What a Week

Whew. What a week. By Wednesday, I had already worked more than my 40 hours, with the prospect of Thursday and Friday to come. It was exhausting - I feel like I've been through the wringer. And we have a friend coming to stay this weekend, meaning all the chores needed to be done (I usually let them slide when I'm having a week like this! I am no 1950s housewife, that's for sure).


So, as a consequence, I haven't much to show you in the way of stitching. Last night for the Let's Stitch SAT, I was running around doing chores until 10pm, so I didn't actually achieve much - so I opted to stitch the very unglamorous (but passing the easy-to-stitch-when-extremely-tired test) right hand border. [Sorry for the oddly-shaped photos - for some reason Blogger won't resize the photos that I'm uploading from Photobucket - if anyone knows why, happy to hear from you :) ]

Earlier in the week, I managed to put in a couple of hours on Spanish Wine, so I'm now working on the central motif. You'll see I've stitched the '2' and the '0' of what will eventually be the year (the next two digits are at the bottom of the central design), but I think I might just leave off the next two, just in case this one goes a little bit into 2010 :)

We've a friend staying with us this weekend, so not sure I'll get much stitching done, but will be having plenty of laughter and wine, so that will make up for it ;)

Happy stitching!

Friday SAT Let's Stitch Update

I tell you, this SAT Friday thing over at Let's Stitch is an absolute corker - it helped too that H was away on business and so I only needed to stop briefly for a quick snack rather than prepare a proper meal ;) (Shhh, don't tell him, he will frown at me!)

My goal this week was to finish the big motif I was stitching, and had been stitching on seemingly endlessly since July. JULY, folks. Which is ridiculous really, but I did have quite a bit of holiday and other commitments in August, September and October, so I suppose I have half an excuse for why this took so long...

The good news is I'm on to page 6, and once I'm finished page 6, I'll be at the HALFWAY POINT in this sampler! In fact, I'll be a little bit past halfway because I've stitched little bits of pages 7 and 8 aready. I'm really hoping I'll hit halfway before the end of 2008, but with a long holiday in prospect, I may not quite get it done. I will keep you posted of course ;)

Here is last night's progress:

Happy stitching!

Last Christmas Ornament for 2008

This past weekend was the Christmas ornament SAL weekend that I’ve been stitching with the lovely Leena all year – and I’m delighted to report that we’ve agreed to carry on for 2009! I’m really pleased about this because it’s so much nicer to stitch along with someone else, particularly when that someone is Leena, who I’ve really loved getting to know better – you are a real gem Leena :) So this past weekend was probably my last ornament SAL weekend with Leena for this year as the weekend that it falls on in December is during our trip home to BC for Christmas, and I’m not sure yet what I’ll be taking with me to stitch.

I’ve had my eye on this little Lizzie*Kate design for a while now, and have finally gotten around to stitching it – actually, it’s fair to say that I have had my eye on a vast number of Christmas ornaments that I plan to stitch as I’ve just measured my Christmas designs folder – it’s a whopping four inches thick. That’s vertical, people, as in a four-inch high stack of charts and designs that need to be stitched up. That’s the other reason that I love the weekend with Leena – because it ensures that I actually do something about actually stitching up all these Christmas designs that I so love rather than just admiring them and telling myself that eventually one day I will stitch them up :)

Okay, enough rambling, here is the photo of this weekend’s stitching:

Design: Wishing Ewe Joy – Lizzie*Kate (from Tiny Tidings IX)
Linen: 32ct Raw linen
Floss: as charted, with one substitution

And here's a photo I've forgotten to post before, it's the finished for for my sister this Christmas (shhhhh mum and dad, no telling!).




Happy stitching!

Paradigm Lost Update

Another Let's Stitch Friday SAT, another Paradigm Lost update from me. I set myself the goal of finishing the outer ring of the large motif I'm working on, and beginning to stitch the centre of it. And, despite some desperate anguish and rather a LOT of frogging, I managed it! I did have to stitch into the wee hours, and H was asleep when I finally went up to bed, but I just wasn't ready to admit defeat over this one.



The goal for next week's SAL is to get at least half of the centre of the motif finished. I'm finding the Let's Stich SAT Fridays really motivating - maybe my goal of finishing PL in 2009 isn't so unreachable after all!



Happy stitching!

Let's Stitch!

This past week, I had an email from Kathy letting me know that she was closing the Snowbird SAL blog, as most of the stitchers (who were stitching either Cirque des Cercles or, like me, Paradigm Lost) had pretty much drifted away (or completed their stitching!). So, in the hopes of not becoming demotivated, I saw Becky’s blog ‘Let’s Stitch’ and decided that this could be just the thing to keep me going. So I signed up, and last Friday participated in my first SAT! Here’s my progress on PL – my goal for this Friday’s SAT is to finish the ‘outer ring’ of stitching and move to the centre on this particular motif:

Before:

After:

I also saw that Barbara received the Fair and Square Christmas Squares I sent her – my only worry was that she had stitched them for herself from the latest JCS ornament issue, because as soon as I saw them, they just shouted ‘Barbara’ to me.

