UFO RR

I posted Shannon's Egyptian Sampler on today.

As it arrived

And as it left me

Unfortunately with my wrist over the last few weeks it's only been in the last few days I've been able to work on it as it needed Q snaps so I took a close up to give a better idea of what I got done (mostly back stitching)


And lastly the one and only progress pic of the new beading project your going to get.
It's a piece of flat circular peyote in case your wondering and if you click on the pic to make it bigger you'll see the star in the middle

Beading finishes

I go to a beading group once a month and at the last one right at the very end of the day when almost everyone else had either already left, packed up or were packing up I finished this.

Aztec Lily from Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch and Beading but which issue escapes me.

It's a small section of a larger stitched piece and I'm quite tempted to do the stitched piece as well at some point. Right now I have no idea what I'm going to do with it so I guess I better start a box off for finished beadwork projects that I had to so like I have 'the drawer' for stitching, lol

Remember I said in yesterday's post that instead of starting one of the projects I'd bought beads for I finished a WIP? Well this is the one I finished, called rather obviously wave bracelet :)

Bit more detail but please excuse the bits of fluff on my beading mat I never noticed them until I uploaded the pic.

Then I made a Snowflake

You'll be pleased to know that I've now started one of the projects I bought for but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to share progress pics of it because there's a chance the person it's intended for reads my blog and it will spoil the surprise. (If your really desperate to know what it is say and I'll email you and let you know)

Lastly a wrist update........ It's almost fully fit. There a few things that I still have problems with mostly to do with weight/pulling but I can now do all the simple things there were beyond me a week ago.

NEC haul

Yesterday I went to the NEC for Sewing for Pleasure and a few things followed me home.

The largest chunk of £ went on beads but I now have all I need for several projects I want to do this year.

And a happy or so hour this morning along with a few extra's that have been waiting to be rehomed they looked like this and and have now been fully sorted and added to my Delica collection.

And did I start one of those new projects I want to do even though I currently don't have a beading WIP, no I didn't I pulled out a UFO to work on and finished that instead!

I couldn't resist the fabric top left with rainbow coloured lizards on even though I have no idea what I'll do with it. The fabrics on the bottom are Japanese ones .

At this point Millie came to investigate what I was doing, either that or she wanted to sit on the paper bags that were on the floor behind this. There was 5 of those boxes on the bottom but as you'll of seen above the other 3 are now filled with Delica's.
I've wanted Stitchoply for a while now and was pleased to get it, all I need now is someone to play it with

And I did get some stitching stash

I was planning on getting Needle and Thread and was really pleased to be able to get the bed as well.

I had a really good day spent a small fortune but I had been saving since Christmas to go and it's my one big stash splurge each year so that's allowed.
Mel used some of her Christmas money to buy herself a cushion kit which she started this morning and made has good progress on it, I'll post a pic in a couple of days

Finishes and an award

While my wrist was at it's worse I couldn't stitch on anything that needed Q snaps but I was OK with a small scroll frame so I made the most of it and got on with a couple of SOLAK squares.

Both are for the same quilt and in the list of her likes she had said Belive, Dream, Wish and Lizzie Kate's douple flip its jumped up in my mind as the perfect thing to do, it's just a shame there isn't a wish to complete the set.

Dream is stitched straight, it's the scan that's wonky

Chris gave me the lovely Sunshine award almost a week ago and with one thing or another I've not got round to posting so here it is.

I am told this award is for bloggers who inspire others with positivity and creativity. The rules for accepting the award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 12 bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Normally I would follow the rules and pass it on to 12 others but given that I've had it for almost a week now and have seen it on loads of blogs (most of which are one's I would of picked) I think that I should just say that if you read my blog and someone hasn't already given you this award already then it's yours to enjoy.

Easter Exchange part 2

The postman made my day this morning when he brought me this

and this from Krisztina in Budapest

But that's not all because this opens up into .......

this! The scissors are my Dovo's and I put them there to show the pocket


and Krisztina included some goodies as well. The chocolate I'm going to save until Easter.


Kriszina tells me that she's been reading my blog to help her find the best pattern to stitch for me and that it's a Trellela Design. I think she did an outstanding job and her finishing is perfect. I've sat and had a really good look and I think I know how it's put together because I'd love to try it myself sometime.

And just in case your still interested in the state of my wrist..... it's doing much, much better. I've not quite got a full range of movement back and anything that requires pulling or weight is still a no go but I can do lots of things now with a little care.

Easter Exchange part 1

I found out a couple of days ago that Berit had received the Easter Exchange I sent her.

I wanted to stitch her something that could be displayed all year if she wanted so after looking round a bit I decided on Waxing Moon's Checkerboard Bunny. He's on a piece of pale blue evenweave from stash and I used the called for GAST with a couple of subs.

I sent along a few goodies as well


Berit has some great pics over her blog of it so wander over and have a look

Another PHD is finished

I decided for this month's ornament I'd work on the one that's sat in the PHD drawer for a few years. This was the last one I sent out on an ornament round robin I took part in and when I pulled it out to finish I discovered that was back in April 2005.

So here it is as I pulled it out a few days ago.

And the finished article this morning

A Stained Glass Noel
Lauren Sauer/ Forget me not in Stitches
1999 JCS Ornament issue

I've got no idea what I'm going to do with it now as it's quite large (approx 5" sqaure) but I'm thinking I might just frame it and have it out for Christmas.

My wrist is slowly getting better each day I'm getting some mobility back in it and my hand isn't as swollen either.

