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.

Something completely different ~ a cake in a cup!

Apparently, according to one national newspaper here in the UK, this recipe for the Five Minute Mug Cake is doing the rounds on the Internet. We were talking about it at the end of school yesterday, does it really work, will all the ingredients actually fit into the average sized mug?

With a copy of the newspaper article in hand I made a diversion on the way home to get the ingredients I didn't have, I was going to give it a go. After all I am a scientist!

Here is the recipe.
4tbsp (tablespoons) of flour, I used self-raising
4tbsp sugar (caster)
2tbsp cocoa powder
Mix the dry ingredients in a mug.
Stir in an egg, I beat mine first, and 3tbsp each of milk and oil.
Then add a few drops of vanilla extract and some chocolate chips.
Make sure all the ingredients are fully mixed. If you use a mug ensure you get all the flour off the bottom and out of the 'corners' where the base meets the sides

Place the mug, uncovered, in a microwave and cook on high (1000W) for three minutes. My microwave is a 850W one so I cooked mine for three and a half to four minutes. I also checked it was cooked by using a skewer as you would with any normal cake. Let it cool, then tip out on to a plate.


In answer to the original question, yes it does work. The cake has the texture of a muffin or cup cake, funny that, and it tastes fine.

The answer to the second question? The cake above was done using an over large tea cup, holding about a pint of fluid, my first attempt was done in a standard UK mug. See for yourself.


Have fun!

Sunday post on Tuesday!

On Sunday evening I would, normally, have posted some photos of my weekend stitching efforts, but not this Sunday. I did, however, manage to email Yoyo the photos of my Timeless Elegance ornaments for the Christmas Design SAL. Here they are.




On Sunday I decided to delay posting until Monday to give me a full evening on my recently unearthed UFO. This is Tuscan Gardens II by Michael Powell. However, we had a disaster, so to speak, on the domestic front. My Candy washing machine packed up in the most spectacular fashion! There were no sparks and it did not 'blow up' as such, but it did make the most fantastic metal crunching noise and yes, it was part way through a cycle and full of wet washing. This machine was about 15 years old so I guess I can't complain too much. So, a good part of Sunday evening was spent sorting out the washing whilst trying not to flood the kitchen! By the time this had all been done the UFO was the last thing I wanted to stitch, strange that. Here it is so far.


Before Sunday all that was stitched of this were the two arches and the terracotta plant pots on the right. You can see a photo at this post. This will also be featured in my UFO blog, 'I've started so I'll finish ... eventually'.

In the small amount of time I had left on Sunday evening I stitched the March picture for Sylvia's 'My Little Heart' SAL.


I'm doing this on 28ct Lambswool Permin linen. I stitched the pictures for January and February over the weekend.

This week on the rotation it's back to Barnabee's Quest. Very little progress was made last night as the washing machine saga was still going on. On the way home from work I went to Currys to buy a new machine. The Other Half met me there with his van and we were able to bring the machine home. The next few hours were spent removing the old machine and plumbing in and wiring up the new one. Getting the new machine out of the van and the old one into it took a lot of effort as those things are heavy! As I've gone on about it so much I'd better show you a picture.


I hope everyone has a great stitching week with no domestic appliance disasters!

The Green Santa, some fabric and a new SAL

This week progress on the Green Santa has been so much better than the last time he was on the rotation.


I think this one isn't going to take as long as the others as his coat is short and not the trailing on the floor variety the others are wearing.

A few weeks ago I was sent some samples of fabric by a company called Dovestitch. They specialise in hand dyed fabric, Aida, evenweave, linen in a number of different counts. You can also ask for a number of different finishes, for example, opalescent. Further enquiries revealed that these fabrics are also colourfast.

This is a picture of the sample I was sent.


If you are interested in having a look, click on the logo on the sidebar. Accessing the site via this link should entitle you to a discount of 10%.

This week I came across a new SAL. Called My Little Heart it can be found on Sylvia's blog. The link to the post with the charts is here. I have made a small start, not really enough to show. This weekend it is back to the Timeless Elegance ornaments and, as Mary Wigham Sundays are no more, it's time to get my last UFO out of the Stash Room where it has been festering for about eighteen months!

A finishing weekend and the cat in the bag!

This weekend I was able to get two more WIPs finished. Firstly I was able to properly finish the Scaredy Sheep Scissor Fob from Shepherd's Bush. Here it is with it's companion piece, here we go a haunting. This is framed in the usual £3.50 ish photo frame from from Wilkinsons but this time The Other Half stained the frame with black wood stain so that it matched the box.


The Hootzi Humbug from Just Nan also got finished. This was not stitched on the suggested fabric but on something else, I've no idea what, as it came from the off cuts box at The Nimble Thimble. Here it is on the light tree. Bye the way The Other Half has not made any comment about the appearance of the second tree yet!


The next photo is one I had intended to post last time but forgot. This is Oscar, he belongs to friends we stayed with last week, and he is inside my floral travel bag!


Thanks for all your comments about Mary Wigham. Have a great stitiching week.

Mary went back to school!

On Saturday, and today, I danced the biggest Happy Dance of the year so far. Why?

Well, on Saturday we travelled over to Doncaster for a model railway exhibition at Doncaster racecourse. We had booked an overnight stay at the Holiday Inn and it was there that I put the final stitches in to Mary Wigham (Happy Dance Number 1). Now Doncaster is not that far away from Ackworth and the Ackworth School were Mary Wigham was a pupil. So, on Sunday morning we went there.


Mary was then put away until today when I finished her. As mentioned in a previous post I had made a serious error when positioning this piece on the fabric. After seeing some work finished by hemstitching on Carol R's blog I decided that I was going to finish Mary in this way. Carol kindly emailed me the instructions. She is, however, in the process of producing a tutorial on this subject. I had just enough material to sew it. This was my first ever attempt at hemstitching. It took me about an hour to set the work up, putting the threads etc and over an hour to stitch each of the sides, hence Happy Dance Number 2. Here she is finished.


For the record this was stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen using Caron Wildflowers, Blueberry. For the finishing I used Gutermann thread, colour 169, a perfect match.

I have had really mixed feeling about this piece. I'm glad that I have been a part of this worldwide SAL and that it has raised a lot of money to preserve the real Mary Wigham sampler but will I be doing another Quaker this big in future, probably not. Although I have enjoyed stitching it, I have not looked forward to the stitching day on the rotation. Don't ask me why because I cannot put my finger on it.

So what else have I done this week? From Doncaster we moved on to stay with friends for a few days. Here I was able to finish the stitching on Scaredy Sheep from Shepherd's Bush. Here is the front.


Here is the back.


I also made progress on the Hootzi Humbug.


I hope everyone has a great weekend.

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!