Just a Little Bit

I only got a little bit done on The Quiltmaker this time round. I didnt do too badly yesterday but today I had Ozzie for the day and hes much more fun than stitching so there was only about a dozen stitches went in this morning. Instead I helped to Ice Gingerbread men, and then we went into town to take some books to the charity shop and see what we could find which just happened to be a couple of water pistols for bathtime. This afternoon I got peace while he went out to the greenhouse to plant seeds with Grandpa, and what did I do - fell asleep in the chair lol.

This weekend I am hoping to get the challenge done and also a couple of other small and secret bits. Having said that we are off to York for the day tomorrow - I have heard about The Viking Loom so I plan on a visit there. If you know of any other good places do let me know.

Hope everyone has a happy weekend with lots of stitching time. Thank you once again for all your comments they mean so much to me - bless you all.

xx

Part 5 And A Smile Maker

I was not feeling too good yesterday, I think this dreadful weather is getting too me and I have been really headachey over the last few days. I did my ivy leaf first thing and then went into town but by the time I got back I really did not feel up to stitching so QM stayed in the box.

Feeling a little better last night I decided I would just have a go at Gigi (I had already made a start and done half of it a wee while ag0). The result was a finish for part 5 so that was pleasing.


There were a couple of nice things on the doormat when I got back from town however. First a little pink package - I was not expecting anything - and it was my June DD silks arriving early so that was nice and made me smile.

The biggest smile however came when I opened a small envelope from Sally to find she had RAK me with the beautiful Christmas Candle Chart from The Cat's Whiskers. I had admired this when I saw it on her blog and bless her she just knew it was my sort of thing. So BIG BIG thank you Sally, I am still smiling from ear to ear.

xx

Trading

I have been updating my webshots and there is now a link in my sidebar. I have also included my Wish List and My Trade album within the main webshots album now.

On the subject of trading I wonder if anyone has a couple of magazines they would like to trade. I am looking for the Family Tree chart that was included in issue 127 and 128 of the UK World Of Cross Stitching magazine.

If anyone is interested my contact is also in the sidebar.

All Behind

With the bank holiday I seem to have lost track of time this week. Today I was catching up on my Monday Sal as I got no stitching done yesterday, and I missed doing my leaf today too (oh Mr Stick please cover your ears lol). Never mind I will soon catch up and the ivy is definitely first thing on the stand in the morning.

I have still not quite finished the first motif on "I Still Do" but there is more work in these motifs than I had thought, and I am happy enough with what I have achieved. I have not heard from Dawn and I know she is finding the computer too much for her at the moment, but she was stitching so I am just hoping that she has made a start on hers too.

Tomorrow I will be back to my rota and it should be Elegance - Amelia. Last time round I finished Charlotte and Amelia was supposed to take her place but as she is a new start I am going to postpone her for a few weeks. I will therefore be moving on to The Quilt Maker tomorrow. I hope to stick with her for what is left of this week, but we will see as I have a love hate thing with this piece. I know I shall love it when it is finished and I still love the project but for some reason I dont actually enjoy stitching on her very much. I think it was all that blue on her dress that I found so tiresome. Anyway I will see how it goes and it I am not enjoying it I will just move on to Taj.

If I have not visited your blog in the last week I do apologise. I get behind for a few days and its a nightmare trying to catch up. I hate to visit and not leave a comment if possible and it just takes so long, so please bare with me.

Thanks to all those who continue to visit me and especially those lovely people who take the time to leave a comment, it means so much and makes writing this all worth while.

xx

Round The Bend

Hurray - I am now round the bend - probably in more ways than one I can hear you thinking :o) . What I mean is I am now on the corner leaf for the ivy border and have actually gone round the corner and have started on the downward trail. I am amazed how quickly I seem to have reached the corner just by doing one little leaf each day. I will soon be moving down the side and if I get fed up now I will not feel so guilty if I want to do a flower to break the monotony. The one leaf a day has been all I have managed on the stitching front for the last few days, and mostly that has been done in the evening.

