This morning's task

Here are some photos of the way I have mounted all the Calendar Series pictures. Firstly I glue wadding to 1/4" thick mounting board (don't know the proper name as a nice young chap at the framers cuts it and sells it me for 50p a go). Then I centre, stretch and pin the work.

Next comes the lacing. I pull the pins out as I go because I always catch the lacing thread on them.

And finally ...

Then the fun bit is the staging for the final photo. Last weekend The Other Half bought two Thorntons chocolate rabbits. The only way I have stopped him from eating them is to say that I needed them for the April photo.

April is finished

It feels like I've spent most of the day on this.

Tomorrow I will block and stretch it. Framed picture to follow.

Hundreds & Thousands

What are the similarities between these

and these?

Hundreds & Thousands come in lots of nice colours, so do Mill Hill beads. When you knock them onto the floor they both go ALL OVER THE PLACE! as I found out to my cost last night. Now normally I do my sewing on the settee, and I know that if I rest the beads on the arm then they are likely to tip up so I always, always, always shut the lid on my trusty bead container. As mentioned in the post 'In car sewing' (26/01/09) this little box is brilliant at stopping spillages.

Last night I thought I'd be sociable and keep The Other Half company in the kitchen whilst he was 'creating'. Trusty bead box on the table, not too close to the edge, lid open. Don't ask me how I did it but I caught my trusty little box and sent the whole lot flying! No exaggeration they went everywhere! It took me an hour to pick them up and that included taking a short cut with a dust pan and brush. I even found some this morning.

As you can imagine progress on April was not as good as expected but I'm still hoping to finish it this weekend, fingers crossed.

Off to a bad start

Well it started off badly and then got worse! Firstly when she was getting dressed this morning my Mum noticed that this gone wrong blister thing on her heel, got from wearing steel toe capped DM's at the place she and The Other Half call 'The Railway', had started to bleed. Then she noticed that there were drops of blood from this blister thing all over the floor! Then The Other Half got his shoes out of the wardrobe and proceded to walk coal dust and other black stuff (as said pair of shoes were last worn at, you've guessed it, 'The Railway'!) across the same carpet, which happens to be ivory in colour. So, still in her night stuff, Mum was in cleaning mode and all before 7.15 am. Well I think that this 'Railway' place is to blame and quite frankly, they should stay home and keep me company, especially since my sister went to the Big Cat Basket in the sky and I'm now an only one!

Whilst at work my Mum also realised that she has 75 pieces of A Level 'coursework', whatever that is, to mark before 15 May and none of it has been handed in yet, and they're going away for a few days over Easter and at May Bank Holiday. Needless to say they didn't ask if it was OK with me! However, The Other Half and me are thinking about going away for a few days on a 'Big Boy's Holiday' just to get out of the way, the week before the 15 May is looking good!

They also had a meeting at after work today about some 'online reporting system', don't ask me I'm only a cat. Anyway, I heard her tell The Other Half that it was supposed to make life easier and reduce workload, well guess what? She can't log on to the system!

So I am doing the Blog today as Mum is lying down in the Stash Room. This is a picture of something called The April Calendar

By the way my name is Stripey and if Stewey over at Spinster Stitcher's Blog can post, then so can I, but I think he's better at it than me and he's a dog! This is my photo. I am sitting on my favourite step but the photographer didn't get my best side!

Did I mention that as my Mum was fixing the breakfast this morning I chucked up all over the kitchen floor? I'm off to hide somewhere where they won't find me. The airing cupboard is probably the best place as I haven't hidden in there for ages!

Odd or even?

Back onto the subject of biscornu, by the way the Valentine's one is now in the handbag, just in case I get a few minutes spare somewhere! Should the number of back stitches on each side of the biscornu be odd or even? So far all the ones I have done have had an even number of stitches. The Valentine's one has an odd number and so does one my Mum gave me by Polstitches Designs. With an even number of stitches positioning the corner a long the middle of the side is easy but with an odd number, well easy enough but is the whole thing not slightly out? Does it really matter as long as the sides have the same number of stitches? If anyone has an opinion please leave a comment.

Anyway, this is White Nights at the end of stitching yesterday.

I'm going to be true to the rotation, for now, so this week I am going to start the April Calendar from Mill Hill. With a bit of luck it will not take all week so I could have another short session on White Nights at the weekend, fingers crossed!