The postie made me do it!!!

So after buying a new kit to have in my bag while sitting waiting for my hubby during his many doctors visits, I've been a bit naughty and started something completely different than planned! 

I blame my postie.....if she hadn't coming running up the path and practically shoved this month's World of Cross Stitching magazine in my hands as we were heading out the door, my new kit would have been started. Instead, I'm stitching the free kit from the magazine. It's so cute and doesn't require the same amount of concentration that the new dimensions design would need, so it was perfect for doing in the doctor's waiting room.

I did change the colours around a bit as the darkest shade used on the mouse just didn't seem quite right....I may regret my changes once I have stitched a bit more, but at the moment, it's looking fine.

Not much stitching to show, but hopefully things will return to normal (what's that?!!) this week! Hubby is feeling lots better and now it's just a case of resting and letting the body heal. Hopefully no more doctor visits....at least none planned for a while! What I do plan to do is get caught up on my blog reading and replying to your wonderful and much appreciated comments......and get some more stitching done!

Until net time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Totally Useless!

Yes, that's me...totally useless at posting on time for the Totally Useless Stitch A Long!

Although there are quite a few orts in my jar, I feel like I haven't stitched for such a long time. 

I have to say a big thank you for all your wonderful get well wishes for my husband.....they were much appreciated.

I did buy a small kit to pop in my bag so that I could do some stitching while waiting for doctor and hospital appointments. This is what I treated myself to......

It's a Dimensions Gold Collection petite called 'Beacon at Daybreak'. I thought it would make a nice companion piece to the  lighthouse I did earlier in the year. You can see the finished lighthouse stitching here.

I bought 'Beacon at Daybreak' online from Amazon as my local needlework store has such a small collection of cross stitch kits and absolutely nothing that I would want to stitch. Anyhoo, I was thrilled when it arrived so quickly (thank you Amazon!) and promptly took everything out of the packaging to drool check it all out and left it on the kitchen table. And there it stayed when we had another mad dash to the emergency room at midnight when hubby lost feeling in his leg!

Even though we were in the ER for six hours, I doubt that I would have made much progress on the design as I was so tired. Hubby has another couple of doctor's appointments this week and the kit is safely tucked away in my bag....hopefully I will get a few stitches done.

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

PIZL's

I've got pizl's. 

Don't worry, I'm not sick and it's not contagious...well it might be contagious but you probably already have it....sorry!

Don't know what pizl's is?

Neither did I until a few days ago! I was at my local craft store looking at the rather pitiful amount of cross stitch kits they had for sale. The same kits seem to have been on the shelves forever....never any new designs.....so sad. Anyway, there were two older ladies looking at the kits and they also seemed to be a bit disappointed with the selection on offer. Their conversation went a bit like this...

First old lady (pointing to one of the kits) 'What about this one?'

Second old lady  (shaking her head)' 'No, that's a pizl'

First old lady (pointing to another one of the kits) 'What about this one?'

Second old lady  'No, that's a pizl'

First old lady (pointing to  a different kit) 'Well, what about this one?'

Second old lady   'No, that's also pizl'

First old lady (pointing to yet another one of the kits) 'What about this one?'

Second old lady  'Nope. That's a pizl'

First old lady (still pointing at kits) 'This one?'

Second old lady  'No. That one would end up as a pizl'

By this time I was really confused and rather curious. I don't normally go up and talk to strangers but I had to know what on earth a pizl was.  So, I asked....and found out.

So....do you want to know what a pizl is?

It's this....

Projects In Zip Locks.

You've got them too...right?!! Heehee, gotta love old lady stitchers! :)

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

Proud mama alert!

I'm sure you'll forgive me for having no stitching to show and then doing the whole proud mama routine.....

 ...my baby girl graduated from university!

Not only did she graduate summa cum laude, but she received not one, not two, but three outstanding student awards!

Yeah, she definitely didn't get her brains from me!   ;)

I did manage to get four of the little owls finished and made in to hangings for Eirinn and her friends, but with the chaos of everything going on I forgot to take pictures! Duh! I do, of course, have Eirinn's owl and will take a picture of that for my next post.

So I will leave you with a pic of the proud mama and her gorgeous daughter!

Until next time...(when there will be stitching to show, I promise)...happy stitching!

Rhona

A change of plan!

So my little owls that I have been working on were originally planned to be made as cards, but then I thought about how long we leave cards out on the mantle piece (or wherever!) and thought that it was quite sad that they are only out for maybe a week or so and then they are hidden away somewhere.....or worse, but we won't even talk about that! 

Anyway, why not have something that could be left out for longer? Soooo....I made the little owls into hangings that the recipients can leave out for as long as they wanted! Here's the first one finished up....

 The owl fabric in the background is what I used on the reverse of the hanging....isn't it cute?

So the first of my little owls will be going to my friend Joelle today. As you can see from the date on the stitching, she graduates tomorrow! We are going for an early celebration lunch today. So I just have to wrap up her owl hanging along with a bottle of bubbly!

Until next time (when there will be more owls!)..... happy stitching!

Rhona

Another little owl!

Here he is...owl number 4....

...looking as if he's feeling slightly seasick!

After a week plagued with headaches, I didn't get as much stitching done as I had hoped /planned.  I only managed to stitch the one seasick owl. However, I did manage to get him and the others all back stitched! It's just a case of now adding the names to the planks of the sign. 

Cathy had a wonderful idea of back stitching the graduation dates onto one of the planks which I think is a wonderful idea (and I'm definitely going to do!)...thanks for the suggestion Cathy! 

So here it is...my little parliament of owls (yeah, that's the correct collective noun for owls)....although I think, in this case, a rainbow of owls is much more appropriate!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

A rainbow of owls!

Well....almost a rainbow of owls! I still have more owls to do, but they are looking wonderfully colourful...

The top two still have the back stitching to be completed and, hopefully, I can get started on that tonight. I'm thinking of doing the next owl in shades of green....I have to do each one a different colour otherwise I wouldn't have my little rainbow of owls! (Also I get bored doing the same design over and over again! Changing the colour makes it a bit more enjoyable) I'm planning on personalizing each one by back stitching the recipients name on the bottom plank of the little sign.....I just have to hunt out some graph paper to make sure the names are centered.

Twilight fairy hasn't been entirely neglected, although I haven't been able to do much with her....but there is some progress...this was her last week...

...and this is how she is looking today...

...I'm getting there...albeit slowly!

Anyhoo, I'm off to hunt out the next batch of owl colours!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

TUSAL and the continuing saga of my PhD

Another TUSAL rolls around again.... and I'm sure I must have forgotten to empty my jar from last month....again!

So on to my PhD....I'm still chipping away at that pile of Projects Half Done!

Remember this gorgeous design....

 ....well you probably don't, and I'm not surprised if you don't, as it was finished such a long time  ago!  It seems criminal that such a gorgeous design, (and not to mention the hours and hours of stitching involved), has been left neglected in the PhD pile. 

Well not any more! I finally got it framed. 

Since getting it framed professionally was just a bit too expensive (at least for just now) I went and bought a frame and framed it myself. What made it even better was the fact that all the frames were half price!

I went for a distressed look for the frame....I thought it had that kind of beach feel to it.... and the blue colour really made all the gorgeous thread colours pop. I wasn't able to get a good photo showing the whole thing,(too many reflections even although it's not a particularly sunny day!) but you see how lovely the colours are with the blue frame in this picture. I'm so pleased that it is now hanging on the wall for everyone to see.

Next thing I tackled in my PhD pile isn't stitching, but will be used with some stitching (that I still have to do!) to make a little gift basket....eventually!

I made some coasters using some beer bottle labels and some white ceramic tiles...

...they still have to have one more coat of modge-podge to finish them....but they're almost done....and that's a great start for the gift basket I have planned....watch this space :)

And since this is a stitching blog, I will  end with the rather feeble amount of stitching that I managed last week...

...this little owl is from my 'oh-my-goodness-I'm-quickly-running-out-of-time -to get-this-done' pile :) 

And if I don't find a turbo charged needle soon, I think I just might run out of time for all those graduation cards I need to do....so guess what I'm off to work on now?!!!

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

More little finishes!

Phew....for someone who's still feeling under the weather, I seem to be stitching up a storm! 

So while working on these free kits and other small designs in my stash, I was quite happily adding to a stock of cards to use throughout the year. Then I started to think about who I would need to send cards to so that I could make them specifically for each person, and then realized....to my horror....that I have quite a lot of family and friends who are graduating high school and university this summer! Mmmm, time to look  for more graduation designs... about half a dozen or so!

Anyhoo, here's what I've  accomplished so far. 

The troublesome bunny made in to a card...

...the first of many graduation cards stitched up....just the name and greeting to be back stitched...

And then, using the threads that were left over from my lighthouse finish, I stitched this lovely bookmark, the chart was a free gift from The World of Cross Stitching mag...

...aren't the colours gorgeous? And such a pretty design too.

So, my hope is to get back to stitching Twilight Fairy in between stitching all these graduation cards that I will be needing soon....I'm itching to get my hands back on her :)


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona