Unfortunately I managed to miss out on the last WIPocalypse and IHSW of 2013 - I was too busy getting sorted for Christmas, but I did take photos of my WIPs even if I didn't manage to blog them at the time.
So I'll start by going through the goals that I set myself this time last year.
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose - page 3 was finished on 17 April and page 4 on 29 September 2013. This piece has since been on hold whilst I worked on other things, but I plan to get back to it in 2014.
Turkish Challenge - we were given an extension on this piece, so it was finished on 11 April 2013.
5th birthday present - this was "Enchanted Garden", finished and framed by 8 June 2013, a week ahead of schedule.
Guardian Angels - this is still work in progress, with one angel complete bar beading and the second started - again to be worked on in 2014.
Bouquet pieces - this series of 6 smalls was completed on 11 October 2013 and made up into cards to sell for Marie Curie.
Train of Dreams - this is still work in progress - again to be worked on in 2014.
That's the update on 2013 goals. I will set my 2014 goals in my next post.
Next comes WIP updates etc.
First, a couple of finish finishes - my niece's Christmas ornaments finished on Christmas Day itself. Unfortunately for some reason I can't get them to fit side by side, which is most annoying.
This is the before Christmas shot of April.
Followed by the post Christmas shot of April. This piece is coming on nicely with only a small amount left to do on this bottom section before I can finish the back stitching, do the French knots for the birds' eyes and move on to the first angel.
Finally the before Christmas shot of Train of Dreams - one more block completed in this session.
Followed by the post Christmas shot in which there are a further two blocks completed.
On the health front, I weighed in before Christmas at 11 stone 8.5lb, a total loss of 1 stone exactly. There has been no weigh-in this week because it was Boxing Day, so I have a little extra time to try and get straight after Christmas.
Back to work tomorrow and the New Year will begin in a couple of days. So here's hoping that you all had a lovely Christmas, and wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year in 2014.
Yes, it is officially that time of year again. They had the grand turning on of the Christmas lights here in my little suburb on Saturday night with a craft fair, farmers market, live music, children's fairground and fireworks.
And I do actually have some angel to show you. That narrow column of stitching next to Serena is the left hand side of Angelique's skirt. When there is a bit more to see, Serena will ease out of the picture, but I thought that she would lend a bit of context to an otherwise uninteresting photo. There was serious frogging again with Angelique before reaching this point - I really must learn to read the instructions before putting needle to fabric!
Moving on to a piece which will eventually include angels, I have made good progress on April this week. There is a largish plant in a pot still left to do on the right hand side before I start to back stitch back to the middle. There is a lot of back stitch so it may take some little time :-(
This is a lighter picture than I usually manage to get of Train of Dreams, and it is technically poor, but it does mean that you get a better idea of the colours in it. I got another couple of blocks done this week.
This last picture is of my Bouquet cards finally made up to sell. Unfortunately the people who attended our Marie Curie coffee morning last week were obviously the wrong market as the cards did not sell. However I will try them at work and see what happens. They look good though, don't you think?
In other news, a very kind friend of mine has offered me her mum's sewing box containing a number of untouched skeins of thread probably dating from the 1940s/1950s. I don't know what brand they are, but my mum will find a use for them even if I can't.
Furthermore I somehow managed to lose 2.5lb last week, bringing me down to 11 stone, 10.5lb. I'm not sure whether I will be able to maintain this loss as a spot of emergency baby sitting last night led to a stopoff at the chip shop on the way home, and I will be out for a meal on Wednesday night. I'm wondering if the weight loss may have been partly due to expenditure of calories on keeping warm as I only just put the central heating on this morning. Any biologists out there with a view on that?
It's getting chilly now and I need to put the kettle on for my hot water bottle, so will love you and leave you. All the best to you and yours, and may the frog keep away from your stitching!
Despite the distinct downturn in the weather which makes me want to crawl under the covers and stay there, I have another finish to report!
Bouquet 6 is finished!!!
So I can now show you all six Bouquet pieces together. As soon as I get my iron back from my sister, these will be washed, pressed and made up into cards which will hopefully sell at our Marie Curie coffee morning next month. I will have a photo of the finished finished pieces in due course.
Moving on to Serena, I have made some good progress here. She now has a wing, so just the other wing, the backstitch and the beading to go. I'm still not sure about when best to do the beading, and will need to make up my mind in the next week or so.
And last but not least, Train of Dreams. I am pleased to report that column 2 is now completed and column 3 has been started.
