I'm here again

 Decided that the time was right to make another post here. 

If you took the time to read through all of my last offering and contact me - either directly or by commenting here - thank you. I did not intend to make anyone cry - it just helped me at that point in time to set it all down. Now onwards and upwards! 

My stitching over the last 2 to 3 years has been varied. I created things to hang in my caravan, things for home or gifts and embarked on 2 very large Heaven and Earth designs. Today I'll concentrate on some of the smaller pieces.

A friend got me hooked on the Hootie collections of owls. I bought several patterns and have been stitching them in between other things - they were often what I took to hospital for appointments! To date I have finished 4 nautical Hooties (which are hanging in my caravan) and several of their Christmas Jumper Hooties. When I have done all of these I intend to sew them into a Christmas lap quilt. 

Nautical Hooties stuck to a cupboard door above the sink in the caravan. 

These I stitched onto plastic canvas instead of fabric.

The finished Christmas ones to date!

Also hanging in my caravan is a canvas with a Rosina Wachmeister cat design on it. This is taken from an artist who designs these peculiar shaped cats. I have a collection of some of her small designs and a few other pieces. 

  These are some of my miniatures

 

and this is the finished piece before I stretched it

  

Frog Pile - a Design Works kit I finished during our first national lockdown last year. I have to admit that I haven't yet got round to finishing this (I'm thinking maybe a cushion?)!! But the bright cheerful colours were just what I needed during those initial days when I was told to isolate because I was clinically vulnerable.

Yet another piece which was definitely destined for my caravan was Emma Congden's Beside the Sea design. I found the perfect frame to match my crossword piece, then spent some time looking for things to add to the framed picture. I made paper bunting for the top and bought some shells for the base. 

The last piece I'll add today is my Ying Yang design which again was completed during lockdown (before I started making thousands of masks like every other crafter!)

    This piece now hangs in my hallway at home, reminding me of our obligation to the environment.

Anyway enough of my waffling for today. I'd best get on and actually do something! Somehow the screen on my Samsung tablet has gone black. I've tried the recommended "fix" but still nothing. So I've located someone who will look at it and see if it can be replaced. As the shop is only about half a mile away from me, I should be alright to go there. I've had my first vaccination and always wear a mask, so precautions are still in place!

Until next time - take care, and keep safe everyone.

I'm getting bad at this!!

Sorry folks - I've been really un-motivated to update this blog! When I look back I can't believe how long it's been - a whole month!!

And I've got no real excuse other than the fact that I just didn't feel like it!

Most of my spare time has been spent trying to put some kind of order into my e-book collection via a program called calibre where I store all my books. When I imported the file into my new laptop somehow it found that it was corrupted! Luckily I had a back-up file of the original downloads, but of course when I imported it, all of the changes I had made - I had to do again!!! ARGH!!!

On to stitching now. I spent some time out in the garden while the sun's been shining. I've mainly been working on my cheetah. This was how I left it last time you saw my progress -

And this is where I am at the end of the month - 

Pretty good huh?? (Sorry about the funny colour on these photos, but doing these in artificial light!)

My Joan Elliott diary piece is coming along. I've finished 5 months pictures now, and made a fair start on my sixth. I'm working in a kind of reverse order to everyone, so my latest start is the March piece! In case you can't tell what it is I've included the original so you can see what it's supposed to be!

And then this was the 5 months completed just before I started March! I'm still not sure how I'm going to finish off the entire project. Have to get my thinking cap on for that. 

Been doing a bit out in the garden again - I just wish that there was a permanent cure for Bindweed! We can send a rocket to Mars, and a man to the moon but I can't get rid of BINDWEED! ARGH!! Still here are a couple of photos of the bits I HAVE tidied! My beautiful paeony has excelled itself with blooms this year. And my water feature and little wizard are mounting guard.

We're off next week on a holiday to "our" holiday home in Austria - the apartment which we have been to 7 times before. Leaving home and driving down, through Germany. taking our time as usual, and arriving back after a couple of weeks. Sewing's packed -now I'd better decide what else to take!!

See you all later

Take Care

Sandie

Missing In Action!

Evening All!
Sorry it's been quite a while since I posted but things happened which sort of took over the last few weeks!

My previous laptop, which I've had since 2007 was running Windows Vista. I know it had lots of programs on it as I use it for all my craft - papercraft (Serif DrawPlus and Craft Artist); Cross stitch designing (Ursa Software's Winstitch); photo manipulation (Photoshop Elements and Microsoft Digital Image) as well as my Calibre e-book library. But recently, no matter what I tried it was getting slower than ever and it kept dropping the Internet connection. So I had to bite the bullet and decide if I was going to spend time trying to sort it out, or go look for a new machine.

I decided that a new one would be a better bet! And it's PINK!!

So I've been super busy - learning Windows 8 and trying to recover all my files and transfer them to an external hard drive, so that I only have to load the minimum amount onto the new. It's taking me hours!! Almost done, but I decided to let you all into what was happening!

On the stitching front it's likewise been quite quiet - by the time I've spent hours looking at a screen I'm in no fit state to look at cross stitch! But I've put a few stitches into my cheetah - I can see the beginning of an ear now, so it might be a bit easier to see where I am stitching.

Also I made a fair start on the July mermaid from the Joan Elliott diary stitchalong -

Our weather hasn't been too wonderful lately. So I haven't been able to get out much and tidy up the garden. But the last few days of sun which followed a few wetter days has been ideal. I spent the last 2 afternoons out tidying our front garden. I have to make a few changes to the plants I've decided. I had a large lavender bush which actually BLEW OVER in the wind, splitting the stems, so it was dying. I still have to get the roots up, but I'm replacing that with a soft yellow rose. Then I want to dig up the bergenias. They look lovely in flower, but they rot from the underneath (and house loads of slugs in the damp weather!) So I have to decide what goes there instead. I think a trip to B&Q is in order next Wednesday (when they have their over 60's discounts).

Well must go, got to load the dishwasher and settle down on the sofa.

Till next time

Sandie

Long time - no show! And my WIPocalypse entry!

Hi again everyone! Do you have days go by (or weeks even) and then when you look back you can't remember where that time went? Well that's what life has been like recently!

My cross stitch took a back seat - and I still don't really know where my stitchy mojo is? I do a few bits now and then, but the idea of picking up and stitching for hours? No way!! Still I don't feel like doing any stitching - so what's the point of pushing myself? I know we all have times when we don't want to even look at a needle - mine usually involves repairs - but it feels good right now not be beating myself up about it.

My little grand-daughter's birthday was last week, (you may remember me mentioning how hard I was working for it). Her parents had the birthday party in a local children's play centre - with play equipment, ball park and food included. Two hours in total including the food. And of course all the presents were taken home to be opened AFTER the event - so I didn't get to see their faces when they opened my presents :((

Still - finally I can post about ALL the goodies I had made for her!

1. That quilt eventually got handed over. My daughter just sent a text with the word - AMAZING so I think they were delighted with it. As they're talking about putting Jess in a bed soon it couldn't have been better timewise!

2. My Wordle cross stitch picture.

3. I made 6 blank t-shirts into works of art!

Four of them had machine embroidered motifs on them and the other two had applique motifs sewn on. I cut the bits out using my Slice then sewed them onto the shirts. I didn't realise just how difficult it is to find blank t-shirts for kids these days - most of them appear to already have some form of decoration on the. If anyone knows of a good source of BLANK t-shirts - I'd love to know about it.

4. A Hungry caterpillar! Jess already has the book which she loves at bedtime - so I decided to make up her very own story sack to go with it. 

The body was made with circles of fabric, which I lightly stuffed and then joined with velcro - so she can made him as long or as short as she likes! A friend gave me some fabric which had some of the "food" which the caterpillar eats - so again I lightly stuffed those. Then with all the other things I cut out felt shapes, embroidered their name on the front, stuffed and finally made 2 bags - one for the "food" and another for her to put everything into! It was fabulous - even if I say so myself!

5. A Knitted zip-up jacket.

Right - off to play computers! DH has been digitizing old photos and it's down to me to sort it out into something resembling order, otherwise he won't be able to find them again! He's spent most of the afternoon running them through a scanner onto an SD card - now I've got that fun job!

Take care everyone - til next time

Sandie

FINALLY!

I know, I know...it's been ages since I wrote, but life just seems to get in the way sometimes! Even though we've nothing specific going on, I just don't seem to get round to computers lately! Or maybe it's the fact that I've been avoiding my PC!

Over the last few weeks our desktop has been getting progressively slower! So recently we've been investigating a new PC. Local shops have produced one machine, but our son-in-law has suggested that we try to look at custom-built machines. So I've been trawling through local phonebooks and come up with a short-list of companies. Now I've just got to sit back and wait for their quotes after I emailed them a minimum specification list. Watch this space!

On the sewing front - what have I been up to?

Well I swapped some of my patterns from my Items for sale or swap list. Shelley wanted some patterns and in exchange - I got the Tree Frog Trio by Dimensions! Can't wait to get going on it now! Why don't you have a look and see if there's anything you want there?

Tarrah! A new project - and it's FINISHED!

 

I used a Wordle programme and then converted it in my Ursa WinStitch programme to come up with a cross stitch chart. I've stretched it over a canvas frame and stapled it taut. Then to finish it off I've glued bright orange ric-rac braid around the edges. It's another item for Jessica's second birthday.

Got to go now - only a short note today, but now I've got to finish the knitted jacket as another item for Jess. Then I'm planing to make a fabric "Hungry Caterpillar" - it might get done in time for her birthday or it might not! Watch this space eh?

Take care everyone. I'll try and be a bit more regular next time!
Sandie

Cross stitch software

Just a quick post to update you today! (After so many weeks of silence - two posts in a week!)

A couple of weeks ago I "found" my cross stitch software, which I last used about 4 years ago. I contacted the company (Ursa Software) and discovered how to update it. So I have spent a few days familiarising myself with it, and playing with various small designs. As I found minor niggles I contacted the support line and have been amazed to receive answers within half an hour at one point! (Mind you when I contacted them, they did say that they recognised my name!)

Yesterday I was playing with importing a Wordle design. (Google it if you haven't tried it). I wanted to make a quick design out of it, so I imported the picture, and started playing with colours. In the space of a couple of hours it crashed several times, so I emailed support last night, and this morning I have a reply and a solution! How good is that?

I have to say I have no affiliation to this company, but if you are in the market for a cross stitch generation programme - give them a look. They even have a Mac version. Ursa Software rocks! I'll post some pics of what the screen looks like soon.

I even managed to copy my mandala pattern into it, and have played around with reversing the motifs, as well as the assissi type versions I was thinking about. So maybe I'll get round to stitching those too as I now have the patterns ready to go.

Have a quiet Sunday and talk soon
Sandie