A mixed bag of catch-up

I'll have to start April off with a round up of March as time just got away with me, so grab yourself a cuppa it's a long one with lots of photos :-)

Christmas ornament stitching

I got two stitched ornaments done for March.  The Santa one you saw on my previous post and this one from Country Cottage Needleworks

Frosty Forest "Snowy Deer" 

I must confess that I really didn't enjoy stitching this one at all, I don't know why, I just didn't.

I left out the detail in the snow at the bottom and also left out the little confetti snow flakes.

I like it now it's done, although if you look close at the snow at the bottom you will notice that I must have picked up the wrong white at some point because it's a different shade in some places!

Birmingham NEC Craft Fair

A couple of weeks ago I went with my daughter, Joanne to the NEC in Birmingham for the Creative Craft Show.  This happens every March and I haven't missed one for years.  However, over the years it has become less about stitching and more about card making, scrap-booking and sewing.
  There are very few stalls catering for cross stitchers now, which is a shame, but I did manage to pick up a few charts that I liked.

Another purchase from the show was related to this book I'd bought for the bargain price of a fiver from The Works a couple of days before.

I was really happy to find out that Cool Crafting, (where you will find all things related to Luna and friends), would be there.  Their stand was very popular but I did manage to wrestle my way in to purchase a pack which included everything to make lovely Luna :-)

I can't wait to start making this, I've already copied and cut out the templates from the book but I want to get a few things out of the way first so that I can give it my full attention.

There were some yarny purchases in March too.
The third Literary and hand dyed yarn society package from Dandelion & Dogwood arrived.

I'm not a fan of sparkle so when I opened the parcel I was a tiny bit disappointed, (sorry to sparkle lovers) I'm sure it will knit up lovely though.  I suppose that's a risk you take when you sign up for these things, you can't guarantee that you will love every package.  I won't sign up for the next three months as this was rather expensive I thought, these past three months were a Christmas present to myself :-)

My April mini's club yarn arrived from Lay Family Yarn and oh my goodness I love it!
The guest dyer this month was Nora George.
Look at how lovely they are, I'm really happy with this parcel :-)

Sunday was Mother's Day here in the UK and the girls treated me to afternoon tea at the Laura Ashley Tea Rooms in Birmingham as one of my gifts.

If you have been a reader of my blog for a while you will know that we do love to have afternoon tea and have tried many places over the years including some 'posher' places like The Savoy and The  Dorchester in London, (which were both lovely by the way).  The Laura Ashley Tea Rooms looked lovely, decorated nice and bright and all the tables had beautiful white tablecloths, but, the afternoon tea was not the best.  

We were told that we could have a re-fill of finger sandwiches but no waitress came back to ask if we would like more, likewise with the tea and coffee, we had to get up and go to ask someone for more drinks, so service was not up to much.  Me and Joanne had Earl Grey tea and I had to ask the waitress to check if that was what we had because it really didn't taste like any Earl Grey that I've ever had, (and I think I've tried just about every make out there!).  Although the cakes do look nice on the photo they were not brilliant and the scones were cold and very dry.  

Perhaps others were more wise to the service and food than we were because there were only 3 tables in use all afternoon, not really what you would expect on Mother's Day.   So I'm afraid it's a thumbs down from us for this tea room :-(

We had some really sunny weather again last week so I spent quite a bit of time in the garden and gave the grass it's first cut on Thursday, I must say that our garden is probably at it's best in Spring, we have loads of Daffs thanks to the previous owners and last year I planted both early and late Tulips, so although one lot has finished we still have some to come.

The Forsythia is on either side of the garden and really brightens everything up

The Pieris has grown really big, I compared it to some photos I took a few years ago and it really has had a growth spurt!  This variety is a Forest Flame.

I've still got some leaves to get rid of, I've filled the compost bin and our green bin but still have a leave pile the back corner of the garden, (out of sight), our first green waste collection of the year is late this time, not until the second week in April so the leaves will have to stay where they are until then.

The weather was beautiful on Saturday and as Mark was at work I spent all afternoon sitting in my little blue house stitching and listening to my book, bliss.

Speaking of books, I read five books in March, the best one I think was The Perfect Child although I also enjoyed listening to Getting Rid of  Matthew.  Jane Fallen's books are quite easy to read or listen to, not very deep or meaningful, but can be quite funny.

So, that's about it for the goings on in March, we have a busy April to come, a wedding, two birthdays and of course Easter. I have chosen my April Christmas ornament to stitch but there is some knitting I want to get done this week so I probably won't start that until next weekend.

