What a hoot!

Well as hinted at in my last post this week I have started a new project. Not a big one it needs to be quick as it's a birthday present for my Aunt and I've run out of time for making.

But with the help of these fabrics from the stash ....And a beautiful pattern by Maria Saunderson from this magazine ......Here are my beginnings ............Yes you guessed it my Aunt loves owls. Now I really will have to get a move on I only have 3 evenings to get this done. It is small though at only 14" x 14" so hopefully it will come together quickly.

Next step is to blanket stitch around the applique shapes by hand, hopefully I will get this done today. I have plenty of stranded embroidery threads which I inherited from Mum..........so colour matching shouldn't be too much of an issue :)

Even though I'm just following a pattern I have really enjoyed the process of picking and cutting the fabrics, hopefully this will be just the things to get me back to my own projects again.

GWE Workshops

I don't have much to chat about today. My baby sis is getting married next weekend so this Friday was the hen night and I spent most of yesterday recovering so not much productive going on!

However I did want to do a quick post about a new group which is going to be starting, this is a branch out from the Great Western Embroiderers. Read all about it here on Maggies blog. If you live anywhere in the Wilts/Glos/Oxon area and are looking for some space to work on textiles with like minded artists get in touch with Maggie this is for you :)

And as I don't like to post without a picture here are a few fabrics which I have pulled out of the stash which may feature in my next project to be started which is a small wall hanging for my Aunt's birthday. I'm following a pattern as I need something which will come together quick as her birthday is in a couple of weeks.

Clean freaks look away now

I love to see photos of where other people work. I'm sure many of you read Quilt Pixie's blog and saw the well organised collection of books, threads and embellishments that were posted recently. Suddenly inspired I thought maybe I would share some pictures of my work room.


Sadly my pictures tell a woeful tale.......

....somewhere under this pile of cross stitch kits a chair is buried ...........
............. if it wasn't so totally covered in stuff this chest would open to reveal some lovely fabrics......................................................................................
.....................Who would be able to find anything in this cupboard (except of course the cat which sticks out like a sore thumb!)......................
................I'm sure my muse would come darting back if only I could get to these books and magazines for some inspiration ....................................................
........................A layer of dust forming on top of my sewing machine I think that says it all ......................................................................................................


If anyone knows of any willing cleaning fairies who would like to pay my workroom a visit please send them my way!!! I have never been a particularly tidy person but this is getting to melt down point! I just need an extra few days a week and I'm sure I'd be able to keep on top of it all!

Sleepy kitties

Posting that picture of my sleeping kitty the other day made me realise that I haven't had a cat post for a little while. So I made a point of grabbing the camera and went on a house safari to find my furballs. Well 3 of them anyway, the 4th, I think, is being fed by someone down the street which makes me mad, and he rarely comes home anymore :( Hector has managed to squeeze himself onto a tiny space on this window ledge between my thread boxes. I think he thought that if he tried to hide behind his paw I wouldn't be able to find him!
Hugo, pretending to be asleep in the hopes that I disappear and take that darn camera with me!
And Pip, well I think the 'are you really taking another picture of me' look says it all!

Silent Vigil Part 4

I managed to get some stitching done on Tuesday. I had the day off work. I had hoped to get to the GWE meeting as I'd missed the last couple due to my health issues, unfortunately some car trouble put paid to that so I stayed at home and stitched instead.

Here is Silent Vigil as I last posted.

And this is it now.

I managed to achieve what I wanted this week which was to add the bead work to the rightside of the background. There really isn't that much left to do on this one now. Again I have a busy weekend ahead so limited stitch time. My sister gets married the weekend after next so it's hen night this weekend :) so my goal this week is to get all of the back stitching done on the tiger.

I also started a few other bits on Tuesday but nothing that's ready to share yet, but hopefully soon!

Cornwall Revisited

I've been meaning to get round to posting some more pictures from my holiday. I actually didn't end up taking that many, I think I was just so relaxed I spent most of the time not thinking about it but wandering around in a happy daze.

Mark has some lovely pics on his blog, but here are a few of mine. Mousehole Harbour. You can read about the famous mousehole cat legend here.

Levant mine at sunset
Sunset silhouette Me chilling out and waiting to watch the sunset.
Me and Mark at St Michael's mount at sunrise. Can you believe that I actually got up at 4:30 am while on holiday?!!! I must be insane.

And of course my holiday staple some more cider :)

Rockin' Weekend

Well it's been a few days since I last posted, honestly I don't know where the time goes to. Had a busy weekend doing this.

I wonder how many stitchers are also heavy metal fans? I know there are a few out there but I would guess not too many, not really two things that you would commonly associate, lol!

Moments of Joy: Waking up from a nap on Sunday evening to find the cats had all decided to snuggle up with me.

Silent Vigil Part 3

Ok so it's time for the latest on the cross stitch. I haven't really had much time to work on this recently and while I have been dying to get back to creative things I'm finding it really difficult to stay awake in the evenings after work and MIL duties!

Fortunately as much of the remaining stitching on this kit is just half stitching and outlining even grabbing time to add a few stitches here and there seems to make for reasonable progress. So just as a quick reminder this is what it was like when you last saw it. And this is where we are now.Ooops, I think I should have taken the iron to it before taking the picture, lol. Since last time I've completed the background stitching on the right side, outlined the moon and added the final colour layer to the edge of the sunburst.

I'm going to be away again this weekend so I don't see a whole lot of stitching time again this week, but if I do manage to fit some in I want to try and get the beading done on the right side of the cross stitch and work on a set of postcards.

On a totally different tack, I remember someone leaving a comment in the past on one of my posts which made me think that it would be fun to keep a joy journal, to record ordinary moments each day which fill the soul with happiness. Well as with all of my creative inspirations I never did get this off the ground but suddenly thought that maybe I could record some moments of joy on my blog posts so here is the first.

MOMENTS OF JOY: Acting like a kid by walking barefoot in a summer rain storm Tuesday evening, jumping in all the puddles along the way. Sadly I didn't have a camera with me to record the moment but this was the most blissful feeling.

Artful Blogging

While I was away I managed to get in a little bit of reading. Somehow there is nothing quite as cosy as snuggling in a sleeping bag under canvas and reading by torchlight. We were so busy through the days though I only ever managed a few pages before the eyelids started drooping.

One of the things that I took with me to read was this.

I know I'm a bit out of date as this has been around for ages, but it's pretty expensive to buy here in the UK so I was uming and ahhing for a while as to whether it would be worth it, after all I spend a good deal of time looking at blogs anyway did I really need a magazine telling me all about them too?

I'm glad I took the plunge and bought it as I really enjoyed reading it. There are lots of great artworks and photographs in the magazine for inspiration and I found it really interesting to read about different artists visions for their blogs and their motivations for starting etc.

I found alot of stuff in the articles made sense to me and reminded me why I started blogging in the first place. Before I went away I was worried that I'd gotten stuck in a blogging rut and things had become a bit boring. Now I realise that I was worrying more about what others were thinking of my blog rather than concentrating on my own reasons for posting. Reading the magazine has reminded me that the reason I wanted to blog in the first place was really as a form of journalling and a way that I can look back on the progress (or not) that I've made on my creative journey, and of course if people stick with me, drop by and leave comments from time to time that's all an amazing bonus.

After a couple of days back at work and back into the caring routine with MIL the chilled out holiday feeling is starting to wear off so just for me I'm posting another snap from my hols as a reminder to relax and breath from time to time.

(If you can believe it these dirty beat up sandles were pretty much new at the start of the week, here they are almost worn through, a testament to how much roaming we did!)

Happy days

I'm back from my holiday and feeling a lot less harassed and definitely more chilled out than when I left which has got to be a good thing, right?


I just want to thank everyone who left such positive and supportive comments on my last post, I've tried to reply individually to all who I can but not everyone has a public email address so I wanted to say thank you here too. As you all guessed I was pretty low before I went away and felt like I was stuck in a bit of a blogging rut as well as having lots of work and family drama to deal with. It really means a lot to me to have such supportive network of cyber friends.


We had a lovely week camping in Cornwall and stayed at a couple of great campsites here and here. We've been to St Ives Bay before and always go back for the views if nothing else, here is dh sitting outside the tent, who wouldn't enjoy waking up to a view like this every morning? (of course I mean the lighthouse and the dunes not dh, though of course I'm biased and think he's pretty cute too!)

Although I did take somethings with me we just had such a busy week drinking this ...

and eating these....

;) that I didn't get a chance to even think about picking up needle and thread let alone actually doing it. Of course we did lots of walking and sightseeing as well but I'm not sure that will have counteracted all the food and drink so I may be in for a shock at Weight watchers on Wednesday!

I'm feeling recharged and can't wait to get back to creating again. Hopefully I'll be back with another couple of posts later this week to share some more holiday pics and also some new projects that I want to get started on, and an update on where I'm at with the first of Mums cross stitch projects.

PS I just realised that this is my 400TH post. Wow I can't quite believe that I've been waffling away on my blog for such a long time. I think a celebration might be in order, watch this space.....

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!

Silent Vigil begins

You can probably already guess from the lack of blog postings this week that there has been a serious lack of creativity going on at Angelcat Manor. I'm working on a new project at work which requires a lot of computer time and is really leaving me tired at the end of the day and over the weekend we had such great weather that I had to get out and tidy the garden.

Consequently the only thing that got done on my To Do List this week was that I started work on the cross stitch. I know a lot of people poo poo cross stitch and tapestry or any type of kit as not being too creative but when you don't have much time it's easy to pick up and add a few stitches too.

This one is not going to be quite so easy to chart the progress of as there is no gathering of kitties, lol. So here are before and after pictures of last weeks progress.
I've finished the planet to the left of the Tiger and added some stars to the background too. I'm starting to think that finishing Mum's projects is not always going to be straight forward.

