A Wonderful Busy Stitching Weekend

As I suspected, the proper piece of kit didn't arrive for H's laptop, so no blogging at the weekend. And with the weather being extremely liquid at the weekend, it meant absolutely no distractions from stitching - I got so much done! No bbq building, no golf, no gardening, but plenty of stitching :)

First, I finished off the scissor fob I started (I think I will send it to my mum when completed). I stitched this freebie from Drawn Thread called 'The Heart Throb'. The front side (on right below) is on 32-count cream linen and uses the DMC threads listed on the chart. The reverse (below left) is the same design stitched on 32-count English Rose (Permin/Wichelt) using Silk 'n' Colours Pink Elephant. Having stitched one side of the border as directed on the chart (a stitch called double faggoting which was extremely tedious and boring, although looked nice), I frogged it and just went with a simple backstitch border. I also managed to pop into the craft store and pick up wadding and some delicate dusty rose-coloured ribbon for the fob, so I am all set to 'finish finish' this (once I pick up some nice scissors, which the craft store most definitely did NOT have). H also bought my birthday present when we were in town - a daylight lamp and it makes stitching o so much easier - I am already so thankful for it!

Next, I pulled out Silver Needle and finished off 3 bands (the sort of wave-y white and pink one, the teal one, and 'Followed where my fingers led') and started a fourth, which doesn't look like it but will be another floral band.

And then, since it was still teeming down with rain, on Sunday I decided to spend a few hours on Northern Lights. I'm really pleased with how this one is turning out - it's chock full of speciality stitches and speciality fibers, so there is always lots to keep my interest! I finished several bands on this one before starting the 'animal' band. Everything was fine with the eagle and the snowy owl, but then I started the rabbit ears with Wisper thread (which I've never stitched with before) and suddenly lost all confidence because it didn't quite look like I was expecting it to, so...

...no problem, I simply packed it away and pulled out 'Their Song'! It's wonderful having a whole weekend of free time and so many projects on the go that I am spoiled for choice! Their Song is progressing famously well, with only the bottom quarter or so of the design to finish. I'm hoping to get this one done before the next Loose Feathers chart arrives on my doorstep, but I think that may be a race I lose as Kate from Thread Bear let me know the other day that the chart is on the way from the States.

And, then, finally, nearing the end of Monday I decided it would be a good time to start a new project as I have a couple of spaces in my rotation - so I picked through my stash and came up with Love Is Patient by La-D-Da. I'd bought the Lakeside Linen recommended fabric when I was over in Canada earlier this month (can anyone tell me where is a good place to get this, and/or R&R fabrics in the UK or Europe? I'm having a hard time getting them in any kind of a timely way from US distributors - it seems to take at least a month to get fabrics across!). The design uses only five colours, but they are gorgeous, sumptuous colours from Crescent Colours so very much looking forward to using them! I only managed to get a small part of the outer border in the design done, so didn't bother to take a photo - a single straight line of stitches just doesn't spark the imagination somehow!

And phew that's about it for my weekend. I'm hoping that my order from Wyndham comes soon, as I'm reserving the final space in my rotation for Spanish Wine, but I'm awaiting the LL fabric which is on the way. Fingers crossed that all the thread I've ordered from Attic comes through soon as well - I can't wait to get going again with Paradigm Lost, which has been sitting disconsolately in a corner for about 10 weeks waiting for the thread to arrive...

Happy stitching everyone!