Lake District

We have just got back from a weekend away at the Lake District. It was amazing and we crammed a lot in. The first thing we did was take Lily to see the World of Beatrix Potter. She had so much fun. Here she is with some of the haracters out of the books, Peter Rabbit, Mr MacGregor, Mrs Tiggywinkle...



We also went on a boat trip and we went to an animal conservation park wich was brill.

After the Animal Park, we went to visit Hill Top which is the house where Beatrix Potter lived and wrote her stories. The house is as it was when she lived there with all the furniture set in palce and ornaments and toys etc... Very special place. Here's one of Lils standing outside the front door of Hill Top.


I did manage to get a little bit of stitching done but not much! I have only got a couple of days to finish Cheryl's Bouquet. So I better get off of here and get doing it!! Hope you all had a good weekend. Have a good stitching week. xx

Good news and an update

Good news regarding the missing threads. Kate got onto Needlepoint inc and they have apologised profusely and are sending out the missing threads straight away! Just so there is no confusion, the threads came pre-packed and rolled in a bundle direct from npi so no-one would have known there would have been any missing. I have also asked Kate if she has any thread cards to put them on as I only had one spare one and it is full. Hopefully she will pop one in the post with it. So hopefully it wont take too long to come.
And here is an update of Dreaming Mermaid:


I actually have about 10 stitches to do on this which I will finish today so it finally looks like I have met my Goall of getting this page finished!! Yay. Looking at todays date, it means I now only have 5 days left in this month to finish Cheryl's Bouquet which was my other goal. Do you think I can do it?? I reckon I might be able too! Victory lol. Then I will definitely have a new start next month as a reward!! Happy stitching, the race to the finish is on.
xx

Oh no!!

First of all I would like to apologise to everyone for not commenting on blogs at the moment. I am struggling to keep on top of all of them as I really want to dedicate more time to stitching and the computer is really addictive and taking my time away. So if I havent commented - I am sorry and I will get round to reading and updating soon. Also, I have been away at my sisters this weekend as my husband has been on a trip to Dallas so I went up to stay for a couple of nights.

Well just got back this morning and got my Thread Bear parcel through of A Most Noble Pursuit!! You can imagine how excited I was opening it up, only to see that the £37 thread pack was all in strands with no codes on that you have to sort through yourself!! Okay, I thought, I'm a pro, I can handle this. So began the task of laboriously counting out strands and matching up the colours with the codes. You can imagine how disappointing it was then only to find about a third of them missing! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! NPI is at fault on this one. Only, now I'm not sure what to do. Have rung TB and I'm awaiting to hear back. It took ages for thm to come and now I expect to have to wait ages for the next batch to come again. Oh well, I wasn't planning on starting it so soon anyway. Just a bit disappointed (sniff).
The fabric and the chart is lovely though!

On a different note - here's some pics of my rabbit Amber that I took of her in the garden the other day when the sun was out. I was wanting one of her with the cat as the cat completely freaks out and goes all bushy tailed at the sight of her before scarpering off up the fence. Please do not tell me she is a hare!!! She is actually an Old English breed with an unusual colouring - I've been told (which prob means she was cross bred!!! But she is far too tame to come from Hare stock!




Have a good week! Hugs to everyone.

Twilight Shimmer Take 2

Well I really did do my best on this April's SAL although it doesn't look like I did much. There was a lot of blocky grey which as Carol puts it "Yawn Stitching". I will be glad to get onto some of the picture of the girl and the fairy. I think there will be a fairy (or it may just show as a glow) in the empty circle bit on the left. Well I am glad to leave it for another month anyway easy stitching as it is. No confetti on this one as yet! Funny thing is, I recently got a nice comment on my webshots about my first pic of this which was a bit strange as its nothing but a grey blue blob at the minute. Don't know who gave me the nice comment - if it was you then thank you but I have a feeling someone perhaps thought they may be winding me up.



Thank you to everyone who left a lovely comment for my dd. She was really chuffed! Happy stitching this week everyone.

My stitching daughter

I bought a small cross stitch kit for my daughter who is four. The kits are aimed at children four and above and is worked on 6 count using wool with the design printed on the fabric. They include everything you need, even the red hoop/frame. I bought it from Daisy Designs from their Early Fun range. I only phoned for it on Tuesday afternoon so its not bad service to get it here today. Here she is. Can't you just feel the concentration? She is not doing too badly with it although my patience is being tested!!


