Another New Start and Happy Dances...Yippee

' WARNING LOTS OF PICTURES'
Hi there , everyone. Hope you have been enjoying the sunny weather we've been having lately. My DH and I arrived back from a quick visit to my sIster's this last weekend and the weather was glorious. I received a phone call from my son wanting to know if I fancied watching his team play in the Final of the local cricket league; I quite enjoy watching cricket so off I went. They were only playing 20/20. For the non follower that means that they play 20 overs(6 balls per over) per team and obviously the one with most runs wins. When I arrived I had no idea where my son was so the grandchildren pointed him out. There he was sitting with his leg up and a bandage round it.

He'd apparently done something to his 'quad' (Haven't really got a clue what a quad is other than something soldiers march round!!) in the semi-final a little earlier in the day. He was in some pain but as they had no subs he intended playing. When it came to the actual final to be played his team were fielding first and it was not a good start, catches were dropped and my son was hobbling around as the normally speedy runner just couldn't run. When it was his teams turn to bat they were out one after another very quickly and they had moved the place my DS would bat to a later place. He came out bat under arm and walked in a laboured fashion out to the crease when all of a sudden another batsman came out..... the opposing team allowed him to have a runner,( that's another man who can run the 22yds between the wickets on his behalf) unfortunatley he was out for only 11 runs (he was run out by the other batsman). It's a strange game cricket. But to cut a long story short they lost.. Doom and Gloom everywhere, but, true to form they cheered the winning team and applauded them as they received the trophy. Although not the winners it was a lovely day out in the sunshine.

Now for the important bits of news.I have made some good progress with my Just Nan's Counting Bats. Although I did get visitation from the 'frogs' more than once usually on the 1/1 words which was a bit of a headache.

I would most likely have got this finished if I hadn't been side-tracked by my grand-daughter into making a couple of '50's' style skirts for their school year production of'Grease'. I hope they come up to expectations as I haven't had the chance to try either skirt on the girls

The skirt colour is a bright red but on the picture it looks a bit pinky,( don't know why all the photo's are looking a bit wishy washy.) I'll be at the school watching the show next week so I'll have to let you know how it goes.!!!!!

I have made another new start., Ngoma Kem Kem (Heart Warming Dance) by Anchor as before by the Kenyan artist Gakonga. I have been enjoying stitching these.

This is where I have got up to at the moment.

You must have guesssed I have finished 'Looking Back'. Happy dances all round. They are quite a good'Chill out' design to stitch.

And now for the BIGGEE. Fanfares all round. 'CASTLES IN THE AIR' IS FINISHED. Created by Papillon Designs, started two years plus a bit ago. It's been a roller coaster of ups and down for me as I have combined the cross stitch and the speciality designs into one plus altering bits to suit myself. I have to get it framed yet but that will have to wait until the next time I'm down near the' Nimble Thimble' in Wales.

I chose to use 32 ct fabric to make it a little smaller (19 1/2") and the colours were taken from the flowers in our garden. Here are a few pics.

Hope you can all hear the music that I'm dancing to..I've got it as loud as I can and the house is shaking with my happy feet .

That's it for now folks I'm off to make our meal. Hope you have time to leave a comment they are so appreciated. Until next time Happy stitching to you all.

No finishes..BUT New start

Oops! Sorry I'm late in blogging this time. Hasn't the weather been awful?? You'd never think that it was June. My DH and I went off for a weekend visit to my sisters and while we were there on their local news it showed pictures of SNOW on Snowdon (Wales). Now I know it's a mountain but come on it's supposed to be Summer. The weather was very changeable while we were there,-- rain coming down in a vertical downpour to occasional sun (very occasional). Despite the weather my DH was off on the golfcourse. On the last day that we were there he was up at 5.00am to get a game of golf, that's because the local weather forecast said' RAIN LATER IN THE DAY' so obviously to avoid this he woke the birds up.

As usual while at my sisters I take a selection of stitching to do. I took Kuihugura (Looking Back) and had convinced myself that I'd get her finished this time. Although I supposed if I had really tried I may well have done that. I let my self begin something new. So first of all here's my pic of Kuihugura

I enjoy doing this one as I like the way the colours are used in the sky. There definitely isn't that much left to do.

I also did a little on my Jim Shore Snowman. This was harder as I had a visitation from the frogs as I discovered that some I had previous stitched I had quite happily miscounted so out it had to come. Then I found I had done another section in the wrong colour as well. Oh horror of horrors... not more frogs. I put it all right and added a little so this is how it's looking now.

