New Toys...

This week has been extremely busy, but is has also involved a few new toys :)

First of all, my Christmas present from Eddy finally arrived ( he ordered from Thread Bear at the start of December, but I think he must have missed their before Christmas order from America). Anyway, my late Christmas present included A Stitcher's Journey, Christmas Garden and Buttons and Pins by Blackbird Designs, Celtic Summer by Lavender and Lace and 1814 Butterfly Collection by Carriage House Samplimgs. I was delighted with my present, even if it was a little late!!

Last Sunday Steff offered some old Country Cross Stitch magazines for sale over the TW Facebook group - I snapped up 4 magazines, with a total of 10 TW charts - she posted them in Australia on Monday and they made it to Yorkshire on Saturday! I can't believe how quickly they got here and I am very happy with these new additions to my stash.

Then I made a major new purchase. I'm writing this on my new iPad Air :) I'm busy kidding myself this was a necessary expenditure for work (and it will certainly be very useful), but I'm loving using it to surf the web and blog while sat on the sofa! I also bought a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard (for work), and a pretty case I picked up in the Sales...

I took this photo quickly last night using my iPhone, sorry it's so rubbish! The others are all taken with my iPad - it's starting to get dark now, so I'm quite chuffed with the quality.

I have been busy stitching - I finished Gaelic Banner last weekend, but it needs washing and pressing before I share it. I decided I wanted to do a quick project, so started Rose Garden by Blackbird Designs. This is where I am up to so far:

I can't remember what fabric this is (unlabelled from stash), but it is a very fine count!

Finally I forgot to post the TUSAL on Thursday, so here are my orts. Lots of green and gold from Gaelic Banner, and some pink on top from Rose Garden.

I think that's it for now. I hope the iPad will mean that I blog a bit more - it's certainly more fun than using my laptop. I've read a few blogs and have started commenting again - it's lovely to see what everyone else is up to!

Happy stitching folks xxx

May Madness

Hello!!! It's been a while. Once again work has been busy, and I'd rather spend my spare time stitching than blogging (sorry guys, but I DO miss you all!).

I had a fabulous trip to Knoxville. I took along Conchiti Drummer (NP Designs), which I started on my trip to Pretoria last August. Aida and simple colours are prefect for planes!! When I got back I carried on stitching it, initially because I was jet lagged and the thought of a TW was terrifying, but after 2 days it was because I couldn't put it down, and then it was too close to finishing to put it down.... So I achieved an unexpected happy dance:

This piece was a gift from Avivah, to say thank you for posting her tea bags - isn't he cute?

I have also picked up that flipping green cardigan (aka, the bane of my life). I undid the sewing up and unpicked the left front AGAIN, and last night I finished knitting it for the third time. You will not believe how often I checked it against the right front! Anyway, the good news is that it actually matches now and I've almost finished reattaching it to the rest of the cardy. Initial trying on suggests it might have worked this time. I really dislike cardigans, I think I'll stick to knitting scarves....

Dani asked if I made it to the LNS in Knoxville - of course I did! I found a fellow stitcher at the conference and we bunked off for a morning. Luckily I phoned to double check their opening times and found they had recently moved to a new property. I'm so pleased I bothered to phone them, and that I skipped out on the conference to go - it's probably the nicest LNS I've ever been to. Everything was laid out so prettily, with lots of stitched pieces for inspirations - lots of smalls in baskets and displayed on shelves and dressers throughout the shop, as well as the usual walls of framed pieces. I took a billion photos, and I will share them in a follow up post.

The bad news is that my credit card had to be sent off to ICU after the visit, and it's still in recovery. They had a SALE on. Oh yes! There were about 8 boxes of charts for $2 each. What is a girl supposed to do??? I also picked up a BBD (Autumn) that I've wanted for a while, a few Stacy Nash Primitives, some lovely fabrics and some overdyed threads that I needed to complete some pieces in my stash. So what did I buy? Well here we go:


Autumn - Blackbird Designs
Blackbird sampler - Hand in Heart
Spring cottage - The Prairie Schooler
The fox and the grapes - The Prairie Schooler
Celtic Birds II - The Sunflower Seed
Tulip Tree Sewing Book - Stacy Nash Primitives
Peacock Sewing Roll - Stacy Nash Primitives
Birds of a Feather - Stacy Nash Primitives
Gem Show #1 6 - Courtney Collection
My Stitching Treasures Accessories - Jeanette Douglas Designs
Stitchers Accessories Rose Fantasy - Dessins DHC
Rune Sampler - Dracolair
Mackintosh Roses - Art - Stitch
An Emblem of Love - With Thy Needle
Bad Hare Day - Bent Creek
The Curse of the Raven - Carriage House Samplings
The Raven's Roost - Carriage House Samplings

Two large pieces of pale beige overdyed fabric, which I manged to loose the names of already...

And some offcuts of fabric:
36 x 11 of Angel Hair (30 ct) by Weeks
12 x 26 of a lovely un-named sage green (32 ct)
12 x 12 'echo' (28 ct)

And about 30 skeins of weeks / GAST / Crescent colours.

(Shown on the other bit of beige fabric, ready for my new start as soon as I have posted this and cooked our dinner!)


I was rather chuffed. Bank manager less so....

Right, I'm about to start Blackbird Designs Summer / Autumn / Winter, on one of the pieces of un-named beige fabric. I'll conveniently forget that I needed to order Summer and further threads online when I got home...

Happy stitching folks xx

Long time no see!!!

I haven't totally disappeared off the face of the earth... so where have I been?

Over the back end of March I was frantically trying to get things done at work before I went on holiday on the 1st April. It left me with little time for stitching and no time for blogging, beyond reading the occasional post...

On 1st April we flew to Las Vegas for an amazing 12 day holiday, followed by a week-long conference in Albuquerque fr me. Cue volcanic eruption... we got delayed by another week, and finally got back to the UK on the 26th April. Of course at that point I'd not been in work for almost a month, plus I had a meeting in Dundee to get to, and an interview in London last week... not to mention a weekend away in the middle! Shall we just say I've been a little busy since I got back? My personal highlight was working so late one night I got locked into the building by security, and set off the burglar alarms when I tried to leave....

So what have I been up to? I think I'll start at the beginning :)

So on 1st April we got up at 3am to get to the airport. The cheap tickets flying from our local airport (Leeds/Bradford) via Amsterdam seemed like not such a good idea when we flew over Bradford again 5 hours after we'd left... Hmmm. We got to Vegas and to our hotel in time for a quick meal out, then crashed out around 10.30... The next morning I had a lovely swim in the outdoor pool while Eddy slept in. We checked out of the Holiday Inn, picked up the hire car - and upgraded to a Dodge Charger (definitely a good idea) - then did my number one Vegas priority... stash shopping, at Stitcher's Paradise. Eddy was definitely acting as an enabler...

I bought:
7 Blackbird Designs charts (Bird in Hand, Rites of Spring, Merry Christmas Ella Vaughn, Peacock Pinkeep, Summer Basket, Sunflower charms, and Red Reindeer)
La-D-Da's spring needlekeep and fob kit, plus a little kit for Dragonfly Pin Keep
M Design's Las Vegas tree ornament
10 skeins of Weeks
4 crescent colours
13 skeins GAST
5 skeins GAST wool
2 skeins Belle Soie silk
Mill Hill beads and treasures
some Estaz glissen gloss
some Sweetheart tree charms
Some just another button company buttons
Some just another button company pins

:)

(I did a little more stash shopping later on in the trip - this was just for STARTERS!!!)

After lunch we went to the Bellagio and checked in:

Bellagio Lobby - behind the reception desk

We'd paid extra for a view of the fountains. It was pretty stunning without the fountains on:

View from hotel room, Bellagio

It was STUNNING when the fountains were on:

View from hotel room, Bellagio, at night

Overall I have to say Vegas wasn't really my kind of place, but I did love the luxury of the Bellagio. I don't really gamble I did lose $1 in the slot machines, but as I don't get them and found it boring I stopped there!). The following morning I had a wonderful swim in the Bellagio pool, followed by pancakes in the poolside cafe for breakfast:

Bellagio pool


Sculpture, by Bellagio pool

Afterwards we checked out and headed off to the Hoover Dam... at which point I'll sign off!

Holiday stash

I promised to share my recent stash purchases in my last post, here they are:



I bought the 4 kits at home handicrafts in Tenby. When I lived in Carmarthen, home handicrafts was my favourite LNS (even though there was one just round the corner from my flat, and Tenby took a while to get to by train, home handicrafts was my favourite). It used to be run by an old man (Eric?), was huge, very muddly, held an amazing variety if stuff and was brilliant for browsing. Plus they had their own range of blackwork charts of Welsh sights - I did Carew Cross years ago when we went to Tenby in my mid-late teens! When Eric retired, one of his assistants took over the shop (but moved it to smaller premises). It's not as good now, but they still have the amazing blackworks which I love - and they aren't available anywhere else. I don't know her name or how old she is, but she's certainly no spring chicken. As Eddy said, the shop may not be there much longer - he was encouraging me to buy more! But I'm feeling poor at the moment, so I was very restrained - but did pop back to get a card and to ask about mail order! We also admitted that we'd driven for 1.5 hours across Wales just to go to this shop (well we love Tenby, but the shop was a major factor in the decision).

So I picked out two of the Home Handicrafts Blackworks - Manorbier and Laugharne Castles - both were local to us in Carmarthen. I resisted Tenby 5 arches, Tenby Tudor merchants house, St Govan's chapel... and a smattering of other Castles and crosses... but they are on my mental wish list!

The willow pattern plate (Heritage Collection by Susan Ryder) jumped out at me - I thought it was a fun design, an interesting mix of xs and blackwork, and it really suited the pattern. This is going to be a present for Margaret (who collects plates).. Christmas or Birthday? Depends how quickly I stitch it!

I picked up the Poppy fairy because I love the flower fairy designs, and I may as well support a LNS!!




I found the books in 2 different shops. The Ehrman tapestry book was picked up in a second hand book shop in Aberaeron. I met one of the Ehrman designers at Harrogate K&S show, but sadly his work isn't included. I'm not sure if I will stray into needlepoint, and if I do if I'll stitch any of these, but it's a lovely book to look at!

The other 2 books came from a very cool 2nd hand, bargain and new book shop in Cardigan. We remember spending a fortune there last time we went to Wales. I'd not seen the Myth and Magic book before, and was amazed to find TWs the Princess and the dragon in it! Bargain! The Chinese book has some fabulous designs in, including a rather lovely Phoenix, which I'm itching to start.

Harrogate stash haul, new car

It's a week since I last posted??? Wow, time has flown past!

I'll start with sharing my stash haul from Harrogate Knitting and Stitching:

Charts:
Hand in Heart - Herbert
JBW designs - Christmas keepsakes II, A very Merry Christmas
Little House Needleworks - Holly & Berries, Wool needlebook and fob, Blossoms & Blackbirds
Michael Powell - Mini Greek Island 9

Threads:
assorted weeks, GAST and crescent colours. I spent way too much on these...

Lace Making:
Lace Guild - Harrogate K&S fair bobbin, 2008 membership bobbin, 'Introduction to Milanese lace' by Pat Read (booklet)

Quilting:
Monkey Buttons - double star strippy pattern (I need to improve before I attempt this)

Beading:
Spellbound Bead Co - Marina necklace kit (in black) - something new to try!!! (present from Margaret)

Best of all, Margaret bought me a Needle Needs 'Millenium' embroidery frame, with 2 sets of top and bottom bars (22" and 18"??? can't remember and I haven't measured them) - which I love. I think I'll be phasing out my scroll frames....

Margaret bought - a knitting book, 4 huge balls of wool (400g - that's not a typo, each one is bigger than my head!!), a kit to knit a toy camel, a beading kit to make snowflakes and a book on lucet brai making.

The best part of the show, for me, was being able to buy my first ever Michael Powell kit directly from Michael (and have a quick chat about his art work too), and to meet Raymond Honeyman who designs for Ehrman tapestries. I've nver done any tapestry, but his desogns were so wonderful I feel yet another craft coming on... it's great to meet a designer and be so amazed by their (previously unheard of to me) work and feel the need to start somehting new! Sadly I have spent far too much of late on crafts to even consider ordering a kit from Ehrman...

Did I mention it's the Solihull Christmas Lace fair on Saturday. As this falls on my birthday I clearly have to attend and spend copious amounts of money. I've ordered a Richard Gravestock workbox to pick up, just hope my credit card can stand the pounding...

On the theme of credit card pounding, my little fiesta is termianlly ill. A wheel bearing has been going for ages, and now the clutch is sliding, and about to go. Given the car is worth very little, these repairs aren't cheap, and there are a whole host of other 'minor' problems - front windscreen demister only works on the passenger side, setting 3 on the air blowing system doesn't work at all, the rear demister doesn't work, the rear windscreen wiper only works when it wants to, the boot (trunk) leaks water when it rains (I have a bag in there to catch it), the boot doesn't always unlock, the light on the dashboard only works if I hit the dashborad, and now soemtimes cuts out while I'm driving - and possibly other stuff I've forgotten - we've decided to retire it. As of Thursday I will be the proud owner of a 6-month old silver fiesta (zetec climate 1.4 diesel for car nerds). Everything will work, and it has a front heated wondscreen, so lengthy de-icing will be a thing of the past.I just hope the clutch in the old car lasts til Thursday, and that I don't have a snow-related driving disaster... I also need to master drivning a diesel in low gears - I've never stalled so much as I did on the test drive!! I'll run it in driving down to Birmingham for the lace fair.. (yes, this purchase will severely restrict my spending power at the fair, and for the nest 2 years..)

Right, I'll go now. Ornie stitching has taken over my life, and I need to finish Herbert...