WIP updates

I'm finding that stitching on projects that need my Q snaps is much harder than those needing my small scroll frame so on Monday I only managed a couple of hours on Legends of the Dragons.

And at the end of last week and over last weekend (before I discovered the above) I worked a little on Kaleidoscope

I've spent the last few days on an ornament and should have a finish to share tomorrow

TUSAL

I'm a day late in posting but hey I've only got full use of one hand and Mel had my camera card yesterday when she went to Chester Zoo.

Anyway here's my orts since last time. I've added ones from Kaleidoscope, Mary Busby, Nova, LHN Paperwhites, Easter Exchange, Silly Snowquakes and Resting (the seal cub). There's also various colours of nymo and some normal sewing thread has gone in as well

Remember I said back at the start of the year that was I planning on using 2009 ort jar far all the other bits and pieces? Well here it is I forgot to post it last time and in Jan there was nothing to show. It's got the offcuts from a few exchanges I've made up and some from tidying the edges of fabric up before I started something new along with a pile of DMC bands.

As for the nerve damage, I'm no longer in constant pain now that the morphine is fully in my system but I have almost no movement in my wrist because it's so stiff and I still can't do most things without a stab of pain. I'm doing my best to keep my wrist moving but given that it hurts so much to do it it's not going so well

What I got for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mum's reading this. I hope your offspring spoilt you all day.

Mel has been great the last few days and on top of all the other things she's been doing for me she washed my car today and set up the sewing machine so I could make up an exchange and then stuffed said exchange when she saw me struggling to do it.

Anyway today is Mother's Day here in the UK and Mel gave me this very cool rubber Ducktor Who.

He has his own Police box to live in

And he lights up when you put him in water (that's Mel's hand in the pic she was in the middle of washing up when a duck invaded) I happened to catch him on blue but he went through the rainbow first.

Today has been a better day pain wise but I've been really, really sleepy and have dozed off quite alot so I don't yet know the result of the Grand Prix. I've got it recorded and will watch it tomorrow when I'll hopefully be able to stay awake more

Mary Busby update

I managed a few hours on Mary yesterday

It's been a very bad day today so I've done hardly anything all day :(

Wrist update

I've been to the Doc's today about the pain in my wrist and it turns out I've some how damaged the Ulnar nerve in my elbow so I'm now on a low dose of morphine (yes the pain is that bad and I have a fairly high tolerance for pain) and have strict instructions to go back in 2 weeks if there isn't a huge improvement in it.

Nova

I was doing so well with a square a day on this and had actully got a little ahead of myself but that all came to a halt yesterday.

I woke up with a pain in my left wrist and as the day went on it got worse until I gave in and strapped it up late afternoon.

This morning it was much, much worse and at one point I could quite happily chopped it off as every movement hurt and still does but not quite so badly.

So no more Nova for me for a few days, I can still stitch but only one handed and it's sooooooo slow.

Anyway here's how far I got

And the one's I did in a little more detail, it includes the one above the half done one on the right

I sat and did a little maths on Wednesday morning about Nova.
There's a total of 396 squares in it and as of Tuesday morning I'd done 72 of them leaving me 323 to do and from Monday 1st March there's was 293 days until Dec 31 so I would be done around the end of Jan 2011 if I stuck one square a day.
So if I did one month of 2 squares a day I could be done by the end of this year and given that some of them are plain tent stitch and very quick to do it's perfectly poss.
All I can do is hope that whatever is causing my wrist pain settles soon (Doc's visit will happen if it doesn't so no nagging please) so I can get back to it

Mary Busby update

I'm getting there slowly and have made a start on the over in the centre.

I'm keeping up with square a day on Nova but otherwise my stitcing time over the last few days has gone exchange projects so there's not much I can share that's why this is such a short post

Lambs

Mel's College held it's second lambing weekend of the year this weekend and since I had to go and pick her up I went along earlier to have a look at all the baby sheep :)

This one was born this morning

These are a week old

And we got to hold one

LHN pillow exchange again

Look at the beauty that arrived this morning from Vivian

Not only did she stitch the front perfectly but on the back I found this on the back. It's not clear from the pic but there is elastic forming a loop so I can use it as a bookmark, very clever me thinks :)

Vivan also included some Godiva Dark Chocolate pearls (I'm not normally a fan of dark chocolate but these are very, very yummy) and it all came in the pretty bag

LHN Pillow exchange

Chris has let me know that the LHN pillow exchange arrived safely.

I stitched Paperwhites for her which was a last minute change, I had planned right from the start to do Schoolgirl lessons but it just didn't feel like the right one when I came to start it.

I've never made a pillow before and I'm really pleased with how it's turned out so I can see more of these in the future

I also sent Chris a couple of goodies

Nova

I started this a few years ago on my birthday (I've started a new record book this year and my old one isn't handy to check but I think it was 2004/5). Today I was suffering from itchy fingers not for a new start but for a PHD I could use my stand for and Nova won. I've decided to try and get a square a day done for this month at least then I'll see how I feel. I do wish I'd done it yesterday so I could of added it to my goals for the month and now I can't be bothered to go back and edit the post!

I did the square for today after I took this because I wanted to have a starting point to look back at and I will try and remember to share progress once a week or so, feel free to give me a prod if you think I'm taking to long to post one.

Jayne asked if I use a stopwatch or log book to keep track of my hours and the answer is yes :)
I use a stopwatch to do my timing (obviously!) and I use Erin's Rotation System to keep track of my hours (along with bits of paper)which at the end of the month are written down in a book. Maybe I should bore you all rigid with how I do/track my rotation sometime.