The final finishes of 2011, the first of 2012 and a Wedding Sampler!

Happy New Year to everyone.  Just a quick post as this is the last day of the holidays and I want to get in as much stitching as possible.

Before Christmas I finished the Silvery Tree from the Mill Hill Festival of Trees series.

My Mum gave me a stitching project on Christmas Day. I don't usually see my family until New Year, and this Christmas Day sewing project has become a bit of a tradition. This year it was Santa's Sleigh Ride by JBW Designs.

This was stitches as charted with a mixture of the recommended Weeks Dye Works floss and DMC alternatives on the 28 count Antique White Opalescent linen provided in the kit.  I did Santa's beard in cross stitch instead of the recommended French knots.

My first finish of 2012, completed this morning, is The Pink Snowman from Shepherd's Bush.  If you remember, I left the original kit on the train, but fortunately not the stitching itself!  Anyway a replacement kit arrived from America just before Christmas so I have been able to finish it sooner that I thought.

This Year the rotation is back, and Farmville on Facebook has been blocked, as this was seriously eating into stitching time!  At the moment to rotation is looking like it is going to be White Nights, a Christmas project, a Halloween project, and something I haven't decided on yet, each for a week.

For Christmas my Mum gave me the stuff to do the Heirloom Wedding Sampler from The Victoria Sampler. Here are some photos of my progress so far.

As I am getting married on April 7 and I want to have this completed before 'the big day' the rotation may not quite work to plan as I will need to do a little on this every week.  This is what I will be working on for the rest of today. Hopefully more progress photos of this weeks stitching on Thursday.

Happy Stitching!

Happy Christmas!

A different type of stitching?

Today I finished my final Christmas ornament, another Santa from The Prairie Schooler. I've stitched this one five times now!  I ran out of gold beads so two of them were finished with green ones.

My gift from 'Secret Santa '  this year was a small stitching project which I started yesterday and finished today, Appropriately most of this was stitched on a train. I made sure I left nothing behind this time!  I'm not sure how I will finish this one.  At the moment I'm thinking of buying a paperweight, I think Framecraft do them, and finishing it that way.  I changed the aida for linen but apart from that this was stitched as charted. The design is called Steam Train and it is from a company called Mouseloft.

My next piece of train stitching will be The Silvery Tree from the Mill Hill Festival of Trees series. This is the last one to stitch as I did the other five last year. As you can see I've made a small start.

The cross stitching may take a back seat over Christmas and New Year as I have a different stitching project to do.

Yes, it's Sara Lund's red jumper from the second series of the Danish thriller 'The Killing'.  Only as you can see I'm doing mine in a teal like colour, not red. 

This is likely to be my last post before Christmas and possibly until the New Year.  Next year the rotation is back!

Until then I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a happy New Year.

Pink Snowman disaster!

A couple of weekends ago, whilst away from home, I made a start on the Pink Snowman from Shepherd's Bush. There was quite a lot going on that weekend; what with my Dad's birthday and going for meetings at our wedding and reception venues. So, unfortunately, I was not able to complete this project in a weekend. I say unfortunately, because if I had, the following disaster might not have happened.  I put the snowman project on hold for the week and instead stitched White Nights in evenings. 

Last weekend I stayed at my fiance's so on the Thursday evening I packed my weekend stitching, the Pink Snowman and some smaller projects. On the train journey to his I did some stitching on one of the smaller projects. Before leaving the train I packed all my stuff away and checked I had left nothing behind, or so I thought.  The next morning I got the Pink Snowman out to stitch him but there was no chart and no floss, I did have the clay buttons.  A frantic search of his house followed and on Sunday one at my house in case I hadn't packed the chart in the first place, but no, the chart and the floss have gone. I must have left them on the train!  This is as far as I got.

So I am now waiting for a replacement kit to arrive!

White Nights has now been put away for December. The middle tower is finished except for the backstitching, beading and the one over one section at the base of the tower.

White Nights has been put on hold for December because, as promised, St Nicholas Tree Skirt, now officially a UFO has been taken out. This isn't quite where I left it at the start of the year as I managed to do a little stitching last night.

The next train journey is planned for a fortnight's time and I will be triple checking that I have not left anything behind!

Happy stitching!

Quick update

Firstly here is my latest progress pic of White Nights.

I have also managed to frame Catgirl & Catboy from Jardin Privé.  The frame came from Wilkinsons.  For the first time I have been able to keep the glass as usually the fabric stretched over the padded board is too thick for a shop bought picture frame.

I have also managed to stitch a small Christmas ornament from The Prairie Schooler.

This was stitched as charted using DMC floss on 28ct Lambswool linen. The chart was a freebie. 

I am thinking that there is only one week left on White Nights as in December  St Nicholas' Tree Skirt might get an airing.

Happy stitching!

Purple is done, pink, red, bue and green still to go!

