The Suddenly Kate Show

Hey there

I have spent a fair bit of the year on instagram, just because I try to avoid wittering on, but I miss this blog and although I need to tidy it up...it is one if the things I want to focus on more in 2020.

So lets get up to date...

Some stitchy finishes this year....

This was completely new - a pattern by Durene Jones - the idea is that it is a FFO stocking. It was a quick stitch and I loved all of it except stitching the white.

This was a new start and a finish this year, its Bothy Threads row of dinosaurs - i had some issues with this and made some design changes. It also needs to be fully finished along with the rest.

This was in a magazine and I want to say it was designed by Emma Congdon...? when FFO it should be an envelope to put your childs letters to santa in.

This was stitched for Halloween. It was taken from a magazine and when FFO'd is a 3D monster mansion. The original colours were greens and I made other changes. Hopefully, I will get some time to write the…

Like a lot of cross-stitchers, I end up giving most of my finished articles away - this is the first that I have done and photographed.

I recently completed a cross-stitch project that I started in May - all I managed to do of it was to make the chart for the design. It ended up that I didn't start stitching until 5 days before the deadline.  I did manage to finish it and make it into a cushion.

The design that I used as my inspiration was ....



I wanted to make it personal to my friend, so I changed the skin colour, the hair colour and the glove colour as well as the wording in the thought bubble. As it is pop-art I also decided to make it all block colour (no dots) and the end result was this... The final design came out at 9"x 10" and was awkward to find a frame for at such short notice. I made it into a throw cushion instead....
And she was very pleased with it, I am glad to say.

I have been trying to keep a blog for ages and hopefully this will be it :)

Welcome to my…

Hi there!

I can’t believe it’s been six months but it has. Doesn’t time fly?

What have I been up to?

Not much really after the whirlwind that was the twelve months prior to my last post. I did stitch though and also a little knitting which included some finishes :) I have been posting on Instagram as it’s easier although I hate not being able to add comments to individual photos on multiple post and also it’s hard to waffle and I do look to waffle.

I have also just returned to work after maternity leave, which was ten months that whizzed by and I feel like I got nothing done but I did have a great companion.

What now?

The blog needs a makeover as the header is from 2017! I also want to post about the 19 projects I will be working on in 2019. I have some targets and by blogging about them I feel accountable. I literally have to trick myself into getting things done.

But they are all things I want to do.

I have so many blogs to catch up with too and I am looking forward to that, I can’…

Hey there

This week I have decided to pick 'romantic charts' as the theme. I know some people don't 'do' valentines or aren't particularly bothered by romance and for those people please feel free to interpret romance in your own way.

So here goes...

1. February in my Durene Jones calendar and I will stitch on the first of February and quite possibly tweak it a little as I did with January.

2. This is a quote from Jane Austen, it make me laugh because i believe it to be such a hilarious notion...but its still a little romantic and I am using it to represent all book/film quotes about love.


3.Cover Art. I saw this and although I would never stitch it, I would hang it in my house, why? because its super cheesy and would always bring a smile to my face.

4. Wedding designs, generally I am never really convinced and find them a little twee, i know i know, i do realise i just said number 3 above, but when it comes to wedding designs I prefer the more modern and simpl…

Hello

When I came up with this idea I thought it might be quite tricky, but after a lengthy five minutes of mentally going through my WIPs I realised I have five travel themed WIPs!

Then another five minutes spent thinking about my stash and I realised I had about three in my stash and a further five minutes led me to realise I have a lot more on my wishlist, so how best to cover this?

In the end, I have gone for designers/companies etc.....so without waffling on much more...

Chatelaines....oh these are truly things of beauty and one day I will do one, but I definitely would need a scroll frame in order to do so and I would need a really good goal to motivate me, thinking about it though the end result is pretty motivating..here are a few..


Aren't they beautiful? Google them and you will see some close ups of finished stitched versions, they contain cross stitch and specialty stitches and beading.

