IHSW Report - March 2012

Not much hermitting but quite a bit of stitching this weekend.  Among other things, I collected the framed Beetle, wrapped it and finally managed to hand it over to my friend just under two weeks past her 40th birthday. She loved it and is going to hang it in a place of honour.

This is the best of the photos that I took - still some glare but what can you do?  My photography skills are a bit hit and miss as you will see from the rest of the photos in this post.

While collecting the Beetle, I took my John Clayton Fuschias in to be framed as well, about a year after finishing them, so will show you the framed version next Sunday.

Updates for this week and for this IHSW session are as follows:

This is my current travelling piece, Fuschia by Serendipity Designs, one of my WIPocalypse pieces.  I've promised myself that when it's finished, I can have a new book and a new start.  I'm currently working it on a 4" hoop but think that I am going to have to carry on 'in hand' because of the size of the fabric (which is very stiff).

 This is an indoor photo of the Cat because we have had everything but the kitchen sink in the way of weather today.  I woke up to a heavy fall of large wet snowflakes which became rain which became a sharp hailstorm which was followed by sunshine which turned into a heavy rainstorm followed by sunshine again.  I wasn't running the risk of taking my stitching outside in such uncertain weather.

And finally, and I apologise for the fuzzy photo, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.  I have made good progress on this piece this week, completing three blocks on the right hand side.  There are another 12 blocks to go to complete page 1, which at an average of 2 blocks a week means that I should hopefully fingers crossed be able to show you a completed page 1 by the last Sunday in April.  On this one, I've promised myself that once page 1 is finished, I can have a new book and buy stash.  



I shall have to buy the books in advance and get them sent to my parents because the price is going up in April, and I haven't decided what the stash will be yet - possibly a Randal Spangler HAED or a Chatelaine or .. or .. - the possibilities are endless.

I have also booked a day off this week - I plan to spend some quality time with my Mum on Wednesday and possibly with my Dad if he wants to come out with us.  I just need a break, a bit of downtime. I'm sure that you know what I mean!

Getting back to normal?

I promised you a picture of the Beetle in its final format, so here you go.  When it comes back from the framers, I'll take another picture - I've gone for a natural wood frame and a pale ivory mount, as close to the cream on the right side of the bonnet as I could get.

Now that the Beetle is done, the plan was to try and get back to normal.  However since completing the Beetle, I've had a thought which has set me another deadline.

The initial idea was to stitch the Cat for my friend who is currently in the States.  But while I was doing some work on my family history, I was reminded that my aunt, nanna of the Noah's Ark baby, will be 70 in August, just a fortnight after my father, and she also loves cats.  So the new plan is to stitch the Cat for my aunt by the beginning of August.

I've been working on the Cat today in between loads of laundry.  If you remember, the first picture that I took didn't show the fabric very well so I said that I would take the next picture outside.  So I did, and this is how it came out.  Unfortunately the sun was going down so you still don't get a really good idea of the colour of the fabric, although it is slightly better than pictures taken inside with flash.

However, regardless of the new deadline that I have now inflicted on myself, I am going back to work on Carnation as of tomorrow morning.  It will seem strange to be working on the floor frame again.  

This is how it looked when I stopped work on it in order to get the Noah's Ark done.  I need to finish the column on the right and then do the bottom row in order to complete Page 1.  I would like to do that before the first anniversary of this piece on 25 May.  What are my chances?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Just a couple of catch-ups - nothing to say about the wool and as for the job, well, I chased earlier this week, only to get an email response that they've now frozen recruitment for this post!  It is over 3 months since I first applied and was asked to come for interview.  Ok, so the initial delay was understandable under the circumstances, but I am more than a little narked about being messed about like this.

2012 WIPocalypse - March Full Moon

Right, this is going to be a very short post, because my regular update post is due tomorrow.

This is a late WIPocalypse post because my social life exploded this week - my only night in was Monday!  Tuesdays are my regular Pilates night which I do with Mum.  Wednesday I had a meal out with friends to celebrate the end of the second stage of a long running project - pizza and chocolate brownie sundae!  Thursday was the March meeting of the patchwork group that I belong to (even though I don't do patchwork), and last night I was out with old friends to celebrate the 40th birthday of the friend for whom the Beetle has been stitched - asian style noodles and sticky toffee pudding!

