So what's been happening in the world of Shebafudge?

Well strangely enough, lots of stitching!

I have had another finish on Poppy Dance. That's 6 full pages done.  6!! Full pages!! Of a HaED!! By me!!  Can you believe it?  There are only another 19 pages to go although I think only 9 or 10 of them are full pages, with the rest being partial pages.

Poppy Dance - Marianne Broome - HaED

I have also finished 2 of the 12 designs for the JCS Ornie SAL on facebook.  I'm in shock...the kids are in shock and I think even the cats are in shock!

The Little Stitcher - Blue Snowman
2016 JCS Ornie issue

Medina Originals - Waving Santa
2016 JCS Ornie issue

I am also doing what used to be known as the Catholic Teacher's Certificate (now CCRS).  So far, I have submitted 3 assignments and all 3 have come back as distinctions which I am really pleased about. There is one more to submit this academic year, so fingers crossed for a full house.

Rotation, rotation, rotatiom

Well....the tapered rotation is going well. I did change it very slightly and decided that my first slot will be my HaED slot. I finished the page on Poppy Dance and then started a new design called Kitty Heaven. I am doing the first page as the challenge in the Facebook group. It's much more confetti-ish than Poppy Dance but will be gorgeous in about 20 years time.

I also got these charts recently.  It was the combination of vouchers for Christmas and the Sewandso sale.  There are 3 more but I don't seem to have a photo of them.  Anyway the whole lot cost me £14 - bargain!!!

Boxes of Shame / It's a shame

Recently, after reading one of my favourite blogs - Jeremiah's Mom recently, we had a discussion on boxes of shame.  The idea being that she will 'finish' finish the 29 pieces that she had stitched but boxed up.  She challenged me to examine my box of shame...biiiiiiiig mistake! I have 38!!!! 38 stitched but nothing else done with them pieces...oh...dear. I think I might need to do something about them.

Now onto the 'it's a shame' part of my title. Well really, that's not fair to say.  Rachael has received an offer from Lancaster to study Biochemistry.  This was her first choice uni but because she didn't do so well in her AS levels in chemistry, we thought she would be unlikely to get a place there.  She applied to go there for biology, just in case, as that was a grade lower than biochem. She is pleased as punch and absolutely over the moon that she will (hopefully) be going there.  I'm pleased as it is only an hour away :)

The rotation is going well - 7 hours into round 1!!

2nd finish of the year

I have a second finish of the year.  This is the ORT ornie for 2016 orts.  I actually had a bit of a disaster with this one.  I obviously did more stitching last year than I thought and I had to make a second one, a larger one to accomodate them all.  Oh well!

So far the rotation is going well!  (Other than making this one, obviously) and I have stitched 3 and a half hours on Poppy Dance. I forgot to take a photo of it before I started stitching though - doh! I have almost finished another page, so I will take it off the Q Snaps once I do and take a photo.  This page is looking gorgeous, lots of pretty reds and oranges. I hope my mum is going to like it when it is finally finished.

I hope everyone else is having a great start to the new year too. 

Tapered Rotation

Hands up...who has heard of a tapered rotation?

Well, I hadn't but Karyn of My Stitching Nook has posted about trying this for 2017.  It sounds brilliant as I have been trying to work out how to get loads of progress on Poppy Dance but also on some of my other projects too.

The idea is that you choose XX number of projects to stitch XX number of hours on.  So for me, I think it will be 6 projects and 10 hours.

Then:

• Round 1 - you stitch on project 1.
• Round 2 - you stitch on project 1 and then project 2.
• Round 3 - you stitch on project 1, then project 2 and finally project 3.
• ...and so on for however many rounds you decide to do.

So my 6 projects are going to be

1. Poppy Dance - Marianne Broome
2. Under the Sea/Fantasy SAL's - Durene Jones/Kate Worthington
3. iStitch Advents for 2015 and/or 2016 - Carol Ridyard
4. Witchful Thinking/Tomb it May Concern - Pickle Barrel Designs
5. Flip-its 2001 - Lizzie Kate
6. Everyone Brings Joy - Waxing Moon Designs

As you can see, I have added in a couple of SAL's that I am doing/did/should have done so should more or less keep up with those.  There are some smaller designs that will see finishes pretty quickly which should help keep the motivation going and reduce my WIP/UFO list too.

Wish me luck, you know what I'm like :)

First finish of 2017

First start of the year and first finish too. This is my ort ornie for 2015 (no, that's not a typo). I'm not sure which is worse...not making the ort ornie for over a year, or the fact that I carefully guarded them for a year!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all.

