Sunday update

It's been a busy few days, my brother Martin is visiting so I'm not stitching as much.

I have done some more ear of ginger kitten, and finished all the background fabric in that area.
I have done as much as I can to Tiger skin, I did manage to get the two colours I required added to my order, but now I have to wait until Tuesday for them to arrive.

I have no plans for the next few days, just having fun with Kev and Martin, both daughters are popping in this afternoon, plus my niece (Martin's daughter) and Riley her son.

Feeling foolish

I won Connies giveaway on her blog Remake Remix Reuse I loved the pincushion she had made with a magnet on the bottom, I even brought some new pins to use with it. But as usual, when the large parcel came, it was full of other delights, two books, I love your American designs, Connie I have loads of stitching planned and you have now added three other projects. A bead and a ribbon kit, needles, beautiful materialand two scissor fobs, and a doll, who has wandered into Somerset house and she refuses to come out!

Thank you Connie for you kindness

I have done more on my rug, but it is going to be to big for my small study, so I will finish it and use it as part of a giveaway on my other blog, I will tell you more about that next Monday. As soon as I finish this rug I will stitch another on 32hpi, which should give me the size I require.
As for my title, I am feeling very foolish, I told you about a shop where I could get DMC silks cheaper, so I got together with Fliss and we have ordered 60 colours, I will have enough silks for my next two big projects, but why did I not think, do I have enough to finish this rug, I am running out of two colours and have to pop out to buy them, my local shop is 30mins driving away.
A quick photo of our magnolia tree in the back garden, it full of pink buds, along with snowdrops, crocus and daffodils in bud, it does look as if spring is on its way, the ice queen is losing her grip on the land. Yesterday was a sunny day, it was a joy to be able to spend time in the garden.

I hope what ever you have planned for this weekend, you enjoy yourselves.

Postie has been

Last week I asked about plastic hoops and Julie from KC Court offered to send me some, so today I had her parcel, and typical of our blog friends she sent me the following. I want to say a big thank you, I know if I am not able to use them all my daughter Fliss will take some.

I have done some more to my tigerskin, I am stitching it on 22 hpi, instead of 18 hpi, but even though it's smaller than the pattern, I'm thinking it's still bigger than I want, but I am going to finish it and if it is bigger than I need I will stitch another, smaller. The study in my dolls house is quiet small. Other than size, I love this design.

I was asked how I made the cushions from my last blog, whilst not wanting to put all the details on at the time, I did take a photo, just in case. I measured the stitched piece, marked the size in the centre of the cushion fabric, then I cut corner to corner, ironed back the flaps and placed over stitched work, pinned and stitched very close to the edges.
I have had a couple of busy days, visiting mum's and babies, Fliss and the boys are back from visiting Grandma's, so I spent today with them, Joshua is such good fun, and he has a great sense of humour, made his Nana laugh loads.

I have been given an award by Pam at Crochet & Cross Stitch Pattern Slut, thanks Pam, I don't have time today to blog, but wanted to thank you for your thoughts.

New start

Yesterday I made my last two projects into cushions, Palace Guard I am giving to a friend, she loved it when she saw it, Teddies will go on my spare bed, it is a Christmas design, but it is too lovely to be packed away most of the year. I am cross with one thing, I used a new bottle of fraycheck on each corner, and for the first time it has dried and left a marks, typical!

I have done some more on sleeping cats, the ginger kitten is coming along well, this is a hard piece because there are so many different shades of the same colour, but on the plus side if I do have a stitch out of place, you would not know, I think most of it is where is should be.
Last night I started a small project, I have wanted a tigerskin rug for my dolls house for ages, so here are the first few stitches, I have taken the pattern from Janet Granger's carpet pattern book.
Today I'm out to visit my niece and her son Riley, Fliss is still away, but tonight Kev is out so I will stitch all evening.

Teresa is having a 1 year anniversary giveaway for her blog At Willow Tree Pond, you can join here

Russell Kane Does "Crazy In Love"

I love this, Russel Kane took part in Let's Dance for comic relief, on Saturday night, I thought this was so good I copied it here for you all to see. The aim of the programme is for the viewers to call in and vote for one of six acts on for the next 5 weeks, each call makes money for Comic Relief. Comic Relief is hosted every two years, and it a way for our comedians to help fundraise. Needless to say Russell won last Saturday night.

Watching paint dry

We are having a stay at home weekend with no visitors, Kev is enjoying time on the net, he can lose himself on there all day. Me I am doing craft, mainly on my dolls house, hence the title, I'm waiting for paint to dry and glue to set, before I can do some more. If you are interested you can read more here

As you can see I have done a little more on sleeping cats, I did stitch last night, but we shared a bottle of wine, so I packed it away, before I started making mistakes. This morning we popped to Hobbycraft for some silks, I paid 85p each,which is not cheap anymore, so Kev looked and found on ebay the following seller who discounts her prices and allows you to chose your colours.
I have a question, does anyone use the plastic snap together frames to hold their work, I was looking at them today, I would like to purchase one, but as they are new to me, your comments would help me choose.

Grace is enjoying our stay at home weekend too.

Friday night stitch in, Peter's here

I settled down at 4.30 yesterday, stopped to have tea and then stitched all evening, I know whilst I was stitching loads of ladies were at work due to the time difference. But it did feel fun to think there was 170 of us all doing the same thing. You can follow here

I decided to work on my family sampler, and as you can see Peter Rabbit, is now on here, this represents Su's childhood. I placed him next to Grace, under where I will stitch our grand children's names, I was going to put something of Fliss's, but she thought Josh would love Thomas the Tank engine, so I am looking for a small pattern to do.
I also finished the poppy on the top panel, this will be my " How does your garden grow section. I had stitched a small sunflower here, but I ripped it out, it did not look right.
Below is my sampler so far, I am so pleased with it, but not sure what I will do next, I have a camera and motorbike for Kev to go on, as always the plans are in my head, and change all the time.
It's another wet day here, so we have no plans to go out. I want to work on my dolls house at some time, and also go back to my sleeping cats.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

A finish, WIP and my family sampler

I have finished Teddies, all I have now to do is stitch it into a cushion, that's a task for tomorrow, I will also make Palace Guard into a cushion. I did not do all the back stitch, I like just having the teddies and a few other items finished this way.

I have decided to work some more on sleeping cats, I have filled in mum cat's ears and done some more on her face. I will work on this tonight and hope to have loads more done. I will stitch on my sampler on our Friday night stitch along, I had added a sunflower, but I don't like the finished look, so I need to rip it out. Fliss has also lent me a Peter Rabbit pattern to go on the sampler, Su whilst growing up collected everything she could of Beatrix Potter.

Last month I saw this design as a "coming next month", so I have had to wait until the magazine was published, I want to make a cushion, we have a magnolia tree in our garden, and after I make this I will place it on our sofa, by the patio doors. I love the colours in this piece, I must be changing, normally I do not stitch pinks or reds.

I had a great day yesterday with Fliss , Josh and Sam,we went shopping, but not for craft, and I did not do much stitching.

Kev is playing golf and will be home at lunch time, so I won't be stitching any today, I have one task for him. But as it is a sunny day, we are hoping to go for a nice walk, maybe down to Portchester Castle, with a coffee on the way home.

My garden is cat free, the nets have stopped them, and as a result they do not come into our garden so much, as I type Grace is sleeping in the sun, we have birds and squirrels back using the feeders, so I am happy again.

Stitching and cake

I have almost finished my Welsh Guards man, the white patch should have a bright light red, but in all my stash, I don't have the colour or anything similar, I had to finish him off, as the pattern had children standing in front of him. I have added a sewing machine, I have never in my adult life not owned a sewing machine. I now want to add other items for Kev and myself, I am really enjoying this project,

I have been baking, we watched Hairy bikers last week and they had a fantastic recipe for a ginger cake, which they said was very moist, so I went to their website and used the recipe, it does not look to great, but it is the best tasting ginger cake we have had. If you want to try, click on the recipe for the link

I have found some seeds for wild strawberries for my garden, I hope to get some plants from this pack below, I will keep them on the corner of my desk, it's the sunniest spot in the house.
I have not alot planned for today, Kev is home so I won't get much done, tonight I'm with my friends, and hope to see how they got on with the small kits I gave them to do, I'm off to spend the day with Fliss and Sammy tomorrow, which is always fun.

Grace is here

I have had a couple of busy days, but managed to do some stitching last night. I found a pattern for a tabby cat, and I have added the ginger and green eyes, to make it look like Gracy, so she is now on my sampler.

I have also started the Guardsman again from Palace Guard, I am only having the guard, so I am stitching all I can from the pattern and then I will add all the parts to finish him, I will put a green and white plume on his hat to make him a Welsh Guard.

Kev had a very busy day in the garden, he muttered all the time whilst digging a small garden and planted three twigs (raspberry canes to you and I), the space in front is for strawberries.
Kev also made me a taller frame for my small veg plot, did you notice the netting on the above garden, it all keeps the neighbours cats from digging.

I did not spend my time watching Kev work, I spent yesterday shampooing carpets, our other neighbour, Win who lives alone is 94 and is very independent, she had a fall in the week in her house, so I had my Vax out and did her carpets and rugs, so today I am feeling sore all over, but it was worth it. I did not want to see her trying to clean her carpets by hand.

Win is Ok, she has cut her leg, but is getting about OK, we will all keep an eye on her.

Today is wet, so not sure what we are going to do, I would like to try and do more on my sampler, finish the guard.

Friday stitch in

I have joined Bobbi and 81 people to do a Friday night stitch in, on Friday 18th February, the idea is to have a drink, wine or coffee, I think mine will be coffee or I could be ripping out on Saturday, and we all stitch together, you can get more info at Crafty Vegas Mom

More Patchwork

I have finished the final patchwork square for my sampler, most of the colours I placed myself, I did not want to add any more colours.
Below I have folded the sampler in the middle so you can see all four corners together. I will use the green silk to block the outer sections.

