The Second Giveaway

In honour of my second blogoversary (last week) and only slightly later than advertised, here it is, my second giveaway!

Continuing on in the Spring theme (my very favourite season) (is everyone else's favourite season the same season their birthday is in?), I will be giving away this:

(please excuse the rubbish photographs, it was quite dark when I was attempting to capture these)






It's Little House Needleworks' 'Season of Hope' finished as a needlebook. I'm quite fond of this one, I nearly couldn't part with it :)

The giveaway is open to absolutely anyone, please simply leave a comment on this post by Sunday 5th April (I'll probably do the draw in the evening UK time). Good luck! And, of course, thank you as ever for stopping by and making blogging such fun :)

Happy stitching!

And the Winner Is...

Whoops, events slightly overtook me yesterday, so here is the result of my first blogoversary giveaway a day late.

With the help of H, I present to you the first winner:



Congratulations Staci and thank you all for entering :) I will post the second giveaway contest tomorrow - thanks as ever for visiting and making blogging such a great experience :)


Staci I have sent you an email to get your snail mail address.

Happy stitching

Christmas Stitching, Of Course

Well, it's that time again - time to stitch for Christmas! The little SAL that Leena and I stitch each third weekend of the month. Last month, I had intended to stitch Gabrielle's Star by La-D-Da, but was foiled in my plan by the online stitching shop where I bought the threads for the design - they only had 2 of the 3 threads I needed. But they have since arrived, so here it is, all stitched:

Design: Gabrielle's Star by La-D-Da (from JCS 2008)
Linen: 36ct Navy Bean - Lakeside Linens
Floss: NPI Silks as charted

Now that will be a challenge for a little later on in the year, to finish it in the star shape!

I also have had plenty of time to stitch over the past few days, because I've managed to strain the ligaments in my knee - hockey (field) is a great thing to keep you fit, but you do feel the knocks a little more the older you get I find! So I'm limping around the house, signed off work by the doctor for a few days, icing and taking ibuprofen and trying to keep it relatively rested. I always thought I'd fancy a bit of a holiday from work, but I'm finding that as I can't go anywhere (I can't drive, and I'm walking sooooooo slowly because I can't straighten or put much weight on my knee) that actually I'm a bit bored. Sod's law!

But I have had time to finish up the Just Nan Needlebook Fob that I started recently, and this is going to be another finishing challenge (for another day of course!):


Design: Hop! Needlebook Fob by Just Nan
Linen: 28ct Olive Grove by Country Stitch
Floss: DMC as charted (with one substitution - if you're stitching this, beware that I think 3865 is a misprint and the intended floss is 3864 judging by the photo on the front of the chart)

Well, it's time for me to go and get the bag of carrots and peas out of the freezer (who actually has proper icepacks??) and retire to my sofa (stitching in hand of course!). Don't forget that I'm doing a giveaway to be drawn on Saturday March 28th, entry open to all, so leave a comment on this post and good luck to you all :)

Happy stitching!

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

Happy blogoversary to me! It's been two years since I started this blog, and although I'm not the most regular of bloggers, I really enjoy being a stitching blogger, particularly in seeing what you're all up to :)


So, in celebration of my second blogoversary, I'm going to do a giveaway. In fact, I'm going to do two. But I'll do them one at a time, so for the first giveaway, leave a comment here on this post - it's open to anyone - and I'll draw names out of a hat next Saturday 28th March in the morning (UK time).


My first giveaway is this:




It's Brightneedle's 'Spring' design from Season Petites, and stitched 1/1 on 28ct pale lilac linen. Not a brilliant photo, but you get the idea.


So welcome to the giveaway; simply comment on this post and I'll post the winner (and the next giveaway) on Saturday 28th March.


Good luck and thank you for making blogging such fun :)

Happy stitching!

Glue, Tack, Baste, Cut, Measure, yes MEASURE, Stick, Snip

Bar my hockey game (3-1 loss, don’t ask), and a VERY expensive *tears* trip to the VW garage, I spent every spare second this weekend finishing up a number of smalls. I didn’t even take time to change out of my jammies on Sunday in the final push to get everything done (oh how I love a jammy Sunday). Finishing holds a fair amount of peril for me – I try to measure 4 times and cut once, but sometimes, sometimes I just measure wrong 4 times. You know? But I had given myself a deadline, and a list (something else I love, a list. And don’t even get me started on an alphabetised list – bliss) so I was determined to get everything done. And, I’m proud to say, with only a few minor hiccups, I did!

