Small change of plan

I’ve realised that as much as I am loving stitching on Moonlight Garden at the moment, there are some evenings when I really should not put needle to thread.  This design is full of speciality stitches, which means that it needs quite a lot of concentration, which is something I haven’t always got much of at the end of a busy day.  This usually means an hour of stitching and another hour un-stitching because of counting errors!

I had received Jardin Prive’s ABChat as a gift from Claire last year, it had been on my wish list for a while, so I’ve decided to stitch on that on the evenings my eyes and brain are not up to the concentration needed for Moonlight.  It’s a small design, so should be finished quite quickly, and shouldn’t distract me from my WIPs too much.  I will carry on with Moonlight Garden on ‘easy’ days and weekends.

ABChat - Jardin Prive

Excuse the poor photo, it was taken with my iPhone.  I’m using an unidentified thread from Hand Dyed Fibers on Oatmeal belfast linen from Dawn at The Crafty Kitten.

TUSAL and weekend update

First of all I’d like to share my TUSAL update. There’s quite a bit in there really, considering we’re not even a full month into the year, but I have been having some tangling/knotting issues with the Hand Dyed Fibers I am using for Moonlight Garden. I’ve now found some Thread Heaven so will try using that for a while to see if it helps.

All of my stitching time since my last post has been spend on Moonlight Garden. I’ve now finished the second page of the chart, two more pages left, although the final page is a little smaller than the rest, so I am more than half way through.

There was some over one stitching involved in this section, which is always a challenge, but after a few visits from the frog I am happy with the way it looks. Here’s a close up of the over one part

I have had a lot of trouble this week leaving comments on Blogger blogs for some reason. When I try and leave a comment using my OpenID/Wordpress log in details I keep getting an error message saying that the verification word I have entered isn’t correct. I have resorted to commenting using my Blogger ID so if anyone has a comment from someone they don’t recognise it could well be me. I think the problem is more to do with WordPress/Open ID than it does with Blogger. I do still have a Blogger blog, which I used before moving to WordPress so I’m debating whether to go back to using that. For the time being I will duplicate my blog entries to both, until I decide what to do.

I joined in with the International Stitching Hermit Weekend, so have spent a large part of the day in front of the TV watching Spooks and stitching. I intend to carry on with much the same this evening, although will be watching series 3 of The Wire.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

WIPocalypse update

Even though I had chosen five of my numerous WIPs to be my focus pieces for the time being, only one of them has seen the light of day since the start of the year. I am enjoying stitching on Moonlight Garden so much I think I may end up carrying on until it’s finished. It has the variety of speciality stitches, together with repeat patterns in the borders which make for easier stitching, the best of both worlds!

Here’s where I’m at as of earlier today

I took this a few hours ago, and since then I have finished off the right hand side outer and inner borders and have started on the next section of stitching under the white lacy effect part. I’m working on page 2 of the design so I’m not far off 50% done.

Happy New Year

Firstly, I’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year! Secondly, thank you to those of you who left comments on my last post, they were very much appreciated.

Phill and I had a very quiet New Years Eve, as usual, and stayed home, had a couple of drinks and watched some films. We did manage to stay awake until midnight and watched the firework display in London on the TV before going to bed.

I have been getting loads of stitching done since my last blog post and am certainly making the most of the last couple of days holiday before returning to work on Tuesday.

I’ve chosen to work on Moonlight Garden by Drawn Thread and am really pleased with the way it’s coming. There are lots of speciality stitches in this one, so it’s a little slow going at times, but well worth the effort

Here’s what it looked like at the beginning of this week.

And here’s what it looks like today.

I’m going to have a break for a few hours now while we watch The Kings Speech, then I’ll carry on stitching while Phill plays Call of Duty

Plans for 2012

I can’t believe that the last time I updated this blog was way back in July! Since then I have barely picked up a needle or used my sewing machine. 2011 has been a very tough year for us for many reasons, and spare time for hobbies seemed difficult to find.

I did join a Christmas Ornament exchange onThe Gift of Stitching Magazine forum, which I thoroughly enjoyed. My exchange partner was Kate and I received a very pretty ornament from her. Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the photo I took of the ornament I stitched for Kate, but you can see it on her blog. I stitched First Snow by Drawn Thread, a lovely freebie design that I have stitched a couple of times over the years.

For Christmas I received a lovely package from Claire, containing a French magazine which combines my two loves, stitching and quilting, a handmade bookmark and a couple of gorgeous hand dyed threads – thank you Claire!

As usually happens, the extended Christmas break from work renews my enthusiasm for stitching, it’s a time of the year both Phill and I use to completely re-charge our batteries. In particular this year we have both been working extremely hard and have had a lot of things going on outside of work to keep us on our toes. This year we really do need to unwind. He has spent the last few days playing his guitar and playing Call of Duty, while I have been sorting through my WIPs/UFOs – we have both been watching far to much television and eating far too much chocolate!

