OPAM 2014 ~ April 2014

Well another month is drawing to a close and I have little in the way of finishes to share ~ or ~ just the one!

This is my completed RSVP acceptance for my Niece's wedding.
It's part of a Bent Creek design called love.  Stitched on Sparklies 28ct Oatmeal Cashel Linen.
I'm delighted that it has been very well received.





I'm close to a finish with another piece and should manage it before the end of the month ~ if not, it will roll into May's tally.
Till next time.

Kate

Stitch from Stash 2014

If you have been reading me recently you will know that I have joined Stitch from Stash 2014 which is being run by Mel at Epic Stitching ~ the general rules are as follows:

• New starts in 2014 will be from stash
• There is a budget of up to £20/month to top up with necessary supplies ~ thread/fabric etc
• Post to your blog what you have been stitching on/new starts/items purchased
• Email Mel your stats monthly

Now I tried, albeit half-heartedly, to stitch from stash last year and fell off the waggon with visiting 4 shows during the year, I didn't go mad but I did buy new patterns.  This year, with the aid of the other 129 participants of SFS2014, I will stay on the stash waggon ~ I plan on saving the balance of my budget each month and using it for a treat, not sure what yet.

So, here is my January report:

JANUARY BUDGET

I made a couple of purchases this month ~ I visited Grace & Favour on Saturday and was looking for buttons and trim for a couple of projects that are at the finishing stage.

Budget	20.00
Buttons	-0.60
Ribbon/trim	-2.50
Thread	-1.39
Fat Quarter	-2.50
Balance	13.01

NEW STARTS FROM STASH

 

Home of a Needleworker by LHN

Fabric ~ Sparklies 28ct Brittney Gingerbread

Thread ~ recommended DMC 

This was my New Year's Day start and I am stitching 1/1.  I have completed a couple of other LHN designs over one and I like the way they turn out ~ I have a few more of their designs in my stash and I'm not certain I would stitch them over 2 now.

The Sheep Day by The Little Stitcher

Fabric ~ 32ct painted evenweave colour unknown

Thread ~ WDW Bark & Carries Creations Snow White

My first finish of 2014

 

This piece was stitched as the January challenge on the Needlecraft Haven Yuku Group.  Christine finds us a freebie to stitch each month and we submit pictures of our finished pieces to her.  Christine keeps a Gallery which is made public on reveal day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine stitching for an exchange on the Friendly Stitchers Yahoo group ~ secret until my partner has received.  All items used for this project were also from my stash.

 

WIPs & UFOs WORKED ON

La Pensee Positive by Jardin Privee ~ finished Part III & started Part IV, picture on my previous post.

Jolly Holiday by Lizzie Kate ~ small pillow finish with fabric from stash, forgot to take a picture!

I also worked on a couple of other items which I can't show as they are for gifts.

 

And that concludes my January report

 

So far I am enjoying the challenge ~ I have spent quite a bit of time sorting my stash which I believe will help me along in the months to come.  I have a App on my phone called Floss Checklist and I have started to add all my threads so I have an "at a glance" record.  The App covers about 20 different companies, so it's quite comprehensive, and is very easy to use.  I have an Android version ~ not sure if it's available for other systems ~ and feel if was definitely worth the sixty'ish pence outlay.

 

Till next time

 

 

Kate

 

 



 

 

Secret Santa & Christmas Ornament Exchanges

We're almost at the end of January and it's only 334 days till Christmas ~ just thought I'd get that over with and I promise not to mention it again ~ if I remember!

Our Tuesday Stitching Group have had a Secret Santa exchange for quite a few years now ~ 3 years ago we changed the format and rather than buying a gift for our partner we now each make our gifts.  So for Christmas 2013 I was to make something for Doreen ~ I was organised early and gathered a pattern and supplies however project # 1 and I didn't get on so I abandoned the idea.  A new project search was started and I found something that I thought would be perfect ~ I had a great time working on it and was quite pleased with myself.  Then disaster struck when I somehow managed to scorch it with the iron!!!!!!   I have been ironing since I was 10, ironing was my chore at home from that age and I have NEVER scorched anything (other than myself on a few occasions) in my entire ironing career ~I was completely devastated and disheartened and running out of time too.

