Happy Xmas! Yule Fairy

Happy Xmas!!

After almost 2 years of stitching i finished Yule Fairy but put her away as she is my Mums Xmas present. I found some lovely fabric in my local fabric shop and that very night i sat down to finish sewing the stocking.

It has turned out a lot better then i thought! The toes and heel are still a little boxy- as i have found on the other stockings i made- but nowhere near as bad as i expected. The sewing machine played nice so i managed to finishing sewing it after only 3 attempts at rethreading! Thats a record! I think i am finally getting better at sewing....

I thought i would include a photo of my Mum receiving the stocking Xmas day. Shes just starting to cry....good tears :)

Xmas morning was over so quickly. The kids loved it and was very excited.

Stockings 

 One of Esmai's main presents was a recycled dolls house. This was originally made for my sister almost 15 years ago by a neighbour. My sister has long out grown it so gave it to us for my daughter. It had been pretty beaten up, all solid but the door and windows were hanging off and it had chewing gum inside.
My partner complete redecorated it, white paint, flooring, fixed the doors and windows, wallpaper and the best bit was it was complete free, we brought some dolls and furniture but the actual house and decorating didn't cost a thing!
She has played with it for hours. Making the dolls walk up and down the stair, over and over and over- telling me off when i dont do it right!

 We made a gingerbread house with the kids. It was the first one we have ever made and it was a disaster!! It was from a kit but the damn thing kept falling apaprt

Quick pic

Just a quick pic. Rawr is almost done- just one more colour left :D

Cheeky little New start....

Just a quick pic of my new start "Rawr!"

Please excuse the creases and gridlines, up next the cutest dinosaur ever except for Ducky from The Land before Time

 

I will post a update of "Smaug" soon as I have done a fair amount before I started "Rawr"

Will update soon....

I have a new project i have started which is going well. i will post photos soon but am crazy busy trying to keep up with Home Education- Esmai has now started joining in- and trying to get the house sorted so i haven't had alot of time to stitch...boo!!!

A rare chance to stitch during the day with my little helper

Esmai snuggled up for almost 30 mins ( a life time for a toddler!) and helped me stitch. She held my chart, helped me count, well upto 3 anyway, and made sure i didn't get distracted by eating my chocolate for me!

I love it when my children take a interest in my hobbies. I remember sitting with my Nan as she stitched. She taught me, maybe one day Esmai will want to learn :)

Wing finished!

I had to frog part of it, i cant work out where i went wrong, but it looks close enough. Im very happy with him. Now onto wing 2! Im not looking forward to pulling out the gridding,which took me nearly 3 days to grid up! I have no where to put this when i have finished, would it be totally insane of me to decorate a entire room around this one piece of stitching? It would infact be the very first piece of stitching that would be have ever been displayed in my home and the first thing i have stitched for myself!

Progress pic- Smaug

Just a quick progress pic, again sorry for poor quality was taken with my iphone :)

Smaug Update

Just a quick post to show my progress. Apologises for the terrible photo i had to use a old phone as one of my little darlings has snapped my SD card i use for my camera.

Nearly sorted....

 Here is my progress on Smaug (Tribal Dragon) not as much as i had hoped but i will get to that soon...

His wing is coming along nicely, i've had a small cock up with how i enlarged the chart so i am have to work on what i can and will be coming back to the bits i have missed out when i get a new printer (tomorrow) as its my birthday on Wednesday!

The move was a nightmare from start to finish! It was a mutual exchange in the same housing accosiation so should have been straight forward and simple, it would have been if my housing officer hadn't taken a disliking to me. She dragged things out for as long as possible, giving information to the other swapper upto 2 weeks before she told me.

The day of the swap i got a message saying not to load anything on the van yet as the lady we was swapping with wasnt sure if she was going to move as she still owed rent. (which she told us had been cleared off weeks ago)
The move started 3 hours later then agreed, which meant i wasnt able to clean her house before we moved in, she had a dog and my son is allergic to dogs.

My mother in law was looking after both the children, i got a phone call half way through the move saying she had lost my 2year old daughter for a little bit but eventually found her, but she would like to bring the kids back soon as she was tired- she has a lot of health problems.

The first night we was here there was a massive argument between the neighbours on either side of us, which ended in the police being involved.

The house in a worse condition then we was lead to believe, only having been able to do 2 house visits before the moved happened we didnt pick up on any of the problems.It also hasnt helped the entire house is wallpapered in 2 layers of lining paper. The HA is now refusing to do any work as its a old house, and i have found too many problems with it, i should lower my standards and be happy. The front and back doors was falling off(literally hanging off) There's cracks and all the plaster in the house has blown. All the windows leak, we had a massive water leak the first night we was here, the floorboards in my daughters room (she now has her own room!!) none of them had been nailed down.  The ceiling in the hallway has started to fall down.The house is a  mess, we have no money to sort it and the HA is refusing to do anything at the moment. We have a inspection on my birthday, lets hope is goes well!!

