Where does the time go?

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!!!!

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!!

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 !

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.