Happy Dance!!

It's been a while since I've had time to blog, but I wanted to share my latest happy dance with you:


A New Beginning
(c) Abbey Lane Designs
Stitched in Weeks on platinum cashel

I really enjoyed stitching this piece, and I think the colours are fabulous. I've got no idea how to finish it, maybe a cushion or a wall hanging instead of a frame.

What else have I been stitching on recently? I've been making steady progress on the Peacock Firescreen by Barbara Thompson:


And while staying in Nottingham at our flat I've been working on a small kit of Lincoln Cathedral:


I've also been knitting and crocheting, but more of that later, I hope!

Happy stitching

Pretty peacocks

Is anyone else enjoying the Indian summer? It was 28 degrees C in Leeds today. It does feel a little odd wearing a sundress and sandals at the end of September, but I'm not complaining - in fact I'm hoping I can manage a similar outfit tomorrow and over the weekend. Although my legs are back to being milky white again, after a pretty cool August!

This week I picked up A New Beginning again. I've finished stitching the peacock and bird motif, and have also done the orangy diamond in the middle, and the small olive green motif just under it. Last night I started the square blue motif in the middle - and it's now official, I've finished pages 3 and 4!!! I'm really enjoying this as a change.


Sorry, it's a bad photo, and very crumpled...

This weekend I'm off to Nottingham. Tomorrow night we're going to the wonderful Memsaab for dinner with some of Eddy's colleagues, and on Saturday we're off to Lincoln. I'm taking a couple of projects to get framed, and I hope to pick up some lovely tea and coffee at Imperial Teas. I can't shop too much though, as it's the last weekend of spending before my credit card bill is issued, and I'm all spent up - just enough left to get a deposit down on those frames!

Whatever your plans this weekend, I hope you have a lovely one - and that you get some stitching in too!

Birth sampler happy dance!

Well it's all washed and pressed now:



I really enjoyed stitching this kit (I did switch from aida to linen), and I can't wait to get it framed and give it to Helene and Guy.

This weekend I've done a little more knitting of the pink and orange scarf, and have picked up A New Beginning again. I hope everyone else is having a lovely, relaxing weekend.

Happy stitching

Now autumn is here...

I don't know about you all, but it's getting a bit nippy around here. So I'm even more addicted to knitting! I really do feel the need for lots of warm cuddly scarves... not to wear JUST yet, but I know it won't be long! Over the weekend I finally finished the chenille cable scarf I knitted over the summer - all I needed to do was sew in the loose ends! But this is now finished and ready to wear - I *almost* can't wait!!



I've also got a progress photo of the scarf I knitting my friend Annia as a late birthday present - the colours are fabulously autumnal. I wouldn't wear anything this bright, but the colours are exactly what Annia loves. I really hope she likes this once I've finished it.



I've just taken the last 2 days of work - a lovely four-day weekend, spent pottering around the house and garden - with lots of crafting of course. I knitted a fair length of Annia's scarf while watching Wallander on Sky+, have a cross stitch HD to share once it is dry and pressed, and we dug up the potatoes, ate chard, courgettes and tomatoes from the garden and planted up several pots of winter violas. It's my last chance for time off before Christmas - our term starts on Monday. Although I do wonder if once I've settled into my term-time routine I'll have a little more time for stitching.

Where does the time go?

First I should apologise to my regular readers - I've become very bad at writing posts. No particular reason, just life being extremely hectic (but then, it always is). I've not been stitching as much as I would like recently - I seem to have less time and energy than usual. Hopefully when term starts and I get REALLY busy at work things will settle down and I'll get back into my usual routine - and the lovely extended evenings developing a stitching ass...

