Review Of Yiotas Cross Stitch Kit

About 10 days ago I received an email from Yiota about her kits that she does.  Yiota runs her own small online cross stitch business and asked if I would like to review one of her kits, free of charge.
I immediately went to have a browse through her site, which I found to be clearly laid out and I was able to navigate through all her kits without any problems.
As soon as I saw her Serenity Prayer kit I hoped straight away that I would be able to review it, and was really pleased when Yiota said that it would be ok and she would get it in the mail to me.
The kit arrived packaged very securely last Saturday, but as it was my Birthday weekend I didn't get chance to do anymore than open the main package and check that all was okay. It is only today that I've been able to get everything out and have a good drool lol. Here is the front of the package.
And the back.
The kit comes in a clear envelope and contains the cover sheet with a colour picture, instruction page and key on another separate page, chart, 14ct aida, needle and Madeira threads pre-wound onto bobbins and clearly labelled. The quality of the paper is good and the print is very clear. This chart is over four A4 pages and whilst in some parts the stitching and therefore symbols are dense the chart has clearly defined grid lines for ease of work and for those who like to grid their fabric as well rather than stitch cross country.

As most of my stitching friends know, I HATE kitting up projects, pulling all those threads, then winding them onto bobbins or putting them in flossaway bags, so this to me is a dream come true lol, all the threads ready to go, easy to sort etc. As I'm an evenweave and linen convert from a few years back, I will be changing the fabric before I make a start on this, but have to say that the aida is a lot softer than I ever remember it being when I used to use it which was a pleasant surprise.
At the end of 2011 I worked out my stitching plans for the first few months of 2012, which didn't include starting anymore large projects. At the moment I am holding strong, but I have to say that this kit as a whole, because of it's quality, is calling to me now as the verse is really something I need to take heed of, so you may be seeing some wips pics before too long lol.
After this experience with Yiota, her website and the kit itself I will definitely be keeping my eye on her site in future and would not hesitate to recommend that people go have a look for themselves and give one of her kits a try.

Whoohoo For Rotations!

I seriously can't believe how well my rotation and stitching in general are going so far this year. I know a lot is due to me being in so much less pain from my coccyx for now and it will probably not last, but I'm making the most of it lol.
Since my last post I've worked on all my rotation pieces, but have only taken pics of the ones I've not photographed for a couple of weeks.
Mondays are time for me to spend with my HAED QS Alisha and although progress with working on this just one day a week is very slow I'm really enjoying it. I'm not rushing, just enjoying each stitch. Although I'd love to get this finished sooner rather than later I think I'm finally realising that it's better to make slow progress and enjoy it than rush and end up putting it away again because I'm sick of it.
Tuesdays are my LK SAL of 6 Fat Men with Sally and this is so much fun to work on. Sally and I have veered off in opposite directions with this so it's nice to be able to see what the other has stitched each week. Again I've been alternating stitching snow and the house.
This week's final pic is of my Nouveau Encore Designs Personalised Sampler. I've only photographed the page I'm working on at the moment, but it's getting there and I think I can see the halfway point on the horizon!Prairie Schooler's September also had some attention the other day but hubby decided to scupper my plans and came home earlier than usual on Wed night so I quickly had to throw everything down the side of the sofa so he didn't catch me with my secret stitching!
And I've now finished the backstitch strips on Cottage Garden, have attached the interfacing, fraystopped the edged and cut all the pieces, so it's now ready for me to start whipstitching it into a mattress pincushion. Sunday is my free choice day and I'm keen to get this finished up as soon as possible so I think it might be coming out then.
Well I'm expecting hubby and DD home anytime to shatter my peace so I'd better go and look like I've been doing something useful! Have a great weekend and til next time, happy stitching!

New Year, Two New Starts, One Finish

I'm really pleased to say that so far 2012 has been a fab stitching year. On New Year's Day I had my first new start of the year and also my first finish! Sally and I had decided on a quick SAL for New Year, similar to the one we did last year. We both stitched Kelmscott Designs Miniature Monogram Hornbook. I stitched mine 1x1 on 32ct white linen using a HDF custom colour called Peacock Crowns. You can't really tell from the pic but the colour is the same gorgeous green/blue you see in peacock feathers and I love how it turned out. I'm hoping to get it finished finished over the weekend or early next week, and will post another pic then. The chart is now available on my For Sale page on the link at the top of the page. As I said in my last post I'm attempting to stitch from stash for at least the first half of this year, and will be using any funds I can make from the sale of stash that I'm parting with to either buy fabric & threads for charts I already have, or save up so I can make a dent in my growing wishlist when the challenge is over. I will be adding items all the time as I finish projects and also get the rest of my stash organised, so please keep checking for new goodies as they become available.

My other new start was Prairie Schooler September which is to be a gift for DH at some point when it's eventually finished lol. On Wednesday when DD went back to school I decided to finish kitting a few things up. I chose fabric for LHN's Quilting and for Gentle & Kind, and pulled the fabric and floss for September, intending to leave it at that. However the rotation I had worked out meant me stitching on September on a Wed night when DH usually goes out, so the next thing I knew I'd cut and prepped my fabby, found the centre and put in the first few stitches! This design is really not something I'd usually choose and it's also not my usual colour choice, but you have to do some funny things for love sometimes don't you lol. One thing I did make sure of was that I chose 40ct fabric so that I could stitch it 1x2 which is my absolute favourite, to make it more enjoyable.
I've also made progress on Alisha, 6 Fat Men and my Personalised Sampler but I'll save pics of those for next time.
I would like to start either LHN Quilting or Gentle & Kind soon. They are both for gifts and I'd like to make them into mattress pincushions, however I've never done one before! A long time ago I stitched LHN's Cottage Garden intending to make that into one, but I never got further than stitching the main design and starting the backstitch on the front piece. So I've dug that out again and have now done the backstitch on the front and back pieces and most of one of the edge strips. I need to either find some iron on interfacing which I THINK I have somewhere around here, or go buy some, so that I can starting trying to make it up into a pincushion once the backstitching is finished.
Well I think that's about it for now, can't quite believe I've managed to post again so soon after my last one lol, let's hope I've started as I intend to go on!