We didnt move from the house yesterday as the weather was awful, but the day before we went to Carsington Waters. It was lovely and sunny but there was an icy cold wind which was really strong and rather spoilt it. I have never seen the water with waves on it before lol. Anyway here is a picture of Carsington - though not a very good one, it was not the day for standing about taking pictures.We are off to Stapley Water Gardens today and if you go to the link and click on Palms Tropical Oasis you will see what we are up to.

Happy Stitching

xx

Green & Cream

Its very hard to tell from the picture but there is an apex to the house in that gap at the top :o) .

What with this and the Ivy leaf I have been doing each morning I feel like its been months since I have seen anything apart from green and cream. The picture should be clickable so you might get a better idea with that. I can hardle belief it but the last time I had this piece out was on the 3rd of July last year and this is where I left it at that point so I am quite pleased that the outside border is now complete. Hopefully it will not be so long until this one is out again, now I have really got back into the rota. One or two people have remarked on not knowing what hardanger house was and all I can really tell you is that it is one of a set of 5 buildings I have. There are two houses, two shops (a toy shop and a florist) and a church. The church was the first on I did and I finished that at the beginning of last year. These pieces are all stitched in two layers


the top layer being the outer part of the building with the hardanger windows cut out and the bottom layer contains the view from inside. This is the church I did to give you some idea.

Hope you all have a brilliant bank holiday weekend with lots of stitching and sunshine.

Thank you once again for all your lovely comments, you make me smile everyday.

xx

A New Start and A Leaf

This is the start of my SAL with Dawn.



It is Ink Circles - I Still Do and I am stitching in on 36 ct Edinburgh Linen Flax, using Carries Creations Heart on Fire. I am quite pleased with the amount I got done because I had completely forgotton that yestersay was my post op check up at the hospital. So no stitching for me during the afternoon and no evening stitching on this one as I am using 36 count - I know thats not fine for some of you but for me it is super fine and I need good daylight and my magnifier to see it. I hope Dawn was up to stitching on hers too and I look forward to seeing a progress picture from her.



This morning I have stitched an Ivy leaf - how exciting - well my Garden Alphabet has a border of them all round it and I find them really boring to stitch so I have been naughty and not done them. Now I have quite a number to stitch across the top and down each side before I can move down to the next line of Letters and Flowers (the interesting bits). Anyway I decided that if I had a UFO day and stitched nothing but Ivy leaves I would end up with the men in white coats coming to take me away ha ha. Therefore I am going to stitch a leaf each morning - I have about 14 or 15 at least to do so that will be my first job each day for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully this way it will not seem quite the task it is looking to be at the moment.



Right I am off to find my Hardanger House, I know there is not much done on that so will see if I can add a little more.



Happy Stitching to you all

May's Rose

Here is part 5 of the EMS Rose SAL which I am still really enjoying though I will admit I was getting a little bored with stitching brown letters yesterday. There were two more partial letters on this part but I would rather wait until next time and complete each letter as I stitch it.

Yesterday on the way to town we stopped off at a local garden plant sale. We got three tomatoe plants for the greenhouse and some tiny alpines for my front wall and also for the side of the waterfall as we lost a lot at the side of the waterfall when we got a leak last year. I also bought some fuschias for my Mum who is an avid fuschia grower and as there were some with names I did not recognise I treated her. So this morning we have been to visit Mum and then to the Garden Centre to get more compost. I am just having a nibble of lunch which writing up my blog and then I am going into the garden to help DH for a while. Hopefully I will get some stitching done later.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend with nice weather and lots of stitching time.


xx

A Couple More Fairies....

... have now appeared at the bottom of my garden. I have really enjoyed stitching on this one as I always do yet though I know I have achieved quite a lot there is just still so much to do. I also did an awful lot of backstitching as last time I was lazy and didnt do any lol.

This afternoon I am going to make a start on EMS Rose SAL but I am not making plans for the weekend as if the weather is nice we have plans out in the real garden. This got sadly neglected last year and really needs a lot of work. I have seen the first of my tiny rosebuds appear this morning and everything is shooting well but in some cases a little too well.

