Tales From My Needle

May

2012-02-02T14:11:00.000Z

No, I haven't gone mad and fast forwarded to May, wish I could though, no I've been stitching on PS's "May" this week. It's been a while since I've shown this and I have worked a little on it here and there. The lambs at the bottom have been bugging me, I've not enjoyed stitching them at all, but I was determined to get them done and move up on the design. Here's where I left it yesterday.

I have now finished the stitching on side one of Jingle, I just have the pearls and beads to stitch on which I'll probably do once the second side is stitched.

Tuesday was Needlecraft Haven's TUSAL day and here are my ORT's for January.

Now a little bit of family news, mainly for my U.K. readers. This coming Saturday (4th Feb.) my son, Paul and his partner, Carla will be appearing on BBC's Saturday Kitchen Live, they'll be the members of the public sitting at the table along with the guest celebrity, who, according to my TV guide is going to be the actor Samuel West.

Thanks for all your lovely comments, they really make my day!

Nicola

It's Been A Quiet Week

2012-01-27T14:22:00.000Z

Just a short post this week as I've really not done that much stitching-wise. I did make a start on Just Nan's Jingle biscornu on Wednesday and also worked on it yesterday. It's a really quick design to stitch and I'm really enjoying working on it. I've changed the fabric from 28ct Cashel, as I don't have any, to 28ct white Jobelan, the threads are DMC as recommended.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all your lovely comments on my last post.

Nicola

More Stash and Merry Christmas

2012-01-20T12:12:00.000Z

Yes, that's right I've treated myself to some more stash this week. Sew and So have a sale on at the moment so I treated myself to Just Nan's Jingle biscornu chart while I was ordering some other bits. I'm justifying it because it's a biscornu and doesn't need space on the walls. LOL

I needed another needle minder so bought this Hibiscus design by Kelmscott Designs.

I also bought another floss storage box and some more plastic bobbins. The winding, however, is going slowly!

I'm hosting a Greetings Card SAL on the Needlecraft Haven forum, and this is my first card. It's from Mary Hickmott's Cross Stitch Gallery magazine issue 4. I can't finish it off just yet as I've run out of the Krienik braid and it's out of stock at Sew and So. You can see that I only have the letter "C" to finish, but it will have to wait until I next go to Sew and So or Cotswold Needlecraft at Trentham Gardens.

That's all for this week. Many thanks for all your lovely comments on last weeks post, I really do appreciate them all. It was also lovely to see some new readers and followers of my blog.

Nicola

Hetty Child Gets An Outing and Some Stash

2012-01-13T12:29:00.001Z

Before I get onto my stitching update I'd just like to thank everyone for their kind comments on my last post, and to welcome all new readers and followers of my blog.

Now to stitching. I thought it was time to give "Hetty Child" an outing. I've stitched a little on her now and then but not shown my progress on her. I've added quite a bit this week and this is where I'm up to now.

I've also received some new stash this week. Julianne very kindly, and most generously, sent me a gift certificate just before Christmas for Anita's Little Stitches and I chose to spend it on Blackbird Designs Pink Hill Manor and all the Crescent Colour and Gentle Art Sampler threads to stitch it with. I'm not sure yet if I will dedicate this to anyone, but if I do it might possibly be my late parents-in-law.

My second piece of stash, which arrived yesterday, is the third and final Loose Feathers from BBD - Winter. I have yet to start the others, but may treat myself to a new start and do so soon. Of all three parts I have to say that Winter is my favourite, I just love the colours in it.

Well that's all for today. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Nicola

Last Years Christmas Stitching

2012-01-04T11:42:00.000Z

Happy New Year! I hope it's a good one for everyone. Sadly last year did not end well for Mr. L. and myself. His mother died on December 8th and the funeral was held on the 28th, not the best Christmas for us. Anyway onwards and upwards as they say and here I am starting my return to blogging with my Christmas stitching from last year. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped to do, something which I'm going to rectify this year. Back in the summer, or what passed for it, I stitched LHN's 2011 Ornament of the Month - Deck the Halls using 36ct Edinburgh linen in Sand and the recommended Crescent Colour and DMC threads.

This next deign is a Christmas card from Derwentwater Designs that I stitched twice for friends. The kit comes with 16ct Aida but I swapped that for 32ct white Jobelan and stitched it using the recommended Anchor threads.

Another Derwentwater Christmas card, this one I gave to my parents. Again I swapped the Aida for 32ct white Jobelan and used Anchor threads. I did start another one for my MIL but it never got finished. I'll finish it off at some point and will frame it for us to display in her memory.

I have decided to join in with Needlecraft Havens own TUSAL, showing photos of my ORT jar on the last day of every month. Here's my empty Yankee Candle jar ready for filling.

Yesterday I made the decision to change my thread storage system. I was using three - Loran folder, bobbins and DMC Gold Concept stitch bows. However, the latter was taking up a lot of space and the stitch bows were proving not to be very practical, so I'm going back to bobbins. Mr. L. bless him, has decided to help me by winding my threads back onto the bobbins and made a start last night. I now have to get organised and round up all my threads from various projects into one place to make it easier to sort them all onto bobbins. Hopefully once all this is done it will encourage me to put them back in the storage boxes instead of leaving them in bags everywhere. Time will tell!

Nicola

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T16:00:00.000Z

I'd like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and may 2012 bring you everything you wish for. I will be returning to blogging in the new year.

Nicola

Blog On Indefinite Hold

2011-09-16T13:41:00.000+01:00

I'm going through a major slump at the moment, no blogging and very little stitching. I'm therefore putting my blog on indefinite hold until I decide whether or not I'll return to blogging.

Thank you for your visits and comments.

Nicola

Some Stitching, Unpicking and Stash

2011-07-21T18:20:00.000+01:00

Since my last post I've only stitched on Prairie Schooler's May and only a little at that. However, it has grown a bit since I last showed you a photo.

I'd like to thank you all for your sympathetic comments on my unfortunate mistake on "When This You See". I couldn't bring myself to look at it until today when I decided that I just had to do that frogging. It took me nearly two hours but eventually I got there and here is a photo of it all ready to start again - hopefully this time without any further mishaps!

Now for my new stash!! Not that I needed any really, but I felt like treating myself some time ago due to my poorly foot! I know any excuse! Anyway I ordered Blackbird Designs Honeysuckle Manor and Summer Iris From Thread Bear back in the middle of June. Unfortunately I had to be very patient as they had to be ordered from the States and didn't arrive until this week, and I received them yesterday. I'm looking forward to stitching the samplers from Honeysuckle Manor, but one of them is done with Belle Soie silk and I would really rather use Crescent Colours hand dyed stranded cotton. Does anyone know of a conversion for this? I've tried the Internet but without success.

Well that's it for this post. Thank you so much for your continued visits and comments.

Nicola

Not A Happy Bunny!

2011-07-14T11:42:00.001+01:00

I had hoped to show my progress on Blackbird Designs "When This You see", but instead I'm showing you just how much I'm going to have to unpick due to a counting error. I made a mistake in the border and so everything below where I have placed my needle has to come out along with the bird and small bit of green stitching to the left of the border. Thank goodness I decided not to stitch the whole border first! It may not look like too much to some of you but I'm not a fast stitcher and this probably took me around three or so hours to do. I'm not looking forward to frogging as I'm stitching this on 36ct Edinburgh so the stitches are reasonably small. I was so gutted at this mistake last night that for the time being I've just put it away and will work on something else.

On a happier note I decided to throw caution to the wind and join this years Loose Feathers club from Blackbird Designs. I ordered the first chart and threads to stitch the main design from The Patchwork Rabbit on Monday and by Wednesday morning had them in my hot sticky little mitts! I'm going to stitch these all on the one piece of fabric instead of individually as I had first thought. I'm not going with the suggested fabric but will use cream 36ct Edinburgh. I'm hoping upon hope that this one will go without any mistakes!!! I might think that I'm jinxed by BBD's otherwise!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for visiting and leaving comments. Welcome to any new followers, please leave a comment, it would be lovely to hear from you.

Nicola

Progress

2011-06-26T15:34:00.000+01:00

Recently I have made quite a lot of progress on PS's May, here's where it stands at the moment. I have had to buy a new skein of DMC 842 and have found that the new one is a touch darker than the old. Fortunately it's used for the sheep and I have managed not to have to mix the two skeins in the same sheep, so hopefully it won't notice too much.

I thought I'd share with you all a wonderful little gadget that I bought from Lakeland. It's called a Rock Recipe Holder and when I saw it just knew it would be great for holding my charts. I used to perch them, propped up with a remote control so that I could read them, on the big, squishy arm on my leather chair My stitching chart holder and magnet board had too large a footprint and had a habit of falling off as the arm slopes slightly. This little holder only has a small footprint - two and a half inches, and does the job admirably holding the charts on with the magnet ball you can see on the front of it. It's the best £7.99 I've spent!

I'll finish this post off with a photo of some of our sweet peas that we're growing. Sadly they don't last long in water, but do need picking off to encourage the plants to flower more.

Many thanks for your continued visits to my blog and especially for the very much appreciated comments that you leave.

Nicola

Errant Blogger Returns

2011-06-09T16:34:00.000+01:00

I must apologise for the lack of posts and commenting lately, I lost my blogging mojo, but thankfully not my stitching mojo. Since returning from my holiday in The Yorkshire Dales I've had plenty of time to stitch as I'm having to rest my foot due to the painful condition of Plantar Faciitis. First I finished off the birthday gift that I was stitching for Julianne. As Julianne is from the U.S.A. I wanted to stitch her something typically English, so i chose this timber-framed cottage from Heritage Crafts book British Cottages in their Cross Stitcher's Guide To Britain series. The design is a seventeenth century cottage which can typically be found in Wales and counties in central England. It's stitched on 32ct white Jobelan using DMC threads.

Having finished the pin keep I moved on to the PS SAL piece that I was doing with Siobhan. I finally finished this a couple of days ago. It's stitched on 36ct antique white Edinburgh linen using DMC threads. I shall be framing this as a picture. I have the other three seasons and intend to stitch the foursomes from them at some point.

I am continuing to stitch on PS's "May" which I'm stitching in the PS SAL on the Needlecraft Haven board. I have also decided to get organised this year and am planning to start stitching some Christmas cards soon for my family.

Many thanks for visiting and for all the lovely comments which are greatly appreciated.

Nicola

From Start to Finish

2011-03-29T15:07:00.000+01:00

Once again I have been stitching almost exclusively on Prairie Schooler designs. Following a finish - more of that later - I have started on Prairie Schooler's May. It's to be my holiday stitching while we're in The Dales in a little over two weeks time. As it's sheep country this seemed an appropriate design to take with me. I made an early start on it as I can't bear taking a completely virgin piece of fabric, and okay I just couldn't wait!

This is my latest progress on my PS Spring foursome that I've been stitching in a private SAL with Siobhan. Siobhan has finished her piece, do pop over to her blog and have a look at it.

Now for my finish. Here it is - December. It's stitched on 32ct Antique White Jobelan with the recommended DMC threads.

It's been so lovely to have some Spring sunshine recently, it really lifts the spirits, I just hope it will be as good when we're on holiday. We have discovered that we have robins nesting in the nest box that Mr. L put in the laurel hedge a couple of years ago. We also have blackbirds nesting in one of our conifers, and possibly wrens in another.

Thanks so much for your visits and comments, I really do appreciate them.

Nicola

Finishes and WIP's

2011-02-28T12:13:00.000Z

I've had a couple of finishes recently. The first one is the rabbit from the back cover of Prairie Schooler's book Signs of Spring. He's stitched on 32ct antique white Joblean using the recommended DMC threads.

The next finish is Little House Needlework's Winter Wonderland that I stitched with Chris as a SAL. The fabric is 28ct Raw Cashel linen with Crescent Colour and DMC threads.

Next is my Prairie Schooler Spring Has Come WIP. This is a SAL with Siobhan.

This WIP is another PS design, December and I'm stitching this in another SAL on the Needlecraft Haven forum.

Thank you so much to all of you who left comments on my last post, they were really very much appreciated.

Nicola

High Time for An Update

2011-01-30T16:59:00.000Z

I might not have blogged since before Christmas but I have been stitching. I decided to resurrect an old UFO - Prairie Schoolers "December. I've added the brown tree plus the two red birds.

I also restarted my LHN Winter Wonderland SAL that I'm stitching with Chris. This time I'm using the recommended 28ct natural raw Cashel linen, and I have to say that it's stitching up much better.

Next is another SAL, this time with Siobhan. I'm working on Prairie Schooler's Spring Has Come foursome sampler from the back of the booklet.

I decided to do some baking this morning, and made these chocolate chip cookies. They are from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen cook book, a book that I've done several recipes from, all with success and these are no exception.

Many thanks for continuing to visit my blog and for the lovely comments that you leave. Until next time.

Nicola

Gifts, a Lovely Weekend and New Technology

2010-12-21T21:33:00.000Z

It was my birthday last Friday and, in a private birthday exchange I was spoilt by my friend Julianne who stitched this beautiful box for me, Prairie Schooler's "F for Friend. Both her stitching and finishing are just exquisite. Julianne also included the thread holder and book of English teatime recipes.

Julianne also sent me this lovely Prairie Schooler Santa ornament.

Here it is in pride of place on the top of my ornament tree.