Now I can’t show you everything, because I posted off Edda’s return Crazy Exchange to her on Monday, and it wouldn’t be fair to ruin the surprise here. And I finished 2 secret stitchings which I will reveal to you very shortly (maybe even as soon as tomorrow).

But I can show you the last two.

First, it’s a needlebook that I stitched back in 2007. (Once they’re stitched, things tend to languish in my finishing drawer for quite some time before I finally get around to finishing them off. It’s just the way it is.) It’s not really very spring-y, but I will think of it as being ahead of the game for autumn 2009, rather than 2 years behind since autumn 2007.

Design: A Touch of Orange Needlebook by MTV Designs
Linen: 32ct Vintage Country Mocha
Floss: Gloriana, Atalie, Kreinik
Beads: Mill Hill

And, second, I finally got around to stitching the first Just Nan tin from last year – Hop. It stitched and finished up really quickly, which is encouraging me to stitch the rest of them this year too. (Yes, of course I’ve signed up on an auto for this year’s lot…I’ll stitch them next year.) I’m now stitching the companion piece, the Hop needlebook fob, so that will undoubtedly sit in my finishing drawer for a few months before I get around to completing it :)

Design: Hop Tin by Just Nan
Linen: 28ct Lilac Grove by Countrystitch
Floss: DMC
Beads/Charms: included with kit

Oh, and nearly forgot, I picked up Their Song from the framer’s – I was in two minds about whether to have a matt or not, went into the shop, chose a matt and a frame, walked out of the shop and immediately began second guessing myself. I nearly walked back in and cancelled the order. But in the end my pragmatic and shy streaks won (too time-consuming and would look like an eejit going straight back in the shop), and I’m delighted they did:


It was a bit expensive (as in, framing in general, not that this framer is any more or less expensive than the average), so I’m going to wait a bit before dropping in the next thing to be framed. Perhaps Awake the Dawning Day which I finished back in July 2008, to match Their Song?

Happy stitching!

PL Update

[I’ve been so busy that this update is a week late!] I had planned to stitch with the Let’s Stitch SAT group on Friday night (last week), but a late night in work and an early morning on Saturday to go play hockey meant that I didn’t really have much time to devote to Paradigm Lost. I did get a few stitches in and here’s a progress photo:


Also, I finally got Sailing Home back from the framers, and they did a wonderful job – I’d never used them before so that was a good find. My boss was delighted with the sampler as well, phew :) (Sorry for the inexpert photo, I realised I had forgotten to take one and so this is my attempt at work to get a photo of it.)



I’ve since taken ‘Their Song’ to the framers, which I finished back in 2007, so I will post a photo of it proudly hung in the house in a couple of weeks when it’s ready.

Happy stitching!

February's Christmas Ornament

Well, it was the third weekend in the month this weekend, so of course I made time to stitch a Christmas ornament, as I do with Leena every month. This month I’d been hoping to stitch Gabrielle’s Star, the La-D-Da ornament from the JCS 2008 ornament issue, so I ordered the floss (I love stitching with NPI silks as it is charted with), but then only two of the three colours arrived in the packet as the shop was out of stock on the third one. So back to the drawing board, and I thought I might as well get my sister’s ornament out of the way – two years ago she got ‘A partridge in a pear tree’ and last year she got ‘Two turtle doves’ so this year it was pretty clear that she will be getting ‘Three French hens’! I’m stitching the designs from Prairie Schooler’s 12 Days of Christmas design. At least that leaves me without any difficult decisions for her ornament for the next 9 years :)



Stitched on: 32ct Opalescent ‘Dune’ from Countrystitch
Stitched with: DMC as charted

Happy stitching!

Panic Stations!

Oh no, I just realised that I forgot to post photos of the wonderful Prairie Schooler Exchange I got from Chris QUITE SOME TIME AGO! I feel terrible; Chris I’m so sorry, I really thought I had posted it, but I think I must have posted it to the exchange blog and then not my own!

