Some old exchanges...

 

I've been meaning to post these for ages. Initially I needed to wait for them to arrive to their destinations around the world, but then I just kept forgetting. And just now I've had to look on three devices to find the photos that I took... Back in February!

Anyway, absolutely ages ago (in March 2011, eeeek!) Lindsay of Caring Stitcher (http://purplepds.blogspot.co.uk) won a giveaway on my blog. I stitched the piece up really quickly and then just never got round to finishing and posting it.  Mostly because I couldn't settle on backing fabric. It's Bluebirds Song by Blackbird Designs, finished into a cushion using the fabric it's sitting on.

For my more recent giveaway to celebrate my 300th post back in August last year, I stitched two versions of the same TW design, Greetings. The blue version went to Ana Christina (http://anacristinap.blogspot.co.uk) in Brazil. The multicolour version went to Monique of Cross Stitch Ramblings (http://crossstitchramblings.blogspot.co.uk) in South Africa. It was fun sending the parcels out to two different continents :) the backing fabric is a remnant of fabulous Liberty fabric that I picked up cheap ages ago.

I'm beginning to get the hang of the blogger app on my iPad. I've FINALLY managed to set the picture size so they don't overlap with the menus on the side. But I can't remember how to code adding in a URL, and there isn't a quick button (that I can see). I'll get there eventually...

This weekend I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so am spending the days sat on the some doing very little. But a small amount of simple xs. I just can't not pick my current projects up!

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who commented on my blog this week - its always fun seeing who comments on a giveaway post! I decided to have two winners for my giveaway, as so many took the time to comment. I took the list of names to our stitch and bitch at Sonia's on Wednesday, and Louise and Pam did the honours...

The winners were Monique and Ana Christina - please could you both email me with your addresses, and I'll pop something in the post!

I've been working on fruit bellpull all week, this is the last photo I took on my iPhone, at the start of the week:

I'm a bit further on now, but the more recent piccies are on my proper camera, and I can't be bothered to boot up my laptop! Having a VERY lazy Sunday....

Happy stitching folks xx

300th post!!!

Wow, I just logged on to do a run of the mill stitching post, and noticed my last post was number 299 - which makes this one number 300!! That erased my dilemma over what to call this post! I can't believe I have 90 followers, and have had 26,397 page views to date. I *think* I managed to turn myself off the tracking ;) That probably isn't much in blogger land, but for me it's huge, and I am amazed and humbled that people want to read my ramblings and look at my photos. So thank you all, lovely readers.

 So what have I been working on? The 2011 loose feathers design has been my main focus - I did frog and restitch the big white flower, and I am much happier with it now:

I then made a counting error in the alphabet, and had to frog and restitch 3 letters. But it's all sorted now.

I've just got the bottom row of letters to go. I need to figure out how to fit my wide initials into the available spaces, and change the 1 in 2011 to a 3 (I have worked out a 3, just need to think about the spacing). I'm not sure if it would be better to squeeze it all together, or to skip the half motif in the bottom right corner and have more space. Decisions decisions...

A little while ago (2 weeks?) I wanted to stitch a small, so I picked out this needle book by Little House Needleworks. I stitched it in DMC on a  scrap of unnamed overdyed fabric. I love the sheep - too cute :)

It's also TUSAL week - these are my orts. The white ones on top are from the recent frogging... And the background? Well that's something else I've been working on this week, which I will update you on later.

In honor of my 300th post I'm going to have a giveaway... No idea what, as I only realised this was post 300 about 20 mins ago - but it will be stitched by me. If you'd like to enter, please add a comment to this post. I'll draw the winner next weekend.

Happy stitching folks xx

Lace and gifts

Sandra asked on my last post if I enjoyed the Bedfordshire lace course last weekend - and the answer is a resounding YES!! I left work a little later than planned and dashed off down the motorway - stopping off in Nottingham to eat tea and pick up Eddy - getting to Wilmcote, jhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifust outside Stratford at about 8.30.

Being disorganised, after a swift pint, I set about pricking out a spare lace pattern. I suspect doing this after a pint was a bad idea, and the following morning I pricked it out again after before we ate a heavenly breakfast. We got to Aston Cantlow just after 9.30, and said hello to everyone - most of the group were on the course the previous year, and I sat with Jane, who I know from this course, demonstrating at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show, and we always seem to run into each other at various lace days. Eddy set up at his lathe in the back room, and got busy turning bobbins, and I started a sampler of advanced Bedfordshire techniques - different rolled tallies, veins and raised leaves - both above and below the lace. We were supplied with many cups of tea by the lovely Sue, stopped for a fabulous buffet lunch and then briefly for cake mid afternoon. By 5pm I had learnt several new techniques, improved in several areas after some useful tips and suggestions, and was just over half way through the sampler.

That evening we went into Stratford for dinner, and the following day we were back in Aston Cantlow by 9.30. The last area I'd worked on the day before - a diagonal vein with sympathetic ties - hadn't gone brilliantly, probably because I tension too much. After a quick chat with Christine I decided to leave it and learn from the experience - after all, it's only a sampler. My progress slowed a bit when I hit to raised leaves, especially those on half stitch (the more open background), and I was loathe to leave my pillow when we were summoned to the pub for Sunday lunch! After a delicious meal of salmon, asparagus risotto and veggies followed by a pear and almond tart I got stuck in... and the the time we had to leave I'd only got about 1" of pattern to go (I was the last person to put down my bobbins, and Eddy was the last to turn off his lathe). We stopped at Eddy's mum's for tea, and I got back home quite late on Sunday night - thoroughly exhausted but thoroughly happy. Of course I never did need that second pricking....



This week has been dreadfully busy - end of term marking and all that... but I had a lovely surprise. On Thursday I popped to the post office and picked up a parcel that was too large for the letterbox. It was a lovely package of goodies from Sara - I'd won her giveaway a few weeks ago.... and boy was I in for a treat:






Thank you Sara, you made my day!!

This weekend I'm opting for very lazy, with lots of crafting - I hope that you all have a lovely weekend too.

Happy Stitching x

And the winner is...

I did do the draw for my giveaway last Sunday (or, to be specific, Eddy pulled a name out of the hat). But I've been both shattered and busy all week, and not had chance to blog... There have been some days that I've been so tired that I've not felt like stitching, which is a really bad sign, and last weekend I mostly slept. Anyway, the giveaway winner was Lindsay (I must stop pulling her name out of the hat...) - congratulations Lindsay, I'll be sending a little something your way as soon as I've stitched it!!

So I've not done an awful lot of stitching this week, but it's a long time since I posted a photo of A New Beginning... so here it is:



Sorry, it was dark when I took the photo, so the colours don't show up well. I made a major error in the green motif on the bottom right corner. The top 2 rows were off by one stitch, but I decided to frog the bottom row and move the whole thing up a stitch, as the bottom isn't exactly straight anyway... I really dislike frogs...

Tomorrow we're off to Harrogate Lace event, so there will be some stash enhancement going on. My poor visa card will be in shock again...

Happy stitching everyone

The amazing generosity of bloggers

I've been meaning to post this for a while - and in the meantime, the generosity has increased and I've still not done something about it...

A while ago Lindsay posted a really pretty TW finish called Greetings, and Karen shared her lovely Button Tree by The Drawn Thread. After commenting on how lovely both pieces were, Lindsay lent me the JCS magazine (April 1990) with the TW chart in, and Karen sent me the Button Tree chart - on the basis that I pass it on once I've stitched it. I was really delighted when they both arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago.




I then won a couple of giveaways (must be my lucky month!). First of all I won Sara's giveaway, in celebration of her having reached 30 followers. She's not sure exactly what she's stitching yet (a girl after my own heart), but it's really exciting that something will come at some point in the future! The second giveaway I won was Karin's - and I got the lovely 'green' prize, including Vicki Clayton's dragon earth thread and some of Karin's beads. The deal is that I stitch something with the thread and send a photo to Karin... any suggestions anyone? What I wasn't expecting were the lovely extras - a piece of hand dyed fabbie (a much prettier shade of green than the photo suggests - it reminds me of springtime, perfect for this time of year), some Krenik braid, mill hill seed beads and a lovely scissor fob. The parcel was wrapped in some pretty tissue paper and tied with a lovely ribbon, which of course I will also add to my stash. I feel very spoiled.



