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.