April Stitch From Stash

Oh dear I have been a bad girl this month! Hanging head in utter shame!

April Report

Carried Fwd from March : £79.09

Amount Spent : £25.25

Earned : £8.00 ( for CCN Frosty Forest )

Balance to carry over to May : £86.84

At least I am still doing OK and hopefully April will have just been a wee glitch although I still have the Shepherd's Fold to come yet and the first part of that is the most expensive.  Oh well I should be OK! Lol.

So what have you buying I hear you ask?! Well I really really wanted the Little House Needleworks Welcome Spring chart that comes with the 3 new Classic Colorworks threads. Of course I couldn't find anywhere in the UK that had it so I decided to do an order from the USA. I haven't ordered for a while due to increased postage costs, I ordered from Down Sunshine Lane  in the end and these arrived last week. I also had my auto from Patchwork Rabbit and even though the chart does not count the threads and fabric do and I have also paid an invoice for the next 2 Lizzie Kate 3 Little  Words charts. Certify me now please!

I have had another little finish this week. As you know Barb and I do a Halloween SAL on a Monday evening and last week I started Val's Stuff Scaredy Cats and here it is now finished! I haven't counted this towards my earnings as I'm not sure if magazine designs  count.

Val's Stuff Scaredy Cats

Unknown fabric

DMC

Onto my progress now. I am hoping for a page finish on my robin by the end of May. I can see I am making progress but I can't see it being finished when I would like it to be. Once my garden journal pieces are finished I am planning on stitching 2 evenings on my robin just to try and make  it happen. There have been a lot of colour changes on this page so it has slowed me up a lot so fingers crossed the next page will go quicker!

My second SAL of the week with Barb is the Shepherd's Bush one and I have to say I am loving being back to stitching their lovely designs . This is where I am at on My Mom's Garden.

Our third SAL is, of course,  the classic Christmas ornaments and Christmas Cookies. We are both going to be finished on this one this week so look out for new starts on the next one next week :).

Good progress was made on October's Marigold. I just love the orange and black combination on this one.

Final one I can show is the May cottage . I seem to going so slow on this one and it needs to be finished very soon! April is going by too quickly!

Abi came home from work one day last week feeling a little down and after tea wanted to go for a walk so off we went. I had my camera with me and guess what I took photos of lol!

 These little sweeties were looking for their mamas.

This sparrow was hiding in the hedge but making lots of noise!

That's it from me for this time. Thank you for continuing to visit me :)

Until next time.

Take care everyone.

With much love

Sally xxx

Just A Little Stitching Lol!

It's been a busy week this week as my DH and Abi have been on holiday so we've been out and about a bit. So stitching has been not so productive as by the time we've got home time has been getting on. However I didn't miss an evening's stitching so that is good lol! I had planned on getting to the little fabric shop in Cottingham that Chris introduced me to but we didn't make it. Bummer! 

Before I forget I have added a couple more charts to my for sale page above. Please email me if you are interested :)

So without further ado time to show what I have been stitching! Oooh I forgot that I could show you my Four Seasons SAL finish last post so here it is. Not finished up as I wanted some small pom pom trim in different colours so that I could finish it the same as the Winter Witch that Julie stitched me for my birthday but I haven't managed to get any as yet.

The Snowflower Diaries Spring Witch

Unknown fabric

DMC

I'll be stitching the Summer one soon :)

I had another finish on Monday. It only ended up as a finish because I messed up so I didn't stitch the outer border! 

Blue Ribbon Designs Perched on a Pumpkin

40 count Sand linen

DMC

I need to get my next Halloween start chosen ready for tomorrow and my continuing SAL with Barb :).

No new start on Tuesday as I hadn't got anything kitted up. I know what I'm starting but won't be able to show it for a while. The cottages have now moved to parlour stitching with Barb and the ladies over at Needlecraft Haven so here's a little progress on May. Loving these colours!

Barb and I have started a new SAL :) This time it's Shepherd's Bush themed. Barb started Earth Gatherer I think and I started My Mom's Garden. Barb very kindly passed the chart onto me when she had finished with it a few years ago. I have subbed the threads for DMC best I could and I'm stitching it on 32 count vintage country peach linen. Just a small start :)

A little more progress was made on October's Marigold. I really, really want to get this series finished so that I can have another evening to work on my robin.

And here is my robin, my SAL with my surrogate sis Lisa! 

