It's a marvelous night for a moon dance!

Hello dear friends...thank you for popping by! I hope you have your dancing shoes on so that you can join me in my moon dance happy dance. :) Yes, Twilight Silhouette, or twilight fairy as I usually call her, is finished......

....doesn't she look gorgeous?

 ....you can see the textures created with the different stitches and the french knots...

....and if you look closely....you can just see some of the sparkles in the fairy dust!

I love her....but I'm so glad she's finished! Now I just have to get her framed....that could take a while!

So with Twilight fairy finished it was time to get back to working on Max the cat...remember him? This is how he looked last time I did any work on him...

...and this is him now....

I seem to have been able to get loads done......don't think that I'll be able to keep this pace up though....life does seem to get in the way of stitching time.....unfortunately!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Almost finished!

I have finished the back stitching and french knots on the left hand side of Twilight fairy....only the right hand side to so!!! Can you feel my excitement? 

Unfortunately, no matter what angle I try to take the pictures from, the sparkle just doesn't show up....but the cat hairs do!

I think dinner just might be put on hold tonight so that I can get this finished!

Can you blame me? :)


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

A few stars and some waves

For various reasons, I haven't managed to get very much stitching or crocheting done this week....nothing exciting has been going on, just the usual boring Mum stuff that takes up valuable crafting time! 

Twilight Fairy has a few stars shining in the sky now.....

...there's still lots of back stitch to do around the fairy and the grasses...and, of course, more stars!

My crochet afghan is rolled up in my basket out of the prying paws of a very curious cat who seems to think that the blanket is for her! She loves to snuggle underneath it while I'm working on it....she's too cute!

Here's the front of it......all those lovely sea waves patterns...

....still lots to do to get this to the length I want.....if I can find some free time to do it!!!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Back stitching and missing stitches....

....that's what I have been working on! Here's the back stitching that I did....

...what a difference it makes! This cute little bear really did come to life......and here he is all made up as a card...

.....just in time for valentine's day!

And the missing stitches? Well I brushed off all the dust form twilight fairy (again!) and really got to work on her. There seemed to be quite a few odd stitches that were 'missing'....you know the ones when you have three or four stitches left to do in one colour but have only an inch or so of thread and no matter how hard you try, you just can't get them all done with the last bit of thread. I always leave them and start another colour....a new colour seems much more exciting than finishing off two or three stitches with the old colour you were using. Anyone else like that? Anyway, I decided to do all those missing stitches....

It's probably hard to see any difference from the last time I showed pictures of this design, but there are fewer gaps now! :)

The end really is in sight for this beautiful design....I can't wait to add the sparkly thread and bring this design to life.

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Happy New Year!

Now that the hustle and bustle of the Christmas period is over (phew!!!) it's time to get back to normal...or as normal as life will permit!

I have two designs that I have been working on for what seems like forever....and I'm determined to have them finished in the next few weeks....and now that it's written in black and white, I just have to get them done now :)

First off is the lighthouse design.....

...as you can see, Dimensions sent the extra thread needed to finish the cross stitching, so I have no excuse now! There's just a few cross stitches to complete and then the back stitching...not my favourite part, but it will be worth it!

Then project number two....Twilight Fairy....

...this one hasn't got much to be done either....but..... I've run out of one of the blue threads! I think that I may have used the wrong blue colour for some part of it (there are a few blues that are quite close to each other!) as I seem to have quite a bit of one blue thread left......arghhh....silly me! So, yes, I will be begging Dimensions again for some more threads! Thankfully their customer service department is really good.

So hopefully in the next few weeks, these designs will be upgraded form WIP's to finished items...woohoo!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Lack of stitching time.

Goodness...where does the time go? I can't believe that another week has flown by.....things seem to be so crazy busy at the moment and the Christmas madness hasn't even begun yet!!!

So what have I been up to? Since I didn't manage to post last week, I have two weeks worth of stitching to show....although it's really not much, but still anything is better than nothing. Not being able to pick up a needle and get a few stitches done is my idea of torture!

I have been working on Twilight Fairy which is soooo close to being finished. Here's how she looked last time I posted....

...and here she is now....

Getting close to being done! If only I could get a few days of uninterrupted stitching time I could have her finished....but sadly, that's not going to happen ;(

Last week I worked a bit on Max the cat....he looked like this last time ...

....and here he is now....

...slowly but surely he's beginning to appear....or at least the background is anyway!!!

This week it's back to stitching the almost finished lighthouse design....if I can carve out some stitching time for myself.

Hope you all manage to get some uninterrupted stitching time.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Arghhhhh......

... cross stitch kits! The great thing about cross stitch kits is that you can (usually!) start stitching them right away....no searching for threads, no faffing around trying to get fabric that is the right size....even a needle is included. But, the bad thing about kits is that sometimes you run out of thread and can't find an exact match....which means contacting the manufacturer and waiting on them to (hopefully) send replacement threads.

Yup, that's where I am just now...sitting doing nothing, just twiddling my thumbs (yeah, you believe that one, don't ya?!!) hoping that Dimensions Crafts will send me some replacement thread. I've run out of, not one, but two colours! This is where I am at the moment...

Now I'm sure that I'm not a wasteful stitcher when it comes to using the threads provided, I've run out of threads before, so I'm extra careful about  stitching to the last tiny amount left in the needle.  This is how much of the black thread is left from the kit......

...and I've finished all the black stitching! There's just a little bit of back stitching to do using black, and I'm pretty sure that I will only use maybe one or two lengths at the very most to finish the back stitching. Weird how there is so much left of one colour but not enough of the other colours. I can only assume that the model stitcher for Dimensions is even more frugal with her threads (except the black) than I am!!! :)

Oh well...time to look out the old lighthouse design :)


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

If only I had remembered.....

....to mark off each colour that I had stitched on the chart, I wouldn't  waste so much time trying to decide if a certain stitch was pale blue or very light blue (with my eye sight, they both look exactly the same!!!) and then I would know exactly where I was on the chart, and what colour I should be stitching with!

Filling in those last few stitches in certain areas is driving me mad and resulting in me fudging it when I just can't decide. I do have the decency to feel guilty about it....for a second or two....then I can't realize that I can't tell which bit was fudged and then I don't feel too bad as no-one else will know ......except you, but I'm sure you'll keep my secret...won't you?!!  :)

So I've gone from this (last week's pic)....

...to this...

......almost finished with the reflections!!!  Woohoo! Feeling good....except for the fudging part!

Until next time..happy stitching!

Rhona

Out of sight, out of mind....and a change of attitude!

In order to resist the temptation of stitching  the more colourful lighthouse project, I decided that the 'out of sight, out of mind' approach was the only one that would work for me....in reality it's more a case of it being out of reach rather than out of mind...but hey, it's working! So, the lighthouse project is packed away out of sight (but not out of mind) in another room so that I'm not tempted to pick it up and do "just one length of that lovely pink in the sky" ...which never happens, because just one length of thread then becomes two lengths, then three lengths and then...well you know how it goes!!!

Anyhoo, this is what Twilight Silhouette looked like last week.....

...and the thought of stitching hundreds and hundreds of little black x's on to navy fabric really wasn't all that exciting, as I'm sure you can imagine! I really didn't want to stitch all that boring black, but changed my attitude when I realized that since there was sooooo much black to do, it meant that for great big chunks of the design I didn't have to do any counting and didn't really have to concentrate too hard, soooo, I could really watch a move (not just listen to it) while I stitched....yayyy!! (and yes, I'm enjoying the italics today!!!)

So after a couple of movies (no popcorn though!), this is how these sweet fairies look now....

Quite a change!

Sadly for me though, since most of the black area is done, it means that now I'm back to having to count my stitches and just listen to movies again!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

The problem with colour....

Not only am I having problems finding time to get any stitching done, (these summer nights just seem to fly by!) but when I do get my stitching out, instead of working on Twilight Silhouette, my hand just seems to gravitate to the more colourful  lighthouse design. 

I have been making a big effort to do more of the Twilight design, but progress seems to be quite slow, I think it's because stitching blue threads on blue fabric makes seeing any progress quite difficult....here's where I was last time...

...and here's my progress...

There's actually quite a bit of half stitch done in one strand that doesn't seem to show up on the photograph! Of course, the great big chunk of black to be done at the bottom seems to be so boring and tedious compared to stitching this.....

...all those yummy, scrummy colours in the sky...

Isn't this just gorgeous? You can see why I want to stitch this design with all those beautiful colours that are in the sky.

Yeah, so much for this one being my 'stuff-it-in-my-handbag-to-stitch-while-I'm-while-waiting-for-the-doctor project'! Ah well, you only live once...might as well stitch what makes you happy!

Hope whatever you're stitching is making you happy too!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Long days with not much to show for it!

So much for the long hot days of summer! It may be hot, but they certainly don't feel very long....I don't seem to be able to get much time to stitch just now.

I have been a bit naughty and started on my new kit. I blame Caitlin at Naughts and Cross Stitches as she is working on the same kit and posted a picture of her WIP which you can see here. Of course, once I saw her stitching, I just couldn't help but start it.....

I can't wait to start working on the sky part of the design, the colours are just gorgeous!

I have also been working on some secret stitching, and I can show you this part of the design....

...it looks a bit weird, but it will make sense and all will be revealed shortly!

Twilight fairy hasn't been totally neglected, just not an awful lot of stitches added to her this week.

I bet you're struggling to see the difference from last week's picture!  :) Hopefully next week there will be an obvious change......fingers crossed as the days are still long!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

A little mouse finish!

Another week has flown by with very little stitching done. Somehow the summer months always seem to mean less stitching time for me...anyone else feel that way? I did manage to get the little mouse design finished...

This came with a cute printed card and I was hoping to have it done in time to send to my mother-in-law for her birthday, but I took too long to finish it....maybe she'll get it next year!

I also managed a few stitches on Twilight silhouette.....and when I say ' a few', I really mean a few.....

....if it wasn't for that little loop of blue on the right hand side, you probably wouldn't have noticed the difference from last time! :(


Hopefully on my next post I'll have been able to stitch enough that you'll see the progress!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Not a good week for stitching.

I didn't manage to post anything last week even although I had made great progress with my stitching! 

Last weekend my hubby took part New York Ride to Conquer Cancer which was a two day, 150 mile bicycle ride through New York State.  Needless to say I took my stitching to do while I waited for him to complete each leg of the ride. So I was able to spend quite a bit of my Saturday stitching away undisturbed...heaven! On day two, before I had even got my stitching out, I got a phone call to say that there had been an accident and that hubby had been injured and was unable to complete the ride. 

Unfortunately his injuries were more than had originally been diagnosed and we ended up having a mad dash to the ER in the early hours of Monday morning. The rest of the week was made up of driving him to various doctors offices and waiting for numerous tests to be performed. My stitching was too big and cumbersome to carry with me, and a bit too complicated for doing in a doctor's office, so no progress has been made this week.

Anyway, hubby seems to be on the mend... albeit slowly. Broken ribs mend and bruises and road rash fade. The internal injuries are being dealt with and I'm just thankful that it wasn't anything worse. 

Of course there are still many more doctor's visits ahead, soooo, because of that, I have no other choice than to invest in a small portable cross stitch project to pop in my bag to keep me while he sees the various doctors. Hee hee! It's an absolute necessity, it really is :)


So, as for twilight fairy....this was what she looked like in my last post...

....and this is her now....

Quite a difference!

I'm not sure how much stitching I'll manage on her this week, as my main focus will obviously be on hubby. I might even suggest he takes up stitching as he can't really do anything else at the moment!!!! Mmmm, but then he might realize just how much stitchy stuff I have stashed around the house....maybe not such a good idea after all!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Fairy progress

The bank holiday yesterday has thrown me for a loop, it feels like it's Monday today instead of Tuesday, so that's why I'm late in posting!  Sorry. It really doesn't take much to confuse me these days! :)

I'm taking a break from my owls at the moment (I still have two more to make!) and have been working on Twilight Silhouette again. It feels wonderful to be back working on these fairies. 

This is where I was the last time I posted about them (well, there was only one fairy at that point in time!!!) .....

....and now we have two fairies...well almost two!

Got to love bank holiday weekend stitching! It's a pity we can't  have a three day weekend every week....I could get so much done!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Working on my Ph D :)

Yup, lots of hard work to get through my PhD ......projects half done ! 

I have a rather large pile of stitching that is completed but not 'finished'. The pile keeps getting bigger and bigger, and the bigger the pile gets the less inclined I and to do anything about it (apart form ignoring it!) So, a while ago I made a list of everything in the dreaded pile and how I wanted to finish each of them. It was awful! There was just soooo much to be done that it was off-putting. And that's just what I did....put it off and did nothing....sound familiar? Anyway, last week I looked at the pile on my desk and, apart from feeling a bit guilty, realized that some of the projects really wouldn't take too long to complete, so I decided that last week I would finish two of these projects....any two, it didn't matter what they were, how long they had been sitting there....they would be finished. And I did it....I finished two of the PhD's....yayyy me!

So here's what I finished.....

...first of all, a mug rug that only needed only a few little bits added and some blanket stitch edging....

....why oh why didn't I do this ages ago....it didn't take long at all...

...and now I have someplace for my cuppa and biscuit! OK, the biscuit is gone... I was peckish...what can I say? :)

And remember the book mark I stitched last week? Well, the stitching took only a few nights and since I was in the middle of a good book without any way of keeping my place, out came the scissors and some felt....

...nothing fancy....just trimmed and attached to some lilac felt...and then put to good use!

Wow....I feel so productive....must be the spring air!

And as for Twilight Fairy? She hasn't been neglected either!  Told you I had been productive :) This is where I was with her last time I posted a picture....

....and this is her now...

Stitching all the black was a bit of a chore, but it has to be done!

So my goal for this week is to finish at least one more of my PhD's as well as working some more on Twilight Fairy. 

I WILL conquer my projects half done.....I'm feeling determined.

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona