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!

Turtle Trot 2015

I love this picture that Claudette used for announcing Turtle Trot 2015.  In case you have been on Mars for the last few years, you choose 10 projects to stitch on and post about them on 10th of each month.

Mine are going to be: my 2 Chatelaines - Paris Roses and Gardens of London with all the following too.

I will put a current progress photo on once we take the Christmas decorations down and I can have my stitching out again!!

Stitch from Stash - August

From a stitching point of view, it has been a very good month.  Sadly from a Stitch from Stash point of view it wasn't a great month, even with the bonus Mel was kind enough to give us.  So here is what I have been buying...

First up was this sampler book which has a gorgeous stitching/sewing sampler on the front but has another 14 too.  The motifs would be lovely for smalls stitching.  

Then there was a piece of black aida for some halloween stitching.

I went mad and bought a piece of pale blue evenweave to restart cat's alphabet on too.

The next thing(s) won't count as it is some replacement 'bits' for my Q Snaps.  2 of my old ones were very loose so I thought it would be money well spent.

Whilst I was looking for the Q Snap bits, I stumbled across the chart section (how did that happen?) and saw this little cutie.  

I also ordered some threads and ric rac from Nancy at the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.  The pumpkin on the right is/was intended to use for StitchersAnon's Halloween SAL possibly on black fabric. The jury is still out on this one as I have also ordered some Pumpkin Patch from Sparklies which hasn't arrived as yet.  The left is Antique Plum Perfect.  Neither of them look anything like the colours they are in real life.  The ric rac was just a 10 yard mix that she had, I'm sure they will come in useful. 

And finally...I managed to pick up a finished with kit of the Cut Thru Caravan off a lady who had stitched it on facebook.  There is actually quite a lot of thread still left but I am going to work out the DMC ones that are needed. 

So that completes my round up of the month!  The tally is...

Sparklies order that has yet to arrive - £15.00

Sampler Book - £12.99

Aida - £6.50

Evenweave - £6.50

Chart - £3.16

Ric rac and thread - £13.00

Caravan chart - £6.00

So the grand total for the month is £63.15...oops!

WIPocalypse update

Sorry this is late again!

This month I have worked on...absolutely nothing that was on my WIPocalypse list...ooops!

However, I can tell you all about my oldest and newest WIP's.  That's easy!

My oldest is most likely to be a gorgeous Cat's Alphabet sampler by Janlynn.  I started this in or around 2003.  It was my first ever purchase on discovering Hobbycraft.  I didn't know as much back then as I do now and two of the things I didn't know was that the oils from the scroll frame could mark the fabric and that I shouldn't really leave the fabric in sunlight for any length of time.  Do you think you can guess how I learnt both of these?  Yep it was hard to tell which one had done the most damage to the fabric, sun fade or oil marking.  Strangely enough I was toying with the idea of getting a new bit of fabric to start this again as even after all this time, I still love the design. I would however, stitch it on evenweave instead of aida this time.

My newest WIP is definitely Bothy Threads Haberdasher's which I am loving.  I posted a photo of progress in my last post, but don't mind boring you with it again!

There's not much to say about it except I am loving it!!

Stitching and our allotment

There has been a little stitching this week.  Sadly there is nothing to show for Home of a Needleworker as everything I stitched needs unpicking as I stitched it one stitch the right...argggh!

More happily, I spent a day playing with the silks for Gardens of London and this is where I am at the moment.  I am alternating between algerian eyelets and dense Rhodes stitches.  There are a LOT of the dense Rhodes stitches!

This is the bit of progress to Rue Paris.  I am pulling out the gridding as it is driving me up the wall!  I am finding the chart easy to follow and progress is quite good.  This is approximately 1000 stitches or around quarter of the first page.  There 50,000+ stitches in total!

Haberdasher's is rolling along nicely and I am loving stitching this.  I am considering converting the kits I have to DMC and kitting them up myself.  I really can't believe the difference stitching one of the Cut Thru's with DMC rather than the madeira from the kits is making to my stitching. 

Gaynor of StitchersAnon is having a Mystery Halloween SAL which starts tomorrow.  She has been tormenting us with lots of freebies and I actually finished one.  It's a really cute design which I stitched on Sparklies Pumpkin Patch.  There is still time to join up if you want to.  If you click on on StitchersAnon, it will take you straight to the page you need for the information on the SAL.  She has assured us that each part is easily stitched in the week before the next part comes out.

Another thing you may be interested in if you are on facebook is The Pumpkin Seed Stitchers group.  This is a Halloween group that is having guest designers provide a design a month for the year.  There are amazing designers lined up but I am not sharing anything else with you.  If you want more information, you will have to go and investigate!!!

On the non stitching front, I thought I would share a couple of photos of our allotment at the moment.  In the bed bottom left are the few lettuces we have left that haven't bolted, the courgettes and squashes.  The plot behind Luke has our late potatoes in which will hopefully provide potatoes for Christmas dinner. Under the netting on the right are cabbages and cauliflowers with the runner beans at the back there.  Compared to everyone else, we grow a LOT of runner beans and so far we have picked 5.35kg of beans (and there are a lot more to come yet!) We need another freezer!

Here is a close up of my favourite vegetable of all...the runner bean :)  You can just see our sweetcorn in the bottom left hand corner too.  They need to get a move on!

New starts and Christmas in July

First of all, how on earth am I suppose to stitch with Smudge taking over my lap?  Honestly cat!  There are other places to sit!  Of course, he is only bothering with me as Colin and the children are away.  Usually he prefers a male lap but will slum it on Rachael if Colin or Luke are not 'available'.  No doubt when they all come back later, he will leave me in peace again!

Smudge is in the doghouse at the moment. I have had the back door open so the cats can just wander in and out at will and he came in, jumped up on my lap which contained my cross stitch and had wet paws. Thankfully a quick wipe with a damp paper towel removed the mark...but still!

So, onto my new starts.  I thought as Colin and the kids are away this week that I would treat myself to a new start and see how much I could get done before they come back.  I chose Bothy Threads Haberdasher's which I had the chart of rather than the kit (hate the fabric, hate the threads but apart from that the kits are fine!)  I found a piece of 28ct jobelan, what else? and away I went.  Don't ask me why I decided to start at the bottom but I did and I have found it made for speedy stitching!  This is progress so far.  The bottom left page is completed bar the backstitch.  The big lilac column is the start of the left middle page. 211 is one of my favourite DMC colours so I am really enjoying this page.

My second new start is the one that Colin bought me to celebrate the conclusion of my degree.  Paris holds a special place in our hearts as it is where we went for our honeymoon (16 years ago next month...yikes!) so I had a look for a Paris chart that I liked.  I was rather taken with Thea Gouverneur's design but wasn't sure about getting a kit and ending up with threads I didn't like as it just says 'stranded cotton' and not what brand they are.  Then I found this one from Artecy which we both liked. I ordered it as a printed chart which cost under £10 including postage from Australia!  What a bargain!!  I  received the chart in around a week, again fantastic coming from Australia. I have never seen an Artecy chart before but it is great.  Nice clear symbols which are large enough for me to see clearly without constantly picking up the chart or squinting at it.

Anyway, this is my progress from last night and an hour or so this morning.  I'm giving gridding a go to see if it will help me, but the jury is still out on it at the moment.  It won't surprise you to know that I am stitching it on 28ct white jobelan will it?

Donna emailed to say that she received her Christmas in July exchange from me (luckily just in July!)  So here is a quick photo of what I sent her.

And a close up of the 3 stitched pieces that I sent her too.  I have never used ric rac as a trim and was reasonably pleased with how it turned out.  It's not perfect but isn't too bad for a first attempt.  Oh, and the fabric was dyed by me too, using coffee.  The designs are Plum Street Sampler's 'Christmas is coming'.

Stitch from Stash update

First of all I have to admit to a carry-over from last month.  I treated myself to The Frosted Pumpkin's Halloween Town SAL and forgot to declare it.  All month I have meant to email Mel but didn't quite get round to actually doing it!  Sorry Mel :(

Anyway, the Halloween Town SAL was £6.73 with the currency conversion.  I have gone absolutely mad this month and bough a DMC 420 for 69p, making this month's total £7.42 if I can add up correctly!

I have had a new start, all from stash.  I am working on Bothy Threads Cut Thru Haberdasher's.  It's the chart version from a few years ago when they still did charts so I am stitching it on 28ct white jobelan with DMC.

WIPocalypse - July

I am really not going to bore you with the same photos as yesterday.  Some of my Turtle Trot pieces were also WIPocalypse pieces.  I have finished Santa's House this month and made a bit of progress on my Cut Thru Stable.  As both of them were in my Turtle Trot, that is why there is no photos!

This month's theme was 'It's half way to Christmas. Do you start your holiday stitching this early?  If so, what do you hope to accomplish this year?'

Yes!  I have been stitching Christmas for the last few weeks for a Christmas in July exchange.  It is finally finished and just needs to be made up.  I don't tend to worry about what I stitch seasonally and just stitch what I feel like.  That's probably why Santa's House finally got finished.  This means I don't have any particular plans on what I want to get done.

Turtle Trotting in July

A little bit of progress was made on my Turtle Trot pieces.

I finished the first part of Santa's Village and did a little on my Stable.  I have already posted photos but here they are again.

Theme-a-licious update - late as usual!

Ok, Ok Ok...let's just ignore the fact that I was looking at the wrong year for the theme for June.  Post edited to reflect that we are now in 2014 and NOT 2012!

Firstly, I am trying to get Home of a Needleworker finished.  This is where I am so far.  Sorry it's a rubbish photo but I have joined a SAL on facebook to finish an old WIP and start and finish a new one too. Oh...this one fits as it has a little black bird in it (2013).  However, as we are stitching bright colours this one really doesn't fit with this month!

I have also joined The Frosted Pumpkin's Halloween SAL, I should have declared this in last month's SfS but forgot about it.  I will have to email Mel and see whether to add it retrospectively or in this month's figures.  This has some birds in it (2013). But of course for this year's bright colours theme, it is the pumpkins that grab the attention.  They are a gorgeous shade of orange that just doesn't look as good in this photo.

And a bit of progress was seen on the Cut Thru Stable too.  This one is DEFINITELY bright.  I love the colours in it.

July is 'Jubilee July' and we are either celebrating or in the biblical sense of jubilee 'setting free' projects that we no longer love, for whatever reason.  I have set free some of my projects that were started for the children when they were younger.  Cath took Tinkerbelle and Belle for Love Quilts as well as the Disney Princess RR that fell through as she thinks she can salvage something from that for charity too.  The 3 Thomas the Tank Engine designs were released to Steph whose son will enjoy them.  I also sent her the finished one too. 

I'm not sure what I will stitch to celebrate this month.  I am currently stitching a Christmas design and we celebrate Christmas so maybe that will count?