Wednesday 29 March 2017

Finishes and New Starts.

Here we are almost at the end of March. The weeks are certainly flying by and I don't like it!! I am so not ready for the hot days of summer as, if previous years are anything to go by, it'll be way too hot for me! Winter and Spring I can cope with quite happily but when it gets too hot I hate it. I guess I will just have to accept what comes :)

So what have been up to since my last post. Plenty of stitching of course and some reading. Not as much reading as there should have been as I have discovered a new game ( Hidden City Mystery of Shadows) and instead of reading before I go to bed I'm playing that instead. Sigh! Last night I made a point of being good and picking up my book instead! My current read is Guards, Guards from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and oh boy it is good! 

Better get chatting about my stitching! I have had two finishes this month so I am quite happy. It's good for my Stitch from Stash ( I'm taking part in a group on Facebook) although I have spent so little I don't really need any credit from finishing! I am going to have a little splurge though when some Nashville releases hit our shores. I so hate having to wait but postage from the States is so ridiculous but then because the pound has been struggling the exchange rate isn't so good so charts etc are getting more expensive here. It's a good job I have plenty to keep me going really! It's not likely to stop me from buying if I really, really want something though!

Anyway the first of my finishes is this sweet little lamb!


Just Nan Lorelei Lamb

32 count white evenweave

DMC

Started 17th February 2017

Finished 17th March 2017.

She was so fiddly to put together I'm actually surprised that she looks like she should!

Second finish is this cutie.

Stitchers Anon Designs Season of Joy

32 count raw linen

DMC

Started 21st February 2017

Finished 23rd March 2017.

I won this chart in one of Gaynor's giveaways so would like to let someone else stitch it and pass it on and we'll make it a travelling pattern. Please say in your comments if you'd like to stitch it. 

As I had finished my piece for my sheep SAL with Barb I had to have a new start didn't I?! I have a few charts with sheep on them ( no surprise really!) and, after much delberation, I decided to start Midsummer Night Designs Bloom which was a gift for my 50th birthday from Lisa in Scotland. I am stitching it on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha linen and am using good old DMC. It is charted for Anchor so I went online and converted it to DMC.

Monday's Barb and I have been stitching on Winter but she has finished hers and is now starting another one of the seasons. I am still stitching away on mine but, hopefully, I should have it finished soon.I don't know what I'll be stitching once it is finished but we'll still be SAling even if we're stitching different things.

I have been quite bad and had two more new starts. As you know I got HAED Guardian out again for the challenge on the HAED Facebook group. Well as excited as I was to be stitching on it again I have ended up not enjoying stitching on any of my HAEDs. Three is just too many to have on the go at one time so I made the decision to put Guardian away again until one of my others is finished. If I end up hating stitching them I may well never stitch another again and I really don't want that. After all we are supposed to enjoy our hobbies aren't we? So I had a new start in Guardian's place. I have been itching to get started on this since last December. Well, actually, probably since I bought it God knows how many years ago. This one is Atelier Perdu The Magic ( no longer available). I am stitching it over one on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha. Yep I did say over one! That is what it says on the chart. It is fine unless you have a visit from the frog! Getting those little stitches out is not easy and at one point I did think shall I just throw this piece and cut another but I didn't want to waste it! So out it came and I managed to get the bit restitched. 

My other new start was at craft group yesterday. I had been stitching Season of Joy there so, as that is finished, I started LHN My Lady at Christmas. I had ordered Chromatic Alchemy Cassa-Rose ( my last splurge before the start of the New Year ) especially to stitch this one. I didn't get a massive amount stitched but it's not bad for 2 hours including chatting and a tea break!

I have also been doing some finishing. I had 3 things sewn up ready to put trims etc on and they've been sitting there for a few weeks. One of them is Mouse's ( very late) birthday gift. I was telling my girls yesterday how awful I felt ( to be fair I didn't start stitching it until after her birthday because I struggled with what to stitch ) and Abi said when is her birthday. I said January! Jess had this look on her face that said "What?!!" and Abi burst out laughing. So I was shamed into doing something about it! So Mouse your very late birthday gift will be in the post tomorrow! I will show it next time I blog. Here are the other two finished!


Sotto La Neve is coming along nicely and should, hopefully, be finished soon. I think I will be sick of stitching white at the end of it though. I am almost done with the white in the trees then I have to do the ground in white and then all the snow falling! I know it'll be worth it.

Of course no post would be complete without Mini Jolly Old Fellow and my dragon! I don't know if you can see where I've stitched on Mini Old Fellow as it's all light thread but I should be stitching some blue next week! The dragon is going well too. I'm feeling better about these now that Guardian has gone away again. 


That is all my stitchy news for now. Thank you for visiting me and for all your lovely comments. 

Until next time.

With much love.

Sally xxx




Friday 3 March 2017

March?!

Well here we are in March! Really??!! It hardly seems like 5 minutes since last Christmas. Oh how I wish time didn't go so fast! It also hardly seems like 5 minutes since I did my last post. I don't seem to be getting any better at keeping up with it all but never mind. At least I keep trying I guess.

So since my last post I've finished something that I can't show. It needs making up but my enthusiasm has been non existent. Maybe this weekend I'll give myself the mighty push I need and get it done. No other finishes but I am hoping to have the odd one or two this month.

However I have had a page finish and a couple of new starts. The page finish was on my lovely Father Christmas. It's been a long time coming but page 5 is finally done so I just have 4 partial pages. Doesn't seem much when I say it like that but it's still plenty lol.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to start Just Nan's Lorelei Lamb which Chris bought me for my birthday in 2015. Well start it I did although I haven't got a massive amount done. I just hope it actually looks like a lamb by the time I have finished!

My other new start is Stitchers Anon Designs Season of Joy which was one of the charts I won in Gaynor's giveaway on Facebook. I am stitching this one at craft group and am loving every single stitch.

I have some determination to get Sotto La Neve finished. Last week I ended up frogging quite a lot of one of the trees as I had miscounted so I was not a happy girl. This week it went much better and I've started filling in bits of red on the trees. Hopefully it won't be too much longer but there is a LOT of white to stitch!

Winter is coming along nicely. I'm leaving the back stitching until last and just concentrating on getting the cross stitching done. I started the door this week. Barb is working on the W.

I am still stitching a bit each week on Guardian but I doubt very much that I will manage to finish the challenge of a page finish. I am not even half way yet and there is only about a month to go. I should have known really that just stitching on it one evening a week would not be enough but I'm not stressing about it! If I manage it I do and if I don't, no worries!

Finally it's progress on the final page on SK Dragons History. I am so over this WIP! I will finish it but I'm just not feeling it anymore. When it's done I'll be making it into a bookmark for Abi. 

That's all my stitching news for now. On the book front I set myself a challenge on Goodreads of reading 15 books this year. I really need to get more read if I'm going to do that! I am doing a little better now. At the moment I'm reading Alice by Christina Henry. I bought it last year after seeing it in Waterstones then  after reading some reviews I wasn't sure if I really wanted to read it. However I started it last weekend and am really enjoying it. It's very dark and disturbing, not my usual read, but it is very good.

That's all from me for now. 

Until next time.

With much love.

Sally xxx