a halloween experiment...

Since I spent the weekend suffering with migrane attacks, and was told on monday by the doctor they are most likely being caused by stress, I decided to take a break from stitching water games this week.

Sunday evening was spent dying some sparkly white aida I had lying around a lovely shade of purple; the lighter one in the top-left was the result of a minute 'dip' in the dye, the other 3 were taken out after about 15 minutes. They came out a bit lighter after being machine washed to remove all the excess dye.

Today my headaches were much better, I only had one and that was this morning so this afternoon I decided to stitch something small onto one of the darker pieces of aida. Supprisingly I also managed to finish it today as well! I love this design a lot and I think I am going to finish it as a small cushion that I can display every halloween.

Now that I am feeling better I think I shall continue with Water Games this week but I'll see how I feel tomorrow before making my mind up completely.

Have a lovely week everyone and see you Sunday!

x Fiona x

P.S Mel, Water Games is a kit by DMC I bought from my local stitchy shop 3 years ago, reference code is BL467/70 hope that helps :)

I need to think of better titles than update....

Ok lots to show and tell this week so I guess I'd better get started before I forget it all! Firstly, Water Games had continued to progress well this week, I am almost into the final quarter of this design so the end is most definetly in sight!

Did take some time out on Saturday as I came home early from work due to dizzy spells and couldn't focus on the chart symbols, much to my dismay. Decided to do some card making instead and knocked up these xmas cards (sorry, i know its early) using some designs I stitched last year and the teddy I finished a few weeks ago.

I also knocked up a few birthday cards using a Daisy & Dandelion card kit and some stick on gem stones, peel-offs and ribbon.

By yesterday evening I still couldn't focus on my stitching but wanted to do something with my hands so....I learnt to knit! So far I have learnt how to cast on, knit & purl. This is my practise piece from last night and now I'm working with some lovely 4ply cotton yarn and I'm making squares to turn into a patchwork cushion. Hopefully this hobby will give me something to do on the days when I don't feel like stitching or in the winter evenings when the lighting in my house is too poor to stitch by.

On one final stitchy note, I have been very ruthless today with my project bag, I discovered 4 kits I had written on my ufo list that I haven't actually started so I've put them away for now and I've also thrown out Lickle bit Shy, the poppy card, the housework fairies and Let's Celebrate.

Lickle bit shy & Let's Celebrate both had mistakes in that I couldn't find so I've decided to throw them away and restart as neither were really far along (to far along to unpick it all but not so far that I'd feel disheartened about restarting. As I am not going to restart them ny time soon i have also put these kits away in my stash box for now. The housework fairies has been spaced on the fabric wrong and the metalic threads Id used were begining to fray with age so again the chart has been filed away for another day when I have less to do, and I just didn't like the poppy card, it was originally a comissioned piece that the recipient decided against after I had started. So now my project bag is much lighter and seems much more managable!!

Think that's everything for this week, see u all next week for another update!!

Water Games Update

Just in time for my sunday update lol been working on Water Games all week and finally finished the water and made a good start on Tigger, should have more to show next week! I might actually finish this project this year! See you next week :)

Water Games Update

Not got as much stitching in this week as I would have liked but have been feeling so down lately its a wonder I got any stitching done at all. Work has been really tough and the six weeks I have left at this job seem unending at the moment. Anyway, enough about my working trobles lol time for a stitchy update!

Done some work done on Water Games, I've found that highlighting the sections I've done in a different colour each week is really inspiring me to keep going and almost pushing me to stitch just a little longer each day to try and do more than i did the previous week. Didn't quite make it this week but I spent an evening or two stitching on a different UFO just to give myself a break from the blues of WG! That ufo should be finished within a week if i spent another couple of evenings on it.

Well thats it for this week, next week: hand-dyed aida experiments, an update on Water Games and maybe even a finish!

Happy Stitching and have a lovely week

x Fiona x

an update or seven...

Wow time flies when your having fun, I can't believe it's been so long since my last update! So much has happened since my last post that I'm not even sure I'll be able to remember it all in order to tell you about what I've been up too, more than prepared to give it a shot though, so here it goes.

Firstly the sampler I stitched for my boss' little boy was completed on time and went down a treat, Thomas was thrilled with it apparently, so that's another happy customer :)

I went to Wales for a week with my family at the end of June, we stayed in the Breacon Beacons area, there are so many crafty/stitchy shops in Wales!! It seems like every town we visited had at least one craft shop! I even found Oliver Twist threads for sale in Hay-on-Wye!

Pictured here are a few of the bits and pieces that found their way into my stash. I also found a lovely needle shop selling back issues of Q&E magazine for 50p each so needless to say I filled a few gaps in my collection!

Obviously no holiday in Wales is complete without a trip to The Nimble Thimble, here I am outside, and yes before anybody asks, I did treat myself to a few bits and pieces as shown in the photo.

Shockingly even with all my stash buying I did actually manage to do some stitching on my holiday. I made a little progress on a bentley bear freebie kit, started a swallow freebie from cross stitcher (seemed appropriate at the time, we had them flying round the cottage we were staying in) started a tatty teddy design for a friend's birthday in July (still not finished now but she changed her mind about the design so I'll finish it at some point for myself) and started (and finished!) a keyring kit of a sheep which I also bought because it seemed appropriate, we were surrounded by them!!

When we got back from our holiday I found myself very glad that I'd bought the new country companions birth sampler as one of the girls at work was delighted to find out she's expecting! I had to laugh when she told me as she'd been joking around with me a few weeks before asking if I'd stitch a picture for her when she had a baby...I don't think either of us expected it to be that quickly! Luckily the baby isn't due until January so that gives me some time to do some stitching for me and finish a few UFO's before I get started with that one!

Since coming home I have managed to finish a few things. I finished 'I stitch therefore I stash' about a week ago now, I decided against the french knots as am framing it under glass without a mount and I wouldn't want them to look squashed.

Since finishing I stitch, I have been working on Water Games and I am finally past the halfway point. I won't be stitching on any other project until this is finished now, I refuse to let it hit the 3 year mark!

Also found this little guy floating around the bottom of my project bag, seeing as he only needed his hat and backstitch doing I finished him off over the weekend, took about an hour max.

This weekend was also a pretty good stashy weekend, found 5 kits in the boot sale and approximately 330+ anchor/dmc threads for less than £45, topped off by the 57 back issues of crossstitcher, card shop & WOXS magazine i picked up last week for just £1.50!

And finally, a blast from the past, I was cleaning out the craft room when I stumbled across this piece of stitching, this is the oldest piece of stitching I have done, I must have been about 7 when I did this, originally he had googly eyes but i guess they had fallen off, I replaced his eyes with paper ones and put him in a keyring :)
Ok well I think thats everything I have been up to for the last 3 months, thank you very much for reading if you didn't give up by now! Sorry its such a long post but I hope you enjoyed it. See you all on Sunday for another Water Games update & Happy Stitching!

x Fiona x