Tigermum's WIPocalypse update for May - a bit late!

Hi everyone - it's been a while I know, but I finally got my stitchy mojo under control in the last couple of days. Previously I've had a few weeks where I could see these bright coloured floss skeins peeking out at me - but could I be bothered to pick them up? No way!
So my stitchy progress has been less than I would have hoped. :((

Egypt has had a few more stitches put into it. I am REALLY bored with this at the moment, so it hasn't had the loving care and attention put into it that I would have liked. Anyway - here is my progress - almost 2/3rds done I suppose...

My Mandala/motif is also 3/4 done - only this time I've run out of the required thread. As I haven't been to town in the last couple of weeks I haven't been able to get more, so here's the progress...

As you can see I also forgot to release the hoop when I put it away, so hopefully when I refresh it with a quick wash afterwards it should all look better! Still like the design, but think that when I make the next one I'll turn the motif 180 degrees so that the wider end is in the centre. It will just make the second one a bit different. I've got some of the pale blue fabric left that I used to make Jess's Christmas stocking, so I think that I'll use that to make this into a cushion when it's finished.

My BIG finish is my quilt. Not only is it all put together, but I've done all the quilting. I've even washed it all and made a matching pillowcase! I put the wadding on and the back (I used an old duvet cover to make sure it was soft), then decided that the quilt needed another colour to edge it before I turned the cream from the back over to make the binding. So I took DH on a trip to a local Craft Centre and bought another piece of brown fabric which I used. (DH wasn't too upset to accompany me as there is a guitar shop in the same centre!) So finally - HERE IS THE FINISHED QUILT!!

Full quilt

Top half

Bottom half

Last two panels with my cross stitched Rose Fairy

For the first time in years I have had a series of doctor's appointments to attend. I went for a "Health Check" when invited, only to discover that I'm not as healthy as I thought! I have both High Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure, and have been sent for blood tests for Glucose levels too. Unfortunately when I went on Friday, my GP hadn't told me that I should have fasted for 10 hours before having them done, so I had to go home, and will have to go again on Monday to get it done. As both cholesterol and blood pressure are only marginally high, with a bit of diet change I should be able to get it under control... we'll just have to wait and see.

Hope everyone had a good Mother's Day on the other side of the pond? I'm going to sit in front of the TV in  half an hour to watch Hawaii Five-O and dream of being back in Hawaii instead of cold Britain!

Take care
Sandie

Tigermum's April WIPocalypse postings

Afternoon everyone.
I have to admit that all in all things have been a bit quiet on the cross stitch front this month. Other things have taken priority!

Over Easter my DD and her family came to see us for the day. It was the first time we'd seen them since before our cruise, and I have to say I've really missed them (even though I enjoyed the holiday). We bought Jess a chocolate bunny - she's really got into chocolate this year! (This photo's taken in a local supermarket cafe on a different day).

When they'd left I started again on the quilt for her birthday - I'd put it away to make it a total surprise for my DD too. I've got most of the body of the quilt done (after a chat with my BF who's a quilter). I didn't have much fabric left, so I decided (we decided) to make a border of small blocks. If I can find some more fabric I want to make it a bit bigger so that it can be used on a "grown-up" bed when she's bigger, but as it stands it's almost toddler bed size. I've found an old quilt cover in cream which had a stain on the front, so I'm going to cut that up for the backing. Here's a picture of it hanging on the front of my wardrobe.

As to the rest of my work this month - I've done a tiny bit on the mandala and a bit more on Egypt. One of these days I'll get to the second side of Egypt and that might spur me on to finish it! (Do you think??)

(Apologies - not very good photos there!)

What else have I been up to? Well, I've decided to cut down the vine which covers the pergola in our back garden, so that's been chopped near the root so that it doesn't grow any more and I'm gradually cutting it back. Last year I made some grape juice from it, but it was so sour - not like the previous years'. And because I left quite a few bunches on the vine we were completely over-run with thrushes who cleared them in a couple of days. It was like a scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds"!! Then I have to clear the fallen leaves away from the patio, so this year I decided that I need an evergreen climber to replace it. Once it's all removed I shall take a trip to the local garden centre to see what's around. Anyone have any experience with climbing plants?? Today I have blisters on my fingers from cutting through the thick stems, so a couple of days rest is planned.

Just bought a program from Create and Craft called Serif Craft Artist. It seems a really good paper-crafting CD, but I need to do a bit of housekeeping (AKA clean-up) on the laptop before I install it. Yet another thing that I need another pair of hands for!

Must go - dinner calls!

love

Sandie

I'm DONE!

Finally got another finish this year! After struggling with the choice between sewing and gardening over the last few days of good weather here (joke - no contest really!), I had to show you my finished Rose Fairy!

I'm really pleased with the way it's come out - the original pattern was made for Aida, so contained a lot of fractional stitches. I had to leave them out (as I stitched it 1 x 1 on 28 count), but it doesn't seem to have made too much difference to the overall piece. The only alteration I made (apart from those fractionals) was to do all of the backstitch in the wings in E316 - gives it a bit of added sparkle.

I decided to add the dedication here. While I was researching Flower Fairies on the web I found a copy of the Rose Fairy poem, and also a Flower Fairy Code. "Always try to be Cheerful, Neat, Polite, Friendly, Generous, Honest, Kind, Humourous, Keep secrets and Work hard". Sounds like a good wish for a child's future. So I think I'll try and incorporate both (somehow) into the reverse of the quilt. Any ideas on that would be appreciated.

Gotta go now - I think I need a glass of wine to celebrate!

love

Sandie

Late WIPocalypse post

Finally got round to taking some more photos of my WIPs. I worked on this piece while we were on the cruise. 

I don't normally use Anchor threads, but I liked this space-dyed thread colour - 1344. I've got a few other skeins of different colours, and I'm playing around with the idea of doing more of these panels, perhaps using the design in different ways for cushion panels. More on this idea soon perhaps?

Since we've been home I've been concentrating on my Flower Fairy.

I suddenly realised just how close August is! By the time I get this done, I've still got to complete the quilt (adding this as the last square); then I've got to add batting and a backing fabric which I've yet to decide on. Then bind it all and add any extra hand quilting. I'm going to ask my friend (who is a far more experienced quilter than I am) for her advice on that part of it.

The rest of my WIPs are no further forward than they were last month! That's what comes of having a holiday!

And as a finale - for a change - something that I didn't do!

While we were in Souzhou we visited their Embroidery Research Institute. Their work is absolutely amazing. All worked on silk with silk threads! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but DH and I fell in love with one particular piece of "art" - there is no other word for their work. Some of the pieces we saw were done by students, some by teachers and some by masters of their art. Some pieces were single sided - several portraits were on display which were photographic in their realism. Several were double sided - the picture is reversed on the back - both sides are sewn at the SAME TIME! And the other style were pictures with a completely different picture on the reverse! The most amazing was a lion's head with a tiger's head on the reverse! Again - both sides are worked at the same time, but it was so real - you could see each and every hair on the animals' heads.

We bought a piece which shows the Rainbow Bridge in the Humble Administrator's Garden in Souzhou, a place we visited later in the day. Although we didn't have the benefit of bright sunshine or spring flowers - it was still a beautiful place. Enjoy my photos of our embroidery, something I could never hope to achieve.

 The "Front" view.

The "Reverse" view. 

 Close ups of the two sides.

 Absolutely AMAZING work isn't it?

Better go now - my Flower Fairy is calling my name!

'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

Mother's Day musings - photo heavy!

Well, another year gone by, and this time my own dear daughter is a mum herself. Although it's not a really good picture of her, I had to include this one we took when they visited us last. I nicknamed it my paparazzi picture! Next is a slightly better one of Erika with Jessica.

I've started to make up a scrapbook for Jessica, which I'll give to her mum and dad on her first birthday. One of my favourite pages is this one - 

It reminds me just how fragile she was when born at 4lbs 10ozs. Even smaller than Erika who was 5lbs 2 ozs. And look how she's grown up now! The one thing I never dared to imagine for my daughter was that she'd be a mum herself! She was always the tomboy - she joined Army Cadets because the Guides were boring. Although she played netball, she preferred playing football and indeed spent some time playing with Colchester United ladies team - until some other girl took her out with a really dodgy tackle and she suffered cruciate ligament damage. But since she maried Tony and is now a mum herself I can see so much of me in her! All the good things I hope I passed on. The best compliment she gave me was when she went out on her Hen Afternoon with her friends before she got married - she insisted that her Mum went too "as you're my best friend".

