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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

Is That All update

I’m a bit slow off the mark with a pic of Thursday’s SAL with Claire, but better late than never!  

I managed to get a good few hours in this week and I think I’ve caught up with Claire now.

I haven’t done much stitching this weekend, or much of anything come to think of it, I’ve been a little distracted by the fact that on Thursday morning I have to have a Colonoscopy.  I have to follow a very strict, very boring diet the couple of days leading up to it, so I’m going to try my best to take my mind off the hunger by stitching LOL.  I’m not looking forward to the preparation the day before, but hopefully will not remember too much about the procedure itself because they give IV sedation.  The silver lining comes from the fact that I’m not supposed to drive, operate heavy machinery or sign legal papers for 24 hours after the sedation, good news as I work for a law firm and just about managed to persuade my boss that literally everything I do involves some kind of legal papers or other so I get to have Friday off work as well as Weds and Thurs!

There are now 10 entries for the fabric giveaway, and I will be putting the names into a hat when I get home from work tomorrow afternoon.

Is That All?

Thursday evening was the start of a new SAL with Claire.  We are stitching a Cats Rule design called Is That All.  I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked as after work on Thursday I went shopping for a new top to wear to my mother’s 70th birthday party on Friday night.  I don’t know why I always leave things until the last minute!  After traipsing around a few shops  did manage to get a couple of things but this meant that I didn’t get home until about 7.30pm.  By the time I had a bite to eat, I didn’t get to sit down with my stitching until about 8.15.  Here’s my progress so far

Claire did so much better than me, you can see her progress here