her wing

Next on my list of new starts is Pirate's Life by CCN for kids.  This is for my son Mark.  I promised way back in September that I would start it and because of a few mishaps and 'road bumps' in my personal life I never got it started.  This is what i got done yesterday but I have done more this evening so will post an upto date photo tomorrow.

Chart Picture of what I am stitching for Mark
A Pirates Life

Stitching as at 22 Nov 11

I think for the moment this is all!

I will say that I am glad to be back once and for all and that my 'road bumps' can either go away and give me peace or be ignored!!

Bye for now, Happy Stitching and keep safe and well as the weather gets colder.

Number of hours stitched - UPDATED

On our Openminders forum Ruth set a challenge for the number of hours stitched from Friday - Sunday.  I love this challenge :-)

Saturday- Sunday I plan to spend doing my Heaven and Earth design because I have not touched it since last year :-(

Friday I spent 9 hours finishing some Birthday gifts for the April Birthday People on Openminders.

I cannot show photos until Birthday dates!  Don't want the birthday people to peek!

Starting soon, as I am using my laptop before my eldest son pinches my laptop as his has broken, I aim to spend every minute I can stitching Fireside Fairytales.

Saturday - 8 hours on HAED.  There was a lot of colour changes so it really does not look like 8 hours at all!  I think I was out of 'tune' with it!  So I think I need a few more good stitching sessions to get myself back into the swing of it.

Sunday - another 8 hours.  I did 5 hours on HAED and  the rest on other projects plus I started the second horse for Katie so she is delighted!

Heaven and Earth Fireside Fairytales By Randal Spangler

As at the end of 19th March

Fireside Fairytales as at 11 January 2011

The story so far ...

I wonder how many stitches I now have .... I must count .... 1,2,3 ROFL

There are 12 boxes complete and each box has 400 stitches in so that makes 4,800 stitches.

In the incomplete boxes, at a rough guess, there is about 200 stitches in total.  

This make an approximate whopping 5,000 stitches so far!!  Wow weeeeeeee :-)

Fireside Fairytales at the end of 29th December

Just over 4,400 stitches stitched... oh wow!!

I had a wonderful day of stitching yesterday!  I am now well over half way down the first page and i am delighted!  I am hoping that by the end of the first week of January I will have completed all of page 1 and getting ready to start page 2!  I wonder if that will happen!!

If I don't see you before, Happy New year and Happy stitching to you all xxxx

Fireside Fairytales as at 26 December 2010

I hope to get another row done by the end of the week!!

Fireside Fairytales

This design is by artist Randal Spangler.  This fabulous piece of artwork has been converted into a Heaven and Earth Design (HAED).

There are 256,050 stitches in total in the design!

Fireside Fairytales will be the biggest project I have ever taken on.  Not only with size but also the fact that the design is to be stitched on 25 count evenweave.  I have a smaller piece of fabric so i will practise first before putting needle to fabric on the 'real thing'.