White Nights is go!

So today is THE BIG DAY.

Yesterday evening I sorted out all my silks and put them into Floss-A-Way bags. In fact, all the stuff for this project has gone into it's own special bag. Last week we went to York and guess what? There is a Cath Kidston shop there too, and the sale was still on! Mm, me thinks that book bag will do very nicely for storing the bits for White Nights, well that was my excuse.

Dispite having a date with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends on Saturday I was able to finish the Snowmen Biscornu. The button is made of mother of pearl and it came out of the 1930s button box at Duttons for Buttons in York.

I think it is on the Basket of Biscornu where someone has photographed one of their biscornu on a mirror, to show bits of the underside, so I have given it a go. Please excuse the weired reflections on the photo.

Last week I also made some progress on 'The Red Santa'. The cross stitching is complete only the backstitching to do.

And finally, this is Thomas the Tank Engine himself, being given a well earned drink by his driver and fireman, before going to bed at the end of a very long day!

A weekend away

Firstly, here is the progress made on 'The Red Santa' by the end of stitching on Thursday evening. Straight after work on Friday we headed off to Harrogate for a weekend away. What with one thing and another and, as it turned out, a poor choice of in car stitching ~ 32 count linen, more backstitch than cross stitch on bumpy winding roads does not work. The majority of the stitching was done waiting in the car for this:

This is the A1 class locomotive 'Tornado' on it's second mainline run with a passenger train, the first was yesterday and yes, we saw that too. As you can see from the number of cars many people, someone near us estimated 150, came to see her. By this stage it was trying to snow and the wind was bitterly cold.

So, the Rhodes Butterfly Biscornu finished the weekend like this.

Whilst wandering around Harrogate I came across a Cath Kidston shop, heaven. I have only seen her stuff on the website. I left twenty minutes later with a handbag and some other bits. So a train spotting weekend does have its advantages!