Turtle Trot...hmmm

Well there is not a lot to see on Turtle Trot pieces this month. I have worked on some of my TT pieces but as they are forming part of my DSDUCJFC none of them have seen much progress.

Halloween Town Mystery SAL - The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

Henry VIII and his wives - DMC

Ye Olde Chocolate Shoppe - LHN

Honeysuckle Courtyard - Patricia Ann Designs

DSDUCJFC - days 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9

Well...you can tell that normal service has been resumed and the school holidays are over.  No time for blogging and not much more for stitching.

I had a mock maths exam on Wednesday so I have had to revise for that this week as well.  There's no rest for the wicked!

So on Monday (aka day 5), Rachael had chosen from the box. She picked Henry VIII and his wives. Here is the before and after photos.

As you can see, a bit of brown, a bit of red to the left hand side and that's it!

Then, it was Luke's turn to choose from the box for Day 6.  He picked LHN's Ye Olde Chocolate Shoppe which was WIP.  Here is the before...

...and here is the after!  A couple of lengths of threads down the left hand side...so much more exciting that the little black blob you got to see a few days ago...lol.

Luke's choice for Day 7 was Lizzie Kate's Santa which is stitched on some random fabric from my stash.  It is one of my new starts so no 'before' photo.

Day 8 and I chose Halloween Town by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  I had stitched Part 1 and 2 but as the SAL is long since finished I won't worry about stitching the other 2 parts as parts but will just stitch it as I feel like.

I started the pink border which will have Halloween Town stitched in it eventually.  So...not a lot!

On the 9th day of Debbie's Challenge, my stash box gave to me...LHN's Party Cakes.  As this was also a new start, there really isn't a lot to see.  

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!!

Turtle Trot update - May

I am starting to feel like a tired, old, broken record...not much progress...assignment writing...bleurghhhh. Well guess what?  In 11 days time I will be finished my degree, providing there is nothing disastrously wrong with this final assignment, so next month there will be loads and loads of stitchy progress. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

3 projects got dusted off and saw the light of day. First up, Henry had the dark red almost finished in his sleeve and a bit of the grey down the sleeve. Progress is progress, I know.

Honeysuckle Courtyard had some love and after looking at this photo, I can see that I had stitched the top leg of the top band with 3 going \\\ and the other 5 going /////.  Damn...looks like some unpicking to do there then!  I love the graduated look of the yellow flowers though - I couldn't have planned that!

And finally, wait for Linda's thud, I did a little bit on my Stable.  Only a bit of the grey in the horse and the red bucket at the bottom but as was said before, progress is progress!

Tudor Tuesday SAL

Here is my progress on Henry VIII for the Tudor Tuesday SAL.  There is a facebook group hosted by Kaye HERE so come and join us if you have a Tudor design to get stitched.

DMC - Henry VIII Sampler

Here is a link to Kaye's blog so you can find out all about the SAL.

Tonight I think I will work on...hmmm...don't know.  I will have to root through the box and see what I fancy.

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!

I have been very lucky recently with winning 3 giveaways.  First up was Cath at The stitchin' chicken and below are the lovely goodies she sent me.  I love the scissors - they are compact and cut well.  I have been having a nightmare lately and have had to chop great chunks out of my Confetti of Hardanger.  I love these JBW designs so was fantastic.  The scissor fob is SO pretty and goes well with the new scissors.  And of course it is impossible to have too much fabric or too many threads...hehehe.  I was thrilled to bits with everything.  THANK YOU CATH!!!

The lovely goodies from Cath (The Stitchin' Chicken)

Then only a few days later I was fortunate enough to win again.  This time it was from Gaynor Stitchers Anon.  Below is the picture of all the gorgeous goodies she chose for me.  There were some gorgeous threads both metallics and variegated.  A gorgeous piece of fabric which is called Sage and looks absolutely nothing like how I have photographed it.  She also sent me one of the charts from my wish list - it's the 2012 LK Santa.  There is a beautiful, beautiful little pillow which has lovely stitching and amazing finishing, I wish mine was so neat. And finally...so rick rack in 4 fab colours.  Thank you SO much Gaynor!!

The lovely goodies I received from Gaynor

The third one was just the other day and was from Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.  I have been lucky enough to win her giveaway for Home of a Needleworker.  I think she took pity on me and my dust!!!

Anyway enough of my good fortune and on to the stitching progress.

First up is the absolute bane of my life at the moment.  Confetti of Hardanger by Abi Gurden is gorgeous...well it is to look at.  I am having real problems in placing each part.  I had to give up on the flowers as they were just too hard for me.  So I thought I would move onto the next part which is a simple kloster block 'border'.  How easy can it be?  Hahahaha...wrong.  I have restitched the entire border 4....yes...4 times.  It was frustrating to be polite!!!  I am really hoping that the outer kloster block border won't give me so many problems.  Fingers crossed.....

Confetti of Hardanger - Abi Gurden

 Henry VIII caught my attention one night and had a little more stitched on his coat.  I am really enjoying this one and should give him more time.

Henry VIII and his 6 wives 

 When I was sorting through my stash during a stitchy slump a few weeks ago.  I found this from years and years ago.  I did the over one stitching for 'scissors' and put it away again!

LK scissor case

 I really like stitching this one!  It's Horse Racing by John Clayton and the grass is a lovely big block of mind numbing green!  I can stitch away for ages without looking at the chart or rummaging for a new colour.  The darker green is the start of a shadow for one of the horses.  Once the green is done, I will have stitched around 25% of the design, maybe slightly more.

Horse Racing by John Clayton

 I have worked on ATW a little too. Part 3 was finished and part 4 is now half done.  I am enjoying it but can only stitch it when I can really concentrate or I make mistakes!

Papillon Creations - Around the World in 80 stitches

 I worked on Two Little Love Birds by Love Thy Threads as well but ran out of a thread colour and need to go and get some more.  It is a lovely design and would make a cute wedding or anniversary design for a young couple.

Love Thy Threads - Two Little Love Birds

 And finally....we have Cinderella.  I love, love, love this.  I love the fabric, the thread colours, the design....how am I ever going to give it up?

Cinderella - Joan Elliott

And that's it.  Not much to report really and not much stitching for how long it is since I blogged last.  Thank you if you are still reading!!

I am way behind on reading blogs so I am sorry that I haven't been visiting.  I will get caught up again - honest!!

playing catchup

Thank you for so many comments sympathising with the loss of my RR.  It is annoying and I believe what goes around comes around.

As far as Honeysuckle Courtyard goes, I will play around with the suggestions people gave and see which looks good.  Don't be surprised to see some mock ups and a poll here!  Now you know why I am NOT a designer...lol.

So on to progress with stitching.  First up is Horse Racing which is a John Clayton design.  It now has approximately 1200 stitches of DMC471 with a lot more still to go.  Once that is done though I will be nearly a third of the way through the design I think and at least whilst it is like this there is quick progress.  The fabric is a Silkweaver but I can't remember which one.  It is a really old one so the fabric is lovely to stitch on unlike their newer fabrics.

I decided that as I had managed to finish a few things recently, that it was time for a new start.  Rachael saw this stitched on a blog as I was reading one day and really liked it.  As it had been sat in my stash for around 7-8 years I decided to make a start last week when Colin took the children out for the day.  It is the first time in my life that I ever wished Henry VIII had been skinny!

I had originally started The Great Escape by Abi Gurden when it was first released but only got to part 3 before getting stuck on a particular stitch and putting it away.  When the Olympics were on I decided to have another read of the instruction and have a go.  Bizarrely I could do the stitch quite easily and then I have whizzed through the rest of it.  I just have some moths, stars and the moon to add to it but I am so pleased with how it is looking.

 

Now the reason I had to get The Great Escape finished is because Abi had released the first part of her new SAL.  It is called Confetti of Hardanger and is really pretty.  These are the threads I am thinking of using but the colours here aren't great.  The fabric is Lavender (not sure whose) and there are some DMC perles 211, 208 and 554.  The loose skein is Threadworx 81125.

I have also been working on Cinderella but haven't taken a photo yet of her.  The colours are gorgeous though and the fabric is wonderful to stitch on.  It is a Polstitches jobelan and is so soft and lovely to work with.

I am also working on part 2 of Around the World.  I had started that already but really hated the way my Mordvinian Star stitch looked.  I have redone it and am much more pleased with it.  Part 5 is already out so I had really better get a move on.

With the children being off school, we have been doing various things.  Yesterday we did some T shirt painting, which they really enjoyed despite the pens not working well.  I emailed sewandso about them and they refunded my money which I was really surprised about as I had ordered the pens over a month ago.  Fantastic customer service!  We have also been to Etherow Country Park for a walk round the lake and through the woods which was fun.  I took them bowling the other day and actually beat them in both games - without bumpers....woohooo!

Luke has been badgering me to play Donkey Kong on the Wii with him so I have played that a few times, or should I say that he has played and I have just lost all the lives.  Funny that, I've just realised that he hasn't asked me to join in the last few day...hmmmm....I wonder why that could be.

I think that's enough news for today....don't want to send you to sleep.  

By the way does anyone have any idea as to why my visitor counter is just showing a number 1 instead of an actual visitor from each country count?  It's been doing it for a week or more and I don't know why.  I have tried taking it off and putting it back again but it makes no difference.  It is starting to annoy me!!!