July IHSW

I'm so happy that I actually got to participate in IHSW this weekend! I have been wanting to do so for a while. I also had an added bonus of today (Monday) being my birthday. This was both good and bad for stitching.
It is good in that I get to choose what I want to do during my free hours, but it's bad in that I don't have as many free hours. I did get some work done on the Lion King, though.
Here is where I had left off last:

Here we are after a few more hours work on it:

But wait! There's more!
Because of my new rotation method I have started, I pulled out an old UFO that I started many many many many *deep breath* many many many many years ago. OK, maybe not quite that many, but this is one of the first projects that I ever started!
This is my Midnight Enchanter. This is the last picture I have of his progress, but there was a lot done to it before I had set it aside:

I put the hoop on him and started a couple stitches before I remembered that I needed to take a picture. Rather than take the hoop off, I just took the picture around it. you can still see that there was quite a bit of progress since my last picture, I just never photographed it:

And here he is after a couple hours:

It really feels good to start working on him again. I'm going to have to rummage through my craft stuff to find the blending filament for him. All the blank spots on the robe need the blending filament, which is why I skipped them for now. I have plenty else I can stitch in the mean time.

IHSW was a blast for me this month. I have added quite a few more blogs to my reading list to keep track of. I've even got another follower, too! Yay!

Is that...? Could it be...?

If you remember several weeks ago (if anyone actually reads this blog), I mentioned I had a secret plan and would explain more about it later. Well, guess what. Later is here!

There are quite a few projects that I want to make. Until very recently, I was the kind of person who would only work on one project until finished. The problem with this is that I would get bored with the current project because it wasn't going fast enough, and there were so many more projects that I want to make. I would then put the project aside for long periods of time.

I have started reading and following more craft blogs, and I see that there are many people who have many projects going at the same time. Of course, this immediately appealed to me. If I do that, then the enthusiasm will remain fresh for each project as I switch around! Plus, if I only work on Qingming, I wouldn't ever get to work on anything else.

I decided to start working on my projects on a rotation. That way I get a good mixture of my new projects along with the ones that I have already started.  Nobody gets neglected that way. I have begun with a simple 10 hour rotation on my projects, but I'm sure I will tweak it a bit to have more time on Qingming each rotation, as it needs the most time to complete. Or I'll just add it a few times in the rotation list. We'll see.

So, because of my rotation, I have picked up the Lion King again. Yes! That's right! More Lion King!
Here is the last picture update that I posted:

There has been quite a bit of progress on this since my last post. Here is where I am now:

I'm so happy, I've started using green now! Yay, plants!

On another note: Holy Cow, the count is small on the Lion King! Yes, Qingming is huge, but it also is 11 count. I think the Lion King is 18 count, and by comparison, it just seems so tiny. No wonder it keeps feeling like I haven't been getting much done. I really have, but because the count is so small, it just doesn't cover as much space.

IHSW is here!

I have been wanting to participate for a while, but life kept preventing me until now. I will definitely be working on the Lion King this weekend, and maybe one other project. I'll be sure to update on Monday with all my progress from the weekend.

For those who are not familiar with the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, it takes place every third weekend of the month and it allows us stitchers to hermit ourselves away from the world and do what we enjoy the most!

You can get more info (and sign yourself up) by visiting Joysze's Blog. I can't wait to see everyone's progress!

Disney Dreams: Lion King - week 8

Here is this week's update. The lighting wasn't great for this picture, but the flash managed to catch on the pearl filament, so you can see a little sparkle in the sky!

Disney Dreams: The Lion King - week 7

This week was slower going than usual. I started adding some yellow, and one of the shades of yellow is tweeded with the pearl filament. It makes the sunshine sparkly and it looks really good, but that pearl filament is a pain in the butt to work with! Don't get me wrong, the end result is totally worth it to have the added sparkle, but when I use it, I tend to work slower since it likes to snag and it always feels like it is about to snap.

Here is my progress picture. You can't really see the sparkle very well in this photo, but I'm sure it'll show up eventually in one of my progress shots.

Disney Dreams: Lion King - Week 6

Here is my progress on my Lion King cross stitch. I have the close-up shot, and this time I am also including a picture further out to better convey the actual size of this thing. I was showing pictures to a friend of mine, and he wanted to see how big this thing will get.
I have it in a frame, so the entire width isn't shown, but you can get an idea from the height.

Disney Dreams: The Lion King - Week 3

I was so happy to finally get to work with another color other than a shade of purple! Right now I'm using a peach/gray blend with yellow coming up next. This project is mostly sky, so I guess I should get used to the purples and get used to working on sky. It gets boring, though. I'll eventually get there, I just need to keep focused and posting my weekly updates, even if I don't get a lot done the week prior.
We can do this!

Disney Dreams: Lion King - 2 weeks

I'm slow! At least I feel slow. Plus, I don't work on it every night, so this is actually only a few days worth of work on it. I'm going to try to post an update every week so everyone can see how far I'm getting (plus it will keep me motivated to keep working on it).
Here we are so far!

Disney Dreams: The Lion King - One week down

After being discouraged from working on this due to the thread issues, I haven't worked much on this project this week. I have since received the correct thread needed, so I am good to go.
I also have had a soreness in my right arm (probably from too much crafting!). 
Here is my progress so far:

Disney Dreams: The Lion King

Perusing the forum of my favorite craft website, www.spritestitch.com, I came across a thread that follows the progress of a fellow member making the Disney Dreams: Beauty and the Beast cross stitch kit.
I have always loved these and have wanted to make one myself, so I started looking online at which ones are available. As I was looking at the newest one (The Lion King) my fiance looked over and said, "That's really cool! If I buy you the kit, will you make that one?"
Immediately I said Yes! It was perfect! I get to make one of the Disney Collection, and I don't even have to pay for it!
Here is what it will look like once it is completed:

We were at the hobby store last weekend, and they happened to have it available, so we scooped it up and bought it right away. I got home and got started on it.

I would be a little farther along, but as I started to get another color ready, I noticed something odd. The dark purple was light and the light purple was dark. I immediately went through all my thread to make sure that I had all that I should quantity-wise, and it looked OK except for this one mixup between the 2 colors. Due to this error, I am going to end up being short on one of the colors (since I ended up with 18 strands of something I only need 8 for, and 4 strands that I need 18 of).
I have already emailed the company to see if they can verify that this issue is only that the 2 colors were switched, and if they can send me the strands that I will end up being short. I'm going to keep posting my progress on this blog and on spritestitch, so feel free to come back and follow along with my progress!

P.S. I am horrible with sticking with one project all the way through to the end. I will need major encouragement to keep going!


Update!
I received word back from the company about the thread issue that I was having. They agreed that most likely the 2 colors just got switched, however in order to make sure that both colors are correct, they are going to be sending me both colors. Yay! I've been so hesitant to work on this lately, that I've been avoiding it. Now I can continue! I even worked a little on it last night. My problem is that I'm not very fast. Oh well!