Bad Blogger.

Apologies for my absence , I am not feeling the groove at the moment .

I had a very stressful week at the beginning of this month . I posted of a package to Love Quilts , and it decided to go missing along the way . It had five squares in , and two of them had deadlines for the end of this month , so I was faced with the possibility of having to re-stitch three squares in a very short space of time . Not a prospect I was looking forward to .
 Fortunately, they did turn up , but were held to ransom as the stamp/postage label had somehow become separated from the envelope.After a week of waiting , I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It took me a while to come down and my stitching and blogging mojo are still not at 100 % .

 Added to that , my W key has come adrift , which makes typing a little difficult ,lol. It's amazing how often you need to press W.

Anyway , on to good things. I managed to finish another a/c square for LQUK , which was in the envelope . Quite pleased with this one.

And , I was a very lucky winner of a give away that Lisa was having , and what a gorgeous package of goodies I received.
  The lovely gifts were all parcelled up in this gorgeous fabric and ribbon , but I was too eager to see what was inside to remember to take  before picture.

                                           Amazing fabric , can't wait to find suitable projects .

                                            Floss winders and stitch bows , beads and pretties.

      Lovely threads , Christmassy DMC colours and some WDW and GAST and a spool of Kreinik .

                                     Yummy choccy which is being savoured a little bit at a time.

Fantastic charts , just to my taste .

And , last but definitely not least , the most gorgeous fob . These pictures do not do it justice , it is absolutely beautiful .

 Lisa , Thank you again so much , I love everything and can't wait to use it .

I also placed a small (yeah right , who am I kidding ?) order with Katz X Stitch with some of  my Christmas money . Stocked up on some DMC and some fabric and bobbins .

Just before Christmas , a lady offered some DMC threads on the LQ facebook page as a donation , so myself and one of the other members  said we'd pay a donation to LQ for the threads ,as usually the cash is more useful with people using their own stash to stitch the squares.
 Anyway , I received 150 skeins of DMC . They are old as have the paper tabs on , and some of them are very grubby,but I'm sure they will come in useful .  So , I have been very busy winding nearly 200 skeins of floss onto bobbins . not got a pic at the moment ,so will show that next time .

 Well, think that's all for now. Off to hopefully get some stitches in .
Thanks for dropping by ,
Cath

A couple of thank yous

I am way behind with these , though I have thanked the lovely ladies in person, it seems only fitting to do so in public too.
 First off ,I was a winner in Gaynors' giveaway . Here are my lovely goodies .

 I have to say that Gaynors' charts look really good and are very professionally finished . Thanks again Gaynor .

 And this was in a little package from the lovely Nia ( I am very impressed with myself right now as I remembered Nias' blog address for the link without looking it up )

 Lovely handmade pumpkins , with a little surprise inside the big one .

Thanks again Nia , I love them and will probably leave them out all year round. I still have the mistletoe and lavender bunny that you made on the shelf next to me .

Thanks again ladies , I love my gifts .
Cath

So much to do , not enough days in my hours .

I'm back,    I think .

My blogging mojo had taken a bit of a vacation anyway , but everything was knocked for six with Catheys' passing .
  I had been in regular contact with Cathey over the last few months , as had a lot of others and it just feels so wrong . I keep half expecting another e-mail to pop up in my box . I'm sad that I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to Cathey , but I guess the quick hellos were more of a comfort to her anyway.

 I will continue to celebrate Pumpkin Day in her memory , so to everyone else who joined in , how about making it an annual event ? Maybe next year we can do something with it to raise funds for Cancer Research?

 Anyway , in my time off ,there have been lots of things I could blog about and also some that I should ,so I guess I had better get on with catching up . I'll start with the stitching , as I still need to get some pics for other things .
 Still not got back into my HAED , but I am hopeful for next month . Meanwhile I have been busy with charity squares for Love Quilts UK .

 A cheeky Spongebob for a boy with a lovely smile.

 Pretty butterfly. This was charted monochrome , but the little girl loves pink and green so I chose some nice colours .

 My latest finish .

  Hubby was sitting over the other side of the room when I was stitching my name on this square and he commented how good it looked , and that it seemed really detailed . I held it up to give him a better view and he said "Oh, I didn't realise I was looking at the back , it's even better than I thought ."
 So here's a back view .

 This is my newest start . I have now started on the colouring in part . I have other squares to do , but thought this would be easier for this week as the kids are on half term .

 And this is a birthday card I made for my lovely friend Lainey .

Lainey and I celebrate our birthdays very close together , I also sent her some sheep for her ever growing flock .