I 've treated myself to a new magnifier. I have the type that 's by Daylight company (I think they're called) but often find that the arm length of the magnifier could do with being a little longer but when I go to stop over at my son's the light isn't really good enough to sew by.....so enter the 'Optus' . It's quite neat I can use it by a spring clip that attaches it to a sewing hoop or on the top or side of a hand held frame or as I've got it shown in the photo it has little side arms that can be pulled out so that it becomes a free-standing 'glass', it also has two LED lights in it so it lights the part you are stitching on. If you look carefully at the photo I've put two marbles near it to give you an idea of the size. I took it with me to my son's this week and for once I can now stitch in the evening.

I have finished all the 'Castles in the Air' down loads but haven't taken a photo as I'd rolled it up to the top again to check that I had done all the beading ,back-stitching etc. and as I think that the last download , which is due this month, will feature somewhere at the top I left it ready.!!

Agneatha is coming along quite well now and I am almost to the right hand side. When I get there it'll give me that impetous to move on with it more. I've still not done any more backstitching on it though. (Ugh)

Now to my new start. I was talked into this by my DS!!!!! (Honestly) It's Just Nan's 'Counting Bats'. I have used the Frenzy fabric which I purchased from Silver Needle as I could not find it anywhere in the UK. I'm glad I took the trouble to search for the fabric as I think it adds something to it. I had hoped to get a little more done than I have but owing to a slight accident I've had I daren't stitch anything at the moment. Never-the-less here's the pic. of it as it looks at the moment.

Now to my accident or perhaps mishap is a better word.....How many of you have tried Ty-Dyeing???? I was asked by my elder son if I could help them out by dyeing two T-shirt for them for the District Scout Camp that the family's going on this weekend. I 'm still not sure why I 'fell' for this ploy but I said OK. They'd bought the 'kit' I went off and got the T-shirts and set about doing it with my grandchildren out on the lawn. This was because I thought it would be the safest place to do it. Just one big problem all set up when it started to rain. Dust sheets to hand we transferred our effort to the conservatory I had the shirt soaking in the powder as per instructions while we set about mixing the colours. What a nightmare! a spoon of powdered dye in to the neck of a bottle that it doesn't fit into and it seems to everywhere.Of course when I told my DH about this he said he would have made a funnel out of paper to solve the problem (Where are these ideas when you want them) Must admit you are supplied with 'rubber' gloves as you are told THIS WILL STAIN. Great if all's just OK. The gloves had holes in the fingers.!!!! When we had done the 2 shirts (that seemed like twenty) the grandchildren all had fingers in various degrees of colour and my hands, being the one's considered to be least important were a mix of dark purple and greens with touches of red/orange. I can tell you that when my son saw my hands his comment was ...wait for it...' What in the world have you been doing? It's supposed to be a children's kit with adult help!!!' Need I say more?? Consequently this greenhanded date for the Incredible Hulk isn't stitching at the moment in case any of the dye comes off onto my threads etc. It isn't quite as bad now as I have scrubbed my hands with an inch of their life. I daren't tell you the mix of stuff I've tried to try and get back to normal hand colour. So instead I'm reading a book by Fidelis Morgan 'The Ambitious Stepmother'..... and washing my hands every half hour!!!!.

BREAKING NEWS: We've picked (and eaten) our first strawberry of the season. It was good here's looking forward to many more.

Well there we go until next time. Hope for some Happy Dances soon. Hope you all have a good stitching time. Thanks for your kind comments.

Blog to you all again soon......

Grey Skies and Gloom

Here we are again updating on the happenings of the last couple of weeks.
The weather in our part of the U.K. has been pretty grey. You know the sort I mean grey skies, grey rainy days, just grey, grey, grey. Rather boring really. Makes you feel low as though the 'Joie de vivre' has gone on holiday and forgotten to take you with it. Any how there's no point in moping over it the sun will arrive soon. It's got to it's 'Blazing June' the day after tomorrow.
My stitching has been moving along rather on the slow side I'm afraid. It's not that my mojo has gone anywhere it's just that I do most of my sewing on an upright frame that my DH made (for Himself) and due to some considerable back pain have only been able to sit and stitch in short bursts so to speak.
The main stitching has been done on 'Agneatha', I have finished the lower right hand corner (except for the back-stitching) and have actually moved more than halfway across the bottom section.. I have continued to do part cat and part background as both can get a little eye straining at times. as some of the colours are very close. I must be honest and say I am dreading the back stitching on this as there is an humongous amount of it and although there is a separate chart the stitches are done 1/3 of the way over the cross-stitch block before veering off in a different direction and as even if you are on linen or evenweave how in the world you get a third of the way I don't know. I can only imagine that when then backstitching was charted it was just drawn on to the cross-stitch chart which is easy enough but getting that to the fabric is a whole different ball game.(Or am I just being critical?) Perhaps I'm reading the chart incorrectly so we'll see how it goes. Watch this space. Here's the pic of Agneatha

