Is That All Happy Dance (and a new project!)

After a VERY late night last night, I’m proud to present “Is That All?” finally completed.

The backstitching was a little fiddly, but to be honest I’m a little out of practice as I have been stitching so many projects recently that do not require any backstitching at all.  I really didn’t want to stop once I had started though, because as soon as this was finished Claire and I are starting our next SAL, which is South Seas Lace.  Roll on next Thursday!   I’m definitely paying for the late night now though, but it was well worth it!

Claire has finished her’s too, pop over to her blog to see her pic, so there’s happy dancing on both sides of the English Channel today!

The new project isn’t anything to do with stitching (for a change!).  Hopefully, on Sunday this little bundle will be joining our pet family.

This is a quick pic taken by my sister Sheila, who works at her local vet’s practice.  She phoned me this morning to tell me that she needed a home.  She emailed me this picture, I emailed it on to Phill, he said yes (after just a little bit of persuading LOL).

We’ll be driving up to meet Sheila halfway between her place and our place to pick her up.  Perfect timing really as I am off work for the whole of next week so will be able to settle her in to her new home.

I am a little behind on my blog reading again – I normally read them during my lunch hour at work, but I have been without my computer for the last two days as it died on Tuesday afternoon.  I have beenn floating around the office using whichever PC was free at the time, so I had very limited internet access for a couple of days.  My PC is now fixed and I’m back “home” at my desk.  It’s surprising how hard it was to work at someone else’s desk, it completely threw me for a loop and everything seemed to take me twice as long for some reason LOL

Almost finished!

I had a lovely surprise yeterday morning, which arrived in the form of a large padded envelope.  I could almost hear Phill thinking “what has she been buying now?” as he handed me the parcel LOL.  I was a bit confused because I’ve been pretty good on the stash buying front lately and couldn’t remember for the life of me what I had ordered.

When I opened the parcel it was a fabulous French stitching magazine from Claire, who had very kindly bought two copies of the mag when she was out shopping so she could send one to me.  I haven’t bought a stitching magazine for so long I can’t even remember, as the UK mags don’t really appeal to me much anymore, but this magazine had loads of small designs which ar perfect for cards and gifts, in particular some really pretty butterfly and dragonfly designs and a sneak peak of one of the charts from Isabelle Vautier’s new book which is coming out in Spetember.  So thank you to Claire, for such a lovely gift, shown below very kindly modelled by Louis

I haven’t done a huge amount of stitching this week, it’s just been so humid here in the evenings, not the best stitching weather as my hands are far to sticky and sweaty, but I did manage to finish off most of the stitching on Is That All.  I still have a few stitches to add just underneath the green background and then it’s on to the backstitching!

Claire has posted a pic of her progress on her blog, I think we’re about even stevens, she has done the stitching I have left to do, but she still has a very small amount of white to fill in, so it really isn’t going to be that long until we’re happy dancing!

I had plans this weekend to catch up on Grand Marquoir SAL.  Last time I stitched on this I was running slow on DMC 815, but I knew that I had ordered quite a few skeins when I first started the SAL and had “put them safe” somewhere in my stash.  I searched and searched yesterday but couldn’t find them, so I will use up what I have left and then this one will have to go away again until I can order some more from Sew and So next week.

Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend.  It’s a little bit cooler here today, with a lovely breeze, much more comfortable!

Ribbon Sampler

Thank you to all who left comments to my last post.  I am really pleased with the way Cirque des Triangles turned out, and even more pleased that I managed to finish it relatively quickly, considering how many other things I have also been stitching on.

As a little treat to myself last night I started Ribbon Sampler by Sampler Cove Designs while watching Andy Murray at Wimbledon.    This is stitched on 40 count fabric, over two threads, using one strand of floss.  This is the smallest fabric I have stitched on so far and I have to say it was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I can see me using 40 count a lot more in the future. I’m sure that when I pick something up that is 28 count it’s going to look huge

Sorry it’s quite a dark picture, but hopefully the next one will show the colours of the threads better.

Finally, my sister Sheila had a bad stitching experience at the weekend – pop over to her blog and share her pain!

Happy Dancing!!

