So, where on earth will I find space for these???

I've picked up two pieces from the picture framers - Fantasy Triptych and Waiting for Ships. It took me ages to pick out the frames and mounts, but it was worth the effort. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.





There's only one problem - where on earth am I going to find room to hang them? I feel a major picture reorganisation coming on!

I spent part of last week on holiday in Spain with friends. Although I took some stitching with me I didn't do any at all. It was a lovely trip, I'll share some photos later on. Since I got back I've worked on a couple of pieces. Last night I finished stitching Bird in Hand:



And since then I've been working on Classic Pooh Birth Sampler - a gift for my friend Helene, who had a baby girl 2 weeks ago. This is how far I have got:



Hope everyone else is having a lovely relaxing weekend, with plenty of stitching time!

Merry Christmas!!

Wow, December has been a whirlwind. As usual work took over my life, some nights I barely had enough energy to stitch... Our term finished on the 18th, but work seemed to increase as then end got nearer, not decrease. So I took all this week off as holiday. Saturday we did various jobs, not least getting all of our parcels and cards in the post - just before the last posting date (again). Sunday we travelled to Birmingham to see Ed's parents. The weather was NOT on our side, at one point it took us 25 minutes to drive just one mile (though the snow near Huddersfield - a snow hot spot that hit the headlines that night).

We had a lovely time with Ed's parents, and headed back yesterday. A long drive (traffic this time) followed by manic food shopping and a rather bargainous tree - £10, reduced from £40... so there is a plus to last minute tree shopping!! Today we cleaned, tidied and decorated the tree. And watched the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, and the Muppet's Christmas Carol (our favourite Christmas movie). I'm shattered! But a lovely curry later and I've found time to blog. Luckily Ed brought his laptop home, so I've been surfing the web in front of QI. I'm spending my Christmas and birthday money on a laptop, so TV/surfing combos will become more common...

Anyway, this is what I've been stitching over the last month (it's a month since I last posted... not good!!):
First of all, a photo of the finished Waiting for Ships:

(c) Mirabilia, stitched on 28ct cashel 'Fathom' by Picture this Plus, in DMC and Krenik


I then started a new project, which I designed myself. It's Postman Pat - not my usual style, but a request from my friend Leanne, as a birth sampler for her nephew (I did Bob the Builder for her other nephew):

I'm not really enjoying it, but it's quick (and good for when I'm tired), and is my only outstanding bit of obligation stitching.

I also stitched a bit more of Dracolair's Gaelic Banner:


I took this with me to work on in Birmingham. But we packed so quickly I forgot the page of pattern I was working on, and worse still, the key. Ed was a star and suggested we went out on Monday and got me something to work on. The little independent shop in Solihull, which I have used occasionally, has closed down, so we ended up in Hobbycraft. £25 later I came home with the DMC Wild Thyme flower fairy. After just over 24 hours I finished the dress, proving I'd have been a nightmare to be with if I'd not had anything to stitch in Birmingham... I'm not good at sitting still! I did a little bit more last night and today, here she is (after just 4 days of stitching):


Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

more beads...

I've spent a lot of my stitching time putting beads on to Waiting for Ships, as you can see, she's coming along nicely:



I've also been getting on with Birth Band, maybe I'll actually finish it this week. If I do I'll have one more goal outstanding for October, If I'm focussed I may actually meet them all this month!

More beads...

Having mastered how to sit on the sofa and use seed beads comfortably, and without losing them all, I've made some great progress on Waiting for Ships:



I'm just about to head out the door for a weekend with Eddy's parents, and have packed a couple of easy-to-travel projects... we'll see how much stitching time I get.

Have a lovely, sttching filled weekend everyone!

Happy Dance!!!

Just a quick post to share my Happy Dance! - this birth sampler is based on 'you were hatched', with a little bit of 'needle guardian' thrown in for the personalisation:



A huge thank you to Lindsay, who very generously gave me the chart for you were hatched, and the necessary skein of dinky dies.

I tried out the new John James needles, and loved them. But I'm too tired/busy for beading, so didn't get very much further with Waiting for Ships. Anglea asked which fabric I am using. WFS is stitched on PTP's 'fathom' cashel linen - I saw the fabric while in the States a few years ago, fell in love, bought it then hunted down the 'right' mermaid pattern. It just yelled 'mermaid' at me the moment I saw it... I was actually looking for something to stitch Dracolair's Phoenix on at the time!

I've pulled out Barbara Thompson's Peacock Firescreen again, as I wanted something easy to stitch during my conference (1 day to go.... only 140 delegates. Hopefully I didn't forget anything???).

Waiting for ships...

I had a lovely quiet weekend. Did some errands, watched Eddy make blackberry jam (all I did to help was wipe up afterwards!), ate lovely food, much from the garden, and stitched.

Mostly I stitched to Lord of the Rings. I didn't quite make it through all 3 extended movies in a weekend (a secret goal) as at 11.15 last night I decided to give up and go to bed. So I've got about 1/2 hour of Return of the King to watch tonight. I would have managed it, but Eddy and I thought we ought to watch 'Gran Torino' which was the latest lovefilm DVD to hit the doormat....

Anyway, with all that move watching, I had some serious stitching time. I was hoping to finish all the xs and bs on waiting for ships sometime this month... but I did it yesterday...



Then I started the beading. I've had my eye on some John James needles for a while, and was waiting for my last credit card bill to be issued before buying any... this morning I put in a humongous needle order (hey, it's free P&P if you spend £10...) mostly because they get recommended so highly but also because I really like the sound of short beading needles. Especially given WFS uses 6 packs of petite beads....

August stitching, September goals

Well, it's quite a while since I last posted. I've been away twice, to Hampshire (pics and funny stories in a later post) and for a wonderful day at Champney's Spa with Eddy's mum - as a treat for looking after Paul, who has demetia. I have to say I take the 'job' of having to drive Margaret to fun days out very seriously indeed!! Our next planned treat is the Harrogate knitting and stitching show in November.

Anyway, other than that I've been exceedingly busy at work. I'm never, ever organising a conference again. Especially not when trying to finish editing a book (amongst other things). Ususally us academics get a break from teaching (not a holiday!) in the summer, and a chance to catch up on research and admin... well not for me this year!! My stitching time has taken a serious hit, and I've really not followed my goals, just stitched what I wanted, when (if?) I felt like it.. as a consequence I only met one of my (very modest) August goals:

1) finish you were hatched - nope
2) work on waiting for ships - yes
3) work on fantasy triptych - nada

On the plus side, WFS has seen some serious stitching recently:



So, goals for September.. I need to be careful here, as I don't expect this month to be much better

1) finish you were hatched (I should manage it, there's not much to go other than BS and the dedication)
2) work on waiting for ships. I'd like to finish the bs, but we'll see
3) start a birth sampler for Hugh, who was born on the 20th August
4) stitch on something else

and a non-stitchy goal:
5) blog more than twice this month (I'm already half way :))

Summer stitching, summer gardens

I can't believe it's 2 1/2 weeks since I last posted! Well I can, I've been very busy, but all the same...

Thankfully it's not just work that has kept me occupied, I've also taken some leave - it's proving pretty difficult squeezing my holidays in to a busy summer, but if I don't take them before term starts in late September I'll probably lose them! So I've been working long hours to be able to fit the holidays in!

I've also found some time for stitching, but not as much as I would have liked. I usually stitch every day, but there's been a few recently where my bum has hit the sofa and I've barely had the energy to channel hop...

Anyway, I took these pics before my last break, in the hopes I'd have chance to share them before I went away:




I've actually done a little more on both since I took these - I took you were hatched away with me, and spent about an hour or so working on the border one evening. I picked up waiting for ships again last night, and have had some quality stitching time today, listening to the test match (I'm still in shock that we got so many runs...) - cricket for the non-Brits out there! I'm hoping to hare another progress pic tomorrow, when I've got a little more done.

As for August travels... the weekend after I went to Edinburgh Eddy and I decided to take the Friday off work, and visit RHS Harlow Carr, just outside Harrogate. Given how much we love gardening it's a bit shocking we'd not been, given we've been living 45 mins away from Harrogate for 5 years! Here are some photos:









We had lunch at Betty's (very traditional English tea shop with excellent cakes), had a good meander, and on a whim bought another apple tree when we left... not that we know where to plant it yet. It's in a very big pot getting lots of water for the time being! When we went apple tree shopping at Easter we really wanted a bramley apple, but having a small garden we wanted M27 (dwarf) root stock. After lots of searching we read in a book that you don't get M27 bramleys, so got another apple tree instead (bountiful - another cooker, but a little sweeter, apparently). Anyway, we should have known that the Royal Horticultural Society would have M27 bramleys... and there it was with 20% off. Sadly we had to pick the smallest tree (we only have a small car) and it was the only one without apples on, so we'll have to wait until next year to get fruit!!

