Pictures!

In my last post I promised some pictures, but it took me a couple of days to find the memory card from my camera – thanks to Phill for “borrowing” it and not putting it back LOL

First a couple of catch up photos on a couple of WIPs.  South Seas Lace is a SAL with Claire and Vikki, but lately it’s been a bit more of a Non SAL for me.  At the moment I’m just about halfway through the design.

Sampler Cove’s Ribbon Sampler is next, I managed to get a few hours stitching in on this recently, but it is stitched on 40 count fabric so the progress isn’t very obvious!

Next up, a couple of new starts.  Firstly, Travelling Stitcher by Little House Needleworks.   I have finished the needlekeep part of the design and yesterday started on the main part.

Lastly, another SAL, this time with my sister Sheila – Celtic Welcome by Polstitches Designs.  There will be a slight difference in our finishes, Sheila is stitching the Welsh version so hers will say Croeso instead of Welcome.   We thought it would be interesting if we each started with a different dragon, so she is starting on the red dragon and I am starting on the white dragon.  She has posted her first pic on her blog and it looks great so far, unfortunately I had trouble taking a good photo as the light coloured stitching doesn’t show up too well on the fabric.

And finally, one last photo – a very rare photo LOL.  Last week there were signs that Mia was calming down a little, unfortunately she was just teasing and since then she has been absolutely crazy.  She is teething and is biting anything and everything at the moment.  At the weekends, if the weather is dry, she gets to go outside while we potter around in the garden – our back garden is totally enclosed so she can’t get out, but she has had a couple of scary moments when she climbed up a conifer tree and couldn’t work out how to get down LOL.  Her kitty instincts soon kicked in though and now she runs up and down the trees with no problem at all.  The best part of her getting some exercise comes later on in the day when we sit down to relax……

She stayed in this position for over an hour, and would probably have stayed there a lot longer, but Phill had to get up and move around LOL

Better late than never

I’m very, very late in posting my South Seas Lace SAL picture this week, I did mean to post before I went to bed on Thursday evening, but unfortunately I fell asleep on the sofa long before bedtime and completely forgot LOL

The colours in this picture are quite true to live, at least they are on my monitor!    Have a look at Claire and Vikki’s progress.

In other stitching news I’ve been making slow progress on part 4 of Grand Marquoir and am on the third square of this part.  I will take a progress picture when I have finished this block.  I have hardly picked up a needle for days though, mostly due to the Mia the kitten.  She is completely bonkers and is very inquisitive so I can only safely stitch when she’s asleep.  However, whereas she used to crash out for hours at a time, her naps are getting shorter the older she gets so I really am snatching a few stitches here and there.  I really miss stitching though, especially when I look around all your blogs and see such wonderful work.  I think Phill and I are going to have to work out some kind of kitten rota, where I look after her for a certain length of time so he can play his guitar etc and then he can look after her while I stitch for a few hours.

We wouldn’t swap her for the world though, she is quite a character and is very affectionate.  This is how she likes to sleep…….Phill and Mia having a Sunday afternoon snooze!!

And even Ginger is beginning to accept her ……

Grand Marquoir – Part 3

I finally finished part 3 of Grand Marquoir!

I waited for Mia to fall asleep before I started on part 4, put her in her bed where she was out light a light, went to make a cup of tea and came back into the room less than five minutes later to find this …….

Obviously a kitten with good taste, will only sleep on the best quality linen LOL.

Have a look over at Jolene’s blog. She’s having a great giveaway, but you’ll have to be quick as entries close tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Race for Life, which starts at 11am and will take place along the promenade in Swansea.  Hopefully it will be a fine day, please keep your fingers (and stitches) crossed for a dry morning for us all!

South Seas Lace

I’ve been off work all week on holiday, but unfortunately due to Phill’s business being a bit quiet for the last few months he hasn’t been able to take any time of at all.  The weather has been absolutely terrible, it really hasn’t stopped raining for days so most of the week has been spent at home relaxing and playing with the new kitten.

She’s settled in really well and is already becoming quite a character.  The other cats are slowly beginning to accept her and there’s only been a small amount of hissing so far.  Ginger is taking it the worst,  as he was the baby of the family until she came along, but he is getting better every day.  It’s been quite a few years since we’ve had a kitten in the house and I had forgotten how busy they keep you.  My stitching time this week has been very limited, but I have been able to get a few stitches in when she crashes out!  Here’s some pics of the kitten, who we have named Mia.

On the way home

Sheila tried to put her inside the cat basket for the journey to Newcastle Emlyn to meet us, but she really didn’t like it so they drove all the way with her sitting on TOP of the cat basket.  We then drove from Newcastle Emlyn to Swansea with her on top of the basket too.  She was as happy as larry, but it did attract a few strange looks from pedestrians LOL.

Mia's new bed

Mia's scratching post

Mia playing chase the ball

I’ve been working all week on Grand Marquoir and have nearly finished part 3, I don’t have a picture at the moment, but will post one before I start part 4.   I have also started South Seas Lace, which is a SAL with Claire. This stitched up very quickly and I an see that it won’t take long for us to finish this design.  I’ve really let my rotation slip over the last few months, but during the summer months my stitching time is more erratic so for the time being I’m going to make Grand Marquoir my main project and I will stitch on it until part 4 is finished (apart from Thursdays which is SAL with Claire day).

Here’s my start on South Seas Lace.

South Seas Lace - 16th July 2009

The colour of the fabric really doesn’t show well in this picture, but it’s so dark here today that I had to use the flash.  Hopefully the colour will come through more in future progress pics.  The fabric is one that I had in my stash from Sugar Maple Fabrics (sadly no longer in business) and is called Ocean Spray.  The thread is Vicki Clayton’s Hand Dyed Fibers and is called Paua Abalone and is absolutely gorgeous.