Friday 6 November 2009

New photos




Didn't finish my Halloween Meg & Mog in time. Maybe next year...

I did finally get around to framing the Dictionary of Bras stitching, though. It took over 2 HOURS! And I cut my fingers twice. Ow!






Decided to hang it in the bedroom in the end because when I hung it in the living room, the mount colour was too similar to the wallpaper colour, so it kind of looked lost. Need to stitch the 'Cakes' and 'Boots' kits now...

Saturday 19 September 2009

Bookmark finished


Finished off this bookmark for DH's aunt. I even did the french knots on it-although they're not very good. Hope she likes it!

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Great site for cross stitch with a difference!

It's not for the easily offended, so consider yourself warned! www.needlepricks.com
I really like the erotica collection. I've not seen anything like it in stitching before, so I hope the designs are popular. I ordered 'Lace Up' from Celtic Rose Needlecraft as they have a 3 for 2 offer on the CR charts. The owner, Jacquie, has been great with helping me with my queries and I also bought 2 bookmarks to take advantage of the offer. Fantastic service from them and I would happily buy from there again. I like the fact that the charts can be emailed to you, so no waiting for the postman to arrive. I'm not a patient girl when it comes to shopping. I want it all & I want it now! LOL!

Friday 4 September 2009

Dolly Mamas 'Dear Santa...' finished!


Gotta love the Dolly Mamas range of kits! I'm getting in a festive mood already..."It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...."

Saturday 29 August 2009

Cupcake card


My friend made this gorgeous cupcake card that I'm sending to Chris at the Nimble Thimble. She's a big cupcake fan, like me! I thought this card was so fab, I just had to share it, even though I didn't make it. Wish I could've kept it! ;-)

My UFO box is slowly getting emptier...



I finished stitching this kit yesterday. It's called Hangin' Out. It's not framed yet, so the picture isn't great.


I started stitching my Dolly Mamas 'Dear Santa...' last night. My treat as I've finished stitching 2 kits now. 2 done means I can start a new kit! :-)


I also stitched a small amount on the Newtons Law while I was away. It's not a lot, but every stitch is closer to finishing...


Thursday 27 August 2009

The Nimble Thimble!

My Mum has been promising me for ages to take me to this shop in Wales. I did go with another friend earlier this year on the way to Portmadog, but we got there about 10 minutes after the shop closed!I called the Nimble Thimble on Friday to ask what her opening times were and she's closed on Sundays and Mondays-the only days I had free. However, when I mentioned we were travelling quite a way (about 130 miles), she told me she comes into the shop on Mondays to water the plants and collect the post, so if we could get there for 10:30am, she'd happily let us look round.

So we got up at 7am to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the shop.And it was totally worth it! Chris was really lovely and when we got there, showed us around the shop, made us coffee and let us have a good look at all her wonderful charts. The shop mainly stocks American charts-lots of Lizzie Kate, Waxing Moon, Pine Mountain, Raise The Roof, etc-but has some other kits and lots of gorgeous framed pictures on all the walls. Mum & I were in heaven! We were there over an hour and there was no pressure to hurry up. Chris let us browse to our hearts content. I ended up spending almost £50 on charts and buttons and Mum also bought several charts. I can't wait to go back again! Here's what I bought...

The buttons for 'Everyone brings Joy' and 'Welcome to the Nuthouse'.
Lizzie Kate - Sampling Halloween Quick-it
http://www.lizziekate.com/lizzie-Q001-SampllingHalloween.html
Lizzie Kate - Autumn ABC's Snippet
http://www.lizziekate.com/lizzie-s32autumnabcs.htm
Lizzie Kate - Dear Santa, I can explain... Snippet
http://www.lizziekate.com/lizzie-s19dearsanta.htm
Lizzie Kate - Autumn Things chart pack
http://www.lizziekate.com/lizzie-125-autumnthings.html
Lizzie Kate - All Things Christmas chart pack with buttons and fabric
http://www.lizziekate.com/lizzie-060...schristmas.htm
Raise The Roof - What side? (This was stitched up on the wall and looked so much nicer than the picture on the chart. It was stitched on lilac evenweave instead of the white shown on the chart)http://www.raisetheroofdesigns.com/silly.html
Forever In My Heart - Cross Stitching Fills My Days
Sue Hillis Designs - Christmas Spool Tree (Again, looks so much nicer stitched up than in the picture)

I keep getting the charts out to look at them again! I am also so tempted to get some Pine Mountain pillows. These 2 are my faves...
http://www.thesilverneedle.net/images/pinemtn/pinemtn-alltiedup-merrychristmas250.jpg
http://www.thesilverneedle.net/images/pinemtn/pinemtn-649-junebugs250.jpg
Anyway, if anyone wants to visit the Nimble Thimble, it's in Llangedwyn Mill, Llangedwyn, Near Oswestry, Shropshire, SY10 9LD. And please can I come too?

