Guess whose a Happy Bunny

Wow, wow, wow Im really dancing tonight. I just finished 4 Wishes by Just Nan. Stitched on 28count Ice Blue fabric with DMC colours (mainly as charted though I did do a little changing round lol).

In the last section my main change was the little bird next to the writing at the bottom. It was a cardinal but our winter bird here in Britain is the cheeky little Robin and that is what I wanted. After searching everywhere and failing to come up with a robin that was small enough to fit I decided to design my own and I was really happy with the result.

I did struggle a bit with the blackwork snowflakes at the bottom as they should have been white, but this just didnt show so I frogged it. On suggestions from the lovely people at Jaynes Attic Forum I tried white with some twinkly thread but it still didnt show, so I tried white perle which was too thick and in the end went for a slightly darker blue with the twinkly thread. Although its hard to see on the photo it really does look pretty in the blue (thanks Christine from Alchemy) .

Jane if you read this can you contact me please (email addy is in my side bar).

Thank you to everyone for there lovely comments regarding Coast to Coast.

ANOTHER UFO DONE

Coast to Coast by Anchor, stitched on white aida fabric (cant remember now if it was 14 or 16 count).
The photo doesnt really do it justice and it looks lovely now its done. I hated stitching it and would never have finished if it hadnt been for joining the UFO SAL, on the Jaynes Attic Forum. Thanks to Julie and her friend Mr Stick I didnt dare not stitch lol.

I am bowing out of the UFO group for a while but will be back with them in the new year to do EMS Garden Alphabet.

I want to concentrate on my rota for a bit and also I have a new SAL coming up when I return from holiday as I am going to be doing Queen of the Needle along with Sally.

Tonight I have made a start on number one in my rota which is Just Nans, 4 Wishes and hope to be able to post a pic in a few days.

Thank you to all the lovely people who visit and comment on my blog, its nice to know I am not just talking to myself for a change lol.

Look What The Postie Brought

Wow I had a very, very belated birthday pressie from Dusty today and just look what was in it .

This scissor fob is just so, so me.

I love it and I am now tempted to buy another pair of scissors in either plain silver or green to match it.

There was also this chart for a beautiful hardanger angel which I am hoping I might be able to do for christmas, though I dare not start it before the holiday.

Also this adorable little bee button which is made of wood.

There was also some pieces of fabric for making ornaments, two little christmas kits, some perle threads, some Tribizond Thread (for Queen of the needle, some iron on transfers, some stick on motifs and 101 (no not dalmations lol) DMC threads.

Dusty I just cannot begin to thank you for this gift it is absolutely stunning.

The postie also returned my wfb to me today and I was so thrilled with it that I just had to frame it at once. I had intended to stitch beads on it when it came back but on seeing it completed I really didnt think the beads were needed. I had the frame in the house and I just added some silver snowflake stickers to brighten up the mount.

Thanks so much to both AnnP and Terri for your lovely work on this one.

I also framed both India and Jayne at long last.

I would also like to thank Karen and Carol for there tips on getting my email link into my blog and you can now contact me by hitting the contact label in my side bar.

Ink Circles - Update

Just a quickie to show you an update

on Blackwork Fantasy Garden. Terri has been nagging at me so this is specially for her lol. I have decided if I can get all the outlines done then I will take this away with me as my holiday stitch.

Does Anyone Know ....

.... and if so can you possibly explain to a techno-phobe, how to put a link to my email address in here.

Thanks.

Nightmares and Good News

First my good news. I finally did it, I handed in my resignation today and I am finally and fully retiring on the 31st October. I cant wait. There have been a number of changes at work recently which I dont feel happy with, and there are more to follow. Added to this I have been feeling a little down just lately (sorry Im not going to moan) and finally I decided enough was enough and sat and wrote my letter. So now I have more stitching time to look forward to - that is unless my Mum decides I have more time for sorting her and her house out lol.

Right on to stitching and the Dippy border which has been a nightmare. I always leave a good border round big projects as I like to have plenty to play with when I am stringing, but I had not counted on doing an extra border on this. Although it was very simple it was awful to stitch as I was working only about an inch from the edge of the fabric so I couldnt use a frame or hoop and the thread kept catching on the fabric edge. It took ages to work it out as there was such a limited amount of space and then because I had worked to the edge of the fabric I had to use adhesive board as there was nothing left for stringing. For some reason the top right hand border just pops under the edge of the mount and when i tried easing it in a little the fabric just creased. So I am afraid for now it is going to have to remain as it is and if I find I cant live with it then I will just have to do what my hubby suggested in the first place and put some ribbon behind the mount. In fact I really do wish I had heeded his advice in the first place but for goodness sake dont anyone tell him I said that he he he.

Rejoice

This is the Rejoice Tree by M Designs, stitched on 28 count pale blue fabric, one over two, with Dinky-Dyes silk in a limited edition thread called Summer Heat. It is for AnnP for her Christmas WFB. She is doing Cherish and Terri is doing Believe and from what I have seen the others are just as pretty. Ann is going to stitch the beads on them herself.