Despite the setback I managed not to either fall out with or destroy project # 3 and was really quite pleased with how it turned out ~ and Doreen was delighted with it which is the most important thing.

Eliza's Pyn Pillow by With My Needle mounted on a hand painted and lined box.

This is the gorgeous gift I received from Carol.  I love it  ~ there are a number of reasons:
It's gorgeous
It's a heart ~ well 5 hearts if you count the individual ones
It's made from remnants of the fabric that the group used to make a quilt as a wedding gift for myself and the LM
It includes pieces of the fabric from my wedding dress ~ Carol had a sneaky word with my Sis2 at our wedding party and DH was involved at some stage too
Did I tell you it was a heart?  What's not to love?  Oh, and it as lights too!

I should remember to take my camera to our Christmas dinner next time and photograph all the gorgeous gifts that were exchanged.

I joined two ornament exchanges in 2013 ~ one on the Friendly Stitchers Yahoo Group and one on the Needlecraft Haven Yuku Group.

These are the gorgeous ornaments I received ~ on the left hand side from Mary in the FS Group and on the right hand side from Clare in the NH Group.  I really enjoy participating in these exchanges and now have quite a haul of beautifully stitched pieces from stitchers from around the world ~ I omitted to take a picture of my bowl displaying them all.

My ornament to Mary on the Friendly Stitchers Yahoo Group ~ Noel 2013, a free design from Mamilou Creations.
This was stitched on 35ct Barely Bronzed from Sparklies with DMC threads - I made one substitution as I didn't have one of the called for colours.  The bottom of the design had some wording which I omitted and added a strip of lacy trim in it's place.  For the back I used some lovely green spotty fabric from my stash and the hanger is made from a couple of ribbons, one stitched onto the other.

This is Christmas Morning by The Stitcherhood, a design from the 2012 Just Stitches Ornament Edition.  Stitched on 32ct fabric ~ colour unknown, I must get better at keeping my fabric with better detail.  Just two colours of DMC were used for this design which I stitched for Becs on the Needlecraft Haven Yuku Group.  I used a fabric which had a wreath design in red/green for the reverse with a hanger made from the same DMC used for the stitching.

I'm looking forward to this year's ornament exchanges already!

Kate

A Few Firsts

Some great firsts have been recorded throughout history ~ my firsts for the beginning of 2014 are perhaps just a wee bit less noteworthy.

My first post ~ and hopefully not my last!
I have had things to report however with life being busy in the run up to Christmas, work, collecting GB1 from university etc my posts were sparse to say the least.  I guess I also got a little lazy ~ having the benefit of my ipad makes access to the Internet/social networking/emails etc very easy.  What I do not find easy is posting via blogger, either via the app or the net ~ in fact I find it a hugely frustrating event, am I the only one?  I can't manage to master uploading photographs as I like to have them, text decides for itself where it will reside and which font.  So the laziness comes in when I start to think about having to fire up the PC ~ which is in the conservatory ~ or dig out a laptop.  And to add to the frustration when I did get a laptop out on Wednesday night because it hasn't been used for so long it required 91 Windows updates ~ which I did ~ and then it decided that the version of IE was too out of date to be of any use.  I packed it away and went to bed!
This morning we have laptop #2 ~ which so far seems to be working ok!

First TUSAL
Was actually 1 January 2014 ~ I had about 3 orts to show ~ please see explanation of laziness/ipad frustration above for why I did not share.
The next new moon is 30 January and I will curb the laziness to share a picture close to that time.  If you have no idea what this SAL is about you can read about it on Daffycat's Blog.

First 2014 Start ~ definitely not the last!

This is Home of a Needleworker from LHN ~ my New Year's Day start.  I'm stitching this 1/1 on 28ct Gingerbread Brittney fabric from Kate at Sparklies with the recommended DMC threads. The couple of threads on the LH side are actually my meagre pile of orts.




First IHSW
 Is this weekend and I have a date with a chair and my stitching bag ~ I hope to work on Home of a Needleworker, La Pensee Positive ~ a beautiful SAL from Nathalie at Jardin Privee (I have the last part to complete), Needlecraft Haven's monthly challenge which for January is a gorgeous freebie from Laura at The Little Stitcher.  I think that is plenty to keep me out of mischief.

In other news I signed up for this


which Mel at Epic Stitching is running.  The title says it all really ~ we do have a monthly budget available for supplies however I am going to try and steer clear of spending on any stash ~ as you may imagine I do have a fair bit squirrelled away to work with.  Wish me luck!





Aside from stitching I have a couple of housey jobs to complete and unfortunately the LM is poorly so a good dollop of TLC is in order.  The really bad news is that GB2 needs the rocket up the derriere again in terms of cleaning/tidying his room ~ oh boy!

Whatever your weekend brings I hope you enjoy it.

Kate

 

Who Knew?

That I would be such a bad blogger?

We've been busy with one or two things since way before the wedding - which is now some 108 days ago!  I haven't just counted this ~ I installed a countdown app on my phone and it has continued to count.

It was a summer of exams ~ A Level for GB1 & AS Level for GB2
Both boys have now passed their driving tests - GB1 in the summer and GB2 this week
The LM had an unpleasant experience after collecting his car from a service at the dealership ~ a few weeks before the wedding
Making favours, boutonnieres and assorted other bits n bobs
GB1 had lung surgery ~ 13 days before the wedding
The wedding ~ we had an awesome day
The wedding party ~ back at home
Honeymoon ~ European tour in the TVR
Work
Installing GB1 at university
Weekends away in Blackpool (there was a valid reason for going there) Scotland & Cumbria (sort of)
and more work.

I hope you can forgive me?

We're slowly getting back to some kind of normality and now C*****mas is on the horizon.  Stitching (other than wedding stuff) has appeared in my life again and I joined the French SAL La Pensee Positive.

This is Part II finished and I am now almost finished Part III, just a few sheep and a rabbit to complete. 
Stitched on Sparklies Barely Bronzed 36ct Edinburgh with the recommended threads.
This has been so lovely to stitch ~ I decided to stitch the French version but it is available in English, Italian, Spanish & German and possibly more too ~ it can be found here.

Part IV is due to be released next month.

I'll leave you with a photograph of the sunset over the Tyne ~ I was going to Newcastle to run a couple of errands and collect the LM from the station and couldn't resist driving onto Riverside Drive to capture this.  Not the best photograph ever as it was taken on my phone, but I like it.

See you soon.

 

Kate

 

It's been a while..........

A long while really and I must apologise ~ there have been a few things that have eaten into my time and left none spare for blogging, in fact I started this post a couple of weeks ago and then other things got in the way of me adding the pictures and posting!  I have been trying to keep on top of reading what you have all been doing, but even that has taken a bit of a back seat at times.

Stitching has been slow to non-existent, I did manage to finish my New Years Day start.

 

LHN ~ Summer Splendor

Recommended threads with one substitution

Fabric unknown

Started 01 January 2013

Finished 09 March 2013 

 



I plan to finish this into a bag ~ when that might happen is anyone's guess though.  My latest LHN project is Be True which was a birthday gift from Barb last year ~ I'm stitching one over one on 28ct so it's going to be just the perfect size for a scissor fob.
I've also started stitching the Drawn Thread "Love" scissor keep ~ I'm stitching this 9 times as they are to be the place cards for the Ladies who will be at out wedding.

 

 

The Drawn Thread - Love Scissors Tag

Recommended Needlepoint & Northern Lights Silk

Sparklies 35ct Edinburgh Linen ~ Barely Bronzed

Started 09 February 2013

 

As of today I have 4½ stitched so I'm halfway there!  You must excuse the crumpled appearance, thought I'd leave the ironing until they are all finished.

 

And a closer picture ~ I love the muted colours and the variety of stitches.  Our wedding is quite small and we wanted to include some handmade/personalised items ~ I know that each of the Ladies will appreciate these gifts.  We have something a little more manly for the Guys!  Well I have work tomorrow ~ another thing that gets in the way! ~ so I guess I had better go get some sleep.  I'll be trying very hard to be here with better regularity than I have displayed so far this year. 

 

Till next time.

 

Kate