Totally Useless SAL

This weekend I put up my Halloween stitchy display. The ort flask decided that as he now had even more glow in the dark threads inside, from the Horrid Halloween Biscornu, he should be part of the display too. So I bought some Halloween tinsel from Tesco for some extra decoration.

Here is this month's photo

She has a roof ...

... well half one!

Not much stitching got done this weekend. The progress on 'Open House' was achieved on a long car journey on Friday afternoon.


We were off to Pickering in North Yorkshire, one end of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. This weekend no train travel was involved. We were attending a carriage restorers convention. Although I own a carriage myself I'm not really in to fixing them, until it gets to near the end when they require curtains and stuff. This was not always the case, but having fallen through the floor in one of The Other Half's derelict vehicles, he has many, I'm not quite so keen!

All these carriage restorers needed feeding and I had volunteered to help out with the catering. So on Saturday three of us laid on all day coffee, tea and cake. A buffet meal for 82 people and in the evening we put on a four course dinner for 26. On Sunday we did another buffet but for half as many.

The kitchen was in railway carriage and was about 5 to 6 foot wide and about three times as long. Not only did we cook on gas, a six ring gas hob, with gas cooker we also had a gas plate warmer and the two fridges were gas cooled. It was hot! The washing up facilities consisted of a domestic double sink unit with single draining board. OK for normal pots and pans but too small for the commercial variety. All I can say is that I am glad the whole thing was not on a train that was moving. Here is a picture of the facilities!


It was the first tome the kitchen had been used to cook in and there were some teething problems which will need to be fixed. Not least how to stop things like dirty dishes and the clean ones on the drainer falling onto the floor whilst the train is in motion.

Anyway despite the heat and the lack of space good fun was had by all. We were complemented on our efforts on a number of occasions. One I found particularly amusing. I was complemented on my egg sandwiches. Now I do not eat eggs and have, to my knowledge, have never made an egg sandwich in my life until this weekend.

Back to the stitching. On the way home I stitched on the Horrid Halloween Biscornu until, despite using 'glow in the dark' threads, I was forced to stop.

Spooky Stitching

At last I have started my spooky stitching! Here is a quick update on progress so far.

Open House.


This really is fun to stitch.

My handbag stitching is the Horrid Halloween Biscornu from Faby Reilly. I am doing this on 32ct Crystal Peach linen as I have a lot left over from the Over the Top and in the Tin project. I am going to change some of the colours for Kreinik 'Glow in the Dark' ones as I have them in my stash.



I also managed to spend an evening on the November Calendar.


I hope everyone has a happy stitching weekend!

The Big Finish Weekend 2!

This weekend I was able to finish a number of projects. Firstly the October Calendar got framed.


I also mounted Midnight Ride. She will be going to the framers tomorrow. I also finished The Boo tin lid form Just Nan.


And finally,


the Breast Cancer Awareness Biscornu. I'm really pleased with this one.

Today is Sunday so it should be Mary Wigham day but I have a half finished November Calendar. This is the eleventh one I have stitched and usually they take about a week each but there is a lot of work in this one.


I did also say that I was only going to stitch spooky stuff in October. It's now the fourth and not a single spooky stitch has been sewn!

Janlynn's Dolly Mamas Contest

A few years ago, whilst flicking through some cross stitch magazines my Mum and me came across these.






They are from the Dolly Mamas range from Janlynn. We thought they were quite amusing. There are now over fifty cross stitch kits in the series. The sayings like 'Go braless...it pulls the wrinkles out of your face!' are called Dollyisms. Now Janlynn have launched a contest where you can submit your own Dollyism. There is over $1400 in prize money with the grand prize being $1000. The winner also has their Dollyism made into a kit by the Dolly Mama's designer, Joey. In this Youtube video she explains what the contest is about.



To find more information about the contest and how to enter go to www.janlynn.com/dolly

My best attempt so far 'When did the bags under my eyes become suitcases?' Mmm, might need to do a little more work on this one!

Mary returns

Although I have been stitching on Mary Wigham for the last few Sundays I have not posted any pictures as progress was not as great as it should have been. Here she is:


I have made a small start on the vase of flowers, bottom left.

My handbag project has been a biscornu for October. I wanted to do one with a breast cancer awareness theme so after looking at the Stitch Pink blog I found a design which I thought I could change into a biscornu.