My son, Paul, and his girlfriend, Carla, made it up here to Staffordshire on Friday afternoon. The journey, which normally takes three hours, took them six. In the evening we all went out for a lovely meal at a pub about five miles from us to celebrate me becoming 53! On Saturday, after Mr. L. and I braved the snow and went into Stafford to do the shopping, we had Christmas. Paul and Carla gave us a great present, a DVD recorder. We only had a DVD player before, and now we'll be able to transfer recordings from our Virgin+ box onto a DVD disc, so that we won't lose them if the box packs up like it did last year. Paul set it up for us and then I had to learn how to use it. Later, while we settled down to watch the Strictly Come Dancing final he set about tranfering all our e-mails, favourites and documents over to the new laptop that we had bought a few weeks ago. He also set it up to print remotely, and installed Picasa on to it. We also have a new camera, so you can see that I've a lot of new technology to learn how to use again. Just when I'd got used to using the old pc and camera too!!(LOL) Anyway you can see that I've been playing on Picasa as I have a new blog header photo, a collage of some of my stitching. I'm relieved, too, to say that Paul and Carla made it safely back to London yesterday in the awful icy conditions that we are experiencing.

My own stitching has taken rather a back seat at the moment. I had joined the December SAL that Chris and Sally and some other ladies are doing. I was stitching LHN's Winter Wonderland on 32ct Permin, a big mistake! The linen is so stiff and just won't stay nice and taught on my frame and I was being really slow because of it. I was having a busy week with housework and so spent only a little time working on it, but then discovered that I had made a mistake and had to frog about two hours worth. The air was slightly blue I can tell you, and with that I decided to bin it and I'll start again on some 28ct Cashel linen. (Chris I'll be e-mailing you about it soon.)

I'd like to finishing by wishing all my readers a very happy Christmas and New Year!

Nicola

Where has the time gone?

2010-12-10T16:23:00.000Z

Well, it has been a long time since my last post! It was summer then and now all of a sudden it's nearly Christmas. I have been stitching even if I haven't been blogging about it, so I now have several photos to share with you. First is the rabbit from Prairie Schoolers Fall Fields book. It's stitched on the usual 32ct antique white Jobelan with the given DMC threads.

Next is the Prairie Schooler ornament that I stitched for Julianne. It's from the Good Saint Nick book and again it's stitched on 32ct antique white Jobelan with DMC threads. This photo is courtesy of Julianne as I stupidly forgot to take one myself before sending it to her.

I also stitched a Christmas card for the two gentlemen that run our favourite tea shop in the Dales, and that are fast becoming friends. It's a Derwentwater design, and at times was quite a pain to stitch. The problem was stitching a half stitch with a pale colour using one strand of thread, and with strong sunlight behind it. I just had so much trouble seeing the stitches.

After that I thought it was time to stitch ourselves an ornament for Christmas. It's another one from P.S.'s Good Saint Nick book, fabric and threads as before. I'm not sure if it will be made up into an ornament for this Christmas though.

You may remember that I was stitching Blackbird Designs "When This You See". I've only stitched a wee bit on it since my last post and this is where it's up to now.

Finally this is how Mr. L. and I spent our time last Sunday - making dried apricot jam, and piccalilli.

I'm glad to say that most of our snow has now gone and it has warmed up a touch. I hope it stays that way too as next Friday is my birthday and my son, Paul, and his partner will be driving up from London that day for the weekend. It's been a while since we've seen them and I'm really looking to their visit.

Thank you to all of you who left a comment on my last post about rotations. I've decided that they really don't work for me and I've reverted to what Anne calls the screaming rotation, that is I'll work on whatever I find shouting the loudest at me.

Well there you are, that's what I've been up stitching-wise since I was last here. I'm going to make a big effort not to leave it so long again between posts.

Nicola

Rotation? What Rotation?

2010-08-23T16:00:00.000+01:00

A while ago I tried working to a four week rotation, and all went well for about a month. But what happened a few weeks back when it should have been the week for working on my Tulip Fields design? Well this happened, Prairie Schoolers Squirrel from their Fall Fields book no.159.You see, it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't stitched a P.S. design this year and I was starting to suffer withdrawal symptoms. It only took me about two and a half days to do and is stitched on Antique white 32ct Jobelan using the recommended DMC threads.

My rotation actually started to fall apart a couple of weeks earlier when I got so into stitching BBD's "When This You See", that I just didn't put it down. I mentioned before that I'd started it but hadn't shown you a photo. This is where it stands now. I'm using Edinburgh 32ct linen in cream and the recommended WDW's and GAST threads.

I'll leave you with a photo that Mr. L. took of the lovely vase of lilies that we picked from our garden a couple of weeks ago. The perfume from them was just wonderful and filled our lounge for several days.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Another Finish

2010-06-23T15:20:00.000+01:00

Finally LHN's Acorn Hill is finished! I actually started this whilst on holiday back in October 2008 but only stitched on it a bit here and there. A couple of weeks back I decided that it was time to get on with it and I finished it off last Thursday. It's stitched on 28ct beige Quaker linen using the recommended Crescent Colour threads.

While waiting for a thread to arrive in order to finish Acorn Hill I couldn't resist another start. It's Blackbird Design's "When This You See" from their "Remember Me" series. I've had the chart a few years and have been gradually collecting the threads for it. Although I still have a few to get I had enough to make a start on it. It's not really worth a photo yet so I'll leave that until next week.

I'll leave you now though with a couple of photos of peonies from our garden. We picked the first ones on Sunday so a couple of the blooms are starting to go over now. The ones in the second photo I picked yesterday. The white peony used to belong to my late father-in-law and we have had it for quite a long time now. The bush has produced an absolute mass of flowers this year but did get flattened a bit in heavy rain a couple of weeks ago. The deep pink peony is one we bought from Bridgemere garden centre and has taken a few years to establish so it was great to be able to pick a couple of blooms from it.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Finishing, Stitching, and Baking

2010-06-15T13:07:00.000+01:00

The week before last was my Gourmet Garden week, and I finished it on the Thursday. I've now got a frame to put it in once it's washed and pressed. It's stitched on 36ct cream Edinburgh linen using the recommended DMC threads. (All photos can be clicked for a better view.)

Taking the place of Gourmet Garden is Heritage Crafts Tulip Fields. I started this some years ago and have decided that it's high time I got on with it. I only stitched on it for a couple of hours but, as you can see from the right hand photo I did make some progress on it. I'm stitching this on 27ct antique white Linda.

Last week I moved onto another WIP that had not been worked on for a while, LHN's Acorn Hill. I very nearly finished it but ran out of a thread which I have just ordered today. Hopefully, that will arrive tomorrow so I should be able to finish it this week before moving on to another UFO.

Last week this sweet little stocking arrived from Sally. She sent it to me as a thank you for a chart that I had sent her last year. It's BBD's Sweetheart Sampler Stocking stitched on 30ct linen with Carries Creations Banana Split thread. Sally backed the stocking with some lovely Autumn fabric.

Finally here's the baking that I did last Sunday afternoon. I made a dozen of these cup cakes, however, two were already eaten by the time I took the photo and the plate would only hold eight. I do need to practise my piping a bit more as it's something I've not done for years. I didn't colour the icing as my food colourings were so out of date, I really must get some new ones.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave, they are very much appreciated.

Nicola

"Hetty Child"

2010-06-01T18:44:00.001+01:00

As I said I would in my last post, I spent last week working on The Sampler Company's "Hetty Child" sampler. I had made a very small start on it way back in early March (I think) but had put it away until the Friday before last and when I picked it up again I just couldn't put it down! Unlike Edgar who when he stitched this converted the threads to silk ones, I'm stitching this in the recommended DMC threads, and just love the muted colours which I think give this a vintage look. The fabric looks rather blue in this photo, it is in fact antique white.

I thought I'd share with you a photo of our Phalaenopsis orchid. When we bought this in March it had two main flower spikes with some buds on them. Those buds have since opened and now there are three new flower spikes coming off the existing ones. It seems to be very happy living on our landing window sill, however, I just had to move it to take the photo.

This week it's the turn of Gourmet Garden to receive my attention. Hopefully that frog that was sitting on my shoulder yesterday has now hopped away, as I had to unpick over an hours worth of stitching. An update of that next week.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Returning From An Unscheduled Blogging Break

2010-05-24T17:24:00.012+01:00

I really did not mean to take a blogging break, let alone such a long one. So where have I been? Well we were on holiday for the third week in March. We had a lovely time in the Yorkshire Dales despite the English weather. I have to say that since we started going there in 2005 this year was the worst week weather wise. We had all four seasons weather in the one week I think. Mind you it's still beautiful whatever the weather. Four days after returning home we set off for London to help our son move flat. He has moved in with his girlfriend and hopefully this will be the last time we have to help him move. We had a good couple of days with him, his girlfriend was sensible and was on holiday coming home after the flat was more or less straight.

During this time very little stitching took place, just about an hours worth on Gourmet Garden whilst at Paul's. However, later in April I needed to stitch a wedding card for my friends daughter who got married at the end of April. As it was to be a registry office wedding I chose to stitch an old favourite of mine, Roses from Cross Stitch Gallery issue 5. The design comes in three colour-ways and I chose to stitch the red one as Rebecca's flowers were in red. I used DMC 32ct linen in white and DMC threads. I've updated my editor window to the new one so I hope you'll still be able to click on all the photos to enlarge them.

I then stitched a birthday gift for Julianne with whom I'm doing a personal birthday exchange. Now, my finishing skills are somewhat limited so I chose to make Julianne a biscornu, a finish the I'm happy to do. I made Carol Tinson's Peachy biscornu, but made a few changes. I had been given the kit as a present and as I had not yet made it for myself did not want to use the fabric and threads. I therefore, switched the fabric from antique ivory 28ct jobelan to antique white 32ct jobelan. I swapped ecru perle thread to white and the cream beads to white also. I like this combination so much that I might in fact stitch it this way for myself at a later date. I also included one of Just Nans Garden Charmer pins, the bee, to sit in the biscornu.

I have also got on a bit more with Gourmet Garden since I last posted and here's what it looks like now.

I have also acquired some more stash. I bought the PS and Just Nan charts and the fabric myself, and my good friend Clare, who we see whilst we're on holiday very kindly gave me the other bits and pieces. The printed fabric was bought in a small sewing shop in Settle one rainy afternoon while we were on holiday.

This week I'm working on Hetty Child, the chart that Edgar very kindly sent me. I had made a small start on this a while back and then put it down, but I decided to get going on it again last Friday. Hopefully I'll have something worth showing you next week.

Many thanks for visiting my blog.

Nicola

A Word of Warning

2010-04-07T10:17:00.003+01:00

I welcome genuine comments on my blog and, on the whole, that's what I get. However, just lately I have received a few, what I consider to be, inappropriate comments that are absolutely nothing to do with the post at all. PLEASE BE WARNED THAT I MODERATE MY COMMENTS AND I WILL REJECT THESE.

What Did I Do Last Week?

2010-03-08T14:23:00.002Z

I made my first beaded edge biscornu, that's what I did last week. I used Papillon Creation's free chart Moonlight Serenade and stitched it using DMC Variations threads 4045, 4077 and 4220. Now I have to admit that I saw this colour scheme for the same chart used for a biscornu on another blog, so I have to thank Nita for the idea. The beads are Mill Hill frosted seed beads 62046 pale blue.

The beaded edge is not perfect, and if anyone out there has any constructive critism to offer, it would be grately appreciated.

I last stitched on LHN's Gourmet Garden about three weeks ago, so this is how it looks now. I put it aside to work on "Hetty Child" but haven't done much, so no photo of that just yet.

Yesterday I made Mother's Day cards. The top one is for my mother, but the little silver tag which has "with love" debossed on it does not show up very well on the photo. The bottom card is for my mother-in-law.

Hasn't the weather here in the U.K. turned gorgeous, if not a bit cold? I'm hoping it will stay that way because in two weeks time Mr. L. and I are off up to Swaledale again for the week. Both the cottages where we stay have been renovated so we're looking forward to seeing the results of that, although I think we may be in the one next door to our usual one as last I heard the owner wasn't sure if it would be ready for our visit.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

My New Start and an Exchange

2010-02-16T12:29:00.003Z

Some of you asked me for a clue to my new start. Well here is a bit more of it, another two days worth in fact, and I will tell you that it is a Little House Needleworks design. Any ideas now?

Remember the sneaky peak? Well here it is, the biscornu that I stitched for Cindy in the HoE's Stitch Red for Your Heart exchange. I stitched Alchemy Stitchcraft's "Tumbling Leaves" design on 32ct antique white Jobelan, such a useful fabric, with Threadworx "Bleeding Hearts" thread.

Here it is again with the red themed extras that I sent.

I received this lovely pin keep from Suzanne in the same exchange.

Suzanne very kindly included these lovely extras, aren't those Vancouver 2010 Olympic mittens just great? She also made me the little pouch that you can see next to the pin keep and it's filled with red threads and some decorated pins. There is also a lovely piece of red fabric but I'm afraid it's come out a bit dark on the photo.

I did a little stash shopping yesterday for some fabric for a sampler that I want to stitch. You know when you get an itch and you just have to scratch it? Well, that's happened to me with a sampler that Edgar stitched last year, Hetty Child. I loved it from the moment I saw it with it's gorgeous colours but, did I really need another design to stitch? After all I have a draw full of kits and even more charts and, if I get to stitch them all will need a bigger house to display them all in. Well I resisted, that is until a couple of weeks ago when I caved in and asked Edgar if I could borrow his chart. He said that he didn't need it more and I could have it and even, very kindly, sent along the DMC threads for it. Thank you so much Edgar! So now, when my fabric arrives, and despite all the UFO's and WIP's that I have, would it be so very naughty for me to have another new start?

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Ducks on Lavender Hill?

2010-02-08T12:25:00.004Z

No, the ducks come later. It's sheep that are safely grazing on LHN's Lavender Hill. I picked this up again last Tuesday after having finished my HoE exchange, and continued to stitch like mad on it until I finished it on Friday.

