Lavender & Lace: Celtic Spring Cross Stitch Progress

Hey everyone, welcome to February, hopefully we will start seeing some nice Spring greenery soon. Speaking of Spring, in my continuing attempts to avoid working on Elegance of the Orient, last post here, I have some progress to show on my Celtic Lady! I really do feel bad that Elegance has once again been passed over, however at least I didn't start something new, that makes it ok, right?

I was looking for a project that had some nice areas of block colour and no back stitching that needed to be done immediately. I wasn't really in the mood for a HAED project, even though Bridge of Wings has some large sections of just one colour. I wanted something that made me feel like I was making tangible progress and Celtic Spring fit that requirement perfectly.

I worked on the swirls of metallic stitching, using 1 strand of the treasure braid instead of 2. I started filling in some of the gaps left from my last session with this piece and worked my way down towards the bottom of the gown. I also got to stitch the shoe, which for some reason I really like. I think it's that it really conveys she is in motion.

I also finished all the cross stitches in her bouquet and I love how it turned out. The yellow roses look so delicate. There is still some more beading to do under the flowers but I'm happy with the progress I made. I was very tempted to fill in her head piece but it's mostly beading and I wasn't in the mood for bead confetti so that will have to wait.

These pictures show the colour of the fabric I'm using quite accurately, which was an issue I was having with my other photos. It's a very delicate pink colour and the evenweave is so soft and comfortable to work with. I even find that the metallics don't shred that much with this fabric, making them much easier to use.

When I manage to get around to this project, it stitches up quite quickly. Hopefully when I start the other season ladies, I won't leave them wallow unfinished for so long.

Well that's my cross stitch project post for this week, hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to follow me on the various social media. I pop up a sneak peep of what my post will be about on Twitter and Instagram on Fridays, so check that out to get an early clue of what's coming up.

Celtic Spring Progress ‐ She is beginning to shine.

Over the last couple of weeks Celtic Spring saw a few days on the frame. I continued working on the dress stitching up the lilac sections. The nice easy blocks started to get broken up with charting for the metallic gold swirls, so I decided to begin filling in those stitches.  I managed to get a nice chunk of solo time to work on this and am very pleased with the progress.

L&L Celtic Spring

When I started this piece, I was so excited to get to work on it that I didn't want to have to wait to get a working copy, silly, silly me. This is by no means the first chart I haven't made a working copy of and have paid the price, having to try to read symbols on the intersections of folds in the chart that have worn away. In an attempt to try and limit the amount of folding and unfolding, I decided to try and do all the stitching in a particular section before moving on. This is part of my reasoning to start filling in the gold detail.

I have to admit that I am in two minds about the difficulty of the metallic stitching in Celtic Spring. When I was filling in the gold on the dark purple section I experimented with both 1 and 2 strands of Treasure Braid (the charted metallics). I decided that I preferred the look of the single strand and so have continued on with that. Having stitched with 2 strands of metallics before I am delighted that I stuck with the single strand as it makes working with the gold thread so much easier.

L&L Celtic Spring, Metallic Swirls

The only problem I really have with the metallic thread is trying to get it through the eye of the needle. I tend to be a ‘smaller needle the better’ kinda gal, especially when working on 28ct evenweave. Therefore I use a size 28 needle, which has a fairly small eye. This normally isn't an issue with the cotton threads but as the metallic starts to come apart as soon as you cut it, it can be a pain to thread. I have Thread Heaven in my sewing box but don't really use it as I wasn't a huge fan of it. Maybe I should give it another try.

Threading needles becomes extremely awkward when coming near the end of my length of thread, with parts of the length magically getting shorter than the others. This results in having to unthread the needle, trim down the length and press my face as close to the back of my work as possible as I try to rethread the needle.

These are all relatively small issues and I don't have nearly as much trouble with Treasure Braid, by Rainbow Gallery, than I have had with some other brands. Do you have difficulty with metallic thread?  Let me know what parts of working with metallics trouble you the most in the comments section below.

