Wizzybuff

Don't Faint. It.s Me!!!!!

2012-01-16T16:16:00.001Z

Happy New Year to you all. My computer is now working.....hopefully. I know that it is an absolute age since I blogged. I've had a busy time. I went volunteering at Chirk castle before Christmas telling stories. I love doing this and I must have read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' about fifty times over a ten hour period split into two days. and also making up my version of 'Rudolf' I read to all age groups and had a Christmas sing song at the end of each story telling or reading. Takes days to gat the old voice back.
On a Christmas theme I did a little stitching for my sister in law and then forgot to take a photo. But I did some 'Bottle Aprons' a quick stitch but effective.
I decided that I'd make some coasters for my DH and I for our Christmas table

I also made the effort and finished off 'Starlite, Star Brite'. Must say it was good to see something actuallly finshed completely.

I had some lovely Christmas gifts from my family from clothing to smellies. I also had a beautiful cross stitched Christmas ornament and a scissor keep along with a frogging needle. ( Now I really can't imagine what you use a frogging needle for) it looks very pretty

I was also given some Charts. These are really great. I am now in the process of getting all the threads and fabric together. I have taken a pic. of some of them and next post I'll be showing you some more.

I didn't manage to finish my 'Surprise Christmas Gift' not that I'm so surprised. Still there is another Christmas. I am just starting to get back into stitching after getting hooked on playing 'Mystery Games' by Big Fish Hidden object Games they are and they are quite addictive. so it's a good job that our computer now seems to be happier.
Here's my Mystery Stitch

This is really hard to get 'you eyeback in' with this, as it is all one stitch here and one stitch there and the colours are all so very close.
I have also made a start on another piece but as I have forgotten to take a photo I'll leave you guessing.

My apologies to Cath at Stitching Chicken, I did try to contact you over the African designs but for some reason it was refused but thank you so much for thinking of me. I'm off now as my Mystery stitchiis awaiting me. See you all next time.

It's Me. I have been watching

2011-12-02T10:53:00.000Z

It's me. I know you're all going to collapse. Firstly appologies to all I have been following your blogs when I 've been able to get access to computer but for some reason there have only been a few comments that have been posted. I keep getting and 'ERROR' message and so the comment gets blocked, rather frustrating but know idea what. why or anything else. Anyhow not to worry just sad for me.
I have been stitching away though in between my normal chaotic diary. My physio has definitely had it's ups and downs. I was doing well and then I went after having very little sleep for several days because of pain and felt ghastly. The Physio shook her head at me and announced that she didn't know what else she could do. Now that made me feel really great. But at my last visit there was some good improvement so I'll go with that and just keep up with the exercises. At the moment my head feels as though it's wobbling around on a disconnected neck, been like that since my last physio visit. Is this a good thing I wonder.!!!
Still on to stitchy things. At long last I am able to say many Thanks to Elaine for the amazing parcel that arrived from her when I won her 'Give-Away' it's truly incredible. Just glance at these pics.

There were also some charts but hold my hand up I forgot to take a picture of them. The Lady- bird pillow is lovely and so well finished. It was like opening a treasure trove. of fabrics and threads so once again many thaks Elaine.

Now for my stitchy things.

I have been stitching a Lavender Wings 'Star lite Star Brite', I enjoyed this I took it with me on a sister visit

Here it is now all stitched I have now to get 'Bell Pull' so that I can finish it off. my pet hate. Finishing I just never seem to get round to it.

.

How many of you remember my Twelve Days of Christmas? Well no it still is completely finished but I have finally managed to get some fabric to back it.

It's Jim Shore , the now discontinued, 12 Days of Christmas fabric. I've bought some felt, to act a batting, as I am turning it into a large wall hanging. I am now scratching my head as to the best way to do it. I'm so worried about spoiling it as it took so many months to stitch it.

Now for Agneatha. She is now a cushion cover(courtesy of my Sister) she really looks lovely just waiting for Christmas

And last, but not least ,my secret stitch I have been working like mad on this but there's really no hope of it being done for Christmas. up to press I 've done approximately 12400 stitches I definitely think you'll have a very good idea of what it is now.

Hopefully I will be able to post again before so long and that I soon be able to leave comments. My DH is trying his best to find out the problem but it is still defeating him. But please remember I am watching. Until next time Keep up the good work with those needles. Cheers Flo

LEST WE FORGET

2011-11-11T07:29:00.000Z

Ups, Downs and Updates

2011-10-18T21:59:00.000+01:00

Hi there everyone. Hope you're all OK.
Well I've had a real up and down few weeks. I started my physio on my knee that I hurt in a fall some months ago and also on my neck that I hurt earlier this year. Yes! I am a walking (hobbling) disaster. I was more than a little nerveous for my first visit to the physio expecting a 10ft. tall he man and so many people had told how much I was going to get pummled about. Guess what no such thing ..My physio is a very nice lady who is quite petite. I did come out rather confused......apparently I stand wonky that is I put more weight on my right leg (because my left leg gives way) and therefore I don't stand straight anymore. Oooops no 1. My leg muscles aren't working properly Oooops no 2. My neck doesn't like turning properly so I've got all these exercises to do three times a day. I have done them but end up with gross headaches Ooops no 3. Back for my second appointment. I have now been given extra exercises for my leg and believe it or not I am now standing better. ....Not of course that I was aware of standing wonky in the first place. My neck is not too happy but I'll keep perceveering and hope that there will be a breakthrough soon. At least if there is I'll perhaps be able to get a better night sleep.
Now to my family. I'm back in the routine of hockey and netball taking, plus the occasional football sorting out. My younger son is a field hockey player and a week ago rang to let me know that he'd been hit in the face at the match and was sporting a possible broken nose and a couple of black eyes. On hearing this my mind went back to when, with both my sons , I spent long hours waiting in A&E with one injury or another.Not a pleasant memory. Any how when I finally saw him he didn't look as bad although whether he's had it checked at the local hospital he's not saying. Then on Thursday last my DH and I were at my son's waiting for
a phone call from our grandson for a lift back from the school football match. Off went my DH. I heard the car arrive back and went to make a cup of tea. I went to the door where the grandson was removing his boots and his cheeky face looked at me and said'Like Father Like Son' You've guessed it he'd been hit in the face and had the swollen nose and bruising coming.
When his Dad arrived home my DH and I left for a few days at my sister's. Peace at last..
only thing was I got a phone call on the Saturday from my son again just to let me know he'd been hit in the face again at hockey. This time it's a bottom tooth that's the problem I believe it's got to go. Now that's going to ruin his smile until they decide what they are going to do with it.
Hopefully this week will be a better week or else I'm going to hide.
Now for some stitchy updates. I've been working away on Jim shore's Snowman and I can now see quite a lot of progress on him but as yet I still haven't put aby beads on him

My next update is on the Lavender Wings 'Star Lite, Star bright' I took this with me to my sister's and managed to make a difference, I have the filament overstitching to do yet, it's another of those things I don't like doing because the filament always stretches so much. It doesn't seem to matter how short I make the thread it still stretches. !!!

This is only showing the last part I stitched as I forgot to unrole it before my DH photoed it for me. I love the snowmen they've got great faces. I'll try and remember to show all of it next time..
Now to my secret stitch. I have been putting a lot of time into this but I think I'm on a lost cause for this Christmas, as I said last time there are 49400 stitches in it and so far I've done approximately 6200 of them. It is made up of so many single stitches it's unbelievable. I really hope that it's going to be worth the effort reguardless of when it's finished

Must admit this is not the best picture. The sunshine is making it look a lot lighter than it is. There again mustn't complain about the sunshine as earlier today it was hailing. Now I'm off to make a drink and relax with a book for a while. Oh by the way forgot to mention we're still having computer problems I hope we can get it sorted soon. It takes an age to post as everything keeps 'shutting down'. Fingers crossed all will be well soon.I'm still trying to catch up with blog reading managed some but haven't always commented please forgive me will make up for it as soon as 'comp' is feeling better.
Until next time happy stitching to you all and if you've time to leave a comment so much appreciated.

All sorts of Everthing.

2011-09-25T22:49:00.000+01:00

At last I've managed to shut the 'Airport' down so that I can at least blog a little. My DH is still airporting like mad despite the fact that I think he has got to the current top level. He say's he's now helping the 'newbies, up the ladder. Mind you we have had some ups and downs with the computer..... We've had to put new leads on and a new router, which incidentally is worse than the old one... I got annoyed and complained to the internet provider and we are being sent yet another router. Here's hoping that this one works. Our internet speed has become so slow we'd loose a race with a snail. Next thing was the keyboard, it's the connection not the actual board but as it's from the stone age we've been and bought a new one. So how all will go on who knows???

I've been doing my usual grandchildren stints, but as yet there are no evening sports to have to take them to. My grandchildren twins started their High School on the 6th Sept. They are absolutely exhausted at the moment, what with the homework to do and them getting each others books muddled up and several stressed outbreaks from the female side of the twins to the laid back atitude of her brother (What is it about males??). Anyhow I'm sure in a little while it'll all calm down...Hopefully....

I should have started physio on my knee and shoulder at long last. I was all ready for the off when the phone rang to tell me that the Physio was ill and they had no other spaces to fit me in until the end of the month. Still I've struggled with it now for a long time so a little while longer won't make a deal of difference. Wish me luck with it.

Just so you know I have been stitching. I've done quite well really and I must say I'm pleased with all my progress. Now to see what you all think.... First of all my Jim Shore Snowman. I took him with me to my sisters and he moved along OK

There is still the outer ring to go on and lots of beads. It's such a long time since I've stitched anything with beads. It's a wonder I've not been in denial!!!!

Now on to my Gakwonga piece' Ngoma Kem Kem.' This is the third one and Yes I've finished it. yippee...Happy Dances . I've got another one similar to the ones I've already stitched and a couple of ones that have men 'dancing ' and playing drums.

I decided against starting another 'African' type at the moment and have started a Christmas 'Bell Pull'

It's by Lavender Wings and is called 'Star Lite. Star Brite'. Here's my progress on it. It's one I do in the evenings with my feet up!!
I actually took it to my sisters with me but managed to forget all the threads...Oh Age is such a wonderful thing!?!
It's quite a change from one's I've been stitching recently so it makes a pleasant difference.

Next is something I've started as a gift. I had geat illusions of giving it at Christmas but after starting I'm not sure exactly which Christmas it'll be. It is approximately 11" x 13" on 18ct aida. it has 52 colours and 49400 stitches. What do you think my chances are then for this year????
I'm not showing a picture of it nor giving the title so watch this space...here is my progress so far.

This is about 500 stitches..The colours shown are just under half of them and the rest are in similar colour veins. you can probably guess that lots of the shades are consecutive so here's hoping that I don't go wrong too often as I'll have a lot of difficulty deciding what colour is what.

LOUD FANFARE....ANNOUNCEMENT.... AGNEATHA IS FINISHED....
and that includes all the backstitching. I am very pleased with her. The intention is to make her into a cushion for Christmas time and heres hoping that this one will get 100% finished this year. I 've got so many pieces that are stitched but needed framing etc.. Here she is

The next photo is one I asked my DH to take just to prove she really has got 'whiskers'

Just so you know I have been reading blogs when I have been able to displace my DH from his 'Air Traffic control' pastime but due to the computer keyboard problems have left only a few comments. Please rest assured that I enjoy watching your updates and will get back to commenting ASAP. This new keyboard is a nightmare ...it van't spell !!!!

To day is the first time I have used it and I think it is going to take some getting used to. So until next time hope you are all making great stridees forward with your WIPS and that the 'frogs' are all away.
Until next time. Bye for now.

A bit of this and that.

2011-08-31T23:03:00.000+01:00

Well it's me. I've actually managed to find a bit of time to blog. I've been busy as per usual with the grandchildren. They've been staying with us for a few days, we went shopping ( the girls and I) on one day and another went to the local swimming pool where they attempted to show me their made up syncranised swimming exhibition. I don't think any of the prospective Olympic Games entrants need worry. It took them about half an hour to figure out how to burst out of the water one after another, Entertaining watching the practise but the 10 seconds it lasted .......well what can I say??We then had to take them back home so that they could all attend their football and hockey training sessions. Then of course there's the picking up and dropping off of 'sleepovers', and friend playing. I also had the 'pleasure' of three other teenagers 'chilling out' in the back garden after going to collect their module results for their GCSE's All happy with the results so I made lunch for them and left them to enjoy the sunshine.

A little earlier in August my younger son and his family went camping in Norfolk and had a good time. The younger of the grand-daughters rang me to let me know the recipe for some 'Ginger Buscuits' that we had been making at their house. (Wow they are fantastically tasty ...problem is they are also fantastically more-ish. ) I've made dozens of them these last few weeks and my DH chomps his way through most of them. At the moment the box is empty so I'll have to make some more that is of course if I'm able to make the time!!!!, Note to self: Remember spreading waist-line!!!

During my time of grand-children minding they have introduced me to a 'web game' called 'Skyrama'. I know there are a lot of people playing 'Farmarama' , but this one is where you are a sort of Air Traffic controller. You have to land and load planes and send them round the world, hadn't got a clue what I was doing but happily muddled my way through so far and then introduced my DH to it. Now, he always says that he doesn't play games but believe me I've I haven't been able to get anywhere near the computer for days. Hence such a long time since I blogged!!!

Time now for my stitching updates.. It's been a while since I 've done any of my Jim Shore Snowman, so |I decided I'd better take it with me on my time away from home to try and make some inroads into it. I managed a little and am hoping to get some more done this next couple of weeks.

My Anchor' Ngomo Kem Kem' is coming along quite well, although this one, for some reason, seems to be harder to do than the previous two. Maybe it's because there are two people on it or because of the way the chart is split into sections, there's always one or two stitches on another section of the chart. The picture has been rolled up so that the bottom part of the stitching isn't showing but they have got feet and the back-stitching is done. Here it is

Last but not least it's 'Agneatha' . Once again this is rolled up and I can assure you that it really is all stitched and I have done some of the back stitching. I am using an ordinary sewing needle to do it as it goes through all parts of the aida and I find tne usual cross stitching needle too thick. There are just one or two small bits of back ground to fill in at the top and then it's back-stitching all they way. I've been trying to do some each day and hopefully the next time I blog will have her finished....including the missing whiskers' hope you like her

I hadn't realised that my DH who is my photographer had somehow 'cut off' part of the stitching. it is all done HONEST. I'll have to have words about it and do a re-training lesson!!!!!
I'm going to make us a 'cuppa' now and then I think my weary head will be 'hitting the pillow'. I think I may be short of a good night rest, Untill next time hope you've all had a good Summer (even though there doesn't seem to have been much Sun in it, at least in our part of the UK)

Keep up the good work with your stitching and I promise I really will try and leave more comments. I have been reading when I could get on the computer but haven't left as many comments as I normally would. Sorry to for being remiss, please forgive me. Take care out there.

Ramblings and an Award, Yes! an Award

2011-07-31T18:04:00.001+01:00

Hi there, it's me again. I am so delighted to have been given and AWARD. It's been passed to me by Bekca of 'Stitching Lion'. As with all things there are always some 'rules' or other, so here they are.

1. Thank the person who has awarded you.

2. List seven things about yourself.

3. Pass the award to 15 other stylish bloggers
.
So here we go with the easy one first...... Thanks Bekca I can say I was truly in shock.

Now a little harder

1. I need a cup of tea in the morning to get my engine started.
2. I rely on my Hubby to sort out all electrical things...eg plug fitting.
3. Baking with my grandchildren is one of my loves.
4. I tend to be 'accident' prone!!!
5. I volounteer in a Primary School helping school beginners to read.
6. I am not the best at housework.
7. I invariably take on more than I can manage.

And lastly the really hard one, this is because I know that some people will not want to take part but that is their choice and also because some I would have passed it on to have already got it. Horror of horrors!!!

1 Jen fromI've Started so I'll Finish...Eventually I'll give you a reason for this. It's because it's a blog I've used and one I enjoy watching it helps people who've got' STUCK' on a UFO.
2 Jayne .... Ginnie's Cross Stitich!!
3. Linda.....Blu Stitcher
4. Jennifer......Confessions of a Serial Starter
5.Gabi...... Lady of the Floss
6. Nancy..... Cross Stitches and Kitty Kisses
7. Mel.....Epic Stitching
8. Tammy..... KFor the Love of Cross Stitching
9. Angela..... Hooked on Stitches
10.Blu..... Therapy by Thread
11Shamila..... Stitching My Way
12 Siobhan ..... Notes form Blue Hen Hollow
13.Carol.....Stitch Across The Border
14 Bernice.... Rocky Mountain Stitcher
15 Silverlotus.... Reflections in a Pond

Wow that was hard work!!!! If I have passed this on to anyone who has already been given this award (I've tried to check) or to anyone who is an 'Award Hater' please believe me when I say I'm sorry.

On now to what I've been up to or not as the case may be.
I have not kept up with reading blogs OOOOOps. The computer has had a severe headache. (My Husband) My DH has been 'tinkering' and all sorts of things went wrong. I don't even understand what he was doing in the first place, I just know the whole thing'Crashed' big style. Anyhow today he has managed to restore it to some sort of usage. Yippee . Monday was a Yuk day (more about that at another time MAY BE) I went off to Chirk Castle again this week on Thursday, on this occasion I was not with grandchildren I was one of the volounteers who dress up in 'Tudor Costume' and on what is known as Family Thursday Costume Day where we dress any willing( or otherwise) people of all ages up in Tudor outfits, It's a good day because I see people I don't actually see more than a few times each year.
We have spent some time out in the garden trying to tidy it up a little. We've eaten our first home grown tomatoes. Unfortunately we'd eaten them before I thought of taking a picture!! Any how here's a pic of some poppies that have come out. We have never had poppies this colour before so I can only assume that they have cross pollenated with another variety. ( Now that sounds as if I know what I'm talking about).

This next picture is of a rose that we transplanted from our front garden to the back and it has only just started to recover after some violent pruning by my brother in law several years ago, if you look carefully you can see it's got a little 'visitor'.

I'm not too sure whether the flowers on the grapevine can be seen, I was amazed how many buds there are this year, hopefully we'll have a good crop, that is if we get to them before the blackbirds.

I have to admit that I haven't done vast amount of stitching this last two weeks. I went in to the school along with my eldest grand-daughter (15) on the Thursday morning sticking the labels on books for the years new pupils. Two of my grandchildren finished 'primary school' this year and I went to watch the' Leavers assembly' which was very touching and many people were in tears, children and adults included. There were two large screens that showed photos of these now 11 year olds as they had gone through the school and some of the activities that they had taken part in, it was great. Tears were in abundance as they sang their School Song 'One Day at a Time'. Both my grand-daughter and her twin brother were in tears( must admit ..me included). Now on to their next big chapter!!!!!

Stitching at last I can almost hear you sighing... Agneatha has moved along I have reached the half way mark on one side and almost on the other. Not much back stitching done yet though but I have made a start. I have started to enjoy doing it now. It's only the Aida that is the headache. My DH has taken the photo for me as I seem only manage shakey pics at the moment. He's got good colour on it as well so I am delighted.

My only other stitching has been on Ngoma Kem Kem this one is also coming along quite well. Love the colours in these designs.

I have succombed and bought some more of the African designs by Gakonga, only problem is I forgot to take pics. so that'll have to be a ''remember for next time". I only went to buy some needles...HONEST.

I don't know how much sewing I'll get done this week as I am at my son's for four days looking after the grandchildren. Baking is on the agenda as I've already had the 'phone call' asking, "Please can we bake. Grandma?"

I am taking my sewing with me, I just hope that it's not in vain. Wish me luck, I'll arrive home probably needing a months hols myself.( Ho Ho)

Once again that's it for now, I really must try and catch up on my blog reading, but the needle is calling. If you've time to leave a comment so much appreciated . Until next time Hope your sewing moves along well Bye for now.....

Rhubarb, Rhubarb and Surprise!!!!!!

2011-07-18T21:14:00.000+01:00

Hi there everyone, It's time for me to update you on my last couple of weeks.

