Oh My! February Already

If only I was good at making excuses - I'd come up with a reason why I haven't been around! But I'm not - so I'll just own up and say that not much has been happening and I can't face more time at the laptop!

However I'll start now and try to update you from where we left off last month!

Cross stitching - has been moving on a bit. I've started the Joan Elliott Diary 2013 stitch-along. The idea was  to stitch a picture a month from the diary, but I decided to start with August not January! I gridded the fabric, and made a start. There's been a few messages about it to Joan Elliott on Facebook, as we discovered several mistakes in the printing where World of Cross Stitch has changed colours! Luckily Joan replied and has put us right with the correct colours, even providing a pdf of her finished samples. And surprise surprise I have finished August!

I'm going to do all 12 months on one piece of fabric, and put the name of each design and the month it represents under each one. Now I've started April!

Then I've got another FINISH!

I started to make a bellpull with four Santa designs I found. But after chatting with a friend about Christmas traditions I changed my ideas. She was telling me about how her grand-daughter posted a letter to Santa in her "false" fireplace. I can remember doing that as a child myself. And it got me thinking that Jessica won't have that opportunity as they don't have a chimney, so I came up with an alternative. It's still a bellpull type hanging, but I will sew it up with a pocket at the bottom so that she can put her letters there for Santa. Here's the cross stitching finished. 

The pocket will start just under the word Santa. Then I'm going to back it with felt and sew it onto a hanger so that she can hang it over the doorknob of her bedroom for Santa to collect!

And I've gone back to my cheetah. Not got far here yet as it's loads of confetti stitches. Here's the pattern and how far I've got. 

 I'm starting at the top left corner on this one to try and focus on where I am. It's only four A4 pages, but completely stitched. So I need to be methodical. I discovered that I was one shade missing, but a quick email to Yiota solved that - she's putting it in the post to me today. Good service eh? I've put a link to her website on the right hand side, so go and have a look. I'll be reporting how I get on with this pattern over the next few months.

My knitting hit a brick wall this week - and bounced back at me. I was sure I had enough wool to complete that shrug. But you can guess what I'm going to say can't you? Yes - I'm a third of the way down the second sleeve and rapidly running out of wool. And I can't find any more! So today DH and I went to town and I've come up with a sort of solution! I'm using an Aran weight yarn, so I found 2 different 4-plys which when used together are ALMOST a match. So I'm going to pull it back to the edge of the first sleeve and knit the "back" of the shrug in the mixed, then do the second sleeve in the original. Hopefully it won't look too odd, and I'm reluctant to pull out all those cables, but there's no other way.

I've put a few photos up that I found of some of my older pieces on my Older Cross Stitch Finishes Page, so hop over and have a look.

And on another front we're off on holiday at the end of the week, so I won't be around again until March! Off to LA for a couple of days, then onto the Golden Princess for a 2 week cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. We did the same cruise (on the same ship) in 2010 and had such a fabulous time that we're doing it again. I just hope DH doesn't come home with another ukelele!! I'm intending to hit the craft/sewing shops while we're away, so hopefully there's a bit of spare room in the cases!

  It's our 38th Wedding Anniversary while we're away, so a small celebration on board is in order I think. I'll be missing you!!

Take care 'til next time
Sandie