Two more crazy finishes .... am I on a roll???

Hi all from the rain-battered west coast of Scotland.   This horrible weather we've had the last couple of weeks has prevented me from getting up to the gardens but I managed to get some pics of my lovely poppies before the rain set in and will post them a bit further down.

As the title suggests I have not one but two!!!! Crazy finishes to show off.  The only "good" thing about being out of work at the moment is the fact that I am getting absolutely loads of stitching done, so hopefully by the end of the year I will have an almost empty WIP basket ready to fill up again next year.  This Crazy Challenge has been a godsend for me and I haven't felt pressurised to finish absolutely everything either; just a little progress on some of my older WIPs is better than nothing at all.

Royal Blossoms 2007 ~ Just Nan

So ~ I know you are all desperate to see the finishes and here is the first one; Royal Blossoms 2007 by Just Nan.  This was a wee kitted up freebie sent to me by DJ and was an absolute pleasure to stitch.  I love the colours and the fabric has such a pretty sparkle which is picked up by the beads.  It is just absolutely gorgeous and I am thrilled to bits with it.  Thank you DJ for such an absolutely perfect gift and I only hope I have done it justice.  Also big thanks to my stitching partner in crime Mouse who gave me some invaluable assistance with those pesky eyelets and helped me along to my finish.  I have now passed the chart on to Mouse so I expect she will take about 2 days to stitch it lol!

Christmas Carols ~ Country Cottage Needleworks

My second finish is .... Christmas Carols by Country Cottage Needleworks.  I picked this chart up in Harrogate last year.  It caught my eye at Trudy Anne's stall and I just had to have it.  I am not the biggest fan of Christmas as many of you will know (nothing but sad memories for me there) but I am a sucker for Christmassy type charts and winter themed charts so I just couldn't resist this one.  It kind of reminds me of the midnight carol service at our church when I was younger.  In my late teens and early 20s we would be at Joe's birthday party and break off to go to church and sing the carols and bring in Christmas Day and then go back to the party; and latterly mum and I would go up there to bring in Christmas Day with old friends then come home to tea and toast and open one of our bigger pressies before heading off to bed.  This design was also such a pleasure to stitch - the more I stitched the more I wanted to stitch and I loved watching it grow.  I eventually put the last stitch in at 5 minutes to one this morning and texted Mouse to let her know it was done because she had been hanging on all evening for me to do it. 

Phew ~ that's finish numbers 4 and 5 out of the way and my little notebook is filling up with finishing dates.  So ~ now its on to number 6 and possibly number 7????

Number 6 will hopefully be my crocus cushion.  I even pulled it out ready to go right after I finished Christmas Carols - forward planning or what??  Mouse is going to be here from next week for a few days of tea drinking, stash trawling and stitching so who knows what might happen!  She's bringing her sewing machine with her and is going to give me some lessons and is also going to try out my antique Frister & Rossman hand crank sewing machine for size.  We're also meeting up with some of my Scottish ladies for a day out in Largs and some ice cream sampling so watch out for a blog update and lots of photos just after that.  I have told Minnie so often that "auntie" Mousie is coming to visit that I think she thinks her long lost mousie is coming home.  Mouse ~ take care that she doesn't try to stuff you under the sofa or fridge but if you get too tired she will willingly carry you through to bed!!!!!!

Oh and thanks to Parsley I am taking part in her secret penpal exchange and I had my first letter from my penpal in Canada on Saturday morning!  Oh she did make me chuckle ~ I am really going to enjoy her letters and can't wait to find out her identity in December.  I sent my letter off at the beginning of last week so my penpal should have it by now.  Hope it arrived safely!

Right I am going to go get myself up to the gardens but before I go here are the promised pics of my poppies and some other bits and pieces up there.   I'm going to take Mouse up for a looksee when she's here and we may come back with some onions lol.

Thanks all for popping by and for the much appreciated comments which really do go a long way to encourage me.  Take care all and look out for another update in a week or so.

Love and hugs,

 

Ally xxxx

Another Finish and an "Almost" Finish



Catch a Tail by Diane Graebner

Hi all from a very sodden Glasgow.  The horrible weather has kept me indoors today which is a good thing because it means that I have finished yet another Crazy!  So without further ado, here it is .... "Catch a Tail" from the Cats & Quilts series by Diane Graebner who is one of my favourite designers.  I chose this theme a few years ago for my robin in my round robin group and ended up having to do two of them because one of the others was "too busy" to work on all of them (huh!)  Anyway I am glad I got to do them myself because I really love working on these little charts even if they are hard on the eyes lol!




