September 4th

No stitches done since my page finish :(

Having a bit of a downer about it i'm afraid, I sat last night looking through the chart, 23 more pages to go, even if I worked on it as my only project I could do a page in maybe 2 wks, but thats over a year before it would be done, why on earth did I take on such a huge project?

I've just done a thread count & have used around 70 skeins so far, at 85p per skein in theshops thats £59.50 worth of threads alone, add in the fabric & chart & were around £100 already, yikes!! Thankfully I found an ebay seller so my threads cost about half of that price, but its still a huge amount.

I've been tempted more than once to turn it into a UFO to pick up at some time in the future, but as much as she scares me, I imagine just how stunning she will look & it helps. Right now i'm staring at the huge piece of billowing blank fabric wondering if it will ever be filled.

I guess the only thing to do is to put in the first stitch of the page & just take it one stitch at a time. I'm going to try to do daily totals while she is on the hoop, the page contains 7546 stitches

September 3rd 2010, Page Finish!!

Woohoo!! Finally I have finished page 2, one of thebest things about working the project this big, is that while you are stitching you cant see any detail, its not until you take it out of the hoop & lay it out that you realise what you have stitched.

Full size (with a skein of DMC for scale)

Close up

I'm already on page 3, but another thread order will need to be made, I will do a running total of threads used a little later. Page 3 is 7546 stitches, which doesnt sound that many, if I can get the threads in, I hope to have this page finished by the end of September

Update September 2nd 2010

I managed about 1000 stitches yesterday, really pleased with that. Hubby was late home from work, so once children were fed, bathed & in bed I sat down with Twilight on the telly & stitching on my lap last night, bliss.

My husband is working away in Germany all week next week, so i'm planning DVDs for the evenings, of course I will miss him but the quite evenings alone with uninterrupted stitching time will make a nice change.

Speaking of hubby, he has been very sweet & has offered to hit Hobbycraft on the way home from work this evening, which is brilliant I hope they have plenty of 413 in stock!

So about 1800 stitches to the page finish, I could usually do that in a day/night, but were getting ready to go back to school tomorrow, so lots of little jobs to be done, it will be finished by tomorrow night I hope.

September 1st Update

Yay, managed 700 stitches on Night Queen last night, the page finish is just approx 2800 stitches away.

Bad news though, i've worked my way through the 5 skeins of 413 I brought & its looking like i'll run out of a couple of other colours too, this project certainly eats through threads. I wont be able to get to a DMC supplier until Friday, i'll have to do my best to work around the threads I dont have for now.

Then I think another big order of threads is needed, will read through the next page of the chart & try to get everything i'm going to need.

I'm planning 1000 stitches today, but it depends on the floss situation.......................

August 31st Update

I'm such a bad stitcher, I get distracted so easily! I still havent finished the second page, but i'm working on it today & as long as I dont run out of any colours, I should have it finished by the end of the week.

Here is a picture of what distracted me:

Its Zindy Nielson's You & I, another HAED design, this one is stitched 2 over 1 on 28ct fabric in tent stitch, it really does feel like I'm moving from one extreme to another, as much as I love working on Night Queen, its a big project & I have to have alot of space around me, its not an easy to pick up for a few stitches here & there kind of project.

So with the children on school holidays, lots of distractions & inquisitive fingers, a smaller project was helpful.

I'm hoping that now the weather is cooling down a bit & the children will be back at school, my stitching time will increase again.

Another update very soon I hope with a page finish

August 8th Update

Hi stitchers!

Apologising again for the lack of posting, sorry guys. I've become a little overwhelmed with the size of the project, not the physical size, but the stitch count & the number of hours I need to put in to get it finished.

I've been trying to figure out how to keep myself motivated to keep working on her, I find i'm often like this during the first few pages of a large project, once i'm halfway done the needles are wizzing, but i'm really dragging my heels at the moment.

I like working with numbers & setting goals (I was a tax accountant pre-children) so will find a way of playing with the figures. Maybe work out the total stitch count of the project, number done so far, number per page when I start a new one, maybe set myself a set number of stitches per day?? That way I will have smaller goals to focus on, instead of feeling a little lost when I think of how far I still have to go?

Here is a picture as she looks today, about half of the second page done:

Can you see the fist bit of ravens wing??

The rest of this page contains approx 4500 stitches, i'm going to aim for 1000 stitches per day, so next update with second page completed should be on Thursday. I'll try to play with the figures before then, so I have some proper totals & goals to aim for

July 2nd First Page Finished!

Apologies for the lack of updates, I was lured away from the house by my new allotment, i've still been stitching, but not as much as usual.

I have finally finished page one & I love how it looks, here is a picture full size, I had to take it outside to find room to take a picture today, I popped a pen in the picture for scale, but not sure you can see it

and here is a close up

I've estimated I used approx 45 skeins of thread in this first page eek! Onto page two now, I will try to remember to post more update pictures, hopefully once per week at least.

