Page finish, woohoo!

As is often the case, the title says it all, I have a page finish on Apocalypse Princesses, and this makes me happy. Jasmine has eyes and I'm just quite excited by how it's coming out. As I've said many times before, it's when I look at the photo that I see it coming together, it stops being lots of little pixels and I can actually see her eyes now!

The plans was that I would now move onto the Birth Sampler I'm working on, get that finished then move onto Madame, so I got the Birth Sampler out, managed about an hour on that but Madame started screaming, so I'm now working on her. The sampler is out as well, so I reckon I'm pretty safe to get it sorted, but with so many lovely Tilton charts in the offing I just couldn't resist! Happy stitching all!

Nearing a page finish!

No progress on the new starts to show this week I'm afraid, but I am making plans. As I was close to a page finish on the beautiful Apocalypse Princesses it made sense to go back to this, and I think I've only got one week left to hit my page finish. All there is to do is finish off her face then the rest of the background, and there's only one colour in the background so hopefully I can potter through the mindless stitching this week.

After that I've got a present to finish, Animal Fayre, which I have been vaguely working on but always forget to post because I never have it out at home, it always goes to craft group with me instead. After that my plan is to get back to all my lovely new starts that I showed my initial progress of last week. I'm very excited about showing some actual shape and colour in all of them, as I'm aware that all of last weeks pictures were a bit grey and shmush.

In fact, even as I type that I've just realised that I only actually posted two of my pictures last week, so here are the second two.

So, here are my other starts. Firstly I have Le Pas Du Sucre, which is probably the one I got the most progress on last weekend. I'm tenting over 28 count, which is probably why I got the most progress on this one. I was surprised by this page, the colours in this are really vibrant, so I didn't expect that I'd be working in black and navy, but I'm sure that it'll get brighter as I move further in to the centre.

Secondly I have Our Seasons, again a lovely colourful chart, but I started in the colour where everything was dark. This one is a major confetti fest, so I suspect that progress will be pretty slow. But again, I'm tenting on 28 count, so that does mean that my progress is faster than when I'm doing full crosses on 25 count. Wish me luck. I now have so many WIPs that I struggle to work on every one in a year. There's a chance that I have a problem. Especially as I'm waiting on two other charts to be released so that I can start them as well.

My name is Kim and I am a Start-aholic!

Did someone say new start?

 The titles says it all really, some fool (okay, that may have been me) suggested a new start SAL on the Tilton page on facebook, and as it was my stupid suggestion I was punished with being told I had to more than one start... but first things first, here's my progress on Apocalypse Princesses, Jasmine is coming together, you can see her face now. give it another couple of weeks and I might actually be able to say I've got a page finish. All I've got left if the confetti on her face, all the background is the same colour, so I can enjoy mindless stitching once her face is done.

 Secondly I have my first Tilton new start, In Her Room by Yuu. It doesn't look like much I know, in fact from the photo you can't really see anything other than the black, however the bottom left was some which stitching and some shading between the white and black. There's so much that I love about this design, the fact that it's a day and a life all at once. I know it's been done before but I still like the metaphor. However I'm also aware that at the moment it looks like neither a day nor a life, but it will, and it's lovely!

Secondly (although I actually started this one first) is Madame by Victoria Frances. She's a little creepy, but I really like her. Again, I'm aware that she doesn't look like a she at the moment, never mind a she, but she is lovely. I really enjoyed working on this one, and she doesn't look like she'll be too confetti heavy, because the chart is mostly shades of grey there aren't as many colours as you normally get in charts of this size.

There are two more starts planned over the course of today, one already started and one to be (see, four was my punishment), but I don't have photos of either of those, so they will probably appear in here next week.

Happy stitching all.

Finally!

I've finally finished the sword hilt, there was so much confetti, I don't even want to admit to what the back of that bit looks like, and I don't normally care what the back of mine looks like, because you don't see it, but even by my standard, it's dreadful!

Loving working on this, after a couple of weeks of fighting through that bit I'm suddenly seeing progress again. I picked up a block of colour again (the pale blue of her headdress) suddenly it's moving forward!

Hoping to have a productive stitching week next week, so hopefully I'll actually have progress to show over the next couple of weeks. I may have also been responsible for a Tilton Crafts new start Stitch Along next weekend so I'll be starting something new next weekend, in fact as it's my fault that people are doing this I'm getting pressured to start several as punishment for putting such an awful idea in to people's heads. I've definitely got two in mind, and there are another two that I'm umming and ahhing over, so next weekend could be very dangerous for me!

If you haven't checked out Shelley's beautiful charts at Tilton Crafts then I suggest you pop over by the way, she's got some amazing artists licensed, including Victoria Frances, so have a browse, there are lots of different styles, something for everyone!

Oh dear, startitus

There was a new start challenge on facebook this weekend and I couldn't resist, so I've got lots of pics to show this week, but there isn't much to show on them. Firstly is the continuation of Apocalypse Princesses, I still haven't managed to finish the sword hilt, but I am getting there, and I'm filling in other bits of confetti as I go along as well!

