Oopzz, I bought new charts!

On the very last day of HAED Sales, as a result of some over excitement with HAED's brand new releases, I ended up build another floor of charts in my stash. But look, it is too beautiful to resist. So I just want to share with you guys the new charts that I have bought.

Tales of the Red Swans by Aimee Steward

Dancing like a Dervish with Fox by Aimee Steward

Swimming Lessons by Jacek Yerka

SK Effects of Caffeine by Randal Spangler

Hmpf by Suzanne Gyseman. Look at him! So cute owl!

Snow wizard by Randal Spangler

So there are 2 charts by Aimee Steward and 2 charts by Randal Spangler. Joining the list of my fav designers until now is Jacek Yerka and Gyseman. Their charts are so funny and funky. I would love to kick a new start right now, it is so fun!

How do you guys think? Not too bad choice right!

xoxo

Gwen

101 Curiosity: How do you guys normally stitch?

Hi guys

I know that there are many of my fellow bloggers have already brought some of the stitching issues in their blogs with fantastic solutions but I have to pre claim that this blog is all about my curiosity about the problems that you guys met while stitching HAED.

As everybody probably knows that HAED charts are fairly big and require a good period of time to complete. HAED is always a challenge yet a pleasure to any stitchers.

Curiosity 1: Thread organization

Do you guys order thread for each chart or have a whole collection of DMC thread to sort by yourself?
How do you arrange thread for each project?

For me, I have a collection to sort out by myself. When there are colors that requires more than 5 (yes I have 5 collections of DMC, oopzzz), I will go down to the store or order online. I pre-sort threads before stitching and make something like this to keep those threads close to me:

 Curiosity 2: Hoops or frame?

I love hoops but frame does justice to HAED in my opinion. I experienced Qsnap, lap frame and millennium  frame while stitching DCD but I feel most comfortable with millennium frame as it does not mark my fabric and comfortably stretch the fabric to the tension that I wish for.

Curiosity 3: Cross country or parking method?

I have been trying both method in my current project. As HAED is fairly big, I divided each page in quarters and fill up with cross country method. It is really time consuming. Besides, I often mis-counted the symbols and led to unsatisfactory result. Good thing about cross country is I can keep the back of the fabric clean looking. On the other hands, parking method helps me to finish every single block neater and faster. For now, I am quite happy with this method except for the fact that the back of the fabric scares me out every time I attempt to look at it.

Overall, I think stitching method is very personal and it works differently depends on each stitcher's taste.

How do you guys think?

xoxo

Gwen

DCD: Finished page 3 and new stash for the hardwork!

Hi guys

Apologies for all of the waiting. I have been stitching and ... frogging DCD for the past week. It was a pleasant stitching yet a nightmare of confetti with bunches of same peachy and pinky colors. When I first started this chart I could not differentiate all of similar colors in the pattern and totally did not understand why do we need so many similar colors for all-looking-the-same background (this chart contains 89 colors). Having said that I still patiently stitched and stitched. Let me tell you, it is well paid off. If we view the stitched part from far, we can definitely realize the differences and can tell if we stitched wrong color. And it is so detailed. I love it.

So here the progress:

Page 3, as of May 2nd (yellow lighting)

(natural lighting)

My goal setting:

12 pages more to go!

Comparison to previous finish:

Before

After

Details of the transformation of Dandelion fairy:

For new stash, as you might know HAED extended its 45% off sale to May 10. I thought that I would just ignore it but you know... I just can't. So I bought this lovely chart, a new chart from HAED by Spangler: I LOVE YOU (Click here for the chart). Oh i love you little dragon. And I love you too all of my fellow bloggers.

Have you bought any new charts during the sale? Any progress on your W.I.P? Please share with me cause I'd love to hear!

Till then!

xoxo

Gwen

Dandelion Clock Dance: Finished Page 2 and more + New start Merlin and Arthur

Hi guys

I know I have been disappearing ever since I posted a blog about setting an extreme goal on this project. And obviously I failed to meet that goal sigh! Moving house drove me crazy but at last I could sit down and give me sometime to post some update.

Page 2 finished on April 1st

 1/4 page 3 finished on April 20th

The other day when I  was listening to 'If life is so short' by the Moffats, I realized that I wasted so many of my time in the past. I have also learnt that setting a strict goal is also very important in time management strategy. I will try to update as much as I can here about my stitching project to see how far I have gone through.

So here is a new start ready for April circulation:

Merlin and Arthur by Scott Gustafason
Heaven and Earth Designs

Stitching on Dublin line (Zweigart 25 count)
Starting date: April 1st

I love this artwork very very very much, a fairy tale and yet an amazing artwork by talented Scott Gustafason.

Do you have any new start this month? Please share with me!

xoxo

Gwen

Dandelion Clock Dance and messy table

A snapshot of my messy stitching table...

Can't wait to see you guys' stitching corner!

xoxo

Gwen

UFO updates

Hi folks!

I know, I dissapeared for so long. I had too many work commitments these months for some art exchange projects and eventually unable to make any "remarkable" progress so far. 

So no updates for Dandelion Clock Dance.

I brought Dimension Gold "Sanctuary Shells" with me during my business trip to Japan and managed to  finish it 2 weeks ago. I gave it to my friend as a gift and here is the photo taken by her.

Before

After

Hope in the next blog I can bring you guys some updates on Dandelion Clock Dance!

See you then!

xoxo

Setting goal for Dandelion Clock Dance

Hi there

I was so unproductive these days with totally no excuse. My goal setting is to finish DCD is by the end of April but look at this, I haven't even finish page 2 since November! Such a disaster.

So I was thinking again how to meet my goal within 2 months. I was surfing on the Internet to find inspiration from stitchers around the world. And I found a fabulous stitcher from Japan KOMARI and her stitching was stunning. The thing that impressed me most is how she sets her goal 3-4 days 1 A4 page!  I totally do not know how she did it but i'm sure she must have amazing skills.

Well, I know I can't set  a 3 day-goal like her but I should follow a strict schedule in order to finish it. 5 days/page! How does it sound? hmmm hmmm. It means I will have to finish 13 left over pages in next 65 days ( approximately 2 months). Here is the breakdown image for your reference (and my own reference too). I will try to keep my project update to see how far I can go. Hahaha but it sounds so ridiculous :))