If you made it to the end, thank you for indulging me :-) if you didn't and only skimmed through that's ok, I understand not everyone is interested in all that I do :-) Either way I wish you a happy April and I'll hopefully be back sooner with a shorter post rather than later with a mega long one :-)

Take care

-X-

The old and the new

I haven't had too much crafting time this week but I did manage to finish stitching my March ornament on Thursday night.

Heart in Hand Monthly Mania, December

Started 3rd March 2019 finished 7th March 2019

Stitching something so quickly has to be a record for me! 

Loved stitching him, I do like stitching blocks of colour, there is something soothing and satisfying in it I find.  This one will join the growing pile of 'to be fully finished' items, I'm thinking that once we get to the half way point in the year I will start to have some finishing days.  

Next weekend we are going to the Stitching show at the NEC in Birmingham and I will be on the look out for some suitable backing fabrics.

Back in 2016 I started Elizabeth, one of the 'girls' by Carriage House Samplings, I can't remember when I actually finished stitching her but it's been a while so a couple of weeks ago I took her to be framed and collected her yesterday.

Lots of blocks of colour in this one :-)

LOVE the hair!!!

There are four girls in the series, two down, two to go.  I'm just waiting for my needlework shop to get some more fabric in then I will make a start on another one.

(I must apologise for the quality of the photos on the finishes above, I couldn't get rid of the glare from the glass on Elizabeth and for some reason my phone camera is not picking up the bright colours on Santa)

 The weather has been pretty horrible all week, wet and the last two days very windy too.

But at least I've got a very nice view from my kitchen window.

I'm so glad I planted all my pots up with Tulips, they have been a very welcome sight each morning when I open the blind.

My Camellia has flowers open and lots of buds, just hope they can survive this weather

And my Hostas are coming to life too :-)

Thank you for stopping by, and for leaving a comment.

Hope you all have a great week

-X-

On this last day of February

I'm so happy to share another stitching finish for February.

  It seems that sorting out my stash over Christmas and kitting some of my charts up has done wonders to get me motivated :-)

This is Pumpkin Spice Farm by Hands on Design

I absolutely love this one and thoroughly enjoyed every stitch :-)

I will be making it into a pillow later in the year, after I have found the right backing fabric.

The chenille trim will be edging for the pillow.

It's been another good month for reading too with five books finished, three on my Kindle, one physical book and one audio.

Really enjoyed these three from Teresa Driscoll.

The Wife Between us was full of twists and I didn't guess the ending!

The Six Tudor Queens was my audio book, although Jane is not my favourite Queen and there wasn't really anything new in this book, but I love anything to do with the Tudors so I enjoyed it.

We have also had record temperatures for February, beautiful blue skies and no need for coats.

Of course, it's still Winter so it couldn't last, but It did make a lovely change.

I hope you too have had a great February, I'd love to hear about it. :-)

-X-

Yarn Mail

It's only in the last 18 months or so really that I've become aware and interested in hand dyed yarn, I tend to have knit a lot of baby things, as you might well have noticed, lol, and to me you need to be able to machine wash baby blankets and cardigans, who wants the added chore of hand washing a pile of cardigans when they have a baby, I know I didn't!  So for all the blankets and cardigans I knit for our little people I used a good quality acrylic yarn, something easy to care for. 

But, I do love all the lovely hand dyed yarns and so just before Christmas I treated myself to one of Ellie's yarns, (Craft House Magic).  I absolutely LOVE this colour way and I get it out of the cabinet and admire it most weeks :-) 

Over The Rainbow by Craft House Magic

Then towards the end of December Lay Family Yarns announced a mini club, you would receive three mini skien yarns dyed by Lay Family Yarns and three by a guest dyer 

This was January's parcel. The guest dyer was Fine Fish Yarns

And this was February's parcel with guest dyer Betsy Makes

Unfortunately I missed the sign up for the one for March+ but I've made a note in my diary so I don't miss out on the next one.

I have seen so many people making mitered square blankets and they look so pretty I thought I would like to have a go too, so that's what these mini's will be for, obviously I have a lot more to collect yet though.

Also so from Lay Family Yarns,  I signed up for one of their Valentine kits, this one is  Long Lost Love Letters

And my final spurge in December was to sign up to the  Literary & Hand Dyed Yarn Society from Dandelion & Dogwood.  

