Happy Post Day

This morning I recieved in the post a most wonderful Pay It Forward gift from Belinda, she stitched the most delightful scissor fob for me and also sent a couple of Art Stitch charts with the DMC threads to stitch them. I am sure that I have just the right fabric to stitch them on and can not wait to make a start. It also reminded me that I owe Natty a PIF gift, and I have finally made a decision on what to make for her so should make a start on it this weekend. Natty is the only person who has requested a PIF gift from me so if anyone else would like a little stitched gift please leave me a comment or email me. If no one asks for one by the time I have finished Natty's gift I shall randomly select who will recieve the other four gifts that I need to make.

I have not been doing much stitching recently but have decided that in order to get the bug back I will for the moment at least concentrate on stitching small things so that I can start (and fingers crossed finish) several projects. The first of these was a tiny humbug that I stitched using a hand-dyed thread and tiny piece of fabric from my stash so I am counting it as a 50 Projects Challenge finish. I used the instructions from Nicki's Blog which I found really easy to follow.

Last weekend I had a major tidy up of my craft room and now have one double and two single wardrobes full of all my crafting stash. I have organised everything by type of craft so that it should be easier to find things and therefore there should be less excuses for buying stash. In the tidy up I found several things that I had forgotten that I had and am now full of plans for what to do with all the odds and ends of stuff that I have brought over the years just because they looked pretty. The reason for the tidy up was the arrival of two new bunnies in my life who are house rabbits and currently live in my craft room, hence the need to put all my stash into boxes inside rabbit proof wardrobes. This is Basil who is a rather handsome blonde lion head, he is very charming but a little short on brain cells. His girlfriend is a grey smooth haired camera shy rabbit who I will post a photo of just as soon as she will let me take one.

Catching Up

[POST PUBLISHED ON 18th March 2007]

I can not believe how long it has been since I last posted, it was partly bloggers fault as for some reason it would not let me post but mainly because I have be rather busy. In mid-Februaryspent a highly enjoyable week with my parents, sister and her family down in Devon celebrating my mothers 65th birthday (although I am yet to finish stitching the sampler I was going to give her as a 60th gift). It is running joke in my family that I am always about 8 years behind on my gift stitching. It is mainly my families fault since they like large complex pieces (just like me so I can not blame them too much). In an attempt to keep up I have however recently been trying to make smaller gifts for people. One such gift was a small lavender filled cushion which I stitched for a great-Aunts 80th birthday which she celebrated at the begining of March. Sorry for the very poor photo, in real life it is a dusky rose pink thread on white linen. The pattern is called Queens Heart and was published in The Gift of Stitching Magazine.

I have also finished stitching Yellow Eyed Penguin by The Strand which was one of the kits that I brought last year while on holiday in New Zealand.And finally I have also finished another beaded braclet. Again apologise for the poor quality photo, the beads are various shades of purple.

These three finish mean that I have completed 14 projects on my 50 Projects Challenge. I am currently stitching on a pile of small gifts, all of which are being stitched with hand-dyed threads from my stash pile and will (fingers crossed) get me to the half-way stage on my challenge in the not too distant future.

Weekend Report

The weekend has just flown by and I can not believe that it is Monday already. Saturday I attended my semi regular beading class, these classes are always great fun even though I don't always get much beading done. This week however I managed to finish a bracelet which I started sometime last year. The bracelet is called Frills Bracelet and was made from a kit by The Bead Merchant. The bracelet is my 9th finish towards my 50 Projects Challenge. After I have completed some obligation stitching I am going to try and complete a few projects that are quick finishes since I would like to make it to the halfway point on the challenge sometime this year. My next finish should be a small sampler that only needs about two dozen beads adding and then it is done. I am really not sure why I put it away with so little left to do but there must have been a good reason.

Saturday night I had dinner with friends, I had a great evening sitting on my friends sofa eating too much food and even had the chance to make a start on my next scarf, this one is for me and I think I need to get it finished quickly since the forecast is for snow by the middle of this week.
Sunday my parents came around for lunch and to help with a few jobs in the garden. There was a lot of tiding up to do after all the storms of last week and my poor eucalyptus tree has almost fallen over so needed staking up, fingers crossed it will be ok. After a morning labouring in the garden followed by a large lunch the rest of the day was spent sitting on the sofa watching the football and stitching. I am making good progress on my yellow-eyed penguin and hope to have it completed by the end of this month. However for the rest of this week I am going to concentrate on stitching on a couple of Round Robins that I am participating in.

Packing

I spent most of the weekend round at my parents house helping them pack up since they are moving house at the begining of next week. Since house they are leaving is the one I grow up in I also had to sort through several cupboards of stuff that I had at one point decided I must save. It seemed strange leaving the house since it was probally the last time I will ever see it. Not only are they moving out of the house but they are also leaving the area were I did all my growing up.

Guilt Free January

I do not normally indulge in guilt free new starts during January since for me this only leads to guilt later on in the year over the number of WIPs that I have. But this year I have decided on a slightly different approach which allows me to indulge in my need to start new things but also try and avoid a mountain of WIPs. Having come up with a list of projects that I would like to finish in 2007 I have decided to allow myself to start some of the projects on that list. But only on the condition that after the end of January I make a real effort to complete within the year anything started this January. Also this year I have decided to dispense with monthly goals and instead just enjoy myself & focus on trying to make significant progress towards completing 50 projects.

So far I have made a start on three projects:

Yellow Eyed Penguin by The Strand since it is a printed canvas it is a little hard to tell which bits have been stitched but I have made a start on the penguins head
Mackintosh Coaster 1b by Derwentwater Designs (fingers crossed I may even finish this one by the end of January) and
Rose Bouquet by Derwentwater Designs. Currently I am enjoying stitching on these three pieces and also have an RR piece that I need to stitch a little more on before the mailing date of 15th Jan so may just continue to stitch on these four pieces till the end of the month after which I plan to turn into a one-at-a-time stitcher in am attempt to get some projects finished.

2007 Goals

Having failed miserably to reach my goal for 2006 of ending the year with less than 50 cross-stitching projects in my stash I have decided to just set two goals for 2007:

• Enjoy my knitting, stiching and beading.
• Stick to my 50 Project Challenge (which also means buying no stash in 2007 unless I reach the halfway point on my challenge when I am allowed a small reward)

I would like to reach at least the halfway stage on my 50 Project Challenge by the end of 2007, which means I need to finish 19 projects. I have come up with a tentative list of projects that I wish to finish in 2007, this is of course subject to change since although I love creating lists I find it hard to stick to them.

WISH LIST OF FINISHES FOR 2007

1. Frills Braclet by The Bead Merchant (beading)
2. Angel of Spring by Lavender & Lace (cross-stitching)
3. Kate's GTG Sampler (cross-stitching)
4. Turkish Knot Tassel by Spellbound Beads (beading)
5. Forget Me Not In Stitches - Take A Lovely Sampler Book of Needles (cross-stitching)
6. Sweet Pea Fairy by DMC (cross-stitching)
7. Auroa Stars by Spellbound Beads (beading)
8. Fuzzy Scarf (knitting)
9. Rega Scarf (knitting)
10. Tempest by Teresa Wentzler (cross-stitching)
11. Bakewell Tart Sampler (cross-stitching)
12. Rose Bouquet by Derwentwater Designs (cross-stitching)
13. Futurecast by Teresa Wentzler (cross-stitching)
14. Pearl Lozenge Necklace (beading)
15. Yellow Eyed Penguin by The Strand (needlepoint)
16. Dunedin by The Little Kit Company (cross-stitching)
17. Fuchsia Earings by Spellbound Beads (beading)
18. Fuchsia Tassel Necklace by Spellbound Beads (beading)
19. Mackinstoch Coaster 1b by Derwentwater Designs (cross-stitching)

WIPs as of 31 December 2006 are shown in purple.

In coming up with list I have tried to be realistic in what is acheivable within 12 months and also to allow for some variety to try and prevent me from becoming bored. I will no doubt decide that I do not want to work on any of the projects listed and will end up working on something totally different but I am not going to stress about that as the only important things are to keep crafting and to buy no new stash.

A Couple of Finishes

The good thing about bad weather and time off work is more time for sitting on my couch and stitching. Yesterday I even managed a couple of finishes: Dog Rose Scissor Keeper and Pouch by Sue Hawkins.
These two finishes take me to 6 projects completed on my 50 Projects Challenge, I am hopefull that I will be able to make it to the halfway point on my challenge before the end of 2007.

Happy Christmas

Later today I am off to my sisters for a few days so may not be around till later on next week so thought I would take this opportunity to wish everyone who takes the to read my blog a very Happy Christmas and to thank you all for taking the time to stop by.



I also have a small knitting finish to share, yet another scarf this time a green fuzzy one knitted in GGH Soft Kid. There is just something about winter that makes me want to get out my knitting needles.

November Report and December Goals

Novembers Goals
My goals for November were

1. Finish Round One of the Just Nan RR Yes completed and put into the post
2. Complete Round Two of the Just Nan RR Not quite finished
3. Keep up with stitching on UFO RR Yes
4. Finish one stitching and one beading project I finished one stitching project and one knitting project but not a beading project
5. Do some pre-stitching for CA Wells class Yes and I finished one of the pieces completely
6. Buy no stash YES

Decembers Goals
This month I am going to keep my goals simple and non specific since December is always
such a busy month.

1. Complete Round Two of the Just Nan RR (posting date 18th Dec)
2. Keep up with stitching on UFO RR
3. Complete a stitching project
4. Complete a knitting project
5. Complete a beading project
6. Buy no stash

A Knitting HD

I decided I needed a quick Happy Dance and since I needed a scarf to go with the new winter coat I treated myself to a few weeks ago I knitted this simple 2 by 2 ribbed scarf using a ball of random striped sock yarn.