I've been doing a fair amount of stitching over the last couple of weeks too. I started out by gardening a bit in the mornings when the sun was round the front of our house. After a day I realised that I shouldn't have neglected that last winter tidy-up before Christmas! (Before the snow hit us that is!) The weeds had taken over our small area, and so after a couple of hours on my hands and knees, my back was complaining - so I gave up and sewed instead!

My Egyptian piece has come to the end of its 2 week rotation and I am now over halfway up the mask in the centre. Maybe another 2 weeks would see that part finished, but I have to move on! (Sorry about the frame marks, but I haven't had time to flatten it out since I took it out of the frame!)



I realised that this year was flying by, so I decided that I had to do a bit on some other projects - something that I wasn't going to do when I started this blog, but I didn't realise how quickly time was going to fly past me! I've made a bit more progress on the Somebunny birth sampler.

I'm still a bit worried about it looking too blue - but I'll just have to keep going for now. I have a Disney kit packed away, so if it looks wrong when I get a bit more of the sleep suit done, then I'll start that instead. Although if I finish it, and she does have a boy - I'll be laughing!

I also started and finished a small project which will make the front of a card for a 6 year old - I'm going to try and make it like a tunnel card with the embroidery at the back of a stage. If it works I'll post a pic next time. (That's my second 2011 finish!)

While I was working on my scrapbook I thought that I ought to make a start on the Beatrix Potter kit which Erika's mother-in-law bought for her. I hope it will be finished for Jessica's birthday, then I can give it back to the mother-in-law, and suggest that she frames it! I don't mind doing the sewing, but I'm not up for subbing her framing costs! So far all I've done is the alphabet in the middle -

I thought that I might be able to take this with me when we go off on our travels in May. (I'll post more in another day about that!) It should be fairly easy as all the colours are already on thread sorter cards and as they are individual motifs I need only take a small hoop to do each one. I never go away without some form of sewing with me!

And last - but definitely NOT least - I've started another new project! I told you my new year resolutions went completely out of the window!

You may remember a while back I mentioned the flower fairy quilt that I'd started for Jessica? Well, looking at the number of panels (25) I realised that in the attic window layout I was going to have a "spare" space at the end! So I hunted round and found the Rose fairy. (She's not in the printed panels and Jessica's middle name is Rose, so it just seemed right that she should be included). But in order to fit the pattern into the same size piece I've had to do it on 22ct over 1 thread! You can see from the photo that I decided to grid it 10 x 10; and as I stitch it, I'm just going to do the fairy and the main rose flower stem. I've just made a start on the very edge of the fairy wing right on the far right of the picture. Then (hopefully) I should have enough to put some kind of wording in the corner saying who made it, the recipient and the date etc.

Well, I'd better sign off, and make a start on some dinner - roast chicken tonight!

I hope all the mums out there have a fabulous day, either surrounded by your families, or at least surrounded by their loving thoughts.

Until next time

Sandie



A Good weekend

Hi all
we had a nice weekend - apart from the weather that is!
Yesterday my daughter, her husband and grand daughter came down to see us. The five-year old daughter of a friend of hers had invited Jessica to her birthday party, which was in Clacton-on-Sea, so as I was going too (I'm friends with the 5 year old's grandma), we all went together. We had a good time with all the kids, and then they came back to ours for dinner before heading home. We got some pics of Jessica on my rag quilt too!

Jessica on my first quilt

The mum of the 5 year old is the one who's expecting in July so I thought I'd better make a start on her birth sampler - just in case! So I spent a couple of evenings making a start and it's going quite well. I just hope that the colours don't look TOO blue when it's done? They are the sort of violet blue shades, but I hope it doesn't look too boyish when it's done.

 


Erika didn't see my flower fairy quilt that I'm making - I'm trying to keep it as a complete surprise for her until it's finished, but I'm so pleased with how it's turning out! I've managed to complete 2 rows of the fairy panels now, so here it is. She hasn't got internet access at the moment so there's no chance of her seeing this in advance! But don't tell her if you see her will you?

The edges look a little off-square, but I think that's just my photography! I've been doing a bit on the stocking too, but as my camera battery just died on me (all those photos of Jessica yesterday!) I'll have to post that later on. I'm going to rotate back to my Egypt piece this week as I feel the need to get it moving again after all the frogging I did last time I picked it up!