LHN Lavender Hill

32ct Summer Khaki Belfast linen

DMC threads as given

Yesterday afternoon I made a small start on my next piece. In true Rolf Harris style - can you see what it is yet?

Now for the ducks in the title. On Saturday afternoon we went over to Fradley Junction, where the Coventry canal joins the Trent and Mersey canal, for tea and cake. We also took some left over bread with us to feed the ducks. They are normally in the water but this time most of them were up on the bank and those that weren't soon joined the others with the rattle of the bread bag. Mr. L. was soon surrounded by them all and the goose was even standing on his foot! They were taking bites out of the bread from his hand until it got down to about half a slice when one would run off with the rest of it closely followed by the other ducks trying to pinch it. It was quite hilarious to watch.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

A New Start and a Sneak Preview

2010-01-21T11:22:00.003Z

It's a new year and I wanted a change from Christmas or winter designs, so my new start is LHN's Lavender Hill. This design uses my favourite lavender DMC thread colours and I'm stitching it on 32ct Summer Khaki Belfast linen, although the photo doesn't do the colour justice and it looks a bit on the grey side.

I mentioned in my last post that I was stitching an exchange for the HoE. I don't think my partner reads my blog, but just in case she does I won't show you the whole piece, just a sneaky peak. You'll have to wait until next month to see the whole thing.

Something that I didn't mention in my last post was that last Saturday afternoon Mr. L. and I had a rare outing to see a show. For our Christmas presents my son had bought us tickets to see Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag in their Steppin' Out tour at Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Anton and Erin are two of the fabulous professional dancers from T.V.'s Strictly Come Dancing. The show was great, the dresses wonderful and sparkly, and the music was just up my street. The London Concert Orchestra played numbers by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and George Gershwin. Incidentally, the vocalist was Graham Bickley who, not only has a great voice and been in many West End productions, but was also the second actor to play Joey Boswell in T.V.'s comedy series "Bread".

Many thanks to those of you who still read my blog and to those who left me a comment. I fear I may have lost some readers due to my lack of posting and also of commenting. Please bear with me as I am trying to get back into blogging properly. Unfortunately, I am not a prolific stitcher and don't always have much to show you or talk about.

Nicola

Exchanges

2010-01-19T12:42:00.004Z

It's been too long since my last post for which I apologise. I have some exchange stitching to share with you from last year. The first is a personal exchange that I did with Julianne. We started e-mailing with each other last year when she left a lovely comment on my blog. We decided to do a Christmas ornament exchange and this is what Julianne sent me. Along with what is shown here was also a tin of mints.

This is the ornament that I stitched for Julianne. It's from Prairie Schooler book no. 102 Redwork Santas. I changed the red thread colour to DMC 815 as I much prefered it to the recommended DMC 3777, and it also a better match for the felt that I had. The green thread is as given and it's stitched on 32ct antique white Jobelan fabric. I also included a chart and a handbag hanger which I forgot to take a photo of.

I took part in the HoE Christmas ornament exchange last year and this is the lovely ornament that Caroline sent me. It's from the Gift of Stitching magazine, stitched on 32ct Belfast linen with DMC threads.

My partner for the same exchange was Jayne. I stitched the Prairie Schooler design from last years Gift of Stitching ornament issue. I used 32ct Summer Khaki Belfast linen and the recommended DMC threads. It's shown here on the silver star and green felt that I used for the backing.

Lastly, this is the lovely Prairie Schooler ornament that I received from Elisabeth in the YLPS exchange round 4. (I'm sorry but I don't have a link to Elisabeth's blog.)

I really didn't do much stitching over the Christmas and New Year period, but I'm now busy with stitching my piece for the HoE's Stitch Red for Your Heart exchange. Last week I did make a small new start on LHN's Lavender Hill which I received from my friend Clare for Christmas. As yet I haven't taken a photo of it, I'll post that next time.

For now, I'd like to wish you all a belated Happy New Year, and I hope that 2010 brings you all that you wish for.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Prairie Schooler Chart Winner

2009-12-02T10:56:00.003Z

As promised I, or rather Keith, did the draw for the Christmas Day chart giveaway last night. The lucky winner is Edda! I'll be e-mailing you for your address Edda and will get the chart in the post to you in the next few days.

Nicola

I am still blogging

2009-11-19T13:07:00.006Z

Yes, thanks to all those lovely readers who left comments on my last post I am still going to blog. It was really great to know that you all enjoy reading my blog despite my infrequent posting. Thank you all so much for taking the time to leave those comments, and a warm hello to all new readers and commenters.

I do have some stitching to show you. This week I took time off from my exchange and gift stitching to stitch an ornament for us. I saw this over on Clare's blog and remembered that I had downloaded it last year, so decided to stitch it up. It's a free chart from Plum Pudding Needleart, and I stitched it on 36ct Sand coloured Edinburgh linen using the recommended DMC threads. He took me just three days to stitch and I shall be finishing him off as an ornament.

My HoE Christmas ornament exchange piece is all finished and ready to be posted off a bit nearer the posting date as I think it's a little bit early yet to be posting for Christmas. ( We had our first Christmas card this morning, and it's only Nov. 19th!!!)

I have a spare copy of Prairie Schooler's Christmas Day chart to give away. If you would like it please leave a comment on this post only. If there is more than one person interested I will draw a name on December 1st. Please be sure to leave an e-mail address so that I can contact you.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog.

Nicola

Blogging........ what's that then?

2009-11-02T11:53:00.006Z

Well blogging is obviously not something that I've been doing much of lately. I've taken quite a break and have been trying to decide whether or not to delete my blog. However, every time I mention this to my husband he persuades me not to, so here I am hoping that I may still have one or two readers left.

I have been doing quite a bit of stitching in the last three weeks since returning from my holiday. I didn't do any in the week before I went away or whilst I was away. Here's a photo of my progress on Prairie Schooler's December. As usual I'm really enjoying working on this one, despite being without my stitching lamp for a week as the bulb had blown. I had to use another lamp which lights my work from the side instead of overhead and I was getting a lot of shadows cast by my hand. I was also stitching with white thread on antique white fabric. I don't think I'm going to get this done for this coming Christmas, especially as I have to devote more time to gift stitching.

Despite my saying that I wasn't going to do any more exchanges for a while I just couldn't resist signing up for round 4 of the Year Long Prairie Schooler exchange. My partner was Laurence and as we are having postal strikes here in the U.K. I decided to get organised and stitch and send the exchange off before they started. I stitched two small ornaments, the fox from PS's new book "Fall Fields" and the Santa from "Christmas Day". Both are stitched on antique white 32ct Jobelan fabric using the recommended DMC threads. I'm pleased to say that they arrived safely with Laurence and that she liked them.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Gone to...........

2009-10-02T17:25:00.004+01:00

.......... Swaledale.

Back in a week....................maybe!

Nicola

A Gift And An Exchange

2009-09-01T09:34:00.003+01:00

My good friend Colly had a birthday a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday was the first time that I could get over to see her to give her her birthday presents. Amongst other things I gave her this Prairie Schooler pin keep that I stitched from the Prairie Birds book no. 24. It's shown here with my favourite sunflower backing fabric.

Prairie Schooler - Prairie Birds book no.24

32ct Antique White Jobelan Fabric

DMC threads as given

I recently took part in the Year Long Prairie Schooler Exchange round 3. As I couldn't decided between an Autumn or Santa design, and as they are only small I stitched and sent Rosalie (no blog) both. The pumpkin comes from book no. 132 Autumn Leaves, and the Santa from book no. 88 Old World Santas ll. I stitched both on 32ct antique white Jobelan using DMC threads. I did, however, change the colour of the Santas coat from 420 to 3820 as I prefered the lighter gold.

I was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of Edgars stitching yet again. This time in round 3 of the YLPS exchange. He sent me this delightful pyn keepe (I'm using Edgar's spelling here) which he tells me is the Fox and Grapes design. He decided to change the colour of the house, and I must say that in my opinion it's for the better, being one of my favourite colours. Thank you so much Edgar, it's a wonderful exchange.

Today I am about to start stitching a very special gift, the secret stitching I mentioned in my last post. I can't share it here with you, but if anyone is at all interested please e-mail me ( address in my profile).

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

December

2009-08-24T13:46:00.003+01:00

No, don't worry, time hasn't fast forwarded through Autumn to Winter, although December weather suits me much more than the hot and muggy weather we've been having here in the U.K. recently. No, December is my new Prairie Schooler project that I started last Wednesday. I'm really enjoying stitching this one and found it hard to stop today in order to take the photo for this post. I'm going to be extending my PS stitching week, I think, into maybe a fortnight as I'd really like to get this stitched and framed by Christmas. I'm stitching this on 32ct antique white Jobelan using the recommended DMC threads.

Now I have a couple of exchange pieces to show you. This first one is the beautiful box that Edgar stitched and finished for me in the HoE Summer House exchange earlier this month. Isn't it just gorgeous? The design is part of LHN's Nature's Beauty.

This is the inside of the box.

The next photo shows the pin keep that I stitched for Lori in the recent Lizzie*Kate exchange. It's L*K's Summer Basket and I stitched it on Sand 36ct Edinburgh linen, using the recommended GAST and WDW's threads. It's shown here with the sunflower backing fabric.

I shan't be doing any more exchanges for the foreseeable future as I really need to concentrate on my own stitching, and I am also going to be starting on some extremely secret stitching soon which, unfortunately I won't be able to show you for a long time.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Harvest Time Village

2009-08-04T11:43:00.003+01:00

I'm pleased to say that the loss of my itch to stitch didn't last very long, and I completed my Harvest Time Village after a long days stitching on it yesterday. Looking back at my WIP photos it would appear that I started this at the end of February or the beginning of March, I really must make a note of starting dates. I've really only stitched on it for one week every month so it has taken me approximately five weeks actual stitching, not bad for a slow stitcher. I know that the border at the top looks a little wonky, I'm pretty sure it's just the camera angle, and if not then I'm sure my framer will sort it out when he frames it. As usual you can click on the picture for a better view.

Prairie Schooler Book 93 Harvest Time

36ct Antique White Edinburgh Linen

DMC Threads as given

Now I'm in a quandary as to which PS design to stitch next, "April" or "December". Any comments on that would be appreciated.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all the lovely comments.

Nicola

HoE Summer House Exchange

2009-07-29T12:12:00.002+01:00

I learnt yesterday that Jayne has received the pinkeep that I made for her in the HoE Summer House exchange. I stitched Lorna Doone's cottage at Selworthy as I wanted to stitch a typically English cottage. The design comes from the June 1995 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine and is stitched on 36ct antique white Edinburgh linen using DMC threads. The photo also shows the pretty rosebud backing fabric.

Although this week is my Prairie Schooler week I'm not really making much progress on Harvest Time Village. Just don't seem to have much inclination to stitch at the moment.

As always many thanks for reading my blog and for the lovely comments that you leave.

Nicola

Reclusive!

2009-07-20T16:56:00.003+01:00

The title says it all as that's just what I seem to have become of late. Very little blog reading and even less commenting has been happening. I should have posted this update two weeks ago, but didn't. Why? Well once again I've been exchange stitching. The HoE Summer House exchange is now completely finished and is waiting to be packed up and posted out along with the Lizzie*Kate exchange. Once I'd finished the Summer House I just went straight on and started the Year Long Prairie Schooler round 3 piece. I have quite a bit of time to do that one in so I'm hoping that I can find a bit more time for blogging.

Anyway here's my latest progress photo of my Harvest Village after another week of stitching on it about three weeks ago now.

Hopefully it won't take me too much longer as I'm itching to start another Prairie Schooler, not sure which one yet, it could be "December" that Becky very kindly sent me as she had a duplicate.

Many thanks for all your lovely comments on my "Their Song" finish.

Nicola

"Their Song"

2009-06-24T14:33:00.005+01:00

As the replacement fabric for the exchange did not arrive yesterday I decided to give Blackbird Designs "Their Song" an outing. I'd last worked on this in the middle of last September and actually didn't have very much left to do on it. I stitched on it for most of yesterday, finishing it up this afternoon. It really was a very enjoyable piece to stitch, and I have another BBD in my stash that I'm looking forward to stitching. Apologies for the slightly dark photo which is clickable for a better view.

Blackbird Designs "Their Song"

Polstitches 28ct Heirloom Sampler Linen

WDW threads

The new fabric came today so I'll be able to get started again soon on the exchange.

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog, but especially to those of you who take the time to leave a comment, they are greatly appreciated.

Nicola

Just dropping in......

2009-06-22T17:57:00.002+01:00

..... for a quick update. I have finished my Lizzie*Kate exchange and just need to "finish" it. I made a start on the HoE Summer House exchange but have hit a snag. I started stitching it on 40ct fabric in one thread and things weren't going to badly. However, I picked it up this afternoon and was having trouble seeing the holes, even with my glasses on. Out came the magnifier and I then discovered a mistake which meant pulling out quite a lot of stitches. Well the thread kept breaking and I was getting frustrated, so in the end I decided enough was enough and I ordered some 36ct from Sew and So. Hopefully that will be here tomorrow or Wednesday and I can start again. I'm signed up for round 3 of the Year Long Prairie Schooler exchange and should be getting my partners details soon.

As I don't have any current stitching that I can show you, I thought I'd post a photo of Just Nan's Wintry Mix that I stitched back in 2005. I have the companion piece, Jasmine Mix, in my stash and once I've stitched that I'll then get them both framed.

Hope you all have a great week.

Nicola

More Stitching

2009-06-08T17:19:00.003+01:00

Last week I took time out from exchange stitching to do some more on my PS Harvest Time Village. I did stitch on it last month, but not really enough to post a photo. This is where I'm up to with it now.

Close up of the part I've been working on. I shall have to put it aside again for a while as I have more exchange stitching to do.