The kids have settled well. Esmai moved into her own room for the first time the first night we was here. Shes taken to it very well and i cant wait to decorate it. Connor has made friends of different ages, he is constantly playing out the front at the first chance he gets!

Return of Smaug!!! ( Tribal Dragon)

 After Finishing Yule Fairy i have decided to continue working on Tribal dragon by Sparklies. I have only done a little partly as the holes are so small and i need my eyes testing.

What it looked like when i stopped

How it looks now

I dont know how far i will get with this before he has to go away ( were moving in a few weeks) but hopefully i can get a good chunk of the wing done.
I am planning on treating myself for my birthday and getting the threads for one of my HAED designs but its going to be awhile because of the move. I also need to choose a new chart as part of HAEDs reward program, i just dont know what!!

Yule Fairy - FINISHED

After almost 2 long years she is finally finished! 

Just some very quick photos as she hasn't been dried or ironed yet. 

Now the hunt for some backing fabric begins! 

SOOO CLOSE!!!

Only the white left to do then i am finished! In one way im excited  in another kinda sad, this has been a massive part of  my life for almost 2 years, and its almost finished. 

Page finish

How she looks overall 

Yule fairy update

Just a quick pic of progress. This is about half the last page done....not too long now!!

Just 1 more page left!

Last night i finished the 2nd to last page!

The dress part finished

Page finished

My Stitchey stalker. 

More progress then i thought!

I have spent 2 nights working on my sewing, the rest of the time i have been working (the boring kind)

I was surprised at how much i had managed to get done. I didn't realize how much until i looked at my last update. I would hate to jinx myself but *whispers* I think i might have it done in time for Xmas this year!.....Maybe. A year late is better then never ....right?

Yesterday we went down to a local park with my parents. It was the first time in ages they have been able to come down and play with the kids, due to everyone's health problems. My Dad had more fun then the kids and i expect he would have slept well last night as he was charging round the park chasing the kids, who of course loved being chased by the child eating Ogre! 

It feels like ages since i have updated how the Sprogs are getting on:

Connor: Is really enjoying being home Educated. All the nightmares have gone! He is growing in confidence. He never fails to surprise me with his love of learning, which has made a recent reappearance. He is struggling with a bad bout of hay-fever at the moment so is having to take meds daily. Its his birthday in 15 days. He is massively over excited.

Esmai: We have hit the Terrible 2's a little early. She is into climbing everything and anything. She is sleeping better and slowly stopping boobie. She loves anything vaguely baby shaped or furry and has a fascination with her coat and the word "Nooooo" and "Stuck"

This went on for almost a hour!

Partial page finish!

PAGE FINISH!!!

I finished this page a few days ago but had run out of another thread. This is the page finished other then the white.

 And a quick reminder how she looks all together 

Bank Holiday progress!

And i had fun stitching this!! 

I have held off posting this as i hoped i would get a hour or 2 during the week to work on it a bit more, but i didn't have a chance, and it don't look like im going to be able to get much more done on it until Monday. I have run out of 2 threads i need so i will pick them up on Monday when i get paid. 

Page 7 black - Done

Hardly any black on this page at all! 

Finally a page finish!

Fresh off the hoop!

Please excuse the hoop marks, its literally just been taken off as i finished the last stitch while the kiddies were eating lunch!

This feels like it has taken forever. 

The flowers look lovely even through they are a confetti nightmare! 

Now this page is finished there are only 4 partial pages left to do!

Quick progress pic

A new start

Unfortunately not a stitching start.... I got a new job, evening work, 5 nights a week cleaning in a office. I start tonight. Its easily been 6 years since i last worked and im so excited its unbelievable! I have no idea how this will affect my stitching as i wont be finishing till 10-11pm

Progress has been so slow! I am really struggling to keep up the motivation to finish this page. I think once i have finished this one i will start to enjoy the stitching more, it just seem to keep dragging on and feel like i have achieved nothing. I think the next pages will stitch up quickly. I might even be able to finish in time for Xmas this year, if im lucky!!

Another page 6 update

Excuse the blurry photo apparently the camera lens wasn't clean

I think this is possibly the longest i have ever spent working on one page. I finished the draping fabric (the last of it in the pattern) which only leaves the background and the flowers. I did manage to tackle a large portion of the back ground last night, which im really happy about as the background seems to make the rest of the design "pop"

It has been a very long and busy week , we have been out every day other then Wednesday. Various Home Ed meets and social dates. Followed by a  birthday party on Saturday for my now 5 yr year old niece and today is going to be spent sorting the house out ,finishing building furniture for Connors bedroom and a roast dinner-which im going to eat too much of! Followed by a mammoth stitching session tonight, where im hoping to get most of the background finished

Dino Hoodie

 

Not alot of stitching to show so i thought i would show you the Dino hoodie i made for Connor. We are covering Dinosaurs at the moment in home-school. I kinda of threw it together in 20 minutes while i was waiting for dinner. It is not neat and the stitching is very poor quality,but now i know what im doing im  planning on making a revised version,which will be neater and planned out a little better. Which will be a good thing as i have now got 2 custom orders to make, one of them being for my 18yr old sister!