Well I have been busy. I went to stop at my Younger sons while he and his DW went to Spain for a few days. This coincided with their elder daughter going off to France with school for about 10 days (not really sure). Off went the older holiday makers at about 5.30a.m. so that they would be in good time for their flight from Liverpool airport. I was dutifully awake to wave them off. At about 7.00a.m. the grandchildren were up and about. The next holiday maker having a slight problem, mainly she couldn't close her case. 'Grandma' comes the call from upstairs. Off I go to help solve the problem!!! I have never seen so much 'stuff',(that would probably never be used,) being put into a suitcase. Now maybe it's just me but how many of you out there take a four plug extension lead on hols with you??? Plus ipod holders, a multitude of various continental plug adapters. A box of energy bars, birthday presents ( her 15th birthday occurred in the middle of the hol) and cards, all sorts of odd bits and last but not least a tub of 'Pot Noodle'. I can only assume that the suitcase was going to get very hungry.!!. Anyway after re-packing the suitcase with plugs etc. stuffed into trainers and a general reshuffle Lo and Behold the suitcase fastened. Her brother and sister waited patiently ....well for so long... they had sorted out their own breakfast (Yippee) when her brother reminded me that he had to take his bicycle to school as he was lending it to a friend so that his friend could do his 'cycling proficiency '( I found out later that his friend had had his bicycle stolen). So after wishing his sister a 'fond farewell' he vanished off to school. Her sister waited for her and we set off for the High School. We passed another parent, looking rather harrassed, still trying to get her son's belongings into the back of her car. I don't mind telling you how glad I was that I was not the only one going slightly loopy. We arrived at the High School and drove down to where we had to unload their cases.(They weren't leaving until 16.00hrs.) There were two boys there already. At this point I must tell you that the boys had made the decision that they would be wearing 'TY-Dyed' 'T'shirts' I wish I had a photo to show you but if I tell you they were dyed a mix of delicate shades of 'PINK and Orange'(Please use your imagination!!!) One boy was kitted out to travel in his Ty Dye also sporting a pair of pinky washed out looking crop trousers. (His mother was just shaking her head at him) Another one had a very querky hat on also with Ty Dye shirt The third boy arrived (evidently dressed by his mother) rather more sensibley attired. The two TY Dyes said ' Hey! Where's your holiday gear?' 'In my case ,' was the answer. I can tell you the look of horror on his mother's face was absolutlely picturesque. when he proceeded to unpack his case to find his fantastic TY Dye and get changed in the school car park, I have know idea yet how the holiday went but I'm sure at some point I'll get to hear all about it. I did remember to deliver the younger granddaughter to her school with no problem. I then went back to my 'temporary home' to sort out the chaos that seemed to be everywhere.(not that bad really).
I had a list of things such as Scouts 19.00, NO Guides, Saturday Dancing. etc etc. Now on Saturday I also had my other three grandchildren to look after plus the Dancing runs. Football competitions, delivering granddaughter to other grandmas to go to a 'Strawberry Tea' at the Church Hall. I actually managed to get all to where they needed to be and at the right time .
The next day my DH and I took the two grandchildren down to Chirk Castle, on the border of Wales, for a Plant Detective day..

They thoroughly enjoyed themselves talking to a gentleman

who was dressed in period costume who showed them how the country was mapped using a 'Half Chain measure'(11 Yards) and also how to measure trees to assess their age.!

This one is thought to be about 100 years old. ( according to my granchildren's measuring.) It was quite a long day and we had tea at Mc Donalds and then headed for home. I was handing over to their other grandmother for the last day and a half of minding. I was exhausted!!!
Back to my saga. The next week went as usual volounteer in a local school, go to son's to do the school taking and collecting for a couple of days. Except this time I was going to the Year6's production of a very amusing 'play' called 'School Daze' I must say it was excellent, and generally considered to be the best one yet. The next day I was back at the grandchildren's school volounteering there as well, and then in the afternoon went to several performances by the children (in year groups) ages 8 to 11. Highly entertaining afternoon. and then eventually back to my own home and my DH. At weekend I had my other three grandchildren to stay for Sat. plus Sat. Night. as usual baking was on the list of 'to do'. This is a cheese cake that we made up our own recipe for , must say it tasted pretty good, decoration courtesy of Lily

Now tho the part I know you have been waiting for....my progress on the stitching stakes.... I have tried Honestly to fit in some stitching so here we go.
I have worked a little on Ngoma Kem Kem in the evening at home but found I was getting myself very confused trying to read across two charts but never the less progress has been made.

I have done pretty well with Agneatha. I've reached the right hand side and started to work up. The tail has been a bit of a nightmare with all the black and dark grey but at least that is now finished, mind you I still have the back stitching to do, I know I say that everytime.( I keep wondering if the Backstitch Fairy will call.) I must admit I'm not too keen on stitching on Aida anymore but when it comes with the kit that's what I use. I would say that I have done about a 1/4 of the design (well maybe)

I've got a surprise for you now. Yes I've got another finish. 'Counting Bats' by Just Nan is done. I'm now looking for a suitable backing fabric to make it into a bell pull. I'm really pleased with this and I'm hoping that the picture is showing the colours as they really are, fingers crossed.

I have been looking through my UFO's. One I started in 1998 keeps calling me. It's by Bucilla. The Apache Wedding Vows. I found it out and put away again!!!! The aida it's stitched on must be 11 count and for some reason it put me off it.. I suppose I'll just have to get it out and look again. Perhaps the aida will have shrunk.
Well that's it for now. Hope you joined in my 'Happy Dance' with me. . Thanks for dropping in and if you've had the time to leave a comment , much appreciated,
Until next time here's hoping your needles are flying and the frogs are sleeping.

Another New Start and Happy Dances...Yippee

2011-07-05T18:41:00.003+01:00

' WARNING LOTS OF PICTURES'
Hi there , everyone. Hope you have been enjoying the sunny weather we've been having lately. My DH and I arrived back from a quick visit to my sIster's this last weekend and the weather was glorious. I received a phone call from my son wanting to know if I fancied watching his team play in the Final of the local cricket league; I quite enjoy watching cricket so off I went. They were only playing 20/20. For the non follower that means that they play 20 overs(6 balls per over) per team and obviously the one with most runs wins. When I arrived I had no idea where my son was so the grandchildren pointed him out. There he was sitting with his leg up and a bandage round it.

He'd apparently done something to his 'quad' (Haven't really got a clue what a quad is other than something soldiers march round!!) in the semi-final a little earlier in the day. He was in some pain but as they had no subs he intended playing. When it came to the actual final to be played his team were fielding first and it was not a good start, catches were dropped and my son was hobbling around as the normally speedy runner just couldn't run. When it was his teams turn to bat they were out one after another very quickly and they had moved the place my DS would bat to a later place. He came out bat under arm and walked in a laboured fashion out to the crease when all of a sudden another batsman came out..... the opposing team allowed him to have a runner,( that's another man who can run the 22yds between the wickets on his behalf) unfortunatley he was out for only 11 runs (he was run out by the other batsman). It's a strange game cricket. But to cut a long story short they lost.. Doom and Gloom everywhere, but, true to form they cheered the winning team and applauded them as they received the trophy. Although not the winners it was a lovely day out in the sunshine.

Now for the important bits of news.I have made some good progress with my Just Nan's Counting Bats. Although I did get visitation from the 'frogs' more than once usually on the 1/1 words which was a bit of a headache.

I would most likely have got this finished if I hadn't been side-tracked by my grand-daughter into making a couple of '50's' style skirts for their school year production of'Grease'. I hope they come up to expectations as I haven't had the chance to try either skirt on the girls

The skirt colour is a bright red but on the picture it looks a bit pinky,( don't know why all the photo's are looking a bit wishy washy.) I'll be at the school watching the show next week so I'll have to let you know how it goes.!!!!!

I have made another new start., Ngoma Kem Kem (Heart Warming Dance) by Anchor as before by the Kenyan artist Gakonga. I have been enjoying stitching these.

This is where I have got up to at the moment.

You must have guesssed I have finished 'Looking Back'. Happy dances all round. They are quite a good'Chill out' design to stitch.

And now for the BIGGEE. Fanfares all round. 'CASTLES IN THE AIR' IS FINISHED. Created by Papillon Designs, started two years plus a bit ago. It's been a roller coaster of ups and down for me as I have combined the cross stitch and the speciality designs into one plus altering bits to suit myself. I have to get it framed yet but that will have to wait until the next time I'm down near the' Nimble Thimble' in Wales.

I chose to use 32 ct fabric to make it a little smaller (19 1/2") and the colours were taken from the flowers in our garden. Here are a few pics.

Hope you can all hear the music that I'm dancing to..I've got it as loud as I can and the house is shaking with my happy feet .

That's it for now folks I'm off to make our meal. Hope you have time to leave a comment they are so appreciated. Until next time Happy stitching to you all.

No finishes..BUT New start

2011-06-17T18:15:00.000+01:00

Oops! Sorry I'm late in blogging this time. Hasn't the weather been awful?? You'd never think that it was June. My DH and I went off for a weekend visit to my sisters and while we were there on their local news it showed pictures of SNOW on Snowdon (Wales). Now I know it's a mountain but come on it's supposed to be Summer. The weather was very changeable while we were there,-- rain coming down in a vertical downpour to occasional sun (very occasional). Despite the weather my DH was off on the golfcourse. On the last day that we were there he was up at 5.00am to get a game of golf, that's because the local weather forecast said' RAIN LATER IN THE DAY' so obviously to avoid this he woke the birds up.

As usual while at my sisters I take a selection of stitching to do. I took Kuihugura (Looking Back) and had convinced myself that I'd get her finished this time. Although I supposed if I had really tried I may well have done that. I let my self begin something new. So first of all here's my pic of Kuihugura

I enjoy doing this one as I like the way the colours are used in the sky. There definitely isn't that much left to do.

I also did a little on my Jim Shore Snowman. This was harder as I had a visitation from the frogs as I discovered that some I had previous stitched I had quite happily miscounted so out it had to come. Then I found I had done another section in the wrong colour as well. Oh horror of horrors... not more frogs. I put it all right and added a little so this is how it's looking now.

I 've treated myself to a new magnifier. I have the type that 's by Daylight company (I think they're called) but often find that the arm length of the magnifier could do with being a little longer but when I go to stop over at my son's the light isn't really good enough to sew by.....so enter the 'Optus' . It's quite neat I can use it by a spring clip that attaches it to a sewing hoop or on the top or side of a hand held frame or as I've got it shown in the photo it has little side arms that can be pulled out so that it becomes a free-standing 'glass', it also has two LED lights in it so it lights the part you are stitching on. If you look carefully at the photo I've put two marbles near it to give you an idea of the size. I took it with me to my son's this week and for once I can now stitch in the evening.

I have finished all the 'Castles in the Air' down loads but haven't taken a photo as I'd rolled it up to the top again to check that I had done all the beading ,back-stitching etc. and as I think that the last download , which is due this month, will feature somewhere at the top I left it ready.!!

Agneatha is coming along quite well now and I am almost to the right hand side. When I get there it'll give me that impetous to move on with it more. I've still not done any more backstitching on it though. (Ugh)

Now to my new start. I was talked into this by my DS!!!!! (Honestly) It's Just Nan's 'Counting Bats'. I have used the Frenzy fabric which I purchased from Silver Needle as I could not find it anywhere in the UK. I'm glad I took the trouble to search for the fabric as I think it adds something to it. I had hoped to get a little more done than I have but owing to a slight accident I've had I daren't stitch anything at the moment. Never-the-less here's the pic. of it as it looks at the moment.

Now to my accident or perhaps mishap is a better word.....How many of you have tried Ty-Dyeing???? I was asked by my elder son if I could help them out by dyeing two T-shirt for them for the District Scout Camp that the family's going on this weekend. I 'm still not sure why I 'fell' for this ploy but I said OK. They'd bought the 'kit' I went off and got the T-shirts and set about doing it with my grandchildren out on the lawn. This was because I thought it would be the safest place to do it. Just one big problem all set up when it started to rain. Dust sheets to hand we transferred our effort to the conservatory I had the shirt soaking in the powder as per instructions while we set about mixing the colours. What a nightmare! a spoon of powdered dye in to the neck of a bottle that it doesn't fit into and it seems to everywhere.Of course when I told my DH about this he said he would have made a funnel out of paper to solve the problem (Where are these ideas when you want them) Must admit you are supplied with 'rubber' gloves as you are told THIS WILL STAIN. Great if all's just OK. The gloves had holes in the fingers.!!!! When we had done the 2 shirts (that seemed like twenty) the grandchildren all had fingers in various degrees of colour and my hands, being the one's considered to be least important were a mix of dark purple and greens with touches of red/orange. I can tell you that when my son saw my hands his comment was ...wait for it...' What in the world have you been doing? It's supposed to be a children's kit with adult help!!!' Need I say more?? Consequently this greenhanded date for the Incredible Hulk isn't stitching at the moment in case any of the dye comes off onto my threads etc. It isn't quite as bad now as I have scrubbed my hands with an inch of their life. I daren't tell you the mix of stuff I've tried to try and get back to normal hand colour. So instead I'm reading a book by Fidelis Morgan 'The Ambitious Stepmother'..... and washing my hands every half hour!!!!.

BREAKING NEWS: We've picked (and eaten) our first strawberry of the season. It was good here's looking forward to many more.

Well there we go until next time. Hope for some Happy Dances soon. Hope you all have a good stitching time. Thanks for your kind comments.

Blog to you all again soon......

Grey Skies and Gloom

2011-05-30T14:41:00.000+01:00

Here we are again updating on the happenings of the last couple of weeks.
The weather in our part of the U.K. has been pretty grey. You know the sort I mean grey skies, grey rainy days, just grey, grey, grey. Rather boring really. Makes you feel low as though the 'Joie de vivre' has gone on holiday and forgotten to take you with it. Any how there's no point in moping over it the sun will arrive soon. It's got to it's 'Blazing June' the day after tomorrow.
My stitching has been moving along rather on the slow side I'm afraid. It's not that my mojo has gone anywhere it's just that I do most of my sewing on an upright frame that my DH made (for Himself) and due to some considerable back pain have only been able to sit and stitch in short bursts so to speak.
The main stitching has been done on 'Agneatha', I have finished the lower right hand corner (except for the back-stitching) and have actually moved more than halfway across the bottom section.. I have continued to do part cat and part background as both can get a little eye straining at times. as some of the colours are very close. I must be honest and say I am dreading the back stitching on this as there is an humongous amount of it and although there is a separate chart the stitches are done 1/3 of the way over the cross-stitch block before veering off in a different direction and as even if you are on linen or evenweave how in the world you get a third of the way I don't know. I can only imagine that when then backstitching was charted it was just drawn on to the cross-stitch chart which is easy enough but getting that to the fabric is a whole different ball game.(Or am I just being critical?) Perhaps I'm reading the chart incorrectly so we'll see how it goes. Watch this space. Here's the pic of Agneatha

After watching for the download to appear from Papillon Designs for this month it has arrived.
This time the four designs have arrived that fit into the four corner circle. This is download no. 22 and apparently the next one is the last although at the beginning of this epic adventure there were to be 24 downloads, not that I'm complaining I am now getting to the end and then I can 'Happy Dance'. I am doing the top two corners and then slowly going over the whole of the work already done to make sure that I have finished all parts and also that all the beads are on. I have run out of beads several times so thought I'd better check it all over. I have only just finished the backstitching on the fountain and that was about download 8. I have put on the missing beads on the drops of water off the fountain and here once again I have altered it. It is supposed to have just one of the two colours of beads on the whole design but I didn't fancy the antique gold colour on the 'drips' of water at the waterfall so have rummaged through my stash of beads and decided to use crystal aqua.(I am quite happy with the results). As usual I have mixed the two types of stitching up and used both the 'Specialty chart and the straight forward cross-stitch chart,( This is mainly because of my dislike of daisy stitch). The result again pleases me. Unfortunately I have run out of the Antique gold beads so will have to get some more. At this point I have to decide whether or not to wait until the beads arrive before rolling up the fabric and trust that I won't forget that they are missing. Hope you like the following pics.

NEWS FLASH.........The sun has come out.

So here's some pics of the flowers that trying so hard to brighten up our garden. The roses have a hard job against some very strong winds and I am so glad that they have survived.

Hope you can see the apples growing on this tree. They are a very tasty apple called 'Greensleeves', behind it are plum and pear trees, both well laden with fruit. We lost several 'hardy 'plants this last winter and are still deciding what to replace then with, although conversely some non-hardy plants are doing well!!.. no accounting for nature.

This next pic of our garden is out 'foresty' area . To the front you can see an oak tree. This oak tree is now about 24 years old and was grown from an acorn collected by one of our sons. It's a very shady part and the lower part is ferns and shade lovling plants. It's also a part the the Blackbirds love to find grubs and bugs in.

I was watching a young blackbird being fed by it's father the other afternoon when a stack of starlings arrived. The young blackbird got so confused that it followed the starlings...Can a starling look surprised? Well one did as the young blackbird kept pecking at it's breast asking for food. The male blackbird gave a call and off it's youngster went without a backward glance.

Here now is my last progress pic/ It's on Kuihugura, (Looking Back) This is getting there slowly. This my evening stitching in an easy chair with my feet up. I should have done more but I have been falling asleep rather easily.
Just for those of you that like 'Bears' there's a 'give-away' at Bear Bits
The sun is still shining Yippee so it looks as though I may have to go on 'pond cleaning' duties.
Thanks for your friendly comment if you have time to leave one.
So until next time.
Hope the sun shines on you and yours and May your Needle be with you.

Three 'R's' and an S. Rest, Relaxation, Reading and Stitching

2011-05-15T21:05:00.001+01:00

Well!!!! What's happened to the weather? From glorious sunshine it's now grey skies and rain. It tends to make me feel a little 'gloomy'. I know the field and gardens need the water so I'm not being mean honest, so that snipit of sunshine that manages to sneak through is a bonus. These last couple of weeks or so since I last 'blogged' I have been reading some books that my sister lent me. The author is Bernard Cornwell, the series, 'The Grail Quest'. It consists of three books, 'The Harlequin', 'The Vagabond' and 'The Heretic'. It is a super series and I couldn't put them down. After those I have read another couple of books by Fidelis Morgan ,' Unnatural Fire' and 'Rival Queens'. My DH and I have also been visiting my sister and her hubby again. While at my sister's I actually volunteer at a castle where I dress up in Tudor Costume and tell children about Tudor Times when they come on school trips. I also take my cross stitching with me and spend quite some time sewing. I always get home feeling relaxed. While there my DH plays golf, well at least that is the general idea except this last visit he forgot his golf shoes so no golf. Instead he helped my brother in law chop down a tree that had succumbed to the winter weather and then started reading a book by Elizabeth Chadwick called 'Lords of the White Castle', I am now reading it too.
As well as reading we have still been working on the garden and here are some pics of the fruits of our labours

I think we will have strawberries for quite a while this year, at least I hope so.

The picture above shows the mixed salad that my grand-daughters sowed when here at Easter, We are looking forward to being able just to pop outside and pick fresh salads.

So having been busy doing all sorts of different things my stitching time has been less. I have really tried to keep my 'Mojo' going so get ready here's my WIP progress,...
First here is Agneatha, I'm starting now to 'get into' this and although I'm still having thread problems it's growing

Next is 'Looking Back' my evening stitching, the feet are done (scout's honour) but I decided not to roll it back for the picture. There another two panels to complete her and then the back-stitching.

While at my sister's I did some of 'Looking Back' and then decided to do some of the small Christmas Tree decorations. Some of these need beads but as yet I haven't put any on at all. I'm trying to find some material to back them with that has just a small pattern as anything too big will look silly.

Some time ago I started Jim Shore's 'Western Snowman' and then put him away and more or less forgot about him.

Anyhow I found him out and started to do some more. I was going along quite nicely when I discovered I had miscounted part of the first bit I'd done ages ago, so, after the dreaded 'frogging' I re- sewed the part I had done wrong and then I found I'd managed to sew some in the wrong colour. Goodness knows what I was doing at the time. Evidently daydreaming.. Still never mind it's all sorted now, Here's how he's looking now.

Well that's the end of my stitching updates for this time. Here's a question for you all... Am I the only one having trouble 'Blogging'? It's taking an age.

AH well. I'm now going to put my feet up. We have taken two of our grandsons back home to day. They stayed with us while there Mum, Dad and Big Sister were on Scout Camp. So we've been out feeding ducks and geese at the park and they've been enjoying themselves on the new climbing frames and rope bridges that there are now. Along side watching a selection of DVDs and munching their way through our fridge.

