Holiday packing

I finally made it to the end of term, which has been a long, tiring slog. My last day in work was Monday, and at 7am Tuesday we left for a holiday/conference in Oregon. Packing was a tad hectic!

Over the weekend I hunted through my stash to find a small project suitable to travel with, and decided on Heartstruck Friends by Midnight Stitching. I found all of the threads and a perfect piece of fabbie - mottled mauve by Jane Greenoff. And started stitching. Hmmmm. I finished the first one before we left!



I started the second piece on the transatlantic flight, and it's about 1/2 done:


The colours are more accurate in the bottom photo.

The weekend before we left it was Emma's birthday. Emma is a new convert to cross stitch, and especially loves the subversive cross stitch book and designs by Steotch. So I made her a scissor fob, and attached it to a lovely pair of scissors that I bought in Bruges last summer. I took a photo before I stitched it together, but forgot to take one of the finished article!



I've not stitched since we landed in Oregon, but I have fulfilled two life-long dreams.

To see the Pacific Ocean:





To paddle in the Pacific:




It was VERY cold, but fabulous!

Purest Green

This last week or so I've been using lots of green. I'm continuing to knit my green cardigan (most of a sleeve and the collar to go...), and when I've been stitching I've been focusing on Gaelic Banner - which has come on in leaps and bounds!



I am REALLY enjoying this piece - how did I leave it untouched for nearly 2 years???

I also missed a new moon - here's my ORT jar in all it's glory. It was a lovely sunny day today, and the photo came out brilliantly - all the better because it's one of the first photos I've taken with my new iPhone 4. I upgraded from the iPhone 3G, and I can;t believe the difference. I can barely put the thing down....



This week is busy for me - the last week in work before we head off to Oregon for a fortnight. Too much work to do, and too much packing and sorting.... But tonight I'm putting my feet up and stitching!

If anyone knows any good crafty stores along the north Oregon coast, in Portland or Seattle, do let me know ;)

Happy stitching x

I Heart My Quilt

I finished my first ever quilt!!!!!!




I could just leave this post at that... The quilt is called 'Teacher's Pet', and is supposed to be makeable in just 5 hours. Hmmmm. I fell in love with Moda's Rural Jardin fabrics, especially the duck egg blue at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show 18 months ago. It didn't actually take me that long to do the centre of the quilt top, but then the project stalled while I was doing the borders. For months. Anyway I did eventually finish the top. At which point I felt there was too much pale cream - essentially because I didn't realise the setting triangles were not supposed to be one of the fabrics in the design. So I decided I'd try a little appliqué. And when I did the two big hearts I thought a smattering of little chain stitch hearts would look cute too...

Quilting this on my tiny table was * interesting* - and not quite perfect (hey, it's my first ever quilt), but I am really, really pleased with the result. I finished it on Wednesday, and I've spent most of the rest of the week snoozing under it :)

Last weekend I picked up an old friend:



I last blogged about this on Christmas eve 2009!! I took the photo above as a 'before' photo, although by the time I thought of that I'd actually added a single length of floss to the tendril heading upwards. And then, not much afterwards I realised the leaf on the right was one stitch to high up - so I did a little flogging, and a little restitching, and this is where I'm up to now:



So not a huge amount of progress in 2 years and 3 months, but at least it's not abandoned any more! And I have no idea why I neglected it for so long, as I LOVE stitching it....

I'm off out today - shopping in York with a good friend - to avoid the last day of the six nations. But I plan on picking up my needle this evening - Happy Stitching everyone!

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!

Happy Dance and an ORT Report

I spent last weekend at the flat in Nottingham with Eddy. I've had a small piece stashed behind his sofa down there for any time we spend the weekend there and I've not taken anything down with me - a little kit of Lincoln Cathedral that I bought in a LNS in Lincoln a few years ago. While I was down in Nottingham I finished all of the xs, bar a small area where I'd run out of the right colour floss. Knowing I'd never remember to take the floss down to Nottingham with me, and being so close to finishing, I brought the piece home with me. And here is the finished piece:


Lincoln Cathedral from Castle Grounds
(c) Needlecraft Centre, Lincoln

Since finishing this I've not had much time for stitching - last night I went over to Lou's and tonight I've only just made it to the sofa. Partly because I remembered I needed to take a photo of my ORT jar for the TUSAL:



When I popped outside to empty the compost while I was cooking tea the sky was a lovely deep indigo colour, with just the smallest crescent moon showing - a beautiful view and a brilliant reminder to me to join this month's TUSAL!

It's been a long week, but this weekend we have a lazy one planned. Eddy will watch the rugby and I hope to finish quilting my first ever quilt... Providing I remember to pop out tomorrow and buy some more of the thread I ran out of!

Happy stitching x

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: