Well in the spirit of actively maintaining my blog again I have a stitching update
Inbetween bouts of all too much WoW (World of Warcraft) I managed to finish off page teo of Violet Sometimes.

I love how she is turning out … well all except the very white accent stitches on the tip of the curl on the central swirly bit. You only really have to look at the picture and see the spot that looks like I missed two stitches. I am thinking of swapping those two stitches out for one of the greys often used on the other accents but will leave it for now. Maybe they won’t be so obvious once the surrounding pages are done.

This is now 7.6% done one more page and I will break the 10% mark

So just a few quick pics for the end of september. It was the 5th weekend defunct artists SAL this weekend just past and while my stitching time was a little dis-jointed I did manage about 600-700ish stitches (mostly black)

And finally an update on Belladonna I am very close to having her eye complete … just a few single stitches to go so I thought I would post an update anyway. I would love to spend more time on her but the chance very rarely seems to present itself.

I’ll post how I went with my goals a little later today along with some new ones. I think this month will be mad obligation stitching month.

Thanks for the comments on the new layout. I really like it too I just need to get my percentage bars etc back and fiddle around with it a little more.

Woops… I have been reminded somewhat lately that I have been neglectful of my blogging duties. I just never seem to have found the time or had the inclination to blog for a while. Which is kind of odd because I have had quite a bit to blog about since July. So what have I been up to?

Lets see.. not long after my last blog post I ran away to Melbourne for a week. It was kind of a spur of the moment, hell I need to get away from here kind of thing. The trip was just what the doctor ordered too. It was loads of fun and I was lucky enough to have the chance to catch up with the wonderful Nancy and Sharon for lunch and stitchy chat :D. There are a few photos to be found here but not all of them have been uploaded yet just a few from the trip we made out to St Kilda and a couple from about the place.
I have more of the wine tour we went on (yummy!) and a few other bits a pieces as well that I will upload to flickr once I get home to the computer they are on. This last trip to Melbourne has pretty much set in stone that it is somewhere I really could see myself living, so plans are in motion for that to happen as of October 2008 and I can’t wait. I have dreams of owning a little terrace house somewhere around Brunswick St in Fitzroy, or at least that close to the city. I really feel like I “fit” in Melbourne though I am sure the dream will be much more glamorous than the reality for now I am happy to be delusional :p

As always there was a fantasitc array of restaurants offering a huge variety of food. The stand out for this trip though was a great little mexican bar come restaurant called Mi Corazon. It was somewhat of an adventure getting there with the discovery that Lygon street actually starts from 1 again at around 2000 so it was a very long walk to find 462. But after a few phone calls, sore feet and some persistence we eventually found the place. All that for some mexican hot chocolate with Chillie but it was so good… and so were the margaritas.. oh and the food too.

Other than running about the countryside and making grand plans to move a few thousand kilometres south I have been busy with the evils of my PhD but making slow progress, which is better than none. There is sitll hope to be out of the Lab and writing full time within the next few months but for the moment I am just trying to make each day as productive as possible so I don’t feel to overwhlmed by what there is left to do. The goal remains to have this done and dusted by February so I suspect my stress levels will only rise from here on in. Bring on the chocolate! lol
To keep myself as sane (or as close as I am want to pretend at least) I have been baking .. yep my cupcake obsession still grows with each week and I now own more than a few books dedicated to these sweet littlw morsels. Pictures of my latest baking adventures can be found here. The list of recipes I want to try isn’t getting any shorter that is for sure. While in melbourne I picked up some must use ingredients like Saffron syrup and some mexican chocolate. I am also all inspired to make Horchata cupcakes which will be based on the incredibly yummy mexican rice based drink Horchata (ooo it was so good and being lactose free it was something creamy that didn’t leave me in pain and sick afterwards).

There has also been knitting… being all officially car-less now (it has passed on into the wreckers hands) bus travel has meant time to knit. So far I have finished 2 scarves and I am over halfway with a long sleeved rib and lace shrug. No pictures though but I am enjoying knitting again. It had been about 12 years or more since I seriously picked up a pair of knitting needles so it took a bit to get back into the groove.

