Jigging Around

Finally, those last 80 eyelets are FINISHED – and yes, Awake the Dawning Day is now done! Thank you for all your lovely comments throughout the (inordinately long) time I stitched this wonderful design.

Design: Blackbird Designs ‘Awake the Dawning Day’
Linen: 28ct R&R Linen ‘Iced Cappuccino’
Floss: WDW as charted

I heard from Marne (who signed up for a PIF an embarrassingly long time ago) that she received the PIF gift which I finally managed to send her (nearly using up the full 365 days!) – happily it managed to land on her porch on her birthday, which is a bit of happy coincidence. I had previously stitched her a scissor fob and scissor case, and so now I stitched her the matching pocket – I chose to finish it as a zippered pouch, and it was my first time ever putting in a zipper, so hopefully Marne (who is a very talented sewer and quilter) will allow me some leeway in the not-quite-perfect finish that I executed for her!

Front
Back

Design: Reflets de Soie ‘La Brodeuse et l’Oiseau’
Linen: 32ct Silkweaver 'Sapphire Sky'
Floss: Crescent Colours Belle Soie ‘Ocean Tide’

And, finally, the delightful Hazel nominated me for an award:

Now, I’m supposed to nominate 5 people whose blogs I think are very creative, but let’s face it people, we’re all here crafting busily away, so we’re each as creative as the next! So give yourself a pat on the back, because I’ve just nominated YOU! Well done you!

Happy stitching!

She Slowly Stitches

Well, I haven’t really felt motivated to blog, but I thought I should post a few photos of my progress on my [seemingly endless] projects – it’s not that I’m a slow stitcher (well, not that slow), but more that I can’t find enough time to do it every day, and so I forego things like blogging when I want to spend more time stitching. I need at least a 27-hour day, or maybe I just need to retire from my actual paying job…(hope my husband is reading this and taking notes).

I did stitch on Paradigm Lost last week, but couldn’t find my blogging mojo, and so didn’t post a photo – here is this week’s progress instead. This is now 26 weeks after I joined the Snowbird SAL for PL, and all in all I’m pretty pleased with my progress. I have swallowed the bitter pill of realisation that I won’t get around to finishing it in 2008, but I’m hoping for an early 2009 finish. Luckily, the date is at the bottom of the design, so I have some space to manoeuvre.





I’ve also spent a little time on Awake the Dawning Day – I think you people must really love either this design in particular, Blackbird Designs in general, because I always get a lot of really lovely comments on this whenever I post a progress photo. I’m hoping though not to post too many more – you’ll see that the verse, date and initials are all now completed, as well as 5 of the 85 remaining eyelets that I counted up last time, so with only 80 eyelets to go, the finishing line is surely in sight.



This weekend is the third weekend of the month, and therefore my mini-SAL with Leena, so hopefully I’ll report back on Monday with photos of the Christmas ornament(s?) I’ve stitched.

Wishing you all happy stitching until my blogging mojo returns more forcibly.

Catching Up

So the news wasn’t too bad, the car will cost about £400 to fix, and the leak was sorted out for around £200 – but just think of all the stash I could have had ;) It’s money well spent for peace of mind though!

Mercy has let me know that the squares I sent to her for the Fair & Square exchange Round 7 have arrived safely. Mercy is an avowed Hallowe’en lover – she even has a Hallowe’en ornament tree! – so despite the time of year I thought I would stitch her something Hallowe’en-y – and Lizzie*Kate’s Hallowe’en Flip-It caught my eye:

Design: Hallowe’en Flip-It by Lizzie*Kate
Linen: 32ct Permin/Wichelt 'Natural'
Floss: GAST and DMC as charted

I used the style of the design to chart out a signature square. Now, don’t look too closely, or you’ll notice that I did one of my infamous counting mistakes and the signature square is significantly narrower than the main square – oops!!

I’ve been busily stitching away on my secret, but I did get one evening to spend on Awake the Dawning Day, so here is my progress:


As you can see, I’m nearly, nearly finished this one – I have just a few words, some initials, the year, and 85 eyelet stitches (yes, sadly, I did count them!). I’m hoping that a little applied effort in between secret stitches will see this one finished off by the end of the summer.

And, finally, because it wouldn't be a new month without a goal round-up!, goals achieved (or not, in fact) for June and proposed for July:

SBEBB ABC - finish stitching, finish and send – YES Hazel received this
Fair & Square Round 7 - stitch and send – YES Mercy received this
The other gift - finish and send – NO, still not managed to finish it
Thursdays - Snowbird SAL - keep stitching Paradigm Lost – NO, sadly did not put one stitch into PL this month
Christmas ornament mini-SAL with Leena - finish stitching the big ornament from May – YES, hurrah, achieved a goal!
Keep stitching Awake the Dawning Day – YES
Keep stitching Spanish Wine – NO
Keep stitching the secret project – YES
Finish at least one thing from the 'to be finished' drawer – NO
Quilt - carry on with Vintage Holiday quilt (sashing and corner blocks) – NO, didn’t get around to any quilting in June
Quilt - start X-Box quilt – NO
Quilt - finish patchwork bag – NO

As you can see, it was a busy busy month for me, and not much of it stitching or quilting! Hopefully July will be a calmer month, and I will be more productive. Here’s what I’m hoping to achieve:

Stitch, finish and send a birthday gift
The other gift – finish and send
Thursdays – Snowbird SAL – keep stitching Paradigm Lost
Christmas ornament mini-SAL with Leena
Keep stitching Awake the Dawning Day
Keep stitching Spanish Wine
Finish the secret stitching
Start the other exchange piece
Finish one item from the ‘to be finished’ drawer
Quilt – carry on with Vintage Holiday quilt
Quilt – carry on with patchwork bag
Quilt – start Xbox quilt

Happy stitching!

Been Awhile

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted - a combination of travel and work still being a teensy bit out of control (don't I sound like a broken record...).

But, here is a quick update for you on what I've been up to (of what I can share anyway!).

Firstly, I got a message from Suzanne on the Crazy Exchange that she received the floss tag I sent to her in return for the bourse she sent me earlier this month. I used a La-D-Da freebie for the front, and stitched an 'S' from an A Mon Ami Pierre alphabet on the back - 'S' is perfect as it represents the both of us.

Design: La-D-Da 'Rose' freebie on front, AMAP alphabet 'S' on back

Floss: GAST as charted, with one Le Fil Atalie substitution

Linen: 40ct Georgia Clay by Silkweaver

Next, H gave me the second part of my birthday present this weekend - I know my birthday was now several weeks ago, but he wanted to take me to our local quilting shop and treat me, and unfortunately the shop is only open Mondays to Fridays, making it impossible for me to ever get there (they close before I leave work in London, and the shop is in Oxfordshire!). Rustic Angels is a wonderful little shop about 15 minutes' drive from us, and I had been looking forward to their open day this weekend for a good month at least! I browsed, compared, matched, ooh-ed and ah-ed over their models and samples and displays, and finally chose the following, along with 2 quilting rulers big enough to let me square up the 14" blocks I'm currently making (sorry for the blurry photos - I only realised after I've put all the fabric away!)

I have a quilt in mind for most of this, particularly the blues and creams, which I've decided to call the X-Box quilt and will hopefully be able to start in June. Of course, I should finish the other quilt top first, but you know how it is...

Last night, whilst watching Britain's Got Talent (I am so addicted to these programmes, and frankly H is at least as addicted as me, if not more so!), I stitched a bit on Awake the Dawning Day. Whoop whoop, I'm on to the words! The end is nearly in sight!

And, finally, here is this month's goal review. I didn't do so well against last month's goals as I would have liked, but nevermind, sadly I can't spend every spare waking moment stitching and quilting :)

Stitch, finish and send Suzanne’s return Crazy Exchange - YES! And Suzanne received it
Stitch, finish and send the HOE Freebie exchange - YES! Posted by the deadline
Stitch the SBEBB ABC exchange - YES!
Thursdays – Snowbird SAL – keep stitching Paradigm Lost - YES! Well, most Thursdays, anyway...
Christmas ornament mini-SAL with Leena – stitch at least one ornament - SORT OF - I stitched half a really big one, to be finished in June
Keep stitching the other gift - YES! I finished stitching it, and just need to finish and send it
Keep stitching Awake the Dawning Day - YES!
Keep stitching Spanish Wine - YES!
Keep stitching the secret project - YES!
Finish at least one thing from the ‘to be finished’ drawer - YES! Ah, that's the thing that I keep forgetting to show you - photos below!
Quilt – start the sashing and corner blocks - NO, but now that I have the new rulers, I can keep going with this
Make a quilted patchwork bag - SORT OF - I cut and sewed together lots of blocks, but haven't yet ordered the walking foot for my machine to quilt the bag - this is the final part of H's birthday present to me.

