I don't believe it!

I thought that it would be quiet over the Christmas period in blogger land - I couldnt have been more wrong...I only have 242 posts to read!

I am off out now but will be reading them later :)



I hope everyone had a good christmas and are looking forward to the new year, and to all those crazy people who are taking part in the January challenge or WIPocalypse...Good Luck!

 I have three things I want to start/finish next year...

1. The Geisha (deadline: March)
2. Joan Elliot Calendar (as provided in the free diary that came with World of Cross Stitching, I will be hoping to stitch one each month during IHSW)
3. Mirabilia; Lady of the Mist (no deadline)

Bye for now and look out for comments later :)

Kate x

Merry Christmas!

Morning everyone!

Many thanks for all your lovely comments on my IHSW post - they are greatly appreciated.

I gave the cushion yesterday, and you were all right! She absolutely loved it - big sigh of relief.



I worked on Monday night for about 6 hours on the Geisha, but you wouldn't know it, filling in the gaps is very time consuming - so much so that I think I will have to aim to finish it for my mums 60th on March 7th - which is much more doable.  It is one of the problems when you have been working on a project for so long, I must have started it about 10 years ago! Good intentions and all that :) But many of those years I didn't stitch a thing. I think she would be great stitching from scratch - if anyone plans to - I chose her out of all the Geishas as she has so much colour, and I didn't want to get bored. The colours are much brighter than the photographs show them to be.

I am now finishing off a couple of ornaments that needed putting together and wondering what the next year will bring.  I have joined theme-a-licious and will definitely be taking part in IHSW. It was actually a search for international stitch that landed me on Joyces blog Random Ramblings - and got me into this whole stitchy blog malarkey - so you can blame her! lol :)

I am starting to think that I should have some clear plans of what I will be stitching.....hmmmmm....I am definitely not up for the WIPocalypse as I don't have enough stash for that. I will be stitching a Mirabilia and hopefully at some point start a HAED I have. I think I will wing it and see how I get on - I am sure my WIPs combined with knitting and then I hope to learn to crochet next year - will keep me very busy indeed.

**edit** I am also doing some book reading challenges next year, some hopefully will be audio so I can stitch and some graphic novels too! All the info is on my other blog off the island.

So without further ado...I would like to wish all visitors a very merry christmas and a happy new year! I didnt want to infringe copyright, so I tried to draw a xmas pic on paint - yes, it does look like a 5 year old has done it - so lets just pretend it was my invisible child!

and a happy new year!

Kate x

IHSW December 2011 update

Hello Again,

Here are some updates...

1. I had started to stitch a small thing from Joan Elliots Wit and Wisdom book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cross-Stitch-Wit-Wisdom-Brighten/dp/0715324764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324279633&sr=1-1

The original design was...

As tends to be the case, I didnt have the colours that the pattern required and so I used my own choice - not too different, and I think it works well.

2. I also worked on the Noahs Ark that had helped me  to get my mojo back...

Before IHSW...

After IHSW...

3. I worked on the Geisha girl and am hoping to get it finished by the end of this week. It is a bit bitty, due to the nature of my sewing style! 

Here it is before IHSW...

Here it is after IHSW...

Its hard to see which bit has been done, so here is a close up of the bottom left! Did you notice? lol!

Off to check everyone else'd updates :) and then back to stitching.

Kate x

Horsey Finish

Morning :)

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.  I am just quickly posting my horsey finish. As I mentioned before I decided to stick with the one horse, found the perfect cushion match and have now attached to said cushion and fringed away.

I am really pleased with how it has turned out - as it is for my friends birthday on Wednesday, and she has two horses I am hoping that she will like it.


Now off to finish off something else (I only stitched it this week :)) and then get on with working on another WIP.

Here are some pics of the horsey cushion....

Bye for now!

Kate x

Coming soon...

Hello!

I have been reading blogs but not posting of late, but I have some things to finish before my next post.