Until next time....May the Mojo be with you . Thanks for popping in

What a combination...Sunshine and stitching

2011-04-26T21:51:00.001+01:00

Wow!!! What a beautiful Easter weekend weatherwise we've had. My DH and I spent the four days watching the annual Hockey Tournament in Blackpool. The team my son plays for came 3rd. this year, ( all a little disappointed after last years 1st place), His wife and his three children watched all day Friday but had to go home as belonging to the the Scout and Guide Movement they were 'Bag Packing' on Saturday afternoon to raise funds for their groups. Also in the morning they were taking their other grandma out for a treat. I know that they had a lovely time. They were back on Sunday to watch after they had been to Church. The sun was shining, although a little cooler than it had been on Friday when it was scorching. We all had a great afternoon and the hockey crowd are a friendly group.

We spent part of the first week of the Spring Holidays in the garden, tidying and weeding, potting and pruning. Garden centre browsing, now that's a cause for concern . We were busy re-doing our strawberry plants that have grown from a mere 12 plants to nearly 70 (over a period of time). After that I had the grandchildren for a couple of days at our house, they love to bake so stitching had to take a back seat for a while.
I have of course done some stitching and I must admit that when I've looked I've done rather more than I thought I had so Yippee time.....Here goes with my stitching update.

First of all it's Agneatha with Apple. I am still having a bit of trouble getting in to this one, I can only put it down to it being on quite a coarse aida, and also that the threads that came with the kit seem to be very 'thin' and keep splitting and then breaking.

The next one probably looks a little odd, but honestly when it's made up it makes a Christmas decoration of a stocking, look closely and you'll see the shape. I haven't done this in the colour stated because I decided I'd experiment a little and I'm not unhappy with the result. I've got some more of these designs and I may well alter colours there as well. I'll just have to make my mind on that yet.

Anchor's Kuihugura (Looking Back) is coming along nicely. This is the one I call my 'Evening Sewing' that's because I watch the TV at the same time and also have my feet up resting, 'Heavenly'. I saw some more of these designs the other day 'web browsing' the problem is can't remember where I saw them. I think this is called a 'Senior Moment' (sounds better than totally forgetful).

I have been checking regularly for any downloads from Papillon Designs for 'Castle in the Air' I was just about deciding that perhaps there wasn't going to be one this month when... There it was Download no.21. This is a lady sewing in an arbour. I have altered it here and there (what's new I can hear you saying). I've added some back stitching in her hair, that's because the yellow seemed a bit too harsh so I've attempted to soften it a little by using DMC 729, I'm not sure if it's worked, the jury is still out on it. i haven't yet done her face as I can't seem to 'get it right'. I've altered the shade her face should be according to PD as it was going to be the same colour as the basket on the seat. Another part I've changed is the skein of thread , it was supposed to have been back-stitch but somehow it didn't work so I've made it look like a skein with it's labels, I also changed the butterfly, this is because I rather like the butterflies round the 'swan section' and decided to use the same style instead of just a straight cross- stitched version.

I've taken another pic to show where this cartouche fits into the main design

There are another 3 downloads to come as I seem to remember that it should be 24 altogether. I do hope I haven't got that wrong. as I am now looking forward to finishing it.

Now back to the garden. We have a Wisteria and while everyone elses plant seems to be covered in purple flowers and very few leaves ours is always a mass of leaves so that you can hardly see the flowers. But my of my the perfume is fantastic I wish you could smell it., it's quite intoxicating.

That's it for now folks. That's for calling in, your comments are much appreciated. Until next time as usual.....May the needle be with you.

Cheers

My 'MOJO' is still with me.

2011-04-11T19:11:00.001+01:00

Yippee and wonders the sun has shone for three whole days ...Friday, Sat.,and Sunday all while we were staying with my DS and her DH, today, Monday it's been raining like mad for part of the day and then the sun arrived again,I hang out my washing and guess what it's started raining.!!!!! Am I a jinx?? Mind you it is April so perhaps that accounts for the uncertainty.
My DH and I had a lovely weekend with my sister and her hubby. My DH spends as much time as he can on a golf course and my sister and I do a reasonable amount of stitching.
My sister had ordered some buttons for me from Mary Jane Collection along with goods that she wanted. So as they had arrived when I got there I was able to complete my 'Warm Winter Wishes'

I am really happy with this as I think the Snowman has a very contented look on his face!! All I have to do now is to try and find a frame for it. Square frames seem to be out of fashion....

My African Lady, Kuihugura (Looking Back)is coming along as I've said before she is my evening stitching.

I tend to do most of the coloured part and then fill in the black sections. There is stacks of back-stitching on it YUK.

I have made a new start, this going to be made into a cushion.

Guess what it's a cushion for Christmas. It's called 'Agneatha with Apple'. I've had a bit of a problem getting into it but now I can see something happening . The 'Cat' part is a bit of a pain at the moment so I'm working on trying to get to the bottom edge and then taking it from there upwards ( not sure if that makes sense).The colours on Agneatha are quite close in parts and I have had bit of a problem differentiating between them. Anyhow this is as far as I have managed to date

Possibly the cause of my difficulties it that is on aida and I have not been doing much on aida for quite a while.
Now on to my 'handbag' stitching. This is the TLC Designs 'Santa II', he only grows very slowly, but at least he is growing.

Here is 'Santa VII' all finished. I'm going to give his mustache a trim but I'm still plucking up the courage. I think he'll look good on the tree come Christmas.

I bought this little chart at 'The Nimble Thimble' last time I visited my sister and as I finished my Waxing Moon's design decided I needed a boost to the moral.

I take a selection of things to either start or stitch. This time I decided to 'Start'. Now granted I still have to 'Finish off' properly but I quite surprised myself.

The Tree above still needs some gold beads attaching and I haven't had time yet to even look for some in my stash, so when they're on I'll take another pic. The next photo shows the miniaturised version of the first photo. It's the first time I have attempted any 1/1 , haven't decided yet whether or not it'll be the last. What do you think?

Here's a little bit of 'Spring' from our garden. This is the blossom on our plum tree and one of the pear trees I hope that the winds don't blow it all off before the little bugs have a chance to 'do there job' so that we'll have stacks of fruit later in the year...Yummeeeee...

Oh! there is a 'Give Away' it's for a blog anniversary if you are interested just click the link cenefas de flores and best of luck to you
Our pond needs some serious work on it after having had part of the surrounding wall getting quite a large crack in it owing to the severe weather we had over winter. Unfortunately the water is still rather on the cold side for my DH to wade about in it to mend the wall, so it's going to have to wait a little while longer. We also have to take out the plants and split them so they don't get too big and that's a job and a half.

Here is my last photo for this post... can you here the FANFARE..... Castles in the Air is up to date. Well it is as I write this post. I bet if I go and look there will another download just to catch me out. So do you know, I'm not going to look until I've actually 'pressed the button' and posted. Is that a cowardly move or not??

I have altered part of it (now what's new you are wondering). I have reversed the 'Swan', I didn't like the 'Mermaid' that should have been there, so in goes the swan. To me it has balanced the bottom section as at the top there are a pair of Peacocks.. I have also altered the swans slightly, if you have a look at an earlier post see if you can spot the difference...that's my challenge for you.. Good luck...

That's it for now folks... Thanks for popping in and leaving a much appreciated comment if you have had the time... Until next time as usual 'May the Needle be with you'

Give Away Received...Delighted

2011-04-06T12:59:00.000+01:00

A very quick post to show you all what I have received from Sense and Stitchability's 'Give Away'.

It has only arrived in the last few moments and as I'm off to my sister's shortly for a few days thought I'd show you all before I left. Many thanks for the extra's, what a lovely thought.

I am so delighted especially as I am not a winner of things as a norm.

Garden and Stitching

2011-03-28T14:51:00.006+01:00

Spring is most definitely making herself felt. Our small garden has suddenly become a treat to see with buds bursting on the fruit trees and early flowering climbers are out as well. Must admit it makes me feel as though we live in the South of England when we really live in the North West. I have a soft spot for Pansies as they always look like 'Smiley Faces' bobbing in the light breeze. I have no idea what the name of this pansy is but I bought the original plant several years ago and since then it has gone through varying stages from looking lovely to a bit straggly but each year it comes up again a mass of flowers. I now have patches of this plant all over from where I have taken a piece off and planted it elsewhere and also from the myriad of baby plants it has had. I have other colours but this one just seems to be the one that really likes my soil.

My stitching has been coming along well again so my 'mojo' must be well charged. Last week I finished off the 'Country Cottage' part on 'Castles in the Air'. I did a mix of the speciality stitches and the straight cross stitch.

If I was starting this now I would have chosen greens with a greater shade difference between the two darker shades. One is 3362 rather like a moss green and the other is 937 which is a slightly 'yellower' green. When they were next to each other in the full skein they looked very different but now stitched up the difference is hard to see, particularly on the photos. But 'hey ho' you live and learn.
True to form just when I thought I was on my 'catch up' a new download arrived. I looked at the chart and must admit it took a while for me to realise what it was!! I quite surprised my self and have actually finished it

.
Again I have altered parts to suit me, this is from colours to stitches and also some positional adjustments. I gave the 'bunny' a small nose (1/4 stitch) as I thought it needed one and a lighter tail. I also changed the cross stitch eye to a french knot on both the bunny and the hedgehog. The full cross stitch to me didn't look right but as usual that's just my opinion.
I've just got one section to catch up now and that goes back a few downloads to No 17. It's a mermaid. Guess what I don't like it !! So this is a 'Watch This Spot' space at the moment.

I've done a little on my TLC Santa, not huge amounts but as this is my handbag stitch when grandchildren minding, I'm quite pleased. I must make the mustache for the one that all the cross stitch is completed on and then I can finish it off completely.

With Winter in Mind (Ho Ho Ho) I've been getting on with 'Warm Winter Wishes', my Waxing Moon Design. I was doing very well until I ran out of 'oatmeal' by Gentle Arts and also realised that I hadn't bought the 'Snowflake' Buttons by JABC.

This led me to a new discovery..... I have been given the name of a supplier, Mary Jane Collection . I haven't been to it in person but I do know someone who has. Apparently it's a bit in the wilds of Wales but they do post out to you. It could well be worth a visit to the web site, their prices seem very competitive.

Now to warm me up .....my second African themed piece, Kuihugura (Looking Back) I enjoy doing these as the colours are blended into each other in the back ground so well that sometimes you can hardly see the difference when you are sewing it, but when you hold it up the subtle difference adds just that extra 'little something'.

Well I'm off now, back to 'Castles' to make some decisions.

Once again many thanks for popping in and leaving a comment if you've time. Until next time 'May your Mojo be with you.'

Spring is in the Air

2011-03-20T15:23:00.010Z

Hi there. This is a surprise...an early blog. I've been at my sister's for the weekend so that I could attend a meeting in her vicinity. My DH goes on the golf course so he is hardly ever seen. Guess what he went with 'shorts' on. Hard frost and 'shorts'. He enjoyed himself so that is what it's all about. Thought I'd give you a shock!!!! I've got TWO finishes, yes Two. The first one is Munokoreria (The Dance Leader). I am turning her into a bell pull but am going to wait until I have finished all three so that I can hopefully get them all to looking similar. The next one of those I'm going to start has been put onto the frame by my DH but I have yet to put a thread in to it. It is called Kuihugura ( Looking Back). I'll possibly be starting it shortly.
My second finish my version of the Victorian Christmas Tree.
I've got another two to do of those yet but I may doodle along with something different for a while. I have to finish all of the ones done do far and put the hangers on. (I'm not too good at finishing anything off after I've done the stitching they just end up in a pile OOOOPs!!)

I've made a start on Waxing Moons 'Warm Wishes'. I took everything with me to my sister's. I had made doubly sure that all the threads were there and by some mysterious happenings my 'oatmeal' had decided it didn't want to come and had hidden itself away again with my other Gentle Arts threads . I turned my sisters lounge upside down looking for it as I was convinced I had it, this is the colour used for the snowman. All this to no avail it was still at home. Anyhow I worked round it and stuck to hats and scarf for a starter. I haven't used the Jobelan 'antique blue' as I had bought some 'Shaker' Grey-blue linen I decided to use this instead and am happy with the result. I think this could be a relatively quick stitch as well. I'll then have to find a frame. I was hoping that a Mill Hill frame would sort it but I think that they are just a little too small, I'll have to do some measuring.

Castles in the Air is coming along as well. I've finished 'The Folly' - even down to all the back stitching- and made a start on the 'Country Cottage'. I don't think there's really that much left of it to do, mainly the garden part and the white parts of the cottage. Fortunately there is still no fresh download from Papillon Designs so I may even manage a full catch up.( Now I've said that there will probably be a huge download in the next couple of days or so.)

The TLC Santas that I showed pics of last time I have yet to do any more with But for those of you who have never seen them before I bought mine at 'The Nimble Thimble' which I believe is the only UK Stockist. Chris from the TN will be at the NEC, Birmingham from the 24th-27th March. Apparently there are 25 of these little Santas as the designer does a new one every year, I'll put a link on that shows you the pictures again ofTLC Santas . The Nimble Thimble doesn't have a web site but I'll put the phone number the bottom of my post should you wish to contact them.

While at my sister's I went down to collect 'My Family is like Fudge' now fully framed by once again the Nimble Thimble. I'm pleased with it and am glad I bought the hand made frame from 'Poppy Creations for it, I've just got to make up my mind on where I'm going to hang it.

I promised last time that I'd show you some pics of 'Spring' appearing in our garden. Unfortunately I'm not good enough with the camera to catch the pair of Blackbirds or the Robins but honestly they are there.

We had been hoping to go to our eldest granddaughter's presentation of her Guide Baden-Powell Award today but sadly it was for parents only. Regardless of that her granddad and I are immensely proud of her.
Well that's it for now, thanks for popping in again many thanks for your kind comments. See you all next time . Until them 'May the Stitching stay with you'.

Nimble Thimble Details:[ Nimble Thimble, LLangedwyn Mills, Llangedwyn, POWYS 01691780088

Busy ,Busy, Busy.

2011-03-11T14:56:00.011Z

Not had a great deal of stitching time this last couple of weeks despite not having to go midweek grandchildren minding. Instead my DH and I went out tropical fish searching. We keep saying we're only looking and keep coming back with something else. Also we've been garden tidying !!! Our small garden has looked pretty awful for weeks but finally daffodils and crocus have decided to pop their heads up to cheer us up. I'll take a pic next time only today it's pouring down.
Although not mid week minding I was there instead at the weekend. This was while my son and his wife went to see the 'Blues Brother Show' followed by a 40th birthday. This meant they stayed at my home whilst I stayed at theirs. Did I draw the short straw?? Early Saturday evening my grandson was making biscuits for the Scout troop AGM and his twin sister then made some buns, chocolate of course, she likes to experiment and puts half a 'Rolo' in the bun, They turn out well, she always calls them her 'Surprise Buns' because you never can be sure what she has tried in the middle.
I was up with the larks on the Sunday to deliver my two granddaughters to the dress rehearsal of the show that they were that day in the City theatre (Dress rehearsal 9.30am first performance 14.00, 2nd performance 19.00) Then it was a return journey to the village to take and watch my grandson at his away football match for 10.00. The match didn't start until 11.00 and we were at the pitch before the home team were out of bed!!(Well seemed like it!) I don't usually watch football but being the 'stand in' supporter I watched. It was a lovely sunny day but with a cold wind (I'd forgotten my coat I usually do my sport supporting in) so I got more than a bit on the chilly side. The youngsters scored a few goals and were extremely pleased with themselves when I looked up to see my son and his wife walking round the pitch. They'd left my house earlier than I thought they would and traveled to watch. The final score was 15 - 3. my grandsons team had won in style and he had scored one of the goals. He was delighted as his normal place is a defender but as their score rose they let him have a go 'up front'. He was even more thrilled yesterday to see his name in the paper in the 'results section' for the junior leagues. So yet another exciting sporting week ended. This weekend I think I've got the watch junior hockey straw!! By the way the Dance Show was very good, on the long side though, but the girls had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and their brother managed to sleep through the finale. Don't know how. Must be a 'Boy thing'.

The stitching hasn't been totally ignored. I have made some good progress on my WIPS. I thought you may like to see these Christmas ornaments there are a little different to ones I have seen before. They are by TLC Designs. Vancouver,BC Canada. I haven't seen all the range but there are about 22/23 of them.

The first one is Santa V11, I did this one a while ago and had totally forgotten about him, he still needs his mustache making and putting on then finishing off.

I have Santa 11 in my bag and have started to take it out when waiting places such as the doctors the other day and today the dentist. It gives you something else to concentrate on in the waiting rooms!!

Depending on how they look when I finally get round to finishing them off completely will determine whether or not I get anymore of them. They are about 3" in height and simply padded with a couple of cotton wool balls, so simple to make up.
I have just found this site that shows all
TLC Designs Santas It's called Buttoned Up. Now I can have a good look at the different patterns and decide if I will do any more of them.

Still with Christmas in mind another of the Festival of Trees that I am adapting slightly to suit what I have available in the bead box. This is the fourth one, the Victorian Tree, two completed, the one I started second is on hold at the moment, can't quite remember why though. It'll come back to me, probably something to do with bead shades.

My Dance Leader I am enjoying doing. It's my feet up in the evening stitching. The colours are lovely and it grows quite quickly. There is all the outline on the dress to back-stitch and it's colour changes as the skirt changes shade. The back-ground shading is quite subtle as it is done in a combination of two thread half stitch and one thread half stitch along side the actual colour variations.

I keep looking on Papillon Designs with trepidation in case there's another download while I am still on my catch up stint. Although I have altered it here and there to suit me, download 16 is now complete. I'm holding back on D.17 as I'm not too sure that I like it so I've jumped to D.19 which I think is rather like a 'Folly' that was often constructed in the grounds of some of the grand homes of the 'Landed Gentry' of the UK. I'm don't know haw many more downloads there will be as this started somewhere about April/May in 2009. I shall be continuing my efforts to get it up to date before starting any other larger pieces. I know some of you out there have put it on one side and it may never come out again but for me I feel as though too much time and effort has been put into it not to get it all finished and as I have 'personalised' parts it does make it more special.
Here is D 16

This how far I've got on D 19

This pic is just to show how it all appears on it as a whole.

Wish me luck with my catching up I'm almost there.
Now it's off for an early meal as I am back grand children minding as there parents are off to an evening Wedding Do and I have 4 of my grandchildren to keep an eye on. 2 girls from one son and 2 boys from my other son. The other 2 are out at Scouts. All I can say is thank goodness for Wii Machines!!!!!

Thanks for calling in and spending a while. Your comments as usual are much appreciated. Until next time Enjoy your stitching and ' May your MOJO be with you'

A Great Time

2011-02-27T17:56:00.010Z

I've had a busy couple of weeks, here, there and every where looking after grandchildren, must admit I always enjoy myself whether it's at my house our theirs. Usually if at my house they bake cakes, biscuits etc. not that my DH and I ever get to try them because they always want to take them home for their own Mums and Dads. Still the pleasure is in the baking and being Weight conscious (Ho.Ho.Ho.) perhaps it's a good job they don't stay at our house!!

Today my DH and I went to watch our younger son in his field hockey cup final. This is rather like watching the FA Cup final as it has been being played for several months on a knockout basis. It was a glorious day as we set out to travel to the venue at Preston, Lancashire. Summer had evidently arrived as my DH was wearing a pair of SHORTS. I can tell you it looked warm but as the pitch is not far from a river and very open there was a pretty cool breeze blowing. To give a better picture I had two coats on to fend off the wind. There was a good turn out of supporters for both teams, which was good to see, and the nervous tension was obvious. The first goal was scored by Blackpool, my son's team, and then the second. Next goal went to the opposing team. It went along on this vein for a while and then after half time with the score at 4 - 3 the goalie was sent off for 10 minutes. Horror of horrors. The substitute goalie let in a goal, not all his fault I hasten to add, so now on a draw. That ten minutes must have seemed like an hour to the Blackpool team playing one man down. Excitement and nerves tingling the final whistle was blown, 5 all, now what???? extra time, penalty flicks. No, it was decided to play extra time until first goal scored. Fans on edge for both teams off we go again. Then I heard a great whoop of delight and cheers all round the ball was in back of the net. Blackpool had scored......or had they? No it had come off a foot and that doesn't count. By this time everyone was shouting and cheering their team on like mad when there was a foul against Blackpool. A penalty flick shot was awarded, fingers crossed and everyone holding their breath the shot was taken and Yippees of Yippees it went to back of the net with a resounding crack. BLACKPOOL HAD WON.

