Updates, goals, and Happy Birthday to me!

Wow, it has been a busy month! Have gotten some stitching done in between the crazy that is my life, so without fanfare (well, maybe a little) here we go!

Happy to say I have completed my first yearly goal, I have finshed the 2nd page of The Ghost, HAED.

Doesn't she look fab? Love the way her eye turned out, but kinda creepy to stitch her while she is watching me!

Next up is QS Twin Peek...soooo close to being done, only a tiny bit left on page 5, and a partial page 6 to go! I have been working like crazy on this one to try and get it done.

Love the colors in this one; it's pretty confetti heavy, but well worth it.

Finally, here is TowMater, who is almost complete as well, all his backstitching is done, just have the banner above him to complete, which is pretty boring, as it is all the same color!

So that is pretty much it on the stitching front, been trying to get Mater and QS Twin Peek done, as I am starting to feel a litttle overwhelmed with so much in my rotation.

Imagine my surprise when I checked my email, and for my birthday, the lovely Angie from Miamina's Musings sent me a pressie!

I got a RAK of Selina Fenech's Waiting, which is a stunning chart!



Thank you again Angie, she is gorgeous, I can't wait to start her!

I also got some money from my family, so I am trying to decide whether to be responsible, and use it to pay down some household stuff, or to splurge and go on a stash binge, lol. And if I do a stash binge, what should I get??? Decisions, decisions, lol!

Hope you all have a great week!

Hugs,
Nikki

I'm back!

Hi everyone!

Surgery went well, took a bit for me to start feeling like myself again, but so far so good! I have a follow-up appointment with the surgeon at the end of the month to go over my results, but if it was something serious, he would have told me right away, so that's good news.

I did get a bit of stitching done, but with the weather getting warmer, and the days getting much nicer, I have been starting up walking again in the hopes of losing a bit more weight. But I still have some nice progress piccys to show you!

First up is Sadness, which I am proud to say is now officially over 50% complete, yippie!

Next is QS Twin Peek, I have finished 4/6 pages now, only 2 more to go!

Ghost has gotten a bit more attention, almost done the 2nd page. You can see the dagger hilt and part of her arm now.

Ascendant has another 2 columns done, hoping to get to finish her lovely face soon!

My BB SAL piece is growing ever so slowly...the confetti is crazy, so I pick away at it between other projects, as I just can't seem to get into trying to finish a whole column at a time.

And finally Red Dragon is at a 1/2 page complete now, still doesn't look like much!

Phew, so that's pretty much it! Think I will work a bit on Ghost tonight, would really love to meet at least one of my yearly goals this month, I already feel so behind!

Thank you for all your thoughts and support, you guys are the greatest!

Hugs,
Nikki

Updates and a severe case of Startitis

Hey all!

Been awhile since I posted an update! I have not stitched as much as I have liked over the last several weeks, but I do have some progress to show you.

First up is TowMater. He is getting close to done, I have now finished all of the stitching on him, and have started the dreaded back stitching. I also haven't stitched the banner up top yet, I am leaving it until last, as it's all black, and should be an easy stitch.

Lust (HAED) has gotten a bit of love, sorry for the pic, but getting a decent shot of dark colors is hard!

QS Twin Peek (HAED) has come a long way, I am now finished 3/6 pages!

And this weekend I have been working on my BB SAL piece, which I am sooo far behind on! Here is where I am at now, I have done about 500 stitches this weekend; slow going as this piece is sheer confetti!

I am kinda sheepish to say that I have also made not one but two new starts! My rotation went out the window for awhile, but I am now back on track, so here is my progress on my latest additions!

When HAED released this chart, I bought it and started it the same day! I have an obsession with dragons, and even have a full back piece tattoo that looks very similar to this chart, so I had to start it!

Red Dragon:

And here is my progress after 3 rotations:

As a side note, I have to say how much I absolutely love Magic Guide fabric! Makes it so easy as I stitch per column, so much faster when I don't have to grid or count. Plus, the coverage on it is great; I was a little hesitant, but the dark colors look fine on it, and I have been told that it gets even better once the piece is washed.


I also fell in love with another chart designer, Sarah Paine of Paine Free Crafts. She has some fantastic designs, and I plan on many more purchases.
Here is the first chart I bought and started from her, its called Lyssa, Disturb at your own Risk. Dragons and oriental art, what could be better?

My progress after two rotations, hard to see as it is all fairly light colors:

So that's pretty much it on the stitchy front. Things are moving along slowly but surely on the medical front, I am booked in for surgery at the end of this month, so keeping my fingers crossed! Thank you for all your kind words and support, I will keep you posted!

Hugs,
Nikki

Final WIPocalypse, new goals, and lots of pics!

