A giveaway!

I had to call at my local quilt shop yesterday for some fabric to make an ornament up and spotted these, they sort of jumped into my hands and refused to leave! I think it's because they were the last pair and they felt lonely :)

My Gran fought and beat Breast Cancer some 15/16 years ago when treatment wasn't anywhere near as good as it now so in her memory I'm giving them away

Comment to this post only if you want to be included in the draw, I'll leave it open until Midnight UK time this friday (Oct 31). You don't have to have a blog to enter but please leave me your email so I can get in touch. I will ask Mel to pick a name out of a bowl on Saturday

A stitching Meme

I came across this while blog surfing a few days ago but can't remember where it was to give credit

1, How old were you when you started cross stitching? 19


2, Who taught you to cross stitch? Me


3, What inspired you to begin cross stitching? A free kit on the cover of a magazine, I decided I may as well try it as it was there (and free)


4, What has been your most difficult cross stitch piece? Any one of my TW's


5, Do you have friends that stitch? Only online although there are couple of WI members that stitch but I'm not particually close to them


6, What is your favorite stitched piece? Daydreams that I posted a week or so ago, it was my first non kit finish not long after I started stitching


7, What is your favorite fabric? I love 40 count but don't have much of it so tend to use 28


8, What is your favorite fiber? I'm a big fan of Crescent colours


9, What is your favorite needle? 26 or 28 Piecemaker depending on the fabric count


10, Do you prefer black & white or colored charts? Black & White, I find colour ones a little confusing, difficult to make a working copy from and hard to highlight


11, How many Works In Progress do you have at this time? Without going and checking I think it's 46


12, How many UFO's do you have at this time? 1 and that's only because I've lost the floss and part of the chart in one of my house moves the last few years


13, How many cross stitch charts/kits/mags do you own? I daren't count them


14, How much fabric do you have in stock at this time? Probably enough that I wouldn't have to buy any ever again but I still will


15, Where is your favorite place to stitch? In one of the two sofa in the living room, which one depends on the time of day and if I need the floor stand for a scroll frame


16, What is your favorite time of day to stitch? Any time I can get hold of needle works for me


17, How many pieces have you stitched in your lifetime? Haven't got a clue but I would guess at hundreds


18, Do you give your stitched pieces away? Only to my Mum, DD's and in exchanges


19, How many different fibers do you have in stock at this time? I have no idea but a fair few


20, How many pairs of scissors do you own? 5 that I can think of but it's probably more (it is if you count paper & fabric scissors)


21, Do you use stitching enhancers (lights, scroll frames...etc)? I have a daylight lamp at one end of the living room and at the other I have a floor stand that I use when I'm stitching with a scroll frame but I have been known to use it with Q snaps as well


22,How many pieces that have been stitched but not yet framed or finished off in some other way do you have at this time? I have a drawer they all get put it and it's about 1/4 full


23, Do you have a craft/stitching room? No sadly


24, Why do you stitch? Because I enjoy it and I was brought up with my Parents always doing something in an evening so to just sit and watch the TV seems like a waste of time


25, What is your most memorable time related to cross stitching? Meeting TW when she came over here several years ago

A UFO & a WIP

A new round of the UFORR has started and once I again I signed up, it's the one RR I'll do and I love it. I spent most of last week working on Sali's Life in the Trees. I've always loved this design but when it first appeared it was out of my budget and now I don't think it's available anymore :(

As it arrived

The area I worked on

And as it leaves me

I didn't feel like I'd made much progress, it felt like I spent more time starting and ending the floss (precut length's, too short for my liking) than actully stitching but looking at the pics now I can see I did make some decent progress on it.

I spent yesterday working on Fantasy Sampler, it after all TWSAL month on the Wagon and I've hardly touched it :( I've decided to bite the bullet and get stuck in on the dreaded greenery border, I'm really not enjoying that part of this and kept putting it off but I figure if I concentrate on it for a few days and get it done I can do the more fun bits.

As I left it Sunday afternoon

I'm not sure how much I'll get done on it today as Mum has to go for a Bone Density scan this afternoon and I'm not sure if I'm taking her or Dad yet.

My Dad's knee is better now so he'll be going back to work very soon and my days of being at home will be over as I go back to looking after Mum.

Mum is slowly healing, she's moving better now but is still in a fair bit of pain with it although the Morphine makes a huge difference.

Caleb's first tooth cut through yesterday and he doesn't seem to bothered by it, I was talking to Heather on the phone yesterday and could hear him in the background making his normal happy sounds.

Daydreams

I am stitching it's just that it's either for an exchange so I can't share or the current UFO RR and it's not worth sharing until I've finished my time on it.
So instead I'm sharing one of my first ever finishes with you. This was a rare freebie from DMC here, it was the first project I did that wasn't a kit and it was only about the 3rd thing I ever did.
If you look really carefully you can see the feint hoop marks on the fabric (this was back before Q snaps exsisted here and I didn't know anything else)

It hangs above my bed and it's still one of my favourite finishes some 16 years after it was completed

My victims are.........

