Why am I posting half a page of Poppy Dance?

So...why am I posting a photo of half a page 'finish' of Pappy Dance?

Poppy Dance - charted by HaED
Artwork - Mariaane Broome
28ct white jobelan

The answer is...

I am officially at 50%

Wooooooooooohooooooooooo

Considering that I haven't finished half a page of any of my other HaED designs, I am amazed at this one.

Poppy Dance latest and a new start

Helllllllooooo peeps!

How are you all this fine (and it actually is which makes a change for Manchester) day?

I joined Full Coverage Fanatics on Facebook recently and was just in time to be able to join in with the Tour de France challenge where you have to stitch the same number of stitches each day as the number of kilometres the riders are racing that day.  For once I kept up with it all the way through with there being quite a few days I was actually ahead of the pack.  I made brilliant progress on Poppy Dance and decided to keep going on it once the race was over.  Today, I finished off 2 pages of it (I was waiting for a colour for the end of one of them), which means there are now 10 pages completed.  In terms of stitches, I am 47.43% completed.  There are 72709 stitches completed, with 80591 left to go.

Poppy Dance charted by HaED
Marianne Broome

Although despite amazing progress on Poppy Dance, I also started Halloween by JBW Designs.  It is all Rachel's fault.  She is having some new starts this month and asked us to guess what they were.  I recognised this one immediately as I have had it in my stash for a while.  As you will know, I can always can never resist a new start and so found some Sparklies Thalia lurking in my stash and a nice Hallowe'en pumpkiny colour (Anchor 966 I think). Hallowe'en cats have GOT to be black in my opinion and so I changed them.

The fabric is looking really washed out in the photo, it is much richer in real life.  I think it is looking gorgeous.

French Country Scaredy Cats - JBW Designs
Sparklies Thalia 16ct aida

I have also been doing LOADS of finishing too. I have actually FFOed 7 things - that's right - 7!  I'm saving those to show you on the 10th for Rachel's FFOing challenge.

So what stitching got done...

Well, quite a bit actually.

I'm going to go right back to where I left off with photos.

I've been stitching along on Poppy Dance by Marianne Broome, charted by HaED.  I was working across 2 pages at one point but it felt unwieldy.  I have part of page 11 done and have nearly finished page 12.  I am using this one for the Full Coverage Fanatics facebook group's Tour de France Challenge and for the Q3 90 days Stitching Challenge.  Of course, it will soon be the summer holidays too so this one can get loads of attention. I am at about 42% finished with it.  The lines are due to QSnaps rather than stitching.

Poppy Dance (Marianne Broome, charted by HaED)
28ct jobelan - white

A good friend/work colleague was married last October and I stitched a ring cushion for her.  The design I chose for her was the same one that I did a few years ago (should have kept the chart!) but this time instead of white on white it was royal blue on white - not my taste but she was happy and it matched the bridesmaids dresses almost perfectly.

Col's Creations - 28ct Cashel linen

They had a lovely day.  The initials were a nightmare as I wanted to use the font that was on the invites but had to chart it myself.  I now remember why I am a stitcher, not a designer!  The best news is that she is due her first child any day now.  

I finished a Patricia Ann bauble for the JCS ornie group on facebook.  It is so pretty and delicate looking - I must make it up properly! Here it is, hot out of the hoop.

Patricia Ann
Just Cross Stitch ornie issue 2017

Then I finally finished this little one. Prairie Schooler's JCS ornie 2015?  It's on black - that is my only excuse. I did FFO it but the repositionable glue I used was rubbish and it all fell apart :(

I'm going to do it properly in the summer holiday.

Prairie Schooler
Just Cross Stitch 2015?

Now...finishing this next one nearly made me cry with happiness. It is smaller than I imagined but it is SO adorable.  Summer in Sussex was a Nutmeg Company kit that I started about a million years ago.  I just had the urge to pick it up and finish it one day.  The stitching that was left probably took about 2 evenings and then another evening to make it up into the little house. I didn't have a photo apparently and as I am currently phoneless (which is great!) I can't take one.  I will for the next post though.

Finally, the weekend before I finished off Summer in Sussex, I had a FFOing weekend.  I was up to 26 Christmas ornies that needed FFOing and so made a start on them.  I tried to make one up to look like a Christmas tree and am thinking of sticking a twig or something in it to look like the trunk.  What do you think?  Is that a silly idea?  All the ones I have seen that are made to look tree-ish are very pretty and primped.  I was thinking a bit more rustic looking. So, in no particular order, here they all are.

I know I said finally...I lied. After I finished Summer in Sussex, I was inspired to pull out Cut Thru Stable for a bit.  Linda and I started this as a SAL many, many moons ago.  Linda's has been finished so long that the girl in the picture has great-grandkids! Mine has grown a bit, well actually, I nearly managed a page finish.  I did the back stitching as I went too - Cut Thrus have SO much!

Before

After
Bothy Threads - Cut Thru Stable

And now, that really is it.  Give yourself a pat on the back if you have made your way to the bottom.  That's impressive!

What a lot has happened...

Hello, hello, and welcome one and all/or anyone still reading blogs.

Rather than make this one huge, long post, I think I will break it up into several different ones. 
So!  What has been going on since last time?

Well...last September, I thought it would be a good idea to start another university degree.  I mulled over whether to go down the maths route or the science one.  Eventually, I decided to go for Natural Sciences with an Environmental Science specialism. However, I have since discovered that the biology bits (that I thought I would love), I hated and the chemistry (that I thought was scary), was absolutely amazing!  Anyway, still waiting for the results of the first module which might make my mind up for me.

In March, I turned 50.  I had a brilliant birthday and Rachael was a sneaky little madam and asked some of my favourite floss tubers to make me a birthday video, which all but one obliged with.  It was a brilliant surprise and just proves that Luke takes far more notice of who I watch than he admits to. Although, even he admits to enjoying The Addicted Sisters and Stitching Jules.

Kids...well I don't have any anymore apparently.  They are both now fully fledged and legal adults.  Luke turned 18 at the start of this month, has finished his A levels (and is also awaiting results) and has left college. He plans to go to uni if he gets the results he wanted but he was ill for the middle week of exams and so we are on tenterhooks.  He did sit the exams but had a bucket next to him for 3 days.

Rachael finished for the year - 2nd year of uni, I can't believe it! She has saved loads of her student loan and is off to Dubai and Malaysia for a few weeks.  Whilst she is there she is doing a research project which will make up part of her year 3 work.  She has been with her young man for 14 months now and seems happy with him.  He has been to stay with us twice (when she has been home or it would be a bit weird) and he is a lovely lad.  He looks after her and treats her well - what more can I ask for from him? 

Cats are still as doolally as ever.  Biskey, despite being 12 is as kittenish as ever and can be relied on to wake me at 6 every morning. Maybe one day he will realise that weekends don't count - but I doubt it.  Smudge is still allergic to life and needs a steroid injection every 6 weeks or so but other than that he is rocking along nicely.

In stitching, I have had a few finishes, a few starts and a few FFOs.  I will do a separate post to show you all that though.  I have been trying not start anything new and have definitely not been buying anything new - oh other than collecting the Letters from Mum series.  I did get a Lowery stand for a combined Christmas, birthday and Mother's Day present.  How on earth have I survived without it for all these years?  It is amazing!

Well...I think that will do for now.  Stitching stuff to follow in the next couple of days.