Thank you to all those who visit my site and especially to those few who take the time to leave me a comment. You are the ones who make it all worth while.

xx

Not Liquorice - But Allsorts

Firstly I want to ask if anyone knows how Dawn (Mystic Stitching Witch) is keeping. I last heard from her on the 26th April when she seemed to be recovering well and was just waiting for me to get my fabric sorted so that we could start on "I Still Do". Despite several emails I have not heard from her since and I am worried that she has had a relapse so if anyone does know any info I would be very grateful to hear from you.

Edit - Panic over as Dawn saw this and got in touch. Thanks Dawn

What a great weekend weatherwise. Saturday the weather did cause a little disappointment lol, well we were supposed to be at a kite flying weekend and there was not so much as a whispering breeze so the kites stayed in the car. It was disappointing for me too, as no boys games meant no stitching for Granny. We had gone to Rufford Country Park for the Kite Flying Day but we still had lots of fun. The bluebells were all out in the woods and it looked wonderful, and there were lots of new ducklings and sygnets to see on the lake. Also a brand new play area which got a big thumbs up from Oz. (some pics at the end).
Sunday was lots more water babies as we decided we would go to Attenborough Nature Reserve for a nice walk in the morning. When we arrived it was Sunflower Sunday and so Oz got to plant a sunflower in a little pot to bring home, make a potatoe print sunflower to be cut out and stuck on the big sunflower shape they had at the entrance and also to make a sunflower suncatcher to bring home for Grannys house. In the afternoon we went to Asda (wallmart) to do some shopping for Great Granny (my mum lol) and then took her things and went on a visit before taking Oz back to his mummy and daddy.
Needless to say not a lot of stitching got done and all my plans went to pot. I did get a little done on Frosty Panes but nothing at all on EMS Rose.

As we do not get too much sunshine in this country I am not going to feel guilty for enjoying the weather instead of stitching :0).

Yesterday and this moring I have been busy with my UFO and I managed to get the missing dragonfly, a little bird and all of the "I for Iris" done so I am really pleased with my progress and again I do not feel in the least bit guilty for missing last week now lol. I popped it under the bottom of my lovely Montana this week so that you could enjoy some real flowers again.


Next it will be back to Fairies At the Bottom of My Garden, which I am looking forward to as it seems such a long time since that was last out

And lastly I will leave you with some picture of our weekend but if you are not interested in them then you can leave now and get back to your stitching lol.

RUFFORD COUNTRY PARK


at the ford the kids watch for the cars, then they all shout faster, faster as the car approaches, the faster they go the bigger the splash - needless to say the slow ones get boo's lol.




ATTENBOROUGH NATURE RESERVE






All the pictures are clickable so you can see them better (worth it to see the bluebells in the wood)

xx

I'm Dancing !!!

SECRET GARDEN

by Loopylou Designs

Started August 2006

Finished - 9th May 2008

It really doesnt seem to have taken that long to stitch but then over the last year my rota has been left of quite a lot so I guess I really havent spent a lot of time on this. Apart from getting in a complete and utter mess with the flower infills - finally ripping them out and doing spiders webs instead (Lynda you will be pleased to know i did persevere and I can now do the flowers lol). I really enjoyed this one and found one or two new challenges along the way which is something I always enjoy.

Next on the rota list is Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden, but before that I have the weekend which is rota free and I also have to play catch up with my UFO, which is not really going to be a challenge because the next flower is an Iris which I love and I also have a wee bee (or dragonfly - cant remember lol) and a little bird to slip in between the flowers so I am looking forward to doing that.

For the weekend I think Saturday is going to be a new challenge as I am going to have a go at the Canvas Work that Lynn - (Brown Owl) - sent me and Sunday I am going to make a start on the next section of EMS Rose.

