On our travels ..... AGAIN!

Evening all.
Not much has been happening on the cross stitch front for a few weeks now. It may be something to do with the cold weather, but I've also been suffering a bit with my health. For some years I've had issues with an intermittent pain in my left leg. I've come to the conclusion that it's similar to sciatica, but not exactly the same - so I've been doing some Googling! Fatal really if you're a hypochondriac! But luckily I'm not! I think I've narrowed it down to something called "Meralgia Paraesthetica" - but as I'm due for a doctor's review of my Blood Pressure meds next week I shall ask then. It's basically when a nerve gets trapped near the hip, and subsequently pain shoots down the outside of the thigh. It comes and goes, but when it strikes - BOY!! It's a burning pain or else it feels like someone reached in and is twisting the muscle! When it strikes, there's no way to alleviate it either. And when it wakes you at night - it's all I can do not to scream sometimes. Still hopefully the doc will have some suggestions for me to help.

Last month Mike and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary!

Our wedding day in 1975! (I made that dress myself!)

We decided to make a special trip to celebrate. Since we went on the Nile cruise back in 2010, we have always said that we would like to go back and relax on board rather than getting up at silly o'clock to dash off to visit all the sights! So that's what we did. We took one of our friends with us who has never been to Egypt. We stayed 3 nights at the Makadi Spa hotel, then were driven across to the Nile where we met the boat (MS Grand Rose). After 7 nights on board, we then went back to the Makadi Spa for another 4 nights. Now I shall bore you with some of the photos we took!

From here it's a bit photo intensive, so I shan't be offended if you want to skip these!

Front of the Makadi Spa hotel at night 

View of the Red Sea from the Makadi Spa hotel

Edge of the infinity pool at the hotel

The infinity pool looking out to the Red Sea

The beach

MS Grand Rose reception

Karnak Complex

Pillars in Karnak - this location was used in the James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me"

Avenue of Sphinxes which is believed to run from Karnak to Luxor Temple 

Entrance to Luxor Temple 

Luxor Temple

3 views of Nile boats 

Komombo Temple 

The Old Cataract Hotel, Aswan - Agatha Christie wrote part of "Death on the Nile" here.

As you can see we didn't go on many trips off the boat. Maybe next time I write, I'll add a few of the photos from our previous trip too. The only one we went on this time was the Karnak and Luxor temples - in 2010 it was getting to dusk when we arrived, so I wanted to see it in daylight! 

Well after that whistle stop tour of Egypt, I'd better let you get on with your daily life! Next time I'll bring you up to date on my stitching!

Take care

Sandie

New Year - back again

Back again. I had a bit of a funk about writing this blog! I really couldn't see the point of sitting here, writing down what I'd been up to ... but thinking about it I'm going to continue. I shall write about what I've been creating, and where we've been.
Mind you - saying that - I should say that I won't post everything I've finished since my last post! That would take too long! I have to say I finished a few bits at the end of last year, maybe I will get round to posting them at some point - but let's start afresh and go from now.

I am currently working on a Heritage Crafts kit of Neuschwanstein Castle. I'd forgotten how they work those partial stitches they use, but luckily I'd bought the kit with evenweave fabric, so it was not too much of a pain. I'm about two thirds of the way complete, but the camera is tucked away, so I'll post a photo next time. Hopefully that will be a finish (or nearly one anyway).

Remember that Hummel piece I stitched last year?

I finally bought some fabric to finish this as a flat-fold. It will be my first attempt to finish in this way - so watch this space!

My dear friend celebrated her 80th birthday in November so I had to stitch her a special card. I loved the meerkats, but was disappointed that the glue I used showed through the fabric - luckily it almost made a pattern! But I was still upset with the finish.

This was a Joan Elliott pattern which I stitched and added to a christmas card for Jessica this year. My intention is to make another similar each year for her to hang on her tree. Now that they have moved house, they have space to put up a tree, so hopefully I can start this as a tradition for her.

I also finished this for Jess this year. I backed it with a red Christmas print and finally found a small enough hanging rod from Sew and So. (Most of them were too big). Although she is still slow in speaking, there is nothing wrong with her intelligence. And she does not yet write her name legibly. But this year she sat with her mum's Tesco Christmas catalogue and had ripped out the pages where she wanted the toys! So she could slip the pictures into the pocket at the bottom. I also printed out some A4 letter headed sheets which purported to come from Santa's desk, so that her parents could write a reply for her and put it into the pocket as a reply from Santa. 

This year we had Christmas at home alone - merely going to a friend's for a Boxing Day meal. And our New Year was quiet too - we sat at home watching Jools Holland on the television. 

The weather here has been very cold, but so far we have not seen any snow this far south and east. I hope we don't get any either! Tomorrow I have to go for a mammogram and have already decided to go to town on a bus so even with a heavy frost I should be okay for that. Then I have to start looking around for some summer wear - my t-shirts are looking a bit sad! We are off to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary in February in Egypt. We are going with a friend to a hotel in Hurghada and a Nile cruise tagged onto it. At least it should be a fair bit warmer than here!

Right - enough of the computer - time to get the bins ready for collection tomorrow - then make dinner and settle down for a night in front of the television with some knitting. I'm making a tunic style jumper in an Aran weight yarn, so it keeps me warm while I'm making it! The front is almost finished, so I hope to cast on for the back tonight.

Take care

Sandie

Always look on the bright side......

Hi friends! It's been a while I know - but I'm finally back!

Excuses aside, I just haven't been in a good place to post recently - my mind has been elsewhere, but hopefully I'm back now and will try to post more regularly. I've had a few health issues lately, and have discovered that the older you get, the more pills you seem to have to take! Luckily as an OAP I can claim free prescriptions!

What's been going on stitchy wise? I decided that I needed a break from large pieces at the moment. My stitching mojo took a walk somewhere and didn't reappear for a while, so I took some time for other crafts. I finished off those hearts I had completed in December. Here they are with my new candle bridge which we bought this year. (Along with that new tree!)

I finished knitting the pieces for my cardigan - it's all sewn up and awaiting the buttonband to be knitted so I may get it done in time for the final arrival of Spring. I altered a few bits from my wardrobe which had been lamenting in my sewing pile for months. Nothing really worth photographing here though.

In Britain, we have had some severe weather over the first few months of the year. Luckily in the East of England, we did not have the terrific downpours of the West of England and Wales, or even just west of London, where some communities were up to their waists in water, and even entire villages had to be evacuated. However we did have some strong winds and on two separate occasions we had to have fence panels replaced in our garden. On the second occasion we even replaced those which had not been damaged, so now we have completely new fencing on both sides. I would take photos but at the moment it's a bit of a mess out there as I didn't get round to finishing my autumn tidy-up, so when I finally manage to get out there again I'll post some new photos.

As we celebrated our 39th anniversary this year, we took ourselves off on another Hawaiian cruise - the same one that we have done before, although this year it was on a different ship - the Star Princess from Princess Cruises. Nothing like a spot of sunshine to refresh the soul - and the body eh? While away I finished 2 cross stitch pieces - a free Shamrock design from Brooke's Books - scroll down past the alphabet to get the pattern for this. It's actually stitched in a dark purple rayon thread, so it shimmers a bit when you see it.

And the other piece I stitched from a colouring book page. I hope to make this the centre panel of a wall hanging for my GD Jessica. Last year while we were away I bought her an alphabet wall hanging from Hawaii. So I'm thinking that I should try to make a number one to complement it. I was thinking 1 airplane; 2 suitcases; 3 swimsuits etc to tie in with the holiday theme of this piece. Jessica loves anything with Hello Kitty on it, so I should be on to a winner here!

Just before we left on holiday, I noticed that Brother had released a new cutting machine which also operated as a scanner. In the UK the only distributor is Create and Craft, so after we came home I treated myself to a complete set-up. Here is the page to see what I'm talking about if you have missed the hype about it all. The machine arrived last Friday afternoon, and I've been spending a bit of time getting to grips with it. Like all new technology, it has a learning curve, but I can see it being so useful in all areas of my craft. It will be very useful for cutting all those appliqué pieces for Jessica's number quilt! I foresee more on this little beauty in the months to come! 

Well, if you have stuck with me so far, I'll wish you all a good afternoon. I need to get the dinner on, and then I can settle down to try and sort out that buttonband on my new cardigan while I watch Hawaii Five-0 tonight on Sky One. (We did drive past their studio in Honolulu but didn't have time to stop and see if they were filming!)

Until next time

Take care

Sandie

I'm BACK!!

Morning all!
I have to apologise to my followers - I have just not felt up to blogging recently. (Blushes as I realise the last post was in August!) And apologies that there will only be a few photos as I can't find the camera to download what I need! (Maybe next post?)

I have no excuse other than I couldn't really motivate myself to put fingers to keyboard! At least not for blogging! I still kept in touch with folks via the various Yahoo groups I belong to, but even that became a pain in the **** recently when Yahoo changed it's format for the groups, making it a real learning curve to keep up with it all. However (apart from a few minor niggles recently) it seems to have settled down, and most days I am able to do what I want or need to do.

Recently we went with some friends to their villa in Spain for 10 days. The weather in Spain was amazing for October. In fact we discovered that Spain had never had such high temperatures in October for many years. But it was relaxing to sit on the terrace, drinking the odd glass of wine, reading on my tablet or finally getting back into stitching. As we flew on RyanAir (a cheap carrier for those who don't know) we travelled with hand luggage only, so I had to find something SMALL with only a few colours of thread to pack. I chose a few christmas heart ornaments from a recent magazine.

My cheetah had to stay at home - far too bulky and too many colours, so I haven't put many stitches in there at all recently. My Joan Elliott diary piece is progressing as I had been able to put a few stitches in it while watching the tv of an evening. As a result I now have almost 9 months completed.

I did manage to complete a rush piece for our friends who took us to Spain. This weekend they celebrated their Ruby Wedding Anniversary, and as they only told us they were having a party about a month ago I had to find a pattern I could stitch fairly quickly. I found a free pattern which I had downloaded some time ago, and managed to get it completed in time to frame it and present it to them at their party. I even had time to make a special card for them too!

On one of the Yahoo groups I am on, one member had been saying earlier this year that her granddaughter will have to have major surgery next year, and other members offered to make quilt squares for Grandma to make into a quilt for her; Grandma chose the patterns she wanted us to use to ensure continuity; we all had instructions on fabric type etc; and then we all started stitching. I managed to put an individual touch to mine by adding a line of paw prints down one side of a personal message for her granddaughter, as the pattern was quite tall and narrow. 

The tacking stitches indicate the 8x8 inch square we were told to make sure we didn't exceed! Grandma has received the square and seems to be delighted with it, so I am happy to have contributed. 

I bought some cotton yarn on holiday in Austria, for 1euro a ball! So I have been busy knitting a few washcloths. Last weekend I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Alexandra Palace in London. I was a little disappointed that there seemed to be even fewer cross stitch stands this year. I was looking for a wire hanger for a christmas gift for my granddaughter, but couldn't even find one in the entire exhibition. So I have to resort to internet shopping for it - and who knows what else I might find while I'm doing that!

This has to be made up yet, but the idea is the bottom makes a pocket where Jessica can slip her letter to Santa. When I was a child many homes had open fires, and children would write their christmas letters to Santa, and then consign them to the fire where they burnt and went up the chimney to Santa's home. As more homes now have no chimney, the tradition seems to have died out. So I'm trying to make a new tradition for Jessica!

I still managed to spend a fair amount on fabric and yarns at the exhibition, coming home with 2 bags full of goodies - more of those next time. Until then - take care and keep stitching

Sandie

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

Two posts in two days! WIPocalypse update 2

Finally got round to taking some up-to-date photos of my projects! First of all though here's one more photo of our snowy landscape; slowly disappearing now as the sun shines - even if it is weak!

This is my wizard who sits guard over my rock fountain. He sits on a pile of magic books - but they can't be seen! 

On to the work I've been putting into my crafts. For the last few weeks I've been reading a lot of travel guides, so my embroidery took a bit of a back seat. Anyway - here's Egypt. This is the hieroglyph panel on the top left of the main design. (Not a particularly good photo - sorry!)

Now for my Rose fairy. Considering the light has not been too brilliant, and it's quite small work I'm pleased with the progress on this one. It's actually beginning to look like Cecily Mary Barker's fairy!

And for a finale - the knitting I've been doing - I don't profess to be a wonderful knitter, but I bought some specialist yarn and made some scarves - 

Three with a ruffled effect, and the fourth with an eyelash yarn. Think they'll be enough for this cold snap? I bought another ball of a pink mix. Not knitted that one yet; I'm going to save that for a present for my daughter. Hopefully she'll like mine and be delighted to get one of her own!

