JN Sunday

Well, I finally got back to JN Sunday, last stitched on, on April 23rd, so long ago. I only stitched a little bit, but that's better than nothing. I really want to get this finished now, so I may not wait until next Sunday.

And here's what arrived today. My RR is back from it's travels, I just need to stitch two pages on it, and then on to the making up. It would have been nice to have had another pair of initials on it, like everyone else, but never mind. You can see the others here. Thanks to Sally for organising, and to Sally, Lisa, and Jane for stitching on it.




Why do my photo's always look blue? These are both stitched on white fabric.

I did it

At last I managed to stitch. I had not put away the LHN charts that I recently received with an exchange, and as I looked through them, this caught my eye, I pulled the threads, and was able to use the fabric that I cut the other night for something else. I only stitched for a short while on Friday night, but did some more yesterday. This morning I was awake before 4 am, and just could not get back to sleep. So I got up, and finished the stitching. I've not yet decided how to finish it, I have a couple of ideas.

Two Sheep

by LHN

Stitching

Well I have nothing to share. I have not stitched for over a week.

I came back from my holidays, with great enthusiasm for everything, unfortunately this was short lived. And I have been fed up, really fed up, and cannot be bothered to do anything. This last week has been a little better. And I know that I need to stitch. Last night, I decided on a new start - not that I need another start, but I tossed around the wips and nothing appealed to me. So new start was decided. I decided on a pattern, cut the fabric, counted the fabric and marked out my starting point, and then - couldn't be bothered with it anymore. Can anyone help, does anyone have any ideas?

Today, is 8.8.08. I've heard it enough times on the TV this morning. So, will it be lucky? I've been and done a large supermarket shop, I went early, and was back before 9am. That's one good thing about living in a city, there's plenty of 24 hour supermarkets, and it's nice to be able to shop for something if you fell the urge. LOL. Today I plan to have lunch about 12, and then watch the Olympic opening ceremony, it's on the TV from 12:45 to 4:45. It would nice to be able to stitch too, but I can only wait and see if that happens. I'm thinking of digging out a UFO, and try and finish it during the next two weeks - my own stitching Olympics. But this is in doubt - if I can't manage to settle to stitch.

I'm hoping my RR turns up today. I last saw it back in January, and since then it's been on it's travels around the UK. Unfortunately, the last stitcher couldn't stitch on mine, so it was returned to me, but never arrived. However, this week I heard that it arrived back with that stitcher, and was to be sent back to me on Wednesday. Now it didn't arrive yesterday, so fingers crossed, the postie will bring it today. Maybe I'll be able to stitch the final two parts on that. Who knows.

Going now to do the ironing. Chat soon.

PS. thanks for all the comments on my new look. I just hope it looks good to all readers.

A New Look

It's time for a change.

Would love you to tell me if you have any problems viewing this.

Many thanks

Chris

Another award

I was also nominated for this award by Stitching Mom in Iceland, Stitchyangel's Treasures and Willow Tree Stitcher. Thank you all. You all overwhelmed me, I had a tear in my eye.

And the rules for this award are

1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.

2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to the blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

So here are the blogs I've chosen

BeckyBee's Stitching Hive

Contemplating my needle and thread

U-handblog

crochetroo

Be Happy!

I would love to give the awards to all the blogs I read/look at, but I'd be here for a week adding all the links. I would say that the blogs I read all inspire me in different ways, and long may you all be bloggers.

WOW, WOW, WOW

I was overwhelmed to be given this award. I would like to say a big thank you to Amazing Stitches, Aimetu's Stitching, and The Alchemyst's Study who all gave me this award. You all have Brilliante Blogs too.

The rules for this award are here.

1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Add links to those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I have thought long and hard, well nearly two weeks, and here are my nominees. I know that this award has gone to lots of people, but I read lots of blogs, and I hope that you may come across one you've not seen before.

Monkee Maker

Rene la Frog's Ramblings

Turkey Feathers

Grandma's Kitchen

Carolina Dreams

Sandra's Cross Stitch Haven

allsorts

LHN exchange received

I arrived back from my holidays to find a wonderful LHN exchange waiting for me, it was from Katrina. A big thank you, I love it. I've admired these floss tags for a while, and even stitched one, just not made it up, but this one is so nice. Katrina stitched my initials on it, and if you look on the pic below, she also stitched her initials on it, and sent me some wonderful extras. I was thoroughly spoiled.




