Quick hello

Just popping in with a quick hello! Sorry I haven't been around much recently. I wasn't well a couple of weeks ago and have been feeling rough ever since. Hopefully things will get back to normal before too long.

For now, here's a pic of my Bluebird box.


I haven't made the bluebird for the top and I'm not sure that I will. For now, it stays as it is.

And perhaps the fact that I've felt like blogging today is a good sign!

Unexpected

This week has taken on a slightly unexpected twist as I'm now having my second day at home with Iona. I'm loving having all the extra time with her, she's such fun to be with!

Anyway, I just popped in here to say that I've finished the stitching on my bluebird box.



I'm slowly getting round to the finishing. Slowly for 2 reasons, the first being that I want to stitch one or two sample ornaments for the after school club which will start a week today. My second reason for only getting round to the finishing slowly is that I think I'm going to have to do some blocking. I've never blocked anything in my life and it sounds way too scary! But at the moment, the stitched outline of the design does not quite match up with the outline of the card for the box (that was part of the finishing kit).


So I'll just have to block it into shape! Oh well, at least the box is stitched in DMCs and so it should at least be colour fast! But don't hold you breath if you're waiting to see the finished box. Maybe I'll just avoid the blocking issue completely for now and go and stitch the bluebird for the top!

Ups and downs

Things have been a bit rough at work since I went back in January. It came to a head a couple of weeks ago and as a result of that I have a meeting on Thursday. I don't know what's going to happen but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will change for the better.

Anyway, it's all got me rather jittery and depressed at the moment. I feel like I don't know where I'm going. I just focus on my two beautiful children and make the most of the time I have for my stitching.

So I've been having fun with my Bluebird box and am really surprised at how quickly I'm getting through it.


Progress has slowed this week as I really need to get organised for the after school club I'm going to be taking!

And I haven't shown you this.


A fifteen sided bircornu in felt - I just wanted to see how it worked out in felt.

And as you might have noticed, it's now settled that I'll be teaching an after school club at Alexander's school from the end of this month. We're going to make Christmas ornaments. I bought a book to put together some ideas.


A Cross Stitcher's Countdown to Christmas - I'm really glad I did get this book - there are so many designs in it I'd like to stitch!

There she goes!

Finally, over the weekend, Iona decided to walk on her own!


I'm so proud of my little girl! She was all ready to walk 6 weeks ago, but had a couple of little tumbles which knocked her confidence. But over the weekend, she's just taken off and it's really given her a confidence boost - she's becoming quite adventurous! And she's such a funny little sweetie!

My bluebird box is still coming on well, although it's almost strange to be concentrating so completely on cross stitch at the moment!


I really couldn't be bothered when I started those little buzzy bees - they're so small and fiddly to stitch! But after I'd finished them, I could see what a difference it made and am glad that I stitched them after all!

We had a wander around the allotment late yesterday afternoon - there are some really beautiful flowers on some of the plots! And as it was lovely and sunny, I took a few photos. (I had my camera as I'd been trying to get photos of Iona walking!)

My weekend - the best bits

Alexander's golf lesson on Saturday (and a spot of putting practice for me)



Alexander's kayak taster session on Sunday



Some nice

(for a change)


(And the chance for me to sit in the sunshine in the park for some stitching!)

Iona turning the bathroom bin into a drum as we chattered away and I cleaned the bath!



And in between all the hanging around waiting for other people, some extra time for this.




Lovely!

Felt overdose and a new start

I’ve been playing around a lot recently with my felt stash, working on what became 3, largely unplanned, projects of my own design. At present, they look like this –



But all of a suddenly I’ve had enough of them! Blah! At this point in time, they’re just not as nice as I want them to be. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they’ll never meet my imagined idea of them, but it’s time to give them a break. And wait for some nice buttons to arrive. Somehow, I seem to have had a nightmare finding nice buttons – big ones with some kind of pattern. Maybe when the buttons arrive, they’ll fill me with inspiration.

One side effect of all the felt is that my jug for the Totally Useless SAL has been filling up rather quickly!



Then, I had a fantastic evening on Wednesday, kitting up a new project! Shock horror – I now have a new cross stitch start! For too long I’ve been playing around with my own ideas/designs, now I’m ready for a little relaxation following someone else’s instructions!


It's really very exciting! I don’t remember when I bought this, round about the time it was released, I think. I had the chart and the finishing kit but not the linen or silk floss. As I’m not feeling very wealthy at the moment, I’ve done a DMC conversion and am stitching this entirely using fabric and floss from my stash! It’s even quite liberating to be making constructive use of my stash!


You can't really see it in the photo, but I've finished backstitching the outline and am ready to get crossing this evening.

I seem to have a thing about boxes again this week and have dug out another box kit I had in my stash - this time I'm partly designing it, based on something I saw somewhere else.

And as usual these days, these boxes have sparked off a few other ideas - how do you like the sound of a Baby Bluebird biscornu or a Wild Mountain Thyme Keepsake Box?

Oh dear, and now I've discovered (via the Drawn Thread) Un Chat dans l'Aiguille - can you see me drooling?

A finish!

I was really pleased over the weekend to finish my ‘4 Wishes’ from Just Nan.

I started this piece full of enthusiasm last August, but ran out of steam towards the end of September before I’d even finished the winter section. I picked it up again at the start of January and have been working on it regularly in my lunch hours at work. (Yes, I am sad enough to take stitching to work with me, breaks up a boring, unfulfilling day!)

I made one or two changes to the charted design, firstly by stitching the white border using 3 strands of B5200. Looking back, I think this was due to inexperience on my part as I had not done much stitching on linen prior to August. Looking at the design now, I know that 2 strands would have been enough.

My second change was to alter one of the two squirrels in the autumn section to a more red colour using DMC3826. Red squirrels are native to the UK and now under considerable threat from the American greys. The Forestry Commission has some interesting information on the red squirrel here and includes information on where it is possible to see reds. Most of the sites listed are in Scotland, but I know that the grey squirrels are encroaching further and the reds face serious threat. Hence my wish to include a red squirrel in my 4 Wishes.

In terms of my stitching experience, I found it at times frustrating to be constantly changing thread colours. Any one thread might only be used for a small number of stitches in one of the seasonal bands and each season used a different range of colours - not a cost-effective use of thread. I’m sure this design could be stitched just as constructively and produce an equally lovely result through using fewer colours.

Although I like the umbrella and bee hive charms, I was disappointed in the beads to be added to the design. The beads included in the embellishment pack are tiny and I’m not certain that they really add anything to the overall design. In my view, if embellishments are to be added to a design, they should add to the overall effect and be visible in the finished item. I'm not sure that this is the case with the beads used here - too many of them just disappear into the background and add little to the overall effect.


In the finished design, I'm also slightly disappointed in the effect of the fabric colour. A lot of the threads used are pastel colours and I'm not convinced that they stand out enough on the fabric.


Overall, I enjoyed stitching this design, particularly after I picked it up again in January. I enjoyed the variety of stitches used, although it did take a little while to get used to the linen. However, after finishing spring I did start to get a little bored – once you get that far, there is little new challenge to be faced in completing the design.

Winter/Spring


Summer/Autumn