Wednesday 28 February 2007

Froggy Would A Wooing Go..

I had everything sorted for a night of stitching on my Just Nan "4 Wishes" and was really looking forward to getting back to this; a piece I started when I was visiting Jayne at Jaynes Attic at the end of last year. Alas it was not to be my night, froggy was definitely getting more attention than stitching. I was doing scotch stitch, hardly the hardest of thing to do, and something I have done many times before, but for every 4 blocks I did the frog came out for three of them. In the end I have put it away in disgust and instead I have been winding my new Dinky Dyes threads onto bobbins. I will have another go at "4 Wishes" tomorrow night, so keep your fingers crossed that froggy has gone back to his pond. And long may he stay there.

Monday and Tuesday Catch Up

I have been out for a lovely relaxing meal tonight with a couple of my close friends Jenny and Nicola. It was good to have a night off from stitching.

Having said that I have been busy stitching today and yesterday on my Celtic Spring. As I did not do any stitching on it last week I have had two days this week as a catch up.

Really pleased with my progress as I am sure you will see a lot of difference between last times photo (top) and this weeks finish (bottom). You cannot actually see all that I have done because the gold work and beads do not show up too well in the photo but I did most of the goldwork and beads on the top half of the dark part of her dress as well as quite a bit of stitching to the dress and a lot more goldwork and filling in at the bottom front of the dress.

Really looking forward to making a start on my rota no.2 Just Nan's, 4 wishes, tomorrow evening. Tomorrow I have work in the morning and shopping with my Mum in the afternoon.


















Sunday 25 February 2007

HC Put Away Until April

I have now finished both the February and the March sections of Heirloom Christmas and it has been safely put away until April. The Hemstitch which I was dreading turned out to be far easier than I thought and the only bug I had was with the small Rhodes Hearts in the second lace panel. The diagram for this was most confusing and I ended up working it out on my EasyCross computer programme. I am still not sure if they are perfect but they look OK so that will have to do. They were really fiddley to do and took me an absolute age.

I tried to take a picture of the Small Rhodes Hearts but they do not really show up. However my hemstitch came out well so I have still included it.

I have sorted everything out now for my part in the Kit Up A Freebie exchange and hope to get that posted off tomorrow, along with AnnT's chosen gift from the Stay at Home Parcel.

Now for a couple of days on my UFO as I missed last weeks stint.





Saturday 24 February 2007

Getting Ahead Of Myself

I finished my Heirloom Christmas for February, but as I had planned to work on it until Sunday I have decided to go ahead and do March's bit too so that I can then put away until April.

I am on the second line for March and it is the Hemstitch. I have never drawn and wove threads before but I am really pleased by how this looks. I havent finished doing it yet I have drawn and woven the first 4 threads but still have two to do.

I think you will agree it looks quite good though.

Getting Ahead Of Myself

I finished my Heirloom Christmas for February, but as I had planned to work on it until Sunday I have decided to go ahead and do March's bit too so that I can then put away until April.

I am on the second line for March and it is the Hemstitch. I have never drawn and wove threads before but I am really pleased by how this looks. I havent finished doing it yet I have drawn and woven the first 4 threads but still have two to do.

I think you will agree it looks quite good though.

Friday 23 February 2007

A Dinky Dyes Stash Day.

This morning my wonderful postie bought me two parcels. One was from Jo of Dinky Dyes with my Winter Special Edition Pack. This contained the 5 threads on the left, this piece of wonderful fabric, the winter needleroll chart plus 2 freebie charts which I had enquired about and which Jo kindly said she would pop in my parcel.

The second was from Lekker Threads with the lovely DD silks displayed on the right. I was a bit unsure about using Lekker again after my experience at Christmas, but a 25% discount voucher was very tempting, especially when there were a number of DD silks I had been hangering after (remind me how did I work out that these were essential stash lol). They may not have been strictly essential but I do love DD threads - whether silk, floss or perle - and I know they will not be wasted. There are actually 4 more to follow when Tina gets her next order from DD.

I have been working on this months section of Heirloom Christmas and I have done two of the 4 sections allotted for this month.

I am really enjoying stitching this one. The tree was a bit of a nightmare I am sure anyone who has stitched this will agree. Not difficult just very, very time consuming and I admit I found it difficult to actually stick to the chart so ended up on a wing and a prayer rather ad libbing. Since then it has been a dream. Slightly challenging but not difficult and the diagrams have been very helpful. I am especially pleased with the lace work which I think looks really effective.

Wednesday 21 February 2007

Wedding Sampler Finished

I am rather pleased with this now that it is finished. I designed it myself and there are a couple of little mistakes, the most obvious on the fence on the right hand side, but nothing that I feel I need to undo and stitch again. I am going to mount it on sticky back board to send to Goa as I dare not risk framing it to send all that way.

Looking forward to getting a bit more done on my Heirloom Christmas over the next few days. Will probably work on that over the weekend and then do my UFO on Monday and Tuesday to make up for missing last week. Wednesday I am hoping to get back to my rota.

I have most of the threads for Barnabee and I am going to hobbycraft tomorrow with my daughter so hopefully I will get the few that I am missing then, just a white Krienik and a couple of DMCs. The charms are ordered and paid for so will now hopefully be on there way so by the time I have completed another round of the rota everything should be in place to make a start. Have you guessed lol I am really quite excited about this one. In fact I think I have my next 4 newbies lined up so will have to be really good and stick to my rota so that they can get drawn in.

Tuesday 20 February 2007

I Didn't Do My UFO


I didnt work on my UFO today as I really want to get the wedding sampler done. Not a lot to do now so hoping I might get if finished tomorrow. This is my progress so far.

Sorry Julie promise I will do some on my UFO next week.

