Monday, April 14, 2008

N is for ....

Time seems to be passing by so quickly these last few weeks it's scary. I don't seem to be achieving much either. I've been so tired when I get home from work that I can barely pick up a needle let alone do anything. I think it's this darn cough which is still hanging around keeping me awake at night.

It's taken me nearly 2 weeks to get these postcards done and they aren't even complicated.




I decided quite a few weeks ago that N would be for Norwich stitch and that I would use some plastic canvas that was given to me from my Nan's stitching stuff after she passed away. Since I decided this I've seen several magazine articles with some beautiful canvas work featuring, yes you guessed it, Norwich stitch among others.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Talking with Stitchers

Honestly I really do not know where the time is going to at the moment, even though the evenings are getting lighter the days seem to be getting shorter! Another week has gone by and I don't have much progress to show for it.
I have, though, spent a wonderful few hours today and yesterday in the company of other stitchers, so talking stitch has made up for my lack of progress on anything.
Yesterday I met up for the first time with Threadspider a blogger who also lives in Chippenham (isn't it funny how the blogging world connects us with people both near and far!). We had a lovely lunch and a good chat about our interests and the projects we are working on and I am very much looking forward to meeting up again next week. Here is a quick snap of the beautiful bunch of tulips that were gifted to me.
And here is a quick shot of the one bit of stitching that I did manage to complete this week an ATC, I made for Threadspider inspired by her recent visit to Cricklade's North Meadow here.
Today was a meeting of the Great Western Embroiderers which is always a lot of fun. We had Louise Watson as our guest speaker who was talking to us about sketchbooks. I've always been a big admirer of people who can work this way but my lack of drawing ability and fear of the blank page have always prevented me for having a go. Louise will be leading a sketchbooks workshop for us this weekend so hopefully this will give me a bit more confidence to start using them.

I just had to share a picture of the great badge that Shirley stitched for all of us committee members to wear. My machine is not one designed for embroidery so it always fascinates me to see things made from digitising designs.
As for my to do list for the week well I managed to only complete one thing which was the kitty added to the cross stitch. A few of the other things are in progress but nothing worth sharing a picture of yet. Here is my list for the coming week lets hope I get somethings ticked off this time!
  • Finish N postcards
  • Start O postcards
  • Start April bag
  • Make ATC for Anna's challenge

There are a few more things I'd like to add to the list but Saturday will be all day at the workshop so Sunday will probably be and out and about photography day with dh, so again I'm not really sure how much I will be able to get done.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Kitties are back

I've had a pretty hectic week and a busy weekend so the ticks on my to do list are almost non existent at the moment, but hey that's just the way things go sometimes.

Here is something that I did get to finishing off today the next kitty on the cross stitch. It's been a couple of weeks since I've gotten to work on this so it's been satisfying to make a bit more progress. Here is the whole

and the close up.

There are still 5 more kitties to add to this yet so a way to go yet before it's done.

It seems thst pretty much everywhere in the uk has had a good sprinkling of snow except Chippenham. These pathetic few flakes were all that landed in our garden today.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Whose been shopping?

I don't have anything finished to show today though I am making good progress on a couple of things on my weekly list. Instead I'm going to show you what I bought today. This year I've really been trying to cut back on the amount of stuff I buy, I think I already have more than enough to last a lifetime but every now and then a girl needs to treat herself right?


It started off innocently enough I was driving by the craft shop and thought I ought to replace that block of Fimo that I used when making the skeleton doll a few weeks back. Somehow I found myself in the knitting section and before I knew it a pattern book and some wool had jumped in my basket. What were you doing with a basket Angelcat when you only went in for a tiny block of clay? I hear you cry, well sadly I don't have an excuse for that I guess I was doomed from the start.
This pattern book from Sidar really caught my eye, here is a picture of the back which shows a few more of the designs.
Sadly most of the tops would look horrendous on my large frame but I really love some of the hats and there is also a really cute bag too. Hopefully it won't be hat weather for too much longer but there is always next winter to plan for. I bought these to make the stripey beret middle right in the picture above. If it goes ok then I think I will also make the flower hat (bottom left) and the bag (picture below). If I had the perfect figure I would dress like this. Maybe in the next life.....