Tea With Honey

On Sunday evening I stitched the June picture in Sylvia's My Little Heart SAL. Called 'Strawberry Girl' she looks quite sweet, no pun intended!


In a change to the original plan instead of starting something new first thing on Monday morning I finished Tea With Honey.


I really enjoyed stitching this, despite the attack of the frogs. The detail on the pins is fantastic. Both the tea pot and the tea cup have 'Tea Time' etched into them and the tea cup actually contains tea! Here is a collage of some of the other shots I took.


The new start has happened. As this post hits the blog I should have been sitting in a train leaving York bound for London, sipping a G&T and waiting to be served a four course meal. As you may have gathered this would have been no ordinary train but one pulled by this...


...Tornado.

This picture was taken by Denis Bradley and is from the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust website here. Anyhow, the loco has developed a problem and the trip has been postponed until Augest, on a date we cannot make. So, buy the time this post is published I should know if I will get a full refund for the trip we should have been on when this post is published!

Tornado

What a great day! Hundreds of people were at York station this morning to witness the naming of Tornado by His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales. As you can see from the picture we had a really good viewpoint.

Here is The Prince of Wales, you can just about make out the Duchess of Cornwall behind the policeman.
After the naming, and before Tornado pulled the Royal Train to Leeds, there was a fly past over the station by an RAF Tornado escorted by two Hawk aircraft, no pictures of this though as it was unexpected.




This is a video of Tornado leaving York with the Royal Train

We then spent a few hours at the National Railway Museum before, and this was by chance, seeing Tornado again at York station having completed her journey. It's funny how ships and locomotives are always female!

The day was rounded off in art deco splendor with afternoon tea at Betty's Tea Rooms.

So that's the 'stuff' what about the stitching? Well, as you may have guessed, no real progress there, and nor is there likely to be. This weekend is a 'Railway Weekend'. Now last time I was able to go to my parent's for a good stitching session but this weekend I am Guard on the train, green flags, whistles and a uniform ~ and no I will not be posting a photo of me in that outfit! I might, however, post a picture of what this weekend is all about and that is a little blue tank engine with a cheeky face and a number one on the side!

Look what the postman brought!

Hurray! the parcel arrived.

Tonight I will start the Snowmen Biscornu as the linen and my missing threads were in the parcel along with, as you can see, some other stuff. Last weekend my Mum made me a gift of 'White Nights in St Pertersburg' by Chatelaine Designs. Some of the bits needed to start the first section are still on order. So this is going into the empty week in the rotation.

Whilst awaiting the parcel I have finished one side of the Rhodes Butterfly Biscornu, the disastrous 'in car sewing' from the other week (see post on 26/01/09). Also in the post today was an invitation from The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust to attend the naming ceremony of Tornado. The naming is to be conducted by The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall at York railway station. So, the hotel is booked and we will be there at this historic occasion, mmm... do you think I should wear a hat?

A weekend away

Firstly, here is the progress made on 'The Red Santa' by the end of stitching on Thursday evening. Straight after work on Friday we headed off to Harrogate for a weekend away. What with one thing and another and, as it turned out, a poor choice of in car stitching ~ 32 count linen, more backstitch than cross stitch on bumpy winding roads does not work. The majority of the stitching was done waiting in the car for this:

This is the A1 class locomotive 'Tornado' on it's second mainline run with a passenger train, the first was yesterday and yes, we saw that too. As you can see from the number of cars many people, someone near us estimated 150, came to see her. By this stage it was trying to snow and the wind was bitterly cold.

So, the Rhodes Butterfly Biscornu finished the weekend like this.

Whilst wandering around Harrogate I came across a Cath Kidston shop, heaven. I have only seen her stuff on the website. I left twenty minutes later with a handbag and some other bits. So a train spotting weekend does have its advantages!