My son accepting the trophy.

Many congratulations to the both teams for such a great match.

The winners

Well after the excitement here's some more positive progress. I have finished the Old Fashioned Tree from the Festival of Trees range. As I said before these have been stitched previously so I am adapting them as I go along. Not huge differences but just a little here and there. I think the next one I'll do will be the Victorian Tree, but that's not a definite yet.

Surprise here is another finish, at this point I must say this is the most I have ever finished in the first two months of a year, Yes, it's the Waxing Moons 'Our Family....' I have to get it framed yet so I'm possibly going to post it to The Nimble Thimble where the frame is already waiting and then collect it when I go to visit my sister.

This is where I now go into a rambling story to explain my reason for starting this next piece.

It's called 'Munokoreria' (The Dance Leader) by Anchor. The original artwork for this is a Kenyon artist named Gakonga and it's based on the tribal living of the Masai, Kikuyu and Swahili people of Kenya. This is where my husbands family moved to after WW2. They packed up their belongings and with their three children left for new adventures. At first in South Africa and then ending up in and around Kenya and Tanganyika. It is his childhood memories of playing with the children of the tribes local to the part of Kenya where they lived that prompted me to buy three pieces. The colours are lovely and I will probably finish them as bell pulls. I bought them a while ago and gave my DH the task of picking which one I would stitch first, between you and me I think he probably just passed me the first one he came too (but that's men for you!!). I have stitched it on four evenings so am pleased with the progress. There is quite a lot of back stitching to do on it and so far I haven't done any!!

Last but certainly not least here comes 'Castle in the Air'. I really have put some effort in on this one to try and catch up the 5 months I seem somehow to be behind ( can't imagine how that happened)

There I was thinking how well I was doing when another download has appeared so that's up to 6 months behind. Talk about 2 steps forward and one step back that's just how I felt. For those of you who aren't familiar with 'Castle' there were in the first instance 2 versions Cross stitch and Specialty Stitch , I have done a combination of the two as the whim took me. But great fanfare after had work I have caught up 2 months and ..............

part way through the first 'Fantasy' section. The 'Fantasy' has now had four sections downloaded and these are the parts that are causing me to hold back on the stitching as I can't quite follow the gist of it so I guess I'll be doing some of my own interpretations again at some point... that'll be a 'Watch this Space' moment.

Guess what it's cup of tea time. So once again thanks for popping and reading my ramblings. For all your friendly comments that have been left THANKS it's so good of you. Until next time keep up with the great stitching.

Ups, Downs, Finishes Yippee.

2011-02-11T10:31:00.008Z

Hi there again. I've had 'One of the Weeks'... except it was a fortnight... My eldest granddaughter has been on her work experience at a leisure centre several miles away from where she lives. So on my grand children minding days I was asked if I'd mind collecting her there. 'Course not' says I. All I can say is I'm so glad I don't have to do this run again. The only time I didn't get my self confused ( posh word for lost) was when I went on my way from my home directly to the centre. This was because it was a straight change from one motorway to another. You know the sort I mean 'Bear left at next slip road' type of thing. Getting to collect her brother and sister from school was another matter altogether as I followed the signs to my allotted designation totally forgetting that there was a 'South' as well as centre turnoff. Are you following me????? I quite happily followed the wrong sign and if I had carried on would have been on another motorway in the wrong direction.. Fortunately I realised before to much mileage was done and recognising where I was left the motorway and got to the other grand children by going through the city centre. This was only the first time of collecting.. I can tell you it went from bad to worse. The next morning my granddaughter asked me to take her, instead of having to go with the lark (her dad).
OK said I being 'upbeat' thinking I can't get it wrong again. You can you know. This time I had to go through a junction that had a 3 motorway joining as well as them going east, west, north and south, I only managed to go north instead of south on a totally unfamiliar motorway but my trusty car having its own homing instinct got me to a junction I recognised. So I had to go round the roundabout and back onto the motorway. Strange isn't it I can find my way in one direction but the other was a total nightmare. To cut a long story short. I gave up on the motorways from their home and went on the normal roads, with precise instructions from my son. No panic now.....except......I evidently didn't hear him properly and took a turning at the wrong junction. and guess what I ended up on a motorway!!!!!!!! ARRRRRRGH. I am now safely at home I don't think I'll step foot out of my house again.... Well until next week....

Here's a little bit now on some of the other things I've been up to since I last posted.
After having had several down days health wise my hubby and I went to visit my sister and her DH for a couple of days and while there I started Waxing Moons 'Our family is like Fudge' this is from my Christmas stash. After taking approximately an hour to get the first nine, yes NINE stitches in the right place I actually got on quite well with it. Mind you I did have to listen to quite a few comments about frogs (I really can't imagine why!). I have done more since being home, I've been doing it in the evenings when I've got my feet up I have enjoyed doing this and am hoping to have it finished shortly. I already have the purpose made frame for it at the 'Nimble Thimble' so I'll just have let Chris have it and she'll frame it up for me. I may have to post it to her that's another thing I'll have to decide on. Still onward and upward so to speak.

My fabrics arrived from The Silver Needle for 'Counting Bats'. I gave up trying to find it in the UK. I had also ordered another fabric, which did not arrive, but not to worry my sister had, by chance, some of it, she had bought a half metre from Sew and So when she only needed a small amount so now I have fabric for two more of my Christmas gift charts. I'm unsure whether to start one of those at the moment or not.

I have been taking some small things with me when I go grandchildren minding in the middle of each week. Sometimes a get a little done and another I never get the chance to get it out of my bag. Here are two things I've been doing. They are from the Festival of Trees. They have already been done once so I am adapting them to suit whatever I have available, must admit I think they are working out pretty well.

I have put in my last cross-stitch on 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS I now have to take it off the super frame my hubby made, press it and then stitch on the buttons.

Here are the last two days.

After that I have to decide the best way of finishing it. I'm definitely leaning towards hemming the sides and possibly using wooden poles top and bottom to keep it taut for when it's hung on the wall (the jury is still out on that though). This had been a pleasure to stitch. I can honestly say I have enjoyed every minute of it. I still wish that I could get a picture that shows the true colours and sparkle from the beads. A small part of me feels at a loss without thinking I have a little more of it to do.
This next pic is just to show you the last 3 day width all done.

Can you really miss a piece of cross-stitch?
Anyhow it is now going to be back to 'Castle in the Air'. I am months behind on this. I thought I'd just refresh your memory

This is going back on the stand. I remember I was enjoying doing the Blackwork fencing but put it away to get on with the Christmas pieces I was doing. Since then I have downloaded monthly and have become a little confused with some of the designs that have been added. I think part of me has been watching the new sections and wondering what would be the best way to go with it. I'm still undecided. I may have a look at how it looks on the Papillon Gallery. I'll finish the fencing and gates and then give it a big re-think.

I'm off now to get a cuppa Hope you all make good progress with your WIPs. Happy stitching to you all. If you have time to leave a comment it's much appreciated they are all a boost.

Until next time keeeeeeeep stitching.

It'll be ready for Christmas!!!!!!

2011-01-23T14:51:00.010Z

Back again. I hadn't realised that January had flown by so quickly and there was I thinking I was plodding along quite nicely with my stitching.
I have had one or two or so detractions. Such as a new game for my DS which I almost became glued to until I had managed to complete it, I also had to make arrangements for going to see the village 'Pantomine', This is put on in the Village Hall and several of the local children take part. This is the village where one of my sons live and this year I had just one of my grand-daughters in it as the older one was busy doing studying for some of her exams which she took about two weeks ago. The commitment that is required by these youngsters is quite demanding and they are now all very tired. The 'Panto ' was very good and is always quite hilarious. The gentleman who plays 'The Dame' really enjoys himself although I must admit I don't know that he ever sticks to the script. This is him in a couple of his several outfits playing the part of 'Granny Verruca Gubbins'. I can tell you he must have got the art of quick changing off very well as his costumes and hair wig change maybe seven times throughout the show.

But now to the serious stuff...... I have been stitching along on my 12 Day of Christmas (this is where I can here you thinking CHRISTMAS) and am pleased with my progress..... I have been thinking about how to finish it off and my niece has sent me some instructions on some sort of hemming. I understand that it takes a while to do but it's top of my list at the moment.

Firstly here is the completed 9 Ladies Dancing. I'm not to sure about the colour used to give facial definition so any input from yourselves would be useful. Must admit I enjoyed doing that one as it had a totally different border.

Here is how the row for the days 7,8,9 looks

Now on to the '10 Lords a Leaping'. There are are quite a number of beads on the jacket and it is quite eye-catching. Again the border is made up of the floral garlands and there are stacks of beads in them. Really sparkly.

Lastly the '11 Pipers Piping'. I'm getting along quite well with this one. There doesn't seem to be the number of beads on this day, mind you maybe I just haven't seen them on the chart properly as I have been busy concentrating on the main cross stitch.

I'm hoping to have the cross stitching on this finished before too long and then I think it may be catch up time on the 'Castle in the Air' which I haven't looked at for months. I check the downloads every month and keep think I really must get on with it and then I look at something else. Oh! to be a quicker cross stitcher but never mind I get there in the end. I think I may just do the 'My Family's like Fudge' by Waxing Moons as they are fun to do and don't take that long.
Last but not least here's one I've squeezed in.......

.
It's been done before so I've used a perforated paper from a Jim Shore one that I changed to fabric and have put on a 'bead bow' instead of the little treasure that should be there. I think the effect is OK I have some more of them that have already been done but this time they can go on my tree.

As usual many thanks for dropping in and spending a few minutes with my musings. If you've time leave a comment they so much appreciated. Until next time Happy stitching to you all

Byeeeeeeeee

Thanks Santa!!!!!

2011-01-04T08:35:00.011Z

It's all over for another year. Was it all worth it? YES of course it was. I spent Christmas Eve Lunch with my older son and his family, where some winter health blues had struck a few days earlier but all were much better. Followed by a visit to my niece, then back to watch my grandchildren in the Nativity Play at their Church. Unfortunately I missed the play, due to a time change that I received too late, but I did get to the rest of the service. I took with me a grand daughter from my other son and she was fascinated as at her church, in a different village, they don't have the service where they turn out all the lights and you walk round the church, passed the Crib, with lit candles. It's very twinkly and a lovely feeling of peace and calm.
After being delivered back to the her family my DH and I went back home to finish sorting out gifts ready for Christmas Day, which we spent with my younger son and his family. we returned to home base on Boxing day where, having forgotten to take out our chosen food from the freezer, we ended up having the good old English favourite 'Fish and Chips'.

Santa was very kind, I have some great stash enhancement and have spent some time since tracking down fabric that I can't find in the UK.

I could not resist this Hob Nobs Button they are fun to do and pretty quick too!!!

I have about another 6 charts but as they are on download and as I have yet to do that they will be popping up in the future. I also had some material and some Northern Lights Silks as gifts. Lucky me.
Here's my Christmas Surprise for you. A little late I know but as just before Christmas I was not too good and had little concentration powers. I went to visit my sister for a lovely weekend and while there I took 'The Three Kings' to the 'Nimble Thimble' to get it framed. While I was out the next day my picture was delivered to my sisters all done. Many Thanks Chris. Here it is .......
I have made a little more progress on my Jim Shore Santa which I started on my sister visit. Not that much though!

Since Christmas I have put some more stitches into 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'. The 9 Ladies Dancing is now coming along quite well.

I haven't done much stitching at all between Christmas and New Year as I had a family lunch on New Year's Eve and on New Year's Day family until the following day. I really enjoyed the houseful of family, it made me feel good inside although vaguely shattered after the mince pie making and all the cooking. I'll only take until the end of January to recover!!!

I'm trying to decide what to do next. I have to catch up on Castles in the Air. which has been put on one side for such a long time I am now back to about three months or so behind... I daren't look in case it's more!! BUT then there's all the new charts and kits to choose from Oh decisions, decisions. I think I'll try and get the Twelve Days finished and then I'll do a much smaller piece to give myself a boost.

Oh Yes I must show you the Place settings that I bought for my daughter-in-laws. Again made by 'Maisie Moonshine'. I think they are great and they went down a treat. Must admit I did give them early for Christmas so that they could be used.

The 'Robin' and the 'Toy Soldier' are the ones that I had made for my DH and myself so they travel with us. Great aren't they???

Well I'm off now to order some threads so that I don't forget and then get annoyed with myself, even though I probably will not be stitching with them for a while. I've also got to try and find some SQUARE frames so that I can get some of my finished pieces sorted.

Until next time thanks for calling in and if you have the time to leave a comment.. much appreciated.. May the New Year have revitalised your stitching hand and given a new shine to your needle....

2010-12-27T08:46:00.001Z

New Year Countdown

Happy Dances AT LAST

2010-12-05T18:55:00.009Z

It seems an age since I blogged. I've been stitching away along with trying to Christmas shop. Must admit I've done better with the cross stitching than I have with the Christmas shopping. I have no ideas really on what to get any one and time is getting nearer.OOOps OOOps and even more OOOps. I'll have it sorted in the end though. Now that's what I call positive thinking.!!

I have been working hard at finishing some of my stitching. The first one to start the music to the happy dancing is the Window Wreath. I have actually finished this one off completely even down to it being mounted and framed.

There was a lot of back stitching on this and it was working with one over two. The finished piece is very pretty and looks quite delicate especially the window panes.

I have finally finished the 'Winter Wonderland' I have to get a frame for it yet though and this will probably come from Sew and So. I got over the stressing about the the fact that so many of the beads just didn't want to let you sew them on. I muttered a lot and got on with it and I am so glad that I did.

Now can you spot the deliberate mistake? (Other than the fact that one is taken with flash and the other isn't)
The sparkle on it is incredible and well worth the music on the dancing starting to get a little louder.

Hold your breath every one wish you could hear the 'fanfare' it's reverberating all around............The Grand Finish........ THE THREE KINGS.........
I am so please with this I wish I could think of enough words to say how it looks. I still have to get it framed and mounted and I had intended taking it to the 'Nimble Thimble for Chris to frame it this last weekend when I was visiting my sister but with the weather being so YUK I was worried about the roads so I didn't take it. Hopefully this next weekend may see it reach the framers as I am off to my sister's again. It's a good job she is an understanding sister for my DH and I keep arriving on her and her DH. for yet another couple of days or so.

The next surprise is The Twelve Days are back out of hiding. I made a start on the 9 Ladies Dancing and then when I went back to it today I couldn't find one of the threads so spent,what seemed like, forever looking for it to discover later that it was under the cover on the frame all the time. Never mind at least I found it. I will be trying to get this finished by Christmas but I think I may just be dreaming still there's alway next Christmas. I think that that will be the more reasonable approach as I am going to make a wall-hanging of it I think and I'll have tp work out the best way of doing that. Any ideas out there?????

I then had a slight detour as I ended up on Ebay hopefully selling some things. It has taken me ages to put everything on between weighing and working out what you call everything. I just hope a bit of it sells so that I'll have a little more room for my next lot of clutter to mount up.!!!
A new start is the Western Santa from the Jim Shore range. Silly me forgot to take a photo so that'll be something to look out for next time. I'm stitching it on the Babbling Brook Jobelan instead of the card that comes in the kit. I know that they work out OK as I did this with the last one I did.
I'm off to a 'panto' with a school next Tuesday so I've been practising my 'He's behind you' lines as I can be as bad as the children. It'll be good fun.
Still trying to catch up with the blogs as we have been having several computer problems, I hope that they'll soon be all sorted out.

Anyway once again thanks for popping in and it you've the time to leave a comment. much appreciated. Good luck with all your stitching Until next time Keep warm
Cheers to you all.

Trying hard BUT not really succeeding!!!!!

2010-11-15T14:19:00.006Z

Hi there again. Hope you are all on top of your stitching and also the dreaded Christmas Shopping. My husband and I have been out and about searching for the illusive gifts. Not doing very well at the moment but we still have some time to go yet!!! Usually I have it sorted to a degree by now but this year it seems to have beaten me. I just love Christmas time from the carols to the Christmas trees and the look of anticipation on family faces. It can also be a time for stash enhancement, now that's a brilliant thought. Must remember if anyone asks for gift ideas I'll have to have a list ready. Don't know if I've a piece of paper long enough..

Well here's how I've been doing.....not as much as I would have hoped but I've been here there and everywhere again so stitching has been a little difficult. Plus getting the task of selling some of my grandchildren's fancy dress and dance outfits on the old Ebay.
Here goes.....................
Still haven't finished the Mill Hill 'White Christmas'. In fact haven't picked it up...now that's naughty ...as there isn't really that much to do just the rest of the beads.
On the plus side the Window Wreath is coming along. I may actually get this done in time for the festive season. I've been doing this in the evenings when I've been at home. I've all but given up on taking any stitching with me when I go to Grandchildren watching nights, partly because the light isn't good enough to stitch by, but I do get a little done in an afternoon.

My next picture is of one I just decided to do just to cheer myself up. It's call 'Kitchen Included' and it's a kit from Design Works Crafts It was a bit of fun although it ran out of the gold thread so the fancy bow on the front of the dress is missing. It is now waiting in my finishing to do pile. This pile is slowly becoming bigger than my stash pile.

The one I have made most progress on really is the Three Kings. It did fall to the frogging a little though when I realised that I had misread a symbol. Fortunately I hadn't done that much and it was on the side borders I'd read + for x or the other way round. Better get it right before I start again or I will be mumbling. It looks a little 'bitty' at the moment but that's because I can't reach the top of the stitching on my frame so I have to keep turning it round. So I've been stitching 'upside down' so to speak and then I'll have to change it again so that I can finish off a side section. Most of the cross stitching it now finished and it's the beading that I am now concentrating on, there's still quite a lot of beads to go on but I can honestly say that I'm very happy with it. Hope I manage to get it done for Christmas....fingers crossed.

I meant to post this picture last time but totally forgot so please don't think I've gone loopy. I bought these great 'Halloween Owls' for my sons. They came from 'Maisie Moonshine's Handmade Craft Emporium'. I think that they're great. I know that there are some lovely Christmas place settings available so guess who's ordering some.

I must try and catch up on my 'blog' reading as I'm sure some of the blogs I follow will have thought I've vanished. I love reading other blogs and seeing what they are up to in the world of stitching. It's a great source of ideas and of seeing designers you may not have heard of. Off now to try and get a little more stitching done. Until next time.... thanks for popping in and if you've time to leave a comment much appreciated.

Happy stitching to you all

ON A ROLL.....again

2010-10-24T15:13:00.016+01:00

OOps she says. started to post and then I clicked the wrong button and it was gone. I then discovered that I had posted a title all on it's own. Now that's sad.

There I was really pleased with myself thinking I'd do a draft posting so that I can finish it off when I get back from my grand children minding. My days doing that have changed this week as it's half term. I think this is just to confuse me!!! I shall pretend that it never happened and continue in my own wondering way.

Hello there everyone in cross stitch land. Hope you have all been having a productive time. Finally got a completed finish to show you all framed and done properly. It's the Waxing Moon 'Christmas Snow'. It's the one I finished at my sister's house a couple of weeks ago and forgot to photo.

I've also finished stitching the Christmas ornaments, the frames have arrived so I'll have to get them finished. That's often where I go wrong I stitch them and then put them away and forget about them ( Or should I say 'put off' finishing them in case I make a mess of doing it).

Must admit I enjoyed doing these ornaments as they are not something I would normally do.

Still no progress on the 12 Days but again the Three Kings are moving on slowly at the moment but this is partly because I have been grand children minding more than usual and I love doing that. The Three Kings now has the top border about 1/3 completed and I'm beading it as I move along it I've found it easier to follow the pattern. The side borders still need some time spending on them but I'll get there.

