Happy dance!

So much for the New Year's resolution about trying to post every week but in my defence things have been a bit hectic here, but more about that later.

In my last post I said that I was about to start Lady Scarlet's Journey for my Just Nan week on the rotation. This is how far I got!

This is stitched on raw linen so the colours have come out a bit funny.

When I first started this blog in January 2009 the first WIP to be features was the St Nicholas Tree Skirt from Dimensions.  This was the photo.

I am pleased to announce that it's finished!

Again not the best quality photo.  I included the scissors to give an ideas of the size of this project.  Now all I have to do is decide how to finish it off. It will not be a tree skirt, possibly a table cloth or wall hanging.  When it is fully finished I will post a, hopefully better, photo.

This week is the first of the school Easter Holidays and, at last, my husband and I are living in the same house!  Our first wedding anniversary is on Sunday.  We spent part of last weekend at the railway and then it was back to his to start to pack a few essentials, the TV, the PC etc.

Here is my old TV alongside his!

This week we also adopted a rescue cat from our local animal sanctuary.  We brought her home yesterday.  Her name is Bella and she is about two years old.   She came to the sanctuary via the charity Prevent Unwanted Pets, she was being used as bait to train fighting dogs!  As you can see from these photos she is settling in well.



Whilst all this activity was going on I was able to start and finish one of the stash enhancements my mum and dad gave me for Easter.  Here she is before making up.

Here she is made up.

This is Just Nan's Honey Bunny.  It was stitched on 32ct Vintage Country Mocha Belfast linen with the recommended DMC floss.

Continuing with the bunny theme I also finished off Just Nan's Tulip Bunny.  This fits a WhimZi frame which sits nicely on a small easel I found in The Works.

I have a couple more stitchy items to share with you but that will have to wait until next week.  With everything else going on Halloween Rules, on the rotation this week, has not progressed much so I'm off to remedy that this evening.

Happy stitching !

The first Santa is finished - totally!

After a slow start last week I finished, and I mean truly finished, the Blue Santa.  Truly finishing meant completing the remaining backstitch (most of it), beading (I am replacing the French knots with beads for some extra sparkle) and the couching (a first for me).  Here he is followed by some close ups.

On Friday evening I made an unexpected new start. Every other week we finish school early, 2.30 instead of 3.35. These weekends tend to be 'Railway Weekends' and the weekend just gone was no exception.  As we are still living in two houses I meet up with DH late on Friday evening. So prior to this I go and visit my Mum and Dad who live about twenty minutes away  from the railway.  Whilst driving down to my parents the traffic news was reporting that the M62 Westbound was closed due to a serious accident. It later transpired that the road was not due to reopen until  nine o'clock, too late for the DH to travel down. So I had an unexpected evening at my parents, but I hadn't packed any stitching.  My Mum came to the rescue and I started 'Have a Heart' from The Drawn Thread, this will be on the rotation next week.

Today I made up Lady Scarlet's Scissor Roll.  Here it is with Lady Scarlet.

I have a finish of a different type of finish to show you. I saw the kits for these handbags in October, when we spent a few days in Bruges. I came home and put one of them on my list for Father Christmas.  This was a very quick stitch and my Mum, who has made handbags, offered to make it up for me. I have to say she greatly improved the original design.  Yes I like the pattern, but was the kit (Vervaco) worth the money? No. I could have bought a Cath Kidston bag for the same price, but I do have a one off and I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of it.

This week it's back to Halloween Rules.  More progrss ics next week.

Happy stiching!

Almost there!

After a slow start on Monday, only half a dozen stitches stitched, things improved and yesterday I put the last cross stitch into the Santa Tree Skirt.

All the back stitch has been completed except that done in black, most of the back stitch if I'm honest, then I need to do the couching and cording on all of the Santas. I've also decided to replace the French Knots with seed beads. so still quite a lot to do but the end is now in sight!

This week it's back to the Lizzie*Kate Halloween flips.

In answer to a question on the comments to the last post the gold frame was one that I had, I can't remember where it came from.  What I tend to do is mount projects so that I can swap them about. The Shepherd's Bush project from last time will fit in the same frame. This is something I stitched before I began blogging which, until now, lived in the gold frame.

Happy stitching!

The final finishes of 2012 and the first finish of 2013

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and that Father Christmas did some stash enhancing!

One of my stash enhancements was the Gingerbread Mouse from Just Nan. Here it is before making up alongside a ten pence piece to give an idea if it's size.

This was stitched on the recommended 32ct Antique Almond linen with the suggested DMC floss.  Here she is made up, sitting on a Champagne cork.

This was my last finish of 2012.  Prior to that I made made my annual family Christmas ornament, this year it was 'Do you hear' by Shepherd's Bush. I made this ornament five times, only four of them are pictured here.

