O Christmas Tree!

Here is a picture of the December calendar so far.


The actual colour of the fabric is burgundy/red wine. The Christmas Tree is done in a very shiny, silky green ribbon which, unlike the Kreinik metallic ribbons, is a joy to stitch. With a bit of luck I might get it finished early next week.

This weekend it is 'back to school' for me. Now, I know I go to school five days a week, but this time the tables are being turned and I will be the pupil. I have decided to learn a new skill at 'The Railway' and begin signaling training on Saturday. Four hours in the classroom; I really will be experiencing things from the other side! They do say, however, that teachers make the worst pupils, probably because they know every disruptive behaviour in the book!

Talking of school. Today we had a visiting author, of the famous variety. When I shook his hand it was almost pulverised, and it was the one I stitch with! This was a very hush, hush visit with no publicity. When you see the next picture you might understand why.

Remembering

Poppies and cornflowers, the British and French flowers of remembrance, growing at The British and Commonwealth memorial comemorating the Missing of the First World War at Thiepval in France.

The first Christmas finish of 2009!

The stitching Saturday at my Mum's paid off. I made good progress on Simply Christmas, and was able to finish it yesterday.


This was stitched on 28ct lambswool Belfast Linen with the suggested threads. The variegated thread for the lettering is Noel from Weeks Dye Works.

Also stitched on lambswool, but this time 32ct, is Mary Wigham. She had been put to one side during October to make way for Spooky Stitching. So yesterday, after completing Simply Christmas, and it being Sunday, she was back in the rotation. I managed about half a day on her.


Simply Christmas was a birthday gift from my Mum and Dad, along with a number of other stitchy items. I could not resist showing you the birthday gift from my sister.



You can understand why she did not trust such a fantastic gift to the post! Thanks Sis it's beautiful! If you are interested in scrap booking and paper craft then check out her blog here.

For my birthday my Mum and Dad also gave my the final month in the Mill Hill 2003 Calendar Series, December, which I am off to start now. As you would expect it is a Christmas theme. Should I stop the rotation, not that it has restarted, and stitch only festive stuff between now and December 25? Tempting indeed. Maybe I'll wait 'till December itself.

Happy stitching, festive or otherwise.

Not much to show

As far as stitching goes this has not been a good week. Well it's not really been a week, in reality only Tuesday evening, as last night was spent making the Christmas cake and Monday evening was spent doing this blog! So, for what it's worth here is my stitching so far this week.


This is Simply Christmas from Waxing Moon Designs and was a birthday gift from my Mum. Before we went away I stitched a little more on Open House which is now entering in to the rotation.


This weekend is a Railway Weekend so I am going for a stitchy Saturday at my Mum's. Fingers crossed I have more to show next week!

Off to put a few more stitches into Santa!

Purple is the new black?

If not the new black, purple is most definitely the 'on trend' colour this autumn, at least in Naples which is where The Other Half and me have been for the last week. Almost every clothes shop in Naples had windows full of purple stuff. The shade doesn't seem to matter anything from pale lilac to aubergine will do.

So what did we do? Well, our first impressions of Naples were NOT good. Bill Bryson in one of his books described Liverpool, a place where I lived for many years, as the city where a festival of litter had occurred. In Naples, never mind festival, it was a full on Mardi Gras. Litter was everywhere, piles of it, and the graffiti, well don't get me started, needless to say unsprayed walls were a rarity!

This was before we got to the hotel, which made 'Fawlty Towers' look like 'The Dorchester', Easyjet will be getting some feedback on their website about this one I can tell you! On the positive side the staff were friendly and it was clean.

So to restore our belief that Italy truly is a beautiful country, on our first full day, we got out of Naples and took a train ride to Sorrento.


Belief restored!

We also visited Pompei. We spent all day there, you cannot do it justice in two hours.


Next Vesuvius, which was steaming away nicely.


Sticking to the theme of volcanoes we also visited Il Vulcano Solfatara. This is found just north of Naples in a town called Pozzuoli, in an volcanic region known as the Phlegrean Fields. I cannot describe the smell, hydrogen sulphide, the strongest I have ever smelt, and remember I teach science!



Here are some other pictures. As you can see the weather was fantastic, we were walking round in summer stuff and the Italians had coats and scarves on!



In the end we quite liked Naples. It is chaotic, some areas are not good to be in, but you can say that about most cities, and crossing the road is an experience. We found some really nice places to eat and on our first night, by chance, we found the bar in Naples, The Caffe Gambrinus.

We used the DK Eyewitness Travel guide to Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Without it seven nights in Naples would have been a big mistake. My advice; buy a good guide book, do not stay a hotel near the Piazza Garibaldi(Station), choose one that is more than three stars and watch out for scooters, honestly, they drive straight at you but after a bit you face them out and they swerve to avoid you rather than the other way round!

Spooky finishes!

This weekend I've managed TWO spooky finishes!
Here is Horrid Halloween.


Here is is before finishing.


As mentioned in my last post I changed some of the colours for Glow in the Dark ones. This was a really fun stitch. You can order the chart from Faby Reilly Designs here.

It is my sister's birthday today so yesterday I set about stitching this biscornu based on the Boo needle book from Just Nan.


I finished this one this morning. I also did some domestic stuff between the stitches and, yes the needle was glowing by the time I was done! Unfortunately, what with postal strikes and things over here, my sister will not get this in time for Halloween Sorry Sis, but your prezzie does look good in my Halloween display!

With all this biscornu stitching Open House has not had a look in since Thursday evening. Here is the progress to date.


This Halloween stitching sure is fun! Off to wave my magic wand around the house. OK, reality check, it's a duster!

Happy stitching!

Spooky Update

Before the spooky stuff here is the November Calendar, and it's still not finished. Why? because I ran out of one of the Kreinik ribbon colours with about twenty stitches to go. I hunted high and low and could not find any stray big pieces that had got transported around the house on my clothes. So a quick email to Mill Hill and some more ribbon is being sent in the post.


So now for the spooky stuff. Here is the Horrid Halloween Biscornu by Faby Reilly. I made a few floss alterations. Firstly I used a blend of DMC 321 and E321 for the wording, to give it a bit of sparkle. I also used Kreinik Glow in the Dark #4 braids for the brew in the cauldron, the white parts and the border.


This next photo is not too good. Open House looks more like the house that Jack built!


I picked up Midnight Ride from the framers today. It took ages to choose the frame. In the end I chose black. I do not know how good Glow in the Dark threads are behind glass so I went without it. I think she looks really good.


This picture isn't the best either, maybe I need a new camera? Off to write a letter to Father Christmas, or does he do email? Better still I wonder if he has a blog? Now that would be COOL!