My blog heading

Jo (Serendipitous Stitching) asked me about one of the designs in my blog header.  So rather than just tell her what she wants to know, I thought I would tell everyone!

So vertically down the middle is Papillon's How does your garden grow?
Across the top is a butterfly freebie from yiota which I changed all the colours of.  Under that is a close up of the apples in Cut Thru Garden Shed.
Next to these two is part of Roots and Wings by Waxing Moon.  The top right and bottom left are 2 designs from a series that I sent out for a RR, probably in around 2003/2004 ish.  They were in Cross Stitcher magazine I think and there were pansies, sweet peas and 2 others.
Going to the bottom right is a part of Waxing Moon's 'If I stitch fast', a butterfly from a recent issue of Cross Stitch Crazy and the Welcome is from a Hobb Nobb design but I can't remember which off the top of my head.

(Bet you wish you had never asked now Jo?)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I spent most of Sunday cutting and sewing the border for this and it is now finished and hanging in our lounge. It looks so much better in real life than this photo but unfortunately it is miserable and gloomy again today and I can't get a decent picture of it.

Stitching mojo may have returned

Well I finally picked up a needle and thread on Monday night. After contemplating a new start and then deciding I had quite enough WIP's as it was, I decided to do the last part of How Does Your Garden Grow? This was really quick to do. I stitched it all in one evening and then beaded it Tuesday morning. Now I have a problem - it needed washing and off course needs ironing. The trouble is I used invisible thread to attach the beads and if I iron it I suspect the beads will all drop off! Any ideas what I can do??

After finishing that, I decided to finish off June Zooms as there wasn't a lot to do on it. That got finished Tuesday too.

On Wednesday I finished January Snows and started March Blows, which I finished today. Finally, more than 5 years after it was started, the whole series is finally stitched!!

I contemplated a new start and even picked out a chart and found the fabric for it. Unfortuantely I can't find where on earth I put the threads for it!

How does your garden grow part10

I have finished part 10 of this now with the exception of the beading. As part 11 sits in the middle, I thought it safer to leave the beading until this was done too.

At the moment it is trying its hardest to snow. I keep hoping but not much is happening and the little bit we have is not enough to settle.........grrrrr!

My mum's friend is getting married next year and she has asked if I will make a ring cushion for them. There are some lovely designs there but I haven't quite found the perfect one yet! I would like some fabric swatches really so I can get a better idea about their colour scheme and preferences for the theme.

WIP and new start pics for 2009 - part 1

These are more for my own reference than any other reason. I thought I would post pics of where I am with my WIP's as of the start of 2009. It might be interesting to see what progress actually gets made on some of them by the end of 2009!!

Snowy Days Sampler from Cross Stitcher magazine.

Bothy Threads Cut Thru Garden Shed. I REALLY want to finish this one this year.

Maggie the Messmaker. I want to make real progress on this one this year.

Last 3 Snappers need doing. Started January then March and June to do.

Cotswold Design from Cross Stitch Collection magazine. Again I would really like to make a lot of progress on this one this year.


Part 9 of How does your Garden Grow is started and I really want this finished by my birthday in March.

How does your garden grow parts 7&8

I have finished stitching parts 7 and 8 and done the beading for parts 6,7 and 8. I am loving stitching this design. It is looking fabulous. There are some great colours schemes on the Papillon Creations website that people have sent in. I would love to stitch this again in a different colour scheme......perhaps autumnal colours. Part 9 won't be out until the middle of September so I'm going to have a loooong wait for it!

The beads don't really show up very well in the photos. They are Mill Hill gold seed beads.

I have been having a look at some of my WIPs and trying to decide which one to work on next. I would like to finish another something before I start "Trick or Treat". I ordered all the beads and Kreiniks yesterday but I still can't settle on a fabric for it.

I am going to get one of the Snappers finished next which will have me well on target for my August goals!!

A finish and update

I have finished another one of the Bent Creek Snappers - December. I am now half way through stitching the series. I had to order a couple of threads for the rest of the designs but now the kids have broken up from school I should be able to get the rest of these finished fairly quickly now. I want to finish this as a wall hanging and am thinking about making my own bellpull ends as I can't find anything I really like.

I have also completed Part 6 of How does your Garden grow? but I decided not to bead it yet as part 7 and 8 are both filling in the gaps of part 5 and 6. I thought it may be easier without the beads in the way. I am really enjoying seeing how this is stitching up.

Luke painted a pot a while back and planted a sunflower seed as part of his Beaver scout activities. Yesterday was the final meeting before the summer holiday so we were going to take his sunflower in to show towards his badge. However it was too big to carry so we took a photo of him and it and took that instead. There is a photo of it below.

It won't be long before it is taller than he is!!

Luke was also awarded 4 badges at Beavers last night. He got his Creative, Experiment, Healthy Eating and Imagination badges. Not a bad haul as he hasn't been going to Beavers that long really.

Woohoo!

I have just finished Part 5 of "How does your garden grow?" It was really hard. I haven't tried many speciality stitches before but they had been relatively easy going for the first few parts. I really struggled with these though especially the buttonhole bar and the bullion knots. Any way it's done and you can see it below!




Part 6 looks like it should be fairly quick and easy with some straightforward specials in it.

So much to do and no time!!

I don't know where the time is going to at the moment. There is so much going on in my life that I haven't posted here for ages.

WORK - my contract at school finishes at the end of July so I have had to reapply for a job as a teaching assistant again. It will be for 30 hours instead of 15 hours this time hopefully. I found out today that I was shortlisted and my interview will be next Wednesday. My hubby said about going in to school smart that day but I don't think there is much point. After all I am there at the moment and they either know what I am like by now or they don't!!

CHILDREN - Rachael is enjoying being on her insulin pump still although for about the last week or so we have had realy erratic readings due to her having a cold. One minute she is sky high and the next she is mega low. It feels a bit like being on a roller coaster at the moment!

Luke is just plodding along as always. He seems to have become super sensible since he turned 7, will it last?

CROSS STITCHING - has rather taken a back seat lately what with filling in application forms for my job. They are rather long winded forms that take about 2 or 3 evenings to complete satisfactorily. I have only stitched the last 2 nights as it was about 3 and a half weeks since I had picked up my needle! I managed to complete part 4 of "How does your garden grow?" so that was good.

That is it for stitching this month though! I didn't even join in the crossstitchcrazy stitchathon this month.
OPEN UNIVERSITY - I started my course at the beginning of June. I am doing "Starting with Maths" which is one of the Openings courses which are designed to ease you into that level of study. I am finding it quite easy and have nearly finished my first assignment. There are 2 Tutor marked assignments and an end of course assignment to pass the course. It should take 20 weeks to complete but I am hoping to have it finished a bit quicker than that.

May update and How does your garden grow?

1. Complete Sunday Cricket and find a suitable mount for it. (Found frame) I have finished the design but struggling to find a mount.



2. Start "How does your garden grow" which is a mystery stitch from Papillon Creations. I would like to complete first 2 parts of this. Done and also finished part 3 too!!



3. Continue with Bothy Threads Cut Thru Garden Shed for the Crossstitchcrazy SAT in May and try to beat my total from last month. Done and my total in the end was 3396 stitches.



4. Stitch one cat from Cat's Alphabet which is my oldest WIP/UFO. Disaster struck. Where this has been a UFO for so long the fabbie has faded and the whole project needs to be ditched!

As mentioned above my target was to finish the first 2 parts of How does your garden grow? Yesterday my hubby let me sit and stitch almost all day and I managed to finish part 3 too. I am really pleased that hopefully I should be caught up with all the parts barring any disaster by the time part 6 comes out in the middle of June. I am really enjoying stitching this, although I NEARLY gave up part way through part 3 as I had unpicked bits so often.
I will start part 4 tonight hopefully. However, I suppose I ought to make the effort to help with the packing for the holiday too.

May update

1. Complete Sunday Cricket and find a suitable mount for it. (Found frame) I have finished the design but struggling to find a mount.


2. Start "How does your garden grow" which is a mystery stitch from Papillon Creations. I would like to complete first 2 parts of this. Done


3. Continue with Bothy Threads Cut Thru Garden Shed for the Crossstitchcrazy SAT in May and try to beat my total from last month.