In true Kate fashion the next choice is the polar opposite of the above, and my choic…

Happy Sunday everyone :)

I have made  little more progress on QS HNE...


and I have actually stitched  little more than shown above, but not much. So lets see what this week will bring.

I was given  Dolls house kit for Christmas, its the Classical Georgian House and basement and you have to build it and decorate it all yourself, so that is another project that you may see the occasional update on (or at least read about) and I may ask questions!

I've also recently discovered there is a magazine about Crime TV dramas - the perfect stitchy accompaniment - and the new series of 'Endeavour' begins today so with that in mind, the first Top Five Tuesday theme of 2017 is...

Top 5 TV detectives
If you do decide to take part then please drop me a comment on Tuesday so I will come take a look at your choices :)
Till Tuesday then....happy stitching xx

Hey Everyone,

So how are you settling into the new year?

I started off quite well stitchy wise...I bought a magazine last year and it had a free Durene Jones calendar, and I decided I would stitch the motifs throughout this year as they are quick stitches.

This is January's design....



I decided to tweak it so it was more me...but is a nice quick stitch and I am hopeful that I will be able to complete the rest throughout the year. Here is my doggy (I have not yet added the snowflakes or shadows).



After this I began another new start...QS Hear no Evil by Jasmine Beckett Griffith and as you can see my nights progress is not much...



I say night because that is when I have a chance to stitch and in October I started a Facebook group called 'Stitching the Night Away', there are only 7 of us so far but feel free to request to join and I will add you :)

I have not yet made a list of my goals for this year or even this month but Sunday's update will hopefully be more enlighteni…

Hello,

Its been way too long! I have so much I never told you all and I kept telling myself I would get to blog next week or the next week and it never happened and that was when I decided to just wait, have a blogging vacation (my first since I started really) and start afresh in January.

I have still been stitching though, but all my other bits and bobs not so much, but I have such great plans (at least to me they seem that way) for 2017 and will remain optimistic.

My first steps are to write myself some decent lists! As you fellow creatives know there are about a thousand ideas swimming around inside my head and choosing what to focus on is hard for me, i've never been great at picking one thing and working solely on that without distraction. Variety has always been my friend.

What I can tell you is that I somehow need to manage my time more effectively, as I have stitching targets/projects I would like to do, a brand new dollshouse project, I want to write again this year as I…

Morning!

Its a sleepy sunday here for me, but someone is coming over to collect some stuff at 8.30am - its 8.31am which makes them late!, I am a stickler for timekeeping :)

Anyway, yesterday when I woke up I realised I had been dreaming about my upcoming USA trip and how exactly that would work with not knowing anyone in the three cities I first go to, and then of course hobbling around on crutches and whatnot. So I had been thinking about possible tweaks that I could make and the feasibility of that, and one of those ideas involved having extra time for chilling out and stitching!  Thats when I panicked.

My left foot has been the problem for the past 8 weeks but about 5 days ago my right middle finger became swollen and stiff, and what if I couldnt stitch?

My good left hand...





My not so good right hand...

So I obviously had to stitch something to see, and I remembered that my magazine had a little kit in it with very small icons.  It is with great relief that I announce to you all t…

Hello,

To all those in the know...last weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (it is every third weekend of the month) and although I didnt stitch with a needle, I hooked.

This weekemd I worked on my current crochet WIP. I originally began this thinking I would do small squares and then join them but then decided to do one enormous square. It takes time and wool and I am about a third of the way done with it...and so here it is...


not the neatest of piles and I have yet to take a laid out photo or measure it but next time I will...here is the wool type I am using...



...and I have a few to get through and will possibly need more...



...and here is a picture of the crochet stitch up close...I have gone with something simple (in this case a reversal giant granny stitch square) as I have only recently learnt how to do it.



I hope you were productive and I am looking forward to seeing your updates :)