JN Sunday is back

Just Nan Sunday is back. I just couldn't resist. I pulled the threads, well actually dd pulled them for me, and this is last nights progress. I would have completed the top row, but the colour needed was not in the thread list, so I didn't have it to hand. I can't wait til next Sunday. By the way, for those of you that don't know, it's Baranbee's Quest, which has been in my stash a long time.



Part 2 of Sampler Garden casket came out on Friday, and this is what I stitched on Saturday night, more to be done tonight, hopefully. Don't you think those bunnies are cute.




Then here's a peek of something I started on Valentine's Day, I'll show it all when it's completed, and made up. I just loved working on this.



And another peek of something else I stitched last week. I'll show this one, when it's made up too. I know exactly how I'm making this up.




Thanks for all your comments on my last posts. It seems that most want to see ST made up as a pillow. Well, I'll have to see. It's difficult to find nice finishing fabrics around here, so it may be awhile, as I don't think that I have anything that will be suitable. I'll have to take it on my travels, and see what I can find. I've not made up my challenge piece yet either, oops! nearly spilled the beans on that, just remembered, I'm not allowed to say!

A couple of finishes.

It's a while since I blogged, but I have been stitching honest. I've done some secret stitching, which obviously I can't show, and then I've stitched on the Monthly Challenge, but have yet to make that up, and that's another thing I can't show until reveal day. But I can show these ....

First we have Radiant Diamond Sampler by The Sweetheart Tree, I started this on Friday night, and finished it on Saturday night. I was just tidying my stash when I came across this pattern, it was probably an ebay win, and decided to stitch it there and then. It had the fabric with the chart, so I only had to pull the threads. I'm undecided how to finish it, so would love to hear your thoughts.


Next we have Tracy's Round Robin. I just hope that Tracy likes how I chose the colours.


As Tracy's main colour is the green, and then highlights in purple, I admit that I found it really hard to decide which parts to do in the purple in the second page. I was going to do all the flowers in purple, but then thought it would be just too much with those big flowers, and then there would be more purple than green. Anyway I suppose everyone would have stitched it differently, and it's easier to say with hindsight. But the idea is to make it individual, so fingers crossed that Tracy likes it.

Busy Sundays

Here's a picture of Lady Scarlet, finished at last. This was a Sunday SAL, a while back, but the group I was on kind of fell apart, and then I got busy stitching with ornaments and secret stitching. I think I worked on it for a couple of Sundays, and took photo's but never posted to my blog, so I might have to find them. At the time, I did decide I'd stitch Just Nan's every Sunday, as I have a lot in my stash, but I'm not sure now as I didn't stick to it. All it needed was one more Sunday, and it was done.



This is the book I bought the week before last, and I showed it to DD15 last Sunday morning. Shortly after, dh came home with a small tool bag, complete with garden hand tools, similar to this:

This gave DD an idea, a bag like that was just what she thought I needed to keep by my side,with my stitching bits and bobs in. And this is what she made me:



Two pockets at the front, one pocket at the back, and here's the inside, all lined and the seams bound. Don't you just love it? I must add, she made this that Sunday afternoon. Now I want a bigger one to match!

A surprise in the mail

Here's the pictures on my surprise mail. On Monday, it was my birthday, unfortunately it was my turn to stay late at work, and then not being organised, I had to supermarket shop on the way home. Eventually, I arrived home. I still had all my cards and presents to open, as I'd told my daughter I'd save them for the evening. When I arrived home, there was a small package from the US, and when I opened it there was this wonderful gift and a card from Carol. This is the first time anyone has ever stitched anything for me as a gift, and it's gorgeous. Thank you Carol, isn't she wonderful. Carol stitches so many gifts, and exchanges, I 'm not sure how she finds time to go out to work. And how did Carol arrange for it to be delivered on my birthday?



This was stitched as a monthly challenge. The pattern is a freebie called Eliza's Pyn Pillow, by With My Needle, available here. Today was reveal day, when we could all show our finishes. As you can see I made mine into a fob. I stitched 1 over 1 on 36 count evenweave. The stitch used for the basket was Narrow Closed Herringbone, but when I stitched the first row, I could tell it wasn't suitable for such small stitching, so then I stitched the second row in cross stitch, but that too was too bulky, so the rest of the basket was done in tent stitch, but I like the effect it gives at the top of the basket, it gives it some depth. The letters are done in cross stitch. I'm giving it too my friend Carol, when she visits tomorrow, so I added her name on the back.




