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Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Emblem of Love RR






I finished my section on Wendy Jo's Emblem of Love RR. It's stitched on 36ct white linen with Crescent Colours 'Wavy Navy' - a perfect choice for such a pretty sampler. I thought I would again show off my Nogent scissors in the space yet to be stitched! 





Here's a closeup of the section I stitched - it's the same section that I stitched on Suzanne's piece *here* but looks quite different in monochrome to the multi-colour version. I have now only to stitch on Margaret's piece and this RR will be finished - I cannot believe that a year will have past.

Yesterday afternoon I set to work on the model of my own little Quaker sampler aptly called 'Sew Quaker'! 

Tonight Stitch-n-Bitch are having a birthday dinner to celebrate not one but two birthdays! Gifts have been purchased and wrapped and cards have been written so all I have to do is turn up. Happy Birthday to Lynn and Caroline.

Thanks for visiting
Take care  



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Sunday, 18 October 2009
Stitch-n-Bitch Stitching Sunday *Edited*


Stitch-n-Bitch decided to have a 'Stitching Sunday' and Caroline kindly offered to host this so we duly arrived at her home at 10am. After a quick coffee we began our stitching projects; both Sylvie and Caroline made a new start on Just Nan's 15-side biscornu, Sue and June had existing projects to work on, Lynn (our beading queen) started (and finished) a very pretty bracelet and I added a large and a small motif to Beatrix Potter. After a delicious lunch of lasagne with a green salad and a plum pie with cream we got back to our stitching although June and Lynn had to leave early and the rest of us were a bit lethargic after lunch! A great day ladies; we must have more of them. Thank you Caroline for being a great hostess and a big thank you too to her husband who went to work and left the house clear for the invasion!

Sew Noel is stitched and will be released shortly. Suffice it to say that this is my favourite piece to date. Sew Winter is charted and hopefully will be released in December. Sew in Love should be released in early January in time for stitching that special Valentine gift.

Thanks for visiting
Take care


Edited: I am still getting requests for the 'Sew' freebies without email addresses. If you have requested a chart and have not received it, it's because you did not leave an address!



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Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Spot the Difference!



Caroline (no blog) has been a friend of mine forever and is a member of our Stitch-n-Bitch group. Recently she went to her cottage in Cornwall and whilst she was there she stitched Sew Red and has just emailed me a picture together with the following write-up headed 'Spot the Difference':

"Thank you so much Carol for such a lovely design, which was a joy to stitch. I stitched it on 40 count Cream linen with one strand of Gloriana 'Cranberry'. If you look closely you may see that my Sew Red is not the same as Carol's original..... Carol designed this especially for 'my friend the mathematician'! She really does spoil me! If that was not enough I then added a change or two (mostly by mistake, I hasten to add) of my own. I did draw the line at leaving out the 'D' in the alphabet - even though I was up to letter 'J' by the time I discovered what I had done! My husband, probably correctly, reckons that I spend more time unpicking than I do stitching!


This is not the finished product! Having got this far, I then wondered what to do with it. By very good fortune I had been given a small wicker tray (full of stitching goodies) for Christmas. It is exactly the correct width for this to lie in the base of it, but needs a bit more stitching each side to complete the rectangle. Carol promptly offered to add a border each side so the design would perfectly fit the tray. How lucky am I to have such a friend?


As for coincidence - who gave me the wicker tray? Why - Carol of course. I look forward to showing you the completed product in due course.


Thank you Carol for sharing your beautiful designs with us - you are a most talented lady.”


Did you 'spot the difference'? There is a clue in Caroline's write-up. Thank you Caroline for, not only stitching Sew Red so beautifully but, supplying a picture and a lovely writeup too! I look forward to seeing what you do with Sew Blue.

I completed my 'secret stitching' last night and I will be 'finishing' later today. I cannot show a picture yet but I can say it's my own design!

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Thursday, 24 September 2009
A gift, a house guest and having fun!



As a thank you for sending her the Sew Red and Sew Blue charts, I received a lovely gift from Paula of Kelmscott Designs - a pair of her newest scissors, Tudor Rose and a pretty Adam and Eve needleminder. Thank you Paula - it's nice to be appreciated and thanks for the offer of help to 'turn professional'. I will definitely give this some thought.


