The week continues!

Well so much for a relaxing weekend after a difficult week - yesterday went OK but today was not good!

Mum came round, which was planned so that was fine.  What was not planned and therefore not so fine was being descended upon by two over tired small people, who needed to be sorted out.  The sorting out meant that my usual Sunday routine went to pot.  On top of that it has been a very hot day and I don't do well in the heat.  And to finish things off, I managed to reverse into somebody else's car - they got a little scratch and I knackered my back light!

Anyway, a little stitching:

I've got a little further on with my Poinsettia, but following a suggestion from Mum, am considering not doing the border and finishing it as a circular Xmas ornament.









This morning's stitching on the Beetle was interrupted by small people.  I had hoped to get the tyre finished - there are another five or six rows to go - but it just didn't happen.

Carnation is coming on - there are something over 2,200 stitches there so just over 100,700 to go.  The lightish piece emerging on the right is one of the Chinese lanterns.  I'm enjoying this very much, although am definitely doing more in the early mornings before work than when I get home at night - mainly cos the light is better in the mornings.

Well, I've still heard nothing back from the Cross Stitch Gold people about the subscription.  I bought the latest copy of Gold yesterday and it has exactly the same advert in as WOXS, so tomorrow evening when I get in, I will be ringing up again (for the third time) and if I don't get a sensible response (rather than "we haven't got a copy of the magazine in the office"), I will be asking to speak to the manager!

So back to work tomorrow, but then a day off on Tuesday - can't wait.

One of those weeks!

Its been one of those weeks.  One of those weeks that when you get to the end of it, you just need to put your feet up.

It went like this:

My sister got a new job, but her current boss is being difficult about letting her go.

My dad had a funny turn, which involved a paramedic and an ambulance, followed by a checkup with his GP, who gave him the all clear.

My great uncle died.  He was coming up to his 92nd birthday and was ready to go, but we were hoping to see him later on this year - life obviously had other plans.

I went to a friend's funeral - it was a good funeral as funerals go, but she went too soon and will be much missed.

I had a checkup at the dentist - he was very pleased with my teeth and quite complimentary, so I bought my mum a present for making sure that we grew up with good dental hygiene.

In amongst all the happenings, I did get some stitching done but have had to invest in new batteries for my camera so update photos will have to wait until tomorrow when the batteries have had a chance to charge up.

Hurray for the weekend!

Work in Progress

Well, I promised you some work in progress so here we go!

 Starting with the smallest piece first, this is my travelling WIP - the piece that I carry round with me.  It is "December - Poinsettia" - a freebie from Ellen Maurer-Stroh.  The plan is to use gold beads for the stamens (which will be my first attempt at beading) and then make it up into a Xmas ornament to use as a Secret Santa gift.

My next WIP is my Sunday morning piece, which I stitch on while the washing machine is doing its thing.  This is Lyndisfarne's "VW Beetle" which I am stitching for my oldest friend's 40th birthday.  I have until next March to get this finished and framed, but I didn't want to find myself doing it last minute dot com.

This is my mega WIP - "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" charted by Scarlet Quince. What you see here is 25 days stitching. Please take into account the fact that I work full-time, am out at least 2 nights a week, the chart mainly uses blended threads and that there is more confetti in this thing than half a dozen weddings!

It measure 18.4" wide by 21.9" long (46.7cm by 55.6cm) and I gridded the whole thing before I started. 

There are 102,900 stitches in this piece. As you can see from this photo, I've done about 1,800 stitches on page 1. It should keep me going for a while.

Well, its gone 9pm round here and I need to go get my lunch sorted for tomorrow, so will call it a day.

Wishing you all well with your stitiching.

What the heck!

I am somewhat peeved.  I got home slightly later than usual last night to find my subscription copy of World of Cross Stitching on the mat - just what was needed after a long hard week!  So I got all my little getting home chores done and then settled down with WOXS.

Now, for some time, I have had Cross Stitch Collection and Cross Stitch Gold on order with my local newsagent.  However, the shop has recently closed due to serious illness.  So I have been on the lookout for good subscription deals for these two mags, rather than have to traipse into town every time a new issue comes out.

So I was really pleased to find in my new WOXS that the publisher had a summer sale on and that I could get 40% off a subscription to Cross Stitch Gold and only pay £24.30 for 9 issues.  I immediately went on-line to sort this out, only to find that the website was quoting £26.95 for 9 issues.  Something not quite right here, I thought. 

I rang the subscription line to enquire about this discrepancy.  The young lady on the other end was slightly bemused as she had £26.95 on her screen.  Unfortunately they didn't have the current copy of WOXS in the office so she couldn't check it straight away.  It was nearly 8pm by then so she couldn't do anything further just then, so I now have to wait until next week to get this sorted.  Somebody somewhere has made a boo-boo!

I know that its only a matter of £2.65, but when you are on a single lowish income and in the current economic climate, every penny counts.  So, as I said above, I am somewhat peeved.

On the other hand, "Carnation" is going well and I hope to have a photo for you tomorrow.

Hi!

This is just a quickie to say welcome to my stitching blog.  I have been cross stitching for some years now, but only came across the amazing world of cross stitching blogs recently.  I am now so addicted that I have decided to start my own.

I've added a photo of my most recent finish - John Clayton's "Fuchsias" on 27 count evenweave.  I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this piece and found the fractional stitches much easier than on aida.  This was the first time that I have used blended threads, which was good practice for my current WIP, which is a definite BAP.

I'm doing "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" by John Singer Sargent as charted by Scarlet Quince.   I'm stitching on 16 count white aida on a 27" x 12" frame held on a standing frame that my Mum found in a charity shop.  There are 102,900 stitches in this baby, most of which are blended threads.  This one is going to be around for some little while.

Its getting a bit late so I'm going to call it a day.  Thanks for dropping by.