So as of first thing Friday morning, after an evening's stitching, gossiping and admiring each other's work, the Beetle looked like this:

As you can see, there was just a last smidgen to complete and then to sign it off.

Well, that is done - I finished the Beetle today after my two hour stint collecting for Marie Curie.  It then went through the wash in a pillow case before having the living daylights ironed out of it.  It is now at the framers and I have an appointment to pick it up next Saturday.  I just hope my friend likes it after all this.

I will post a picture of the finished article tomorrow, hopefully along with some progress on something else.  Now I am going to check in with Measi and have a look at other people's work.

Still plodding on!

As you can see, the Beetle isn't at the framers yet, despite it being my friend's 40th birthday today.

I have stitched on this piece morning, noon and night, but still have 30+ rows to go of between 20 and 40 stitches a row.  Apart from the small patch at the top left of the shadow, this has all been stitched in DMC 3787 and I am getting so sick of this particular shade.

On the other hand, I think that it's looking good.  I've done all the backstitch on the car, even if you can't really see it in this picture.  It is very subtle, but does lift the whole piece.  There is also a decorative section of backstitch in the top left hand corner, but I'm in two minds about it - I'm not sure that it will add much and wonder if it would just be better to let the Beetle speak for itself.  Here is a link to a picture of a finished example - what do you think?  Stitch it or leave it off?

It's WIPocalypse week this week - it would be nice to have another finish, but I will have to stitch like the clappers to get those 30+ rows done, especially as I'm having a very social life this week.  I shall look forward to seeing your WIPocalypse posts later on this week - all the best for your stitching goals! Oh, and just so you know, there should be no wordcheck thingie on my comments - I think I've done the right thing to be rid of it.

Train a'coming!

Yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel!  The deadline for Beetle is Sunday next - March 4th.  I'm not going to make it - at least not to the point of being framed, wrapped and presented.  But I'm going to be a lot closer than I previously thought that I would be.  I may even have got to the point of taking it to the framer!

This is the only picture that you are going to get this week, because Beetle is the only piece that I have been working on.  The car itself is complete, apart from some backstitch in places.  If you look at the bottom right, you will see that I have started filling in the shadow around the right front tyre.  That's all that's left - the shadow and some backstitch.  Then it will be a quick trip through the washing machine in a pillow case, a close encounter with an iron and then off to the framer.  All being well and a quiet week, I may make it to the framer on Saturday afternoon.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Once the Beetle goes to the framers, I will go back to working on Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose with the aim of finishing page 1.  That will be my priority.  The Cat will become my Sunday morning piece and the piece that I take to Patchwork Group.

In other news, I still have nothing to say - no interview date, no scarves to show.  I got very little sleep last night, despite going to bed about 9.30pm, so will call it a day now, go and make tomorrow's lunch and try for a better night than last night.

IHSW Report - February 2012

This is likely to be brief because my computer is playing me up - doing anything on line is like wading through treacle, it is so slow.  It was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend again this week, and I did get some stitching done, even if not a lot.

I'm beginning with the Beetle because this is the one with the deadline and consequently the one which has had most input this week.  White stitching on white is never easy to see, especially if I'm doing the camera work, but this week I have put in the centre line down the bonnet and started infilling the right side (as you look at it) of the bonnet, working from the top down.  There is still a way to go and certainly the bit around the headlight is going to be quite fiddly, but it's coming on.

I said in my last post that the friend for whom I am stitching the Beetle was coming round this week to show me her own work and to catch up.  Anyway, she duly came and showed me a very nice small piece of a Geisha, and we had a nice long chat.  Well, I couldn't have the Beetle on show and so I started a new piece.

This is "Abyssinian Cat" by Jayne Netley Mayhew from Issue 9 of Cross Stitch Gold (June 2002).  It is stitched on 28 count Wichelt Desert Sand, which has not photographed well - next time I will try and take an outdoor shot.  I was a bit dubious about the colour because it was a lot darker than the picture in the magazine, but the stitching looks good on it, and now that I have seen how badly it photographs, I feel slightly better.  It is also quite an open weave as well, so I will have to be careful about trailing ends.

In other news, having noted when having my hair cut last week that my hair colour had become somewhat boring (mouse brown with grey streaks), I took action on Friday night and dyed it a reddish brown.  My parents like it - my littlest niece said that I looked funny with new hair - I will get my colleagues' reaction tomorrow.

Oh, and I forgot to say, my cousin loves the Noah's Ark - thinks that it is gorgeous!

Postively the last appearance!

Tomorrow the Noah's Ark goes off to its new owner so I just wanted to show you how I had had it framed.  I apologise for the glare, but photography is not really my forte - I took several pictures in different locations but couldn't get one without some glare on it, so have chosen the best of the bunch.

 The only other piece that I have to show you is the Beetle, which is coming on nicely.  There is just one little problem - the friend for whom I am stitching it is coming round on Tuesday night for a coffee and to show me her stitching.  I am going to have to hide the Beetle away and get something else started as I don't want to go back to Carnation until I have the Beetle out of the way.  Carnation is just too complex to only have half your mind on because you are worrying about finishing something else.  So next week I should have a new start to show you.  In addition, it will be International Hermit and Stitch Weekend starting on Friday so I will need to sign up for that tomorrow.

I have to leave for work early tomorrow in order to catch my in-house courier, so will finish now, make tomorrow's lunch and boil a kettle for a hot water bottle cos it is somewhat chilly tonight.

2012 WIPocalypse - February Full Moon

This is going to be a quickie because I did an update report a couple of days ago.

However, I did promise you a full picture of my finished Noah's Ark so here goes:

I hope that you like it - more, I hope that my cousin and her partner and her baby like it!

My other current WIP piece, the Beetle, having now become my priority piece, has some progress to show since my last post a couple of days ago.  I still don't think that I am going to get it done in time, but it will definitely be closer to being finished.

I have got the fabric and threads ready for my next start, but this is on hold for the moment.  Anyway I now need to go and check in with Measi and then make tomorrow's lunch so here's wishing you a very happy February Full Moon.

The best laid plans!

Well, I booked Friday off to finish Noah's Ark as per my last post, but matters did not quite go according to plan.

On Thursday afternoon I got a phonecall at work - it was Dad ringing to say that Mum was in the local hospital with chest pains and they needed to do some blood tests to see if she had had a heart attack.  They did a 6 hour test which came back clear, but they also wanted to do a 12 hour test just to make sure.  Then the machine went down so it was 12.45pm when Dad rang to say that the test had come back clear but that Mum was staying in because they didn't know what was wrong and wanted to do more tests, so could I come and fetch him?  I got to bed at 1.30am, but I had stitched off and on until about 11.30pm when I felt my eyes giving out.

Friday I spent the morning sporadically stitching and waiting for phone calls.  In the end the hospital decided to discharge Mum and do the tests on an outpatient basis, so I picked her up about 1pm.  I did get a bit more stitching done later that evening.

Saturday I finally managed to buckle down to it and the Noah's Ark is now finished!  I managed to get it to the framers on Saturday afternoon and get home before 4 inches of snow started to fall on us.  However I am only going to show you the completed bottom half of the piece today - I'm saving the full picture for my WIPocalypse update on Tuesday.  So here goes:

The only problem is that I realised in bed last night that I had been in such a rush to get it to the framers that I forgot to stitch on my initials and the year - I've decided to stick a label on the back instead.  Oh, and the other thing - I did have enough thread  - although I was down to my last smidgen of black when I did the lettering!  So that's my first finish of 2012 done and dusted.

Moving on to the Beetle, more visible progress has been made.  We are now moving into windscreen territory.  The top part of the roof is white so I am going to leave that for the time being.  Now that Noah's Ark is complete, this becomes my priority piece - I just have to work out how best to get myself set up to stitch on it in the lounge instead of spread all over my bed, being as the lounge is warmer than the bedroom.