The clue is in the name, so Chris stitched me not only a wonderful mattress pinkeep, but a cute scissor fob as well using a Prairie Schooler design – I absolutely love what she’s stitched, it’s gorgeous :)

Check out the wonderful detail on the side of the mattress pinkeep:


I posted my Prairie Schooler exchange off to my partner a couple of weeks ago (Thurs 12/2/09) so hopefully it will turn up soon – otherwise I’ll be stitching a replacement!

Happy stitching!

P.S. To the person who anonymously berated me for not passing on the blog award I mentioned in the last post – if you’re not prepared to sign your name to your comment, then I’m not prepared to listen. You’ll probably be aghast to know that I have also broken every single chain letter ever sent to me, EVER. It’s my blog, and if I don’t feel like passing on an award, I bl**dy well won’t.

A Surprise!

We came home from Dublin on Sunday evening last week (sorry Edda it has taken me so long to post this – I know I’m very naughty!) – we’d been to see H’s family and help his brother celebrate his 30th birthday. I was very tired and…maybe even a bit cranky…until I found that a mysterious package had been delivered over the weekend. I wasn’t expecting anything, so was delighted to find this:

Edda had sent me a Crazy Exchange, and I love the bourse that she sent – it’s a lovely pattern (it’s Three Emblems freebie by Papillon Designs which can be found here if you're interested!) and Edda’s stitching and finishing is really lovely. Thanks to Edda also for including some lovely well-chosen extras for me. Now to get my head down and work out what to stitch back for Edda – by the Crazy Exchange rules, I have 30 days to ponder, stitch, finish and send something back to her. Needle to the ready!

I’ve also been busy with Paradigm Lost – my new plan of leaving it on the frame seems to be paying off as I’m really rattling forward with it. I am a lazy so-and-so, and often when PL is off the frame, I can’t be bothered to do all the set up and pull out all the bits and pieces I need to start stitching, and instead just pick up something small and easy. So on the upside, I’m stitching more on PL and really hope to meet my goal of finishing it this year. On the downside, my stitching chair and stool are now never tidy because I never put PL away, and I am not getting as many photos, because I can’t get a good shot when it’s on the frame. And which is also why I have no photo update for you...

And, finally, thanks have to go to Angela who nominated me for an award:

According to the rules of the award, I need to name 5 things I’m addicted to, so here goes:

- Acquiring stash – I just can’t seem to help myself. Now, I know I'm not alone in this one...
- Cigarettes – it’s up in the air whether this truly belongs on the list, as I gave up on Sunday evening a week ago, but I’d still LOVE to have one. Or two. Or…
- Driving – preferably with my iPod cranked up.
- Chocolate – yes, another obvious choice, but the truth is that I send H out for chocolate most evenings, and I just can’t seem to get by without at least a tiny taste. Dark for preference, and never Cadbury.
- Me time – I’m a social creature, but only up to a point, and after that I need some space, so ‘me time’ is definitely on my list of must-haves.

I’m very naughty about passing on awards. This one I think has been around and around, so I think it’s safe for me to not pass it on – although thank you to Angela for thinking of me in relation to it, and if you haven’t had it yet, and want to, then by all means consider yourself awarded – if you’ve managed to stick with me this far, you definitely deserve an award!

Happy stitching!

It's a Snow Day!

Well, half a snow day anyway. We woke up to 1/2 inch of snow here in Berkshire so we travelled into work as usual to find that London had had a proper snowstorm - 6 to 8 inches in most places. And, because London is not generally a snowy place, you can imagine the chaos that ensued - all bus services suspended, the Tube only working on the actual underground bits, all the train services from the south and east of the country suspended... I was one of only 8 people who managed to get into the office. So after fielding dozens of calls from colleagues and clients cancelling most of the meetings for the day, and seeing that it continued to snow heavily outside, I decided not to risk getting stuck in London for the night and headed off home around noon. Now, it did take me almost double the normal time to get home, but hey I made it and I'm home about 3 hours before I'd normally be home! So what am I going to do? Stitch, of course! :)

I stitched with the Let's Stitch group for Friday's SAT, and made some great progress on Paradigm Lost - I'm now finished page 6, meaning I'm over halfway done. Hurrah!!! Perhaps a goal of a 2009 finish isn't totally insane?? (For the moment, I am ignoring the fact that it has taken me two years to finish up to page 6...)

Happy Stitching!