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

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.

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.

A thank you and an update

I’d like to thank everyone who left a comment last week wishing me well for the Colonoscopy on Thursday.  The procedure itself wasn’t too bad, but it has taken until today for me to start feeling back to normal.  The diagnosis at the end of it is Crohn’s Colitis, but luckily only moderately active.  I have to wait for an appointment to see the Consultant at the Hospital in the next few weeks to discuss any treatment/management, but as I’ve been symptom free for a while now I think that it wil probably be a case of carrying on with a sensible diet and just waiting to see how things go.  You know the old saying “every cloud has a silver lining” – well the one good thing to come out of the last week is I’ve lost half a stone in weight LOL.  I’m sure it won’t stay off for long as I get back to eating normally but it’s good to see those scales moving in the right direction for a change!

I have been stitching this week, but not really sticking much to my rotation, apart from my SAL days, I’ve just been working on whatever takes my fancy.  It did take ALL of my willpower not to start the new Passione Ricamo chart I bought at Polstitches to cheer myself up a bit,  and if it wasn’t for the fact that I haven’t made a working copy of the chart yet I don’t think I could have resisted.

First up, my SAL with Claire – Is That All?  This is coming along well, Claire is still ahead of me though – you can see her progress here.

Next up, Growth Rings and Grand Marquoir SAL.  

And finally, Cirque des Triangles.  I got loads done on this yesterday and finished page 4, which is bottom left.  I wish a could get a decent picture of this, it looks so much better in real life.

I have been a bit slack on my blog reading/commenting this week.  I will definitely try and catch up this weekend, a lovely long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, but as the weather is fantastic today, blue skies and not even a breeze, I think I shall sit in the garden for a while today and watch Phill working LOL.

Quick Cirque update and Giveaway!

A very quick post this evening as I’ve had a really rubbish day at work and need to get away from the computer and put my feet up with Is That All?, my Thursday SAL with Claire.

I’ve only worked on two WIPs this week, both Ink Circles designs, Cirque des Triangles and Cirque des Carreaux.  I’m actually toying with the idea of concentrating on Carreaux to get it finished, apart from my SAL days (currently Saturday, Sunday and Thursday).  I’m probably about a third done at the moment –  I’m still giving it some thought.

Good progress made on both these this week..

To cheer myself up I have decided to have a giveaway.  I have a piece of fabric from Dyeing4U (sadly no longer around, they did some fabulous colours), it’s Belfast linen, so 32 count, 13×18,  the colour is Butter Cream and it’s an opalescent so has a beautiful sparkle running through it.  There’s a picture below but the colour doesn’t show well at all, it’s such a dark gloomy day here.  In real life the colour is very pale creamy yellow.  I’ll try and get a better picture of it tomorrow.  Just leave a comment saying you want to take part on this post with your name and email address and I’ll pick a winner on Monday.  Feel free to link to this post in your blogs to spread the word around.

The new love of my life

My new waterbed!  It was delivered on Monday and just seems to become more comfortable every night.  Phill’s been wearing the nose strips which have helped, and he’s also stopped having a nightcap of Southern Comfort, which has helped even more!  I’m almost ashamed to admit that this morning I woke up at 10.22am, which has to be the latest I’ve slept in for about ten years    I was surprised how many of you ladies also suffer with husbands/partners who snore, it’s a much more common problem than I thought.    Phill handmade all the wardrobes and units in our bedroom himself, you can see pics here of it being made.

I have done some stitching this week, but also had a visit from the frogs and had to pull out quite a lot of Cirque des Carreaux because of one tiny miscount, but it would have looked odd if I had left it there because the design is so symetrical.    Yesterday I made quite good progress on Cirque des Triangles

And today I stitched one block of part 3 of Grand Marquoir.

I’ve also been very naughty and started a new design this week, which is Moonlight Garden by The Drawn Thread.   I bought the chart, threads and recommended fabric a while ago, and even sneakily put a few stitches in, but the fabric, Wichelet linen, which looked quite blue on the cover picture, turned out to be very green and the fabric itself was very stiff and quite unpleasant to stitch on.    I was very disappointed as I really really like the design.  But then I saw a picture of a WIP stitched on a Belfast Linen called Misty Blue, where the threads had been coverted to Hand Dyed Fibers silks.  It looked amazing!  So I bought a piece Misty Blue, used Vikki’s conversion to Hand Dyed Fibers and am really pleased with the way it looks so far.  There are lots and lots of speciality stitches in this one so it’s going to be quite a challenge.

For the rest of today I think I’ll carry on with Cirque des Carreaux and replace the stitches that I pulled out earlier this week.  I’m also getting ready to start a my new SAL with Claire this week, as she has finished her backstitching on Who’s Watching Whom, which looks absolutely stunning – you can see it here.

Long overdue update

I’ve been very slack in updating my blog over the last week, partly because I’ve been busy at work but partly because the weather has been very nice in this part of the world and there’s been lots to do in the garden and around the house.  The biggest disadvantage of having a partner who enjoys DIY is the fact that bank holidays always seem to turn into major projects which he’s been planning for a while LOL.  Also I recently started reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer after hearing so many people say how good the series of books were.  I finished the first book in a bout a week, the second in a few days, the third over one afternoon/evening and the fourth involved a very very late night.  I can’t remember the last time I picked up a book and just HAD to finish it with no interruptions and thanks to Phill for busying himself building a workshop for himself in the garage I was able to sit down and read to my hearts content.  

I have done a little stitching though, on Cirque des Triangles and Cirque des Carreaux and here’s my (bad) progress pics on both.

I have also got a lot done on Lettres at Mon Chat.  I forgot to post an update pic last week (oops!).  I am so close to finishing this that I may carry on stitching it this evening to finish it off. I only have the rest of the cat and a paw print to finish it off.

You can see Claire and Jenny’s progress on their blogs, here and here.   Both are close to finishing too.  As you can see my cats now have whiskers

Stitching update

I really did have a good stitching weekend this weekend.  I was sort of tied to the house on Sunday as I had some hospital tests on Monday which meant that I could not go too far from the house on Sunday.  As a result I made the most of the time and got lots done on both Cirque des Triangles and Grand Marquoir SAL.

After a very long and quite unpleasant afternoon at the Hospital I almost treated myself to a new start last night, BUT managed to resist (not quite sure how LOL) and worked on Growth Rings instead, even though it wasn’t in my rotation for last night.  The new start was going to be a hardanger design of some sort as I haven’t done any for so long and I know I have a few Judy Dixon’s in my stash waiting to be done/kitted up and also a Polstitches design fully kitted.

Tonight, I’ll get back into my rotation, after a bit of an upside down week where I sort of slipped off track for a while.  That means Growth Rings stays on the Qsnaps one more night …..unless I give in to my startitis

Still Pooped!

First of all, can I say thank you to those who left comments sending Phill get well wishes, they are much appreciated.  The man flu still has hold of him, but thankfully he is able to sleep soundly all night so is well rested the following morning.  However, I’m managing on a couple of hours sleep a night because his snoring/coughing/sniffling is keeping me awake  He was well enough to play with his new toy yesterday though, and the Jeep is now shining brightly outside the house.  I really must give my Mini a wash today so I don’t let the side down

I did manage to get a little bit more of Cirque des Triangles done on Saturday, not as much as I’d like but progress none the less.  Sorry about the shadows in the pictures today, they were taken very early this morning when it was quite dark.  

Yesterday I carried on with Too Pooped, although a bit of time was wasted trying to work out a counting error (again).  I’m back on track now though and hopefully the rest of the stitching should go quite quickly.  The backstitch may take a little longer though

This cat reminds me so much of our cat Tinker, except that she’s not always as calm as this.  We think she is slightly schizophrenic as one minute she will be sitting on your lap, purring and looking for fuss, a bit like a floppy rag doll,  the next minute she starts growling and lashes out at everything in sight.  Here she is ……

Thanks for visiting!