What else? Well, having lost 1.5lb unexpectedly last week, I put it back on again this week. I'm not worried about this - I have had a vile cold which is still lingering slightly, and consequently was not exactly concentrating on what I was eating.
I meant to show you the stash that I received from Ebay this week, but forgot to take a photo so will have to do that next week.
Having finished the Bouquet series, I have my next project already set up. As Christmas is beginning to loom over the horizon, I have chosen the pieces for my nieces' tree ornaments and will soon be starting work on a couple of musical snowmen. After that, Mum has reminded me that two of the Patchwork ladies are celebrating birthdays with a 0 on the end next year. We are not making them quilts as they have so many of their own already. Instead we are making 12" bound blocks representing the months of the year to be presented with a hanger so that they can rotate them as appropriate. I have to stitch April for one lady and November for the other. Time to put my thinking cap on.
I can hear the rain on the windows again, so time to put the kettle on for a hot water bottle and then turn in. All the best to you and yours, and may the frog steer well clear of your stitching!
now - that is the big question!
Until I went down with a streaming cold in the last couple of days, I was making good progress on Serena, the first of my four Just Nan angels. She still needs wings, back stitching and beading though. My question is this - on the basis that I have three more angels to stitch on this piece of linen, should I bead each angel as I complete her, or would I be better off waiting until I've done all four and then bead the whole lot at the same time? Some advice would be very much appreciated as this is a whole new ball game to me.
Although I can't work on a complicated piece like Serena with a cold, I can work on Train. I got another two blocks done this morning between loads of laundry, taking about 2.5 hours. All being well, my next session on this will see me finish column 2 and start column 3.
I've also made good progress on Bouquet 6. The bottom of the piece is now complete. It just needs flowers, leaves and back stitching. With any luck, another couple of weeks should see this done and I can start work on Christmas ornaments for my nieces. So I ought to start wading through my magazines now for suitable pieces.
I also had a successful Ebay session this week - specific old cross stitch magazines that I've been wanting for ages, two Teresa Wentzler charts, two Valerie Pfeiffer charts, a Just Nan chart with charms and a Design Works kit. An array of interesting parcels should be arriving at work for me over the next week :-) I'll hopefully be able to show you my haul in my next post.
What else? I've had a lovely week off (apart from my cold) - lunch out with my sister and nieces when the schools were on strike, lie-ins when it was raining, both the new books I was after being in the shop rather than having to order them in, and also miracle of miracles, a 1.5lb weight loss despite coffee mornings, parties, lunch out etc. The only drawback is that when I drag my cold-ridden self into work tomorrow, the chances are that I won't be able to see my desk for files and from past experience I may not even be able to sit on my chair without having to move some files first.
Right, I am going to dose myself, set my alarm clock and go to bed. All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your stitching.
I'm so happy and pleased with myself! Page 4 of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is now finished!
I started this piece on 25 May 2011, but have had two breaks in stitching since then - one to finish my cousin's baby sampler and one to finish my younger niece's 5th birthday present. So this photo shows the top section completed. I have to do this much again twice and then the final row of pages is 6 blocks deep. Carnation is 294 stitches wide by 350 stitches deep, so 102,900 stitches in total. The section shown in the photo is 294 stitches wide by 100 stitches deep, so 29,400 stitches completed, plus whatever has overlapped into the row below.
I feel really proud of myself - the patience and determination and sheer sticking at it that has gone into this piece so far has paid off. And to have a page finish on my birthday is icing on the cake! As per my last post, Carnation has now come off the stand and Angels has gone on for the next little while.
It has been a busy week this week - Pilates, babysitting, Slimming World, colleague's leaving do, coffee morning, Patchwork Group 30th birthday party, my birthday - so Carnation is really all that I have to show you.
While I was babysitting, I did put some initial stitches into Bouquet 6, but then I got distracted by Great British Bake Off on iPlayer, so there is very little to see. On the other hand, I now have the possibility of a venture into basic bread rolls running around in my head. I haven't made bread rolls since Home Economics at secondary school well over 20 years ago, so this might be interesting :-)
When I weighed in last week, I found that I had put on 0.5lb. I wasn't surprised - I'd been skimping on my weighing and measuring etc. I won't be surprised if I put on this week as well - there's been a lot of cake and other non-slimming foods packed into the past few days!
I have the plumber coming tomorrow morning early to service the boiler before the really cold weather kicks in, so I need to take all the gubbins out of the cupboard so that he can get to it. I will leave you all with best wishes for you and yours and may the frog stay away from your stitching.