And this is the first part of the Round Robin I'm taking part in. You can see the others here. I've been contemplating the thread colour for this for some time, I knew I wanted blue, but just couldn't decide on which shade. I finally decided on DMC 791. Now I can't wait to receive the next round. There's some lovely colours, that the others are doing. I think this pattern works really well for a Round Robin, we all get to stitch two pages each. And this is what it will look like when it's made up.

A few pictures

I've not had a good week this week, and haven't really done much stitching, but hoping to rectify that tonight, hoping to nearly finish the stitching on an exchange. Here's the picture of the sides and ends of the casket I'm doing as a SAL. Not a good picture, it's too big to get close.



And here's more pictures of the Christmas tuffet I received, so that you can see the details on the reverse. I just love it.



Pay it Forward, I haven't had any takers yet, so if you're thinking about it, please sign up, or I'll have to tell Carol that I can't take part. I think maybe there are too many PIF's around at the moment. Anyway fingures crossed someone signs up.

Pay it Forward

I've signed up for Carol's Pay It Forward, and would love you sign up with me. In case you don't know how this works, well the first 5 people that ask to join, I promise to make a gift for you, and in turn you Pay it Forward, by making the same promise on your Blog. You will receive your gift from me within the next 12 months, and in turn you will make a gift for the first 5 people that sign up with you within 12 months of you posting, and in turn they will each make 5 gifts for the first 5 people who sign up with them, and in turn.....LOL. I'm sure you all know how it works, so come on, please make me happy by signing up. I love stitching for others, the challenge is deciding what to stitch.




Look what I received on Tuesday, this gorgeous tuffet from Judy Odell, I can't believe how long it took to get here. Isn't it gorgeous. I'll photograph it another day, so you can see the back which has a cute little Christmas wreath charm. I have the pattern for this one, so I was thinking I may stitch this one as a PIF gift. Another reason for you to sign up.

I've also finished the sides and ends of Sampler Garden Casket, but it's just too dark to get a good picture today. The next part of the chart isn't out until middle of February, so I can now get on with my other plans as mentioned in the previous post.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, hope everyone gets plenty of stitchy time. I think 2007 was a year when I stitched more than ever before, and this time I kept a diary of how much time I spent stitching and on what. I can't believe I stitched 43 things, although I haven't blogged about everyone, and I haven't uploaded pictures for all of them. I think I must do better on that front this year. There are also plenty of things that need making up, so I'm going to try harder with that too.
This month I have to get my SBEBB Valentines exchange finished and in the post. This will be the last SBEBB exchange, as the sadly the board is closing. All the best Becky.
I also have my Quaker RR to start.
I've joined a monthly challenge, and will be stitching Elizas Pyn Pillow. The challenge is to make it up into anything you like, and then we all post our finishes at the end of the month.
And then my new start for this year is:









I've joined the group at Just A Thought and we will be stitching this over 6 months. Here's my first progress pic. I started on New Years Eve, and this was taken on New Years Day, I've done a lot more since then. First I chose my colours to match my lining fabric, but then decided the colour I'd chosen for the birds and animals didn't show on my fabric, so I've now gone for a blue colour.
And the good news is that Mylene received my Stitched Gift Christmas ornament I sent her. And the bad news is that my Christmas Tuffet hasn't arrived, but I've not given up hope on that yet. It is absolutely stunning, as I've seen a photo, and I'll post it on here soon. It was designed and stitched by Judy Odell, and it's wow, so please everyone cross your fingers for me.

Exchanges and gifts.

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Christmas. I can now share pictures of the needleroll exchange I took part in. This one was wrapped and couldn't be opened until Christmas day, and I was good. The first picture is the needleroll I stitched for Angie (no blog), and the second picture is the one I received from Kathy (I can't find her blog address at the minute). I love needlerolls, and love the one Kathy stitched for me, as I have admired that chart for a while.



Below we have a couple of Christmas ornaments, both for me. The first was stitched by Edera from my stitching club, she had stitched Tatty Ted in the summer, and I admired it, and jokingly I said she could stitch another for me - so she did. I then made it into a Christmas ornament. The second picture is the wonderful ornament I received in an exchange, again it was wrapped, and opened on Christmas day, it came with a cute little Christmas frame, and a gorgeous Dinky Dye silk. Thank you very much to my partner, I love it all (and I still don't know who you are).


