Her Needle was Merely a Blur...

*Blogger wouldn't let me post upload yesterday, so this will be a very photo-filled post (and possibly a long one!)*

Saturday is Paradigm Lost, and I haven't managed to stitch on PL for a couple of weeks I think - too much going on on a Saturday! This Saturday, H and I were planning on playing a bit of golf. However, plans went out the window following his work outing on Friday night. It seems that I should be more careful when agreeing to his having fun with his workmates - last time he ended up in a freezing cold lake in April, and subsequently had a head cold and fever for a few days. This time, they decided that an indoor pursuit might be a better choice, so they headed off after work on Friday for a go-karting session. It turns out that there is a good reason why H doesn't have a driving license for the 'real' roads - I think the adjectives 'flagrant' 'kamikaze-style' and 'foolhardy' may have been bandied about during his laps, (as well as the noun 'revenge', which may explain the cornucopia of bruises he is now sporting all over his legs, arms and back!). So golf, although is not a particularly physically demanding game, was clearly out of the question from first thing on Saturday! So, PL it was :) I finished off the motif I was working on - the large central one - which means I have nearly completed page 2 (phew). The remaining motif on pages 1/2 spans the pages (and also down onto pages 4/5 - it's a biggie), so we'll see how I get on with this. I've also added a close-up of the central motif.

Sunday saw H heading off once more to Dublin for meetings early on Monday morning, so after I had dropped him at Heathrow, I had the remainder of the day to stitch away to my heart's content. The beautiful weather of Saturday didn't last either, so it was an easy choice between stitching (dry) and garden (wet) on Sunday! First of all I finished (hurrah!) Queen Anne's Lace pincushion! It's a bit of a funny size - a bit small for a pincushion, and a bit big for a scissor fob, but I had decided to finish it as a scissor fob regardless, and got out all the threads I was going to need to make a really snazzy green and pink cord and matching tassel. And then, steaming ahead, and excited about the prospect of finishing this, I started stitching together the first side of the fob, and then the second, and then the third, and then...and then I realised that I had completely forgotten to attach the cord and tassel (in fact I had completely forgotten to even make the cord and tassel!), so I decided that it wouldn't be a fob after all, but a pincushion as originally intended. Note to self - slow down a bit when doing finishing! Here it is:

Queen Anne's Lace Pincushion by Cat's Whiskers

28ct Cashel Linen - Platinum

Threads - DMC Linen as charted

Feeling quite inspired by my finish, I picked up Love Is Patient, determined to put in the final few stitches on this as well - which I did do, another finish! Although, having recently seen all the wonderful options for finishing on Focus on Finishing and on all of your inspiring blogs, I'm of two (or three or four) minds about how to finish this one: as a pillow? frame it?, as a fabric basket? maybe even a large flat fold? - it's only about 8" x 6" so it isn't that big... if you have any thoughts, do let me know!

Love Is Patient by La-D-Da

36ct Examplar linen - Lakeside Linens

Crescent Colours threads as charted

And it wasn't even close to bedtime! So I carried on with Spanish Wine - finishing the interior eyelet border (yay!) and starting the corners, one of which I finished (top R), and one of which I nearly finished (top L) - these are all in double running stitch, which looks fantastic (though I do say it myself) but which I'm finding very time consuming, working out a 'there and back' path (probably because I'm very new to this stitch). But loving this project as ever!

And, finally, after a lonely supper (LOL, self-pity is not my style :) I decided to round out my stitching marathon with Awake the Dawning Day - the vines around the house are getting there. It's quite a difference hopping from Spanish Wine, which is 36ct, to ADD, which is 28ct!

Monday - Northern Lights - I managed to finish the esker band and half of the iceberg band - the rather large gap between them is for a completely beaded band, and because this is such a long sampler, I intend to put the beads on last of all.

Phew - think that's enough for today :) Happy stitching!

Grump Grump Grump

Monday has so far been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and this is the fourth time I have tried to post and Blogger is BEING DIM. So I'm very grumpy and my Monday is going poorly, so I'm just going to post a couple of photos and hope I am in a mood to tease Blogger into working properly tomorrow.

I Did It!

I finished my very first tin top! Okay, it certainly isn't perfect. In fact you could probably apply the adjectives 'lopsided', 'uneven' and 'amateurish', but frankly I don't care because I managed to do it all by myself! With a little help from H (now a cording master) and from some extremely helpful hints, tips and how-to's that I have discovered on various blogs out there in blogland. Actually that sounds more like a team effort, although I will of course accept all the blame for the imperfections myself :) (Also, please ignore the dust on my windowsill, thank you.) I am now using the tin as a project box for the current small that I'm working on.

