Double figures and a finish!

When I 'blogged on' today I found that over the weekend my list of followers had risen to ten! Thanks to everyone who follows and/or leaves comments. I hope that there will be plenty for you to come back and see in the future, and keep those comments coming I enjoy reading them!

This weekend I finished the Thistle Biscornu which was designed by Sharon, The Purple Thread. I am really pleased with it.

This was in every way a freebie. The silks were left over from The Drawn Thread Spring Arbour. The beads also came from that project and a Mill Hill calendar. The big pearl beads in the centres I got from my Mum's bead stash. The 28 count Cashel Linen (lilac) had been brought for a project still in the stash. The floss in my stash most matching this in colour was Anchor 103.

This week in the rotation it is the May Calendar from Mill Hill.

I have been invited to join Stitchers Showcase. So I am off to explore!

Mandalas, SALs (Totally Useless) and Santa

When I got home today there was an email from my Mum and this was the attachment.

The Holland Mandala, finished. Then she tells me the last download arrived on Tuesday! Never mind my melting red pen her needle must be glowing. It looks great.

Today it's the new moon and time for a picture of my ort jar for the Totally Useless SAL. As I was taking it upstairs to photo The Other Half commented that there wasn't much in it! Mmm, I replied that I am very frugal with my orts. Especially as over here, Treasure Braid, hand dyed silk and all the other speciality floss that are used in Chatelaine designs, Waxing Moon Designs etc are VERY expensive. Very little DMC floss in this jar so far!

So here is my contribution to the Totally Useless SAL this month.

At the end of stitching tonight this is how 'The Red Santa' looks.

The picture does not show the metallic embellishments on his coat and I have to say that in the end I frogged all the French Knots except the ones in his eyes as I did not like them. There is quite a lot of couching to do but I am going to leave that until the whole thing is finished. So the next time this hits the rotation it's on to 'The Pale Blue Santa'. A sort of finish for this week or not?

Backstitch and French Knots

So it's back to 'The Red Santa' this week and backstitch and French knots is what I will be doing. Even The Other Half has said that he, 'The Red Santa', that is, is looking good.

I rashly said over breakfast that I might even get him finished this week and then it is on to 'The Blue Santa'.

Marking update 50/75 and 1/68, red pen is going into melt down!

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?

More frogs!

This time of the amphibian variety, I'm glad to say. Every morning I look out into the back garden from an upstairs window and for the past few days the pond has been like a Jacuzzi! So this evening I went to investigate, knowing exactly what I would find; and I was not wrong.

Frog spawn, and lots of it.

Here's hoping that all my frogs do stay in the pond, a phrase I found on the bottom of someone's blog, sorry don't remember who's. Especially this weekend as I want to get out and do some gardening 'cos they don't half make you jump when you come across them unexpectedly; and I thought frogs were supposed to do the jumping!

Woops! Frogging required

I thought I would post yesterdays progress on White Nights and in cropping the photo noticed an error! See if you can spot it.

Marking update 6/75, getting there ~ slowly. But next week I will have 68 Y11 mock exams to be marked and by 2nd April. So if I am absent from this blog for a bit you know what I am doing, not stitching that's for sure!

More done than it appears

Last night was another late night, well for me, that is. Not as late as on Sunday but I didn't have to frog most of my evening's efforts this time. I had set myself a goal and I wasn't going to bed until I had achieved it! The goal was to complete all the white cross stitch inside the small squares, I think only one of them actually had it's outline at the start of the evening.


You can just about make out the white stitches on the photo, or is that wishful thinking on my part? Tonight it's back onto the colours.

On a totally different topic the A Level coursework has started to come in; progress so far 1/75 marked (see post Off to a bad start if you are wondering what I am going on about).

Another biscornu finish!

Whilst at 'The Railway' this weekend I was able to finish the Valentine's biscornu. Here it is



I was also able to start the Thistle biscornu designed by Sharon (The Purple Thread). I'm doing this on lilac linen using the left over silks from the Spring Arbor. I was getting on like the proverbial house on fire when last night at ten o'clock I noticed that I had made a MASSIVE mistake. I ended up having to frog half of the front side. Not a happy bunny, as they say. What has made things even worse is the fact I am using left overs, I had to raid the ort jar to get sufficient silk to finish certain colours. Anyway I am almost back on track now.

This week it's the turn of White Nights. I'm hoping to finish part 1! I think Sitchery Doo is starting the Hawaiian Mandala this week so we will be having our own mini SAL!

Stash expansion

Look what arrived today.

I've had a bit of a spending spree on Just Nan charts and embellishment packs; Floral Fifteen and all three parts of Barnabee's Quest, to go with When Barnabee Met Bella already in the stash. That's what the lilac linen is for and the antique white just comes in handy! The lilac linen is such a nice colour I'm also going to do The Purple Thread's biscornu on that using the left over silks from the Spring Arbor.

Here is the progress so far this week on Simply Summer.

I have made one modification replacing the American flag on the bird house with the flag of St George, still, at the moment, needing it's red cross.

Rotation change

This week it should be back to the St Nicholas Tree Skirt and 'The Red Santa' but instead I am going to start 'Simply Summer' from Waxing Moon Designs. Last autumn I did 'Simply Halloween'. This is what it looks like in real life.

The photograph provided on the chart shows the linen to be a purple/white colour. As you can see it is, in fact, very witches broth green! I found other designs in the 'Simply' series on their website and decided to to the four seasons.

Let me explain. A couple of years ago, for a Christmas present, my Mum got me the windowpane and some of the kits from the Mill Hill Simply Seasonal Windowpane 2006 series. I really liked the idea of changing the pictures every two months rather than having the whole lot on the wall at once. We have quite a few large pictures, and I quite like to see some empty space on the walls - I don't do clutter, as The Other Half will tell you. This is why I am doing the Mill Hill Calendar (2003 version, as did not like the 2008 one) and why I have got the seasonal arbors by The Drawn Thread and now this series from The Waxing Moon. At the moment the intention is to display them according to the season but I think that The Drawn Thread ones may find a permanent home somewhere, eventually.

So here is 'Simply Summer' ready to go.

What's even better, because these charts are considered 'old', my Mum found them in the bargain basket at The Nimble Thimble.