First of the Seasonal Ladies - Celtic Spring Progress

Today I have a cross stitching update for you all, hurray. Blossoming Spring hasn't seen any more progress since my last post, however I do have something to show on another Spring themed project. Lavender and Lace Celtic Spring has had some stitches added to it since the last time you all saw it on here.

Last Celtic Spring post: Beating that New Start Itch.

I worked on this piece a few months ago but completely forgot to post it, so here it is today.

L&L Celtic Spring

As many of you know this is the first of four seasonal ladies by Lavender & Lace, with a fifth lady called Celtic Christmas. I have the set of four and am hoping to add Celtic Christmas in the near future. I just adore the look of these projects and I am often torn between these and the Mirabilia Seasonal Queens, of which I have the chart for Autumn.

I am currently stitching this project on a piece of pale pink evenweave which, unfortunately doesn't come across in the photo. This is one of those projects which progresses a lot faster than I would expect, when I actually sit down and work on it that is. There are lots of nice block stitching sections and thankfully very little back stitching. I do the beading as I go, leaving the only time suck, the metallic thread, which isn't all that horrific either.

I pulled this project out for it's photo session and came to the wonderful realisation that I really wanted to sit down with this one today, so hopefully there will be a change in this by the time my next post comes around.

I have also been spending an obscene amount of time on Pinterest of late but have actually tried a project or two from my ever increasing board of craft projects I want to try. I am looking forward to getting to share some of them with you in the near future.

If you would like to check out my Pinterest boards, there is a follow me link on the top right of this blog.

Stitch From Stash and The Experiment to Spend Less

Month: February
Spent: $0.00
Earned: $0.00

Most of my stitching progress this month is from late January and early February. However my budget is going well, with my second no spend month. This year I have started a budget plan and will be trying various techniques to curb my spending in all areas of my life.

Lickle Ted - Christmas Stitch Kit - The World of Cross Stitching

Somebunny to Love - The World of Cross Stitching Issue 179

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient

HAED - Bridge of Wings

Lavender & Lace - Celtic Spring

The first technique I have tested is a reward system. Each week that I manage to make no unnecessary purchases I add a small amount to a fund jar. This will go towards a large treat at the end of the year.  I had to ensure that the reward was neither too big nor too small. Too big and I would find it difficult to find it in my regular budget, too small and it wouldn't feel worth it.

The first lesson I have learned with this technique is never reward yourself in advance. If you decided to give yourself a reward of €5/$5/£5, whatever your currency is, but you reach the end of the week and find that you only have a 10, don't use that for this and next week's goal. Little compromises with myself, like this, is how these attempts at change have collapsed in the past. As soon as I compromise once, it makes it difficult not to do so again.

I am finding this a useful way to keep myself on track. I do have to be very clear about what is an unnecessary spend, for this exercise it is anything I do not need to survive. Here is an example of an unnecessary spend I made recently is, my phone has been crashing apps and become intolerably slow. I decided I would replace it as I use it regularly. Although my old phone was not able to perform the functions I needed to an acceptable standard, it still functioned. Therefore I considered the purchase of the new one as unnecessary and missed out on my reward. As a new phone is a large expense, I debated whether I would forgo my reward for a few weeks, however I decided against such a harsh measure, as it was only a matter of time before my old handset needed replacing.

Do you have any tips or tricks you use to help you stop spending? Please let me know in the comments below. I would be interested in trying them out.

Beating that New Start Itch

A few days ago I got the feeling that most cross stitcher's would recognise, the desire for a new start. I knew I wanted to sit down and stitch but didn't want to work on any of my current projects. I thought maybe a mini would solve the problem and diligently searched through my stash for something to work on.

Unfortunately nothing was calling to me. It was then that I started feeling the lure of the large project. I knew that I had a large number of stunning patterns in my stash, any one of which I could work on. What was the harm in another project, right? I mean it is my hobby and I should enjoy it whatever form it wants to take. 

Alas I have been down that road before and I knew were it would lead, guilt-ville. Starting yet another project would provide a very temporary contentment but soon I would look at my growing number of unfinished projects and be annoyed that I had yet another one to finish. Worse yet, the time I spent on that new start would have been better spent on getting closer to finishing a WIP.

So what did I do? I thought about what it was I was looking forward to in a new project, what about the charts that were calling to me were pulling me in. Here is what I came up with: I wanted some block stitching but not a HAED, I wanted some quick progress. I was in the mood for something pretty, like a fairy pattern or a fancy lady. Lastly I wanted to stitch on a larger count, something around 28ct eveweave.

So off I went to my pile of WIPs to find something that would match my requirements. As soon as I saw Celtic Spring I knew that was the one to fend off the New Start Itch. So I settled down and finished off the last of the darker purples, filling in that section. I felt so much happier at not only having avoided the call of another new project but that managed to get, what is to my brain, a little mini finish within a big project.

Lavender & Lace: Celtic Spring

Every stitcher is different. Some love having lots of projects on the go and others are one at a time crafters. Others fall somewhere in between, like me. I like to have more than one project to work on as I find that I'm not always in the mood for a particular style of stitching and multiple projects gives me the opportunity to switch. However I don't like having too many unfinished projects around.

Whatever type of stitcher you are I hope you at least found this post interesting, for those who are like me and need to keep a limit on the WIP pile I hope you found it helpful. At the very least you might have enjoyed the picture of my Celtic Spring progress.

You can read another tip for New Start Itch in my post : Stitcher's Dilemma

Good luck with fending off that New Start Itch.

Can I do it?

I think it is time to re-evaluate my projects at the moment. I seem to keep bouncing from one to the next and I will never finish anything that way. I am therefore going to try to cut down the projects I am working on to a smaller number. Usually when I do this the only thing I want to work on is the one thing I said I shouldn't and then all my plans collapse. So I think if I have a small number of diverse projects I should find something I like and might just manage a finish or two (hopefully).

So I am going to work on the following:

Bridge of Wings - HAED
QS Clara - HAED
Elegance of the Orient - Dimensions Gold
Majestic Peacock - Dimensions Gold (YOTA)
Mystery Project (Shhhh it's a secret)
Upcoming SAL - details to be released soon.
One mini project - MS Hedgehog

So I have cut out:

QS Literate Dragon - BB SAL
QS Fairy with Butterfly Mask - HAED
QS Oliana Otter - HAED
Aveyond (The Journey) - HAED
Celtic Spring - Lavender & Lace
Awakening - HAED (though I wasn't really working on it anyway)
A Mini project - Some Bunny to love (which I haven't posted here yet)

The plan: work on anything in the top list that takes my fancy, but only that list. Make no new starts (except the upcoming SAL) and once something is finished, a project from the second list will be moved up. The mini project one though will only be replaced by another mini project.

I really hope this will work and I will manage to finish some projects - though now all I can think of is how much I want to work on Celtic Spring :D

My love of WIP's

This is a post to say thanks to all the people out there who post their crafty pictures. At the moment I am in a real stitching place for the last year or so. I usually go through crafting phases where my craft of choice changes, however stitching is my big one at the minute. It means that I do feel bad that my other crafts are neglected.

However I digress. The crux of this post is how much I love looking at WIP's. It is so soothing and relaxing to look at how other people are getting on with their pieces. I love seeing how different projects are coming together. I end up trawling the internet looking for places where people have posted their WIP pics. I really love seeing completed or in progress pieces of charts that I am current stitching, have in my stash or on my wishlist.

So to all you fellow crafters and stitchers out there, a big thank you from me for taking the time to share your work.

I have also been trying to narrow my focus on projects for 2013. I have a number of goals in mind including:

I have to finish Oriental Elegance
I have a secret project I need to get done during the year
I have a project for my OH that he wants me to stitch for him
I want to finish Majestic Peacock
I want to finish QS Fairy with Butterfly Mask
I am planning a new start probably around May of HAED chart Autumn by Jacek Yerka with Spices of your life (Please do check out her brand new blog)
I also want to get the HAED BB SAL piece done.
And somewhere in with all of this, work and study I want to get work on Bridge of Wings done.

