Majestic Mustang's and 2013 HAED BB SAL

Hey again

So I have been stitching since my last actual stitching post - alot actually and the good news is that my shoulder is improving all the time. I'm sure it's due to being exercised with the stitching.

Majestic Mustang's


Throughout all of December my focus piece has been my GeckoRouge model stitch. I'm still loving stitching these guy's, but moved onto the background a little bit for a different pace.

As of 28.12.2012

The background came together quickly and this is how they are are currently looking 

As of 02.01.2013

Now that January has finally arrived the long awaited for first page of the  HAED Bulletin Board SAL has arrived so I have switch over to that piece for a while

HAED 2013 BB SAL

So January 4th bought with it the first page of the SAL and yikes I knew it would be confetti heaven - I just had no idea about how much of a confetti heaven it would be! LOL

But that's the way it works - they wouldn't want to make it too easy for us ;)

Progress day 1 04.01.2013

Adding in some greenery 05.01.2013

Bit of yellow 09.01.2013

How it look's to date 12.01.2013

I've already goofed and had to re stitch a couple of time's on this piece (ops) but that my own fault for not counting properly lol

So I will be concentrating my time between these 2 pieces at the moment. I have time frame's in mind for how to work them so that I can complete them to deadline. Thats the plan anyway!

Much love!! 

Happy 2013

Hi everybody, welcome to my first post of 2013!!!

Well my Christmas was lovely, and new year was, well it was new year - nothing particularly special for me. I watched the firework's from London (which I admit were amazing!) and had a glass of wine to see in the new year but that was about it.

But with the new year I've made myself some realistic stitching goals for the year which I am determined I'm going to complete.

So here's my list

1: Majestic Mustang's - Gecko Rouge Model Stitch
2: QS Mystic Garden - HAED Bulletin Board SAL
3: Mini The Black - HAED
4: Golden Boy - Shinysun's SAL piece
5: At least starting the kit from Heritage Craft's - Severn Lifeboat - a kit my brother bought for me to do for him.

All of this is actually realistic to a degree . . . we will see how it pan's out 

Much love's to you all for the next year!! 

HAED Bulletin Board SAL

Hey guys.

Since its Christmas Eve tomorrow and I'm going to be doing my normal "op's I've left it late running around" thing, thought that I would update my blog this evening lol.

So other then my Gecko Rouge Model Stitch this year I will also be working on this year's Heaven and Earth Design's Bulletin Board SAL piece. 
These smaller pieces are specially for member's of the HAED Bulletin Board only and aren't available to buy in general. They are however cropped down from the full size charts :)

We got a choice of 6 pieces to choose from, and the pages of the chart are sent out throughout the year - creating a full years SAL piece (yeyy!!)

The piece I have selected is QS Mystic Garden by Ciro Marchetti.

This is a crop from the full piece, Peacock Garden (which you can view and purchase here: Peacock Garden by Ciro Marchetti). When this came out I was drawn to the tigers immediately, but didn't fancy tackling the full piece. You can't imagine my delight at finding out this was one of the SAL pieces! 

After having a quick rummage though my stash, I was thrilled to find a piece of 25ct Magic Guide which will fit my final design on perfectly (will be 5.5inchx5.5inch approx).

Completed prep work

To complete my delight the wonderful Donna at Cross Stitch Heaven decided to offer us HAED Stitcher's thread packs for our selected pieces, so I ordered that to save myself time at this rush time of year

My QS Mystic Garden SAL Thread Pack from Cross Stitch Heaven

So that's me all ready to start. I can't do anything now until January 4th as this is when the first page is released but I'm so looking forward to it.

Many Thanks to Michele and Bob at HAED for these fabulous designs, and for Rachel from the HAED Bulletin Board for organizing it all.

Its going to be a fantastic stitching year in 2013!!

May I wish everybody have a fantastic Christmas - enjoy yourself's and I hope you all have an amazing time!

Much love to you all xxx

Happy Birthday Thea!

Happy birthday to my friend Thea!!!

Gecko Rouge's Majestic Mustang 42!!!

Hey everybody!!

Little slow on the updating blog, but I injured my shoulder and it's taken a while to recover enough for me to hold my hoop and frame's. Thankfully it's improving loads in the last week or so I'm hoping that, once Christmas is out of the way I will be able to jump back into my stitching again (I don't get much of a Christmas break with the job that I do).

