Wedding Sampler - Done!

Yippee! Get those dancing shoes on and ready for a happy dance!

The wedding sampler is now complete! Hooray!

Wedding Sampler - Complete 20-08-2013

I am so please with the final look of the piece, but oh my that back stitching took FOREVER! But I can totally understand why, it makes such a huge difference to the final look.

So off I scurried to get a frame, I knew I wanted something simple and I found the perfect one almost immediately, I am so happy :D

Finished! :D

So now it waits, with over a month to spare until the wedding...

So what next? Well I have no idea to be honest...several things started to call my name as I was coming to the end of stitching this, so I guess it will just be a case of what I get my hands on first hehe :D

Other half is away at a geek convention tomorrow until Monday AND its a bank holiday, the only plans I have is going to my friends on Saturday so other than that I think it will be stitch stitch stitch, sounds perfect! :)

Emma xo

Here comes the bride...

Happily I can report this week has been a good week stitching wise, stresses at work made me just want to come home plonk my bottom down and stitch the evenings away!

Here is what the wedding sampler looked like the last time you saw it...

Before

Here it is now! The bride has arrived (or her dress at least!)

Progress 04/08/2013

I'm feeling happy about this now, and feeling pretty confident I will get it finished in plenty of time.

In other news I took part in an event on one of the facebook groups, I was kindly rak'd a giftcard for Love Thy Thread and after much umming and ahhing decided on Warrior Red.

Warrior Red

I think its beautiful, I have no idea when I will get round to actually stitching it, but nevermind! I also picked up this book this week...

It has some gorgeous nautical/seaside designs, again its just a case of finding time to stitch them!

Hope you have all had a great weekend and a good week ahead!

Emma xo

#93 More Productive than I thought...and TUSAL!

I was pleasantly surprised this week when I looked at my stitching, I only had a hour or so to stitch this week so I guess I can't complain too much about the progress made :)

First up was the wedding sampler, here is the before shot...

Before

And here it is today at the end of the week;

12-05-13

As you can see the Groom now has his hand with a blob of champagne floating above and below his arm! The glasses will be added later with all the back stitch and of course the heart at the top of the piece has also been added along with some more of the date banner behind where the bride will be :) Not too bad!

Next up I made a teeny tiny start on an ornament...

...what you mean you can't tell what it is?! :D This is my first time stitching over two of 28ct fabric, but so far so good.

In other news I could no longer resist the temptation of the HAED sale, but I was very good and only bought one pattern.

This is High Tea by Gordon Fitchett, I really love this one, I'm thinking some subtle hand dyed fabric and it will love great on the wall in our dining room :) But it will be a long time before I even start this one.

Elsewhere the running and the weight is going well, I ran over 10k this week and managed to lose another 2lbs, making it 12lbs in total! Another push this week and fingers crossed I will get to that magic one stone mark!

Fundraising is going great too, we are now up to £350! A massive thank you also goes out to Mii Stitch for sponsoring me! Thank you dear!! x

If anyone else would like to sponsor me click here for details, you could win a £20 gift voucher as a thank you!

Lastly, it was TUSAL this week, a couple days late but better late than never right?

It seems Sheldon has taken quite a liking to my ORT jar and is now guarding it...from what I'm not sure, but if it makes him happy...

I hope everyone has a great week ahead and if you are somewhere in the world today which is celebrating, Happy Mothers Day! 

Emma xo

#90 Goodies, Stitching and Feeling Proud!

Good afternoon all! I hope you have all been well this past week, mine has been ok, which I will explain...

First up, stitching. This has gone ok, not nearly as much as last week but still a noticeable change. Here is the wedding sampler last time...

Before

And here it is now! As you can see the Groom now has his head and his other arm as well as the rest of his body, just need to stitch his hand and his champagne glass and he is done! Other than all the back stitching and French knots of course but those will be added later.

28-04-13

Another good surprise this week was the arrival of some goodies! I had taken part in an event on Facebook for Colour Cascade Fabrics, we all partnered up and sent a gift card for us to spend as we liked. Typical me I went way over the gift card amount with my shopping, but as soon as I saw the fabrics I knew it was worth it!

Rocket Queen

Oceans

Whole Lotta Love

These photos really don't do them justice, and the speed they arrived was fantastic considering they came from the other side of the world! I will definitely be shopping there again.

On Wednesday one of my best friends got a life changing phone, after months of trying she found out she has been accepted in to Brittania Royal Naval College to train to become an officer! I am so happy and proud of her, she has wanted it so long!

It is all very sudden, she finished work on Friday and leaves for Dartmouth a week tomorrow! It will take some adjusting, from seeing her at least once a week to only seeing her once every 10 weeks and I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for her partner. But we are all very supportive of her and trying to keep her calm, as she is very nervous about leaving!

With this in mind I don't see much stitching getting done this week, it could be an emotional week ahead!

Emma xx

#89 April IHSW Report

Well, for a change I can say this months IHSW was quite a success! A first time for everything!

Once again I worked on the wedding sampler, I hope you are all not getting too bored of this project as it is all I have shown you really for the past few weeks, other than the one YOTA report!

Here is how it looked in my last post...

Before

And here it is now!

21-04-13

Not bad eh? :D As you can see the bike now has a basket on the front full of presents and cards and the grooms arm has appeared clutching a champagne bottle!

I have to say I am really enjoying this one at the moment, and if I keep this pace up then I should get this finished with plenty of time to spare before the wedding.

I hope everyone else has enjoyed their stitching weekends and I look forward to seeing how you have all got on.

Have a great week everyone!

Emma xo

#88 Since When Did A Little Rain Stop Us?!

Good evening everyone, I hope you have all had an enjoyable weekend?

Yesterday was my good friends anniversary celebration BBQ, when I woke in the morning there was blue skies and already the sun was shining away...but, in true British style by the time the celebrations began it was raining and windy, did we let that stop us? No! So there we all were under a gazebo eating our beef burgers, lol! It was a fun night though, and lovely to see everyone, fingers crossed next time the sun will be kind enough to shine.

On to stitching! Again this week I continued work on the wedding sampler, I didn't get too much time to stitch really but there is still definite progress from last week.

Last time it looked like this...

Before

And here it is now! (Please excuse the shadow of my arm across it!)

As of 14-04-13

Not too bad, you can see the start of the bike now :)

I hope you all have a great week ahead!

Happy Stitching!

Emma xo

#86 Has Spring Finally Sprung?

Well this weekend saw some sunshine in my little part of the world - hooray! The last of the snow finally melted today, and I hope that is the last I see of it until the end of the year!

It is so nice to be sat here in the evening and to still have daylight with us, I wish we were on this time zone the whole year through, it is so nice to see daylight after working all day!

This week the postman was ever so kind and brought me a surprise all the way from Portugal from the ever so sweet Nia!

Goodies from Nia :)

A little Easter lavender bunny was waiting for me, it smells so divine! Thank you so much Nia! :D

Not much stitching has been done this week, I think I have been losing my bug a little lately, I want to be outside and doing other things rather than sat inside stitching the day away.

That said a little was done on the wedding sampler

Before

I got the front wheel done and all the black in the grooms suite, really this is a pretty easy stitch I just need to get back in to the right frame of mind and I should get this done in no time!

07-04-13

I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for the week ahead, not sure if I will be able to cope with a five day week again after all the short ones recently!

Emma xo

#78 - Ahhhh Friday :D

Good evening! Everyone happy it is Friday? Well done, we have made it through another week! (Just about)

I'm glad to say this week has been better! I even had a small finish, but as it is a gift I am unable to show you just yet...I don't want to spoil the surprise ;) Hehe

So on to my wedding project, last time it looked like this...

Now it looks like this!

I moved on the Grooms side now and another wheel has appeared with a bit more of his trousers too! This weekend I am going to be busy, what with Mothers Day here in the UK so I think this will be as far as I get with it this week. Any spare time will be used on Mystic Garden since now the second page has arrived I need to catch up a bit!

Meggie I got your message, thank you! But I am having problems getting in contact, your blog was showing as deleted and now it is telling me "permission denied" to view it and there is no email in your profile so if you see this please email me : itzycraftcorner@hotmail.co.uk thanks!

