One more update on Lickle Teddy

Hi everyone,

So here I am again.... still stitching and still alive... :) And now it's official I've definitely been more active this month than in the past year (I only had 2 posts for 2013 :X) and I already have 10 for January alone :)

Anyway this isn't the topic of this post so move on and I'm really happy as I've finished the name on the sampler and I'm only 200 stitches away of completing all my realistic goals for January (not bad hein) and considering there are still 4 days to stitch (as I have counted the ones done today yet) I'm almost positive I'll make it :)

And because if you've been checking my previous post your probably curious about how the name turned up with the bling. I'll shut up now and move to the good part :)

The full name stitched

Close-up of the Capital E for the bling

and a really close-up of the capital E to show how the thread looks

Lickle Teddy - A bit Sleeping - 28.01.2014

And this final one is how it is at the moment as you can see I started stitching some more pink, that's going to be one of the teddy's foot.

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments :)
Happy Stitches
Sara

Progress Update on Lickle Teddy

Hi everyone,

I'm still here (Yayyy - haven't gone missing yet :)) and I've been stitching and today I finished the first colour on the birth sampler I'm making for my niece Lickle Teddy - A bit Sleeping.
And what does this means.... It means no more white to do and I can jump to somo colour (as I've actually done) at the top you can see the start on one letter. I must admit I did it even before I finished the white as I decided to do an experiment for the name and add some bling.
This is what I decided to do:

I have some really shinny gutermann that I want to use to replace the Kreinik on HAED (instead of Kreinik I use one thread of this + 1 thread of B5200 and I get the bling less the Kreinik hassle :) - win win situatuin) so I thought why not add it to the thread that goes for the name.... and so I did it...

And this was the result:

A couple of close-up piccies trying to show the bling (it's much prettier in real life)

And this is how it's looking now:

Lickle Teddy - 25/01/2013

(Sorry for the crappy light piccie - but the day wasn't that great for pictures) But in this one you can actually see all the antique white I've stitched.

So I've stitched 3099 out of 8100 stitches which makes 38.26% complete. Now I just have to stitch 12% more to complete both my realistic goals for January :)

Thanks for stopping by,
Happy Stitches

1st IHSW review

Hi everyone,

So as promised here is my update on my progress during IHSW, not as much as I would like but still I was able to put in 332 stitches on Lickle Teddy, so I guess it's better than nothing, considering that I had several other things to do for work that needed to be done by Monday 9.00am :).

And without further ado, here are the pictures of my progress, I'm also shareing the close-ups as it's hard to see the progress on the full piccies:

Before - 01.01.2014

Close up - 01.01.2014

After - 20.01.2014

Close up - After - 20.01.2014

Gorgeous Valentine's Give

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share that Nancy at Vittorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having a gorgeous giveaway for Vakentine's so if you want just click here to try your luck. And if you found it through me, please mention my name.

Hope you're all busy stitching :) I'll be posting again later with my IHSW result :)

Happy Stitches,

WIPocalypse

Hi everyone,

I apologize in advance for the long Post:

To help me be more active on blogland, this year I've decided to participate on WIPocalypse, and as I'm that commited I'm going to take part into the twist that Measi added, the discussion topic. So I'll start with the topic (as there is not much to share yet) and I'll go to the pictures after :)

And copy-pasted from Measi's blog: "This month’s topic is a proper one for the beginning of any adventure: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year."

So about me: My name is Sara, and although my nick sounds Chinese, it doesn't have anything to do with it (and I don't have a clue if it's a Chinese word, if your curious I can explain the silliness of it in a future post :)) I'm 28 years old, and I'm from Portugal, but I've been living in Ireland for the past 5 years with my other-half (who I dragged from Portugal - we've been toghether for 10 years now :) ) I've learned how to cross-stitch when I was 6 or 7 and one or two years after I learned how to crochet and knit, but my passion is cross-stitch, I've stopped stitching on my early teens because it was "uncool" and then I grew-up and decided I no longer cared about what others think I wanted to stitch because I enjoyed it, my first Big project (or I thought it was a big project at the time) was the three witches of Booville and I enjoyed stitching it so much that I didn't put the needle down anymore. Since then I've stitched a variety of projects; if I had to choose I would say HAEDs are my favourites and probably antique samplers the less favourites. But I stitch anything :) I have a bunch of projects on the go now (I'll introduce them through the pictures as they are all part of WIPocalypse) and it's actually one of my goals for this year to reduce the amount of WIPs, other goals I have set for this year are, posting more here and comment more on all your lovely blogs, be more active on the stitching groups I belong to, and non-stitch related go to the gym at least 4 days but the plan is go 5 days, and get my weight down at least 10Kg until Summer and 15/20Kg by the end of the year. So this is me :)

Now as per my WIP projects, I'll decided that I'll be showing a picture of the "before" and "after" so that I can keep a monthly visual record of my progress, and I'll remove the ones completed and showed on previous months. So with no further ado:

1 - Teddy Bear's Bars for Bed Linen

Before - as of 01.01.2014

After - finished on 14.01.2014

 2 - Lickle Teddy Bit Sleepy

Before - as of 01.01.2014

3 - No Words Needed

Before - as of 01.01.2014

4 - Dragon Fae I

Before - as of 01.01.2014

5 - QS Believe

Before - as of 01.01.2014

6 - QS Bookend Kitie

Before - as of 01.01.2014

7 - SK Treasures

Before - as of 01.01.2014

8 - Touch of Spring

Before - as of 01.01.2014

9 - British Scene

Before - as of 01.01.2014

10 - Culinary Cats

Before - as of 01.01.2014

 11 - Sweet Flower

Before - as of 01.01.2014

12 - Close up of a Pink Rose

Before - as of 01.01.2014

Funny just realized I have one project for each month :)

Thanks for stopping by,
Happy Stitches
Sara

First Finish of 2014

Hi everyone,

Yes it's true I've finished on project :) Which makes 2014 a year with more finishes than 2013 (that says enough about last year doesn't it?)
So anyway I've finished the bear bars as planned and the good bit is I don't have to finish-finish them, as they will be posted to my mum so that she can finish them into a bed linen for my niece/ her granddaughter.

This is what they looked liked on the 1st of January:

And this is how they look like now:
(I'll be asking my mum to take a picture of it when it's totally finished and I'll share it with you)

Now next project is the Lickle Teddy Bit Sleepy that I adjusted to be a birth sampler for my niece.
This is how it's going to look like (more or less):

And this is how it at the moment you can barely see any stitching on the piccie... but it already has 1527 stitches... all in DMC B5200 :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Happy Stitches

Sara

And because I was stitching

Here is a picture of my latest progress on the bears head bars.

Bear Head's Bars as of 11.01.2013

The one on the left is finished, and the one on the right as all the outlinings done, so I just need to rip the inside colours of the bottom bear and stitch the middle and bottom bear with the right colours. I guess that will be all done on Monday :) (fingers crossed)

Hope you're all having a nice weekend. I took a break from work to make this post and going back to the pile of invoices I need to check now :)

Happy stitches everyone
Sara

First Turttle Trot of The Year

Hi everyone,

I've started well, forgetting to post about Turttle Trot yesterday. But to tell you the truth I haven't stitched yet on any of the projects that I've planned for the Turttle Trot this year. So this post is going to be my reference post for the year with the 10 projects I've choosen and the stats I have about them at the moment so that by the end of the year I can show the before and after :)

In no specific order the 10 projects are:

1 - No Words Needed - HAED

Stitched 2 x1 - tent stitch
white 28ct evenweave
Started on: 11.10.2012

Total stitches:	208900		100%
Total done:	74640		35,73%
Total to do:	134260		64,27%

2 - Dragon Fae I - HAED

Stitched 1 x1 - tent stitch for background and full cross stitch for motif

white 25ct evenweave

Started on: 25.02.2011

Total stitches:	123600	100%
Total done:	10555	9%
Total to do:	113045	91%

3 - QS Believe - HAED

Stitched 2 x1 full cross stitch white 25ct evenweave

Colours converted to Anchor

Started on: 01.01.2011

Total stitches:	29250	100%
Total done:	12437	42,52%
Total to do:	16813	57,48%

4 - QS Bookend Kitties - HAED

Stitched 2 x1 tent stitch

white 25ct evenweave

Started on: 09.01.2012

Total stitches:	20449	100%
Total done:	10926	53%
Total to do:	9523	47%

5 -SK Treasures - HAED

Stitched 1 x1 full crosses

Very light pink 25ct evenweave (hand-dyed by me)