Sunday 18 February 2007


This is the start to my wedding sampler. I am using mainly Dinky Dyes threads, the leaves are in Gum leaves, flowers are Reindeers breath and Strawberry Ice. The writing is in a DMC Metallic E3843 which is exactly the shade the groomsmen and bridesmaids had. The colours look far prettier in real live than they do on the photograph.
Unfortunately I have still had my headache today though it has eased quite a bit this evening so fingers crossed it will be gone by tomorrow. After taking two anadins this morning I decided it was a waste of time popping any more pills as I had more than my fair share yesterday and they hadnt done anything obviously it will go when its ready and not before lol.

Saturday 17 February 2007

A stupid headache

I haven't done much stitching today. I have had one of those stupid headaches that refuse to go away no matter what I do. I have, however, made a start on my wedding sampler tonight and hope tomorrow will see the headache gone and enough progress made on my stitching to post you a picture.

I did have a nice suprise this morning though. I got a lovely parcel of goodies from Jacqui for the Stay At Home Parcel which I run on the Sitch and Stash forum at Jaynes Attic. I had great fun sorting through everything even though it wasn't for me.

Friday 16 February 2007

Remind Me Never To .......

volunteer to stitch something without finding out what fabric is to be used first. The design was easy the colours were nice and it should have taken a few hours to stitch. When I read that it had to be done on aida, I went blank, did I have any aida still sneaking in the bottom of my fabric draw???? I did, a couple of reasonable pieces but they were coloured, and one white piece which had been woven from cardboard. Its years since I have used aida and think it will be even more years until I use it again, if ever. Every stitch reminded me of why I had the stuff. Its almost enough to put me off stitching ever again.

That said Barnabee came the other day and that is just the boost I need. Thank you Julie, I have ordered the charms from the place you adviced - and the Caron threads for my Taj Mahal as they were so much cheaper there. Now I have to stitch my wedding sampler, this months Heirloom Christmas and get through to the end of my rota so I can start on Barnabee lol. Well the charms have not arrived yet (only ordered last night) and I do have to sort all the other threads out but I cannot wait to get started on it, bet you never would have guessed.

Tuesday 13 February 2007

Progress on UFO


Made good progress this time. Doesn't look an awful lot but it was all the fiddly bits and the gold work. Jacqui asked last time which Celtic one this was as she didnt recognise it. Well hardly suprising lol. It is Celtic Spring but as I also have Celtic Summer and they both faced the same way I decided to turn this one round so they would face each other when they were both done (whenever that might be - this ones will have taken about 4 years by the time its done).

Monday 12 February 2007

Not much sitching done today.

I haven't had chance to do much stitching today as Oscar is here for a couple of days and I have been busy doing puzzles, reading books and playing transformers.

I did manage a little on Celtic Spring first thing this morning and I am off in a minute to do some more before I fall into bed. Which if last night is anything to go buy will be in about 15 minutes lol. Its wonderful sitting playing with a four year old all day but it certainly wears me out.

I have also been trying to sort out what I need for the "Kit Up A Freebie" exchange on Jaynes Attic forum. I cannot say too much about this as I am not sure whether the person concerned will read this or not. I love taking part in this sort of thing.

I have a couple of things to do this month which will drag me away from my rota. One is a quilt square for a special blanket for a friend on a site I used to belong to and another is the wedding sampler for Mathias and Agnes - this is still to be designed yet. Oscar goes home tomorrow but I will be at work Wednesday and Thursday, hopefully I will be able to do my square for the special quilt on Friday and get moving with the sampler at the weekend. I then have this months stint on the Heirloom sampler to do.

As I finished my round of the rota just before I went away I could start something new but think this time I am going to give that a miss and then at the end of the next round I am hoping to start Barnabees Quest which I know will be winging its way to me this week thanks to Julie.

Sunday 11 February 2007

Holiday Stitching & Stuff

As promised earlier I have now downloaded some pictures for you. The first two are both Victoria Sampler, Beyond Cross Stitch kits for my Quilt Blocks.











The next one is of my Flower Girl by Sue Page
Of course I always have to change things and I decided that I didnt like the "flat" look of the flowers so I chose to do french knots instead. The fks are deliberately different sizes and done in different directions as I felt this gave them a more natural look.

I also changed the colours as I did not have any Sugared Almond threads, the blue flowers are using a Kates Kloth thread and the rest I used House of embroidery threads. I also used a House of Embroidery thread for the woven look on the baskets.


Next I have a couple of pictures of the wedding we attended. Mathias is Goan and Agnes is Hungarian but they are a very well suited couple and though neither speaks the others language it is hardly a problem as they both speak perfect English.









The chap 2nd on the right is another dear friend and we kept teasing that we are expecting him to get married next year as he is Hindu and we havent been to a Hindu wedding lol. Agnes and Mathias had a very traditional Church wedding. Even the reception was very English and it seemed funny to see Goan ladies in all their finery doing the Waltz, Quick step and even the Cha Cha. Even the young ones seemed well able to do these dances which most people here would have been just shuffling round the floor too.

Baby It's Cold .....

inside, outside and everywhere lol. With an almost 30 degrees drop in temperature I haven't stopped shivering yet.

We had a wonderful holiday with a couple of days spent on a houseboat on the river Kali in Karnataka which is an inland state in Western India. It was so relaxing and peaceful and ideal for a stitching break.

We also had a lovely suprise when we got there as a friend we had met out there was getting married on the 2nd Wednesday of our holiday and we had an invitation to the wedding so it really made the holiday special. We had no idea the wedding was planned even though he has been engaged for three years.

I got a couple of quilt blocks done and quite a bit of my Sue Page, flower girl done too so I was really pleased. I will try and pop some photographs on later today.