On the wool front, still no scarves, although I live in hope as my colleague told me in the week that she had received the fuchsia mix in the post (and wanted to keep it for herself!).  On the job front, still no news - I have sent another email asking about interview dates.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow so I better go and make my lunch.  See ya Tuesday.

Is it really that time again?

And yes, it is indeed Sunday evening again and time to post my usual update. I'll start by saying thankyou for all the kind comments on my last post.  It's so nice to know that other people like my work.

Following on from your comments:

Joysze - yes, Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series does come into the same genre as the books I read.  However, EB's books have retained their popularity and are much easier to get hold of than the ones I mentioned.

On the wool front, as yet I have no scarves.  My colleague was only able to get the black and white mix from her local yarn shop, and will have to order the fuschia mix from the Internet.  I'm not in a desperate hurry - if the snow comes that they are threatening us with, I have shawls and scarves enough to keep me from hypothermia.  I will however post a photo as soon as I have a scarf to show.

Now for the update itself.

I now have a smily whale and some sea as per last week's plan.  However, not as much sea as I would wish because it is driving me nuts!  There are four different colours - white and three shades of aqua - and as you can see, it is designed in curling waves.  It is fiddly and frustrating, and to make matters worse, I am worried about having enough threads.  There was enough of all the other threads so in theory there should be enough of these, but I seem to achieve so little with each thread that I can't help worrying.  I got so frustrated with the sea that I started doing some of the backstitch, just to feel like I was getting somewhere.  And time is now tight - ideally I want to be taking this to the framers on Saturday with a view to getting it to my cousin for the following Thursday.  I think that I may have to take a day off on Friday to nail it.  Decisions, decisions!

Again I've made visible progress on the Beetle.  The back end is now done (bar any backstitch) and I've started on the roof.  I feel that it is starting to come together now.  Next week I plan to fill in the gap next to the window, then work on the roof and possibly the windscreen.  


I need to make a confession - other than having to go to work, the main thing which holds up progress on these pieces is my books.  It doesn't matter whether I work in the lounge or the bedroom, there are books.  And inevitably a point comes when I put down the stitching and pick up a book, and then I lose time - a few minutes, half an hour, a whole hour, depending on the book.  I suppose I could try stitching in the kitchen or the bathroom, but neither would be very comfortable, and the light in the hall is far too bad for stitching.  Am I the only person who has this problem?

IHSW Report - January 2012

Doesn't time fly when you become an adult?  When I was a kid, days and weeks were so long, and the six weeks summer holiday seemed endless. Now, every time I turn round, that's another week over and I still haven't got done what I wanted to get done.  Do you have that problem too?

Well, this weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and yesterday I certainly hermited and stitched!  I didn't so much as stick my nose out of the door and, following a latish start, spent most of the day working on Noah's Ark.

The Ark itself is now complete and work has begun on the whale.  The plan for the coming week is to complete the whale and get started on the sea.  I now have a deadline in mind for this piece.  My cousin's birthday is 9 February and I would like to have this completed and framed to send with her birthday card.  I have a cunning plan for the sending which I will tell you about if it comes off.

Today was also laundry and shopping day, so despite an earlier start, there was less hermiting and less stitching.  Visible progress has been made on the Beetle despite the need to frog the first half hour's stitching because I had used the wrong colour thread!  The large dark patch at the top left is a greyish purple (DMC 3740) and is part of the shadowy interior of the Beetle.  I also completed the section between that and the diagonal orangey line - this is where the frogging came in.  I think that part of the problem with this piece (other than the million fractionals) is that the chart is so big - about twice the size of the fabric that I'm working on.  It makes it easier to read, but also means that it looks like there is so much more to do than there really is.  Next week I plan to carry on with the back of the car, working up and then round to the front.

In my last post, I talked about wool.  Well, I made up my mind and with any luck, my colleague will be bringing me a black and white scarf tomorrow, with a fuchsia mix one to follow in due course.  I decided to treat myself to an every day scarf (black and white) and a scarf for occasions (fuchsia mix).  I might even get carried away and have loads of scarves made - there were so many yummy colours to choose from.  Pictures will follow when the scarves arrive.

