Goodbye January

My goodness, it's the end of January, how did that even happen?! So far this year I have:

• Worked on two WIPocalypse pieces (The Lookout and The Witching Hour)
• Started three new stitches (all smalls)
• Worked on six projects all up
• Had one finish (but it's a secret!)

Not too bad. I would've liked to stitch more on The Lookout, but it's been way too hot for serious stitching. I swear, as soon as it gets above 35C/95F I loose all mental capacity.

Ha, I'm sorry, I'm not a very good stitching blogger at the moment. I can't even show you pictures! :P

In the bin

I've given up on my new secret project start. The chart was just... bleh. If you want me to do over one backstitch, please make the backstitch lines different to the chart lines. *grrr* I also really didn't like the focus beads supplied. And I think I was in a huff in general, due to the heat. So the project is shelved.

Which is interesting, because I've had it for years and it's been in and out of my 'to sell' pile for a while.

So.. I'm stitching something else with the fabric, floss and some of the beads and I'm much happier. Still can't show you though. :P

So here's a photo from the archives. I finished this early this year and I'm contempating putting it in a show this weekend, if I can manage the iron the creases out of this rather stubborn linen.

Stitch from Stash January

It's time for the first Stitch from Stash report! I can happily say that I haven't spent a single cent on stash this month. (No thanks to you, favourite ONS that's clearing out Dinky Dyes cottons at half price... why do you tempt me?!)

I showed you my two big WIPs for this month last post, so here's the littlies from my stash I've been stitching on. I haven't made any progress this week on my big WIPs either, thanks to the heatwave. Five days straight over 40C/104F? Bleh! I couldn't bare to sit under my LED stitching lamp in that heat.


Funky Owl kit from Cross Stitcher

I like this kit and made a bit of progress this week, but it was so hot the soluble plastic canvas was weakening in my hands cause I was sweating so much. Yay.


Yellow-faced Angelfish

Now this really is stitching from stash. I bought three in this set in... 2006? I stitched the second one in 2008(?) and the first one before that. When I finish this one I'm going to turn them into a wall hanging.

And finally...


Mystery stitch! This one is a secret. :P

So for Stitch From Stash I've started two projects from stash and stitched on three WIPs. Not bad at all.

How's everyone else coping with the heat/cold?

It's a full moon! (Again!)

Haha! Here's my first WIPocalypse post for 2014. I'm only working on four WIPs for this challenge, but I managed to stitch on two of them this month. As I mentioned in my last post I finished by first page on The Witching Hour HAED. So great progress there. I also put a bit of time in on The Lookout.



I've made really good progress on these guys too, stitching the half a 'kat you can see on the right. I started using a stitching lamp/magnifier/chart holder when I was working on my HAED and now I can't seem to stitch without it! Combine that with my new 'no turning' method for starting and ending threads and my needle now zooms along. I'm so chuffed with how The Lookout is going. My half-hearted goal of finishing it this year seems almost possible.

Now for the WIPocalypse introduction. I've already outlined my projects here. As you can see I tend to stitch realistic animal patterns; it's something I just adore. I also enjoy stitching smalls like ornaments, biscornus, scissor fobs... But my real love is animals. :)

I stitch on both Aida and evenweave, but can't stand linen. I love opalescent and hand dyed fabric and thread.

My goals for this year are

• finish The Lookout
• get some nice progress done on The Witching Hour
• finish a page of Autumn Dragon
• potentially finish Northwind Owl.

I'm ahead of the curve here (damn you Australia and your proximity to the international date line) and I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone else's WIPocalypse posts. :)

It's a full moon!

I finished the first page of my first ever HAED. I feel like such a stitching master (even though I'm no such thing. :P) I'm blown away by how the colours are used. Black + grey + brown = windowframe, but then the same combo of colours is a cloud! And then the sky! Until now I've never understood why people were so impressed with the charting of HAEDs. And now I totally get it. I'm so looking forward to starting page two (which will in fact be page five, as I'm working downwards).

 
 Anyone else had some HAED successes this year?

Red walk

I haven't had much time to stitch lately. I'm not especially busy, I just lost my routine and things keep piling up (like dishes, cleaning... everything).

But I did go for quite a nice walk the other day on Red Hill. It's called Red Hill because, well...

It's a red hill.



Very red.




I saw a few birds, a blue tongue lizard and these lovely fellas.



I hope to get some stitching done tonight, so look out for a progress pic soon! :)

First challenge

What should arrive in my mailbox today but the Fox Collection catalogue. Temptation! Can my newly forged Stitch from Stash resolve resist this glossy-paged enticement?



Luckily, my little girl Watson whispered an idea in my ear. The catalogue was shreded to gaily coloured strips and playtime commenced. :D

Take it from the top...

It's January again, how did that happen? I swear it was like August just last week. Welcome everyone to 2014! I have a rotation listed over at Rotation Stitchers. My focus WIP for this month is The Witching Hour. This will also be my WIPocalypse project for Jan.



I also plan to have a few small projects on the go for couch stitching, travel, stuff like that. At the moment I have Funky Felt Owl, a kit from CrossStitcher number mumbledysomething.



And I plan to start the last finish in a tryptic I've been working on for... oh, years. I'm actually a little reluctant to start this, because I plan to finish it as a wall hanging. Buying fabric for this will put quite a dent into my Stitch from Stash budget. But avoiding stitching it is silly, because this is is stash!



What's everyone stitching on in the New Year?