Cirque des Triangles - Completed

Cirque des Triangles – Ink Circles

Started on 24th January 2009 – Finished on 28th June 2009

Stitched on “Butterfly Wings” by Dyeing 4 U

Thread:  Cherry Vanilla by Threadworx

IS That All update

I am VERY pleased with the progress made on Is That All this week.  All the colourful stitching has now been done and all I’m left with is filling in with white, the black frame and obviously the backstitching.  There’s still a few weeks work left to do, but for once I can’t wait to get to the backstitching to see his little face come to life.    I don’t think Claire has posted her update pic yet….maybe she’s busily stitching away on all the exchanges she has on the go!

Mt thread for South Seas Lace arrived this morning from Vikki Clayton, it’s going to look amazing on the fabric I have chosen for this design which is a piece of Sugar Maple fabric I’ve had in my stash for quite a while called Ocean Spray.  I have taken a picture but the light was too bad and it didn’t really show the colours well, so I will try and get another pic later on in real daylight.

I was hoping to finish Cirque des Triangles today, as I have only the section in the middle left, but unfortunately I have to work this weekend, so will be squeezing in as much as I can this evening and will finish it off next week.  Very disappointed but I’m glad of the extra work at the moment.

Part 4 of Grand Marquoir has been released, you can get all four parts here , (thanks to Claire for the heads up) so after work tomorrow I will be stitching away on the last three squares of part 3.  I really am glad I started this SAL, it’s going to look so good when it’s finished and I am already saving for the framing cost as I would like to use the same frame I used for Lettre’s a Mon Chat (pic below) which was one of the most expensive in the shop – typical really, Phill picked the frame for this one and he always seems to go for the most expensive ones LOL.

Okay, I’ve finished my coffee break, so back to work for me, luckily I am working from home so at least I can make the most of the sunshine today and get all my washing done and on the line to dry.  Hope you all have a great weekend, and thank you all for the comments you leave, they are very much appreciated.

Totally Useless SAL

Last month I completely forgot to post a pic of my collecting jar as part of the Totally Useless SAL, this month I am a little bit late but I least I rememberd eventually!

Lots and lots of red in there again, thanks to a slight miscalculation on Grand Marquoir SAL on Sunday

I managed to get another two squares done, so three more left to stitch on this part of the SAL but the next part is almost here, hopefully I will be able to squeeze in enough stitching time before the next part to get me up to date.

Sorry for the dark pictures today, I took this VERY early this morning thanks to a hungry Ginger thinking that he had a chance of being fed at 5.30am this morning LOL .  He started off purring quietly, then got a bit louder, then decided to move on to my pillow and purr in my ear and when I kept ignoring him he decided to nibble my nose until I actually got up.   Needless to say he was back in bed, fast asleep with a full stomach by 5.45am – it’s a cat’s life!  I have a feeling I may fall asleep at my desk later on as it is so warm here at the moment it’s making us all sleepy.

I have made a little progress on Cirque des Triangle,  maybe not as much as I had hoped to achieve but with a bit of luck (and a couple of late nights) a happy dance is still achievable by the end of the week.

Again, a really terrible picture which looks like it was taken during a total eclipse LOL, I’m not sure what was going with my flash this morning.

I’m itching to finish Cirque because Claire and I are starting another SAL when Cirque is done.  It was a choice between The Bramble and The Rose or South Seas Lace, both from the Gift of Stitching magazine.  South Seas Lace was the winner, mainly as it’s smaller and we can both stitch it using supplies from our stash whereas Bramble takes 12 skeins of thread so will take a little longer to kit up.    Everyone is welcome to join in with our SAL – the more the merrier.

A tail of two kitties

Is that all?

As you can see, my fat cat now has a fat tail.  Check out Claire’s blog for her latest pic of our SAL, (and alsos some great news about a new book from Isa Vautier) .  We seem to be stitching in more or less the same direction on this design and her cat has a tail too!

I haven’t posted a pic of Cirques des Triangles for a while now, but I am really quite close to finishing this one.  A few more evenings should do it I reckon, so look out for a happy dance later this week.

As much as I want to keep working on this today, I will put it aside for now to carry on working on Grand Marquior.  I have fallen behind a bit in this SAL and as the next part is due out at the end of this month I really need to give myself a kick up the backside and get the current part finished.

Maggie and Claire – I see you’ve been tempted into subscribing to The Gift of Stitching LOL.  I really enjoy this magazine, even if not all of the designs are to my taste it’s so much better than the UK cross stitch magazines you buy in shops with their endless supply of Disney characters and repeat designs which have been printed previously.    If any of you fancy doing a SAL of the Bramble and the Rose leave a comment.

If you liked the Ink Circles design, have a look at this one too (May 2009 issue) – South Seas Lace by Debbie Draper Designs.  There are just too many designs I want to stitch at the moment!

South Seas Lace

Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend.  Thank you all for the comments you leave – they are very much appreciated.

Gift of Stitching

For anyone who loves Ink Circles designs take a look at this months Gift of Stitching online magazine…

Gift of Stitching June 2009

Here’s a better picture of the design….

The Bramble and the Rose

It’s called The Bramble and the Rose.  Isn’t it beautiful?  This one has already been printed out and has been added to my “To Do” drawer,  soon to be renamed “To Do” cupboard

To answer a couple of questions left in the comments on my last post:-

For Claire:-  Ribbon Sampler is stitched over 2 using 1 strand of floss.  I really don’t think my eyes are capable of stitching over 1 at 40 count, in fact I’d probably struggle stitching over 1 on 28 count!

For Christine:  There are two colours in the design, although they look very similar in the photograph.  In real life one is quite a lot darker than the other.  I do have a magnifier/lamp like the one below but find it difficult to use the magnifier for long stretches as it makes me feel dizzy.    This will be my first project on 40 count so if I find myself struggling I will try the magnifier to see if I can get used to it, but I’m hoping that I will be able to stitch as I usually do.

I’m just about to leave work and fight through the enormous traffic jams caused by all the roadworks going on in Swansea at the moment to accomodate the new “bendy bus” they are introducing.  Last night I was stuck in a traffic jam, not moving at all, for nearly half an hour because the bendy bus, which is doing trial runs at the moment,  got stuck turning off  a roundabout and blocked both lanes of the roundabout.  I think I may try a different way home tonight

I will definitely be stitching tonight, on Cirque des Triangles, as I’m quite close to finishing this one (and I can’t wait to start Ribbon Sampler, of course!!)

Have a good evening!

Is That All?

This is the SAL that Claire and I are working on, but it could also relate to the amount of stitching I’ve done in the last couple of weeks!  Like most stitchers, I always get less done in the summer months, especially when the weather is fine, as there’s just lots of other things around the house/garden that need doing.

I did actually manage to make a little progress on our SAL this week though, and here’s a pic of the fat cat…

I bought a chart quite a few weeks ago called Ribbon Sampler by Sampler Cove, it’s part of the Rhapsody in Red series.   The series includes the Ribbon Sampler and lots of stitching accessories.

The design is stitched on 40ct Newcastle linen with one thread and is a large design, being just over 17 inches x 17 inches when finished.  I ordered the fabric and threads this week, I have chosen some Hand Dyed Fibers.  Fabric and threads arrived yesterday and they look gorgeous!

The pics are a bit gloomy as they were taken early this morning when it was still quite dark in the house but the threads are a gorgeous reddy/dark terracotta sort of colour that will look amazing in my lounge.  I’ve made working copies of the chart, enlarged onto A3 size paper LOL.    I really want to start this now but I am being very patient and have decided that this will replace Cirque des Triangles as my Saturday project once I have finished that.

I’m off to get the housework done now as I am working five day weeks for the next three weeks, instead of having Monday off each week, so instead of having a three day weekend to get everything done I’ll have to squeeze it into two.   BUT, I am extremely happy to be working the extra days because the reason behind the overtime is the fact that my boss is going away on holiday – yipppeeeeee!   Also, I get three days more pay this month

Have a great weekend everybody!

Some stitching at last!

At last I have some stitching pics for you!  I’ve been working on Grand Marquoir and Cirque des Triangles.  Not huge amounts of progress but I have been spending some time this week in my craft room, organising threads/fabric and generally playing with my stash LOL

 

I’ve also been trying to get more exercise than usual for the last couple of weeks, as on 19th July myself and my workmates are taking part in the Race for Life, a 5km walk along the seafront at Swansea.  If anyone would like to sponsor me there is a link on the top right of my blog where you can donate directly to the charity.  It’s completely safe to use.  There are 7 of us taking part altogether from our office, all ages from early twenties to early sixties so we will be taking it at a brisk walk, no running involved LOL.     Keep your fingers crossed for fine weather on 19th July as this event takes place along the promenade in Swansea so any wind/rain will definitely hit us full on.