Friday, June 27, 2014

Just the weather for warm woolly blankets!

I've been itching to start my crochet afghan.....makes sense doesn't it....82ºF (28ºC) here and I start thinking about warm woolly blankets! I know, weird, huh?

Anyhoo, once I figured out how to do the pattern and how many repeats I would need ( although messed that part up.... I did way more than I needed and now have an afghan the size of a small forest!) I really got going with it and am loving how it's crocheting up....


It's quite a simple pattern....otherwise I would never be able to do it...but doesn't it look impressive?


If there are any crocheters out there reading this, please don't look too closely at it as there are probably loads of mistakes and the tension is probably awful too! :)  I just hope that when I go back to the craft store they have more of the wool in these three colours (I know, rookie mistake not buying enough to complete the project!)....keep your fingers crossed for me.

So, no cross stitching done this week...unfortunately there's never enough time to get everything we want done....but, I do have a picture of my design in this months World of Cross Stitching magazine...


...I might have to stitch it and alter the words to 'Do not disturb...crocheting in progress' !



Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Coffee and cuddles....

...is finally finished! Although I love the design, I'm so glad to be finished it. It feels like I have done more unpicking that anything else on this piece. It's all my own fault though...I'm so fussy about colours that when it's not exactly what I want I have come to the realization that it's better (and quicker) to unpick it and re-stitch it in the right colours...otherwise it ends up as a UFO. Anyhoo, after all my unpicking to get the colours just the way I wanted them, I then went and did a really stupid thing....I blame it on watching the telly while stitching! After finishing all the cross stitch, I just grabbed some black thread that was in my stitching tin and started working on the back stitch without really paying too much attention. Next day when I looked at the poor finished kitty, it looked horrible! Luckily, I had only back stitched  one of the kitties and mugs, so I didn't have too much to unpick. A dark grey thread looked so much better and I finished of all those cute kitties quite quickly....which was lucky as I was beginning to get fed-up of the design! So, here it is in all it's unpicked and re-stitched glory....


Each kitty is so cute and seems to have it's own personality...





I just have to find a suitable frame and then that's the first of the Christmas gifts done! Yay me! :)

I decided to have a break from the stitching in the hopes that the frogs would find somewhere else more interesting to live....any takers?

 Here's the lovely colours of my next project...



...yup, I'm going to tackle another crochet afghan....wish me luck!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Friday, June 13, 2014

I won an iron...and I love it!

True to her word, after offering an iron as the prize on her blog, the wonderful Sharon, sent me an iron! Luckily for me, it's the type of iron that stitchers like to use....

.
..isn't that cute?

She also sent me the most wonderful package brimming with goodies, all individually wrapped...



...it was like Christmas opening each parcel...



....such an array of wonderful things! I love the 'No Ironing" wall hanging (which is now hanging above my tumble dryer) and if you look closely you'll see that she even found the cutest iron motif  fabric. The iron design was by Gaynor from Stitchers Anon, who designed it especially for Sharon...so  another thank you, this time to Gaynor! I love receiving handmade gifts, and this is only the second time that I have ever had someone stitch me something! I really appreciate it as I know how busy you were Sharon, and I know the amount of time it takes to make something like this. 

So what else was in the package, well there was some wonderful over-dyed threads....and can you believe that I have never stitched with  these? Well, that is all about to change. I think this may be like the opening of Pandora's box......I can see a new obsession starting here!There's also a fat quarter of pink polka dot iron fabric, which I will certainly make good use of! Some wonderful ' handmade with love' labels, counting pins, lavender tissues (one of my favourite fragrances!) , a spool of the most gorgeous cream lace edging,  a cute frog tape measure, the cutest little tea-light pail, which for some reason isn't in the picture and some wonderful sweets....which didn't last long!

So, a big THANK YOU to Sharon for such a beautiful prize package...you're wonderful, I love it all!

I'm off now to check out all those wonderful over-dyed threads...I can now understand why everyone is raving about them...yes, I'm a convert!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Monday, June 9, 2014

Kids, camera, coffee and cuddles!

How's that for alliteration?!! My old English teacher would be proud of me!

So, here I am...late again...I'm blaming it all on my kids. I was all set to take pictures on Friday, only to find that when my darling son had returned my camera, the batteries were exhausted (I know that feeling well! ). And since said son had pinched all the batteries for his xbox (or whatever) I was then left to hunt down the rechargeable batteries and charge them.....only to realize once the batteries were charged, that he had then gone off with the camera while he stayed at a friends house! Arghhh! I love him to bits, but I'm so counting the days till he goes back to uni!

So that's the kids and cameras, as for the Coffee and Cuddles...that's the name of the Margaret Sherry kitties design that I've been working on. I didn't get as much done on that as I had planned this week. I'm stitching it for my son's girlfriend, either as a birthday gift or a Christmas gift, but I had to put it out of sight as she was staying with us for a few days. This is how much I've got done so far.....


I was chomping at the bit to get it finished as I soooo want to see those little faces once I start the back stitching!

So, instead of sitting and twiddling my thumbs all week, I took out one of the kits in my stash and set to work on that.....



It's another dimensions kit so, as you can probably guess, I'm being really careful with the threads! Loving the colours in the sky....just not loving the different numbers of strands to be stitched with. The effect is nice and it will be gorgeous when finished.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona