Inspiration strikes

Back in this post I was sharing some of my adventures in thrifting and mentioned that I'd picked up these lovely box frames.

Wow was that really back last March? Time really does disappear in the blink of an eye!  They caught my eye because of the lovely unusual shapes.  The dried flower art in them was a tad dated and while I'm all for a bit of kitsch nostalgia the displays were a bit ragged and had seen better days.  I knew as soon as I saw them I could repurpose them at some point.

Taking another trip down memory lane back in this post I mentioned I'd started a quick cross stitch project.  Well it did get stitched up pretty quickly but I forgot to post again to show you.  So here is the finished little stitchery.

I have blue on my bedroom wall so I always intended this piece to be hung there.  The other day while I was having a good sort out I came across some left over paint that the previous owners of my flat had left in the back of the cupboard.  My bedroom walls are Laura Ashley duck egg blue no less.

Anyway inspiration struck and it turns out the frame and the stitchery were a perfect fit so in a jiffy I finally had that new piece of wall art ready to hang.

I know the frame looks white here and I will try and get a better photo at some point but it really is a lovely shade of pale blue. 

I'm working on framing up some more forgotten treasures that I've recently rediscovered in my spring clean and am hoping to make myself a bit of a gallery wall in my bedroom before too long so if I can pull that off this piece will end up there but it is already hanging in my bedroom on a random nail that was already in the wall.  Happy days.

Nerdy Stitching

I'm a huge fan of all things nerdy. I'm not sure if I've confessed this here on my blog before so this could be my coming out ;)

I love sci-fi, fantasy, horror, steampunk and all of those cross over genres in between.  And since meeting James my geek has really come out to play and we spend lots of time at the weekends on the sofa eating too much junk food and watching re-runs of all kinds of wonderful sci-fi on TV :)

So after that confession it may surprise you to learn that until very recently I'd never really watched Dr Who.  But oh my am I a huge fan now.  Is it a step too far to admit that I felt sick when Matt Smith announced his leaving?  No Matt, don't go I beg of you, you are my Doctor ;)

Anyhow I thought it was high time my craft world and sci-fi world collided and I purchased a couple of super cool stitch patterns from the Wee Little Stitches shop on Etsy

And so the Doctors begin.

This is so much fun.  I'm in a bit of a quandary though wondering whether to leave a space in the line before the tardis so I can add a Peter Capaldi at the end of the year?  Any other Whovians out there?  What do you think?

Wildflower

I think I mentioned a few posts ago that Sunday has turned in to my 'cross stitch' day. Well in a change from usual programming last Saturday saw me putting in the last few stitches in the Wildflower piece.

James had to work so with the alarm going off way too early for the weekend and me unable to get back to sleep I decided to drag my sorry butt out of bed and get on with the weekend chores.  Yes you read that right this is me getting on with weekend chores, lol.  No really it is, I was waiting for the load in the washing machine to finish :)

So there it is all done.  It needs a bit of an iron, but I'll wait until I source a frame to get it looking all pristine.

This piece really was a joy to stitch.  Nice bold blocks of colour and pretty lettering are definitely among my favourite things.  I'm looking forward to hanging this on the gallery wall I'm planning in my bedroom.

The next cross stitch I'm working on is of an altogether more geeky nature but I'll tell you about that sometime soon I'm sure.

Wildflower progress

The Wildflower cross stitch is starting to get there slowly but surely.  I'm over half way with it now.  A little more lettering and a couple more stems to add on the left side.  I generally tend to spend a couple of hours working on this of a Sunday afternoon while we're parked in front of the TV (we're making out way through all 10 seasons of the Stargate series at the moment, giant geeks that we are!) so hopefully a couple more weekends and I'll be showing you the finished piece.

Wildflower

Most weekends I don't tend to spend much time at my flat but rather you'll find me hanging out at my lovely boyfriend's place. I love my little flat but James has a comfier sofa and a bigger TV ;)

I've taken to leaving some creative project or other at his so I don't have to worry about carting things back and forward all the time.  It was the baby blanket when I was working on that and for now it's the lovely cross stitch that I'm working from a pattern that was gifted to me by the even lovelier Kate

The picture above shows my progress so far, it's coming along reasonably quickly and I'm really enjoying working on it.  I think it's going to look lovely hanging on the wall in my flat when it's finished.

My week in snapshots

I enjoyed putting together my little post last week so am thinking that I might make it a regular thing, just a few snapshots to record my week. Hopefully it'll get me back in the regular blog habit and make me think about starting to use my camera more often again!!

So this week I've been ........

Getting back to a bit of cross stitch

Enjoying some late evening candlelight

Watching the moon and clouds from my living room window

 

Snatching a few minutes on a bench for an alfreso sandwich during another super hectic week at work

Celebrating the arrival of the weekend with a pint of delicious perry at a local public house :)

Hope your week as been full of little (or big) adventures :)

In a change from the scheduled program ....

You might remember from a couple of posts back that my next cross stitchy project was going to be the Wildflower piece that Kate recently gifted me the chart for ...... well I'm still planning on starting that but am now taking a little detour on the way.

I have a bit of an OCD thing when it comes to my cross stitch. I can't make myself start a piece until I have absolutely all of the threads I need. Yes, I know this is a bit silly, most of these designs have plenty of colours so it's not like I couldn't get started but somehow I just get all antsy and it makes me uncomfortable if I'm not fully prepared, lol. I have to pick up two colours for the wildflower stitch and I haven't had the opportunity to get to the local craft store yet.

So in a change from the scheduled program I'm going to occupy myself with a little something from the Subversive Stitches book.  Here is the beginning of the border.

I've been playing around with colour.  I'm changing the colours from the ones in the book as I want this to go in my bedroom when it's done.  I started off with the dark blue on the right but decided after stitching a few hearts that it was just too dark and switched to the medium blue at the bottom which I'm much happier with.

The dark blue will get unpicked and then I'll be on my way with this one.  I'm pretty sure that it will only take a few evenings to get done and by that time I'll hopefully have been somewhere to get the threads I need for 'Wildflower'

Cross Stitch loveliness

Blogging might be a bit sporadic from me over the next week. James' parents have come down from Yorkshire to stay with us for a few days so we'll be spending time out and about visiting some local places, eating out and generally having a lovely time :)

In the meantime I'm going to leave you with a quick picture of the lovely cross stitch charts that Kate gifted me recently

The blue notecard was lovely too, I'm thinking that might end up in a little frame on my bedroom wall as it will look lovely in my blue bedroom :)

The Wildflower picture is going to be the next one I work on.  So I need to get busy and get all my threads and fabric together.

I love this part of a project, mostly because I inherited all of my Mum's DMC threads when she passed away so when I have to go rummaging in these boxes it always makes me think of her and the time she used to spend in her chair in the evenings in front of the TV stitching away  ..... happy, special memories.

Not everything is cheaper online

I was out and about in town yesterday and wandered in to the local bookstore. On their shelves I found this book

I'm sure many of you have seen or heard about this online, I certainly had and had found the concept quite amusing.  So I picked it up and thought about buying it as a little Easter treat to myself.  It's a small hardback book and was priced up at £8.99.  Not a huge amount of money but not a total bargain either so I put it back on the shelf thinking I'd take a look online as it was likely to be a few pounds cheaper.

So got home and went on Amazon to find that the cheapest secondhand price for this book was £25, and there were sellers listing it as new for £90.  I nearly fell off the chair!  So straight back down to the bookshop I went (I'm only 10 minutes walk away) and promptly picked it off the shelf again.

Moral of the story I will never ever again assume that things will always be cheaper on line, research will be done before making future purchases when buying new!!

Take Time finished

The tea cups cross stitch is finished :)

Not the best picture I'll grant you, we've had snow again this weekend and the skies are very grey and the light is very dull.

I really enjoyed stitching this one up.  It had a nice variety of stitches so a bit more varied than the average cross stitch and a bit of beading thrown in for good measure too.

Now all that's left to do is find the perfect frame.  I have an idea in my head of what I think that it, but I'm going to try and pick up a frame thrifting so it could be a while before I find the perfect thing .... but that's ok I don't mind waiting.

If you're in snowy climes this weekend, I hope you're managing to keep nice and warm x

YOTA time

Well it's the first Saturday of the month so it's time to join in the YOTA fun hosted at Pull the other Thread.

I've been beavering away on the 'take time' cross stitch.  This is what it looked like at the start of February.

And this is the now.......

I was hoping to have it finished and I'm oh so tantalisingly close.  The border is complete and I'm a good way through the final teacup but it just wasn't meant to be.

With the move and feeling ill for the last couple of weeks I just ran out of time.  But another couple of evenings work and I'm sure it will be done.  It won't be this weekend though as I need to try and get the rest of the crochet baby blanket done.

Whatever you're up to I hope you have a smashing weekend X

PS Thanks to everyone who commented on the last post with more crafty fiction suggestions, I will be making a list and keeping my eyes out for the books, but if anyone has anymore keep them coming :)

Weekend Snapshot

Phew, I'm pretty exhausted it's been a full on weekend. I'm still full of cold and feeling very tired, but also very, very content. Life is made for weekends like this......

Big smiles, and goofy photos

Time with my fabulous family

Cocktails and candles

Visits to tall buildings

And a little bit of stitching.

I'll be back soon to share some more pictures and detail, but for now this is my weekend in snapshots.  Whatever you've been up to I hope you've had a good one xx

YOTA Catch up

Last month I found out about a little UFO stitch along group hosted over at Pull the Other Thread's blog.

What a great idea I thought as I have plenty of stitching UFOs that I want to work on and I thought this would be the perfect thing to keep me focused.

Well all I can say is that January was an epic fail for me.  With my house move stretching out longer than bargained for and getting distracted by a new crochet project the cross stitch that I was planning on working on for this one barely made it out of its bag.

So with the hopes that 'going public' will help me keep this project in mind a bit more I thought I'd just post a picture of how the cross stitch looks right now.

Sorry its a bit dark as I took it yesterday evening when daylight had already disappeared.  I have finished all of the Algerian eye stitching in the side borders which is just about the only thing that's moved on since I last posted about this one here.

Still only the top border and one teacup to stitch, lets hope that by the time YOTA confessions come around next month it'll have been crossed off the UFO list and added to the projects finished in 2013 list :)

It's been a while.......

.... since I worked on some cross stitch. But I figured a bit of embroidery would be the perfect portable project to take with me when visiting friends and family over Christmas and new year. I think the last time I mentioned this one was way back here in May last year.

Isn't it funny how our moods and opinion change over time? This project has been sat languishing for months as the last time I worked on it all those many months ago I remember thinking how little I was enjoying it. Fast forward several months, the mood takes me to pick it up again and I'm loving it.

I love the beautiful soft colours, I love the challenge of working on linen and most of all I'm really loving the mix of stitches that this pattern uses. I'm even enjoying backstitching the details in, which I've usually found to be one of the most frustrating parts of any cross stitch design that requires it.

There is still a little way to go.  I still have at least half of the border to finish and one more tea cup.  But I'm going to try and 'make hay while the sun is shining'  If I keep going while the enthusiasm is with me I'm sure it'll get done in no time.

What  project are you working on at the moment that has you smiling and enjoying every minute of your time that goes in to it?