I just think she looks so cute!

Just a quickie

Well the last two days have been glorious weather wise so we made plans to go to the beach today weather still being nice but it has rained all day! How miserable! I've also not been feeling great. Bit of a poorly tummy. And I can't blame chocolate as I've not really had much! We're not big on the whole Easter egg thing but as usual the family have bought dd loads of eggs!!! So there's loads of choc in the house now!
So to cheer myself up today I decided to do something I have been thinking about for a while - I've subscribed to the Gift of Stitching mag. I got the three back issues for this yr too and I must say I am really rather impressed. I think it caters for those with rather fine taste in the needle industry lol! I think there is at least one thing if not more in the four issues I have just recieved that I would stitch. I also like the way they show you any special stitches used in each issue as I am eager to learn new stitches. Time will tell lol.

And now for a long awaited update of Dreaming Mermaid. Still slowly plugging away on page 4 but I think she is looking dreamy now. I love her tail and the colours are wonderful to work with. I really want to get page 4 finished this month. I am on a mission! Hope you all had a wonderful bank holiday.
xx

Two posts in one day!!

Just finished my first ever pinkeep!! Now to all you finishing experts pls don't laugh at my feeble attempt!! As you can see - it's not quite centered and all the pins are different colours and I made the mistake of cutting the backing fabric corners out which made it start to fray a little which I quickly hid with ribbon!! Thank you to Carol for the link which provided the instructions. It's far from perfect but I am very proud of it - even if I may say so myself!

It is a freebie from Carriage House back when they were called Barrick Samplers and stitched x2 on 32 count linen and uses NPI silks. Thanks for looking.

New Stash arrived!

First of all a huge thank you to Tracy (maddixie) for sending me the Patchwork piece she charted for me. It is so kind of you to do it and it will save me a huge job in the future.

Yesterday half of the stash I ordered came from Thread Bear and just as Cheryl said, they cam ebeautifully wrapped in tissue and ribbons. So here is the first Loose Feather's Club chart of the year with the precut fabric and also Polly Wolly Doodle and Glad Tidings.

What I also like about this store is that they have done DMC conversions for all the different types of threads that are coded on some charts like WDW and Gentle arts etc... So I am still waiting for the Most Noble Pursuit chart and the linen and the thread pack of NPIs as they are still on their way from the US I'd imagine. Now I am sticking to my goal of "No New Starts" this month so I will just have to drool over my new charts for a bit!!!

Here is an update on Cheryl's Bouquet. I am three quarters done on this now so I should definitely meet my April goal and get it finished. It's such a nice one to do!

I have been getting back into my Dreaming Mermaid but it is slow going so I will post an update when I have done more on it.
And finally thought I'd post a pic of my other puss Scratchy. She is a bit scatty and it's difficult to get a pic of her at times but here she is. Little cutey!


Hope everyone has a blessed Easter and that you don't get sick on creme eggs (Cheryl!!)!!
Hugs
x

April Goals

Okay just a quickie post today. I have been rubbish at meeting my goals especially my HAED goal which was to complete page 4 of Dreaming Mermaid. I haven't even picked it up since February! So this month I really do need to dedicate some time to it. So here goes:
1. Finish page 4 of HAED Dreaming Mermaid (I will, I will, I will!!)

2. Finish Cheryl's Bouquet (easy this one, I know I can do this)

3. No new starts (this may be a bit more difficult)

4. Work on Twilight Shimmer for the SAL which I'm not sure when it is this month perhaps someone can remind me)

So if I am a bit quiet online this month, you all know why!!
Hugs to everyone who comments and visits my blog. I appreciate you all so much. I so love this community of stitchers!

Hugsxx

Interesting day

What a day!! My little car, which is very old but still fairly reliable, was hit today. I was on a roundabout turning right and another car came onto the roundabout whilst I was still on it and smashed my light and a bit of the bonnet in. I was very nice about it. I really hate it when I see people shouting and screaming at each other on the road. My insurance company have told me that the car will probably be wrote off which means I will only get the bottom value of the car. So we will see what happens. Thankfully no one was hurt and my dd was not in the car at the time. So for the time being I will be on foot. Hopefully the weather will stay nice for a bit. It has been glorious the last couple of days.

On to a nicer note - I phoned Thread Bear up and have ordered A Most Noble Pursuit and the thread pack and the linen. Also the La D Da chart Polly Wolly Doodle. It uses NPI silks three of which are in the thread pack and I will need three more. Kate at Thread Bear said she would order the three threads in for me but agreed I could probably get away with substitute colours from the thread pack. I have a few NPIs at home too. So what I saved in not buying the extra threads, I ordered a blackbird chart Glad Tidings.

I have also joined the Loose Feathers club and ticked to get the linen cut as well. Apparently I got the last space!! So that is something to look forward to every other month. Okay I'm going to chill out now!
xx

An afternoon at Chatsworth

We had a lovely day today. After Church, the weather was so beautiful we decided to go for a drive out to Chatsworth house.

It is only about 40 mins away in the car and is a beautiful piece of the English countryside. The have animals there that you can touch and handle and a great play area so fab for Lily!! I think DH enyoyed himself on the play equipment too! Here's a pic of Lily holding one of the guinea pigs called Bracken.



Heres one of Lily on the roundabout.

A fun day in all even though it cost a fortune - £15 for the three of us to get into the adventure playground and £15 for lunch which was a kids box, a sandwich and a bowl of salad and 2 cakes!! No drinks!!! Anyway it was a lot of fun.

Stitching wise I have been very naughty as I have not touched Dreaming Mermaid in ages and I am not going to meet my monthly goal again for the second month running. However I have been busily stitching away on Cheryl's Buquet as its so nice to do so I am nearly halfway through it now. I think I will keep at it and make it a quick finish then get started back on Dreaming Mermaid. Still not heard about the NP silks from Thread Bare and don't want to place my order till I get all the information off them and order all the stuff together. Here's a pic of Cheryl's Buquet update:


Hope everyone has had a happy weekend and thanks for reading my Blah! I still cannot believe folks are even vaguely interested in anything I have to say!!

I just can't resist!

I have found a wonderful supplier in the UK for all American folk/whimsy samplers! They are called The Thread Bear and I am experiencing wondeful, fast service from them. I wanted to know if they could get hold of this:
"A Most Noble Pursuit" Collaberation sampler plus the linen plus the thread pack of NPI silks. I had a wonderful email off them within a few hours saying they could get the chart and sort out the linen with very reasonable prices and they were also looking into the thread pack prices for me too. They also were very thankful to me for bringing this sampler to their attention! If they haven't got what you want on their website they can still get it to you and their prices seem very very good.
I am wanting to get La D Das Polly Wolly Doodle and the threads to go with it and I am also thinking about joining Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers Club which cost £5.25 every two months for an exclusive design and for an extra £7.25 you can get the R&R Reproductions pre cut fabric to go with it which is a good price I think. I have been wanting to do a Blackbird design so this may be a good opportunity. If you are in the UK (sorry if I sound like I 'm spamming lol they just seem darned good!) you should definately check this company out. Will let you know what I order and how fast I get it. They said about a week for orders from the US which again is pretty good and postage is reasonable too. Will keep you updated but I have a very good feeling about them. Yay!!!

Now I can reveal..

I made this biscornu for Tracy (maddixie) as a special thank you for the lovely Eterna threads she sent me. She got it today so I can now reveal it. It is stitched on 28 ct Quaker cloth using VCs Flame silk. I filled it with lavender so it smells nice (well cos I don't have any other stuffing really lol!)

Been doing a bit on Cheryl's Bouquet but still not touched my Mermie and time is running out for me to meet this month's deadline with it. Just to make things worse Fudgey has given the link to a gorgeous mystery stitch :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TranquillityMysterySamplergroup/
I really want to do a mystery and this one is soo lovley but it is so similar to Patchwork so I think I might pass on it. I would like to do a traditional sampler mystery or something more "folksy" I think. Does anyone know of any up and coming mysteries? By the way, would love to know what your favourite sampler designers are. Which ones are the "Must Stitch" ones? I reckon Little House Needleworks and Carriage House are pretty good. Thinking about doing a Long Dog too. Any suggestions for a future shopping list lol.
Happy stitching.
x

Stitching update

Had a wonderful weekend. Mother's day for us in the UK on Sunday and it was fab! I bought some chocolate croissants for my breakfast on Saturday and DH took DD out on Saturday to get me something whilst I had coffee with a friend in Borders. On Sunday DH heated up the croissants and brought them to me in bed - a first i think!! Then I went downstairs and he had got dd to colour me in a card he had bought from church a couple weeks before. He is learning!! She had bought me these fab wellies lol and a bottle of Angel Perfume by Thierri Mugler.
Went to visit my mum and my brother and my two sisters were all up with hubbies and kids. She loved the biscornu. So that was a nice day all in all.

Stitch wise been a busy bee lately. Can't say everything as some is secret for now. Here's an update of Cheryl's Bouquet. I have done a quarter of it now. This will really be a quick one and its so nice to do.


Been having a browse on ebay for buttons. There are hundreds of them! I had a bag of buttons somewhere but I can't find them since we moved. I really love buttons. I love looking through them and sorting them. It must take me back as a child or something.

Nice night tonight to look forward to. Just bought the new James Bond DVD so me and hubby are going to cuddle up and watch it tonight with some Nachos with cheese and salsa and soured cream and chocolate cake and those scrummy Lindt choccy bullet thingys. Yeah I know, just as I am doing so well with my diet but hey one night off is fine!! So enjoy your stitching week everyone and thanks for reading and commenting and I love new people commenting too. Everyone welcome!
xx

Cheryl's Bouquet Started

Here is a pic of my progress on Cheryl's Bouquet. I am stitching it on Polstitches 32 count "Fallen leaves" 2x2 using Carrie's Autumn Leaves threads. I am having a lot of fun stitching this and I really don't think it will take me too long if I don't leave big gaps in between stitching it.

So I really need to get cracking on Mermie and Half Sick - too many BAPs thinks I.
Hugs to everyone reading.

What flower am I???

mmmmmmm this is interesting. Quite like me I think.

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

Twilight Shimmer started

Okay here's my pic of my HAED Twilight Shimmer qs started as part of the SAL Challenge. I am only going to be working on this one weekend a month during the SAL challenge so it may be a bit of a slow to complete one. However I think I did a fair bit of it for the first month. It just looks so boring and blue. Not my favourite colours I must say. Anyhoo I am quite glad its over with as now I can stitch on something else. I really got to get ahead on my mermie and my patchwork and my Half Sick. Oh where do I get the time???

My First Biscornu!

Well here is my first ever biscornu but it will certainly not be the last. I can't believe how easy it was to finish this. I always struggling with the finishing of stuff and this technique gives a really neat finish. I have stuffed it with lavender and am going to give it my mum for Mother's Day (We have it early in the UK). I stitched it with Carries Creations thread "banana split" on 28 count quaker cloth.


Been having a good go at the SAL this weekend for Tha HAED SAL challenge. Have managed about 800 stitches so far but will post pics after Monday when the SAL is finished.

Also here's my Draeming Mermaid. I am so excited about this as I am starting to put some colour in that tail of hers. I think I am going to call her "Joleen" after Dolly Partons song as there is a line in it that goes.. "With flaming locks of Auburn Hair"!!!


Also did a bit of internet window shopping at Wyndham Needleworks yesterday and the cart was at $170 and I hadnt even started!! So will leave it for now lol.

Hope you are all well and have a fun stitchy weekend.

What a lovely day!

and it isn't even my birthday!! Today I received a beautiful gift from Tracy. Four Eterna silks and a VC silk!! They are soo beautiful. I have never seen Eternas before. Here's a pic.


I can't wait to try them out on my Patchwork. They are so silky soft and shiny. Gorgeous colours too. But that's not all. I also received my little package from Jayne's attic as well.

This is the Polstitches fabric Fallen Leaves and the Carries threads Autumn Leaves that I'll be doing the tribute to Cheryl on. As you can see I also succumbed to buying the Ink Circles Cirque de Cirque chart so I can knock that off my wishlist now! I have yet to decide on fabrics and threads for this though so I am not starting it yet! Also in the pic is the VC thread which Jayne sent me for 1p! Bit confusing though as VCs arent stocked by her so I'll maybe email to check that one. Be great if they were, although I got to say that Vikki is very fast at getting her threads out!
But that is still not all.. Ages ago I completed Rapunzel on some opalescent fabris from silkweavers. It's taken me ages (due to house move etc..) but I finally got it into my lady who makes my stitching up into cushions. I got it back today! The pic doesn't do it justice. It's for my dds room and she wanted it very girly. I think she has done a fab job. Here she is.


Can it get any more exciting?? Yes it can. My DD wanted me to make her a special cake named after her. Now I'm not great at cake making let alone designing one so don't laugh at this. This is her Lily cake! It's lemon sponge with chocolate buttercream and lemon icing with chocolate buttons on the top. Not tasted it yet. I got a feeling it will be a very sweet one.