I have also treated myself to some new books.  These were my Christmas present to myself.  I collect girls school stories, often by authors that most people have never heard of.  I get them either in second hand bookshops, on the Net (Ebay or Abebooks) or from a specialist publisher - Girls Gone By.  My treats this time were as follows: "Evelyn Finds Herself" by Josephine Elder, "Leith and Friends" by Clare Mallory and "Mermaid House" by Gwendoline Courtney.  I would thoroughly recommend anything by these three authors.  Does anyone else out there enjoy this sort of book?

Just another Sunday update

How come its Monday in the morning?  Where did the weekend go?

Well, good progress has been made on Noah's Ark this week.  The current plan is to work from the right hand side of the Ark to the left, then to stitch the whale, then the sea, and then to backstitch up to the middle.  The final bit will be to roll up, do the French knot for the dove's eye and fill in baby's details.  I showed it to the Patchwork Group on Thursday - they haven't seen it since early November - and they all like it.  I think that the backstitch makes all the difference and really lifts it.

I got a limited amount done on the Beetle today, filling in the gap on the left hand side.  This was down to going on an excursion to a fabric shop with Mum and three other members of the Patchwork Group.  We left about 9ish and didn't get back till just before 1pm.  I bought some threads and gold plated needles, a bead mat and a piece of cream aida, but nothing worth taking a picture of.  Then I had to take Dad shopping and do three loads of washing, but I was determined to get some stitches in on the Beetle.  The bit that I wanted to do got done, but working on it in the evening without good light has given me a headache which I could do without.

I've also been looking at wool.  One of my colleagues came to work on Friday with a lovely scarf that she had knitted herself.  She told me which wool it was (Katia Ondas), and the idea is that I choose the colour, she will knit it for me and it will cost me less than it would if I bought a readymade elsewhere.  There's a nice black and white combo, which would go with most things, and a rather gorgeous fuchsia mix - decisions, decisions.

However the next decision is to go and make tomorrow's lunch, cos the alarm goes off at 6am again tomorrow.

NB - It is International Hermit and Stitching Weekend next weekend so I will be signing up for that in due course!

2012 WIPocalypse - January Full Moon

Hi, its time for my first WIPocalypse post.  I can't guarantee that it is going to be any more exciting than my usual posts, but never mind.

 Starting with Noah's Ark, I have rolled this since you last saw it because the backstitch on the top half is now complete, apart from the baby's name and details.  I also still have to do the French knot for the dove's eye (which I swear looks more like a seagull), but I didn't want to do it and then it get squashed when I rolled the piece.  The photo is not brilliant, but the backstitching goes down to, but does not include, the strip of green squares which are the top edge of the hull.  I have started work on the hull, but am going to have to roll it again soon before I start running into the bottom of the frame.  I'm also keeping a close eye on the amount of threads that I have left for this bottom half.  Unfortunately Design Works don't guarantee that the threads in their kits are DMC and I certainly won't have time to ask them to send me more, so please keep your fingers crossed for me.

I am starting to have a quiet panic about the Beetle.  As soon as possible is still quite a loose deadline for the Ark, but 4 March is a very definite deadline for this piece, and I'm not convinced that I'm even halfway through yet.  Once I have the car itself finished, I still have to do the dark area around the base, which is mainly one colour but still a lot of stitches.

I made some more progress on the left hand side yesterday morning, but as ever all the fractional stitches are so time consuming.  I think that if the worst comes to the worst, I shall have to tell my friend that I have a present for her but it isn't quite finished yet.  As soon as the Ark comes off the frame for framing, this one will get priority status!

Now then, I need to check in with Measi and then I plan to take a nosey at everyone else's posts so far.  Happy Full Moon to you all.

Happy New Year and 2012 WIPocalypse List

A tad late (as usual) but Happy New Year to you all!

My family had a very special New Year's present - after 36 hours in labour, my cousin presented us with a baby girl born on New Year's Day!  This means that time is no longer my friend and I really have to crack on with my Noah's Ark piece.

