Tuesday 5 April 2011

OMG HOLEY OF HOLES!!!

My heart is heavy as I write this. As my previous entry I mentioned that I had to frog approx 600 stitches on Fragile Heart. Well I completely and utterly screwed up. I had managed to frog about 450 stitches when I got a tad impatient and started to snip. And yes you guessed it I managed to snip a massive hole in the fabric.

So after many tears and glasses of wine and a phone call to my mummy I googled fix its for holes. I tried glueing , weaving excess fibers from the edge and crossed my fingers. The next day when the glue dried I tried to stitch through it and.....sob, cry, throw things, stamp foot,  it didn't work. Now the poor fragile hearter looks like she had a bad nose job done by a backyard quack.

So today I drove out to my local craft shop bought some black dye and will have to (wail wail more sobbing) RESTART!! I decided to stick to 22ct hardanger but will try it on dark/black fabric so it will kinda feel like a new start on a new project and not a (gulp) restart. I'm hoping all that vibrant pink will just pop on a black fabric. Had to dye it as I have over 2 metres of the stuff and no one sells black 22ct fabric anywhere!!!!

Very very sad Princess this week .

So no progress on this weeks HAED Freebie SAL in fact I'm 2 pages behind now. All good I think I will buy another chart or two from the HAED sale to cheer myself up.

There feeling better already!

I hope everyone else is having a much better crafty time this week than me. Love u all!

Alicia xo

Sunday 3 April 2011

A gift for Princess and some Wips

Wow can't believe it's been 2 weeks. Time can really fly and it's hard to ascertain what exactly I've been up to that I haven't blogged for 2 weeks. Well it hasn't been stitching unfortunately. The only real stitching I've managed to get done has been whilst at work. Love that paid employment that allows you to stitch as well as servicing the community. Ooh that sounds a little suspect but its really above board. Just ask Mrs. Dibble.

I worked on Spring to Life mainly because it coincided with the HAED SAL theme of Seasons but also because I love all the colours. I will have to put her down for this week as it's the Freebie SAL week and I really haven't done as much on Fragile Heart as I would have liked. And sob sob I'm about to sit down and do a bit of frogging on her. Due to a batch colour discrepancy for the skin I really couldn't let it go. I wish I hadn't stitched as much before deciding the colour lot was too different. So sadly I have to frog about 600 stitches otherwise she looks like she has a dirty nose. Oh well I am armed with a bottle of Tempus Two chardonnay and the house to myself. Which is a good thing as no one likes the sound of a Princess crying.

Probably the highlight of the week was meeting up with my parents in Fingal Bay and taking the brand new car for it's first long drive. She held up beautifully and I was even more proud that I didn't smoke at all whilst driving. Yay Princess!!

Also I here is a picture of my new bobbins chest. I thought I was well overdue for a present to myself so I indulged in a wooden bobbin chest. It's so beautiful. It will (eventually) hold the bobbins that I have finished with when a project has been completed. So will be empty for a bit LOL!! Hopefully the bobbins from Faces of Faery 88 will be it's first guests in June. It holds 450 bobbins...sweeetttt!



I managed to get 2000 stitches put into Spring to Life for the week so happy at least about that. Which means I'm very near to completing page 4. Can I hear another YAY!  Also managed to finish all the confetti stitches on faeries left eye and now she has 2 eyebrows...I think another "oh yeah!!" for that achievement.


Spring to Life - working on Page 4
But back to another Hannah Lynn for the week. Here's a photo of her pre frog, can you see the difference in the colour. Hint it's the last column down her face. It probably doesn't look so bad in the photo but in reality it's just too noticeable for my liking. And though at times I cut corners essentially I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my cross stitching and I can't let it go. Plus she is too beautiful to let her down now!! That baleful eye stares out at me and the guilt sets in. So I will do her the honour of fixing her makeup afterall next to cross stitch makeup is another obsession of mine, which is how I got the nickname of Princess at work in the first place.

SOB SOB

Faces of Faery 88
Once I have finished FOF 88 I will definitely get back to my rotation. I got caught up with the HAED SAL's and abandoned it. But this means that I only work on HAED's. Though I love them, I truly adore and miss my other projects namely my Scarlet Quince project - Medea, which is a woman that poisoned her treacherous lover (what is there not to love about that???) and my Golden Kite project - Coign of Vantage. These projects involve alot of blended colours which is 2 strands of 2 different colours for one stitch and that provides a level of challenge that HAED doesn't. One day I will purchase the Coign of Vantage offered by HAED and complete it as well. Just as an experiment to see whether blending works better than the use of just solid colours. Why you may ask well the answer is in my profile. I am a lunatic. But hopefully in a good way! LOL!

Happy stitching everyone and enjoy everything you do this week.
xoxo Alicia

My quote for the week is :


I wish I was a glow worm,
A glow worm's never glum.
'Cos how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum!
~Author Unknown