Last Stitch for 2006

Mother Earth designed by Polstitches

I won this in a quiz at Stitch and Stash forum last New Years eve so I think its very appropriate that it should be finished on New Years eve too.

I didnt add the bead flowers, I am not a fussy person and for me I think they would look fussy, though I do like them on others I have seen. The suspended beads (as Jane predicted) were nowhere near as difficult as I had thought and I have really enjoyed stitching this.

2006 has been quite a good year for stitching. I have had lots of finishes and got on fairly well with my Rota, though I have left it a few times for special projects.

2006 also bought me introduction to the world of Blogging and I have really enjoyed sharing things in the last couple of months.
I would like to thank everyone for there kind words both of encouragement on the blogging and the stitching.

May I take this oppertunity to wish everyone and their families and friends a wonderful 2007.

A WIP

I have been quite busy over the last few days but have managed to find a little time for stitching - of course.

This is Mother Earth to date and I am hoping to get the cutting done to day. Then just the wrapping and the beads to do. I have never done suspended beading before so looking forward to the challenge, though I must admit to being rather apprehensive about my ability to do it.

I shall let you know and hopefully post another picture in the next few days.

I have everything ready now to start my Heirloom Christmas on the 2nd January. I am doing this as a SAL with Elaine from the Stitch and Stash group at Jaynes Attic, and we are hoping to do so much each month finishing (with any luck) in August.

My goals for 2007 are to get this done on time and apart from this one, to try and stick to my rota and turn some of my WIPs into finished items. Also I must get round to posting a list of my WIP rota in here and putting a picture on each time I update a project.

A Wonderful Stash Filled Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas. Lots of lovely pressies, including perfume, smelly accessories (shower gels and the like), books, a plant, and loads and loads of stash.

Have managed to do a bit of stitching though not as much as I hoped. I have nearly finished my kissy cross sampler but have had to put it to one side as I have run out of one of the threads I need. Good excuse for a visit to Jaynes attic though. I am trying to make my mind up whether or not to put a border round it. Will let you know what I decide.

Also a good excuse for a new start which is on Mother Earth by Polstitches Designs. I am changing the colours in it - as is usual for me. Hopefully the kloister blocks will be done by tomorrow night, I dont think this one is going to take too long to stitch.

A finish and some framing

I finally got this small AOY design finished and framed in time to give my daughter for Christmas. I changed the colours to suit her bathroom and left the border off as I did not think it would suit her. The picture is not distorted the frame actually bows out in the middle.

I also managed to get this one called Cherish Yesterday framed. My Dad died two years ago this month and my dear friend Terri stitched this for me at a time when I was really down. Im sorry its taken so long to frame Terri but it will now hang with pride in my den.

I am hoping to get a couple more pictures framed tonight once I have got my little grandson to bed.

I can't find my angels

I had an horrendous afternoon yesterday. After finishing work I was dashing down the by-pass to my mums when the tyre blew on my car. I managed to glide into a country lane which was coming up so I was out of harms way luckily. Would you believe it I had not renewed my AA (completely forgot about it) which was due last month and I was just on the phone to my hubby when a little old white van with 2 angels appeared.

My Angels in disguise got out, they were 2 big (and I mean big) rough looking chaps. But they said they could change the tyre in no time. To worsen matters when they got the spare out of the boot it was flat. This didn't phase them in the least, one went off to find a local garage and get the spare blown up while the other took the wheel off. The first chap was back in no time and despite the fact that the tyre in question was still "leaking" a little they said it would get me to my destination. In fact after replacing the tyre they followed me part of the way to check I was ok.

I was so shaken up at the time I never thought to get their names and only remember the van was small white and had the name Speeds in blue on the side.

This morning I have phoned every firm in the region with that name but the van does not describe their vans so I cannot find who they were to thank them properly.

I have always thought that people were often kinder than we give them credit for but these two were real "Angels in Disguise" and whoever they are and wherever they are I only hope there are angels there for them if ever they are needed.

Some Cards & A Gift

This lovely little tuck was a RAK gift from Elaine (Jaynes Attic, Stitch and Stash Forum). I made the little snowman to go in it as a quick stitch and may do something a little better for next year but for now it is hanging on my tree.

Thank you Elaine.

I have also been busy on and off this weekend making Christmas Cards and sorting out my stash and getting it in order before Santa comes with hopefully more stash tee hee.

Yesterday we were dog sitting for my Son and DIL who had taken Oscar to London for the day. They had a visit to Hamleys and Harrods and then went to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur skeletons. He phoned this morning to tell me all about his trip and asked do you know where dinosuars come from Granny. No I said and he explained - there was a big bang and they all got covered in sand so now there are just bones there and if you are very lucky you can still find them. I think when the rain stops he may be digging up the garden in hope lol.

We had friends round last night so all in all its been a very relaxing and pleasant weekend despite the rain today which kept us inside instead of doing more to the front garden as planned.

Thank Crunchy its Friday

Not much happening today though I had to go into work for a couple of hours as my manager has had a family bereavement.

I couldnt get on with my project in hand as my daughter was visiting tonight (its a suprise for her Christmas) and so I have been stitching a little snowman to go in the lovely ornament tuck that was sent me by Elaine (for the Stitch and Stash forum at Jaynes Attic). I have nearly finished it but its on 32 count which is really a little too much for my poor eyes these days. I shall get it finished tomorrow hopefully and then post a picture.

We are hoping to get some of the hard landscaping in the front garden done tomorrow so I am hoping for fine weather. I guess its too much to hope it might be warm too.

Thank Crunchy its Friday

Not much happening today though I had to go into work for a couple of hours as my manager has had a family bereavement.

I couldnt get on with my project in hand as my daughter was visiting tonight (its a suprise for her Christmas) and so I have been stitching a little snowman to go in the lovely ornament tuck that was sent me by Elaine (for the Stitch and Stash forum at Jaynes Attic). I have nearly finished it but its on 32 count which is really a little too much for my poor eyes these days. I shall get it finished tomorrow hopefully and then post a picture.

We are hoping to get some of the hard landscaping in the front garden done tomorrow so I am hoping for fine weather. I guess its too much to hope it might be warm too.

Busy Weekend

We had our 4 year old grandson Oscar to stay for the weekend. He used to stay most weekends but after starting school in September was a bit clingy with Mummy and Daddy and so this weekend was a real treat for us.


Friday night we all went to see the lights being turned on in our local town. Not very impressive this year I must say, though Oscar thought they were lovely. Saturday we took him to Woodlands Garden Centre nr Hinkley in Leicestershire. It is one of the best garden centres I know for its Christmas displays and Oscar loves to go there. Saturday night we walked down to one of the houses near us that has all the Christmas lights and he was facinated by them and wanted to know why we didnt have lights on our house.

Today I have managed to get in the festive spirit by putting our Christmas decorations up. Now I just need to finish the shopping, write my cards, wrap and in some cases post off gifts, in fact just the normal panic that leads up to December 25th.

I have managed to get some stitching done today and I finished off a little gift for one of the girls at work. She has just had a conservatory built after wanting one for years and she can't stop talking about it so I designed this just for her.

A LOVELY SUPRISE

Getting back from work today I had a lovely suprise as I opened the door and saw a parcel on the mat. I had just got my wfb back. wfb or wee fat bird is the name we give the round robins (we being Terri, AnnT, AnnP and myself and those who know us will know why we have a daft name for it). This one was a chart ordered specially for me by Sew and So and is from Vermillion Designs, it is called Victorian Bell Pull. I did the outside and the wee pictures were done by AnnP top, Terri centre, and AnnT bottom.

I have a wee bit of the wording to finish and then it will be ready either to frame or to make into a bell pull, which will maybe depend on whether or not I can find a frame that will fit it.

Thank you ladies you have made a wonderful job of this and I am thrilled with the results.

