Another Finish .....Well Almost!!!

Hello all!  Bet you didn't expect to see me back so quickly!  Well, fired on by my finish on The Needlework Shop last week I immediately picked up the next of my Crazies in line, which happened to be Bring on the Snow by Waxing Moon.  Its a pretty easy stitch, large blocks of colour so not a lot of changing of thread going on, and I was getting along just fine until .... I realised I was running out of one of the threads - GAST Cornflower to be exact!  I had just enough to finish the "W" in snow and maybe start the "S" or so I thought ...

until I realised that I had put too many rows in on the first leg of the "W" - and this was when I was finishing off that letter so i had to pretty much frog the whole lot.  Stitching it back up of course was difficult because the thread had already been used and so was knotting if I looked at it the wrong way (lol!) and I ended up just about making the "W" with only a couple of stitches to go.   I put out a call to the lovely ladies on Friendly Stitchers and Lynda came up trumps.  I am hoping that the thread she is sending me will be a good enough match to enable me to stitch the "S" and finish the design.  I have learned that dye lots of hand dyes can differ widely!

Anyway, here is my progress to date ... I have cracked on with the rest of the design and only have a small bit of backstitching on the scarf to do and the snow and snowflakes on the "snow" lettering and then I can put this one away and concentrate on the next one which will be ....

Royal Blossoms by Just Nan.  I am stitching a lot as Wimbledon started yesterday (well done Andy by the way!) so I need something that I can concentrate on as well as concentrating on the tennis.  The next on my list is actually Blackberry Jam by the Sweetheart Tree but as I am at the scotch stitch part of the design perhaps I should wait until the tennis is over before I tackle that.

On the shop front - a shop AND a flat above may have been located, we are just waiting for the particulars to be issued by the letting agents so watch this space!  I am impatient to get moving and my tenant is impatient to get moved in; unfortunately I can't move out till I have somewhere to go to so things aren't moving as quickly as I would like.  I am however bashing on with my business plan and contacting suppliers too beef it out ... so excited about some of the suppliers I have contacted!!!

Right I need to shoot - my shift at the PDSA shop starts in 40 minutes I have have got a large hill to climb to get there lol.  Thanks for all your lovely comments as always - they really do keep me going and all the encouragement is reaping rewards in my stitching as you can see.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and hugs,

Ally xxx

I Finished a Crazy!

Yes you read that right!  Precisely 15 minutes ago I put the last stitch into my first Crazy finish - CCN's The Needlework Shop.  I am sooo proud of my finish that I wanted to share it with you all straightaway so here it is in all its glory!

The Needlework Shop by Country Cottage Needleworks

I have loved working on this one.  I took it with me when I was dog sitting the last couple of weeks and have been beavering away at it over the last week or so and i just didn't want to put it down.  It was the first one I started for the Crazy 15 Challenge so it seems fitting that it is my first finish.  Hopefully before too long it will be hanging in my own needlework shop!

Just a short post tonight.  Thanks all for stopping by.  I'm on a roll so I might even have a second finish before too long!

Hugs,

Ally xxx

Catching Up and Moving On

I always promise an update don't I?  Always full of good intentions but then life kind of gets in the way.  Not long after my return from my visit to Mouse's I learned from my boss that she was going to have to let me go as she couldn't afford to keep me on.  Just as well I didn't sell up and move to Lanarkshire to be closer to my job then isn't it?  I was gutted as you might imagine and sometimes it is a struggle - going from having a decent wage coming in to literally nothing at all.

However, keeping positive, I am looking at this as a sign that now is the time for me to move on and go ahead with my plans to open my own stitching shop.  Gillie has kindly offered me a place to stay for a while to work on my business plan and more importantly rent out the flat so that bills get paid.  I am hoping to be in Yorkshire and up and running pretty soon after that.  The girls have been amazing to say the least and I count myself lucky to have them as my friends.

Going backwards in time, I had a fabulous stay at Mouse's and got lots of stitching done.  We spent a day working on CCN's The Needlework Shop and that has come on a treat.   I also did a load to my crocus cushion as you can see ... 

Early on Saturday morning we went off to deepest Cheshire to visit Gillie ~ what a wonderful place she and WT have found to live in while they are here.  With a lovely walled garden and a field of horses right next door, I think I am going to enjoy my little sojourn in the Cheshire countryside - and Minnie will be a Cheshire cat (think about it .....)

Karen came down too and we had a right girly get together, raided her boxes of books and did some stitching too.  I made my trifle for dessert on Saturday night and WT brought home a friend so that he didn't feel too outnumbered.  I think he acquitted himself rather well to be honest lol.

I am dog sitting for friends for the next two weeks although I have popped back home today to pick up a few things, attend an interview and check the mail.  Angel is a Tibetan Terrier, 13 years old, and a wee sweetheart. 

