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

Chocolate and stitching.

Most of the time stitching and chocolate really don't go together. 

The thought of chocolatey finger marks on your stitching can be real nightmare. I. however. being a freak of nature, don't like chocolate. Can you believe it.... a woman who doesn't like chocolate....weird huh? So anyway, I never have to worry about chocolate and stitching......until now. Yes, I broke down and bought a bar of chocolate. Don't worry, all is well......I'm not sick or crazy. This is the one time when chocolate and stitching definitely go well together

Remember I showed a glimpse of some secret stitching I was working on? It looked like this...

Well here it is now....

And that's the reason for the bar of chocolate! Yes it really is a bar of chocolate in the frame...

This is a gift for my friend's daughter who is heading off to university at the end of August. I thought this might be a nice gift for her dorm room. I have a feeling that I might have to make another one for my friend too.

So, now we know..... chocolate and stitching really do go together! Don't you agree?

Until next time...happy stitching (with or without the chocolate!)

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

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