Amongst other things I have been working on is The KissyCross Mystery Sampler. I have just about completed part 8 and have part 9 and the edging still to do. I am also working on something else at the moment but I cannot tell you about this as it is for a Christmas gift.

I didnt write anything yesterday as by the time I got back from Hobbycraft I was just about falling asleep on my feet. Work in the morning, shopping with my Mum in the afternoon, back for a quick cuppa (while I stuck a casserole in the oven, and then off to collect my daughter and a trip to Hobbycraft. As Shiona is also a stitcher I always enjoy my trips there with her even if we do not buy anything. Got some card making bits, some Mill Hill Beads I needed for a gift and some DMC thread which I was short of when I tried kitting up the HAED chart I am going to do for Shiona. She is stitching "Chess" and I have promised to do "Such is the way of Fairies", as we are both slow stitchers she may get them on her wall in 10 years time, but I am quite looking forward to the challenge.

I also wanted to share with you Just Nan - Primrose Path which I finished a few days ago. I have now done seventeen blocks towards my quilt. I have no idea how many I will need in all but think it is going to be a lot more than I have so far.

Another busy day and no stitching I'm afraid.

This morning I was up at the garden centre ordering some of the building materials for the hard landscaping on my front garden. After recently having the drive and paths done the garden looked such a mess. We did it about 5 years ago with stone chippings and grasses but the grasses have gone well past there best and the stone chippings look dirty and outdated. After a lot of thought we decided to change it. Hopefully when it is done it will not be so much work. Lol thinking of our old age nowdays.

This afternoon I have been playing at making hand made christmas cards. I just haven't had the time this year for stitching them and as its now nearly December I think its a bit late to start, so I am trying my hand at Card Making.

Tomorrow night I am going to Hobbycraft with my daughter so hopefully will get some bits there, and maybe some more ideas too.

I will also try and take some pictures of my cards tomorrow for you to see.

Vests and Things

This morning I was off to the hospital for my annual blood test. They are doing so much building at Derby City General that everything is changed everytime I go.

From there I went to my mums and we went into town to spend some of her vouchers. She celebrated her 80th birthday recently and quite a lot of people gave her M&S vouchers, which she was looking forward to spending.
We had a lovely wander round and she bought 2 blouses, a nighty, and 2 vests (lol I would call these very pretty silky garments camisoles but my Mum bless her still calls them vests). She also bought a game for my grandson (that one is off to Santa) and a couple of calenders for gifts. She wandered back to the bus whilst I followed laden with bags, but she did call in at Birds and bought me a lovely caramel cream doughnut to have with a drink back at her house. She also came back with a goodly number of vouchers still tucked away in her bag so the adventure can all be repeated again another day. I suggested she leave it till January when they would have different stock in - I am hoping the weather wont be fit to go into town then as I have thought since it will be "sale time" (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh).

I took some stitching with me to Mums but it never came out of the bag so I am hoping tonight will be a nice relaxing stitching evening. Fingers crossed.

Welcome To My Blog

I thought it was time to catch up with the 21st century and start my own blog. I hope to share with friends the progress of my stitching and to include pictures of my work in progress.
I learnt very early on that I easily got bored with stitching the same thing and could easily make the Guiness Book of Records for the most UFOs, especially as I enjoy large projects. Then I read about rotations and so putting all my unfinished projects on a list I began. I started by setting myself a time limit, but I was always forgetting to time myself so soon learnt to do as much or as little as I wanted. Stitching is my hobby and I cannot see the point of a hobby you dont enjoy, so as soon as I feel I am no longer enjoying something it is put to the back of my WIP box and I take out the next project. When I reach the end of a rotation I get to add a new project before beginning all over again.
I try to vary things by having both large and small projects and a mixture of cross stitch, hardanger and samplers with speciality stitches so that each project is different.
This works well for me as even something I was getting bored with feels new when I have not worked on it for a while.

My lovely elephant WIP box was an inexpensive flat pack box from The Works and it was just what I needed as it holds everything well and is so easy to organise.