New Year, New Starts

Don't you love a New Year?  The chance to make a fresh start with your goals and projects?  Make resolutions and keep them for a whole week!  To say "I haven't spent anything on stash this year" and mean it.

And most of all; guilt-free new starts!  Last post I showed my Mrs Peggotty's Alice which I am hoping to work on regularly with an aim of 700 stitches per week.  Or maybe not.  I took her to the coffee morning at the local craft shop and got 200 stitches in 1.5 hours.  Here's where she is now:

stitched over one on 25 count blue evenweave

I'll do a bit more tomorrow and take her into work during the week for my lunchbreaks.

The plan is for her to replace Dracula at bath-time when I complete that design.  Here's the current position:

stitched on 32 count Amortentia Belfast by Chromatic Alchemy

The moon is taking FOR EVER but once I reach the top of the U I can put in the words "Bram Stoker's" and then the white fits round the outside of that.  Then it's an R and D and some boring border!

Here's another new start from the WIPocalypse list.  This was a gift from Brenda and she will be stitching along with me this year.

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave

The design is Just Nan's Diamond Bouquet and will eventually look like this:

It's not very big and I'm aiming for two bands per month with a July finish.

As promised I will be running the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop on Valentine's Day.

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

 

It's really very simple, all you have to do is email me a picture of something you have stitched which is suitable for a stitching friend on Valentine's Day.  It could be a heart, or a pair of cute creatures, or the word "love" or anything which warms your heart. Really anything you think a fellow stitcher would like to receive in her email Inbox.   It can be something you've stitched in the past or something you've made especially for this year.  It could also be quilted or sewn this year as I know some of my followers do other crafts too.

Send me the email by 10th February.

When I have all the emails I will randomise them and send one to each participant on 13th February.  Then on 14th February you must post the picture you receive onto your blog under the heading

 Secret Stitching Sweetheart. 

There will be a list on my blog of everyone joining in, so check out all the blogs and find out who got your picture and identify yourself  in their comments as their

Secret Stitching Sweetheart. 

Does that make sense to everyone?  I hope so!

If you'd like to be involved then leave a comment on this post or send me an email if you are "no-reply".   I'll be putting little reminders up from time to time and will email on 9th February to make sure you send the pic in time.  

Finally, a Public Service Announcement - Blogger no longer sends email notifications for comments from "no reply" bloggers.  If you moderate comments like I do, all the "no-reply" people are loitering in your "Awaiting Moderation" section along with the Yahoo people that Blogger also doesn't like.  I really do advise people to attach an email to their profile, preferably a Gmail, so we can see your comments easily and respond to them.