2013 - the year of the Happy Dance?

So these are the two projects I finished over the weekend:

Tatty Teddy 'A New Baby'. It's an anchor kit, but I substituted the aida for laguna.

And then 'Leafy' headband by Happy Living (I found it on Ravelry):

This is done in a lovely soft Debbie Bliss Alpaca and Silk blend - it feels WONDERFUL.

I've finally found my camera card, so I can share a photograph of the other ornament I sent out for the TWCOE - Partridge in a Pear Tree by Milady's needle, from the 2012 JCS ornament edition. I really enjoyed stitching this and was very pleased with how the finishing turned out:

On Sunday I picked up fruit bellpull again, and last night I finished the xs and started the bs on the pears block - a bout of insomnia helped speed the bs along - I'll share a photo as soon as I have completed the block - maybe tomorrow?

Happy stitching folks x

Christmas Stitching

Argh, time has been flying past at great speed, and I've had far too much to do - work, social life, stitching commitments - which means my little corner of the net has been a tad neglected of late, for which I am very sorry - I do hope I still have readers! I'm also extremely behind my blog reading - I doubt I'll be able to catch up with all of your lovely posts, but my stitchy friends are often in my mind, if not on the computer screen.

I won't bore you with the work, socially I've been up and down the country visiting friends and relatives, out for fabulous meals on FAR too many occasions, to some very fabulous parties and sat and ate a lot at home and with family. The post-Christmas weight watchers meeting will NOT be fun!!! But the eating and drinking was, and I like to think I have sensible priorities here...bring on the port and cheese ;) I'm currently at my parents, and looking forward to a lovely New Years party with my school friends.

As for stitching - as usual I over committed myself... I signed up for the TWCOE again, and got everything stitched and posted in time (just)... then failed miserably to post the photos on the TWBB. I'm posting here first, as now webshots has changed I'm not sure how to post pics on a BB. Hopefully a link to here will help.  I did take photos of both of the ornies I made, but one of them must have been taken with my camera (which has had a dead battery for 6 weeks, so I used my photo card in a work camera, and switched it back, then didn't bring my camera with me as I couldn't remember where the charger was... and that's how stupidly busy I've been - no time to charge a camera up!). I did remember to take photos of the ornies I received as I was dashing out of the house to come to my parents on the 27th, thankfully.

So here they are - 3/4 of my TWCOE experience this year:

Unicorn from Fantasy Sampler, which I sent to Jen.

Colour variation of the corner motif from Peacock Tapestry, from Measi. I love the blues in this one.

I'm not sure who the designer is, but I also received this wonderful ornie. And I'm really forgetful, so I can't remember who sent it to me [edited to add that this came from Natty].  The ornie is on my tree and the card is up at home... both of which are 90 miles away. Grrrr, must ask Santa for more brain cells next year.

Thank you both for sending me such wonderful ornaments. I also sent A Partridge in a Pear Tree from the JCS ornie magazine to Natty - photo to follow when I get back home ;)

Edited to say that the photograph is now here: http://www.astitchintime-jo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2013-year-of-happy-dance.html.

So why all the chaos? During the Olympics I did a lot of quilting (we had 2 weeks off work, a staycation, and the second week coincided with the first week of the Olympics. As well as watching the TV non stop all week, I finished a lap quilt, and picked up the purple sampler quilt I started years ago. I decided I'd finish it for my sister's Christmas present. I also decided to trial quilt as you go, as I have a small machine and a small table, so manhandling a large quilt is tricky. Of course none of this went to plan... We went away on the 16th Dec to Nottingham ( had tickets to see Kate Rusby, and I could work from Eddy's office for my last 3 days of work before Christmas), then to Birmingham to see his family. At that point I'd JUST started to stitch the ready quilted blocks together. And I'd not bought the fabric for the borders yet. QAYG involves A LOT of hand stitching, so I took what needed hand stitching with me, and got that done fine. We returned to Leeds to find that my local quilting shop had closed for the Christmas vacation - so we lost an afternoon driving round trying to find suitable fabric. And then I found that although the initial hand stitching was quick, the long seams were not. On Christmas eve I'd not quite got the main quilt top together, never mind the borders and the binding! Christmas day I didn't touch the quilt... it didn't seem like a Christmassy thing to do, would have been rude to ignore Eddy, we needed the table to eat dinner and I had 2 days to get it done, what was there to worry a out???? Boxing day I started quilting at 9.30 am and finished at 12.45 am... with short breaks to eat. And I still had one long seam to hand stitch and the binding to do... We weren't leaving until 4pm on the 27th.. Plenty of time??? Hmmm, maybe not! I still had to hand stitch the back of the binding - that's another 4 long seams, as well as all the machine sewing for the binding. In  finished the quilt at 5 pm, packed in 20 mins flat (leaving camera at home), and spend down the motorway. My sister was a bit annoyed we were late as she was cooking dinner and was very hungry when we turned up at 7.05 pm... but forgave all when she opened her present. Good job too!

