Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose - Page 1 Happy Dance

I'm celebrating!  Just a short post to show you that Page 1 is finished!

 For me, Page 1 includes all the part squares on the adjoining pages, which will give me a head start on Page 2 seeing as the left hand edge is already filled in.

Now that I have finished both the Fuschias and Page 1 of Carnation, I am entitled to a new start and to buying new stash.  These are both serious propositions.  At heart I am not a "smalls" type of stitcher - I do stitch Christmas ornaments for my nieces, but I gave up on cards quite early on.  Both the list of possible starts and the list of possible stash are all biggish projects, but I currently have one BAP (Carnation) and am working on a medium sized design with the Cat (21.4cm x 18.6cm).

The Cat is on a deadline and I can and will make it a travelling piece if it becomes necessary.  But I fancy buying a Chatelaine or a Randal Spangler HAED, both of which are large, time consuming projects.  I know that I don't have to turn the new stash into the new start, but I also know that buying this type of new stash means finding an extensive block of time for them at some point in the future.

So what to do with regards to start and stash?  I would welcome your thoughts on the subject.

2012 WIPocalypse - April Full Moon

Well, doesn't time fly?  Where has the year gone?  How can it be April already?

However it is April and a Full Moon, so it must be WIPocalypse reporting time again.

I was determined to have the Fuschias finished for this report, so I put in three hours work this morning so that I could take this picture.  They still need to be washed and pressed, but they are finished and I didn't run out of thread, and nor did I have a problem with the wretched french knots!  I don't hate this piece, but I didn't enjoy doing it - the aida was very stiff and for some reason it was difficult to find the holes with the needle. 

Sounds daft, I know, but I'm glad that it is done and out of the way.  I'll claim my new book from Mum tomorrow (the other two that I ordered turned up the other day), but will leave choosing a new start for a couple of weeks as I have non-stitching things that I need to do first.

No pictures of the Cat today - however, I'm taking it babysitting tomorrow night so with that and my regular Sunday morning stint, I hope to have something to show in my next post.

Carnation has been a bit slower this week.  I said in my last post that I was only aiming to get two blocks done this week due to the Easter holiday and so on.  Well, I've nearly finished the second block, and hope to get it completed tomorrow. 

However I know that there is a mistake in this second block because the stitch count is off.  I can't see the mistake, I don't know exactly where it is and the thread colours are all so similar that I'm just going to fudge it, rather than frog all the work that I've done since, most of which I know is right, cos I've counted from the other side of the block. 

In the grand scheme of things, i.e. a piece of work that will be 18.4" wide and 21.9" long on 16 count aida, an invisible mistake somewhere in the top left hand corner is not going to make a big difference. 

Right, it's nearly 10pm UK time, so I'm going to check in with Measi and then call it a day.   I'll save looking at other people's WIPocalypse reports for another day.

It's gone cold again :-(

Well, so much for the nice warm weather that we were having!  The temperature has fallen about 10 degrees and we are due for a heavy shower of rain on Tuesday.  The rain is not necessarily a bad thing - they keep threatening us with a drought - but it was a bit chilly last night.

Just a couple of pics to show you today - I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights and so I had a lie-in this morning instead of working on the Cat.

I've done some more on the Fuschias - that bottom flower is now finished cross stitch wise.  Once I've got the flower in the top left done, that will just leave the backstitch and the dreaded French knots.  My main concern is that I appear to be running low on thread.  The kit doesn't refer to any thread numbers, just colours, so I haven't got a clue what I'm using.  I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that if I do run out, I can find something to match amongst my DMC threads.

Things are going very well on Carnation.  I finished the last block on the right hand side, and then got two done on the bottom row, so another three blocks down and only six to go before I've finished Page 1.

Life is about to get a little busy with Easter coming up and a couple of other things in the diary, so I'm going to lower my sights a little.  If I can manage two blocks a week for the next three weeks, then that will bring Page 1 in under the wire a month ahead of this piece's first anniversary.  I think that it is do-able, and if I can get more than two blocks done, so much the better, and if I can't, well I still have a month or so in hand.

Mum's taken delivery of three of the books I ordered and it's WIPocalypse on Friday.  If I put my mind to it and stop reading other people's blogs at lunchtime, maybe I can claim a finish on the Fuschias and a new book!

Right, I'm bone tired so I'm going to love you and leave you.  I'll see you Friday with my WIPocalypse report.

Spring is in the air!

Instead of posting this last night (although I had already taken the photos), I went to my sister's for the first barbecue of the year! It's ridiculous - it's not even April and the weather was so nice yesterday that my brother in law decided that it was time to get the barbie out - I still wore a coat!

Saturday morning was very chilly and by the time that I had spent two hours (9-11am) collecting for the Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal, I seriously needed to defrost.  Once defrosted, I went to the framers to pick up this up.  This is John Clayton's Fuchsias which I finished on 12 May 2011 and have only just got round to having framed.  It's actually a pale ivory mount and a navy blue aluminium frame - the wooden frames were all too wide.  I think that it's come out very nicely and all I have to do now is cajole Dad into coming round and putting it up for me.

I haven't made much progress on my other fuchsia - I keep getting sidetracked by other people's blogs at lunchtime.  However, as I have now ordered my reward books (5 of them), I really need to get this finished in order to be able to read one of them at least.

The Cat is coming on, although the fabric is still not taking a good photo (this was taken indoors, but with the sunlight pouring through the window).  The problem with this one, as with the Beetle in its early stages, is that I get distracted by the laundry and by the books in my bedroom.  However, I have four months to work on it before my aunt's birthday - it might have to become my travel piece though.

