October makes and celebrations

October was a busy month and seemed to pass by really quickly.  We had two family birthdays, Oliver turned 12 on the 17th and It was Marks birthday on the 21st.  Mark never likes a fuss and is really hard to buy for so we just went out for a meal on the Monday night, just the two of us, not something we do very often so it was nice, and being a Monday night it was quiet too.

Oliver requested that nanny make his birthday cake, a lemon one with sweets was the brief, I think he was happy with what I came up with 😀

It's been a busy month for stitching too with the Quarry Bank Stitchers day retreat on Sunday 13th and on the following Tuesday six of us met up at the Nimble Thimble for a stitching and shopping day then last Saturday was our monthly meet up at the Exchange cafe in Birmingham.  The retreat day is always a good day, this time there were a couple of new ladies at our table, ( hi Esther if you are reading this, it was lovely to meet you and your friend).  Esther emailed me after reading about the previous meet-up on my blog, so that was lovely to be able to share information about our meet-up, and happily they were able to secure a place.  

Our monthly meet-up in Birmingham is as I said in a cafe, the only requirement is that we purchase something to eat and drink whilst we are there. In the past they have reserved an area for us all to sit together but have now decided that they are no longer going to reserve tables, hopefully that's just because with Christmas coming they will be expecting more trade from shoppers and the Christmas market.  It would be a shame if we had to cancel that meet-up because it's a lovely atmosphere.

Mary Margaret has had quite a few outings this month and this is how she is looking at the moment.

I'd say she is over half way done and If I can get a few evenings stitching during the coming weeks I should be able to get her finished before the end of the year.

I only made a couple of purchases at our Nimble Thimble visit, a couple of charts and  I took some charts from stash with me to get fabric for, which prompted my next start. 

Black Bird Designs Red Bird Sampler

I can't tell you how many years this has been waiting to be stitched!  Once I started it was all I wanted to stitch and was done in no time.

Although I took it with me to buy fabric for I ended up finding something to suit in stash along with the threads.  Not sure If I'll take this to be framed or look for a frame and do it myself, depends if I can find something that suits and I like.

The end of October is the time to share our Stick6 finishes, this time mine is a Prairie Schooler Santa.

Only one more to stitch for this year, I do love taking part in this SAL, It keeps me motivated to stitch with no pressure. 

My final finish for the month are my socks.  I thought the colours were perfect for Halloween month.

The yarn is Opal, from their Beauty Collection, colour no. 11300

Back in the Summer my five year old laptop died and was beyond repair, reluctant to buy another one at the time I've been using my fifteen year old laptop, which works fine except for the fact that I have to keep it plugged into the mains because the battery is no good and I just keep putting off buying a new one.  Then a couple of weeks ago some of the keys weren't responding, rebooting solved the problem a few times but then that didn't work so I was left with no a,s or d and no return key either!  I was still reluctant to get a new laptop as there may be some black Friday deals soon or offers over Christmas, plus I hate shopping for new appliances of any sort.  It took me a good few days to realise that I could buy a separate keyboard quite cheaply which would enable me to still use my old laptop😂  So that's what I'm doing at the moment and I have to say that typing on a proper keyboard is way better than typing on a laptop keyboard.  That is rather a long winded way of saying that I am way behind on commenting on blogs at the moment, but I will try and catch up soon.

I was going to share some charity shop stitching finds with you but I've rambled on far too much already so I'll save those for another time.

Hope you are all well and have a fantastic November, It'll be Christmas before we know it!

-X-

Redwork

 The end of April already so it's time to share my stitching for the Stick6in2024 SAL. 

For the months of March and April the number 1 was generated and my pattern was one that had been in my stash for around four years, a lovely stitchery piece from The Birdhouse, called Gingerbread House.

The design comes already pre-printed on the fabric which is good because I always struggle to trace things.  The majority of the stitching is back stitching, with some french knots and satin stitch. 

The perfectionist in me isn't happy with the satin stitch sections, I tried them so many times and kept ripping them out, unhappy with how uneven the stitches looked.   I realised that I would have to embrace imperfection otherwise this stitchery would never get finished, and as I heard someone say recently, finished is better than perfect.   The perfection part of my brain would disagree with that saying, but I kept stitching and tried to ignore that little voice telling me my stitches looked bad.

To be fair you could probably pick faults with a lot of things in this piece, but on the whole I'm happy with it, no one is going to inspect it that closely anyway 😉

I used the recommended DMC thread, 221 Antique red, three strands for everything apart from the french knots and the satin stitch for which I use two strands.

Enjoy the rest of your week

-X-

End of February

 Thank you for all the lovely kind messages on my last post, they meant a lot to me.   I got a call yesterday from the pet cemetery to say that Molly's ashes could be collected, so today I bought her home.  More tears on the drive home but her little casket is now in the cabinet along with Millie's.         I had thought I might bury them both together, when the weather permits, not sure yet, they were never outdoor cats, they liked to take a roam around our garden but neither one went off and didn't have a particular spot where they lay out there, they were always quite happy to be comfortable in home.       I'll speak to Mark at the weekend and get his thoughts.

This is the first time in my life that there has not been a cat or dog in the house.  It feels so very strange, and even though neither cats were vocal the house just feels so still and quiet, and now my lap is empty when I sit down, I miss them both so much, they will both always have a special place in my heart.  

There hasn't been a lot of crafting done this month, I haven't been in the right frame of mind; but I did finish my Stick6in24 stitching.

It's so small it hardly counts, but it's all I had the brain space for.

I'm afraid I can't remember the details except that it was a kit, it is a French design and came complete with the little wooden house shape to attach it too.

Manuela Pulled the No.1 for our next two month SAL, I have a design ready but not the threads or fabric, that's something I could do at the weekend.

I've been occupying myself this week with Spring cleaning, I've taken on a room each day and given everything a thorough cleaning, cushion covers and throws have been washed too and as of today all my windows have been cleaned inside and out, now we just need some Spring sunshine instead of this incessant rain!  The grass at the top of the garden is like a sponge and there are still puddles around the borders so not much chance of even tidying up in that area at the moment, at least some parts look like Spring has sprung.

February half term we took the kids to see Gaia at Tewskesbury Cathedral.

I'd also booked tickets for both myself and Mark to visit on the Saturday night

I had more time to look and listen to the sound track on the Saturday.  I found it really humbling, you realise just how big this planet of ours is and how very little is actually land, amazing.

I think I'll leave it there for now and hopefully pop back in again when I have something to share.

Take care

-X-