A Little Penguin

Today is supposed to be reveal day for the Stitch and Stash Monthly SAL challenge so I hope I am OK to reveal my finish now:) I must say I am rather pleased with my finish. It took me quite a while on Friday to get it nearly done then I finished it yesterday.

The Workbasket Mr Penguinee

25 count lugana

DMC 310

Finished as a scissor keeper thing lol

It was a bit touch and go as to whether I'd get it finished in time as I mentioned before that I'd made a mistake and had to start it again!

Just a couple of WIP pictures now. Hopefully Julie and Mr Stick will be pleased with me again this week as I did stitch on Chatelaine Spring Morning. I finished the hummingbird, which looks absolutely gorgeous, and made a start on the next and final part. Fingers crossed I might just have a happy dance before the end of August :)

A huge thank you to Susan for emailing me and pointing out where I was wrong on Shores! She saved me hours of trying to work out where so I am very grateful. I feel so stupid at the mistake I've made as I've missed the gap inbetween the blocks so that is why block 6 and 7 will not go right. I must admit this big block has become the bane of my stitching life lol and I can't wait to finish it!!! I did get quite a bit stitched on it these past two nights so, hopefully, I might just get it finished for the end of July!

I'm afraid I have no progress again on HAED Guardian (sorry Lisa). I just could not face picking it up and think I may have to leave it alone for a while again. I feel really bad but this hobby is supposed to be ours to enjoy and everytime I think about Guardian I just think it'll never get finished unless I stitch on it every night and I just can't do that! I love stitching my smalls and I love stitching on bigger pieces that I know I can finish in a year even if I only stitch on them a couple of nights a week ( like Shores). I may go back to it after the summer or when I get other UFOs done, I don't really know.

So instead of stitching on Guardian I finished off Mr Penguinee then I decided that I really needed a small new start so I picked out Shepherd's Bush 2010 Fob which is abolutely gorgeous. I have finished the stitching on it so just need to make it up which I will do soon then be back to show it. I may have to have another new start this coming week!

This evening I'll be stitching on Just a Thought Sampler Garden Casket and, if I get a good evening on it, I might just get all the stitching finished then I can move onto the making up. I think I might just have to sweetheart my DH to help me cut the card for the casket so make sure I get it all correctly measured and cut:)

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my finish for Karan and also for all the good wishes. It hasn't been the best of weeks I must admit and I am still not fully fighting fit as yet. I do feel better than I did so I am hoping that whatever it is is finally going away as I am very fed-up and feeling quite tearful. The most I have done is grocery shopping at Morrisons yesterday with my DH and Abi and by the time we got to the checkouts I thought I was going to pass out :( I was so glad to get sat in the car with a cold drink.

Abi is now on Summer holiday from school and is so happy to finally be off! We are very proud of her as she has been chosen to become a school ambassador from September:) Those who have been chosen are on trial until Christmas and if they do a good enough job they continue.

Well that's all my ramblings for today lol! I have just listed the bits I had up for sale on my blog on Ebay so hoping they will sell!

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend.

Take care everyone!

Hugs

Sally

xxx

It's December!!!

And with December comes more of the white stuff ( and more stitching!). Yay!!! We did have more than is in the photo and we are promised more tomorrow. Look at my poor sheep in the cold! Unfortunately what we had yesterday morning thawed a little bit then we had a keen frost last night so walking is awful today! How I kept on my feet I do not know and I was certainly glad to make it home in one piece!

I have a fair bit of stitching to show today ( thank God, I hear you say!) starting with two Sundays progress on Blackbird Designs Blessings and Kind Wishes. I think I may have this finished before Christmas as I am doing well with it. Then I can start the next one!! Lol!

Next I have some making up to show. I finally got DH's Christmas stocking all made up and ready to hang. You may remember I finished this a while ago and I still have mine to stitch and make up before Christmas Day! Can I do it??? Doubtful with everything I really want to stitch before then! Also got The Workbasket Quaker Christmas Tree made up although I did choose a simple finish for this one. My other finished things I can't show yet as they are the blogoversaray gifts for Juls and Christine which are now on the way to them! Hopefully I'll be able to show them soon.

Finally Chris and I started our SAL of Twisted Oaks Designs Merry Noel Stitching Smalls. We both started with the Chicken pincushion and this is my progress so far. It is stitched on 28 count cashel in vintage green ( which is lovely to stitch on) using Dinky Dyes silks in Bush Fire and Christmas Pines. I am loving stitching this so far and this is two evenings stitching.