Anyway I'm thrilled to say that a couple of day's after my last post I could stop stalking the postman!! My Gecko Rouge kit had arrived, all in a lovely red envelope :D

LOL see ;)

Enclosed was a wonderful chart, 14count adia, all the threads needed and a needle to get going - everything needed to start!

Gecko Rouge kit

All the contents

 14 count Adia, thread cards and needle(s)

Half of my threads

 All my threads post putting onto thread card LOL

Chart front cover and bound chart

Front cover of chart with instruction's

The chart itself is a clear print and is on good quailty paper. I have the standard size chart but the chart can also come in a large print to make it even easier. You can even choose between a black and white chart or a colour chart :)
There is also a choice of stitching on white or black fabric, but I have choosen white. A recent addition to the choices is 25count evenweave.

So of course I have a new kit - so I had to start!!

 Centre point

First stitches in place

This stitched up very quickly and before I knew it I was starting to see shapes and I was starting to wind myself up thinking I coud see a head . . . 

I started seeing shapes so much I mentioned it to Gecko Rouge's owner. She very very kindly sent me a colour copy of the chart, which confirmed that I wasn't see thing's much to my delight!

Can see a definate head appearing here

This stitch uses alot of different shades and colour's in it that you may look at and think is wrong, such as an olive green in the muzzle of the mustang. However, as always it's good to remember that this add's depth to the piece and when you look at it from a distance, it blend's together perfectly. This is exactly what's been happening as the piece has built up..

Mustangs as of 17 December 2012

                          
So stitching on and I have reached this stage in my stitching of this piece. As I say having a shoulder injury has prevented alot of work from going on, but I'm dying to get back to them and I'm really enjoying stitching them and seeing them come to life!

Check out the Gecko Rouge website at www.etsy.com/shop/geckorouge for the full range of chart available.  Its also worth remembering that many of the design's also come as jigsaw puzzles too :-D
Also if your on facebook we have started the GeckoRouge Stitching group - a friendly place for sharing WIP's, conversation and questions that you may have!
Come find us and were see you there!!

See you soon!!

Much love

"Magic" and some News!

Hello everybody

Yes I've not posted for a while. Honest truth is that after I finished QS Dragonflies I lost all desire to stitch anything at all :(

To try and make my stitching bug jealous I started up a bit of latch hook work - and it worked.
My stitching bug has returned in full and he's ready to get me stitching!!

This is how far I got with my latch hook

I've only got the green to finish and probably won't take me more then a couple of hours to finish off.

I'm not going to abandon this new craft - I really like latch hooking and I intend to continue. In fact I've organised a Big Cat Hook Along lol

But as I say my stitching bug is back in full force! It hasn't returned for Mini The Black, but for my paralympic start Mini Pumpkin Cat Magic (Otherwise known as Magic) by Melissa Dawn.

This is how he will look when he's finished.

This is where I am on him at the moment and I'm really enjoying him :)

But I have other new's. I enquired about becoming a model stitcher for GeckoRouge after seeing a friends impressive model stitch. Great news is that I've been accepted!!! And I honestly can't wait!

After talking it over with the companies owner I've selected this to be my model piece.

It kept calling to me and drawing me to it. When that's the case - that's the one to stitch!
Its being posted out this week so I'll be stalking the postman for its arrival!!


You can see the lovely creations on Gecko Rouge right here : http://www.etsy.com/shop/geckorouge

Anyway that's all for now - I will be back with you soon with more updates

For now - loves ya!!

QS Dragonflies Complete

Hey!

I completed QS Dragonflies!!

I certainly didnt make things easy on myself. They are stitched on 28ct Brittany evenweave, using DMC colour variation threads. The hand dye is called "Dark Goddess" and came from Sparklies.
And I absolutly loved it once I got over the the difficulties of the stitching not quite working!!
In the end I found that stitching 2 over 1 in tent stitch seems to suit both the threads and the fabric so thats what I stuck to and I LOVED the results in the end!!

All I need to do now is to frame them. Ive got the frame sorted, which I love, but I dont like the mount. So once Ive got a new mount I'll frame them properly but this how they look in the frame I've choosen.

Getting a new mount next weekend so Ill post how they turn out then :)

Now im back to working on Mini The Black, so Ill post a progress on him soon

See ya