Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Prunes!


I can’t believe it’s been a week since my last post! I try to update my blog Mondays and Thursdays, but this past Thursday I changed the company that I get TV, internet and phone service from, so couldn’t post because of all the work that was going on. Then with the long weekend, Monday felt like Sunday and it wasn’t till late evening that I remembered I hadn’t posted! So what I’m wondering is if there’s a blogging equivalent of prunes…something that will help keep me posting more regularly!! lol

Not too much stitching going on…the weather turned really nice so I have been trying to catch up with all the gardening chores that hadn’t been done. Here’s a picture of the progress on the Mighty Samurai….he’s such slow progress! Hope you are not getting bored with him!


And since I have been working in the garden I thought I would show you one of my old designs that seems rather appropriate!

She appeared in an issue of World Of Cross Stitching, but unfortunately I did not receive a copy of the magazine so can’t tell you which issue it was.
Here's a close up of the beads from the watering can as they don't really show up well on the previous picture.

Isn't she sweet? If only she could work her magic in my garden!

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona


Monday, May 23, 2011

I'm On The Cover!

So the start of last week wasn’t that great, but ended on a good note. The postie delivered a copy of Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine – one of my favourite magazines! Even better when there are two sets of my designs in it this month.

Here’s the cover.

Yes….I’m a cover girl again! lol Thankfully it's the designs you see and not me!
Here’s a close up of the pages with my designs.


The flip flop cards which I think look awesome made up. I love the colours that they have used for the actual cards….exactly what I would have picked.  Bright, summery….perfect!


And here are the father’s day cards.

I think if I were making up the models I would have used a slightly darker blue for the cards on these designs, probably nearer to the blue on the border, but to each their own! They still turned out nice.
Since it’s somehow so hard to get male designs, there is only one card that specifically mentions father’s day so that these cards can be used for lots of card giving occasion!

A big 'thank you' has to go to the model stitchers for doing such a wonderful, wonderful job on all the cards in the magazine.

And now on to the stitching that my daughter was supposed to be doing! You will, of course, note that supposed was in italics! Well, being a social butterfly she had a hundred and one things going on, and although she stitched some of it, it was left for good old Mum to finish it off and save the day. So there I am at midnight with the glue gun at hand trying desperately to see the numbers etched in the ruler to check that the darn thing was square!

It turned out fine, but if I were to do it again (which I’m not!) I think I would add a border or maybe make it a bit smaller as I feel there’s an awful lot of white. Anyway, we (and I use that term loosely!) got it finished on time and it was well received!

All’s well that ends well!

Well, that’s all for today folks, thanks for visiting!
Until next time…happy stitching!

Rhona

Thursday, May 19, 2011

What a week!


As you can probably guess from the title, it hasn’t been a great week!
MONDAY
Monday afternoon I went down to the basement only to discover that I should have taken a canoe! The water heater had burst and there was water everywhere. (Luckily all of the stitchy stash that’s down there is in plastic storage boxes!) So then it was a trip up to Lowe's to get a new water heater….yeah a real fun shopping trip! (That was sarcasm just in case you hadn’t noticed!) So, was told by the salesman that the installer may be able to fit the new water heater the next day – yippee!

TUESDAY
Got a phone call from Lowe's first thing in the morning saying that the installers would call with a time for the installation. So I waited all day for this call, only to get it 7.30 pm saying it would be lunch time on Wednesday before he could  get here.  Not much to do but wait – without any hot water! All I needed was for the electric kettle to break!

WEDNESDAY
Installer arrives, has one look at the burst water heater then tells me that I had bought the wrong type of heater! Arghhh!
He very kindly took the new one back to the store and the salesman called to tell me that luckily they had the correct one in stock…sounds good? I thought so too, till he told me the price! Half as much again. Couldn’t get any worse? Well, it could. Installation would be double the original price!  Sheesh, my little plastic credit card is in melt down mode! Although I have to say, thank heavens for credit cards!
Anyway by 5pm we were back in the land of hot running water, with the washing machine and dishwasher checking that the new water heater could keep up! So, it’s beans on toast for the next several weeks! (For non British readers that means a cheap meal because of the lack of cash!!!)
So do we breathe a sigh of relief? Everything back to normal? Well.... no!
I had been working on some new designs and had been struggling to get the lettering to fit and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. Persevered and got things to a stage where it was looking fine, then discovered that my cross stitch program was showing a ten square grid instead of the usual fourteen square grid! No wonder nothing fitted. Then I realized that the designs from early on in the week would be the wrong size too! I ‘m not sure how this happened, but it’s probably got something to do with my cat who has a habit of walking across the keyboard so she can sit and block the screen!
Anyway, so here we are on Thursday and I’m hoping that since troubles always come in threes, the week should only get better!

So, on to the stitching, which is no doubt why you are here!
Well I have a few little things to show you. First we have the progress with the mighty samurai….

The tail is as complete as I can get it until I get the threads from dimensions. I’m actually a bit disappointed with the kit as there is yet another thread that I have run out of. I’m almost finished the regular cross stitching and will soon be on the cross stitch that includes the metallic threads. I always leave the metallics to the end as I find they are such a pain to work with! So be warned, once I’m on to the metallics be prepared for the blog posts to be me moaning about how much I hate metallic threads! lol

I have been busy stitching up a design for a magazine, and since I can’t show you the front, I thought I’d show you the back! I love the colours of this one and it has stitched up pretty quickly – still loving those gold needles! This is one of a set of four which I hope to be able to show you soon.

And lastly, this is some stitching that I’m doing with my daughter. She wanted to make one of the little door hangings for a friend who is taking her black belt test this weekend.  Yes, my daughter has an ‘I can leave everything to the last minute and it will all be fine’ attitude! She probably realizes that I can’t go past a half-stitched design without picking it up and adding just a few more stitches! So, hopefully, she (or maybe that should read we) we will get it finished in time!