Lastly I want to say a big hello to all those people who visit but dont necesserily want to, or have time to leave a comment. I usually get a few comments each day and though maybe 8 - 10 people visited me each day. Wednesday night I added a tracker to my blog and I was amazed that I had 72 visits in the first 24 hours it was on. What is more it tells you where the visits come from - the UK and USA, even Aussie I expected but there were people from Holland, Portugal, Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore, The United Arab Emirates and even Russia. I am just amazed that so many people from all over the world are visiting my blog and I just hope that I make it interesting for you to see. Thanks each and every one of you and a special Hug to those that do leave comments as they are so much appreciated.

xxx

Not A Lot

The title describes how much I got done or not done on Gracious Era this time round. I really am making progress with the background but it is just so boring to stitch that one day on it is quite enough for now. The buildings on the left hand side are just starting to come into view and once they are done and I start moving down and working on the people I just know I will enjoy it more.

So that was yesterdays progress and today should have been UFO day but I forgot lol. Anyway I got the next one on the rota out which is Secret Garden and I have really enjoyed stitching this today and as it is getting reasonably close to the bottom now I am going to stick with this for a day or two and see if I can have a Happy Dance. So after that I will do UFO, honest Mr Stick I will do 2 days of UFO if you promise not to get cross lol.

I have been asked why I never show any of my holiday photos and I have to be honest and say I find other peoples holiday pics can often be boring, not all I admit but quite a few so I dont want to bore others. Anyway I have come up with a compromise and I thought I would alter my heading photo every month or so and show you some pictures that way, so I hope that will do. This month I thought I would show you a view of Coniston village as we made our way back from the lake on Monday morning.

Thanks for all the lovely comments, and I do hope Karan has read all those relating to her gift. Would you credit it the silly girl was actually worried that her stitching would not be good enough for me. Let me assure you Karan your stitching is beautiful and lots of other people have said so too.

I've Been Spoilt

Just look what came in my post this afternoon. I was the lucky person who received Karan's Stitch and Stash challenge piece. She has done the most beautiful tiny ornament. It is stitched on a dark cream fabric in a light cream thread and is just so so neat. It also has little cream seed beads round the edging and the hanger is also made from seed beads, and there is a tiny silver heart that says Made With Love. I am absolutely bowled over by this lovely and unexpected gift - thank you seems such an inadequate word sometimes. I also received one of Karans beautiful hand made cards and a little chart from JBW Designs called Peaceful home. I know just where I am going to put that once Ive stitched it.

Here are a couple more pictures

I am sure you will agree that this really is stunning.

Thank you again my dear friend.

A Weekend Away

Last week my hubby told me not to make any arrangements for the weekend as we were going away. That was it and he wouldnt tell me where so it was a lovely suprise to end up just outside Ambleside in the Lake District. He had booked us in at a beautiful Country House Hotel called Crow How. The weather as we drove up there on Friday was lovely, and Saturday was a beautiful day very un-lake district weather lol. We did the Coffin Walk from Ambleside to Grasmere and then back along Grasmere and Rydal lakes. We took it slowly with lots of stops to admire the scenery and for cakes and hot chocolate by the river when we reached Grasmere so I really enjoyed it. Saturday was more Lakeland weather as it rained for most of the day so as we are National Trust members we went to Sizeburgh Castle for the day. Today the sun was shining again so we drove to Coniston and spent the morning by the lake before driving home again.

Oh yes I took some stitching but thought I would take something on aida so it would be easy on the old eyes. Quite appropriate as we were in the Lake District with lambs everywhere we looked.

This is an "any child" piece for Love Quilts.

This Weeks UFO Update

I didnt enjoy stitching the Hibiscus as much as I have the other flowers and I think it was because it didnt look right as I was stitching. However now its done and the backstitch has been added its lovely. As it was such a lovely afternoon I managed to take the picture outside amongst the forget me nots and bluebells, the garden is looking very bluey at the moment with these flowers on the ground and the lilacs and wisteria just coming into bud above them.

Thanks for all the lovely comments. They are really appreciated and I just love to know you enjoy looking at my work.