What a lot has happened...

Hello, hello, and welcome one and all/or anyone still reading blogs.

Rather than make this one huge, long post, I think I will break it up into several different ones. 
So!  What has been going on since last time?

Well...last September, I thought it would be a good idea to start another university degree.  I mulled over whether to go down the maths route or the science one.  Eventually, I decided to go for Natural Sciences with an Environmental Science specialism. However, I have since discovered that the biology bits (that I thought I would love), I hated and the chemistry (that I thought was scary), was absolutely amazing!  Anyway, still waiting for the results of the first module which might make my mind up for me.

In March, I turned 50.  I had a brilliant birthday and Rachael was a sneaky little madam and asked some of my favourite floss tubers to make me a birthday video, which all but one obliged with.  It was a brilliant surprise and just proves that Luke takes far more notice of who I watch than he admits to. Although, even he admits to enjoying The Addicted Sisters and Stitching Jules.

Kids...well I don't have any anymore apparently.  They are both now fully fledged and legal adults.  Luke turned 18 at the start of this month, has finished his A levels (and is also awaiting results) and has left college. He plans to go to uni if he gets the results he wanted but he was ill for the middle week of exams and so we are on tenterhooks.  He did sit the exams but had a bucket next to him for 3 days.

Rachael finished for the year - 2nd year of uni, I can't believe it! She has saved loads of her student loan and is off to Dubai and Malaysia for a few weeks.  Whilst she is there she is doing a research project which will make up part of her year 3 work.  She has been with her young man for 14 months now and seems happy with him.  He has been to stay with us twice (when she has been home or it would be a bit weird) and he is a lovely lad.  He looks after her and treats her well - what more can I ask for from him? 

Cats are still as doolally as ever.  Biskey, despite being 12 is as kittenish as ever and can be relied on to wake me at 6 every morning. Maybe one day he will realise that weekends don't count - but I doubt it.  Smudge is still allergic to life and needs a steroid injection every 6 weeks or so but other than that he is rocking along nicely.

In stitching, I have had a few finishes, a few starts and a few FFOs.  I will do a separate post to show you all that though.  I have been trying not start anything new and have definitely not been buying anything new - oh other than collecting the Letters from Mum series.  I did get a Lowery stand for a combined Christmas, birthday and Mother's Day present.  How on earth have I survived without it for all these years?  It is amazing!

Well...I think that will do for now.  Stitching stuff to follow in the next couple of days.

Finally...an update

Hello to anyone who is still around, the whole world seems to have switched over to Flosstube which seems to have become a bit of an obsession of mine!  There are so many talented stitchers out there showcasing their work. Even the stitch with me videos are great as I can stitch along and just listen to them talk about what's going on in their lives - but you know all this!  Rachael keeps saying that I should do my own flosstube video - honestly that girl is MAD!  Rachael is is a big fan of Flannel Jammies Farm and Luke will 'sit through' (watching but he'd never admit it!) The Addicted Sisters.

So...since I last posted I haven't really had any finishes.  I am in the middle of stitching a hardanger ring cushion for my workmate for her wedding in October.  I have just started the cutting - argggggghhhh!  It's scary!

I have stitched another page and a partial page on Poppy Dance and have now finished the top row of it.  When I pick it up, I find it hard to put it down again even if it is slow going to see any progress on it.

Poppy Dance
Marianne Broome
1 over 1 28ct white jobelan

And the whole thing so far :)

I have also finished February's part on the Under the Sea SAL from Lakeside.  Well I say finished but I need to get a thread to finish one of the fish but other than that, it's finished!  I started on May's design as that meant I didn't need to move the Q-Snap.

January and February
Under the Sea SAL
Lakeside Needlecrafts

I am still working through the focus pieces for the year for the rest of the year but I am planning on a new start in the first time for a long time.  I have started collecting the Letters from Mom (that will be getting spelt properly - sorry US readers) and plan on stitching one each for Rachael and Luke.  I'm not sure that Luke will appreciate it though. 

Cauldrons (aka Spell Check) is another cute little Hallowe'en finish that I can't for the life of me remember where it came from.  I am going to hazard a guess that it was from an old issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. I'll have to go and have a root through and see if I can find it.  I do know that the fabric was Pumpkin Patch from Sparklies.

Cauldrons -
Fabric - Sparklies Pumpkin Patch

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.

        

3 finishes in 3 days

After finishing Oh Christmas Tree yesterday, I asked Luke to choose a number 1 - 16. I can't remember which number he chose but it corresponded to one of the designs that I had already stitched.  Therefore, I made the decision to stitch an ornie from last year's JCS ornie issue for the Facebook SAL. 

After stitching the silly thing twice with all the unpicking I had to do, it was finished earlier tonight.
I changed the threads to just random ones from my stash and the fabric is just the same random piece that I have used all for all my ornies this year.

