June TUSAL

The Totally Useless Stitch A Long, my first post for it! These are the threads from the three projects I am working on; Bert the Badger, Newton's Law 'Friends Share' and Michael Powell Mini Venice Bridge 1. I didn't have jar so just used a wine glass! Hoping to get the elusive green thread to finish my Newton Law piece today as well as the extra colours for my Bert the Badger.

Thanks for visiting! Happy stitching!

June IHSW Result

The plan was to have a stitch-a-thon in honour of the June International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and that sort of happened. I didn't get a whole lot of stitching done on Saturday was a bit slow getting going, then went to the gym and after that had a migraine. So wasn't feeling my hermit roots on Saturday afternoon, but yesterday was a big improvement! I spent the morning doing all the housework and got it out of the way by 1pm (I woke up pretty early!) and then set aside the rest of the day for stitching.

I managed to start my new project - the Newton's Law  chart from The World of Cross Stitching - Issue 178. I really like this series they are running and definitely need to go through the rest of my magazines, I'm sure there are more I want to stitch. I made great progress for me, as  I said before I am a fairly slow stitcher, but for one afternoon this isn't too bad.

If I hadn't had a migraine and I didn't buy the thread colour 266 instead of 226 I think I could have finished this in a weekend. Nevertheless I think it will be really cute and the series will be great to make into cards at only 4X4 inches. There is some writing on it too saying 'Friends share' but I think I am going to leave that out.

I did not stitch on Bert Badger at all because of running out of the threads like I said before the weekend. I was enjoying this quick stitch too much to get any stitching done on the Mini Venice Bridge 1, Michael Powell design. But it is only Monday so there is plenty of time for that!

I really enjoyed my first IHSW weekend and can't wait for the next one! I'm off to see what everyone else stitched over the weekend.

Happy stitching!

IHSW

This weekend is IHSW aka International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and it is the first time I have participated! Follow the link to find out more and sign up. It's an awesome idea and a great excuse to get hauled up and cozy on a rainy weekend and stitch! On Monday I will post any progress I have made.

I plan to start a new project and try to get some stitching done on my Michael Powell design after having a break for a couple of days. I was planning to finish Bert the Badger this weekend too but I have run out of a couple of colours from the kit so will need to get them before I can finish.

This is the progress of Bert the Badger from the past three days, the top left picture is how it looked in the last post. I am really enjoying this kit but looking forward to doing something with a bit more colour.

Spent a lovely day in London today soaking up some culture at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition. Was very inspirational to see so much and so much colour all in one place! As well as spending some time with a good friend and having yummy Mexican!

Happy stitching!

Work in Progress Wednesday

For WIP Wednesday I wanted to share my other project I am stitching besides Bert Badger. I spent lots of hours over the Jubilee weekend and made quite a bit of progress. Because I am back after a long while I took a before and after picture so you can see the progress I made. My goal is to finish this project before the Knitting and Stitching show in October so plenty of time but I'm not a speedy stitcher! The project is a Michael Powell design - Mini Venice Bridge 1

The picture on the left was taken 7th June and the one on the right was my progress  on the 10th 

I have always admired Michael Powell designs and bought this kit at the last Knitting and Stitching Show. It is all whole cross stitch which is what I often look for when choosing a pattern or kit to stitch. The colours in this are really holding my attention! The final project will look like this:

I have made a bit more progress since the pictures above but will update again next Wednesday! I've almost reached the half way mark so would be good to reach that next week but we will see. I am hoping to get the threads and fabric ready for another project, it's a Newton's Law series from The World of Cross Stitching - Issue 178.

Bert Badger

I needed a break from my larger project was starting to get a bit frustrated with it, probably because I have been stitching on it quite extensively since the Jubilee weekend. So I got out a smaller kit which I had only stitched about 4 stitches on it. It is Bert Badger from DMC, it is a Woodland Folk mini kit. This is what it will look like when finished:

This is the progress I made this morning, which isn't a lot as I had been stitching on my larger project which I will post some pictures of tomorrow. I'm hoping this will give me a nice break though and be fairly a quick finish, and then I will probably make it into a card. Seen as I blogged about goals yesterday, my goal is to finish this by the end of the month. If I carry on the way I am stitching right now I will finish it well within the month! I've started at the left top side of the body.

Stitching Goals

This is an awesome idea, so I thought I would join in!A blog hop hosted with a question:  

                 

Do you set stitching goals for yourself and how do you plan them out? (Weekly, monthly, annually?) What are your current stitching goals (if you don’t mind sharing)?

