Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with family, friends, food and stitching!

Stitch from Stash 2015A...and new stash...

Ok, I admit it, I like buying stuff.  I also like buying stuff in bulk.  Lots of stuff > stuff afterall.  It goes like this - I see something I like, decide I have to have it, then decide I have to buy lots of it.

For example I fell in love with Chatelaine Designs the other day so I bought the Knotgarden pattern.

Then naturally I had to buy the silks and beads to kit it out.

Most people would stop there.  But noooooooooooo not me.  I bought the chart for Watergarden as well!

Which has also been fully kitted with silks and beads.

However that is still not the end of it.  The lovely Naomi at Stitches and Spice also had the silks and some wonderful dyed linen available for Northern Expressions Twisted Rainbow Sampler.  So I bought those as well.

So after that expenditure (I REGRET NOTHING!!!) it seems like the perfect time to join the Stitch From Stash 2015A happening over at Epic Stitching.  In a nutshell this will challenge me to limit my spending to $25 a month (which I am counting in Australian dollars for ease, but excluding shipping as I live in the middle of no where with limited access to supplies).  It will be tough, but I must endure!!

There are only a few spaces left if you wished to join, otherwise you can follow along using the above link.

SALs & WIPs

Ok so I have signed up to 2 and a half SALs.  The previously posted HAP SAL (yay acronyms!) which can be found here - Crossed Stitches: New Year SAL.  I've signed up to it as all but one of my WIPs or charts I am yet to start are all over 300 stitches so it seems like the perfect way to stay focused on them.

The second is the Glendon Place Dessert SAL happening at xStitchHaven.  These patterns are amazing and I would eventually love to stitch them all however I am going with Plum Pudding for the SAL which looks like:

I'm also going to use the recommended Dinky Dyes silks to stitch it.  I am yet to stitch with silks so I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew!

Finally the half SAL is Papillon's Around the World in 80 Stitches.  Technically it has finished, however late joiners were still encouraged so I took the plunge.  It's a beautiful project but I am finding the specialty stitches very daunting!

I've started with the easy stuff first - cross stitch and lazy daisies!  The fabric is 28 count Quaker Cloth.

Also as promised, here is the Mario World WIP:

This is probably the HAP I will use for the Crossed Stitches SAL given I am only about 10% done and it's a massive 520w x 212h!

Crossed Stitches: New Year SAL

As all my current and planned projects are pretty much the definition of huge...

Crossed Stitches: New Year SAL

It Begins...

Well after blog lurking for over a year I have finally decided to start my own!

Mainly it will focus on cross stitch projects, but will probably feature my patchwork and dressmaking projects as well.

I'm still a bit of a novice at both time wise as I have only been sewing for four years and stitching for a few months.  The things I work on though aren't what anyone would call novice though - my first (and still ongoing) attempt at stitching is the Super Mario World map (yes I'm also a geek) which is 520 x 512 stitches...

If you aren't sure what I'm talking about here is a picture -

So far I have only completed one of the twenty pages to the pattern hahaha!  I shall post a picture once I take a decent one.

Otherwise I am about to start Heaven & Earth Designs (HAED) "Cup Kitty" because I'm a bit of a crazy cat lady.

The pattern can be purchased here

I will also be joining a SAL or two because One can never have too many projects!