Finishing, Start and Enhancing

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

Oh Boy! What a time

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!

Farewell 2009

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