Saturday 27 February 2010

Oh Happy Day!

No I am not singing!!! Lol! That is the title of my latest Shepherd's Bush roll finish! The weather has been rubbish here, dull, rainy, high winds, and now it's misty :( I long for some frosty, sunny days but at least this roll is bright and cheerful.


Shepherd's Bush Happy Day Roll

28 count vintage country cream linen

DMC & GAST

Started 23th February 2010

Finished 24th February 2010

At least while the weather has not been good I have been productive with my needle and thread. I wasn't looking forward to making my Shepherd's Purse up as I was worried that it wouldn't come out as it should. It's not perfect but nevertheless I am very happy with it. I did have a picture of the back of it but for some reason I can't get it to upload!


Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Purse Kit

Started February 9th 2010

Finished February 19th 2010

The chart, leftover silks and beads ( may well be plenty to stitch this) are now for sale. Please email me if you are interested.

When I'd finished the SB roll I shamelessly ( yes that word again!) had a new start. Strange how I no longer feel guilty starting something new ( thanks Lisa!). This one has been sitting in my stash for a while now so I sorted some 36 count fabby and chose a DMC Variation thread and set about it! It is With My Needle Quaker Hornbook which was a class piece and I was lucky enough to be in time to get it from The Sampler Guild. I absolutely love this colour!

Finally I received a package from Mylene last Saturday containing these lovely finishing fabrics, braids and a necklace kit. Just before Christmas I had sent her some Victorian Motto threads to try ( the ones I used on Needleprint Beatrix Potter Quaker Sampler) and these are what she kindly sent me for doing that. Thank you Mylene.

I am going to be naughty and have a lazy afternoon stitching on Shores. Unfortunately the stitches I put in last night all had to come out because I was one stitch short in the border and didn't realise until the red seaweed wouldn't go right so out that came as well as one side of the border! I wouldn't mind but I counted the border three times!!! Maybe I need to go back to school and learn how to count again!

Lisa and I have been chatting about maybe doing a few SALs together over the year including Just Nan Winter Heart Humbug possibly starting on 1st April and then she mentioned SALexandre which we were going to stitch last year but never got around it. Of course that got me looking at the charts and got us both thinking about what to stitch it on and what threads to use! So now we're thinking about a SAL for that too!!!

Have a wonderful, stitchy filled weeked!

Hugs

Sally
xx

Tuesday 23 February 2010

My Lovely SB Finish

I feel I have quite a successful stitch week least of all because I finished up my lovely Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Purse. It would have been fully finished into a purse but when I looked in my stash box I didn't have any wadding so had to order some and that arrived today so I may have a complete finish ti show you next time. In the meantime here it is. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I don't seem to be able to get good photos. I do have some close up shots but I'm having problems uploading and for some reason I can't move my photos :(


Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Purse Kit
Started 9th February 2010
Finished 19th February 2010
A few weeks ago I did a little stitching on Blue Ribbon Designs Peppermint Twist but forgot to post my progress! Duh! I still have a fair way to go so am thinking when Winter Wingding is done and dusted I will stitch on this on Sundays until it's finished.

And speaking of Winter Wingding I am well on the home stretch now! I think I have fallen in love with this design all over again but not sure what to do with it once it's finished. Lol! Finger's crossed it will be finished next Sunday!

Shores is coming along quite nicely and I am hoping to get block two finished by the end of February. I have two nights to stitch on it before so it might happen! I must admit my old eyes are struggling with the 40 count linen so it's maybe just as well I do only stitch on it two nights a week!


I am still loving my JN piece for the Stitch and Stash SAL and what's the problem with loving and enjoying a piece so much??? Yep you don't want it to end! Lol!

I can't believe we are so close to March. I plan another new start in March and of course it has to be the Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Fob to go with the purse! Today I've started my needleroll for February and I chose Happy Day ( SB of course!).
I have reduced all the stuff for sale in my for sale blog if anyone is interested:)


Have you all been keeping an eye on the new releases from Nashville Market??? I am thankful that out of all the goodies there are I only really really really really really want a few bits! Lol! I will admit to having ordered Little House Needleworks Needle and Thread chart and thread pack along with the Impie Hattie and Bea Scissor Bed and Pin Pillow. I couldn't resist it especially as I've missed out on other stuff like this. I also love the
Just Nan Pretty Winder Pocket so may buy that at a later date too. I have just seen
Just A Thought My Father's Name chart and fallen in love with that! I think I need to stop looking before my just a few things turns into loads!!! So I'll put them on my wish list and try and behave for a bit lol! OMG I just seen the Shepherd's Bush limited edition scissor fob and it's a sheep!!!!!!!! I LOVE it! Be still my heart!!!

I hope everyone is keeping warm in the rather chilly weather we're having in the UK! It's our coldest winter for 30 years apparently.


Take care everyone.

Hugs
Sally

xx

Thursday 18 February 2010

For Barb's Birthday

It was Barb's birthday on Monday and after much deliberation I decided to stitch this for her. Barb likes birds and I thought this little design was sweet and would remind her of summer too seen as we've had a considerably cold winter here in the UK. Instead of the watermelons at the bottom I added out initials. I made it into a little pincushion with a ruched ribbon edge and Barb loves it so I am very happy.

Blue Ribbon Designs Bluebirds and Daisies
25 count fabric
DMC threads
Birthday gift for Barb.

Now onto my WIPs from the last week. CHS Shores is going well but like Nicki I found the threads in the fish you can just see too close so am having to rethink what colour to use there. Other than that this piece is moving along nicely and I am really enjoying it. I am still hoping for a block a month but if it doesn't happen it doesn't matter! OK blogger is not playing nicely. I've lost my piccie of Shores and can't get it to upload again so you'll have to imagine it! Lol!

Blue Ribbon Designs Winter Wingding came out to play again on Sunday after a break the Sunday before. I cannot, for the life of me, get a good picture of this but as you can see I've almosty completed all the little blocks. I got a bit carried away and stitched the remaining outlines of the blocks then realised the one on the bottom right is supposed to be longer like the one on the top left so had to frog!!!


Now onto Just Nan 4 Wishes which I just love. I truly cannot understand why I've had this in my stash for so long and not stitched it. I'm well onto the summer band now and think those frogs look rather comical, as though they are being strung up! Perhaps some unhappy stitcher took her revenge! Lol!


Finally my lovely Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Purse. I have to say I absolutely love this piece and have actually got the stitching completed since I took this picture and am now onto the beading. I just wish I could get a clearer picture of it as it is just so pretty. I'm hoping to get this finished up and made up as soon as I can then next month I plan on starting the fob to go with it!



I have to say that so far this year I'm really enjoying my stitching and looking forward to stitching lots of goodies this year. I want to do a lot more smalls if I can as I'm running out of wall space for framed pieces! Although I do have the urge to pick HAED Guardian up again for some reason so maybe next week there'll be a WIP piccie of him!

Hope you are all well and having a lovely week. It's half term here and Abi and I ventured into Hull yesterday for a shopping trip although she came home with more than I did! At one point all I had to show for a few hours was hairspray!! Lol! We met up with Jess after I'd told her I'd buy her a panini for lunch if she got her butt out of bed and met us early enough! It's amazing how the mention of food gets a university student moving! I don't know why but I'm really missing her at the moment!

That's all my news for now but will just say that I have been naughty and ordered some stash from Fobbles but I won't be getting it just yet so I'm not going to tell you what it is!

Take care everyone!

Hugs

Sally
xx

Thursday 11 February 2010

Shamelessly- I Have A New Start!

Thought you might like to see a piccie of me and my babes from last Saturday night! That's me at the back, with Abi next to me and Jess next to her. We were at my sil's 50th birthday party and the theme was red and black hence we're all dressed in red and black! Lol! I will admit that I did get a little tipsy!

Right onto my stitching now! Lol! Last time I showed you my SB Millennium Roll with the stitching finished and now here it is all stitched up. I absolutely love these rolls as they just so nice to stitch and so quick too. They make a lovely in between project and I am so pleased Chris and I decided to continue with out SAL.
I managed to finish block one of CHS Shores of Hawk Run Hollow this weekend and made, what I consider to be, a very good start on block two. I can see this seaweed becoming a bit of a problem though as I'm bothered I'll have lost track of where I am when I pick it up again! So if you hear very loud screaming that could well be me! Actually I have just noticed from the piccie that I've missed a couple of black stitches from the border of the letter L so will have rectify that when I pick it up tomorrow! I had to laugh reading Nicki's blog about her leaping lambs on block one! Lol! They do look more like leaping lambs rather than seagulls! Both Jane and Nicki have finished their first blocks too so we're all rather pleased!


Not too much done on Just Nan 4 Wishes this week but it's nice to have it growing steadily. I did take back the satin stitch border on the right hand side as it was wrong and have restitched it every carefully this time!


Finally my new start! Yes I did say new start!
Lisa and I have been chatting about all sorts of stitchy related things and it came around to how we felt about our stitching. We decided that we should not feel guilty if we put a project away for a while or even if we never go back to it and if we want to have a new start we should just should go for it regardless of what else we are stitching! Lol! And also stitch on what we want when we want. My rotation does seem to have been working well for me so for now I'm sticking to my Shores on Fridays and Saturdays, Just Nan on Mondays, if I feel like stitching it Winter Wingding on Sunday and the other days anything that takes my fancy! This Tuesday Lisa and I decided we'd have a new start and as I've been wanting to start this for a while I decided on Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Purse and this is my progress for a couple of nights. I am really enjoying this piece so far and love the look of it. I haven't added any beads yet. I was going to add them as I went along but decided to leave them until the end.

So who knows what could happen next week as we've been chatting about trying a mattress pinkeep so I might just have to go through my stash and find a design suitable to have a go! I think Lisa is a bad influence!!! ( only kidding!) lol!


Things seem to be going OK with my Dad although I do still get very frustrated with him. I know it must be hard to accept that you are no longer able to do the things you used to but I do wish he'd admit he does have problems although recently he does seem to taking more notice and actually admitting things.


I am still waiting for my head and neck CT results ( no surprise there!) and it's OK people saying no news is good news I'd just like news!


Hope you are all having a good week. It's been rather chilly here but the sun has been shining which has been so nice and we've had some light snow flurries:)


Take care everyone.


Hugs

Sally xxx

Wednesday 3 February 2010

It's Can't Be February!

It's a bright, chilly morning here on the east coast after a rather harsh frost last night and there is a possibility of more snow later today. There was some snow flurries last Friday, which were forecast, but we most certainly weren't expecting the 3 to 4 inches we woke up to on Saturday morning!

Not much stitching to show this time as I didn't stitch on BRD Winter Wingding this week due to wanting to get the first block of CHS Shores finished for the end of January but as you can see it didn't quite happen! Not much to do though so I should be able to start block two this week, although we're at a 50th birthday party on Saturday night so it may not happen! Lol!


My Just Nan 4 Wishes is going well and I've almost finished the spring part. One of those little yellow ducks caused havoc as he was in the wrong place so he had to be moved lol. Plus I've discovered that the border on the right is off somewhere so I need to take that back but I'm struggling to find where it's wrong so will just take it back and hope I find it!

I picked Millennium Roll for my SB roll for January. Thought seen as it's 10 years since the New Millennium it was quite apt. As you can see it's not made up into a roll yet but it will be soon I hope :)


Thank you for all your kind comments on my gift for Chris. I am hoping to stitch this for myself in reds as I have some red ginghers that need a safe place :)

Well I better go back to my dusting as that's what I should be doing! lol! Got one room done and my enthusiasm has waned! Take care everyone!
Hugs
Sally
xx