Camp Wannasew

This weekend was spent away at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It takes about three hours to get there by car so I decided that some new in car stitching was required. So with the trip there and back and some lengthy times when there wasn't much doing, we were manning the Buffet car on one of the trains, I started, and almost finished, Camp Wannasew by Brooke Nolan, another Secret Needle Night project from August 2009.


I haven't decided if I should stick to calling the cabin 'Camp Wannasew' or to change the name so I haven't stitched that part. My DMC floss skeins also look a bit on the generous side so I might reduce them down.

Today I went to Manchester for a meeting. I travelled by train, but not the steam veriety, so that gave me an opportunity to get the handbag stitching out. This is the progress so far on the Stitcher's Favourite biscornu from The Sweetheart Tree.


This week on the rotation it is back to The Green Santa. This is where I left him.

It's finished!

The Cornflower Biscornu is finished! Here are pictures of the front and back.




Here is the usual picture taken on the mirror.


Now for the details. This was a bespoke chart from Faby Reilly. I stitched it on 32ct antique white linen using the suggested floss (DMC) and beads. I really, really enjoyed stitching this, the colours are fantastic.

I also managed another finish this weekend. The Pale Blue Santa! Here he is.


Today was also the day for putting up the Christmas decorations. Here is one that has been up since Tuesday.


Its called the Christmas Advent Calendar (with charms) and is from Bucilla. I finished this about six or so years ago at about 23.59 on 30 November!

I will post more of my Christmas finishes from the past next time, and hopefully a decent picture of the Christmas Tree. As its Sunday I'm off to stitch Mary Wigham for a few hours. I still have to decide what I'm going to stitch next week - watch this space.

Spooky finishes!

This weekend I've managed TWO spooky finishes!
Here is Horrid Halloween.


Here is is before finishing.


As mentioned in my last post I changed some of the colours for Glow in the Dark ones. This was a really fun stitch. You can order the chart from Faby Reilly Designs here.

It is my sister's birthday today so yesterday I set about stitching this biscornu based on the Boo needle book from Just Nan.


I finished this one this morning. I also did some domestic stuff between the stitches and, yes the needle was glowing by the time I was done! Unfortunately, what with postal strikes and things over here, my sister will not get this in time for Halloween Sorry Sis, but your prezzie does look good in my Halloween display!

With all this biscornu stitching Open House has not had a look in since Thursday evening. Here is the progress to date.


This Halloween stitching sure is fun! Off to wave my magic wand around the house. OK, reality check, it's a duster!

Happy stitching!

Back to school!

Last Wednesday it was 'back to school'. This time the start of the Autumn Term was made more difficult for everyone as a friend and colleague died after a short illness during the holidays. Her funeral was the day before we went back. So to cheer myself up and to add a little colour to what was has been a dark couple of weeks I stitched Faby Reilly's 'Back to School Biscornu'.


Here is the English side finished.


Here is the French side.


Just for completeness this is the mirror photo.


The chart for this biscornu was a freebie. You can get the chart here. I did it on 28ct Misty Blue linen with the designated floss.

Two down two to go!

I managed to complete two out of the four projects mentioned last week. Firstly, the September Calendar.


Secondly, the poppy card.


I'm not convinced about the frame but it's the only one I had.

As of today the Knotted Garden Biscornu looks like this.


I was pleased with the progress made on the Pale Blue Santa. All he needs is a head and a lot of backstitch!


Yesterday I managed to complete two more motifs on Mary Wigham. I have recharted some more of the medallions to make them symmetrical. I will post them next time. As I stitched I also noticed some errors on my recharted version which I will also go back and correct.


I've enjoyed reading the comments on the TUSAL post. Heaven knows what I will do next time.

Biscornu and Hardanger Angel

Whilst playing around with the Mary Wigham charts I realised that some of the motifs could be turned in to a biscornu.


The colours and the fabric used are those recommended for the sampler. I added some motifs used in other areas of the sampler in the corners and in the middle of the medallion.

Progress has been made on the Hardanger Angel. She has wings, which now require beading, and part of a body.


I need to get my act together with this one or else I will be doing it on the school trip to Alton Towers on Tuesday. Stitching and this will not go!

An elegant but quick stitch!

I am referring to the Peachy Biscornu from Heirloom Embroideries. I first saw this on the Basket of Biscornu and it has been in the stash for a few months now. This is the first side


This was stitched over Saturday afternoon and evening whilst watching the various tennis finals at Wimbledon. I think I could have completed the whole thing in two days if it hadn't been for finishing 'The Gates' on Saturday morning.


White Nights Part 3 is now completed, except for the beads which I will put on when I have completed Part 4.

Now I don't particularly like doing backstitch and so tended to leave it to the end, big mistake! The backstitch on this, one of Michael Powell's Tuscan Gardens, took ages.


With 'Reflections' I had learned my lesson and did the backstitch as I went along. Why do charts tell you to complete ALL the cross stitch first THEN do the backstitch? It's tedious! I bet projects have become UFOs because of it.