Next we have Just Nan's Christmas Biscornu. You know I'm a JN fan, so obviously I couldn't resist this one could I? It was a lovely stitch, and it's so sparkly. I definitely recommend it. And speaking of Biscornu's, I've still not received mine from the exchange I did, but maybe it's lost-just like the ornament in my last post-I still do not know if my partner received it.


And here is a picture of an ornament that I made for a friend of mine. My friend Carol, is a spinner, and often buys sheep's fleece to dye and spin, so I couldn't resist making this for her. Hope you liked it Carol.


And lastly we have Shepherds Bush Chill bag, which I filled with Chocolate Snowmen, and gave it to DD with her Christmas gifts. It was very fiddly to stitch, as the bag was premade. This meant you had to stitch from the front only, and hold the bag with one hand inside, although thankfully it didn't take too long. Afterwards I suffered with contact dermatitis on the hand that I held the bag in, so I think it must be an allergy to the dye, it's cleared up now, but my hand just peeled for a couple of days, and left a large red sore patch. I had to stitch this in secret, so it was done whilst dd was away in Berlin, the week before Christmas.


I think that is all my Christmas stitching shown, but if I think of anything else, I'll be back.

Thanks to all my exchange partners, and many thanks to the organisers, and the group owners. Without you all we would not be able to take part in such great communities.

Christmas Tuffet Exchange

I took part in a Christmas tuffet exchange, and this is the one I stitched. I sent to Selina, but I haven't received anything yet, maybe mine will turn up today. Now I have no idea why this is underlined, and I cannot seem to get rid of the underlining. Blogger Fun.


This is an ornament that I stitched for another exchange, although this may be lost in transit, there is a little confusion about whether my partner has received it. My partner says she has received her parcel from the exchange, however this is not the picture she has shown, so I'll keep my partner a secret for now. The fabric on the reverse is the one shown next to my stitching. The ornament is stitched on 28 ct vintage cashel linen. I have used this a lot recently, and I have also stitched some things on the reverse, as that side is plain.

I hope to be back later today, but just in case. I wish you all........

A Merry Christmas

SBEBB Exchange Received

Well, here's the gorgeous ornaments I received from Satomi. As you can see, not one but two, and they are so cute. And they are stitched on both sides too. the one with the tree is stitched over one, and the other is stitched over two. I really must have a go at making these. If you look on Satomi's blog, she has put instructions, OK it's in Japanese, but there's step by step photo's. This is the second time I've received from Satomi, so when I saw the package from Japan, I knew I was in for a treat. Don't you just love them.

Well, I've been decorating the house up for Christmas-still not finished, and I'm loving having all this time off work before Christmas, so I may think about doing it again another year. I cleared away that much, I couldn't find the lead to get the photo's off my camera, but I've finally tracked it down today. We saw DD off on her trip to Germany on Sunday, and then ended up going on unplanned Christmas shopping until the shops closed. Today, I plan on wrapping some presents - not something I enjoy!

SBEBB ornament exchange

Here's the pics of the ornament I stitched for Simone, and the gifts I sent her. This is an ornament which is in this years JCS ornament mag, and I really enjoyed stitching it, so hope to make more. Sorry about the lighting, but it's not easy to get nice pics in artificial light.
Hopefully if this works, I've finally worked out how to get the photo's onto this OS. Please let me know if it doesn't display right for you, as since changing from windows, and using a different web browser, I am finding that not all blogs display correctly, often what's meant to be at the sides is on top of the middle of the blog, if that makes sense, and prevents me from seeing and reading the post.
Heres hoping to be back tomorrow with more pics.

Home for the Holidays.

It's Friday, and yesterday was my last day at work until the New Year. I have lots of things I want to do, but nothing is set in stone. I really must get some sorting out done around the home. There's still no tree up, and I haven't even written my Christmas cards-oh dear. I've been really tired on a night after work, and yesterday I put in more than a 10 hour day. Last night I just about fell asleep on the sofa after my meal! But I'm up bright and early this morning, I'm on the second load of washing. This morning I have a pedicure booked for 10am, so that will be a nice start to my Christmas break. DH also finished work yesterday, but all he has planned for today is a trip to the doctors, but I'm sure he'll be persuaded into shopping, but then again maybe not, I might be better going on my own.