Friday I stitched a bit on Love Is Patient, and have now completed three lines of the verse (not including the gold diamonds that separate the phrases). I think I might finish this project in August, and I can't wait to have it framed up and hung on our wall.

H was over in Dublin on Sunday learning more about this potential job. All is looking well there, although it doesn't look as if anything is going to happen imminently. So we'll be here for another few months anyway! I had a quiet Sunday afternoon and evening, and worked on Paradigm Lost. I definitely won't achieve my goal of completing the first 2 pages of this design by the end of July, but I'm pleased with my progress nonetheless.

The weather is improving here, so I'm hopeful that we might actually get out on the golf course this weekend for the first time in about 8 weeks. Fingers crossed for at least a decent August after the weather havoc of July...

Happy stitching!

Harry Potter Weekend

So, as you probably know if you have children, or if like to read books (or if you watch the news) the latest and final instalment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released on Saturday. I therefore spent Friday reading the sixth book (so I was completely reminded of all the action and plots leading into the final book) and then spent all of Saturday (until about 2am) reading the new book. Needless to say, it was great. I think you either love Harry or you don't, and I am definitely in the former camp.

So I haven't much stitching to update you on. I did get out my needle on Sunday and lazily stitched away in front of the British Open coverage, which was another wonderful event this weekend given that H is over the moon that Padraig Harrington has won the Open for a jubilant Ireland! In between shots I worked away on the tin top that I am doing, and which is now complete and ready to finish. I need to pick up a few bits and bobs for finishing, which I will probably do that later in the week. For now, here is a photo of the finished stitching:

Shepherd's Bush - Gathered Hours Pincushion (to be finished as tin top)

stitched on 32ct Kiwi Illusions Bourbon 'n' Cola from Country Stitch

using suggested DMC

Once that was completed, I picked up Love Is Patient, as I'd not stitched it on Friday, and it's getting quite close to finishing. And a finish means a new start! So I've stitched all the border details, leaving only the verse to complete plus one flower inside the heart border. I should finish this in no time. Such a lovely design, I realy enjoy this one. (I know, I say that all the time.)

Happy stitching to you all - our thoughts are with those in the UK who are affected by the terrible flooding.

Carefully Counting 1, 2, 3

I spent Sunday afternoon carefully counting, then carefully frogging, then carefully re-counting and then carefully re-stitching, and now Spanish Wine is back on track - hurrah! In all honesty, it didn't take too much time to 'repair' my mistake, and now it's all looking lovely, if I do say so myself (although I'm still working on the inner border, so there still isn't much to see!). The inner border is all eyelets, so am carefully putting these in (no sense in making the same mistake twice!).

And, even better, I spent Sunday morning in FINISHING Silver Needle! I carefully threaded the last few beads on, so here it is in its finished (albeit unframed) glory:

This is wonderful news as I have a short attention span, and it means that I can start a new project, something I love to do, almost more than finishing :) That will be on Tuesday, so I can't wait to sift through my stash and figure out what I'm going to do next.

I also spent some time this weekend on two other WIPs - Love is Patient, in which my inability to count also came to the fore, and has necessitated me not quite following the chart for the lower right hand corner, but which hopefully you wouldn't know the difference unless you were comparing stitch-by-stitch to the chart (and this is what I couldn't be bothered to do, and thus why I didn't frog it and correctly re-stitch wherever it was I went off-plan. Hopefully I will not live to regret this carefree decision!). But I have now finished both the outer border and the inner heart border for this project, as well as charting our (mine and H's) initials in the bottom left corner, so it does feel as if I've come a long way in a short time on this one. In case you are wondering, I have stitched 2006 (rather than 2007) because that is the year that H and I got married, and the verse which will eventually appear in the heart is adapted from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, which was one of the readings that we had at our wedding.

And, finally, my entire Saturday, when not watching Jack Bauer wrestle with the forces of evil on 24 (we watched the last half of series 5 most of the weekend), was devoted to Paradigm Lost. Keeping in mind my attention span, I am so far pleased to say I actually look forward to picking this up every week, long may it continue (and, according to Carol who has recently finished PL herself - and beautifully I might add - it will indeed continue for a long, long time...).