I have also found myself a wee voluntary job at the local PDSA shop (People's Dispensary for Sick Animals).  I am doing two afternoons a week starting tomorrow so wish me luck.  If nothing else, it will give me the retail experience I need for my new venture.  My last retail experience was over 30 years ago so I am a tad rusty but I am sure I will pick it up again in no time.  I think cash registers have moved on a bit since I last used one though. 

I have been working on my Crazy 15 Challenge and here is an update on my Honey Bees project.  I'm quite enoying this one now and it is working up fairly quickly thanks to the many half cross stitches there are.

I also finished a very long overdue bookmark which has now made it to its partner.  I made her a card too but true to form I forgot to take a photo before I sent it!

It is blowing a hooley out there right now and I am so not looking forward to having to go out again but I need to get back to let Angel out.  I have got several projects with me so expect an update when my dog sitting stint is over.  I promise I will have something to show for it!




Here is a shot of the lovely threads and fabric (and cards) I received from my Calendar Girls group on Friendly Stitchers.  The girls thoroughly spoiled me as usual.

Thank you all for reading and for your continued encouraging comments.

Over and out for now.

Hugs,

Ally xx

We're all going on a spring holiday??

Don't you just love it when the sun shines, the skies are blue and it actually feels warm?  We've had some lovely spring weather here in the UK; yes even up here in the frozen north in Scotland!  I've been busy with spring planting up at the gardening club and my seedlings are sprouting all over the place - it will be another month or so before I am able to plant them out but I am hoping to have a nice array of flowers for the summer, including sweet peas which are one of my favourites.  I've also seeded some cherry tomatoes this year and have got some more onions to put in but that will have to wait because ....

I am going on holiday!!!  Boss's orders, I need a break apparently so this coming Thursday I am jumping on the train down to sunny South Yorkshire to spend some time at the Mouse House and we are having an overnight visit to Gillie at her new pad too which we are all looking forward to.  Its going to be lovely to see all of the girls, and its just a shame that Val can't join us this time around .... but maybe next time?

I have been stitching, albeit slowly and absolutely not as much as I would have liked.  I got absolutely nothing done on my Crazy 15 project last week which is "Free Spirits" my horses project, so I decided to hang onto it for this week too and I actually managed to get needle meeting fabric.  There isn't an awful lot to show for my very poor endeavours but needless (gettit???) to say I will have loads to show for my time when I next blog because that dreaded wet noodle is going to be hanging right over my head and I won't get away with just a couple of stitches! 

I am taking my crocus cushion project with me and perhaps another project (although I have no idea which one yet) so I hope to have a good report for you next time.  I am going to squeeze in a few stitches on the Christmas Wreath tonight and tomorrow inbetween working, ironing and packing.

Short and sweet this time - got to take the laundry out of the machine and then settle down with a cuppa and my needle to watch Murdoch Mysteries.

Oh and I almost forgot to add ~ I won a PIF on Mouse's blog so I have to offer the same on mine.  The rule is that I have to stitch something for someone in the next year, so ... if you are interested in having someone stitched by little old moi please leave me a comment and I will pick out a name when I get back from my travels.

Hope you are having good weather wherever in the world you are. 

Until next time - thanks as always for reading and commenting.

Love and hugs,

Ally xxx

And as if by magic .....

Here I am again with more progress photos!   I am slowly but surely getting back into a regular stitching thing, and try hard to spend even half an hour in the evenings no matter how long the work day has been.  I spent this past weekend stitching instead of gardening - well what else is there to do when there is snow around (I know it didn't last that long but shhhhh no need to tell anyone!!!) and managed to get a fair bit done on this past week's Crazy Challenge project.

However, the previous week's Challenge was "The Lady of Shalott" by Teresa Wentzler.  This is really turning out to be a labour of love for me.  I started it on Midsummer's Day 2003 after several false starts including putting the fabric onto the scroll frame the wrong way lol!  Later that day when I called round to mum's for tea we heard that her closest friend's son had died in a house fire that day - so you see, this particular date has got bittersweet memories.   I started the project as a SAL with a now defunct Yahoo group and to be honest I think I am the only one still working on her (using the term "working" in the loosest possible sense lol).  Anyway here she is as of 7th March - I felt as I had done loads but somehow it doesn't look like that does it?  She is now firmly back in my rotation and I am determined that I will at least get off this page!!

On to last week's Crazy project which is "Christmas Carols" by Country Cottage Needleworks.  In contrast to "Lady of Shalott" this one is working up really quickly and since I managed to sneak a whole weekend of stitching thanks to the rather inclement weather I got more done that I had hoped.  Hopefully this will only take one more rotation to finish - well I need to catch up on all those people who have managed to finish one or more of their Crazy Challenges!