I hope it holds everything you want it to and that you and yours will be happy and healthy.

There has been too much bad news for a lot of people in 2016 and I hope that we can ALL leave that behind and will have things to celebrate in 2017.

For me, I want to get back to regular blogging and stitching and for the kids to do well with their A levels and GCSE's this year so that they can go on to do whatever they want to in life.  I want my friends to stay well and happy.  That's all I want from life next year.

Brave the Shave

As the title says - I am braving the shave.

That means that my beautiful, shoulder length hair is going to be shaved.  Have I gone mad I hear you ask?  No!  It's all in aid of raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support.  As many of you know, Gaynor (StitchersAnon) was diagnosed with breast cancer (for the second time); it's terminal. She has already beaten the 6 months she was given which is fabulous. So I am begging for donations as I would like to raise as much as I can for this brilliant charity.  I know there are loads of charities, clamouring for your attention so all I am asking for is £1, $1 or 1 of whatever currency you have!

The link below will take you directly to my donations page.  Please, please, please donate!

https://bravetheshave.org.uk/shavers/sharon-stevens/

Jo's Big Birthday Bloghop

2005 - Jo was 39.  As her son grew up Jo decided to look for some part-time work and asked a friend of her's if he needed any bar staff at his new music venue.  The friend said "yes, he did" and Jo started working one evening a week while her parents looked after her son.  Within a couple of months, the working relationship became much more and Jo found herself "dating the boss".  Fortunately all worked out well for them and Jo kept her man and her job!

As her social life improved Jo's stitching life was slow and steady with only a few finishes happening.  Jo was a strict OAAT stitcher in those days.

Oh Dear!
2005 was not a memorable year for me in any way, shape or form.
Nothing much happened.

It was the year that I started volunteering in school which eventually led me to where I am now careerwise!  It all started when Rachael was in Reception and came home one day saying that she had been told off by the Head Teacher for counting up to 100.  Well obviously I was furious and went stomping into school the following day, ready to rip someone's head off for daring to suggest that my daughter couldn't count up as far as she wanted to.  After explaining my 'concerns' to the class teacher - Mrs Smiley (by name and nature), she laughed and explained that the Reception curiculum target was that they should be able to count up to 20.  Obviously, I felt a bit of an idiot!!!  She suggested I come into school and helped in the classroom, playing some games with the children.  They loved it, I loved it and the rest is history.  I can't imagine not working in a school now!

I wasn't stitching much as I was working 3 different evening jobs so that one of us was always at home with the kids.  That was enough to keep me out of mischief...lol.

Jo, I hope you have had a fabulous birthday and I am so sorry that this is late.  I spent a lot of time at A&E yesterday with Rachael and a dodgy arm!

Poppy Dance - Marianne Broome (HaED)

Good evening...good to see you again!

Ok, sit yourself down.  Don't pick up that brew and make sure you have someone with you to monitor you for shock symptoms.

At the start of May, it dawned on me that my mum has only ever had one piece of cross stitching from me.  By that, I mean a decent sized piece not just cards etc.  She loves poppies and has a poppy theme in the lounge - well at least she did the last time I was there!  So...after trawling through ALL my magazines (not something for the faint hearted) and wandering through the internet, I kept coming back to the same design - Poppy Dance by Marianne Broome (HaED).

This seemed like a bit of a stupid thing for me to love so much as I have about 8 HaED's - three started but not even done half a page on them yet.  Anyway, never one to let something like not finishing a design to put me off, I decided to buy it.  I already had a piece of 28ct jobelan and the threads, so off I went!

I worked it out that there are 153,300 stitches in it and if I wanted to finish it by my mum's birthday in 2018 (not 2017) I would have to stitch 260 stitches a day EVERY DAY!  Well, I started and counted and counted and counted.  Then I decided that I was fed up of counting and so worked out that I needed to do roughly a page every month.

Well here we are at the end of page 2 and actually 12 days ahead of schedule at the moment. I cannot put it down.  I am finding that I am getting up earlier in the morning just so I can stitch before I go to work and stitching pretty much every night too.  At the weekend I am spending loads of time stitching.

I have also discovered that I LOVE stitching one over one! In fact I think I will restart Shakespeare's Fantasy as I was doing that 2 over ? tent.  I have already stitched about 20% of page 3 and am now halfway across the top row.

I suppose I had better show you some pics.

This is the design from HaED's website.

And...this is my progress so far.