I have read on a few blogs about WIPocalypse, you can find more details on Measi’s blog, so I have decided to join and use 2012 to try and finish some of my WIP’s. Today I went through my stitching room and made a list of ALL my WIPs, some of which date back at least ten years! I was very surprised to discover that I have 28 WIPs – I thought it would be more ’-) I’ve taken a photograph of each of them so I can track what progress, if any, I manage to make on them. I have listed them all on the WIPocalypse page

Of the 28 I have chosen five to work on at the moment. I have no particular method for choosing which one to work on at any particular time, I’ll just go with whichever one takes my fancy.

• Isabelle Vautier – L’automne. Small design from a book called Les Coeurs d’ Isa, received as a gift from Claire. This should be quick to finish.
• The Drawn Thread – Moonlight Garden. This design involves a variety of speciality stitches, something to work on when I am in the mood for some variety.
• Door Belles Needle Treasures – Do Not Disturb. This is very colourful and fun, and reminds me of my cat Ginger.
• Jardin Prive – Sampler Aux Bouquet. Started as a SAL last year, but I didn’t get very far. A very delicate design, on 40 count fabric using one thread.
• Chatelaine Designs – Celtic Garden. A massive design, quite complex, lots of speciality stitches, colour changes, silk threads and thousands of beads. Definitely something to stitch on a day where I have a lot of time.

It’s taken me over an hour to compose this post, as I had forgotten how to add links/photos etc so I’ll finish here, and go and browse a few blogs before settling down in front of the TV with one of my chosen projects.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to 2012 as much as I am!

TUSAL

Another Happy Dance!

Masquerade by Ink Circles
Stitched on 32 count tarnished silver Lakeside Linen
Using recommended GAST threads
Started 20th February 2011
Finished 6th June 2011

Claire’s giveaway

To celebrate the arrival of summer (even though it’s so chilly here tonight we’ve put the central heating on!) Claire is having a giveaway on her blog.

The draw is for the fabulous My Lady’s Quaker chart from Jardin Prive, who are quickly becoming one of my favourite designers.

Here’s a pic of the chart cover

And if you click here you will see Claire’s stitched version, which was stitched over one on 27 count fabric. Well worth a look!

Sampler Girl finish & TUSAL

Today I actually have a stitching finish to share with you (once you have all recovered from the shock lol)

It’s taken a little longer than anticipated, but I have just finished Northanger Abbey by The Sampler Girl

I also have some WIPs to share with you.  Firstly Masquerade, I was going great guns on this design until I ran out of the Onyx thread.  Luckily Sheila sent me some that she had left over from this design to tide me over until the skein I ordered arrives.

And finally I’ve worked a little this weekend on Jardin Prive’s Sampler Aux Bouquet.  I’m stitching this over 2 on 40 count linen, using one thread of DMC. Apologies for the stray thread lol

I’ve done more stitching this last week or so than I have for the last month or so and as a result I have added quite a lot to my TUSAL container.

Finished quilt pics

Today I’d like to share with you pictures of my first finished quilt, but before I forget I had a couple of requests for the link to the tutorial I watched on You Tube to make the star blocks in my last post. The tutorial was by Jenny from Missouri Star Quilt Co, you can see a link on their home page to the tutorials they have. They are the best tutorials I have found so far, very easy to follow, and they use lots of pre-cut fabrics like jelly rolls and charm packs, perfect for a beginner. Here’s the specific tutorial for the star block .

I watched a few tutorials and found a really easy looking one here. So I bought a jelly roll and a charm pack called Lovely by Sandy Gervais for Moda fabrics and set to work. A few weeks later here is the finished quilt. I used the left overs from the jelly roll strips to make a patchwork border and used a red floral fabric from the same range as the inner border and a plain red for the outer border.

The quilt is laid out on my king size bed so it’s quite a decent size. I’m giving it to my Mother for her birthday tomorrow as she is due to go into Hospital in the near future and thought it would be good for when she comes home and is recuperating, she can snuggle under it if she gets a bit chilly while sitting in the garden or watching TV.

The backing for the quilt is made from a plain yellow from the same fabric range, and you can see from the picture below where I have “stitched in the ditch”, basically just stitching in between the seams of each block to hold the front, back, and the batting together.

Finally, this picture shows the binding around the edge of the quilt, using the same red fabric as the border with yellow piping.

Thanks for visiting, and humouring my new addiction lol, I know this is primarily a stitching blog and I will be back tomorrow with an update of the Masquerade SAL. I can’t show you what else I have been up to this week as I’ve been working on my exchange piece for Rowyn.

If you haven’t visited Sheila’s blog recently, it’s worth a visit to see her framed Queen Lily, it’s gorgeous!