Stop the World

The little stitchery is finished. Not sure what it will become yet, but that's not unusual :) For now he'll just go in the 'waiting to be used in something' box. I love his bemused expression.

Stitchery

Ok I have to admit to having some sort of problem, I think its somewhere between lack of will power and inability to stay focused, lol. I've started yet another new piece of stitching not on the February to do list.

I've been staying with family for a few days and needed something portable. Yes I know that was my excuse for starting the hexagons, but before I left for the trip I didn't have time to sort out more fabrics to continue with them. This little piece is just for fun, one small piece of fabric and two different threads. I figured I would probably get the whole thing stitched while I was away but I didn't count on how busy my nephews would keep me. Above is progress so far, another evening's effort and it'll be done.

Closure

I have lots of exciting (well exciting for me) plans for 2010. If I can make even just a few of them happen I will be very happy by the time it comes round to celebrating the end of a year again.

But in the interests of closure I am going to start the new year by sharing some pictures of a project that was started and (I'm glad to say finished though only just, lol) in 2009. My cousin's wedding sampler became a Christmas present in the end, better late than never.

Here is the finished piece.And a couple of close ups.

I even had a go at framing it myself, not perfect but not too shabby either.

2009 was a very lean stitching year but I'm hoping to increase the output here at Angelcat Manor in 2010 :)

Philip and Clare's wedding

It's been a while so I thought I'd drop by with an update on the wedding sampler and a few pictures from the day itself.

Well Phil and Clare are back from honeymoon today and the present still isn't finished. I've had a busy few weeks and haven't found much time for stitching but it's getting there and I'm confident that it won't be long until I'm crossing the finishing line on this one. Here is the progress so far.
I have just a couple more bands to go and it will be ready to go to the framer.

Here is a picture of the happy couple. It was a lovely ceremony and a beautiful day.
I don't often show pictures of me as I'm not very photogenic but what the hell here is one of me and my lovely Nan.And of course in the interests of keeping up the recent foot theme, here are the shoes that kept me bopping all night on the dance floor.

Sampler Progress

Well the wedding is Friday and sadly I'm only just over half way through the sampler. Here is my progress so far.I might just get one or two more bands added in the next couple of days, but the present giving will have to wait until the happy couple return from their honeymoon.

Sampler

My sleeping habits aren't getting any better so here I am blogging at silly o'clock again :) I am working on something new. My cousin is getting married next week, at the very last minute I decided to try and stitch a gift.

Here is my progress so far on a little sampler pattern that I found in a magazine.
I've been working on this for a week and am less than half way through. As the wedding is next Friday I don't think it is going to get done on time! Nevermind hopefully it won't be too far behind the actual day.
I'm really enjoying the mix of stitching, and its the first time I've worked on evenweave which is proving to be hard on my ageing eyes, lol. Still I like the way it's turning out so hopefully it will be worth it. (Sorry for the blurry photos I'll try and get some better ones when it's finished.)

Talking Trash

Well another few weeks have passed by and I still haven't managed to get back to anything creative. I'm sure it will come, I'm starting to get a few ideas but just not the confidence or motivation to get started on anything yet.

Instead, for the sake of having something to post, I thought I'd share a couple of things that I did at the very beginning of the year but in all the upheaval never got round to posting.

2008 was a difficult year in my personal life for a reason that I won't share here, but suffice to say I was left very shook up by one event, for most of the year I wandered round in a daze but didn't realise it until I finally 'woke up' in the weeks before Christmas. I had begun to feel like the old me again, full of dreams and plans for adventure, I was so convinced that 2009 was going to be one of the best that I planned to commemorate it in the best way I know how, stitch.

This was going to be the centre-piece.

I also made this from a mini kit which I thought would be perfect to symbolise the dawn of the new year and the start of my journey to really find myself and happiness again.

I planned to make more patches like the cockerel to add to this to commemorate all of the good things that happened this year. It seemed like a good idea at the time, already I had a trip to Cornwall to celebrate, a surprise trip to Rome that I'd booked, plans for Marrakesh and of course summer camping trips to look forward to. As well as the prospect of every day joys to record, maybe a beautiful sunset or the blooming of beautiful spring flowers.......