I've also sat down and made an anniversary card for my DH. We celebrate 37 years together on Feb 18th this year. And of course I can't show the card as he might see it on here!

So I'm using all of the above towards my WIPocalypse thread too! I simply won't have too much time to add another post in a few days for it, so I've updated this post to include it all. The other bits haven't even had a stitch put in them! But I have found another piece I want to add - a square flower pattern I got from Sparkles 'n' Stitching Louise has a few patterns free in her artfire shop. You request it, and she emails it to you separately. I'm thinking of doing it in a variegated thread on white - but I'm also thinking of making a series in various colours which I can use as cushion covers?

Today I went back to the library and returned a pile of travel guides. Why? Well in two weeks time we're off on a cruise in South East Asia! We are travelling with another couple who we have been away with before. We travel to Beijing, spending a few days there and in Xian. Then we get on board the Diamond Princess. First stop is Busan (South Korea), next sailing to Nagasaki (Japan). Then it's back to China for Shanghai and Hong Kong before sailing to Nha Trang and Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam. Bangkok (Thailand) and Singapore finish it all off before we fly home. Not really sure now if February is the right time to travel there? Temperatures will range from -11C to 34C, so we've got a lot of planning to decide what we should pack! I think it will have to be mainly natural fibres, worn in layers which we can take off as we get warmer! So the travel guides have been used extensively looking where the excursions go to from the ship, and planning what is the "must-see" places for each stop. (I've put some reviews and thoughts on my Book Page.) I think I'll be taking the square pattern with me to sew on the cruise as I won't have to worry too much about colours etc and it will be easy to pack!

I'll try and post more before we leave, but who knows where the time goes these days?

Hope you're all keeping well and if you have snow I do hope you're all safe and warm

'Til next time

Sandie

WIPocalypse post 1

Well, the New Year has started and I almost forgot to post my WIPocalypse pics. On the page dedicated to it I have listed what I'm going to work on (as of now) although the list may be added to as the year goes on - the rules allow for that. And how many of us stick to JUST what we decide at the beginning of the year? There's always that last minute gift - or the must-do pattern that we see in a magazine that we decide to slip in! And Measi has kindly said that other crafts can be included too, so I can see my list growing and growing!
So here are the projects as they stand TODAY - Jan 7th at 17.00.

Rose fairy - for my quilt. (I'll add a pic of the quilt soon as I've got most of the panel complete - just need to finish this to complete the whole panel before I add the borders). It's been hard to do any of this over the winter as the light has been so bad this year, so there's not been any progress at all on this!

Egypt - for some reason Blogger has turned this pic - and I can't get it to turn back!!! I'm on the fiddly bits now as each section on either side has plenty of colour changes and LOADS of backstitch - especially those pesky heiroglyphs! You can tell I've been doing a few stitches on this recently because of the Q-snap marks!

This is my longest UFO that I started way back when! It's a blackwork fan design from New Stitches magazine issue 70. Bearing in mind that this months' mag is issue 224 - you can see how long it's been sat around! I think I started it for our 25th anniversary but gave it up in favour of a different project!

Cheetah and Daisy (Hummel) are yet to be started, but they will be next on my list to complete (I think!) As you can see they are both supplied with Aida. As the cheetah is totally covered I think I'll work on that fabric, but I may have to change the Daisy as I think an evenweave will look better as a cushion front.

Another suggestion - do drop by my books page. I've posted my first review of the year. See if it's something you fancy?

Thanks for reading

Talk soon

Sandie XXX

Progress!

Hi everyone - hope your week has been as productive as mine?
I've decided that I will do a week's work on each of my 2 main pieces, alternating them so that I get a proper stab at getting them finished.
I managed to do a fair bit of sewing on my egyptian piece as well as playing with my Sony reader, so I've put a new photo up so you can see how far I've got.

Egyptian piece 8 Jan 2011

I can see now how big it is actually going to be as I've got to the top border. If this is just over half of the central image I think I might complete this and do the backstitch on it before I start the 2 side panels. Otherwise I might go mad with so much backstitch to do all at once! How do you plan your projects? Do you finish a large project completely before you do the backstitch, or do you add it as you go along?

I've been sorting through some of my photos of older projects, and will start adding them to the site here so you can get a feel for the type of things I like doing. Here's one I've got hanging on my landing outside our bedroom to get the ball rolling.

Wedding anniversary 2000

Keep stitching and come back soon?

Sandie