HAEDs, parking and me.

Howdy folks!

Where do I begin? Well, I started my Game of Thrones quick stitch design with the 8 motifs. Yet more stitching in black but luckily I don’t mind that so much. I have one motif left and I was supposed to stitch that yesterday…I didn’t…I should have as I need to get it to the framers asap, but I just wasn’t feeling it, maybe because it is so close to being finished? I don’t know. I do like it and I think the framing will elevate it and make it a nice gift. Here is my progress;

So what did I do last night? Did I stitch more black on Gandalf? No. I should have although I am thinking of making that my travelling stitch pattern as I will be away at the end of the month and I could take it to Holland to stitch on when my niece has gone to sleep.


I did stitch though....


I started the HAED challenge #3, although I love he lion design and need to buy that, I decided to start on the Treasure Hunt Bookshelf by Aimee Stewart (Large format) gifted to me by my bestie Keebs.

I chose this one because I think of parking as a method to be used on confetti heavy designs as opposed to those with large blocks of colour. I can’t see the benefit of parking when you don’t have a lot of confetti, to me there just doesn’t seem to be a point to it as cross country works well for those designs.

I decided to start in the top left corner, and am stitching on 25ct magic guide evenweave in cream, 1 x 1. I am slightly unsure about the coverage and whether I am happy with it but I think its ok.

The challenge states that you park in rows and you use a minimum of 7 colours and you stitch approx. 8000 stitches between 1st July and 15th October.

I have decided to stitch a row based on my magic guide squares, so my first square equates to 20 x 20 stitches (4 squares of a page). The chart has 65 pages but 5 of those are partial so I am counting it as 60……OH MY GOSH! SIXTY?! I am glad it’s the regular size and not Super Size.

Last night I stitched for 4 hours and managed to stitch 4 squares = 400 stitches. Why so slow? Probably something to do with the 32 colours! And maybe all the colouring in…you see, I decided to be methodical to minimize mistakes, and I am using the highlighter method I mentioned before, and I am actually enjoying that aspect as it is making it clearer. 

One thing, in case you haven’t stitched one before and are thinking of doing so, when you park always put your thread in the same part of the cross as you would stitch so you know which square it represents (because even though it is marked on your chart, when you have several shades of the same colour next to each other it is good to be able to tell which is which). For example, I stitch bottom left to top right and then top left to bottom right is my top stitch …so my top stitch goes this way… \ and I have done since forever. I am thinking that with several of the next block of colours parked that they should stitch quicker, but who knows!

I found it to be…very addictive…I think that is down to the design, with all the different shades and smoky effects you can start to make out shapes…and all I want to do today is stitch! I can now see why people like Josephine Wall designs, the intricacy and constant changing of colours for the confetti is addictive.

Here is my progress so far…

which I believe is this bit highlighted by the yellow box around it...

Like a good stitcher I decided to try and work out how long it would take me to stitch the entire design if I stitched 4 squares a day…based on the fact that my chart is large format…a page would take 10 days, 60 pages in total, we are looking at 600 days = 1yr and app. 8mths. That would be stitching religiously for four hours every day on the same piece. So…for someone like me…we can multiply that by 10! Heheheheh. See you back here in 16 and a half years for my finish photo!

So Christmas 2032…wowzers! How scary is it to think that far ahead? I might need to devise a stitching rotation from now till then, lol! It sounds crazy but I bet I could easily fill it up.

The challenge is just to complete a page and I have 90 days left to do it in…although I have to stitch a page and a half as its large format so approx. two weeks more or less would be the quickest I could do it in without any distractions, so I am optimistic that I can achieve it in 90 days. Famous last words methinks.

So the GoT will soon be off my to do list, Gandalf has been assigned to travel companion (rather apt I feel) and HAED has a long deadline. These three I am focussing on, but I am weighing up a different lunchtime stitch, one of my WIPs...but oh so much choice, lol!