My Little Heart SAL and other stuff

This weekend was a non working railway weekend which meant that I was able to get on with quite a bit of stitching. Firstly the May picture for Sylvia's My Little Heart SAL.


This is a picture of the project so far. I still have to border to finish.


On Saturday I also got back in to the next Timeless Elegance ornament for Yoyo's Christmas Design SAL.


I have also finished off Barnabee's Quest. Yesterday with the help of my Mum and my Dad's hand held drill I made the three colour cording. Usually I use a pencil to twist the floss but if I had done that this time I would still be twisting today. So impressed was I with the drill that I'm tempted to send 'The Other Half' off to B&Q on 'Wrinkly Wednesday' to get me a smaller version.

This photo is not too good as it is out of focus and the wall is actually yellow and not the colour it appears to be.


The pull ware and the tassel topper are from Just Nan. I made the tassel using the left over cotton perle from the cord.

Here in the UK it's a Bank Holiday. The Sun is shining, although it is a bit chilly, and I'm off to start Tea with Honey.

I hope the Sun is shining where you are.

TUSAL and two finishes!

Firstly here is this month's picture of my ort flask. As you can see it was enjoying the sunshine amongst the spring flowers in the garden.


Last week on the rotation it was the turn of Barnabee's Quest. It's finished! I've started to make this into a bell pull but still have a little way to go before it is finally finished.


This is an out of focus photo of the whole thing.


Having had such fun with The Crazy Carrot, last post, my Mum gave me another Secret Needle Night project to do. I think this one is called 'The Haunted Hideaway on 13th Avenue'. I stitched it as charted but added a glow-in-the-dark ghost in the window and by the fence. The ghost is based on the one from Just Nan's Fraidy Frog. I also gave the cat green glow-in-the dark French knot eyes. I'm probably going to finish this as a cushion cover, but then again can a girl have too many bags?



This week on the rotation it should be The Green Santa. As yet not a stitch has gone into him. Maybe I will be able to report some progress in my next post!

Happy stitching!

Five things and a finish.

This weekend I felt a little bit strange in the stitchy department, maybe it was caused by eating too much Five Minute Chocolate Cake (see previous post). As a result I actually stitched on five things!

On Friday evening I reached my goal for the week and finished Part 3 of Barnabee's Quest. In order to give myself a head start the next time this appears on the rotation I started on Part 2 on Saturday morning.


The finishing kit for this project, ordered from The Silver Needle, arrived last week and I have the Just Nan pull ware for it. I'm hoping to finish this before the summer. To tell you the truth I could have continued to stitch on this but no, Saturdays are Christmas Design SAL days and that is what I moved on to next. I'm now starting to think that when I have finished the cross stitch on this one I will have a go at actually finishing off both this ornament and the blue one.


Sunday was UFO day. I made a start on Tuscan Gardens and then got side tracked in the stash room, looking for my small hoop, as my next handbag project is going to be the Anniversary Biscornu by Just Nan. I actually spent an hour stitching on this but put it back in the handbag has I was feeling guilty because I wasn't stitching the UFO. Now I thought that Tuscan Gardens was the last one, WRONG! Whilst looking for the hoop I came across yet another UFO. So I stitched this one instead! Now there was a method in my madness. This newly unearthed UFO, although stitched one over one, was very small and actually took only a couple of hours to finish.


This keyring kit was on the cover of Cross Stitch Collection Jan/Feb 1996, although I'm pretty sure it's not been a UFO for that long. The picture of the finished keyring is in the 2010 Gallery in the sidebar.

I did eventually get round to stitching Tuscan Gardens and was quite pleased with my progress.



This week on the rotation there is a gap, so I could start something new. Instead I'm going to stitch on Open House, which some would class as another UFO as it's not been worked on since October/November. However, this is definitely a WIP in my book as it has never been 'put away'. I'm over two thirds of the way through with this one. This is where it was left.



Have a great stiching week.

Just my luck or MW almost there

This weekend I've been on a roll with Mary Wigham. I managed to stitch her on Friday evening and today, Sunday, as usual. But, just my luck, I've run out of floss with less than one medallion to go!


I also seem to have made a bit of an error with the counting, probably because I have altered so many of the medallions to make them symmetrical, and I cannot fit in the two flower motifs that go in the top to middle right hand side. Oh well, I like it as it is. Anyhow fingers crossed that this will be finished next weekend.

I've made a little more progress on Barnabee's Quest since my last post but again Parent's Evening at work took out a whole evening's stitching time.


This piece is only about 3 1/2" wide and, unlike most of the Just Nan stuff I have done previously, contains a number of speciality stitches. Despite the accident last week this has been fun to do so far.

So with Mart Wigham coming to a grinding halt what do I stitch this evening? Firstly, White Nights needs to be rolled up on it's frame in preparation for next week's stitching. Then it's a toss up between continuing with Barnabee's Quest, the Hootzi Humbug or the Shepherd's Bush scissor fob that I started at New Year. Decisions, decisions.

Simply Spring and Simply Snowdays came back from the framers. The bespoke frame for Simply Snowdays is fantastic.





Happy Stitching

Lift off!

Today, when I wrote the date on the board at school, it looked like this

3 - 2 - 10

This week has seen the lift off of two new projects! OK I had only intended one new start and that was this:


This is Barnabee's Quest from Just Nan. I am starting from the bottom of Part 3. Unfortunately last night there was a minor accident with a glass of red wine and the whole thing had to be soaked for a very long time. Not all of the stain is out but I think I will be OK as the stain was near to the edge which will be hidden when I finish this as a bell pull.

So whilst this was soaking, and to stop me going to check how well the stain removal was going every two minutes I started this.


This is Hootzi Humbug also by Just Nan and will be the first ornament on my light tree (here) I mentioned in the post about the light tree, that there might be some more of the story to follow. Well I can now reveal that, through no fault of my own and at no extra cost, I actually have two of them!

Stash expansion

Look what arrived today.

I've had a bit of a spending spree on Just Nan charts and embellishment packs; Floral Fifteen and all three parts of Barnabee's Quest, to go with When Barnabee Met Bella already in the stash. That's what the lilac linen is for and the antique white just comes in handy! The lilac linen is such a nice colour I'm also going to do The Purple Thread's biscornu on that using the left over silks from the Spring Arbor.

Here is the progress so far this week on Simply Summer.

I have made one modification replacing the American flag on the bird house with the flag of St George, still, at the moment, needing it's red cross.