QS Hang in There - finished and framed!

Hello fellow stitch-a-holics!

I'm back sooner than anticipated with a finish! I worked on Millie during Bank Holiday Monday, promising myself that I would stitch her until she was finished. I achieved this at 12.10am this morning! She has now been washed, ironed, thoroughly dried and framed. I am so happy with the result and guess what?..... yes, my mum has claimed her for her room!!!!

The "green" peg is a little bizarre as it contains blues, greys, golds and mauves. I had anticipated altering it to all greens, but there were so many colour changes that I decided to leave it. Also, some of the blue sky effect faded in the wash. At first I was annoyed but I still like the paler colour. She was not easy to frame either as the fabric at the top and bottom stretched a little during washing. I have put wadding behind her which helps hide the pucker marks from where I had to straighten the fabric. You wouldn't notice if I hadn't told you though!

So, here she is completed before framing:

And after framing, with her details:

QS Hang in There (aka Millie) by Karen Middleton

Heaven and Earth Designs

Stitched on 16ct hand-dyed Sky Aida 2 over 1 (no background)
Stitch count 150 wide by 173 high

Started - 6th May 2013
Finished - 26th August 2014

Total stitching time - 85 hours 30 minutes

The frame is, as I have mentioned before, from ezeframe.co.uk. It's a 20mm mahogany frame with a 40mm royal blue top mount, a 6mm terracotta bottom mount and anti reflective acrylic glazing. Perfect in my opinion!

I have sent pictures off to HAED showing her progress and framed. I can't enter their reward programme as I haven't stitched the whole project but I thought it would be nice for them to see a finished piece of work - MY finished piece of work!!!

With Millie completed I am officially down to 8 WIPs or 7 if I discount the one I am going to re-start (but more about that when the time is right!)

The whole point of finishing Millie was so that I could commence Mini Space Traveler, but at the moment *shock, horror* I don't actually feel like starting a new project! Which means I shall be carrying on with a current WIP - Mini The Owrd Lord. I just love the autumnal colours in this picture and very much feel in a browny-terracotta type mood.

See you soon then!

All the best and
Happy Stitching :)
Rachel x

QS Hang In There - 80 hour update

Hi all!

The end is getting nearer and the light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter!

I'm really enjoying Millie now that I know the end is so close. I can see a noticeable difference every few stitches as the gaps are being filled in. This is only possible due to constantly changing colours (which is getting to be really quite monotonous - 1 stitch here, 2 stitches there... oh look, there's actually a block of 5 over there!) You don't want to see how bulky the reverse is with all the fastening off and a few cheekily carried threads!!!

But enough whinging, here are the usual pictures:

After 70 hours

After 80 hours

Millie herself is actually completely totally utterly finished (yay!) leaving me with just the green peg and a bit of shadowing around it to stitch (although her left eye looks a bit weird so that may need a bit of adjusting). The task of trying to discern the background from the cat has not always been easy but I think I have done a fairly good job.

I have already ordered and received the frame for Millie from good old ezeframe.co.uk! I uploaded the 60 hour picture and worked with that to find the right colour mounts, frame and overall size. The choice was actually very easy and it cost just £25. I reckon the shop I used to use would have charged over £60 so that's a bargain in my book. OK, I have to stretch and mount it myself but I don't mind that at all. In fact, it gives me the satisfaction of truly finishing off my own piece of work.

The remainder of the summer holiday with the children is planned to be busy, busy, busy so I doubt there will be another post for a fortnight or so. But when there is, I can almost guarantee it will be of a completed project and you can all join me in yet another happy dance!

Until then,

All the best and
Happy stitching! :)
Rachel x

QS Hang In There - 70 hour update

Good afternoon one and all!

First of all, I'd like to welcome my new followers, so hello to The Crafty Princess, Lynda, Pull the other thread, spiritedsummer, Heidi82, Rai Rai's Stitches, SoCal Debbie, joyfuljenilee and Lynda H. I hope you all enjoy my stitching antics.

With Start Trek TNG and Voyager (or Wimbledon) playing in the background, this stint of Hang In There has not been too bad. As Annie commented, take some advice from the project title and "hang in there" so that is exactly what I have done! Thanks Annie! And as the end is getting nearer I'm getting more excited and itching to complete it.

So without further ado here are the usual pictures:

After 60 hours

After 70 hours

The tail and bottom are now complete and I am working upwards filling in the gaps. I usually work the other way round, but want to stitch the green peg last because I am not happy with the colours and will probably change them. This means frogging the golden-browns that have already been stitched but at least there aren't that many and I know I'll be happier with the result.

One of my sisters is visiting for the coming week so I doubt I'll get much stitching done. She has ME and fibromyalgia and finds it hard to move around much, so will be sitting in my comfy stitching chair most of the time. At least mum and Julie have active brains and mouths so can yap to their hearts content while I wait on them!!! Perhaps this will be a good time to try to complete the second Taste of Tuscany smalls whilst watching Wimbledon.

So until next time,

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

QS Hang In There - 60 hour update

Hello again!

Well, my next ten hours is up on this project and I have to confess I'm struggling and not really enjoying it much. But I know I need to stick with it so that I can reach a goal, do a happy dance and, more importantly, start Mini Space Traveler!

According to my time-scale I'm about 72% of the way through but I'm sure it's more than that. I'm now just left with confetti stitching which I aim to tackle one colour at a time. As you can see, the gaps are slowly being filled in which is actually quite satisfying.

Here are the pictures then:

After 50 hours

After 60 hours

The 60 hour photo truly resembles the colours of the fabric and threads and I think she looks great against the sky. Her name's Millie by the way. Isn't it sad how I have to give my characters names?!!!!

So, here's to the next ten hours. I think Star Trek TNG (an addiction of mine) will have to be on in the background to encourage me along!

Take care everyone.

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x