I took this photo with my phone, standing on my mum's bed, just before 'lil sis left to stay at her boyfriends for New Year.... I love the final thing, and yes, she was worth the effort!

And for the next few days I'm barely touching a needle. Hopefully when I get home the hole in my finger will have healed. Maybe I should invest in a thimble??? And next year, if it's not finished by the end of November, I'm going to BUY presents instead of make them. Yeah, I believe me too.....

Happy Stitching!!!

Exciting things that come in the post ;)

I've had a good few days of exciting post...

On Saturday (while I was in the shower) the postie rang the doorbell... shortly later Eddy popped upsairs to say I had two parcels - one from the US and one from Australia... ooooh, I thought, probably the TWCOE. I was right... look at these beauties:


A lovely Christmas tree (no idea who it's by, but it's very familiar) stitched by Sophia in Australia.


Hummingbird by TW, stitched by Terry, who organises the TWCOE.

WOW!!! They are both so beautiful - thank you ladies!!!

Today I was expecting some nice post, as it's my birthday... and I wasn't disappointed. A pile of cards, a bracelet, a lovely bone lace bobbin (from Eddy) and this:


from my lovely sister. I'd asked her for the chart and fabric, but didn't really expect her to also get the floss. Lil sis, you are a star. I'll use this as the perfect opportunity to advertise her blog, a humorous account of life living in London... do pop by and have a read!! She's an aspiring writer, and I really enjoy her posts (but I may be biased).

Happy stitching everyone

Fairy fun

At the weekend I said I fancied a change... so I looked at my WIPs and decided to pull out Wild Thyme Fairy again. I've made great progress, finishing her leg and getting going with the thyme and grasses to the right of the fairy. The last progess photo I posted (back in March) shows what she looked like when I picked her up this weekend. Is it really 8 months since I last worked on her???



I've done almost all of the stitches in the bottom left corner, and am making good progress with the bottom right. The top half is less intensively stitched, so once the thyme and grass is done it should come along quickly. Well it would do if I'd not decided to stitch the areas of skin over 1...

I've finished the stitching on the second ornament for the TWCOE. I just need to get them both finished ready for posting by the middle of next week.

Christmas is coming...

I hate to say it, but Christmas is really beginning to loom. What has made me acutely aware of its loomingness? The fact it's time for the TW Christmas Ornament Exchange again. I've taken part for the last 3 years, and have really enjoyed both sending and receiving the ornaments.

Last night I stitched a non TW ornament for the exchange (which means no photos for this post). I also want to stitch a TW one, which I'll start tomorrow. By TW standards my choice is quite simple (but very beautiful), so it should be a quick stitch. I'm really happy \i signed up again this year!

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year!!

Over the last week we've been pretty busy, but having lots of fun - we had a quiet Christmas Day and Boxing day at home, then headed down to Newark to see my family - it was lovely to catch up with everyone - and had a lovely evening with my old school friends. We came home yesterday for a quiet new year. I've caught a bit of a cold, so we didn't quite make it until midnight!!

I got some lovely stash for Christmas - Willow Fairy (DMC Flower Faries) and the chart of Dracolair's Noon Basking from Eddy, and some DMC thread in my stocking from my mum.

Before Christmas I didn't have time to share the photos from the Teresa Wentzler Christmas Ornament Exchange...so here they are:


Byzantine Ornament 1 by Teresa Wentzler. Finished as a pinkeep (fabric in the background used for the back). I sent this to Paula for the TWCOE.


Norwegian Reindeer by Scandinavian Stitches, I made this into a double-sided ornament with Swedish Hearts:


I sent this to Terry for the TWCOE.