Oh - and one final thing. The tin that I am using for the Shepherd's Bush tin top that is currently my Wednesday project is a small tin of sweets purchased at Lidl for a whopping 79p. They are round gold-coloured tins about 4.5 inches in diameter, so could be used for small round or square designs. Unfortunately we don't get Altoids over here, so finding suitable tins can be a struggle! The Lidl sweets tin tip was given to me by the lovely Leena - and while I am at it, I'm going to give a freebie plug (!) to Leena's shop, Violarium, which is WONDERFUL!

Hope you all had happy weekends and are having much better weather than we are! Happy stitching!

Big Update with Lots of Photos!

I've been quiet for a few days as I've had a couple of days' holiday - relaxing and cleaning and shopping and stitching. It's been remarkably refreshing not thinking about work! But now I'm back (and wishing quite hard that my short break wasn't over - I keep telling H it is time to retire, but somehow it hasn't happened yet LOL!)

So this is what I've been up to stitching-wise. I've nearly finished the inner heart border on Love Is Patient - although I had a minor heart attack which I've decided I will work around (rather than frogging). I was carefully stitching one row of the border and then diligently crossing it off on my chart, and it was all fine on the left hand side of the chart/heart, but on the right side, I got to the bottom to join them up and still had 2 rows left (allegedly) on my chart! Whoops! So I've just carried on and sort of faked it, and as long as the central wording doesn't get in the way, it should be all fine. It could all get interesting once I start the middle bit though!

I also got nearly done on the assisi pincushion that I am making for my sister's birthday. Unfortunately, it seems that I need 5 yards plus 8 inches of the Dinky Dye thread that I am using, so although I have enough left for the remaining two tassels, I haven't got enough to wrap the bottoms of the tassels or attach the tassels to the pincushion! So for the moment, it looks rather forlorn. It also looks as if the pincushion is going to be late to her (Royal Mail and Canada Post both being what they are) as the thread is currently on backorder! I'm not too worried about it, especially as I am still waiting for my Christmas present from 1994...

I spent a whole day on Paradigm Lost this weekend, carefully stitching the large left-hand motif. I am really really enjoying this project, but it is so big that it will be quite a challenge - and quite a day when I actually finish it! I've pledged to finish all of pages one and two this month, and I'm about halfway there I reckon, hurrah! I think my camera doesn't really show the variegation of the thread brilliantly, so I've taken a close-up (bottom photo) of the motif I stitched. It's a bit blurry, but hopefully shows the colour a bit better.

I spent one of my holidays on Northern Lights - this project isn't so big as Paradigm Lost, but it's full of tricky stitches and frequent colour changes, so I find I refer to the chart about six times before each stab of the needle. Time consuming rather than large (although it will eventually stretch to 20 inches as you can see in the 2nd photo, so it isn't small by any means!). I managed to finish the blanket toss/Tlingit mask row (the brown circles), and then a row of cloudberries and blueberries. I managed half of the polar bear before I just couldn't bear to stitch any further with Wisper and had to put it down. Arrghh. Luckily, there isn't too much of it left... (the Wisper, not the project)

Lastly, I worked on Silver Needle, which I am SO CLOSE to finishing - I have just half a handful of beads to attach and that will be a celebration from me. On the upside though, the project I want to start next isn't quite kitted yet (still waiting for fabric), so there's a few extra days for it to (hopefully) arrive in the post!

Thanks for your patience in getting this far! Happy stitching!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Happy Canada Day all! There won't be much in the way of fireworks or celebrations here in Berkshire, but nevermind, we'll celebrate ourselves :)

Friday night I worked on Love is Patient - I'm really enjoying this as it's the first time I've stitched on a higher count fabric (36ct) and it looks really delicate doing stitching 1 over 2. I love the threads as well - Crescent Colours - they are deep, rich colours, which I love. Here is the progress:

Saturday morning brought Chris, our friendly postman, and his bag full of goodies for me - yes, the spoils of my recent stash-buying. Today it was a parcel from Naomi at Stitches and Spice in Australia, which included, from L-R below: 32ct Spice Blend Heritage; 36ct Spice Blend Sugar Cane Crunch; Mulberry Hand-dyed cotton; 32ct Spice Blend Tundra. I'm really pleased with them all, they are just gorgeous, and I can't recommend these guys enough :)

Saturday we had a very lazy day in front of the telly watching films one after the other - there was (yet again) drenching rain all day, so we just couldn't bring ourselves to get off the couch. It's a recurring theme for our weekends! I worked on Paradigm Lost, finally finishing the alphabet and going on to some of the smaller motifs.

And, finally, a goals update from June and for July

JUNE:

finish biscornu - check

finish scissor fob - check

finish Their Song - check

continue Silver Needle - check

continue Northern Lights - check

continue Paradigm Lost - check

continue Love Is Patient - check

start Spanish Wine - check

I think maybe I gave myself a too-easy task, seeing as I managed to achieve all my goals! So, for JULY:

finish pincushion

finish a second small

start a third small

finish Silver Needle, and start another project

continue Northern Lights

finish entire page 1 and page 2 of Paradigm Lost

continue Love Is Patient - finish outer border and heart border

continue Spanish Wine

Happy Canada Day and happy stitching all!

A Green Squiggle

Normally Wednesday is for small projects, but this week I've swapped it with Love is Patient because we're off to Dublin for a 30th birthday party for one of H's best friends. A small project I can bring with me without too much trouble, but this one is a bit big for the plane and to pack up just for the weekend. So I continued on the border and the heart shape, and introduced a new colour - 'Spinach' - in a squiggle on the right which will evolve into the stem of a flower eventually.

So with the trip, I won't be updating until next week when we get back, and hopefully with a bit more clarity on our proposed move to Dublin...

Happy weekend and happy stitching!

More Rain, More Stitching

The weather is proving to be quite unseasonably changeable, although I suppose with Wimbledon now upon us, the showers are to be expected. So with a partly gloomy, partly sunny weekend in prospect, we didn't make too many plans and mostly did household chores and shopping for the weekend. Such is life, these things always need to be done!

Friday night I worked on Love Is Patient, and have managed to get a large portion of the border done. No more words, but lots more border and further outline of the heart.

Also, on Friday night - yess! - more stash arrived on my doorstep. This time from Wye Needlework - the 3 Shepherd's Bush charts - and from Lekker Threads and the very nice Tina, the linen - 36ct Lakeside Linen in Bittersweet (the pinker one) and Strawflower (the creamier one).

This was immediately followed on Saturday morning (isn't Saturday morning delivery a great old thing? And unfortunately they are thinking of taking it away...) - the wonderful Karen from Millennia Designs sent through some beautiful threads, and a package from Naomi at Stitches and Spice in Australia arrived containing the fabrics for this month's Gift of Stitching antique pincushions - the fabric is Antique Rose and Hannah's Rose (the darker). Both are absolutely gorgeous.

My Saturday stitching was on Paradigm Lost. I'm finding this difficult to photograph effectively, and the variegation of the thread doesn't really show up. So here is what the thread should look like (courtesy of Crescent Colours):

Bejeweled

Anyway, here is my progress thus far...so NEARLY done the whole alphabet!

On Saturday afternoon, we were going to walk up to a plant sale being held at the local manor house - but it started raining again, so we drove. There are definitely some things I do love about England, such as driving half a mile out of the village and finding yourself here:

We came away with a single canna, which I'll pot on this afternoon.

Sunday was a great day, because I finished my very first biscornu!! Here it is in all it's glory:

Biscornu - freebie design here from Better Homes and Gardens

Stitched on 28ct Permin/Wichelt in Lambswool

Fibers: Needle Necessities Island Butterfly (#1343)

We spent the afternoon on the sofa, half watching the England/West Indies cricket test, half watching the F1 race from Indianapolis, and I was also half paying attention to stitching on Silver Needle - luckily no harm done from the lack of total concentration.

And phew, that's about it. I really must remember to bring my camera lead home so that I can try and blog over the weekend, otherwise my Monday posts end up being VERY LONG!

Happy stitching!

Busy Week!

It's been a hectic few days, but here I am to update you on my progress over the weekend.

Friday is Love is Patient, and I have managed to stitch the first few words on this design, as well as put a significant(ish) dent into the heart shape around all the words. This is tricky stitching, my first attempt at 36ct linen, and this design entails very careful counting. I stitch a short row, whip out my highlighter, mark off the stitches on my blown-up image of the design (the original was printed so small that it gave me a headache before I even started), and then pick up the needle again. I find myself squinting a lot. Attractive, I'm sure. But it's worth it because the threads in this design are so gorgeous (Crescent Colours in beautiful rich tones), and of course the verse is part of a reading that we had at our wedding.

