Drawn Thread from Cathy!

I have not been a very healthy bunny of late. My boy was unwell all last week with conjunctivitis and I have now got it. So I have sore, bloodshot eyes and feel like someone has punched me in the eye and nose and generally feel rubbish. So when this beautiful exchange arrived yesterday you can imagine how much of a "pick me up" it was. Cathy had recently organised a Drawn Thread exchange and she happened to be my partner. I was stunned by the awesome finishing on this piece and amazed by all the lovely goodies:









She sent me two charts off my wishlist, two skeins of Crescent Colours, box of pins, chocolate and coffee and a lovely card as well. Cathy, you know me so well and Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

I am trying to do the rounds on the blogs and I always read my commentators' blogs first before anyone elses so I'll be popping your way shortly.

Happy stitching everyone. I am working on some pifs this week and also gathering supplies for the Birthday exchange. xx

Nuneaton, BP, Christmas ornie and DT exchange

Nuneaton meet up March 2009

Here is a little slideshow of our meet up in Nuneaton. Everyone brought their finishes and wips to exhibit and there were some real beauties! It was so inspiring to see all the wonderful work. Great to meet new people too and to see some old friends!! It was a great weekend and I'll definitely do it again. Thank you Clare for organising it all.

I worked hard on my BP whilst I was there and it helped to get me going again as I was in a bit of a slump before I went. I have worked out that if I stitch three motifs a month and then stitch four every third month then I will get this sucker finished by the end of the year. So this is my plan. I am on target to do this now. Here's my progress on her so far:



And I also worked on my March ornie for the Christmas ornie challenge. I am stitching these up first and then making them up altogether at the end:



My Drawn Thread exchange arrived in good time to Becky K in OK! I am really pleased with the finishing on this piece. I saw someone do a mattress pincushion and stitch the sides so this is what I did.







The Drawn Thread
Spot of Spring
36 count Belfast antique white linen
DMC Threads

I want to thank all of you for your kind words from my last post. It means so much to me that there are sincere people out there who really do care enough to take the time to build me up. Things are okay at the moment. We are trying to keep our heads down really. The ex boss is in serious trouble though as someone has blown the whistle as it were.

Next weekend is our ten year wedding anniversary and we are going staying in a very swish hotel in the Lake District - just for one night. Really looking forward to that.

This week I am planning on starting something for the Birthday exchange which is coming up in the next few months. I have an idea of what I am going to stitch. Just need to gather supplies. Has anyone signed up for the new Papillon Creations SAL "Castles in the Air"?? It looks really pretty. I have purchased both the cross stitch and speciality version but the speciality version looks very complicated to me. I haven't even started last years one yet although I do have it all kitted up ready to go.

Hope you all have a lovely week. xx

Last month...

Last month has been a busy and strange month. I seemed to be doing a lot of stitching and lost my mojo a bit. I have some lovely projects and SALs on the go but have been struggling with the motivation to get going on any of them. I think I may have taken too much on at the start of the year so I am going to have to cut back on a few things. I have not signed up for the second round of the Prairie Schooler exchange for example and although HOE are running some great exchanges at the moment, I have resisted signing up for any of those too. I am doing a Drawn Thread exchange which is due out a week tomorrow so I'll be having a break from exchanges after that I think. I need to get on and start my pifs too as Elisa sent hers to me last week.

So here's the PS exchange that my recipient received from me.

Prairie Schooler exchange





Here's my finished "mustard scarf" I started. Not the best pic but I hope you get the idea. This was a freebie from Ravelry.

My Mustard scarf



Here is Elisa's wonderful pif that she sent me. It is my first circular pinkeep and is so cute. Some great extras too. Thanks Elisa.

Elisa's Pif



I do have a pic of my biscornu from february too but as usual my camera is on the blink so will have to wait to download it.

