Tuesday 8 November 2011

A PROPER finish!

Well, I've finally made it - my christmas stocking is well and truly FINISHED!!!

I put the last stitch into the actual cross stitch in September, and it's taken me this long to figure out how I was going to make it up. It's completely lined with the same fabric (pale blue) and I put in some wadding so that it's quite nice and "squishy" too.
We are going to collect Erika and Jessica on Friday morning to bring them to our house overnight. One of Erika's best friends lives nearby and she is celebrating her 30th birthday. Her husband has arranged a surprise party for her, so Erika is coming down for that. On Saturday Tony will be coming down to collect them and take them home, so we'll only have to make the trip once. But while they're here I think I'll give the stocking to them so that they don't go buying one for her nearer to Christmas. It also means I might get a nice photo of her with it! Grandma perks eh?

I think that at the moment it's almost as big as she is!



So as this is the first time she's been here since she's been crawling, I'd better get moving and clear the decks of anything she's likely to try and get into! Been a long time since a "crawler" has been here so it might take a while!



Good luck everyone for YOUR finishings!
Sandie

Sunday 6 November 2011

Heads up - a new giveaway online

Just come across a new giveaway on Craft Gossip .

For those of us that are Joan Elliot fans they are giving away a copy of "Fairy Enchantment". It's open to US and International readers too - so hop on over and give it a go.

Love
Sandie

Friday 4 November 2011

Christmas comes early - again!

This week has had a bit of an explosive nature! Yesterday (after we got our weekly shop) I put a potato in the microwave for lunch. I turned round and a few seconds later I heard a change in the usual noise it made, so I looked back - and there were FLAMES coming from the internal wall!!! I immediately turned it off, and after waiting for it to cool down I opened the door to discover a hole in the wall of the oven! After cleaning it, I tried again, but the same thing happened. So we had to go out again in order to purchase another one! We've recently replaced our kettle, now this - I wonder what the third item will be? I just keep thinking what might have happened if I'd left the kitchen and gone upstairs or something?

Earlier in the year, I entered a competition online to win an extreme knitting kit - something I've never tried, but wanted to. Weeks went by and I hadn't heard anything, so I assumed it had gone to someone else. But the other day I had an email to say that the original person didn't meet the requirement (to live in the UK!), and I was the runner-up. I expected a small package, but instead this ENORMOUS box turned up! These were all inside! The plastic bags at the back contain 2 more kits to make the knitted bags (2 already made up). There's a scarf (made up) and a cushion pack so I can see my knitting skills are going to be challenged even further.


I started knitting years ago, I even have a knitting machine in our shed but the size of these needles has to be a challenge to manipulate! I'll have to finish the couple of mini projects I have started already otherwise I'll be very confused when I pick up one or the other! I've just finished a jacket for Jess knitted from an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern (look her up if you don't know her work - it's fantastic and so simple to make the pattern fit the size you want - she explains how to alter a jacket to fit a baby, child or adult!)

My cross stitch hit a bit of a brick wall too recently. So much so that I've joined an on-line SAL! I've always resisted before, thinking that I don't like to be told what I'm stitching and when! But this is TOTALLY different! Measi's Musings is having a stitch along with a difference -
  • After years of involving myself in round robins and being so overloaded by projects I was committed to do, I’m committing myself to a year of project stripping before the world is supposed to end – my own little Works-in-Progress Apocalypse (or… WIPocalypse for short). The feedback I received when I made my first post was quite encouraging, so instead of a solitary thing,I’m now starting a stitch-a-long for the idea!
So later on this month I will make a list of the projects I'm hoping to clear-up next year, and will be making regular updates on my progress (or lack of it!).

Meantime the progress on my Flower Fairy (for the quilt) and my Egyptian piece have both been slow. So slow that there's not really a point in putting up a photo. Maybe by next week I'll have more progress to show. And I've just bought the fabric for the christmas stocking - so look out for progress on that soon too.

November has always been a busy month for birthdays in our house, so I've been spending a couple of afternoons making cards for them. I've got up to the beginning of December, but I'm going to have to keep making a few more - then of course there's the christmas cards to get moving on!

Today is my daughter's 33rd birthday - I just wish her all the love and luck in the world.

In the meantime the nights are drawing in, the evenings are getting colder and I'm going to have to find my daylight bulb to put back in the lamp so that I can carry on sewing.

I hope your week has been less eventful than mine, and hope you'll keep sewing.
love
Sandie