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