Another delay between postings - but at least this time I have a finish to show off! This one has taken me absolutely ages; caused mainly by me completely losing my stitching mojo halfway through working on the design. That hasn't happened for such a long time; and never for such a long period of time. It couldn't have come at a worst time too - right in the middle of a round robin! Not to worry though; normal service has finally been resumed and I have got my mojo back with a vengeance - and this is the result!
I am so pleased with the result! The design is by Sandy Orton of The Kooler Studio and I found it in issue 7 of Cross Stitch Gold. Karen's theme is "welcome/home sweet home" and I knew this one would be just perfect for her. Her home is an old Victorian terraced house and she has kept this theme within her decoration - I thought the lettering on this was quite "Victorian" looking and the colours are similar to the ones that Karen used in her "welcome" design at the top. It is stitched using DMC threads and embellished with Kreinik blending filament in copper and Kreinik #8 braid in antique gold. I really hope Karen likes it! Mouse is already making noises about me doing one for her too!!
Last month, Sheila came to stay for the weekend and brought me a present - an antque Frister & Rossman hand crank sewing machine! I am absolutely delighted. We had been talking about sewing machines when I was visiting Abi in July - she and Mouse are trying to persuade me to go down the electric route, but I was taught by my gran on and old treadle Singer sewing machine which unfortunately got left behind when my mum moved several years ago. I wanted to ease myself into machine sewing gently and having mentioned this to Sheila when I was visiting her in July, she found this lovely machine on Freecycle for me. It has been well looked after and I am just building myself up to having a go at it! At the end of the day though, if I do progress onto the electric monsters, this one will look lovely somewhere prominent in the shop - whenever I open up for business that is!
Well I am going to spend the rest of this weekend working on the next round of the round robin - this one is Lynda's and her theme is "Dickens Mittens". My only problem there was deciding which one to stitch because they are all so adorable. I finally decided on "Belle" and plan to get started on it straight after lunch when I have settled down to some Davis Cup tennis (fingers crossed for our boys today). I'm hoping this one will be a quick stitch and I will be back soon to post an update.
Hope everyone had a nice summer and that autumn isn't being too harsh to you. Thanks all for reading!
Hugs,
Ally xxx