As Melissa has now received her HoE Just Nan exchange from me I can now show you what I stitched for her. It's JN's Roselady made into a pin keep and is shown here on the fabric I used to back it with. For the stitched piece I used 32ct antique white Jobelan and the recommended DMC threads and Mill Hill beads, except that I substituted the perle 8 with stranded cotton. I find that perle 8 is just a bit too thick and I really don't think that it made much difference to the overall look of the design. I also didn't have the necessary colour.

I'm afraid that I might be rather quiet again for a bit, while I get on with more exchanges.

Nicola

Exchanges

2009-06-02T09:15:00.002+01:00

At last I can show you some stitching. I heard yesterday that Christine had received the pin keep that I made for her in the Year Long Prairie Schooler Exchange. As she is a keen gardener I decided to stitch a design from PS's Prairie Garden, now OOP. Fortunately I picked the right one as she tells me that the colours match her lounge where she is going to display it. It is shown here on the fabric that I used for the back. I couldn't find any ribbon to match so picked the darkest colour pink in the design and made some cord using my cording drill. This is the first time I've used cord and was very pleased with the way it turned out. I stitched the design on 32ct antique white jobelan fabric and the recommended DMC threads.

In the same exchange Conny stitched me this delightful pin cushion using designs from Prairie Schooler's April chart.

I also took part in the Just Nan exchange on the HoE blog, and Tracy spoilt me with this lovely box finish. She stitched JN's Porcelain Nosegay for the lid and the box was filled with all the lovely extras shown here on a piece of fabric that was also included.

I'm just waiting for the exchange that I stitched to be received, so photos of that will follow shortly in another post.

Nicola

A Picture Post......

2009-05-28T09:41:00.003+01:00

......but it's not stitching. It's the decoupage birthday card that I made for my aunt. I'm sorry it's not a great photo, but it's the best one of the few that I took.

My visitors arrived late afternoon on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning, set off by train, for Aberdeen to visit my uncle and aunt there. They will return here on Saturday afternoon to spend the rest of the weekend with us, then going home on Monday. It's lovely to see my aunt, we don't see her very much, and don't know how much longer she'll be able to make the trip over from the U.S.A. She'll spend another week with my parents before flying home.

I took advantage of the fact that the house is spick and span and spent yesterday working on my Lizzie*Kate exchange piece. I'll probably do so again today, it doesn't go out until the 1st August but I'd like to get it done so that I can then spend some more time on my own stitching and have more photos to show you. My other two exchanges went in the post yesterday, so I'll soon be able to post photos of those.

Nicola

Hello!

2009-05-20T17:04:00.003+01:00

This is just a short post to let you all know what I've been doing since my last post, which was a long time ago. I have been busy stitching, finishing two exchanges, the Prairie Schooler and HoE Just Nan. These are now ready to be photographed and will be going out shortly. I did stitch a wee bit on my PS Harvest Time Village, but not really enough to show you at the moment. Since then though, I haven't done much stitching or blogging as over the last couple of weeks we've been busy with some spring cleaning and clearing out. We have my parents coming next week and they are bringing my aunt, who is over here from America, with them. Now though, I am about to start on my piece for the Lizzie Kate exchange and, hopefully, in a week or so, I'll be back to normal with blogging too. My apologies to everyone for my lack of commenting over the last few weeks.

Nicola

Harvest Time Village

2009-04-09T12:32:00.007+01:00

Slowly but surely my harvest village is growing. A couple more trees and the small house at the top, and the large house on the right have been added since my last post.

Having joined Becky's Year Long Prairie Schooler Exchange I felt that I needed (!) some more Prairie Schooler charts other than Santas, of which I have many. Keith agreed (gorgeous man that he is!) with this and bought me the April chart, and I added Summer Breeze to the order. It took a while to get them as Thread Bear had to order them from America, but they arrived last week. I'm itching to start stitching April, fortunately I have all the threads for that, however, I think I'll be good for once, and finish off the harvest village first. As for the exchange, well I know who my partner is, but I'm still cogitating over just which PS design to stitch.

Many thanks to everyone for your comments on my last post, seems you all like Prairie Schooler designs! To those of you who left comments for the first time, thank you so much, and I do hope you'll come back again.

Wishing you all a happy Easter

Nicola

Prairie Schooler Stitching

2009-03-18T16:27:00.004Z

I seem to be going through a Prairie Schooler phase at the moment. I've had a couple of small finishes and have the Harvest Time Village on the go. The first finish is "S is for Spring", a free chart that I don't think is available any more. I stitched this pin keep for Clare, who we were supposed to see her on a recent weekend away in the Dales. However, at the last minute, she couldn't make it and so I posted it to her. If I remember rightly I've used 32ct ivory Jobelan fabric, and the called for DMC threads.

I just finished this lovely design today. It's from Prairie Schooler's book, Prairie Birds, and is stitched on 32ct antique white Jobelan fabric using the recommended DMC threads. I'm going to finish this into a pin keep for myself as I feel I need the practise.

This is where I'm up to with the village from the Harvest Time chart by Prairie Schooler. I eventually settled for stitching this on 36ct antique white Edinburgh linen. Although I struggled a bit with this to start with, I think I missed the Spring colours, I'm now really enjoying working on this piece.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, we went up to the Yorkshire Dales for the weekend the weekend before last. We stayed in our usual cottage and had a fabulous time. The weather was quite mixed, suuny on the Friday we arrived, rain on the Saturday, and a thin layer of snow on the Sunday. The photo below shows Swaledale looking east towards the village of Muker.

We had a great day last Saturday as we picked up our "new to us car". We'd had our other one for over five years and it was nine years old. It had started to cost us money, and when we were at the garage booking it in for some work I saw this second hand car, same make - a Hyundai Accent, but only eighteen months old. I was a bit sad to see the old one go, but it was time, we had driven over sixty thousand miles in her, some of them over the steep, winding, narrow roads of the Dales. Now I just have to get used to driving this new one, I don't drive very often and it's still a bit strange to me.

As always thanks for reading and commenting.

Nicola

Wedding Card For Rowyn

2009-02-18T09:39:00.003Z

Remember I did some secret stitching a few weeks back? Well, it was a wedding card for Rowyn and as she has now received it I can show you the photos. The design was taken from issue 5 of Mary Hickmott's Cross Stitch Gallery. I used DMC threads and stiched it on 32ct DMC linen. I think the colour would be B5200, but I'm not too sure.

Here's the design made up into the card to which I added peel off stickers. I have to give credit to Keith for actually mounting the design into the card, he's so much better at it than I am.

I hope the weather keeps fine for you Rowyn, but I'm sure you'll have a lovely day whatever happens.

Many, many thanks for all your wonderful comments on my Daffodil sampler. It was also lovely to see some new readers leaving comments for the first time. I have now decided what my next Prairie Schooler stitch will be, it's the Harvest Village from the Harvest Time chart, which arrived yesterday. I just need to decide what fabric I'm going to stitch it on, 32ct Jobelan or 36ct Edinburgh linen, and then sort out the threads.

Nicola

Dancing With The Daffodils

2009-02-13T12:51:00.004Z

Yes, I finally finished Prairie Schooler's Daffodil Sampler yesterday afternoon. I made one small change to it in that I left off the second row of the top and bottom borders, I prefer it with just the one row. Now I just need to frame it and then it will hang in my hall or on the wall going up the stairs. Not quite sure yet which will be my next Prairie Schooler. It might be Autumn Leaves or the Harvest Village from the Harvest Time chart that I'll be ordering on Monday.

Prairie Schooler's Daffodils
32ct Ivory Jobelan
DMC threads as given

Many thanks for all your lovely comments, and a warm welcome to new readers.

Nicola

Watching The Grass Grow

2009-02-09T18:15:00.004Z

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I have been stitching away like mad. The secret piece that I mentioned last time has been stitched and is, as I type, winging it's way to it's recipient. I'll post photos when it has arrived. I picked up Prairie Schooler's Daffodil Sampler again and now have a whole sheep and also some grass. I can tell you that grass seems to have grown very slowly and I'll be very glad to get to the daffodil border underneath it. I know the border looks crooked, it's obviously the way I have the fabric on the frame. I'm really enjoying stitching this design, despite the grass, and hope to have it finished by the end of the week.

To relieve the tedium of stitching grass I decided to work on LHN's Acorn Hill for a couple of days last week. I finished off the roof and added the pumpkins and tree.

As usual thanks to everyone for reading and leaving comments.

Nicola

Spring Look

2009-01-21T12:03:00.003Z

I thought it was time for a bit of a blog revamp, and I hope it's making you all think of Spring. I've changed my header picture to a piece of stitching that I did back in 2006, it's Patricia Ann's Spring Forget-Me-Nots, and it now hangs, framed in a pine frame, in my bedroom.

Here is another update of my Daffodils Sampler. I finished off the wording at the top and stitched part of the border. Then I moved down to the bottom half, putting in the gate to the left of the house, before starting on the alphabet and stitching half a sheep.

I've had to put it down for a bit now as I have a new start. Unfortunately I can't share this with you yet as it's a secret piece.

That's it for today, short and sweet.

Nicola

PIF

2009-01-18T17:38:00.000Z

I have only had one taker for this, and that is CT. As I said I would do if this happened I have just had Keith draw two names from my blog list to receive RAK's from me, and they are Paula's Stitching Place and Kathy's Kreations. Therefore, would Siti, Paula and Kathy please get in touch with me via my e-mail, which is in my profile, and let me know their snail mail addresses.

Sherry, if you are reading this would you please contact me via e-mail, address in my profile, as I have the answer to a question you asked me in a comment. It's too long for a comment, so I need your e-mail address please.

Nicola

PS Daffodils Progress

2009-01-13T12:04:00.003Z

As promised in my last post, here is an update of my Prairie Schooler Daffodils Sampler. It's really lovely to be stitching on a Spring design, especially on the gloomy days that we've been having recently.

I really don't have much to say today, except that there is still plenty of time to sign up to my PIF. Please leave a comment specifying your interest on my previous post if you would like to join in.

A big thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my blog and especially to those of you who leave a comment. I'd also like to say hello to any new readers, please, do feel free to leave a comment.

Nicola

Happy New Year

2009-01-08T11:35:00.006Z

I know it's a wee bit late, but I'd like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2009.

I have a couple of lovely presents that I'd like to show you. The first one is a beautiful lap quilt that my lovely friend Colette made for my birthday the week before Christmas. Isn't is gorgeous? It has come in quite handy over the last few days, which have been bitterly cold here in Staffordshire, with snow falling last Sunday and not thawing very quickly either.

Next is the lovely tape measure cover that Helen stitched for my Christmas present. She told me that she had not made these before, I think she has done a beautiful job. It has been stitched over one and the tag (third photo) has my name on it.

Thank you both so much for such lovely presents, I shall treasure them.

Now for my last finish of 2008. It's another ornament from Prairie Schooler's Santa's and Snowmen. I stitched this for the weekly challenges over at Let's Stitch leading up to Christmas. I didn't get too much stitching time, and so it took me longer to finish than the previous one. I finally finished the stitching on New Year's Eve, however, I do still have yet to make it into the finished ornament.

I'm now all Christmas'd out and have picked up my Prairie Schooler Daffodil Sampler, which I'm really enjoying. I'll show you a photo of my progress next time as I don't want to overload Blogger with too many photos.

I have signed up to Kathy's PIF and, as per the rules, I'm now offering one myself. If you would like to receive something stitched by me within the next 365 days please leave a comment on THIS POST ONLY. I shall ask Keith to draw three names on SUNDAY 18th JAN. The lucky winners should then make this same offer on their own blogs. In the event that there no takers or less than three I shall randomly pick names from my blog list to receive an RAK. This is open to everyone, so good luck.

Nicola

**EDITED TO ADD** that if you DO wish to join my PIF please make sure that your comment specifies this, otherwise I shall assume that you DO NOT want to join.

Thank you

Nicola

Amber Mist and Red Devil

2008-12-28T18:33:00.002Z

I don't normally do non-stitching posts, but this is by way of explaining my new header photo. As many of you will know I live near the Trent and Mersey Canal. One of our favourite places to visit is Fradley Junction, just a short drive from us. Back in the summer we discovered The Cheese Boat whilst over there, and bought some lovely Cheddar cheese flavoured with whisky, called Amber Mist and a red Leicester flavoured with chillies and crushed pepper called Red Devil. If you look at the link you'll see that this boat tours all around the canals and does in fact come to Great Haywood Junction, very near to where I live. Today, however, the boat was at Fradley so Keith and I braved the cold, and boy was it cold, and went over there to buy some more cheese. When we got there we discovered the Fudge Boat was there as well. I was in seventh heaven as I love fudge! The photo below shows what we came home with. In the header photo the Cheese Boat is the one on the right with the Fudge Boat behind it.

I hope you all had a really lovely Christmas, and I wish you all a very Happy New Year! Hopefully there will be a stitching post from me soon.

Nicola

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T10:13:00.002Z

I'd like to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thank you all for continuing to read my blog, and for all the wonderful comments that you leave, they mean so much to me! I look forward to seeing you all again in 2009.

Busy, busy,busy!

2008-12-09T15:49:00.003Z

A couple of people have said that they have missed updates from me. The reason for this was that the week before last, as many of you know, I was away. Then last week I was busy making Christmas cards, of the non-stitched variety. I was also busy stitching up an ornament from Prairie Schooler's Santa's and Snowmen that I had started while I was at my parents. I didn't think it worth posting a WIP picture and in fact decided to wait until it was "finished" into the ornament before posting. I stitched it as last weeks weekly challenge on the Let's Stitch blog, and intend doing another one this week as the "Anything Christmas" challenge will continue until Christmas. I used the Prairie Schooler method of finishing using green felt for the backing and a matching cord hanger that I made myself from DMC 895.

