Have decided I'm not dying (just...)

There seems to be some sort of lurgy going around just now. I'm not sure whether I caught it off my niece last weekend, or from a colleague at work, but for the last week I've been suffering with the mother and father of colds - NOT swine flu as I haven't been feverish in the slightest, but coughing, sneezing, bunged up and generally so miserable. Extremely frustrating, having had two days off work last week, I felt I had to go in yesterday, and I lasted until midday before my boss frog-marched me out of the office and sent me home again.

So I spent the weekend curled up on the sofa under a blanket and hot water bottle, indulging in an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition marathon on Home (I love Ty!) and stitching.

Here is the current project, a wall hanging from last month's World of Cross-Stitching magazine:

Here is how it looked on Saturday morning:
And here it is after two days of Ty!

It's an easy stitch, about all my brain can cope with at the moment. No backstitching, the white lines will be filled with dark grey. I think it's going to be a birthday present for a friend, who is currently in hospital. With a following wind, I should be able to get it finished by the end of the month, and then as the days are finally starting to lengthen, I may go back to Frederick the Literate, which I put aside over the winter as I couldn't cope with stitching on black.

First Finish of 2010

Well, it's only been just over ten months since my last post... but here I am again, and with my first actual finish of the year - I Love Tea. Because I do! It's a kit I bought from the Historical Sampler Company, and I started it just before Christmas and finished it on Friday night. It was very simple to do, with its regular pattern, but I think it looks absolutely great and I can't wait to get it framed and hang it on my wall. Let me know what you think!

And now I need to decide what I'm going to do next! And maybe try and post a little more often.

So, I had a great day yesterday. It would have been almost perfect if Scotland had beaten England at the rugby, but it was pretty darn good in any event. I went to the Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia and spent an absolute fortune! I bought several kits, threads and material, and boy did it feel good! The threads in the picture on the left below are hand-dyed silk, and are absolutely gorgeous. And I bought some material, including a couple of pieces of evenweave, for the first time. And one stall was selling Lizzy Kate Snippet Cards so I bought a couple - Cross-Stitcher in Residence and Housework never killed anyone. I can think of a couple of people I can do that one for...

I could have spent so much more, I especially liked the beautiful patterns from a company called Travellers Tales, I bought a bookmark in their Bashkir pattern as I loved the colours so much, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be checking out their website soon for some more! Plus I got another couple of small kits, and a couple of boxes to store threads in. I staggered home extremely pleased with myself. And I think I'm all set for the next year or so... Until the next time.

And it's been such a beautiful weekend, really spring-like. It has been so nice to see the sun, I just wish it didn't mean my hayfever is starting again.

First Finish of 2009

So, I finished my neice's first birthday present - I just need to get it framed now. I'm really pleased with it, I do think it turned out well.

More to come!

It's Snowing!

It's actually snowing in London! I'm so excited! It hardly ever snows in London, and for it to actually lie is even rarer. I just had to grab my camera and take a couple of photos out of the window.

This is the view from my front window, I'm sitting typing this and watching the snow falling. It won't last long, it never does, and in a way I'm hoping it doesn't stick around as (a) tomorrow's commute to work will be horrible and (b) I have to go down to the West Country on Tuesday to attend a funeral, and it won't be much fun if we have to plough through the snowdrifts to get there. Thankfully, I've arranged to go by train, as I wouldn't fancy driving in this weather. According to the forecast, it's going to snow on and off until at least Tuesday.



And going by train will give me a couple of hours stitching time. I have to do some work on the nursery rhyme picture I want to give my neice for her first birthday next month. It's so nearly finished, but I keep being side-tracked by other projects - Stitch Yourself Slim mostly, I've nearly finished the middle section and will try and post a photo in my next entry. No picture of Emily's present until it's finished - just in case my brother runs across this blog...


In the meantime, this is a photo of one of three embroidery pictures that I have done by my grandmother. Both my grandmothers were needleworkers, so I think that's were my interest came from - sadly they both died before I was born, but I suppose my own stitching is a way of feeling closer to them. All three pictures are on the wall in my spare room, and this one was on my bedroom wall as a child, so you can guess how much it means to me. My father tells me that Grannie Rhoda couldn't "do" faces, hence the poke bonnet in profile.

I'll post the other pictures in due course...

Here Goes Nothing...

Am I late getting on the bandwagon? Probably, but better late than never! I have no idea how this is going to turn out, it will probably turn into a completely rambling thing that no one will ever want to read.

Anyhoo, here's my first post. I'm sitting here drinking wine and watching Your Country Needs You - Saturday night chez moi is a riot of entertainment. I spent the afternoon stitching at a new project, which I got from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine. It's supposed to look like this:

and at the moment, it actually looks like this:

So you can see I have a bit of work to do! But it's fun, and I love the bright colours. And who knows, maybe I will "stitch myself slim"! Don't know how I'll turn it into the suggested cushion, yet.

I have to blame the lovely ladies (and gentleman) at the I-Love-Cross-Stitch Yahoo Group. I lurk heavily on that board - maybe now I've actually entered the blogosphere, I'll even start to post more often - and their gorgeous work has really inspired me. Before I started reading the messages, I enjoyed my stitching, since I joined, I've become obsessed. I've even started buying magazines - originally because it was coming up to Christmas and I wanted to make some cards, and now because I love some of their patterns. I've bought a stock of 14 count aida (in two colours so far - white and navy!), and am starting to build my stash of DMC threads. I'm hooked!

So, I think that's enough for my first post. I just hope somebody reads it... It'd be nice to know I've done OK.