4. Stitch one cat from Cat's Alphabet which is my oldest WIP/UFO. Disaster struck. Where this has been a UFO for so long the fabbie has faded and the whole project needs to be ditched!
   

That's my May update so far - some good some very bad!

Here is a pic of "How does your garden grow?" with part 1 and 2 completed. I am so pleased with how this looks so far and I am finding some of the speciality stitches much easier than I thought they would be. I can't wait to get started on part 3. I submitted it to the Papillon website so you can see it there too!

Rachael was given a cross stitch kit for her birthday and we started it today. She has picked it up really quickly so I am pleased with that. I had visions of me tearing my hair out with her or it. I have posted a pic below of her progress so far.

With the nice weather we have been having we have been playing cricket out on the front. Well a version of it anyway! Luke is really good at hitting the ball and is pretty good at catching too. Rachael needs a bit of practice yet. It has been great fun getting out after such a miserable spring. Luke would now like to join a cricket team so we will have to have a look around for one although it may be a bit late for this season.

Rachael's pump start is going well. Her levels have been much more level on the whole and we are loving being able to give tiny corrections when she is only slightly out of range. Set changes are proving to be ok apart from removing the old set. Easing it of in the bath seems to be working ok. I asked Rachael how she was finding not having injections all the time and she was really enthusiatic about the pump.

Part 1 finished

I have finished part 1 of 'How does your garden grow?' It looks amazing! I hummed and hahed over whether to add the beads now or at the end like I normally would. In the end I decided to bead as I went along. Here is a pic of it with all of part 1 done. Hopefully I can do most of part 2 tonight after I have done some of the ironing.

Rachael went live today with insulin in her pump instead of saline. It is great to be able to give her little corrections to stop her going to high where necessary rather than leaving it so she doesn't end up with an injection for 1 unit. There will be a lot of fine tuning to do over the next few weeks but hopefully it should give her much more freedom both with what she eats and keeping her sugar levels within range. This in turn should stop her from going from feeling great to rough and swinging wildly with the highs and lows!

Arrrgggghhhhhhh

When I got up this morning, Colin mentioned that something had been spilled on my cross stitch. When we examined it we realised that what it actually was where the wiped had been left open on the sofa it had soaked through the fabric. As it's on rollers I whipped it off and started to wash it. When I was washing it I noticed that the fabric had faded where it had been stored. Arrggghhh! On the plus side as it now needs restarting it is no longer a WIP. Really it was lucky that it had got wet otherwise I would have stitched downwards and then gone up and would have been really upset to find it after that!

Progress has continued on "How does your garden grow?" and part 1 is very nearly complete now. I will post a progress pic later on tonight.

Tea tonight

Tea tonight was made by Rachael and Luke. They made sausage rolls from skinless sausages and shortcrust pastry. They were really scrummy. They also made more pizzas but also some for me and their dad which we also had for tea. There was a little bit of pastry left over so we got 6 jam tarts out of it as well.

Here is progress on "How does your garden grow" after one day of stitching. As I have never stitched some of the speciality stitches before, it is proving a bit of a challenge. I love the colours that I have chosen for this one. I hope to stitch at least 2 parts this month. I wish I had seen this one when it first came out.

The second part of this looks like it should be a speedy stitch so that should help.

Rachael's pump

So far Rachael's pump has been going well. We have managed to do the set changes each time with no problems. We have discovered that it is easier to remove the old set when she is in the bath and soak off the adhesive. Unfortunately we have ran out of saline so Rachael is disconnected from her pump until Tuesday when we go live with insulin. It's hard to imagine not having to give Rachael injections much anymore. I worked out the other day that she has approximately 1500 injections a year and even more finger pricks to test her blood sugars. It's really scary when you think about things like that! We have received all the other pump pouches and luckily Rachael was pleased with them all. She now has one with dogs on, a Winnie the Pooh one, a purple camoflage one and a wispy purple one. At least she can have a bit of choice now with which one she wears. They all seem to be well made so I would recommend all 3 companies that we bought them from. If you want details, just ask.

I made a start with "How does your Garden Grow" tonight. This is a mystery stitch by Papillon Creations. Currently 4 out of 13 parts have been released so I am a little behind. Some of the parts are quite small so I should hopefully be able to catch up more or less by the time part 5 is released.