This is the latest for SK Seasons Winter.  I've finished the top half of page 2 now, so one and a half pages completed.

Finished: Love Letter

Here she is framed.  After 600 hours of stitching over 2 1/2 years.

October Update

Nearly there, just 3 more pages to go.  Hopefully she'll be finished before Christmas.  I did a lot of stitching in October, but now summer is coming I won't be getting as much stitching time in - the garden and running will take away some of my stitching time.

september update

Just realised I haven't posted my September update yet.  I started Spirit of Winter, by Josephine Wall, an HAED design.  I'm so excited.  I love how it is stitching up.  I finished the first page 7840 stitches in 53.5 hours.  This is the top of her hood appearing.
I'm now back to Love Letter.  Not sure if I'll finish LL this rotation, we'll see how she goes.

August update

Another good stitching month. Too wet and cold outside so perfect excuse to stay indoors.  We even had our first snow in Auckland since 1939.  Mind you it only lasted a few minutes and I missed it.  Here is my progress to date on Love Letter. 

I'm going to leave this now to start on HAED's  Spirit of Winter, a Josephine Wall design.  Refer to an earlier post for what this will look like.  This will be done on 22ct Hardanger.  I got the fabric and fibres from 123stitch a couple of weeks ago.  So much cheaper than buying in New Zealand, even with the cost of postage.  I've spent the last week preparing the fabric and getting project cards labelled and threads sorted so i'm ready to start this weekend. 

July 2011 progress report

The weather was so bad here in July that I had lots of stitching time.  The target was to complete one page, but I managed 2 1/2.  Below is the latest picture.

I've changed by mind about starting Little Kitten next, and decided to start Spirit of Winter in September.  Off to order fabric and fibres now.  With the exchange rate it makes so much more sense to order from the US.  One flossie of DMC costs $1.60 here, with the exchange rate I can get it for the equivalent of 64 cents.  Even with the cost of postage this should save me around $40!

HAED progress

Here is my first progress picture on  HAED SK Winter. 

Onto a rotation now of Love Letter. I'll be working on this for the next couple of months.

Love Letter Update

Just finished a rotation on Love Letter by Golden Kite.  Can't wait to see the blue of the dress appearing, should happen in the next rotation. 

Right now I'm kitting up HAED SK Seasons Winter.  I've got the next week off work so hoping to make some progress.

I had to give in and buy yet another HAED as they are having a 25% sale.  don't know when I;m going to get everything stitched.  I've bought Josephine Wall's Spirit of Winter.  This was one of the first HAED I fell in love with.  This will have to wait until I've finished GK's Love letter, hopefully around the middle of next year.

Here is my plan for rotation:

May 2011 - finish page 14 of Love letter

June 2011 - start SK Seasons Winter

July/August 2011 - finish page 15 and 16 of Love Letter

September - start Little Kitten

October/November - finish pages 16 and 17 of Love letter

December - SK Seasons Winter

New rotation and new HAED

I've given in to temptation and bought more HAED designs.  I'm bored already with Madeleine after Prayer so thinking of consigning her to the UFO pile so I can start the HAED.  The one I want to start next is SK Seasons Winter.  I also want to start Little Kitten.

1st May 2011

GK Love Letter

So here it is, my first ever blog. I thought this would be a great way to keep track of stitching progress and its frustrations and celebrations.  Cross-stitching is my way of relaxing.  I can't sit and just watch TV,I have to do something with my hands so cross-stitching keeps me busy and I relax at the same time.

At the moment I am stitching Golden Kite patterns - Love Letter and Madeleine after Prayer, but have just bought some Heaven and Earth designs which I am really keen to start.  Only problem is it is going to take years to finish just one project.  I have been trying to limit myself to two projects but with the acquisition of HAED I am changing that to 3 projects.  To ensure I get something finished I'm going to concentrate on GK's Love Letter, doing 2 pages, before doing 1 page of the next project, then back to Love Letter.  I figure this way I should finish Love Letter around September next year, a bit over 3 years afgter starting.  I thought I'd start HAED's SK Winter when i have  weeks holiday in June - can't wait to get it started.