Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a great Christmas!  We've had a lovely time but it's gone so quickly, I can hardly believe it's New Years Eve.  For the first time in years I am not working tonight and can stay up stitching until midnight!  I do have to work tomorrow though - boo! 

I have enjoyed reading everyone's reviews of their stitching this year and am amazed at the number of starts some of you had and are planning next year.  I finished lots of smalls this year for card challenges and a few bigger projects too - my reindeer, Pretty Little Hong Kong and my first HAED Forest Walk.  None of these have yet been framed or finished finished so that is one of my goals for 2016.

The reindeer is going to be a cushion by next Christmas and the other two need framing.

Bamboo Fan is still a WIP but I have made a lot of progress, I'm more than half way with the stitching.

I would like to get this finished by the end of the year.

And my final goal for 2016 is Treasure Hunt Bookshelf by HAED.  I wasn't going to start it until January 1st but it has been calling me so I decided to start it on my son's birthday just before Christmas as it will be an easy date to remember.  I've worked out that there are 282,500 stitches in it and if I did 500 a day it will take less than 2 years.  Of course I won't actually be able to achieve 500 every day but I reckon if I make some steady progress I could do the whole thing in 2 years or thereabouts.  So my goal for 2016 is to be half way through by the end of the year.  I have even figured out how to add a progress bar to my blog to keep track of how I'm doing.

So far so good, as of last night I was at about 6100 stitches on day 11 so am actually 600 stitches ahead of schedule.  I'm stitching it on 25 count magic guide evenweave 1 over 1 using the recommended threads.  I decided having done 2 over 1 on Forest Walk that it was too hard to get the needle through in the confetti heavy areas.  1 over 1 has been much easier and the coverage is fine.  At the moment I'm stitching this on my small snap frame and will move it to my bigger one when I need to but I'm not sure what to do when it gets too big for that.  I'm worried that when the snaps are covering the stitching that the stitches will be squashed and spoilt. How does everyone else manage these enormous pieces?

Thanks for visiting my blog this year, wishing you all a very happy 2016.

Christmas Cross Stitch

We got the Christmas decorations out at the weekend so I thought I would share some of my past finishes that only see the light of day at this time of year!

First is my Gold Collection wintery village scene, sorry about the flash!  It has sequins on the tree and in a couple of other places but you can't really see them in this picture.

 A couple of coasters that I made so many years ago I have no idea where the patterns came from!

 Our stockings are hung in anticipation!  These are Gold Collection kits, I made the middle one first for our son and loved it so much I made one for myself.  Then my husband felt left out so he bought me the snowman kit for Christmas for me to make for him.

 These are a couple of banners I made a few years ago, I think they were Dimensions kits

And here is my latest addition hanging on the tree - my Nutmeg Company Pantomime House Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

My goodness, I think it's the fiddliest thing I've ever made.  The stitching was fine but making it up was not fun at all!  I have to confess I've cheated a bit and used some felt on the underside of the roof to make it look a bit neater as I was making such a mess of it! I'm really pleased with it though, the mice and cat under the tree are so cute.

You may remember I finsihed my reindeer earlier in the year and was intending to make it into a cushion.

I haven't got round to it yet, the material I had that I thought would do is not big enough.  I also saw that you can get cushion backs but I can't find one in the right size.  So I think this is going to go back in the cupboard until next year while I either get different material or frame it.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Anything goes in December at Craft Rocket

Hello crafters, it's nearly Christmas so to give us all time to get ready we have a month long anything goes challenge for you at Craft Rocket for December.

I've used a digital stamp from The Paper Shelter called The Cutest Wizard.  

I've coloured him with Promarkers and added some small sparkly green stars from my stash.  The hand stamped sentiment is by Inkylicious using a Memento  Tuxedo ink pad.  The purple card is from my stash and the background paper is from my Create and Craft Club pack. There is also some Angel Whispers glitter on the top of his staff.

I would like to enter my Wizard into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Anything goes
Crafting from the Heart - Anything goes
Crafty Hazelnuts - Patterned paper
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anyhting goes
Scarpping 4 Fun - Anything goes + digi
Crafty Catz - Masculine
The ABC Challenge - W is for wishes
 CCC Digi Creations - Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Inspiration Destination - Anything goes

Thanks for visiting my blog today and don't forget to enter our challenge at Craft Rocket!

Winter Time at Unicorn

Hello everyone, it's Winter Time at Unicorn this month so we would like to see all your Wintery creations.  The DT have some great inspiration for you so please come on over and have a look and link up your entries!

I've stitched a Winter in the Country chart from World of Cross Stitch magazine using the recommended DMC threads 2 over 1 on 28 count evenweave.

 

I've used some background paper from Crafter's Companion The Snowman pack and a die cut oval frame.  The sentiment has some silver net behind it from my stash.  There are also some felt snowflakes  from Hobbycraft with pearls on there.

#realstitchersdontsteal

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Anything goes

Crafting from the Heart - Anything goes

Creative Fingers - Anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts - Patterned paper
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything goes
 The Glory of Christmas - Outdoor Scene
One Stitch at a Time - Winter
CRAFT - Winter
Crafty Hazelnuts - Use a die cut
The Christmas Card Challenge - Anything goes
Incy Wincy - Winter Wonderland

Thanks for visiting, you have until 31st December to link up your Winter themed cards at Unicorn, can't wait to see what you create!