I received my birthday discount letter from Drema at Needlecraft Corner and am wondering what to get! LOL! I keep telling myself that I shouldn't as I'm doing the 10 project challenge BUT it is my birthday coming up! I was going to get the Lizzie*Kate limited Christmas Is Forever kit but I just don't feel that I can justify spending all that much so I will have a rethink and probably get Midnight Stitching's Quaker Faith, Hope, Love as I have been wanting this since Marianne first released it:)

I am hoping that the latest BBD Loose Feathers will reach me soon. Not sure when it was shipped to me but I think it's over a week since. Of course the postal service is getting very busy and it amazes me how as soon as it gets to be 1st December deliveries get even later in the day!

Still no framed A Quaker Christmas to show. I called in at the framers this morning and he hadn't done anything with it as yet so I was disappointed. I really want it back so that I can get it on the wall before we put the Christmas decorations up at the weekend.

I hope everyone is well and keeping warm where it's cold. Thank you to those of you who continue to visit and comment even when I don't have much or any stitching to show. According to the tracking thing I have visits have dropped quite a bit lately...... oh well!

Hugs

It's Quaker Time!

Sunday was the start of the Quaker Christmas ornament SAL on Quaker Inspired although I did not start mine then. I waited until Monday and have finished it!! I couldn't make my mind up at first what to stitch so changed my mind several times before deciding on The Workbasket Quaker Christmas Tree from the JCS ornament magazine 2002 issue. It was a lovely quick stitch so now it just needs finishing off! Anyone got any finishing mojo they can spare??

The Workbasket Quaker Christmas Tree

36 count Lakeside Linens Maple Sugar

Carrie's Creations Frosty Pine

Started 17th November 2008

Finished 18th November 2008

I keep forgetting to share last week's progress on my HAED Tiny Treasures Letter J! Still plugging away at it and getting on quite well so am looking forward to tonight's session.

Final piccie for today is my progress on Blackbird Designs Blessings and Kind Wishes. This is such a beautiful piece to stitch. I have really taken a liking to these designs and can't wait to have the latest Loose Feathers design in my hands as it looks gorgeous.

Thank you to everyone who left comments for Abi on her birthday. She was so pleased when she read them all and found it hard to believe that she had comments from all over the world! She wasn't too happy when she got in from school yesterday as I had some bad news for her. She's been so looking forward to the new Tomb Raider game coming out and I pre-ordered it for her on Play back in July. The release date is supposed to be 21st November but when I checked Play yesterday it said it was 31st January 2009 for the Playstation 2 version! All others are coming out on Friday. I felt so bad for Abi. I checked Game and Gamestation and both their websites say January 2009 but Amazon say Friday so we're a bit unsure at the moment. I checked the Tomb Raider Chronicles forum and there was a huge thread on there about it and many people are really angry about it and I can't blame them. As it is we do have a Nintendo Wii so she can buy it for that but we're playing a waiting game for now to see if it arrives for PS2 or not.

The good news for today is Jess has an offer from her first choice university depending on the grades she gets in her A levels next year! She has to get a B for Chemistry so we're keeping our fingers crossed. If she gets Bs in all three subjects she could get a scholarship so she was really excited and pleased.

The bad news is I have been ill yet again:( I didn't blog about it on Sunday because that was Abi's day. I had been feeling off for a few days last weeks and by Friday I decided I couldn't keep on like it so off to the doctors I went- again! Now I've been saying for a long while that my ear did not feel "right". Turns out I have yet another infection. The doctor said he could not see my eardrum for puss so he thinks it's in my inner ear and the yuck is leaking through my eardrum. So I'm now on 2 weeks of antibiotics and drops in the hope that it'll clear it up properly. I have an appointment with the ENT specialist tomorrow about the pain and swelling I get on the left side of my face and DH thinks I should mention my ear ( it's my right ear) while I'm there as this is the third infection since August. I often feel as though there's something swelling in my ear and pressing on my eardrum. To top that I started my not so monthlies on Friday nearly 9 weeks then Saturday I did my back in! Thankfully I had a heat wrap in so put that on straight away which helped it a lot. I am falling to bits I think!

I am now going to spend a bit of time catching up on blogs. I hope you're all having a good week and UK ladies are you ready for the cold snap that's coming??

Hugs