Jolly Old Fellow

Almost finished page 8. Unfortunately I ran out of the floss I need to finish this page. I did make a trip to my lns to get supplies, but inexplicably came home with 3374 instead of 3373. Must have been having a senior moment.

Jolly Old Fellow

I have made a little progress this week - I have most of the red stitches in the cap completed now,and I have started on the fur trim. I'm still working on page 8.

Jolly Old Fellow

I am finally now working again on Jolly Old Fellow. He has spent all of the first half of this year waiting patiently in my craft room. This is where I finished in December 2009, mid-way through page 8: I am currently stitching the reds of his hat, and hope to have that little section completed within the next day or so. It's taken me a while to feel comfortable once again with the chart and those tiny stitches!

Jolly Old Fellow

Not as much progress as I would have liked I'm afraid. I'm now about 2/3 of the way through page 8. I don't think I'll get much chance to stitch on JOF for the rest of the month.

Jolly Old Fellow

I am pleased to be working again on Jolly Old Fellow, after a 6 month 'rest'. I'm about a quarter of the way through page 8 now, and fairly confident that I will finish page 8 before the end of 2009. I've done the page 8 sky, so I'll be leaving alone the blues (not my favourite colour to stitch) and stitching with the reds, pinks, creams and whites of Santa's hat for the rest of page 8.

Reintroducing Jolly Old Fellow

I'm sure you've all forgotten about me and my Santa. I haven't posted since June, as I've not been working on Jolly Old Fellow in that time. I had a break so I could stitch a Christmas project that I could actually hang this Christmas (L&L's Angel of Hope - she's at the framer now). Santa's back on my floor-frame now, and I will be stitching on him next week. I'll be starting back on page 8. I'm hoping to finish page 8 before Christmas.

Jolly Old Fellow is resting temporarily

I attempted to start my first-ever rotation this month. I was planning to stitch Jolly Old Fellow half the week, and L&L's angel of Hope on the other half of the week. I just can't do it. Once I started the Angel I started to obsess about finishing her so she could be part of my Christmas decorating this year, recognising that even if I stitched every waking moment for the rest of the year Jolly Old Fellow would still not be finished in time for this Christmas. Also, I had some difficulty adjusting to stitching on the larger-count fabric, so I decided to bite the bullet and work on the Angel till she's finished - which will be all this month, and probably at least the first 2 weeks in July. I'm expecting her to be at the framer well before the end of July. So, JOF is now officially a UFO ( my first ever in 20+ years of stitching!), and I won't be stitching on him for the next month or so. But as soon as Angel of Hope is finished, I'll be back stitching on JOF, so I would like to remain a member of this group. I really do enjoy watcjong all the lovely HAED projects growing.

Jolly Old Fellow

I have now finished page 7, which was the easiest and quickest to stitch by far. I'm pretty sure it won't be such straight going on page 8.

Jolly Old Fellow

I'm working on page 7 now. I have stitched a bit over two-thirds. This page has been very easy-going, as it has large blocks of solid colours and very little confetti stitching.

Jolly Old Fellow

I feel like a bit of a fraud posting this pic, as I haven't stitched on JOF since the weekend. But I did finish page 6 before I parked my needle, so now I have the first 98 rows completed - there's just 411 rows left to stitch. I'll be stitching on JOF again from Monday.

Jolly Old Fellow

I'm happy with my progress this week. I'm stitching pages 5 and 6 together (page 6 being only 12 stitches wide), and all I have left is plain stitching, no colour changes at all. I'm pretty sure I can finish these 2 pages this weekend. That will be the completion of the first 98 rows of the JOF.

Jolly Old Fellow

Just a small amount of progress this week, because I had 'rested' JOF for the week, and stitched on him only yesterday and today. I enjoyed the break, but I was really pleased to start stitching on him again, and see the picture grow.

Jolly Old Fellow

I've finished page 4, and done just a few page 5 stitches. And finally, I'm starting to learn some of the chart symbols, so I'm spending less time searching the symbol list to find the floss number I need. I've put JOF away for a week or so, and plan to start stitching on it again in the second week of May.

I've decided that for page 5 I will trial not highlighting on my chart the stitched areas. Before JOF I'd never highlighted the stitched areas on my chart, but I thought it may make it easier for me on such a large project. But in fact I think it's making it harder for me to locate groups of stitches on the chart, and that's how I'm used to orientating myself to the stitching area on the chart. I'll see how it goes.

Jolly Old Fellow

Not so much progress this week. Certainly not nearly as much as I had wanted to make. I still have a little bit of stitching left before I finish page 4.

Jolly Old Fellow

Almost finished page 4 . The section I'm working on now is full of confetti stitches, so progress is slow. I hope to finish page 4 in the coming week.

Jolly Old Fellow

I am pleased with my progress this week (I'm stitching only on JOF this month). Now that I have started stitching with some greens I really do feel as if I'm stitching my Christmas project. I' m almost half-way through page 4 now.

Jolly Old Fellow

I'm a bit over a third of the way through page 4, and getting very keen to finish this first strip of the chart. I started JOF on January 16 this year, and I have now been working on this chart for longer than it has taken me to complete any other project. And I have a very long way to go yet!

HAED Jolly Old Fellow

I have now finished page 3 of Jolly Old Fellow. I've gridded up the fabric for page 4, as a trial - I've never gridded before, but I did have a few little hair-tearing episodes on page 3, trying to find my place. I'm hoping the grid will help me with that on page 4.

Jolly Old Fellow - progress pic

Here is my progress at the end of Week 6 (240 stitching hours). I'm about 2/3 through page 3.

I won't be stitching again on JOF till mid March, as I'll be away on a camping holiday.

Elfie

G'day (that shows I'm an Aussie btw). This is my first post here. I'm a new convert to HAED, and also to blogging. I'm started doing both this year, and I am really enjoying the new experiences. I started my HAED Jolly Old Fellow on January 19. It's by far the largest project I've attempted, and it has taught me so much about myself that I probably was happier not knowing, though I'm sure the additional self-insight will make me a better person in the long run (here's hoping, anyway). Up till now my largest projects have been L&L and Vermillion, and it's never taken me more than 4 months to finish a project.

Anyway, one day (some year yet to be determined), the fabric currently in my floor-frame will look just like this lovely Santa on the left. I'm stitching on page 3 at present, about half-way through. This week I've had a tiny little glitch (read - two days of pulling out my hair and counting , counting, counting) due to my putting in an extra stitch at the top of page 3. I think I have it sorted out - well, at least a plan that sounds workable to get it back on track. I'm working on JOF for all but one week each month. Next week is a JOF-free week for me. Actually I'll be away from home in the campervan, holidaying by the coast, and JOF will stay safely at home. The pic on the right is what it looked like last week. I'll pop in tonight at the end of my stitching session and put in this week's progress pic.