Mary, Mary, very scary!

Yesterday evening, having stitched on Mary Wigham all day I had one of those heart stopping, stomach churning, scary moments! I was about to start the last big motif along the top edge. In order to do so I needed to reposition my hoop. Then it suddenly struck me that it wasn't going to fit! So I did a quick count up of the stitches from the chart and the number of stitches I could fit on the fabric, it was close, very close, I have about 1 1/2 inches to spare. As you can see from this photo.


So where did I go wrong? My fabric measures 24" x 24" which is the recommended size for 32ct linen. So this should give me 4" to spare as the design size is approx 20" x 20". This should give me 2" clear all the way round. So why did I measure in 4" from the top AND the side edge instead of 2"? What a doom brain! Fortunately the stitch count for the height is less than the width so I should have more to spare on the bottom edge.

This is the first time I have started anything from a corner, I usually start from the centre. All I can say is that I appear to have been VERY lucky and I won't be making that mistake again!

Anyway, on a brighter note I finished the August Calendar from Mill Hill last week.


I'm off to have a quick stitch on White Nights before tea. This is where I left it last time.



Happy stitching!

Mary Wigham Part 4 ~ medallion recharted

This one was only slightly out but I re did it anyway. It's the one stitched in DMC 3857.

SALs ~ Mary Wigham and Totally Useless!

Here is my Totally Useless SAL photo for June.


The green clump bottom right is from the Frog Biscornu, the bits of blue at the top are from Mary Wigham. There are a few sparkly bits from the July Calendar but you need to look hard to find them!

Here is my progress on Mary Wigham so far.


This week on the rotation it should be White Nights but instead I am going to start the August Calendar form Mill Hill. White Nights returns next week!

The Big Finish Weekend!

I had promised myself that the next weekend I was at home I would 'finish' all the projects that had been completed recently. This was the weekend.

Here they are.


From left to right they are

July Calendar ~ Mill Hill

A Pair Tree ~ Sue Hillis Designs (completed December 2008)

How many UFOs are there in your closet? ~ Raise the Roof Designs

Boo Needle Book ~ Just Nan (see here)

Teepee Bears Door Hanger ~ Joan Elliott for Bucilla (UFO for 12 years, see here)

This week was the turn of The Pale Blue Santa on the rotation. The frogs are all gone and I am quite pleased with the progress.

This one took ages!

Here is another 'corrected' chart for Mary Wigham. It's from part 3, on the right hand side, charted in DMC 3768 and 310. I have tried to stick as closely as possible to the original but in order to make it symmetrical I had to move the whole outer border of stitching out by one stitch. This does not interfere with the other motifs, it just makes them closer together. You could move the whole thing to the right by one stitch, as that will also fit, but I would wait for the other charts on the right hand side to come out before doing this.

On this chart the far right column of stitches is surplus to requirement(not originally charted, but used by me to ensure things were OK).



This time I have used free charting software available here. As with all other charts, remember that I too may have made mistakes. If so please let me know and I will post a corrected, corrected version, as it were!

I also had a go at the motif stitched in 739 as there were some slight symmetry errors, but too big to correct whilst stitching.

The frogs are back in town!

This weekend I managed to finish the Frog Biscornu.


This was done as charted. The beads for the centre were raided from my Mum's stash and Mill Hill petite glass beads #42042 were used along the seam. The frog charm was also from my Mum's stash, she had a bag full!


This was the progress made on The Summer Arbor, The Drawn Thread, by the end of stitching on Friday.


I did not make as much progress as I had hoped as I did ALL of the second tree in the wrong colour, more frogs!

On Sunday I stitched on Mary Wigham. I am intending to do most of the sampler in Caron Wildflowers, Blueberry. However, I thought this might make the whole thing too dark so I decided to use Azure Skies and/or Blue Lagoon from the same range. The top motif is done in Blue Lagoon. I like the colours but the changes are not as subtle as in the Blueberry and I don't know if it's too much. So I am not going to finish this motif but do the next one or two in Blueberry. Deep down I think this motif might also get frogged but I will wait and see how it looks when I have done some more.


Here are two more re charted motifs for those who would like their motifs to be symmetrical, but remember I may have made mistakes too!