After watching for the download to appear from Papillon Designs for this month it has arrived.
This time the four designs have arrived that fit into the four corner circle. This is download no. 22 and apparently the next one is the last although at the beginning of this epic adventure there were to be 24 downloads, not that I'm complaining I am now getting to the end and then I can 'Happy Dance'. I am doing the top two corners and then slowly going over the whole of the work already done to make sure that I have finished all parts and also that all the beads are on. I have run out of beads several times so thought I'd better check it all over. I have only just finished the backstitching on the fountain and that was about download 8. I have put on the missing beads on the drops of water off the fountain and here once again I have altered it. It is supposed to have just one of the two colours of beads on the whole design but I didn't fancy the antique gold colour on the 'drips' of water at the waterfall so have rummaged through my stash of beads and decided to use crystal aqua.(I am quite happy with the results). As usual I have mixed the two types of stitching up and used both the 'Specialty chart and the straight forward cross-stitch chart,( This is mainly because of my dislike of daisy stitch). The result again pleases me. Unfortunately I have run out of the Antique gold beads so will have to get some more. At this point I have to decide whether or not to wait until the beads arrive before rolling up the fabric and trust that I won't forget that they are missing. Hope you like the following pics.

NEWS FLASH.........The sun has come out.

So here's some pics of the flowers that trying so hard to brighten up our garden. The roses have a hard job against some very strong winds and I am so glad that they have survived.

Hope you can see the apples growing on this tree. They are a very tasty apple called 'Greensleeves', behind it are plum and pear trees, both well laden with fruit. We lost several 'hardy 'plants this last winter and are still deciding what to replace then with, although conversely some non-hardy plants are doing well!!.. no accounting for nature.

This next pic of our garden is out 'foresty' area . To the front you can see an oak tree. This oak tree is now about 24 years old and was grown from an acorn collected by one of our sons. It's a very shady part and the lower part is ferns and shade lovling plants. It's also a part the the Blackbirds love to find grubs and bugs in.

I was watching a young blackbird being fed by it's father the other afternoon when a stack of starlings arrived. The young blackbird got so confused that it followed the starlings...Can a starling look surprised? Well one did as the young blackbird kept pecking at it's breast asking for food. The male blackbird gave a call and off it's youngster went without a backward glance.

Here now is my last progress pic/ It's on Kuihugura, (Looking Back) This is getting there slowly. This my evening stitching in an easy chair with my feet up. I should have done more but I have been falling asleep rather easily.
Just for those of you that like 'Bears' there's a 'give-away' at Bear Bits
The sun is still shining Yippee so it looks as though I may have to go on 'pond cleaning' duties.
Thanks for your friendly comment if you have time to leave one.
So until next time.
Hope the sun shines on you and yours and May your Needle be with you.

Three 'R's' and an S. Rest, Relaxation, Reading and Stitching

Well!!!! What's happened to the weather? From glorious sunshine it's now grey skies and rain. It tends to make me feel a little 'gloomy'. I know the field and gardens need the water so I'm not being mean honest, so that snipit of sunshine that manages to sneak through is a bonus. These last couple of weeks or so since I last 'blogged' I have been reading some books that my sister lent me. The author is Bernard Cornwell, the series, 'The Grail Quest'. It consists of three books, 'The Harlequin', 'The Vagabond' and 'The Heretic'. It is a super series and I couldn't put them down. After those I have read another couple of books by Fidelis Morgan ,' Unnatural Fire' and 'Rival Queens'. My DH and I have also been visiting my sister and her hubby again. While at my sister's I actually volunteer at a castle where I dress up in Tudor Costume and tell children about Tudor Times when they come on school trips. I also take my cross stitching with me and spend quite some time sewing. I always get home feeling relaxed. While there my DH plays golf, well at least that is the general idea except this last visit he forgot his golf shoes so no golf. Instead he helped my brother in law chop down a tree that had succumbed to the winter weather and then started reading a book by Elizabeth Chadwick called 'Lords of the White Castle', I am now reading it too.
As well as reading we have still been working on the garden and here are some pics of the fruits of our labours

I think we will have strawberries for quite a while this year, at least I hope so.