GOALS FOR JUNE:

SBEBB ABC - finish stitching, finish and send

Fair & Square Round 7 - stitch and send

The other gift - finish and send

Thursdays - Snowbird SAL - keep stitching Paradigm Lost

Christmas ornament mini-SAL with Leena - finish stitching the big ornament from May

Keep stitching Awake the Dawning Day

Keep stitching Spanish Wine

Keep stitching the secret project

Finish at least one thing from the 'to be finished' drawer

Quilt - carry on with Vintage Holiday quilt (sashing and corner blocks)

Quilt - start X-Box quilt

Quilt - finish patchwork bag

Ha ha, I'll be amazed if I manage all that, especially as 2 of my weekends in June are going to be spent at hen weekends in Devon and then Galway! Good to have a stretch challenge ;)

Here are the phtoos of my drawer finish for this month: I finished up the very first Fair & Square sqaures that I received from Sue Wild (no blog) - they are a Just Nan design, and I decided to have a go at a triangular scissors case finish, as instructed so ably by Linda here. I discovered as I was doing the backstitch that it turns out the linen that Sue used was an uneven weave (LOL, that took a bit of headscratching and re-counting before I worked that one out!) so the scissor case isn't 100% symmetrical - part of its charm, I'm sure you'll agree! You can see I used the signature squares to line the inside.

Right, well, I'm amazed you got this far, so thanks for bearing with me :)

Happy stitching!

Happy Belated Birthday to ME!

Happy birthday to me! It was my birthday yesterday (I've reached 34, I cannot believe it!), and I had a wonderful day with lots of lovely little presents, and H took me out for a yummy dinner last night to celebrate. In fact it was a double celebration as he passed his driving test earlier in the afternoon - well done to him!!

I have seen that Mylene received the SBEBB Garden Exchange that I sent her - I stitched her Peony by Country Cottage Needleworks and finished it into a pinkeep. Now, clearly I on the one hand I did my research well, because Mylene loves CCN, but on the other hand I was somewhat disappointed in myself to hear that she had received the exact same design, also finished as a pinkeep, for her birthday last year. So somehow I feel I've short-changed her - sorry about that Mylene, I intend to do something about it over the coming months, hope you don't mind waiting! Here is the pinkeep I sent her:

Peony - Country Cottage Needleworks/Crescent Colours Threadpack

Linen: 32ct Antique Rose by Stitches 'n' Spice

Floss: Crescent Colours as charted

I have been very busy with stitching secret things and also extremely busy at work. In fact chaotically and quite exhaustingly busy at work :( So I haven't been posting as much as normal. I did, however, find time to put in a few stitches on Awake the Dawning Day, and would you believe I have finally finished the house - what a big job that was! So now I just have a couple of birds to finish off, the eyelet border and all the text, which actually feels like I'm nearly done. Definitely this will get finished 'soon' (like before autumn...).



Happy stitching!

Oh My, It's a Long One! (With LOTS Of Photos

It seems like an age ago, but our short break to the Cotswolds last weekend was amazing – the weather didn’t do much, but the village we stayed in was so peaceful and small, we couldn’t help but relax. H mastered the woodstove, and I got to be toasty warm for 4 days (this is a bonus, as my hands and feet are usually like blocks of ice, regardless of the season).