While my daughter and son-in-law are away in Leicester for a few days after helping Kirby move to Loughborough, Hector is holidaying at my house. After a dull day yesterday, the sun decided to make an appearance and he found a sunny spot in the living room.


And Kirby seems to have made a great start to Freshers Week. She is already wearing her 'Towers' t-shirt and is obviously enjoying herself! You can party this week but remember that lectures start next week!

Last night was Stitch-n-Bitch so I took along Suzanne's Emblem of Love RR which arrived in yesterday's mail. I only half-stitched a motif so not enough to show yet. I am also working on a new design but it's still in it's early stages. I have 'finished' the belated birthday gift so I need to put together a package and get it in the mail to it's recipient.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Friday, 17 April 2009
Get laid ...

[photo is clickable]

... by Oatmor Harris!  As I do not have any stitching pictures to show, I thought this photo of Kirby might amuse! It was taken at the local carnival parade last Summer and shows not only Kirby (center) with a couple of her friends but the young lady behind them in the Ugg boots and baseball cap is my daughter, Nicola, who is Kirby's mum! Oatmor Harris is my son-in-law's company and he always enters into the spirit of local carnivals by not only entering the parade but by loaning out other trucks (with drivers) for others to participate too.

My last remaining stitch was removed last Tuesday morning and my hand is still a bit tender but I am hoping to get some stitching done over the weekend. I went to Stitch-n-Bitch on Wednesday evening to discover that the charts and materials that we had all ordered for the Just Nan 15-sided biscornu had arrived. We have decided to stitch this as a group project and will be making a start on May 17 at an all-day Sunday stitch-in! I am looking forward to doing this pretty project. 

While blog surfing earlier today I discovered that Blackbird Designs are holding a stitching competition (here) and they even provide the free pattern. Vonna (April 16 post) has already finished hers and has stitched her grand-mother's name and date of birth. Isn't this a great idea - one which I may steal if I can discover the year of my grand-mother's birth as I have no idea. We have ten days in which to stitch and mail a picture to BD - I hope I can do this in time!

Thanks for visiting
Take care 

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Monday, 29 December 2008
Quaker floss tags and a Quaker sampler


These are the five Quaker floss tags  that I stitched for my Stitch-n-Bitch group as part of their Christmas gifts. All are stitched on 28ct white evenweave - four with AVAS silk floss and the remaining one with Belle Soie. I made a real boo boo and muddled up two of the gifts so Lynn received June's box and vice versa. I suppose that's the problem when you have five identical gift boxes but luckily they saw the funny side and they will be swapping their boxes at our next Stitch-n-Bitch meeting on January 7th. Just put it down to my age!



I received Rowyn's Quaker Friendship RR just before Christmas and I have now stitched my section. I am not sure what the fabric is but the flosses are Needle Necessities 'Bali Hai' with DMC 3750 for the initials and accents. Isn't Bali Hai a pretty colour?

It's extremely cold here today but bright and sunny which in turn makes me bright and sunny!

Thanks for visiting
Take care


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Thursday, 18 December 2008
An early birthday


Last night should have been our Stitch-n-Bitch usual meeting but instead we went out for dinner to celebrate, not only the upcoming holiday, but also my pending birthday! I am ashamed to say that although I took my camera with me, it stayed in the depths of my bag and never saw the light of day (or should I say 'night'?). We went to a Thai restaurant in Sandwich and after a delicious meal - I had chicken and cashew nuts with noodles followed by coconut ice-cream served in a real coconut shell - we went back to Caroline's house for coffee and gifts. There I was met with a large box and some smaller packages and a helium 'Happy Birthday' balloon. The box, which was from all of my fellow Stitch-n-Bitchers, contained Abigail Colby's Workbasket by Primitive Traditions which, as those of you have read my Wish List will already know, has been on the said List for ages! I received not only the chart but the basket too so I am in dilemma as I want to start it - Now! But ... I need to finish Hannah Beeby and I also have some upcoming exchanges that I need to work on first. The smaller packages contained a beautiful glass drop with a tiny fairy on a dragonfly from Sue, a lovely quilted bag from June, a Moulton Brown candle (which smells heavenly) from Sylvie, lots of skeins of Vicky Clayton silk threads from Caroline and lastly, a teeny (it's only about 1" long) beaded pea-pod scissor fob from Lynn, who unfortunately could not make the dinner as the date coincided with her work Christmas do. Thank you all for these gorgeous gifts, I am blessed to have such wonderful friends.   