Prairie Schooler Santa's and Snowmen
32ct linen, unknown colour, maybe Summer Khaki-ish
DMC threads

I also "finished off" the PS Snowy Night ornament in the same way using DMC 815 for the cord hanger and cranberry felt for the backing.

Yesterday I had a rare day out. I went to visit Helen for the first time at her home. (We had met up before, but at a garden centre.) She very kindly met me off the train, and after a coffee at her place we went off to visit Colette for lunch, and the rest of the day. We had a really good time, eating, chatting, laughing, but not one stitch did any of us do! I did come home with some stash though, one of Colette's designs called Autumn Tile. Thank you so much, Helen and Colette, it was a fantastic day, if I did arrive home a little wet due to the horrendous rain!

I now have to thank Edgar, because if it had not have been for his wonderful Prairie Schooler Old World Santa ornaments that he stitched and that I saw on his blog, I would not now be the proud owner of yet another PS chart!! (LOL) Yes, I know I'm a lost cause, but these charts are just so lovely I can't resist them.

Many thanks for all your comments, and a warm welcome to all new readers.

Nicola

Going South

2008-11-21T18:19:00.002Z

Well, my stitching is all packed, got my priorities right there then! Will do the rest of the packing later or in the morning. We're off mid morning tomorrow down to the South coast to visit my parents and my MIL for the week. Before I go though, I'd just like to thank everyone for their lovely comments on my ornament. (Hope to get another started during the week, but don't know how much I'll get done as I expect to be out and about a bit.) I'd also like to say how lovely it is to see lots of new people following my blog. Please, do leave a comment, it would be great to get to know you.

'Bye for now, see you all in December.

Nicola

Ornament Finish

2008-11-18T11:38:00.003Z

Yesterday afternoon I finished off last weeks ornament challenge on the Let's Stitch blog. It's Prairie Schooler's Snowy Night from this years JCS Ornament issue. I stitched it on 32ct Ivory Jobelan using the recommended DMC threads, except that I added some Kreinik Balger blending filament 032 to the white. I really enjoyed this challenge as it has spurred me on to stitch some more ornaments. My new PS Santa's and Snowmen chart arrived this morning and I'll be taking it with me to stitch from when I go away on Saturday for the week to visit my parents and MIL.

Nicola

Daffodil Sampler and Acorn Hill Updates

2008-11-11T16:30:00.003Z

Apologies for the lack of posts and comments from me lately. I've been in somewhat of a blogging slump which I'm finding difficult to get myself out of. I have been stitching though and here are two progress pictures, firstly of PS Daffodils Sampler.

Secondly, this is how Acorn Hill is progressing.

I'm now stitching a Christmas ornament in this weeks challenge on the Let's Stitch blog. I was lucky enough to win a copy of this years JCS Ornament issue in a draw that Carol had recently, and I'm stitching Prairie Schooler's Snowy Night ornament from it. I won't be able to finish it this week though, as I need to get some more thread for it and won't be able to do that until the weekend. I've also been naughty and ordered Prairie Schooler's Santa's and Snowmen ornaments chart from Down Sunshine Lane today, as I've got the ornament bug and these are just gorgeous.

Many thanks, as usual, to everyone for reading and commenting on my blog despite me going AWOL.

Nicola

A Lot Of Water But Not Much Stitching!

2008-10-17T17:48:00.006+01:00

Hello everyone! We had a lovely week in Yorkshire although our arrival was in somewhat wet weather. It had been raining so much that the road across from Ingleton to Hawes was running with so much water that it was like constantly driving through fords. After a stop at the Wensleydale creamery for tea and cake we headed out of Hawes to Thwaite and our cottage. Unfortunately we had to make a detour as our usual route was flooded and impassable. However, Sunday the weather was glorious and roads were dry again, the water goes down very quickly. We only had two other days of rain during the week, but nowhere near as much as on that first Saturday. As you can see from the new header photo, which is of the Middle Falls at Aysgarth, all the rain made the falls more spectacular! I came home with an unwanted "souvenir" though, a Yorkshire cold! This is the reason why I'm only now just catching up with blogging.

You may recall I was taking LHN's Acorn Hill with me to stitch and that I was go to do so for an hour a day. Well this first photo shows just how much I actually did, about an hour all week!

This is where it's up to now. Some progress at last!

Before I went away I worked on PS's Daffodils Sampler. I'm hoping to work some more on this next week along side of Bourton-on-the-Water.

Now on to the recent Fair and Square exchange that I took part in. Lei was my partner for round 9 and this is what she stitched me.

And this is what I stitched for her.

Design from 1995 issue Cross Stitcher magazine
32ct Antique White Jobelan
DMC threads

Well that's me up to date again. I hope to have caught up with blog reading and commenting very soon. Thank you all for continuing to read and comment on my ramblings.

Nicola

WIP's

2008-10-01T11:35:00.005+01:00

Here, as promised, are the pictures of the WIP's that I have been working on recently. The first is Blackbird Designs "Their Song". I've been stitching the words in the top part of the design. I may go back though and unpick some of the cherries in the tree as I have misplaced them by half a stitch and it will throw the backstitched stems out.

Next is L&L's Celtic Christmas. I hadn't stitched on this since February of this year and, when the Celtic Lady SAL was re-launched at the beginning of September I thought I ought to get her out again. I admit that I've only stitched on her for a few days, as to start with I was busy finishing off with my exchanges. Hopefully from now on she'll get worked on a bit more.

This is where I'm up to with Derwentwater's Bourton-on-the-Water. I've been stitching the tree which is gradually nearing it's full growth.

Finally, this is the new start that I felt like treating myself to when Keith was away overnight a couple of weeks ago. It's Prairie Schooler's Daffodils. Seems like a good idea to be stitching a Spring design in the Autumn.

I do have some exchange stitching to show you but, as Blogger wouldn't let me upload any more photos, I'll leave that until after my holiday. I'm off on Saturday for a week, staying in the same cottage as before in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales, so I'll see you all when I get back.

Just before I go though, many thanks to you all for reading my blog and for all the lovely comments that you leave. I've seen some new names, welcome to you all, and I do hope you'll come back for another visit.

Nicola

Exchanges Sent and Received

2008-09-26T12:13:00.003+01:00

I recently took part in two exchanges with the Hooked on Exchanging group. The first one was a needleroll exchange, and you saw in my last post the needleroll that I stitched for Marion, now here's the needleroll that Gwen sent to me. She must have studied my blog really well as she knew that I'm planning on stitching the Victoria Sampler December needleroll and has therefore stitched me a companion one based on that design. She also included some lovely extra's.

Next is the lovely Prairies Schooler exchange that arrived here from Sally this morning. She has sent me a really lovely pinkeep. I just love this design, which unfortunately I think must be discontinued as I've tried looking for it before. It is beautifully stitched over one, and is finished with a pocket on the back. Sally also included all these extras, the Halloween cards top left are made by Sally too.

Lastly, this is the PS exchange that I sent to Chris. There is a much better photo over on Chris's blog.

Sunflower taken from A Prairie Garden

32ct Ivory Jobelan

DMC threads as given

I've really enjoyed taking part in these, and a couple of other exchanges but now it's time to concentrate on my own stitching for a while. I have loads of kits and charts that I really need to stitch as there is a lot of money tied up in them all. I also want to enter a piece of cross stitch into our village show next September and have a kit in my stash for that. With all this in mind I have joined the Let's Stitch blog that Becky has set up for the purpose of encouraging stitchers to reduce their stash, and get those WIP's/UFO's finished. To start my stash reduction off I've kitted up LHN's Acorn Hill as my holiday stitch for the week after next when I'm up in the Yorkshire Dales for a week. It's a chart that I've had for nearly a year now and it's a nice easy, relaxing stitch for a holiday.

I do have some WIP photos to show you, but I'll leave that for another time as this post is long enough as it is.

Thanks so much for all your comments on my last post.

Nicola

"In Praise of the Needle"

2008-09-05T17:04:00.006+01:00

I learnt today that Marion has received the needle roll that I stitched for her in the Hooked on Exchanging needle roll exchange. It was only the second one that I've made and I stitched Aion Designs "In Praise of the Needle" with some modifications. I substituted the pinks in the design for violets - DMC 3743, 3041, 3042. The lettering was stitched in 3740 instead of 3835, I thought this a more pleasing colour scheme that fitted with Marions likes and also toned together well. I also used white Mill Hill beads 40479 instead of the recommended cream ones. I also sent some extras but forgot to take a photo of those. You can see what I sent over on the HoE blog.

Aion Designs "In Praise of the Needle"

32ct Antique White Jobelan

DMC threads

Mill Hill beads

Many thanks for all your wonderful comments about "Season of Hope".

Another LHN Finish

2008-09-03T17:19:00.004+01:00

Last week I took a break from exchange stitching and finished off Season of Hope. I'm probably going to frame this and Season of Plenty to hang in my computer room. I've really enjoyed stitching these LHN designs, but I'm now going to concentrate on getting some of my other WIP's or, should that really be UFO's, finished. At the end of last week I picked up Bourton-on -the-Water again. I haven't worked on this for some time now, but as I only managed a few stitches on it you wouldn't really see the difference, so no pictures yet. I'm now back to my exchange stitching, one I'm really enjoying, but the other one I'm struggling with, but I won't say any more about that. Anyway here's the photo of Season of Hope.

LHN Season of Hope

28ct Antique White Jobelan

DMC threads as given

I really must thank Karan for giving me the "I love your blog" award. I'm sorry, Karan, that it has taken me so long to get around to doing this publicly. I really can't single out any blogs in particular as I love all the ones I read, I wouldn't read them otherwise, would I? So I'm sorry, but I'm going to pass on nominating any, it's for everyone whose blog I read.

Many, many thanks to everyone who left me a comment on my last post, they really mean so much to me!!

Lastly, the new header photo is of my Stargazer lilies that are now flowering in pots in my garden, aren't they lovely? They smell gorgeous too!

Garden Pleasures and a Sweet Fob

2008-08-20T12:27:00.005+01:00

I have a couple of things to show you today. First of all is my completed Garden Pleasures. I started this back in May intending to stitch on it whilst on holiday, but didn't. I've been working on it on and off since then finally finishing it on Monday. I'm not sure though, that I like this linen very much, it's very stiff and although I'm used to working on 32ct the holes did seem rather small. Next time I plan to use it I think I'll wash it first to soften it up a bit.

Garden Pleasures by Little House Needleworks

32ct Lambswool Permin Linen

DMC, GAST, and Crescent Colour Threads as given

The second thing I'm showing you is the very lovely fob stitched for me by Cheryl. I was lucky enough to be drawn as one of Cheryl's winners in her Blogiversary draw. The design is taken from an LHN chart. Thank you so much Cheryl it's really sweet.

In exchange news, my needle roll for the HoE exchange is now finished and just needs packing up along with the extras that I'm sending and then it can go off to it's recipient. The Prairie Schooler exchange piece is complete too, and just needs finishing off, but I'm way ahead of the posting date with that. I have started off my personal exchange piece for Clare, which will be exchanged when we meet up again in The Dales while I'm on holiday there in October. The Fair and Square round 9 sign up has closed and I'll receive my partners details by the end of the week, but I'm going to start looking out some likely desings now. After all that is completed I'm going to cut down a bit on exchanges in order to concentrate a bit more on my own stitching. Yesterday I received some 36ct Edinburgh linen for my Derwentwater Yorkshire village. I bought it as a kit a few years ago and it came with 18ct Aida. I did make a small start on it but really do not enjoy working on this fabric any more. I've been promising myself the linen for it for ages, and now that I have it I can finally re-start it.

Thanks for reading my blog, and a special thank you to those of you who took the time to leave a comment.

Fair and Square Round 8 - Again!

2008-08-18T10:55:00.005+01:00

Cardinals from Prairie Birds - Prairie Schooler
32ct Antique White Jobelan Fabric

DMC Threads as given

All my visitors have now gone home and things are getting back to normal. However, I'm not feeling 100% due to my medication for high blood pressure being changed, things have yet to settle down, so I'm afraid that I'm not feeling very chatty. I do, however, just want to show you the square that I stitched for Maureen in the Fair and Square Exchange round 8. As I'm doing quite well with my exchange stitching I decided to work on Garden Pleasures and should finish it very soon. Watch this space as they say.

Before I go though, I must just thank Erica for awarding me the Brillante Weblog award. As I've won this before I'm not going to choose 7 blogs, it's not easy as this award has been going around for some time now, so it goes to everyone whose blog I read, I get inspiration from you all.

Fair and Square Round 8

2008-08-04T17:24:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to show you the lovely round 8 Fair and Square squares that I received from Maureen on Saturday. She tells me that the design is from The World of Cross Stitching magazine. The colours are just gorgeous, they are so me. I think these will probably be made up into a pin keep. Thank you so much Maureen!

On my own stitching front, I took a break from exchange stitching last week to stitch on LHN's Season of Hope, but did not really stitch enough to warrant a photo yet. Now though, I'm back to exchange stitching again. I've finished off my F&S squares to send to Maureen, so hopefully, there will be photo's of those soon. I'm now cracking on with my needle roll for the HoE Needle Roll exchange. The HoE Prairie Schooler exchange is stitched and just needs to be made up into something. (I'm keeping quiet on which finish I'm going to do.) I'm well ahead with that one so it will be quite a while before I can post a photo of it.

I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me as, not only do I have the exchange stitching to do, but my parents are headed this way for a looooooong weekend, and then the day after they leave my son arrives for another long weekend. All this means I have to do the housework, (groan!!!! ) when of course I'd rather be stitching!