As you can see, I have now reached the top of the piece and am now backstitching down to the middle before stitching the bottom half of the piece.  The backstitching is really making it pop.  I just hope that my cousin and her partner like it when it is finished.

Yesterday I got in something over three hours on the Beetle.  This was the chunk on the left hand side - you will see that it now has a back wheel.  I only have a couple of months to get this done and a long way to go, so I have changed my plans again.  My friend in the US will just have to wait and have an un-birthday present when this one is finished.

So that's what I've done - now on to what I'm planning to do.

My 2012 WIPocalypse list is going to start off very short as I don't have much in the way of WIPs, but I intend to add items as the year goes on.  Starting with those WIPs that need to be finished first, the list goes like this:

Noah's Ark - Design Works - to be finished and framed asap
VW Beetle - Lyndisfarne - to be finished and framed for March 4th
Carnation Lily Lily Rose - Scarlet Quince - my BAP project - no deadline
Fuchsia - Serendipity Designs - small travelling piece - no deadline

I also plan to get the Jayne Netley Mayhew piece done, and would like to do one of Thea Gouverneur's pieces from her book 'The Secret Garden'.  Once I get my deadline pieces completed, I might just go mad and start all sorts of things.  I also need to start thinking about a piece for my youngest niece's 5th birthday in 2013 - I want to create something that will grow with her but she is such a little pickle that it will take some serious thinking.

Right, I'll be back on the 9th with my WIPocalypse update but now I've got to go and make my tea.  Back to work in the morning!

Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year

I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas or whatever you celebrate at this time of year, and as I won't be around next Sunday, may I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year!  Christmas Day was spent and New Year will be spent at my parents' house.  Boxing Day was spent at my sister's house (I laughed until I cried at "Mrs Brown's Boys - Christmas Special").  I'm home today, back at work tomorrow, and then off again until next Tuesday.

On the stitching front, I have two finish finishes to show you.  These are my nieces' Christmas tree ornaments for 2011.  After work on the Thursday before Christmas I went to Hobbycraft and purchased two Framecraft coasters, a sheet of blue card, some picture hooks, some double sided sticky pads and some blue ribbon.  So the aida and the card were cut to fit the coasters, the picture hooks were attached to the back of the coasters with sticky pads and the ribbon was attached.  They are not perfect, nowhere near, because I was a zombie by this stage as work was absolutely manic, but they were finish finished in time for Christmas which was the most important thing!

As Christmas was on a Sunday this year, the Beetle didn't get a look in (again!).  However when everyone who wasn't stopping over had gone away, I did get the Ark out and put in some more stitches on that.  It's coming on quite nicely and I've had to roll the aida so that I can work up to the top of the chart.  The plan is to cross stitch up to the top, backstitch back down to the middle, cross stitch to the bottom and then backstitch back up again.  And I'm planning to work hard on it while I'm off this week - fortunately the baby has still not made an appearance, though its mummy is going in for a sweep on Thursday as it looks like baby may weigh in at about 10lb!

The other stitchy things that I need to do while I'm off this week are cut the fabric and make a start on the Jayne Netley Mayhew piece for my friend, and sort out my list for the 2012 WIPocalypse.

Wishing all the best to you and yours over the coming months. 

IHSW Report - December 2011

Following my last post, this is my update report on December's International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.

My IHSW started on Friday evening with a concentrated effort on Noah's Ark which resulted in quite reasonable amounts of roof being completed; the red section having been mainly done at work.  On Saturday morning I put in the few blue stitches on the left hand side above the zebra just so that I could say that I had stitched on Saturday.  

A trip to town then ensued to do Christmas shopping (resulting in a cracking headache), followed by writing Christmas cards to take to the party at my parents which started at 5pm.  I finally fell into bed at 10.30pm, but it was a good party.

On Sunday I worked on the Beetle.  I did some infilling at the top and finally got round to doing the tedious white stripe down the side of the bonnet (which was nearly all fractionals).  After that, as I needed to stitch something a bit less fiddly, I started on the body of the car on the left side near the tyre.  I also managed to do three loads of laundry, take Dad grocery shopping, and attend a Carol Service in the local church.

