Happy New Year!!!

Wow, I really have fallen out of the habit of blogging - I hope I still have some followers!

Back in October I promised to share a photo of Eeyore's problem - well here it is:

Since then I have been working on Gaelic Banner - I started the BS before Christmas. I took this photo on the 2nd Jan, but have done a bit more BS since - I have 2 pages of BS to go - this will be my first HD for 2014, hopefully next weekend??

I took a final photo of my ORT jar before emptying it on the 2nd (when we got back from seeing friends and family), and it now contains a small layer of green and gold from the banner!

I've not started anything new yet - I just really want to get GB finished! I'll do a yearly round up this week (well hopefully - I really don't want to get out of the habit of blogging again).

Happy New Year everyone, I hope it is stitchy-tastic!

Amazing Framing

Last weekend my parents came to stay. My mum had a big birthday at the end of February, and I'd decided to give her Art Nouveau Peacock for a joint birthday/mother's day present. I've never been entirely happy with any of the framers I've used up here, but clearly I didn't have time to take this piece to my usual framers in Lincoln! Claire on the TW Facebook group had recently got her Fantasy Tryptich framed in Hipperholme, which is about 30 mins drive away, and her photos looked lovely - so I gave them a go - and I was delighted with the results:



The frame was very expensive, but it's the second largest frame I've ever done, and I don;t think I'd have got it much cheaper in Lincoln. Plus the fuel costs were much lower - so I think I have possibly found a new, more convenient framers, which is good. The chaps in the shop were lovely, and turned it around within a week - so I picked it up on my way to meet my parents in Hebden Bridge. Needless to say, my mum was thrilled to bits. And I don;t have the headache of trying to work out where on earth I was going to hang such a large piece!

The weekend was lovely - I absolutely love Hebden, and the fabulous eco-friendly hippy-ish shops there. I narrowly avoided spending a fortune on things I didn't need and couldn't afford, and had a lovely lunch in one of the organic cafes. Our planned walk at Hardcastle Crags was aborted due to heavy rain, so we headed home for coffee and a chat, then went out to the local pub for dinner that evening.

Sunday we went to Abbey House Museum in Leeds, which I'd never been to before. It was really good - a smallish recreated street scene of Leeds in the 1890s(? decade) with lots to look at in the recreated shops, and upstairs a display about childhood and toys - which included some lovely xs samplers. Sadly the photos I took are too dark, so I won't share them!

This week I've been pushing on with Eeyore's problem, and I'm about 1/2 way. It's time for a change, but I think I'll try and finish poor Eeyore off before he gets relegated to the PHD box again...



I'm enjoying quite a crafty weekend - I'll share photos of my progress later. Happy stitching everyone!

Behind the scenes at the museum

This week has been pretty eventful. 2 days off work sick (neither too serious), FAR too much work to do, and (best of all) our latest museum exhibition, part of the You Are What You Ate project. 'The Dark Side of eating' opens today in Pontefract Museum!!! I popped over in the week - it's really weird seeing a gallery part way though change over. All of the structure was there, and Andrew and Dave were busy painting and - wait for it - wall papering!!! Modern museum exhibitions often print their panels onto wall paper, and then just paste them onto the walls!! I took some pics of the work in progress:








The first panel to go up - the introduction!

I'm sure the boys had it looking perfect by last night - I'm popping over again on Wednesday, and will take a few more photos then!

Despite all of this going on, I did find quite a bit of time for my stitching! I've almost finished all of the crochet flowers I've been doing to make a scarf - I've enough yarn left for one more grey flower:



I've also been carrying on with Eeyore's problem. I was actually really enjoying this piece last night! I'm more than 1/4 done, I'd like to get to half way before I switch to another piece - otherwise I'll never finish it!!



Happy stitching!

Peacock Happy Dance

It's finished!! I added the last beads on Tuesday night, washed it last night and I've just pressed it and taken this photo (not the best, but it's very dark)...


