Yiotas XStitch

I was contacted by Yiota who produces cross stitch kits and she very kindly offered to send me a free cross stitch kit of my choice, if I was to do an honest review for her. I was very flattered and said I would love to do this.

I picked out 'Nymph in Woods', and true to her word, Yiota sent me out the linen version of the kit.

The kit turned up in an envelope with a cardboard back so the kit did not get bent whilst being handled by the Post Office. This was a nice touch as many places send charts out in ordinary envelopes which can end up being delivered in a bad state.

Here is a picture of the kit as taken from the envelope. Nicely packaged in a cellophane bag.

Picture of the back.

The chart came in two pieces of A3 quality paper with easy to read symbols. Full instructions are given which are easy to read and very descriptive including for a novice stitcher. All stitches are whole stitches and no fractional.

The linen is a nice quality one and very generous. The design area is 8.3 inches by 11.8 inches and the linen measured 19 by 17 inches, so more than plenty  for framing. A needle is also included.

The threads are already wound on quality stiff card bobbins and numbered so that's more time for stitching as no thread sorting! The thread supplied is Madeira but the chart also shows DMC numbers in brackets for anyone wishing to substitute their own DMC threads. Also all designs are available as chart only.

Full contents view.

www.yiotas-xstitch.com

So would I recommend these cross stitch kits? 

100% yes! I think it is very refreshing to receive a kit where everything is presented with the cross stitcher in mind. When I purchase a kit, I just want to stitch on it, not have to spend ages sorting threads etc so to have a kit where you can just sit down, open it and start stitching is fabulous!

Yiotas Cross Stitch is based in the UK and is a small family business and they ship internationally. The site also includes a Freebie Page with some really nice designs on it.

Halloween Fairy Finished!

Woohoo, Halloween Fairy by Miribilia is finished! That is why I am a day late with my updates as I wanted to get it finished.

A close up of some of the beads.

I love the way it turned out and am pleased that I swapped out the original fabric. That now makes two WIP's finished this year. I am not going to start anything new yet as still want to get two more WIP's finished before I do and one of them includes Midnight Enchanter.

I also worked on Summer Sampler by Prairie Schooler:

This picture is much better than my last one I took of it as it shows the pretty colour of the fabric. I am nearly half way done with it now.

Over the weekend, Colin's mum and dad came down for the weekend. Linda brought her stitching with her and it was really nice to stitch together for a few hours.

I screwed my face up as I looked at Colin taking the picture lol.

My Pansy Angel is in a silver frame but it looks white where the flash light caught on the frame.

Monday Update

The First part of last week, I worked on my Friendship Tea Sampler:

I finished up at a nice area to leave it for a while.

Last Friday I started Summer Sampler by Prairie Schooler. Lynette, from a Yahoo group I belong to, loaned me the chart seeing I had done the Autumn one back in 2010. Thank you so much Lynette!

This is what I have managed to do on it so far. The picture does not do justice to the fabric which is a minty green colour. I didn't have any 32ct white so substituted this one from Polstitches.

I also did 300 stitches on my HAED Spirit Storykeep and also stitched on my UFO for Evalina's oldest UFO Challenge.

Evalina's Oldest UFO Challenge

I managed to get a lot of stitches into the top part where the bird is over the course of January.

This is Evalina's challenge which she is running on her blog. I would of liked to have done more on it but it is difficult with juggling other pieces. I will try to get a lot more done on it in February!

Good Progress this Week!

I am really pleased with the amount of stitching I got in this week. First off Midnight Enchanter.

Still got quite a lot to do on the left hand side and the bottom. This piece is HUGE!

Next up is The Green Man HAED.

I restarted this on Lugana as I did not like how it looked on the Dublin linen which was the recommended fabric. There's nearly 1600 stitches put in.

Next up, a project that should of been finished by now, Halloween Fairy by Miribilia.

I managed to get a lot done on her wing.

The next project is a UFO I forgot I had. Its Friendship Teatime Sampler. This piece is so pretty and I have added it into my rotation.

Saturday, I had a day off from cross stitching and managed to do four crochet squares for my throw.

So all in all a really good week!

Celtic Summer Finished!

I can not believe that I have actually finished her! I have been working on her on and off for several years.

It is going to be really strange not to be stitching on her any more.

Thank you so much for all the comments over the years. I really appreciated it and especially over the last few weeks as it helped me get motivated to finish her.

I now need to restart The Green man by HAED and also finish Midnight Enchanter, but that will take a while as it has so much back stitch.

HAED Spirit Update

This is what it will look like:

This is a before photo:

And this is what it look's like now:

So far, this is a total of 5000 stitches, done 1 over 1 on 25ct Lugana. I have done half of page one and two. This is the full width. It also includes Kreinik, which is quite hard to get the stitch to lay flat on 1 over 1.

I was stitching my other HAED The Green Man on Dublin linen which was the recommended fabric. It looks absolute shit terrible. I had put in 500 stitches. So I am restarting it on 25ct Lugana which arrived this morning.

Last Friday morning, I received a lovely RAK from Debbie in Canada. She sent it before Christmas and for some reason, it only just arrived. Better late then never!

She sent me a lovely needle case and some floss from The Gentle Art. I am already using the needle book case and it will stop me losing lots of needles in the arm of the settee! Again, thank you so much Debbie!

Celtic Summer and Exchanges

This is the last progress update as the next one will be when she is finished.

A close up of the area I worked on:

As you can see not too much more to do. Hopefully she will be finished within a week!

I will also be running a give away when I post the finished pictures.

Exchanges

This one is from Shelley for the ILCS Group Birthday Exchange:

I love everything. The scissors have the Union Jack on them! I love the chart and I have done a couple of the pirate ones but not this one. Also included was the fabric to do it on. Thank you so much Shelley!

This one is from Nancy in LV for the Autumn exchange on ILCS.

I just love the ornament, it has a little owl on it, which is not showing up in the photo. The chart is one I wanted and tried to get from sewandso but they said it was OOP, so I am made up with it! Thank you so much Nancy!

Celtic Summer Update

I have put a lot of hours into over the last few days. If I can keep this up, then I can see a finish very soon!

Here is a before picture:

And this is what it looks like now:

As you can see, I have got a lot of stitches in.

Here is a close up of the area I am working on:

I have also put in 400 stitches on my HAED Story Keep 'Spirit'.

I will post an update on it very soon.

I am also putting a few stitches into my 'Arise on the Wings', every day, for Evalina's Oldest UFO Challenge, which I will update on the last day of each month as instructed by the challenge.

Goals of 2012?

I have decided not to do any as I never stick to them!!!!

But what I would like to stick to is to complete two BAP's before I start another large project. Celtic Summer and my big Magician would be the obvious two seeing they are both the most completed BAP's I have.

I still have not finished my Halloween Fairy, so that would be nice to complete as well.

It would be nice to rotate both my HAED's, Spirit and The Green man, regularly!! I think that is more likely to happen when Celtic Summer and the Magician is finished.

My only ultimate goal would be to be able to stitch on a regular basis!!!!

Evalina's Oldest UFO Challenge.

I saw Evalina's challenge on her blog and thought it would be fun to join in.

I have literally picked my oldest UFO which I started when I first started Cross Stitching.

Yes, it's a BAP! lol and I am just hoping there are no counting mistakes in it since I was literally a beginner when I started it.

It is designed by Joan Elliott.

As you can see, not a lot has been done to it. I am going to try and stitch on it on Tuesdays and The Virtual Stitch in's on ILCS.

Wish me luck because I am going to need it!