Family Sampler (with added snowflakes)

Well, I kind of took your advice to heart and have put my Family Sampler to the back of my mind just now for a break. I just don't have any new starts yet.

This week is half term, so Alexander is off school and we have my parents staying with us. The down side of this is that my evening stitching time is reduced to a minimum, so even if I had been working on my Family Sampler, I wouldn't have been getting very far and probably would have ended up even more fed up!

Early in the week, I did something completely different and charted some of the showflakes from my biscornu. I was surprised at how how much I enjoyed it and how much of a constructive activity I found it to be. So, since then, I have been gradually charting some of those other little ideas to the extent that they are no longer just 'little' ideas! Now I need to do some 'model stitching' (! LOL) before I'm ready to share. And I'm also pleased with the progress I'm making now on my Basket of Biscornu biscornu.

Here are the charts for some of the snowflakes. If anyone stitches any of them - I'd love to hear about it - and I'd be pretty amazed too!


You'll see that I haven't charted the positions of the beads - I'll leave that entirely up to you if or where you add them!

We have a winner! (plus some added bits)

And the winner, thanks to the random number generator, is

Sally

Sally - if you could email me with your address, I'll get something into the post for you!






I've hit a bit of a stitching slump since I finished my snowflake biscornu - I went back to my SB Family Sampler, but somehow I'm just not enjoying it And then I went back to the biscornu I'm stitching in my lunch hour for the Basket of Biscornu SAL and discovered that I'm going to have to frog part that I stitched last week.

I need to find something to cheer me up at the moment as I'm generally feeling a bit down, and in particular really not enjoying work. If I could figure out what I wanted to do, I'd apply for another job!

Maybe I should just take a break and start another 15 sided biscornu as I have a whole load of little ideas floating around my head!





Edited later to add:

Have you seen this?



Isn't it lovely? The designer is releasing the chart for one side every couple of days or so - I've downloaded 8 of them this afternoon!

And each little chart would make a lovely mini biscornu in its own right too!

That time of year again

So this was me 42 years ago today. Give or take about 6 weeks - I think it says 'Lesley 6 weeks' on the back of the photo. It'll be a quiet day as I'm here at work with nothing much going on and Alexander goes out to a friend's after school for his dinner so won't be home until 7.30, but it'll be quite nice to get home and not have to rush to do anything. Maybe I'll feel a bit more like stitching this evening as I've been feeling tired and headachy after work this week and not particularly inspired to work on anything at all.

In order to celebrate my birthday, I thought I'd have a little giveaway. Anyone who fancies a crochet brooch/corsage like these below and some stitchy goodies, leave me a comment - I'll announce a winner on Monday.

Stuff

Oh wow - I couldn't believe it yesterday morning when I logged in at work and saw 31 comments on my last post! It think that must be a record for me. Thank you all for your lovely, kind comments - I'm so glad you liked my biscornu and found the tutorial useful. For those who've asked and others who may be interested - feel free to pass around the tutorial to anyone who's interested. I hope it all makes sense and I'd be happy to try and help anyone struggling with it.

I've seen on a few blogs recently that we're all eyeing up the new releases coming out at Nashville this year. As Karen says, ABC Stitch Therapy has a really good list (over several pages) of what’s coming up. I'm trying hard to resist as I already have far too much stash, but of course, this caught my eye - how's that for timing?



This is Just Nan's Floral Fifteen and isn't it gorgeous? I'm not completely sure about the Charm Garden Pins, but I'd love to stitch the biscornu. I think the stitching will be a bit more drawn out than my snowflakes as each square is more densely stitched and there are a number of colour changes. I'll have to get hold of that one!

Now that I've finished my snowflake biscornu, I've made some more progress on my SB Family Sampler, but forgot at the weekend to try and get a decent photo.

I've also been doing a little crochet, initially as a birthday gift for a friend.

A crochet flower brooch - as I rather liked what I came up with, I made another for myself!

I think I'm going to have to make some more - I rather like them! The pattern is adapted from one in Crochet Bouquet and I crocheted the inner rounds using a varigated Debbie Bliss yarn with the final round in a finer mohair.

Finally, the recipients of my PIF will be SGVChicago and geeky Heather - I'll be in touch soon to get myself organised!

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I've also been spending far too much time recently setting myself up in iGoogle having too much geeky fun! I'm constantly struggling to find a good way to manage my favourites and the blogs I want to follow. Bloglines and Google Reader just aren't spontaneous enough for me and I keep loosing track of things I want to keep up with!

Oh, and I'm starting to pick up a few stitchy friends in Facebook, so anyone else who'd like to be my friend, let me know - you never know, I might become a Facebook convert!

Snowflakes in the Snow (with 15 sided biscornu tutorial)

Long post with lots of photos, but hopefully useful information!



