Firstly this beautifully stitched and finished Halloweenies pillow and a summer scissor fob from my French friend. The Halloweenies pillow represents our dear little Hector and the scissor fob is to remind me of our wonderful summer breaks. Thank you dear friend - you know who you are!

For those of you who do not know this is Hector. He is, as you can see, disabled and is the sweetest little dog you can ever imagine! He belongs to our daughter so we are actually his 'grandparents' and we walk him often as possible. He has his own 'fan club' and we are always getting stopped by people asking after him. He is nine years old and has been on his 'wheelies' for five years now. Such a brave little soldier!

My second package contained (amongst other goodies for both the family and me) this lovely stitched Prairie Schooler Santa pillow. It came from Canton, Ohio - another dear friend - and although it arrived a little later for the holiday it is now displayed on my desk where it will remain until Christmas 2016! Who says we have to put our decorations away for the rest of the year? Thank you my sister from the US 😊 

Those of you who follow my iStitch Designs Facebook page *here* you may have seen the sneak preview of Sew Forget-Me-Not but for those of you who don't do Facebook here it is. I have actually finished stitching this but need to do a final finish and I am a little undecided on how to finish it.   

I am also working on the model for Sew Rosie. I originally planned on stitching this with pink roses but then thought red roses would be more apt for Valentines Day so now I will stitch this in both colour ways on different count linens. I have started Sew Rosie in red with Tudor Silks on 55t white linen and, once this is finished, there will be a pink rose version. 

May I ask those of you who stitch iStitch Designs to post pictures with the materials used information on the iStitch Designs Facebook page. 

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Take care

Click on the picture for a closeup view

I have now caught up on my Randje per week SAL after falling behind last week. Bands 37, 38, 39 and 40 are now stitched with two new bands being released this coming Friday night/Saturday morning. 

I have also stitched a bit on Carol's Band and I will post a picture as soon as I take one. I finished stitching a new iStitch Design - Sew Darling and two pieces for the iStitch Design exchange. Yes two pieces - I had one person drop out after partners had been allocated! These 3 pieces need to be finished and, as I also have a couple of Christmas ornaments to be finished, it will be a marathon finishing session once I get started! 

Click on the picture for a closeup view

It was a lovely day today so we decided to take dear sweet Hector for a walk and for a change we collected him in the car and drove to Walmer Castle car park and then walked him along the coastal path to the Zetland Arms. He wasn't overly keen on the car ride - maybe a car ride mean a visit to the vet but he was extremely happy once he was out of the car and thoroughly enjoyed his walk!

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Take care

Click on the picture for a closeup view

I made a start on Camille Jullien (Ouvrages des Dames) last night. The fabric (despite looking grey in the picture) is an off white 64ct  unevenweave linen; the thread is Glorianna's Tudor Silk in Bellagio Red #240 and the needle, placed to show exactly how tiny this stitching is, is a Bohin 28. This was extremely difficult to see even using a magnifier and under my ancient Ottlite so I may have to re-think this one before I go much further. I do like it but perhaps a smaller project might be better for this linen. I am going to try again in natural daylight and hopefully I will not find it as difficult to stitch. 

Click to enlarge

It was a beautiful day yesterday so we took a walk along the seafront with Hector. I remembered to take my camera and took a few snaps to share. I also took a few pictures of Hector ... here's one of them.

Click to enlarge

As you can see Hector is disabled and has been for the past 18-20 months. He is the loveliest little dog that you can imagine and is quite happy to go for a walk on his custom-made set of wheels. He is well known and many people stop to say hello to him and he is quite happy to pose for pictures! He does not have to be on a lead and is very obedient when told to wait to cross the road and waits quite patiently to be helped up the kerbs if they are too high for him to manage. He can go down steps but has to be carried up them. Isn't he the sweetest little dog?

Today is also a gorgeous day and my lounger and Kindle are ready and waiting so ...

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First up is Cynthia's (no blog) version of Sew Patchwork. Stitched on 28ct light green Jobelan with Cosmo threads it is framed in a studio moulding in matte grey. Cynthia also has a thing for peacocks so she changed the charted bird to a peacock! Isn't this pretty? Thank you Cynthia for allowing me to share this here.

Michele of Just Another Stitching Blog also sent me a picture of Sew Sew finished as a needlebook for an exchange. I do not know what fabric she used but I do know that the thread is Belle Soie's Poison Apple. As you can see Michelle also altered the original chart by removing the alphabet and the border and substituting her exchange partner's initials for one of the motifs. I am sure there will be more pictures of this pretty needlebook over on Michele's blog so pop over and have a look. Thank you Michele for allowing me to post this here.

Both Sew Patchwork and Sew Sew are still available *here* or by clicking CHARTS on the sidebar.

Hector came to visit this afternoon (although that's not entirely true) I called at my daughter's house to collect something and Hector was home alone so I dognapped him and left a ransom note. I received a text from my daughter on their return home saying 'We'll keep the million you can have the dog'. As you can see him and Tommy get on quite well even if Hector did decide to eat Tommy's food - ever seen a dog eat tomato, spring greens and lettuce? He is such a funny dog! As you can see Tommy just turned his back as if to say 'this is my garden not yours'.

Once again I was hoping to make a start on Jane Rees. I duly cut my linen to size; I overlocked (serged) the raw edges on the snazzy overlocker (thank you Caroline) and then, the curse of Jane Rees struck again - I could not find the right size bars to my Millenium frame so I decided to order some new ones. I went to the website, added the bars to the cart and went to checkout but when I hit the 'pay by Paypal button' it took me to Paypal Sandbox! Now what on earth is Paypal Sandbox? I was unable to sign in with my Paypal details so it must be something different to 'normal' Paypal. OK so I'll pay by card but I then discovered when I found my new card that it had a sticker on it saying to ring and get the card authorised and the bank is closed on a Sunday! Ken was out so I couldn't use his card so I will call Needle Needs tomorrow after I ring the bank to get my card authorised. Meanwhile I thought that maybe I could borrow some so I called a friend who said to go round and pick them up. Again the curse struck, they are not long enough. So all in all what with the long time in deciding on fabric and thread, then waiting a month for the Gander linen to come from France, I now have to wait for the bars! I wonder if Jane is trying to tell me something?

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Kirby brought her Sew Patchwork with her when she visited today. Not a great picture - the fabric is actually white! She used DMC 3740, 713, 504 and 335 stitching 1*2 on 32ct white linen.

Sew Patchwork is still available *here* or by clicking on the CHARTS button on the sidebar.

She also brought Hector along for a visit - he's a real baby when she's around! Hector is staying over tonight as her mum and dad are taking Kirby back to Uni tomorrow very early in the morning. He loves staying over as Grandad takes him for long walks on the beach!

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Take care