Ahhh I have fallen for a new chart by Wee Little Stitches. They have a Disney Princess chart now! As someone who grew up with Disney films I LOVE this! Especially since they are in chronological order too! I will have to see if I can stretch to the £6 (I've already mentally bought it and planning which fabric to use!)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Itzy/Emma

xo

#75 So Many Stitches So Little Time...

I think we all feel a bit like that some time, cross stitch is so rewarding but there just never seems enough hours in the day to get everything we want to do done.

But, at least this week I got to stitch, which is an improvement on last week!

First, I worked on my YOTA piece but as you know by now you have to wait until the first Saturday of the month to see that, so next Saturday I can share with you (yes - next weekend we are in March!!!)

I also used a little of my very sparse spare time this week to work on the Wedding project. Here was the last time you saw it...

Then

Here it is now

As of 24-02-13

I got the date ribbon done and the middle of the wheel along with the pink trim of her dress, I am trying to avoid doing the white for as long as possible.

Stash enhancement wise my week was much more productive!

First, my goodies arrived from Loretta - I won her Grow Your Blog Giveaway! She was so generous to send six santa charts - I love them! Now its just a case of finding time to stitch them (where there's a will there's a way right?)

Secondly my second chart for Santa's village arrived, each new one I am loving more than the previous - they are just so cute! I can't decide if to do them all separate or together on one piece of fabric, but for now I will collect them I decide closer to when the time comes to stitch them :)

Finally a new kit - I am holding Katy over at Just A Little Stitchin' responsible for this! I love seeing her progress and I always wanted to stitch the Disney Dream Collection! The only problem was the price - they are so expensive over here in the UK but luckily I had a £10 voucher I could use against it! The voucher wasn't valid for much longer so I figured I may as well get it used up on something I know I want in my stash so its there when I decide to stitch it.

I finally caught up on my blog reading, but to do this my comments on your blogs were very few and far between, which I apologise for. Fingers crossed this week will be peaceful!

There is now less than a week left on my Giveaway so make sure you get your entries in - I will be picking a winner next weekend!

I hope you all have a great week :)

Emma xo

#73 TUSAL and Stitchy Updates

I can't believe it is TUSAL time again! Here is my photo for this month...

As you can see it is mainly blues and greens - I really love that bright blue which I used on the Travelling Pattern, it just pops out compared to everything else!

This week I continued work on my Joan Elliott Wedding Sampler, this is the one piece this year which MUST be done, no ifs or buts so this will be my focus to make sure it is complete in time.

Here is what it looked like the last time....

And here it is now!

There isn't much to show yet, but at least the back bike wheel is in place along with the brides shoe - as always I am trying to avoid stitching the white for as long as I can, I am always scared it will stain!

To make sure not all my other projects get abandoned completely I think I am going to make Sunday my "SAL Sunday" that way it gives me the option of the HAED sal or the Dressmakers Daughter sal. I can't believe some people have already completed the first page of the HAED! But I will stitch along at my own pace and what is done is done. No pressure :)

If you haven't already then please make sure you take a look at my previous post - it is giveaway time! You can click the image below to take you straight to the post and make sure you get your entry in :)

Now I am going to spend some time on Mystic Garden for the rest of the evening - yet again where has this weekend gone??

I must also thank you all for your thoughts and well wishes for Theo, my friends baby. The good news is the tests for Meningitis came back clear, but he is still struggling with his breathing a little. He has started to feed again though which is a good sign and today they were told once he starts to handle his breathing properly again he will be allowed home! So fingers crossed he is out soon :)

Have a great week everyone!

Emma xo

#24 I did it again...

I must confess. I had a moments weakness. I indulged in more HAED charts...(you can find them and many, many more HERE)

Mini Christmas Mailbox

Mini Berry Branches

Mini The Black

Well, what can I say?! They have a sale on! How can a girl refuse...Mini The Black is already calling me but I must resist...I will..maybe...

In other news, I think I have decided on which chart to stitch for my Brothers wedding, the more I looked at it the more I liked it and decided it was the most them. So, its going to be choice #3 The Bike Couple! I'm not sure if the chart has a name, but it was in 365 Cross Stitch Designs which I bought last year. I do know the chart is by Joan Elliott though.

I must say, thank you very much for taking the time to read and vote, it is much appreciated :)

Emma xo