Doves, but no peace

I needed to start another project like I need a hole in the head but last Friday night I could not sleep for love nor money so I needed something simple to work on at 3am while watching The Ashes.

So I pulled out this cute little banner kit that came free with a magazine that I'd bought recently. It's just 4 little felt doves with some simple motifs to choose from to add to their cute little tums. The first motif got stitched up in no time (sorry for the dark photo, it was about 4am when this was taken). But then I hit a wall....... .... even though I used the fabric provided in the kit and stitched out the motif exactly as laid out, the thing is too big for the pre-cut circle in the dove. How annoying is that?!

I know it's not a major obstacle to over come, I'll just recut the hole so it's a bit bigger. My annoyance is at the fact that what started out as a (hopefully) quick start and finish in an evening project is now something that I actually have to think about and spend time making adjustments to. Grrrrr.

Threadkeeper finished

The thread keeper is finished. I enjoyed stitching with these fabulous colours so in the end it came together pretty quickly.It now lives on the embroidery scissors which belonged to my Mum. I think she would have liked it.

I have another kit for a scissor fob, but I think I'll do something else before I start that one.

Something New - Threadkeeper

Way back when, you might remember me telling you all about my trip to Birmingham and my stitchy shopping spree at the NEC. Well I thought it was high time that I started on one of the kits that I treated myself too.

So I've been doing a little canvas work. I've been wanting to make myself a little scissor fob for a while, so when I saw this lovely kit from Sue Hawkins I couldn't resist. It's basically stitching in rounds using two different types of multi-coloured threads, a silk and a rayon. There are an interesting variety of stitches, and apart from not being able to figure out the instructions for marking out the starting place on the canvas (just made an educated guess in the end!) its really easy to follow the design instructions. So much so that I already have one side finished, it is only a small piece after all.

Hopefully the second half will come together just as quickly as this :)

Poppies

I couldn't sleep so figured rather than lying in bed waiting for the alarm to go off I'd just get up and do some blogging instead.
Fanfare please ... yep your eyes are not deceiving you I actually finished a stitching project!!!

It's taken me ages as I still am struggling to find the enthusiasm for stitching that I had before but I'm sure it will come back eventually. Anyway I got there in the end. The stitching on the petals is not as free as I would have liked but I guess embroidery is like anything else, practise makes perfect and I haven't done much lately so have gotten a bit rusty.
I couldn't do a post about poppies without including a couple of snaps that I took of some of the wild road side poppies which have been glorious this year, and, are what inspired me to pick up the needle and start stitching on this kit in the first place.

Birds, Flowers and Zombies

At last something creative, it's been a while.....

I'm still struggling to get myself out of the doldrums but have been trying to get back to some of the things that I have always enjoyed, some of the things that have distracted my from difficult times in the past.

So for the last few weeks I have been working on a cross stitch post card that I owed for a swap which ended back in January. Thankfully my swap partner has been very patient with me.I picked a pattern from a magazine that I bought a while back. I didn't have the colours required to follow the chart exactly so I just used some left overs from a couple of my Mum's projects that I finished up last year. I don't know why but the colours and the background reminded me of twilight so I finished the card off with a piece of blue dotty ribbon which I thought could be representative of a starry sky.

I have enjoyed getting back to stitching but I don't have the same passion for it as I had before, but that can be said for pretty much everything in my life at the moment. I'm hoping it will come back in time and meanwhile I am determined to keep using needle and thread. So I have started on a small kit I bought on Ebay a while back.I do a lot of driving round for my work and at the moment there are lots of wonderful wild poppies all over the place growing magnificent red by the roadsides. I'm so out of practise with my stitching I don't think I will be quite able to do justice to their wild beauty but I will carry on regardless and hopefully my enjoyment of the process will shine through enough to redeem the finished picture.

I couldn't leave today without changing the subject wildly. I just had to tell you about this fabulous, funny book I am reading at the moment. Well worth buying for the cover alone, never mind the imagery of the Bennet sisters being commanded to form a 'pentagram of death' by Mr Bennet in the pursuit of a bit of zombie slaying, love it!

Happy Christmouse

I just want to wish everyone who celebrates a very Merry Christmas!The mouse is a little something I stitched last Saturday while in front of the TV watching the Strictly Come Dancing Finale. He was a free kit from a magazine and will likely get sent as a card next year or I may turn him into a little tree ornament, haven't decided yet.

Mark and I will be celebrating the day on our own, bliss! It's something we have planned for a few years but one thing and another always happened and we have never managed to be alone. So we will be making a good cooked breakfast and then off for a long walk, before returning home in the evening to make a turkey dinner, yummy!

Sheep - The Finale

I'm back and I have so much to share, today I think I will get busy reminding myself how to use that schedule posts feature. I have plenty to share and my enthusiasm has picked up again, just knowing I have a whole week away from work is really boosting my spirits!

Anyway it's time to take a look at my progress on the sheep. This is what it was like after my first week working on them...and now look, the sheep are finished!

I had a feeling that if I put a good few hours in they would come together nice and quickly. I had such fun with this little kit. All those delicious french knotsand the long stitched grass. It was such fun randomly stitching in all of the different shades and weights of thread that were provided in the kit.

The only mishap was that the beading needle provided in the kit didn't actually fit through the beads that were provided for the eyes :) Never mind I'm not short of a needle or two and soon had that problem fixed!

Back to the Tigers this week, even though we have Christmas, because I have no work I'm hoping to squeeze in a bit more time on them this week, maybe an hour a day instead of the usual 30 mins or so we'll see....

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!

Sheep

Eventually I think that I will end up having two of Mum's cross stitches on my hand stitching rotation but for the time being I am going to work on a couple of things of my own. So this is what I will be working on this week.

It's another small one something like 3.5" x 5.5" so hopefully it will stitch up pretty quickly . This kit is another Ebay bargain, purchased for 99p! On both my holidays to the Lakes and to Wales sheep were everywhere (including in the toilet block escaping from a heavy down pour at the campsite in Wales!), so this will be another piece to remind my of happy holidays this year!

Mountain Autumn Part Three

Remember how Mountain Autumn looked on it's last outing?

Well I can hardly believe it myself, but look just one weeks work later....

... it's done, how cool is that!Now to find a nice mount and frame for it. The finished piece is 4.5" x 6.5"

It will be back to the Tigers next week, and I'll also have to find something new to work on to keep this rotation thing going :)

Mountain Autumn Part Two

Still no machine Grrr. Apparently it's fixed there was a blown internal fuse it is with the Janome engineers and should have been delivered to me on Thursday but no sign. I will have to chase it up tomorrow what a pain. I have several postcards and quilt blocks waiting to be finished.

In the meantime I do have something to share at last. Some progress on the Mountain Autumn kit.

(apologies for the wonky photo). In order that this doesn't turn into a UFO I think I am going to do a rotation with this one and Siberian Gold. I will work one week on the cross stitch and one week on the long stitch.

I will start this week with Siberian Gold which hasn't had a stitch added to it since my last post, I have some catching up to do :)