The picture above shows the mixed salad that my grand-daughters sowed when here at Easter, We are looking forward to being able just to pop outside and pick fresh salads.

So having been busy doing all sorts of different things my stitching time has been less. I have really tried to keep my 'Mojo' going so get ready here's my WIP progress,...
First here is Agneatha, I'm starting now to 'get into' this and although I'm still having thread problems it's growing

Next is 'Looking Back' my evening stitching, the feet are done (scout's honour) but I decided not to roll it back for the picture. There another two panels to complete her and then the back-stitching.

While at my sister's I did some of 'Looking Back' and then decided to do some of the small Christmas Tree decorations. Some of these need beads but as yet I haven't put any on at all. I'm trying to find some material to back them with that has just a small pattern as anything too big will look silly.

Some time ago I started Jim Shore's 'Western Snowman' and then put him away and more or less forgot about him.

Anyhow I found him out and started to do some more. I was going along quite nicely when I discovered I had miscounted part of the first bit I'd done ages ago, so, after the dreaded 'frogging' I re- sewed the part I had done wrong and then I found I'd managed to sew some in the wrong colour. Goodness knows what I was doing at the time. Evidently daydreaming.. Still never mind it's all sorted now, Here's how he's looking now.

Well that's the end of my stitching updates for this time. Here's a question for you all... Am I the only one having trouble 'Blogging'? It's taking an age.

AH well. I'm now going to put my feet up. We have taken two of our grandsons back home to day. They stayed with us while there Mum, Dad and Big Sister were on Scout Camp. So we've been out feeding ducks and geese at the park and they've been enjoying themselves on the new climbing frames and rope bridges that there are now. Along side watching a selection of DVDs and munching their way through our fridge.

Until next time....May the Mojo be with you . Thanks for popping in

What a combination...Sunshine and stitching

Wow!!! What a beautiful Easter weekend weatherwise we've had. My DH and I spent the four days watching the annual Hockey Tournament in Blackpool. The team my son plays for came 3rd. this year, ( all a little disappointed after last years 1st place), His wife and his three children watched all day Friday but had to go home as belonging to the the Scout and Guide Movement they were 'Bag Packing' on Saturday afternoon to raise funds for their groups. Also in the morning they were taking their other grandma out for a treat. I know that they had a lovely time. They were back on Sunday to watch after they had been to Church. The sun was shining, although a little cooler than it had been on Friday when it was scorching. We all had a great afternoon and the hockey crowd are a friendly group.

We spent part of the first week of the Spring Holidays in the garden, tidying and weeding, potting and pruning. Garden centre browsing, now that's a cause for concern . We were busy re-doing our strawberry plants that have grown from a mere 12 plants to nearly 70 (over a period of time). After that I had the grandchildren for a couple of days at our house, they love to bake so stitching had to take a back seat for a while.
I have of course done some stitching and I must admit that when I've looked I've done rather more than I thought I had so Yippee time.....Here goes with my stitching update.

First of all it's Agneatha with Apple. I am still having a bit of trouble getting in to this one, I can only put it down to it being on quite a coarse aida, and also that the threads that came with the kit seem to be very 'thin' and keep splitting and then breaking.

The next one probably looks a little odd, but honestly when it's made up it makes a Christmas decoration of a stocking, look closely and you'll see the shape. I haven't done this in the colour stated because I decided I'd experiment a little and I'm not unhappy with the result. I've got some more of these designs and I may well alter colours there as well. I'll just have to make my mind on that yet.

Anchor's Kuihugura (Looking Back) is coming along nicely. This is the one I call my 'Evening Sewing' that's because I watch the TV at the same time and also have my feet up resting, 'Heavenly'. I saw some more of these designs the other day 'web browsing' the problem is can't remember where I saw them. I think this is called a 'Senior Moment' (sounds better than totally forgetful).

I have been checking regularly for any downloads from Papillon Designs for 'Castle in the Air' I was just about deciding that perhaps there wasn't going to be one this month when... There it was Download no.21. This is a lady sewing in an arbour. I have altered it here and there (what's new I can hear you saying). I've added some back stitching in her hair, that's because the yellow seemed a bit too harsh so I've attempted to soften it a little by using DMC 729, I'm not sure if it's worked, the jury is still out on it. i haven't yet done her face as I can't seem to 'get it right'. I've altered the shade her face should be according to PD as it was going to be the same colour as the basket on the seat. Another part I've changed is the skein of thread , it was supposed to have been back-stitch but somehow it didn't work so I've made it look like a skein with it's labels, I also changed the butterfly, this is because I rather like the butterflies round the 'swan section' and decided to use the same style instead of just a straight cross- stitched version.