Firstly Part 1/2 motif charted in DMC 3052


Secondly Part 2 motif charted in DMC3768 (corrected 23/8/09)


(Added later) Small motif charted in DMC 225. This one can be moved two stitches over to the right from the charted version.


This week sees the return of the Pale Blue Santa, more frogging required before I can start that one, click here to see where I got up to last time.

Now I'm off to mow the lawn. A process which sends the frogs that live in my garden jumping into the pond, where they truly belong!

Mary Wigham

Today, whilst reading stitch-creations post about Mary Wigham here I was placed in a dilemma. I was aware that there were some 'errors' in the original sampler in that some of the motifs were not symmetrical. However, I had not realised until I looked at the chart in some detail, in particular the top left motif in chart one, just how not symmetrical it was. So at lunchtime I decided to have a go at making it so. A colleague asked me what I was doing, so I explained. She then pointed to other places where the symmetry was out.

Anyway, this is my symmetrical,hopefully, take on the top left motif.


The three stitches in red on the right hand side are on the original chart but the rest are not. I think it is possible to include them but it will mean shifting the motif done in DMC 972 down a few stitches. This does not appear to alter the positioning of the flower motif below.

Now my question is should I do this sampler as symmetrical as possible, correcting any mistakes, our do I just do it as charted? I am not trying to make a replica as I am doing it in different colours.

When I was much younger, probably not in my teens, we went on a family outing to a stately home here in England. They had on display a lot of samplers, not Quaker, more the ABC, abc, 123 type. We were told by the room steward that the girls were only allowed to make one mistake, deliberate or otherwise, on their sampler as only God was/is perfect.

If anyone out there wants to correct the mistakes then feel free to use my chart if you want to. Also feel free to spread the word but be warned I might have made a mistake too!

If you have any thoughts or would like to use the chart please let me know by posting a comment. If there is interest in the charts I will post other 'corrections' if I decide to do them.

The Queen is in ...

...the building. More about that later.

On Thursday I finished the July calendar from Mill Hill.


This weekend was quite busy. On Friday we travelled up to London by train. It was The Other Half's birthday and we were spending the weekend with his family. On the way I managed to complete, well sort of, the backstitching on my Teepee Teddies doorhanger UFO. You can find out more about that on my 'I've started so I'll finish eventually' UFO blog here.

We started our London weekend with a celebratory glass of champagne in the champagne bar in St Pancras International Station. This picture is a cheat really as I think I did one stitch!


On Saturday six of us went to the Epsom Derby, hence the title of this post, because so did the Queen.


The Royal Standard, which is flown wherever the Queen is 'in' is the one on the left. And yes, it was a cold, wet and windy day! One of The Other Half's birthday presents from one of his sons was a bet on The Derby. After some close study of the form a horse was chosen and guess what, it won, coming in at 3:1. So a £20 birthday present became £80 ish. This, by the way was the only win of the day. The Other Half won more than he lost but for the others in the party it was the opposite, they just lost, except for me as I don't bet. The eventual winner is the one in yellow, I think!


On Sunday morning we took in a bit of 'culture'. We went to see the bollards sculpted by Antony Gormley. Whese are found in Bellenden Road, Peckham SE15 and were commissioned as part of a road renewal scheme.


It was about 11 am and these metal bollards were already warm to the touch.


Back to the stitching. I managed to make good progress on a new start. The Frog Biscornu.


This is a freebie from Casey Buonaugurio.

My linen and floss for the Mary Wigham SAL was waiting on the doorstep when I got home last night so I made a start on that. I am doing it on the 32 ct Permin lambswool, with Caron Waterflowers Blueberry.


This week on the rotation I am starting the Summer Arbor from The Drawn Thread. Watch this space. Happy stitching!

Back to the rotation, and it's ...

... the July Calendar from Mill Hill.

I've only been stitching on this for two evenings and it is almost done. Of all of the 2003 Mill Hill Calendar Series I have done so far this picture is the least inspiring and has the least amount of work. Here it is.


Yesterday whilst in blogland I came across a new SAL. The Mary Wigham SAL from Needleprint. Now the only Quaker I have stitched is the pin-cube from stitch-creations so this will be a first for me. However, I have seen lots of posts about the Beatrix Potter SAL and everyone involved in that project seems to be enjoying it so I'm off to choose my fabric and floss! This is what the original looks like.