Oh well, c'est la vie!

Delighted!

2008-07-24T09:03:00.002+01:00

I'm delighted to have been given this award by Veronica and Clare, thank you so much ladies!

The rules for this are:-

1. The winner can display this award on their blog
2. Display a link to the person you have got the award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs, you like.
4. Set the links to the blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a comment on the blogs you have chosen.

Here are my nominations (I have 8) in no particular order.

1. Yuko - Be Happy
2. Edgar - Blacksheep's Bit of the Web
3. Jayne - Ginnie's Cross Stitch!!
4. Carol - Garden of Stitches
5. Karen V - Simply Stitching
6. Lynn - Life and Little Stitches
7. Nicki - Plush
8. Clare - Mrs. Sew and Sew

I have been busy with exchange stitching this week so I'm afraid no photos of that. However, I thought you might like to see one of the first pieces that I attempted. It's a Heritage Stitchcraft design of a David Winter cottage, The Lace Maker's Cottage. It looks a little blurred here but I think that if you click on it the enlarged picture will be clearer. I remember being so totally flummoxed by the vertical and horizontal cross stitches that Heritage use, that I put it away for quite a while before finishing it.

Right that's me for now, off to stitch some more. As always thanks for visiting my blog.

Long Time, No Post

2008-07-21T11:55:00.004+01:00

Although it has been quite a while since my last post I really don't have much to show you. I worked on LHN's Season of Hope for a week, but didn't finish it, so I'm showing you the WIP photo. I then moved on to some exchange stitching, which I can't show yet. Unusually for me I've signed up for several exchanges. The first one I stitched was for the Fair and Square Exchange, I've finished the main design piece, but now have to do the back with my name etc. on. I'm waiting on a couple of alphabet books to arrive from Sew and So, hopefully tomorrow, then I can finish that off and get it sent. I've also started stitching my needle roll for the HoE exchange, and will be continuing with that this week. After that it will be a Prairie Schooler piece, again for the HoE exchange group, before moving on to another Fair and Square round and another personal exchange with Clare. Phew! In amongst all that I'm trying to stitch another needle roll for myself, this time Victoria Sampler's December birthday needle roll. I bought this some time ago and eventually started working on it last summer. However, all the white stitches are supposed to be worked with three strands, but I wasn't getting very neat stitches so decided to frog the few that I'd done and re-start using two strands. I finally got around to doing that at the end of last week, and I'm much happier with the look of it now. Following the success of my Violet needle roll I bought four more Sweetheart Tree needle rolls on a recent visit to Wye Needlecraft in Bakewell. I believe these charts are now discontinued so was pleaed to be able to still get some, even better was the fact that they were "Buy one get one free". The ones I bought were the Forget-me-not roll, the Blueberry roll, The Wildflowers roll and the Strawberry Patch roll. Together with the three others that I have still to stitch, (the Rememberance roll, the Tulip roll and the Sweetheart roll) these will keep me going for quite some time.

Thank you so much for the all the wonderful comments on my Violet needle roll, they were really very much appreciated. Once again I am way behind with blogging, nothing too unusual there! I blame Keith who surprised me with a week off work last week and so I wasn't on the computer quite as much as I am when I'm on my own. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!(LOL)

On a Roll

2008-06-29T17:46:00.004+01:00

Violet Bouquet Needleroll by The Sweetheart Tree
32ct Antique White Jobelan
DMC and Needle Necessities threads as given
Sweetheart Tree Heart Charm
(Photo clickable for a detailed view)

I did it! I finished my very first needleroll today. It really was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I know I'll be making more. If you've already stitched this design you may notice that the heart charm is not the stated cabouchon one, but a faceted heart. I didn't realise that I had the wrong type until I went to stitch it on. Nevertheless, I don't think it looks too bad. I've now kitted up LHN's Season of Hope to start tomorrow as a break from Garden Pleasures which I'm finding a tad hard going on the 32ct Permin linen. Seaon of Hope is going to be stitched on 28ct Jobelan.

Thanks for your lovely comments on my last post.

Eyes Right

2008-06-25T15:58:00.006+01:00

Not a huge amount of progress on Garden Pleasures in the last week, just the grass and words. I have also added some french knot eyes to the girl, which I think is a great improvement, they bring her to life. The photo is clickable for a better view.

I'm also stitching my first needleroll. Chris was going to help me out by doing a SAL with me as the "finishing" had always put me off doing one before. However, as a needleroll exchange was being offered on the Hooked on Exchanging blog, I thought it was time I had a go, but Chris was unable to SAL with me just now, although she did offer to help me out with the finishing. Many thanks for that Chris, I will be e-mailing you. However, my friend Colette came over for the afternoon last Saturday so I asked her to show me how to hemstitch. Now that I know how to do that I feel so much more confident that I can do one, so this morning I went ahead and signed up for the exchange. Wish me luck please! Oh, and the needleroll that I'm stitching? It's The Sweetheart Tree's Violet Bouquet needleroll.

Many thanks for all your lovely comments last time, and a warm welcome to all new readers.

I Have Been Stitching....

2008-06-19T09:23:00.002+01:00

.... just not blogging very much. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things after a really nasty cold. I have started to comment again, but it's taking me a while to catch up on all your blogs. Please bear with me on this. Thanks to all who read my blog and especially to those of you who take the time and trouble to leave me such lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.

Last week I had a finish, LHN's Season of Plenty. It was one of the charts that Keith gave me for Christmas last year. It only took me about a week to do, and as I was feeling rough, it was a nice easy one to stitch.

LHN Seaon of Plenty
28ct Antique White Jobelan
DMC threads as given

I've also been working on LHN's Garden Pleasures, another Christmas present, this time from Clare. I took this away on holiday with me intending to stitch on it, but I didn't. I have, however, been stitching on it on and off for the last three weeks since we've been back, and this is where I'm up to with it. Does anyone else who has stitched this feel that the girl needs at least some eyes? I'm stitching this on 32ct Lambswool linen by Permin with the suggested threads.

I had a small stash acquistion this week, a fat quarter each of antique white and ivory 32ct Jobelan fabric and a fat quarter of 32ct lilac Belfast linen. The latter is for my Bella biscornu. I also got four threads that I needed.

The new header is one of our peonies. It has taken several years to establish, but now has three gorgeous flowers on it. Sadly it's a little worse for wear now due to last nights wind and rain.

Right I'm off to have breakfast and stitch.

I Am Still Around

2008-06-04T14:06:00.006+01:00

Well, I did come back from the Dales, just haven't felt like blogging for a bit. We had a really lovely week in Thwaite, the weather, although not always very warm, was glorious with lots of sunshine. We just pottered around all our favourite places, eating too much as usual. I'm now counting down to our next visit there in October. While we were in the Dales we met up with Clare one morning and exchanged the biscornus that we'd made in a private exchange. The top photo is the one that I stitched for Clare, and the second photo is the beautiful biscornu that Clare stitched for me. Thank you so much Clare and also for the lovely extras that you so kindly added. (As always all photos are clickable for a better view.)

Free design which can be found here
28ct evenweave fabric either in white or antique white - can't remember exact details - sorry
Threads - DMC 160, 803 & 3051

Although I took some stitching away with me, I didn't stitch one single stitch! However, before I went I did stitch LHN's Ladybug Ladybug. Another really relaxing design to stitch, I do seem to be having a LHN stitching bonanza at the moment.

Ladybug Ladybug by LHN
28ct Antique Ivory Cashel Linen
DMC threads as given

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last posts, I'm sorry I've not been returning the favour, hopefully that will be rectified soon.

Peace and Quiet

2008-05-15T17:25:00.002+01:00

This is where I'll be for a week from Saturday, Thwaite in Swaledale, North Yorkshire. Looking forward to the peace and quiet and no Internet!!

See you all when I get back, IF I come back that is!! LOL

Fair & Square & Cottage Trio

2008-05-06T11:46:00.005+01:00

Terry has eventually received the squares I sent her in the Fair and Square Exchange. I was becoming somewhat concerned as it seemed to be taking longer than normal for it to travel from the U.K. to the States. Anyway I can now show you what I stitched and the extras that I sent. As always click on the photos for a better view.

Martina's Roses - Free Design from Chatelaine which can be found here.

Fabric M.C.G. Textiles 32ct linen in Oyster.

DMC threads and Mill Hill beads as given.

Last week I finished the Peony Cottage, which completes my trio of cottages from Country Cottage Needlework/Crescent Colours.

Fabric M.C.G. Textiles 32ct linen in Oyster.

Crescent Colour threads.

Just a short post today as it has taken me ages to get this far. I don't know if it's me or Blogger, but one of us is not functioning too well! Thanks for all your lovely comments about the bluebells. And to any new readers, please don't be shy, do leave a comment.

Bluebells, Bluebells And.......More Bluebells

2008-05-04T18:21:00.003+01:00

On our wanderings around Staffordshire last Sunday I noticed an AA road sign pointing to some bluebell woods. After a bit of detective work on the Internet yesterday morning, I discovered that these woods were not very far away at Yoxall Lodge. So yesterday afternoon, as the weather was much better than expected and there was tea and cake on offer we paid the woods a visit. It was just so amazing, beautiful blue carpets of the most gorgeous smelling flowers, and the cake was scrumptious too! It was one of the best afternoons out we've had in a long while. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves although they really don't do these lovely English flowers the justice they deserve. Oh, and by the way the new header picture is one of the many that I took while we were there.

I have a stitching post coming soon. Thanks to everyone who visits my blog especially those of you who leave such lovely comments, they are so much appreciated, and a very warm welcome to new readers.

Fair and Square

2008-04-28T11:21:00.003+01:00

I have recently taken part in my first Fair and Square exchange and received these lovely Round 6 squares from Terry P. last week. She saw from my members profile that I liked LHN designs and so stitched the tree from the Willow Tree Inn. I also have a liking for Swaledale sheep, a black faced breed from The Yorkshire Dales in Northern England, and I love blackbirds, so this design was very appropriate. Terry also included some pretty ribbons and threads. Thank you very much Terry, I've really enjoyed taking part in this exchange.

HoE Biscornu Lands in the U.K.

2008-04-20T17:23:00.002+01:00

I received a beautiful biscornu in the HoE Biscornu exchange from Kim yesterday morning. She stitched me a lovely Chatelaine design, Kathy's Violets, and she told me that she couldn't find a button that she liked so crocheted a small flower for the front and back. Kim stitched our intials and those of the exchange and the date in the four corners on the back of the biscornu. Also included in the package was a lovely magazine containing some beautiful floral designs that I'm really looking forward to stitching. Kim also sent me a large selection of DMC threads which, although they are reasonably easy to get over here in the U.K., are rather more expensive. There was also a lovely fridge magnet from New York, a place I visited when I was nine and now, forty one years later I have a lovely momento of that visit on my fridge. The arrival of this very lovely exchange really cheered up a rather gloomy Saturday morning here in the U.K.

Violet Cottage Finish

2008-04-18T09:08:00.006+01:00

This weeks finish is Country Cottage/ Crescent Colours Violet Cottage, the second in my trio of cottages. Next, I move on to the last one which will be Peony Cottage.

I've also finished an exchange, but obviously can't share that with you yet, and I'm in the middle of a personal exchange with Clare. Now, I'd like to share some thoughts with you about exchanges. I like taking part in them, but I do worry about them, so much so that as each one finishes I think that's it I won't do any more. I'll explain. I worry about whether or not I can meet the requirments of the exchange, do I have enough charts, are my limited finishing skills good enough? I then worry about whether I'll have the right sort of charts for my recipients likes, for instance, I love floral designs and have a plethora of these, but so often I read that people don't like floral and if my partner is one of these what will I stitch? I worry about having the time to stitch, so I only take on one exchange at a time. I worry about the extras that I love to send, I want people to like them. I do have a wonderfully supportive husband who helps me choose and even supplies the funds for this. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH KEITH! That all done, when it's time to send the exchange off I worry about whether it will reach it's destination safely and haunt the appropriate exchange blog until I see a post from the recipient. I won't have any problems there though with the exchange with Clare as I'll be giving it to her myself when we meet up while I'm up in the Yorkshire Dales next month, and won't be having to rely on Royal Mail. Oh well, I guess I'm just a born worrier, I mean, is there anybody out there actually reading this? LOL

Rose and Daffodils

2008-04-09T11:35:00.005+01:00

Sorry to have been missing for a short while. I've been busy with spring cleaning and then my parents have been here for a few days on their way to Scotland to visit my aunt and uncle. They return here again on Friday, just for the weekend, on their way home again. I am starting to catch up with reading blogs and leaving comments again, it's amazing how it mounts up in just a few short days! Anyway I do have a couple of small finishes to show you. The first one is CCN/CC's Rose Cottage, the first of three in a vertical row that I'm stitching. I've now moved on to the Violet Cottage but don't have a photo of that yet. I think I'll wait until it's finished.

This next picture is of Daffodils from Prairie Schooler's Prairie Garden. You may remember that I changed the threads for this to DMC's Colour Variations to give it a bit of interest. I'm quite pleased with the result and will at some time be making this up into a pin keep for myself.

I've had a couple of questions about the hardanger mat that I sometimes use to photograph small items on. I didn't stitch it, it was designed and stitched for me by my good friend Colette of Col's Creations for Christmas 2005. Colette has now released the chart on her website and it's called "Tulips and Lace". Do go and have a look as there are lots of other lovely designs by Colette for sale there.

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments about the biscornu that I stitched for Mylene in the HoE biscornu exchange. I'm still waiting for mine to arrive, but I think it should be here soon.