Mary Wigham has no backstitch and this is my progress so far. This is also the other reason why I didn't finish the biscornu this weekend, maybe next?

An award, a finish and flowers!

Firstly, a big thank you to Mel for giving me this award.


Here is the meaning of the award ...

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY, nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

The rules state that I am to pass this on to 8 other bloggers. I have decided to pass this award on to the members of my UFO blog 'I've Started so I'll finish ...eventually'. Now I know that there are more than eight of them but I think the sentiments of this award fit what we are trying to do.

Now for the finish. Hot off the needle is the 'When Barnabee Met Bella' biscornu from Just Nan. This is the top or lilac side.


This is the bottom or blue side.


And finally... the flowers.

Today was school leaving day for my Y13 students and at the end of their final school assembly they presented me with these.


The Other Half said that I should post a picture of them as the arrangement was 'unusual and arty'. It was also a total surprise!

Precious Ramotswe and me ...

... what do we have in common?

On the face of it very little. I am no lady detective and I don't live in Botswana. But, she seems to spend a lot of time driving around in a white van and sitting on the veranda, watching the world go by and this is what I have done this weekend, well sort of.

White van time meant that I was able to complete part 2 of the pin cube SAL from Stitch-Creations.

Sitting on the veranda on Saturday meant that I was able make good progress on the Baby Shamrocks Biscornu. Whilst stitching outside the wind caught one of my orts and blew it away. I promptly dropped everything and ran after it so that the ort's final resting place would be my flask for the Totally Useless SAL rather than decorating some bush or birds nest, sorry birds but you've had plenty of my orts in the past! An evening on the now none existent sofa and a morning on a very hard chair (sofa hit the local recycling place at 9.00 this morning) and the biscornu was finished. This shows the front and back.

And this is the finished item.

So why is the sofa at the tip? The Other Half has, finally, let his house and we are here sorting out the last bits of stuff. As I write this I am sitting in a room furnished with a few boxes, the aforementioned chair and a TV!

At some stage over the weekend I was also able to finish the lilac side of 'When Barnabee Met Bella'.

This week it's back to the St Nicholas Tree Skirt and the 'Pale Blue Santa'. Only time will tell how much I get done as this weekend is the start of 'Steel, Steam and Stars II' . More about this in a future post, no doubt.

Done ~ beads 'n' all

After a MEGA stitching session yesterday, no late night though, and about an hour this morning White Nights Part 1 is finished, including all the beading. The crystals are still to be added but I'm going to leave them until the end.


Part 2 seems to have gazillions of Algerian eyelets, which I don't particularly like doing, as I think mine always turn out 'funny'. I'm not sure I pull the hole open enough, but hey ho, I might master them this time round.

Off to the stash room to do the ironing and to find the DMC floss which matches Zweigart's Lilac Cashel Linen for doing the back stitching on the Thistle Biscornu. I wonder which will be done first!

In fact has anyone ever matched the different colour linen to floss shades, and if they have where do you find it?

White Nights is go!

So today is THE BIG DAY.

Yesterday evening I sorted out all my silks and put them into Floss-A-Way bags. In fact, all the stuff for this project has gone into it's own special bag. Last week we went to York and guess what? There is a Cath Kidston shop there too, and the sale was still on! Mm, me thinks that book bag will do very nicely for storing the bits for White Nights, well that was my excuse.

Dispite having a date with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends on Saturday I was able to finish the Snowmen Biscornu. The button is made of mother of pearl and it came out of the 1930s button box at Duttons for Buttons in York.

I think it is on the Basket of Biscornu where someone has photographed one of their biscornu on a mirror, to show bits of the underside, so I have given it a go. Please excuse the weired reflections on the photo.

Last week I also made some progress on 'The Red Santa'. The cross stitching is complete only the backstitching to do.

And finally, this is Thomas the Tank Engine himself, being given a well earned drink by his driver and fireman, before going to bed at the end of a very long day!

Has anybody out there tried to use Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitch Pattern Creator 2? Well I have. Let's face it a lot of the problems I have had with it have probably been my own fault as I didn't do any of the the tutorials but instead dived straight in! OK the phrase 'Do as I say and not as I do' comes to mind as at work I am always saying to the kids, 'Have you read the instructions?'

Anyway, after trial and error I've eventually got to grips with it and my first efforts don't look too bad, even though I say so myself. So why put myself through this? I had decided to do one of the missing biscornus in a Native American Indian theme and set about adapting two charts from Joan Elliott's book 'Native American Cross Stitch'. The charts I chose were 'The heavens give us each a song' and 'Words are the voice of the heart'. This is what they ended up looking like.

Talking of biscornus, I have just spoken to the nice lady at Sew and So and they have the Just Nan 15 sided biscornu, due to be released in America on 26 February, on order, they have no idea of cost yet. This is a must have for the stash.

What with AOL aggro this post has taken ages to compose. I'm off for some thread sorting therapy in the stash room!