• For starters I'm convinced that there must be part of the pattern pack missing, there is quite a lot of back stitching on the pattern but no indication as to colours on the key on the chart so I'm making it up based on the colour picture on the front of the kit.
• Also I'm really concerned that there are a few colours which will run out before I've finished the required stitching with them. This kit is called Silent Vigil and it's by Dimensions. They haven't given any colour reference numbers for any of the common brand floss just their own colour descriptions so I may have to try some blind colour matching.
• In this particular kit Mum seems to have used some poetic licence. There are no beads listed on the kit contents and no mention of them on the pattern. In fact the stars appear to be some sort of french knot (again they are not listed on the part of the chart that I have so again this leads me to believe I have something missing). Anyway for whatever reason Mum seems to have decided to add some beads. Actually I think they look pretty good, they add some extra texture and interest, and I've never combined cross stitch and beading before so it makes things a bit more interesting for me.

As for my To Do list well I completed two things which were to finish the kitty cross stitch and start on this one, everything else rolls over to this coming week with the addition of

• Start on mermaid project
• Continue with cross stitch

I've also decided that as the reason I keep going back to the cross stitch is that it is in handy kit form that I will this evening try and gather, as far as I can, the things on my to do list into little kits ready to be picked up and worked on at anytime, hopefully this will encourage me to do something different.

Drum roll please

Well I can hardly believe that the day has finally come but yes you guessed it the kitty cross stitch is done. Just as a quick reminder this is how this sad UFO looked a few short months ago when I rediscovered it buried in a cupboard.

After lots of time spent and thousands of stitches added here is the final reveal.There are a few mistakes here and there but I'm not going to beat myself up about them, after all it's been a while since I have done any sustained cross stitch and this was a big piece to finish. Being at work full time most of my stutching happens in the evening which is not the best time for such close hand work.

I think this final kitty was among my favourite to stitch. I've enjoyed bringing these kitties to life but am glad to move on to other things. As you know there will be more cross stitch in the future but now I'm starting to look forward to getting back to other stitch projects too.

Only one more

Well here we are at the end of a pretty quiet weekend and trying not to get too depressed at the thought of a whole week at work ahead before the next weekend!


Still as each day passes I'm sliding back toward my pre-op routine which is good. I'm still working on catching up on the blog reading and have even made the decision to try and cut back on the number of blogs I have in bloglines which will hopefully give me more time to be creating things of my own.

Speaking of which yes you've probably already guessed from the title another kitty has been born.
I'm excited and sad all at the same time to think there is only one more left to do. Now I feel ready to start tackling the mammoth job of completing Mum's projects I'm anxious to get started so I don't think it will take me too long to get over the loss of not having this one to work on. I know there is at least one kitty kit to look forward to in Mum's stash too.


I have decided as part of the process of getting back into a proper routine I'm ready to resurrect my weekly to do lists. So without further ado here is my list for the coming week.

• Finish Kitty Cross stitch
• Finish ATC for Anna's washer challenge (this is way behind deadline)
• Work on Something Beginning with O (again way past deadline)
• Start work on Mum's Tiger cross stitch.
• Quilt one block of the red cats quilt

Well it's getting to be late evening here and I'm feeling pretty relaxed after sinking a bottle of Perry. I don't drink very often and everything is starting to look a little fuzzy round the edges, like this so I think it's time to call it a night. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Two to go

First of all I want to say a big thank you to everyone who left comments and well wishes on my last post, it means a lot to know I have so much support from the cyber community to aid in my recovery. Each day I feel a little stronger and am accomplishing more things so I know it won't be long before I'm up to speed again.

I'm still marching on with the cross stitch and am determined to finish it this week. I think it was Liz who asked how many kitties left, well after the last post there was three, but I'm pleased to say since then another has been born so it's now down to two.

If you have been reading my blog since the beginning of this project you might remember the reason for my renewed interest in cross stitch. After my Mum sadly passed away I inherited these two boxes full of half completed cross stitch pieces I decided at the time that I would set about trying to finish them for her, but when it came to it I just couldn't bring myself to pick one up. When I came across my own cross stitch UFO I decided that would be the perfect warm up, giving me sometime to get used to the idea of and work up to the task of picking up those pieces that Mum had already worked on.

This morning I grabbed one of the boxes from the shelf and have picked out one of her kits to finish. Although I won't be starting it until the kitties are done I thought I'd share a preview. Just in the one box I heaved down there are more than 10 unfinished pieces all in various stages of completion, so I've gone for the one that is furthest along the road to being finished. This is what I will be working on next.

Back and stitching again

Wow I can't believe that it's been about 6 weeks since I last posted, that's pretty unheard of for me. I won't bore you/gross you out with all the details but I've been unexpectedly ill, leading to a short hospital stay and an operation.

I'm on the mend now and getting back to normal, actually most things are back to normal now, work, looking after MIL etc and getting back to stitching and online pursuits are really the last thing for me to catch up on. I have tonnes of unread emails and blogs so I think it will take me a fair while to catch up but I'll get there.

I've done almost no stitching the last few weeks, to be honest I haven't felt a lot like doing anything much. Over the last few days I've finally picked up the needle again and have been working on the cross stitch. Ok perhaps not the most exciting of things but at least it's a start...hopefully the more creative stitching will start flowing again soon. In the meantime I will leave you with the cross stitch progress and the new kitties. It feels good to be back in blogland!