Gifted Gorgeousness March 2016 - It's a Finish!

Hello everyone!

As it's the 15th it's time for the Gifted Gorgeousness check in hosted by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.

The idea is you work on something that is a gift in some way, it could be the fabric/floss/chart was gifted to you or the final product is intended for a gift.

This year so far I have had to get the good old shoehorn out and be creative, stating this piece is for my future married self. Well that will come to an end with this check in as I have a finish!!!

Yippee!!!

Vault Boy & Girl by HappyStitchNet on Etsy

Stitched two over two on 28ct Lugana in Oatmeal by Crafty Kitten Fabrics

Start Date: 2nd January 2016

End Date: 14th March 2016

I'm so pleased with the final result! I know it's not a "traditional" wedding sampler but it is very us, we are gamer geeks to the core and if it wasn't for computer games we would never have met! I now just need to find the perfect frame then it can take pride of place in our geek room :)

For the next few months at least the GG Sal should be easier for me, as my next main project will be a baby sampler for some good friends of mine who are expecting, I just have to get the supplies together so I can begin.

Speaking of which, my evenweave of choice is Lugana but I am struggling to find just some plain white! Do any of you stitch on Jazlyn or Jobelan? What are your thoughts? How do they compare to Lugana?

Until next time!

Emma xo

March TUSAL Check In

Hi everyone!

A day late with this post (again!) but again I did take the photos on the right day I just didn't get around to writing a post yesterday for Daffycat's TUSAL

So here is how my ort vase is looking at the moment...

More colours added again this month thanks to my Pumpkin Passport and my Fallout piece.

Speaking of which...

It's coming along nicely! In my last post about this I said there was only two more colours to go, I was wrong! When I looked at the chart there was in fact four colours to go. Urgh. But nevermind, the grey for the shoes was fast as was the dark blue for the shading. Even the brown in her hair wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I managed to get most of that done in one stitching session.

As for the blue...urgh...it's starting to feel never ending but I hope if I can just do a couple of lengths of thread here and there it will get done soon enough - fingers crossed!

Until next time!

Emma xo

Happy March!

Hello!

How on earth are we in March already?!

I hope you are all well? I must admit I am far, far behind on my blogs readings so I hope you are all doing ok and getting lots of lovely little stitches in!

Here is my current progress on my Vault Boy and Girl

The skin is done! Hooray! Only two colours to go. I want to say I will have this done by the end of March but we shall see.

My stitching time has taken a bit of a hit recently thanks to a game I have being playing on the computer with friends...I even uttered the words "this is my new World of Warcraft" and anyone who plays that knows how addictive it is! For those who wonder it is Ark: Survival Evolved I have been playing.

But, having said that I promised myself I would have the skin complete before the next installment of the Pumpkin Passport arrived, and that I have done as that will arrive in my mailbox tonight while I sleep :)

Until next time!

Emma xo

Gifted Gorgeousness - February 2015

Greetings!

Yes I know this is a day late for the Gifted Gorgeousness check in but I didn't arrive home from my weekend away till late yesterday afternoon so didn't have chance to sit down and write a post (although I did take the photo yesterday!)

This month again I am getting that good old shoehorn out and cramming my Vault Boy and Girl in to the theme - it's a gift for the future married us so it totally counts!

I've also had some more progress on it since I last showed you, I've now added the white to the mouths and started on the skin.

I'm really enjoying working on this, I'll continue to work on it and hopefully get the skin on both of them complete then it will be tackling a huge amount of brown or blue!

For those who asked the weekend was very productive - the bridesmaid now has her dress and my Dad also has his outfit sorted and we have a wedding car (aka my Dad's car) sorted! I will just need to buy some bows and ribbons to dress it :)

Until next time!

Emma xo

February TUSAL and lots of Yellow!

Hello!

Better late than never here is my TUSAL update the for month, as you can see a few more colours added this months thanks to my Small Sal piece and the Pumpkin Passport.

Stitching wise I have worked on Vault Boy and Girl a little, and all the yellow is now complete!

What colour to do next - we shall have to wait and see!

This weekend no stitching will get done on this as I am away down to Yorkshire to sort some more wedding things out with the Bridesmaid and my Dad. I think David is please he gets away without doing anything for Valentines since he is staying home!

I have a long train journey on Friday and Monday though so I am thinking of taking a small with me and to make the most of that time, perhaps I will get my piece for the Small SAL complete early this month too?!

Until next time!

Emma xo

Fallout Vault Boy & Girl - A Dash of Yellow

Happy Weekend All!

First, I want to say Hello to my new followers! Thank you for joining me on my stitching journey! Secondly, I hope all my American readers are stocked up and safe from the crazy snow storm which is been reported on the news - I hope you all get the opportunity to make the most of it and have a hermit/stitching weekend :)

This week seemed a bit of an odd one, every time I planned to sit down with my stitching something came up which needed doing instead, never mind, these things happen I guess. But, some yellow was added, his hair is complete and the inside of his jacket is well on it's way!

This weekend I will be returning to my Pumpkin Passport - fingers crossed my stitching on that will be productive!

Until next time!

Emma xo

Fallout Vault Boy & Girl - Outline Done! / Gifted Gorgeousness

Good evening everyone!

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend. Just a quick post from me today - as the title of the post states I got the outline done on my Vault Boy and Girl - YAY!

As this has been the only piece I have worked on so far this year, luckily I can shoehorn this in to the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL hosted by the lovely Serendipitous Stitching as this eventually will be a gift for me and my future Husband for our wedding day...that totally counts...right?!

So this means next week the "colouring in" will begin :) It will be fun to get those bright yellow and blues done!

This weekend I will working on part one of the Frosted Pumpkin SAL which arrives due to the time difference at 1am Saturday morning for me. I'm looking forward to see what it has in store!

Until next time!

Emma xo

Fallout Wedding Sampler - We have a Vault Girl!

Good evening everyone!

I hope you all made in through the first week back to reality as pain free as possible. We have snow here currently so it's looking like it might be a quiet weekend in for us, and that is perfectly fine by me! My blog feed is currently going crazy with all your updates, seems a lot of people are doing the 15 starts in 15 days this year, they are always fun to see. I hope to get caught up on my reading this weekend!

So I have more progress to share with you - the outline of Vault Girl in done!

Now she just needs her Vault boy and colouring in of course but I've decided to stitch the outlines of them both first then work on the colours.

I'm still loving working on this at the moment so I am going to continue on it until the 15th as that is when part one of the Frosted Pumpkin SAL arrives! I am also excited to start that too - so my plan is to stitch that up and then return to this. Fingers crossed it will work out like that...

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Emma xo

The First Stitches of 2016!

Hi everyone!

I guess most people are back to reality today, looking at all the depressing posts on Facebook this morning it certainly seems so anyway! Thankfully, today is a bank holiday in Scotland so one more day before the routine returns.

I had a good stitching session over the weekend - I sat, watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice and stitched away on my New Year, New Start project.

This is my Fallout Wedding Sampler for me and David, I have to say I am loving it so far! My first time using 28 count fabric and stitching over two and I must admit I am finding it very enjoyable and easier than I thought it would.

I'm enjoying this so much I'll be continuing with it for now.

Until next time!

Emma xo

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

#58 New Starts Galore!

Good afternoon!

Thank you so much for all my birthday wishes in my past two posts, you are all so kind. The only problem I am having with this new layout is I can't seem to reply to any comments left, I have no idea why, but please be assured I am not ignoring you! I have tried my best to solve the issue but to no avail so for now I think I am going to have to reply via email when it arrives in my inbox. Not ideal but there you go. If anyone could shed a little light on this it would be much appreciated!

Now, on to stitching. To say I didn't join the Crazy January Challenge I have made a pretty good attempt in keeping up! In the first four days I had three new starts. Thankfully I now seem content with these to keep me occupied.

I have decided January will be my "do what you want" month, after which my main focus will be the wedding sampler as that NEEDS to be done.

Speaking of which that was the first project I picked up, only a few stitches in but a start is a start, right?! This is done on iridescent white 14ct Aida.

Next, after my first day back at work this year (boooo!) I made a start on Mini the Black. This is on 25ct Magic Guide and I am trying 2x1 tent for the first time. I'm not sure if I like it or not, but I wanted to give it a go so I could at least say I've tried. 800 stitches in so far - all of them 310!

Finally on Friday the first page on the HAED BB SAL arrived in my inbox so of course I HAD to start it. Got the first 100 stitches in. This is done again on 25ct Magic Guide, but this time 1x1 full cross. This chart really is confetti madness (20 colours in this one block alone!) and I dare say the most challenging piece I have ever done. If I get this done then I really will be proud of myself!

For now I am going to continue on the SAL, I figure if I get a head start on it this month it will give me some breathing space before the next page is due.

Happy Stitching all!
Emma xo