So what I have I been working on? Well I've got the knitting bug again. I've started a lovely new cardigan (I bought the wool back in the winter last year) - given the state of the weather I should knit it quickly, it would be useful to have another snuggly cardy in my wardrobe! I've done the back, but that's all so far:



Last Thursday we had another stitch and bitch, this time at Sonia's. I really loved the crochet scarf that Heidi made back in June. She kindly gave me the a link to the pattern, and I tried it out - with Chrissie and Louise, my crocheting buddies, there for support in case I couldn't figure it out (they didn't need to help me out as much as I thought they might have to!). Chrissie lent me a lovely ergonomic hook (NEEEEED some of those) and some yarn, and I quickly made the flower. I then improvised and made a smaller flower and over the weekend I made it into a corsage, which I wore to work yesterday. I love the pretty button I found for it in John Lewis. I also bought some rather fabulous Debbie Bliss Alapaca in John Lewis, which I hope to use to make a scarf similar to Heidi's...



At the weekend I visited a new-to-me knitting shop, Saltaire Yarns (recommended by Chrissie). I left the very happy owner of a basic crochet book (I can never remember which stitch is which, so I can't read patterns), a book called 'luxury yarn one-skein wonders' and two of the aforementioned single skeins of luxury yarn. My credit card is in shock... two yarn shops in two days. Ouch!

Anyway I'm so far behind in the blogging stakes I totally forgot about the 29 August TUSAL. This is my current ORT jar status - most of the new ORTS are from Peacock Firescreen. The jar is sat on my new knitting project, a scarf for a friend using one of those luxury yarns, pattern out of my new book :)



I hope everyone had a lovely summer, and that you are all getting in some lovely stitching time now the weather is on the turn! Happy stitching x

Another week off work...

Wow, it's ages since I last posted. No proper reason, just life taking up all my time. I had last week off work, but this time I didn't go away ;) Eddy and I spent most of the time gardening, or catching up on TV that we'd recorded while on our travels. While watching the telly I've been either stitching on Peacock Firescreen, or knitting. No pic of the knitting yet as I've still to finish the back of the cardigan, but this is where I've got to with Peacock Firescreen:



Before I was on holiday I'd been focusing on the Classic Pooh Birth Sampler for Helene and Guy's new baby daughter, Holly. We went for a picnic with them yesterday (yes, in true British Bank Holiday weekend style it did rain - we ate between two heavy showers), and we finally met Holly for the first time - she's now 10 weeks old and is lovely. Anyway, I've finished the XS, just the BS to do - hopefully it'll be done and framed for her Christening:



When we bought our house four years ago we had HUGE plans for the garden. One of the first was to shape the lawn into two halves with an archway between. We sorted the narrow section last year; this week we finally shaped the far end of the lawn, and started the heavy digging (we have rock-solid clay, for the most part). All of the digging takes a long time, but the soil is so much easier to work in the areas we have dug over so far, so it is worth the effort. Once we've finished digging the area over and planted it up a bit more I'll post some photos. It feels wonderful to see the 'master plan' coming together, slowly and surely!

Sadly my plan to work on my quilt this last week totally failed. Maybe next time I get a few days free I'll take over the living room and get the borders sorted...

Jo, world explorer

It's a hectic summer for me, and both my crafting and my blogging have really suffered. I won't bore you with all the details, but will tell the story of the last few months in photos...

In June we had the most amazingly relaxing break in Spain. Check out the view from the villa...


In July we went on holiday in Belgium. First we visited Brugges and lots of WWI cemeteries:



Then we volunteered on a WWI excavation - my area was investigating a German dug out and trenches:



I had a mad turnaround at home on 30/31 July. I managed to take my TUSAL photo, and a progress photo of the Classic Pooh birth sampler - but failed to find time to post them. Not that I was doing any stitching on my travels - in fact for the first time ever (practically) I left my needles at home...



I had about 20 hours at home before I headed off again - this time for a work-related trip to Pretoria, South Africa. The work was intense and busy, but I made up for it with 2 intense days of sight seeing, one in Pretoria at the museums, but one day at the Lion and Rhino park:




Best of all they had an animal creche... this was the most amazing experience ever...



It's been a tiring but truly amazing summer :)

Now I'm trying to get back into life at home, work, housework - and some stitching!