Peacock Firescreen

Hmm, I'm just not loving this at all. Maybe it's the anchor thread? Or the fact the bit I'm working on it too peachy? Whatever it is I'm not getting the usual stitching satisfaction from this. Although it was a great piece to focus on this week, when I've been really tired...


Peacock Firescreen, by Barbara Thompson

This weekend I've been slowly coming round after last week's conference - which was a huige success, and I earned brownie points with the boss, 2 bottles of wine and 2 bouquets of flowers... plus lots and lots of verbal, email and even card thank yous! So it can't have been a bad job!!

Anyway, I slept for 11 hours last night, chilled out in my jammies all morning in front of the TV, then had a good browse of the JCS ornies issue followed by a massage this afternoon.... Right now I'm about to find a suitably gentle DVD and start a new project (sadly not out of the ornie issue - I'm trying to find one that just uses DMC until I have enough cash for speciality threads...), and it's takeaway pizza for tea. Perfect Saturday!!

Happy Dance!!!

Just a quick post to share my Happy Dance! - this birth sampler is based on 'you were hatched', with a little bit of 'needle guardian' thrown in for the personalisation:



A huge thank you to Lindsay, who very generously gave me the chart for you were hatched, and the necessary skein of dinky dies.

I tried out the new John James needles, and loved them. But I'm too tired/busy for beading, so didn't get very much further with Waiting for Ships. Anglea asked which fabric I am using. WFS is stitched on PTP's 'fathom' cashel linen - I saw the fabric while in the States a few years ago, fell in love, bought it then hunted down the 'right' mermaid pattern. It just yelled 'mermaid' at me the moment I saw it... I was actually looking for something to stitch Dracolair's Phoenix on at the time!

I've pulled out Barbara Thompson's Peacock Firescreen again, as I wanted something easy to stitch during my conference (1 day to go.... only 140 delegates. Hopefully I didn't forget anything???).

Waiting for ships...

I had a lovely quiet weekend. Did some errands, watched Eddy make blackberry jam (all I did to help was wipe up afterwards!), ate lovely food, much from the garden, and stitched.

Mostly I stitched to Lord of the Rings. I didn't quite make it through all 3 extended movies in a weekend (a secret goal) as at 11.15 last night I decided to give up and go to bed. So I've got about 1/2 hour of Return of the King to watch tonight. I would have managed it, but Eddy and I thought we ought to watch 'Gran Torino' which was the latest lovefilm DVD to hit the doormat....

Anyway, with all that move watching, I had some serious stitching time. I was hoping to finish all the xs and bs on waiting for ships sometime this month... but I did it yesterday...



Then I started the beading. I've had my eye on some John James needles for a while, and was waiting for my last credit card bill to be issued before buying any... this morning I put in a humongous needle order (hey, it's free P&P if you spend £10...) mostly because they get recommended so highly but also because I really like the sound of short beading needles. Especially given WFS uses 6 packs of petite beads....

August stitching, September goals

Well, it's quite a while since I last posted. I've been away twice, to Hampshire (pics and funny stories in a later post) and for a wonderful day at Champney's Spa with Eddy's mum - as a treat for looking after Paul, who has demetia. I have to say I take the 'job' of having to drive Margaret to fun days out very seriously indeed!! Our next planned treat is the Harrogate knitting and stitching show in November.

Anyway, other than that I've been exceedingly busy at work. I'm never, ever organising a conference again. Especially not when trying to finish editing a book (amongst other things). Ususally us academics get a break from teaching (not a holiday!) in the summer, and a chance to catch up on research and admin... well not for me this year!! My stitching time has taken a serious hit, and I've really not followed my goals, just stitched what I wanted, when (if?) I felt like it.. as a consequence I only met one of my (very modest) August goals:

1) finish you were hatched - nope
2) work on waiting for ships - yes
3) work on fantasy triptych - nada

On the plus side, WFS has seen some serious stitching recently:



So, goals for September.. I need to be careful here, as I don't expect this month to be much better

1) finish you were hatched (I should manage it, there's not much to go other than BS and the dedication)
2) work on waiting for ships. I'd like to finish the bs, but we'll see
3) start a birth sampler for Hugh, who was born on the 20th August
4) stitch on something else

and a non-stitchy goal:
5) blog more than twice this month (I'm already half way :))