Birth Band Happy Dance

Here's a photo of the newly-pressed Birth Band, which I finished on Friday:


Birth Band by The Drawn Thread, stitched in Needlepoint Inc Silks on Edinburgh linen

I have to say I really enjoyed this - even though it's the second time I've stitched it this year!! Amanda said how much she liked it when I stitched it for Monty, so it was an obvious choice when Hugh was born!! I hope they like it as much in the flesh!

Dani asked about our pumpkins - we did all use the same seeds - we bought a pack and split it 3-ways (and also scanned and printed off all of the growing info on the packet) - so it was a fair contest. Except we were rather late planting everything this year, as we didn't build the veggie patches until Easter... plus quite a few seedlings were eaten by magpies and slugs this year... I can't quite remember what happened to the pumpkins, but we were pretty certain we wouldn't win! We fed it with bottled organic plant food and home-made compost. And we took all the smaller pumpkins off the one plant, so it focused all it's growth energy into our largest pumpkin. I'll have a good web search for feeding techniques if we repeat the competition!!! Diane and Nial have won twice now!

Last night we tried out this recipe for pumpkin tart - after a search on the BBC food web page we decided this one sounded lovely, and wasn't too tricky. We served it with ice cream, not the ginger cream in the recipe, and it was delicious... we gave half the tart to our neighbours, who hadn't had a pumpkin tart/pie before - I've not seen them yet to see if they enjoyed it.

Yesterday and today I did a little bit of Fantasy Triptych, but the frame was a little wide with us both sat on the sofa, so I switched back to Dracolair's Gaelic Banner, which I am really enjoying.

I hope everyone else is having a lovely weekend!

New start...

I did get started on Birth Band last weekend. I'd hoped to share a picture mid week, but work was against me... So here's a photo now:


Birth Band, The Drawn Thread

Sorry, it's not the best photo - it was so sunny this afternoon I couldn't get any good diffuse lighting - this was taken in the shade!! Anyway I've done the top half already, in exactly a week. The bottom half is a little slower if I remember correctly. Irritatingly I somehow didn't start in the middle. How I could have mis-counted I don't know... Fortunately I left a big enough margin that it won't be a problem, but that was a close call!

I'm in a stitchy mood, but just don't know what to stitch today. So all day I've drifted around in a state of unease, wasting quality stitching time. I don't feel like using the silk threads on birth band, or beading WFS - both too fiddly. I feel the same about Fantasy Triptych. I was really fed up with Peacock Firescreen last week, and the only other thing I have on the go is on aida. NOTHING is calling to me. This is VERY unusual for me. I'm contemplating a new start, but nothing in my stash is calling out either. I hope this isn't the start of a stitching slump. Although I really do want to be stitching. Maybe my brain is too occupied with the start of term??? Aaargh!!! I'm sure this is a one-day thing, I'll be right as rain tomorrow, but it's very annoying. I really have wasted today!

On a plus side, we were watching Monty Python on sky (it's 40 years since it first aired) and saw a sketch set in New Pudsey. It was really odd watching the pythons walk along our local train station platform - before the huge Asda was built. Despite recording the sketch and watching it in slow-mo, we can't work out where the street scene was filmed, but the houses are very 'local' in style!! It's the sketch where innocent people are turned into Scotsmen by Aliens...

Right, finally on to some goals. How did I do in September?:
1) finish you were hatched (I should manage it, there's not much to go other than BS and the dedication) - yes, all finished
2) work on waiting for ships. I'd like to finish the bs, but we'll see - yes, even did a little beading
3) start a birth sampler for Hugh, who was born on the 20th August - yes about 50% done now
4) stitch on something else - yes, I worked on Peacock Firescreen

I also did some more on the Bedfordshire Lace butterfly I'm doing

I don't want too many goals for October, but in the interests of making me stay (at least a little) focused:
1) Finish Birth Band
2) Get more beading done on Waiting for Ships
3) Pick up Fantasy Triptych again
4) Stitch an ornie
5) Snap out of whatever restlessness is bothering me today. Hmm, maybe that should be number 1.
6) get the next wing started on my lace butterfly

Busy weekend!

wow, this weekend has flown by! Friday night I travelled down to Nottingham and stayed in the flat with Ed. On Saturday he had to work, so I popped over to see my folks - mum is doing amazingly after her knee op. I can tell she's going to be up and about and up to trouble in no time!! I'm also pretty impressed that she's sticking to doctor's orders re: resting and physio exercises. She was busy watching one of my DVDs when I arrived - the latest Jane Eyre by the BBC. I really enjoyed watching the not-quite-a-wedding scene with her!

Later that afternoon I drove back to Nottingham, picked Ed up and we went down to Birmingham to see his folks. Sadly his Dad is getting worse, it's really heartbreaking. There's so little we can do to help. But we had an enjoyable evening watching TV as a family and just chatting - although with Paul it's mostly nonsense. He gets really annoyed if we can't understand him, and recently we've learnt that nodding and saying yes when he's muddled is often the easiest, and nicest way of dealing with the dementia.

We went back to Nottingham Sunday lunchtime, then I came back up to Leeds, and immediately hit the gym. It was a good workout but I wasn't feeling as motivated as on Thursday. I'm hoping to get to the gym 4 times this week - we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, I did a little stitching on Waiting for Ships over the weekend. It looks so odd without the BF, but I'm determined to wait a month and get it while I'm in the States - it will be so much cheaper!



I also took a photo of Fantasy Triptych this morning. I've not stitched on it so far this month, but hopefully I'll pick it up tonight for TW Monday. I'm hosting a stitch and bitch here tonight, so it'll depend on how mad the house feels.. the BSing I have to do looks a little tricky!



I picked Birth Band up from the framers this weekend too - I had to pop by twice as there was some fluff behind the glass, but they sorted it quickly. I was really happy with the combination of mount and frame - they suited the colours perfectly. Irritatingly it was a little dark when I took the photo which didn't do the colours full justice:



Happy stitching everyone

Birth Band Happy Dance

Yeah!! I finished it last night, but was too tired to blog before going to bed.


Birth Band, The Drawn Thread. Stitched on Edinburgh linen in silk

The photo was a bit dark, so I altered the contrast in Photoshop - it looks more like the real colours now. I need to try and get it framed quickly so that I can give it to Michaela and Stuart.

Not much else to report - work has been hectic and I'm still tired after a busy weekend. I'm planning to stitch a small card for Valentine's over the next 2 nights (before Eddy comes home), and then pick up FT.

Nearly there!

This weekend we went to back to my home town, for my school friend Leanne's birthday celebration. On Saturday I went into Lincoln with my mum for lunch and a little shopping, then in the evening Ed and I met up with everyone. I have a close knit group of school friends, who I try and see as often as possible. We never manage all 6 of us though, and sometimes we manage to miss seeing one person in the group for a couple of years, but the most wonderful thing about these friends is, even if we haven't seen each other for ages, nothing has changed and we always have a good laugh. Saturday was no exception - 4 of the group made it - me, Leanne, Anne and Michaela - along with a few other friends, and we had a great evening - a mini bar crawl followed by some dancing. A copious amount of alcohol was consumed (very little by me, in comparison to the others) and we talked and laughed all night. Even when we had to shout over the volume of the music! Anne and Michaela stayed over night at Leanne's, and this morning Ed and I went over to share their cooked breakfast - boy does Leanne make wonderful sausage and bacon baps!!

I drove home this afternoon, and managed to get back to Leeds just as the next lot of snow started to settle. Last week's snow is still on the ground and has frozen to ice, so I expect tomorrow morning will be fun-filled, watching people failing to drive safely on the roads. It's quite pathetic really! Dani - I know people who panic over 1" of snow and won't drive or walk anywhere. I've never really seen why they are so wary, having always just got on with it. But I'm not very sure-footed at all, and usually end up on my arse at some point. So far only once this year...

Anyway, I didn't get any stitching done this weekend until I got home, but I have taken some photos to share:


Birth Band - as you can see I've nearly finished this. I stitched on this a bit more after taking the photo, I've only got one final band and a tiny amount of BS to go. Maybe a happy dance for tomorrow?


This is the ornie I finished last weekend - 'Golden Tree'. These Anchor 'quickies' really do live up to their name. If anyone wants the pattern for this (and the left-over thread - I suspect more gold is needed to make a second, but there is lots of green and black left) - then I'm happy to pass it on.


Finally Fantasy Triptych. I'm going to focus on this as soon as I've finished Birth Band - my aim is to complete the centre panel this month. I may be being a little optimistic here!!

Lace motif and a new start

Here is the photo I promised of the lace motif I've just completed:



It's my first ever attempt at Milanese lace, and too nearly a year, despite being exceedingly small... Oh well. This week I plan to start a larger piece of Milanese lace, from the same book (Read and Kincaid, Intro to Milanese Lace) - a lovely swirly sea monster. I've decided to work him in 2 shades of blue/green, which I bought from Pipers Silks at the Christmas Lace Makers fair.

Yesterday I started the birth sampler for Monty (he's about 15 months old now!!). Monty is the second son of my school friend Michaela - we'd not really been in touch much around the time Monty was born, which I guess is why I didn't start anyhting sooner. We met Monty for the first time at Christmas, which reminded me I needed to stitch somehting for one - I did a blackwork wedding sampler for Michaela and Stuart (stitched in dark red - coincidentally the colour of her wedding dress!!), and a birth sampler for Monty's older brother, Toby.

As Michaela and Stuart live in a lovely cottage I felt traditional styles were called for, so I picked out 'Birth Band' by the Drawn Thread for Monty. Here's what I've done so far:


Caroline told me this was a fairly quick project, and boy is it working up quickly - not bad progress for 1/2 a day!! At this rate I'll have it done in about 2 weeks, even alongside other projects! I'm really enjoying the finer count fabric (36 ct Edinburgh linen, antique white) and the silk threads, and as for the speciality stitches - wow!! I've done a few eyelets and smyrna crosses before, usually as called for in a TW, but no satin stitch since I was a little girl, and double back stitch was completely new to me too.. all great fun!

I'm off to London tonight for a couple of days - work related, but I'm staying with my sister, which will be fun - so probably lots of wine drinking and little stitching - but Birth Band will be back in my hands as soon as I return.

I've not thought about goals yet, I'll post some later today, or maybe when I get back.