Below the teddie I am going to put our grandchildren's names, all four of them, and below that I am going to put some toys. On the other side I am going to put our names, our wedding date and something because it's our 25th wedding anniversary this year, below that I will put things which both Kev and I love, I am going to stitch the Welsh Guard, from Palace Guard again.
At the top I will sew loads of flowers with " How does your garden grow" and at the bottom I will put my name and the date.

Those who know me, will know this could change at any time, but that's how I see it at this point, as for the centre, I will make plan's once I have completed the outer sections.

But for now I am putting this down, I have to finish my teddies, just an afternoon's work to do, it's not going to become a WIP with so little to do on it.

Stitch details, worked on 28 evenweave , all stitched with a single DMC silk. The outer panels are 64 sts wide. The green boarder is stitched with two threads. The centre size will be decided by the design placed there.

A little bit more

We had a very busy weekend, and not alot of stitching was done, but I did manage to finish the 3rd patchwork square on my sampler, just one left to do, I am changing the colours of the last square, the original pattern was for 9 squares I'm just using 4, so I want to keep the same patterns running through all of them.

On Saturday we popped to Su and Gav's flat they have been decorating, Su has always been a fun go out girl, so it's great to see her becoming a home maker.
On Sunday, Fliss, Steve, Josh and Sam came here for a visit. Josh was busy on his DS, at 5 he now loves games, Sonic and Super Mario being his favorite. Sam was a good boy, Kev and I had loads of cuddles. Fliss was looking very well, as was Steve.

Below is a photo of Josh at Su's wedding last August,
I love him here, he is so cute.

This is my favorite photo of Su,
it better than the glamour shots she had done
A perfect bride.

Fliss hates having her photo taken, so can't show you my other beautiful daughter, but we want to try and get a family photo of them all.

On a real high note, my hair has started growing back, it's about 1/2" and there is alot of grey, which I don't remember having before. At home I have stopped wearing my wig, can't wait for a visit to the hairdressers to be pampered, but that's a few months away yet.

Typical February Saturday

I have not done much stitching on Teddies this week, I have had a bit of a cold, but I am feeling better today, and I have been stitching my sampler which is an easier pattern, so there fore I have less chance of going wrong.
I have just the top area to finish, and back stitch the green area's to make them look like branches off a tree.
I was very happy, once I stitched the green boarder, I now have the size of my sampler, the patchwork is the bottom right, I still have the bottom left to do.
Connie has sent me a pattern of two mice for me to stitch, which is a lovely RAK, so at sometime soon, I hope to start this project. I am also waiting for the silks and beads to arrive for Winter Watergarden, I have 2 out of the 12 parts ready for stitching, so already I'm on catchup.

Here are signs of our garden waking up, the snowdrop above is one on many bulbs we planted in September, I keep loads of bark on my gardens, it stops the weeds and a added bonus is the neighbours cats don't go on it. Below is spring flowers in our front garden, I love primroses it's another sign of spring coming. Our flower gardens now have netting over them, which keeps the cats away.

Last night we had friends over to watch the rugby, England v Wales, out of six of us Kev is the only Welshman, he got alot of teasing. It was a fun evening, and as a result, I now know what to do with Palace Guard, my friend Jeanette loved it, so I will make a small cushion for her bed. I am trying to get both friends stitching, last night I gave them each a small kit, fingers crossed, they might enjoy it.

TUSAL Jan

How quickly did January go, but I did get alot of stitching done.

At the bottom of my pot was just blue and white from the sleeping cats, but now it's full of colour, the teddies is a fantastic kit to work on, so many bright colours. I have not done as much as I wanted to this week, been out in the real world with family and friends. But before I start Winter Watergarden, I will finish teddies, just one more push should see it done.

Below is Josh, he wanted me to take his photo with this book from the Thomas the Tank engine set, his Grancha's name is Kevin.
I do hope all of you living in America and Australia are keeping safe with the extreme weather you are suffering, here in UK we are so very lucky, we have no weather to the extremes, yet we still have a good moan at what comes our way. Today it's a warm sunny February day, not warm enough to be in the garden, but still a nice day.

Yey I have ordered my pack for Winter Watergarden, it has to come from USA, so please hurry postman, I can't wait to get started.

February aready

Pinch, punch first of the month.

Why are our childhood rhymes so violent?

As you can see I have been doing some back stitch on the teddies, I hate back stitch, but it needs to be done. I would have finished it at the weekend, but I got side tracked, I loved the small teddy so much I decided to put it on my family sampler instead of a stork, underneath I will put our grandchildren's names and their date of birth.

I have two patch work corners to do at the bottom, and the green boarder all around. I need to sketch some items to ensure they are placed correctly, and then I will stitch the centre more traditional sampler. Can you see the spot of coffee above, I will have to stitch over that!
So it's February already, it's feels very strange, January normally is a very slow month and drags on, I hope this is not the pace for the year. I know alot of you in America are expecting major snow in the next 24 hours, I hope you all stay warm and dry, and find time for your stitching.

This afternoon I am popping in to see Fliss, Josh and Sam, all have colds.

PS this is my 150th post, when I get to 200 I will have a giveaway.