Afternoon Tea Exchange

I went to the Needlecraft Haven meet up on Saturday and we had an Afternoon Tea Exchange.

This is my bag and it went to Diane (no blog that I know of)

In the tea cup is Curly Swirl from Glorious Cupcakes by The Cat's Whiskers I've wanted to stitch one of the designs from it since I got my hands on a copy and this was the perfect time

With the pins added

This is the one I received and it's from Racheal

Of course Rosie had to have an inspection of the contents!  There was a Battenburg in it as well but that didn't survive long enough to make it into the pic :)

Anyone for cake?

I bought a beading book a couple of weeks ago that I've been drooling over since it came out.

Sweet Treats by Katie Dean  

Out of all the projects in it the fondant fancies called to me the most and I was itching to start them so I did :) 

I've started work on a plate for them as well (instructions are in the book for those as well)

There will be more of the projects popping up on here in the future

Esther Sleepe progress

I spent last week with Esther and made good progress on her.  I was hoping to get all 4 bands finished but life happened and I didn't make it 

April's IHSW

I spent IHSW with the Zoo which shouldn't come as any surprise to you :)

Before

After

I had planned to get alot more done but the weekend turned out to be busier than I expected and I got a little carried away with a new beading project.

I also had to spend a chunk of time figuring out what the mistake is that the lady who's project it is made, I got there in the end and was left with undo all the giraffe, the dog and the grass or leave it as it was and work round it!  I left it as it was

Happy Birthday Rosie

Rosie turns 3 today and I thought I'd share a video of her with you.

Fella smokes and one brand in particular makes her act like she's had a dose of catnip!

I've never added a video before so fingers crossed it's worked

Weekend progress

Just a quick post to share my progress on The Zoo over the weekend.

Finish & update

The finish is a square for SOLAK and the odd thing is the day after I finished it there was an email to say that 2 request had come in for flower quilts and could we please stitch some as they didn't have many 'in stock' talk about timing!

It's from an old issue of a mag most likely Cross Stitcher but I can't swear to that as I ripped the page out but I can tell you it's Lupins.

And I never got round to posting my progress on The Zoo after last weekend so here it is as of Sat morning when I picked it up.

TUSAL time

It's time to share orts once more so here are mine this new moon.

I've added orts from Runekeeper,Winter's Night, Esther Sleepe, Poinsettia Place, Namaste, Namaste list,The Zoo, Cabin Pinkeep ornie, Sew Bunting, Birds & Bees and of course lots of KO, nymo etc from beading in a rainbow of colours.

Don't know what the TUSAL is yet?

Go here to find out more

I went on yet another class

On Saturday I went up to Accrington (anyone remember the milk advert from years ago?) for a class at Halfpenny's for a beaded toggle clasp, it's something I've not done before and they are only an hour away so off I went.

This is the one from the class which I finished early on

And rather than me sit there twiddling my thumbs Kathryn very kindly let me play in her personal bead stash to choose colours for a second one.

They really are easy to make and this second one took me less than an hour to do!

I also have a new start to share, this is going to be a another long term project as it has over 60,000 beads in it!

Go here if you want to see what it is :)

Harriet the Chick

I somehow managed to make this little chick over Easter despite being sick although I did make mistakes and while they aren't obvious in a pic so much IRL they are so I'll make another one at some point.

Harriet was named by a friend but the pattern is Cluckie The Little Beaded Chick Ornament from Threadabead (Harriet is much less of a mouthful!!)

Her cute little feet

And just to show how big she is

March finishes

I finally remembered to try again to get a pic of the Namaste list and this time it's not blurred :)

My ornament for last month was Cabin Pinkeep from JCS ornie issue 2002 by The Prairie Schooler.

Many moons ago someone was clearing out their stash and had several ornaments kitted up that she no longer wanted and I ended up with some and this was one.

I still have to make a cord or find some ribbon for it and I'll round to it before the end of the year, I was starting to get sick the day I stitched it together so it got put aside as I didn't have the energy or brain power to do it then.

I spent Easter being ill and wasn't up to much at all so I dug out this kit that fella gave me for Valentine's this year and worked on it 

It took me less than 5 hours to do but those 5 hours took me 3 days!!

Other than a bit of a lingering cough I'm ok now

March Progress & April Goals

For March I said

Finish Runekeeper   Done along with Namaste which wasn't on the list

Start and finish Poinsettia House  I've started it but not not finished

Make a start on North Pole PO  Not touched it

Stitch an ornament  It's stitched and made up it just need's a cord making

Stitch a SOLAK square  Nop

For April I'd like to

Finish Poinsettia House

Start North Pole PO

Stitch a SOLAK square

Stitch an ornament

Make good progress on The Zoo

I stitched for 83 hours 42 mins in March, had 4 new starts and 6 finishes and just one day of no stitching.

Current PHD total = 32