Today I am off work using up some holiday leave.  I've written my Christmas cards for work, hand delivered the ones to my neighbours and done some more work on Noah's Ark.  It's cold and wet and nasty here, and I'm very glad to be tucked up at home and not out pounding the pavements.

Life and other plans!

In the past several posts I have been saying that I really must get on with the Beetle and I did intend to get down to some serious stitching this morning, but as the saying goes "Life is what happens when you are making other plans".

Last night I had just sat down to eat my tea when there was a hammering on my front door.  It was my little nieces who had come out with their parents to see the Christmas lights being switched on in our main shopping street.  They were dropping in on their way home because my oldest niece had a request to make - she wanted to have a sleepover with me then and there!  I couldn't say no; surely it means that I am doing something right if she wants to spend time with me, so she stayed over.  We read some books together and then it was time for bed.  She cleaned her teeth with toothpaste on her finger and I popped her into one of my t-shirts before tucking her up in my bed.  She slept like a log - I didn't.

This morning she ate enough breakfast to sink a battleship, we read some more books, she did a lovely drawing of a house and then played on my computer until Daddy came to fetch her.  I managed to get dressed and get the laundry done!  So no Beetle this week.

I have made some progress on the Angel, although this had to be shoved under the sofa last night when my visitors came.  I would hope to get it finished this week.

The elephant on the Ark is now complete, and I have moved onto the zebra.  The zebra's mane is a bit fiddly, but I would hope to get him finished this week as well.  Time has just become a bit tighter on this one.  My mum spoke to my aunt today - my cousin is huge, the baby is expected to weigh in around 9lb and the head is already engaged!  I'm sorry, baby, this will be one occasion on which an early bird will definitely have to wait for the worm so I would stay snuggly warm inside a bit longer if I were you.

On the Marie Curie front, we had our first event as a team on Saturday.  We set up a stall on one of our local shopping streets and sold cakes, Christmas cards, cookery books, chilli jam and chutney.  The first shift arrived at about 8.30am to set up, and the second shift (including me) came on about 10.30am.  I'm hoping to get an email tomorrow to say how much we made, but by the time we shut up shop at about 12.45pm, all the cakes and chutney were gone, we'd sold quite a few cookery books and Christmas cards and some of the chilli jam (good with cheese, ham etc apparently), so I think that we've done quite well.

On the job front, I have nothing to report.  Having purchased a new interview suit after much stress, I went to the interview on Tuesday morning.  I thought that it went reasonably well and they said that they would let me know either way.  I have heard nothing!  I have a form to fill in for another job which needs to be done this week - c'est la vie!

What happened to the weekend?

It's Sunday night and very little has gone as planned this weekend!  It's fair to say that everything has got done, but not in the order that was intended.  I have a haircut and a new suit for my interview on Tuesday, I've done the laundry and the grocery shopping, but its all been a bit on the stressful side.

Anyway I do have some update photos to show you, including a finish.

This is the Christmas ornament for my eldest niece.  It was quite fun to stitch up and has come out quite well, I think.

This is the Christmas ornament for my littlest niece.  I'm quite pleased that I managed to get all the framework stitched so you could tell what it is going to be.  I'm going to be making some colour changes on this so that the angel has the same colour hair as its recipient.

The next deadline is a baby deadline.  I don't feel that I'm making enough progress on this, but my stitching time has been so limited recently and I have so many deadlines to hit that I'm starting to get a bit nervy.

With things not going to plan this weekend, I only managed to get an hour or so stitching done on the Beetle today.  I've been filling in with red round the orange wiggle at the top left hand side.

On the subject of cars, I went to a party last night and came away with some furry black dice to hang in my car.  This is a nostalgia thing - I used to have furry black dice in my first car until they had a close encounter with a small child.  Anyway, I'm going to call it a day before I fall asleep with my head on the keyboard.

Stitching for others!

