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!

Even More Stash

Firstly, I must apologise to everyone - I've been quite distracted and busy, so haven't been reading your blogs - but I should be back on track and catching up very shortly!

Another lovely parcel arrived in the post last night from Countrystitch, in New Zealand. I wanted to try their fabrics, so ordered several different 32ct fabrics - they do a sort of 'grab bag' based on the colours of the seasons, so I chose Autumn, as well as a small piece of their Kiwi Illusions Acorn, and this is what arrived:

L-R: Acorn, Rustic Glow, Bourbon 'n' Cola, Pirongia Mist, Feijoa

The Acorn isn't nearly so dark IRL. I can't wait to use them!

I didn't do any stitching on Monday night - I was feeling tired rather than inspired, so Northern Lights will have to sit patiently until next week. Tuesday is Silver Needle, so I carried on with the v e r y s l o w smyrna stitches in the final flower band - it felt like I really didn't get much done, although I am now nearly finished with these small, time-consuming stitches. Also, to be fair, I wasn't concentrating 100% on my stitching as we received the first 2 DVDs from series 5 of 24 in the post yesterday, so H would hear of nothing else but putting it straight on and watching all 4 episodes!

Happy Independence Day to our American friends, and happy stitching all!

Pyjamas

Yes, Sunday was also spent in pyjamas. There is nothing I love more on a wet, rainy weekend than staying inside in my pyjamas and doing absolutely nothing active whatsoever. And the good news is, I'm winnning over H to love the same! Hurrah!

Sunday qualified under 'wet' and 'rainy', so we caught up on lots of films, and I stitched happily away on the Assisi Pincushion I'm working on (and have now finished stitching), and Silver Needle, which I'm getting darn near finishing.

With the stitching done, I just need to sew the pincushion all up and stuff it and make the tassel things for the corners - I thought I would experiment with tassels as I have never done one before. I realised that I don't have any coordinating thread, or even any pins to hold the stitched linen and the backing fabric together, so I'm off to a sewing notions shop tomorrow afternoon to pick up a few much-needed supplies. Photos hopefully soon of the completed article!

So with not enough key materials to finish this off, I thought I'd sneak in an extra session on Silver Needle, seeing as I've set a goal to finish it in July. I have only the bottom band to complete - it's quite fiddly however, with lots of tiny smyrna crosses - and then add in all the beads.

Happy stitching everyone!

O So Nearly There

I hurried home after work yesterday in anticipation of a parcel full of lovely stash, and of course it hasn't fit through the post box and tehre was a little collection card, so that particular pleasure will need to be deferred to this afternoon when I get home. Something to look forward to...

I got quite a bit done on Silver Needle last night - I've only a few rows left to finish this off, hurrah!

Hopefully some photos of some lovely stash for you all tomorrow!

Happy Stitching!

Abbreviated Sentence

Tuesday is Silver Needle, but Tuesday was also a summer hockey game this week, so I didn't have much time to spend on stitching. Instead, I spent 90 minutes running about quite red-faced in the evening, wondering just where all my fitness and stick skills have gone in the 3 months since the season ended! So I am vowing to eat a bit healthier and exercise a bit more in anticipation of next season. That will give me about 3 weeks of telling myself I will begin tomorrow, and then hopefully about 6 weeks of actual effort LOL :)

What little time I did have was spent in completing the 'shadow stitch' row (the pink row near the bottom) and then beginning the 3rd of 4 verse rows - it's not quite complete, missing 'neat' plus a flourish.

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!

Camera Safely Returned

My camera is safely back in my hands, and thus I can update you on stitching progress from Tuesday night, although there isn't truly much to show you! Silver Needle is progressing slowly at the moment - this band (about midway through the design) is a bit time-consuming, so I've already spent a couple of sessions on it and still am only partly done it. I may use my Sunday catch up session this week to press on...

And here is Monday's progress on Northern Lights - the band beneath the eagles is a 'design using colours common in Inuit art', and uses Thread Gatherer Silk 'n' Colours Granite, which is perfect for this and runs the gamut of smoky dark colours from gold to purple to green to navy. Sorry for the poor photo - I may have my camera back, but that doesn't mean I've worked out the best way to use it!

And - on a happy stash note! - the lovely Kate from Thread Bear sent me an email to let me know that the next Loose Feathers chart is in the post along with fabric, and Little House Needleworks' 'Home of a Needleworker' which I'm looking forward to receiving! And I have a sneaky feeling that an order which I put in with Wyndham Needleworks over a month ago is finally being shipped - hurrah! (May I just point out, no fault of theirs, as I had ordered a few things that ended up on back order, thus the long wait.)

Happy stitching!

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!

Half a Finish

Yippee, I finished the first half of my first biscornu last night! I did, however, forget to take a photo this morning in the rush to get out of the house and to the train, so apologies that no photographic evidence accompanies this post. I will post a photo this weekend if the hookup thingy for H's laptop is delivered today as it is supposed to be. Otherwise I will be silent until next week - and we've a Bank Holiday weekend this weekend, so I'm very much looking forward to that! Golfing, stitching, gardening, stitching, assembling the new BBQ, stitching, using the new BBQ, stitching - we have lots of relaxing plans!

Oh, I also started the next band on Silver Needle last night, but there isn't much to show yet so I'll post that once I get somewhere more tangible on it.

Great news came through yesterday - Jean from Attic Needlework has confirmed that she is going to re-send the large order of Crescent Colours 'Bejeweled' that has seemingly disappeared into thin air earlier in the spring, which is WONDERFUL news as means I can soon carry on with Paradigm Lost. And Kate from Thread Bear has confirmed that the new Loose Feathers chart is on the way. And I've also ordered the 'Home of a Needleworker' chart by LHN from Kate, so a bit of stash on the way - hurrah!

Happy stitching and have a wonderful weekend to everyone!

Checker Stitch and Snow!

Tuesday night was spent on Silver Needle. I'm finding it really difficult to photograph properly, I think because of the colour of the fabric, which is a dusky pink colour. The stitching never seems to show up properly. I'll have to try and get some brighter light I think. I finished off the lettering, and completed the row below, which is 'checker stitch', or alternating blocks of diagonal satin stitch and blocks of over-one stitching. Somehow what I've accomplished doesn't look like much, but it took hours!

Wednesday I moved on to Northern Lights, as I feel I've slightly abandoned it recently. I finished off the pine tree band, and began the snow band, which is about 1/3 complete now. The blue fabric as ever is difficult to count on, and I'm very glad it is 28-count and not any finer as already I have to stitch slowly on it or risk a banging headache. So this project is going to take me quite a while I suspect.

I haven't let this put me off, though, and have just put in an order with Janice from Traditional Stitches for another chart in the series - Northern Shield. That one is luckily on a much lighter linen.

We're heading off to Dublin tomorrow for H's birthday weekend - his 30th, of which I am fleetingly jealous, and then I remember that I'm only 32, so I can't really be too worried about it. If I was really truly concerned, I'd probably be investigating lots of really expensive skin cream, which I am determinedly avoiding for at least several more years! I'll post another update after the weekend, and maybe even a few birthday party snaps!