I've been a bit distracted from my planned stitching recently (this seems to be happening faaar too regularly these days) by the above 15 sided biscornu or banurukotti. I first saw these last year here on this Russian blog and then saw that Anita had designed this lovely one too. Somehow the idea of making this kind of thing with a snowflake pattern caught my imagination, but I just didn't manage to find the right snowflakes to stitch.

At last, a couple of weeks ago, I saw this post from Janet Perry for the snowflakes on her December twinchy. That got me started! Janet's snowflakes were just perfect for what I wanted to do, so I printed off the charts and got started.



As I got going, I started playing around with Janet's snowflakes, adding beads and trying out different shapes and stitches. And before I knew it, I had ended up with 15 squares each with a different showflake!

Four of the snowflakes are Janet's, one or two were copied from images I found on the internet and the rest are my own. I might chart some of them sometime to share.

As all the tutorials I've seen for this type of biscornu have not been in English, I thought I'd write my own for anyone who's interested.



Step 1 - You need 15 stitched squares all the same size. The squares I used were all 20 x 20 stitches. As with a 'normal' biscornu, the outline round the edge of each square was done in backstitch and I used a #12 perle cotton.

When you have your 15 squares, cut them all out leaving a border of at least about half a centimeter.



Step 2 - I then divided my squares into 3 groups of 5 squares - 5 squares for the top, 5 squares for the bottom and 5 for the sides.




I then whipstitched the 5 squares for the top together.



When you have joined the 5 squares together, you will have a kind of 5 pointed star. Note that it will not lie flat, however hard you try.

Now, join the 5 squares for the bottom.




Step 3 - The next step is to join the side squares to either top or bottom. I've tried to show in the photo below how this works with the arrows showing which sides wshould be joined to each other.



You will end up with something like this.



Step 4 - Now you can start to join the bottom/top to the top/bottom plus sides in a similar way to that in which the sides were already joined. I haven't got a photo of this step - not quite sure how I would show it!

Only join about three quarters of the way round so that you leave a gap for stuffing. I use a general toy stuffing to stuff my biscornus.

Now, this is a point that I've never seen written anywhere for biscornus or anything else. When I make a biscornu, I sew on the central buttons before I've completed stuffing. I like to have my button in a reasonable indent in the middle of my pin cushion, so, in this case, I half stuffed my biscornu and then attached my button. Then I completed stuffing, working the stuffing around the threads holding the buttons, and stitched the opening closed.

Et voila!



And if anyone saw a mad woman yesterday morning, wandering round Vicky Park with a pin cushion and a camera, yes, I confess, it was me!

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And before I forget, you can still sign up for my PIF! I'll leave signups open until next Monday and then let you know the result. And for those who've asked, I'm quite happy to post overseas, so don't let that put you off!

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The snowflake patterns I used in making my biscornu can be found on the following web pages of my blog:

• Family Sampler (with added snowflakes)
• Life without stash

Remember, I also used Janet Perry's December twinchy snowflakes. This gives you 12 snowflakes. I don't have another 3 to share at the moment, so you can either make up your own or wait patiently until I get around to thinking of some more.

My notes on an alternative 15 sided biscornu are here.

PIFs in the snow

I had an unexpectedly quiet and enjoyable week last week, spending Tuesday to Friday at home with Iona - yay! Just what I was needing after a couple of weeks back at work. It did mean, however, that my time online was fairly limited so there wasn't much blog activity going on.

Now that I'm back at work again today, I thought I'd start this week with a PIF!

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for Mary's PIF.

Some time in the next year, Mary will send 2 fat quarters of fabric to me on condition that I make the same offer on my blog. So, in the next year, I will send 2 fat quarters of fabric to 2 commenters on this post. If there are more than 2 brave volunteers, then I'll have some kind of draw! And with the FQs I might even throw in a ball of yarn and a few other stitchy goodies for you to have fun with!

I'd love to have people volunteering for my PIF who will take the things I send them and use them to do something new or different. So, those who're up for a challenge, roll up, roll up!

For the snowy bit of the post title, it's been snowing here off and on since lunchtime yesterday. Alexander was devastated this morning when I told him his school probably was not closed and he would be going today! I'm sure he'll have his fingers crossed for tomorrow as there's more snow forecast for later this afternoon and overnight. I think this is probably the most snow Alexander has seen, so I hope it lasts for a bit and he can make the most of it. I think Iona wonders what all the fuss is about, but she'll learn! I have very fond memories of childhood snowy days building igloos in the garden and sledgeing in Castlebank Park. I need to get out with my camera and have a bit of fun with the snow.

To end today's post, this seems somehow appropriate!

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.

Coals to Newcastle

or Monkees to Bristol?

I recently sent a couple of crocheted monkees to the very funny ( and younger than me <sniff>) Monkee Maker. From her blog, it looks like they've settled in well.

Here are Maisie and Minnie!



Aren't they cute? And they look great together! They were crocheted using #8 pearl cotton and a 1mm crochet hook.


I really like Minnie, she's really tiny! I really should make another one but there are far too many new things to try and I've been really enjoying myself with some stitching!