'Luck' Finish and Other Things

Hey there :) Yes, I finished 'Luck' on Sunday. I've got a nifty little frame that I'm going to put it in, then it's going to live in my front room. My first finish of 2007 - hurrah!

I've stitched quite a lot of 'Phoenix' as well...


If I'm honest, I have to say that this is a pig of a design to stitch and on more than one occasion I've been tempted to chuck it in the bin! The problem is that there are huge amounts of fractional stitches and as a consequence, it requires oodles of concentration. Just one slip-up can be disastrous, as I have found to my peril on more than one occasion. Even before I started stitching it, there was the added faff of having to blend the threads beforehand, as 99% of the colours are made up of two DMC colours mixed together. With all of that to contend with, as you can imagine, I've not been filled with the joys of spring when summoning up the courage to tackle it. However, I think I've 'cracked the code' so to speak. I've discovered that if I have a little side project on the go at the same time (like 'Luck for example), it gives me something else to concentrate on when my enthusiasm wanes. Then when I feel suitably enthused, I go back to stitching 'Phoenix' again. I wished I'd stumbled on this little gem before, but better late than never is what I always say.

Talking of side projects, I started this rather lovely design by 'The Cross-Eyed Cricket' yesterday, entitled 'Autumn Acorn'.


The main acorn body is stitched with 'The Thread Gatherer' Silk 'n Colors thread in 'Autumn Honey (SNC069). It's the first time that I've ever used TTG thread - it's a gorgeous thread to stitch with, in terms of both colour and usability - the stitches are very smooth to work, but I guess it goes without saying when it's silk thread. Has anyone else used it before? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts :)

Thank you for taking the time to read my prattles and I hope you have a good week :) xx

Happy Easter!

Hey everybody - I hope this post finds you all in good health on this very good 'Good Friday'. Well, it was great to wake up at 8.30 this morning instead of 6.15 - no work today hurray!

The weather here in Nottingham has been surprisingly very hot and sunny! I decided to grab the opportunity while I could and cut the grass on my back and front lawn, much to the delight of Fudge, who showed his appreciation by rolling around in the fresh grass cuttings. I am now the proud owner of a pale green and fudge coloured cat instead of a white and fudge one. I took some photos of him before he decided to make his fashion statement...


Here he is doing his best 'Chad' impression - 'Wot no fish?' :) I don't know why, but he does this whenever he's on something high. Here he's on the kitchen table, but he also does it when sitting next to me on the sofa, on the window ledge or even on the stair case - if there's a ledge or a drop, he likes nothing better than to hang his head down. My furbaby has a character all his own!


After cutting the grass, I also took the opportunity to do some more stitching on 'Luck'.


It also gave me the perfect excuse to try out my rather wonderful psychadelic new scissors - I saw these on an online shop I've discovered (www.siestaframes.com) and I just had to have them!


I haven't planned anything else apart from my usual badminton playing on Sunday - the rest of my time I shall be stitching for England! Another 3 days of stitching bliss - what a wonderful way to spend a bank holiday weekend :) Oh and I've also just realised that my blog was a year old on 3rd April! My goodness, but doesn't time fly when you're having fun? This blog wouldn't be what it is without your input. Thank you to all of you for making this blog so worthwhile. I have made so many friends through doing this - you all know who you are! And thank you to some new visitors who have taken the trouble to drop by and say 'Hi'. Bless you and thank you again my stitching lovelies!!! xxxxx

Busy, busy, busy......

Hey everyone. Sorry I've not been around for a while - yet again life has got in the way of my stitching ambitions. But so far it's not been a bad month at all, despite the fact that after my last post, I thought it was going to be a bad one.

I became ill after my last post - and the reason was my legs got covered in insect bites...INSECT BITES! I'm still puzzled as to why I even got them in the first place. In the UK at the moment it's not exactly 'Don a sunhat and dollop on the sun/insect repellent cream' weather yet, however, this didn't stop the little blighters from feasting on both my ankles and calves. I had the grand total of 21 insect bites - 12 on my right leg, 9 on my left. Some became infected, so it called for a painful hobble down to the Quack to get some high strength antibiotics. I was worried that I wouldn't be fighting fit in time for the charity walk that I'd signed up to do for the British Heart Foundation, but the antibiotics did the trick and on Sunday 25th March, I completed a 10-mile walk around the countryside surrounding Calke Abbey, situated in a lovely little place called Ticknall, in deepest rural Derbyshire. I started walking for them in 2005, after a good friend of mine, Richard, died of heart failiure just before Christmas in 2003. He was only 29. Since then I've done their annual 'High Peak Challenge' which consists of walking 17.5 miles along the famous High Peak/Tissington Trail in the Peak District, Derbyshire. Here's me, after completing the Calke Abbey walk in just over 3 hours.....


In other news, I've had the last week or so off to decorate my front room. There was much swearing and gnashing of teeth, but I finally completed it yesterday. I looked properly at my handywork for the first time today and I've come to the conclusion that it was all worth it. I even managed to go on a little spending spree in between decorating AND do some stitching.....

I bought some lovely patterns by JBW Designs and as you can see, I went a bit mad - there's 10 all in all! I'm going to re-vamp the cushions on my sofa with some new covers and with a couple of the designs below in the middle of them. I'm going to do 'Pumpkin' and 'Apple' first as they matching my colour scheme perfectly.


...AND..here's the stitching I've been doing. This is the project I was meaning to take with me to the Stitching GTG that's going to happen in June. I just couldn't resist it, so I'll have to find something else! I'm stitching this with a mixture of WDW and Gentle Art threads.


I've also been working on 'Phoenix' today, but 'Blogger' as usual doesn't want to play, so I'll post them later in the week. I think I've rambled enough! Thanks for dropping by and hopefully there won't be such a huge gap in between posts this time. I hope you're all well and I shall be visiting your blogs over the next few days. Lots of love and hugs to you my wonderful stitching friends :) xx