South Seas Lace finished!

And a close up shot to better show the colours in the thread.

South Seas Lace by Debbie Draper Designs, featured in the May 2009 edition of The Gift of Stitching magazine.

Stitched on 28 count Jubilee fabric from Sugar Maple Fabrics called “Ocean Spray” using Hand Dyed Fibers silk thread called Paua Abalone.

South Seas Lace

Just a quick post this morning sent from my iPhone to show you the great progress I made last night on SSL. Phill was out last night so I spent the whole evening stitching!  (Sorry about the darkness of the photo)

Small Happy Dance!

It seems like forever since I posted to my blog, but things have been so busy around here the last few weeks I have barely put needle to fabric so haven’t had a lot to show you.

The bathroom renovation is more or less complete, the only thing left to do is to have the carpet fitted and we are waiting for a phone call from the carpet fitter to let us know when he can fit us in.  We picked the carpet up yesterday and it is absolutely stunning.  I can’t wait for it to be fitted as I think it is going to finish off the bathroom perfectly.

Here’s some pics of the 99% finished room.  Yet again Phill has done a fabulous job – he really can turn his hand to anything and everything.

You can see how small the bathroom is, but it’s surprising how much hard work he’s done to get it looking like this.  All I need to get now is some new towels to put in the towel holder which is above our very very shiny radiator.

I have done a little stitching the last couple of days and have finally finished part 4 of Grand Marquoir, so a very small happy dance for me!.  Parts 5 and 6 have been released for some time so I’m really going to have to get my skates on to finish this by the end of the year!

One final picture for you, my current progress on the South Seas Lace stitch a long.  I’ve had a gentle kick up the backside this afternoon from Claire on her blog LOL.  She’s racing ahead and is not far from finishing, so I will work on SSL this evening to see if I can catch her up.    Her SSL looks amazing – pop over to her blog to have a look.

I’ve had a very busy day today, housework this morning, baking this afternoon – I made an apple cake (for us) and a pumpkin pie (which I will take into work, it’s become a bit of a tradition that I bake a pumpkin pie around Halloween).  I’ve also got a Lamb Hot Pot in the oven at the moment for our dinner this evening which smells so good it’s starting to make my mouth water!

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

It’s been a while!

Oops, it’s been a while since I last posted, but things have been extra extra busy with work, kittens and bathroom renovations preparation (and shopping!)

I had a lovely week off work, apart from the weather as it more or less poured with rain constantly for the whole week.  I also had a wonderful birthday on 22nd August and received a very unexpected gift from Claire She sent me some lovely threads, buttons and a beautiful paw print keyring, have a look …..

Unfortunately I don’t have much to show in the way of stitching.  A few weeks ago I was managing to snatch the odd hour here and there while Mia was sleeping, but she’s now at that stage of kittenhood where she is a complete pain in the *** LOL.  She iscompletely bonkers and tries to climb absolutely everything (and everybody!).  She is scared of no-one and nothing, not even the other cats in the house, and she regularly pounces on Bonnie, Ginger and Loius!    This means that it’s almost impossible to do any stitching at the moment as I just don’t want to risk her pouncing on my fabric or stealing any threads/needles.  What little I have done is pictured below.  Grand Marquoir part 4, just a few squares away from being complete, although part 5 is already out so I really must get a shift on with it.   Also South Seas Lace – I think I may have to cheat a little on this one and do a couple of days extra work on it.  You can see how Claire and Vikki are doing with this SAL on their blogs, looks like their racing ahead!

A few weeks ago Loius brought in a tiny field mouse through the cat flap and dropped it in Phills lap, however it was still alive and as soon as he dropped it it shot off his lap and disappeared.  We looked for it for hours but didn’t manage to find it, until yesterday when it walked as bold as brass across the floor in front of Phill.  It’s now about three times the size it was when it arrived, but also three times as fast and try as we might we just couldn’t catch the little bugger.  We’re going to have to get some kind of humane trap for it.  It’s hard to believe that there are four cats living in this house and so far none of them have caught it!  Quite unbelieveably as I was typing this post I could hear squeaking and found Louis chasing another little mouse around the kitchen floor.  Luckily Phill managed to catch that one and released it back outside.  Thing is, it does make us wonder exactly how many live ones he’s brought back when we’ve been at work!  For all we know we could have dozens of them!  Cats – gotta love em LOL

Early start!

Phill and I both tend to be early risers, especially during the week when we have to get out of the door by 8am for work, but at the weekends too.   However, I wasn’t expecting to be up and about quite as early as this this morning but Mia seems to have a built in alarm clock that goes off at 6.20am on the dot and once that clock starts ringing (or miaowing) you’d be surprised how much noise that tiny kitten can make LOL.

Once the cats were fed and I had my first cuppa of the day made I thought I’d catch up with some blog reading, which I have been doing, but unfortunately for those of you with Blogger blogs I can’t seem to leave comments on any of them, it keeps coming up with an error message.  Fingers crossed they will fix this soon, and I’ve made little notes of the blogs I need to return to later on today.

Not much stitching progress again this week, I have lots of work on at the moment trying to get ready to take the week after next off.  Phill is off too this time and we’re both really looking forward to it.  We’re not going away, maybe a day out here and there, and Phill is already making lists of things to do around the house when we’re off – he always manages to get some DIY in when we have time off LOL.

Here’s my progress on South Seas Lace this week.

You can see Claire and Vikki’s progress on their blogs - here for Claire and here for Vikki.  Unfortunately Vikki can’t take a picture at the moment, but it sounds like she’s made huge progress this week.

I have to work today unfortunately, but as it’s not even 7am yet I may be able to sneak an hour or so on Grand Marquoir before I start!!

Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend.

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 ……

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.