Then on Saturday, the grey and dreary weather persisted so we didn't get up to much bar our weekly trek to Sainsbury's. (During which trip we discovered pear cider! It isn't quite like BC pear cider, and in fact it tastes a little more like syrup than pears. But nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose.) On our return, I renewed my efforts on Paradigm Lost, and nearly - o so nearly - finished the first row of the alphabet, all the way to starting the 'T', leaving me only that and the 'U' and a flower motif before going to the next 'row'. This is a really enjoyable project, but it's slow going. (This is a theme that I'm noticing about all my stitching projects. I am resigned to being slow. Unfortunately the list of projects that I'd like to stitch is careering somewhat out of control...)

So Sunday, we had grand plans to go out and challenge the golf course again, but somehow the drizzle wasn't encouraging, and it was so muggy...so yes, we pottered around the house again. Weekends are for relaxing right? I think we'll have to push ourselves out the door a bit more though, much as I love curling up on the couch with the remote and my stitching. In the morning I finished off the last few stitches on the biscornu I'm doing (again, slowly!), which means that come Wednesday I'll be doing the 'finish finishing', which I'm quite looking forward to, my first ever biscornu.

Sunday night, I decided to press on with Their Song, as I am so nearing a finish. I've decided to do only a 6-day rotation so that I either can catch up with missed stitching at the weekend, or really go for it on something that I'm nearly done. I'd run out of WDW Moss for this design, and my order hadn't arrived yet, so I concentrated on all the others colours, and now I'm left with only (lots of) Moss stitches and a few Havana (brown) stitches. I'm feeling quite proud of this project - I'm definitely looking forward to the next Loose Feathers design.

And that was it really for the weekend. Little sun, little exercise, lots of stitching, lots of films watched. A nice dinner with some friends on Saturday night. Can't complain I suppose.

Last night (Monday) I carried on with Northern Lights, finishing the backstitching on the eagle and completing the next row, which was all satin stitches in 'Inuit colours' rather than being anything tangibly representatitve of the North. The next band is the Alaskan Pipeline - looks like a quick one as it's simply long and skinny :) I've lent my camera to a friend so she can take photos of her car to put on eBay (long story), so hopefully will have photos of this for tomorrow.

Happy stitching!

A Busy Weekend

Phew. What a busy weekend we've just had!

First, on Friday, I came home after a busy day of work to find 2 wonderful packages on the doorstep - having just got a nice little bonus from work, I had decided to treat myself to a bit of stash shopping - so there are a few more packages soon on the way :) Friday's post included these lovely fabrics from Sew & So:

L-R 40ct cream, 36ct Antique White, 32ct Antique White, 32ct Confederate Grey, 32ct Misty Blue, 28ct Raw, 28ct Light Sand, 28ct Light Mocha, 28ct Confederate Grey, 28ct Sage (not from memory, I may add)

After the fun of opening this parcel, I carried on with Paradigm Lost, and managed an H, an I, a J and half a K - I think I might try and stitch this on a Saturday or a Sunday, as doing an hour here or an hour there just seems to get me nowhere. This is more likely due to my slow stitching than any design flaw!

Saturday morning I spent with the second of Friday's packages - some beautiful scissors from the wonderful Leena and her shop Violarium. I've used these to finish the Heart Throb scissor fob - my first ever attempt at such a thing - and I'm immensely pleased with the results:

Front is stitched on 32ct cream with recommended DMC fibres, back is stitched on 32ct Permin/Wichelt English Rose with Silk 'n' Colours Pink Elephant

The rest of Saturday was spent in finally building the BBQ - which took a surprising amount of time, but is done done done! I picked up Love Is Patient that evening, and carried on with that. Previously it had just been one straight line, and now it's several. Plus a large red area which, believe it or not, will be the top left part of a big red heart, but currently looks more like a looming eyebrow. So I've added a photo below, but it isn't really much to look at yet:

And then on Sunday, after a wonderful round of golf (ok, actually half a round of wonderful golf followed by half a round with quite a bit of swearing and tantrum-throwing by my good self, having lost several balls and found a really irritating creek which insisted on meandering through the fairway exactly where my ball kept landing - yes on 3 holes in a row), H manfully fired up the new BBQ and cooked us a delicious dinner. And I sat down to my final stitching session of the weekend, and carried on with Their Song. I just love this design and am really looking forward to the next Loose Feathers instalment!

I hope you all had wonderful weekends and enjoyed the weather as much as we did - happy stitching!