Lots of updates - lots of pics!

And I have once again managed not to blog for almost a month! Well, it's not because I haven't been stitching. I've done quite a bit over the last few weeks actually. So here's an update (I apologize for the wrinkly fabric, I simply did not have the time to iron the fabric this morning):

Beloved Child:
It's finally finished!! I'm going to get it framed over the next week or so. It is so good to see the final result - and so good to return to my other projects. It took just about two months to finish for me (not counting the one month I spent in World of Warcraft):

"Beloved Child" at the last update

"Beloved Child" today - finished!

 

Envy:
After the finish I picked up on Envy once again:

"Envy" by Marta Dahlig

"Envy" at the last update in August 2012

"Envy" today - second page finish

Mini Citrine:
After the page finish on Envy, I picked up the Mini Citrine, which I have not worked on in ages! This is also my first full row finish on a HAED!

"Mini Citrine" by Rachel Anderson

"Mini Citrine" at the last update in June 2012

"Mini Citrine" last page in progress (partial page)

"Mini Citrine" full row finish!!

QS Sapphire - NEW START:
For my birthday (the 23rd of Nov.) I received materials from the hubby to start a new cross stitch design. I chose to start QS Sapphire by Rachel Anderson, simply because I think the colours are stunning!:

"QS Sapphire" by Rachel Anderson

"QS Sapphire" progress as of the 26th of November 2012, bottom left corner

That's it for this time around. I'll be working on QS Sapphire for a while now (until the first full page finish).

Happy Stitchings!
- Cat.

HAED Appreciation Week (another picture heavy post!)

Soooooo, we have entered Heaven & Earth Designs Appreciation Week! For those of you who do not know; Heaven & Earth Designs make some of the most beautiful cross stich designs known to man (well, at I think so), and they're currently having financial issues. Apparently not enough people buy cross-stich charts. So if there's a chart you've had on your wishlist for some time, pop over there and buy it! :-)

As some of you might know, I was not much of a "stash'er". All of the charts I own are the ones I actually stitch, so I've never had any charts waiting to be started. Well, that has changed now! I think I might have enough charts for a lifetime now - lol!

And I can't really decide whether I buy all of these charts for charitable reasons ("HAED might be closing, I better help out") or for purely selfish reasons ("HAED might be closing, and I still need all of these charts!"). Nevertheless, I bought even more charts today, and as you can probably tell from the selection I am a huge fan of Rachel Anderson's work.

Mini Amethyst by Rachel Anderson

Mini Emerald by Rachel Anderson

Mini Garnet by Rachel Anderson

Blue Topaz (full design) by Rachel Anderson

Ruby (full design) by Rachel Anderson

Mystique by Rachel Anderson

Titania by Rachel Anderson

Seraphina by Rachel Anderson

Vanity by Marta Dahlig

Sloth by Marta Dahlig

 Happy Stitchings and remember to sign up for this month's IHSW here!
- Cat

Finally an update!

And guess what? I don't have much to update... The last couple of weeks I've been gaming with the hubby - "The Secret World" is a really great game and quite addictive as well. I promise to try and update some more in the future.

So my summerholidays are finally over (sadly) and I started working today. I did not get as much stitching done as I would have liked over the summer, but at least I got some quality time gaming with the hubby :-)

I've been working on Envy since last update (yes, I'm STILL on the same page, and it's driving me mad to be honest - so much black and dark green).

Envy at my last update

Envy as of August 13

I've also been rather bad... ;) I'd sworn I would not buy another chart and start another cross-stitch project. But when some of our very good friends told they were pregnant I could not resist :-) They've been struggling with becoming pregnant for some time now, and now they are expecting a healthy baby boy! I am so happy for them, especially because they are among the kindest of people I know, and I know they will be great parents!

On a more personal note, I guess I've also been able to relate to them a lot, since the hubby and I have experienced some of the same problems. So when something like this happens it really gets my hopes up!

I have therefore ordered a cross-stitch kit (from a Scandinavian page called Ateljé Margaretha) and I intend to stitch it for them as a surprise. I cannot decide when to give it to them though ;-) I hope it'll be in the mail soon, as I would really like to work on this for the upcoming IHSW.

Happy stitching all!

July IHSW update

Hi stitchers!

I spend my IHSW on Envy (of course). In fact, I pretty much only stitched during Saturday. Friday was spent celebrating my four-year wedding anniversary with the hubby. Sunday I spent doing absolutely nothing! I could not pull myself together and pick up the needle. Truth be told, I am growing tired of all the green in Envy, and I am looking forward to work on my other projects as well, but I am determined to finish this page on Envy before returning to my rotation again.

And since I love before-and-after shots myself, I made these for you guys :-)

Before July IHSW

After July IHSW

I could have done more, since I'm still on holiday. But as I wrote; I could not pull myself together. I do like, however, that I have started stitching her dress, so that was a bit of a kick for me.

While playing around with my camera, my dog, Ronja, became very curious:

I think I might take a small break from stitching during this week. Hopefully my stitchy bug for Envy will return very soon!
I am looking forward to see everyone's updates on this weekend's progress!

Happy stitching!
Cat.

Envy and upcoming IHSW

The hubby and I went to London for a week. We only just got home last week. It was great; we got to see some old castles (mainly castles from the Tudor period that I love) and we also saw some of our English friends.

After the trip I started working on Envy again - it takes me forever to finish just one page!

Current progress on Envy

I actually think I've begun stitching her dress, but because all the colours are green, it is difficult to see where the grass ends or begins :-)

I'd also like to encourage everyone to join IHSW this month. Even if you only intend to put in a few stitches. Join here on Joysze's blog: http://joysze.blogspot.dk/

If you don't know what IHSW is, you can read up on it here: http://joysze.blogspot.dk/p/international-hermit-and-stitch-weekend.html

Happy Stitchings everyone!
- Cat.

Envy Update

Hi guys,

I haven't had time to do as much stitching as I would like (but when do I ever?) As I have written in earlier posts I've been busy baking for a party at the school where I work, for everyone who passed this year's teacher's training (and I was among them - yay).

Enough excuses though - here is my current progress on Envy:

Before

After

I've only filled in three colours, but I should hit the bottom of her dress very soon :-)

I've also taken pictures of all the cakes I were to bake for the party:

With that I'll wish you all a Happy Stitchy Summer :-)
- Cat.

1st Page Finish on Envy

Yep, here I go again on Envy. It feels soooo much better with a bit larger stitches and it turns out much nicer in my opinion.

Here's a picture of the entire piece from Heaven and Earth Designs:

And here's a picture of my progress: 

Envy, bottom left, the 24th of June

I am now working on the page right above this one. I am looking very much forward to stitching her dress - I just love the colours! I intend to finish one more page before returning to my rotation system again :-)

I am not sure how much time I'll have for stitching during the upcoming week. The hubby and I are to bake and decorate cakes for approximately 100 people. The school where I teach is throwing a small party for everyone who finished their teacher's training this year, so we'll spend a lot of time baking and making fondant flowers ;-)

- Happy stitchings from Cat.

Before-and-after pictures

I've been stitching on both the Mini Citrine and the Female Draenei 10 hours each. I've made some before and after photos for you guys (justbecause I love before-and-after shots myself):

The Mini Citrine

Before

After

Close-up of what I've been working on

The Female Draenei (artwork from http://www.saraforlenza.com/index.php by Sara Forlenza):

Before

After

Close-up of what I've been working on

 You can begin to see the bottom of her arm now. I am looking forward to see how that develops.

I have yet to receive the fabric I need to restart Envy by Marta Dahlig. I very much hope to get it during this week. I think I will stitch just about 1 page on her, before returning to my rotation and incorporate her (Envy) in it.
Until then, I'll stitch another 10 hours on the Mini Citrine. 

Happy stitching all!
- Cat

A Weekend's Work

I have changed the design of my blog. I hope you like it. I chose the colours bearing the Citrine in mind, since she is my focus piece at the moment :-)

So here is what I did over the weekend. I could have done more than this though, so the progress is not overwhelming.

Before

After

And here's a picture of the entire piece so far:

Mini Citrine, February 12 2012

That's it for me so far! Hopefully I'll have more timefor stitching during this week (since I have the week off), I do however have a lot of 'homework' to do ;-)

Happy stitching!
- Cat.

Second Page Finish!

Yay! The second page is now finished and I simply love the result so far! Just a quick reminder of how she will look in the end:

Mini Citrine

And here's my current progress:

As of February 9, 2012

I can't wait to start stitching further up and see what she will look like! I will, however, stick to my plan and stitch all the way to the right side of the picture. I can tell from the full image that there's a small butterfly coming up, I am excited to see how detailed it will be - it is after all just a mini-version of the full Citrine, so I expect some of the details will be missing from this design.

Happy stitching!
- Cat.

Small update

I thought I would make a small update of this weekend's progress on Mini Citrine:

Mini Citrine as of February 6

As I've written earlier, the colours are very strong and I often wonder why I am to use those exact colours, or go to check twice that I have picked the right colour-number. But seeing it from a distance, it really makes sense how the colours come together. I love the result so far. Hopefully next time, my update will include a page-finish :)

Happy stitching!
- Cat.

Current progress: Mini Citrine

I've had a little time to do some stitching over the weekend. I had my exam today, and it went really well! My last exam will be in april, so for now I feel I can relax a bit more. There's a holiday coming up in two weeks time, so hopefully I'll get a lot of stitching done then :-)

Here's the Mini Citrine as of tonight:

Mini Citrine, January 30, 2012

Some of these colours have really surprised me. I did not expect such strong colours at the bottom of her dress, but it'll probably make more sense as I make more progress on her.

I'll see if I can get some more work done on her during the week :-)
Happy stitching everyone!

January's IHSW results

So, even though I had sooo many things to do  this weekend, I actually think I did pretty good :) I worked on the Mini Citrine I got from my husband for my birthday last year:

Before

After

There were many confetti stitches at the bottom of the dress, so that took me most of the Sunday, but I did get a nice headstart to the dress itself :)

Looking forward to see everyone's progress over the next days!

- Cat.

Update on Citrine

So I've been working on the Mini Citrine for the last couple of days. The next couple of weeks will be dead busy with work since I am facing a sort of exam in less than two weeks. Basically all of my supervisors (four people) and an extra teacher from another school are going to observe me, while I am teaching. It may not sound as much, but I am telling you - EVERYTHING has to be perfect. Every little detail that might go wrong will be noted down. As you can tell - I am rather nerveous already.

But I decided to take a night off from work, and work on my cross-stitch instead. It usually helps me relax. But I will not get as much done over the next few weeks.

January 13

January 15

1st Page Finish - January 17

January 17

I really enjoy stitching this design. There are many different and beautiful colours, and not too many confetti stitches, so that's nice :)

And just a little reminder what she will look like in the end:

As you can see I have started with the bottom left corner. I am hoping to get a lot stitching done after my exam. Luckily, I have a week's koliday coming up in week 7 :)

- Cat.