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.

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

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!

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!

I was good ...

... very good in fact. Instead of starting something new this week I stitched on unfinished projects.

Firstly Mary Wigham got an extra evening.


I have also spent two evenings, well one and a half really, on Open House.


What with one thing and another it's been a busy week with not much time spent stitching. The weekend is rather looking that way too as it's another 'Railway Weekend'. I'm Guard on the train on Saturday and this time the destination is Lapland!

Families travel on the train, with Father Christmas, to Lapland. The adults get sherry and a mince pie whilst the children get a gift from Father Christmas. Last year, at about this time, during a Monday morning lesson, one of the pupils in a class asked me If I had done anything interesting at the weekend. I said that I had taken lots of children to Lapland to see Father Christmas. Well, the comments came back like 'wow!' and 'really?'. My reply was, 'Yes, in fact, I went three times.' Only then did it dawn that, maybe, I hadn't been to the real Lapland!

As promised here is some more Christmas stitching. 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' by Joan Elliot. The chart appeared in 'World Of Cross Stitch' about two years ago.


Even if you don't get to Lapland I hope everyone has a great weekend.

The first Christmas finish of 2009!

The stitching Saturday at my Mum's paid off. I made good progress on Simply Christmas, and was able to finish it yesterday.


This was stitched on 28ct lambswool Belfast Linen with the suggested threads. The variegated thread for the lettering is Noel from Weeks Dye Works.

Also stitched on lambswool, but this time 32ct, is Mary Wigham. She had been put to one side during October to make way for Spooky Stitching. So yesterday, after completing Simply Christmas, and it being Sunday, she was back in the rotation. I managed about half a day on her.


Simply Christmas was a birthday gift from my Mum and Dad, along with a number of other stitchy items. I could not resist showing you the birthday gift from my sister.



You can understand why she did not trust such a fantastic gift to the post! Thanks Sis it's beautiful! If you are interested in scrap booking and paper craft then check out her blog here.

For my birthday my Mum and Dad also gave my the final month in the Mill Hill 2003 Calendar Series, December, which I am off to start now. As you would expect it is a Christmas theme. Should I stop the rotation, not that it has restarted, and stitch only festive stuff between now and December 25? Tempting indeed. Maybe I'll wait 'till December itself.

Happy stitching, festive or otherwise.

Mary returns

Although I have been stitching on Mary Wigham for the last few Sundays I have not posted any pictures as progress was not as great as it should have been. Here she is:


I have made a small start on the vase of flowers, bottom left.

My handbag project has been a biscornu for October. I wanted to do one with a breast cancer awareness theme so after looking at the Stitch Pink blog I found a design which I thought I could change into a biscornu.


The chart is a freebie by Romy in Austria and you can get it on the Stitch Pink blog's sidebar. I have stitched this on 32ct Belfast Linen, pearl flecked white, with DMC99 and DMC605. In real life,that is, without flash photography, the DMC99 looks more pink than this.

I also want to do a Halloween themed biscornu, also for October and a the moment it is a toss up between modifying the Just Nan Boo needle book.


Or doing this one from Faby Reilly


You can order this chart here.

Then again I might just do both!

Stash enhancement required?

This week and last, I have stitched on the October Calendar from Mill Hill. This one has taken longer to do than normal. I'm putting this down to being back at work after a six week break and being tired in the evenings. I also have a cold or something that has been hanging around for the past two weeks and will not shift. Anyway with a bit of luck things should soon get back to normal. The first two to three weeks of a new school year are always the worst. Maybe I should indulge in some stash enhancement as a pickmeup!


Last Sunday I also managed to do a little more on Mary Wigham.

Mary Wigham ~ Part 9

Here are the symmetrical corrections for Part 9.




As before you will need to check the sizes as the number of stitches, height and width, of the medallions might have changed from the original.

Mary Wigham ~ Part 8

Here are my made symmetrical versions of the medallions for Mary Wigham Part 8.




Please check the dimmensions of these recharts as they may have cahnged from the original.

Hope they are of use.

No more starts as things are getting out of hand!

So on the rotation should be the Pale Blue Santa and I fully intend to do him in the evenings, or after three o'clock in the afternoon. So that gives me the mornings to get some things finished. The plan is to finish three things this week.

Firstly,

The September Calendar from Mill Hill, started last Friday.


Secondly, the Knotted Garden Biscornu by Polstitches Designs to go in my Bowl of Biscornu for August.

Thirdly, 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' poppy card (cover kit from WOXS).

And finally Boo from Just Nan. OK so that's four things!

Anyway, this is where I'm at with the last three smaller projects.


On an update front. Sunday is Mary Wigham day and this is what she looks like so far.


And finally, here is Midnight Ride finished.


Whilst on holiday the rest of my family suffered from insect bites. Now usually I'm a magnet for insects of the biting variety. But not this time. Until, that is, we arrived back in the UK. Where, within the space of about an hour, I got bitten SIX times! The worst were on the ring finger and little finger of my right hand and on my right forearm. My ring finger became so swollen I could not get the rings off. My arm well, see for yourself. The two bites on my arm caused a hot, swollen area about FIVE INCHES in diameter, I'm not kidding. They are still weeping, and itching five days latter!

As they say on the news, 'Some viewers may find the following pictures disturbing'. If anyone knows of a cure/treatment for chronic bites then please leave a comment as this is beyond a joke.


Happy sitiching!