Art Nouveau Peacock Firescreen
(c) Barbara Thompson

Phynix asked where the chart was available from - Barbara has her own web site, and I think quite a few general online needlework stores stock them too.

I've picked up another WIP from the pile to try and make some progress. I started Eeyore's Problem by Designer Stitches ages ago - I'm not as keen on these Disney Winnie to Pooh kits any more, but this depicts one of my all time moments in the Pooh stories, so I HAVE to finish it - despite the bright blocky colours and aida fabric not really being my thing any more. I did a little over the last 2 evenings, and I think I've done about 1/4 of the cross stitch:

Productive days off work...

I am enjoying the most fantastically relaxing and productive break from work! Since we got back from Margaret's we've slept late, read, gardened, watched TV and had friends over for food. I have also had time to do lots of cross stitch, knitting and even some quilting! The gardening is pretty dull at present - lots of clearing and digging, but nothing pretty (yet!). But the crafting is most definitely pretty!

First I should share a progress picture of Fruit Bellpull which I took this afternoon - although I haven't actually done any stitching on it since we were in Birmingham:



I actually remembered to take the photos outside in the sunshine today, so the colours look really lovely! I used my newly constructed garden bench as a back drop:



I bought the bench at Coughton Court last summer. We popped it in the loft over the winter and I finally unpacked it and put it together a few days ago. Turns out I only had to tighten 9 nuts, the easiest flat packed furniture I've ever put together!! Next to Fruit Bellpull is the scarf I've been knitting. It's about half done now - it would be much longer, but I had to pull out about 6 inches last night, as I realised I'm managed to reverse the pattern part way up. Grrrr! I love the middle cable:



I also pulled out a really old WIP - Eeyore's Problem by Designer Stitches. I last worked on it in September 2009. My taste in cross stitch has changed considerably over the years and I don't think I'd pick something this bright (or on aida) anymore, but I still love this design:



I've also started ANOTHER quilting project. For which I am blaming Joy - her lovely recent posts have been very inspiring! (I now have three quilts on the go, worrying as I've never, ever finished a quilting project bigger than my four hearts cushion... oh well, I do enjoy having lots of WIPs on the go). Yesterday I spent HOURS cutting it out. Not that it was complicated, it's just the first time I've used Moda fabric (Rural Jardin by French General), and I was petrified I'd cut it out wrong.... It's for a simple (and allegedly quick) pattern that I bought at Quilting Chicks in Cortez when we were on holiday in the US last year, called 'The Teacher's Pet'. Apparently the quilt top can be cut out and sewn together in five hours, but not at the speed I cut it out!!! I've done 2 of the 4 seams on each of the blocks so far - and I can certainly say that it is going together very quickly. This is how it looks so far:



It seems it's another month for Blogoversaries - Edgar is celebrating the fourth blogoversary of Blacksheep's Bit of the Web with a giveaway - do go and have a look at his blog, his stitching is truly inspiring!

I think that's it for now. Only two more days of my extended break to go... I really need to fit in some more quilting, gardening, cross stitch, do a couple of jobs around the house and finally get some lace out. I may be a little busy...

Happy stitching x

Happy New Year!

Yesterday I tried to finish the xs on Phoenix. I failed. The bit where the tail meets the flames totally stumped me, after several hours of solid stitching (and NO frogging) I'd barely made headway... Eventually at 12.45 (so 2009 anyway) I gave up and went to bed. So Phoenix will be my first happy dance for 2009...

This morning I got up bright and not so early (11.10!!!!), and started to think about my new year start. I had been so focussed on Phoenix yesterday I hadn't really thought about it. So I decided it was time to be ORGANISED with my stash, at the same time as stash diving for my next project. SO... I made a list of all my WIPs (5), kitted up projects (6), kits (14) and charts (39 - and a few of these have mre than one design in - Best of TW Fantasy for example, was counted as 1). Not too bad all things considering? I also made a list of my fabbies, and measured the pieces, as many are offcuts from larger pieces. I didn't measure the tiny bits though. Hopefully I'll type these up at some point, before I lose the hand written notes. I already have a good list of DMC and Mill Hill Beads, and don't have enough of anything else to be worried.