We've been eating lots of veggies out of the garden recently - potatoes, onions, carrots, broccoli, artichokes and green beans have all done brilliantly. The peas didn't produce much, and we got tomato blight. We have picked the unaffected green tomotoes and plan on making a chutney, using my friend's 'not mango chutney' recepie. My rose garden has been looking fabulous too, this photo was taken a couple of months ago, I don't have a recent one as I only ever think of taking a photo just after I've dead-headed and there aren't many blooms!



Happy stitching!

How does your garden grow???

Well, with all the rain we've had recently, very well indeed!! Here are some photos of our veggie garden. If you remember we only built the raised beds at Easter:


The raised beds...


Front to back: potatoes, carrots, parsnips, fennel and purple sprouting broccoli


Artichokes.. I counted 30 heads today, but some are smaller than my finger nail!

We are eating our favourite artichoke dish - artichokes and peas (it sounds better in Greek) for tea tonight, the first of the artichoke harvest. Sadly we've not grown enough peas!

Life has been very busy over the last few weeks, especially at work. Last weekend my old school friend, Leanne, came to stay. Given we first met when we were five, it's amazing we still have stuff to talk about! We went shopping, had a lovely dinner cooked by Eddy, then the next day went to Harrogate - and had afternoon tea at Betty's. Yum!

This week I was in Norwhich for 2 days, then worked late Thursday, and last night I went out for Pizza and to see Harry Potter to celebrate Nivien's birthday... so I've not done much stitching. But last Sunday I did start You Were Hatched:



I'm missing a couple of colours (HOW????), but will buy them when my next credit card bill is issued!

Here's a photo of Waiting for Ships, which I was working on the week before:



Last time I posted a photo of her it was May!! I've made quite a bit of progress since then.

Happy stitching x

A tale about progress...

..on the mermaid's tail!

If you remember, I'd done quite a bit on Waiting for Ships before my trip to Chicago, and while I was over the pond I picked up the Krenik Braid I was missing for the tail. Two nights ago I finally picked her up again, and filled in the gaps - I think you'll agree she looks much, much better all filled out!!



In an attempt to keep on target for goals I plan on stitching a back for my top secret project tonight, so I can finish it over the weekend... which leaves me a little lace making (no problem, that's what Thursdays are for!) and some more bs on Elliot and Buttons. I've done about a 1/4 of the bs so far - I'll try and remember to take a photo to share!

Stitching progress...

Except not on what I was planning on focusing on for March! I am absolutely loving Mira's Waiting for Ships, I don't seem to be able to put it down. This is where I'm up to:



I'd have lots more done, but I don't have that Kreinik yet, so there are lots of gaps! I had planned to 'stitch a little' on this in March - oh well, progress is progress!

I have dome a little on Fantasy Triptych:



I am sure you can all see the difference the bs has made to the centre panel??? Hmm, it's more obvious IRL. I've also started the border. Given there is more border at the top that the bottom,with all of the wood tracery, I think this is probably about 1/4 of the way done. I'm hoping to make more progress with this over the weekend.

I have been going to Louise's to make lace on Thursdays, and that is progressing well (sorry, no photo, but it's just a turquoise blob at present), but I won't be able to make another Thursday this month. I've not touched any other goals yet... Hmmm, they are made to be broken aren't they???

Busy weekend!

wow, this weekend has flown by! Friday night I travelled down to Nottingham and stayed in the flat with Ed. On Saturday he had to work, so I popped over to see my folks - mum is doing amazingly after her knee op. I can tell she's going to be up and about and up to trouble in no time!! I'm also pretty impressed that she's sticking to doctor's orders re: resting and physio exercises. She was busy watching one of my DVDs when I arrived - the latest Jane Eyre by the BBC. I really enjoyed watching the not-quite-a-wedding scene with her!