In just a few short days that all came crashing down around me, part of me feels like an idiot even sharing this with you now, I feel foolish for having dreamed so high and now to have been bought so low.

I'm sure the cockerel will be recycled in to a different project sometime in the future, as for 2009, well it's certainly not a year to be celebrated so that piece will be shredded and added to the trash.

Sheep - Part One

I've had a pretty busy weekend so far. Yesterday I went to visit family to deliver Christmas presents and just generally catch up with what is happening with everyone. Six hours driving in total which has left me feeling pretty tired today.

This morning we went for a walk in the frosty landscape, it's really chilly round here today. I took a few pics with dh's camera so hopefully he will download them for me soon.

On the stitching front it's been a pretty poor week. After the disappointment of knowing that I wouldn't be able to get the quilt done by yesterday I sort of lost all motivation for everything. The only thing I have to show for the last few days is some progress on the sheep. Good job I enjoy french knots!
I think it's looking pretty cute but it's destined to be put away for another week as it's time for the Tigers to get some stitching instead!

Ready to Stitch

Well today is the last day at home and then I'm off to Torquay for a work conference for the rest of the week.

I doubt I'll have much time to myself while I'm away but I'm hoping for at least an hour or so of solitude in my room each evening. Of course I have to take some 'just in case' stitching. Remember this?

I wonder if there will be any progress by the weekend when I get back?

Orange and Black

Time to share another of the sets of postcards that I worked on while away last week. I didn't get them totally done but managed to finish them up at the weekend.
They are for a Black and Orange swap. I got the cute witch pattern here. I reduced the size of the pattern a bit to fit into the 6 x 4 format. Each one took an age to hand stitch but I loved the cute design so think the effort was well worth it. I hope my swap partners like them.

Mountain Autumn and a Giveaway

I was quite surprised by the fact that I actually did find a little time for stitching while away. I managed to finish 6 of the 12 postcard tops that I took with me and got stitching done on all of the others but not to finishing point. I don't have any pictures to share yet though.

However while on my travels last week I did manage to pick up another project to add to the To Do List. While in Penrith we came across this adorable little shop and of course I had to go in for a browse.

They had quite a good little range of cross stitch and embroidery kits and a few threads and accessories. I decided to treat myself to a little something which would serve as a reminder of our week in the Lakes so picked this little long stitch kit. I'm not sure yet when it will get started but I'm determined not to leave it in the packet for too long. Of course for the rest of the week while we were out and about I tried to look out for similar scenes which I thought could have inspired this design. There were plenty of stone bridges scattered in the landscape to choose from but this little footbridge was my favourite. On an entirely different subject I have ended up with two copies of the latest Stitch magazine so thought it would be fun to have an impromptu giveaway. Leave a comment on this post by the end of the week if you are interested in going into the draw for a chance to win this magazine.

And now for something completely different...

... anyone that knows me, knows that I am a totally incompetent when it comes to cooking. DH does most of the cooking in our house, unless it's beans on toast. Well recently for some reason I have had the urge to venture into the kitchen and yesterday I made my first ever apple pie.
Ok so it's not exactly pretty but it tasted delicious, nothing beats home baked, maybe this could be the start of a whole new life in the kitchen for me?

The drugs kept me lucid enough to venture away from the cross stitch and start on the embellishment of my row robin blocks too. I didn't get too far along the line but at least a start has been made.
Also I drew the winner of the postcard giveaway. Well done ROBIN C, thanks for leaving a comment, please could you email me with your snail mail so I can get the card in the post. Thanks to everyone who took part, and in general I just want to say a huge thank you to every one who takes the time to leave comments here. I do love to blog and it's nice to know that I'm not on this adventure alone!

Janet's Cat

With the healing hearts done, it's time to move on to the next UFO.

This is the Kitty that I started in the Janet Bolton workshop that I took a while ago. I came away from the workshop feeling a little disappointed. I'm a huge admirer of Janet's work but I just couldn't seem to get to grips with the small pieces that she is so skilled at using so my kitty is quite big.

Even though he is not quite in the same league as Janet's work I fell in love with him again when I spotted him in the UFO pile, I wonder what he will look like when he's done?

Great Western Embroiderers at Steam

I haven't posted in a few days which is unusual for me lately, no particular reason other than I've been here there and everywhere and haven't had much time to get to the computer.
Today I spent a wonderful few hours helping out on the GWE stand at the Steam Museum's railway festival which took place this weekend. We had a mini exhibition of our CD case samplers as a forerunner for our main exhibition which will be held at Steam at the beginning of next year.

Here are our rails with all the CD cases hanging from them, a great display idea thought up by Maggie! It was difficult to get a great picture as there was lots going on in the background but you get an idea.
Here is a closer look at my white on white piece hanging amongst the others. This is the first time any of my work has gone on display anywhere so pretty exciting for me.

I can't speak for the Saturday showing but I know we had a great response at the show today. We were lucky enough to have a table in a great spot with plenty of passers by and there was lots of interest in our work. We had some people asking if the pieces were for sale and others who wanted to know if we had any kits available.

I had a blast and am really looking forward to getting stuck into making my piece for the main exhibition, I have the seeds of an idea but there will be plenty of work ahead to try and achieve it so I'll need to put in plenty of thought and effort in the coming weeks. Wish me luck!

Goddess Postcards

After an hour or so at the machine last night my goddesses are finished. I really love how these cards came out. After doing so much cross stitch recently and with the regimented stitching that involves it has been really refreshing to put something together a little more organically.

I have 4 swap partners in this one so thought I would loosely go with an elements theme, though not keen to come up with something for Air I decided to wuss out and choose forest instead.

I decided to go with the scrap boxes again, and thought I'd use some of the smallest pieces I could find to do a bit of weaving.

Having never done any before I have no idea what the proper methods for weaving are, but I was constructing these backgrounds mainly whilst sat in the car waiting for dh to come out of work (we share a lift to work and I finish a bit earlier than he does so always have a slight wait sat in the car) a lot of pinning was involved in my method so the strips didn't come apart on my lap on in the moving car, lol!

After my strips were weaved together I machine stitched a random wavy pattern over them to secure them down. I wasn't too precious about this and it ended up that some of the interfacing was showing through in places where the stripes moved or weren't ripped straight but I decided to leave this as it was as theme of the cards lend themselves to a bit of imperfection! Then it was time to add my goddesses and get the needle and thread out.I had lots of fun stitching some text, I've never tried this before and I was really impressed at how well the words came out, this is definitely something I will play with more in the future.

Goddess of the Forest

Water Goddess

Earth Goddess

Fire Goddess

GWE Samples

Now that the safari cushion is done it's time to pick another one of my UFOs from the box.
Actually I've decided to pick three. These are three small samples that I started at different GWE meetings. The group members have a great concept of displaying their samples in CD cases, so I'm hoping to add some more stitches and get them mounted in the cases in time for the GWE meeting on Tuesday.


I've not been able to get to GWE for a few months because of my earlier health problems so I'm looking forward to being able to go back. I may even pull out my 'Steam' sketchbook and try and get back into that theme again. I really need to come up with some ideas for a piece for the exhibition that we are going to be having at the beginning of next year.

Also on my worktable this weekend are some 'goddess' postcards and a couple of blocks that I want to make for a lottery. I haven't done any patchwork blocks for so long I've been recently craving to make some again.

I don't know how much I'll have time for, I have a busy day tomorrow but today dh is out so I have a day being able to please myself which is great!

Secret Revealed

Now I know that Carol has received this I can share the secret project that i have been working on this last couple of weeks. A Padfolio for a swap on FAF that I was running extremely late on. Thankfully Carol has been vary gracious about the whole late thing.....

The front

A view from the back

Button and RicRac fastening detail

Oops I realised that I forgot to take some pictures if the inside, nevermind. I made this using the TimTex that I painted a while back and just added some seed stitching in a variegated embroidery thread.

The Padfolio is a great design by the very talented Sue Bleiweiss. If you'd like to make one for yourself Sue has very generously shared the pattern on the Fibre and Stitch website here. F & S is a great online publication if you don't already subscribe well what are you waiting for? lol

This and That

No stitching got done yesterday as we had a bit of a movie marathon. We also went for a couple of walks in the rain. I love walking in the rain. We saw the films 10,000BC and The Cottage at the cinema, both were pretty average but watchable. We then went to see the old silent movie Nosferatu here as part of a local film festival which was just wonderful.

Today I have been stitching. I've made good progress on my hand stitching for secret project one. Rather annoyingly though I have run out of the thread I was using, the project will now have to go on the back burner until I can make a trip out to get some more. Mark took this wonderful picture (I think) of my materials for this project when I wasn't looking.
Now the hand stitching is on hold I've been at the sewing machine and have just managed to finished my March Bag for the BQL challenge. Can you tell by the bright colours that this one is going to be for me! I really loved this pattern and it was so quick and easy I can definitely see myself making more of these.
Finally I just have to share this rare picture of H & H together. Their new favourite place is in the cupboard with my craft supplies. It's pretty dark in there and if I try a flash photo they just end up with demon eyes. Here is one without hence the blur but I kinda like the effect and I love the way they are sitting staring intently in different directions.

The Crazy Blue Kitty

I have been busy stitching the last few days but nothing much to show you at the moment. My hand stitching project this week is secret project one (secret in the fact that I don't want to show it here until it's been sent and received in case I spoil a surprise), but here is a sneaky peek As I haven't had much stitchy on here in the last few posts I thought I'd show you the failed CyberFyber postcard I mentioned the other day. I had planned to use one of the pieces of Timtex that I dyed back here. Immediately after it had dried I spotted an unintended shape in the dye and the idea for 'The Crazy Blue Kitty' was born.
I had intended to add some grass and maybe a couple of flowers but something just didn't seem right and when I measured the piece I discovered that its a quarter inch smaller than it should be. So I've given up on this one, though he is kinda cute so I'm sure I will find a way to use him somewhere else. Now for CyberFyber I will paint another piece and go for an Inksplat card similar to these and this.

Just before I sign off I want to thank everyone who left comments or emailed such nice things about Mark's frog photos he was really pleased to get such positive feedback. I thought I'd share a picture of the daft things that he puts himself through to get his shots.
Hmmm lying on the cold muddy March ground probably not everyone's idea of fun, I bet you can't guess which muggins ends up with the laundry to do?!

Folk Art Daisies

On my To Do list for yesterday were a couple of Daisy themed postcards. I'm pleased to say that they did get started yesterday and after some time spent with the Satin Stitch on my machine this morning they are now done.

I decided I wanted to do something a bit more folk arty than I usually do, a simple design against a plain black background. I satin stitched the leaves by hand. I'm loving hand stitching at the moment and this is the first time I've tried any satin stitching. The stitching is far from perfect but not bad for a first attempt. I'm pretty happy with the way they came out.

The other thing on my list for yesterday was to work on my Feb bag. I have handles and a pile of hearts ready for the bag but my camera has decided it needs charging and these bits won't fit in the scanner so no pic yet.

My next To Do list is going to encompass the whole weekend, I expect dh and I will be out and about some this weekend so I don't know how much stitching time I will get (I can't believe how quickly my week off work has disappeared!). This is more a Hope To Do list than a to do list I think.

• Work on Feb Bag
• Start on Feb TIF challenge (eek the month is already half done and I've not even started)
• Make Postcard for trade with Susan for Cyber Fyber.
• Start Something Beginning with K postcards
• Work on secret project 1
• Work on secret project 2
• Start on secret project 3
• Start new kitty on cross stitch

Just in case you are wondering the secret projects are just presents and trades for people that I know sometimes visit my blog and I don't want to give away any details until the pieces are done and they have been posted and received.

It's an ambitious list I know and I could probably shorten it by setting 'finish' rather than 'work on' goals, unfortunately my back is playing up a bit today and if this carries on for the weekend I'm probably going to struggle sitting doing the same thing for too long so I want a variety of cutting, machine and hand stitching things on the go so I can chop around as I need to. But first I'm off to have a bath to see if that helps the back, ahh the joys of not being at work... a bath in the middle of the day.

Well this has turned into a long post with a lot of waffle and hardly any pictures. So just because here is Hector out enjoying in the sun a couple of days ago.