Eventually I got my choice of new start to a reasonable number, then rationalised that a smaller project might be a good idea... so I chose Sonata by Abbey Lane Designs. I'm stitching it in Belle Soie silk 'Blue Lagoon' as I loved the colour. So not red at all...

Anyway here are photos of my WIPs (I forgot to take a new one of Eeyore's problem, but think nothing's changed since the the last photo, so I used that one here):

Dracolair's Phoenix

Peacock Firescreen by Barbara Thompson

Las Vegas (designed by me from photo)

Fantasy Triptych (TW)

Eeyore's Problem (Designer stitches?)

Yearly Recap:
In 2008 I finished 26 xs projects (don't gasp though..). I did 8 medium to large projects, 2 bookmarks, 1 small project and 15 ornaments. I also finished 1 lace project. Of these, I did 3 birth samplers, 3 exchanges and gave one item as a blog giveaway. The lace project was also a present. Of the remaining 11 ornaments, 10 were given as Christmas presents. So quite a few were gifts, which was nice.

I didn't set any yearly goals and I won't this year, as I prefer my stitching to be for fun, and not to deadlines. I do want to sort out more gifts though, so in 2009 I want to complete:
1) Las Vegas (wedding sampler for Jane and Keith)
2) Postman Pat (birth sampler for Riley - nephew of Leanne)
3) Birth sampler (possibly 'Birth Band' by the Drawn Thread) for Monty (Michaela and Stuart's son)
4) Possibly birth samplers for other friends, but I must try and chose small, simple designs (eherm..)
If I miss these it's not really a problem, they are all late anyway :)

I'll think about my January goals and post those later this week.
Happy stitching :)

September starts

well, I've been pretty busy of late, but most of it has been fun!!

Ed and I took a week off work. We didn't go away, just stayed at home. We did several jobs that had been waiting for a while, went blackberry-ing (is that a word) - I couldn't stitch much that day beacuse my hands were purple, but Eddy's were worse:



We then made a VERY thick and sticky blackberry jam (our first ever attempt - clearly overcooked, but tastes brilliant). We ate lots from our garden too. The best was peas and artichokes. The peas were Bird's Eye, but the artichokes, onion and dill were all home grown. We worked out the artichokes would have cost us £10 in a supermarket. I hope the plants last the winter...

We went to Leeds to the Royal Armouries to see the weapons in films exhibition. We were both a bit spoddy in the LOTR section which was amazing. Reminded me why I wanted to be a costume designer as a teenager (I even looked into it for Uni until I realised that I'm crafty, not creative and imaginative). We also bough curtain poles, which ended up costing a fortune because I'm fussy, and I even made the 3 curtains (hall window, landing window and front door). Now I just need the poles we ordered to arrive and a free weekend to hang them.

I did quite a bit of stitching and started 2 projects, Dracolair's Phoenix and a Winnie the Pooh called 'Eyore's Problem' - it's the Pooh sticks story. I made Eddy pick somehting from my stash (I'm stash only stitching for a while because of the curtain poles), and that piece was his choice.




I just saw a fun 'where have you been' map thing on Sara's blog, here are my travels:



It took me ages to work out where Alaska was on the US map. My biggest problem with the states is I tend to end up in the same place. I've been to Missouri 3 times. Twiced to visit Phil and Amanda, which is very cool, but why did I have to have a conference there too???? Hopefully next year I'll be able to add Chicago - I don't think O'Hare really counts... Of course I'll try and visit Phil and Amanda again too :) I should add that Phil and Amanda have just got the Pooh calendar I stitched for Jack framed and it looks brilliant!

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I'm clearly a northern European traveller, but I'm impressed by the lack of gaps... The island in the med confused me, until I realised it was highlighted as part of France... My Geography knowledge is dreadful!

I'm back at work now, term starts on Monday and we meet the students tomorrow. Of course I'm not ready. I worked until 8pm tonight. One day I'll learn...