Started on: 17.06.2011

Total stitches:	27000	100%
Total done:	12035	45%
Total to do:	14965	55%

6 - Touch of Spring - HAED

Stitched 2 x 1 full crosses

White 18ct aida

Colours converted to Anchor

Started: 05/2011

Total stitches:	120000	100%
Total done:	39873	33%
Total to do:	80127	67%

7 - British scene - Anchor

Stitched 1 x 1- full cross stitch

white 18ct aida

Started: 10/01/2012

Total stitches:	6806	100%
Total done:	586	9%
Total to do:	6220	91%

8 - Culinary Cats - Margaret Sherry

Stitched 2 x 2- full cross stitch

white 28ct evenweave

Started: 09/12

Total stitches:	8341	100%
Total done:	324,5	4%
Total to do:	8016,5	96%

9 - Close up Pink Rose - Yiota Stitces

Stitched 1 x1- full cross stitch

white 18ct aida

Started: 13/01/2013

Total stitches:	22576	100%
Total done:	4134	18%
Total to do:	18442	82%

10 - Sweet Flower SAL - Angie

Stitched 1 x1- full cross stitch

White 28ct evenweave

Started 14/01/2013

Total stitches:	Unknown
Total done:	Unknown
Total to do:	Unknown

Monthly goals

Ok so after thinking of this for the past few days I thought that it might be easier for me if instead of a set rotation per month, I set the goals I want to acheive, and then I'll rotate between the projects I want to work on, that way if one project needs a bit more love for a while I can give it to him without feeling guilty for stealing time from another project eheheh. I'll be splitting my goals into two cathegories, the realistic and the dreamworld, so that in the event that I can reach my goals with plenty of time still to go, I can make some indent on the goals planned for the next month :)

So this month I want:

Realistic goals:
- Finish the teddy bear bars (the 2 vertical bars on the picture) - this means frog the inside colour of the bear heads at the bottom  and re-stitch them with the top colour and stitch the missing bear head that is going on the middle.

The before - as of 08.01.2014

- Reach 50% of the Lickle Teddy Sleeping - adjusted to be a Birth Sampler

Lickle Teddy Sleeping as of 08.01.2014
1527 of 6651 stitches done
19%

Dreamworld goal:
- Finish the Lickle Teddy Bear Sleeping
- Stitch 100 stitches on QS Believe

I'll leave you now with the reason why I'm stitching less...my Mojito :)
 I have to keep looking for the threads and make sure they are hidden to avoid this:

Moji stealing my scissor and thread

And of course... chewing the thread...

Thanks for stopping by
Happy Stitches,
Sara

My WIPs for the year

Hi everyone,

So as promised this are the WIPs I plan to actually stitch on. I hope to have several of them finished or close to a finish by the end of the year. And to help me out keeping with the blogging and reducing the WIPs amount I’ve decided to join some SALs for this year and that you can side on my sidebar:

 - IHSW [International Hermit and Stitch Weekend] where in each 3rd weekend of the month you just sit and stitch as much as you want.

- WIPocalypse – in each full moon you post the progress you have since the previous post.

- Turtle Trot – you pick ten Projects and on the 10th of each month you post a picture of any progress you’ve made on them.

And without further ado – the pictures of how the WIPs look like at the beginning of the year. I don’t plan to start anything new until I reduce the list to a maximum of 6 WIPs.

No Words Needed
1 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: To complete the current row and following row of pages









[Sorry for the sideway piccie]
Bars for my niece bed linen and pillowcase
Goal: to stitch the 2 missing bear heads on the centre of the pillow case bars by the end of the 2nd week of January.













Lickle Teddy Sleeping Customised to be my niece Birth Sampler, you can't see much because all the stitches in are white.
Goal: have it finished before I visit them in February.









Dragon Fae I
2 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: to complete the first row of pages

QS Believe
3 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: Finish it

QS Bookend Kittie
4 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: Finish it

[Sorry for the sideway piccie]
SK Treasure
5 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: finish it

Touch of Spring
6 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: Complete the middle Column

British Scene
7 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: Finish it

Cullinary Cats - Cookbook Cover
8 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: Finish it

Sweet Flower
9 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Finish it

Close up Pink Rose
10 of 10 for Turtle Trot
Goal: Have 50% done

Flower Tablecloth

Goal: Finish it.

And this is it for now.

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy Stitches

Sara 

New Year–New Me–New Resolutions

Hi everyone,

I know it’s been a really long time since I last posted here. But with the New Year one of my Resolutions was to come back to my blog, no matter what I’ll make some time to write and share with you my progresses on stitching and anything else that might happen along the way.

Of course that leads me to my second Resolution of actually making some time to stitch, or/and to knit (I’ve been getting acquainted with this one, since my mum started knitting some very cute clothes for my niece, her first granddaughter).

I might also share from time to time my progress on the gym, as I’m trying to get fit - it’s not a New Year’s Resolution because I’ve started some stage in June last year but my Resolution is to actually do more, and I’ve decided to go to 6 1hour classes a week that I really enjoy.

I’ll be taking pictures of all my WIPs until the end of the weekend, so that we can see how much I got done in a year, and I’m going to try a rotation system of 4 projects per month, 1 per week and see how it goes from there.

Hope you all had a Great Christmas and that this New Year brings you everything you wish for

 

Hugs,

Sara