Hang on to your hats...FFOing in progress

Just to ease you into the shock of me FFOing, I will show you my latest 2 finishes first.

So first up is Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men which I originally started as a SAL - I have finally finished part 1 of it.  I do have 3 borders stitched too and when I got Luke to choose the next chart, he chose the biggest one with some cute little houses but about a third of the design is snow - boring, boring, stitches never look good snow.  Thanks Luke!

6 Fat Men - Snowed in - Lizzie Kate

Then I thought I might get another of the old Flip-It's done.  With August finished, I am now half way through the series.  Who knows, give me another 17 years and I may well have finished it!  Actually that isn't strictly fair as I definitely didn't buy these when they first came out.  I would still have been buying kits from Wilkinson's back then!

Flip Its - August - Lizzie Kate

Then onto the FFOs.  There is a bit of an odd reason why I did these.  One of my work colleagues, a lad of 21, split his pants the other day.  After I got over my giggles - well it was in front of 4 classes - I offered to sew them for him.  Fast forward to yesterday and I thought I would get my sewing machine out to do them and then thought I might as well make a couple of things up whilst it's out.  Luke was out at his first university Open Day (already?) so I could spread out over the dining area and the kitchen without getting under his feet.  

This first one, Boo, already had the front fabrics stitched onto it and so just needed the backing adding and stuffing. I think next time I might try a bigger fabric on the side and bottom but I like it and have added it to my hallowe'en display (yes, it stays out all year).  I can't remember who the chart was by for this so if you know can you tell me please so I can add it to the caption.

Boo - ???

Long time ago in...sorry I was about to burst into song then.  Once upon a time Gaynor of StitchersAnon was releasing a Hallowe'en SAL and gave the group loads of freebies beforehand.  This is one of them.  I kept the fabric plain and just stitched the ric rac on with a metallic green thread for the eyes of green in the design.  I also stitched the black fabric on with the same metallic thread. It needs a bit more stuffing in it and then the gap closing...but that's the easy part!

A Witch's Cat - StitchersAnon

Then we have another StitchersAnon piece which was supposed to be the Retreat piece that we all got to work on, but I couldn't make it in the end. I have always regretted not being able to go.  Still once I get another bag of stuffing, I will be able to add this to my finished pieces to admire.

Every Stitch is from the Heart - StitchersAnon

This is the backing fabric for it.  I thought the shamrocks were perfect.

The Key to my Heart - still true after all these years!  Again it needs stuffing and in real life it is straight.  I have no idea how on earth I managed to make it look SOOOOOOO wonky in the photo. 

The Key to my Heart - Sue Hillis

And finally, we have yet another StitchersAnon piece which I was apparently rubbish at taking a photo of today.  What it actually says is:

Whatever the distance

Wherever I roam

With needle and thread

I'll make it my home. 

I changed all the threads when I stitched it I think.  The bow on top was made from the ribbon of a box of posh chocolates that one of my colleagues bought me a few months ago.  It just goes to show that it is worth keeping things like that! The backing fabric was gifted to me a few years ago and although I loved the colour and design I didn't have a clue what to use it on.  It is actually absolutely perfect for the design.

        

Stitching and cooking

Yesterday, Colin and Luke went to an away game - Forest Green Rovers v Hyde (football in case you've not heard of them!)  Rachael and I decided to have a Harry Potter day.  I stitched as I watched but couldn't settle to any particular design.  First I stitched on my Stable.

Bothy Threads - Cut Thru Stable

Then I moved onto Roses of Paris.

Chatelaine Designs - Roses of Paris

 And then fancied a little bit of snow.

Lizzie Kate - 6 Fat Men

Finally I couldn't resist marking out my fabric and starting this.  What is it Jo P?  I have marked it out as it is in the fabric layout chart but it seems to waste an awful lot of fabric in my opinion.  I am thinking about restarting it with just an inch and a half between each piece as they are cut down to half an inch left all round. What do you think?

What is it?

On Friday Rachael and Luke wanted to do some cooking and baking.  I'm currently on a bit of a health kick with regards to food so didn't want too many cakes.  In the end we settled on some chocolate brownies and some buns from a Weightwatchers book I had.  Then we made some spaghetti bolognese for the freezer and finally homemade pizza for tea.  Here are some photos of the finished items...

 This is the pizza before the cheese went on.  The kids were a bit heavy on the meat.  Mine only had tuna, mushroom and sweetcorn on so not worthy of a photo!  Luke's was a work of art!

Belated (for a change) Turtle Trot update

These are the pieces I have worked on for my Turtle Trotting this month.  First up is LK's 6 Fat Men.  The new bit is the blue for his scarf in the top left picture and the writing in the box next to it.

A little bit of progress has been made on Santa's House.

I think that the outline for ATW is new since my last update but I should have checked first really.

A little progress for John Clayton's Racing one.  I ran out of DMC928 though which is a pain - I will just have to put an order in with sewandso.co.uk now ;)

Updates - most of them belatedly!

Ok...well...

Turtle Trot is updated on the Turtle Trot page, so I won't do that here.
Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men is updated on the 6 Fat Men page, so again, I won't post that here.
My TUSAL one is actually up to date and was posted on the correct day...woohoo!
I won't do a WIPocalypse round up as it is nearly the 25th and I hope to get back to blogging, so it might as well wait for that.
Theme-a-licious is overdue for the mid month round up but it had the end of the month reveiw in a few days too so I will leave that for another week or so.

But...saying that, here's some pics of the progress so far.

6 Fat Men

Cinderella

Henry VIII

Santa's House

Confetti of Hardanger

Garden Tools

Around the World

I have to admit to having been VERY naughty.  I have joined the Stitch a Pixie SAL on facebook.  So here is my floss toss followed by progress so far.  The photo doesn't do justice to the fabric which is a piece of SMF Angel Dreams (I think.  I will have to check the bag).  I love the colours on her which are VERY different to the chart pack photo. She still reminds me of a Cancan pansy rather than a Sweet Pea though.

I have finally caved in and bought my first ever Chatelaine design.  Colin was looking over my shoulder as I was drooling over them and saw Roses of Paris.  To cut a long story short, he twisted my arm up my back and ordered me to buy it (or something like that).  I'm just waiting for it to wing it's way into my inbox now :)

We went to Paris for our honeymoon and visited the Musee D'Orsay which has one of Colin's ancestors paintings in.  I can't remember what the name of the artist is though.

Sadly there is no news on the job front as far as Colin is concerned.  He will join the ranks of the unemployed on 5th March but his last day is next Friday as he gets 2 days 'garden leave'.

And finally....is this a cat who was desperate to sit with Colin?  What you can't see from the photo is that he had a book on his lap so Smudge couldn't sit there and had to 'improvise'...bless him!

Theme-a-licious update

Here is the progress on my Jardin January so far.

I started off by getting in the mood and giving my 'Garden Tools' a little loving. It's actually stitching up really quickly (for me) now I am getting into it a little bit. It's stitched on 18ct aida which is definitely NOT my favourite fabric.

Garden Tools - Fleur de Lis
progress as of 13th January 2013

Next is Around the World which has had some attention, although not much as I was doing more frogging than stitching.  Really part 6 shouldn't take too long...unless you're me :(

Around the World - Papillon Creations
progress as of 13th January 2013

 And of course, where do you build a snowman?  In a garden!  So it still counts as jardin January.  This is the progress on my 6 Fat Men.

6 Fat Men - Lizzie Kate
progress as of 13th January 2013

Round up of 2012, 2013 goals

Well WIPocalypse didn't happen, we didn't all die...what a relief!

Thanks to the wonderful WIPocalypse I actually finished 8 designs that may otherwise still be languishing in my WIP/UFO box.  The one I really wanted done, got done - Cut Thru Garden Shed so that was good news.

I didn't start too many new projects that didn't get finished - also good news.

So for 2013 I am taking part in the following:

• Turtle Trot SAL
• 6 Fat Men/Snow Belles SAL (haven't got the Snow Belles yet)
• TUSAL (and my glass is all ready to go)
• WIPocalypse
• Theme-a-licious

So between them all I should stay on track - fingers crossed.

I also got the Santa's village series on autoship from The Patchwork Rabbit for Christmas so I want to keep up with that.  I have ordered a lovely piece of Chocolate Milk 28ct jobelan from Steph's Fabbys to stitch it on and am just waiting for that to arrive.  If you have never tried either company, I really would recommend them both.

The designs I am planning on focussing on for WIPocalypse and adding in to my Theme-a-licious months are the following.  3 of them a technically obligation stitches in so much as they will have a new home to go to when they are finished.  

1. Cinderella - Joan Elliott
2. Henry VIII and his 6 wives - DMC
3. Friends are like Angels - Lizzie Kate
4. Horse Racing - John Clayton
5. Garden Tools - Anchor
6. Around the World - Papillon Creations
7. Confetti of Hardanger - Abi Gurden
8. Maggie the Messmaker - Dimensions Gold Collection
9. Honeysuckle Court - Patricia Ann Designs
10. 6 Fat Men - Lizzie Kate
11. Football Cushion - Sheena Rogers
12. Tatty Teddy Bookmark - Anchor
13. She sells seashells - Country Cottage Needleworks

I would also like to be able to send birthday cards, maybe a small gift to people I have met through blogging.  Or maybe be able to RAK someone who is having a tough time of it during the year.  If you would be open to possibly receiving something from me (so far no one has said 'OMG, what did you send me that for?) then could you email me with your name, address, date of birth, any real likes/dislikes, and anything else you think is relevant.  I promise I am not some mad psycho who will stalk you and I will not sell your details to any third party organisations - or whatever it is companies always put when you sign up with them...lol.  My email is in my profile but just in case of any problems, it is sharonjstevens at msn dot com - with the usual changes of at and dot.

Just a quickie

It's getting late and I need my bed!  Tonight I have stitched.  I checked my rotation and today's the day for LK 6 Fat Men so that is what I did.  I started on stitching the 3rd border which is the one for Snowed In.  I love the colours in these designs.

OK...that's it..I'm shattered and off to bed!  Goodnight all...sleep tight x x

2 Posts in 1 day - a new L*K SAL

When I was busily following links for the Halloween blog hop, I stumbled upon several new blogs not just from people involved with the hop but people who commented and seeing blog lists too.  On one of these was the details for a SAL involving the L*K 6 Fat Men from last year and the newly released Snow Belles.  Now I did originally sign up for a 6 Fat Men SAL but never got very far with it so hopefully this will inspire me.

Below is a photo of my fabric and threads with the minuscule progress that I made on it.  I don't actually have the Snow Belles yet...hint hint Colin.

Last night I stitched on it a little.  My plan at the moment is to do all the borders and then 'fill in' with the design.  Denise designed a template with all 12 designs intermingled but sadly my fabric was not big enough to use it.  At the moment I can't really justify spending money on fabric when I have a good piece already to hand.  It's such a shame that I cut it down when I bought it!!  Oh well, you live and learn.

Theme-a-licious roundup for Amazon April

Crikey, I'm getting later and later with these.  I haven't been near my blog or stitched hardly at all in the last week.  I am currently writing the last assignment for my OU module and then mid June is exam time (eek).  Therefore life at the minute is dedicated to study, revise, study, revise, sleep!

Below are pics of what I have done this month.

So first up is Cotswold Village scene.  This is huge but I really enjoyed stitching on it.  Maybe it shouldn't go back in the UFO box.

This is 'Two Little love birds' which is a Love Thy Threads design that I am guinea pigging.  It is a gorgeous design and the colours are so pretty together. 

Above is my progress so far on Around The World in 80 Stitches (ATW80S) for short. It is really pretty but I haven't come across most of the stitches before so it is challenging me a little...ok a lot. It will be done though!

And this is the pathetic progress on 6 Fat Snowmen.  

I got some fantastic post today.  Jo (Serendipitous Stitching) saw this card and thought of me, can't think why...lol.  It is absolutely amazing and I have had a smile on my face all day and keep going to look at it.  Luke went and compared it to the 'real' one and found loads of differences.  He particularly liked the frog in the demi john bottle at the bottom.  Concensus seems to be that I should frame the card and hang below the cross stitch when it's framed.

The other great bit of news is that I have rediscovered an old friend.  Once upon a time, I became friends with a lovely lady in America although actually I can't remember how we met...hmmm....  Anyway as she loved the British cross stitch mags as much as I did, she had a subscription sent to my house and every now and again I would put them in a box and post them off to her.  She made my two kids the most beautiful quilts for their beds which they still use today - despite the fact their feet stick out the bottom of them.  When I wash them it has to be on a day where I can get them washed and dried and back on the bed the same day....or else!  They love those quilts more than anything they own!

Bizarrely I have been following this person for quite a while and it never ever clicked that this was my old friend.  After discovering who she was I re-read all of her blog and basically thought what an idiot I was as it should have been so blatantly obvious.  Short of putting up neon signs telling me who she was....honestly...I really am dumb!

We never fell out as friends it was just a case of relationship troubles on my part and we gradually lost touch over a period of time.  I would guess the last time we corresponded would have been possibly around 2004/2005 ish maybe.  I am so excited to have found her again.  

Oh I suppose you want to know who it is, do you?  It's...

Shirlee