Heather BB SAL Page 1 COMPLETE!!!!!

Well this took me rather longer than I expected! But here she is, first page complete of Heather:

I'll be returning to Lakeside Village to complete my 10 hours with it but I'm going to have less stitchy time because my colleagues at work have found out I make cards so I'm currently inundated with Mothers' Day card requests!

I'll be posting pictures on my sister blog.

Short but sweet, but I'll be back with a picture of Lakeside Village!

Happy Stitching!

Heather Update!

A short but hopefully sweet update from me today!

I hope to have finished all the hair this weekend as I'm not going out in all this snow!

Thought I'd post this picture today so we can all see how much I actually get done!

Happy Stitching everyone!

HAED SAL Heather Update

Hello everyone, hope you are having a fantastic start to the New Year.

I've not had a fantastic start to my stitching since work has been super busy and by the time I get home all I have energy for is to eat and bathe before bed!

But I have started Lakeside Village (picture to come when I've done a bit more) and here is Heather.  Unlike most HL stitchers, I prefer to rotate the black with a colour as I'm so frightened of miscounting even though I use magic guide!  But also I think just doing the outlines would do my head in and I'd loose concentration!

I'm going to stick with my rotation plans and after this page is done, finish a total of 10 hours on lakeside Village before moving onto the County Durham sampler for 10 hours.

I don't know about you but I'm really looking forward to a Stitchy Year!

Happy Stitching,

Sam xx

My 2013 targets!

After yesterday's review of 2012, I thought it would be a good idea to share my plans for 2013.

before I dive in completely though, there was a question about which company does the 3D houses, the company is called The Nutmeg Company, this is the link to their website, but all the houses are sold at different distributors.

So onto my 2013 targets, my New Year's Day New Start is going to be Lakeside Village:

  

It's the one my hubby pointed out at the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate.  It looks complicated from the picture, but in reality, it's only 4 pages and a snitch compared to my mega HAEDs!

My next new start will be for the HAED SAL which I've mentioned before - Heather:

The SAL starts on the 4th January and I hope to finish it in 2013.

I'm not forecasting any more new starts and just as well, that will take my current WIPs to 9!  Not sure if I've ever had that many before, but should be able to finish County Durham soon.

I'm not setting any timelines as I've done in previous years as it never seems to work out as you planned, so what I'm doing is re-starting the 10 hour rotation, with a little difference.  I will prioritise Heather and stitch her to keep on top of the SAL.  The rotation will initally cover:

1. Lakeside Village
2. Heather (Focus Piece)
3. County Durham
4. Ladybug Love
5. Samantha
6. Think Pink 

When I finish a page of one of the BAPs (no. 6) I will rotate the other BAPs into this slot (Beacon Ridge and Snowy Friends)

In this way i hope to be able to show you progress on all the designs thoughout the year!

I'm also on the look out for a new blog template so any recommendations are welcome!

Well that's me signing out for this year, take care, have a fabulous night and 

Happy New Year!!!!

Another finish & review of 2012!

Hi all, so after my last post, you're probably thinking why has it been so long between posts?  Well here it is:

I got it at the Knitting and stitching show in November, my hubby set me a task of completing it by Christmas! It's called Santa's House IV: Final Preparations Unfortunately that wasn't possible with all the card making and gift wrapping to do, but finished it on the 28th December.

Now onto the review, my first finish of the year was last year's SAL Curl up With a Good Book:

It was a very detailed design so not too disappointed about missing last year's target on this one!

My mid-summer design was A Good Marriage which I've stitched for my sister's wedding next June, granted it still needs a good iron and to be framed, but got plenty of time!

I then moved onto The Travelling Pattern:

I'm still trying to pass this onto the next recipient, but not received the address for them! Lesley Anne Smith - can you please e-mail your address to samantha.long@live.co.uk asap?  In the meantime if anyone else is interested and also has a blog, please feel free to send me a message as I need to get it posted soon otherwise Cucki (the founder) will not be happy! :(

Now onto my SAL piece this year, I got it finished in November so just in time for the deadline! Bookend Kittes wasn't my favourite design to stitch, mainly because of the 'samey' colours, but I'm pleased with the final result!

I also had one more new start, Ladybug Love which I loved stitching, but was started around the time of my 10 hour rotation, which i'm going to start again in the New Year.

I also worked a bit on some other WIPs, including this one, County Durham:

And this, Samantha, both of which I want to finish this year!

Oh and of course, another HAED, I finally finished page 1 of Snowy Friends!

So all in all an interesting year, to be fair I had a very slow start as I got addicted to one of those horrid Facebook games, which I'm never ever going to do again ever!

Happy New Year everyone

&

Happy Stitching!

I was awarded the Liebster Award!

I'm so pleased to have been awarded the Liebster Award, it's nice that people think so much of my blog!

What is the Liebster Award?  Liebster is German for 'dearest', and the award is given to up-and-coming blogger s with less than 200 followers who deserve recognition and support to keep them blogging. 

Thank you so much to Lesleyanne Smith who blogs here!

Here are the rules, if you choose to accept.

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2.  Link back to the blogger who awarded you.

3.  Copy and paste the award to your blog.

4.  Nominated 5 blogs, that you enjoy to receive the award, who have less than 200 followers.

5.  Inform them of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are my choices, I hope you'll agree they're all fabulous blogs!

Sarah in Stitches

Ramblings of a Biscournu Addict

My Creative Corner

Just a Little Stitchin'

OK, I don't have a 5th one at the moment, but will edit later! :)

Will be back soon to tell you all why it's been so long since I last blogged!

Congrats all!

Bookend Kitties Finished!

Sorry for the break in posts I've been on holiday in Cuba.  We had a fab time and i'm hoping to do a dedicated post in the future, kinda my assessment of the island!

So after all the turmoil and perseverance and lets not forget all that confetti in those books - he's finished!

It took exactly 180 hours on 18 count magic guide.

Now what's next I hear you ask!  Well the 2013 HAED SAL has been announced and I've decided to do Heather:

I've sort of fallen in love with Hannah Lynn this year and so although I didn't want to do another SAL, I really couldn't resist!

In the short term though there's not going to be any stitching since i have about 100 Christmas cards to make in 3 weeks! Eeek!  Given that some of them were ordered 2 months ago, I better get on with it.

Oh but first... On Sunday I'm going to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate!  I can't wait and this little finish will allow me to make an extra little purchase I think - it's only fair right!?

Happy Stitching! xx