These are the lovely ornies I received:

TW's Father Christmas ornament, from Melissa.



Peace 2009 (Sue Hilis Designs) from Natalie.
Both ornaments are wonderful, thank you Melissa and Natalie!

I also sent a pinkeep to Phil and Amanda a bit before Christmas, but never had time to share the photos (I occasioanlly mentioned this last Spring/Summer as a 'top secret project' as Amanda reads this blog!):


Blossoms and Blackbirds by Little House Needleworks


Reverse side - the border from Blossoms and Blackbirds, with my initials and the date. This was my first ever pinkeep, and I was really pleased with the results.

Yearly recap
2009 was a busy year for me, but I achieved lots of finishes.

Medium-sized and larger cross stitch happy dances (9):
* Phoenix
* Sonata
* Birth Band (for Monty)
* Wedding Day
* You were hatched
* Coffin Buzz
* Birth Band (for Hugh)
* Blossoms and Blackbirds
* Waiting for Ships

Ornaments and other small cross stitch (6):
* Golden tree
* J' taime
* Mill Hill Snowflake
* Byzantine ornament 1
* Swedish Hearts
* Norwegian Reindeer

Lace finishes (2):
* Milanese motif
* Bedfordshire heart

That's not as much as last year when I completed 26 projects, 8 larger and 18 smalls/ornaments, but I did finish one more larger project.

At the start for 2009 I had the following WIPS:
* Eeyore's Problem - made some progress
* Fantasy Triptych - made lots of progress
* Las Vegas - abandonned, stitched Wedding Day instead
* Peacock Firescreen - made some progress
* Phoenix - COMPLETED

So most of those are still with me! My current WIPS are:
* Eeyore's problem
* Peacock firescreen
* Fantasy triptych
* Gaelic banner
* Wild Thyme fairy
* Postman Pat

I did achieve most of my goals, vague as they were:
1) Las Vegas (wedding sampler for Jane and Keith) Stitched them Wedding Day instead
2) Postman Pat (birth sampler for Riley - nephew of Leanne) - started
3) Birth sampler (possibly 'Birth Band' by the Drawn Thread) for Monty (Michaela and Stuart's son) - completed
4) Possibly birth samplers for other friends, but I must try and chose small, simple designs - stitched birth band again for Hugh, and you were hatched for Thomas

This year I'd like to:
1) finish Postman Pat
2) finish Fantasy Triptych
3) finish at least one more WIP and make good progress on all of the rest
4) start another large TW
5) stitch lots, on what I want, and enjoy it!!

I've not picked a new start for 2010 yet... it's 4pm so I'd better get cracking...

Ornies

I had a fantastic weekend and birthday - thank you for the good wishes! On Friday night we went to Birmingham to stay with Eddy's parents, on Saturday we went to the Christmas Lace Maker's fair (and I was pretty good, all things considered) - but more on that later. After I'd spent up we went into the centre of Solihull, and had a lovely lunch out, just about finished our Christmas shopping (this is a record for me), then went back for tea. In the evening we watched The Princess Bride, which Eddy got me on DVD. The picture was AMAZING, as was the sound, which just goes to show how worn out my video version is!! I'm not sure Paul followed the film, but then he doesn't follow much these days...

Anyway, last week I received two wonderful ornies as part of the TWCOE, and having finally taken pictures I can share them here:


Ornie from Terry, she also sent me some chocolate (not eaten it yet!!)


Ornie from Paula

Both ornies are stunning, I can't wait to decorate the house and put them up!

Penny and Karin have now received the ornies I sent to them, so I can now share photos:


This is a motif from Abbey Lane Design's 'A new beginning', stitched in Crescent Colours 'Razzleberry' - fast becoming my favourite floss - on a scrap of 32ct linen left over from L&L's Celtic Christmas, sent to Karin.


TW's Father Christmas Ornament, stitched in DMC on left over Quaker Cloth from Fantasy Triptych, sent to Penny.

I included a skein of Weeks Dye Works 'Noel' and a bar of dairy milk with each. The Fabbies I used as backgrounds for these photos are the ones I used for backing them.

I've really enjoyed the TWCOE exchange again this year - it's so fun to stitch for another stitcher, and to send and receive parcels around the world. I think I'll be doing this again next year!