Is it the end of June already?!

I can’t believe it’s the end of June, I’m sure the month only just started the other day! The summer will be over before we know it.

Thank you for all your comments on my latest finish!   I really did have a lot of fun stitching this one and I’m glad so many of you liked it enough to comment   Annemarie asked if I had any other finishes planned; well, I have a RR deadline of next week, so that will probably be my next finish.  Unfortunately, the weather has turned very humid, which isn’t conducive to stitching at all, although I did manage some outside last night while we watched Andy Murray claw his way through to the Wimbledon quarter-finals – talk about nerve-wracking!

A lot of my remaining WIPs aren’t really that close to being finished, actually (in fact, a lot of them are barely started ).  I decided to round everything up, including freebies and ornaments (which I don’t normally include in my WIP count) and do a display of everything I have on the go:

And now I see that there are 2 more freebies that I forgot about and another small piece that I started after I took the photo – oops!  Still, never mind, you get the general idea

I think, since I have been concentrating mainly on one WIP during June, that I shall have a bit of a stitching free-for-all during July and August and stitch on what I like, with the aim of trying to progress a few of these WIPs.  I seem to have developed a horrible habit of starting things and then moving on after just a few stitches, especially with some of these ornament and freebies!

The more observant among you may notice the absence of a certain Bea Potter quaker.  I think Bea and I have fallen out a bit over the last couple of months.  I didn’t make as much progress as I’d hoped during April, so I had a little rest from Bea in May.  When I picked her up again in June, she got her own back by making sure I had to rip out a chunk of previously stitched work (I think she spent her May exile ripping out my correct stitches and restitching them incorrectly ) , which didn’t impress me one bit and meant that, again, my progress was slower than I hoped.  I was planning to stitch on her a bit more before the end of the month, which is why I didn’t include her in the above picture, but it hasn’t happened   Maybe I need a different strategy, as I’m not sure the Friday evening Bea session is really working for me right now.  I will share a picture later this week, just so that you can see that i *have* made some progress.

Anyway, it’s hot, my brain is a bit fried and I’ve run out of words.  I’m off to watch some more tennis and hopefully keep cool!  Till next time, keeeeeeeep stitching!

Hot off the ironing board!

Well, the tennis this week is really doing wonders for my stitching progress, despite the rather poor (Andy Murray aside) British performances in the singles.  I finished up Goode Huswife’s Pennsylvania Alphabet Sampler this afternoon, 5 days ahead of my end of the month goal

I used the recommended DMC threads on a lovely piece of BOAF Barn Owl linen in 32ct.  The colour of the linen is represented better in the photo below:

I have to say, I loved every stitch of this piece!   I loved the design, the colours and the fabric – my first time using BOAF linen and I’m definitely hooked!  It really is wonderful to stitch on, even in hand.  I was gifted this piece by a very kind stitcher; I was thrilled when I realised it was absolutely perfect for this design and I just about managed to squeeze it on with (hopefully) enough margin for framing

Thank you as always for all your lovely visits and comments!  I really enjoy reading everything you have to say

A perfect afternoon :)

Guess what I’ve been doing?

Stitching, sunshine and Wimbledon – what a great afternoon!

Another small finish

This is my latest finish, a Pennsylvania-style stocking from the same Better Homes and Gardens book as Lo, How a Rose.

I used 32ct Sassy’s Tawny Buff linen with DMC and CC in my own choice of colours (the original was a red monochrome).  It was started 2-3 months ago and I’ve just been stitching a motif here and there when I felt like it.  I’d actual forgotten about it until earlier this week; when I unearthed it, I realised I was nearly done so I decided to finish it up.  The red fabric is for the backing and the gold for the lining; hopefully I’ll be able to get it made up soon.

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my garden.  Melissa, the pink rose is a patio rose called Flower Power – it’s absolutely full of blooms right now!   And Barb asked if our garden was professionally designed; no, we designed it ourselves, although Mr V probably did the majority of the graphing out and planning, since he’s good at things like that.  It’s still a WIP though; there are bits that we want to totally redo, as time and money allow!  Also, thank you for your well wishes for Maisie; the wound is almost healed up and she’s currently snoozing away on our bed

My stitching room

Susan asked people to share pictures of their stitching rooms, so since I was tidying up in preparation for tomorrow and my room looks fairly respectable at the moment, I thought I’d join in.  I did post pictures ages ago in a previous incarnation of my blog, but the post doesn’t exist any more, plus I rearranged everything last year to make better use of the power sockets so I took a new set of pictures.  Here they are; move your mouse over the slideshow to see captions, although the pictures are fairly self-explanatory:

Hope you enjoyed the virtual tour!

Busy, busy!

I’ve been meaning to update for a few days, but we seem to have been busy doing this, that and the other and I just haven’t got around to it until now.

This weekend was spent knocking the garden into shape because we’re hosting a Father’s Day party this coming weekend.  So, it was off to the garden centre on Saturday, to buy plants for tubs and to fill a few gaps and then we spent most of the remaining weekend planting everything up and giving everywhere a general tidy up and a “haircut”.  It was worth it though; here are the results of our hard work:

It’s at a bit of an inbetween stage at the minute; some of the early flowering plants are just going over and the new bedding plants we bought aren’t really established yet, so I’ll try to remember to update later on in the summer.

