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!

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!

This week's round up

Earlier this week I finished Curious Cats by Just Nan. I decided to finish this piece as a pillow. There were enough beads supplied in the kit for me to add a beaded edge to it.


It was the turn of the St Nicholas tree skirt in the rotation last week. This Santa has a rather fetching green outfit. He seems to be a woodland Santa as he has a rabbit with him. I have to tell you this because all I managed to stitch of the actual Santa were his boots!


Hopefully, next time, I will make more progress as having guests for dinner and a Parent's Evening at work meant that I only spent two evenings on this.

This weekend was a 'Railway Weekend'. I had an exam on Saturday morning, consisting of a written paper followed by a one-to-one question and answer session. This was my three yearly Guard's exam. It took just over three hours to complete. The good news is that I passed, achieving 92%. I have a practical, on train, exam still to do before July when my existing 'Guard's Ticket' runs out. The ticket is basically a certificate of competence showing that the Guard is up to standard, has a good working knowledge of the rules and regulations and what to do if something out of the ordinary happens, like a passenger train dividing on a journey.

Anyway, back to the stitching. I made further progress on my second Christmas decoration for Yoyo's Christmas Design SAL.


In my last post I mentioned that I have indulged in some stash enhancement. I enjoyed doing 'A haunting we will go' by Shepherd's Bush that I bought 'Into the Night' and 'Happy Haunting'


I also made an impulse purchase having seen an item in the latest edition of 'World of Cross Stitch'. This was the limited edition Floral Travel Bag from DMC. It came with 10 skeins of DMC floss, 20 stitch-bows a packet of needles, a plastic stitch-bow holder and six floral charts to match the bag. I am really please with it. This is the best collage that Picasa could come up with.


This evening it's back to Mary Wigham, I have all ready completed my medallion for the day but I think I might be able to complete another, if I am lucky. That is after I have stitched next week's new start on to the rollers. Watch this space!

Happy stitching!

Simply Spring ~ finished

Last week I stitched on Simply Spring by Waxing Moon Designs. I thought that I would be able to finish it on Thursday evening, in time to post before the weekend. But despite stitching all evening the last little bit, which took about an hour, defeated me. I finished it on Friday in the car on the way to 'The Railway'.


Over Friday and Saturday I was able to work, on and off, on the Timeless Elegance ornaments.




The cross stitching on the blue ornament is complete. There are beads and metallic ribbon to put on but I'm going to leave that until all the ornaments are done. On Friday evening, at 'The Railway' I realised that I had made an error in the WIP stitching packing for the weekend, if that makes sense. I had left Mary Wigham at home, just the work, I had packed the floss and charts, tragic! So instead I was able to progress my handbag project a little more. This is a Filagree Fancies kit from Just Nan called Curious Cats.


There is probably an hours work left in this but when I got home I was good, I didn't finish it, very tempting though it was, I stitched on Mary instead.

This week I have indulged in some stash enhancement which I will try and show you next time. But for now it's back to Mary, with maybe a little bit more on the cats before bedtime!

Another finish!

I'm pleased to report another finish. The final stitch was put into Icy Hill on Saturday afternoon. However, the camera is still not back so here is yet another really bad phone photo.


This would not have been a finish last week if were not for the fact that school was closed, three extra stitching days was a bonus!

I stuck to my New Year plans and also stitched my Timeless Elegance Christmas decoration on Saturday. I had done quite a bit when I realised that I had made a major counting error. Despite best efforts at fixing it I ended frogging the whole of the dark blue border, some of which was done before Christmas, this almost hit the UFO pile I can tell you.


I'm putting this down to the frogs that normally live in my pond being homeless as a result of the two to three inches of ice that are on its surface. Anyway I managed to stitch to beyond where the frogs arrived.

Sunday really was a blue day. I did a bit on Mary Wigham, finishing two complete motifs. By this time I was fed up with her so went back to the Christmas decoration. I then got fed up of stitching in blue so started another ornament. I have worked out that Mary Wigham should take about nine more days to complete and then I am left with the problem of what to do with her. I do not want to get her framed as this will be very expensive as a result of the size. I might have enough fabric to handkerchief hem it. Those of you who have followed my progress on Mary from the start will remember that I made a massive error with the positioning. But then what do I do? Any ideas?

This is a photo of progress to date. Heaven only knows why it has come out yellow!


This week it is White Nights, a slight alteration to the original plan, as this weekend coming is not a Railway Weekend, meaning that I am at home on Friday so I get five evenings stitching, not four.

Fingers crossed the camera gets returned this week as I have made this purchase I would like to show you, it should arrive tomorrow. The Other Half thinks I'm mad but I think my Just Nan Humbugs, when I stitch them, will look great displayed on this.

Here's hoping the frogs stay away from all of us!