Poppy Field

I'm really struggling at the moment. I don't know why but I just seem to be shattered when I get home from work at the moment, MIL's health isn't improving and with dh's sister being worse than useless when it comes to her fair share of the caring that leaves us trying to do most of it. My Dad has announced that he is moving again so that is another thing playing on my mind, and sadly my sister lost an early stage pregnancy which is so upsetting as she was very excited, as we all were, about the prospect of a new addition to our family.

Before I was ill none of this seemed so hard and I found time and joy in picking up needle and fabric but at the moment I'm just finding it frustrating which is why yet again there has been very little blogging going on this week.

I did manage to complete an ATC for Anna's washer challenge (which should have been completed months ago, sorry Anna). I'm calling this one poppy field. I painted the washers red and then added lots of black seed beads to the centre.

I also made a little bit of progress on the cross stitch. As this is mostly half stitches and outlining it doesn't take too long to come together. Here is how I left it last week. And this is what it looks like as of today. So basically I've added the other side of the planet. I have the rest of the background to finish but again this is only half stitching and beading so I'm hopeful that this one won't take too much longer.

Nothing else on my to do list got done. I half quilted a block on my red cat quilt but decided that this is totally the wrong time of year for hand quilting I got so hot under all that fabric that I just gave up. This will get sidelined until winter I think.

I also started on some postcards but totally hated the way they were coming out so I've trashed them and it will be back to the drawing board.

I love to look at all of the wonderful blogs out there to see what everyone is up to but have to admit that where I usually find so much inspiration I'm just feeling downright depressed by the fact that my blog has become pretty boring and I can't seem to get my creativity flowing.

Next week dh and I are off to Cornwall for a holiday so I've decided to take a break until then. I will have no to do list for now and don't expect I will blog again until I come back. Hopefully my batteries will be recharged and I will feel like me again. Hope to see you when I get back, that is if I haven't scared you all away with my whinging and depression!

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.

UFOS

Yipee I finally got some sewing done today. I finished up 6 postcards and 3 ATCs. Ok so it's only a drop in the ocean compared to what I have on my list to be done but at least it's a start.

I blogged about these 3 ATCs ages ago bit never quite got round to finishing them off. We have an ATC trade coming up at ARTSNTHEMAIL so I decided to finish them up for that. I also finished up my 6 tree postcards for a BQLPC swap. Although I really liked the tree design itself I struggled to think of a way to finish the cards off. Finally I decided I wanted to add some simple alphabet beads to fill up the bottom corner. Of course I didn't have enough of the letters I needed so I decided to have a go at making some of my own with Fimo clay and rubber stamps. They turned out sort of ok, unfortunately I managed to over cook them believe it or not I started out with white and green clay but ended up with brown and black buttons, ooops. I did think of starting over but to me it seemed a shame to waste them and I think they look ok if not what I had originally intended,lol!