Now, I phoned my sister up and she remined me that it will be Mother's day on Sunday 18th March which is so close!! I thought it was the end of the month. So I have decided to try out the Biscornu. I have printed off some patterns and will do them in some variegated threads. The cross stitching is the easy part, it's the finishing bit that I always find difficult. However the instructions make it look easy (don't they always) so I'm going to give it a go and fill it with lavender.

Okay that's me done. Happy Stitching everyone. Thanks for all your comments, they brighten my days no end.
xx

Okay My arm's been twisted!

I have had my arm twisted (you know who you are!!) to start the HAED SAL Challenge where you work on one project for one weekend in each month for a minimum of ten months. This month, being March, is the last month by which you can join. So I have decided what better occasion than to have a New Start to go along with it. I have decided to stitch Rachel Anderson's Twilight Shimmer which was a RAK given to me by Louanne (Thank you Louanne!) and I'll stitch it on the 25 count dublin linen that Tracy RAKed me with (Thank you Tracy!!). As I'll only be stitching this for ten weekends I decided on this design as there is a lot of block colour in so I reckon I'll get a half decent amount done. Here is a pic of the end product.



So I will be making my first few stitches on this starting this weekend as it happens the second weekend in every month. Although I don't have all the threads I need for it, I do have some to start off with and I'll get more as I go along. Oh I need help remembering all this.

On another note, I have been invited to a stitch along in Nuneaton. Its quite a drive from me and don't know if I'll be able to go. It would be nice to meet some of the folks I have chatted to online and see some of the gorgeous stitching for real instead of thumbnails lol. Is anyone going to this?

The Bouquet for Cheryl SAL has started and I haven't got the fabric or threads for it yet!! I feel a shopping spree coming on. I also want to do a biscornu with the help of the link Tracy sent me. Where will I get the time. I think I'm definately in need of doing a rotation.

Whilst I'm on I may as well do my March stitching goals.

March Stitching Goals

1. Finish page 4 of Dreaming Mermaid
2. Start Twilight Shimmer 9th - 12th March SAL
3. Work on Patchwork
4. Work on Half Sick of Shadows
5. Get fabric and threads kitted up for Cheryl's Tribute.

Thats it.
Happy stitching this week folks.xx

I got Tagged!!!

I got tagged by Polly Extremely gentles blog. Here are the rules, as she explains them in her blog.

Five Questions.. and Five Things…

For the first part, 5 Questions - my dear readers can ask me five questions–either in comments or feel free to email them if you’d prefer. I’ll answer them in the blog as soon as time allows.

For the second, Five Things About Me:

Here are the rules:
1. Get tagged.
2. List five things that have not been revealed on your blog.
3. Tag five others.

Ok then five things ermmmmm....
1. I am a Christian. Became a Christian when I was 17 years old. Not just in name - the real mcCoy.

2. I used to be a witch before I was a Christian and I was really depressed. I had a breakdown and left home with nowhere to go. I talked to a christian woman about witchcraft and Satan and she showed me clearly from the Bible who was really in charge. I gave my life to Christ and started a brand new life. Truth I tell you no lie.

3. I lost three stone with Slimming World last year and did hardly, if any, excerise.

4. We have one little girl and hope to adopt a child from China in the future.

5. I hate mornings. I am sooo not a morning person. I can stay up till 12 or 1 but cannot for the life of me get up early. How did I ever manage when I worked??

I tag Maddixie plush Louanne Jenn Carol

Dreaming Mermaid update

So this is her as of 3rd March. Not got an awful lot done but now I can see the outline of her tail.

Thought I'd take some pics of one of my cats. This is Poppy. She was acting rather coy actually and I found it difficult to get a good one of her. She is such a love but a pest at times. No chance yet of catching the other cat as she is a bit scatty and is probably out playing.

This daft computer...

I love this blogging thing. I really do. It's better than magazines which in my opinion have gone a little downhill recently (same old same old). I love the way you can see all the gorgeous designs that people are stitching. Things that perhaps you'd have never seen stitched before. I love looking into the lives of these serial cross stitchers and realising they're all as nutty as me!! No really its really lovely and I'm enjoying reading everyone's blog and trying to add as many to my list as I can. The problem is... it's soooo darn addictive! I can't get off the comp to do any stitching. It's like I am glued to it and just when I'm ready to switch off and go and sit down with my latest wip, I spot something new. Something that I have never seen before, something that makes me think, "I could do that, woudn't take that long" and before you know it I'm off on an ONS spree searching for the new thing I just gotta have! The thing I'm thinking of right now is all the lovely mystery stiches that are going on!! These are wonderful and just want to look into this some more. Also, so many RRs! Nope have never done one. Just exchanges. RRs seem like too much pressure and too much stitching but hey, I could still look into it, couldn't I? And what of the lovely biscornus I have been spying recently? I am ingnorant, I confess. I don't even know what they are but they are so very pretty and know they would make perfect gifts for someone.

So, now I have finished my blog, no pics today obviously, and so to browse the web for all the afore mentioned. Thanks for reading!
xx

Patchwork update

Here is my Patchwork Sampler as of 22nd feb 07. A long slow labour of love but I definitely am loving every single stitch on this. It is wonderful to pick and choose your colours and know that it will still look great even though I am rubbish at putting colours together. Even when you put it down for a bit and then take it up again, it is sooo addictive.

Fabric for tribute?

Thinking of this fabric to do Cheryl's tribute piece in but not sure what threads to do it in. Have gone off the black and gold idea as dmc don't seem to do the thread anymore and don't want to wait for overseas delivery if I get fom hdf.

Cheryl's Tribute

Marc Davis from Needlemania has created a special tribute chart in memory of Cheryl. Although I never met Cheryl in real life - only chatted on the internet - her death has really moved me. The chart is free to anyone who wishes to stitch it and it is a floral square which would look good made up into a cushion. I am now thinking of fabric and threads to choose for it. I do like the overdyed gold thread on black which i have seen done by Marc himself on the Ink circles site. But will have a good look around before I definitely decide one way or the other. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
Happy stitching,
xx

Cheryl Millar has died!!

Well I can't believe Cheryl Millar has died! She was a stitching treasure. It was Cheryl who inspired me to start stitching the Patchwork Sampler through her gorgeous interpretation of the chart. I have stitched it this weekend as a tribute to her. She will be surely missed on all the boards she frequented. So what will I do now about getting the central pannel charted? I don't know whether to just leave it blank or just make up a nice border to put in it. Well seeing as its a long way away, I will leave it for now. Maybe when I get to it I may have some more ideas.

Bye for now.xx

I am Half Sick of Shadows

So here is I am Half Sick of Shadows - Waterhouse. I have now completed 4 pages of this design after I had put it down for a year. It is from a company called Pomegranite needlework company which sadly is no more. The chart is 49 pages in total and I am stitching it on 16 count aida. This was before I discovered stitching over 1 on 25 count. However, saying that, this is a dream to stitch. Soo easy to see where you are up to and you never get lost in the tiny confetti of 25 count. The needle goes through easily too. I think on my next HAED I may do a QS on 18 or 20 count aida. I had a look at some of the pieces done on various counts and I think they all look marvellous!

I have yet to start Stairway to Dreams - Wall, Twighlight Shimmer QS - Anderson, and Mushroom Fairy QS- CCKUIK. Where will I get the time????

Getting to grips with this Blog!

Long time no post!! Got lots to add lots of new stitching catch up but first need to figure this blog thing out!!!

Ok Here's a few pics of some of the projects I am working on at the moment.

This one is the Patchwork sampler by Jan Houtman - took me ages to find the chart. Had to go on a forum etc etc to get to the person who could get it for me!!! Anyway I got it and some gorgeous threads to go with it. Jenifer from Haed board also bought me a Vikki Clayton Voucher so I could get some nice threads for it. Thank you Jenifer!!

That reminds me... the HAED forum, cool place! What a nice bunch of guys hang around there. They specialise in fantasy art designs in cross stitch. As you can imagine the detail is rather intricate but fun to do. Here is Dreaming Mermaid by Molly Harrison that I'm working on. I am nearly finished page 3. Have been waiting to get some threads through which arrived today thankfully so I'll be on my way! As soon as page three is done I will upload more pics.

tbc....

More update

quietly stitching
Here she is after just one week of stitching!! Will get her made into a cushion for dds room. stitched on silkweaver opalescent 10 count aida using 4 strands of thread for coverage.

quietly stitching
An update. Rejoined cross stitching forum for inspiration and boy did I get it. I have updated my webshots album and have nearly completed WOCS Rapunzel design in less tha 2 weeks!! Definitely a speedy finish. Have left my Polar Santa for a while but will get back to it soon.
http://community.webshots.com/user/fairycakes99