A few weeks ago I bought some buttons from Hob-Nobb Designs. Well after lots of sole searching about where I was up to with everything I decided I'd do one of them.My choice was the 'Snowflake Snowman'. I have stitched it on a pale lavender linen, the outer border is Gentle Arts-Sugarplum, the inner border is Gentle Arts - Cornflower, the centre band is Gentle Arts- Potpourri, the snowflakes are DMC- White. This is the first time I have used any over-dyed thread and must admit I love the finish but found I had to work hard to remember to do each stitch individually and also was surprised how much the thread seemed to twist. Hope you like the result.

I may just have to find another one out now and do that one. But wait a minute ...NOTE TO SELF: COMPLETE THREE KINGS AND GET A MOVE ON WITH THE 12 DAYS....
I have been doing a little better on my Window Wreath. Although I did take it with me when I went to visit my niece one evening. Actually I was delivering something for her other half after dropping off two of my grand-daughters at the final night of the Centenary of Girl Guiding. The Centenary finale was well thought out as the guides attending re-took their promises at 20.10 on the 20th of the 10th in 2010. So it's just the 20.10.20.10.2010 time and date to remember. Clever don't you think? Anyhow back to my visit. My niece industrious stitched away at her piece and I plodded along with mine, her other half then casually asked ' How much have you actually done? You seem to be taking a good deal back.' I had been found out. The small amount I'd done had been stitched in the wrong colour followed by the wrong place. I probably put in about ten stitches in the right place and colour in about 1 1/2 hours. Is this a record???

Today I have been shopping, well I was looking for some square photo frames. I've worn my feet out and haven't managed to find one. Evidently square is not in fashion at the moment. I'm devastated as I wanted them to frame some of my cross stitch. I'll have to look on line (hadn't thought of that when I went shopping). Still I bought some rather fetching fluorescent socks, also some earrings ...........

.....now guess what I'm doing this weekend.!!!!!!

SURPRISE....SURPRISE...

Here's my FINISHED CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS I'm really rather pleased with them. I'm trying to decide whether to tie some red ribbon bows round the top of the frame. That's one I'll have to think about.

That's it for now. Many thanks for popping in. If you've time please leave a comment much appreciated they are. Until next time Happy Haunting Halloween to you all. Have super spooky time.

More finishes!!!

2010-10-12T17:47:00.009+01:00

Beautiful day today. Picture postcard sky and really warm. My DH and I went visiting my sister and her DH again last weekend. Lovely time had by all. My DH vanishes off on to the local golf course and generally comes back with throbbing feet from having gone round and round the course. (He says he has enjoyed himself though). While there this time I started my Waxing Moon Christmas Moon design and finished it. I haven't got a picture though as I left it with my sister to take it to 'The Nimble Thimble' for framing. Silly me, I'll put a picture on as soon as I get it backI.
I also did a little stash enhancing with anotherWaxing Moon Design 'Our family is like Fudge. Very Sweet with a few nuts.' This is Oh so true!! It's worked with Gentle Arts Threads and one Weeks Dye Works, this is a step into the unknown for me as this will be the first time I have ever used them. I have also bought the frame shown from the Poppy Designs so I'm looking forward to starting it. Must admit I still have to buy the fabric and I'll probably buy this from Sew and So.

I still haven't done anymore stitching on my 12 Days of Christmas but my 'Three Kings' is coming along well, just the top border and both the side pieces to finish. This time I have tried to get a better colour but in doing this I seem to have it an angle, Oh well I suppose you can't have everything. One out of two would be OK (even that seems to be difficult).

I've been browsing the web and have seen the new Jim Shore designs of the 'Playing Cards', being quite a Jim Shore fan I rather like these although I'm not too sure about the Queen's face. Perhaps these will have to go on my Christmas Wish List.
A pat on the back is deserved as I have finally put some more stitches into The Window Wreath poor thing it's be languishing a bit in a bag, not really forgotten just didn't have the inspiration needed to do it.

Been busy beading the Mill Hill Winter Wonderland but decided not to take a photo of it now until it's completed. The petite beads are a bit of a pain as so many of them will not allow the head of the beading needle through the hole. Am I the only person in the whole world that this happens to? Now I know I'm not but isn't it frustrating? I just hope that I'll have sufficient beads to complete it. Must admit I'm considering emailing Mill Hill to tell them of the problem.

My Christmas ornaments have moved on though and there are now only another two to do.

I am buying the round frames for them fromFramecraft having what has seemed to be a nightmare trying to find the size needed. They will pop up all over everywhere now and I'll see them on every website going.

In the past I have made and sold teddy bears. I haven't done it now for quite a while but it doesn't stop me enjoying the little furry beings and passing on any info. So to anyone who has a soft spot for bears there is an Autumn Giveaway onBearbits. Must say he looks a cute little one with her friend.

Off now to make some Flapjacks for one of my grandsons. My DH makes fudge and sends it to our grandchildren but one of the grandsons doesn't like it so he gets flapjacks and last week I forgot them so this week it's his turn for the goodies. (I'll probably be his 'best friend' for a short while.)

Again Thank you for popping in and leaving you friendly comments. They keep up my stitching needle going.
Until next time

How Many Days to Christmas??? Panick Alert

2010-09-27T13:36:00.012+01:00

Hi there to you all yet again. My stitching seems to be taking a bit of a turn for the worse at the moment. I'm trying hard to keep on top of it but I seem to have a bit of a wandering mind set. I haven't even put on the frame my 12 Days of Christmas so unless I can get my head in gear the chances of it being finished in time for this Christmas could be doubtful. I have been getting on with 'The Three Kings' though. I am pleased with progress here as I am almost at the top of the inner border on the right hand side although there are still the beads to sew on. All three kings are finished stitching and beading as is the most of the background which was rather fiddly. So it's just a case of knuckling down and getting the rest of the border done. Perhaps that my best bet is to get this one finished and then concentrate hard on the 12 Days.
The colours yet again don't seem to have come out right I wish I knew what I was doing wrong, I just can't get the lighting conditions to do it justice.

I have made some progress on the Christmas decorations that I started to give myself a bit of a boost. There will be eight of them when finished and I'll have to order the frames for them in due course.

This one when finished shows animals in the stable. They all look a bit odd without the back stitching on. My DH has yet to recognize any of them before b-stitching!!

Just to show that my garden is as muddled up as I am, here is a picture of a 'spring' flowering clematis called 'Ruby Wedding'. Flowering beautifully in the wrong season. Could this be 'Global Warming'???

Some things are at the right time The grapes are changing colour. Yippee.

Winter Wonderland has moved on. Must admit in the past I have had the Mill Hill Bead designs done in no time at all. I think I have done all the cross stitching on it and have to finish off the beading, quite a few on this particular piece are the petite beads so have to be cross stitched on to look good. It a very pretty piece and when the lights catch the beads it looks stunning. I know that Mill Hill have release another 'blue' based design that will look good with this one. (Must think about that one.)

For a change I went to watch my eldest grand-daughter playing netball last Wednesday. It was a coolish evening and as I had finally bought myself a waterproof/windproof coat I decided to wear it. Was I glad!! It rained,rained and more rained just like stair rods. At least I was dry and warm. The girls (who play in a Womens' League) drew. They played really well and I think if it hadn't been for the weather conditions would more than likely have won. Still I'll be watching again next week and will see how they go on then.
I've also been doing a bit of reading. It's a book titled 'The Conquest' by Elizabeth Chadwick. it's taking place about the time of the 'Norman Conquest' in England 1066 and all that. It's the third book I have read by the same author recently and true to form read them in the back to front chronological order, you know that seems just about right for me.

I've just realised my head has jumped a bit I've forgotten all about Halloween. I haven t stitched one Halloween thing, nor have I anything to stitch Oh Boo Hoo.

I've been having problems just trying to write this blog as the save part keeps failing and I haven't been able to upload pictures(Oh Whoa is Me) it's taken an age. Anyhow moan over. Finally managed to do it.

Again thanks for popping in and hope you can find the time to leave a comment. Until next time Happy stitching to you all.

A Bit of This and a Bit of That

2010-09-13T16:55:00.009+01:00

A little late with the old blogging but here we go again. I was away last week staying with my grand-daughter while her siblings were away on their school PGL week and her Mum and Dad had gone away for a few days. I did take some stitching with me but didn't manage a lot as I was helping her with a needlework project from last year school term that had gone horribly wrong (not her fault I hasten to add). The fabric that the school had provided her with to make an apron for her 5 year old cousin was rather like lining material and slid all over everywhere, she was supposed to have appliquéd another slippy fabric on to it. Well she did her best but everything just frayed and she ended up very upset, so I found some other material and she started from scratch. It got finished and I think she will now have given it to her cousin. So sorry I haven't got a photo of this work of art but it did look quite good. Any how that's my excuse for not having done stacks of stitching.
When I get back home one of the first things I do is have a look round our small garden and these roses had come out in defiance of the fading summer ....Good for them I say.

I had decided a few weeks ago that I would stitch some Christmas ornaments for my eldest son for his tree. I am taking some designs from Donna Kooler's 555 Christmas Designs ' Inspirational Christmas' hanging. There will 8 of them and I intend to put them into small circular frames.

The colours are more pastel than I had imagined but I am sticking with the stated DMC threads.

I also dug out Window Wreath, I started it a few months ago but never seem to get round to putting any stitches on it. So I surprised it ...it's very pretty actually and there are some very subtle colour shadings. It's single thread two over two and I forget when I start doing it so out come the frogs for a short while.

What do you think of my apples they look as if they have come directly from 'the Wicked Queen's basket' (when she had changed into the Old Lady) from Snow White.

Oh yes! back to stitching. I finished my 'I Believe' by Mill Hill while at my sisters a couple of weeks ago and am very pleased with it.

Also back out for a few days was 'Castles in the Air' I haven't yet caught up all the downloads as I have the right hand side to finish and I wouldn't mind thinking that the next download will be here before I've done it, still never mind there are several months of it to go and if I concentrate on my Christmas pieces and get them finished then I should have plenty of time to catch it up then (I hope) . So I thought you might like to see it unrolled for a full view of it so far.

Back to my Christmas Themes 'The Three Kings' have found their way back onto the stand. I spent yesterday sewing on some of the zillions of beads that needed to be caught up and there are still a lot more to go on. The bottom left hand side is almost complete, just a few purple beads to go on there and then that small section will be complete. Hopefully this will definitely be completed for Christmas time. I just love doing these Jim Shore ones, stacks of beads and lots of colour.

Last but not least Winter Wonderland by Mill Hill started but not yet quite finished.

All the beads to put on it and the rabbit button, I'll have to get on with it and then my finish list doesn't look quite so appalling compared to some of you stitchers out there. I really am quite green with envy at the speed some of you can stitch.

Many thanks as always for popping in and leaving you inspirational comments. Until next time Enjoy your Stitching.

Finishing, Start and Enhancing

2010-08-29T18:35:00.013+01:00

Here we go posting day again. The Big Finish of 'Break Time', finally and with great relief the mammoth UFO is completed. I did enjoy doing the face and hair as it was so bright and cheerful, he does look quite a friendly chap. Currently it is stretched out along the back of out settee still waiting to be ironed and also to be decided on exactly WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH IT? I have been looking for fabric to turn it into a wall-hanging but up to now have found nothing that appeals in the least, so I guess that for a while it'll be rolled up and stored until a bright idea comes to me.

With the completion of Break Time it was a case of looking for the next UFO for Jen's I've Started so I'll Finish....Eventually. I came to the conclusion that I'd pick one that I'd put away because I thought that I had used all the wrong coloured red beads and was totally demoralised by it. It was cast to 'To Do' cupboard before Christmas LAST YEAR ( now that's an improvement on some of my UFO's). This is how it looked on Thursday last week when we went down to visit my sister for a few days

Once again some pictures of our garden. This lily is taller than I am, must admit that doesn't take a great deal of doing as I am only approximately 5'2", it is absolutely beautiful.
Now this clematis was given to us by my sister when it had decided that it didn't want to flower anymore!! It was a case of perhaps different soil may give it a boost and WOW it really has done.

Just to prove that the grapes are growing and starting to look like grapes here you are. There are several bunches and we are hoping that they will keep on fattening up

Back to some cross stitching updates. The 8 Maids a Milking is now completed and must admit that I am very pleased with it. The 12 days are now back up to date so mini happy dance. The colours on it are beautiful but once again I don't seem able to photograph them to show how pretty they look.

'Castles in the Air' has appeared back at the top again and is now back on the stand to try and catch up a little. The latest download has got some blackwork on which makes a pleasant change, I decided that I'd do the left hand side and then move over and do both the missing downloads on the right hand side( if that makes sense). I've made a start on download 14 but then off to my sister's house so it'll have to wait.

Whilst visiting big sis I decided to get my DH to take me to The Nimble Thimble (a shop of dreams) and did a little enhancing. I was really taken by the design by Waxing Moon Designs.
I purchased the 28ct 'Crystal Magic' Cashel and also the
beautiful frame by 'Poppy Kreations'. I have a feeling that this isn't going to be left hiding for a long time.
I had taken some stitching with me and decided to boost my moral by starting something new (naughty me) instead of working to complete some smaller easier transportable piece. This is the one I have started... guess what back to beads!!!

Once again thank you for popping in and also taking the time to leave a comment. They are so much appreciated.
Until next time Happy Stitching to you all

Feeling relaxed...Makes a change.

2010-08-15T17:28:00.005+01:00

The sun's shining again to day, although we have had rain and some of that has been quite heavy at times. Areas near to us have been hit by the flash floods and you've guessed it the hose pipe ban is STILL ON. Some of our plants are now suffering but we have managed to revive them a little, thank goodness. The tomatoes are starting to ripen and I can tell you they taste delicious. My poor carrots seem to have given up and vanished along with the radishes and the spring onions, still onwards and upwards the gooseberry bush is coming along well and the grapes are actually starting to look like grapes. Yippee.

My younger son and his family have returned from their short holiday to Spain and appear to have had a good time. My son rang me today to say that they had landed safely although delayed at the airport and that he had was just on his way back from the hospital after having his shoulder X-rayed. I presumed something must have happened on holiday but thankfully no, it was on the recommendation of his physio, to check out some sort of damage he has inflicted on himself over the years of playing and coaching field hockey and also playing cricket for a team he's played for, ooow let me see must be 22 or 23 years. I hope that it's not going to be anything serious as I think it would quite deflate him. Fingers crossed.

I am back on grandchildren duty tomorrow for a couple of days. I'm quite looking forward to it for some strange reason... at least I'll get some more of Breaktime done, or maybe I'll try and weed their garden a little. Now to how Breaktime is doing. I think I'll have one more turn up to finish him off, (well maybe).

Here's my photo update
. Not much more now. If it hadn't been for Jen's I've started so I'll finish....eventually I think this would still be forgotten at the back of some dark neglected cupboard.
I went looking around some fabric shops the other day trying to find something that I could use as a backing for him to turn him to the wall hanging I've been thinking about. Alas to no avail. I found some Halloween material that I quite liked but that isn't going to help me. I was looking for something that would sort of complement the colours in the clown but also look really good. When I see some of the finished pieces on the varying blogs with some great backing fabrics I can't help but wonder where in the world you find them.
I must admit The Three Kings and also Castles in the Air have not seen light of day yet again. My excuse for this is that I have been trying very hard to catch up my 12 Days of Christmas so that I am back on track for getting it finished in time for Xmas 2010. The beads have arrived so I have been able to finish the missing bits. I had seriously under bought the beads in the first place (my own error though) but I think I now have sufficient. The Seven Swans are completed and swimming away there.

I notice on the photos this time that the beads don't seem to have the knock out colours that they in the flesh (so to speak) and I have no idea how to get the true effect of them, it seems to be very hit and miss.
The 8 Maids are coming along well even though they are rather fiddly .

It seems quite strange cross stitching people, so that means that I'm getting to the last sections of the 12 Days as well.
I've treated myself to Donna Kooler's 555 Christmas Cross Stitch Designs and am waiting for that to arrive as I have some idea of making some Christmas Decorations for my older son, I've ordered material as well so perhaps I'm on a roll.....We'll see.. That son has just gone on holiday, he's gone camping so I hope that the sun shines for him and his family. They'll have a good time regardless though I'm sure.

Here's hoping the Postman arrives soon with my goodies.

Until next time thanks for calling in and taking time out to leave a comment they are so much appreciated.

Enjoy your summer and stitching. Byee for now.

Guess what....The Sun's Shining.

2010-08-01T10:06:00.014+01:00

Hi there everyone. Summer holidays are upon us. That means that for the last 10 days we've had grandchildren staying with us. Very busy cooking and doing the old cub badges with my two youngest grandsons. Must admit they did very well and duly deserve their badges when they get them. The flapjacks and oat biscuits were delicious.

I must admit it was very nice having someone to do the washing up and window cleaning as well.

You've guessed it.....rather camera shy grandson!!

The hosepipe ban is still on despite the fact that there have been flash foods and torrential downpours, You know the same old story 'WRONG SORT OF RAIN', after all it's all wet, I do know what they mean, at least the gardens are fine. Thought you might like to see a little of our garden as we are further along in the year. It isn't looking so great really but we have some bright spots.

We had a bout of strong winds which ruined the hanging baskets and 'burnt' several plants. Luckily the tomatoes are doing well whether they will eventually turn to the right colour is another matter. It's a good job that we like green tomato chutney!!

My DH and I have just returned from our 'Garden Centre' roam with another new plant for the garden,it's a climbing Hydrangea which we intend to plant on a North-facing wall that we have always had a problem with. Here's hoping that this will solve it! Along with our plant we have bought some more bird feeders to replace the ones that have finally fallen apart. Already filled with seed,nuts and suet treats .....not a bird in sight!!!.
This picture is something that cheers me up it's a patio apple it just grows in a pot and it fruits every year. The apple type is' Katie' it was bought after the death of our Mum, Kathleen, back in 2001 my sister has a tree as well.

Because of the grandchildren visits and minding, cross stitch has been a little on hold. Unfortunately The 12 Days of Christmas has fallen behind. I should have been onto the 8 Maids a Milking but my Swans are still getting their feathers so they can't swim very well yet. Still never mind as I now have a few weeks while the 'young ones'( this includes my sons and their wives) are all away on their Summer hols. That is Guides camps, Cadbury World, Longleat, Spain all in no particular order. My hubby and I are just putting our feet up at home and probably pottering about a bit. I'll get some stitching done and the odd game of golf will creep in for my DH.
Here's my picture of the 12 Days. I will do better I promise

Must admit that while at my son's with three of the grandchildren I did get quite a lot of my UFO done which is for Jen's blog...I've Started so I'll Finished....Eventually
I have quite surprised myself with this one as finally I find that I am enjoying it. I am now on the last few of the 42"inches width of this piece, the chart is very hard to read as it is a hand drawn one and several splodges are just guessed. His face is much more cheery than I expected and I have put some half stitches in around the eyelashes although they are not actually shown on the chart. ( I just have to fiddle around a bit and make it mine)

I have been trying to catch up on my reading blogs that I follow and wanted to leave a comment onRocky Mountain Stitcher to say how well I thought her mermaid was doing but unfortunately I couldn't get it to take any comment. If anyone knows Berniceplease will you ask if she can check her 'settings' as I notice there are no comments and this seems strange as her stitching is lovely. To Bernice' It could well be me being a little in my dotage doing it wrong'.

I am now away to get some more feathers on my Swans....so thanks for calling in and leaving a comment. Enjoy your holidays whatever you may be doing.
Until next time HAPPY STITCHING

Water, Water everywhere but not a drop to ......water the garden with

2010-07-18T18:09:00.005+01:00

Hose pipe ban in full force. Absolutely pouring down! That seems to be the way it goes. We have been told it's not the right kind of rain or else in the wrong place. Sounds very strange, fortunately I know what they mean but it doesn't help the bad feeling when watching water coming out of underground pipes that need repairing by the water company. That's the grumble over.

Now to happier things. My DH and I have been away this weekend. He's been on the old golf course thoroughly enjoying himself. Mind you his feet ache and his shoulders need a massage, could be from lack of golf playing through the injury earlier in the year or else the fact that 'Old Father Time' keeps chasing him and he's starting to find he's catching up!!!.
I had a good weekend stitching as did my sister. I took with me the dreaded Break Time, which I started by following Jen's I've Started so I'll Finish....Eventually. I have to be honest and say I haven't yet got a picture of the latest progress made this weekend but I have an update of prior advance. He's coming along well and I have at least got a sense of achievement from how he's doing.

