The Crafty Writer

My plan to stitch across the pages one section at a time was a spectacular failure, I didn’t even get across three pages before realising it wasn’t going to work.  So it’s all change and I’m back to pages.  But this time I have a schedule.  And a realisation that I’ve been feeling bad about not putting so much effort into Whispers.  It’s the project that’s always neglected when something new takes my fancy and it’s partly because it’s such a large project – and has so much background.  I always think that I should be further along with her than I am, that I could be further along with her than I am.  So mostly out of guilt she is going to be my focus piece this year.  I have created a schedule and a rotation just for Whispers.  I’m going to stitch two pages on her and then one page on Mini Lost In You.  I’ve allotted myself a time frame of two weeks per page and if I stick to that I’ll be halfway through Whispers by the end of the year.

I’ve written it down too so I know what I should be working on each week.  The good thing is that in my heart of hearts I know that I should be able to get ahead of schedule, especially as I haven’t taken into account holidays from work, but that means that I can get a little distracted by something else now and then.  But most importantly of all I know that by the end of the year I could be halfway through.  That bit is the most important if I say it enough then eventually it will sink in that there is no way I will get this done any quicker and to just accept that halfway is a very good achievement (it works out to around 18 pages).

This past week I should have been working on page 12 of Whispers but instead I’ve been adding the finishing stitches to page 11 and finishing page 1 of Mini Lost in You.  It isn’t as bad as it seems as I’ve already done the top section of page 12 and I should still be working on that page next week anyway so it doesn’t matter.

Mini Lost In You 27th Jan

So no picture of Whispers to show you this week but instead here’s page 1 of Mini Lost in You.  I’m stitching this on 25 count Lugana using my q-snaps so I don’t have to keep swapping projects on my stand.  It’s a black and white piece and I love how it’s working up already.  The minis from Heaven and Earth Designs might not have all the detail of the full size pieces but it’s still intricate and still has the same number of colours and I think that I’m going to be just as happy with the results.

I’ve sneaked in a little redesign of the blog too.  Found a nice new template that has a nice sliding preview thing for my posts and I’ve used my progress picture of Whispers for the banner

Back to stitching Whispers this week and I’m trying out a different way of working my way through the pages.  Just recently I’ve been dividing my pages into strips of roughly thirty rows.  My plan was to stitch two pages before rotating back to Computer Catastrophes which would be fine until I got to the next row of pages where the first page is mostly stitched in black and by the end of the week I’d be ready to swap.  Then I had a brainwave that a row has 7 pages and my two page rotation would mean stitching six sections so instead of stitching each page at a time why not work the sections across the row.

Whispers 16th Jan

I’ve already done three pages on the row that I’m currently stitching so I’m trying out this new way across the remaining four pages to see how I get on.  This week I have done almost two sections which is roughly half a page so I think my stitching speed is remaining the same.  The downside with stitching this way is that there will be longer between page finishes but on the other hand I’ll finish seven pages pretty quickly.  I get to split up the page of almost all one colour and as I’m stitching across I’ll get to work on the focal point a lot quicker – Yes the angel starts on the next row of pages so each rotation will have part of the angel on it.

My magic guide fabric has arrived and I have almost everything ready for a new start.  I’m still planning to wait until at least the first row of Computer Catastrophes is done.  But my next start will be The Queen of Spades by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.  I’ve been meaning to start her for over a year now but she keeps getting delayed by dragons.  Seven pages to stitch before she gets started though so it will be a few months yet.

End of the year already and it’s flown bye.  It’s been a good year for stitching though, I’ve finished Train of Dreams and then started and finished QS Curl Up With a Good Book and Little Princess.  I’m not sure what 2012 will offer for finishes perhaps Mini Lost In You if I put some effort in.  2012 will mostly be spent concentrating on Whispers and Computer Catastrophes, they’re both too big to be finished by the end of the year.

I haven’t had so much time for stitching the last couple of weeks with being busy with christmas.  The cold is also inteferring with my stitching of Computer Catastrophes I’m on the third page now and just about getting started on stitching the cat.  The window is nearly finished now but there’s still a lot of black to come because of that cat.

Computer Catastrophes 31st December

Mini Lost In You is being worked in the evenings when it’s too cold to sit in my stitchy corner.  I’m still on the first page of this one, I’m stitching her using the q-snaps so I’m only stitching with one hand which I find much slower than my usual two.  Once christmas things are out of the way I shall try to find room for a stand to hold it on which might speed me up a little.

Mini Lost In You 31st December

Finally I’ll finish with a picture of my ort jar, there’s about 18 months of thread ends in this jar and it’s getting a little full now so for the new year I have decided to empty it and begin afresh in the new year.

Ort Jar

Have a good new year everyone and thanks for reading my ramblings.

My finished pictures are back from the framers and they look gorgeous.  They’ve done a fantastic job with the stretching and framing I’ll definitely be getting more done there.

