First Finish of 2013

Evening, folks!  Well, I don't just have my first finish of the year to show you - I also have two new starts!

I finished the backstitching on the watering can bouquet, which actually looks better than I thought it would.  Unfortunately I then discovered that I had actually used the wrong colour thread for the dark pink down the left hand side.  However it was too late to change it and I don't think that you would really be able to tell if I hadn't mentioned it.

Having finished the watering can bouquet, I then moved on to the next of the six bouquet charts.  This will be three pots of flowers sat in a wheelbarrow.  This is the barrow part of the wheelbarrow.  Again I am not sure of some of the colours, but will try to use the right colour threads this time!


This is my second new start - in fact it was only started today.  This is 'Anenome', otherwise known as the Turkish Challenge.  It is being stitched two over two on 36 count white Edinburgh linen.  The chart says to do it one over two, but the fabrics that will be used with it are so dark that I thought that it would need a bit more oomph.


Carnation is moving along quite nicely - the usual three blocks were finished by Friday morning due to their lack of confetti.  I am now on row 6, and another two weeks should see me on row 7.  The top of the second little girl's head should start showing up in the not too distant future - something to look forward to.

I have nothing to report on Serena or Train of Dreams.  This is because I have had an interesting weekend.  Yesterday Mum and I went to the early showing of "Quartet", a film set in a retirement home for musicians starring Billy Connolly, Maggie Smith and Pauline Collins.  I thoroughly enjoyed it despite being the youngest member of the audience!  We then went to visit a friend's son's new house - I'm jealous of the amount of space he's got but not the location.  Then we had a late lunch in a local tea shop before going back to my parents to sort Mum out with her emails.

Early this morning Mum and I and a friend went to Leicester in Mum's car to the fabric shop where I spent so much money on threads last time.  I was a lot more restrained on this occasion, but did buy four pairs of embroidery scissors at £2 a pop.  After we got home, I took Dad shopping.  We got down the road and round the corner before I realised something was wrong with the car.  I had a completely flat tyre!  Having called my breakdown service, it turned out that there was a screw in the offending tyre so now I need a replacement.  The spare was put on quickly enough for me to get my shopping done, and then Mum rang my mobile to say that she had accidentally bought another dolls house on Ebay and needed to go and collect it in the local area.  So she and I went and collected this dolls house, then I came home and started my Turkish Challenge piece while I did the laundry that I should have done this morning!

Maybe I should have stayed in bed today, it being the 13th!

I intend to sign up for International Hermit & Stitch Weekend next weekend but will be spending part of it with my youngest niece trying to sort out what I am going to do for her 5th birthday in June.