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the lovely comments about Serendipity. The frame I have has a sort of inner and outer mount and there is a tiny gap between them, which just showed plain fabric through. I didnt like this so I am now stitching a tiny border to show in the gap lol. I will show you another picture when I am finally finished and get it framed.

Dippy Is Done

It is midnight and I should really be in my bed but I just had to share with you. I have just finished stitching Serendipity which was a SAL in 9 parts and was a gift from Papillon Creations to those who have their newsletter. I really have enjoyed every minute of stitching on this one and have a frame ready and waiting so hopefully it will be resting on my wall by this time tomorrow. Thankyou Yvonne of Papillon for your kindness in giving this to your fans.

Harrogate Show

Or the Great Northern Quilt and Needlework Show to give its full title. We set off this morning and amazingly there was very little traffic on the M1 so it only took us one and half hours to get there. There was not as many cross stitch type stalls as there has been in the past though I know a lot of the stall holders did not attend because of moving it to the end of the year, instead of in April as usual. Mostly it was quilting which we enjoyed looking at and also this meant lots and lots of fabric stalls so I got a few bargain pieces for backing pinkeeps etc.

Here is a picture of the main stash I bought and here is one of the 4 bargain packs I got . I bought these kits for the fabric that was in them mainly. The blue pack had a lovely pale sage coloured linen 28 count fabric (which turned out to measure 17 inches square) and I could see there were a few threads in there too. The other three contained an ivory coloured linen fabric, again 28 count and they turned out to measure 20 x 27 inches, so the fabric alone was worth the money (just under £14 for the 4). When I opened them I was quite amazed at the amount of threads there were, and there was also some beads and 4 full skeins of DMC metallic threads. Here is a picture of the contents - minus the charts themselves, which I was not interested in.

Think you will agree that was quite a bargain.

Thank you to everyone for their lovely comments on Heirloom Christmas. Jane, if you are reading this I will try and remember to email you as I am sure I must be about where you are by now.

HC & IC

Firstly there is an update of Heirloom Christmas. The Rhodes hearts and vines where actually done last time but I did have to undo the two sets on the right and do them again as I found I had left one thread too many between them and the one in the middle so they were out by the one thread at the end of the row. The white lace took me a couple of days to do as we had grey cloudy skies and the light was not good for stitching white on white. The pointsettias are not the best lazy dazy stitches in the world and I really struggled with the colonial knots in the centre of them. I have a feeling that I am not getting them right but its so difficult trying to follow diagrams. I do wish we had a stitching circle where there might be someone who could actually show me. Shame Val is not going to the Harrogate show I bet she could show me how to do them in two seconds flat. Anyway I think when it is completed you will hardly notice the flowers amongst everything else (I'm hoping lol).




The second wip I have to show you is Ink Circles, Blackwork Fantasy Garden, which was a birthday gift from Karan. The colour is not very good, I am using Kallund silk (1 strand) in Tarpan, which varies from creamy beige through to peach and olivey greens and its lovely. This project is something completely different for me and I just could not resist making a start on it. I am going to carry on with this as it is such and easy pick me up and put me down sort of piece and if I can get all the outlines done so I dont have to count all the time then I might take this one on holiday with me. Not that I am expecting to get much stitching time as I think we will be on the go constantly from morning until night. The itenary came yesterday and I was exhausted just reading it lol.

I didnt get much stitching done over the weekend as we had Oscar and for once the weather was not too bad. Saturday was actually quite nice and we went to Rufford Country Park in Nottinghamshire. It is part of the Sherwood Forest area and he loves it there with lots of grass for playing football, forest for hiding in and a huge lake with lots of ducks, swans, geese etc to feed.

Sunday we went to Elvaston Castle, which is another country park but this time in Derbyshire. We didnt go for the park this time though, we went to see the Steam Rally. Oz loves all the big old steam rollers and the old cars but his real favourite at these things in the little tiny steam engines that drive corn grinders or wood cutters. For some reason known only to him he finds these facinating lol - granny finds them quite boring. We had a nice day and the rain started about 3 o'clock just as we were heading back to the car.

Today I was shopping with my Mum - the last minute holiday kind as she is going up to Scotland on Thursday. She will be staying with my aunt in Larbert for a couple of days and then they are having a week on a bus tour doing Royal Deeside and the Northern Lights. When I got home I found the latest newsletter from Papillon Creations and with it the last part of Serendipity. So my good intentions of doing a couple more lines on HC before I put it away went out the window lol. It has now gone away and I have made a start on the final part of "Dippy". Sorry Mr Stick but my UFO is going to have to wait for a couple of days lol.

Wow think I am well on my way to writing a book tonight. If you have got this far then thank you so much for reading my blog, and a special big thanks for sticking with it until the end tonight.