The chart is a freebie by Romy in Austria and you can get it on the Stitch Pink blog's sidebar. I have stitched this on 32ct Belfast Linen, pearl flecked white, with DMC99 and DMC605. In real life,that is, without flash photography, the DMC99 looks more pink than this.

I also want to do a Halloween themed biscornu, also for October and a the moment it is a toss up between modifying the Just Nan Boo needle book.


Or doing this one from Faby Reilly


You can order this chart here.

Then again I might just do both!

October came early ~ well sort of

In the post before last I declared that I was going to stop the rotation and only stitch spooky stuff for the whole of October. Well folks October came early!

I really wanted to make a start on 'Open House' but did not feel that I could start a project before finishing something else. I stitched the Boo tin lid from Just Nan.


I finished this on Sunday morning and Sundays are Mary Wigham days, so, I stitched on her until my Aunt and Uncle arrived.

In the living room are my Mum, my Aunt and me having a good old stitchy time, both of them on their UFOs and me on Mary Wigham. I have to say that I ended up frogging most of what I stitched. My Dad and my Uncle were in the garden pruning what, in recent years, has turned into a 'Whomping Willow' of a corkscrew willow tree. It was almost the size of the house (I say, was, because on Monday, whilst I was at work, the trainee tree surgeons chopped the whole thing down!). Well the tree branches and leaves started to pile up. So, stitching was suspended for the rest of the day whilst a clean up operation was mounted.

On Sunday evening, when peace and tranquillity had been restored to the garden, and the willow had less branches than before, I was able to take up stitching once more. Well that was the plan, my Aunt had taken the Mary Wigham charts home with her! What a shame! I had a legitimate excuse for starting 'Open House', so I did!


You may ask where was The Other Half whilst all this deforestation was going on. The answer in Scotland saving this for the nation.


In a previous life this half of a carriage, the only one left, looked like this.

Built in 1907 of teak, which is why it has lasted so long, this Dining Saloon must have been a spectacular sight, all varnished and shiny.

Half of this carriage was sold to a young couple in the 1950s who had it put in their back garden. They lived in it whilst their house, the cobblers shop, was made fit to live in. The carriage has remained in the garden ever since. The lady of the house is now 97 and will shortly be moving in with her daughter. The carriage became 'under threat' and had to be moved before the winter. It is now in a safe place and we will wait and see what will happen to her.

Back to the stitching.

The early arrival of October was, however, short lived. This week I have stitched on White Nights. Tonight I am hoping to finish the grid in the top left corner.


Next week I think I might just have to go back to Open House!

The Totally Useless SAL goes to a retirement party!

On Friday 18 September week the ort flask went to the retirement party of the Leibig Condenser (the glass tube in the photo with the rubber hoses attached). The condenser, after many years service had developed a crack and was now no longer usable. The ort flask was able to meet up with many of his old glassware friends, beakers, boiling tubes and test tubes. The latter were bemoaning the fact that many of their peers were now in the 'broken glassware bin' as a result of being miss handled by over excited pupils. This means that they have rolled off benches onto the floor or have had their bottoms somehow pushed out by excessive stirring! The measuring cylinders (the group on the left of the photo) the ort flask noticed, had not changed, they never did mix at parties but preferred their own company. As they are very quick to point out, unlike the other glassware, they are accurate don't you know!



Sorry for the late posting but I did not pick up on the date correction on Yoyo's blog until today when I checked out the date for next month.

The Pale Blue Santa has a face!

Here it is.


So far this week I have managed to complete all the cross stitching on him. Last night I started the backstitch. I still have two more evenings to go on this so it will be interesting to see how much further I get.

My Mum and Dad have come to stay for a few days and my Mum brought me this:


From The Cross-Eyed Cricket the chart is called 'Open House' and I have to say I am tempted to drop everything and start it tonight as I have all the DMC floss needed and some suitable linen. Anyway the decision has been made. After next week the rotation stops and I'm just going to do spooky stuff for the whole of October!

A finish of a different kind!

This weekend was a busy one as there was a Steam Gala at 'The Railway'. On Saturday I did a ten hour shift as a train guard and then went onto the buffet and served behind the bar for another four or so hours.

I did, however, manage to get October finished.


The gala was to launch 80072 a British Railways Standard Four Tank Engine. This locomotive was sent to Barry Scrapyard when it was withdrawn from service in the 1960s. As with many Barry locos 80072 was spared the cutter's torch and was rescued by a group of enthusiasts in 1988. This is what she looked like then.


This is what she looks like now.



Some finish!