Sharon
Raven/Missy

No one else has been brave enough yet :( so there's a slot left if anyone's interested, details in this post and leave a comment here
I'll be in touch with you both in the next few days for your snail mail address' so I have them to hand when I need them

Heather, PIF means Pay it Forward

You'll have noticed I have a new look, with the change in the season I felt a change was needed and there's not a great many blogger templates to choice from. One of these days I'll pluck up the courage to try one of the free ones from somewhere

Nice view for a change

I hadn't noticed it until I went to open Mel's blind and I've only now spotted the feint second one, it's not often we see them so clear here

There's still time to enter for the chance of doing a PIF with me, I'm taking names until Sunday lunch time just leave a comment on the last post if your interested

Interested in doing a PIF?

I signed up to a PIF that Susan is doing over the next 12 months so I in turn need some willing victims.

In case you've not done one before the rules are really simple. If you would like to receive something handmade by me sometime in the next 12 months then leave a comment saying so on this post and by doing so your committing to do a similar offer on your blog.
I'm offering this for 3 people and should I get more than that interested I will ask Mel to pull names from a bowl on Sunday evening (19th) once she is home from camp. I'll get in touch with the lucky ones early next week for mailing address

Fancy Fibre exchange

I'm taking part in a Fancy Fibres exchange on CSC BB and yesterday I received mine from Chris

Chris sent me 2 Carries Creations which I've never used before, a Ltd GAST, Stranded by the Sea which is another one I've never used and a couple of Vicki Claytons which I've only ever used once and loved but have very few of in my stash.

Thank you so much Chris I'm going to enjoy using them

Fantasy Sampler

Now that the Orchids are finished I can get on with Fantasy Sampler as it's TW October over on the Wagon

The general plan is to spend the first 30 mins - 1 hr on the greenery border each day it's the one bit of this that I'm not enjoying working on and I don't know why, normally I don't have a problem with confetti and fiddly bits of stitching but on this it just drive's me mad.

I'll try and remember to do a weekly update on it from now on, it'll help keep me motivated to get it finished this year

Ready for an encore??

I just managed to squeeze finishing Love in with a few minutes to spare before Midnight

Thank you for all the kind comments on both the Orchids and Celtic Knot, they are much appreciated. Karen (and anyone else that wants to know) the Orchids are a Dimensions Kit #35176 called Oriental Orchids

Second HD of the day

A freebie from Sparklies that I started when I helped man the stand at a stitching show in Bakewell back in August
It's on Sparklies Slightly Buttery using their Fuschia floss and DMC 3607 for the BS

I've moved onto Living with Charm now and at the rate it stitches up I may well finish the Love block today as well

Yay, Happy Dancing

Excuse the slightly wrinkled look I took them straight off the scrolls and up stairs to lay on my bed to take a pic without pausing to get the iron out.
I had hoped to get them finished yesterday but the fading light beat me in the end, a mere 45 mins this morning saw the last bit's of BS and background done

I'm off to do the BS on another project now that's been waiting for me to sort out a colour that works with the overdyed floss so I'll be back later with a second HD for the day

Do you want something?

Millie was spread out on the window sill at lunch time fast asleep and she looked so happy and settled that I thought I'd capture the moment and she choose that instant to wake up and look at me. To me she just looks like she thinking 'you want something?'
And because he's not been on here for a while I thought Toby shold put in an apperance as well but had to wait for him to move to the top of the log.

He looked at the camera and then at me as much as to say 'Help, the mad woman's back again and what on earth is that thing she's stuck in my face!'

Last progress pic

Well as you can see I did finish that top bloom yesterday but I did some of the background instead of starting on the pods.
I've only got the pods, a bit of background and some BS left to do now so next time there's a pic it's going to be a HD. I'm predicting sometime tomorrow for that, today is shopping day so I won't get more than a couple of hours worth of daylight to work on it

More on the Orchids

Please excuse the shadows across it but Iwas stood in front of the window to take this one and I went with this one rather one without shadows because it shows the sparkle in the background off as the sun catches it

I also took while it was still upside down on the floor stand, it's at that stage now where I have to have the work upside down to work comfortably on it.

Today I'm hoping I'll get the bloom finished and maybe started on the pods

Orchids update

I've made good progress on them this week and with any luck I'll get them finished this next week, I've got one bloom and a couple of seed pods/unopened flowers to go. I'm well over the halfway mark now
But because today is Sunday and the Orchids are paided 'work' I'm taking the day off to work on something of my own, what that will be I've yet to decide

September Progress & October Goals

For September I said
Finish Oriental Orchids (need to do this one, all encouragement welcome) No but I did make good progress on it
Stitch an ornament No, once again I failed
Pick a new UFO for the RR Done, the joys of making sure you have one goals every moth I know I can reach :)
Birth Sampler I got a few hours in
Not start anything new unless I can finish it within the month or I have at least 4 finishes Totally failed this one, I started the LK flip it's while on holiday

For October I'd like to
Finish the Orchids
Make good progress on Fantasy Sampler
Stitch an Ornament
UFORR
No new starts other the the ornament