Wow that is a long list of things to try and get done. I wonder how many I will achieve. Majestic Peacock is going to be my first YOTA piece and I may have to restrict myself to maybe a week working on a YOTA piece in each month, but not sure yet. This list does not include work on Celtic Spring, QS Clara, QS Olianna, The Journey (Aveyond) or a number of other charts I have on the go :-s

How about you, have you all been thinking about your plans for 2013?

Finally - something to show

I have been working a little bit on Celtic Spring when I have had a little time to spare. Life has been so unbelievably insane lately I haven't gotten much done.

I did manage to get her collar done which is great because she looked a little unsettling with her head just floating there. There are lovely beads in the collar and I should have taken a close shot of them but I forgot. I will next time I promise.

I am now nearly finished the dark purple part of her skirt so hopefully will move onto the light skirt soon, not sure when though.

Well here she is:

Lavender & Lace - Celtic Spring

I have managed to collect the charts for the other seasons over the last month or so. Now all I am missing is the Celtic Christmas one.

Have a great day :)

Still here.....just about

Hey everyone, I am sorry I have been kinda off the radar a little lately. I have been very busy with career and study stuff. However I am hoping things will slow a little in the next couple of weeks.

Also my OH decided that getting me to play Skyrim just wasn't enough and has now started me on Mass Effect (the first one) as well!!! I won't go into the details for the sake of all those who are not into games, needless to say they are both great and are eating into craft time. I know there are some crafters out there who can sympathise.

Oh well, I do have a small update on Celtic Spring, I think she is coming along quite nicely though not particularly fast. She has quite a lot of beading in her which I am doing as I go along.

Lavender & Lace: Celtic Spring

Hope you are all doing great out there in blog land.

Celtic Spring - She has a face!

I just love the look of the face and hair of these Lavender and Lace ladies, so I decided I would do the one on my Celtic Spring project. (Also it kind of freaks me out when they are a headless project and I think this addition changes the whole look of a WIP.)

L & L - Celtic Spring

I have been wondering what exactly readers look for from an interesting craft blog. Do you like just project pictures, interesting non crafty posts, fun questions and links either about craft stuff or just general things? I would love to know so I can make my blog more enjoyable, so feel free to make any suggestions you might have.

I decided I would share one of my little crafty quirks. Every night when I finish working on a project I prop it up on my bedside table so I can look at it and plan my next area to work on. I also find it difficult to see the picture forming when working on a project, so this way I can also get a clear idea of how it is coming together. Does anyone else do something similar or have their own little strange craft rituals? (I do the same with cards I make.)

IHSW

Ok so The Dreamer is finished, so the question was what now. I thought I would do some work on Celtic Spring by Lavender & Lace. I started this one last year but did very little work on it . I only had Saturday to Hermit, as I was out visiting on Sunday so here is some progress on her.

L & L - Celtic Spring

I really like the Celtic Ladies set by Lavender and Lace and hopefully I will manage to get the whole set of five done. Though where I would put them I have no idea!

I also have been doing a little bit on HAED Fairy with Butterfly Mask, have been working away at page 2 and hoping to get a page finish fairly soon.

HAED - QS Fairy with Butterfly Mask

Hope everyone had a good weekend and have a great week.

Celtic Spring update

Here is my progress so far on Celtic Spring, not much to show for myself but I am liking working with the metallic thread.

I really hope I will be able to get this completed for Christmas.

Celtic Spring

I have decided to stitch Lavender and Lace Celtic Spring for my mother for Christmas. I have started it and am working on a lovely light pink Jobelan 28ct evenweave fabric. I am stitching 2 over 2 which I have never done before.

I did find the 2 over 2 hard on the evenweave at first until I laid down the first stitches, once that was done it became easier as I could just reference from the original stitches.

It is also the first time I have used Treasure Braid Petite. As this thread can not be divided into strands I was unsure whether I should double up on it or just use it as is. I tried both and decided that I preferred the look of using it as it is. Doubling up on it made it too bulky.

I do love the look of the gold braid. However I do find it difficult to work with as it can be very difficult to thread. I must try using thread heaven with it and see if that makes it easier to pull through the fabric.

This is one of a set of four Celtic Season cross stitches, so I may end up doing all four but not sure yet.

I will add pictures of my progress as I go.