Royal Blossoms 2007 by Just Nan



Before I picked this one up again I had been working on "Royal Blossoms 2007" by Just Nan.  I got all the eyelets done, the beading done and the last thing was the double cross eyelets.  Every single time I tried one it just didn't look right.  I tried it with 2 strands as was suggested and nope didn't look right, I tried it with a single strand - still not right, and I tried it with perle and nope still not right.  So, I decided to put it aside for a while to figure it out and work on something else.  If anyone has any ideas please let me know - I even tried an Algerian eyelet and it STILL didn't look right!!



Next on my list for a finish is "Christmas Carols" by Country Cottage Needleworks.  I have enjoyed working on this one in my rotation and now I am going to keep on with it until it is finished.  Watch this space!

Otherwise, I have been spending time up at the allotment doing a lot of weeding thanks to the rather damp summer we are having.  I was absolutely thrilled when I went up there on Monday and discovered that some poppies have sprung up in my patch.  I absolutely love poppies and can't wait until they are in full bloom.  I will take my camera up with me this week to be ready to catch them at their best.  I have also planted the sweet peas and put in some leeks too.  What with the potatoes and onions and already have in the ground I think I am going to have a nice pot of soup at the end of it!  My cherry tomatoes unfortunately are not doing too well but I continue to encourage them and I just planted some thyme seeds this past week too - first time I have tried herbs so here's hoping.  Our communal area at the back is looking lovely with the planters Sarah and I have put out and its nice to have the whole space again.   I'll take some photos down there too for my next blog update.

Okay, I am going to go heat up some paprika chicken for dinner and then settle down with some more stitching - I'm on such a roll I just can't seem to stop!

Thanks everyone for your kind comments - a little encouragement really does go a long way!  Take care, enjoy your summer and talk to you all soon again.

Love and hugs,

Ally xxx



Bang the gong the snowman's done ....?

Okay so poetry isn't my strong point lol!  I read it, just don't write it!

Anyhoo, just wanted to let you all know that yes, the snowman is done!  I actually finished it 2 days ago but thanks to a nasty migraine which floored me for an entire day, although eased up long enough for me to finish the stitching on this one, I am only now getting around to putting up my post about it.

So here he is, in all his snowy glory lol!  Ain't he sweet?  I so enjoyed working on this one, despite the traumas of running out of GAST Cornflower (thank you Lynda) and then discovering that I had miscounted on the "W" and having to frog the whole thing!  I got there in the end and the result is just lovely!  Can't wait to get him framed and he will be hanging in the shop (hopefully) this coming Christmas along with my other winter/Christmas themed stitched designs.  Which reminds me I need to speak to the gallery in Knaresborough to see if we can come to some sort of arrangement .....

The chart will be winging its way to Finland very shortly, to Niina - hope you enjoy stitching this one as much as I have!

I have now picked up Royal Blossoms 2007 by Just Nan - another Crazy!  Could this one be my next finish?  You'll just have to watch this space.  Having Wimbledon on the telly at the moment (my favourite time of year) helps my stitching and is probably the reason for the finishes (that and my rediscovered mojo!)  Andy is doing well and is through to the second week - he plays Gasquet tomorrow and I shall of course be glued to the sofa, needle poised, willing him onto the quarter finals.

Before I go, I just wanted to show you the bizzy lizzy (impatiens) that I grew from seed in the greenhouse and are now gracing my window seat in the lounge.  The colours are lovely and its so nice to see them all in full bloom.  I also grew some coleus from seed which are still in the greenhouse.  I am giving a lot of those away to my fellow members of the gardening club, the majority of the bizzy lizzies will go to friends as a wee reminder of their daft pal who has once again taken off into the great unknown.  I'll keep some for myself though, as a wee reminder of what a clever gardener I am (ROFLMAO!!!)  I'm really excited that my downstairs neighbour Sarah came along to our open day yesterday and has decided to join!  I hope they'll be gentle with her.

Right I am meeting Heather for a coffee and a catch up in Shawlands so I'd better get my skates on.  Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend and I sincerely hope that your weather is a lot better than ours!

Thanks for popping by (again) and for all your lovely comments.  Hopefully I will be back sometime this week with a Royal Blossoms update!

Love and hugs,

Ally xxx

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