The Kindness of Stitchers

Last Thursday I received an email from Grace which completely took my breath away! I was just utterly flabbergasted (if that's how you spell it) and went around all day with a silly grin on my face!

Why? Well, if you notice in this post, I said how much I liked CA Wells's Pyramid Etui, but doubted I'd every have the opportunity to stitch it. Well, here was Grace, on Thursday morning, offering to send me the chart! WOW!

And look what I got in my grubby little hands after I rushed home from work on Friday -


I'm still pinching myself! How kind and generous was that?

Thank you thank you thank you, Grace!

So guess what? My immediate stitching plans have just been turned on their head, although I'm going to force myself to complete a couple of WIPs first (SB Family Sampler and one or two small things). But that just gives me the chance to kit up the Etui first!

Woohoo!!

This week, part 2 - time to show off!

Lots of photos in this post!

I finished this at the end of last year, but haven't had time to blog about it up to now.

I said in November that I'd had a bit of inspiration regarding my Mystery in a Corner from Gay Ann Rogers - well, it worked!

In June, when I finished part 1, it looked like this.


But I wasn't really happy with it. The design was beautiful, and I loved the stitches, but I wasn't happy with my choice of threads and fibres which made the colour scheme far too pale.

My inspiration was to add a new colour of perle cotton in part 2, and I knew exactly what colour to use.

The problem then was how to introduce the same colour to part 1, but with a minimum of frogging. I decided the answer was to add some beads. Later, I changed that to Swarovski crystals, just for that extra bit of fun and sparkle. And, in adding the beads I changed the charted Rhodes stitches to Jessicas.

Finally, I had seen Laura's version of MIAC with her border and loved it and wanted to do something similar.

So I did, and here's the end result!

Can you tell that I'm delighted with it?

It really is a beautiful design and once I sorted out my colour dilemma, I absolutely loved stitching every stitch! The instructions were everything I could have wanted which is a good thing as I splashed out and bought some more of Gay Ann's designs when she had her e-week sale in the autumn!

This week, part 1

I have a long list of things I'm wanting to blog about this week, but rather than one humungeous post that would take all week to read, I thought I'd better split it up into bits.

Today, I have to say thanks to Erna for this award!

Erna is a relatively new blogger who, like me, loves Scotland and stitching, so pop by and say hello to her. Thanks Erna!

While wandering around the web last week, I came across Jan's blog where she was being interviewed on the promise that she interviewed 5 others. It looked like fun, so I volunteered to be one of her interviewees!

Here are the questions she sent me -

1.As a Scot in England (my husband's one too) do you find it very different and is your accent still strong ?

I've been living in England for almost 15 years now and as time goes on, I see less of a difference, although I suspect it's more just me. Recently, I've been feeling a bit kind of 'homeless' - I always used to feel like Scotland was still home, but recently I realised that I'm not so sure it is any more, but at the same time I don't want to live where I do now for the rest of my life. So I'm generally not so sure of the differences.

My accent is still fairly strong, and I certainly wouldn't want to loose it. I do have to moderate it a bit down here, though, to make sure people, particularly those who don't know me well, understand me. Spelling things out loud to people can be a problem as often other people can't tell the difference between my A and E.

2.You have an unusual Blog name - why did you choose it ?

My blog name comes from the part of Lanarkshire in Scotland where I was born and raised. It comes from Tinto Hill which is a biggish hill in the area. In old maps and books, Tinto is sometimes referred to as Tintock Tap. As my blog name, it's deliberately a bit obscure and unusual, but it relates to who I am and where I come from.

3. If you could meet one person dead or alive who would it be ?

As a family history enthusiast, I have plenty of dead relatives I'd like to meet! Such as Sir Samuel Chisholm, Lord Provost of Glasgow 1899 - 1901. Or a certain Jessie McDonald who, as a young woman, had 2 illegitimate children by 2 different fathers, married a 3rd man and had 3 children with him as well as raising her husband's children from his first marriage, and following his death went on to have a further 2 illegitimate children. Could she please tell me which Peter Horn was the father of my ancestor and who fathered her last two children?

If we're talking living people, then I wouldn't mind meeting Gordon Brown, but I wouldn't discuss politics with him!

4 . If you could choose just one craft to do what would it be ? (it can be one that you don't do at the moment) and why ?

The answer to this question would probably change depending on what mood I'm in, or what my latest obsession is. But at the moment, the answer probably has to be my stitching - I could do it all day, given the chance!

5.If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live and why?
Not sure about this one, but the answer has to be somewhere in Scotland. Probably near, if not in, Edinburgh, but I can't be more specific. I love Edinburgh, so it would have to be somewhere with easy access to Edinburgh, but at the same time not too big a place and easy to get away from and out among the hills.

The rules of this interview thing say I now have to offer to interview 5 people now, so if you fancy having a go, here's how it works.

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interviewsomeone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Finally, so as not to end this post without any photos, here's a sneak peek of what I think I'll be posting about next!

Oh dear!

Well, now that I'm back at work, I'm back to my old habit of browsing around various web pages and blogs, reading about what everybody's stitching and what's going on in the stitching world. And, boy!, do I seem to be in the mood for being enabled this week!

First of all, I saw this on Margie's blog.


Doesn't it look beautiful? I've long drooled over CA Wells's Pyramid Etui (btw, have you seen Karoline's? It's soooo gorgeous!) but am probably unlikely to ever get my hands on the necessaries, so might this be the next best thing? It's a joint project designed by With My Needle, Cherished Stitches, The Stitching Parlour and Praiseworthy Stitches, to be released as a limited edition in February but can now be pre-ordered.

That led me to discover this.


Quaker Turtles by With My Needle - they're so cute, I really must stitch them too!

Oh dear!

And then I saw this too!


Chatelaine workshop 01! Looks like it uses some of my favourite colours, and lovely Jessica stitches! And Martina has some more new gorgeous designs, like her Autumn Watergarden and Mini Mandala V.

What's a girl to do?

Thanks for all the good wishes over my return to work. Iona's done really well this week and is quickly getting used to our new arrangements for her during the day. In the evenings she is still a bit unsettled as she probably wants to stay up longer as DH, Alexander and I are usually all around and she sees us and wants to play, but at the same time is really tired. Give her a little more time and she'll settle. I'm just glad she's doing so well during the day.

Finally, a pic of what I've been working on this week, although my time for it has been fairly limited, what with putting children to bed, washing dishes and preparing baby food! Here goes, my Shepherd's Bush Family Sampler.

I've spent all week working on that sheep! (Sorry for the useless photo - I never seem to be at home when it's light this week!)

Back-to-work Blues

I had to leave this little darling at home this morning to start back at work. She sat on the window sill watching me with a look that said "Why are you going away outside Mummy? Why aren't you staying at home with me?" Roll on 5.30pm!

Needless to say, now that I'm back at work, my fingers are itching to get on with my stitching. I can see that I'm back to it in a big way and crochet is already fading into the background. Now that I'm back at work, maybe I'll have a little more blogging time to share what I've been up to.