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.

        

Finishes, finishes everywhere

Well...that's probably a slight exaggeration.  I do, however, have 2 finishes for the JCS SAL on facebook.

First up, is Lizzie Kate's Very Merry.  This can be described as personalised - that is, I miscounted and couldn't be bothered frogging a whole flower!  It uses random threads and is stitched on the same piece of random fabric as the cute kitties from last time.

Lizzie Kate - Very Merry

Then...tonight I have finished The Little Stitcher's Warm hands, Warm heart.  This is the same piece of fabric and different random threads.  Again, it is personalised as I miscounted the side border, then discovered it was 2 stitches short. 

The Little Stitcher - Warm Hands, Warm Heart

Now, I have had a totally weird thought, bear with me.  So far, I have stitched 3 of this year's designs and I think I stitched 3 (or possibly 4) of last year's too.  I may even have a few from the previous year.  Wouldn't it be a great idea to sort out fabrics and trims for these...............and finish finish them...actually make them into ornies!!!!!  I told you it was weird!!! 

2018 plans

Having not done a lot of stitching lasy year really, well certainly the latter half of the year, I intend to get back to it. I was going to carry on with the tapering rotation but have decided to go through my stash - honestly and with the critical eye. Whilst doing this I ended up with several boxes - the 'yes I still want to stitch this as some point in my life' box, the 'eurghhh, why did I ever buy/start that' box, the 'oooh yes, I love that' box, 'hmmmm, don't know' box and the 'why the hell is that still not finished?' box. I have listed a whole load of stuff on ebay and made a few pennies from it and re-arranged everything so I know where to find it, with the exception being a few WIP/UFOs that I can't find where I put them!

So the box I am currently working with is actually a partial amalgamation of 2 boxes.  I have the 'why is that not finished' box and a few from the 'oooh yes, I love that' box. These have become my Focus for 2018 box. I think there were 25 pieces on there, which makes it just less than a third of my entire currently started list.  I can already claim a finish from the WTHITSNF box with Strawberry Scissor Case by Lizzie Kate being finished after about 10 years!!!  Is that some kind of appalling record for a very small Lizzie Kate design?

Lizzie Kate Strawberry Scissor Case

There's been a lot of changes in the last few months - Rachael's gone off to university to study biology. She didn't get the grades for Lancaster in the end so had to go through clearing. After a scary week of visiting unis that we had never even considered before, she settled on Keele and has been loving it ever since.  She has made loads of friends and seems to be enjoying the course very much.

Luke has college now and is studying psychology, geography and sociology.  He had a bit of a blip a few weeks ago and was skiving but is back on track now and working hard.

I'm just carrying on - work, home, archery, church (not always in the same order!) That's it with me really!

I know a lot of people seem to have given up on blogging for other platforms but I haven't really found any that I like as much as blogging. So I do read facebook, but didn't get on with Instagram and others.  I have started watching a bit of flosstube and have found a few bloggers I have followed are on there. Of course I have to be able to get the TV first! It's not the same watching it on the laptop.
So anyway, hopefully I will get a bit more blogging done as well as stitching this year!

Goal review - February

Stitch JCS facebook group ornie - No...but I will do it in March!

Stitch 2 days of istitch 2015 Advent SAL - DONE!

I love the holly band for this month's 2 days. I wsn't sure that the red beads were red enough but I think they look perfect.

Stitch Mabel Figworthy 'Round in Circles' February design - DONE!

Random generator each Sunday

31st January - #38: Lizzie Kate Flip-It's

6th February - #37: Just Good Friends

13th - #42: Oh Christmas Tree

20th - Sunflower Fairy

Lizzie Kate

So this week saw me stithcing on this - the Lizzie Kate Flip-It's from 2004.  This is where it was...

...and this is what happened over the week.

Not a great deal of progress as it has been yet another busy week.

Rachael flew off to Iceland for her long aniticipated Geography field trip yesterday.  She is hopefully having a fab time as we haven't heard from her.  She has probably had a lucky escape as Luke is poorly.  He has antibiotics for a strep throat and eyedrops for conjunctivitis - and don't we know it!!

The random generator has selected #37 for next week's project.  That is Just Good Friends which I suspect hasn't been stitched on in about 18 years and is possibly my longest standing UFO now! Yikes - this should be interesting!

Gifted Gorgeousness and DSDUCJFC for the last week!

Oh dear!  Late for my very first Gifted Gorgeousness...oops.

Some of these have already been seen as part of the DSDUCJFC projects that were up for stitching. Firstly, Honeysuckle Courtyard (already seen).

Spring - San Man (again already seen)

...and that is it as far as Gifted Gorgeousness goes.  Sorry Jo!

On to DSDUCJFC.  For some reason, I just can't drag the photos into the right order...they are just not playing ball!  So, the second photo down is last Sunday's project - Chatelaine's Gardens of London.  I forgot the before photo but I have done the dark green bit in the top right corner.  

Monday - Thursday became Lizzie Kate days as the fabric and charts were already out.  I stitched the 'br' of February, then the January partial border, followed by the partial April border and finally the August partial border.

Friday and Saturday were Santa's Village days.  I stitched the red in the border for Poinsettia House and then a couple of the bars to start the one after that.  I did carry on and finish the rest of the red from Friday's first though to save miscounting on Saturday.

Today, I have done a bit of Cut Thru Haberdasher's but as I am hoping to do a bit more tonight I won't take a photo just yet. I have made a decision though about the January/February Challenge.  I am finding it really hard to keep up with it as can be seen by the really miserly progress on any of them.  So...I am going to leave all the projects in the box they are currently in and just stitch on them as the year progresses.

I still want to honour Debbie's memory and have decided that the way I can do this is to start the kit that I much admired on her blog as she stitched it and that she encouraged me to buy.  In fact, she even sourced it for me as it was OOP/discontinued.  The design is, 'Universal Unity' by Dimensions.

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.  

Read this if you need a laugh

Well if you remember, a while ago I finished a Lizzie Kate design as a travelling pattern.  Here it is...

I decided I would like to finish it as a small pillow with patchwork as the fabric border round the piece.  So I took these fabrics...

...and did this with them.

Too big for the design so let's cute them into quarters again and make each patchwork square 1cm when stitched together.  So as you can see, you end up with this...

...which then you take and sew together on your machine and it ends up looking like this...except it shouldn't!

So I bet you can guess what I am going to say now.  Does anyone know of a good tutorial so that I can learn to do it properly or failing that can explain to me how to do it properly, in words of one syllable.  Now if that pathetic attempt at patchwork doesn't make you laugh, nothing will.  Even I laughed when I took it away from the sewing machine!  Heeeeeeelp!!!

Birthday stash and giveaway stash too

First up is all the lovely stash that I received for my birthday. There is a chartby The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and another by Papillon Creations, 2 Just Nans, a Lizzie Kate Santa, one of the Snow Belles, a JBW Christmas Tree one and some fabric - Icicle by Crafty Kitten which is big enough to stitch the other 8 Nora Corbett reindeer on.

I also received my threads that I ordered with my gift certificate from Linda.  Thank you Linda.  They are shown with the chart and fabric which I already had and I can now get cracking on this...soon :)

Lizzie Kate Travelling Pattern

Very belatedly...I got Colin to pick a new recipient for the travelling pattern started by Mii Stitch and he chose...

Barbi

Congratulations Barbi.  If you send me your address, I will get it posted out to you a.s.a.p. 

I forgot to take photos of the DISH of DOOOOOOM as he was doing it - sorry!

Travelling Pattern

Don't forget to leave you name on the post about the Travelling Pattern if you want to be entered in the draw for it.  As it is Christmas (almost) I was thinking about maybe having 4 weeks to stitch it rather than the 2 stated originally as it can be hard to find the time to finish it with all the organising there is to do.  Although it did only take me 3 nights and I am super slow!!!

Travelling pattern ready

I have stitched Mii's Lizzie Kate travelling pattern and will add a photo tonight.  So it I ready to go to the next stitcher.  Leave a comment on this post only. You must be an active blogger and be able to stitch it within 2 weeks.  I will do a random draw next Monday night. Good luck!

Lizzie Kate - Live, Laugh, Love

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!