A while back, Avivah came to the UK to stay with Sarah, and she joined us at my house for a stitch and bitch. We got on really well, and since then have been blogging buddies and facebook friends. She asked me to send her some English tea before Christmas, which of course I was happy to do, and I squeezed in some chocolates as well. On Thursday I received the most amazing thank you present... 4 skeins of fingering weight yarn, hand dyed by Avivah, two sets of the cutest kitty stitch markers (which she also made), a bar of soap (and made by one of her friends) on a little soap dish that Avivah made in her ceramics class, a cross stitch kit of a Cochiti drummer and a copy of the Subversive Cross Stitch book. Again, I am blown away by her generosity (I mean, I sent her tea bags...).




If you like Avivah's yarn and stitch markers, she sells them on Hairball yarns. The yarn is a wool/bamboo/nylon mix and is amazingly soft. I keep stroking it...

So all in all I have to say thank you to each and every one of you. Your generosity is astounding, and each package was a special treat to receive. And I know that at some point there's another treat coming from Sarah! Yup, I'm a very lucky girl!!

So... in honour of exceeding 50 bloggers here (which I've been meaning to do for a while), and to mark the amazing generosity of my blogging friends, I'm hosting my own giveaway. I'll stitch something (no idea what - well some idea, but nothing concrete) for the lucky winner, and add a few goodies to the package. To enter, comment on this post before midnight a week today (Saturday 19th March).

Monday meltdown

Today was, well, one of THOSE days. I left work at 7pm, having achieved very little, and feeling totally p***ed off with the world.

I got home and checked the post, and received this wonderful scissor fob from Heidi:



Thank you Heidi, this completely changed my day from pretty depressing to delightful in 5 seconds flat!! It is absolutely gorgeous. And the little Singer sewing machine on the end is absolutely perfect - I have a lovely antique Singer sewing machine that Eddy bought me for Christmas one year:



It was to replace the sewing machine that I had from my Grandma when she died. It had been converted to electric - but sadly developed a fault and gave my sister a nasty electric shock, so my parents got rid of it. I'd always missed the machine, as it is the wonderful 1920s Tutankhamen version - which suits me well given I'm an archaeologist! Isn't the painting lovely:



So thank you Heidi for cheering me up after a bad day!! The fob is perfect - thank you!!

Merry Christmas!

Well, we are about to set off on our round-the-country Christmas travels to see our families, so I won't be blogging for a while. In the meantime here are some photos to get you in the festive spirit!

Our (little) Christmas tree:


'Herbert' by Hand in Heart and a Snowflake from the floss box (some of my Christmas stitching that I can share!):


Christmas shopping in Lincoln (it was getting dark..):



Lindsay recieved the ornie I sent for my birthday giveaway, her photo is better than mine so click here to see it!

Finally, here is a photo of the last exchange I recieved from the UK stitchers BB. I'm not certain who sent it, but it is beautiful:


Marry Christmas everyone!!

And the winner is...

I did the b'day stitching gift draw on Monday, but didn't have time to post. I pulled Lindsay's name out of the 'hat' (i.e. a heap of screwed up bits of paper on my desk), so I will be sending her a small gift later this week (when I've finished it!!! It made me laugh that is was Lindsay as she's the only online stitching friend I've actually met and I won something on her blog a while back too!

I never did my goals at the beginning of the month (tut tut), so here they are. November goals:

1) stitch ornies for TWCOE, presents and (hopefully) my tree too... yes
2) continue with FT, especially on Mondays only once. Not brilliant really...
3) make progress on Phoenix a little
4) pick up Las Vegas again... yes, but didn't do much
5) don't go too mad at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show - there's only so much stitching time in one lifetime... I did quite well really.
I also started Barbara Thompson's Peacock firescreen (photo to follow, I hope)

December goals:
1) stitch more ornies
2) stitch whatever I feel like, as it's nearly Christmas :)

Birthday Giveaway

It's the season for giving and receiving presents - especially for us, as we both have December birthdays!

Mine is on Saturday, and to celebrate I decided to do a blog giveaway... So if you'd like a lovely stitched suprise, hopefully in time for Christmas, reply to this post before midnight on Sunday. It doesn't matter if you've never left a comment - the more the merrier!!!