The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - Snow Much Fun at the North Pole

Sit down before you read this!!!

Ok...this is a shock...please sit down...put that brew down...make sure the de-fib is close by.

Are you done? Ready?

I have another finish!!!  I would love to say I finished them on the same day but sadly I had to stay up until 1.30am to finish it so I suppose that isn't really the same day.  But...even better...I can say that I had 2 finishes within 12 hours!

So drumroll please... 

All Through the Night - Oh Christmas Tree

This is the 5th finish from my list of 25 that I want to finish or at least make a load of progress on (never going to finish a HaED or 3 in a year!)  There are actually 17 designs that I want to finish this year on the list so I feel like I am doing quite well so far.

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.

15! FIF...TEEN!!!!

15?  15 what I hear you ask. See if you can guess before you read any further.

15 little itty bitty Christmas finishes that need FFOing.  Well! Luke is away on a college residential to the Lake Distric next week so I could get the sewing machine out and leave it on the kitchen table all week!! So, watch this space!

I got my Around the World in 80 Stitches out during the week as it fitted most of the Stitch Maynia Olympic challenges.  I didn't do much - it was the last week of term which is always hectic as we have to fit EVERYTHING in that doesn't want carrying forward to next term into it.

To add to the Christmas shame...I finished another design yesterday.  In my defence, it is almost FFOed.  All it needs is some felt on the back to cover up the stitching mess that is there. Snowflake Tree by Mill Hill stitched on perforated paper.  It was my first time using the stuff and I am still undecided whether I like it or not.  It is a really cute design and will be lovely on my little ornie tree this year.  This was one of the projects on my focus list for the year which means I have now finished 3 projects off that.

Mill Hill - Snowflake Tree

In other news, Luke brought home a trip letter from college this week.  I think I prefer the good old primary school days when a trip letter meant finding a tenner to pay for it.  This one is a 'psychology' trip to New York for 5 days.  A mere £1000!!!  Sorry, I shouldn't exaggerate, I do get £15 change from my £1000.  Still they are packing in absolutely tons of activities in the short time they are there so it will be well worth it - especially since it will be the first time he has ever left the country!  I wonder if I could get him to go cross stitch shopping for me???  Hmmmm...

Well! This is getting to be a bit of a habit!

Well what a busy stitching week I have had.  Watching flosstube and stitching is as good as it gets I think.  I love feeling like 'someone' is stitching with me (even if I am rather late to the party!)

This week has seen Positive Thinking getting a little (actually quite a lot) of TLC.  I had finished all of part one, some of part two and the words for part three. I can now confirm that ALL of part two is done as is ALL of part three. This was going to be my focus piece until either it was finished or I got bored.  However, as a Stitch Mayniac, I decided to do the Olympic Stitching Challenge which has different challenges for each day.

Before!

Positive Thinking SAL - Jardin Prive

Friday, for the Opening Ceremony was either a new start (NOOOOOOO!!!!!) or work on your most recent start.  I am pretty sure that the last thing I started was Lakeside Needlecraft's Under the Sea SAL. I actually didn't realise that it had been so long since I had started anything, other than the JCS ornies. That's impressive for me :)

Lakeside Needlecraft - Under the Sea SAL

Saturday was to stitch something with a winter theme.  Well in true Jo Perry fashion, I decided that Christmas is in winter and that I could therefore work on Oh Christmas Tree.  I am also going to work on this for the last challenge which is to work on a piece close to a finish.  I am hoping that it will actually get finished.  There is very little left to do - a bit to the bottom right where I couldn't be bothered to move the Q-Snap, the pot it is in and a bigger chunk on the lefthandside. (Justine, would you still like this one when it is finished?  There is hope!)

All Through the Night - Oh Christmas Tree

Sunday was Korean themed day.  Thankfully, the Korean flag has a lot of white - as does iStitch Advent SAL 2015. I am really happy to have got bands 8, 9, 10 and some of 11 stitched today.  I am going to go back to it in a minute and will hopefully get band 11 finished.  The photos are shocking! It stands out so much more in reality.

iStitch - Advent SAL 2015

 

Tomorrow is animal themed day.  I am going to work on Nature Patchwork which was gifted to me  a gazillion years ago and I used to work on when bathing the kids when they were little.  Well not so much when I was bathing them, more supervising the splashing.  Looking at it has given me a warm, fuzzy feeling...awwww.

In other news - Rachael had an interview for NCS on Monday. Well, it wasn't so much an interview as groupwork, interview, presentations and all sorts of activities.  She was complimented by 2 of the 'examiners' on her presentation skills and was offered the job the following morning.  That's the summer holidays taken care of then!!  

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!!!