As per last week's post, I have only been stitching for others this week - Carnation is on hold for the time being, despite my wish to get page 1 finished before Christmas/New Year.

Starting with the closest deadline first, here is my progress on this year's ornament for my eldest niece.  I completed the framework first and am now working on the filling in.  I hope to be showing you a finish next week, and the start of the ornament for my littlest niece.  It's been nice and straightforward, working on this piece in the quiet time between breakfast and setting off for work.

The next deadline coming up is my cousin's baby due at the beginning of January.  As you can see, I've opted to work on the elephant next.  There has been some frogging on this one and also an annoying tendency to miss the odd stitch and have to go back to it with a fresh piece of thread.  Work has been done on this at lunchtimes at work and in the evenings.  This will move into my sunrise slot once the girls' ornaments are complete.  

Finally, the Beetle.  This lost out last week so this week I've finished the pale pink section at the top and added the somewhat wiggly orangey (although it doesn't look it) section.  I still need to do the white line up the side, but the top of the orangey bit butts onto the bottom of the front windscreen, so I am getting there slowly.  This still needs a lot of work to be done by the end of February, and I also have the Jayne Netley Mayhew piece to start when the fabric gets here, and get finished by the same time as the Beetle.  However the JNM piece is smaller and will be more transportable.

Well, that's the stitching sorted.  How about life in general?  Well, I'm a happy bunny cos I have a job interview at the end of the month for what could possibly be the perfect job, so please keep your fingers crossed for me!

We celebrated Mum's birthday this week.  My Dad, my sister and I clubbed together to buy her two vintage dolls houses - one of which I showed here.  We also played Pass the Parcel and my sister baked a cake.  It was good to spend time together.

I also spent time with my nieces yesterday.  My sister was having a weekend away and my BIL was refereeing a football match.  The girls and I had a good time on the whole (a bit of poking each other and some tears), and my BIL had cooked sausage casserole for our tea which meant that I didn't have to cook when I got home and could work on the Noah's Ark piece.

Well, I'm going to finish here cos I need to make tomorrow's lunch and I want to get a fairly early night, so I'll see you at the end of the week.

Decisions, decisions!

Well, folks, I've been thinking it over and have finally come to a decision - Carnation is going to have to go on hold!  Christmas is just six weeks away and my cousin's baby is due early January.  Then I have to get the Beetle finished and framed for the beginning of March.  I also have the Jayne Netley Mayhew piece to get done for the same time, but had to order the fabric from the US this morning, so that isn't even started.  In order to hit all my deadlines, Carnation is dropping out of the list while I get cracking on ornaments for my two nieces.  I also have to get the beads on Poinsettia and some sort of finish worked out for that before 17 December.


I overslept this morning, so laundry and housework took precedence over working on the Beetle.  However I must get a grip with this piece.  Part of the problem is that because I taped all the sections of my working copy of the chart together, the only surface big enough to lay it on is my bed!  Therefore it is not easily transportable and can't be worked on elsewhere.

I did get another two blocks done on Carnation - top right, column 8.  This means that I have started page 2 already.  My plan for page 2 is to work across the page, left to right, one row at a time, instead of the current one column down, one row across method.  That came about because I started off dotting about, doing as much as I could of one symbol before moving on to the next.  Then I had to fill in the gaps.  I shall miss working on this - it has been my sunrise piece, the piece I work on between breakfast and leaving for work.

Next up is Noah's Ark.  The lion is now complete, apart from the backstitching.  He still looks a bit like a bear, but I'm hoping that once the backstitch is done, that will change.  I now have to choose between the elephant or the zebra.  You'll have to wait and see which comes next.

Last up is my new start, a Christmas ornament for my eldest niece.  The plan is to make them both an ornament every year.  This year, the ornaments are stained glass motifs from the Design Library in issue 144 of World of Cross Stitching.  As you can see, I've started on the framework of this spray of holly.  This is the second shot at this section - the frogs have already been out to play on this one!  These ornaments will be replacing Carnation as my sunrise piece.


I hope that all is going well with your WIPs - are you joining in Measi's 2012 WIPocalypse?