Some bits and bobs

This weekend was spent away so there wasn't as much stitching done as normal. In the car I made some progress on my 'handbag stitching' piece. This is the 'Stitcher's Favourite' biscornu from The Sweetheart Tree.


I did make a small start on my Christmas ornament for Yoyo's Christmas Design SAL.


Today being Sunday I stitched on my Tuscan Gardens UFO for my other blog 'I've started so I'll finish eventually...' I've not worked on this since Easter for one reason and another. I think that the top third of this design is complete.


Next week on the rotation, at the moment, is an empty week so I'm in two minds as to what to stitch. I'm tempted to work on White Nights but with two evenings being spent away from home there's no way the next house will get finished so I might leave that until the week after when I should have four clear evenings. I might start 'Witches Riding By' from Lavender Wings, decisions, decisions.

WIPs, SALs and finishes

This week it was the turn of White Nights on the rotation. I managed to finish house number five, only three more to go.


This weekend I also managed to complete the cross stitch on the green ornament for the Christmas Design SAL.


So that's it for the WIPs and the SALs. Here are the finishes.

Firstly, Camp Wannasew.


As you can see I decided to stick with the suggested name rather than think up one myself.

Secondly The Autumn Arbor.


Sylvia has posted her chart for the My Little Heart SAL so that will be tonight's stitching project. Tommorrow I'm starting something new!

Happy stitching.

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.

WIP update and a finish.

As I predicted in the last post not much progress was made on the Green Santa last week, but at least, some progress is better than no progress.


We went to 'The Railway' this weekend so I had an opportunity to work on my handbag stitching project, the Santa tree skirt being too big to take with me. This is the Anniversary Biscornu from Just Nan. This biscornu is a shop exclusive for Country Crafts in Greeley, Colorado and has been in the stash since last June. This is the first side completed.


The fabric is the suggested 28ct Zweigart Opal Rainbow Dreams Cashel Linen. The dimensions of this biscornu are 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches.

I managed to finish the cross stitching on my third ornament for Yoyo's Christmas Design SAL.



And finally... my Dad finished his Poppy Screen from Millennia Designs. This is a massive project as you can see from the photo here. The only place big enough to show it off is the stairs, hence the funny angle of the photo.

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.

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!

Holiday stitching

Before I show you my holiday stitching efforts. Here are three Christmas decorations I made for members of my family.


The design,called Christmas Hearts, is a freebie from Just Nan here. Stitched as charted on 32ct opalescent white linen, I mounted them in small frames from Framecraft with the clear plastic taken out as the decorations are beaded.

Now for the holiday stitching. I apologise in advance for the poor pictures. These were take with the mobile phone as the camera has gone for repair. Firstly Mary Wigham.


Secondly my first ornament for Yoyo's SAL.


And finally, Father Christmas did enhance my stash. Here is Simply Snowdays from Waxing Moon Designs.


This will probably be my last post before the New Year. So best wishes to everyone for 2010!

Yoyo's Christmas Design SAL

I have signed up for Yoyo's new SAL here

It is called the Christmas Design SAL. All you have to do is pick a Christmas design, sign up on Yoyo's blog by December 1st and then send her a picture every month of your progress.

I have chosen to do this design


The kit is called Timless Elegance Ornaments and is from Dimensions (The Gold Collection). As per the SAL the aim is to spend one week a month on them.

Back to the rotation. So far this week progress on White Nights has been good. No pictures today but I will post my progress next time.