We also exchanged Christmas gifts but we always save these to open on Christmas Day so more about these at a later date but, suffice it to say, that stitchy friends buy stitchy gifts and we all like stitchy gifts don't we?

Tomorrow (my actual birthday) Ken has the day off so he is taking me to Bluewater (which probably means I get to choose my own present - yippee!) I have seen some beautiful black Ugg boots and a leather jacket and ... shall I go on?

Thanks for visiting
Take care 

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Thursday, 6 November 2008
Another gloomy day!

Our Stitch-n-Bitch birthday meal went well and, as we had the restaurant completely to ourselves, we did get a bit 'noisy'. These are the two 'birthday girls' - Sue on the left and Sylvie on the right although it's not a particularly good photo as I had to merge two into one and it now looks as though they share an arm! None of the photos came out very well although I only took about three. My birthday is next so I can choose the restaurant this time round but, of course, as my birthday is so close to Christmas, we need to book early so I must make up my mind soon. 


This is an update of Valerie's QFRR as I managed to do a small part yesterday and I hope to finish this motif later this afternoon.  It had been so long since I had worked on a piece of this RR that I could not find the pattern so it therefore took me ages to locate it. I am usually well organised and have project bags but because this is an RR and, once it gets mailed on, the only thing I have is the pattern, I do not have a project bag so hence the pattern got mixed up with a pile of other patterns. 

I am finding it very hard to motivate myself these days, the lack of light is getting worse day by day which means I am getting worse too. I put my light box on earlier but nothing is the same as natural sunlight. I am due to visit the doctor shortly so I will mention this to her but I have already been diagnosed with SAD so I don't expect she will be able to do much. A prescription to spend the winter in a warm sunny climate might help though!   

Do any of you have a Kindle? And, if so, are they worth the money? I checked them out on Amazon.com and they look amazing so I went over to Amazon.co.uk and it seems they do not sell it on their UK site! Does this mean they do not work worldwide? Obviously I would be able to read it but would I be able to download the books or re-charge it using an adapter? Any comments/views would be much appreciated.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Random Thoughts


Two packages arrived in the mail yesterday but I was unable to post details. More about this later.

Firstly, my NPI silks arrived for Random Thoughts so now I am ready for the off, but not quite yet, as I really must do my Christmas gifts and ornaments before I start anything new! The fabric I have chosen for this is 36ct pearled barley but, now I have seen the 40ct bisque that I received last week, I may just change my mind so ... watch this space! I love the NPI silk colours though and I am sure I will enjoy stitching this.


The second package came from Wendy and enclosed Valerie's Quaker Friendship RR. The fabric is Lakeside Linen's 36t Vintage Light Examplar and the threads are Crescent Colors Belle Soie in Creme de Menthe and Glorianna Silk in Birch Brown. This is such a beautiful colour choice and the photo does not do it justice. I am itching to start my section on this one!

My reason for no post yesterday was that I went to Canterbury with a close friend. We attempted some gift shopping but just ended up wandering the shops looking at the Christmas displays and then went to an Italian restaurant for lunch where the chicken risotto I had was absolutely delicious. As my friend has been unwell we didn't stay out for too long as I didn't want to overtire her so, after another hour window shopping, we came home. I did mean to take my camera and take a photo of Canterbury Cathedral but, as usual, I forgot the camera - sorry! 

Tonight our Stitch-n-Bitch group are celebrating the birthdays of our very own two 'Halloween Witches' - Sue and Sylvie with dinner at a local Mexican Restaurant and I will take the camera for a photo shoot! 

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Friday, 31 October 2008
And a Happy Birthday...



... to Sue and Sylvie, two good friends from Stitch-n-Bitch. Have a fun day and I know we will have a great birthday dinner for both of you on November 5!


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Thursday, 23 October 2008
All you need is Love


Not too much stitching on my Quaker SAL with Yuko but Love is coming along nicely and it will probably be finished later today. 

Julie - the fabric - it's 36ct Edinburgh and the colour is flax.



