Great job

Wonderful updates from everyone. I was out of town last week and I'm slowly catching up! Beautiful progress!

Carolyn NC

Secret Garden 3

Added a little more stitching last Thurs.

Carolyn NC

Secret Garden 3

Don't faint from shock; I actually did stitch on my HAED last week, but hadn't posted yet. I didn't want to stitch a ton of colors in confetti stitching, so I opted for the more colorful yellow circle. Much more fun, only two colors, and definitely easier to start off again with. It's hard to ignore a HAED for awhile, and instantly pick up where you left off, sometimes. I'm sure there's a moral in here somewhere ahem! don't ignore it....Love all the pictures I see of everyone's work - just beautiful!
Carolyn NC

Secret Garden 3

Hi everyone,
I have some progress on my HAED; a little more gridding and a few more curliques done.....

I figured out what the odd brown color in the first circle is for; most of the circles have a few odd dark colors in them. Since the black background was deleted, some of these colors were there to give the original black shade and dimension. Mystery solved for me!

Finally got a start

I started late, but after frogging what I'd done before and switching to one strand, I finally stitched on Secret Garden 3. You certainly wouldn't know it by the amount done, but this is several hours work. Of course, that's in between taking the dog out, finding my threads, realizing that I definitely needed more light and going to get my new lamp :), threading the threads, desperately searching for one of my multiple needle and floss holders to keep track of all these threads, and stitching nothing but confetti stitches. So I figure at the rate I'm stitching, I'll be done about 2025. LOL But I'm getting the hang of it now, so hopefully my next bout will be faster! I was wondering, I had thought of putting this on a frame and going with it, but having to flip it back and forth so much with the confetti stitches would take forever. Do any of you stitch your HAED's on frames? Also, do you all stitch the special way for over one, or just regular? Evenweave isn't as bad as linen, but over one stitching can sometimes get lost in the fabric or look uneven, if you're not careful. Stitching it the "correct" way has never seemed to really make a difference. So, if any of you HAED pros have special tips to make it a little faster , easier, or look better, please let me know. :) I'm doubly impressed with all the stitching everyone is doing, now that I've started stitching my own HAED. You'll are a real encouragement!
Carolyn NC

New Jane Wooster Scott

I've barely put stitches in my first HAED, and am just salivating at another new one I've not seen before. Take a looksee - saw it on ABC Stitch Therapy's website. I'm playing hooky; we decided at the last minute to have name cards at the rehearsal dinner, so I'm supposed to be making them. So where am I? Trying to quickly read the blogs first! But isn't this a totally cool picture.... Do I hear sold? LOL

Such an encouragement

I'm truly so impressed with all the beautiful stitching I see here on this blog. Such an inspiration to us all. Thanks Cindy and Wendy! I hope to be back stitching next week after our son's wedding this weekend. Everyone take care - can't wait to see the updates!

Carolyn NC

Prep Time

Well, I did stitch (more like prep) on my HAED Thursday for just a little while. My fabric is fine, but it's really crooked, so that the top left has three inches, but the bottom left has about 2-1/4". I'm really a little surprised with this, but it's ok. I started gridding (who knew it would take so long?) I got tired of doing nothing but that, so quit and started stitching the first little part. I can't believe the difference the gridding makes - so much easier to find where to stitch. After putting some stitches in, I believe that I like 1 strand over 25 more than two, which means I have to remove the stitching I've done. Does the fact that this is black fabric make that much difference - I think it could, so I'm still in the playing stage. I do have a question. How does everyone keep track of what symbol stands for what color on each page? I feel as if I'll have to keep looking for all these symbols on the sheets constantly. Also, when you park with somewhat like colors, how do you remember which is which, assuming you have a lot of different colored threads? I thought about a magnet Loran or something like that and keeping needles threaded with the color labeled and putting the symbol above the color, too.
Everyone's work is so beautiful and is such an encouragement.
Carolyn NC

HAED is awesome

Quick update - my fabric just arrived. I've been trying to find the time to grid it, but I've had four college kids home for spring break - just isn't happening yet. I have to tell you how awsome Bob and Michelle at HAED are. I downloaded my pattern and then decided (with everyone's help TY) that I'd like the background removed, as I'm stitching on black. Since this is my first HAED, they were gracious enough to allow me to pay the difference. (I do realize that it's a one time deal only.) When I'd originally bought the pattern, it wasn't on sale, but now is. She went ahead and refunded me for the pattern and charged me again for the pattern with deleted background on sale. Did you know they delete most of those backgrounds by hand? And she had it ready for me very soon afterwards. Since I'd had some questions about how to do all this, I'd called. Michelle was so nice and such a pleasure to talk with. These are people I want to keep in business. So, thank you, HAED. Hope to actually have some stitching on it this week. Everyone's progress looks phenomenal - so inspirational!
Carolyn NC

Soon!

Watching all of your progress is so encouraging. I've decided to go with the black fabric and ordered it today. Can't wait for it to get here to start. Just need to make sure I have all my threads now.
Thanks for the advice and wonderful tips you've all been posting. Very helpful to a first-time HAED stitcher. :)