It wasn’t all work, though.  We did manage to find a couple of hours over the weekend to watch the semi-final and final of the Aegon tennis classic at Queen’s club, which was won by Andy Murray.  Yay!  Looking forward to Wimbledon next week now   And of course, whilst I was “watching” the tennis, I was really listening whilst stitching and I managed to finish up this:

With My Needle
Quaker Hornbook
HDF Besmurfed and Flax Edinburgh linen

I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to finish it yet; I’m a bit reluctant to shell out the $$ for the hornbook, so I’ll probably do something else.

I’ve also been busy this week taking Miss Maisie backwards and forwards to the vets.  Mr V. discovered a wound on one of her back legs, which the vet subsequently said looked like a bite (from another cat); fortunately, after 2 visits, some topical antibiotic gel and 2 antibiotic shots, the wound is healing well.  Apart from being a bit quiet for a day after the first visit, she’s been her usual self, sleeping in odd places and being super-cuddly.  So when I saw a lump under our duvet this afternoon, I knew exactly what I would find when I turned the covers back:

Cosy, isn’t she?

A quick thank you to everyone who has emailed me with their mailing addresses from the giveaway.  I haven’t had chance to hit the PO yet (or reply to any of the emails), but hope to do so tomorrow and once everything’s posted, I’ll let you all know.  I still haven’t heard back from Michele, so please, Michele, can you email me using the link in my previous post with your address – as I said before, if I don’t hear from you by next Monday, I’ll have to pick a new name for the chart.  Thanks!

And the winners are…

Here are the winners of my recent giveaway:

Barrick Samplers An American Landscape – Michele
Birds of a Feather Bloom - LauraB
Blackbird Designs Rites of Spring – Kathy
Brightneedle Friendship – Debbie
Brightneedle Libby Q – Redwitch
Heart in Hand Little Angel – Valerie
Lizzie*Kate Gather a Harvest – Renee G (no blog link given)
Primitive Needle Earth Sampler - Suzanne
The Trilogy Winter Line-up – Bronny
With My Needle Quaker Samplings – Agne

Thanks to all who participated!  Please would the winners email me with their mailing addresses so that I can get these in the post ASAP.  If I don’t hear from you in one week from today, I’ll pick another name.  Congratulations to the winners and commiserations to everyone else – hopefully you’ll be lucky another time!

I spy…a sheepie :)

Sorry for the slightly blurry shot (which is much less blurry when you click and enlarge it) – I took it outside with the Flower setting on the camera and it’s picked up the colours of the fabric and threads very well.  Bright, isn’t it?   But still very cute

Whilst I’d got the camera out, I thought I’d take a picture of the WIP that I’ve been focusing on this month, Pennsylvania Alphabet Sampler by The Goode Huswife:

I’d been picking this one up here and there, but at the start of this month, I decided to stitch one square a day for the whole of the month, with the aim of finishing it up.  So far, I’m on track; it’s quite a relaxing stitch, which makes it good to do in the evening whilst watching TV and each block stitches up pretty fast.  I’m taking a break from it tonight though, as I have a date with a pretty little Quaker girl who has been neglected a little these past couple of months…

All is revealed

Congratulations to all those of you who guessed correctly in my previous post!  My new WIP is indeed Sheep’s Paradise by Midsummer Night Designs and here’s an updated progress picture:

This picture shows the colours a little better (especially if you click on it to enlarge), but it’s still hard to convey just how BRIGHT that grass green (CC Eve’s Leaves) really is!   I’m using Sand Belfast instead of the recommended Wichelt Sandstone linen and I’m loving this one already. You can just see the outline of the first sheep in the grass – this is such a cute piece!

And now for something completely different

After the monochromatic-themed and subtly-coloured new starts in my last post, I thought I’d show another new WIP, which is rather more vibrant and most definitely a polychrome

(Unfortunately, the light isn’t great here this evening, so you’ll just have to imagine that the colours are a lot brighter in person – I almost need my shades on when I’m stitching it!)

Rather than me telling you straight away what it is, I thought it would be fun to see if you can guess!  I’ll give you a few clues to start you off:

• The design was published in the last couple of months
• I’m stitching with the recommended overdyed (CC and GAST) cotton threads
• The designer has a blog and has showcased this design on it
• She is fairly new to the designing world (i.e. not as established as, say, CHS or Drawn Thread)
• She designs samplers and likes a slightly brighter colour palette than usual (IMO)
• I’ve recently finished one of her designs and shown it on this blog
• There is a connection of sorts between the title of this new design and the title of the design I recently finished
• Oh, and I’ve started at the bottom with the “grass”

So, any guesses as to what it is?  To make it a little more interesting, I’ll send a little surprise “something” to the first person who guesses correctly

ETA: Congratualations Karrie!  Yes, it’s Sheep’s Paradise, by Midsummer Night Designs   Updated pic to follow shortly