Later that afternoon I drove back to Nottingham, picked Ed up and we went down to Birmingham to see his folks. Sadly his Dad is getting worse, it's really heartbreaking. There's so little we can do to help. But we had an enjoyable evening watching TV as a family and just chatting - although with Paul it's mostly nonsense. He gets really annoyed if we can't understand him, and recently we've learnt that nodding and saying yes when he's muddled is often the easiest, and nicest way of dealing with the dementia.

We went back to Nottingham Sunday lunchtime, then I came back up to Leeds, and immediately hit the gym. It was a good workout but I wasn't feeling as motivated as on Thursday. I'm hoping to get to the gym 4 times this week - we'll see how that goes!

Anyway, I did a little stitching on Waiting for Ships over the weekend. It looks so odd without the BF, but I'm determined to wait a month and get it while I'm in the States - it will be so much cheaper!



I also took a photo of Fantasy Triptych this morning. I've not stitched on it so far this month, but hopefully I'll pick it up tonight for TW Monday. I'm hosting a stitch and bitch here tonight, so it'll depend on how mad the house feels.. the BSing I have to do looks a little tricky!



I picked Birth Band up from the framers this weekend too - I had to pop by twice as there was some fluff behind the glass, but they sorted it quickly. I was really happy with the combination of mount and frame - they suited the colours perfectly. Irritatingly it was a little dark when I took the photo which didn't do the colours full justice:



Happy stitching everyone

Change of plans...

In the end I didn't go to my parents last night, I'm going shortly. The plan was for Eddy and I to stay in the flat in Nottingham last night, then go over to my folks today, but Eddy's flu came back with a vengence and I was tired after work - so I stayed at home overnight, and really enjoyed the extra stitching time - I didn't go. to bed until 1am!

Here's a photo of Waiting for Ships (I did a little more this morning):

A big difference from the photo I took for this post. I don't think I'd picked it up in between either!! Irritatingly I seem to have lost 2 spools of Krenik Braid. I'm sure this was fully kitted up, but can I find any 829 ~8 braid anywhere in the house??? If I'd not ordered Jane's wedding sampler already I could have just added it to the order, but I did that on Thursday and I'm loathe to pay postage again. Grrr.

I also took a photo of my new lace project, sea monster. As you can see it's quite small. Yes, those are pin heads. This is after 2 evenings work, although both were a little less productive than some!


Right, better head off to the car...

busy month!

January is turining into a busy month, although I have to admit a lot has been self inflicted! The main reason I've not had chance to blog, is that I (whispers) joined a gym. I've been fed up with my weight and fitness level for a while (well, most of my life to varying degrees, but really fed up of late). Since we moved to Leeds and bought a car my exercise levels plummeted. I was a member of a gym nearby, but eventually I lost my motivation, so I quit 18 months ago (needed to use the gym membership for house-buying related expenses, but really I just wasn't going). About 2 months ago I got motivated again, but needed to get past Christmas (and buying the new car) before I could afford to join.

I have to say I'm doing quite well so far. I joined a week ago Saturday, and since then I've done 2 yoga classes (which made my ribs really ache - I couldn't laugh for 4 days!), done 4 sessions of 1 hour each at the gym, and been swimming 3 times. I'm planning on trying aqua aerobics tonight. I already feel healthier, which is my aim. But this is cutting into my stitching and (more significantly) my blogging time quite a bit.. so fewer posts here.

Anyway, I have made some progress stitching wise. Sonata is about 3/4 done - I'll take it away with me this weekend, and am hoping to finish it then. I've actually stitched on FT for 2 Mondays running (and for part of last week), and somewhat amazingly I've picked up Las Vegas - I'm going to try and focus on this until the end of the month, and hopefully get the first page or so done.

I also picked out and started soemthign new, to replace Phoenix - I chose Mirabilia's Waiting for Ships - I've had it fully kitted up for a while now. I bought the fabric (PTP's Fathom) on my first trip to St Louis to see Amanda and Phil, and it was my first piece of hand dyed fabbie. I chose WFS to go with the fabric. I just hope I'll have enough contrast with the dark areas of stitching. It looked OK on a floss toss, but you never quite know! Luckily most of the design is quite pake in colour. Anyway, this is where I've got to so far:



Happy Stitching everyone!