I'm talking about the snowman series from Shepherd's Bush.  This weekend was a weekend away. White Nights is too big to take anywhere so on Thursday evening it was a trip to the stash room to find something that could be stitched in a weekend. I was tempted with a Halloween project but I decided to go with the Purple Snowman.

Some progress was made with White Nights.

This week I will be continuing with White Nights.

Happy stitching!

Back with a finish!

Sorry for the delay since my last post.  I have had a busy few weeks and stitching has taken a bit of a back seat. However, I can report that I have a finish.  Warm Water Wash from Raise the Roof Designs.

This was stitched on 28 ct Glacier by Picture This Plus with the recommended overdyed floss from Crescent  Colours. The buttons are from Just Another Button Company.  The whole thing came in kit form from The Nimble Thimble.

Last week was half term here in the UK so we spent a few days in Amsterdam.  Here are some pictures.

We visited a few interesting places including the Dutch Resistance Museum, The House of Bols, a must for anyone who likes cocktails.  Here is a picture of me trying to identify one of the 36 different types of Bols liqueur.

We also visited Amsterdam's Extracold Ice Bar where we had to wear really thick coats and gloves to have a drink in a bar where the walls, seats, tables and bar and even the glasses we drank out of were made out of ice.  This is a shot of the normal bar before you go in.

Don't get me wrong the two days we spent in Amsterdam were not spent in bars.  We did find this gem of a cafe/restaurant in Amsterdam's Central Station.

This week it is back to White Nights. I know I've been saying this for a bit but this week it's going to happen.

Happy stitching

At last a finish!

At long last I have a finish! Halloween Night by Mill Hill was finished this week.

This looks better than it does in the photo as the flash is reflecting off the paper. We might be having a heatwave here in the UK but  the nights are still drawing in!

This weekend is a 'Railway Weekend' but despite this I'm still hoping to make some progress on Warm Water Wash. Next week it really is back to White Nights.

A little progress

Well, since my last post there's not been much progress on any of my WIPs. Why? Two reasons, OK, excuses.  Firstly, it was back to school and things have been a bit hectic but calming down now, fingers crossed.  Secondly, there is a wedding to plan.  Thanks to everyone for their congratulations and best wishes on my last post. Rest assured my posts over the next few months are not going to be all about 'the big day' which has been set for April 7 next year.

What little stitchy progress I have made has been on Mill Hill's Halloween Night.

With a bit of luck this should be finished next week then it's back to White Nights.

When I came home from 'The Railway' the other weekend I couldn't resist taking a photo of this.  Good enough for Snow White.

They taste good too!

I'll leave you with a picture of where we will be geting married. Whittington Castle in Shropshire.

Happy stitching!

Otherwise engaged!

Quite a lot has happened in the two weeks since my last post.  On Thursday 18 August the plan was to go into school for A Level results day and then travel over to my boyfriend's in the afternoon. His Mum was coming down from Scotland on the Friday for the weekend and we had planned a surprise trip on a steam hauled train from Leeds to Carlilse over the famous Settle to Carlisle Railway on the Saturday. His Mum was due to travel back on the Tuesday and I would come home as I needed to be in school for GCSE results on Thursday and Friday.  As I said, that was the plan.  Everything did go according to it apart from the fact that I did not come home on the Tuesday because on the Wednesday my boyfriend took the day off work and we went shopping in York for this:

On the Thursday evening, in one of our favourite restaurants, he proposed!

Now it so turns out on that Thursday I started a new stitching project which I managed to finish before the shopping trip. I was Just Nan's 'Tulip Bunny' WhimZi.

This was stitched on 32ct lambswool Permin linen with the recommended DMC floss. All it needs is a frame and a suitable place in the house as a memento of  a special weekend!

On finishing in school on the Friday I drove to The Railway for the Bank Holiday weekend.  We had a busy two days. I was guard on one of the trains on Saturday and on Sunday was 'promoted' to level crossing gate keeper!

As a reward for opening and closing these metal gates over forty times during the day I was given a the chance to be a bus conductor on one of the many vintage buses that were on display this weekend for The Railway's Classic Transport Weekend.

That was Sunday.  In the evening we went to my Mum and Dad's as we were taking them out for a meal as a thank you for our holiday in Belgium, well that's what we told them, and it was half true. The meal became a double celebration as my boyfriend asked my Dad for permission to marry me whilst my Mum  and I were out of the room. Well I think that's what happened as neither my boyfriend or my Dad can actually remember what was said!

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind trying to find a suitable venue fro the marriage ceremony and for the reception. Fingers crossed this is all  now in place and we are looking at a Easter wedding.

What with all this going on there has been very little stitching. These are some progress pics. Firstly Warm Water Wash.

I also started what I thought would be a quick stitch Mill Hill's Halloween Night. These projects usually take about a week but like I've said I have been otherwise engaged!