I have been stitching intermittently and I decided to only stitch the one horse head (if anyone remembers that) , but I found the perfect cushion in a fabric much like a horse blanket -I just need to finish it all off to give next week :)


I also really started to enjoy Noah's Ark (didn't want to put it down) but had to put it down and start stitching on a small project for my Grandma. I will post a pic of my progress next time so you can see what I got done in a couple of evenings.

The quick stitch for my Grandma is taken from Joan Elliotts book Wit and Wisdom and I am about halfway done  - again I will post a picture next time.

I cant believe that it is IHSW already! I had completely forgotten :) It is very likely that my IHSW post will include all the updates mentioned here so might be quite long.

I better get on and finish of the gift piece and then focus on the finishing - fun?!

I hope everyone has a great IHSW this weekend.

Kate x

Progress

So after losing my mojo, I embarked on a new project. I started ok and as I mentioned previously mentioned the thread was the wrong colour.  I had decided to just carry on and I did. But when I got almost to the end I decided that I really didnt like it..so I frogged it and restitched it!!

My mojo might just be on its way back....here's a pic of what I got done yesterday after the frogging...

Its GONE!

Its gone...my sewing/knitting mojo is AWOL! This is not the time for it to disappear on me.

If anyone finds it, please let me know! It was last seen on Friday 2nd December around 7pm GMT.

I am looking for it in everyone elses blogs as it sometimes hides there amongst the amazing pieces.

Second EVER cross stitch

Hi All,

I recently had an opportunity to take a pic of the second piece of cross stitch I ever did and finished. The first is in my Grandma's house, so next time I am there I will take a photo.  This one I gave to my sister about 15 years ago and fell in love with it.

It is a Country Companions design called 'Button Up Your Overcoat'

Maybe I should add another Country Companions design to my to-do list? lol!

In another news...my mojo isnt completely back but I was reading other peoples blogs and they were all getting itchy feet about wanting to start something new...and as next year I plan to do all my WIPs before anything new, I figured that it would be ok to start something...right?  I saw on Keebles World stash list a Design Works kit and remembered I have one of these unstarted! So thats what I have done.  It has gone slightly wrong already - kit curse - in that I used a strand of said colour and it is a slightly different shade! Fortunately I dont think that it will actually matter that much due to the nature of the design. I thought it was on my 'to do' page but it isnt so here is a pic....might post my progress tonight or tomorrow...depends how I get on.

Thanks to everyone for all their lovely comments - poor santa was upset that no-one liked him :( but I explained that it was probably the nudity that scared people away! One more sleeve and he will be ok.

Bye for now!

Kate x

Who is up for some more dancing?

Morning,

On my last post we danced the night away because I had received a beautiful tree pillow in the Santa exchange that I done with Tiki.

Well, today she has posted that she has received my exchange! I am pleased as I was starting to worry that it wouldn't arrive.

The design i used was taken from a cross stitch cards magazine but I changed the colours (used the ones I had) and made it more sparkly.  I didn't opt for Christmas fabric as I have none in my stash (its shameful, I know) but I fond some that I thought was a rich enough colour.  I am happy with how it came out but obviously wish it was a lot better but all things I have learnt for next time! providing I do another one - it was hard to get an exchange partner this time. So if anyone would be interested in doing one in the new year then drop me a line :)

So, without further ado I will show you some photos I took before sending and if you like you can pop over to Tiki Stitches and see her photos.

On a not so happy note....ALL my good intentions went to pot AGAIN - I really shouldnt plan anything - and I never got the stitching I had hoped done, I didnt even pick up a needle! So today I am going to get off the computer and stitch like a crazy lady :)

I hope you all have a great day!

Kate x

Happy Dance!

This morning I received in the post my Santa exchange piece from Tiki at Tiki stitches.  All I can say is it is absolutely adorable and so beautifully stitched.  I am very lucky that Tiki agreed to do the exchange with me.

I hope she likes hers (fingers crossed) as we have chosen very different designs. But here are the pics!!

So I will now do a Happy Dance! Feel free to join me :)

And THANKS AGAIN TIKI!!!!!!