Biscornu Finally Lands in The Netherlands

2008-03-26T16:33:00.007Z

Just when I had started to think about stitching a replacement, I heard from Mylene last night that she has received the biscornu that I stitched for her in the Hooked on Exchanging biscornu exchange. I was starting to get worried about this as I sent it two weeks ago, and it was only going from England to The Netherlands! (I thought it would only take about a week, after all post to the U.S.A. only takes that long!) Anyway I can now show you what I stitched and the extras that I sent, which were some pretty fabric, a length of Ric Rac, some beads, threads and a postcard. If you click on the photos the beads that I stitched onto the biscornu will show up much better.

Design No. 942 Repertoire des Frises
Fabric 28ct Antique White Brittney
Threads DMC Variations 4210 & 4128
Beads Mill Hill

I have stitched a wee bit more on my Rose Cottage, but not really enough to warrant another picture just now. I'm also stitching away on my Fair and Square exchange and am nearly finished the main piece. I then have to stitch the second square with my name, date and country and I'm done. Obviously I can't show you a picture yet.

Thanks for your lovely comments about my last post. I shall carry on stitching the daffodils in the colours I'm using. Nic to answer your question about DMC's Colour Variations, yes, I agree with you, they do look "blocky" and not as subtle as some other brands of hand dyed threads, but I'm quite happy with the result in this case.

A Couple of New Starts

2008-03-19T12:03:00.005Z

Last week I was feeling in need of a change from "Their Song", so made a couple of new starts. The first one was daffodils taken from Prairie Schooler's "A Prairie Garden" (now discontinued). I'm stitching it on an oddment of 28ct evenweave. I'm not sure of the colour but would hazzard a guess that it's antique white. I wasn't happy with the colour of the DMC threads given on the chart, I felt they were a bit on the dull side, so I decided to experiment with DMC's Variations threads. I'm using 4045 for the stems and leaves, 4128 for the flower petals and 4090 for the trumpet. These colours work for me, but I'd be interested to know what you think. When it's finished I shall be making this into a pin keep.

Last Friday I finally gave in to another new start. I had two of the Country Cottage/Crescent Colours thread packs for Christmas from Keith, they are Rose and Peony, and I added the Violet one myself. I'm going to stitch them one under the other and then frame them....eventually. I shall flip the Peony cottage over to the other side so as to have a pleasing arrangement of the cottages. Anyway, for now I have started on the Rose cottage. I'm stitching on a 32ct Oyster linen from M.C.G. fabrics, a Belgian made linen. I bought this ages ago in Hobbycraft, I've never heard of it before. Obviously the threads are Crescent Colours. I'm really enjoying this, it's such a lovely relaxing design to stitch.

Now I just thought I'd show you some new stash that arrived yesterday. I posted before that I had "When Barnabee Met Bella" on pre-order from Down Sunshine Lane. Well when Amy told me it was ready to ship and would I like to add anything else to the order, I just couldn't resist adding "Daffodils", one of the new Prairie Schooler charts that I saw mentioned on Nicki's blog. Oh dear, I just know that I shouldn't click on links! (LOL) Thanks Nicki! The fabric pictured with the charts is a fat quarter of Permin's 32ct Lambswool linen that I bought in order to kit up LHN's "Garden Pleasures", another Christmas present, that I'll be taking to stitch while I'm away on holiday in Thwaite, in the Yorkshire Dales, in May. ( Yes, we're back there again, just can't get enough of the place! Going again in October too!) I also bought, though not shown, some Piecemaker needles and another skein of WDW's Moss floss for "Their Song".

I finally got round to joining the Fair and Square Exchange round 6. I've drawn a great partner, who is so easy to please that I managed to find a design for her of the required size straight away. I have already started stitch it and am thoroughly enjoying it. I'm sure I'll be signing up for more! I'm also going to do a personal biscornu exchange with Clare of Mrs. Sew and Sew. This is to be exchanged when we meet up while I'm in the Dales in May, something that I'm looking forward to very much.

Thank you so much for all your comments on "Their Song", I shall be going back to working on it soon.

Oh yes, and the new header photo is of the junction of the Trent and Mersey and Staffordshire and Worcestershire canals here in the village. I thought it was time that my header reflected the area in which I live.

Their Song

2008-03-07T12:53:00.006Z

This week I've been busy stitching on Blackbird Designs "Their Song". I've finished the bottom half, stitching the bird and flower on the far left and then finishing off the cherries and leaves on the underside of the branch on the large tree. As usual click on the photos for a better view.

I did stitch last week but unfortunately can't show you yet as it was my biscornu for the Hooked on Exchanging biscornu exchange.

I seem to have developed a biscornu obsession and when I saw this on Andrea's blog last week I just had to have it. Fortunately, as I couldn't really afford it just yet and as it's a limited edition, my gorgeous husband decided to treat me to it and has pre-ordered it from Amy at Down Sunshine Lane. Hopefully it won't be too long before it's winging it's way to me.

For the last couple of weeks I seem to have been in a bit of a blogging slump. Apart from not having any stitching to share with you until today so no posts, I've also not been leaving comments on the blogs I normally read. Please accept my apologies for this, I have been reading your blogs though and as always there is some lovely work being done out there. Many thanks for all your comments on my last post, they are very much appreciated.

Edited to add: The JN biscornu is a limited edition according to the Down Sunshine Lane website although NOT according to the Just Nan website.

Bourton-on-the-Water Update

2008-02-21T11:45:00.008Z

Last week was my Bourton-on-the-Water week. However, I didn't do much too much stitching on it. I finished off the grass and started to "grow" the tree. Apologies for the hoop mark, I didn't iron it before taking the photo.

Here's a photo of the small iris that I've stitched for a Mother's Day card. I'm going to stitch another one the same so that I don't have to remember what I stitched for MIL or my mother.

Design taken from One Nighters 48 Flowers by Jeanette Crews Designs.

Stitched on 28ct white Jobelan fabric.

DMC threads as given.

I've made a start on my biscornu for the HoE biscornu exchange, but for obvious reasons can't say any more about that. I just hope that I've got the right design and colours for my partner. There is a pinkeep exchange taking sign ups now, but as the posting date for that is not very long after the one for the biscornu I've decided to not to take part in it. "Their Song" has been sadly negleted for a while now, hopefully, once I've got the other Mother's Day card and the biscornu stitched I'll be able to get back to it.

There's not much more to say this post except to thank you all once again for your comments, especially to new readers of my blog.

Hooked on Exchanging Scissor Fob

2008-02-17T17:39:00.002Z

My fob from Shelleen arrived here yesterday morning. It's very pretty and has been stitched 1 over 1. Also included were a pretty peice of fabric, two DMC Light Effects flosses and a pair of scissors. Thank you so much Shelleen. The first photo shows the whole package and the second, if you click for a closer view, shows the detail of the 1 over 1 stitching.

Celtic Christmas Update

2008-02-13T11:52:00.003Z

I did work on my Celtic Christmas on Monday. I don't know what has happened to the SAL, if anyone else is still stitching their ladies, but I'm going to keep on with mine or it won't get done. I really enjoyed my afternoons stitching on her. I think the break that I had after the unnecessary frogging did some good and I started again with renewed enthusiasm.

I'm still waiting anxiously for the arrival of my HoE scissor fob. I've been told that it has been sent but I would have thought that it should have been here by now. Oh well, as it's in the hands of the postal system I shall continue to wait hopefully. I now have the name of my partner for the HoE biscornu exchange and so I'm trying to sort out what I'm going to stitch for that.

Many thanks for your comments about my biscornu and the thread colour. I think that colour has a feel of spring about it, and it was so lovely to stitch with.

Tumbling Leaves

2008-02-11T12:05:00.000Z

Tumbling Leaves Biscornu by Alchemy Stitchcraft
32ct Antique White Jobelan
Threadworx thread "Squash"

I finally finished my biscornu last Friday. It was a really enjoyable piece to stitch once I got all the frogging out of the way. The only other stitching that I did last week was a letter from Just Nan's Ornamental Letters chart. I did this for a card for a school friends birthday. No photo yet just in case she reads this. As usual I took a photo of the finished stitching but forgot to take one of the finished card. This week is my Bourton-on-the-Water week again starting tomorrow, but today I am going to work on my Celtic Christmas lady. I've rather negleted this SAL of late, for which I apologise to my fellow SALers, but I am hoping to get back into the swing of it again.

Many thanks as always for your comments. It's great to know that you all find my blog interesting enough to read and comment on.

Exchange and WIP's

2008-02-05T12:29:00.000Z

I learnt this morning that my Hooked on Exchanging scissor fob has been received by Joanne. I stitched it using a free design from My Aunts Attic on 32ct antique white Jobelan using DMC's Variations thread in 4220, and made the cord myself using my new custom corder. Below is a photo of the front of the fob and the extras that I sent and also one of the back of the fob. (Apologies for the dark corner in the first photo.)

Last week I made some more progress on "Their Song". Unfortunately a counting error means that the three flower motifs to the left of the tree are placed half a stitch too far to the left. Oh joy of joys, more frogging? Well no, I don't think so. The words "their songs "and the zig zag line at the bottom are correctly placed having used the tree on the far right. Therefore I can use this to positon everything else on the design. I think I can live with the error as it's not that noticable, otherwise I'd have spotted it earlier. What would you do?

Next is part 1 of Tumbling Leaves by Alchemy Stitchcraft. I have to stitch two peices the same for the front and back. I'm using Threadworx thread in "Squash" on 32ct antique white Jobelan. I started the second piece last week in the hope of finishing it by the weekend, but the frogs were still hanging around and I had to unpick a whole corner.

Now it may just be wishful thinking, but it seems like Spring may be just around the corner. The daffodil bulbs in my garden are well up (no flowers yet of course) and the Hellebores are starting to flower. I have a couple of clumps of primroses flowering with more to come and I even have a snowdrop poking it's head up. This is something of a minor miracle as we have not normally been very successful with snowdrops before. However, we put a couple of new plants in a different position last year and this seems to be better. If they both come up okay we'll put some more in.

Thank you all so much for taking the time and trouble to read my blog. and for all the lovely comments you left on my last post.

It's about time...

2008-01-29T16:41:00.001Z

...I showed you something of what I've been doing since my last post. The week before last I decided that it was high time I got working on some UFO's again, so I got out Bourton-on-the-Water by Derwentwater Designs. I spent the week stitching on just this and got quite a bit done.

Next is my latest progress on "Their Song" by Blackbird Designs. This really is a joy to stitch on as it's a simple design so very relaxing. I'm sorry that the picture is a bit dark but the light had started to go when I took the picture this afternoon. Click on the photos for a better view.

I've also started stitching a biscornu. The chart is Alchemy Stitchcraft's "Tumbling Leaves" that I bought with a gift voucher that Claire sent me for my birthday. I'm stitching it with Threadworx "Squash" thread. I haven't, however, taken a photo yet as I'm part way through stitching it, will post one when it's finished. I also finished off my fob in the Hooked on Exchanging Scissor Fob exchange. I've posted it off to my partner but she won't get it for a few days, so no photo of that yet either. I've now signed up for the Biscornu exchange, and am looking forward to participating in that. I have plans too, to sign up for round 6 of the Fair and Square Exchange.

That's about it for now. Thank you all for reading my blog and thanks to those who leave much appreciated comments.

New Year, New Start (and a small finish)

2008-01-09T11:15:00.000Z

Belated New Year's greetings! I hope you all had a great Christmas. We had a quiet one here, just myself, Keith and our son Paul, who unfortunately wasn't too well over Christmas. He came home with conjunctivits and a cold and then developed a nasty throat infection. However, after a visit to our doctor who gave him anti-biotics, he was a lot better within 48hours. He stayed with us until New Years Day when he went back home to London.

I didn't get very much stitching (or any blogging) done over Christmas, but last week, once Keith had gone back to work, I couldn't resist a new start. I chose Their Song by Blackbird Designs, one of the charts that Keith gave me for Christmas. I'm stitching it on Polstitches
28ct Sampler Linen in "Heirloom", using the recommended WDW threads. I'm really enjoying stitching this, so much so that I just couldn't put it down yesterday. I also made a start last week on my scissor fob for the Hooked on Exchanging blog. I've stitched the front and now just need to sort out something for the back and then put it together.

I also had a small finish last week, LHN's Cherries. I stitched this on 36ct Edinburgh using one thread of the Crescent Colours. I had so much trouble with the thread knotting up despite copious amounts of Thread Heaven and using short lengths of thread, I was really glad to have it finished. I don't think I'll use such a small count of fabric again as I think this may have contributed to the knotting up of the thread.

Monday was Celtic Lady SAL day. I don't know if anyone else stitched on their lady, but I did about two hours on mine. Not much to show really but I am a slow stitcher and also spent quite a while frogging a mistake which wasn't a stitching mistake after all, just that I was looking at the wrong line on the chart. LOL

I'll leave you now with two photos of the stash I received for Christmas. The first one is stash from Clare. She sent me LHN's Gourmet Garden and Garden Pleasures including the two Crescent Colours threads needed for the latter. The bottom photo shows the four charts that Keith gave me, LHN's Season of Plenty, CCN's and Crescent Colours thread packs in Rose and Peony and Blackbird Designs Their Song. I also had a Kreinik Custom Corder from Keith.

Oh yes, just one last thing. I was delighted to learn this morning that I am one of four winners in Cheryl's blogiversary draw. Cheryl has promised to send something that she has stitched and finished within the next year. Thanks so much Cheryl, I'll look forward to receiving that.

Merry Christmas One and All

2007-12-24T11:14:00.000Z

I'd like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Many thanks to you all for visiting my blog and for the lovely comments you have left during the past year. See you all in 2008.

It's Been A Long Time

2007-12-19T14:53:00.000Z

I've been very remiss of late with blogging, so apologies to all whose blogs I read but haven't commented on lately.

I do have some things to show you although in the last week or so I haven't done that much stitching. I'm afraid that I haven't spent much time on Celtic Christmas, so it really isn't worth a picture at the moment. However, a couple of weeks ago I decided to "finish" my Autumn pinkeep. It's the first one I've done and although I feel I could have centred the design better I'm quite pleased with it.

At the same time that I was finishing the pinkeep I thought I'd finish off a Christmas ornament that I'd stitched in the Christmas Ornament SAL. It's by Glory Bee from the JCS ornaments 10th Anniversary Collection. I only managed to stitch two ornaments in the whole year and the other one is not finished off as yet. I really must try to stitch more in 2008 so that I can fill up my ornament tree.

This next picture is of Just Nan's Morning Flower that I stitched for my friend Colette for Christmas. She and her husband came over on Sunday for lunch so we exchanged presents then. I'm afraid that I neglected to take a photo of the framed piece so this is just as I finished stitching it. I'm afraid that I've really gone off Just Nan's for the time being as stitching with perle 8 on 28ct proved to be rather a pain, I feel it's just too thick for this fabric. Unfortunately I don't, as yet, have a photo of the lovely sampler that Colette stitched for Keith and I. I'll show one in a future post.

It was my 50th birthday on Monday, can I really be that old? (LOL) I had lots of lovely presents, a silver ring set with Tanzanite stones from Keith and some Molton Brown Shimmer fragrance from my son, Paul, in Heavenly Gingerlily, my favourite fragrance in that range. I had hand dyed threads and a voucher for stash from the girls from the Stitch and Stash forum and shown below, this lovely pretty patchwork project bag from Colette, that she had made herself. The Ashley Gingher scissors, shown on the bag, are a present from another good friend of mine Clare. She went to a lot of trouble to get these for me, eventually buying them from Mike and Carol's online store. Clare told me that she was very impressed with the service from them and would recommend them. The scissors arrived in the UK from the States in under a week. It's a shame though that Royal Mail's Special Delivery service that guarantees next day delivery didn't work, and they took two days to get from Clare to me. Still they are here now and they are very pretty indeed. I shall really enjoy using them and Colette's bag along with everything else.

Many thanks to all of you who read my blog, and to those who comment on it. I will try not to leave it so long between posts again.

A Finish, Stash and a WIP

2007-11-21T12:13:00.000Z

I had a small HD last week, Prairie Schoolers Auntumn Pin Keep from issue 20 of the Gift of Stitching. I stitched it on 32ct antique white Jobelan using the DMC colours as given. It was a really delightful design to stitch and I shall finish it into a pin keep next week when I'll have more time.

Royal Mail delivered last weeks Sew and So order to me the next day instead of it taking the normal two days. Shown here are the two Prairie Schooler charts that I mention in my last post and also Acorn Hill by Little House Needlework which I bought on Saturday at the bi-annual meet up at Nuneaton. It's one that was on my wish list and now all I have to get are the Crescent Colours to stitch it with. I've already started one of the PS Redwork Santas - on 32ct antique white Jobelan but over 1!! Am I mad? No, don't answer that. LOL I am needing to use my magnifier and my glasses though. I changed one of the colours, DMC3777, as I didn't think it was red enough so now I'm using DMC 815.

Lastly here is this weeks progress on Celtic Christmas. I didn't get as much done on her on Monday as I had intended to so I also stitched on her yesterday.

I have my parents arriving here very soon and stopping until Tuesday. Keith also has a few days off work so that we can take them out a bit, so I'm not going to be around much until after they've gone. I shall try to keep up with reading your blogs though.

I've Well and Truly...

2007-11-14T13:42:00.000Z

...fallen off the chart wagon. I ordered two Prairie Schooler charts, Redwork Santas and Christmas Day, this morning. As I've finished my secret stitching, sorry, no photo's until after Christmas, I now have time to make a few Christmas ornaments from these charts, hopefully in time for this Christmas.

Inspired by Sally, and I hope she won't mind me pinching her idea, I've started my first pinkeep using Prairie Schooler's Autumn Pinkeep chart from the Gift of Stitching issue 20. I'm still in the process of stitching the design, so no photos yet I'm afraid. Oh, and my Autumn Postcard is now framed and hanging on the wall in the small bedroom where we have the computer.

I didn't get around to stitching on my Celtic Christmas lady on Monday, I did it yesterday instead. I spent quite a bit of time on her although I don't think it looks as if I have made very much progress. I did have to frog a fair amount as I discovered that I'd used the wrong colour, aaaarrrrrrgh! Oh well I hope next week will see a lot more added to her.

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my last post, they are well and truly appreciated.

Autumn and Celtic Christmas SAL

2007-11-07T11:06:00.000Z

I finished this small design last week, it was my entry for the Autumn competition on the "A Crafty Natter" BB, although unfortunately it didn't win. It's one of a series of four seasonal postcards by Passione Ricamo that were once free designs but are, unfortunately, no longer available. I stitched it on 28ct "Bone" Lugana, using the recommended DMC threads.

Because I was busy finishing off my Autumn Postcard last Monday I didn't stitch on Celtic Christmas in our regular Monday SAL. Instead I did two days this week and here is my progress picture.

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog, and especially to those who have left me such lovely comments! I apologise that I'm still not commenting on your blogs, I haven't been feeling 100% over the last couple of weeks, but I'm starting to feel better now and hope to get back into the swing of blogging very soon.

Celtic Lady SAL

2007-10-24T12:34:00.000+01:00

Here's this weeks update on my Celtic Christmas. I didn't seem to get very much done this week although I think I spent getting on for two hours on it. I'm really not a very fast stitcher, but it isn't a race, and this will keep me going without having to buy more stash for a very long time. (Not that I need any more stash of course. LOL)

I do need to apologise for not commenting much on my regular blog reads. It is taking me a while to get back into the swing of blogging after my holiday, and I also had a lot of secret stitching to do last week. I am, however, reading your blogs and there is some wonderful stitching going on!

Stash and SAL

2007-10-18T11:02:00.000+01:00

Well Blogger has finally let me upload my photos so here are the promised pictures of my newly accqired stash, (AKA RAK's from Keith LOL.) The charts are:- Bent Creek Snowbound, L*K Merry Friends - Santa '03, The Prairie Schooler Country Seasons and The Trilogy Autumnology.

Clare also gave me Heirloom Embroideries Peachy Biscornu kit and some 35ct Edinburgh fabric in Sand.

Next is a RAK from Keith from a recent trip to Wye Needlecraft at Bakewell. I spotted this discontinued chart by Prairie Schooler, A Prairie Garden, which he bought for me.

Now to the SAL. As you know I'm taking part in a Celtic Lady SAL and I'm stitching Celtic Christmas in the alternative colours in blues and lilacs on 28ct pale lilac Brittney. I had made a small start before the SAL was organised and this is where I started the SAL from.

This is my progress after about two hours of stitching on Monday afternoon.

Thank you so much for all your comments on my previous posts, they are very much appreciated.

Tales from the Dales

2007-10-15T12:06:00.001+01:00

Well I'm back from a really lovely week in the Yorkshire Dales. We had a fantastic surprise when we arrived at our cottage. Our son, Paul, had sent us this lovely bouquet of flowers and a half bottle of Champagne for our anniversary. Now I know why he was asking for the address of the cottage! We had a lovely meal out for our anniversary (on the Monday), lovely pub and lovely food, just spoilt by 14 elderly people who talked at the top of their voices. Honestly, I've never heard such a racket! It was impossible to hold a normal conversation with Keith until they moved through to another room for their meal and even then they could still be heard!

The rest of the week was spent just pottering about all our favourite places. This photo is of the Upper Falls at Aysgarth in Wensleydale. We went there on the Monday afternoon. I've not seen these falls look so empty, usually there is far more water cascading over.

These next photos are of Swaledale, not far from Keld. The middle photo of the three is of Wain Wath Force.

We also watched a sheep dog demonstration near Hawes which, despite the cold and wet, was a good afternoon out. Afterwards we headed for the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes for a hot cup of tea and of course a piece of cake. I should say here that over the week several scones with jam and cream were also consumed with the inevitable consequences, so that I must now get back on my diet! We also went to Settle to visit the sewing shop there so that I could buy some more cord for my Christmas ornaments. I got some there last year, but have not been able to find anything like it in any shops near to me at home. All in all it was a really great week though that flew by all to fast! We have, however booked up to go again for a week next May and again in October.

While we were up there my good friend Clare, who lives not far from where we stay, came over to visit us. We had a super day with her, lunching at the creamery, yes, we do go there a lot! Any way, my point is that Clare brought with her some charts that she was selling and gave me first refusal. Soooooooooooooo I'm afraid that I've slipped, with one foot, off the wagon. Mind you as Keith paid for them I suppose it could technically be called a RAK, couldn't it? LOL I don't have a photo yet of the charts I got, if I remember I'll put one up tomorrow.

Of course, now that I'm back I have masses of washing to do as well as catching up on my stitching. I didn't do any while I was away and have my secret stitching to catch up on as well as today being the first day of the Celtic Lady SAL. I'm sure too, that you'll all understand that it is going to take me a while to catch up on all your blogs. I apologise now if I don't around to commenting on them, but I will read them!

On a final note, you'll have noticed the ticker at the top of my blog counting down to my 50th birthday. For a long while I was really grumpy about this impending milestone, but have now become resigned to the fact that it will happen! While we were in a shop in Kirby Stephen, Keith noticed some tea shirts with sayings on them. One of them was "I'm not 50, but 18 with 32 years experience". A great way to look at it I think!

Beautiful Swaledale

2007-10-04T12:17:00.000+01:00

I'm afraid that I don't have much stitching news to share with you this post. I have been doing quite a bit since my last post, but still cannot show you any pictures as it is all very hush hush.

A lot of this week has been spent washing and ironing in preparation for our week in Swaledale, in the Yorkshire Dales. Keith has tomorrow off work so that we can get everything packed and be ready to leave about nine on Saturday morning. I can't tell you just how much I'm looking forward to this! I'll leave you with a photo of beautiful Swaledale, taken when we went there in September 2005.

New Look and a New SAL

2007-09-24T12:03:00.000+01:00

I decided to change the look of my blog as I wanted to add a picture to my header. The pink template didn't go with it so I've opted for a simple white one. The picture is of one of my favourite places, the village of Thwaite in Swaledale, North Yorkshire. It's where Keith and I have been renting a cottage for our holidays since 2005 and where we'll be going in just under two weeks time. Also while we're up there we'll be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been thirty years, they have been very happy ones!

Starting on 15th October, Karen, myself and a few other bloggers have decided to do a Celtic Lady SAL every Monday. I think the others are all stitching Celtic Autumn, but I am stitching Celtic Christmas, in the alternative colours. Karen has kindly set up a separate blog for this, thanks for doing that Karen! If anyone would like to join us you would be very welcome. You will need to get in touch with Karen for an invite in order to be able to post to the Celtic Lady blog.

Stitching-wise I don't have much to show you apart from the baby biscornu (shown below) that I made a while back for the birthday exchange on A Crafty Natter BB. The chart is a free one from My Aunts Attic and I stitched it with WDW Cyclamen thread on 28ct pale lilac Brittney fabric. I didn't do any stitching while I was away visiting my parents and MIL the week before last, but last week I did some secret stitching, one piece is a Christmas present for someone who reads my blog. The other piece, that I started last Friday, is for the Autumn competion on A Crafty Natter BB, so I'm afraid that I can't show pictures of either of those yet.

Ruby Anniversary Card HD

2007-09-04T09:15:00.000+01:00

You may remember that in my previous post I said that I'd been stitching a ruby anniversary card for my SIL. Well here is the finished card. Click the picture for a better view. The design is from an old issue of Mary Hickmott's Cross Stitch Gallery, issue no.5, Special Occasions. I stitched it on 32ct white DMC linen using DMC threads.

Now, are there any hardanger fans out there? If so, you may be interested in a new ONS that has just opened called Col's Creations selling the designs of a good friend of mine, Colette Robinson. There are charts for pillows, bellpulls, candle wraps, mats, and needlerolls, some of which also feature speciality stitches. I'd just like to wish Colette lots of luck with this new venture.

Many thanks for your comments about Mum. She continues to do well and we shall be going to see her again next Tuesday.

Mum

2007-08-29T09:07:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry that I'm a bit late in posting an update about Mum following her mastectomy last Friday. (24th Aug.) She's doing very well and will be home later today! We are going down to see her again for a couple of days on the 11th Sept. and also combining it with a visit to Keith's mum who lives just an hour and a half's drive further along the south coast, so we'll be away for nearly a week.

We had a great weekend with Mum and Dad when we went down for Mums birthday the weekend before last. Our Son, Paul, surprised them with a visit as well, (we knew he was going to but didn't tell Mum or Dad). On the Saturday Dad took us all out for a lovely lunch at a favourite pub of theirs, followed by a Pimm's and Strawberry afternoon at a friend of theirs from the Caledonian Society. On the Sunday, Mum's birthday, we took us all out for a cream tea at a former railway station, near Burley, in the New Forest. The scones were huge and absolutely delicious, and we each had two! Then in the evening Paul went back to London. On the Monday my brother and his family came down for the day. We came home after tea, arriving back here, after a very good run, at about ten thirty.

The rest of last week I was busy stitching, but at the moment can't show you any pictures. One of the things I stitched is for a birthday exchange on one of the boards I visit, and I'm not sure if this person reads my blog or not. The other stitching was a Ruby Wedding Anniversary card for my SIL, but I'm waiting until I've put it into a card before photographing it.

Many, many thanks for all your kind words, thoughts and prayers for Mum on my last post, they are very much appreciated!