I know, I'm late again, but I do have a good excuse. I meant to post last night, but I had to go and help my Mum take down her patchwork exhibition and when I got home, the lock on my front door had jammed! By the time that I had fought with it, gone and got my Dad, he'd successfully fought with it, and then I'd taken Dad home again, I was completely stressed out and too knackered to post. So here we are tonight.
I have a finish to show. Bouquet 5 is done and dusted. As always, the backstitch makes it shine. I must admit that the tulip type things make me think a bit of Martians. Just one more of these pieces to go before I can make them up into cards for Marie Curie.
I also have two more blocks of progress to show on Train of Dreams. Another three and a bit blocks to the bottom of the piece. As always, seeing a photograph of the piece gives you a better impression of the actual picture.
And I'm steaming ahead with Carnation. I managed another four full and one partial blocks this week so row 9 is finished and I'm into row 10. If I can just get some consolidated time into this, I might have a page finish for my next post.
At that point, Carnation is coming off the stand and the Guardian Angels are going on for a long stint. I happened to mention to Mum yesterday that I was working on Train of Dreams and there was just something in her voice when she replied which made me feel really guilty about not working on her Angels.
In other news, I lost 1.5lb last week which brings me down to 11 stone 12lb - another 1.5lb off will mean 1 stone in total. We had a few more computer problems at work last week, which was very annoying. And I even did some cooking - I made a sweet potato curry with chickpeas and spinach, which was nice if a bit bland. If I make it again, it will be with pre-peeled and chopped sweet potato (you need 2lb for the recipe) and I will spice it up a bit.
Right, time to go and put my tea on, so big Zen hugs to you and yours and may the frog steer well clear of your stitching!
Earlier this year I was complaining that it was too damn hot, and now here I am a couple of weeks into September sitting at my computer with my dressing gown on over my clothes. I have the feeling that it might well be a long cold winter this year. There are lots of berries on the trees still and the weather has turned temperamental. Maybe it's just me, I could be wrong, I hope so.
So what can I say on the stitching front?
I have some nice progress to report on Bouquet 5, courtesy of a couple of lunch time stints and a Patchwork Group meeting last week. All that is left to do are the flowers, a couple of leaves and the back stitching. If I can just get a grip, I should be able to show a finish in the next week or so.
I should really be showing you a progress picture on Serena, but I had a bout of the blues at the weekend so did very little stitching at all over those two days. I did put in a couple of hours on Train of Dreams on Sunday morning and completed another block.
Work on Carnation went very well this week. I finished row 8 and completed the first two blocks on row 9. A page finish and scroll up is just around the corner.
On the weight loss front, I put 3.5lb back on this week. However I'm OK with this. When you lose weight quickly through illness, it's bound to come back and I'm still 0.5lb lighter than I was before I was ill.
I'm going to cut this post short cos I'm cold and tired, so I wish you all the best and may the frog stay away from your stitching.
This week's cloud was the unpleasant stomach bug that I went down with shortly after my last post. It could have been worse in that it only lasted about 48 hours but you will appreciate that not a lot happened on the stitching front until the cloud had lifted. The silver lining was the 4lb weight loss that the scales revealed when I went to Slimming World later in the week! I probably won't be able to maintain this loss, particularly as I was at a street party on Saturday, but it made up for spending two days mainly in bed.
On the stitching front, some pieces did better than others under the circumstances.
Bouquet 5 only got about half an hour's attention, but you can now see the basic shape of the basket. I really must stop surfing the Net at lunchtime and get on with this, as there is still one more piece to do and I also need to start thinking about Christmas ornaments for my nieces.
Over the weekend I managed another three blocks on Train of Dreams. The yellowy browny bit in the bottom right hand corner is part of a moon ornament. I do enjoy working on this piece - I sit on my bed in the morning sunshine with everything laid out beside me and work steadily down the page, one line at a time, watching the picture come to life.
Carnation creeps closer and closer to a page finish. Another three blocks done this week and then the coming week should see the end of row 8 and the beginning of row 9.
I want to tell you a bit about the street party that I went to on Saturday. The street that I grew up on celebrates its 100th birthday this year. The first five houses were built in 1913 and the last house was completed 43 years and two World Wars later. A final addition was made when I was at school when a property with a double plot (tennis court on the side) was split and a brand new house built on the tennis court part in the 1980s. The party was held outside the oldest houses with the road closed to traffic. We had live music from residents, a special birthday cake baked by a teenage resident, the street archive (a work in progress), children's games, a massive faith buffet, visits from previous residents and so on. The local paper came and have done a full page spread on it today. The party was opened by the longest residing resident, a gentleman who has lived on the road all his life and who will be 80 in the New Year. His father had the house built and the family has lived there ever since. A great time was had by all and it was especially satisfying to see all the children playing in the street, something which the increase in traffic has prevented for quite a long time now.