 It doesn't look much like anything now but it will be a girl in a Taekwon Do uniform and my DD is going to add the girl's name and the date of her test. I will post pictures when it's done!


In my haste to post the winner of the giveaway, I forgot to link to Lynn’s blog so you could check out her amazing work. I know this is probably really bad blogging etiquette so I apologize and send you all now to check out Lynn’s blog!

Until next time…happy stitching!


Rhona

Monday, May 16, 2011

Time to Announce the Winner!

And the winner is......



Congratulations Lynn!



As you can see I'm very high tech! All the names were scribbled by my own fair hand and entered into the bowl  - there weren't enough to put in the hat! lol.

I'd like to thank everyone for entering and becoming followers, it was lovely being able to discover new blogs, although blog reading does seriously eat into your stitching time! I've found that it also adds to my 'I really need to get that chart' list also! Anyone else have that problem? There are just so many talented stitchers and wonderful design out there, how on earth can cross stitching be a dying art?  Big thanks also to the wonderful stitchers I have met from http://www.cross-stitching.com/ who entered, I know many of you don't have blogs but I hope you will continue to visit here. For those of you who don't know, there is an amazingly friendly forum there and definitely worth checking out!


So, on to The Mighty Samurai and some progress has been made! This is how he looks now.



The body of the peacock is almost complete, the only bit that still has to be stitched is the small part where his legs and body meet. That, would you believe, is where I need some more of the dark purple that I have run out of!



The tail is coming along nicely too, but also needs some of the dark purple! I'm going to have to have a good look at what I still have to stitch and see what threads are left then get in contact with Dimensions, again, for more thread. Surprisingly there seems to be quite a bit of the red threads left and, of course, I've finished all the red part! Ah, such is life.

Anyway, thanks once again to everyone who entered my first ever giveaway. As always, I appreciate the fact that you take time out of your busy day to pop on here and see what I've been up to.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Sunday, May 8, 2011

A Yummy Scrummy Post!

Looking for the giveaway? Please scroll down to the previous post for details.


So the tale of the thistles finally comes to an end! Yes, all four are stitched and made in to door hangings. Here they are...the first  yummy scrummy picture!


As you can see, I took your advice and did the last one orange. I have to admit that I wasn't too convinced about the colour choice, but once I started stitching it, it really grew on me. Even my daughter was smitten by it and I think she secretly wanted that one for herself! (By process of elimination, me holding them behind my back and her telling me 'left ' or 'right' she ended up with the pink one.)

I'm so pleased with how they turned out and can't wait to give them to the girls. I loved making these and am now looking at other designs to make more door hangings.

I have to say a big thank you to Mouse who very kindly emailed me detailed instructions on how to transform the stitching in to the finished hangings. Thanks for all your help Mouse...loved chatting with you. For those of you who don't know Mouse, she has the most wonderful blog, definitely one worth checking out!

So now I can back to stitching the Mighty Samurai and I'm itching to get back working on him again. My goal is to get the peacock finished this month. I'm hoping to get more than just the peacock done but I know that I tend to make rather lofty goals, so I'm trying to be a bit more realistic and have the goals more manageable and achievable.

And now I have to show you the wonderful surprise that my daughter gave me for Mother's day....

Mmmmmm, it was delicious - totally yummy scrummy, especially as she bought all the ingredients and made it herself while I was out.

Told you it was a yummy scrummy post!

Anyway, thank you to those who have entered my little giveaway, and  a big warm welcome to my new followers. As always, thanks for visiting my blog!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Thursday, May 5, 2011

It's a Giveaway!

Here we are….my first giveaway!

This is the prize.



One packet of gold needles, one pair of stork scissors and one magnetic needle case.

I know many stitchers have never tried gold needles…so here’s a great way to get your hands on them to see if you like them.  For those of you who do not like gold needles, just let me know and I will replace the gold with a packet of regular needles if you are the lucky winner.

So, how do you get your hands on these goodies? Nothing too difficult, no pound of flesh or first born child, just be or become a follower of this blog and leave a comment on this post (make sure your email is in your profile or in your comment), and I will enter your name in the drawing. For a second entry, post a link for this giveaway on your own blog.  
You have until Sunday May 15th to add your name to the drawing. The winner will be announced here Monday May 16th 2011.
Thanks for visiting today…and Good Luck!

Until next time…happy stitching!

Rhona

Monday, May 2, 2011

Tusal

Another month that seems to have flown by! Luckily this month I feel like I have managed to get lots of stitching done, which my almost full ort jar will attest to!



The jar is full of the golds and greens of the thistles along with the blues, pinks and lilacs for each of the heads.



If you look closely you will also see some dark blues which is for a Xmas design that will be submitted to a magazine. In the ort jar you will see the remnants of the french knots that I had to unpick several times. Someone once told me that french knots should be like a string of pearls, each one looking exactly the same - I have been scarred for life because of this statement!

And my surprise for this month.....


I finally remembered to get a bigger jar for each months ort collection. So it was the end of the road for the old sandwich bag which had been doing the job up until now. There seems to be quite a bit of threads in the large jar, so maybe he won't last all year either!

Also in the ort jar you will see that I keep the labels from the skeins of threads that I have finished. I then pop these labels in to my purse or bag so that the next time I am at the craft store I know which threads I  need to buy. I haven't quite mastered the art of clearing out my bag or purse though, and often end up buying the same thread colours more than once! Better to have too much than too little though, and thread never goes to waste. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

Check back on Thursday when I will have news of my first ever giveaway!

Thanks for taking the time to visit with me today.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona