More stash.

Wow - more stash. This is a late birthday present from Terri. Thank you my dear friend. She ordered it in plenty of time from Lekker but they had to get it from the states and it took so long to come that Kristina put in the embellishments for me as compensation for having to wait so long.
Wasnt that nice of her.

The postie also delivered my 32 count fabric (the replacement for that I pinched from my daughter lol). All in all I have done rather well for stash this week. I think I will have to get this one and the Baby garden kitted up fairly soon because once Barnabee and 4 wishes are done I will be getting withdrawl symptoms. Lol I love stitching Just Nan designs.

Stash and Things

Firstly stash, as today my order from Sew and So arrived with all the lovely Dinky-Dyes silks I had bought with some of my birthday money. I had chosen some darker threads as I am not normally inclined to go for the dark ones and I needed some for Ink Circles "Blackwork Fantasy Garden". I have been kitting this up as it is supposed to be for my holiday stitching but as I don't go on holiday until November and it is all sitting on the table looking at me pleadingly I might just be starting it a little earlier lol.

I spend some more time over the last couple of days on my UFO and have now completed the b/s right across the bottom so only really got the right hand side and a little bit in the centre part of the design to do now. I decided that I really had had enough of b/s for the time being and so this morning I got Heirloom Christmas out and started on that again. I have managed three rows today which is not bad considering that after the first row I realised that I had been one thread out on part of the last stitching I did so had to frog a load of vines and two rhodes hearts and put them right before I continued with this times stint. I have now completed 21 sections (from the 30) but the next section is Star Lace and as it is all in white on white there is no way I am going to stitch it under artifical light. So will have to find something else to stitch of for a bit before bedtime -----mmm wonder if I can see anything lying around, like some ink circles - he he he, im off to stitch.

So Much Back Stitch

I have been working for the last two days on my UFO for the Tuesday SAL at Jaynes Attic. Yes Mr Stick I am doing some catching up lol. There were two reasons why this had become a UFO, one was that since using evenweave I have come to hate aida and the second was that all that was left to do was the backstitch and there was just so much of it. Still after finishing Celtic Spring I had to find another UFO piece and decided as this was the only real UFO I had then this just had to be done. I have now got about half way - from the gate at the centre top and all down the left hand side, most of the middle picture and nearly to the middle on the bottom section. I am putting a before and after picture and I am sure that you will see just how much b/s there is on this, though I do have to admit that it has bought life into it.

Preparing for Christmas

We decided to make an early start on our Christmas wfb this year, as last year it was rather a rush and I for one never got time to get mines framed. Which I still havent done, so I will make a note of it and get it done in time this year. I decided I would do an adaption of the Pam Kellogg freebie from Kreinik called "Merry, Moe and Flurrie". I love this design but didnt want to use all the metallic threads it called for. I decided that I wanted to use and opalescent fabric and plain dmc threads instead though in the end I chose to use a metalic for the snowflakes. I designed a border and a greeting and the three wee snowmen would go straight down the middle. That was before I made an error lol. I started stitching 4 stitches from the side which is what it should be, however when I had finished I realised that it was off centre. Oh gosh (or words to that effect) have I miscalculated the border. I checked and double checked and my calculations were right so what had I done wrong..... missed a set of branches out the right hand side snowflake and just copied it on the left so they matched but the design was 10 stitches short. I thought of altering the border - no way was I frogging the whole snowman and then i just decided to alter the other two snowmen to match and move them about a bit, so they will no longer be in a straight line, and I dont have to frog anything. Now its already to go off to Terri when the post office opens again on Tuesday.

We are in the middle of decorating Keiths office at the moment so I think I will just do some on my UFO for the next couple of days as I wont have a lot of time and I want to be able to sit undisturbed when I get Heirloom Christmas out.

Thank you for all the lovely comments about Taj, and thanks Rosanne for the words of encouragement.

Taj Is Going Away.....

...for this time round but I have really enjoyed stitching it. A little disappointed that I did not get more done though. We had out grandson with us this weekend and not a lot of anything gets done during his visits. The colours are far prettier than any photo shows but I do feel that some of the beautiful Caron Waterlillies and Dinky-Dyes silks lose something amongst all the other colours. There is not really enough of them in one place to show the varigations. However that said the overall effect is lovely and I have only done a tiny bit of it so far so they may look different later.

Although I am not looking forward to it I do think Coast to Coast will have to come out tomorrow and have some more backstitching done on it.

Thanks you again for all the lovely comments they are so much appreciated.

The Start That Nearly Wasn't

Here is my start on Taj Mahal by Chatelaine. The other night I left you saying I was going to make a start. After at least a year of getting all my stash together, fondling all the lovely silks as they arrived, making an enlarged copy of the chart so I could read it etc etc etc, I got out the folder where everything had been carefully stowed - and - would you believe I had forgotten the fabric. Now I have a wonderful stock of fabric so no problem I thought but would you belief that the only piece that I had in 32 count that was big enough was a dark beige shade and I just didnt think it would work. I then decided to do it on 28 count. I worked out that the design would be 20 x 20 on 28 count and the biggest piece of fabric I had measured 20 x 20 exactly, so no edges to spare. I was near to tears and then I remembered - my daughter had some fabric delivered to my house and it was sitting in its envelope waiting for the weekend when she would come to collect it. It was a whole meter of 32 count Antique White so as I knew the size of the piece she was wanting to stitch I measured that out and YES YES YES there was plently left for me to pinch some lol. Now I just have to order more fabric to replace what I took. I spoke to her the next day and told her what I had done and she didnt mind in the least so it all ended OK.
I am really enjoying stitching this at the moment and hope to carry on until the weekend. It really will have to go away then and next week I am going to have to concentrate on getting some more UFO done and a tiny secret thing that has to be done too.

Slices

Just a quickie tonight. I called this slices because its a slices of lemon, lime and orange. It was AnnPs wfb and not at all my sort of thing. Added to which there were so many changes of colour it was like stitching confetti so I didnt enjoy it at all. That said I do think all the effort was worth it because it looks lovely now its done.

After that I think I deserve a treat so I am off to make a start on Taj.

Happy Dance & More Gifts

I finished stitching this last night but the battery was flat in my camera so I could not take a picture until it was recharged. It is Le Temps Qui Passe by A Mon Ami Pierre. I stitched it on 28 count evenweave using 2 strands of Dinky-Dyes Silk in Murray River. I would normally only use one strand when stitching with silk and using 2 strands has given it a slightly chunkier texture than normal but as this is hopefully going to be made into a needlecase and will therefore be handled I thought it needed to be a bit thicker. The blue fabric at the back of it is what AnnT sent for my birthday and it matches the blue in the silk so perfectly that I just have to use this for the lining.

Also yesterday the postie came and I got more stash goodies. The beautiful Dinky-Dyes threads are from Edda and the rest is from Terri and apparently I still have something else to come from Terri but it is on order !!! The little bags at the bottom which are not very clear are a de-tailor and some lovely pink hand dyed pearl beads from Polstitches. Ooh I have to tell you that Terri's parcel also contained 2 packets of Extra Strong Mints lol. I love them and she hates them.

Birthday Weekend

This was made for me by AnnP and yes it did make me smile when I opened it.
My little grandson loves to be with us on our birthday to help us open cards and pressies (lol just nosey like his Gran) and as he was unable to be with us today I decided I would be like the Queen and have two birthdays, so yesterday Oscar helped me with my birthday things and we had a family party, and then today was going to be just Keith and I having a relaxing time on our own, which it was apart from some friends dropping by this morning with cards and flowers.
We had a lovely time yesterday and my day was made even more special as I won the Bingo at Jaynes Attic, Stitch and Stash forum. I had some lovely stash and quite a bit of money for spending on stash - I have been browsing the web mentally making my shopping list and changing it oh so many times lol. Here is a picture of my stash haul with the exception of this little needle minder (also from AnnP) which I had put onto my stitching and so forgot to include it in the picture I took of my stash. Its not very clear but it has a flower and a butterfly on it and is really pretty.
Thanks to Sally, Shiela, Outi, Clare and Tracey for the lovely cards and threads and thanks to Aunty(AnnT), Annie(AnnP), Sho & Karan for my stash haul. Also a special thanks for Terri; I didnt get anything from Terri yet as the postman has gone walk about with her parcel :o( but the thought was there Terri and thats what counts.