Stitching and A Bit of Stash

At last here I am with an update! I don't know where the latter end of the week went but never mind!!

Karen and I changed our night on Sea Stars so I stitched on it Wednesday last week and although I doesn't look like I got much done I did finally finish the motif I was stitching on so will be able to move onto another one this week:) I think we'll be stitching on this all year but it will have been an enjoyable stitch:) Of course it's always nice when you have someone to stitch along with.

Last night was my SAL night with Nic on Just Nan Morning Song. I was more successful this week than I was last week and am onto the sheep band. My sheep are going to be black-ish because white is not going to show up too well on my fabric and I think they look OK so far. This is such a fun one to stitch.

I have been stitching other bits but I can't show you those yet. One is a PIF which I posted today and the others will get shown eventually! I now have one more PIF to do and plenty of time to do it in:) I have also made a start on the biscornu for the secret exchange on S&S. I have plenty of time as post out isn't until July.

Saturday I had a wee bit of stash through the post:) A while ago I won a contest for Brightneedle Tall Trees on Nic's blog and she also sent me SB School House needleroll chart so that's another one to my little collection:) Thank you Nic:)

Jess finished her exams last Wednesday so is now off until next Monday. Wednesday afternoon she got a phone call from the head of 6th form to tell her she'd been nominated for masterclasses in biology and physics at Hull University:) We were all so pleased for her. Anyway she had to go into school the next day to read the leaflets and decide what she wanted to do. The biology and physics were at the same time in the morning but because she'd been nominated she could pick any masterclass so she decided on biology in the morning and chemistry in the afternoon. It'll give her a taste of what university will be like and will look good on her UCAS forms when it comes to applying for uni:)

It's hot, hot , hot here and I'm afraid I don't like it this hot! I'd be happy with the sun shining but a little cooler than it is!

I am way behind on blogs yet again so am going to spend a bit of time catching up then I might be very lazy this afternoon and sit and stitch.

Have a great week everyone!

Hugs

A Surprise and Finally Some Stitching!

I received an envelope from the USA this morning and couldn't for the life of me work out what it was! I looked at the return address and it was from Ranae When I opened it I found this treasure wrapped inside:) Isn't it gorgeous? She says she sent me this because my blog is special to her and I keep her inspired which made me feel on top of the world and happy:) Thank you so much Ranae. I will be hanging this piece somewhere I can see it all the time:)

I did finally manage some stitching last night although it was not much as I didn't actually sit down to stitch until about 9.30 last night. So Just Nan Morning Song came out and here is my little bit of progress.

Tonight I hope to be back to stitching properly! Karen and I have changed our night on Ink Circles Sea Stars so we're now stitching on it either Wednesdays or Thursdays. So it'll be SS for me tonight all being well:)

We've been three evenings messing about with PC's but we have ( finger's crossed) got it all sorted now. The router is up and running, we've run the network wizard and got that sorted although Zone Alarm firewall caused us headaches but we got there in the end. So now we can access shared files on either PC and Jess' laptop and share the printer. Phew! It took some getting there so we're now hoping that it'll al work next time her laptop and the other PC are turned on!

Thank you to all of you who continue to visit and to those of you who leave such lovely comments. I treasure each and every one of them:) I am slowly catching up reading and commenting on blogs and hope to get caught up completely today:)

Hugs

Secret Needleroll Exchange Take 2!

Now that partners have been revealed for the S&S secret needleroll exchange I can now reveal the needleroll I stitched and sent to Dusty ( Helena).

Little House Needleworks Faith Hope Love

For victims of Hurricane Katrina

Stitched with DMC

Dusty was very happy with it and the more I look at the picture the more pleased I am with it so I think it's a thumbs-up all round! Lol! I also included a couple of Carrie's threads.

And I can reveal that the needleroll that I received was stitched by Nels ( Jayne N). Thank you so much Jayne:) I absolutely love it and it's on the mantlepiece in my living room where I can see it:)

No Just Nan Morning Song update today as I didn't stitch at all last night. I may stitch on it tonight instead. The reason for no stitching??? Hmmmm! DH and I went to PC World yesterday to have a look at wireless routers and ask lots of advice etc. So we ended up buying one with the hope it would be nice and simple to set up. Well it probably would have been had the set-up instructions on the CD been more comprehensive but we fell at trying to get the router to talk to the PC! After much reading and trying to work out what we were doing wrong we settled on ringing the support number ( guess whose phone bill will be ever so slightly higher this time!). We eventually got sorted and said router is now working and we have Jessica's laptop and the girls' desktop PC working off it too. Then I hit a snag when I tried to open Outlook Express and retrieve emails as it kept trying to log into the old modem which we'd disconnected! We tried for ages to work out what we needed to do, rang support again, nice helpful bloke ( not!) decided he couldn't help us and we'd need to ring our ISP! To cut a very long short we eventually looked on our ISP's website and found the answer and now it's working! Phew! In the meantime I'm downloading and setting up virus protection and a firewall for Jess' laptop then a huge 64 MB of updates for Windows!! The only thing we can't sort yet is getting her access to the printer via our PC so I don't know what we're going to do there. I think I shall maybe email someone who is good with computers!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Hugs

Secret Needleroll Exchange

Wow I received the most gorgeous needleroll this morning in the S&S secret needleroll exchange. I love everything about it, the design, the colours and it is so beautifully stitched. I have an idea who my partner is but will know later on when partners are revealed. A huge thank you and hugs to my partner for making my day so much brighter:)

I must say that looking at pictures of the needlerolls so far I really don't think the one I stitched comes up to scratch ( will show it another day once partners are revealed) but I struggled to find something to stitch and it wasn't an actual needleroll chart. I do know that my partner likes it which is all that matters really but it hasn't done my stitching confidence a lot of good. Oh well I will try harder for the next exchange which is a biscornu:)

Karen I would be happy to change the day for stitching on Sea Stars. Which is better for you? Obviously Mondays and Sundays are out for me but any other night is fine:)

Julie it'll be brilliant to have you on board for the BP SAL:)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Thank you to those who continue to visit and comment. Your comments mean a lot to me. I know my blog hasn't been all joyful and chatty of late but I'm struggling a bit with things at the moment:(

Hugs

Friday Update

At last I can show you my progress on Bygone Stitches A Quaker Christmas. I have not felt much like updating my blog this week but I won't bore you with details. Anyway AQC has been going well and I'm well onto page 2 now and have also been adding bits from another page. There's more Frosty Pine now as well as a bit of Antique Gold:) I do hope I can get this finished in time for Christmas as I would love to have it on my wall for then although it won't be coming down after then! Lol! It'll be staying up all year:)

Tuesday was SAL night as usual with Karen and, again, I did not get much done. I don't know what is wrong with me when I pick this piece up as I never seem to get much done anymore. Maybe next week I'll actually finish the motif I've been working on and move onto another! I dread to think how long the huge one in the middle will take me but never mind! It'll get done!

I am hoping that I can complete AQC and Sea Stars by the end of the year as Hazel has suggested we, and anyone who wants to join us, do a SAL of Needleprint Beatrix Potter Sampler next year and I think it's a brilliant idea. So I am looking forward to that. I'm not sure what colour I shall use as yet but I think I might be having a go at dying my own fabric again.


I'll be able to show the needleroll I did for the secret exchange on S&S. Partners will be revealed tomorrow. I haven't received mine yet so finger's crossed for tomorrow as it'd be nice to have it before I know who my partner is!


I decided to stop my COM fabric club after next month's shipment. What with everything here in the UK going skyhigh ( petrol, heating costs, food etc etc) I felt I just couldn't justify carrying on with it. I'm also going to have to be much more frugal on all other stash spending so other than my Loose Feathers at Needlecraft Corner and anything I need for exchanges I will be trying hard not to buy. It's not that we are hard-up but if Gordon Brown has anything to do with it we damned well will be.