The chart for this ornament appeared in the 2012 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. I stitched it on 32ct Lambswool with the suggested DMC floss.

Now to my first finish of 2013.  Finished this afternoon it is another Shepherd's Bush design, 'Charmed Hearts'.

To finish with an update on my progress on the tree skirt.

The Cream Santa is finished, except the couching and there is not much more to do cross stitch wise on the Blue Santa.

This year the rotation is back, the first week proper starting tomorrow so watch this space, I've not quite decided what to do but it will be a new start.

Happy stitching!

 

Back with some finishes!

Well, a bit of a delay since my last post!  I have to admit that after finishing White Nights I took a bit of a break from stitching, plus I've been having to do a lot of school work at home so there has been a lack of quality stitching time.

Anyway I have managed to finish a few things. Firstly, I framed Autumn by Jardin Privé.

I also finished and framed Winter, also by Jardin Privé.

I have also finished 'Official Crazy Cat Lady' as a bell pull.

At last, the Santa Tree Skirt has had some work done on it.  This project now well and truly falls into the UFO category and is where I am going to put most of my stitching efforts over the next few weeks

Happy stitching

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!

The last halloween ornaments of 2010

Last week it was the half term holiday so no work for me, of the payed variety.  We did, however, decorate the kitchen and do one or two other bits and bobs around the house.  I was able to finish two more Halloween stockings from Blackbird Designs, Candy Corn and Haunted House.

I did take a picture of my light tree decorated for Halloween but it didn't come out too well for some reason.  Sticking with the Autumn theme I was also able start and finish the Just Nan Autumn Humbug ~ Autumn Glory.

I still have the Spring one of these to do but that won't be until next year now, as it's time to start the Christmas stitching!  This week it's Just Nan week on the rotation and I've started Festive Fifteen but there's not enough to show just yet.  Last week it was the Santa Tree Skirt.  I'm quite pleased with the progress I made on this although I'm not sure it will be finished for Christmas this year!

Some progress is better than none at all!

That's how I feel about The Cream Santa. In reality I'm almost up to his beard but there's a lot more stitching to do on his other side.

This weekend was a Railway Weekend and despite a ten hour shift in the signal box on Saturday I managed to complete the stitching on the Blackbird Designs Halloween stocking called 'Trick or Treat'.

I should be able to finish this off into an ornament for the light tree next weekend, along with 'By The Full Moon', a design by Tracy Horner, of Ink Circles, which appeared in this year's Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue.

I stitched this on 28ct lilac linen from Zweigart using the recommended overdyed floss.

On the way to 'The Railway' I stitched the October picture for Sylvia's My Little Heart SAL.

So that was it for last week.  This week is Just Nan week and I have a small Spooky item to stitch.  Mind you, this evening it has taken me about an hour and a half to compose this post.  Is anyone else having trouble uploading photos with the new Blogger compose/edit feature? Some of these photos have taken up to five minutes to upload.  I even switched to The Other Half's laptop in case my PC was a fault, hence no fancy signature this time.

The Green Santa is finished...

... with the exception of a small bit of cording between the buttons and the blue bird's eye, only noticed this as I uploaded the picture. I have made a small start on the next figure.


I still have one more evening to go on this so I'm hoping for more progress tonight. Last weekend was spent away so there was little opportunity for stitching. However, I did make some progress on the Victorian Tree. Only the beading and the candles to do on this one.


Some questions have been asked in the comments to the last few posts. Here are the answers. The frame that White Nights is being done on is an Elbesee floor frame whose rollers will take fabric 36" wide. White Nights is 31" wide so the smaller 30"
frame would have been too small. The frame came from Sew and So and about this time last year (here)stopped White Nights becoming a UFO.

I would like to hang some Halloween ornaments on the light tree but I don't have any. Only two Just Nan WhimZis in their frames which might be too heavy. An excuse for dropping everything and remedying the situation?

The Green Santa is finished...

... well almost. There's just a small amount of back stitching to do, then it's on to the Cream Santa, but that's next time.


Yesterday morning I stitched the July picture for Sylvia's My Little Heart SAL.


I managed to stitch my Christmas ornament but very little progress was made on that.


This weekend has been a 'Railway Weekend' without actually visiting a railway. Yesterday we went to a 'do' where the majority of people there had some interest in railways and today we have spent a lot of time cataloguing and photographing bits of The Other Half's railway collection. This contains one or two railway posters, my favourite being this one.


On Friday night it was the Sixth Form Leaver's 'Prom'. I put prom in inverted comas because, unlike the Year 11 Prom this one does not involve ball gowns, stretch limos and a disco in the school hall. Instead it is a sit down meal with disco at a local hotel, the students do dress up but the whole thing is o lot more informal yet more sophisticated. I would say that as I'm the organiser. I got my outfit on Friday afternoon, talk about last minute.


Hope everyone has a great stitching week!