One of those weeks...

Last week was not a good week at all. So on Friday, I decided to come home early and just stitch. No housework, no phone calls, no cooking....nothing but stitching.....yay, how to make the week better in one easy move!

So while driving home, I'm thinking about what to stitch.....yes, a crappy week deserves  a cup of tea and a new start :) Ohhhh....and I have a new set of q-snaps to use too......the week may not be so bad after all! A quick trip to the library to pick up a DVD to watch while stitching....perfect! 

Except......the kettle's on the blink, the q-snaps (cheaper craft store brand) clamps are so tight that they won't come off......and to top it all....the DVD is French with English sub-titles.....arghhhhh! How on earth can you stitch and read subtitles? Yup, definitely that kind of week.

Anyhoo.......this is what I started...

Lizzie Kate's 'Housework never killed anyone' ....seemed appropriate since I wasn't going to do any housework :)

This is how it looks so far using the recommended DMC threads. A great design that isn't complicated and doesn't require too much concentration to stitch......great if only the movie had been in English!

Hope you're having a better week than I am!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Baby feet!

Finally, I was able to finish the baby feet birth sampler! Baby Ricardo made his appearance into the world on April 12th. Both mum and baby are doing well. I made the little birth sampler as a wall hanging....

....baby feet are always so cute....

Now to get it parceled up along with some other baby gifts and posted to the proud new parents :)

This week has been a rather hectic week  with not an awful lot of spare time, but I did manage to get some stitching done on Max....

.... and a little bit of back stitching is bringing the face to life.  Hopefully, he'll be even more alive looking by next post!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Goldilocks eyes

Ahh, good old Max the cat and the tale of getting the eyes 'just right' ! 

For those of you who haven't been following along with the tale of Max the cat, this is a Dimensions kit which I chose to stitch as it looked so like my lazy cat Smokie.....except for the eyes. Max the cat has gorgeous yellow eyes, but Smokie has misty green eyes and I wanted to stitch the design to be Smokie, sooooo..... time to break out the thread collection and match Smokie's eye colour. Not as easy as first thought :)

Too weird a colour....

...too green...

....getting closer...

....success! Even though blogger keeps rotating the picture!!!

 And here he is (or really it should be she, as Smokie is a female!).......

Woohoo....Max is now officially Smokie! It was worth all the hassle of picking out thread combinations and all that unpicking to get it just right. Just the other two cats to do and the dreaded back stitch!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Zombie cat!

Poor old Max the cat still hasn't got any eyes! I loved the fact that many of you wonderful readers thought he looked like a zombie......I have to agree, he does a bit! 

I'm going to change the colour of the eyes to more of a pale green colour instead of the yellow of the chart so that it looks more like my kitty. 

Hopefully, I'll get round to picking (and stitching!) the right shade of green this week. Fingers crossed that next time you see him, poor old Max will look less creepy!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Max the cat.....

......has a bit more of a face!

I'm afraid it's been one of  'those' weeks, and I didn't get nearly as much stitching/crafting time that I had hoped for. Still, each little X finished means a stitch closer to completion.  Maybe this week I will be able to carve out some time for myself.....fingers crossed!

I do have a fun project to share with you....this is from this month's World Of Cross Stitching magazine, which has literally just arrived. I've been looking forward to seeing my little fishy designs all stitched up....and here they are....

....do you remember playing this game when you were young? Back in the day (haha!) we played it with paper fish with a paperclip attached, and then little magnets to 'catch' the fish. I remember making the paper version of it for my children to play and they always had so much fun. 

A cross stitch version of the game is perfect....and a bit more long lasting than the paper ones!

Cute huh?


Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

It wasn't my fault.....

....she made me do it! Yes my terrible daughter has become a stitcher and she encouraged forced me into buying new stash. Isn't she dreadful? I just don't know where she gets it from. Hee hee. 

This is the new stash that she forced me to buy....she really did have to twist my arm....

My daughter bought the wedding sampler to stitch for her friend and since she was paying postage for one chart it seemed silly not to add one or two...or three...or more.... charts ....makes perfect sense, doesn't it?!!  I also have to confess that there's one more design that isn't in the photograph....don't know how I managed to miss that, but I did! It's a beautiful design called Leap of Faith and you can see it here.  Isn't that gorgeous? 

Now my only problem is which one to start first? What a wonderful problem to have!

Until next time....happy stitching!
Rhona

Kokeshi doll

Do you ever get those longings for a quick stitch, just so you can have a finish to feel good about completing something? That's the way I felt at the weekend.....soooo...this month's World of Cross Stitching mag to the rescue with their fab free kit....

Although these cuties came with threads and fabric (and everything else you'd need) already in the packet, they are a great way to use up those left over threads that we all have saved, so they can be stitched many times. I also love the fact that you can change out the different patterns/hairstyles etc and make the designs really unique.

As you can see, I decided to alter the colours used in this design. It shouldn't take too long to make this in to a card.  

So that was my quick almost-a-finish for the weekend!

I haven't neglected Max the cat either! He almost has a face now....

....can you tell why I wanted to stitch this design? My very own real life version (times two) of Max!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Baby feet!

Poor old Max the Cat has been put on hold.....again! I have a perfectly good excuse for putting Max to the side.......stitching for the birth of a baby :) My son's friend and his wife are expecting their first child in a few weeks times, and what better excuse can you get for having to stitch something ?!!!

As you can tell, they're having a boy! I'm not so keen on the teddy in the picture so I'm going to leave it out and rearrange the lettering and make it into a wall hanging (easier to post than a picture!) I just love those little baby foot prints.....you can almost smell the baby powder!  

So this was quite a quick little stitch, although a bit boring! I just have to finish the border and wait for  baby to make his appearance into the world so I can complete names, dates, weight etc!

I have been working on my crochet blanket/afghan and making progress with it, although it doesn't seem to be growing as quickly as I would like....

The gorgeous yarn bowl was a present from my daughter....

The spring weather seems to be approaching rather quickly.... so I had better get crocheting so that I an get some use out of the blanket before it's too hot to use!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

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