Only two more houses to go!

Yesterday evening I finished house number six! When all eight houses are finished there will be a major celebration around here I can tell you.


We spent the weekend in London, as it was The Other Half's Sister's birthday so no progress was made on the Christmas decoration or the UFO this weekend. However, two long train journeys did mean that I was able to make some progress on the handbag stitching. The first side of the biscornu is almost complete, needing only the buttons and beads and the back stitch border.


On the rotation this week it's The Green Santa, I could do with finishing him off. In fact, I could do with finishing the whole thing off, may be by Christmas!

I'm off to find out how much I still have to do.

Quick update

In the end, last week, I opted for a new start. Witches Riding By from Lavender Wings. The chart was a Christmas present from 'The Other Half'. I'm stitching this on 36 ct sand linen as recommended. This is about three nights worth of stitching.


Over the weekend my Christmas Ornament, UFO and handbag project all had a little bit of work done on them, but not enough to show. The main achievement on Saturday was finishing the three Secret Needle Night pieces into cushions.


This week it's house number 6 on White Nights. The weather here is great at the moment and I feel I should be spending the evenings sitting in the garden, enjoying the Sun, with a G&T or glass of chilled white wine to hand, rather than being inside with a large stitching project.

Hope everyone has a great stitching week whatever the weather is doing where you are.

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.

Four down, eleven to go!

So far this week I have managed to stitch four of the fifteen squares making up Floral Fifteen. I started with the ones on the mint green fabric. The squares just need the beads adding to finish them off.



This is working out at just over one square an evening. I am hoping to start the squares on the antique white linen tonight, whilst watching the final of The Junior Apprentice.

Earlier this week I managed to finish off Little little village 2, from Jardin Privé. I took this piece into work and did some stitching at lunchtime. My colleagues commented on how different the design was.





This weekend I should start on my next ornament for Yoyo's Christmas Design SAL. I'm worried about her as there has been no activity on her blog for a while and she hasn't replied to my email sending the latest photos, which is unusual. The UFO might also get a look in too.

Hope everyone has a great stitching weekend.

And the winner is ...

Just Nan's Floral Fifteen. This will be tomorrow's new start. A big thank you to everyone who voted. Scream House came second so that will be my next big Just Nan project after this one, but there may be a few smaller ones in between.

Last week was half term week. We went 'down south' to visit The Other Half's family and to be in London for the Steam Special to York. By the way I did get a full refund. So, instead of going to York, we spent Thursday in London. I hit the shops on Oxford Street and managed, quite successfully, not to buy anything. On Friday we visited Brighton for the day. Here we went on the Volk's Electric Railway, the oldest working electric railway in the world.


On Saturday we made our annual family visit to The Derby at Epsom. This is a picture of the eventual winner, Workforce, on his way down to the start.


Here is The Queen standing on the balcony of the Royal Box.


OK so spot The Queen. She is in the middle of two gentlemen, there are only three of them on her balcony.

For my holiday stitching I started something new. Called Little little village 1 and Little little village 2 these are from a series called Maggi Co's Village by Jardin Privé I used the free chart, available in the website, to join the two charts together. If you have not visited this site then pop over and have a look there is some really nice stuff on there. I have all ready eyed up my next purchase! This is what it looks like so far.


Another design in the Maggi Co's Village range is being done as a SAL here. This is the design. Start date is 14 June.


The artist is Raquel Blasco. Her blog is here.

Happy stitching

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!

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.

Seven days left to vote!

Thanks to everyone who has voted so far. At the moment Scream House is in the lead. If you would like to choose the next Just Nan project that I will stitch then there is still time to cast your vote in the poll on the side bar. Details of all the projects are in the previous post.

Whilst blog hopping today I came across a SAL which I thought was quite interesting. Called "En attendant l'été" it is over on Solo Brode.


I am going to do mine on 28 count Flax linen using DMC 3740 and Threadworx 1156, well that's the plan but I don't know when I'll start.

This week it's the turn of White Nights. This is my progress so far this evening.

What shall I stitch next? You decide.

Here is this week's progress picture of the Green Santa. There is still an evening to go on him.


Next week on the rotation it's back to White Nights and after that it's Tea with Honey from Just Nan. This project is almost finished and should take two or three more evenings. I cannot decide which Just Nan design to stitch next so I have decided to have a vote.

The choice is between Scream House, Counting Bats, Floral Fifteen and Merry Fifteen. This is what they look like.
Scream House


Counting Bats


Floral Fifteen


Merry Fifteen


So, just for fun, help me make a decision by voting in the sidebar.
Thanks.

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.