Not a lot going on this week. We've had a fairly quiet week as Jess has been revising got her AS level exams. She went to Beverley with a group of friends on Wednesday to revise on Westwood but started out at her friend's first as the weather wasn't too good to begin with. Anyway she ended up buying herself a laptop so we now have to sort out how to get it networked to this PC. It looks like we'll have to get a wireless router as well as other bits as I don't think this PC has a wireless card in it. More expense! Anybody any suggestions as to the best place to buy PC stuff at reasonable prices? It'd have to be a bricks and mortar shop as we're not sure what we need etc. Abi went to her friend's the other afternoon and she's come here this afternoon.


Hope everyone is having a good week.
Hugs

SAL Sunday

I don't have much stitching to show today I'm afraid other than my Sunday night SAL progress with Nic:) I didn't do much again but I did get the cockeral band finished at long last so I can have a clear start on another band next Sunday. It's a much better picture of it this week as it shows the fabric colour off much better.

I've been stitching on Bygone Stitches A Quaker Christmas this last week except for one night when I just wanted to stitch on something else so started the S&S SAL challange piece. No picture of AQC as I have tonight on it yet and no frogs have been back since Monday last week so they'd better keep away or I'll not be happy! Lol! After Sea Stars tomorrow the rest of the week is my smalls week so I'd like to stitch my last two PIFs if I can. I have ideas for both of them:)

Just over a week ago I finally decided to treat myself to one of Monique's gorgeous thread holders. She sells these in her Etsy shop Studio Twenty. I have wanted one since she first started making them and decided I'd waited long enough to treat myself so here's the one I chose:) It now has my threads for AQC on it. Monique also included a skein of pretty Dinky Dyes thread and post-it notes.

After a long time of trying to find Needleprint Beatrix Potter Quaker Sampler (now OOP) I have been fortunate enough to buy one on Ebay. Jacqueline of Needleprint is kindly selling PDF versions of the chart on Ebay so I have bought one. I have seen the original charts being sold on Ebay for up to $99 which is way way over what I could afford plus the money does not benefit Ackworth where as this way it does. I am now eagerly waiting for it:) Of course it won't get stitched for a while but at least I will have it:)

I am way behind on blog reading and commenting and I will try and catch over the week but I can't promise anything. The last few days have not been brilliant what with flashing in my right eye and other stuff and I just can't sit here at the PC for too long as I find it brings it on. DH has darkened the screen for me to see if that helps so finger's crossed:)

DH spent Saturday ripping out the panelling on the staircase so that we can put spindles in so that's what he'll be doing today and tomorrow. Not sure if it'll get done completely but it'll be a start:) It'll look much better when it's done and make the hallway much lighter. Next will be stripping the wallpaper off and redecorating but that won't be for a good few weeks:)

Hope everyone is having a brilliant bank holiday here in the UK and Memorial Day in the USA.

Hugs

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Who Let The Frog Out?

Mr Frog came a-visiting on Monday evening so I wasn't a happy bunny! Still it will teach me to line up chart pages properly when working between them and to double check it! So half of what I stitched had to come out but frogging over one is not my favourite past time and I have to say hardanger scissors come in very handy when you can't frog stitches just by pulling them out! Lol! Anyway I'll be stitching on Bygone Stitches A Quaker Christmas for the rest of the week now so I'll get that bit restitched with no mishaps hopefully!

Sunday evening was SAL night with Nic so out came Just Nan Morning Song. Not a lot was done on it I'm afraid and I didn't even get the cockeral band finished as I'd hoped but I am a bit further on than I was so that's better than nothing:) I don't seem to have got a very good photo of it this morning as the cockeral band is blurred.

Last night was SAL night with Karen, again I did not get a lot done but progress is progress and I love the way the motif I'm working on looks. Reminds me of waves breaking on the shore:)

I have finally got The Cat's Whiskers Christmas Candles finished up. I stitched it on a Sassy's Fabrics Jayne's Attic special which was in a grab bag from Christmas 2006 using the Dinky Dyes that came with the chart. I love the way this piece looks although I did make a mistake ( can you spot where?) but left it as it's not that noticable plus I didn't have enough thread left to restitch it.

I decided to sign up for the S&S secret biscornu exchange. I think I must be having a turn as I never sign up for exchanges! My needleroll has arrived safely so I'm relieved about that but where did it go??? You'll have to wait and see:)

I am doing better than I was on Sunday thankfully. Thank you for all your kind thoughts and good wishes. I know many women go through this but it's so damned frustrating and annoying. I am still getting bad cramps but the other thing has slowed down now to normal. I don't think I can stand to go through this everytime but there's not a lot I can do I guess.

Finally you may have noticed my new header of The Mere in blue skies and sunshine! DH has been out again with his camera so I thought I'd share a few more pictures.

Have a wonderful Wednesday and make the most of the lovely sunshine as it looks as though it's going to rain tomorrow:(

Hugs

I'm a Bad Girl!

Bad, bad Sally had a new start on Wednesday! Bad, bad Sally does not regret it one little bit! I had got a bee in my bonnet about starting HAED Tiny Treasures letter J which Jennifer very kindly RAK'd me with last weekend. Thankfully I had enough threads to start it and just the right sized piece of 25 count fabric ( these are charted for 18 count but I decided on 25 count) so I gridded for the first page and away I went. I was intent on just stitching a bit in an afternoon when I got the chance but the new start went to my head a bit and I ended up stitching on her every night except Friday so here's the result. I love this piece so far. It's just so nice to stitch, big blocks of colour and little confetti. On Friday the DMC arrived from my floss fairy, Kelly, so I now have plenty of thread to complete this piece.


The little PIF gift has arrived safely with it's new Mum over in Germany so I can now show a picture of it. June kindly sent me a couple of Just Nan complimentary charts a few weeks ago so I decided I'd repay her kindness so, as she loves snowmen, I stitched her this wee fella and I can't for the life of me find the link to it but it is a freebie fron Angelsan. The finishing didn't go exactly as I wanted but I am happy with it and June loves it:)


I'm getting a bit worried about the needleroll I stitched for the secret exchange on S&S. It's nearly two weeks since I posted it and, as far as I know, it hasn't been received yet. I am keeping my finger's crossed that it still reaches it's destination safely.


And speaking of exchanges I'm taking part in a private Autumn colours biscornu exchange with Hazel, Tracy and Hazel's friend:) We have lots of time too as send out isn't until late September/ early October.


Thank you for all your good wishes on my last post. I am beginning to think I will never be right again. I am stuck in the house at the moment because of "women's problems" as I am that heavy I daren't go out and it's getting me down. DH and the girls have gone to do the fortnightly shop armed with my list so finger's crossed they don't come back with a load of extras that they might fancy!! Lol! I am off for a session of my new DS game which I keep losing as my DH decided he wanted to play on it last night and Jess did the same on Friday for a bit after tea!


Have a good Sunday!

Hugs

Time for An Update!

I can't quite believe we've got around to Wednesday again! I haven't done a blog update because I haven't been feeling too good and trying not to spend too much time on the PC. I did do a catch-up on blog reading and commenting on Monday and by the time I'd done that I'd had enough! I can't not catch-up because I enjoy reading your blogs so much and get so much inspiration from them.

Anyway where do I begin? Last week I actually picked up Heaven and Earth Designs QS Girly Gothic. Yes you read that right I picked up Girly Gothic! Yes I did more than just pick her up I actually stitched on her and almost got 20 rows of page 2 done! I can't quite believe it myself!!! Lol! It's two months since I last stitched on her so she was feeling very neglected and sad. Finger's crossed I'll get page 2 finished next time I stitch on her.

Sunday was my SAL night with Nic and I was determined I was going to get a fair bit stitched so I sat down straight after tea and stitched my little heart out! I reached the cockeral band and did a little bit of that before I bed started calling me.

Monday evenings are A Quaker Christmas night and this week I also stitched on it for a while yesterday afternoon. DH had his scan so I sat in the car and stitched while he was in there. I've added more green and am now adding bits from page 2. Still loving this and looking forward to next week as it's up in my rotation for almost the whole week!

Lastly Tuesdays are SAL nights with Karen but I'm afraid I was a bit naughty this week and didn't get much done at all. The reason??? I traded in my Animal Crossing DS game for 42 All Time Classics so was playing that! Lol! I did finish the red motif I'd been stitching on and did a small one so at least it was a bit!

So that's my stitching all updated so far! I do have a small finish but it's not completely made up yet. It's The Cat's Whiskers Christmas Candles ornament which was lovely to stitch. It's half made up but I don't want to show it until it's fully done:) Still can't show the PIF as I don't think it's reached it's new Mum yet and the needleroll can't be shown until May 31st as it's a secret exchange.

As I mentioned DH went for his scan yesterday. He had to be at the hospital for 10.15am for an injection then was told to go back at 1pm for his scan. We had already decided that I'd go with him and we'd pop into Hull for a while as it would be a waste of petrol going, coming back home and going back again as the hospital is about 40 minutes away. As it was I wasn't sure I'd be going with him if I didn't feel any better plus my not so monthlies appeared and I'm in a bit of a state. DH kept making jokes about glowing etc as the injection he had was a very miniscule dose of isotopes! We had some lunch then made our way back to the hospital in good time as parking can be a nightmare at times. By the time we'd finished there it cost us £4.50 in parking fees! Now we just have to wait for his consultant to see the results of the scan and write to DH with his findings.

I had a lovely surprise on Saturday as I received an RAK from Jennifer on the HAED forum. I'd been asking about Selina Fenech's Sampler Alphabet Tiny Treasures earlier in the week as I'd thought about maybe doing one to kick start me back into the two HAEDs I hadn't stitched on in ages. They're relatively small and I thought one might just be ideal. I found out that they have 15 colours and very little confetti. I decided I might treat myself to one before the end of the Mother's Day sale but Jennifer RAK'd me with the letter J which I'm going to stitch for Jessica. I'm hoping to make a small start on it this afternoon. Anyway I decided to ask for a floss fairy on the forum so that I could get all the threads for it and pay my floss fairy. I do have them but some I only have a small amount of. A lady called Kelly contacted me and said she'd get what I needed and to consider it like an RAK:) As I said before stitchers are just the kindest people. So thank you Jennifer and Kelly {{{{hugs}}}} I decided to do an RAK of my own and thought Kyrie deserved a wee giftie so I RAK'd her with a storykeep:)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. It's a little bit cold on the east coast today but I'm not too bothered as me and hot weather don't go well together! I'm hoping to have a go at my yoga today as I haven't done any for a week as feeling off balance and doing yoga are not a good combination! It's a good job I can laugh or I would just sit and cry!

Hugs

Where Has The Week Gone?

Sorry for the delay in posting my Quaker Christmas and Sea Stars WIP this week. I was going to post yesterday and catch up on blogs but a migraine put paid to that idea and it was 10am before I dare open the living room curtains! I did catch up on a few blogs yesterday afternoon but I still have some to read yet and I'm hoping to do that today.

So here's my WIP pics now! a Quaker Christmas is going rather well and I can't wait to work on it for longer than just a Monday evening again. I've just about finished the first page and am loving every single stitch I put in it.

Sea Stars is going well too. I didn't quite get the red motif finished so finger's crossed for next week! I think I've got about three pages of this done now. Karen how is yours going? I'll check your blog in a bit:)



I've also finished my two pages on Jane's RR which I have really enjoyed stitching. I love the colour of the thread she used. I hope you like it Jane:)



Other stitching I've done is secret! It's a little PIF that is on it's way somewhere as we speak! Lol! I'll reveal it when it's safely with it's new Mum. Also my needleroll for the S&S secret needleroll exchange is on it's way but I can't reveal that until the end of May:)


It's that time of year again. Abi had her Maths SATS on Tuesday. She has taken it a year early and in September she'll start working towards taking her Maths GCSE in 2010 rather than 2011. She was so nervous, bless her, and her hayfever is playing her up so she was worried she hadn't done so well. Jess has her first AS level exam next Thursday so we're keeping our finger's crossed that it all goes well.


That's all for today! Hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather we're having at the moment!

Hugs