Valentine's Day and the TUSAL

This year the Valentine's card I stitched for The Other Half was made from a freebie design from The Drawn Thread called Heart Throb. I stitched it, as charted, on 32ct opalescent white linen using the DMC equivalents.


So much for the staging. Here is a close up of the actual work.



Today is also TUSAL day and here is a photo of my flask. The white/yellow orts are from White Nights, the red below is from the Christmas ornament stitched last weekend.



Happy Valentine's Day!

Two houses and two trees!

This week I finished White Nights house number two. Only six more to go! I also gave myself a treat by stitching some of the corner (Part 6). The house took four and a bit evenings. The corner, so far, what was left of my final evening.


For completeness, the overall view.


Here is the full story behind having two light trees. When the first light tree came, delivered by a private delivery company, not the Royal Mail or Parcel Force, the packaging was almost in two halves. Closer inspection revealed that the tree itself had sustained slight damage and the paint on the metal stand was chipped. I phoned the supplier and they said they would send a replacement. I asked if they would collect the damaged tree and was told that the delivery man would take it away when he delivered the new tree. This would be two days later on the Thursday. When I arrived home from work on that Thursday the replacement tree had been delivered, as promised, but the original one had not been taken away. Why? because the delivery driver did not have any paperwork to tell him to collect it, so he couldn't. This was four/five weeks ago. So I have two trees. Here's the proof.


As yet I don't think The Other Half has noticed the light tree forest, OK I know two trees do not make a forest, in the living room, as I only put the second tree up this evening, whilst he was out of course. But he will later, as for now, it's right next to the TV. Oh dear, I appear to how sprouted two horns and a forked tail. Maybe I should do some Halloween stitching this evening.

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!

This week's round up

Earlier this week I finished Curious Cats by Just Nan. I decided to finish this piece as a pillow. There were enough beads supplied in the kit for me to add a beaded edge to it.


It was the turn of the St Nicholas tree skirt in the rotation last week. This Santa has a rather fetching green outfit. He seems to be a woodland Santa as he has a rabbit with him. I have to tell you this because all I managed to stitch of the actual Santa were his boots!


Hopefully, next time, I will make more progress as having guests for dinner and a Parent's Evening at work meant that I only spent two evenings on this.

This weekend was a 'Railway Weekend'. I had an exam on Saturday morning, consisting of a written paper followed by a one-to-one question and answer session. This was my three yearly Guard's exam. It took just over three hours to complete. The good news is that I passed, achieving 92%. I have a practical, on train, exam still to do before July when my existing 'Guard's Ticket' runs out. The ticket is basically a certificate of competence showing that the Guard is up to standard, has a good working knowledge of the rules and regulations and what to do if something out of the ordinary happens, like a passenger train dividing on a journey.

Anyway, back to the stitching. I made further progress on my second Christmas decoration for Yoyo's Christmas Design SAL.


In my last post I mentioned that I have indulged in some stash enhancement. I enjoyed doing 'A haunting we will go' by Shepherd's Bush that I bought 'Into the Night' and 'Happy Haunting'


I also made an impulse purchase having seen an item in the latest edition of 'World of Cross Stitch'. This was the limited edition Floral Travel Bag from DMC. It came with 10 skeins of DMC floss, 20 stitch-bows a packet of needles, a plastic stitch-bow holder and six floral charts to match the bag. I am really please with it. This is the best collage that Picasa could come up with.


This evening it's back to Mary Wigham, I have all ready completed my medallion for the day but I think I might be able to complete another, if I am lucky. That is after I have stitched next week's new start on to the rollers. Watch this space!

Happy stitching!

Simply Spring ~ finished

Last week I stitched on Simply Spring by Waxing Moon Designs. I thought that I would be able to finish it on Thursday evening, in time to post before the weekend. But despite stitching all evening the last little bit, which took about an hour, defeated me. I finished it on Friday in the car on the way to 'The Railway'.


Over Friday and Saturday I was able to work, on and off, on the Timeless Elegance ornaments.




The cross stitching on the blue ornament is complete. There are beads and metallic ribbon to put on but I'm going to leave that until all the ornaments are done. On Friday evening, at 'The Railway' I realised that I had made an error in the WIP stitching packing for the weekend, if that makes sense. I had left Mary Wigham at home, just the work, I had packed the floss and charts, tragic! So instead I was able to progress my handbag project a little more. This is a Filagree Fancies kit from Just Nan called Curious Cats.


There is probably an hours work left in this but when I got home I was good, I didn't finish it, very tempting though it was, I stitched on Mary instead.

This week I have indulged in some stash enhancement which I will try and show you next time. But for now it's back to Mary, with maybe a little bit more on the cats before bedtime!

More White Nights

I managed to finish the first building of eight (White Nights Part 5)on Saturday morning! So I'm still on target for a mid 2013 finish on this one. Here it is.


My Mum has come up with, as they say, a cunning plan. I am actually going to stitch Part 6, the corners, at the same time as Part 5. This should add interest between the buildings which are almost identical to each other.

Here is a close up collage of the said building.


Last week my LED Twig Tree was delivered. This has been bought to hang my Just Nan humbugs off, as I have got them on series order from The Silver Needle. It could also be used to hang Halloween stuff from in October, Christmas decorations in December, in fact it could turn into a themed tree. It also sheds quite a lot of light! What's more it was a bargain, less than half price (The Other Half thinks I'm mad). The only problem is that the stand it comes with is not very nice so the search was on to find a replacement. I tried a £4 glass vase from ASDA (Wallmart) but smashed it in the process. My Other Half's Auntie's ancient antique copper jug was OK but did not hide the transformer. In the end I found a ceramic 'Wave Vase' at Dunelm Mill which is perfect. This is what it looks like in the corner of my living room.


I made great progress on Mary Wigham yesterday, I feel that the end is in sight with this one.


This week I'm going to have a new start with Simply Spring from Waxing Moon Designs. This is the last one in their Simply Series that I have in my stash.

I'm off to make a start whilst ignoring the Other Half's comments about how hideous and in poor taste the LED tree is, I know he will make them. This, by the way, might not be the end of the LED tree story, Watch this space!

Totally Useless SAL, some decent photos and maths!

Firstly here is my Totally Useless SAL photo for this month. For some reason standing it upside down makes it look less full than it actually is.


My camera came back from repair today, hooray! No more out of focus phone photos. This camera is able to take better close up shots than my previous one so there will be some experimenting along the way. If I manage to take photos half as good as Jane at Miss Jane's Stitching I will be happy.

So these are two in focus shots of my recent finishes.




So far this week progress on White Nights has been slow. At this rate it is going to take a week for each of the buildings in part 5. There are eight of them. This means that I might get on to part 6 by September if I stick to doing White Nights one week a month. So if each subsequent part takes half a year to complete and there are six part left, that will be three years. So estimated completion date 2013. Now that is scarey. Having depressed myself I had better get back to it, one more evening to go. Let's hope I finish the building or I might have to adjust my calculations.

Maybe it's best not to do the maths in the first place.

Happy stitching

Another finish!

I'm pleased to report another finish. The final stitch was put into Icy Hill on Saturday afternoon. However, the camera is still not back so here is yet another really bad phone photo.


This would not have been a finish last week if were not for the fact that school was closed, three extra stitching days was a bonus!

I stuck to my New Year plans and also stitched my Timeless Elegance Christmas decoration on Saturday. I had done quite a bit when I realised that I had made a major counting error. Despite best efforts at fixing it I ended frogging the whole of the dark blue border, some of which was done before Christmas, this almost hit the UFO pile I can tell you.


I'm putting this down to the frogs that normally live in my pond being homeless as a result of the two to three inches of ice that are on its surface. Anyway I managed to stitch to beyond where the frogs arrived.

Sunday really was a blue day. I did a bit on Mary Wigham, finishing two complete motifs. By this time I was fed up with her so went back to the Christmas decoration. I then got fed up of stitching in blue so started another ornament. I have worked out that Mary Wigham should take about nine more days to complete and then I am left with the problem of what to do with her. I do not want to get her framed as this will be very expensive as a result of the size. I might have enough fabric to handkerchief hem it. Those of you who have followed my progress on Mary from the start will remember that I made a massive error with the positioning. But then what do I do? Any ideas?

This is a photo of progress to date. Heaven only knows why it has come out yellow!


This week it is White Nights, a slight alteration to the original plan, as this weekend coming is not a Railway Weekend, meaning that I am at home on Friday so I get five evenings stitching, not four.

Fingers crossed the camera gets returned this week as I have made this purchase I would like to show you, it should arrive tomorrow. The Other Half thinks I'm mad but I think my Just Nan Humbugs, when I stitch them, will look great displayed on this.

Here's hoping the frogs stay away from all of us!

Icy Hill

On Monday morning it was back to work after the Christmas break. On the way the thermometer in the car registered the outside temperature at -6 degrees C. I don't think I have ever seen it so low. By the time I arrived at school the temperature had risen to -5! Inside the building you might have expected the temperature to be a lot higher, and in fairness it probably was, but did it feel it? No. As per usual after the Christmas break, there was a problem with the heating, something hadn't come on and the place was FREEZING. To make matters worse what little heat that was getting to my lab was switched off at 11.00 as the air handling unit in the ceiling blew a gasket and was shooting steam into the atmosphere. One of the joys of teaching in a science lab is that you can use Bunsen burners to supplement what little heat the main heating system is producing! However, despite this I wore my coat all day as did lots of others, staff that is, the pupils don't do coats and wear only their blazers to school, whatever the weather, and then moan that they are cold. Maybe they should follow the example of Margaret Sherry's Snowman and wrap up warm.


Little did I know when I started my latest Just Nan project, 'Icy Hill' that evening how appropriate it would be!

On Tuesday morning I awoke to snow, about 1.5" and it was still falling. This would not have been too bad if the roads had been treated, and I'm not sure they had been. So I set off to school. At one stage I nearly turned back, the state of the roads and the fact that the snow had started to fall really heavily made driving very difficult. My journey took 15 minutes longer than normal, some members of staff took over two hours to do a 45 minute journey! But guess what? At school, 19 miles away from where I live, there was next to no snow at all! This situation was to change during the morning and at lunchtime the decision was taken to close the school over an hour early at 2.30. Later that evening I got a phone call saying that school would be closed on Wednesday and yesterday teatime I got another one to say that school would be closed today (Thursday) too! So with two unexpected days off I have managed to do more on 'Icy Hill' than I would have hoped.

Here it is, another mobile phone photo I'm afraid.


Now I know that if you are reading this in a country where thick snow is the norm you will wonder what all the fuss is about. The last time I was sent home from school because of snow was 15 years ago, and that was for half a day. The pupils always complain that it never snows where they live, and being on the west coast of Britain it rarely does, so this is the first 'real' snow fall the majority of them have seen in their lives. However, I think they will be very lucky indeed to get another day off tomorrow.

Added at 18.30 well I take it all back, we are closed tomorrow!