Now, I mentioned this last month has been a strange one. There are some things happening to our family at the moment that are quite bad. If I told you details you'd think we were in the middle of a thriller film. That may sound overly dramatic but non the less true. One thing is that our "best man" has turned against us (for no rashional or apparent reason) and has been sending both of us some pretty nasty hate mail and is set upon ruining our reputations and confidence. He has cut himself off from us and hopefully we won't hear from him again. It has been extremely hurtful and hard to bear and very tiring to boot. The other thing which I can't share a lot about is to do with dh's last job. He left there due to some rather unscrupulous business practices (let's say) and his ex boss has just been arrested and charged and the police want dh to make a statement. However, doing so, could put us in a (let's say) dangerous and vulnerable position. You get the idea. Sounds like a drama right? So all in all, we've been having a tough month of things. To top it off, one of our close friends has been taken into hospital with blood clots in his leg and lung and has a shadow on his heart. So taking all of this into account, it is probably no wonder that I have very little motivation to stitch or blog which is why this post has been a long time coming. It has left me feeling extremely drained and dh has been away for most of this year which hasn't helped. I have also "left" facebook because of some of these things and other reasons too so sorry to all the stitcher facebookers out there.

Thank you so much for the awards. I got one from Sally and one from Elisa. They mean so much to me to know that I have been thought of by you guys. I pass it on to my regular commentors.



I am away next weekend with some of the Jayne's Attic crew on their yearly meetup. Hopefully, it will give me the refreshment I need and the motivation to get back into my stitching. Hope you are all doing a bit better than me at the moment.

xx

Okay big update - lots of pics

Right something is definitely up with my camera - it is not charging properly but I have managed to get six minutes on it to get some pics and download them!! First up is this lovely gift from Lisa from Needles and Threads. I won a blog giveaway from her a while ago and look at what she made me - isn't it beautiful. It is a lovely thread holder and i love the pocket at the back. She sent some lovely extras too, all of which I'll use. Thanks so much Lisa. I love it.





Also I was admiring Margarets little bird sampler a while ago and she sent me the chart and some linen and thread to go with it!!! Wow I am so amazed at the generosity of stitchers!



I also got my Prairie Schooler exchange through. At least I think it is this exchange as Rebecca (can't find her blog) didn't put a note in with it to say what it was or where the design is from so I am presuming it is the PS exchange. It is a lovely strawberry emery - my first and is very nice. So if you are reading Rebecca, thank you very much.



Cheryl got my little gingerbread men ornie that I made her for her newborn. I got the idea from Danybrode's blog and I was quite pleased with my humble efforts.



Now you may remember the post about my "I am Half Sick of Shadows" project that I eventually gave away to my Dad to work on. Here is how I sent it to him:



And here's a pic of it that he sent me today!! How much progress is that??



Now onto knitting. I am araid I have started getting the knitting bug again. I joined a group called Ravelry (takes about 4 days to get an invite)and it is amazing. I would really recommend it to knitters and crocheters. I found a lovely scarf pattern on it and here is my progress on it:



It is hard to describe what it will look like in the end as its not your usual scarf! So I will take a pic of me or someone else modelling it when it is finished!
Speaking of knitting, here is Lily learning to knit - just a minute long but you're welcome to share this precious moment with me if you care to:



lily knits!

Oh and before I forget here is my christmas ornie (unfinished as I am going to finish them altogether) for this month:



I must admit, I feel like my stitching mojo has gone awol this month! I have hardly touched the BP and have only just started the biscornu. I think maybe I overdid it with that french mystery. I have finished stitching it up but need to finish it now and yes I did get those vital finishing instructions. It is like a littel pillow inside a pouch and I hope I'll be able to finish it sometime. Right now I want to get my scarf finished and I also need to get on with some exchanges but I just do not feel in the mood for stitching right now.

Oh and I have put the BP blog back to the public domain for a bit if anyone's interested.

We have just come back from our friends house in Wales - so lovely and DH has some pics so I'll get them off him soon and post them up. Well that's me updated for a while. Happy stitching and thanks for reading everyone. xx

Just to let you know..

I have loads to update but my camera's playing up! Hopefully get it sorted soon. I'm still alive and well. xx

Winter House exchange from Karen

Wow all the way from Australia! Karen sent me this gorgeous pinkeep of a LHN design and she sent me some wonderful extras too. Some six strand sweets, another perle thread which is beautiful, several other threads in a blue range, some pretty printed fabric which I am sure to use, some butterfly buttons and a fab notebook!



Thanks so much Karen, I love it. This was my last exchange from the sbebb as it is closing down. I'll miss it. It was a lovely group of exchangers and I have learnt a lot from it.

For any readers wondering why they can no longer read the Beatrix Potter SAL. I have had to make this blog private due to a hacker getting in and using it to spam (possibly) dangerous adverts. It is now only open to its members only although this is up for a vote. I am sorry for all the well meaning and honest people out there who genuinely did just want to read but I have had to do it for the safety of the members. I have never come across this before so have taken what I believed was the right course of action. Hope you will understand.