This week's Challenge is "Free Spirits" which is another of my longstanding projects and the one I was working on when I discovered that stitching and morphine aren't a good combination lol (I started it in hospital after major surgery).  Look out for an update next week.

I shall be popping off down to Yorkshire and Cheshire for a little rest (orders of my boss) at the end of the month but I shall keep you all posted with updates and I have even worked out which project(s) is(are) going with me. 

Thanks for stopping by and for all your lovely comments as always.  Its nice to know that there are people out there interested enough to leave an encouraging message. 

Take care all - see you  next week!

Love and hugs,

Ally xxxx

A rather belated update ...

Hi all - apologies to everyone who has been hanging on with bated breath for an update from yours truly.  Life and work kind of got in the way again I'm afraid but I have been stitching ... not as often as I would like, but I have made some progress.  So, without further ado here's a quick roundup - hang onto your seats!!

"Bring on the Snow" was next for the Challenge treatment.  I have to admit I did rather well with this one  and it is a nice easy stitch with large blocks of colour.   I discovered when I picked him up again that I had miscounted and his eyes were too close together!  Well my mother told me never to trust a man who's eyes are too close together so they needed sorting.  Minor frogging only and he looks a lot better.  Of course now that he has his scarf on and a smile on his face he looks quite happy - what do you all think?  I think maybe only one or two more rotations on this one will get him finished.

I have promised myself that once this snowman is finished I will frame all three (yes three!!) of my unframed snowmen and this one and get them hanging up for the holiday at the end of the year (not going to name it cos it is only just past and it is a traumatic enough time without thinking of it when the year is still in short trousers!

Next on to Blackberry Jam.  It was around this time that things started to go a little bit pear-shaped.  Last year I was plagued by headaches which were finally put down to work related stress - I quit the job and the headaches went away.  Now unfortunately they have returned with a vengeance and nary a day goes by without a headache - or worse - a migraine!  What little stitching time I get in the evenings and weekends has been eaten into drastically by these nasty things and Blackberry Jam fared worst of all - and after several attempts and even more froggings, this is all I managed.  I think the lesson to be learned here is don't stitch when tired/have a headache/fuzzy eyes.  Luckily by the time this come round in rotation again we will (hopefully) have much better weather, longer nights and the chance of stitching in daylight. 

Moving swiftly along to Royal Blossoms.  This one fared marginally better than Blackberry Jam in that I managed to get more time for stitching on the weekends, but the headaches persisted and I think I spent more time looking wistfully at the design than actually stitching it.  I do love this one though and think I did not too badly to stitch a whole crown and half a bloom (or is that half a petal??)  I've had another Just Nan in my stash pile for way too long (Catnip Tea) and another promise to myself - I will kit it up and get it done when this one is finished.  Watch this space as they say - but please don't hold your breath!

Catch a Tail was next - and I actually made some progress on this that shows!  A whole cat - and half a quilt.  Not bad going!    I shall have to start thinking about what I am going to turn this RR into once it is finished.  Again only one or two more rotations should see it finished.  Maybe by then I will be thinking of starting the next RR - watch out girls and get your thinking caps on!  I do love Diane Graebner's designs and have rather a large collection of them.    Maybe for next year - if we do another 15 challenge, I will include one or two of them in there.  The trouble is - which ones?

And finally ... the Willow Fairy.  The sheer amount of shades of green on this design is actually quite daunting and I actually sat for a whole night trying to work out if I was supposed to be working with blue greens or yellow greens and then I got a headache and gave up and went to bed :)

So, I aimed higher and tackled her rather unruly hair instead and I surprisingly made some progress there too.  Not a lot, but some and I am more than happy with that.  This one has been around longer than I care to admit to and it would be a nice feeling of achievement to see her finished and framed.    I can only hope ...

This week's Challenge is Lady of Shalott - my aim is to finish the page I am on.  I may need a cheering squad on this one and that screaming you hear in the background is Karen running for the hills.

Well its time I got on with some real work lol.  Thanks for popping by and for all the lovely comments you leave - they really are appreciated.

Till next time.  Love and hugs,  Ally xxx

Don't all fall over at once ....!

I know what you're all thinking; barely a week and another post already!!  Well the truth is I just couldn't wait to show everyone my progress on the 15 new starts challenge.  I have decided to work on each one in turn for a week and keep to the order that I started them in, which meant that The Needlework Shop came out top of the pile.   Bearing in mind I only get an hour or so stitching in the evening I spent a large part of Saturday working on this, and watching tennis at the same time.  Coincidence of course that the Aussie Open just happens to be on whilst I am in the early stages of this challenge so watch this space!

Next up will be the snowman project which I picked up tonight when I got home, so pop back next week for another update!

Brief but straight to the point lol - thanks for reading!

Love n hugs,

Ally xxx