I haven’t got a lot of stitching done this week, a combination of things really.  It’s getting a little cold in my stitching corner so I haven’t been enjoying my time.  Then I’ve had my writing bug back and finally I’ve been playing a new computer game which I’ve been having a lot of fun with.  There isn’t a lot I can do about the cold zone though so I’ve decided that I’m going to start a mini which is more sofa friendly than my big needlework stand – not just space but comfort too.  At the weekends I’m planning to work on Computer Catastrophes and Whispers while there’s nice sunlight and the temperature is a little more comfortable.  Then in the evenings I’ll be migrating to the sofa and stitching a mini design from Heaven and Earth Designs.  Going to prep my fabric and organisers now, hopefully there will be some progress to show next week.

Suddenly the weather has changed to winter which is about time considering that it is December after all.  Apart from the lack of decent amounts of daylight my stitching corner has suddenly got very cold thanks to being in front of the window.  This weeks stitching was interrupted by lots of fidgeting around trying to find a warm and comfortable stitching set up but it was useless nowhere is as comfortable as my stitching corner.  In the end I braved it out and stitched wrapped up as warmly as possible.

Computer Catastrophes 11th December

I swapped to Computer Catastrophes which hasn’t been on the frame for several months now after finishing page 1.  I think I was delaying due to some big patches of black but it has helped me to make some good progress this week despite the cold.  The lightning has lots of colours in it which makes a nice change to the blocks of black in this page.  There isn’t much left to do on this page so I’m hoping to get it finished at some point this week time permitting.  The plan is to stitch two pages before swapping back to Whispers.  I’m looking forward to the next page on Computer Catastrophes as grumpy cat makes an appearance.

My other pictures are still at the framers, hoping that they will be ready soon.

Whispers 5th December

It’s nearly the end of the year and I’ve completed all of my yearly and half yearly stitching goals.  One of them was to just get a few pages done on Little Princess but I ended up completing her which might have caused me to not get the extra pages done on Whispers.  Thanks to some handy time off work though I’ve caught up and stitched a page in a week (that’s not going to happen again for a long time).

To celebrate I’m going to now do a couple of pages on Computer Catastrophes.  There’s some big blocks of black so it isn’t going to be much of a break from the colours in Whispers but there is a kitty face to look forward to on page three.

Not sure what I’m going to set as a goal for next year.  I’m unlikely to finish either of these two as they are both fairly large.  I think I might sneak another of the Faces of Faery in at some point in the year, perhaps April as it starts to warm up for spring.

Christmas soon and I’m not sure what treat I shall be getting this year.  Technically I’ve already had it in the shape of my system 4 stand but I wouldn’t mind some new scissors as my current ones have developed a bit of a blunt spot.  I should be getting some pictures back from the framers soon, they will probably count as a present too.

Now that I’ve finished two of my works in progress I’m back to a much more manageable two in progress.  Whispers which keeps getting put aside and Computer Catastrophes which has only had one page done on it at the moment.

Whispers 26th November

I’ve also finished most of my goals for the year the only one left is to complete pages 9 and 10 on Whispers.  I started page 9 last week once Little Princess was finished and I’m most of the way through the page already.  These blocks of colours are so much quicker to stitch and the page has 7 or 8 colours so very different from Little Princess.

I’m also trying something slightly different.  I’m dividing each page roughly into thirds, each containing three full blocks of rows, the top and bottom of the page will have a few more rows but not many more.  The aim is to give me a smaller area to focus on and encourage me to stitch across the page more.  It seems to be working so far so I’m going to keep on with it for a few more pages.

I shall be getting the two pages for my goal done before I decide whether to carry on with Whispers or swap to Computer Catastrophes for a page or two.  I’ve been feeling guilty for neglecting Whispers for so long that I might spend a little more time on her, at least until the blocks of colour get too much for me.

I was going to post at the weekend but I didn’t have my camera and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.  Little Princess has legs and feet and is now officially finished.

Little Princess Finished

I thought that I would get her done at some point this month but once the dress was done there was a lot less colour changing so I sped through those final parts.  I had already arranged a trip to a framer next week so now I have three pictures to take along and finally get frames made for them.  I think I shall pick out something light for this one but we’ll see what the framer thinks.

All the details: The design is Little Princess by Gordon Fitchett and is available from Heaven and Earth Designs.  She is stitched 1 over 1 on 28 count Grey Jobelan fabric.  Started in April 2011 and Finished in November 2011 she took around four months stitching time.

For now it’s back to Whispers to finish the half yearly goal I set for myself which just means two more pages before the end of the year.  I’m tempted to concentrate on her for a bit to at least get another row of pages done but we’ll see how successful I am with that.  At the moment I’m looking forward to a break from confetti and back to the dark blocks of colour.  Knowing me I will have had enough of that by next weekend.

Happy Stitching xx

Qs Curl Up November

Well I didn’t expect him to only take the weekend but here we are with my latest finish QS Curl Up With A Good Book, this year’s stitch along piece from Heaven and Earth Designs.  He is stitched 1 over 1 on 25 count ivory Lugana.  He is reading a book but I think he might be comtemplating cookies.  The most difficult bit about this chart was the decanter on the first page, lots of colours scattered about was a test of patience but so worth it.  After that page the rest of it was plain sailing.

He needs a wash and some stretching but I think the framing will wait until Little Princess is finished.  I haven’t really thought yet about how I’ll frame him, I think a dark colour mount will suit him better as it should really bring out those lovely bright colours.  Back to Little Princess now.