I have been thinking about what to do with him when he's finished and top of the list of ideas at the moment is a hanging for the bedroom my grand-children use when they come. I'm still considering this though. I'm not the best at finishing things like that and I really don't want him to look a mess. Has anyone any good finishing tips???

I promised last time that I'd post my picture of The 12 Days of Christmas, 6 Geese a Laying after I had beaded it so here it is. There are still missing some red beads off the wing as i have yet to order them.
I have started the next part being the 7 Swans but up to now have only done 2 1/2 sides of the frame, that is my current WIP on my frame. Both the Twelve Days and the Three Kings were started for YoYo's Christmas Blog. I haven't heard anything for an age off Yoyo and am becoming very concerned.

The best progress has been made on The Three Kings. Despite a visit form the frogs where I took out a full section of the base pattern believing I had counted the centre square 1 stitch out, only to discover after I'd taken it all out that it was right in the first place. I can tell you I cried all the way to the kettle. Put the stitching away and started again the next day. After giving myself a good shake and making sure that I had my good frame of mind in control I set to on the third King. I can tell you his robe is a pain with fiddly back stitch round the sections that seem to make up the 'flower leaves on the robe. Granted they look worth it when you can see it for rea, the colours are lovely. At least this time the photo has a better colour, last time it looked washed out.

Last week I went to Liverpool on a visit with one of the school's I volunteer at. Must say we all had a great day we visited the World Museum. The children had been studying Egypt at school, the museum had a super Egypt display and question hunt, We also went in the planetarium and that was also superb all the pupils enjoyed it even though several of the girls clutched hands because of the sometimes intense dark. It a place I would recommend if you aren't too far from there for 'Summer Hols' visits,
Off now to watch the 'High Lights' of the 'Tour de France'. I'll be out of breath after about 2 minutes. I just don't know how they do it.

Happy stitching to you all. Thanks for visiting, Bye for now.

Just a bit of this and a bit of that.

2010-07-02T17:34:00.004+01:00

The weather has still been fantastic. Just a couple of days that were a little undecided. We have had some rain but mostly overnight. Still spending a lot of time in the garden . We have been painting the fencing and redoing the back gate. It is now looking quite smart again. After power-washing the brick paving we now have to re-point quite a lot of it. Oh dear! Must admit though it looks a good deal brighter than it was, well worth my DH's efforts and my clearing up and brewing up job.
'
We have been having strawberries and ice cream. It's great when you can just pick them and 'Yummy' they have tasted delicious, we have never had so many so it's been great.

Cross-stitching had been a little on the back-burner because of the outside tidy up. I have beaded all the 6 Geese (honestly) but alas I have forgotten to take a picture so that'll have to be a wait for next time.
I spent and extra day grand children caring this week. All to do with the month end causing extra work and also covering for their other grandma who's having a weeks holiday in Spain. She went looking for the sun! I think we found it by staying in the UK.
Anyway because of the extra time away from home I have been able to do more on Break time. So here at long last is the BIG ROLL UP.

All the back stitching is done so when it vanishes around the roller I at least know I don't have to worry over whether I have forgotten any bits. So now it's the check jacket and smiley face as my next targets. With a little bit of luck it'll be finished sooner than I anticipated. (Well perhaps a lot of luck).

I have managed to catch up part of Castles in the Air I think I have just done part 12. I spend quite a lot of time trying to figure out what part will come next, but obviously to no avail. Guess what I just finish a bit and another download arrives.

That will have to wait as I am trying to get myself focused back on the Three Kings, now they haven't been stitched on for the last month. I am going to have to do some serious stitching on it to get it back on track and for some reason I'm having a bit of a problem getting going. I have decided to do part of the third King and then the bottom border so that the bottom section will be completed.
I must to get started on The 'Seven Swans a Swimming', only so that I stand a chance of having it done for THIS Xmas. I always enjoy stitching it no idea why, I find it sort of grabs you and away you go. After the swans I'll be onto all the 'people 'parts so that'll be interesting. Hoping to go visiting my sister again shortly. It's so enjoyable when we go. My DH goes playing his beloved golf and my sister and I usually get quite an amount of stitching done. Her DH potters in the garden (he is known periodically to turn his hand to stitching), he's always doing something so he's always busy.

Here's an extra picture for you. DRUM ROLL TA TARA TA TARA.

Here's Break Time progress since the roll up. He really is growing. Shame the chart isn't clearer hate to admit some of it is guess work.

Hope you all have a good time enjoying the weather or doing your stitching or whatever you get pleasure from. Until next time

Happy stitching to you all and once again thanks for visiting and leaving your comments.

Summertime ..Well Nearly

2010-06-19T18:08:00.006+01:00

We've had some beautiful weather recently, so much so that we keep hearing that we may have a hosepipe ban by the end of June through lack of rainfall. (I'll worry about that if if happens). Although when my DH and I were returning from a visit to my sister and her DH it rained that hard it was difficult to see the vehicles and roads, but that was last weekend. By the way it was a lovely weekend visit. We brought some fruit bushes and a courgette plant back up with us ( this could mean more food for the slug and snails).
My DH and I have been outside in the garden a lot tidying it up and taking stuff to the tip. As I've said before we haven't a big garden and we are not proficient gardeners but we try so I thought you may like a look at what we have growing. This rose is just outside our back door it's a 'Pilgrim' and the perfume is fab. We have been amazed at the amount of roses we have on it this year.

This year, for I think the first time ever, we have a water lily that has managed to flower, usually the fish uproot them and seem to eat them, so I am quite proud of the flower even though it is not enormous.

While my DH and I were out browsing the garden centres one day we came across this 'Pol-anter'. It's like a sturdy plastic tube with holes in that you plant up it's watered from the bottom by attaching your hosepipe to it. Quite clever really and very effective.

The grapevine we planted two or three years ago has got lots of flower heads on so I hope that they all flower well and then we'll get more grapes than we have so far. Today we had, for the first time this year, some home grown radish and rocket it really is good to just go and pick it and eat it.

While at my sisters I collected some buttons by Hob Nobs that she had collected for me from 'The Nimble Thimble'. I think they are beautifully made and a lot of fun. One I especially like is The Stitching Snow Woman. I'll have to find some suitable material and stitch them, they'll be quite a quick finish, my problem is I'm not that good a choosing colours still never mind I'm sure I'll come up with something.

I haven't done any of Castles in the Air yet this month and another download is probably about to appear I think I'll just have to get my head in gear.. .. Nor have I made any further progress on The Three Kings.... not doing too well am I?

I have almost completed The Six Geese a Laying, I have run out of the red beads that finish off the wing. I'll be sending off for some more beads when I have run out or nearly run out of some more colours. I'll have to check the requirements list again.!!! I think I need some more threads as well. Still never mind I am so please with it the colours of the beads are knock-out.

I have to thank Jen on her I've Started So I'll FinishBlog Break time would still be in a drawer and forgotten, instead the progress is good. I have to finish off the backstitching all around the foot,shoe,laces etc and then it is the BIG turnup all the way back to his jacket. I have continued to stitch this in the evenings and also took it with me to my Sisters.

Off now to perhaps read for a while. Thanks for popping in it makes my day. Until next time
Happy stitching or whatever your delight is.

Catch up Time!!

2010-05-31T14:33:00.005+01:00

Time seems to be flying past. At last I've got over the bug that seems to have haunted me for the last month so I can at least see the charts now the streaming eyes have eased. I went for an MRI scan on my knee last week and I have to wait ten days for the results. I'll be glad when I finally find out what damage I've done to my knee in fall I had in March. I've been feeling as though I've been falling apart at the seams. Still less gloom and doom my DH has been told he should get full movement in arm back after breaking his elbow I think think this means I won't be able to sell his golf clubs on Ebay!!!.

We've spent a good deal of time in the garden making the most of some hot days. Although we only have a small garden we've been planting tomatoes,carrots,spring onions,French beans, cucumbers, squash, radish and mixed salad greens. Some of them have already decided to put up shoots and some are still asleep. The trouble is the moment we plant anything it's like a green light for the snails and slugs to party. We must have the fattest selection of garden nuisances going. Now we have to wait until we can pick something. (Fingers crossed)

Well my stitching has been coming along. I've been concentrating on 12 Days of Christmas this past two weeks.This of course is for the Christmas SAL run by YoYo of Dragon my Needle I've managed to finished the 4 Calling Bird, 5 Gold Rings and have completed the border for 6 Geese a Laying. This means I have managed to catch up one day, another two to try and catch up and then I should managed to finish it for display for this Christmas. The 5 Gold Rings although not as elaborate as the other days still had a lot of stitching in it and rather fiddly. I'm looking forward to 6 Geese as it looks quite an interesting block.

Break Time is moving on. I didn't get attacked by frogs this week, instead I managed to leave one of the 'browns' at my son's house so I have been trying to work round it. I just hope I haven't mis-counted anywhere. I have started the chart that puts his feet on. I can't believe that I have got to that bit, it seems like quite a landmark point. So it'll soon be back to the jacket and all the check work and then onwards and upwards to his head.

Now some time ago forthe I've Started so I'll Finish blog the first UFO I put on was by Teresa Wenzler, The Summer Carousel Horse. I did finish it but it has only recently been framed so here it is in all it's glory....I can tell you I am absolutely delighted with the framing done by Nimble Thimble it's brilliant.

Apart from this I have been transferring Scout badges from one son's scout blanket to his son's scout blanket. My grand-daughter has been helping to sew some on. she counted in the region of 200 badges. My grandson is going on a Father/Son camp in two weeks and would like to take the blanket with him. We'll have to see how we go with the transferring it's probably going to be nearly done as I'll mix it in with the cross stitching.

When trying to catch up with some blogging and email reading I discovered that the next download for Castles in the Air had arrived so that will have to be fitted in to all the other stitching I'm trying to get done. Still haven't got myself a 'little' piece to do.

Oh yes! Last but not least I came across a new SAL by SOLO BRODE. I saw it about three weeks ago but as it's written in French was stumped. I tried the Google translator which for some reason just didn't want to work so I bookmarked the page and decided I'd have another look when I felt better. My French is very poor down to non-existent, anyway I went back to it and this time I managed to get the translator to work and got my down load. I have now to make a decision on material and thread The SAL name is L'attendent l'ete 'Waiting for Summer' You are requested to choose two colours that mean Summer to you. My problem is lots of colours mean Summer to me, blue and yellow for blue skies and sunshine or greens and just about any colour going for the plants I have no idea which way to go. I have yet to try one of the gorgeous variegated colours I see several people using and am wondering if this is the time to experiment? It looks a pretty design so pop over and have a look.

Until next time hope all your stitching goes well .......

Stitching. Bugs and Frogs!

2010-05-16T18:31:00.006+01:00

Well it's been a beautiful weekend. We actually had a bar-b-q yesterday. Just the two of us and it was very pleasant. We were going to have gone and visited my sister but I came down with quite a bad virus/cold/ awful coughing bouts/ nose bleeds---- I won't go on ----so we didn't go. Cross stitching got put on hold for most of the week as I couldn't make out the charts through blurred eyes. Anyhow although not 100% I am back stitching on my new frame built for me by my DH.

Be amazed at the progress on my UFO for I've Started so I'll Finish Break Time. I thought I'd take a full picture for the first time and even if I say it myself I was surprised at how much it had grown. I have discovered that some of the threads seem to have become variegated all by themselves (perhaps it's just the age) it's mainly the pale green.
This is how it looked yesterday evening. That's when I realised there was an error!!!! Horror of horrors What to do???!!!

So this is how it looks now.

Can you spot the difference? Of course you can I frogged all the part I had done yesterday evening. I muttered all the time I was doing it .

As I said in my last post Papillon Designs 'Castles in the Air' next download had been sent. So not to end up behind with it I set to and completed it. I am just soooo proud of my self now to wait for the next one to arrive.!

Now to my Three Kings.Yoyo's Christmas Sal I have been putting beads, beads and more beads on it. The colours for some reason are rubbish so that's disappointing but I have really made good progress with it this month. Two Kings done just one to go and then the rest of the border.

Lesleyanne asked me what is my rotation. Well as I am not or ever have been particularly good at sticking to any hard given plan I have a tendency to pick and choose as the mood takes me but over the period of a month I will have done a reasonable amount on each piece I'm doing. I do, however, tend to do the Break Time in an evening while watching TV!! ( Can't imagine how I went wrong) mainly because it takes less concentration and it's in colour blocks. I wouldn't have a chance with any of the Jim Shore one's in the evening. My stitching fits in and around my spare time I really don't know how those fantastic stitchers do it who have full time jobs and yet still complete the most amazing work all credit to them I say. I usually listen to reception class readers on Monday and Wednesday mornings so I stitch in the afternoon on Monday, most of Tuesday depending on what jobs need doing. I take Break Time or Window Wreath with me on a Wednesday afternoon when I go and sleep over at my son's house to do the school runs and meals on that PM and Thursday AM and PM. I also go and listen to year 4 readers while at my son's. Back home Thursday eve. My DH is always waiting with a meal ready for me and it is really so much appreciated. I then usually collapse in a chair and fall asleep. Friday back to stitching. Week-ends are hit and miss. depends on the weather. So there you are my version of a rotation. It may not be perfect but it works for me and I don't get upset if something gets missed. Oh yes I try to avoid going from one Jim Shore to another directly as it takes me a a while to remember that the symbols have changed although he does use the same colour palette.
I am going to go back to 12 Days of Christmas tomorrow and try and get up 6 geese a laying by the end of the month. We'll see. I'll do my best as it's the only way I'll get it completed by Christmas this year. Wish me luck.

Where does the time go?

2010-04-30T19:04:00.006+01:00

April over in a few hours-- I just can't believe how quickly this year seems to be flying past. I know they say that time goes quicker the older you are--- BUT this is RIDICULOUS!!!
It has been a good stitching couple of weeks though as I've had my head down trying to make inroads into the designs I'm doing. The Christmas Wreath has had a little more work done on it although there is still a large amount back stitching to do. I took it with me on my weekly grandchildren minding last week.

Now this week I didn't take any cross-stitching with me at all as I was busy stitching badges on a 'Camp Blanket' for one of my grand-daughters and repairing my eldest son's Scout Camp Blanket. After 22 years of leaving scouts he has become a scout leader. I searched out the camp blanket and horror of horrors it was full of holes. Some of this was from an infestation of moths (from a coat given us by an aging aunt) and also from the fact that the blanket was quite old and more than a bit thin 30 years ago. So I am trying to be a bit inventive about trying to repair it. My DH said just get a new blanket. My DS wants 'His Blanket' When I manage to 'restore' it I'll put photo on of his beloved blanket.

At last I've started to quite enjoy the Break Time. Not mega amounts of enjoyment I might add but a definite improvement. The light brown is the biggest downfall and there's a lot of it. I figure at the moment I have done approximately a quarter of the length of the design, not a quarter of the stitching though. Now that may sound a little odd but the part I'm doing is the shallowest section, the head and shoulder bit is quite deep, but also has more interest, so you win a bit and lose a bit.

I think I may to have to have a look through my stash to find something small to do to give my self a bit of a boost and then I can say 'It's a finish'. I keep meaning to get some of the 'Humbug' patterns and then something else crops up and I forget all about it. ( Note to self AGAIN : Must remeber!) Perhaps I'll do it as soon as I finish blogging today.

Now to YoYo's Christmas SAL. Now I am really enjoying this although once again I will give myself the biggest projects as a challenge. The 12 Days of Christmas is like a magnet to me and I keep doing a little more of it in favour of some the others in my mini rotation. I have managed to make up part of a month so my target of having it finished and framed for this Christmas is standing more of a chance.

Must admit although it says '3 French Hens' unless my eyes deceive me I'm sure this is a ROOSTER??

Here's my extra catch-up bit.

This next pic is just to show you how the completed days look as a whole.

The Three Kings has been on the back burner for the last two weeks but should be back on the rota this next week and then I really must get some hard work done on it. I love the colours in it. My DH says the middle King looks very grumpy (he just doesn't appreciate the trials of camel riding).

My DH's elbow is on the mend from his fall. The Dr. is sending him for physio and he's to start doing a little more with his arm now. He's been told he probably won't be able to straighten his arm properly again so I hope that it won't affect his golf. That is his one activity that he can get a little carried away with. (I am not a golfer)

Guess what there's a download for Castle in the Air so I must get that done so that I am not playing catch-up on that again. There will be a photo of that next time.

Caught Up Yippee!!!!

2010-04-19T20:00:00.007+01:00

Over the Easter holidays three of our grandchildren came to stay. It saved me worrying about my Hubby managing to cook, wash up, bathe or really just have anymore accidents. His elbow is giving him quite a lot of pain and he keeps leaning on it when he gets up from a chair. Anyhow he's back at hospital in about 10 days for a progress check. Back to the grandchildren. We had a lovely couple of days. Chocolate cake was in abundance along with butterfly cakes and a first attempt at egg custard(all courtesy of our young grand-daughter). She did a grand job. The garden got tidied and sweet pea seeds were planted by the other two. Even homework was done!!.( The cross-stitch suffers a bit when they are here as I just don't seem able to get any done. ) They all enjoy playing with Playmobil or more to say these days is setting it up and moving characters to the desired places and then looking at it for a while and then putting it all away. We have got loads of it stored away in all sorts of places so they have plenty of choices on what they set up.

Well after a their short stay peace returned and so did the cross stitching. I have been trying to catch up Papillon's ' Castles in the Air' and at last I have managed it. Now all I have to do is to remember to keep a look out for the down loads and not let it get behind again.(We'll just have to wait and see). I am now getting more into it. It's the first time I have ever done a download pattern so it's been quite a challenge for me. I admire anyone that does the large mandalas I think I'd probably get lost in no time at all.

I am getting on quite well with the Christmas SAL and really enjoying them both. The Three Kings is coming along quite nicely, the centre King is almost finished just a few more beads on the lower section of his clothing and then he is complete. Then back to some of the border and the first King. Sometimes the background blue seems to all blend into the background blue stitches and I lose where I'm up too. When I was on the phone to Sew and So the other day they said Mill Hill were bringing out some more Jim Shore designs so I'll have to keep my eyes open for them.

The 'big' Christmas one is the 12 Days of Christmas. I am loving doing this. It is a real challenge. I need to try and complete more than one day a month so that I stand a chance of finishing it before this Christmas. I seem to be doing huge amounts of stitching but great lack of finishes.

Here's the one I 'started a little earlier' and am trying to get finished 'Break Time'. I have spent quite a lot of time doing back stitch and at last I have rolled it on on the frame. I've decided to go for the brown trousers first so here's hoping I don't go nutty doing it. As always with this one Thanks to Jens I've Started so I'll Finish otherwise it would still be in a cupboard.
Mind you I'm still very unsure to what I am going to do with a 42" long cross stitch!!

Until next time. Thanks for calling in. Please leave a comment, it cheers me up. Happy Stitching to you all.

Just another week!!

2010-04-04T18:08:00.002+01:00

Happy Easter to you all.

Firstly here's an update on my accident. I went off to the hospital and discovered that I had broken two possibly three ribs. So I have been taking pain killers like mad just to get through each day. I'm starting to feel a little better now thank goodness.

Over the Easter Weekend I always go, at some point. to watch my younger son play Field Hockey at the annual tournament in Blackpool Lancashire. I think this year is the 59th one to take place. He has played in them for about the last 20 years and his family also go and do a bit of supporting. This year my hubby and I went up to watch and after the completion of a match were moving to another pitch. Our grandchildren were there watching and my hubby, in a fit of thinking he was younger than he is, started to play hockey with them with one of their shorter than adult sticks. You've guessed it. He fell over. He got up laughing and we plodded on to the next match. Later in the day we had the grandchildren at our house when he decided to go and get his now rather painful arm checked out. He took himself off to the local hospital while I stayed and made buns and fudge with the younger grand-daughter, her twin brother and older sister watched Harry Potter DVDs. Eventually my DH arrived home with his arm in a sling. He's broken his funny bone. So it's back to the hospital on Monday to see the Orthopedic people. Between us we can make one whole person at the moment.

Now to the better bits.
I have finished 'Let it Snow' and am really pleased with it. The button attachment has fantastic detail.

