Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post to say.....

I hope that you all have a happy and healthy 2015 full of love, warmth and thousands of little stitches!

Please allow me to also take this opportunity to thank everyone who looks at and comments on my blog. It's a very humbling experience and never ceases to amaze me how people all over the world can follow my stitching progress and yet feel so close (I'd better stop there before I start blubbing!)

You are a lovely bunch who are very friendly, generous, warm, caring..... and a million more similar adjectives.

Boy, am I really looking forward to following you all through 2015!

Sleep well tonight - lots of SALs start tomorrow and your fingers need to be well rested!

Love and hugs,

Rachel x

New Start - OMG Tigger Is Out

Hello everyone!

I was really hoping to be able to squeeze this post in before the New Year when everything I'm currently doing gets put on hold for the beginning of a month of stitching madness!

This evening I finished the first 10 hours on my latest project. So without further ado, here's Tigger:

OMG TIgger is Out by UnconventionalX (etsy)
Stitched on 16ct Pewter aida 2 over 1
Stitch count 162 wide by 200 high
Started - 16th December 2014
Stitching hours to date - 10

I was concerned the background might be a bit dull but it has beautiful shading. The dark grey is the top of his left ear. It's a shame I'm having to put him away but no doubt he'll make a return in February.

That's all for now.

Until tomorrow,

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

2014 End Of Year Summary

Hello all!

I thought I would take a look back at 2014 and summarize my stitchy (and some of my non-stitchy) year:

MOST IMPORTANTLY - I STARTED THIS BLOG!!!
It's one of the best things I have done in my life! I love watching all of your projects grow, sharing mine with you, and conversing with new virtual friends. It has also opened my eyes to projects I would never have previously considered and introduced me to websites which have taken far too much of my money - ooops!

WIPs NOT TOUCHED (bad girl)

1)  QS Emerald Dragon

WIPs WORKED ON (a bit)

1)  SK The History of Chocolate (3 hours)

2)  QS Come Softly (20 hours)
3)  Mini Bookworm Fairy (18 hours)
4)  Mini The Owrd Lord (12 hours)
5)  QS Fairy with Butterly Mask (20 hours)

WIPs FINISHED (woo-hoo!)

1)  Hang In There (35 hours)
2)  Autumnal Abstract (125 hours)

NEW PROJECTS STARTED AND FINISHED (double woo-hoo!)

1)  Big Eyes Kitty (51 hours)

2)  A Taste of Tuscany (85 hours)
3)  Star Trek TNG (25 hours)

NEW PROJECTS STARTED (naughty girl!)

1)  Mini One (30 hours)

2)  Scarlet Macaw Preening version 1 (20 hours but now discarded and to be restarted in 2015)
3)  Dolphin Ruins (40 hours)

4)  OMG Tigger is Out (the magical 10 hour mark hasn't been reached so no post yet)

In NON-STITCHING NEWS, 2014 was a fairly uneventful year except that.....

Hubby finally got promoted after being previously twice refused.

Daughter Heather became a member a MENSA back in May with the maximum score of 162! Not bad for a 12 year old! And she became a teenager in October! Help! Where does the time go?

Son Toby took part in a few chess tournaments. He's good enough to play for the county but doesn't want the commitment, so just does the occasional competition for fun.

Both children continue to enjoy Scouts. We have a brilliant local troop who are always out and about doing various camps, activities and competitions. They are an Air Scout Troop but are also looking to affiliate themselves with the Army as one of their leaders is an Army Officer. As parents we certainly could not have given them the experiences they have had including climbing, caving, shooting, paragliding, canal boating and taking apart a car engine(!) to name just a few! Me? Jealous? Nah!!!

And as for me, I've just plodded along being a stay-at-home mum and sandwich carer. I think without my cross stitch and blog friends I would have gone mad!

So, thank you for being there and for keeping me sane!!!!!

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Merry Christmas!

Dear all,

For those that celebrate,

No I'm not sitting here blogging on Christmas morning - I scheduled the post for 6amGMT!

I wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and hope Santa and your families have been kind and bought you all the stitchy goodies from your Christmas wish lists. I look forward to seeing lots of posts about your new stash!

Have a great day (with some stitching perhaps?!) and not too much Christmas pud!

If you don't celebrate Christmas then Happy Holidays! Enjoy the break!

Rachel x

Stitch From Stash 2015

Good morning everybody!

Well, I've done it and signed up to Stitch From Stash 2015 run by Mel of Epic Stitching! I really can't believe I am going to try to stick to a limited budget, although I desperately need to as I've got enough stash to keep me going for at least three lifetimes!

For those not familiar with Stitch From Stash the full rules can be found here but in very basic terms:

1) you have a limited budget of $25 to spend on new stash each month, rolling over any excess to the following month(s)

2) you can earn bonus money by completing projects

3) you have to be very honest and report your spending each month, along with the stash you have worked on

The rules are much longer and detailed than I have provided above but I hope to have given you a basic idea of what's involved if you're interested.

I'm number 58 out of 120 so there's still plenty of spaces available if you're feeling keen and/or up for a challenge. Go on, you know you want to!

Wish me luck!!

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x
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Final New Stash of the Year!

Hello one and all!

I intend to join in with Stitch From Stash next year, so as I still have some birthday money left over (and I know my mum wants to buy me some stash for Christmas) I decided to have a final splurge on charts before being tied down to a budget. Also I have a stinking cold and feel awful so the retail therapy has been good medicine for my recovery!!!

I naughtily bought:

Rabnann (ebay)

Elephant Herd

Stitch count 248 wide by 174 high

theworldinstitches (etsy)

The Four Harry Potter Houses

Stitch counts 95-97 wide by 117-118 high

UAHomeMadeStudio (etsy)

Winter Owl

Stitch count 88 wide by 87 high

UnconventionalX (etsy)

OMG Tigger is Out

Stitch count 162 wide by 200 hig

This is the most expensive single chart I have ever bought. I just love the realistic-looking raindrops and the sadness of the cat so it had to be MINE! It is definitely going to be started once I have completed my latest stint on Dolphin Ruins and it already has a WIP progress bar waiting to be filled!

Gloria and Pat

Young'uns

Stitch counts 71-149 wide by 73-124 high

How cute are these?! They are not as small as I thought they would be, measuring about 100 x 100 but I don't care. I love and want to stitch them all!

Love Thy Thread
Lyx
Stitch count 170 wide by 170 high

So that's it! I certainly don't NEED any more charts. I just have to force myself not to look ever ever ever ever ever ever again!

I hope all of your Christmas preparations are going well. We've still got the tree and a few more decorations to put up but there's plenty of time yet. We tend to do a little bit each day rather than all at once as it gives the children something to look forward to when they come home from school.

Until next time.....

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Dolphin Ruins - 40 hours

Hello all!

First of all a big thank you (I think!) to everybody who left comments about stitching on linen. I'm more confused than ever now as apparently linen is best stitched by hand, in a hoop, in q-snaps or on the Millennium frame! Looks like it'll just have to be trial and error to see which is best suited to me. Whatever the case, Sherlock will be started very soon.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to plod along on Dolphin Ruins, trying to fill in some of the gaps and complete the top of the arch.

After 30 hours

After 40 hours

I'm going to continue for another 10 hours and then put it away for a while as I desperately need a change from 10 different shades of blue!

Stitching-wise I've got lots of things planned for the New Year which will be revealed shortly - although the more eagle-eyed among you may have already noticed a new page tab at the top of my blog.....

I'll be back soon with more news.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Autumnal Abstract - winner!

Hello bloggers!

Just a short post (which I was supposed to do yesterday - sorry!) to announce that the winner of my precious Autumnal Abstract chart is.....

Miamina!

Congratulations Miamina and commiserations to Linda and Cinzia who I know both desperately wanted the chart. Perhaps if you are lucky, it may get passed on to you afterwards.....

So, Miamina, if you would like to email me with an address to post it to I shall send it off forthwith.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x