A finish

I...have...a...finish!!!  Another one!

Don't faint, head between your knees helps to get the blood flowing to your head if you feel dizzy.

Long, long ago in the mists of time, I 'won' a travelling pattern - LHN's Home of a Needleworker.  I am ashamed to say that I have had this a lot longer than intended. So long in fact that I emailed Nic of Obsessive Cross Stitcher to check if she wanted the pattern back or for me to send it on its travels again.  Nic was more than happy for it to travel so if anyone would like to stitch it just leave a 'me please' type comment for me on this post and I will draw names next Sunday (23/8 or 8/23 depending on where you are from!)

This is what the pattern should look like when stitched.

This is my version of it...

As you can see I have made quite a few changes to it.  I didn't stitch the alphabets which meant that I would have had 2 borders next to each other which meant I needed to move the flowery one up and the name down.  This meant the crow/blackbird/whatever wouldn't fit in the space so I also turned the border with the flowers upside down with the intentions of turning the bird round the opposite way and fitting it in the space.  Then I decided that I didn't really like the random bird anyway so I replaced it with the heart that was between the lowercase alphabet and numerals but stitched 5 of them to fill the space better.  I am not totally happy with them though and am thinking of unpicking them and moving them up a row or maybe two.  What do you think?  The house is exactly as charted as is the 'Home of a Needleworker'.  Now to decide what to do with it!

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

Bonfire Night

No stitching tonight as it is Bonfire Night.  We had our 2 small boxes of fireworks and 2 small packs of rockets (BOGOF at Sainsbury's) and thoroughly enjoyed oohing and aahing at them.  It's quite nice actually that the children (12 and 14) still enjoy them as they are only a cheap box.  We went to an organised display last year and didn't enjoy it nearly as much as standing in our back yard doing our own.  With football training and Girl's Brigade, we had a box before and a box when everyone got back so it feels like an evening of them.

Don't forget to sign up for the travelling pattern and/or competition if you would like to.  If you would just like to stitch the pattern, that's fine.  You don't have to enter the competition!!  Comment on this post if you would like to join in the fun!

2 finishes and WIPocalypse update

Wow...not one but two finishes!!!

I was lucky enough to have the chance to stitch on Lynda's Travelling Pattern - Busy Needle.  I got it stitched up over the weekend and loved it.  Sassy Brass is the loveliest colour in the entire history of thread. I love it!  I have ordered a box from BoxyLady and I will attempt my first ever box finish...eek!

 After that was done, I wanted to work on a WIP/UFO.  I had a flick through my box.  Roots and Wings caught my eye.  A few hours later that too was complete, including the little buttons.  It's lovely, really bright and colourful.

Today we went to Bakewell and did a Treasure Hunt from here. We had a great time although it was actually a bit too hot.  There isn't really any treasure, you just walk round spotting certain things and crossing it off the map until you're left with just one place left which would be where the treasure is hidden.  Here are a couple of pictures of the kids with the clues they had solved.

Some of the clues were in around Bakewell Parish Church which was beautiful.  The church was open to look round.  Parts of it date back around 1000 years.  Inside there was a board that charted the history of the church and detailled when different bits were added to the church.  Even the children were interested!

Lunch was at a wonderful pub called The Peacock.  The portions were HUGE!  None of us could finish them.  Luke and I had a panini, Rachael had a chicken burger (with 3 pieces of chicken, 3!!!) and Colin had a piece of fish - from a great white shark judging by the size of it!  The places were massive but the fish still hung over the sides of it.

And finally...no visit to Bakewell is complete without a visit to Wye Needlecraft.  I was REALLY good and only bought 3 things.  One was High Hopes (Just Nan), Honeysuckle Courtyard (Patricia Ann) and Summer Garden (Country Cottage Needlework).  The Patricia Ann one is going to be for Colin's parents for their Golden wedding anniversary in a couple of years.

All my news - stitchy and non stitchy!

OK first off, a little warning!  Most of this page is a 'proud mum' post.  If you want to read the little cross stitch news scroll down.  There is a line of stars and cross stitch is below this.

On Wednesday and Thursday last week, Luke had his year 6 school production. This year it was The Lion King. Luke had the part of the shamen/magician/witch doctor character and was brilliant, a real superstar. I made his costume for him working off a picture of the musical. I would say it was one of the best shows that I have ever watched. I can't wait to get the DVD of it so that we can see it again.

Sadly we could only see the Wednesday showing of Luke's show as on Thursday  Rachael was participating in the high school Summer Concert. It was basically an opportunity to showcase the school musical talent. Rachael played 3 pieces on the recorder - solo! I was so proud of her as she was so nervous and you could see her hands shaking as she was playing but she still did it.

Luke had his football presentation last Friday and although he didn't win any of the major trophies they got a nice one for being part of the team. The coach gave each lad a lovely speech about their talents which was nice to hear. Rachael found the whole evening incredibly boring though but she got through it!

On Monday it was Rachael's turn for her school awards evening. The trophies are give out for achievement in each subject and for attitude to learning as well. Rachael won the RE trophy for attitude to learning and the MFL (modern foreign languages - or French as we knew it by when I was at school!) for achievement.

The final awards thing we had to go to was for Rachael's Girl's Brigade. There were only a few trophies and it was over with fairly quickly. Rachael won the Inspection Trophy this year, only dropping 2 inspection points over the whole year. She was not amused when I compared this to a racehorse winning the best turned out prize...I wonder why?

My gorgeous son on his last day at primary school. Look at the state of that shirt...I'll never get that permenant marker out...lol.  They were given a lovely year book each and a pen and pencil set by the school. I was quite surprised at how emotional it was for him, usually Luke is not one for getting overly emotional.

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Ok onto cross stitch news.

There is a reason that I have been so quiet. 3 weeks ago Luke asked me to stitch a present for his class teacher for leaving. I was less than impressed as I had asked him a while ago if he wanted me to stitch something and he had said no. The design we settled on was Sheena Rogers Football Crazy so I have had a frantic few weeks getting it stitched up. I finished stitching on Monday evening and then made it up into a little wall hanging. I am so impressed with myself as it is the first time I have used my sewing machine to make something up and it looked brilliant even if I do say so myself.

I have also received the Travelling Pattern and am just waiting for the threads to arrive to get it stitched. It should be a quick stitch I think looking at it.  It is a cute design and I am thinking of finishing it as a little needlebook.

I have also ordered the threads I will use for Abi Gurden's Confetti of Hardanger SAL - because I need something else to stitch...lol.  And of course I had to make it worth the while of doing the order!  I have chosen to do it on a lilac/lavender fabric with DMC 208, 210 and 211 perle threads.  I am really looking forward to starting on it.

I am currently working on part 2 of Around the World.  So far all I have done is the cross stitch outline so I won't bore you with a picture.  I really, really need to get a move on with this as part 4 was released recently. I am already getting nervous about the cutting, I know it will be fine but it's just the thought of it!

I think this post is more than long enough for now so if you have made it all the way to the bottom well done!  I am way behind on blog reading but as it is the last day of work for 6 weeks (yay!) I will be catching up on all the blogs I have missed.