I've also made a little progress on 'Window Wreath' . The colours in this are really close together but the effect is very good on the window panes. There is quite a lot of backstitching to do on this. I had started to take it when I go child sitting but have decided that the light is not good enough so I just pick it up every now again.

My Christmas SAL pieces aren't doing to badly. This month I haven't done as much on the 'Three Kings' because I had been concentrating on catching up Castles in the Air. I have got some done though and stitched quite a few beads on. Click HERE For Yoyo's Christmas Sal Gallery.

I am really pleased with my Two Turtle Doves. They took quite a while to do. I still have a few more green beads to put on one of the small leaves to the right at the bottom because I ran out of them. I have sent off for several more lots of beads as the requirements list I saw has evidently underestimated the amount of beads required. Still that doesn't matter because I am so pleased with how it's looking, it's a shame that the photo's don't always do justice to the vibrancy of the colours. It's all about French Hens next and I'm looking forward to that as well.

I have just started to try and do some more of my UFO forI've Started so I'll Finish. I am doing some of the backstitching and then I am ready for turning it so that I can do either the next section of the trousers or the other way for the jacket. Oh! Decisions. Decisions. At the moment I'm thinking on the lines of the brown because that'll be the part that'll drive me nuts most and then I can cheer myself up by doing the checked jacket and finish off with the smiley face.

Any how that's it for now. I'm off to administer the pain killers to my DH and sort out a meal.
Keep safe everyone and Happy Stitching.

Not much stitching but what a week !

2010-03-22T07:52:00.014Z

It's been one of those weeks. One lot of my grandchildren, along with their friend who lives opposite them,
came up with the idea of having a Cake Stall to raise money for SPORT RELIEF on Sunday 21st.March. Therein followed the request to help them out. Now this is now what you think. Yes I did a little baking for them but mainly it was being oversee-er in the kitchen ( this is otherwise known as general dogsbody and peace-keeper), also the 'quality control' operative (making sure there's no egg shell in the mix, no licked fingers etc etc.). My Hubby and I went out and purchased the ingredients for a huge list of buns, biscuits, muffins and fudge. Their Mum filled in the gaps with paper plates, and table covers , bags plus missed ingredients. The making of items started on the Wednesday when my hubby made Fudge (as a trial) we have in the past made fudge but it's always been a bit 'hit and miss', sometimes absolutely beautiful and other times where we ate with a spoon (it always got eaten). Anyway he found a different recipe to our normal one one the 'web' and gave it a go. It turned out fantastic, so he tried another not quite as good ( a bit softer) but OK. He left it at that until I got back from my normal grand children sitting stint on the Thursday evening. Their other grandma made some ginger cake and fruit cake to sell in slices.

THURSDAY!!! The day when all went wrong!
I'd been doing the final ingredient shop and was looking for red balloons. The supermarket only had mixed bags so I remembered that a store just nearby sold 'party goods' so off I went thinking yippee. I found just what I needed Red balloons. Off I go to the pay desk when Bang! Wallop! Thump! I'm flat on face on the hardest wooden floor I've ever come across. After lying there feeling winded and shocked an 'off-duty' nurse came to my rescue. I must admit she was really kind and cheered me up a great deal. The Manager eventually arrived with associate with wheelchair( I could now hardly move my legs). At this point I was wheeled to near the door to try and collect my self and answer all the relevant questions How? What? Why? Now when you think about it HOW do I know WHAT I fell, tripped, slipped, on. over and WHY? oh Why? did it have to be me?? One thing I do know for certain( I did wonder at the time) Who needs Red Balloons when they can have PURPLE KNEES?
Any how to cut a rather long story shorter. The store gave me the balloons. I drove to collect my grandchildren from school and sat later with a bag of croquet potatoes on my swollen knees. By the time My daughter-in -law got home from work I couldn't bend my leg so no 'gear changing'. I was driven home,( about 30 miles) escorted by the grandchildren, who had done a sterling job in looking after me, and my Husband had to travel by bus the next day to retrieve the car. On the Friday I could hardly move what with very stiff legs, twisted side, bashed elbow. sore ribs. I felt a bit sorry for myself. At this point I consoled myself with a little stitching.

The progress on my Christmas SAL is coming along slowly but I'm hoping to get a little more done before the official posting day. Naughty me I haven't yet touched my Three Kings.

While visiting my sister, last weekend, I decided to indulge my self in small 'Hob-Nobbs' design. This is partly because everything I seem to stitching at the moment is quite big and I need a finish to have a 'feel good' about.

OH No. By seeing the photo I realise I have stitched all the blue squares as full blocks (16 cross-stitches) when they should have been over 2 (4 large cross-stitches) Wow is me. Now I've to decide what to do.
Frog or leave.

I did take my UFO with me on my visit and stitched that in the evening and after chatting about the UFO with someone who has seen it finished it has given a better perspective on it. Apparently it has a bit of a three-'D' effect with the non-stitched areas and is quite something to see completed. I have now cheered up about it.

Just to let you know that Spring had finally sprung here in West Lancashire, UK. I am so delighted to see just a few daffodils and the crocus to give a little colour after some of the miserable days we've had recently. The cat-kins are there on our corkscrew hazel, the honeysuckle has started to burst into green and the primroses and pink aubretia are doing their bit as well.

Now back to the SPORT RELIEF cake stall. Unfortunately the friend's grandad died so quite understandably her mum pulled out of helping and at first so did the little girl. But then she arrived in the kitchen with one of my grand-daughters so see if she could watch. Any how she soon joined in and decided she would try and use some of the baking towards a Brownie Badge. My grandson was using his biscuit making towards a 'Community Badge' at the Cub Scouts so as well as raising money for others they had a purpose for themselves. The next thing I know is that a cousin of theirs rings up (he's 4) to see if my grandson can go and play. So now comes the complicated bit. One grandson goes and returning is his girl cousin to sleep over. I now am back to having two 10 year olds and one 8 year old all wanting to bake. ( I can feel headaches coming on). But onwards and upwards having delved into my extra large pocket of patience. Dutifully taking photos for their Brown Owl for the badges.

Grandson's biscuits

On the great day My husband and myself were up at the crack of dawn, he cutting fudge and myself making flap jacks and jam tarts. When the girls fell out of their beds they set about finishing cake decorating and the elder grand-daughter(13) started to make her wild berry muffins and coconut muffins and other bits and bobs, as the day before she had been playing field hockey. A little later the friend arrived so back to four all trying to do something or other and myself now wishing I could find my inner calm. At About half past ten my hubby took the younger of our grand-daughters putting signs up on lamps posts. While the friend was busily doing price lists on the computer and the cousin was still attempting ' things'. At long last the time had come to hopefully sell their goods. The sun was shining. All were in high hopes. It was a super experience for them and they made the grand total of £142.84p and all that on the driveway of their house. Well done to them all.

Now I can do some cross-stitching. Yippee

Oh Boy! What a time

2010-03-08T16:55:00.005Z

Here we are again. What a couple of weeks. My DH and I returned home from a few days away fractionally tired and hungry. So I set about making us a quick omelet, easy enough I hear you saying, all going well beating up the eggs, pan on the hob, first one made then a bright light followed by darkness. 'Now what've you done?' came the shout from the front room. 'Nothing,' I reply. All the lights are out in the road back and front. Yes, you've guessed 'powercut'. I made the next omelet by candle light, very romantic you may think but I can tell you after 9+ hours with the temperature falling it was not much fun. A few days later the local newspaper informs us -' Power cut affects homes.' Now that's what I call news. I could have told them that sooner than they told me. Ah well all's well that ends well. We got the power back in the middle of the night and discovered later that it had damaged our microwave (4 months old) Oh joy! So now the proud owner of yet another microwave all is well.
Now to a little sewing. I've made a little progress on Window Wreath. It is only single thread and the colours are pretty close but the effect is very good. I've done some of the back-stitching which emphases the holly well. All round each window pane still needs doing and as I only pick it up every now and again it may be a little time before it's finished. Still it's very pretty

Next to the update on my UFO. I have made some reasonable progress with it. I've been doing part of the check coat and his long tie( that's the bit with spots on). Although I'm still trying to get my head around this one at least it's growing slowly. There is quite a lot of counting with it and parts of it have been suffering from the 'frogging' problem that seems to crop up periodically. I always thought frogs vanished over the winter months but alas I was wrong.

Here's something a little lighter. One of my daughter-in-laws dresses their home up for all the 'Holiday'. Bearing this in mind and thinking Easter is coming, when she does Easter egg hunts for the children and a little buffet. I saw these and thought they were just great.

I gave her the surprise gift when they came for dinner yesterday. I can tell you she was absolutely delighted.The web-page for you to have a little look at some of the other goodies is here I can tell you they really are beautifully made having actually held them and the little holders are quite weighty. They also came with small cards to place in the clip at the back. I have already promised myself that I will be getting some more of them, had a thought, they could just be ornamental as well ( now I don't need an excuse).

At last 'Castle in the Air' unrolled, as promised. For those of you here's some info on CiA. There is a choice of straight cross-stitch design or one with specialist stitches and being me couldn't decide on that either. Soooo I do a mix of both depending on how I feel at that moment and whether or not I think the spec. stitch would look too 'clunky' on the 32 count fabric. You have to pick several of the colours yourself. Well at this point( Months ago) I panicked I am not the world's best at colour coordinating, I looked at other peoples ideas on the work that they had posted on the--Website Gallery - to no avail. Some had used pink tones, or yellows etc. etc. Didn't work for me. So I peered out into our garden and made my self a list of what I saw. Wisteria-pale mauve, Aqueba- purple, Forget-me-nots-- blue, Poppies- red, Grannies bonnets-- pink and yellow, Nasturtiums-- orange, Begonias- Wine followed by three varying shades of green. All other colours are stipulated by the Papillon designs. So when this is completed wherever I live in the future I'll always have a reminder of our bright suntrap of a garden. I have actually managed to catch up several downloads. There is just the current one to complete, I have made a start but I must put it aside for a while so that I can do some of my Christmas SAL which up to now has not altered one little bit since my last post. So it's back to 12 Days of Christmas. day two. being the Turtle doves, Here's hoping it goes well.

Just to let you know there really are some crazy folk out there (I live with one). We've had a couple of days of sunshine. Absolutely freezing but sunny and guess what.......my DH has put shorts on!!!!!!! There's just no hope!

Needle has speeded up. Hooray!

2010-02-23T14:14:00.006Z

I've had a busy week. Three of my grandchildren came to stay while their Mum and Dad went away for a few days. I decided that a day out to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) would be a good idea. So I put the suggestion to my DH. He was not impressed. He thought it was going to be some dull day looking at statues ( or something along those lines). Actually it was a great day enjoyed by all. My DH loved the Air and Space section showing the Aircraft as did our two grandsons while our grand-daughter enjoyed looking at the different types of weaving from a different section. All three grand children enjoyed walking through the pretend sewers and looking at old toilets. I have confirmed to them that I am from the 'Roman' era as far as they are concerned after telling them that I remembered some of the toilets on show. Pretty Yukky Eh!! The day finished off with a short ride on a replica Stephenson Train called the Planet. I can tell you I had a lovely day and as it was a beautiful sunny day it was great.

My other son and his family have also just returned from holiday in the Dominican Republic where they had a lovely time it was marred by flight delays 12 1/2 hrs on the way out and ---wait for it --- 21 hours on the way back. Looking forward to seeing the photos of at least one of them swimming with the dolphins.

So how's the stitching going you may ask. The answer is not too bad thank you. I have made good progress with my Three Kings forYoyo's Christmas SAL. I just love the beads and how they twinkle in the sunlight. Must admit I'll have to spend a good deal of time bead sewing but I'm sure that it'll be worth it. I did have a frogging day when I inadvertently mis-counted and kept repeating my error over and over (get the idea?) Perhaps because I've made good progress I don't feel as 'blue' this week. Yippee!!!

The photo above shows a section about 3 1/4" long. The fabric colour shown is the most accurate ever managed to get yet.

I have actually made some progress with my UFO 'Break time'. Although I can honestly say I am not enjoying doing it one bit and I keep wondering whether it'll end up back in the cupboard never to see light of day again. Part of the problem is it's just colour blocks and soooo much brown. The other main problem is the thread it is just shedding and very, very dull. When I finally get to his head I'll probably like it because he has a very friendly face and will enjoy doing that section. Here's the link forI've Started so I'll Finish.

I have completed the first day of Christmas now, The Partridge and a Pear Tree, including all the beads, there is just the button to put on but this will go on at the very end with all the other buttons. I really enjoyed doing this just-- another 11 days to go. This one is also for Yoyo's SAL.

Horror of Horrors. There's another download for Castles in the Air from Papillon Designs and I'm already behind by stacks with it. So today I have put it on the stand and have made a start at catching some of it up--- I'm about three and a half downloads behind. I enjoy stitching it when I get started. I feel as though I've got different heads and I need to attach them for each piece I'm stitching. So this time there are no pics for Castles or for Window Wreath although I have done some more of it. I'll keep you in suspense for a while on that one.
Well we are having a few days away this week so I'll be taking my UFO with me as it's easiest to carry and possibly the Window Wreath so at least they'll stand a chance of growing a little.
I have been told that snow is expected again where we are going so perhaps we'd better take a spade! Looking forward to weekend regardless of the weather although I do hope any snow clears before we get there so my DH stands a chance of playing his golf.

Until next time.

Happy stitching to you all.

New Kits on the Block

2010-02-12T18:59:00.012Z

February seems to flying through. Valentines Day is almost upon us. Then it is my older son's birthday, he reaches the fine old age of 39 this time. Odd thing is I still see him as he was when he was little with the most enormous blue eyes and eyelashes a girl would give her eye teeth for, in reality he's a Dad with three lovely children who all look remarkably like him (even down to the scowls that used to amuse me so much). Still I'd better stop this reminiscent and pessimistic attitude that seems to have descended upon me and cheer my self up.

My Hubby and I spent sometime out in the garden at last renewing some fencing that had been broken by our neighbours cat and doing long overdue tidying up. I have a feeling we'll have to spend more time out there yet plus some visits to the tip. At least the bulbs are showing their heads which must mean Spring is on the way.

I haven't actually done a great deal on my UFO . I've Started so I'll FinishNow that's partly because I took it with me to do and then discovered I'd left the threads at home OOOps No 1. SO progress is limited. MUST DO BETTER

Luckily the new side arms for my frame finally arrived (that is after I'd phoned them). So on to the frame went my Three Kings which is forYoyo's Christmas SAL. I then did some stitching and discovered that when I had ordered the threads I had put down the wrong numbers. Ooops No2. So not to be daunted I decided I'd better do some of the beading. Jim Shore's designs have 'zillions' of beads in them.

I then decided I'd order some more side arms for a Symphony frame (not from the same supplier as my first attempt) and these arrived the following day----a new frame made up and Jim Shore's 12 Days of Christmas put onto it. This is one I really like, again it is quite large. the sewing area is 19.5 inches by 29inches. This is also for Yoyo's Christmas SAL for some reason I thought I'd do two (must be nuts). Then comes Ooops No 3, I again had ordered threads but had missed out some that I needed. Anyhow with the help of my Hubby I went through all the Jim Shore pieces that I have and ordered all missing thread and doubled up on some so that |I now know I'll have sufficient. Three Cheers all round. Thread arrive the next day. I thought I'd better get a move on as I need to complete at least one day per month or else the chance of it being be displayed Christmas 2010 may be just a dream. (Oh to be a speedier stitcher than I am)

One of the best things I've discovered this month is that Jim Shore has released some more pieces, these are seasonal angels and are done on fabric as against to how his smaller ones are usually done on perforated paper (I have altered the Snowmen to fabric). These Will be heading for my 'Wish List'. The pics are shown in the order of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

The one thing I haven't touched at all is my 'Castles in the Air'. I'll really have to watch out on that one or else I'll ended up months behind and have to play catch up. I think I'm getting in a muddle again with my efforts at rotation, still never mind I'll just enjoy doing the stitching.

Happy stitching to you all until next time.

February.....already!

2010-02-01T13:26:00.011Z

I've been quite busy the last two weeks. Going to a Pantomime that has two of my grand-daughters in took up a couple of days. It was very good and thoroughly enjoyable. The three grand-children I took to see it were thrilled so it was well worth the traveling to get there.

The cross-stitching having taken a bit of a back seat I haven't managed to make as much progress as I would have liked but anyhow hope you can notice the difference.

My UFO forI've Started so I'll Finish has actually come on quite a bit and I am quite please. I am still not really looking forward to excessive amount of 'brown' I'll have to do. I've been doing a little brown and then a different part, I think that will be best approach.

I haven't done anymore on my Three Kings as the hoop was making such a mark on the fabric I decided to wait until I had my new side arms for my frame. They have finally arrived, I think they must have come via another country. So now it is on a frame I am hoping to make some better progress especially as it's for Yoyo's Christmas SAL. I have yet to frame up my 12 Days of Christmas as that was waiting for my Hubby to make arms long enough for it.
I am beginning to wonder why I keep choosing all these super huge pieces. I must have been on a real day-dream day when I picked them.

On a more up beat note my' Castles in the Air' is coming along better and I have managed to catch some up. Then horror of horrors another download came through and I felt as if I was back to where I started. The next part of it has an optional 'cut-work' section and never having done that before was thinking of having a go at it. (On practice material first) but I have now had a rethink and have decided to do the simpler side section. I have already been altering between doing the straight forward cross stitch version and the specialty stitch version as suits me. The colour on this one for some reason has come out odd, perhaps it's because I didn't use flash. I'll just have to get better at the photo side of things as I don't always do some of the stitching justice.

I've managed to stitch little of one of the 'shutters' on the Christmas Wreath so there is at least some progress on that one as well.

As I am not to used to rotation stitching I hope I haven't tried to take too much on and get muddled up with where I am because that would be awful.

HERE'S A QUERY FOR ANY OF YOU WITH BLOGS.
Have any of you 'LOST' your counter? My counter vanished as did some on other blogs I follow. and then suddenly they have returned but on my view of the blog they have been 'zeroed'. I am the only person this has happened to? I honestly did not change or tweak at anything . it was just like magic. Perhaps they went out for a walk in the snow and then got lost!!!

That's it for now I hope to have better photo's and more to show you next time.

HAPPY STITCHING TO YOU ALL AND THANKS FOR POPPING IN.

2010 up and running

2010-01-19T17:32:00.006Z

New Year celebrations now come and gone and the shops are full of Easter eggs. Have they forgotten Valentine's Day I wonder? Probably not, we'll soon have the luscious red hearts all around us. Oh to be young again and wonder if anyone would send me a card (perhaps not I was nearly always disappointed and used to tell myself it was lost in the post!).
Still to not so gloomy thoughts----I have been catching up with Papillon 'Castles in the Air' as I was about 2 1/2 months or so behind I was having an internal panic that it may arrive on the UFO pile. That is of course if a SAL can be a UFO I have not done too badly with the catching up but those who are really good at spotting errors will see I got carried away with the 'arches' on the right hand side I was on a roll when I discovered I'd done two to many so enter the January frogs ( I thought frogs could have at least hibernated for the Winter). Any how since I took the picture I have frogged the offending arches and have also completed a little more and I am quite pleased with the progress. (Next photo I'll take it of the stand and unroll it so you can see it all.)

At weekends I have been stitching on Yoyo's Christmas SAL. I wish the new side arms I've ordered for my Symphony frames would hurry up and arrive so that I can put it onto a frame instead of using my hoop. I rang the supplier and they tell me they could take up to 7 days to arrive, the only problem is they forgot to say when they had despatched the parcel. My fabric for the 12 Days of Christmas has arrived so I need to get that sorted for stitching as well because that is my second Christmas stitch for Yoyo's SAL.

I've made a little progress on my UFO for Jen'sI've Started so I'll Finish . It looks better now there's a little colour on it. I'm dreading the trouser part as there is just a lot of rather boring tan and dark tan. I stitch this when I go grandchildren minding in the middle of the week as it's not to difficult to pick up and put down, so progress will be a bit hit and miss. Trouble is I haven't got a clue what to do with it when it's finished, I suppose at sometime I'll come up with some idea or other.