In addition to setting goals for yourself, do you have a special reward that you reserve for when you reach a stitching goal?

The only real stitching goal I have at the moment is to finish my current WIP before the Knitting and Stitching show in October, so I can buy another Michael Powell kit. So that is around 5 months away, and I am around a quarter to half way finished! 
I would like to set more goals as I find them fun and I'm not too worried about whether they are achieved or not it's just nice to have something to work towards. I am planning to cross stitch all my Christmas cards to my family this year, so my goal is to stitch one Christmas card a month. 
Rewards...hmm...I suppose if I finish a project the reward is starting a new one or maybe treating myself to a kit from my wishlist!!

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

A Common Thread

It's been over a year since I last posted. I suppose the only excuse is that life was busy!! I started my second year of university which has been once of the most challenging years of my life! Nevertheless I started a knitting video podcast called Studentknits where each week I talk about my current knitting projects, host knitalongs, giveaways and showing the odd beading and cross stitch WIPs.

I thought I should put some energy back into my cross stitch and post progress of my cross stitch projects, so I can journal what I stitch and the challenges along the way. So I'm back and my goal is to blog at least once a week, and maintain some consistency. I hope you will join me along the way :-)

So stay tuned for Work In Progress Wednesday!

UFO-a-go-go

Finally started stitching again...making very slow progress on the current UFO I'm stitching on called Passing the Time a Country Companions design. Here is a picture of the progress so far - reckon I have done just over half of the design so far! Hoping to finish fairly quickly, perhaps set myself the target of finishing it by the end of July. As there are plenty more UFOs that need attention!!!

In other news, my Nan came over and gave me the hummingbird bakery cupcakes and muffins book, so I am determined with all this free time I have to make some of them, but for the now I'm just going to make some standard fairy cakes which I know will turn out ok! Hoping to try the peaches and cream cupcakes first they look SO yummy!

I started my volunteering on Friday for Age Concern with a dementia group, I was very nervous but the group was really good fun and all so lively...they all had their own stories to tell and have all lead very interesting lives, maybe this Friday I can be a bit more talkative. Also started work on Saturday which was a huge shock to the system so not used to standing on my feet for 8 hours, but was good to be back and earning some money, unfortunately it is only weekends at the moment, but that does give me plenty of time to lots of other things, but oddly when I do have free time and no uni work to be done I find it quite hard to choose what to do with myself!!

Decided to re-do my grade 8 piano after failing by a couple of marks last summer which I was devastated by! Nevertheless I had my first lesson last night which went really well and I have chosen my B piece which is Beethoven Op. 13 Sonata in C minor No.8 Pathetique Rondo. Hopefully I will get a lot of practice done on it today, very keen to get on with it!

Happy Stitching!

There's no place like home

Being home from uni is AMAZING! Spent most of the day unpacking what seemed like hundreds of bags a ridiculous amount of clothes, sorting my room out and getting properly settled back in.

My Mum suggested that I make a book of all my photos from my recent trip to Paris so I could see them all together and it would be something nice to keep. There's an awesome online company blurb that does just that and looks so professional with different sized books, the problem is I keep changing it around so is definitely going to take some time to do but going to be well worth it. The site has loads of ideas for making a book as a portfolio, collection of blog posts and loads of other things, some really exciting things could be made!!

I took so many photos in Paris, mainly with a digital camera but also with a couple of photography apps on my iphone which used different lenses so I got some really cool vintage looking photos as well as an app that turns photos into cartoons. Time to cuddle up with a dvd and carry on twittering with this book...maybe some stitching too.

Time for a BLOG

So...where have I been and who have I been...well not blogging for over 9 months and no I have not had a baby I just went to university. So much to tell and share, so much has changed, this blog is getting a revamp!!

I still love making but really didn't find time for it a lot at uni, so will probably spend a couple of weeks sorting my project life out, with a new rotation list, the problem is that life just seems to get in the way more often than not. I still love reading, but again haven't found much time for it unless its a textbook or journal article! Now I love photography, travel and a whole lot more.

First year as Psychology undergraduate over, I am now home where I belong in beautiful Cornwall and there really is no place like home...a few days to re-cooperate before starting my summer job and doing some volunteering with dementia patients. Have a wait for results which don't come out until July 1st! My aim is to blog most days about anything and everything that interests me, with updates on current projects and book reviews as well as exciting links to websites and pages of interest.

Watch this space....