I've taken another pic to show where this cartouche fits into the main design

There are another 3 downloads to come as I seem to remember that it should be 24 altogether. I do hope I haven't got that wrong. as I am now looking forward to finishing it.

Now back to the garden. We have a Wisteria and while everyone elses plant seems to be covered in purple flowers and very few leaves ours is always a mass of leaves so that you can hardly see the flowers. But my of my the perfume is fantastic I wish you could smell it., it's quite intoxicating.

That's it for now folks. That's for calling in, your comments are much appreciated. Until next time as usual.....May the needle be with you.

Cheers

My 'MOJO' is still with me.

Yippee and wonders the sun has shone for three whole days ...Friday, Sat.,and Sunday all while we were staying with my DS and her DH, today, Monday it's been raining like mad for part of the day and then the sun arrived again,I hang out my washing and guess what it's started raining.!!!!! Am I a jinx?? Mind you it is April so perhaps that accounts for the uncertainty.
My DH and I had a lovely weekend with my sister and her hubby. My DH spends as much time as he can on a golf course and my sister and I do a reasonable amount of stitching.
My sister had ordered some buttons for me from Mary Jane Collection along with goods that she wanted. So as they had arrived when I got there I was able to complete my 'Warm Winter Wishes'

I am really happy with this as I think the Snowman has a very contented look on his face!! All I have to do now is to try and find a frame for it. Square frames seem to be out of fashion....

My African Lady, Kuihugura (Looking Back)is coming along as I've said before she is my evening stitching.

I tend to do most of the coloured part and then fill in the black sections. There is stacks of back-stitching on it YUK.

I have made a new start, this going to be made into a cushion.

Guess what it's a cushion for Christmas. It's called 'Agneatha with Apple'. I've had a bit of a problem getting into it but now I can see something happening . The 'Cat' part is a bit of a pain at the moment so I'm working on trying to get to the bottom edge and then taking it from there upwards ( not sure if that makes sense).The colours on Agneatha are quite close in parts and I have had bit of a problem differentiating between them. Anyhow this is as far as I have managed to date

Possibly the cause of my difficulties it that is on aida and I have not been doing much on aida for quite a while.
Now on to my 'handbag' stitching. This is the TLC Designs 'Santa II', he only grows very slowly, but at least he is growing.

Here is 'Santa VII' all finished. I'm going to give his mustache a trim but I'm still plucking up the courage. I think he'll look good on the tree come Christmas.

I bought this little chart at 'The Nimble Thimble' last time I visited my sister and as I finished my Waxing Moon's design decided I needed a boost to the moral.

I take a selection of things to either start or stitch. This time I decided to 'Start'. Now granted I still have to 'Finish off' properly but I quite surprised myself.

The Tree above still needs some gold beads attaching and I haven't had time yet to even look for some in my stash, so when they're on I'll take another pic. The next photo shows the miniaturised version of the first photo. It's the first time I have attempted any 1/1 , haven't decided yet whether or not it'll be the last. What do you think?

Here's a little bit of 'Spring' from our garden. This is the blossom on our plum tree and one of the pear trees I hope that the winds don't blow it all off before the little bugs have a chance to 'do there job' so that we'll have stacks of fruit later in the year...Yummeeeee...

Oh! there is a 'Give Away' it's for a blog anniversary if you are interested just click the link cenefas de flores and best of luck to you
Our pond needs some serious work on it after having had part of the surrounding wall getting quite a large crack in it owing to the severe weather we had over winter. Unfortunately the water is still rather on the cold side for my DH to wade about in it to mend the wall, so it's going to have to wait a little while longer. We also have to take out the plants and split them so they don't get too big and that's a job and a half.

Here is my last photo for this post... can you here the FANFARE..... Castles in the Air is up to date. Well it is as I write this post. I bet if I go and look there will another download just to catch me out. So do you know, I'm not going to look until I've actually 'pressed the button' and posted. Is that a cowardly move or not??

I have altered part of it (now what's new you are wondering). I have reversed the 'Swan', I didn't like the 'Mermaid' that should have been there, so in goes the swan. To me it has balanced the bottom section as at the top there are a pair of Peacocks.. I have also altered the swans slightly, if you have a look at an earlier post see if you can spot the difference...that's my challenge for you.. Good luck...

That's it for now folks... Thanks for popping in and leaving a much appreciated comment if you have had the time... Until next time as usual 'May the Needle be with you'