No home should be without one ... or how to...

...stop White Nights becoming a UFO!

Let me explain. This week it was back to White Nights. Now I am almost at the stage where my 12" hoop Will be too small so I decided to use the clip frame borrowed from my Mum to stretch it. Well the frame was not big enough. I had to turn under about 4" on each side. So the work was taught on the edges but like a very old, saggy mattress in the middle, now I can't and never have been able to do saggy in the stitching department or the mattress department, for that matter. I once had a boyfriend who's mattress was so saggy you could lie in the bed, in not on, it was that bad, and it would look like a normal bed with no one in it. Does that make sense? Anyway, that was back in the dark ages and my Mum reads this blog. Due to sag White Nights was in danger of becoming a UFO!

So I hit the Internet and ordered an 'Elbesee Deluxe Style B Floor Frame' with 36" scroll bars. That means it will actually take a piece of fabric 36" wide, not the actual length of the bars. I ordered it on Monday evening and it arrived yesterday. This is what it looks like.


I am REALLY pleased with it. The only downside is that The Other Half cannot easily sit next to me on the sofa. Can I also say a big thank you to the man from Parcel Force. Now I know they get a lot of bad press. I was able to track my parcel online. It was dispatched from Sew and So at three thirty on Tuesday afternoon. Was sent out for delivery from the Preston depot at four thirty on Wednesday morning, Preston is only twenty minutes away from me. I stayed in all day. Well, by three thirty I had given up hope of it arriving and was ranting about the incompetence of Parcel Force. I mean, I could have picked it up from Preston myself in that time. At six o'clock there was a knock on the door. It was the Parcel Force man. I turned out that he was the only driver that day for the whole of the Preston area.

So here is this week's progress on White Nights.


I'm off to set the Sky box to record Wuthering Heights before I forget.

'Heathcliff it's me, oh Kathy, I've come home now. So co o o old, let me in at your wind o o o ow'. My Grandad didn't like that Kate Bush song at all.

Mary Wigham ~ Part 9

Here are the symmetrical corrections for Part 9.




As before you will need to check the sizes as the number of stitches, height and width, of the medallions might have changed from the original.

Mary Wigham ~ Part 8

Here are my made symmetrical versions of the medallions for Mary Wigham Part 8.




Please check the dimmensions of these recharts as they may have cahnged from the original.

Hope they are of use.

Two down two to go!

I managed to complete two out of the four projects mentioned last week. Firstly, the September Calendar.


Secondly, the poppy card.


I'm not convinced about the frame but it's the only one I had.

As of today the Knotted Garden Biscornu looks like this.


I was pleased with the progress made on the Pale Blue Santa. All he needs is a head and a lot of backstitch!


Yesterday I managed to complete two more motifs on Mary Wigham. I have recharted some more of the medallions to make them symmetrical. I will post them next time. As I stitched I also noticed some errors on my recharted version which I will also go back and correct.


I've enjoyed reading the comments on the TUSAL post. Heaven knows what I will do next time.

Afternoon Tea for the Totally Useless SAL

'Taking tea is one of the quintessentially English occasions' is a quote from 'The Ritz London Book of afternoon tea' by Helen Simpson. So the ort jar for The Totally Useless SAL had a treat this month, not quite the Ritz as you can see if you check out their website here.

The flask now contains some glow in the dark orts which make it look quite spooky at night.

Regulars to this blog will know that I stitch in the car, on trains and that I usually have a small project that fits into the handbag on me most of the time. So, I now have a 'mobile ort jar', well that's better than calling it an old Parmesan Cheese tub. Not to be out done it also had afternoon tea.


It really has been quite hot here today and I think I need to have a lie down in the relative cool of The Stash Room.

'More tea Vicar?'

No more starts as things are getting out of hand!

So on the rotation should be the Pale Blue Santa and I fully intend to do him in the evenings, or after three o'clock in the afternoon. So that gives me the mornings to get some things finished. The plan is to finish three things this week.

Firstly,

The September Calendar from Mill Hill, started last Friday.


Secondly, the Knotted Garden Biscornu by Polstitches Designs to go in my Bowl of Biscornu for August.

Thirdly, 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' poppy card (cover kit from WOXS).

And finally Boo from Just Nan. OK so that's four things!

Anyway, this is where I'm at with the last three smaller projects.


On an update front. Sunday is Mary Wigham day and this is what she looks like so far.


And finally, here is Midnight Ride finished.


Whilst on holiday the rest of my family suffered from insect bites. Now usually I'm a magnet for insects of the biting variety. But not this time. Until, that is, we arrived back in the UK. Where, within the space of about an hour, I got bitten SIX times! The worst were on the ring finger and little finger of my right hand and on my right forearm. My ring finger became so swollen I could not get the rings off. My arm well, see for yourself. The two bites on my arm caused a hot, swollen area about FIVE INCHES in diameter, I'm not kidding. They are still weeping, and itching five days latter!

As they say on the news, 'Some viewers may find the following pictures disturbing'. If anyone knows of a cure/treatment for chronic bites then please leave a comment as this is beyond a joke.


Happy sitiching!

Back home to 'Blog of the Month'

This afternoon we arrived back home after a family holiday in Belgium. 'The Other Half' has driven over 1500 miles since August 1st! The only mishap occurred when we were about five miles from home when a large stone, from a lorry, hit the windscreen of the car and caused a very large circular crack. The man from Autoglass is coming out tomorrow to replace the windscreen. We happend to notice that in Belgium/France the Autoglass company is called Carglass, strange but true.

So with that number of miles travelled it's not surprising thet I managed to get quite a bit of stitching done. Here is 'Midnight Ride' a freebie from the Kreinik website.


It turns out that the border takes more than one bobbin of the Kreinik braid so I need to order another one to finish it off, also, I've not put in the glow in the dark stars as I need to order the braid for them too. But it's as finished as far as it can be, until the stuff arrives. I really enjoyed stitching this and can't wait to see it 'glow in the dark'. The next challenge is to find a square 'off the shelf' frame to put it in.

I also stared, and finished, as far as possible, Winter from Waxing Moon Designs. Another floss shortage is to blame for this. My Mum has the floss in her stash but forgot to take it with her on holiday so I will have to wait until she gets back to finish this one, as I'm not going to buy another skein just to do 15 stitches!


I also managed to stitch on Boo, from the Just Nan Over the Top and in the Tin series, but not really enough to show, as well as part of a cover kit from 'The World of Cross Stitching'. The latest edition of this magazine was waiting for me on the doorstep when I got home and this blog appeared in their, blog of the month, feature!


So if you are reading this blog as a result of the item in WOXS I hope you like what you see and pop back from time to time.

I'm off to catch up on all the stitchy blogs I read.

Happy stitching!