Secondly this is my first new start, this is the 2014 Cloudsfactory SAL, and it will be beautiful. They recommend working on 16 count, but I'm working on 28 count because I had some pretty fabric and it would only fit on it if I worked over one on 28. I love how delicate it's coming out though, and the sparkle is rather pretty! 

And finally, if you can guess what this is I'll be really impressed, although I have added a pic to the WIP bar, so it shouldn't be that difficult, this is the very beginning of Elsa from Tilton crafts, she's so pretty!

A bit of background

I still haven't managed to finish the sword handle, but working on a bit of background means that I do at least have a bit of progress to show this week. I think my progress will slow for the next couple of weeks... we're busy and short staffed at the moment, so it could cut into my free time a wee bit.

Happy stitching all

My first IHSW this year

Least ways it feels like my first International Hermit and Stitch Weekend this year. This  year is whistling past and I don't seem to have had many free weekends somehow, and practically never at the right time.

Anyway, Apocalypse Princesses have come out to play, I didn't achieve as much as I'd like, but at least you can vaguely see what it is. I was hoping to finish the sword hilt (bottom left) this weekend, but obviously that didn't happen, but at least you can kinda make out Jasmine's head.

We were at a little comicon this weekend with friends, and have been invited to a larger one in Cardiff later in the year. The temptation to try and Cosplay one of these princesses is much more than it should be!

Happy stitching all!

What you have created, if it has a name, is some green!

I sometimes think that the only reason I start with the green is because I like using that name! Here is my start of Tale of the Red Swans by Aimee Stewart (charted by HAED). It's a beautiful chart, although I admit that at the moment it doesn't look like much of a beautiful chart. I'm part of a group on facebook that Aimee is also a part of, and when I mentioned that I was thinking of starting this she said she wanted to see this stitched us because it had meaning to her so I simply couldn't pass up this start! It is gorgeous, and I'm really looking forward to seeing this grow, although my target for this project this year isn't that ambitious. My target is one page, but the page I started on is a tiny partial page, so I've decided to do three partial pages for my target instead! 

Secondly, this has technically already been posted, this is where I finished Apocalypse Princesses at the end of last year, but because it was only posted as part of my progress in 2014 I decided to re-post it here as well. I've deliberately left that funny triangle without stitching at the moment, it's all the same colour so I decided to wait until the next page, where there's also a lot of that colour so I can stitch straight across and hopefully avoid getting lines between my pages. This suddenly came together at the end of the page, and I was so excited to see the top of Mulan's head suddenly appear, especially as it was all pretty confetti heavy, so it was driving me a little potty towards the end.

I'm hoping to have quite a good stitching January and get myself off to a good start for all my targets. I've got an extra day off next week, I lieu day coming a couple of weeks after that and a weeks holiday the week after that, our holiday year runs to the end of February so we're all frantically using our holiday up. For some of these days Ben's either working or away, so I'm really hoping to have a bit of a stitch-athon, definitely get Red Swans target finished and hopefully make a decent dent into another target as well. Anf I've got a crotchet lesson booked, so I'm hoping that start towards my learning to make Granny Squares target as well!

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you're all feeling as positive about 2014 and your targets / resolutions and this post seems to sound!

Final update of the year!

Here it is, my final update of the year, Apocalypse Princess', which I'm still loving, and it's suddenly looking much more logical after I looked at this picture than it has done the last few days looking at my stitching!

I'm hoping to get this page finished by the end of the year (mainly because I have another SAL starting in the New Year), and yesterday was the first time that I thought I might actually achieve it!

Coming to the end of the year

Greetings all, firstly an apology for my appalling photography this week... the trouble is I leave for work in the dark, come home in the dark (I'm sure I'm not the only one) so I never have any natural light to take pictures in!

Anyway, here is my latest update of Apocalypse Princesses... I know it doesn't look like much, much I'm working on some of this little white spots! My intention is get this page finished by the end of the year so that I can start a new project in the New Year for the Aimee Stewart SAL (can't wait, I accidently got two lined up)! 

And here's an update on a project that hasn't seen the light of day in quite some time. Dwarven Leader, artwork by Jankolas, charted by Paine Free charts (art work now retired)! The lovely Kim has been encouraging us all to work on our Tolkien themed works by putting a day aside each month for us to work.

 

Hopefully some time in the next week or so I'll be able to put up my New Year targets and sort out how badly I've done with all of this years targets.

 

And finally, Merry Christmas!

A little bit of colour

A little update on Apocalypse Princesses by Paine Free Crafts/Tess Fowler, and I'm absolutely loving working on this, I just wish that I had more time to, because it's such fun! You can almost, almost, see her hand taking shape! Hopefully I'll get some time this week and will be able to get another progress pic in before the Christmas madness kicks in.

And the fact that I'm mentioning Christmas madness also means that it's approaching that time again. The time of year where I start evaluating last years targets (mostly I completely failed) and considering next years.

 

Happy stitching all!