Not much stitching but what a week !

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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.