It's done

I'm so glad to see the end of this.  Finished about 11.30 last night and handed in this afternoon.

I was far to tired to start anything new last night so I waited for today and started Sunflower from The Stitching Shed. Tomorrow I'm starting the CHS one I said I was going to (planned SAL) but I expected to finish the bell pull today when I said that

The first of many I'm sure

Back in November at beading a fellow member showed us the bells she'd been making for Christmas and being someone that would rather make a 'thing' than a piece of jewellery I asked if she would show me how to do them as they would be perfect for me to hand out to my fellow WI committee members.  Today was the day I had my lesson and here's the result.  It took about an hour to do and is much simpler than it looks.

I was going to crop the pic but decided against it so you get a good idea of the size of it next to my hand.

Dee asked why I hate the bell pull so much, well it's mostly because of the ridiculous short lengths of floss I've got to work but it's also not my taste and on aida which there's nothing wrong with it's just my least favourite fabric to stitch on.

loulee asked if I had a new start lined up ready for when I finish it and yes I have Carriage House Samplings The Birds and Bees almost ready to go and I'll also start at least one other project off that I would of started this month had I not been spending almost all my time on the bell pull

Quick update

The end is in sight of the hated project now there's just one more flower to go and I'm hoping I'll get that done this weekend

UFO RR

Over the last few weeks I've been working on Rebekah's UFO.

 As it arrived

As it leaves

  

UFO progress and a HD

I've done another hour or so on Caleb's birth sampler and the giraffe is growing

I was determined that the hated project wasn't going to be my first finish of the year so I pulled out this Pine Mountain Tie Top kit and stitched it up in a few hours

First HD of the year

Last year I was talking to a fellow beader at one of the monthly meetings about lace and she told me about the class she teaches but as it was almost the end of term she promised to let me know more when the next term started.

That was a couple of weeks ago and after digging out my pillow I was surprised to find that I had a half done project on it, the only problem was I'd also forgotten what to do!!! (In my defence it's been about 3 years since I last touched my lace and I hadn't done much at all so it's not really that surprising I forgot it)

After some head scratching and lots of hand holding I finished it off so here in all it's glory is a simple bookmark that's taken 3 years for me to do.

I used a DMC 12 perle for it but I'm not sure of the colour maybe 3041 or close to it.

Celtic Griffin update

I spent the weekend at DBF's so made some really good progress on this.  I reckon that it's only going to take another 3 maybe 4 weekends at his to get it finished

Fantasy Fifteen

With the Crazy Challenge coming to an end to day I thought I'd tell you what I would of started had I felt daft enough to take part.

So in no particular order

Jeannie Jean - Amybear Needlepoint

Winter Row - Bent Creek

It's Cold Outside - Blue Ribbon Designs

Winter Wingding - Blue Ribbon Designs

Cherry Blossom Spring - Cat's Whiskers

Sunflower bellpull - Drawn Thread

The Most Patterns - Waxing Moon

Fire Dragon (over 2) - TW

Medieval Minature - TW

Sunflower - Stitching Shed 

Cut Thru Haberdasher's - Bothy Threads

It's Berry Time - Blackbird Designs

Winter Wonderland - CCN

Sun Sampler - M Designs

Sunflower Inn - LHN

Some of these will probably get started this year anyway and one of them will be underway this month but you'll have to wait and see which one :)

It's half done

I've been plodding away at the disliked project and it's now half done yay.

I was asked how much of it was done when I was asked to finish it so I took a pic

Updates

First of all thanks for all your comments on yesterday's post about the bellpull, they really made alot sense 

I decided one way to deal with it was to keep to my SAL days and work on it in between so I spent yesterday working on Basket of Apples for TW Monday. I think I may be looking at HD on this towards the end of next month but don't quote me on that :)

And I did my hour on my UFO this morning, working on the giraffe again.

I've been back on the bellpull today and have just about finished the top half of it now so I'll have a pic tomorrow of that and if I scroll down far enough I'll take a pic of the bit that was done when I was given it.

I really don't like this project

But I have to do it or I don't get payed

I was asked by the owner of my local shop if I'd finish this bellpull off for a customer of her's who had started it done maybe 30 stitches on it before deciding it was to hard for her. 

I'm really not enjoying it but at least I don't hate it like I did the Lancaster Bomber I did for my Mum several years ago.

So I'm hoping that by posting it on here I'll get motivated to get it finished asap so I can work on something else

Mary Wigham update

I got to work on Mary Wigham yesterday for the first Friday in a while and got 2 more motifs done, the yellow one's on the right at the bottom

You can see them a bit better now

I'm always a little sad on Friday night when it's time to put this away as I'm enjoying her so much

January starts so far

I have no intention of going mad and starting loads of new projects but I will be starting a few things and here are the first couple

Stitched CdC

CCN Joyful Summer, the fabric is actually a pastel yellow not the white it looks like but it was dull this morning because it was snowing when I took the pic.

PHD update's

I spent a far bit of time on Tuesday avoiding working on my UFO by working on my blog.  I changed my background but I also changed to the new template, worked out how to add blogs from my reader to my blog roll, deleted those that are no longer about or haven't posted in a year and I figured out how to add tabs. I'm quite pleased with myself for those really as I'm not the most computer literate of people and most of the time I need someone to show me how to do something but not this time and I did it without losing my temper and yelling at the puter :)   Oh and the tab I added was a list of my current PHD's in case you want to wander by and have a look.

I did work on my UFO for an hour or so and the giraffe bottom left grew a little.

Monday I worked on Basket of Apples for TW Monday and made some decent progress on it despite a visit from a frog

Sharon (AKA Daffycat) asked how I managed to get my orts in such pretty layers.  To be honest I don't really know I don't set out to do that it just happens that way but I think that maybe it's because I have such a tall jar for them that sits beside the sofa when I stitch and I make an effort  at times to not always drop them in the middle but to spread them round the outside as well, HTH

Last and First

I know we aren't supposed to do multiple updates for the TUSAL but I figured that as I'm doing my last one for 2010 and my first one for 2011 it should be OK.

Last one of 2010 taken first thing Saturday morning and just out of curiosity I measured it and there are approx 7" of orts there.

And my first one of 2011, there's orts from CdC, Celtic Griffin and Basket of Apples in there.

New and old PHD's

My Jan start this year is CdC. I only got a couple of hours in before I went to DBF's but I did work on something else while there.

As you know I've joined the Flipp'n Crazy Challenge this year so in the sprit of getting it underway and killing off some of my PHD's I decided to start taking part in TW Monday's again.

I pulled out Basket of Apples to work on every week till it's done.

I'm also going to get back into the habit of working on a UFO on a Tuesday and first one is Caleb's Birth Sampler, I'd like to have this done before he turns 3 in March

I also pulled out something to work on at DBF's where the lighting isn't very good for stitching so it had to be on aida so out came my Celtic Griffin. I started this at least 7 years ago as a project to work on in the car on long trips but it got put aside when I discovered sock knitting.

So it went from this New Year's day, sorry about the bad pic I had to take it under artifical light

To this when I got home last night

2010 Goals report & 2011 Goals

For 2010 I said I would like to

Finish a TW - which one has yet to be decided Well I did finish one but not one of the ones that was already a PHD
Finish a Silver Lining - again to be decided Never touched one
Get my PHD's to below 35 I was on track for this one until I found 3 PHD's I didn't know I had :( and end the year with 37
Stitch an ornament a month Done
Stitch a SOLAK sqaure a month No but I did get a fair few done
Finish 2 PHD's before I start a new one but with exceptions (Birthday start, ornaments and SOLAK squares are excluded but any other new start in the year is fair game. All Guilt Free Jan start are also fair game once they are underway) I pretty much stuck to this one

2010 was another good year stitching wise for me with a total of 1045 hours 17 mins of needle time. I had 44 new starts and 47 finishes in total and learnt that I really need to finish ornaments as I stitch them.

For 2011 I'd like to

Finish a TW

Finish a Silver Lining

Stitch an ornament a month and finish it as well.

Get my PHD number to below 30 (I've joined the Flippin Crazy January Challenge but will be happy to finish 8 out of the 15)

December Progress & January Goals

For December I said

UFO RR Done but mailed a little late with being sick

Finish ABC Christmas Done

Get my Jan 1st start ready to go Done

Finish all the ornaments off Done

Knit a pair of socks for my dad for Christmas Done

Finish something else No

For January I'd like to

UFO RR

Not have to many GFJ starts

Stitch an ornament

In December I stitched for a total of 58hrs 6 mins, had 3 new starts and 4 finishes. I also had several days were I didn't pick up a needle at all but I was either knitting or beading those days