Anyway my tummy is rumbling and I ought to do something about tea, so all the best to you and yours and may the frog steer well clear of your stitching!
Better late than never! I meant to post last night but as you all know, sometimes things don't go according to plan. However I have used the extra time wisely and have a mini happy dance to show off.
First of all, I have a new start to show you. This is Bouquet 5. When finished, it will be three pots of tulip-like flowers in a basket. What you see here is two of the pots and the rim of the basket.
Now for my mini happy dance - this is Train of Dreams and on the left you can see the complete depth of this piece. Courtesy of a little extra input this morning, column 1 is finished. Using the parking method has made a big difference with this piece. At the end of a session I feel that I have actually made some progress, which I didn't before when I was just dotting around.
Carnation is coming along at its usual pace. I'm looking forward to getting page 4 finished and then scrolling up to start the next row of pages.
No progress on the Angels this week. Part of the problem is having to take Carnation off the stand (which involves fiddling with the adapter) and putting Angels on. If I had more space in my lounge and more money, then I'd buy a second stand and adapter to put Angels on. When I win the Lottery :-)
On another happy note, I lost another 1lb this week which brings me down to 12 stone exactly. This is my first interim target and I intended to treat myself to a new chart from Scarlet Quince (where I got Carnation). Then I thought about it - I'm only just over a quarter of the way through Carnation so I really don't need another big and complex piece to be sitting there saying "Stitch me, stitch me". So instead I treated myself to a new pair of dancing shoes - 5 inch black stilettos, although to be sure the soles are about an inch deep, so let's say 4 inch black stilettos!
What else? Well, being on leave this week, I took my nieces out for the day on Thursday. We went to a local country park where they played on the big play park and we went for a walk in the woods. Then we went for lunch at their favourite garden centre, where there is a fish tank in the cafe. After lunch we came home, but a sudden downpour stopped us from going to the park by the library. So we had stories and they played monsters in my bed.
Back to work tomorrow and I need to collect in the rest of my Race for Life money. However I do feel much better for having had a week off doing nothing. So may the sun shine on you, your families and your stitching, and may the frog steer well clear.
What I want to know is where the time goes. Here I am writing the August IHSW post when it was only five minutes ago that I was writing the July post. And it is Full Moon on Wednesday so my next post will be a WIPocalypse post - where does the time go?
Anyway I have some good progress to report, both stitching and life in general, so here goes.
Bouquet 4 is now finished and as usual the back stitching has made all the difference. There are two more left to do before making them up into cards, so I hope to get the next one started at some point this week.
I meant to work on Serena, the Angel, this week but things didn't go according to plan. Instead I put in time on Train of Dreams and got two more blocks done today. It's not a brilliant photo, I'm afraid, and needed better lighting. Hopefully another couple of stints will see me at the bottom of the page and ready to start the next column.
Finally on the stitching front, I managed to get four blocks done on Carnation instead of the usual three, so the end of next week should see me into row 7 with any luck.
In life in general, I lost another 1lb this week, which takes me to 7.5lb in total and gained me my half stone award. If I can manage to lose another lb this week, that will take me down to 12 stone exactly and I can then treat myself.
Also on a positive note I am on leave this week and plan to spend most of my time relaxing and chilling out. I haven't had a week off since April and as I spent that week at my family history conference and then staying with family, it was enjoyable but not exactly relaxing.
The weather seems to have perked up again and I am hoping that it will stay fine for my planned day out with my nieces later this week. All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay well away from your stitching.
I just have to get through this next week and then I've got a week off work, and boy do I need it! I last had a week off in April, but spent part of it at a family history conference and the rest staying with family. It was great fun, but not exactly relaxing. I badly need to chill out, defrag and wind down. I've made a tentative booking to steal my nieces for a day and spoil them rotten, but other than that, I have no plans except to take it easy.
Mum and I did the Race for Life today, doing our bit to raise money for cancer research. The weather was just about right - warm and sunny, but with enough of a breeze to make it comfortable. We were a bit slower this year because Mum's legs were playing up, but we finished and that's what counts. And it's always a really good atmosphere - all those women and girls giving up their time and putting in the effort - but then the sad thing is that of course everybody knows somebody!
