Sweet Pea Pixie happy dances her way to the Box of Shame

She's finished!!!

Sweet Pea Pixie is actually finished - after all these years!  Who would have thought it?

The fabric is about a million times nicer than the photo shows.  It is a beautiful light green with pale pink running through it. I will have to go and check what it was called.

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

Sunflower Fairy - Nora Corbett

This week has been SO disappointing stitchingwise. I was sure I took a photo before I started stitching but I can't find it. It's probably just as well really!

Edited to add: This week's lucky project is number 3 which is The Angel of Cross Stitch.  As this is stitched on black evenweave, I have decided to keep that for the Easter holiday week so that I'm off work and the kids are away with their dad so that I can make a decent amount of progress on it.  The project I will actually work on this week is 'Everyone brings Joy...' 

Sweet Pea - Nora Corbett

Well...after finishing Vixen and the SAL piece, it was a case of what shall I stitch on next?  I have 3 tubs/boxes of WIP's/UFO's and so grabbed the first box to have a look through.  Sweet Pea caught my eye, so I pulled the threads and cracked on with her.

Here she is before I started working on her...

Sweet Pea Pixie - Nora Corbett

...and here is where I am up to now.

I have no idea why this photo is refusing to turn round the right way, but you get the idea!  I had the bright idea of doing the skin 1 over 1 which is taking FOREVER!

Finishes, finishes

Happy 2016 to you all.  

I hope that it is a fabulous year.

Vixen - Nora Corbett
Fabric - Icicle (Crafty Kitten)

I managed to finish Vixen yesterday as the treasures arrived from Sewandso.  However, I managed to send one of the treasures flying across the room and can't find it.  I will order another packet when I 'need' to order something else too.

Whilst I have been waiting for the treasures, I pulled out Mabel Figworthy's Song of the Weather.  I had stitch the kloster blocks for April but that was about it. Today, I have finished off the block.  I had to learn how to do bullion knots, Portuguese ladder stitch and Greek crosses to do it.  My Portuguese ladder stitches aren't brilliant and I keep thinking about ripping them out and doing them again.  I suspect by the time I reach December, I will have done so!

Mabel Figworthy's Fancies - Song of the Weather (2013 SAL)

I really liked the Greek crosses once I understood what on earth it was I had to do with them.  I am sure that mine will improve with practice but I am happy with them for this 'learner's piece'.

I have signed up for the 2016 SAL which is called Round in Circles. I am thinking that I will do it with the same threads and then both of them could hang in the hall next to each other.  The first design was released today and is a nice easy one to start off with.

Vixen

Rather than have a new start on Christmas Day as is traditional, I decided to revive an old Christmas Day start. This is Vixen by Nora Corbett which I started in 2013 - before and after! I only have the Whispa thread, beads and treasures to add. Could there be a finish before New Year?

(Sorry for the side on photo, I can't seem to change it on my phone.)

Vixen - Nora Corbett
Fabric - Crafty Kitten, Icicle

March Madness - Theme-a-licious update.

Well, it did start off quite well...at least I think it did.  I'm pretty sure I stitched a little on each of these in March but there is absolutely no way on this earth that I managed to do 31 different projects.  That was due to it being assignment time and lots of reading for the module.  I can't wait to have all this free time to stitch!

Joan Elliott - Unicorn

All through the Night - Oh Christmas Tree

CCN - Santa's Village

JBW Designs - A Very Merry Christmas

CCN - A Place we call Home

Nora Corbett - Faerie Spring Fling

HaED - Santa and the mouse

Mirabilia - Touching the Autumn Sky

 

Praying Hands - Footprints

I think I stitched on all of these in March.  Hopefully April will be a bit of an improvement!

Vixen (or the chopped in half reindeer)

Just in case you were still having visions of poor Vixen having been chopped in half with blood spurting out, here is an updated progress photo.  (No animals were harmed in the making of this piece...lol.)

I'm amazed at how quickly I am making progress on this one and also how small it is.  I didn't realise they are so tiny as most Mirabilia's/Nora Corbett's are fairly big.  I am stitching it on Crafty Kitten 16ct 'Icicle' aida which is proving to be a lovely fabric to stitch on.

Christmas Stash

I was SO lucky with the wonderful Christmas presents I received this year.  As well as some stamps, perfume, CD's and chocolate I got some great stash - and not all of it was bought by me to put away!

First off some lovely fabrics I picked up at Harrogate a few weeks ago.  Pumpkin Patch is for doing the Halloween countdown calendar which will be a Crazy January Challenge piece this year.  The others all have plans too but I can't remember which design off the top of my head and the list is upstairs.

Then there are some lovely Crafty Kitten fabrics too.  All of those have plans except for the linen which I just wanted to see what it is like as I'm not good with linen!

Another piece of Sparklies which was missed out in the first photo.  IT IS GORGEOUS!

The Nutmeg Company and Mill Hill kits were picked up by me in Harrogate.  The reindeer were a total surprise and I was thrilled to receive them.  They are something that I have wanted for a long time but apparently they were only on my abcstitch.com wishlist and not my sewandso.co.uk wishlist. I was showing Colin a photo of them on facebook the other day so he picked 2 of them up for me.

2 lovely pieces of backing fabric from Sparklies too - even if it is upside down!

Another kit for my Crazy January Challenge starts.  I saw this in person at Harrogate and it is SO pretty. The chart looks horrendously complicated but Vickie has already taught me how to do the knots to make the flowers and said if I need help to email/message her.  She may regret that...

I also received another Cut Thru to add to my collection.  This one is North Pole House and is so cute.  This may well be the one I start when I finish my stable!

I know it looks like there is a huge amount of things here but with our families living so far away, they send money and we pick up what we would like labelling it from them.  

Finally, when Annette sent me all the bits for making my Gingerbread Cupcake, she also sent me a package to put under the tree.  I was really good and only opened it on Christmas Day.  Inside were a load of gorgeous goodies.  Look at this lot!  2 really pretty backing fabrics, a piece of stripy evenweave and some pretty threads.  I had to add the gift tag which was made by Annette too and is lovely!  Thank you Annette for such a lovely and generous package of goodies.

We had a lovely Christmas Day.  Both children and Colin were thrilled with their gifts but the highlight of the day was Colin's Christmas dinner.  He was adamant it wouldn't be huge...hahahaha.  

So this our Christmas table all set ready, with Luke looking like an alcoholic with his wine glass.  Rachael declined having orange squash in a wine glass.

Colin's dinner - no he didn't finish it all.

Luke's dinner - somehow he did finish it all, and was the first to finish too.  He loves his veg so had plenty of it!

Rachael's dinner - she managed all of hers too.  Heavens knows where she put it all!

My dinner - no chance!  You could probably have fed someone else with what I left!

Not sure as to why I was looking so miserable here.  Obviously just an unlucky moment with the camera!  Dinner this year was particularly delicious, even with there being way to much.  I'm so lucky that Colin is such a good cook!!

I hope you had an amazing Christmas too.

Don't you just love kids?

Last year I had a new start from one of my Christmas presents. This year it was a toss up between the two reindeer designs.  After consulting Colin, Vixen was decided upon. This is my progress so far.  Sadly Rachael took a look at it and said "Don't get offended, but it looks like someone has chopped it in half and that's the blood spurting out."  Thanks Rachael!

Sorry the photo is on its side, I am using my phone and can't work out how to turn it around.

Lovely stitchy post/mail

 I got some lovely stitchy post today.  A few weeks ago I 'discovered' an unknown to me Nora Corbett design from the Cross Stitch and Needlework 2010 Keepsake Calendar - Snow Queen.  A facebook friend very kindly sorted me out with a copy of it and it arrived today!!!!

Just in case you're like me and have obviously been on Mars for the last 3 or 4 years, here is a photo of Snow Queen.  Now I am trying not to start it, but I keep thinking that if I got my backside into gear I could finish it by Christmas...

I have done a little stitching on something I haven't stitched on for a while.  I miscounted the fabric count on this when I started and it has about an inch on the right hand side and slightly more on the left.  I still don't know what I will do when I finish it.  Still how long I have been stitching it, I don't think I need to worry about finishing it just yet.  I plan on working on it at least once a week to get it finished.  It really shouldn't take too long :)

Stitching and garden

I decided to have a few days off from studying so the children both helped clean the house from top to bottom over the course of a couple of days.  Their reward for that was an extra hour on the laptop or Wii Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with an ice cream off the van when it came round. I obviously just did it for fun!! Well actually, I rewarded myself with 3 hours of stitching time.  As my next new start will be Spring Fling Faerie, I thought I should show Sweet Pea a little love.  So this is where she is with an extra 3 hours work on her.  Now I love this design, but to me she doesn't look like a sweet pea.  She actually reminds me of a Cancan Pansy.  Can you see what I mean? All those ruffles just look like a pansy.

Nora Corbett - Sweet Pea

Cancan Pansy from TMseeds.com

I have to admit to having been pleasantly surprised at how different the colours were in the actual stitched piece to the photo on the front of the chart.

I have also been out and got a few shots of the garden which is looking brilliant at the moment.

Wow! 2 updates in the same week - bet you are really shocked.

And finally...is this REALLY what a suave, sophisticated feline should be doing?

That tummy was just begging to be tickled...and it was!  In case you can't work it out.  He is laying on the right hand side of a 3 seater sofa with his head resting on the arm like it's a pillow.