JN Sunday

It's Just Nan Sunday, and this is last weeks progress which I didn't get around to posting. As you can see there was not much to show. That illuminated letter gave me some grief, and frogging took place, I got so cross with it, that I made the decision to put it away, rather than carry on. I hope to at least finish that letter and row of words, and the next band too. Maybe even a start on the final band. I'm thinking this will be finished soon, and depending on today's progress maybe I won't be able to wait until next week. But I do have to go back and finish bands off from when I didn't have the correct threads, so I'm not as near the finish as you might think, and the beading will be the final finish.






This is my progress on My Treasures, these two pieces are Month 5, so I just have the final month to stitch on now, and to add the personalisation to the parts that need it.




I don't feel that I've done a real lot of stitching this week, but I did also decide and stitch my Pumpkin Patch exchange piece, but obviously I can't show that.

This week has been a really fed up week for me, and Monday night I was bedridden with a migraine. So if you're waiting on email from me, then that's why. I hope to get back to emailing soon. Tomorrow DS starts at University, so that's a big day for him, and I know it will be hard for him all week, he'll have to get up before lunch time. LOL

My treasures workstation

This is month 3 and month 4, only two more to go - hopefully this week. I'm enjoying stitching on this more than I thought. The finishing of this is now planned for the end of October, so I can't see any reason why I won't be finished stitching by then.

We've had great weather the last few days, so if you look carefully at these photos, they might look mottled due to the sun streaming in the window. Today is JN Sunday, so hope to get a little more stitched on that.

It's home, it's finished

The wonderful Nicki kindly volunteered to stitch the final round on my RR, when the last stitcher was unable to do so. Thank you Nicki, I don't know how I can repay you for your kindness. Now to find the time to make it up.
I am really pleased with how this turned out and so pleased that I now have 5 sets of initials on it.

JN Sunday

I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked last night, but I did complete that band that gave me all the grief last week. Apologies for the blurred picture, I'll try and do better next time.

I am way behind on emails, and blog reading, so if I've not left you a comment for awhile, I hope to soon.

My new start

Here's the photos I promised. This is month 1 and month 2, which I have just stitched, and I have just started month 3. This started in April, but I was undecided on fabric and colours, and this is nothing like my original ideas. LOL. I think the colours I have finally decided on must have been influenced by my recent Christmas stitching. These pictures seem a lot brighter here than the real thing, so it may be my monitor - who knows!
This is My Treasure Workstation by Judy Odell, and you can see how it will look when finished - here. This month is part 6, being the final chart, and the making up is next month.

Jolly Old Elf

Jolly Old Elf
a Shepherds Bush kit
Stitched with DMC and WDW
on 10ct Tula

This was another quick stitch, and I plan on making it into a cushion for Christmas. I visited the local fabric shop and the fabric I liked was £9.99 per metre, so hoping to find it cheaper online.

I have a new start too, so will share pics when I have a little more done.

And for the curious the Beetroot Cake does not come out pink, although the mixture is pink before cooking. Next time I make one I'll take a picture of a slice. It looks like a light fruit cake with red flecks in it, very pretty.

Cake anyone?

Here's the cakes I made on Sunday, which all went down very well. The chocolate cake (large cake) was yummy, a bit like 'death by chocolate', the fudge topping was very strong, and the cake was sandwiched with chocolate and hazelnut filling. I also made Beetroot cake (a bit too brown on the top-oops), Semi-rich fruit cake, Victoria sponge, Rock buns and Rice buns. Thankfully dh decided not everyone would be in work on Monday, and as it happened he brought some home. Dh has decided he doesn't want to be reminded that he's getting older, so I've told him we'll forget about his birthday from now on. LOL

With all this baking, and a visit from sis and bil, I didn't pick up JN. Back to stitching last night though, and I have another Christmas finish to share, but it's very dark tonight, so may be I'll get a photo of it tomorrow night.

A mattress finish

I made a mattress finish for Su on the Make A Wish board. This was my first time at making a mattress, and I enjoyed it, but would do it differently next time. I chose a design from Gift Of Stitching, but didn't realise until I'd stitched it that the chart is actually different to the model. The chart says 'I love cross stitch' and the model says 'I love to stitch'. The design is by Maryse, and if you check out her blog she does have a correction on there. I forgot to take photo's before I posted, so Su was kind enough to send me one. On the other side of the mattress I stitched the vase of flowers and Su, this is the side I prefer, you can see this on Su's blog. I also stitched the sides of the mattress with the green wavy line, and the pink crosses between. In the making up I added lavender, as I know that Su likes lavender, and I thought it would smell nice. I used three thick pieces of wadding inside the mattress, but on the middle one I cut a square out. I then got two pieces of voile and machined them together and stuffed full with lavender, this was then place in the middle of the wadding. I want to make another one of these for me. LOL

This week I finished stitching my 'Think Pink' exchange piece, I have also stitched my 'Halloween Exchange' piece. I did have a new start too, just a small Christmas piece. Today is JN Sunday, I now have the perle threads that I needed for this, so I will be going back to Band 1, and starting to fill in the bits I have had to miss. I'm not sure I'll get much stitching done today though, as I have to have a big baking session, it's dh's birthday tomorrow, and he needs cakes for 75 people, and they prefer my home made, so I think I'll be spending a bit of time in the kitchen, and as I may run out of ingredients, I may need to make a trip to the shop too.