Moving on to something more cheerful - stitching!
All the cross stitching is done on Bouquet 4, so my plan is to get the back stitching done this week and then this will be finished!
And half a happy dance for Carnation - row 5 is complete and so page 4 is half done! I took all of my WIPs to Patchwork Group this week. Everyone was very complimentary, and there was a comment about the clever shading of the lilies on this piece.
So the plan for this week is to finish Bouquet 4, get the next three blocks of Carnation completed and work on Serena (she may even acquire a face). The only drawback to this is that I am currently on chicken duty which takes up part of my evenings and this is open ended at the moment, so we shall see.
To finish on a bright note, I lost 1.5lb this week. Another half pound will mean that I've lost half a stone in total, so fingers crossed for Thursday's weigh-in.
All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your house.
This is a couple of days late so I apologise profusely. The weekend was not so good (the Black Dog dropped by) and yesterday was Dad's birthday, which is why the delay.
I'm just going to show you my update photos and then I'm going to call it a night.
Bouquet is not far from completion. There are two more flowers to do and then the back stitch. I may or may not have it finished for my next post. I do have Patchwork Group this week, but I also have Race for Life on Sunday which will mean re-scheduling various chores and a subsequent loss of stitching time.
Carnation is coming along. Here I am halfway through row 5, so nearly halfway through page 4. I would dearly love to finish row 5 this week, but the same caveats apply as for Bouquet.
Last month the Patchwork Group asked to see all my WIPs so this week I will be showing them Bouquet, Carnation, Serena and Train of Dreams. It will be interesting to see what they say.
I'm still very tired but the weather appears to be cooling down a bit so I hope to get more sleep the next few nights. I put on 0.5lb last week but I expected that because I had lunch at a friend's on the Saturday and a leaving lunch on the Wednesday, so it could have been a lot worse.
All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your stitching.
Despite two or three heavy downpours, causing localised flooding in some areas of the county, it's still too damn hot round here! I managed to catch too much sun yesterday while visiting friends, so have that well cooked look down the side of my neck and left arm. And then today I got bitten on the neck by my friend's vampire budgie from Hell - no blood but a painful experience!
On the stitching front, however, things have been going well.
I've made good progress on Bouquet 4 this week. That is supposed to be a blue teapot on a stripy tablecloth. Still to come are the flowers and foliage, followed by the backstitch which will make it look so much better as usual.
Next up is Train of Dreams. What you see on the left hand side is just two rows more than a full page's depth of stitching - three blocks this week! There has been another slight change of plan on this one - I have now decided that, as the lower pages of this piece are only 66 stitches deep, I am going to carry on stitching to the bottom and then work my way across to the other end. I have now gridded the whole of this end, and am still enjoying the parking method of stitching.
Last but not least comes Carnation. I now have to stand on a stool in order to get a decent photo of this piece. I didn't quite finish row 4 this week, but hope to be well into row 5 by my next post. But according to my stitch counting gadget in the sidebar, I am now officially a quarter of the way through this piece so I'm a happy bunny!
I also have a problem - I am desperate to start something new, but I dare not. I don't have enough hours in the day as it is to do all the things that I need to be doing, let alone starting a new piece of stitching. Mentally I'm tossing up between a new HAED (this time to be done on 18 count) and Lesley Teare's bird series from Cross Stitch Collection. Neither project would be small or quick, and I really ought to put in more time on Mum's Guardian Angels than they are currently getting. Also I've got some family history research that I need to get sorted this coming week so that I can get it posted off.
On the bright side however, I lost another 2lb this week, bringing me down to 12 stone 3lb. If I can lose a further 1.5lb this week, then that will be my first half stone award. Yesterday was not a good day though as I was visiting friends and therefore not in control. All the same I am very happy that when I do the Race for Life with Mum on 11 August, I will be carrying less weight than I was earlier this year.
Hoping that all is well with you and yours, and that the frog stays away from your house!
And it's too damn hot! The temperature gauge in my toolbar says 30 degrees at gone 7.30pm, so I won't be getting much sleep tonight! I can only hope that the air conditioning is working properly for Kate - not the best of days to be having a baby!
I think that this is the second time this year that WIPocalypse and IHSW have come together, so here goes with the update.
Starting with a finish, here is Bouquet 3, which as with the previous two, looks so much better with the backstitch done.
Having finished the third piece, I moved onto No. 4 in the Bouquet series. This will be a blue teapot with flowers coming out of the top when it is done.