Update June 4th

My plans to be a good girl & work at finishing off Celtic Spring lasted approx one hour lol, I managed about 1000 stitches last night & hope to do the same tonight. I'm hoping to have this page finished by Monday.

No piccie today i'm afraid as the camera is somewhere down in Kent with hubby.

I have had to order more threads again, I started with 85, added another 30 & have today ordered another 50 YIKES!! So threads so far total 165, fingers crossed I wont need to order any more for a couple of weeks

Update June 3rd

Half term at home with three children is leaving me with little stitching time & by evening I need wine & TLC lol, but managing to stitch where I can, i'm approximately half way through the first page now, I will be taking a break for a few days to crack on with Celtic Spring, which really needs to be finished,then I will be able to carry on with Night Queen without feeling guilty.

First pic is a full fabric shot:

Second pic is a close up:

28th May Update

Morning all!





Had a bit of a long night with my youngest last night, so didnt get much done i'm afraid, but I took a pic this morning, i've popped a pencilon the fabric to give an idea of the scale of the project

I'm hoping to get a fair bit more done tonight, then i'm going to need to hit hobbycraft in the morning for even more threads I think!

Progress Pic 27th May

I managed to get some time to work on Night Queen last night, frustratingly I am missing a few colours, which i've ordered online but the postie has decided he'd like to hold onto to them for a while, so there are lots of gaps. Fingers crossed they arrive later today so I can do some filling in tonight.

Its odd working on a hoop this huge & the extra fabric takes a bit of getting used to, but i'm loving working on it, the stitches are lovely & plump & squishy because of all 6 strands being used.

Its difficult to get an idea of the size, i'll have to add something to the next picture for scale

I spent yesterday afternoon organising threads, then I found a 12" hoop to use, which is a perfect size, then I popped in those first few stitches. I've gathered the extra fabric together in hair bands to stop it getting inthe way.

I tested with, 3, 4, 5 & 6 strands of DMC threads, 6 strands gave me the perfect coverage.

I normally like to get all of my threads together at the start of a new project, but I dread to think how many skeins of yarn this will take, so I will be ordering them as I go, I will try to remember to keep track on here, so that when I am finished I will know how many I used.

At the start I have 85 skeins. But using 6 strands at a time, I think I will be ordering more within the next week

The chart is 25 pages & a total of a whopping 151,200 stitches, I will be trying to keep track of the number of stitches done as I work as well.

I'm guessing that this will take me probably a couple of years to finish, I am going to post pictures of my progress & updates as I go along, so please feel free to follow & watch this take shape.

My new HUUUUUUge project

After finishing All Hallows Eve, I started to think about what new chart I wanted, of course I should be working on old WIPs but i'm a naughty stitcher :) I love Eve, but I wish she were a bit bigger, so my new chart needed to be stitched on a smaller count fabric.

Whilst I was deliberating, my favorite artist Jessica Galbreth released a photo of her new throw range, featuring the Morrigan I think, it was stunning, so big, but every bit as beautiful as the smaller items.

That got me thinking, would it be possible to stitch a HAED to throw dimensions? What size fabric would I have to use?? Which designs would work best??

I finally decided on Night Queen by Jessica Galbreth, as the large focal point & lack of fussyness I think would work well for a larger design.

So then I had to decide on the fabric, I wanted this to be BIG, originally I thought 14ct, but that would make it only 24x31 inches, not big enough, so then I looked at 11ct, this would measure 32x40 inches, still not quite big enough, then I thought about using an 18ct & stitching over 2 threads, this worked out around 39x48 inches, which sounded just about perfect.

I found a fabric cut big enough on http://www.sewandso.co.uk/, I ordered a piece of Zweigart Davosa 18ct fabric measuring 55x60 inches, it arrived the very next day (thank you Daniel).

This is it covering my double bed!

Yesterday I sat & hemmed the ends, then marked my start point & got ready for that very first stitch.

A little bit about me & my stitching

Hi, i'm Carrie, i'm 30 something & I live in the UK with my three children, 3 cats, a husband & about a hundred fish.

I have always loved crafts, but cross stitch is my particular passion, i'm been stitching now for over 25 years, yikes!

About five years ago, I stumbled upon a cross stitch site very different from everything I had worked on in the past, the artwork they charted was amazing, their charting skills second to none and I was lost! The site is www.heavenandearthdesigns.com I now own close to 50 charts I think.

I have completed just three, Inspiration by Lee Anne Seed, All Hallows Eve by Jessica Galbreth & QS Motherhood, I have WIPS of Wolf Maiden by Jessica Galbreth, You & I by Zindy Nielson & Littlest Fairy Storykeep.

I will dig out the photos later & post them up.

All Hallows Eve is my most recent finish, I really love how she turned out seeing her finished was one of the things which inspired me to start my new project.