Phew, finally getting around to my last WIPocalypse post for 2012! I kept thinking about posting, then stitching or life called, and it was put off another day! lol

So time for the year in recap, all in all it was a very successful year of stitching for me...I think this was the most I stitched in...well...ever!

First up is Ascendant, here is where she was at the beginning of the year. My goal was to reach 20% for the year.

January:

And now, at 26% and counting!

I am so pleased with how she is turning out...even with all the stash I have bought over the last year, she is still my all time favorite chart, and a real pleasure to work on. Plus, I love sparkles!

Next up is Sadness of an Angel, the bane of my stitching existance. This is a chart my sister picked for herself for me to stitch. I don't know if it is the colors, or just the fact that I don't paticularly like stitching for other people anymore, but I really had to push myself to work on her.

January:

And now, with 45% complete, and 5% shy of my goal:

Even though I didn't meet goal, I am still really happy with how much I completed, since I dislike her so much! lol

I also had 3 kits listed as goals to finish, and here they are, all completed, and have since been delivered to their happy new owners:

Welcome Friends

Baby Hugs

Lightning McQueen

I also started TowMater, the companion piece to Lightning. I came close to a finish on him this year, but got caught up over the holidays. Here he is about 3/4 complete:

Several new starts found their way into my rotation as well. I didn't have any formal goals on any of them, but I did make pretty good progress.

Ghost:

Lust:

Waterfall Dragons:

So the plan for this year...

1. Finish current row on Ascendant. (pages 10-12 left)

2. Get to 60% on Sadness of an Angel. (currently 45%)

3. Finish TowMater.

4. Finish page 2 of Ghost.

5. Finish page 2 of Lust.

6. Finish page 2 of Dragons.

7. Finish the BB SAL piece I picked. (details below) 

8. Try to finish QS Twin Peek. (details below)

I think this will keep me stitching like crazy for this year!

I joined the HAED BB SAL for the first time this year. I picked QS Mystic Garden, since my boyfriend loves tigers, so I would love to finish it and get it framed in time for X-mas this year for him. Here is what it looks like:

And here is my progress after the first few days:

This is officially the most confetti heavy piece I have ever worked on...it will be a challenge to get it finished in time I think!

I am also participating in the NEW Years SAL in one of the FB groups I am in. I chose QS Twin Peek as my first chart to start:

And here is my progress, first page is complete!

This is my first time trying Magic Guide fabby, and I love it! So great to stitch the shoe collection on, since there is a lot of counting as none of the pieces have stitched backgrounds.

Phew, I think that is it for the stitchy front! I tried to keep my goals for this year fairly simple and easy, as I don't know when my surgery is going to be, or how long I will be down for.

 But, I did get a phone call! Thank you everyone for your positive vibes and thoughts; they must have worked, because not 2 days after my last post, I got a call from the surgeons office to book in for my surgical consult. My appointment is this Friday, and I am hoping if all goes well they will get me in ASAP for surgery. I will keep you all posted!

So I think that is all the news that is news; but again, a big thank you to all of your for the positive thoughts and comments recently, and throughout the year. I would have never gotten as much accomplished as I did without your support. *Big hugs all around!*

And as a personal goal, I am commiting myself to posting an update every 3 weeks, so I will talk to you all soon!

Hugs and a Happy New Year,

Nikki

October WIPocalypse in November...and apologies and explanations!

I feel like a bad blogging buddy...over a month since my last post! Be assured I am checking out all of your lovely works, even if I am not posting or commenting...life has gotten a little nuts, but I will leave the personal stuff to last for those who are here for the stitchy bits.

I finally got some mojo going for Sadness, as she was my last goal for the WIPocalypse. I have worked exclusively on her for the last month or so, and I am happy to say I have made lots of progress. Not sure if I will meet goal for the year or not, but even if not, I am thrilled with how much I have accomplished on her this year!

So as a reminder, this is how she looked waaay back in January:

And this is how she looked for the September WIPocalypse update:

And here she is now, with 53460/117600 stitches, or 45% complete!

I am rather pleased with how she is turning out, even with the strange pinkie color. I find if you stand back and look it blends well into the other colors. I think I have exhausted my mojo on this one though, been really craving something a little more colorful, so I think I will pick up Waterfall Dragons for the next few days.

So that's pretty much it for the stitchy front. Doesn't look like a whole lot, but I did get almost 9000 stitches done over the last few weeks.

On the personal front...I am going through some pretty heavy medical stuff. Don't want to go into too many details, but my symptoms have taken a drastic change for the worse over the last several months, and I find I am really struggling to keep up my normal life stuff. It is so hard to try and manage all this while living alone, maintaining a household, and looking after my two furry babies, but I am (barely!) managing to keep my head above water so to speak. My stitching seems to be my only sanity of late, as the medical system here leaves a lot to be desired sometimes in regards to how fast you can get in to see specialists and surgeons.
So as of right now I am in a holding pattern until I get a phone call to go in for a surgical consult. I have all my hopes pinned on getting surgery that will hopefully fix what is going on so I can get back to feeling normal. It's just so frustrating sometimes, when you know what will fix you, it's just getting it done! The only scary thing is that my symptoms have been going on for years, on and off, so I don't know how bad the damage is going to be when they finally put me under the knife and take a look at what's what. So keeping my fingers crossed, and trying to keep my chin up so to speak!

But I do want to thank you all for your lovely comments, and giving me the positive vibes to keep up on my stitching and getting through my days. I will keep you all posted as best as I can with what is going on, and hopefully I will be able to post more often for you all!

Big hugs,

Nikki

Update time and September WIPocalypse

I guess my lateness is getting slightly better, I am only 2 1/2 weeks late for the last WIPocalypse post, lol. Someone needs to tell my life to stop getting in the way of my stitchy time! Without further ado, onto the pics, and I finally took of pic of my new start to tantalize you!

First up, The Ghost, by Rebecca Sinz. Now at 13% complete. Love how the detail is starting to come through...forgive the green leaf in the pic, forgot to move the flower vase!

Next is TowMater, who is slowly but surely coming along...I am hoping (praying!) to have him finished by the end of the year, as that would give me 5 kit finishes for the year, and 5 more things out of my stash!

Sadness has been getting most of the attention lately...she is now up to 35% completion, only 15% more to reach my WIPocalypse goal for her, and finish my last (official) goal for the year.

Finally, as I mentioned in my last post, I just couldn't resist one of the new Matt Stewart charts from HAED. As a reminder, here is what the original artwork looks like:

And here is my (tiny!) start... believe it or not, this is almost 3000 stitches complete, but seeing as the chart has 450 000+ stitches, its just a drop in the bucket! The colours in this chart are fantastic, and I am loving the coverage on the 28 count fabric I chose. Can you tell its the start of a wing?!

So that's my progress since the last time I posted...I was so used to getting so much more time to stitch while I was off work, it doesn't feel like I am getting anything done lately. But.....I am so excited, it's the perfect weekend for IHSW! I am off this Friday to dog sit, as my parents are away, so an extra long stitchy weekend for me! The only thing I don't know is what I am going to work on...any suggestions?

Hugs,
Nikki

Late IHSW update, super late WIPocalypse, and the kitchen sink

Sooo late for everything yet again! I am finally back to work full-time, and it just seems like I don't have time for anything lately...so I will make up for it by showing you my pretty stitchy pics!

First up is my IHSW results. I worked on Tow Mater most of the weekend between cleaning and laundry.

Before IHSW:

After IHSW:

He is looking so good, buck teeth and all! Kinda nice to have something besides a HAED on the go, must easier to see, and far less concentration required, lol.


Now for WIPocalypse...unfortunately, with being back to work, my stitching time has taken a serious hit...but, on the plus side, I got some major mojo going for Sadness, and she was all I have worked on for  the last August WIPocalypse (so much for my rotation!)

Sadness last WIPocalypse:

Sadness now:

Much better pic this time, it really shows all the different shades in this one. I am now up to 30% completion...only 20% more to go to meet my last WIPocalypse goal for this!

 So like I don't have enough WIP's on the go, I bought some more stash I just couldn't resist for HAED Appreciation Week, and it just so happened that the HAED BB SAL this week is new starts, so I figured, hey, it's like getting permission right? Right? So here is the charts I bought!

Winter Soul:



Waterfall Dragons:

So can you guess which one I started? Yup, Waterfall Dragons! I just couldn't resist! This is by far the biggest WIP I have started, so I am gonna need to get some serious stitching in on this one just to show that it looks like something! Plus, I was super excited to try stitching on the new fabby I ordered, but holy cow, stitching on 28 count is small! I thought 25 count was bad...was I ever wrong! But on the plus side, the coverage is amazing, and I need to use slightly less fabby this way, so good trade off I suppose.

I realized today that my OCD is screaming at me...I am out of needles! I am crazy about how I need my WIP's set up, and each one gets pre-threaded needles and a cork-board with all the chart symbols, so that way I don't have to keep unthreading and threading all the time. So, with so many WIP's on the go, I have run out, so I think I may be working on Sadness or Ascendant until my order comes in, as they are the only two that have full boards atm, as I kinda had to 'borrow' so I could start Waterfall Dragons right away. So here is hoping I should have some progress pics soon for you! And I also need to go blog stalk as well, I am so far behind, I'm sorry!

hugs,
Nikki