Well, I've not managed to upload photo's on this PC set up, so I'm going to have to try something else. So hopefully you'll get pics soon.

Hi everyone

I can't believe it's been so long since I was here. Well, once again I've been ill. Just recently I've had one thing after another, and it's really getting me down, although it has been said that I was already run down, and that's why I keep getting one thing after another. My latest thing is a really bad cold, and I just can't shake it off, had it two weeks now, and just wishing to see the back of it. At first I was suffering with really bad sinuses, and felt like I had a hangover for several days, feeling really sick all the time, now I have really bad catarrh.
Anyway, enough of that. I got my new PC up and running, and I'm learning my way around Ubuntu, I've not tried to upload any photo's yet, but I'll be giving that a whirl tonight. I've been awake since 4 am, and hence that's why I'm on here this early, I'm not sleeping, so I just knew I had to get up.
I've got out all my exchanges. I've received a needle roll from Kathy, thank you, well it's still wrapped up, we have to save them for Christmas Day, so it'll be awhile before I can show pictures of the one I've received, and the one I've stitched. I have another stitched gift, that's still wrapped, and that's another we have to save until Christmas Day. I received two beautiful ornaments from Satomi, I'll show you the pics later, they are stunning, and really something I have to try. I've sent my Christmas orni out, but getting worried that it's not arrived yet, and I posted it at the same time as my stitched gift, and that's not arrived yet either, so hoping they turn up soon. I've also stitched a Christmas tuffet for an exchange, but that's another you'll have to wait for. I'm hoping to upload a picture of an ornament I stitched for my friend Carol, now I know that's arrived as I delivered it personally on Saturday.
What else have I been up to, well, I went to the NEC on 9th November to the Crafts for Christmas show, and had a great day, well afternoon, unfortunately due to the traffic it took over 4 hours to get there. This show also includes entry to two other shows - Hobbycrafts and Art Materials Live, but I hardly spent anything. In fact I can't remember what I bought now! Then on 24th November, I went to the Knitting & Stitching Show at Harrogate and had a great day there, now I did spend there, but can't remember what on. I did buy some back issues of New Stitches, I used to subscribe to this magazine when it first came out, up to about issue 100, and then stopped, and now just buy them now and again, but a good buy at the show at 10 issues for £10. I also bought a book on Kumihimo, and DD and I have had a go at making some braids. I've been looking at this for a long time, and I think I'll definitely be doing more. Maybe I'll take some pictures to show you.
I better go and get ready for work now. Hope to be back soon.

Sunday SAL

Apologies for the poor quality picture, but as you can see I got a lot more done on Lady Scarlet, I can't wait for next Sunday. I still don't have my new pc up and running, but hopefully by next weekend. This weekend was a disaster with the washing machine yesterday which meant a trip to the launderette, and no electric on Saturday whilst some repairs were done to the lights.

Anyway, is anyone going to the NEC next Saturday, I'm really looking forward to it, but if you fancy meeting for a cuppa, just let me know.

Just Nan Sunday SAL

Here's Lady Scarlett again, she's really moving now. I'm really enjoying this, and she grew really fast on Sunday, and then when it was time for bed, I just had to stitch that squirrel before I turned the lights out. You know how it is.

I've not added the sheep and rabbit, but the Caron Impressions arrived this week from Rene. Thank you Rene. So you can be sure they'll be added this Sunday. I've been thinking that I might keep Sunday as my Just Nan day, as I have lots of her charts to do, and I thoroughly enjoy them. Maybe I'll do 4wishes next, or could it be Barnabee, or another, I can't remember how many JN charts I have but I know it was around the 70 mark. Now where would I put them all if I finished them, who knows. Maybe I should think carefully about this.

There's not been any stitching on MoP this week, in fact there's not been any stitching this week, but last week was secret stitching, I made a needleroll for an exchange, and this week I have more exchange stitching to do, so you won't be seeing that for a while.

And the good news is the new parts for my pc arrived yesterday, so hoping to get that set up today. Well it will be a complete new pc apart from the case, the CD and the DVD drive. And I decided to push the boat out and get a super silent PSU, as sometimes that noise of that fan going around really gets on my nerves. I can't wait to get back to blog reading. Oh and I'm hoping to get my favourite links and blogs off that old hard drive, as we discovered we can see them by using a Linux boot CD, so we just need to try and get them off that way. Wish me luck. And thanks to Nicola for the link. I new someone would come good.