 So , my birthday turned out to be a lovely day , in all ways. The weather was gorgeous and hubby surprised me by taking the day off work and taking me out for the day. I knew nothing about it until opening my cards.
 Kudos to the kids for keeping a few secrets. Hubby and the kids got me some new Pocket Dragons , have to get pics yet though .My big sis got me some lovely earrings and otherwise , I had money. Yay ! Lots of stash shopping , I thought . Not so .
 As hubby was taking me out , I asked to go to White Peak Embroidery. What a let down. I was so disappointed when I got there. There was absolutely nothing I wanted to buy . Now how often does that happen when you let a crafter loose in a shop ? They had no charts ! and only a few kits . The thread selection was ok , but expensive I thought, so I bought one wisper thread and we left .
  As we were on the right track anyway , we continued on to Bakewell so I could go into Wye . Another bust .I got a look at the JCS Christmas ornie mag and decided no to buy , which saved me some cash as otherwise I may just have bought it unseen , so no new stash .
 I have since gone on line and ordered some fabric and LKs Promise Me chart and a Q -snap to try , though I do really need to get some more fabric. I just ordered basic aida for my charity squares .

 I am so jealous of you in the USA with your amazing stitch shops . I want to visit a good needlework shop .

 So , my giveaway ended on my birthday. It took me a few days to get organised and make the draw.
With around 120 comments , I used the random number thingy , just didn't get a pic. The number chosen was  28 , which is   MELANIE  (Monraker Lampwerks) .
 So, Melanie , can you get in touch with your mailing details and also if you have a wish list of any crafty stuff. I do have a few things put away for the give away , but would like to send something you want too .
 Thanks to everyone who took part .

Also, I am now sorted for the Needleworker chart . Thank you . I will post about that and other things next time . This post seems very long .
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Lovely give away prize .

 I was recently chosen as the very lucky winner of Chris' 5th Blogoversary give away .

 Chris ma e a lovely cushion using a design from Sub Rosa , and also included two charts ,which I am looking forward to stitching at some point .

 Just need to buy more fabric ,lol .

 Lovely parcels just waiting to be unwrapped .

  To reveal a beautiful pillow .

  Love the detail .

  Chris also included this cute pair of scissors , as a thank you , as I recently found her a charts she had been looking for. Chris had mentioned the chart on her blog ,and I knew I had it somewhere . I thought it was in a magazine from a couple of years ago , but after trolling through all the mags I had laying around , I couldn't find it .
 Digging down to the bottom of the bottom crate in my stack , turned it up , and it was from May 2005 !!!!

Still , I found it , so I was happy , and I sent it to Chris so she is happy too ,lol .

I will be sorting out and getting rid of a lot of my magazines , so if anyone is looking for a chart or design , please get in touch , I may just be able to help .

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath 

Finally .

 I finally got myself organised and sent my giveaway prizes to Julie and Cucki  . Better late than never .

 Here is what I sent out .

To Julie

To Cucki

 I made a scarf and scissor fob for both ladies ,and added ribbon , beads , a button box , bookmark and a frog to keep the other kind away ,lol .

 For my next giveaway , I will try to be more organised ,lol .

Thanks for looking ,

Cath x

Giveaway winner.

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay ,we have had a busy week , so without further ado :
 I put all the names in a box and asked my daughter to pick one out , and she chose.....
 
     CUCKI  ,

  and as anyone with kids knows , if one is doing something ,then the other one has to , so my son was also asked to choose a name . So the second winner is ...

JULIE 

So , ladies , if you could please drop me a line with your postal details , a few ideas of your likes/dislikes , favourite colours / designers etc. , and any ideas if you would like something themed to a season or holiday , or just a surprise , that would be great . Thanks to everyone who entered , and welcome to my new followers .

 Now for a quick update. Not much stitching going on over the last few weeks . I have had a lot on my mind and find it difficult to concentrate , so mostly I have been knitting.
  My MIL goes to a group where someone was giving away yarn , so she grabbed it for me. My daughter immediately nabbed it , and requested a snuggly scarf with hand warmer pockets , so this kept me busy for a few days .

 And of course , then the boy wanted one too . This was finished just last night . The pics don't show the true colours, but I can't get it right with the grey weather we've got at the moment.

On Saturday , I finally felt like doing some stitching , so pulled out this chart .

Finished it on Sunday , and then started this which I got for my birthday last year from Bekca .

I didn't have the called for threads for either of them , so just used DMC variegated to suit . Not sure about the chick , but I'm really happy with the LK one .

 Still not quite ready to go back to Butterflies ,so you may well see a few more smalls .
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

I'm having a party .

An LHN party that is .
 My stash has arrived !
I mentioned a while ago that I had won a gift certificate in Catheys, giveaway. The GC was for Anitas' Little Stitches , and I had a fab time choosing up my goodies.

 So , I guess you want to see what I got ?
 Lots , and lots of charts .

  Christmas Chirpers and CCN Silent Night , as that is my favourite all time Christmas song .

  LHN Spring, Summer and Autumn Band Samplers ( I already have Winter) .

 Bear Tree Forest and The North Wind .

 Sheep Virtues-Hope and Pumpkin Patch Inn , well, I just had too,lol .

  Big piece of fabby and lots of thread towards kitting up those HAED charts.

 There was something else, but I ordered that to send to a friend , so I will show that later .

 So , another big THANK YOU to Cathey, and also to Anita , who was a pleasure to deal with throughout this transaction, I would recommend her to anyone as her service and communications were excellent .

 I'll be back soon with some stitching updates.
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

A Snowman

Last Friday ,  I finished up this little stitch

 It is one of Nancys' designs (Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe). When Nancy had her Christmas give away , which was massive , she offered to send out a set of charts to anyone who hadn't won  one of her other prizes. There are more charts in the set that I will stitch as and when I fancy .
 Anyway, as I finished ,I was sitting watching the snowflakes falling , and thinking that I ought to be stitching a snowman . Then I remembered that I had won a kit in a giveaway quite a while ago so rummaged through my bag and found it .

This is Cromwell The Snowman by The Trilogy , I have just finished him .

  I stitched one or two lengths of the white than did a bit of colour to break it up a little. I haven't had much chance to stitch this week really, the kids had a snow day on Monday, then the car has had to go for the MOT and various other things have kept me busy, but I enjoyed stitching him .
 Now , can you spot the difference with the chart ?

 Look a little closer .

  On the cover picture, his right hand is stitched to look as though he is holding the tree, yet on the chart , he is waving with the tree behind him . I stuck to the chart as I couldn't see why he would be holding a tree ,lol .

 The main problem with looking out this kit , I came across my stash of other charts that I've kitted up , like Bent Creeks' Winter Row ,  and it made me want to get them out . So far , I have resisted ,lol .

 Here is where I've got to with Butterflies , a little more definition to the face shape . Still loving this one .

  I can't wait to get further down , and I'm already planning my next one . I've got it bad .

 Last night brought a few more inches of snow , but it has been melting today, so hopefully it won't be around for much longer .
 I have been playing with one of the fox photos. This is my favourite one.

Isn't that little face gorgeous. BTW , they have been on the front garden again , we had tracks in the snow this morning .

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Heaven and Earth Designs

Yep , I'm back and much sooner than I expected .
 The laptop needed a new hard drive , and luckily they had one in and got it fitted pretty quickly. I was most fortunate that it wasn't totally wrecked , just dry in places , so they were able to clone all the info on it ,so no charts , photos or other important stuff was lost . Thank goodness for people who know what they're doing.

 So , HAED , well if you remember , my planned first start of the year was to be one of their charts , and it happened. I started SK Butterflies Galore on the 1st of Jan, and this is my progress so far .

  This gives a better idea of the colours. I did all of the dark blue in five days , which I was pleased with as I expected it to take longer .

 Starting and working on this did make me have a re-think of my plans for the year etc . I had intended to stitch SK The Key for my nieces' 21st birthday, and when I started this one I also got that chart printed out to check things . I figured that to have it finished in time for the date , I would have to commit to at least 100 stitches a day ,every day from now until some time in September , and as I don't always stitch every day , it would probably have to be more , which would mean all of my stitching time for basically three quarters of a year would be signed away on something to be given away .

 I just couldn't do it.

I just knew that I would really end up resenting the commitment ,hating every stitch and not completing it , so decided not to start it . I will stitch it at some point ,and I may even give it to my niece , but I can't give up most of a years stitching time like that .

 It also made me realise that I am pretty much unlikely to ever complete a full HAED design, so I have reviewed my wish list and removed some charts so now I just have QS and SK charts on there , and maybe a few minis ,lol .
 These are the charts I bought in the New Year Sale ,

QS Marna

 Mini Autumn Owl Trio

 Mini Payton

 And Faces of Faery 177

 I still have a pretty big wish list and I'm sure I will add to it ,lol .

 So , this has also made me review my stitching plans for the year . I probably won't do The Key this year,but I plan to finish Butterflies Galore and then start another HAED. After finishing up my WIPs. I will have one HAED, one other medium-large design and a few smalls on the go. Other than that , I'm making no real decisions . I have loads of fantastic charts and kits I want to stitch , but I'm going to enjoy the stitching and just do whatever I want to do, with no pressure .

 I was also the very lucky winner of a gift certificate on Catheys' blog and I have had great fun shopping. With the pc problems taking all of my Christmas money , at least I will be getting some new stash this year , so a big Thank you to Cathey and also to Anita of Little Stitches, who has been fantastic to deal with .

Well ,that's all for now . Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath