First New Start of 2014

Well, this week has been a bit like the curate's egg - good in parts!  My stitching time has been limited - firstly by three mostly enjoyable nights out and secondly by a black dog weekend.  However I do still have some photos to show you.
 

The Patchwork Group had a sewing day on Friday and I took the opportunity to make a new start.  What you see will eventually be a wedding present for my friend who is getting married in May this year.  The chart comes from issue 201 of World of Cross Stitching and is a heart shape made up of various relevant motifs.  I have changed the floss colour from DMC 498 to DMC 817, which I felt was more appropriate.  Under the heart I will be stitching the happy couple's initials and the date of the wedding.  I will be referring to this piece as Wedding from now on in.

Next up is April, where I have finished the blue of the skirt and made good progress on the angel's apron.  I still have to add the trowel handle or what ever it is and a bit more apron before moving on to her arm.

 Finally I have one more block complete on Carnation.  This piece suffered from an active social life this week, so I only got in a couple of hours on this one.

As I wrote above, this has been a black dog weekend.  I have been feeling tired and lacking in mojo, and the weather has been vile.  When you have to pull the curtains at 2.30pm because of the impending thunderstorm, it's bound to bring you down.  So I have done no stitching at all since Friday - Train and Angelique have seen no progress at all.  I have managed to do essentials like shopping, laundry and reading, but nothing else of note.

I also have no progress to report on the weight loss front because I went on a work colleague's leaving do (Greek tapas followed by cocktails) instead of going to Slimming World.  Now I just have to concentrate on eating properly this week in the hope of making up for last week.  I also have no evenings out (except my regular Pilates class) to come between me and my needle. 

All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your stitching! 

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. 

Late clocking in, but news and finishes to report

Yes, this should have been posted on Sunday night but never mind.  By posting it now, I have more to tell you so will get the news out of the way before I talk about the stitching.

On the job front, I didn't get the job that I interviewed for the other week, but I handed in the other application form first thing on Monday and got a call last night to say that I'd made it through to the next stage.  This is a PA job in a local comprehensive school - a bit closer to home and more money, and a complete change of scenery!  Interviews were supposed to be being held tomorrow but the school suffered a tragedy over the weekend.  They have therefore done the shortlisting but postponed the interview process.

On the Marie Curie front, we did really well.  We raised £530.35 on our stall, and the coffee morning which had taken place the day before raised around £470, so we reached our first £1,000 in two events and two days.  I am so proud of us and very grateful to the local community for their generosity.

Moving on to the stitching, I have a couple of finishes to report.  First up is the Poinsettia piece that I completed the stitching on some while ago.  I have now finally got the beads on and it doesn't look too bad.  I tried using a beading needle but couldn't get the metallic thread that I was using through the eye.  Fortunately the holes in the beads were wide enough to get my ordinary stitching needle through so I did manage to get the job done.  Now all I need to do is turn it into an ornament.

Next up is the Angel ornament for my younger niece.  As my niece is a redhead, I've changed several of the colours on this.  The hair was originally yellow, the robe two shades of red and the background was a tan colour.  As with the Poinsettia, all I need to do now is turn it into an ornament along with the accompanying Holly piece.


The Beetle missed out again due to the need to work on my application for the PA job.  I promise that I really will get down to it this week.

With the Angel being finished early in the week, Noah's Ark has become my sunrise piece.  As a result, by Sunday I had not only finished the zebra, but also completed the two windows and started on the side of the Ark itself.  I'm hoping to get that done this week and get started on the roof.  No news on the baby front so I'm not panicking too much just yet - fingers crossed.


Finally, on the Christmas front, I still have shopping to do but I have posted the cards that need posting, been out for one pre-Christmas meal, have another one tomorrow and am going to a party on Saturday.  Now if only the plumber can get my central heating fixed tomorrow, everything in the garden will be lovely! 

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.