And of course there has been stitching… I am quite happy with the progress I have been making on some of my wips of late so here comes the picture intensive part of this post. Most people will possibly have seen these posted about but I wanted to collect them together on my blog.
First up is Lisa Victorias Lost Quick Stitch. I am almost at 50% with this guy and have finished 2 complete pages and started in on page 3. I am doubting the likelihood of finishing him this year but I still plan to give it my best shot. He is stiching up so well and even though there are 90 colours in this chart it moves along at a fairly good pace. Most of the detail stitches tend to gather around the edges between the highly detailed dragon and the plainer background.
I had another page finish this month too with the first page of Violet Sometimes Originally I was a little concerned that the striped candy cane like swirlies would get lost in the background being as it is mostly 939 and the stipes are black and purple. Originally it seemed like there wouldn’t be quite enough definition, with the whole page done now though you can clearly see them and I htink the more that is completed the picture will really start to come together.
Taliking about Violet reminds me … I went to see The CURE play live at the beginning of august!! I was hoping they would play charlotte sometimes which is what this piece always reminds me of.. but no luck there. The show was awesome though with the band playing a massive three hour show. *bounce*
Wow so much … I guess this is my punishment for not blogging for so long. For those of you still reading my blather I have a few more pics.
I finally got around to taking pictures of Dianes Round Robin and I am really happy with how my selection stitched up(the whole RR so far can be found here). I chose to stitch a section from Keeper of Secrets by Selena Fenech for Diane, her theme was faces. This artwork is amazing but know I am never likely to stich the whole thing so this seemed like a great opportunity to get to stitch just a portion of it. For anyone thinking of stitching this.. Do! her hair is just sublime to stitch and looks fantastic in person the shading is remarkable.

I have also stitched a little more on cirques but nothing worth showing yet and did more of Aredhel for the long past 5th weekend SAL. I never posted a picture of her though (sorry fudgey) I will be sure to add one to this post (probably just a link though as this is way too long already) when I get home. I think I even added a little colour to her last time… but not much :p If I am right we shoudl be able to get ehr out again this month. I will need to check my calendar to make sure.
I have been trying really hard to keep up with the SALs as they keep what little stitching time I have somewhat focused and remind me that I am making some progress. In spite of the fact that the SAL always seems to fall on what ends up being a very busy weekend for me I made a little more progres on Return of Srping for the august challenge SAL. I had hoped that hainving this as my challenge pice this year I would make good progress but 8 months in I still haven’t even finished a page .. I htink I am just too easily distracted.

Which leads me to this past weekend where against my better judgement I joined in with the new start SAL over on the HAED BB. With close to 20 wip on the go the last thing I really needed was a new start but I have no will power so I caved with little to no pressure having to be applied. Really I think I am always looking for an excuse for a new start so I couldn’t pass up such a good one as the SAL
I didn’t get to stitch all weekend like I had hoped but did manage a really good amount friday night when Nic and I had an impromptu stitching / DVD night (almost finished watching the rest of Escaflowne) I even managed to get Nic to have a new start too ;P hehe.
My Start was Broken angel by Meredith Dillman and I have to say she is just wonderful to stitch. I think I came close to getting 2000 stitches done with about 1200 or more of those being done friday night. I would love to keep stitching on her but I don’t think I can fit her in just yet. I still want to try and meet my HAED goals for the year… lol, not that it is likely but I can still hope. I look at it this way putting her to the side will just give me all the more incentive to finish Lost.

Ok if you have made it this far I am very very impressed and thank you hehe. I promise not to take so long to update again. I have been really bad with commenting on other peoples blogs lately too… worse than usualy even. So sorry everyone I have been reading blogs but have just been a bit quiet. Oh and Nicki.. if you still check here the carries creation threads stitch up really well and I compared them to weeks dye works and they feel much the same. I meant to email you but I am notsure I have all your current details.

When I emailed a certain pixie about the 5th Weekend SAL coming up I was actually referring to the end of July… June completely slipped my mind lol.
Even to the point that the post on the BB I just thought was being early to allow people to possibly participate this time.
Yes I am dull… and getting more so by the day it would seem.

By sunday night it finally clicked with a the thought “Hey fudgey is stitching on Aredhel.. that must make this weekend a 5th weekend too” Doh.
So I quickly grabbed out my trusty 310 and managed 600ish stitches. I promise that for the July 5th weekend I will put a little more colour into her Fudgey but this time I was going for maximum number of stitches in least amount of time
I have reached a milestone of sorts though…

I have officially started into the black abyss that is page 7 with all the main areas of 310 being done on page 1. It will take me years to ever reach her beautiful face and hair at this rate.

Just a really quick update (I have been lax again) with a few pics of what I have been up to lately. There hasn’t really been much stitching for the past week but I did participate in the Challenge SAL and I also have an update of cirques because i seem to have not given one for a very long time. I have almost used one skein of waterlillies on cirques now. The twelve stranded skeins seem to last forever especially with 1 stand over 2 on 40ct.

Yes it is true your eyes do not decieve you two updates in two days! I can’t promise it will continue but I will try. lol. I wonder if anyone is even still reading my bolg
Well just in case, here are a few stitchy updates. There isn’t much progress but I have been playing along with a few SALs (easter creature and 5th weekend potts/daniels on the HAED BB) and early on in March I even managed a little time on Violet. So on to the piccies (in reverse chronological order or something to that effect)

Sorry for the incredibly blurry pic of violet I was in a rush to get soem pictures to finally post this morning before I left for Uni and I didn’t realise how bad it was.