Look at all these extras, whoo hoo.






And this is the wonderful bunch of threads and complimentary LHN charts I received. The threads are all the DMC needed to stitch all of these charts-how thoughtful is that, I don't know where to start first. LOL

Holidays

I have just spent a wonderful week staying in this cottage in Dorset. The weather was wonderful too. And my trusty old banger got us there and back! That's my car parked outside. We had a great journey there and back, and only got stuck in traffic going, which meant the journey there was slightly longer. The cottage had a wonderful thatched roof, and we had the heating on all week, even though it was great weather, the cottage was a little chilly, due to it's thick walls and small windows, it didn't let any warmth in. The cottage was in a small village a few miles inland from Weymouth, and Lulworth Cove. We visited lots of places, probably far too many to mention, but I'll give it a go. There was Monkey World, Tutankhamun Exhibition, Mummy exhibition, Water Gardens, Kingston Maurwood Gardens, Swanage Railway. We visited Weymouth, Bridport, Lyme Regis, Lulworth Cove, Wimborne, Swanage, Poole, Dorchester, Osmington Mills, Portland, Abbotsbury, and Wareham. We walked for miles, and travelled miles too. It was 312 miles to the cottage, and then of course home again, but I want to do it all over again.

I arrived home to gifts. There was a wonderful LHN package, I was well and truly spoilt. And I also received floss from my Make a Wish partner, who was unable to make my wish due to health problems - it was not necessary, but I thank you very much for taking the time to send it. I hope you feel better soon. My LHN exchange was also delayed due to health problems, so I hope you're feeling much better soon, too. I'll post pics tomorrow. I returned to work today, having been off for a wonderful 18 and half days. Unfortunately, during this time I had to visit the dentist 4 times - ouch. I won't go in to details, but my first appointment was in May, and so far I have been to visit my dentist (my new best friend)6 times, and will return again in August (hopefully) - although at the moment I'm thinking it may be sooner, but I can only hope that it isn't. I've had two courses of anti-biotics in this time, and the outcome may well be an extraction.

I hope to post pics tomorrow of my exchange, and I am also hoping that my RR comes back this week.

My holiday also turned out to be a stitching holiday too, as in NO stitching. I didn't take any stitching with me, as I just couldn't make my mind up, I also knew that the cottage had small windows, and would be quite dark so the light wouldn't be good enough for stitching. I've made up though since I came back, and I've got on with a Make A Wish, I'm loving the colour of this, and hope to do a bit more on this tonight.

I've also been granted two awards today for my blog-I'm a bit overwhelmed by this. Thank you very, very much, and I'll be back with more on this tomorrow. I need to do lots of thinking about who I can pass these on to, which will be very difficult to choose. My blog list gets ever longer, and there are a few non stitchy one's on it.

Make A Wish for Vonna

I finally found pictures of the Make A Wish that I granted Vonna, they had disappeared into the depths of the PC. I took the photo's on dd's camera, and they got saved elsewhere. Now Vonna received this 3 or 4 weeks back, but I haven't posted it here before. This is Country Garden by Blackbird Designs, although I didn't stitch the flowers below the border. I loved this, and I will definately be doing it again for me. So many to stitch, so little time.

I have now decided to grant another Make A Wish, this will be my third and this time it is for Su. I haven't completed number 2 yet, but I have it kitted and know where I am going with it. I can't wait to stitch it.

I just wanted to say that sometimes life gets in the way. We cannot always make deadlines, or even meet challenges, but I have yet to meet someone whose life goes smoothly 100% of the time. When things like this happen, it's best to be open, and just let people know that you are unable to meet commitments, and I really appreciate people who are open and honest. And I want to say a big Thank you to those who have been. I appreciate it. I know sometimes it is harder to say you cannot fulfil a commitment than to just bury your head. You may wonder why I say this. Well this week, I have found out that the last stitcher on my RR is unable to stitch on it, the stitcher who granted my 2nd Make A Wish is unable to fulfil, and it is highly likely that my HOE LHN exchange won't be met. I actually have found it quite funny that this has all been in a few days. And they say things come in three's. LOL

LHN Exchange

I heard from Marjean that she received my LHN exchange, for the HOE group. I'm so please that she liked it. I knew exactly what I was going to stitch for this exchange, and when I came to start it I realised that the design was by CCN. So I had to come up with something else, this pattern is from the JCS ornament magazine, and I decided not to stitch the red berries on it, so that hopefully it doesn't look too Christmassy. Actually, I was really pleased with how it came out, and may even stitch another for myself. The extras included Calender Girls chocolate, with each one showing a different month, these were sold in aid of Leaukemia Research.

My Needles Work

I finished this on Sunday, it was quite quick stitch. Although I did think I was going to run out of thread, and was thinking if I ordered more, it would be a different colour, but I ended up with 1.5 inch left. Phew!!
I have plans of how I want to finish this, and it includes a trip to the wood yard, and my handiwork with a chisel, but if I'm honest I'll probably never get around to the making up - we'll see. I have dropped hints to dh, but he's too busy in the summer with his allotment.

Now, if there's anyone who would like this pattern, I'd love to trade it for LHN The Sampler Lady, Stitcher's Prayer, School of Needlework, Home of a Needleworker, City Stitcher Country Stitcher, or Thread Gathering.

Make A Wish

The other week I joined the Make A Wish group, and I wished for a scissor case, and look what I've received today. Isn't it wonderful. Don't you just love the colours and that cute little angel hair tassel. I adore it. I was granted my wish by the wonderfully talented Su. A big thank you Su.

I granted my first wish to Vonna, but the photo's seem to have disappeared into the depths of my hard drive. When I find them I'll post pics, if I don't find them, I'll post a link to the post on Vonna's blog.

And here's my new start, this is what I stitched on last night. I didn't need/want a new start, but couldn't help myself!

A Tin topper

I finally finished my tin, just in time for the end of the Monthly Challenge. I'm really pleased with the results, and I'm sure this will be the first of many tin toppers (I have been collecting tins for a while-LOL). This design is by Victoria Sampler, and is from the Christmas Poinsettia Sampler pattern, I changed the colours to suit the fabric I was using, and it stitched on 28ct white, using DMC threads.

Round Robin - Final round

It would seem that there is something strange happened to my blog, I can no longer manipulate my photo's to where I want them to be. So please forgive the layout. This is the final round of the Quaker Friends round robin. And this one belongs to Sally, these are the two pages I have stitched for her. Although the next posting day is not until mid-July, I wanted to get them stitched up, and as Sally and I decided we would meet up, that day had to be today, because of other things that happen on Fridays. So today I went to visit Sally, and after all that I forgot to take the RR with me, so now I have to post it anyway! I am hopeless, but Sally forgave me because she is so nice. We chatted away, and occasionally I let Sally get a word in, and this time I was there so long I got to meet all the family, including the new budgie. And I saw all of Sally's new stash, and all of the galleries that display Sally's work, I think she should start charging.



This is the wonderful Needle Nanny that Sally has made me, it's absolutely stunning, don't you just love the colours? And it looks much better in the flesh.

ABC exchange arrived

Carol let me know that she received the ABC exchange I made for her. It just so happens that I stitched the same design for Carol, as the one I received from Mylene. Although I did cross stitch all the alphabet, as I wasn't sure I'd have enough thread to do the backstitch letters. I used one full skein, apart from one 4" bit I had left, of Dragon Floss. I made the design into a stitchers pocket. I will tell you that I was not happy with the finish, and did abandon it, to start again, but dd talked me into sending it. I just wished that I had not go the sewing machine out, as that is where it went wrong. I usually hand sew all my finishes, as I feel more in control. Anyway, Carol was very sweet about it, and didn't show inside pictures, but I've put one on here anyway. I now wish that I had used beads to hang the mother of pearl thread holders, as they would have hung better.

You'll have to excuse the layout of the photo's, as blogger does not want to play tonight.

If you want to stitch this design, you can find the pattern here.

HoE Freebie Exchange

I did not post pictures of the HoE Freebie exchange which I made for Carol, so here they are. This exchange took a while to arrive consider it did not have a really long way to travel. I don't think I can have taken a picture of the back of it. I chose the Quaker hedgehog as Carol really likes Quaker designs.

ABC exchange received

I received a wonderful exchange from Mylene, it's a beautiful pinkeep. I just love it, and Mylene sent me wonderful gifts too. I received the bead kit, threads and fabric. I already have an idea for the beads (I don't know if Mylene knew I was a bead junkie).



My ABC exchange is on it's way, and should arrive any day now. I had a really stressful time with it, and abandoned it at one point, until dd persuaded me to carry on with it. It was such a relief when it finally went in the post.

I now have a LHN exchange to finish making up, and it will be in the post shortly. And I have signed up for another Make A Wish, which I hope to stitch this week, and there's a couple of gifts I'd like to make. I don't think I've signed up for any more exchanges at the moment, but I have lots of things I want to finish off.

Exchanges, Round Robin and a birthday.

Here's a picture of my baby, not a very good picture, I couldn't get a clear one taken from the photo, there was too much reflection. Anyway, my baby was 16 last week. DD celebrated with a joint party at the weekend with her friend. On her birthday, I said we could go out for tea, but dd wanted to stay in and revise for an exam the next day. I then asked her what she would like for tea, and she asked for salad for her birthday tea - don't you just love her. Exams are now over - thankfully, well for dd at least, she had her last one yesterday, and has now finished school for good. No more school uniform to wash and iron at the weekends - yay. DS still has 6 exams left though.



Now on to stitching.

Firstly, I have pictures of Lisa's RR, this is the two pages I have stitched, you can see more pictures of all the RR's here. This is stitched in DMC99, and is a great colour, I'll have to find something to stitch using this. This RR is stitched 1 over 1 on 28 count, so is a little different to the others.


Next up, are pictures of the wonderful exchange package I received today from Katrina. A pinkeep, which is fast becoming my favourite finish, so another to add to my collection, as most of the one's I have made have been given away. Katrina also sent me some wonderful extras, I love them all. Thank you Katrina.





It doesn't look like my HoE Freebie exchange has arrived yet, and it was not posted at the same time as one to the US, and that arrived yesterday. I am starting to have doubts about the address-I won't give details here, as it will give it away, but the exchange was for Europe. I'm going to email the exchange organiser, to check it out. I heard yesterday that Vonna received the Make a Wish that I stitched for her. The photo's of that are on DD's camera, so I need to work out how to get them off there, and I'll be posting the pics soon.

Thanks everyone for visiting, I love you all for it, whether you comment or not. Although I love to get comments, I'm aware that it's not possible to leave a comment on every post you read.

Exchange arrives at last

I saw on SBEBB that my Garden Themed exchange had finally arrived. So I can finally share pictures. I had loved this design since I saw it, but was not really sure what I'd stitch it for. Anyway I decided on a hanging pillow. The colours are not great on the pictures, so I've shown a couple, to give you an idea. I stitched a little birdhouse on the back, and our initials with the year. I'm glad it arrived safely. The exchange was for Debbi, and I included a chart from her wish list, and boy does Debbi have a wish list!, as well as chocolates, ribbon, fabric and flower buttons.

It's Friday

I'm not sure what to blog about, it's been so long. There's not been any progress on the making up of the casket and accessories, although this is what I decided to stitch on the bottom. I also did the stitching of the needleroll, but it's not made up yet.
I did lose my stitching mojo, but it has returned this week. It had to as I had some exchanges to get sorted. LOL, and being off work helped too. I also stitched a JBW design for me, but not decided on the finishing of it yet, there's not much spare fabric as I just stitched it on a scrap. I've been busy on the next round of the Quaker, as that has to be in the post next week, although the frogs have a hold on that one too. (Sorry Lisa)
I posted an exchange at the beginning of May, and I haven't heard that it's arrived yet, so I'm getting worried about that. I'm hoping I hear soon.
Apart from stitching, dh and I had our 20th Anniversary, where did those years go? I've looked into cancelling my car insurance, and going elsewhere to enable ds to be able to drive my car, but I'm still thinking about that. My premium will increase by about 800%, and ds doesn't really go out much, and he does not work so cannot contribute towards the cost, so there's a lot to think about, especially with the price of petrol, which seems to go up at least once a week. DS only has 3 weeks left at college, and then all of his exams will be over, and he just needs to wait for the results, before going on to University. Hopefully, he will find a job for the summer. DD only has 10 days, and then she has finished all her exams, and will move on to 6th form college in September, she has no intention of getting a job for the summer! Although, I have said I'll employ her as cleaner and chef, but I'm still waiting for the answer. DD is a wonderful cook, and often makes the meals. Anyway, I've rambled, so better get going. Thanks to everyone who visits, and leaves comments, I'm sorry I have not done the same. I have 593 unread blog articles, so I know I have no way of catching up. But will try to look at all the pictures!

Sampler Garden Casket

This weekend was the finishing weekend for Sampler Garden Casket, as you can see I didn't get very far. I had a busy weekend, so didn't have a lot of time, but this is my slow progress. I do prefer to take my time with the finishing though. I hope to get the bottom finished next weekend, and the casket lid. To see the casket and accessories, you'll find them on Judy's site. This was the Designing Ladies 2007 project.

For the third Sunday in a row, there was no JN.

And need to add, that we finally got the car going last Monday evening. Then on Tuesday night, the washing machine door fastener broke-arrggghhhh, but a new one is now on order, and I worked out a way to open the door using a teaspoon! More good news, DS17 passed his driving test on Thursday, and the bad news - the insurance company I'm with won't let me include him to drive my car. And I'm still waiting for them to get back to me to tell me why.

SBEBB Garden Theme exchange received

Look at this beautiful exchange I received. Carol stitched made me a mattress finish, this is my first ever one, I think I'm going to have to make one of these. Carol stitched this design with one over one, and it's stunning, the colours are beautiful. And here's a pic of the whole exchange. Carol included ribbon, Dragon floss, finishing fabric, Silkweaver fabric, vanilla teabags, and a highlighter, which was quickly claimed by DD, who is busy doing lots of revision for her GCSE's. Thank you Carol.

LONDON

We had a great day in London, DD and I, but it was tiring, and we had sore feet when we got home. The taxi I had booked to take us to the station arrived on time, and we were at the station in plenty of time. There's not much traffic at that time in the morning - 6.15 am, although a few people walking/staggering the streets on their way home from a Friday night out.

DD got a new camera last week, so she had to get some photo's of the sights. For those who don't know London, we have the London Eye and Big Ben.





And this is Liberty, I'd never been before, so we had a wander around inside, and I bought some soap, there were some nice clothes, but a bit out of my price range. They had some lovely fabric and buttons, and lace, but I didn't buy.


I've not done any stitching in the last few days, and I am late mailing my Garden theme exchange, I hope my partner likes what I've made, it will be in the post tomorrow. My car still does not work, but it's back to work for me tomorrow, and I'll be on the bus again, oh well. I've ordered my grocery shopping online, and that will be delivered on Wednesday night. I am out tomorrow night, so I think I'll have to walk there, I hope my feet have recovered by then.

TGIF

What a week, and not a lot of stitching. There was no JN Sunday last weekend, I'll try and do better this weekend.

I've had another week with problems. DS and DD had dentist on Wednesday teatime. I came home from work on the bus, we have to take turns to use the car park at work since January, so I only go in car every other week, and this week wasn't my turn. Anyway I got home from work, got changed, and went to get the car out of my garage, it was dead, a completely flat battery. So we had to walk to the dentist, fortunately I had allowed plenty of time to get there in car, so we managed the twenty minute walk to the dentist, and made it just on time. We have a battery charger, so that was put onto charge, and the plan being that we could start it from that on Thursday night, alas no luck, although it did seem to charge the battery a little bit. The charger was once again put on to charge overnight, and DS and I tried again this morning to start the car, but still no luck. I rang sis, and she came down with her friend, we tried to jump it from her friends car, but still no luck. Arrgghh. DH has now decided that the car has more wrong than just the battery. I'm not so sure. By this time it was this afternoon, and too late to get the garage to come out. Now they won't come out on a Saturday, and they aren't open on Sunday, or Monday as we have a bank holiday. I can't get them to come out Tues, Weds or Thurs as I'll be at work, so who know when I'll have my car back. I think it's time for a bit of online supermarket shopping.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the big city. DD and I are going to London for the day, and we'll shop. It's an early start, and I've had to order a Taxi to get us to the station, I hope it turns up. I have experience of ordering a taxi in the past to go for a train, and it didn't turn up, I ended up having to go in my car and got to the train with seconds to spare. This time car won't be an option.

Our printer has decided it's not happy, so that's another thing that's annoying me. I've now replaced the black cartridge 3 times in 3 days, and it's still not happy. I've still not got a new telephone either, and I'm really missing my answerphone.

Anyway, more on my age on Monday and Tuesday I was 52, that's what work does to me. LOL. On Wednesday I got down to 42, and yesterday to 40, but today I'm 48. And for all those guessing, I'm going on the WiiFit daily, it's brilliant. I've been exercising everyday, and I'm hoping to keep it up.