JN Sunday

Here's my progress from Sunday. A lot was done, and redone, and redone, and done again. Yep, I had a bad case of the frogs, hence this was abandoned with thread left loose. I was getting nowhere, and now cannot remember if I still have to pull more out. Oh well, I'll find out on Sunday.

It's been a busy week here. So not had chance to post since Sunday. I just heard that Su has received the Make A Wish I made for her - my first mattress finish, but I forgot to take any photo's. Doh!

Christmas is Love

Christmas is Love
by Shepherds Bush
Stitched on 10ct sparkle Tula
with DMC and WDW

This was really quick to stitch, and I shall be making it into a Christmas pillow. The fabric is so glittery, but of course you can never capture that in a photo. (well I can't!) I also think I stitched this on the wrong side of the fabric. It has a mottled effect, and I realised later that it's more mottled on the other side-oh well.

A Big Thank You

Stitchers are wonderful. I want to thank Nicki.

Do you remember my round robin with finally arrived back with me a couple of weeks ago. Well, it's on it's travels again. Nicki was kind enough to offer to stitch the last two pages on my RR. I was delighted and accepted her offer. I finally posted it to her on Saturday, and it arrived yesterday.

I also say thanks to Sally, and Lisa who also offered to stitch another page each, but it didn't seem right that they would then have done 3 pages each. Something about keeping the balance right, I don't know what it was really, I would have stitched them myself, but I jumped at the chance to have another stitcher on board.

So THANKS again Nicki.

There's no further progress on With My Needle, I did order the two perle threads I needed for it, they cost me over £30! Well, you can't just order threads, can you?

With My Needle

With my needle
I did sew
stitches and more stitches
to make this grow

A new start

Well, I decided on a new start. I was looking through my JN charts, and decided on this one. I have some threads on order for some new starts, but this one called to me the loudest. I am going to have to get a couple of Perle threads in order to completed it. It's stitching up really quickly, and I may not be able to keep it for JN Sunday, I just love the colours in the one, but then that's no real surprise is it.

I wished for a needlecase

I wished for a needle case, to go in my sewing box, for general purpose needles. I made my wish on the Make A Wish group, and my wish was granted by Cathy. This morning I received a wonderful needlecase. The design is just perfect. As you can see from my sewing box, I only had needles in a scrap of fabric! How bad is that. I do have needlecases but I use them for my stitching and beading needles. So a big Thank you to Cathy, I love it.

Needleroll finish

I finally made this up. I stitched this last year, but didn't sew the charms on. When I came to make it up, the charms had disappeared. I searched everywhere to they were nowhere to be found. Earlier this year I had another big hunt for them, but still nothing. Then one day, just out of the blue this thought came into my head to look down the side of the armchair, and sure enough there they were. So now it's finally finished. The design is by Lorri Birmingham, and came as a kit with the linen banding. And that banding really frays, so if you have some to stitch on, it would be a good idea to overlock the edges.

Today is GCSE results day, and DD16 has just gone to get hers, hoping for good things. We had a call from the school at 9.15am to say they were expecting good results and would like to invite her and a parent to a civic lunch at the Guildhall today. The school had invites for 6 pupils with a parent, so she's feeling privileged. The lunch will be held by the Lord Mayor, and there will be other schools present, and many dignitaries there. I'm lucky that I'm not at work this week, so I can go with her.

Last week was A level results, and DS18 got his results, he did well, and will now be going to University next month. He has a place in his first choice University, and it is local, so he will remain living at home. DD will move on to 6th form college, and has to enrol for that next week.

Edited to add: DD got one A*, 9 x A's and 4 x B's, from the proud mum.

Alyssum Scissor Pocket

A picture of the inside and the outside.

I just heard that the Make a Wish I made for Gaby has arrived. Gaby asked for a scissor pocket, and I stitched this one by The Cat's Whiskers Design Studio. I used 32ct linen and stitched it with Dragon Floss, which has subtle changes of pink and lilac.

I had another couple of finishes yesterday, so stay tuned for more pics, but I've been out all day today, and the light is not good enough now. I'm really enjoying being in this finishing mood.





A picture of the scissor pocket closed. As I used a full skein of thread, I was unable to make a cord for the fastening, so used this pretty ribbon instead.

I'm glad that Gaby like it.

JN Flower Girls

Another JN finish. Actually I stitched most of this a while back, but just needed to add the backstitching and the beads. I've made it into a Lavender sachet, with a ribbon hanger to hang it in my wardrobe. It's stuffed full of lavender, and smells gorgeous. I used some 32ct opalescent fabric, and stitched a small heart, my initials and the date on the back.

I received this chart as a give away from Cathy (I can't find your blog, so if anyone can give me a link - please leave me a comment - thanks). Originally this would have had a small flower treasure stitched in the centre, but I just added some left over beads.

I seem to be in a finishing off mood, so keep watching. I hope the mood lasts. LOL

Barnabee's Quest

Finished at last, here is Part 1, 2 and 3, all pictured separately. I am unable to place the pictures as I want them, so please forgive me. If you can spot anything missing, please shout up. Now, which JN shall I choose next? I have a lot to choose from! It's so hard to just choose one.

JN Sunday

Now I know it's not Sunday yet, but I picked this up again last night, so here is a progress pic. I did a bit of frogging of the orb, and will restitch that, I just didn't like the look of it. I hope to get this finished this weekend.

I've not done a lot of stitching this week, but I did work on a Make A Wish for Su, but for now I'm keeping that a secret.

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.