Needle & Thread finish

Last week I gave in to the quiet pleading of Needle & Thread from Little House Needlework and stitched it over a few days.

I have no idea what the fabric is and I used the called for Crescent Colours.

There's nothing listed for the eyes and beak of the owl so I used Hickory Sticks for the eyes and Tufted Yellow for the beak, 2 strands of each and I wrapped twice in case your interested :)

When I bought my chart I was lucky enough to get the bed as well (very surprising for my little corner of the world) so this morning I sat down and put it together.

Now I just need to do the scissor fob which I'll hopefully manage in Feb.

Scary Book

Here's this weeks progress report

Scary book

I just realised that I've not shared my progress on Scary Book for a couple of weeks so before Saturday arrives and I pick it up again here it is.

UFO RR

This time round I worked on Cat's Christmas Angel.

As she arrived

As she left me 

She's really pretty but I struggled with the chart (colour symbols) so didn't do as much as I would of liked

First and Last

First off here's my TUSAL jar on 31 Dec before it got emptied and washed.

And here it is this morning.

Since Jan 1st I've added orts from 4 Seasons Sampler, Chrissie The Cross Stitcher, Red Dragon, Carousel Horse Card, Scary Book, Normal is a setting, The Castle and the current UFO RR

All last year I had a little bag at DBF's for my ORT's there and would bring them home every few visits to empty it.

This year I've left a jar there them but unfortunately I've not been down for a few days so I don't have a pic of that one yet but I'll post it when I have.

Legs!

I have a new pair of legs :)  (I wish, esp if they work properly and look good lol)

Thought I'd share the project I started while I take a break from the Dragon box.

If I worked the way the instructions say you'd be looking at a bodyless head but given that I don't like doing face's until the end I started with the last bit and will work backwards so I can put it all together when I'm done.

The pieces

Assembled, the first one took me well over and hour to put together between the learning curve and not getting the beads lined up right on the back, the second one went much quicker

They are the same length it's just that some beads are hiding on the right hand one

And while I was taking pics of them I was struck with the urge to take one of my beading work space.

The single piece on the left is the start of the arms

BTW it's the Teddy Bear from the current issue of Jill Oxton (#85)

It's a tree

You might remember way back on December 14th when I posted about my finished cracker there was another project lurking in the background that just needed a star on the top.

Well a few days ago I added one, I had been looking for a star bead to go on it but when looking through a pile of patterns I came across the one for a star that was one of the first things I learnt to make!

So I sat down, made 2, stitched them together round the sides and put them on the tree.

Today

I was planning on posting about the Christmas tree today but that was this morning before something more interesting came along in the form of firemen :)

Over the road from me is a large area of what can only be called waste ground and today the land agents decided to do something about the fly tipping that's been going on but instead of doing the sensible thing and removing it the guys they hired to do the job decided to set fire to it.

So one of my neighbours called the fire bridgade out (they bet me to it)

This is just after they put it out and I wish I'd grabbed my camera earlier afterwards to show how high the flames were and how bad the smoke was

The burn area ran from where you can see it in the pic to past the end of the pic, it was big!

Mel came in my bedroom to talk to me while I watched the clear up and she lay down on my bed to play a game.

 Rosie decided that Mel looked like a comfortable place to lie down and go to sleep

She looked so content

Then this evening she did it again only to DBF this time when he lent over the sofa to talk to Mel and Dan

I'll come back tomorrow with the tree

Dragon Box update

A quick update on the Dragon box today.

It's been put away for a while now, not because I don't want to work on it but because I get sore fingers pulling the fireline and they need a rest for a while esp this time as I managed to cut my finger right with it!

It'll be back in a week or two but until then I've started a bear

TW Monday

I decided that this year I would concentrate on the Castle for TW Monday so here it is as I pulled out off the drawer

And after a few hours stitching

And just in case you can't see what I did, I worked on the rocks to the right of the tail

Weekend Stitching

It was time to find a new weekend project Saturday morning and for a while now Scary Book has been quietly stating it's case in my ear as I sleep so I gave in and pulled it out.

Saturday morning it looked like this

Sunday evening it looked like this (I spent some time at DBF's so not alot of progress was made but I did have a finish there which I'll post in a day or two)

First finishes of 2012

First up is Chrissie The Cross Stitcher.

She's an old Heritage kit that was lurking in my stash and on Aida so ideal for working on at DBF's.

Started on Dec 15 and finished Jan 3

Next is Red Dragon from Mouseloft

Started Jan 3 and finished Jan 4 he's my first Dragon on the year to be finished.

I've played in my stash and found several kits I can take to DBF's where the lighting isn't so good to work on inc some larger ones which means by the end of the year I may be able to get all my kits in one drawer again and not have them spilling over into my finishes drawer (I should of made that one of my goals for the year, it's something I've been trying to do for a couple of years!)

Jan 1st start part 2

This time it's my stitching start :)

This is the 4 seasons Band sampler from last year's JCS.

I'm stitching mine on 28 count fairy dust, I would of preferred a higher count but I didn't have anything large enough for it other than some 40 count that did nothing for the colours when I did the floss toss!

Jan 1st start part 1

I started 2 new projects on New Year's Day, 1 beading one and 1 stitching one.

I've not done much on the stitching one yet as I've spent most of the last few days at DBF's and have different projects for there but here's the beading one.

This is the Dragon box from Julia Pretl's Little Bead Boxes book, well the bottom of it at least!  I decided that for once I'd put feet on my box and the book reckons it's easier to do before you start to build the sides so that's what I did.

2011 Goals report & 2012 goals

For 2011 I said

Finish a TW  I finished Basket of Apples

Finish a Silver Lining No and I didn't even work on one!

Stitch an ornament a month and finish it as well  I got all the ornament done that I needed to but not monthly

Get my PHD number to below 30 I got to 31

For 2012 I'd like to

Finish a TW
Finish Mary Wigham

Stitch an ornament a month and finish it

Stitch or bead at least 12 Dragons in honour of 2012 being the year of the Dragon

Keep up with the TUSAL

Get my PHD number to below 25

In 2011 I stitched for a total of 1027 hours 28 minutes!!

I had 31 starts and 36 finishes and 1 UFO RR completed.   Of those 36 finishes 27 of them were new starts and the other 9 were PHD's.

December Progress & January Goals

For December I said

Get the last couple of ornaments stitched  Done

Get the ones that are stitched and not made up, made up Done

UFO RR Done

Finish as many projects as poss this month  I finished 8

For January I'd like to

UFO RR

Pick a new TW Monday project

Pick a new weekend project

Not start more than 5 GFJ projects

I stitched for 89 hours 7 mins in Dec, had 4 new starts and 8 finishes and I stitched every day