Mary returns

Although I have been stitching on Mary Wigham for the last few Sundays I have not posted any pictures as progress was not as great as it should have been. Here she is:


I have made a small start on the vase of flowers, bottom left.

My handbag project has been a biscornu for October. I wanted to do one with a breast cancer awareness theme so after looking at the Stitch Pink blog I found a design which I thought I could change into a biscornu.


The chart is a freebie by Romy in Austria and you can get it on the Stitch Pink blog's sidebar. I have stitched this on 32ct Belfast Linen, pearl flecked white, with DMC99 and DMC605. In real life,that is, without flash photography, the DMC99 looks more pink than this.

I also want to do a Halloween themed biscornu, also for October and a the moment it is a toss up between modifying the Just Nan Boo needle book.


Or doing this one from Faby Reilly


You can order this chart here.

Then again I might just do both!

October came early ~ well sort of

In the post before last I declared that I was going to stop the rotation and only stitch spooky stuff for the whole of October. Well folks October came early!

I really wanted to make a start on 'Open House' but did not feel that I could start a project before finishing something else. I stitched the Boo tin lid from Just Nan.


I finished this on Sunday morning and Sundays are Mary Wigham days, so, I stitched on her until my Aunt and Uncle arrived.

In the living room are my Mum, my Aunt and me having a good old stitchy time, both of them on their UFOs and me on Mary Wigham. I have to say that I ended up frogging most of what I stitched. My Dad and my Uncle were in the garden pruning what, in recent years, has turned into a 'Whomping Willow' of a corkscrew willow tree. It was almost the size of the house (I say, was, because on Monday, whilst I was at work, the trainee tree surgeons chopped the whole thing down!). Well the tree branches and leaves started to pile up. So, stitching was suspended for the rest of the day whilst a clean up operation was mounted.

On Sunday evening, when peace and tranquillity had been restored to the garden, and the willow had less branches than before, I was able to take up stitching once more. Well that was the plan, my Aunt had taken the Mary Wigham charts home with her! What a shame! I had a legitimate excuse for starting 'Open House', so I did!


You may ask where was The Other Half whilst all this deforestation was going on. The answer in Scotland saving this for the nation.


In a previous life this half of a carriage, the only one left, looked like this.

Built in 1907 of teak, which is why it has lasted so long, this Dining Saloon must have been a spectacular sight, all varnished and shiny.

Half of this carriage was sold to a young couple in the 1950s who had it put in their back garden. They lived in it whilst their house, the cobblers shop, was made fit to live in. The carriage has remained in the garden ever since. The lady of the house is now 97 and will shortly be moving in with her daughter. The carriage became 'under threat' and had to be moved before the winter. It is now in a safe place and we will wait and see what will happen to her.

Back to the stitching.

The early arrival of October was, however, short lived. This week I have stitched on White Nights. Tonight I am hoping to finish the grid in the top left corner.


Next week I think I might just have to go back to Open House!

The Totally Useless SAL goes to a retirement party!

On Friday 18 September week the ort flask went to the retirement party of the Leibig Condenser (the glass tube in the photo with the rubber hoses attached). The condenser, after many years service had developed a crack and was now no longer usable. The ort flask was able to meet up with many of his old glassware friends, beakers, boiling tubes and test tubes. The latter were bemoaning the fact that many of their peers were now in the 'broken glassware bin' as a result of being miss handled by over excited pupils. This means that they have rolled off benches onto the floor or have had their bottoms somehow pushed out by excessive stirring! The measuring cylinders (the group on the left of the photo) the ort flask noticed, had not changed, they never did mix at parties but preferred their own company. As they are very quick to point out, unlike the other glassware, they are accurate don't you know!



Sorry for the late posting but I did not pick up on the date correction on Yoyo's blog until today when I checked out the date for next month.

The Pale Blue Santa has a face!

Here it is.


So far this week I have managed to complete all the cross stitching on him. Last night I started the backstitch. I still have two more evenings to go on this so it will be interesting to see how much further I get.

My Mum and Dad have come to stay for a few days and my Mum brought me this:


From The Cross-Eyed Cricket the chart is called 'Open House' and I have to say I am tempted to drop everything and start it tonight as I have all the DMC floss needed and some suitable linen. Anyway the decision has been made. After next week the rotation stops and I'm just going to do spooky stuff for the whole of October!

A finish of a different kind!

This weekend was a busy one as there was a Steam Gala at 'The Railway'. On Saturday I did a ten hour shift as a train guard and then went onto the buffet and served behind the bar for another four or so hours.

I did, however, manage to get October finished.


The gala was to launch 80072 a British Railways Standard Four Tank Engine. This locomotive was sent to Barry Scrapyard when it was withdrawn from service in the 1960s. As with many Barry locos 80072 was spared the cutter's torch and was rescued by a group of enthusiasts in 1988. This is what she looked like then.


This is what she looks like now.



Some finish!

Stash enhancement required?

This week and last, I have stitched on the October Calendar from Mill Hill. This one has taken longer to do than normal. I'm putting this down to being back at work after a six week break and being tired in the evenings. I also have a cold or something that has been hanging around for the past two weeks and will not shift. Anyway with a bit of luck things should soon get back to normal. The first two to three weeks of a new school year are always the worst. Maybe I should indulge in some stash enhancement as a pickmeup!


Last Sunday I also managed to do a little more on Mary Wigham.

Back to school!

Last Wednesday it was 'back to school'. This time the start of the Autumn Term was made more difficult for everyone as a friend and colleague died after a short illness during the holidays. Her funeral was the day before we went back. So to cheer myself up and to add a little colour to what was has been a dark couple of weeks I stitched Faby Reilly's 'Back to School Biscornu'.


Here is the English side finished.


Here is the French side.


Just for completeness this is the mirror photo.


The chart for this biscornu was a freebie. You can get the chart here. I did it on 28ct Misty Blue linen with the designated floss.

Finished and framed

This weekend I finished 'The Knotted Garden' biscornu.


I did take a short cut with this one only putting the border on the underneath and leaving out the four central 'squares'.

Simply Autumn and Simply Winter came back from the framers.




I also did a little on Mary Wigham but not really enough to show as I worked on an 'extra' piece which I want to try and get finished tonight. So hopefully I will have a picture of that in my next post.