Our cottage (above), below, a view across the fields to the village

Below: looking up the only street in the village

And, of course because I had 4 days at my leisure, I found lots of time for stitching – I managed to finish three, yes THREE ornaments for the mini-SAL that Leena and I have together:

Heart in Hand - Winter Forest

Sam Sarah: Winter Love

Prairie Schooler: Blackwork Angel (with trumpet)

The holiday does seem like a while ago because I’ve been so hideously busy at work, but I was cheered up immensely by finding a mystery package on the doorstep this evening on my way in from work – Suzanne sent me this adorable bourse as a Crazy Exchange, so now I have 30 days to send her back something nice. I will get my needle to the ready! Here is the bourse, and also the extra goodies she put into the parcel for me – thank you so much Suzanne!







I heard from Becky K that she received the giveaway treat that she won about a month ago – sadly, her father passed on this week, so she has not been posting much. My thoughts are with you Becky at this difficult time. But she did find time to send me a very nice email to thank me for the floss tag I made her (but really, it’s me should be thanking her for reading my blog, LOL!). It’s a C Mon Monde design from Boite a Tresors, and the B on the reverse is from an A Mon Ami Pierre alphabet. I think purple is a big favourite of Becky’s, so I changed the pattern to suit.





I also heard that Melissa received the Fair & Square Round 6 squares that I posted her – these are one of the extra little pillow designs from one of the LHN Dear Diary series.


Oh, and I had a wonderful email from Heather letting me know that she got her birthday parcel from me – she was my partner for the Stitching Bloggers’ Birthday Club this year. It was a real delight getting to know her on her blog, and following her quilting and stitching exploits. Check out her blog for an extremely cute photo of her daughter burrowing into some of the extras I put in the parcel for her :) I stitched her the In My Garden needleroll by Shepherd’s Bush.


And, speaking of Heather and quilting, I managed to find some time to quilt this weekend, and finished off my first 6 blocks – whoop whoop! So now I have just to square them up, add sashing and corner blocks, and 3 borders. It’s a snap, eh?!

Last week I managed to find time to stitch a bit on both Awake the Dawning Day and Spanish Wine – my two long term projects (along with Paradigm Lost) which really aren’t that big, but which sadly I don’t seem to be able to find much time for. I seem to be always stitching for exchanges or other people, so stuff for me tends to quickly make it to the bottom of the pile!

And, lastly (sorry, I did say it was going to be a long one!) here is the progress from my last session with Paradigm Lost, which was actually now nearly 10 days ago as I was working late this past Thursday night and didn’t have time to haul it out.


Thanks for bearing with me for this long – it’s difficult to find time to stitch, blog, clean house, work full time, commute, bake, cook, quilt and have 3-hour conversations on the phone with my sister – I don’t know how we all manage!! :)

Happy stitching!

Here's to Ewe Vonna

I had a very kind email from Vonna to let me know that the Here’s to Ewe exchange I sent has landed with her. I hope that she is able to get some good photos – in my rush to re-stitch this because I messed up the finishing the first time round (I didn’t centre the tin top properly – but I’ve kept it to finish one day for myself, factory second, ha ha) I didn’t remember to take any photos! So you’ll have to believe me when I say it was a tin finish :) This is the photo of the original stitching, before I started finishing it

I also was inspired by CathyMK’s blog to try my hand at a bit of dollmaking – Cathy’s lamb is here and here is ‘Mama Sheep’ (as named by Vonna’s daughter). I had difficulty in making myself actually put her in the parcel!



I finished stitching my SBEBB Garden Exchange piece, and have even managed to get a few stitches in on Awake the Dawning Day. It has been a while since I posted a photo of ADD, so here’s one more to remind you what it looks like than to show any progress (a bit more house, a bit more door – you wouldn’t notice really!). Someone asked what fibres I’m using: the answer is the charted Weeks floss.



Happy stitching!

GIVEAWAY!

Brrrr – it was really cold this weekend – we had snow flurries and hail flurries, mixed in with sun (albeit cold wintry sun) and rain all weekend. So my plans to get out into the garden and tidy that up and our idea of going golfing – nope, all didn’t happen. So the weekend became mostly about indoor pursuits – stitching, quilting, sewing, baking, (and, yes, the ubiquitous laundry), and of course sampling the gorgeous Easter egg that the Easter bunny brought! How did he know my exact favourite?? :)

Now, I believe I may have mentioned recently that my blogaversary is upcoming…well, I didn’t manage to post on the actual day (which was Saturday just gone) – but don’t think I’ve forgotten! And because it’s all of YOU who make blogging so rewarding (let’s face it, I’d be doing the stitching anyway!), I think you should be the ones to get a big thank-you, so I think a giveaway is in order, don’t you? If you want to be entered in the draw for a stitched item (which I have yet to stitch, so I can’t tell you much about it at this point LOL) to help me celebrate one whole, full, satisfying and very exciting year of blogging, leave a comment on this post and I’ll enter you in the draw! H will help me draw names on Sunday morning (30th March) UK time, so you have until then to enter (he likes his sleep, so it’s likely to be quite late morning LOL). Good luck!

Now, Nicki and I agreed that we were going to use the Easter weekend to, in her case catch up with her quilting project(s), and in my case start my very first ever quilting project. And I have to say it was quite a learning curve! I managed to rack up about 5 hours on the phone over several days with my mum, my personal quilting guru. I thank the stars for digital cameras and instant messaging, because we spent a lot of time saying ‘What? I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me …MSN me a photo of what you’re talking about.’ Here is what I managed to achieve – 6 blocks that are nearly complete. I have yet to attach the last two strips to the top and bottom of the block, and then it’s on to the sashing and corner blocks (yes, you can see I’ve been trying to pick up the lingo from my mum as well!). I am only praying at this point that the blocks are somewhat straight, or I’m going to have to claim that it was a crazy quilt pattern to start with!


In addition to quilting, I managed to put in a few stitches on both ADD and PL, but the emphasis is definitely on ‘few’ – even with side-by-side ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos you’d be hard pressed to identify any progress – so I’m just telling you about it, and not posting any photos. Hopefully next time with each of these I’ll make better progress and have something worth showing!

Much of the weekend was spent sewing and stitching for exchanges – my HOE biscornu and SBEBB Spring Quaker were posted, my personal exchange with Becky is finished ready to post, SBEBB Here’s to Ewe is stitched and sewed and ready to finish – so I haven’t much in the way of photos that I can yet share. I’m going to slow down on exchanges after April to focus on one bigger project. I haven’t decided whether I’ll be posting about it or not (as it’s meant to be a surprise), but I think perhaps I might – you’ll see soon enough :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break – happy stitching!

A New Look for Spring!

Well, I live in hope anyway. But that grey was getting a bit dreary, and so I've gone for a new look.


Now I haven't managed to post for a few days (okay more than a week) because I've been finishing secret stitching projects - none of them have arrived, so I'm sorry but that's just going to have to remain a secret for a little bit longer. I hope to update you soon!


In the mists of time (last week), I did get around to doing a bit of stitching on Awake the Dawning Day, and I don't think I posted about it, so here it is: I stitched a little bit on Awake the Dawning Day! I'm aiming to stitch this at least once a month, so that is all done and dusted. Here is my progress, but you'd probably have to have the last progress photo right beside it in order to work out what has happened - essentially a lot of stitching on the house which isn't too interesting but has the plus side of being quite straightforward when you're not concentrating 100% on your stitching and devoting some of your interest on, say, Law & Order, or CSI.




Last week I also did my weekly Snowbird stitch on Paradigm Lost. It is progressing. Slowly. In fact, I believe that I started it nearly a year ago now, although I didn't seriously devote much time to it before this SAL started at the beginning of November. I am STILL stitching the endless motif on the right hand side - but the end is very nearly in sight. I should have all the cross stitches in this week - and then it's on to a sizeable backstitching job. Maybe a week or two left on it? Then, on to PAGE FOUR - Hurrah!



And, since it's February, and Nashville, I have been treating myself to a bit of stash recently - in a controlled manner! So I'm hoping for a few orders to arrive and I'll share that with you. I don't think I've shared any of my stash acquisition with you for ages. Don't worry, I haven't been neglecting my stash :)


Now, my back has been playing up most horrendously this week, but no sympathy please because the physio has given me a perfectly simple, straightforward, quick and easy set of exercises which really work and take the pain away like magic. As long as I do them every day, that is. Which I kind of haven't. So I'm off to contort myself womanfully, and hope that my back settles down very soon!


Happy stitching!