Happy Easter

Well this year is certainly flying by at an alarming rate! It's a good job I'm getting plenty of stitching in although there is no actual finishing of said stitching going on. I did make a list the other week of the pieces I had that needed finishing to display and there were 14. Now there are 16! I despair!!!!

So, as you may have guessed I have had 2 more finishes. They have been WIPs since September and December so it was time they were finished really! First finish of the 2 was this one.

Renato Parolin Sotto La Neve

32 count Crafty Kitten Latte Murano

DMC

Started 14th September 2016

Finished 5th April 2017.

I just wish I could get a decent photo to show how gorgeous the fabric is. 

Finish no.2 is this one. My Monday night SAL with Barb.

Cross Eyed Cricket Collection Winter

18 count Silkweaver Expressions Blueberry Delight

DMC

Started 2nd December 2016

Finished 12th April 2017.

I just love how this looks on this fabric. I am so pleased with it.

So you would think that 2 finishes would mean 2 new starts but I have been very restrained so far and just had 1 small new start. This is Lizzie Kate Good Things which I've had in my stash for..............................hmmm I don't actually know. A LONG time! I have no idea what fabric I'm stitching it on but I'm hoping it'll look OK when it is finished!

As I said in my last post I was going to treat myself to some Nashville releases when they reached our shore. Well they reached our shore at the end of March at Peakside Needleworks. I did buy 2 of the CCN Jump for Joy and gifted one to my dear friend Barb for our sheep SAL! The good thing is I'd sold some charts that I had finished with and that paid for them and I have a bit leftover :)

Before I forget the winner of the Stitchers Anon chart is Brigitte. Brigitte please email me your address and I'll get it in the post to you after Easter.

I can now show the gift for Mouse as she has received it and I am very happy to say she like it.

My Big Toe Designs Stitching Buds

unknown fabric

DMC

Started 14th February 2017

Finished 16th February 2017

I have been making on progress on my other WIPs. This one is driving me a little mad with it being over 1 on 32 count. I have a hard time seeing it when I'm stitching with DMC 3865. It will be worth it but I may have been better with a brighter white!

My Lady at Christmas is coming along rather nicely. All that lacy bit did drive me a little mad but it looks so pretty all done. Just got the colours to fill in and I'll move onto the top of the dress.I am loving the fabric and I can see more purchases from Chromatic Alchemy in the future although probably not this year unless I get desperate!

Barb and I are still stitching away on our Friday night sheep SAL. I am stitching MND Bloom and I finally have a sheep! This is such a lovely piece. 

Of course no post is complete without my 2 HAED WIPs. I have to say I am starting to get very fed up of these! Once these are done I do want to start another but I am just not sure that I can. Oh how I wish I hadn't bought so many of them especially as I can't sell them or give them away with them being PDFs. Hopefully I'll live a very time and still get a few more stitched lol. 

My DH took Thursday off as one of his privilege days so we went to Tophill Low Nature Reserve. Last time we went there wasn't much there but this time.........we saw kingfishers!!!! We have never seen one before and we got to see a pair. They were sitting on eggs so we saw them when one came out of the nest and the other one went in. There were well placed branches for them to sit on so we got loads of photos. Some pretty rubbish to be fair but I'm not getting rid of them! We also saw a pair of grebes carrying nest material, pheasants, egrets etc. Here are just a few photos. 

 Last Sunday we popped into our nearest city Hull, which is this year's city of culture, for a wander round with our cameras.

Well I shall be on my way now and find something to do. I am on my own today as both girls are working and my DH has gone to Tophill Low with a chap from the local photography group. I might see if I can finish reading Guards! Guards!.

Until next time.

With much love.

Sally xxxx

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

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

Birthday Gift For Barb

Hello again. I know it's been a couple of weeks but, to be honest, it wasn't worth me posting as I didn't have much to show. My dear friend Barb had a birthday coming up and I had decided before Christmas what I was going to stitch for her and when I started it in January I thought I had plenty of time to stitch it. Of course I didn't realise just how much stitching there was so I ended up eventually dropping just about everything else except for my Monday SAL with Barb and I was still stitching on our sheepy SAL on a Friday as well as it was sheep I was stitching for Barb! I am so happy to say that Barb loves her gift ( and to be honest so do I!!!). So let me show you what I stitched for her.

Hands on Design Wool Block Party

28 count Zweigert cashel Smokey Pearl linen

DMC

Started 20th January 2017

Finished 12th February 2017

Birthday gift for Barb.

This was just so nice to stitch and I am just delighted with how it turned out. I always get a bit stressed and panic when deciding on what to stitch for gifts so it's lovely when the recipients really love them.

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get page 3 of SK A Dragon's History finished and gridded the final partial page ready for when I pick it up again ( hopefully tomorrow evening). If things go to plan I should have this and Mini Jolly Old Fellow finished this year!

Although the page I'm stitching on Mini Jolly Old Fellow seems to be taking forever! I know I will get there in the end but I'm getting a little frustrated!

Last night I finally got Sotto La Neve out again. It hasn't seen the light of day since before Christmas so this is another one that needs to get finished. I must admit I am dreading stitching all the snow on the trees, the ground and the falling snow! I can't seem to get a good photo of this one today so please excuse the crappy photo.

Final WIP is Winter which is my Monday night SAL with Barb. I am loving this piece so much. It's such a fun piece to stitch. 

I have a few new starts in the pipeline. This evening is sheepy SAL with Barb so I've kitted Just Nan Lorelei Lamb to start. Chris gifted me the chart for my birthday in 2015. I'm looking forward to stitching it and hope that when I make it up it actually looks like a lamb! I kitted The Magic by L'Atelier Perdu back at the end of November with the intention of stitching it in December but it didn't happen. So I'm hoping to start that at some point as well. So much stash to stitch!

As you may well know I am doing stitch from stash through a group on Facebook. Last month I only spent 32 p on a DMC thread that I needed ( local shop is selling them off ) but this month I have spent a little more. I am not feeling too guilty as I am within my monthly budget plus I had finishes that I had credit for. Anyway I bought 2 Stitchers Anon charts as Gaynor is closing her Etsy shop on 1st March and I couldn't miss getting parts 2 and 3 of Holmsey Hare's Winter Wonderland. I got part 1 when Gaynor  had it up for free on her Facebook page a while ago. I definitely won't be having too many purchases this year as I am determined. 

That's all my stitching news for now. I hope I'll be back sooner than I was this time!!!

Until next time.

With much love.

Sally xxx

Stitching December.

Here we are in December and the weather is so dull and yucky! We've had the odd day or two of frosts and beautiful sunshine but it keeps going back to this! I hope this isn't going to be how Winter is. Longing for plenty of frosts and some snow but it doesn't like we're getting any this month according to the forecast.

As you may well know I have been doing a private ornament exchange with Chris for a years and then Barb and I started to exchange as well. Mine to Chris and Barb are in the post and should, hopefully, arrive today and yesterday I received mine from Barb. I can't express how much I love it! It is so me! Thank you so much my dear friend. Here is the front and the back :)

Isn't it gorgeous?

My stitching has slowed up a bit this past week or so as we've had some long days out shopping so I've been too tired to stitch as much. I'm hoping to make up for it though! I have, however, finished the bonus block on my Anniversaries of the Heart piece! Yay!!!!! I now just have to finish the personalisation on a couple of other blocks and frog some I've done as I don't like it!

I have had new starts :) First one is my December SAL with Chris, Ages ago we decided on Country Cottage Needleworks Merry Christmas My Deer and I have chosen to stitch it with the recommended fabric and threads. I took it with me to craft group on Tuesday to get a bit more done but I forgot to take my tin with my needles and scissors in! Duh!!! So I had to knit instead. This is a couple of evenings stitching.

My other new start is my SAL with Barb which is Cross Eyed Cricket Collection Winter. After much deliberation and almost ordering some fabric I decided on some 18 count Silkweaver Expressions Blueberry Delight that I had in my stash! Not much done yet but we'll be stitching away on it tonight.

Next week Barb and I are having our monthly stitch on one thing for a week. I haven't decided whether it will be Winter or this jolly old fellow!

Isn't he looking amazing, even though I say so myself! I am just in awe of how he looks.

Final WIPs is Sotto La Neve which is growing slowly but surely.

At the moment I can't see me getting my other two pieces started that I wanted to start this month but you never know. If I can get the personalisation done on AotH that will be a free slot in my rotation plus I don't think I'm going to get an ornament done for this month but I might do that at craft group. Time is moving on and I have so much to do!

That's all my news for today. Hopefully I'll be back next week to show the ornaments I stitched for Chris and Barb :)

Until next time.

With much love.

Sally xxx