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 ;)

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!!!