Thursday, June 30, 2011

TUSAL

It's that time again! Another month has flown by.

Here's my ort jar for this month.


There's really not much threads in it this month, I think they are just kind of puffed up and making it look like there's more than there actually is!

Here's the jar with the year's collection.



I think I may have to find a bigger jar....or maybe just squash the threads down a bit!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Monday, June 27, 2011

Busy, busy, busy!

Ever had those days, or even weeks, when you feel there is sooo much to do and just not enough time? (Although being a mum makes every day feel like that! lol) Anyway, I'm having one of those days....and I know it will turn into one of those weeks too! I have been really busy trying to get everything ready for my website.....and I'm nearly there! I have been stitching like mad (as well as designing) to have loads of new fun design charts for sale. I have so many ideas that my head is almost bursting! I have also been trying to achieve my June goal of finishing the ground around the Mighty Samurai's feet - I hadn't really paid much attention to how close we are to the end of June! I would show you a picture of my progress but I can't find a camera. Typical!

And since a blog post is not a post without a picture ( well, in my mind anyway!!) I will leave you with a picture of me with my 'little' blog/stitching companion. Her real name is Smokie but she is affectionately known as  'Fats'. Isn't she fat cute?



So, until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Guilty Stitching!

Well it's a miserable wet morning here.. a real 'dreich' day as we would say back home in Scotland! Not a good day to have plans for doing anything outside, but it should mean that I can spend some guilt free time stitching! It's true, every cloud has a silver lining!

I've been having major computer and internet problems this last week or so and haven't been able to visit many blogs. Fingers crossed that everything is sorted out and I can come visit with  you all, I miss seeing all that lovely work and hearing about what you have been up to!

Anyhoo, what have I been up to? Well, the Mighty Samurai  seems to have taken a back seat to stitching  sample designs. Luckily I had posted here that one of my goals for June was to have the ground around his feet stitched by the end of the month, and oh boy, is that an incentive to pick up the needle! Here's the progress from last nights guilt ridden stitching!


And would you believe it......I've run out of a third colour! A blue/grey colour that, of course, does not match any of the threads I have in my stash. So, I have written (again) to Dimension's asking for some replacement threads. Hopefully they wont take too long in responding to my plea.

As for the sample stitching I have been working on......it is of course for Tangled Threads which I am hoping to have up and running in the next few months. Exciting!!!!

This is the sample that I am working on at the moment. I'm still fiddling around with the colours so this may not be what the finished card will look like!


I have also done another similar design but in more masculine colours. I really didn't think a 16 year old male would like anything saying 'sweet 16'!! lol  Don't you find that it's really hard to get designs for males? Unless they are into sports, it's almost impossible! So, my question for you today is this....what would you like to stitch for the males in your life. Hopefully, with the help of your suggestions, Tangled Threads will be able to solve those problems!


Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Anyone for ice-cream?

I've had a break from stitching the Mighty Samurai and have been stitching some of my own designs.

The design I'm going to show you is from a set of card designs that are suitable for sending for almost any occasion....very versatile! This one, as you can probably tell from the post title, is of an ice-cream cone. I'm not going to tell you what the greeting/title will be, that's going to be my secret until the big reveal!

So, I started of stitching using the colours that I had picked from the colour palette on the cross stitch program which looked fine on the computer screen, but when I started to stitch it, I had to make a few adjustments as sometimes the contrast is more pronounced on the computer screen than on the actual threads. Then I couldn't decide if I wanted the vanilla ice-cream to be white or more to the cream shade....after all, vanilla ice-cream comes in all shades depending on the manufacturer (trust me, I know my ice-cream!!) Anyway, I stitched it up in white but wasn't too happy about it.


I unpicked the white and went for a more cream colour. It looks a lot more lemon colour in the picture than in real life.



I thought this colour combination looked much better. Those of you with eagle eyes will also notice that I changed the shading on the pink ice-cream as I didn't think there was enough contrast.

And here's the ice-cream with the back stitching and the border.


Looking good enough to eat!

So, any ideas what the title will be? If anyone actually comments with the correct wording, I will send them the chart!

So I will leave you with thoughts of ice-cream and hope that you can resist the temptation to raid the freezer!

Until next time.....happy stitching!


Rhona

Monday, June 13, 2011

Progress you can see!

Yippee! You can actually see the progress on The Mighty Samurai....boy does that make me feel good! lol



As you can see the ground is taking shape. It's rather boring to stitch and I have to confess that I made a mistake but couldn't find where the mistake was, so I just fudged it! I figured that if I can't find the mistake, no-one else will....you'll just have to promise not to tell anyone about it! Promise?

On to non stitchy news....

Ever had a time when wanting to help meant doing absolutely nothing? It's awful! Every instinct makes you want to help but doing something would make things worse. This is the dilemma I faced last week, I just had to sit and watch while the drama unfolded.

I looked out of the window as I heard such a commotion with the birds and found this...



The poor little fella had fallen out of his nest! He couldn't fly and his poor mama was beside herself! She was screeching and hollering and being very protective. It was amazing to see how she chased the other birds away. The poor little thing was flapping his stubby little wings and exhausting himself.


I didn't get too close to him as I didn't want to frighten him or to upset his poor mama!


It was so hard to watch. I kept my eye on him all day and he eventually managed to get himself into a lilac bush where he somehow managed to jump or fly to the bottom branch. We left out some water and bird food in the hope that he or mama could get to it. Next morning we could hear him calling, and Mama was still close by! Every morning we have gone to check on our little friend, but the last few days we haven't seen him, only heard him. But yesterday, we saw the little bird and he was able to fly! Now he just has to perfect the art of landing! I've got the camera at the ready hoping to get a picture of him.

So, thanks for visiting today, and I appreciate all your comments.


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Thursday, June 9, 2011

My new best friend!

Before I introduce you to my new best friend, I first want to say that I have been having problems trying to comment on peoples blogs. I don't want you to think that I'm not visiting your blogs (I'm too nosey not to want to see all your lovely stitching!) but I just keep going through the old sign in routine over and over  and over again. And nothing happens! So my apologies for the lack of comments, but I am reading!

So, onto my new best friend.

This was my old BFF....


and now we have a threesome! This is my new BFF...


Yes, sadly the old eyes aren't what they used to be.

This needle threader is awesome! Why did I leave it so long to admit that I needed one? lol For those young uns out there who are thinking 'what the heck?' it works like this...

First you put the needle threader through the eye of the needle, and since it's metal it goes through easily and first time (unlike thread!) You then position the thread over the little hook...


then you pull the threader back through the eye, bringing the thread at the same time.

Voila! Needle threaded in no time and without any naughty words or any wasting of good stitching time!

Highly recommended!

(And just as an FYI kind of thing, I normally do all of the above the opposite way round but it was the only way I could thread the needle and take pictures!)

Now I just have to make a little keeper thingy so i don't lose my new BFF..always something to be added to the 'to-do' list - as if it isn't long enough already!

Until next time...happy stitching.

Rhona

Monday, June 6, 2011

Look Closely!

Yes, you really will have to look closely to see that there is some more of the background stitched in the Mighty Samurai!



There were some areas of the design where there was maybe two or three stitches of one colour, so I made  the effort to get those 'odd' stitches done, so it doesn't really look like there's that much change since the last picture, other than the background. Still, as many of you said before...progress is progress no matter how small! (My new mantra!)

Anyway, one of my goals for June, is to get the background stitching completed. Since much of it is half cross stitch this should be perfectly do-able! (And now that this statement is in black and white, I really do have to get it done!!! lol)

Thanks for visiting today!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Tusal


Thank heavens for the new moon! I haven’t managed to get any stitching done since my last post, so was wracking my brains for what to post today! Saved by the TUSAL….and here is this month’s collection.

And here it is with this year’s ORT’s. Not too bad – even if I do day so myself!

Well I’m off to get some stitching done so that I will have some stitching to show you on Monday!

Until next time…happy stitching!


Rhona