I know cheesy title but it was either labelling my post this or dredging up the lyrics to the Cures “Charlotte Sometimes” I think this has decidedly cheerier characteristics, especially seeing as I am posting about my new start

I started Violet Sometimes! Mr B ordered the chart and much to my surprise had it within 24 hours of its realease so once I had sorted out my fabric dilemma I was able to start putting stitches into her late last week.
She is a dream to stitch so far and I think will be huge amounts of fun. As usual I started in the top left hand corner but I have already hit some of the stripey purple and black candy cane. The contrast is not as defined as in the original artwork but it looks great in person and I am happy with how it is looking. She is being stitched on 28ct Jobelan (of course) antique white 1×1, this is about 1600 stitches. I have had to put her aside for a bit now though so I can get Nics RR finished. I can see her getting lots of attention though when I don’t have other commitments.

I have been negelectful of my blog again.
The past week was somewhat hectic and kept me away from the computer, not always a bad thing really.
I do have some pictures to post though. One was meant to go up over a week ago… woops.
I managed more on cirques this month than I expected, it really does stitch up quickly given that I haven’t out all that many hours into this piece so far. This is most of the first page barring the larger circle motif. Unfortunately the colours still aren’t showing when I scan it or photograph it. The blend through green to burgundy and into purple and deep blue tones is really lovely in this silk.

Oh … speaking of silks Nic and I discovered last week that my current hair colour is a match for Glorianas “ultraviolet” in case anyone is at all interested. I found it somewhat amusing to haev a silk refenence for my hair. We worked out one for the last read I had through it as well but I have forgotten it now. I think one of them may have been Glorianas Cranberry.

This weekend was the 2007 Chellenge SAL over on the HAED BB. I had a new start for this : Return of Spring by Ian Daniels. I jsut love this artwork and have it kitted for ages and nevr started it… strange behaviour I know. The weekendkept me busier than I would haev liked but I did manage close to 1000 stitches I think. She is stitched 1×1 on 28ct Jobelan (not sure of the exact colour) the shading in this is quite amazing adn there isn’t a great deal of confettit stitching which is nice.

This weekend just gone was a busy one, there were new starts and 5th weekend SALs to squeeze in around family commitments and friends for the new year. I wsa determined to get soem stitchy time in though and I was somewhat successful.

Firstly, Aredhel (Marc Potts, charted by HAED) for the 5th weekend SAL which I think is still proving to be just Fudgey and I for the most part. I got another 800 stitches of 310 in this time. Another SAL or two and I should be finished all of the 310 for the first page. The page just below this (7) is completely 310 except for maybe 100 or 200 stitches… eeep. At least being a single colour it stitches up fast, I figure that’s good for a design I only stitch on when a 5th weekend falls in a month

Fudgey you need to post a picture of what you have stitched on the girly in your blog so I can be all inspired. *nag pester pester nag*

All last week while I was on “holiday” I was trying to remember what it was I had planned to stitch, I was all jumpy all over the place with what I decided to work on until Friday when I picked up Belladonna’s

Gift and it all clicked… woops. I should write things down more, my memory can be a very fickle beasty. I

only made a small amount of progress on her but you can make out a little more in the shapeless blob now. I have replaced the sparkle in her face with 3865 as it didn’t look quite right in what will be such a drak piece. I want to try and make this somewhat of a focal piece in 2007 so I can make my crazy tote bag. All that will fly out the window if and when Violet Sometimes gets released though. Oh and there is the cute funeral procession one with the little tentacle but I doubt I am in any danger of that ever being charted anyway so I should be safe.

Last but by no means least over the holiday week I caved in to temptation and started Cirques. Sue was all naughty and sent me the chart and the one for blackstone fantasy garden to me for christmas. It was a tough choice but I decided on starting cirques first (mainly because I need to make a lot of thread decisions for blackstone not just the one). I haven’t done much yet but it is so very enjoyable to stitch. I have chosen to do it in Plum silks from the caron waterlillies collection. Nic had given me a skein from her huge silkes order and I just love it. It ranges from deep bottle greend through burgundy and deep purple. The fabric is Silkweavers Atlantic Storm in 40ct Newcastle linen. So far I am liking the combination. I have also realised that I ordered double the number of skeins I will need of the plum silk, I can’t say that I mind overly though , I am sure I will find a use for them eventuall and tehy were on sale from SB&B. Apologies for the picture quality on cirques the light that day was overcast and the camera just didn’t want to focus properly. Next time I will try scanning it instead.

Number 11 is done… woo hoo! only one more to go.

I am still a bit behind on getting packages out to the USA but hopefully they will be off tomorrow, sorry they will be late *begs for forgiveness*.

I have Nics Round robin now too after I wouldn’t let her leave here last night until the outlines were finished. I will take a piccie asap and post it to the album so everyone can see how crazy she is

For now though I must return to stitching the last doomy santa, soon the legion will be complete and I will just have to figure out the best way to finish and afghan… any suggestions?