Last night was Stitch-n-Bitch and I took along Little by Little's Quaker Blackbird. I didn't get too much done but I enjoyed what I did. 

I managed to fix Kirby's printer yesterday. It just need alignment after putting in new ink cartridges but ...

I am sad to announce the demise of Mr A M Mouse. Mr Mouse was born in 2006 and lived with his owner for over two years. He took sick last weekend when he became very erratic and refused to scroll downwards. Despite cleaning and being fed new batteries, last night he took a turn for the worse and finally ejected his batteries just after 11pm. There will be a short service at St Apples, Jobs Road, Mackintosh. No flowers by request but donations to the 'Ineeda Numouse Foundation' will be much appreciated.

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Saturday, 11 October 2008
Alexandra Palace


Last Thursday Stitch-n-Bitch went 'on tour' to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London. We set out bright and early and, to make the trip even more pleasant, the sun decided to pay us a visit. Inside the foyer was a coral reef completely made from wool and also a huge piece of knitting on gigantic needles. Once inside the main hall we split up and arranged to meet for lunch. Apart from stalls there were also exhibits from design students although I am not sure I could see me in that 'Jack Frost' hat or those pretty dresses! I saw that Edgar had a stall there too - where were you Edgar? At 1.30pm we met at our designated meeting place and, as it was such a beautiful day, we went outside to sit on the steps to eat our picnic lunches. From the steps we had a wonderful view over London and we even managed to get a photo of us together. The day passed very quickly and even though we left London at 3.45pm, we did not get home until gone 7pm - the traffic was horrendous.   

 

And now to the stash haul. I was a tad disappointed that there were not as many stitching stalls as I would have liked but I did manage to pick up some pretty finishing fabrics, some teeny weeny buttons, some Glorianna silk threads, some abc braiding and a beautiful jade scissor fob. I think this is actually a mobile (cell) phone charm but who says I can't use it as a scissor fob? The symbol means 'Double Happiness'. 

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Monday, 18 August 2008
Stitch-n-Bitch Sunday Stitch-In

WARNING: Picture heavy post

From left to right: Sue, Sylvie, Lynn and Caroline

Caroline - our 'Hostess with the Mostest'

The lovely Sue

Sylvie and Lynn - an industrious pair! 

When someone said they didn't have a needle Caroline produced the above, 
needles for all, whatever size and so neatly catagorized too!

My re-start on Quaker Friendship Round Robin


Yesterday my stitch group (aka 'Stitch-n-Bitch') had a days 'stitch-in' at Caroline's house. We all arrived around 10am armed with our projects, Ottlites etc and, maybe more importantly, a dish towards lunch!

After an initial cup of coffee to get us started we all worked extremely hard and yes, we were stitching more than bitching! Caroline, Sue and Lynn were busy with their pre-class work for the CA Wells' class they are going to later in the year and Sylvie brought along her beautiful Maryse Dupont project. I worked firstly on a Christmas ornament, which I cannot show as the recipient reads my blog, and I then did a re-start on my Quaker Friendship Round Robin as it doesn't look as though the original piece is going to turn up. I am using a piece of 35ct lambswool linen with a silk floss of a deep green/black variagation. The sixth member of our group, June, came over for a short while but unfortunately she couldn't stay.

Lunch was delicious - coronation chicken, spinach and pesto pasta, green salad, waldorf salad, savoury rice and French bread and for dessert lemon creme brulee! Oh boy were we stuffed after that lot and it took quite an effort to get back to stitching as I think we could all have managed a siesta!

We had a great day and my only complaint is that it went far too quickly. I would like to thank Caroline for hostessing this wonderful event. 

Thanks for visiting
Take care

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Thursday, 28 February 2008
A new start


I made a start on Quaker Friendship Round Robin yesterday. I really like the OMG Red against the lambswool fabric.   

Last night was our fortnightly meeting of our 'Stitch-n-Bitch' group at our LNS. I had missed the last meeting so it was good to meet up with my stitching buddies and catch up with their current projects and, of course, the gossip! The two hours past far too quickly but I managed to stitch the bottom two leaves and half of the bow - at least I think it's a bow - part of which I had to frog at one point.  Too much talking and not enough concentration.

Thank you for visiting
Take care
Carol


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