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Newtons Law 'Seasons Greetings' update


This is my smaller UFO that I'm currently stitching. Crisp Afternoon is too big to take away anywhere with me. He's coming along nicely and is getting me in the mood for christmas!

Tuesday 11 August 2009

It's all finished!!!!


I haven't signed it yet, as I'm not sure where to add my initials and the year, but that'll only take a few minutes. I need to sort out framing it, but as I have 3 Dictionary of... kits now (and I'm eyeing up a 4th!), I'd like to have matching frames. Maybe have different colour mounts cut, though. And I won't be hanging them together, as I think they're too busy to hang up as a set. So, where to put it???? We're running out of wall space as it is. LOL!

Sunday 9 August 2009

Almost finished!

I've just rinsed out the fabric marker pen lines and, once it's dry, I can add the beads and french knots.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Updated pics



2 days of solid stitching, but you can hardly tell!







Getting some good progress done on this kit, though!

My stash of kits


I counted over 150 kits!!! And that's not including my UFO box, or any missing kits that are hiding around the house somewhere. I feel faint!

Monday 27 July 2009

Crisp Afternoon updated photo

I have stitched most of the afternoon and I can see a little bit of progress. It's such slow going, though. And there's still a fair bit to do. Wonder when I'll finish it? Any bets???

Thursday 2 July 2009

Bras & trees updated pics



And yes, I did end up buying the Boots kit! I have zero willpower....!

Tuesday 30 June 2009

Another kit I want


The bra one is still my favourite, but I do like this one....
Shall I resist, or shall I spend the money I earned from selling some things on Ebay on treating myself???

Friday 26 June 2009

Weekly UFO


Some of the girls on the MSE forum have decided to do a UFO club, so I'm joining in and I will be working on finishing this picture first! It's Mum's 50th birthday pressie, so it's about time I got it done (she's 52 now). So, this is what it looks like now. I will try and work on it at least one day a week and post pictures of my progress. Wish me luck!

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Another kit to add to my stash


...ooops! Couldn't resisit the Dictionary of Cakes to go with the bras. Must stop buying cross stitch stuff! :-) But I have stopped all my subscriptions, so I *am* saving money that way...

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Dictionary of Bras update


Almost finished the 4th square now...
They've also just released a Dictionary of Cakes, which I want! It's not as brilliant as the bras, but still very good! Birthday coming up next month...hint hint... ;-)

Tuesday 19 May 2009

New photos-not of my stitching!

My lovely new quilt & my friend's totally gorgeous kittens!!! Can't resist posting pics of them. SOOOO cute!

Saturday 16 May 2009

Spring!



Here's a photo of the Lizzie Kate 'Spring' I stitched for my Grandma last year. I finally got to give her 'Winter' & 'Summer' last week & she liked them. I've taken them back and hidden them, so she can't lose them, though! I know what she's like... :-) I plan to stitch Autumn and frame the whole set in time for christmas.

Yesterday I went to my cross stitch meet and stitched a tiny bit more on my 'bras'. I've now finished 4 squares, although I'm still doing some outlining on the 4th. I took it all with me to Gloucester, but didn't do a single stitch all week. Bad!

I did go shopping with Mum and we went up to Shrewsbury so we could look at the QVC outlet shop. She bought us a gorgeous patchwork quilt for our wedding anniversary. I should take a photo of it and post in on here really. It's lovely! Maybe tomorrow...

Wednesday 8 April 2009

I'm loving stitching bras! (plus 2 finishes)

I have finally finished stitching my Grandma's christmas (2008!) present-Lizzie Kate's 'Winter'-and have also completed her birthday present (LK 'Summer'). Summer took far less time than Winter did, even though it's about the same amount of stitches. I have no idea why...
I'm very pleased they're both done, though. Only 'Autumn' left to stitch now, but that will be her christmas 2009 gift, so I won't start on that just yet.




I am currently stitching the Bothy Threads 'Dictionary of Bras' that Bob bought for my Valentines gift. I'm on the 3rd bra (ZeBRA) and I'm really enjoying stitching it. It's such a fun design and the colours are great.


I do need to get back into stitching Crisp Afternoon though. It's been looming over me for years and mum is being so patient about it. After I've finished that, I'm only stitching for me me me!!! I have so many kits I'm itching to do, I don't know where to start.
I have my huge 'real counties of Britain' to do. It's blackwork, so no worries about lots of colour changing, but it's massive! Not sure how I'll manage to stitch it, or where it'll hang once it's done.
I also started an engagement sampler years ago, which I should finish. And I am almost done stitching a motorbike (and Grandma keeps asking how it's coming along! No idea why she's fixated with this particular WIP).
And there's the Winnie The Pooh millenium sampler which is part done....

Oooh-just remembered that I stitched an Easter design years ago-should really get that out on display as it's Easter week.

Monday 2 March 2009

Stitching on hand dyed fabrics



Just thought I'd add a quick 'PS' to my last blog about how stitching on hand dyed fabric can really make a design special.


This was stitched on some evenweave from Polstitches. I can't remember what the shade was called, but it really worked well
with this design.
Don't be afraid to try out different colour fabrics. It can transform a pretty design into a stunning one.

Baby sampler finally finished!

I had been putting off doing the lettering on this for ages. The planning takes sooooo long. I just wanted to stitch the words & be done, so it's taken about 6 months to get on with it! When it got to the stage that I was dreaming about this blooming thing, I thought it was about time I got it over & done with. I ended up copying the alphabet and cutting around the letters and planning them that way. It took all day planning and stitching, but it's all done now & although I'm not totally happy with the positioning of the lettering, I don't have to look at it, so I don't care!


I also went to a stitch show last week. It was the Stitch and Creative Crafts show at the Excel, London. My friend, Sue, drove us there, as I'd managed to talk her into coming with me. The parking there is VERY expensive-£6 for up to 2 hours (£10 for up to 5 hours, but there's no way we could stretch to that), so we whizzed around in under 2 hours. To be honest, it was fairly small and there wasn't a lot of stitching stands there anyway.

I remember when the shows were huge and there was loads of bargains. No so much now. Prices weren't that cheap and even companies like Sew-It-All weren't there. I only needed to buy some mount board, but couldn't find any. Bought some beads and 2 sheets of peel offs....and some cheese! Yes, you read correctly, cheese. What a cheese stall is doing there, I don't know, but they had some samples out and it was scrummy! I bought some garlic and herb cheese and some cheese with ginger in-sounds odd, but it's gorgeous. The company are https://www.snowdoniacheese.co.uk/

There was all kinds of weird stands there-pies, holidays, clothing. I'm sorry but what on earth are they doing there? It should be stitching, knitting, scrapbook, card making, that kind of thing. Leave the food for the ideal home show or something. So, I think this will be my last show for a while. I say this after every show I've been to in the past 4 or 5 years, but I keep wasting my money going again, then just complain afterwards. No more!

I'll save my pennies for shopping online. Can't say I'll save them to spend in my local shop as it's now gone. Craft Lines in Theydon Bois was a nice little shop, but as I was told at the show, they had to close the shop down a while ago. They told me they still do mail order-not through their website, but by phone only. Then they gave me a 'With compliments' slip with the phone number on and I was surprised to see the website address on it too. Their site hasn't been updated in years (as I was told by the man on the stand, who, I assume, runs the business), due to costs, but yet they haven't taken it down, or even bothered to put on the site that the shop is closed and they cannot process orders through the website. I'm sorry, but I find this shocking! You can't run a business in that way. How many customers has they lost because of this? I certainly wouldn't bother buying from them. They should take a look at http://www.sewandso.co.uk/ and get some tips from them. Now they know how to keep their customers happy!

Anyway, rant over...LOL! Think I'll go and do some stitching to calm down.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

Happy New Year!

I know it's 3 weeks into 2009, but a belated Happy New Year!
I had a lovely Christmas with my family and am looking forward to getting lots of cross stitch finished this year.
Unfortunately I didn't finish my Grandma's Lizzie Kate 'Winter' in time to give it to her at Christmas. In fact, I'm still not finished now, but I have been working on it a lot today. I'm sure 'Spring' didn't take as long to stitch! As soon as I'm done with this, I'll have to start 'Summer' so I can hopefully finish it for her birthday in March.
I did stitch a lovely card for Mum for Christmas, though. It's stitched with Light Effect threads, which made it take a lot longer, but it was finished and mounted in plenty of time. I forgot to take a photo of it, though, so I'll have to do that when I next see her.


I have several new kits to add to my mountain (actually a HUGE plastic crate). A few Popcorn ones, an Elliot one, another Christmas Dolly Mama and a lovely design of a christmas tree. I was also thrilled that Mum bought me the Stitchopoly game!!!! I haven't had chance to play it yet, but I will do soon-even if it means playing against my husband.

In the last post I mentioned I was making up a Stitchers Guide to the UK book for my mum. Well, I did it and make it into a Shopaholic's hamper. Pics are below...




Inside was the guide (filofax), a charm for her bracelet that said 'I'd rather be shopping', a tax disc holder, which says 'Whoever says money can't buy happiness, doesn't know where to shop', some tissues, shopaholic stationary set, a sign, pen, energy tablets, gel pads for shoes, iced coffee drinks and a voucher to take her to see a film (Shopaholic film out in Feb). I think she liked it! :-)