Have a fab week and thank you for all the encouragement on the french mystery. I am up to the last part!
xx

French Mystery Part 2

Here is my Part 2 of the mystery. I am sure the first parts colours are supposed to correlate to the second part (I think I made a mistake here). Never mind - it is only an experiment. Thanks for all your lovely comments and encouragements. I am stitching this up quickly and I think you were probably supposed to choose either the cross stitch or the speciality stitch and stitch two of those but I did one of each. Another ooops!!

Thank you Leena and everyone else who has offered to help me with the translations. I will surely be knocking on your doors soon.

Some have asked how I manage to get so much stitching done. That is such a big compliment as I don't feel like I get enough done! I do struggle to juggle childcare, housework, blogging, stitching and prayertime in my life and I never seem to get a right balance. I like deadlines though and feel I achieve more when I have a deadline set. I sometimes get an hour of two in the day when I can stitch when Elijah has his nap. Then in the evenings as well. But I also try to blogread as well as you guys are so my stitching inspiration.

Thanks for all your encouraging comments. I'll be popping by your blogs soon,

xx

This is indeed a mystery...

At the end of last year I signed up for a mystery on a french blog. I don't speak a word of French - never had a single lesson. The designer Anne Marie has been sending out charts bit by bit each week or so and I have been steadily collecting them. Yesterday we all got an email marked "important" so I used babelfish to translate and the jist of it was that if you haven't sent your photos of your stitching you won't get the finishing instructions!!!! Oh heck thinks I and begin this mystery which is indeed a mystery as I haven't the foggiest idea what it will turn into. I only hope I am understanding the instructions correctly and am stitching it right. So yesterday I stitched up part one.



This will be a mystery for me as well as any of my readers. So I have sent her that photo and now onto Part 2. Hurry hurry hurry!!! I have till next week to get all parts in so I get the finishing instructions.

xx

Oh, snow! and an award!

Jeanne and Sally gave me this lovely award:



Thank you both so much. I am supposed to tell you my 5 addictions now. Hmmmm...

1. Stitching - obvious
2. Blogging
3. Chart collecting - esp freebies
4. Food - esp chocolate, and crisps (chips in the USA)
5. My kids and husband - my wonderful family.

Now I cannot possibly nominate 5 blogs as I go through so many of them and they are all wonderful but recently I have been browsing a lot of french blogs and some are listed in my sidebar at the top so check them out! I am going to add to these as time goes on. And, no, I don't understand a word of french, I wish I did, but I just get so inspired by looking at all the pictures.

Now it has done nothing but snow here all day and now night and I am a bit peeved as my DH and I were going to go out on a date tonight. I haven't seen him in 3 weeks so his parents offered to sit for us so we could go out. Well, due to the bad weather we have had to cancel. I am due to go out tomorrow night too and also Wednesday and I hope they won't get cancelled. No, I am not a socialite really, it is just that a few things have come along at once!

So here is some footage of my dd playing in the snow with our neighbours. My dd is in the red coat:


MOV04529.MPG





Just for some stitchery, here is my biscornu for the January basket!



As you can see, it is yet to have a button attached. I am yet to find a suitable one. The design is from the book Repertoire des Frises and it uses Carries Epiphany thread and DMC jewel effects. I am intending to do all my basket in Carries and use designs from Repertoire des Frises. I love that book and you can get it from Amazon France and is so worth the purchase.

That's me for a bit. I have been trying to get through as many blogs as I can but there are just so many wonderful blogs. I just can't comment as much as I'd like! Do know that I am reading though. xxx

Bits n Bobs

Here's some bits and pieces that I've been working on this week. Before I do that I just want to show you this gorgeous exchange I got through today from Becky K. It is for the BBD exchange that got cancelled. I sent my exchange off to Su (thanks for all your lovely comments on that one) and I wasn't sure I was going to get anything back. But look at this lovely....





The design is from Thank You Sarah Tobias and I just love the backing fabric! Thank you so much Becky this really cheered me up. I am home alone at the moment with DH away so this brightened up my wintery day! I love the extras too. I have already used the cream (my hands are getting dry, esp my fingers) and I gave my own needleminder away so it is lovely to get one as a gift. Great pins too.