And the piece de resistance - Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.  I am so pleased with myself!  I got another three blocks done this week on the right hand side, which only leaves nine to go before I finish Page 1 (and get to read another book!).  It looks better from a distance or in a photo - when you're up close and personal with it, it's harder to see the picture coming through.

And you know, the best thing about it - my Mum is so impressed with it - she thinks my work is excellent, and as a textile artist herself, she wouldn't lie about that sort of thing, not even to make me feel good.  And knowing that she admires the quality of my work makes me feel like I'm walking on air!  I really hope that someone who matters to you makes you feel the same way too about your work!

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!

Why are weekends so short?

Its Sunday evening, the day is drawing in and Monday looms ever closer.  The boss goes on leave again at the end of the week, this time for a fortnight.  How I am supposed to account for my time for two weeks when my main work provider is away, your guess is as good as mine.  And the second of the two weeks that he is off, the two other top people in the department are off too, so my colleague will have nothing to do either!

Anyway, enough whinging!  Cross stitch is far more important.

My Poinsettia is now finished bar the washing, pressing and beading.  I have the beads but also have a busy week ahead, so the beads won't go on this week.  I'm really quite pleased with it.  When I first saw the colours with those bright pinks, I was a bit concerned but it has come out rather nicely, I think.

 This is the first reappearance of my Fuchsia piece.  It was Patchwork Group on Thursday night so I took it along to work on and have made some progress - it does look more like fuchsias now.  I am in two minds - either I could take this piece into work to do at lunchtimes or I could take some little Christmassy kits by Mouseloft to do for Marie Curie.  I will sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning.

More progress across the front bonnet of the Beetle.  Its very hard to see the white and pale grey stitches against the white background but we are moving on.  I've got about six and a half months left before my deadline - make that five and a half for framing.  I also need to start thinking about a baby piece for my cousin who, fingers most definitely crossed, will be having a baby in January.  I'm thinking Noah's Ark, but that means that I seriously need to crack on with the Beetle now if I'm going to take time out for that.

 And finally Carnation.  Having got past the halfway stage on page 1 last week, I am now well into block 41.  As you can see, that brings me one block short of completing the right hand column and being able to move on to the bottom left.  Finishing Poinsettia means that I now have all the threads for Carnation safely tucked into their correct ziptop wallets - there were a few doing double duty on Poinsettia.  

 What else?  Well, I went to the Archives yesterday and started working through the railway records that have just been put on Ancestry.  Its fascinating to see how people moved around, what they earned, how old they were when they started work etc.  I have three sisters in my family tree who all married railwaymen.  The eldest sister married a railwayman, had her younger sisters to visit and of course they met hubby's workmates and fell in love and married into the railways as well.

Tomorrow I'm going to give blood.  I believe that if you can, you should.  Its a way of paying forward for all the good things in my life - my family, my friends, having a roof over my head and a job which enables me to pay for that roof.  I also carry a donor card - if anything happens to me, then I want the chance to save someone else's life.

Time's getting on.  I'm going to finish here and go make lunch for tomorrow.  Hopefully the world will be a better place in the morning.

Rainy Monday in July

Well, hasn't the weather been pants recently?  The sky has a permanently dubious look to it and the only predictable thing is that it will rain, whenever it feels like it.  So much for summer! 

Stitching has been less, rather than more, for a number of reasons.

My Poinsettia piece has suffered from too much blog reading at lunchtime, although I have finished that bottom leaf and moved on to the next petal.

The Beetle has moved on slightly - you can see where the front headlight is going to fit in.  This is my Sunday morning piece so I was hampered by getting in about 1am on Sunday, following a late night babysitting for my nieces. 

I was however compensated by coming home from the supermarket on Sunday afternoon to find a bunch of chrysanthemums sticking out of my letterbox as a thank you present for my late night.

Progress on Carnation is virtually non-existent.  Last Sunday Mum and I rolled the fabric on the frame to give me better access to the bottom of page 1 of the chart.  This somehow disturbed the setup of my floor stand which refused to grip the frame properly and it kept falling out. 

Dad has now done his fix-it routine and I am now fully functional again, but I didn't get my work back until this Sunday afternoon so there is hardly anything to show - not even another completed square.

However I do have a new start to show.  I didn't intend to start anything new until I had finished one of my current WIPs, but the best laid plans and all that jazz!

Last month, when I went to Patchwork Group (I'm a member despite not doing any patchwork or quilting at all - nepotism rules OK), one of the ladies said that it made her nervous to see me without any work in my hands.  Well, Carnation is just too big to take out, Beetle's chart is too big  (I work this one sat on my double bed so that I can spread the chart out), and Poinsettia is intended to be a Secret Santa present for one of them.  So I had to find something small to take with me this month so as not to worry people.

So the above picture is of what I got done on Thursday night at Patchwork Group - it is a small kit that I have had for some time - "Fuschia" out of the Carolyn's Garden series by Serendipity Designs.  I have another one from the same series - "Morning Glory" - lurking in my to do pile.  The final piece will be 4 inches square, stitched on 14 count white aida with threads supplied with the kit.  I might make a card out of it once it is done. 

In other news, when Dad was round taking an initial look at my floor stand, I got him to help me hang my Pheasant (see blog header) in my bedroom.  Pheasant was my first piece stitched on evenweave.  The chart comes from XS Gold issue 62, and it took me just under a year to complete.  The colour combinations have been much admired and I thoroughly enjoyed stitching it.  So I suppose that is some progress on the stitching front, to finally have a piece of my work framed and on the wall.