The idea behind this is that Ami and Jen choose a favourite book they have read and use that for the inspiration to dye the yarn.  

This idea really appealed to me and so I signed up for the three months subscription, there will be an option to sign up for more after that which I'm hoping to do

This was what I received in January, don't you think they did an excellent job with matching the yarn?

I hadn't read this book, but I have watched the film and really enjoyed it.

February's box arrived last week and the book that inspired the yarn was Eleanor Oliphant.

I read this last year and really enjoyed it.  

 There is a Ravelry group to accompany the yarn society where you can discuss the book and share what project you are knitting with your yarn,  but I must confess that I haven't joined the group, but I am enjoying receiving the yarn :-)

I'm in no rush to knit anything with these lovely yarns at the moment, I'm happy just to have them in my stash and admire them for the time being.

Have a great week

-X-

February's ornament

My February ornament is all stitched, as with my January one I will make it up at a later date.

(Please excuse the dreadful photos!!)

Crowning the Tree by Blackbird Designs

Started February 3rd

Finished February 17th

Stitched with the called for threads on a piece of mystery fabric from my stash.

I came across this chart all kitted up with the threads when I was having a sort out in my little crafty space at the beginning of the year, I think this year is going to be the year that you see lots of things that I had previously forgotten about, lol.

The weather has been brilliant this past week, still cold, but the days have been mostly bright and sunny, it really feels like Spring is just around the corner with lots of promise of colour to come in the garden and my pots too.

On Thursday I spent an hour raking some more leaves up (they are never ending in our garden because of the oak tree) and I decided to open up my little blue house and give it a sweep and clean ready for warmer days.  I don't think I ever posted any photos of my little house after it was all painted last year.  It's stretching the imagination a bit to call it a Summer House, It's really just a space to sit when the weather is nice, it sits half way up the garden between the two lawns.

The chairs are what the previous owner left in the conservatory, Mark wanted to throw them out when we moved in but I stood my ground, for the last four years they were stored first in our garage, and then after Mark converted half the garage they were stored in my daughter's garage.  

Every so often he would say they should to go to the tip!

When I finally got my little house towards the end of last summer I bought some new cushions off ebay and now I'm so glad I stood my ground, lol.  One day I would like to paint them white, but for now I'm happy with them as they are.

I bought these postcards last year when I went to Llandudno and put them in a frame I bought from The Range, they look right at home in my little blue house.

And  I crocheted a large mandala rug for the floor and chalk painted an old table.

The cushions I think I showed last year.

I have wanted a little space like this in the garden for such a long time and now I have one :-) and I can't wait to spend time sitting in here this summer.

I wish you all a wonderful week

See you soon

-X-

En Retard!

This chart could not have a more perfect name for the title of my post :-)

I lost momentum on *En Retard and failed to get it finished in time for Christmas 2018, but when I picked it up last Saturday I found that I only had three stars, the eyes on the reindeer and the backstich on the sleigh to do.

I had an idea when stitching it that I would like it to be mounted in a frame but with linen behind it, and I found the perfect thing in Home Sense.  The frame had string draped inside with those mini pegs to hang things from, so I just cut that away, the backing was perfect, just what I had in mind :-)

I laced the stitching on some white foam board (which I bought from Hobby Craft) and then hot glued three small pieces of the same foam board onto the backing board in the frame so that the stitching would stand a little proud.  Then I hot glued the stitching to those three pieces of foam board.  I was careful to only place the glue onto the foam board on the back of the stitching, not on the fabric.

En Retard by Madame Chantilly stitched on 28 count fabric using the called for threads except for the red, which I changed to Threadworx 1089

I'm rather pleased with the outcome :-)

It's only the second time I've tried lacing and it's really not as scary as it sounds.  I quite enjoyed the process, to be honest I found it much easier than making up small ornaments.

I initially thought that the frame could do with some embellishing, (it seems to be the thing at the moment when finishing cross stitch), now i'm not so sure.  I'm going to leave it for now, it's got to be packed away until Christmas anyway so I'll see how I feel when it makes another appearance.

Mark went to Twickenham this morning, his work had paid for tickets to see the England game and a hotel for tonight too, no point in him coming all the way back here tonight to go that way again in the morning for work, so I've had a quiet Sunday stitching and catching up on some podcasts. 

 England won, if you're interested, and he said the atmosphere was amazing :-)

I wish you all a lovely week and I'll see you soon

-X-

*En Retard, translation, late! 

Or you could say that I'm just very early for Christmas 2019 :-)