Now to a design my great sister gave me as part of my Christmas gift. it's by Displaymates and is called Window Wreath. It comes with a deep display box and should look very effective. I forgot to take a photo this time of the actual kit pic so I'll do that next time. It's stitched 1 over 2 and gives quite a good looking finish.

I'm away now to make our evening meal so to all of you who pop in 'Many Thanks' and hope you call again.

Happy stitching to you all

It's Freezing! More time to Cross Stitch

2010-01-09T16:41:00.005Z

Happy New Year to you all out there in 'Blogland'

The weather here in the North-West of England has been rather out of the ordinary this year. The area I live in doesn't usually see snow for more than a day (I live by the coast) I haven't been passed the front door for four days now, this is mainly because the pavements are like an ice-skating rink and so are the roads. Fortunately my hubby is able to keep upright and he's the one that went up to the Dr's for the old medications that keep us both ticking over. We have a pond in the garden at the rear of our home and I know it won't be much ice to some of you in varying parts of the world but to us it is just strange I decided to take a photo of it. It looks like a whale's under neath the water.

At least it's not all doom and gloom I've managed to finish two items since the turn of the year. One it the Freebie Christmas Mandala 2004 by Chatalaine designs. I have altered bits and bobs on this to suit myself. I have beaded the Christmas trees with Mill Hill seed beads 02019 instead of gold French knots. I am not the worlds best at French knots so I asked my sister if she would have a go at them for me. She did and they looked quite uninspiring so enter Plan B and out came the bead box. I have also used the same small bead on the black 'wall' round the outside instead of 00557 so that I didn't end up with too many different bead types. I have used the beads stated for the outer iron work and also on the bushes, must admit I have not put the gold(00557) bead on the gate iron work because I thought they looked too clunky against the delicate backstitching. The last thing I've altered is the gold work on the plant pots, I could not get it to look good so I changed the way it was done (enter another bead). Any how I'm pleased with the finished result, I just have to frame it and that could be another problem!!!

My second finish is the Jim Shore Southern Snowman by Mill Hill . This one that should be on paper but I am doing all the four snowmen on even weave 'Babbling Brook' this is because I'm going to have them framed as a foursome (some time in the distant future). I also like the Jim Shore Santa Collection but I have yet to purchase any of them, they're on my wish list.

I've actually made a start on my UFO forI've Started so I'll Finish not exactly a great deal of progress as I had to frog what I'd done so that I could restart on a roller frame. and work up and down the length of piece instead of side to side (sounds a bit crazy but that's rather like me). I've discovered that it's another hand drawn chart and for some reason I find them quite difficult to decipher(perhaps it's blotting pens that cause the problem)

I have just put me Papillon designs, Castles in the Air, on the frame as it is months since I did any and I think I really must do a bit a catching up with it. Hopefully there will be a Picture next time.

Well that's it for now. Thanks for visiting---Keep Warm

Happy stitching to you all.

Farewell 2009

2009-12-31T13:44:00.006Z

Well here we are at the end of another year. What a year! I've learnt how to blog -- now that's amazing. I've enjoyed 'meeting' other bloggers and all the new to me designers have been a fabulous discovery. Thanks to you all for that. Most important of all my hubby and I celebrated our Ruby Wedding in November.

I had a lovely Christmas with my family spread over all the Christmas period and have had a fantastic 'stash' enhancement. Between my sons and their family they have bought me just about everything I need for Jim Shore's' 12 Days of Christmas'. I have just to order the fabric- I had intended to do this for Yoyo's Christmas Sal but as I hadn't the essentials at that time I have started Jim Shore's' Three Kings' instead. I have a feeling that I'll be doing both of them though as I really enjoy the beading and the brilliant colours of his designs.
My niece gave me a Mill Hill Winter design that is gorgeous and my fab sister a design that comes in it's own 3-D box along with a comedy one to do with kitchens. I'll have to put pictures of these on at a later date as we seem to be having a bit of a problem getting the computer to recognise the camera. My hubby has managed to get some pictures to load.

Here's an update on my Mini Christmas Mandala - I haven't done as much as I would have liked because before Christmas I wasn't too well so stitching I'm afraid was put aside. I have altered bits to suit myself, I'm going to use beads instead of French Knots on the large trees and have decided not to put the gold beads on the ironworks as to me they look a bit clumsy and hide some of the delicate back stitching.

I really must put some time in on my Papillon SAL as it is getting behind somewhat. I don't think I've touched it for an age. Another one I must get restarted on is my UFO for I've Started so I'll Finish

I'm sure you can see --I've rather a long way to go with my UFO. It's 42" long and I keep wondering why I bought it in the first place I evidently needed cheering up at the time(it's that long ago I can't remember).
Still with the UFO blog I'm sure I'll get there in the end.

Well I'm now off to have a cup of tea and some mandala stitching or beading.
To all out the have Happy New Year and may the Stitch be with You

Yule tide is almost upon us. Yippee.

2009-12-13T17:11:00.008Z

Well the Christmas shopping is almost complete, the tree is up and the lights are twinkling merrily away. I haven't yet made any mince pies but will be doing that shortly.
The parcels aren't exactly all wrapped up but I have at least made some headway with them. There are still one or two to sort out, you know the usual--- Husband, Sister, Son, grand-daughter OOOps perhaps I haven't quite finished and time is running out.
Still here's to other interesting things. After my mammoth task of finished my TW Carousel Horse I couldn't decide what to do next. So I have started a Martina Weber Freebie,.Chatelaine Designs, it's from 2004 and I am doing it on an opalescent even weave. I wasn't keen on the blue background in the design picture.

I finished off some Christmas ornaments that I finished earlier in the year and I am really pleased with them. They are by Cross My Heart and are called Heirloom Santa Kits. I haven't found their site but you can buy their charts at several outlets.
.

The material has arrived from Sew and So for my Jim Shore ' Three Kings'. I am delighted that I decided to go for the recommended fabric although I have since been told it's difficult to stitch on. It's a Permin linen Nordic Blue. This is for YoYo's SAL. So I'll shortly be making a start on that as well.

I think I may need a few lessons in how to rotate my pieces. I know that it's really easy enough it's just that I seem to forget where I'm up to and just keep stitching one at a time.
I've decided to chill out this evening and do nothing not even cross stitching. I'll probably fall asleep in a chair and snore away quite happily dreaming of Christmas.
Must away now as evening meal is waiting to be made.
Happy stitching to you all out there.

Christmas is Coming.

2009-11-24T19:54:00.012Z

It's that time of year!!! I have been on the search for those illusive Christmas gifts. You know the ones that in July you think will be a really good idea and then you forget all about them and have to start all over again(Aaaargh).
I came to the conclusion that I'd rather unwind with my cross-stitching. I've looked out my Christmas advent calendar which I actually finished for last Christmas but ended up having my appendics out so it never got used properly, so you might say this is it's first time of proper use. (Can't wait) It's a Bucilla Kit, Christmas Advent Calendar, and I really like it. You have 25 charms to decorate it with and they look very pretty.

Now I have some decorations that I have finished, they are a Dimensions 'Gold Collection' called Santa's Wildlife collection. This is another group of decorations that gave me a lot of pleasure.

I have yet to finish just one of my Jim Shore Snowmen,(there are four) so it's not looking as though they'll be seeing this Christmas, still it's just another project to keep going with.

I have signed on to YoYo's Christmas SAL so that is another piece I'll have to keep on top of and I'm afraid I'm not very good at rotation sewing because I forget where I'm up too. I am still trying to decide which of two to do, both are Jim Shore designs, one is called Three Kings and the other 12 Days of Christmas.

Now I have actually finally completed my Teresa Wentzlers Summer Carousel Horse I shall try and catch up on my Papillon Castles in the Air SAL which I am sorry to say has not yet moved any further forward, still never mind It'll get there in the end.

Here's some I did a little earlier!

2009-11-04T13:52:00.005Z

I thought I'd post a picture of my UFO that I have been working on for some time. I started it an awful long time ago such as in the 1990's, put it in a cupboard and there it stayed. Eventually I thought I really ought to do something with it and started slowly to do a little. Now that's when I found I've Started So I'll Finish I have stitched regularly and have posted the up and downs of the saga of the Carousel Horse. Now it is coming to an end so just in case you haven't seen it before here are a couple of pictures showing it 'how it was' and 'how it is'. There's still quite a large amount of back-stitching to do and the outer frame still needs completing but I'm quite sure now it will shortly be finished.

Another piece I'm stitching is the Papillon SAL -Castles In the Air-. I'm about two downloads behind (Oops) and I think there will be another one shortly. I'm doing it on a printed 32 count linen and the colours are a combination of 11 set colours and the others chosen by myself. I must admit I am not the best at colour blending so I looked in my garden and all the colours in SAL are the ones I saw there. I have done a bit of a mix and match as there are two versions of the SAL . One is cross-stitch and the other a speciality stitch, as I am not keen on Lazy Daisy stitch I have taken bits from each one and put them together to suit myself. How it'll look when it is finished is anyone's guess but it coming along quite nicely.

As Christmas is on it's way here's a piece I have sewn through the Summer,( I just love Christmas) it's a Jim Shore Design and there are oodles of beads on it and I just love the colours. I quite like Santa doing 'other things' and have just seen the Sue Hillis Santas ( Sue Hillis Cross-Stitch Design Blog) so the charts are something to look out for.

I said I had a recipe for you. It's one that's been hidden in another cookery book and it has my son's name on the cover so I am unsure of the Author hope you like it:

How to Preserve Children

One Grassy Field
A Pinch of Brook
One and half dozen Children
Small Pebbles,2-3 Small Dogs.

Mix the children and dogs well together,
Put them in the field and stir constantly,
Pour brook over pebbles and sprinkle with flowers,
Spread a deep blue sky all over,
Bake in hot Summer sun for one hour
and set away to a cool bath tub.

Well now the kettle has just boiled, so it's off for a cup of tea and a feet up, a search for a small cross-stitch and a chill out before I go off on child sitting, netball supporting etc etc. Till next time, enjoy yourselves doing whatever is you favourite passtime. See you then

Finally got round to Halloween

2009-10-30T18:55:00.007Z

At last. I can add to the blog. Well this week has been mayhem. I've had one lot of grandchildren over staying at the beginning of the week as it's halfterm here in UK. I took them back home and stopped for a couple of days as their parents were at work and their other grandma was away. Then I collected my other sons children and brought them over to stay with us again for a couple of days. This all sounds easy or boring depending on your point of view. The interesting thing is that I have grandchildren who like to bake or LOVE to bake is probably nearer the truth.
Then enter Halloween Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. While with me their Mum has been busy decorating their home ready for the annual Halloween party, so I was asked if I could help out by letting my grandchildren make biscuits. They arrived with the relevant 'cutters' and hoping that grandma had enough energy and patience to let the kitchen be taken over by trainee pastry cooks. They have cooked for two days. 'That should be enough biscuits for the whole road to have a party', I can hear you thinking. The problem is they have to be well tried and tested before the biscuits can pass quality control(namely my grandchildren tummies). Any how the point is they thoroughly enjoyed messing about with flour etc.
My computor is in melt down from two young men playing on one game or another. It's a good job that there are meal breaks and bedtime. They will be going home tomorrow so we are going out for the day.
After all that I thought you may like to see my Halloween pieces. There certainly aren't as many as some of you out there but I'm working on it.

The cushion is from the 'All Tied Up' range by Pine Mountain Designs and is a quick and easy sew. The other two are fom Mill Hill 'Buttons and Beads Autumn Series. One of them called 'Haunted Hotel' has glow in the dark threads. The other is called 'Spooky Time' and is from the Autumn Series IX. I really need to get another frame but with the postal strike on I decided I'd leave it until next year.

Spooky Time

Haunted Hotel
I had hoped to leave you with a recipe but true to form it's at my son's house. Oh to have my young memory back!! Until next time. Happy stitching to you all.

Now Where am I up too?

2009-10-23T19:14:00.006+01:00

I've been away from home for a few days looking after three of my grand children and I am now suffering from fatigue. It's good fun and I do enjoy myself with the baking and netball support, not to mention taking them to guide outings, brownies, football and hockey training, back and forth to their schools, making packed lunches, listening to their various moans and groans etc etc.(does this ring any bells ). At least it gives their parents a day or two off the racing around. Anyhow back now in my own peaceful pad, so I can do my cross stitching, not forgetting the washing and the ironing (I try to forget them but guilt taps me on the shoulder).
Back to the garden (had I left it ?) The tomatoes we planted were poor compared to last year, there'll be no green tomato chutney this year. Although with great surprise some of the tomatoes have finally decided to ripen. At least we'll be able to have them with some salad before it gets too cold.
We've done some garden clearing and fruit tree pruning, even that's come to a halt as we wait for the 'wheelie-bin' emptying day. Some new bulbs have found their way in to the ground, there are still more to plant but the weather has turned against us so the winter pansies will have to wait.

Thought you might like to see a needle work I did some time ago. Trouble is I can no longer remember the title of it or where I bought the kit, (senior moment!) but I still like it.

I'm hoping to make headway soon with some Christmas kits I've got but with trying to get my Carousel horse out of the way everything else has taken a backward step.
I really enjoy the Jim Shore Kits by Mill Hill they're fun to do and full of vibrant colours and trillions of beads. When I figure out how you get pics from other sites I'll show you what I mean (Learning curve getting a little bumpy at this point). That's it for now. Hope to discover some more of the intricacies of 'blogland' before next time. Do keep popping back you're always welcome. Just remembered The grapes tasted fantastic.

Just How Busy Can One Person Be?

2009-10-18T18:24:00.006+01:00

I've been really busy this last few days. I seem to have had very little time to do anything--- could be because I have finally met Professor Layton!!!!!! Time has stood still, drinks have gone unnoticed (anyone who knows me will now be passing out with shock), I would have lost lbs. if my hubby hadn't rallied round and done most of the meals. I've thoroughly enjoyed the game and although I have technically got to the end I shall be going back into it to locate the 5 or 6 games I seem to have missed. I've also got the downloads thanks to a very helpful niece who has the fancy bits that are required to do such things, this means I now have another 27 games to challenge my brain with Oh Crikey ! not more lost meals. I'll be sylf-like before I know where I'm up to (I think that could be shooting at windmills).

Any how back to other things: Here is a cross stitch that I put away for years and years, probably because that background made my eyes ache rather a lot although the number of years it laid uncared for rather out weighed the eyestrain. I'm really glad I finished it and got it framed. Hope you like it too.

The weather was lovely yesterday so we spent most of the day going round looking for bulbs and some winter-flowering pansies and primulas to cheer up the garden that is starting to look rather sad. We haven't got a huge garden but we do our best the pic is obviously earlier in the year.

I'm hoping to get some more of my UFO (Unfinished Object see I've Started so I'll Finish Eventually.... ) done as other cross stitches that I am doing are becoming in danger of becoming UFOs (if that makes sense). I have some Christmas ones on the go but they seem to have taken a back seat just at the moment. But alas I've just been introduced to another game Mystery Case Files:Millionheir OH! NO! What shall I do? Oh confusion, Oh decisions, decisions. Now you'll just have to wait and see............

Just This and That.

2009-10-12T18:54:00.005+01:00

Here goes again. I can't help wondering just how long it'll take me to do todays blog. I can tell you now it'll be quite a while. This is mainly because I get in a bit of a muddle with the more 'technical' side of things. Adding a picture on my first attempt was a nightmare, no idea why I'm evidently not switched on, must have been further down the queue when this bit of info was inplanted in the old brainbox. Anyhow to business........ You'll discover through my ramblings that I have a tendency to flit from one thing to another for no apparent reason, it just sort of happens, so please bear with me.

I thoroughly enjoy cross stitching Christmas pieces. I am not the fastest stitcher in the world, more of a plodder, but this is from a chart I came across in a local shop and thought it put a slightly different twist on Santa. It's from a series called' Santa's Time Off' by StitchWorld X-stitch. I must admit I have looked for others in the series but with no luck. It would have been interesting to see what other 'Time off' items Santa has. The pattern can be made as a picture as I have done or as a stocking.

Here's an insight into my slightly crazy family. One of my grandsons isn't keen on eating his packed lunch at school, so his Dad came up with the idea that a weeks menus was drawn up by the son.( no excuse for not eating what you've picked idea). All was going well until the day a fruit salad was on the list: It goes like this: Dad-'Sorry son we haven't got any lemons', Son' Don't worry Dad. I don't like lemons'.
Dad 'Sorry son we haven't got any Kiwi fruit', Son_ 'Don't worry Dad, I don't like Kiwi'.
Dad 'Sorry son we haven't any oranges', Son - 'It's OK Dad I don't like oranges',
Dad 'Sorry son we've only got pears and apples left'. Son -'It's no problem Dad I'm not keen on pears'
Dad 'Shall I just put an apple in your box?' Son 'Yes please Dad, that'll be great'.
At the end of the day I picked up my grandson from school and asked 'Have you eaten all your lunch today?'
Answer, ' No, I forgot to eat my apple.'

I mentioned in an earlier post that we have been trying to grow some of our own food stuffs. Useful ones only like Grapes. I figure in about a zillion years I may have enough to make a bottle of wine. At present there 's about sufficient grapes to press about enough for a very, veeeery tiny fairy with leanings to being tea-total. So I've decided the best thing to do is just eat them.
That's it for now.

Why do I say I'll do it??

2009-10-04T21:32:00.004+01:00

Here goes for another try at this mysterious blogging. Just to show I do dabble at varying sewing activities I'll give you a small insight into some the things I manage to get tied up with BY ACCIDENT. We.e.ell my grand-daughter had bounded up to me asking if I could possibly knit her an outfit for the school play . Before I go any further I had better explain she gets knitting and sewing mixed up. Feeling in an exceptional good mood that particular day I whole heartedly agreed. I had probably expected an outfit for a flower or something along those lines. OH NO! The Production, as it became known, was Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat. OK I thought it can't be that hard to make a dancing girl outfit. I am just not that lucky. The part she got was of RAMISES, the Pharaoh, I nearly fainted. My grand-daughter had been glued to the DVD of the said production and exclaimed with glowing eyes that she knew I could make the Pharaohs outfit just like that one on the TV. At this point I must ask you all ...Have you seen his outfit? Well I hadn't so not to be defeated I still agreed. To cut a long story a little shorter I bought the DVD and remained glued to the Pharaoh part for many hours at different parts of the DVD to try and see how this costume had been made.
Measurements got taken. Material found from varying sources. Headache pills purchased. I set to making this costume that I was more than a little scared of. It took quite a while and several trying ons. A mammoth amount of head scratching to work out how I could make this thing so that she would be able to get in and out of it with the minimum of help from the teaching staff who where evidently going to be very busy dressing the other children. Once a challenge has been accepted I don't give in easily. It took about two weeks to make with a bit of tweaking here and there. The finished article I was more than pleased with and my grand-daughter was delighted. The show was great and I was a very proud grandma in deed as all the practising of the Elvis lip and certain hip wiggling plus trying to copy the voice paid off and she did a brilliant job.

I'm going on a long holiday before the next school production!!!!!!!

Welcome

2009-09-30T10:57:00.005+01:00

Well this is it. Here is my first attempt at using the blog I've set up I'll probably have a million and one disasters but heyho you can only get better (can't you?). This year is the first year we(my hubby and I) have attempted to grow carrots. Now I just know how surprised you are to hear that . We do not have a garden the size of private park land so our carrots were planted in a couple of posh pots. Through the year, in the same pot, pansies have arrived and curly grass( not the bog standard stuff) varying weeds etc. Any how the great day arrived and we decided to see if there really was anything at the bottom of the lovely green ferny tops. There was. Mind you not exactly able to supply all the local shops, we had one meal from our efforts but my they were tasty. Not a total disaster.

Now nothing to do with gardens I enjoy cross stitching and although not the speediest I get there in the end. I went on this blog called I've Started So I'll Finish...Eventually..... what a boon I dug out a UFO (unfinished something or other can't remember what the O stands for) and have beens sewing on it ever since. I think it was about May my first Pic and after a few ups and downs I'm getting there.
As you can see I've not quite got the hang of how you get your pics in the right order but this is going to be the biggest learning curve ever. That's it for now thanks for calling in and I hope next time I'll have found my way through s few more of the mysteries of the BLOG. So please bear with me you know Patience is a Virtue. (I'm going to need a lot of it!)