Next up is Serena, my first Guardian Angel. Her skirt is now finished apart from the central panel, which is backstitch and beading, and will have to wait til last. The next section will be her collar and her head, with the wings coming in after that. I am enjoying this, but it certainly requires more concentration than some of the other pieces.
And finally Carnation - I am now onto row 4 and enjoying every minute of it. I'm thinking that if I really put some effort into this, I could get page 4 finished for my birthday at the end of September. What do you reckon?
In other news, I lost another lb this week, bringing me down to 12 stone 5lb, so a total weight loss of 3.5 lb. The hot weather doesn't really help because I don't really feel like eating, let alone cooking.
Mum has been back to her consultant about her heart. He is not very concerned, but she is having a couple of tests done to check things out before they discuss whether or not she is going to have a procedure done. She is very much "I told you so" about it, so I'm keeping schtum about it.
Other than that, things seem to be fairly positive (if you like sport - I'm not that keen) and fingers crossed for a happy healthy royal baby and a happy healthy Kate. And for the rest of you, may your needles stay sharp and your thread never tangle, and your stitching keep you smiling!
Well, its been horribly hot here for a while, so when I've not been at work, I've mostly been stopping in where its cooler. I don't do well in weather like this - I don't sleep well and I lose my appetite. On the bright side, it does mean more stitching time.
So first of all, I'll show you my experiment.
This is my HAED - Train of Dreams by Randal Spangler. You've seen it before but not for a while because it went on hold while I worked on Enchanted Garden. The experiment is the handful of threads in the bottom left hand corner. Some of you will recognise this as the parking method, where you work across a row stitch by stitch, leaving each thread where it next appears on the chart. It is a slow process, perhaps more so on this 25 count fabric, but it does have the advantage of not leaving any holes behind. If you look just to the left of the blue bell at the top right, you will see some little white specks. These are places where I need to fill in with a different colour thread. As I'm stitching 2 over 1 on 25 count, you can imagine how awkward and niggly it is to do fill-ins like that. The bottom two blocks on the left have been stitched using the parking method. The new plan is to carry on to the bottom of the page, and then go back up and work down the next column, and so on across the page. Do any of you use the parking method? If so, do you have any useful tips?
Next up is Bouquet 3, which was the beneficiary of Patchwork Group on Thursday. I am now three flowers down, and two to go before I start back stitching. I just need to get a grip and stitch at lunchtime instead of reading other peoples' blogs.
Last but not least is Carnation. Another three blocks done means that I am just over halfway through row 3. I did consider using the parking method on this, but as I am using blended threads as well as stitching across the page, I feel that it would complicate matters too much.
Nothing to show you on Mum's Angels this week, but I did lose 1lb at Slimming World so heading in the right direction again.
Well, its hot and sticky and my eyes are beginning to sting with tiredness, so I'm going to call it a day. Wishing you and yours all the best for a great week ahead (and plenty of stitching time).
We British always talk about the weather - and at the moment we do indeed have something to talk about. I know that for many of our American and other overseas cousins, temperatures in the high 20s are nothing to go on about, but for us temperate British types, it is indeed hot, hot, hot! And I will confess to not liking it at all. I'm not keen on extremes of temperature, but at least with minus figures, you can just put on more layers. When its like this, there is only so much that you can take off without getting arrested :-)
However, as it was so hot these past few days and I had Friday off, I stopped in most of the weekend and stitched.
Taking it from the top, here is Bouquet 3. The bottom of this piece is now complete bar the back stitch, and I am one flower down and four to go. It's still not ringing my bells, but I've started it so I will finish it!
Next up is Serena, the first of four Just Nan Guardian Angels, my first piece on linen. She now has both arms, so the next job is to complete her skirt, bar the central section which is beading and backstitch. Progress is slow but satisfying.
And finally another minor happy dance! Yes, that is row 2 of page 4 of Carnation complete. I'm enjoying this page because it seems to be moving on so quickly, and as usual it looks so good in the photo.
What else? Last week was not a good week weight-wise as I put on 1.5lb - must try harder. The boss is off this week, which will hopefully mean that I manage to get some of those "oh, I'll do it in my spare time" jobs done, like the backlog of archiving that needs seeing to. I also have a funeral to go to - one of my neighbours, but it is also Patchwork Group that night, which should cheer me up a bit afterwards.
Anyway, I need to go and sort my tea out, so here's hoping its good stitching weather by you.
First, a couple of finish finishes - my niece's Christmas ornaments finished on Christmas Day itself. Unfortunately for some reason I can't get them to fit side by side, which is most annoying.
