Lucy’s Birthday present.

Lucy turned 30 a couple of days ago and I decided to mark the occasion by making her the last of the Halloween boxes from Julia Pretl 

This one is Skeleton Jack and she loved him

Test post

Just trying out a blogging app

The bears :)

Here they are at last a very long overdue pic of my completed bears :)

I started this project way back in 1991!!!! when pregnant with Mel and at the time I was a very new stitcher and basically it was to big a project for to tackle at the time.

Fast forward to January this year and I decided that it was about time I finished my oldest PHD so out it came and I spent my weekends with it until 10 June when I put the last stitches in.

I really enjoyed working on itthis time around and was a little sad for the journey to end but happy that it had after so long

A Christmas tree

Mel had the bright idea of giving Mum 70 presents for her Birthday, 23 from each of us and the Kimono as number 70 so one of the gifts I did for Mum was to raid her kit drawer and make this up for her.

The design name escapes me right now but it's from Oak Tree Crafts

Marigold progress

Marigold has also been getting a lot of love over the last weeks and I now have most of her skirt done.

I have to say I'm loving every stitch of this one

Mum's Birthday Present

On June 25 my Mum turned 70 so a special gift was called for.

I found the pattern for this at a sale of craft books at WI house in Chester a couple of years ago and knew I had to get to do at some point for Mum.

Both my girls paid for the beads and I did the work so it came from all of us for her milestone Birthday

I had a few issues with it along the way but Mum loved it which is all the matters

Another couple of beading finishes

I'd had these 2 projects sat half done on my mat for a few months and was fed up of seeing them so as soon the kimono was finished they were at the top of the hit list :)

The star is one based on a triangle design from Ananbel27   I did the same design earlier in the year in black and copper

This little ornament is based on Thread Heaven cover and come's from Halfpennys.

I really enjoyed making this one and may well do some as gifts this year

Statement flowers progress

I've been working on this quite a lot lately and I'm now over halfway with it

More pics from the Terracotta Warriors

Model finish

Back in May you remember me saying I had a couple of models to do well I did them and here they are.

Both were a delight to stitch and the owner was very happy with them

June progress & July goals

For June I said....

I didn't set any goals for June other than finishing my weekend project

For July I'd like to
Get back into my routine as much as I can
Pick a new weekend project
Finish off a few beading projects
Start the new paid project that's arrived
Get some blog posts up!

As I said in my last post I had a very, very busy month in June and so stitching time vanished most of the time and I had one very important beading project to complete which caused me no end of problems but I did it.

May progress & June Goals (yes I know it's July!)

For May I said

Have my Birthday start   Done
Finished the second paid project  Done and I'll get round to posting pics
Work on the Sparklies model  No
Catch up on my ornaments  No
Finish my travel project  I think I did
Pick a new travel project  I think I did!!

For June I'd like to

I never actually got round to setting goals for June other than wanting to finish my weekend project which I did and have yet to wash and take pics of!!

June was a very, very busy month for me and I was away from home for most of it which is one reason I didn't post goals the other reason is that I have a new man in my life and so we've been spending A LOT of time together when I've been home so not much crafting of any sort took place.

Terracotta Warriors trip

Recently I went on a trip to Liverpool's World Museum to see the Terracotta Warriors and had a fantastic day.

They are amazing and so I thought I'd share some pics with you over a few posts because I took so many!

This is the first thing you see when you walk in

Just in case your wondering what these are...... they are bells

Over due (again) weekend progress

I really do need to get back in the habit of regular posting it would help if there was a blogger app for my pad!

I last updated at the end of April :( so I have got a few weeks to catch up once more.

May 5/6 and because it was a bank holiday a bit on May 7 as well

May 12/13 and I filled in the gap and joined up with the area I started with all those years ago

I then moved over and filled in gaps on these two

Last weekend (May 19/20) turned out to be so busy that I didn't even get to stitch on the Saturday :( and only made a little bit of progress on Sunday

The end is in sight now and with luck at some point in the next couple of weekends I'll have a finish

Egg number 3 at last

This is another one of those posts I've been meaning to do for a while and never quite got round to it!

I finished egg number waaaaaaay back at the start of April but never got round to taking a pic of it until a couple of days ago, I have no idea why that is I've looked at it often enough and thought I must do that and then haven't

Anyway here is egg number 3

It's so small that you have to use size 15's on it to get it to work correctly.   I have to say I think it's my favourite of the set but that probably has something to do with the fact I used one of my favourite delica colours for it

All 3 together

Long overdue weekend progress

I've been taking the pics but not uploading them here for the last few weeks :( but here they are at last

So last time I wrote about my weekend project was back on April 3rd! and it looked like this

After April 14&15

After April 21&22

And after this last weekend April 28&29

Sorry it's a little dark

Lastly an overall view so you can see just how much further there is to go

Late TUSAL again!

It's getting to be a very bad habit of mine posting late for the TUSAL (I'm going to blame it on there not being an app to blog with on the ipad)

I know I should be adding links to tell you all about it but it's late and I really should be going to bed but if I do that this post runs the risk of not happening at all so I'm going to carry on and hit schedule as planned once I'm done

First my stitching orts, I've added ones from Alana, Bears, Statement flowers, Angel in the clouds and 2 paid projects that I'll be sharing towards the end of the week (in theory anyway) oh and there are a few bits of sewing cotton from hexie production as well

And my beading orts.

I've added ones from the 3rd egg, March's ornament that I can't finish yet, lots of bali bangles, vase, something I can't share yet and from a commission I'm currently trying to work out how to do.

April progress & May goals

For April I said
Finish March's ornament   No I've had a few hiccups with it 
Bead April's ornament    Not got that far yet :(
Work on the Sparklies model   No not touched it :(
Have a new start   This one I've done but only because it's a paid project (and I've finished it)


For May I'd like to
Have my Birthday start
Finished the second paid project
Work on the Sparklies model
Catch up with the ornaments
Finish my travel project
Pick a new travel project


I stitched every day in April, had 2 new starts and 2 finishes one of which was a new start and worked on 5 projects in total over the month.
The house is still in complete turmoil as the decorating is done after the damp proofing because it's only getting worked on a couple of days a week as the help is available.
The start of the month saw Lucy and Teejay visiting and my Mum had her hip replacement done so much time was taken up with hospital visiting.
Bowling season is underway now so stitching time drops but so will my weight over the summer :)

Current PHD total = 30

Carrier bead bracelet finish

I started this last year after a friend made a necklace and it was going to be a necklace as well but I decided in the end I would get more use out of a bracelet plus I was getting bored of  making them!

I pulled it out and finished it after the monthly challenge in the facebook group was for carrier beads last month.

I've just noticed that they all look like they are different heights but they aren't it's just the patterns I used.

More proof I still stitch :)

After I finished Alane I fancied a new start for myself and as Teejay was here I got him to help me decide on one and this one won.

Statement flowers from DMC.

I've reached the bottom edge already as you can see and it wont be long till I hit the left hand edge, well once I'm working on it again it won't take long.

I've had a couple of small projects come in that need doing so I've put it down for a week or two but they are freely available so I can share them as I work on them.