A while ago, Angela sent me a recipe for a yummy looking cake she had made and shown on her blog so this weekend I finally got round to making it and it was a huge HUGE success! Thank you Angela for this lovely recipe. Get ready to drool.

Malteser and chocolate cake courtesy of Nigella Lawson. I'm going to go and get the book now...





My dd decorated the top! Hasn't she done a great job?

I have stitched up my first christmas ornament fromthe PS Book Cranberry Christmas:



I am using 4210 and 319 on Brittany evenweave fabric 28 count which is lovely to stitch on. I am going to wait to make these up as I want them all to be the same shape/size etc. I have soem holly green felt but as yet I am waiting on some pinking shears.

Barbara - I said it was six sides - it is indeed eight sides - doh!

And lastly here is Teresa Wentzler's beginners whitework ornament which is hard to see in the picture but it really is beautiful. The stitches are all speciality stitches and so so easy to do. Don't be put off by it. It is a free design and can be found on her website. I used weeks dye works in Cherry Vanilla and used antique glass beads:



Happy stitching everyone,

xx

Exchanges received and bp update

Here is my Beatrix Potter January progress. I am using Victorian Mottos threads in Antique Wine set on Sassy's Tan Marble Jobelan. It is so nice to work on. I am loving the blends of the colour and they go so well together. Some people have asked if I have a plan for doing the colours but I don't really. I am just ad-libbing and seeing how it comes out. I am not going to get over stressed with this piece.

My two recent exchanges have arrived I have been told by the recipients. Mamajoan was my recipient for the Winter House sbebb exchange and this is what I made her:



It is taken from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornie mag from last year and the design is a PS one. It was a joy to stitch and finish into this miniature pinkeep.

I have also heard from Su that she has got my Blackbird Design sbebb exchange. This exchange was cancelled but I had already started it and was prepared to send it anyway and Su really likes it I believe. I stitched it on some special fabric that Stephanie gave me from Silkweaver and used Cresent Colour threads and antique glass beads to edge it.



Speaking of Christmas ornies... I got this through today and intend to use it for the Christmas ornament challenge blog. I have bought some Holly green coloured felt and am awaiting some Fiskars pinking Shears so I can finish them just like the picture:



So guess what I'll be working on this weekend?

Have a good weekend to all my readers and commenters. I love hearing from you and finding new blogs to visit. xx

Elijah's First Birthday!

Yesterday was Elijah's first birthday! I can't believe how fast this year has gone and that my baby boy is a year old already. We had a very quiet one - no family came round or anything. We went to Frankie and Bennies for our tea and they turned out all the lights and played Happy Birthday to him when they brought him his cake. We all ate some fab food. I had Penne Aribbiata and Lily had the biggest Hot Dog you've ever seen. Rick had Spag Bol and Elijah really loved that tomato and pesto garlic bread. It was very lovely and a good time was had by all.

ABC exhange and do I really want to do this???

Another successfull exchange has been completed. Becky got her Biscornu that I made.





Mary's Pin pillow
Indigo Rose

I love the over one alphabet around the edge! I beleive Becky liked this.

And I got this spectacular piece in the post today from Mama Joan. Thanks Joan, I absolutely love it and it is finished so perfectly too. It is a little round box with the alphabet on top and she has lined the inside with some gorgeous abc fabric too. Joan says she cannot remember who the designer is which is a shame as it is so pretty.





And now onto the "Do I really want to do this?" question. I have decided that I am going to give this UFO to my dad to work on. It has about 50 pages in total and as much as I love it, I just know that I am not going to get round to completing it. I am going to suggest to my dad that we could even work on it a page each and pass it back and forth. My Dad stitches. He is super quick and although he has never done anything like the size of this, I know he will be up for the challenge. So I discussed it with my dad and he agreed to have a go at it but when it came to pulling it out of the cupboard, my heart just sank at the thought of giving this away. But I know I have to let it go. Here was the last pic taken in May 2007!!!! I have not touched it since. It is a beautiful picture - quite stunning.



I will let you know the outcome, but right now I need to go to the post office and get a mighty big envelope to put it all in.

Happy stitching everyone. xx

A wonderful surprise....

Today I got the best surprise ever through the post! Sue aka Redwitch had recently finished A Quaker Study and it was a chart on my wishlist. Sue not only sent me the chart but also three Vicki Clayton silks that she used with it! I love her colour choice fot this design and think I will use the same ones. Thank you so much Sue! It was a wonderful gift and I will treasure it!



xx