Wednesday 9 May 2012

Deciding on a new start

I will shortly need another big project to work on.  I've now finished three Chatelaine designs and with another finish imminent I needed to select another Chatelaine to start.

I'll not beat around the bush.  Chatelaine's can be bank-breakingly expensive. The most expensive full kit listed on European Cross Stitch's site is $370 (£230).  This is way beyond my meagre allowance. I should add that I have a wish list as long as my arm, starting with Venice and Cuba but they shall have to wait until I can afford the charts!

I have 6 Chatelaine designs in my stash I have not stitched yet:
Watergarden
Alhambra
Persian Iris Garden
Hawaiian
Pompeii
Desert

So, how to decide between these 6 projects. I decided against Watergarden because I'm not that in love with it at the moment. That left 5.

I then printed off the materials for those 5 and checked the conversions for each as this would have to be all DMC plus braids and beads. That took out  Persian Iris, Hawaii and Pompeii on the grounds that the conversions were incomplete, I needed to buy vast amounts of braid at £3.56 ($5.73) per card or how much the bead pack was going to cost me to buy from the US.  We pay a ransom of £8 and 20% VAT on anything over £18 ($28) and suffer at least a weeks posting delay!

This took it down to two.  Alhambra and Desert. After hunting though the actual materials, I only need 3 skeins of Black Marlitt and 10 DMC for Desert plus 2 cards of PTB.   The Bead pack is affordable too at $25.

So Desert Mandala it shall be.  I have a piece of blue-grey fabric that is just big enough as the blues in the border vanished on the piece of Amsterdam blue linen I have. Let's see how long this one takes me!

I should ad that I have a wish list as long as my arm, starting with Venice and Cuba but they shall have to wait until I can afford the charts!

WIPocalypse 5 - a huge finish

Well after a month of working solidly on a single project, I actually completely finished  Chatelaine Designs Holland Springtime Mandala.  I  Started this when the class began in 2008 and I keep getting sidetracked and starting something new.  It's among my worst habits and I have many!

I still have two long term Chatelaine WIP's - Japanese Garden Mandala and the Ostsee Mandala both of which are pretty close to completion.  I'm in the 'keep this far away from me' phase as it's been so recently finished but give it 6 months and I'll be back in love with it.

Next up on the Q-snaps is Japanese Garden which is only a few stitched further on than this and I need to print some enlargements for the corners today to stop me from going blind.  I need to find the Wintered Grass SNC that I hijacked for The Great Escape and have now misplaced. Most of the sparkle is already on the piece so there isn't a vast amount of beading to do either - just a million lazy daisy stitch bamboo leaves on the bridges and another million purple Jessicas in the border! I'll admit to starting this when the online class first started in 2005.  Yes I am hanging my head in shame!  7 years later it will be finished.

Apart from this I'm back to working on Skeleton Crew and Windmills to stop me from going cuckoo. I'm stuck in the house at present with a relapse and on rest mode so I need to do something productive.

Let's see where I get to by next full moon!