Oh so slowly ...

I did a little work on my HAED Bulletin Board QS SAL - Terra Fairy Sprite. I love the picture, but stitching this piece just seems to take FOREVER. I'm still not done page one ... and pages 2, 3 and 4 are already sent out!

But anyways ... here she is:

More Stash .. Oops!

I have been very good and haven't bought any stash in several months for any of my crafty hobbies. I was bad today ... oops.

Wandering around Wal-mart and Michael's means that I am bound to purchase something, or in this instance, several somethings to add to my card-making stash!

Everyone needs more tools right? Scissors and punches, just what I needed!

I'm addicted to buying new stamps. I just can't seem to get enough! Today's was a substantial acquisition.

And who doesn't love a little embellishment? Seriously!

The worst part is that I'm staying with my parent's for a week, and am nowhere near the bulk of my stash. I am dying to get home and spend an afternoon (and evening) making some new and beautiful cards.

Moving Along Nicely!

I disappeared up into cottage country for a few days for a "work-cation." I desperately needed to focus and get some school work done (which I did), but I also managed to put in quite a few solid hours of stitching each evening.

The poppy is starting to POP!!

Just wait till I get some of the shading in there!! I'm so looking forward to seeing how well the detail and depth of colour stitches up. But before I get all caught up in the craziness of confetti stitching -- I'm going to work on the huge colour blocks of blue up at the top.

So close to a page finish!

I am basically finished page 1 of Drama Queen - there's just a tiny corner of confetti stitches left to be done. I wanted to get an update up before I went on holidays (again).

I've really started to see the brushstrokes come out in the 2nd half of this page. I love it! The confetti stitching is hellish, but the results are worth it.

My first IHSW

IHSW - International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.

I've wanted to join in on this for ages, but for some reason never got around to it (or I remembered after the weekend was over). Sign up is on Joyce's blog Random Ramblings and the directions are as follows:

IHSW takes place every 3rd weekend of each month, for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." You can stitch as much or as little as your time permits, on anything you like, and on Monday of the following week, we post a progress picture and check out each others' blogs.

I started on my Autumn Tree just before the weekend, so I spent most of my time working on that (see my previous post for a progress pic). But on Sunday I decided to switch over and do some work on my Drama Queen. I feel like I am so far behind schedule on this piece. It needs to be finished by next August so I have time to frame it before my Mom's 70th birthday in October 2012. There's 16 pages in the pattern and I only have 13 months to get it done. I'm not even finished page one yet. Small panic attack -- eek!

Anyway - back to IHSW! Before:

After:

LIke I need another new start ...

I recently returned from a 3 week vacation abroad, having taken along my HAED BB SAL QS Terra to stitch on (which I really don't enjoy THAT much), and I crazily decided once I got home that I needed a new start. All of the projects I have going at the moment - Home Sweet Home, Drama Queen, QS Terra - are all huge projects (56, 16, and 6 pages respectively). I needed a littler project where I could see a finish in the near future.

And so, I pulled out an already kitted up project - what I call Autumn Tree. If you are a long time reader, you might remember that about a year ago I stitched an Alessandra Adelaide tree for my brother as a family heirloom. Well, I'm now working on its little brother. I'm stitching the same tree pattern, but this time it is 1 over 1 on hand-dyed 28 ct Cashel linen (from Picture This Plus via my LNS) and the leaves on the tree will be orange and gold instead of green. As before, I'm back to using my beloved variegated Vicki Clayton HDF silks. They are beyond lovely to work with! I'm planning to make this my mom's Birthday or Christmas present, depending on when I finish it.

Without further ado, my start:

QS Terra Fairy - July Update

Finally made a bit of progress on my HAED Bulletin Board SAL. I'm still struggling through page one, and page 4 just got emailed out. Eek!

This will end up in my rotation during the next few months.

The First Poppy Update

I started this piece more than a month ago (on Mother's Day), but hadn't been able to put too much time into it because of my trip out East and my desire to finish my mandala. Once all of that was out of the way, I spent a solid week focusing on it. I'm now ready to reveal my progress to date:

It's not too interesting yet, as I'm still working on the blue background, but I can see/feel the brushstrokes beginning to take shape. I think the colours will make more sense once there's more to see. They look a little disjointed, but it's hard to see how they fit when they are only a few inches away from your face as you stitch. I have faith in the charting.

Success!! A finish!

I've been concentrating solely on this piece for the last few weeks. It has traveled all over the Maritimes with me. Progress was slow. Tons of counting and constant stopping and starting. I found this project exhausting. It'll be a while before I do another mandala.

All that being said, it looks lovely finished. I'm glad I decided not to do the black outline. It's softer, more organic this way.

A very late update on my T & E Mandala

I took pictures of my progress on the mandala several weeks ago, but I've been out of the province and haven't had a chance to post them.

And so ... here they are:

I am hell-bent on finishing this piece. It's just very slow going.