Finally mine and Barb's final SAL is, of course, the CCN ornaments. Here's how Christmas Cookies is looking :)

I was so excited to see that I had won a chart in Chris' giveaway. Look what I entered for and won!

Yes I know it's so me! I think I'll be stitching this chart a few times :). Thank you so much Chris :)

Last post I showed a photo of the shawl I knitted for Abi after it been blocked once. Well here it is again after the second blocking modeled by Abi :)

Before I go I'll show you a few photos from last week. Well one from York ( the minster ) and a few from Honeysuckle Farm :)

Until next time.

With much love.

Sally xxx

Major Happy Dance!

Get those disco balls out and your dancing shoes on folks as a major happy dance is coming up!

Country Cottage Needleworks Frosty Forest

32 count pearl grey linen

DMC, GAST, WDW and Classic Colorworks

Started 17th March 2014

Finished 2nd April 2015

I LOVE how this turned out! I have counted each block as a finish over the last year and I think that helped me keep going with it. I don't know how I'm going to finish it yet but I'm thinking cushion. It won't be washable though so I may have to rethink. So that's one more to the ever growing finishing pile. 

So new start for me next week :) Well two new starts actually! I'm moving my CCN cottage stitching to Wednesdays in the parlour over on Needlecraft Haven so new start no. one will be on Tuesday. I haven't decided what it will yet but maybe a Lizzie Kate. Second new start will be a new SAL for Barb and I on Thursdays. We're going back to our Shepherd's Bush SAL. I will be starting My Mom's Garden ( unless the fold arrives before then! ) and Barb will be starting Earth Gatherer. I'm really looking forward to some SB stitching again. Oooh typing of SB stitching I finished the All Seasons fob and I have forgotten to take a photo again. Sigh! I'm going to see if I can get it made up over the Easter weekend. 

I forgot to say that the UB Designs Beerenherz im Winter is now for sale. Please email me if you are interested :)

WIPs now. Not so many to show until I get those new starts lol! I had a new start on Tuesday and that was the CCN May Cottage. I didn't get a good start on this as I messed up ( I told that silly frog to stay away! I need to yell frogs legs before each stitching session I think! ) and had to unpick most of what I'd stitched but, thankfully, it wasn't a massive amount when I realised I'd made a mistake. Love these colours.

A little more progress was made on Ocotober's Marigold. These colours are gorgeous and it really pops! 

And a little more Halloween stitching on Perched on a Pumpkin. The owl is so cute. I'm going to look through the Halloween mags to see if I have anymore Blue Ribbon Designs ones. I know there is a big one so what I might do is take a bit from that so I can stick to ornament sized pieces. I'm in a BRD mood!

I haven't taken a photo of my lovely robin as there wasn't a great deal to show to look out for that next post. 

Do you remember the shawl I was knitting for Abi and what a pain it was? Well I did finish it a while ago and have kept forgetting to take a photo. Anyway a friend from the craft group I go to lent me her blocking wires this week and I tried using them but couldn't get on with them at all. I ended up bending a couple of them and was so upset with myself. So my ironing board came out and I steam blocked it but Abi has decided she wants it bigger. This is it after steam blocking and as you can see the top edge is not straight. I've set about blocking it again this morning by just pinning it out and realised that the top edge is meant to be curved round at the ends! Duh! So we'll see how it turns out this time!

I have left THE best until last. When I arrived home from my Auntie Mary's funeral on Wednesday there was a package waiting for me from my dear friend and SALing partner Barb. Look at what was inside.

Isn't it amazing! It was made by Barb's very talented DH Martin and the gorgeous card was made by the equally talented Barb. I could not believe my eyes when I opened the package. I have told my girls that when anything happens to me they must keep all the Martin made beauties as well as all the Barb and other friends made beauties! 

Thank you for all your lovely comments and all your hugs on my two aunties passing. My Auntie Mary's funeral went well and me, my sister and our cousin ( my Dad's brothers son ) found out something we never knew. Her name was actually Constance and Mary was her middle name! We saw 2 of my Dad's cousins as well as one of my Mum's cousins who I had never met before. Well not that I remember! It seems strange now that that my Dad and his two siblings are gone but they are reunited now and will no doubt be getting into all sorts of mischief together with their spouses and parents! This is a photo of my Dad, Auntie Mary, Uncle Bill and their parents from way back when :) My Dad is in between my Grandma and Auntie Mary.

That is all from me for this time. Hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend and don't eat too many eggs! Lol!

Take care everyone.

With much love,

Sally xxxx