As if by magic, there was a package waiting for me at home tonight – Barbara’s squares to me! She adapted ‘A Tiny German Folk Sampler’ by Threads Through Time from the JCS 2004 ornie issue, and she stitched it with Belle Soie silk – mmmm some of my absolute favourite silk! They’re gorgeous Barbara, thanks a million! I can’t wait to finish them up into an ornament for our tree (even though we’re not having a tree this year because we’ll be travelling, but well, for lampshades and picture hooks and doorknobs and such!).

And, finally, a little progress photo of Sailing Home, which is a delight to stitch (as are all BBD designs as far as I’m concerned), and stitching up relatively quickly (for me, that is). (I'm not sure why that photo is suddenly small - should be clickable though!)

Only 35 days before we jet off for our extended break to BC for Christmas (so excited, so so SO EXCITED!), do you think it’s too early to plan stitching I’m going to bring??

Happy stitching!

And the Winner Is...

Barbara!

Congratulations to you - I'll get the Kitty Cat chart to you in the post tomorrow; I know I have your address as I've just posted your Fair Squares to you last week :)

Happy stitching!

A New Start!

Yes, well, it seemed about time for a new start, and it seemed more than about time to start this particular design, which is intended to be a birth sampler for my friend’s child, now born more than two months ago (whoops). Luckily it is stitching up fairly quickly, so with a bit of application this shouldn’t take too long:

Sailing Home – Blackbird Designs

And better late than never, an update of last month’s goals, and a roundup of this month’s:

October
- stitch and send Fair and Square Autumn Squares to Jill – YES
- Snowbird SAL: stitch Paradigm Lost on Thursdays – YES
- Christmas ornament SAL with Leena: stitch one ornament – YES
- Finish 5 Christmas ornaments this month – YES (I’m especially proud of that one!)
- Start stitching secret stitching – YES
- Start stitching baby gift – YES
- Carry on stitching AMAP pinkeep – YES
- Carry on stitching Spanish Wine – YES
- Finish at least one non-Christmas thing from my finishing drawer – YES
- Quilting: spend at least one day quilting this month – NO

November
- stitch and send Fair and Square Christmas Squares to Barbara
- stitch and send Fair and Square Round #10 Squares to Dani
- Christmas ornament SAL with Leena: stitch one ornament
- Finish 6 Christmas ornaments
- Finish one non-Christmas item from finishing drawer
- Finish Kitty Cat into scissor fob
- Carry on stitching Paradigm Lost
- Carry on stitching Spanish Wine
- Carry on stitching secret stitching
- Carry on stitching Sailing Home
- Carry on stitching AMAP pinkeep
- Start x-box quilt

Don't forget, if you'd like to be entered into the draw for the Kitty Cat chart (see last post), then leave a comment there before Saturday.

Happy stitching!

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What, Another Giveaway Already?!

I know you’re thinking ‘but you just did a giveaway – what gives?’ Okay, no, you probably don’t think such atrocious puns. Yes, I just had a giveaway, but Clare recently stitched Kitty Cat by Twisted Threads and when I commented on her blog that the design would be perfect for my sister, who loves cats, she very kindly volunteered to send me the chart. So that is now all stitched up and waiting to be finished into a scissor fob as a stocking filler (shhhh, mum I know you’re reading this, so don’t let the cat out of the bag [sorry, couldn’t resist]), and I thought why not pass on the chart to someone else who may have a fondness for cats and stitching small designs? So leave a comment on this post, and I’ll do a draw (if there is more than one of you!) on Saturday 8th November in the evening, UK time.

Here’s the photo of the one I stitched:

Twisted Threads – Kitty Cat
Stitched on Lakeside Linens 36ct ‘Navy Bean’ using a mixture of Carrie’s Creations, DMC and GAST threads

By the way, Sally received the JCS Hallowe’en Ornament issue from the last giveaway (congratulations again Sally!) and I slipped a little gift into the envelope for her:

From Sleepy Hollow – Cross-Eyed Cricket
Stitched on 32ct raw linen using DMC
(the fabric in the photo is the fabric I used for the back and also for the loop)

Finished as floss tag

(But don’t get too excited, because I haven’t had a chance to stitch anything for this giveaway, so it’s just the chart!)

A special hello to all you American voters out there – we’ll be watching with interest into the small hours over here to see the outcome!

Happy stitching!