Sapphire progress pics

I wanted to add some of the progress pictures I have taken since starting the Birthstone fairy Sapphire by Rachel Anderson and charted by Heaven and Earth Designs.  I absolutely love the colors in this project as blues and purples are some of my favorites.  I love stitching projects with lots of color and this one definitely has it.  I have a wonderful camera and it still doesn't do the colors justice versus in person but you get the right idea as to how these HAEDs stitch up.

First 100 stitches

First row of 1st page

2nd row of the first page

Completed first page

Start of second page

Finished 2nd page

Start of third page

First 3 pages and start of fourth

Current spot

As you can see after starting the fourth page I am still not even all the way across the top of the design.  I tend to break this project down into mini accomplishments.  For example I view each 10x01 (or 100 stitches) as an accomplishment.  Then I view each row on each page as an accomplishment and again at each page.  It really helps me break it down in my mind so it's not completely overwhelming.  After I finish this current page I have one more full page to do and another one that isn't a full page across so I am almost there.  I believe in my next page I get to do another jewel in the border and a butterfly which I am excited to get to.  This project have 88 different colors and 240,000 stitches.  I can't wait to get the top set of pages done and be able to move onto the next!

This project was a gift, also known as a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) from a very good stitching (and so much more) friend of mine from Australia.  When she purchased this for me she issued me a challenge.  She knows about my serial starter status as far as stitching goes so I had to finish a UFO (unfinished object...a project I had started but had left abandoned) and this project.  If I finish both of them she will purchase me another chart in the same birthstone series.  I got to work on this one right away and her kindness was awesome.  The challenge she presented me with gave my competitive streak a boost.  The UFO she picked was a project called 'Stacked Cups'.

Progress pictures on Stacked Cups

Finished except for backstitching

Finished with backstitching

As you can see I got to work right away and I got this done within a short amount of time.  I actually had a finish!  So now I just need to keep working on Sapphire.  I did have to pack Sapphire up for long periods of time due to other issues in my life but I continue to work on it in between other projects.

Well, I am going to get stitching.  I am trying a sort of rotation to see how it works so I want to get going on that today.  Maybe I will post update pics after every rotation so I can keep track of how far I get in each to see if it's working for me!