Three Things

Firstly, as promised two belated happy dance photos:

The Littles Bunny by Bent Creek, started and finished in August 2008

Autumn ABCs by Lizzie*Kate, started and finished in August 2008

Secondly, I must confess to falling off The Wagon. After a very (well for me) restrained shopping experience at the Quilting Festival at the NEC last month and also a very good (for me) stitching month with several finishes I went a bit mad. I now have a small pile of Autumn and Winter small charts (I think I am going to be able to use threads and fabric from my stash for all of them), a couple of new Christmas stitching projects, all the 2008 Loose Feathers designs released so far (and I will be buying the rest and also be stitching the mystery sampler) and enough fabric to sew at least 3 quilt tops (still to finish my first one but a girl must have stash). When I fall off The Wagon I do it well.

Finally, I had been planning to start several of my Loose Feather projects this month and try to finish as many as possible before the end of the year since I am sure to want to buy the 2009 ones (assuming there will be some) and I still have some dating from 2006 to start. However while trying to decided on which of my UFOs to send out on the next round robin I was overcome with guilt about the UFOs so I have come up with yet another plan. I am going to set up a five piece rotation, the first 3 pieces will be Loose Feathers designs, the fourth a UFO and the last one a small design. I then will stitch on which ever piece is screaming the loudest with the only rule being that every month I must make some progress on each of the five projects.

To start with the rotation will be:

Project 1: Beneath the Sunlit Sky by Blackbird Designs, already started and pictured below;

Project 2: Their Song by Blackbird Designs, a new start;

Project 3: Bluebirds Message, by Blackbird Designs, another new start

Project 4: Rose Bouquet by Derwentwater Designs, a UFO of many years standing. As you can see from the picture below it was started and then put away for reasons now unknown with very few stitches added.

Project 5: Undecided as yet but I have pulled out the following charts: Lizzie*Kate's September, October, November & Autumn Basket, Heart In Hand Celebration Autumn, Autumn Bird & Halloween Bird and The Trilogy's Autumn House.

More Happy Dancing

August from the Year with Charm series by Lizzie*Kate,

started and completed in August 2008

Snowbound by Bent Creek

Started and finished Sugust 2008

I have been very busy stitching this past month and have managed a few more finishes. As well as the two pictured I have also finished the stitching on several smalls but I will post pictures of them once the finishing has been completed. I have also complete Autumn ABC by Lizzie*Kate and The Littles Bunny by Bent Creek but my computer has eaten the photos I took of these pieces so I will post pictures late once I have got new batteries for my camera.

A Trio of Happy Dances

I have been rather busy with my stitching and have managed to complete three small projects.

Awake the Dawning Day

by Blackbird Designs

Summer Bird

by Heart In Hand Needleart

July

From A Year With Charm series by Lizzie*Kate

Part of the reason I have been trying to finish a few stitching projects is that I had my first quilting lesson last week and think I am already addicted so I need to clear out some space in my crafting stash cupboards to make way for quilting supplies. This weekend I am off to the Festival Of Quilts at the NEC and I do not see myself coming away from the show without a few (well truth be told several) purchases.

The Stitching Bug Has Bitten Again

I have well and truly been bitten by the stitching bug this weekend. The last few weeks have been rather frantic and stressful at work leading to me spending far too many hours in the office and several sleepless nights. So I decided to have a quiet weekend sitting on my sofa catching up with my TV watching. The end result is that I managed to stitch for 20 plus hours completing Spring Bird by Heart In Hand Needleart (just needed to add the button as I completed the stitching months ago but it is now ready to go to the framers), June from the Lizzie*Kate series a Year with Charm and the house from Awake the Dawning Day. I think I can now safely say that I am over my stitching slump.I also made a start on Summer Bird and sorted out all the threads and fabric for another couple of small designs which I hope to complete this month.
The only other thing that got done this weekend was a trip to my LNS to drop off a few things for framing. While there I purchased four new charts – September from the Lizzie*Kate series a Year with Charm, The Littles Bunny by Bent Creek, Autumn House by The Trilogy and Autumn Celebration by Heart in Hand Needleart. I was good and did not purchase the threads & fabric to stitch these just the charts and embellishments. Hopefully I will be able to kit them up using stashed fabric and threads.

Knitting HDs

Once again it seems that I have been too busy to post to my blog and this time I also have the excuse that my internet connection has been playing up. I am in a bit of a knitting frenzy at the moment and have managed to complete another baby blanket, several squares and a sock.

The baby blanket was knitted using a single 100 gram ball of James C Brett Magi Baby DK yarn. As I did not want to knit a plain blanket I added a border of feather & fan stitches to the short ends and a garter stitch border along the long sides. I love knitting but hate making up so a self-edging baby blanket is great since the only stitching needed is to finish off the ends.
The squares where a means to use up a ball of variegated DK yarn that I had no idea what else to knit with and will be sent along with the blanket to Loving Hands. I am very pleased to find a UK based organisation to send knitted items to for distribution to various charitable causes. I will definitely by sending more items to them in the near future.
The sock is just a basic plain sock knit from Rico Hobby Print yarn. I would not normally pick such a vivid colourway but love the way it has knitted up. The yarn came in a kit containing two 50 gram balls, a sock pattern (which I did not like the look of for some reason) and a set of dpns. I think I have enough yarn left from the first ball to knit a trainer or very short ankle sock, so instead of casting on the second sock to complete the pair I have cast on a sock to start a new pair just to see if I can knit two pairs of socks from 100 gram of yarn. I also have this yarn in two other colours and am itching to start socks in them as well but am trying to be good and not cast on more than one sock at a time. I just have this feeling that I could end up with a dozen unfinished socks if I am not careful.

I have not completely abandoned my stitching and am still working on Awake the Dawning Day by Blackbird Designs and hope to have made enough progress by the end of this week to justify posting a progress picture.

Yarn Yarn and More Yarn

In order to help with my de-stashing I decided the other night to start a re-organsation of my stash. The first stage of which was to pull together all the knitting yarn and I was a little shocked at the size of the mountain (all the crates and bags pictured above are stuffed full of yarn, the lid on one crate only closes because the other crate is sitting on top of it). I have also put away all my other crafting projects with the exception of Awake the Dawning Day, Spring Bird & the UFO round robin pieces and I plan for the time being to concentrate on turning a few of the many skiens of wool that I have into something usefull. To this end I have started a baby blanket and some blanket squares. I have however decided to wait to count the skeins of wool until after I have finished a few since there are not enough hours in the day.

Flying By

For some reason this year is flying past, yesterday was the longest day of the year but it hardly feels like summer. Since my last post both my father and my friend are making good progress towards making full recoveries from their illnesses although the doctors are still puzzled over the reasons for my friends ill health. I have been busy both with work and my crafting (I have managed to finish the baby blanket pictured below) and have been away on holiday.

The first weekend in June was spent in a lovely cottage in Derbyshire in the company of several fellow stitchers. It was great to get away for a few days although spending a weekend in the company of other crafters has resulted in me gaining several charts to add to my collection thanks to the generosity of Sheila, Lindsay and Paula. As well as gaining stash the other problem with spending time with other crafters is that they bring along things to share and to show which results in the need to start new things. In this instance I have decided to finally give in to the desire to learn quilt making so on the way home I called into a quilting shop and have started my quilting stash with the purchase a three pieces of fabric and a book. Two kits to make chickens also decided that they needed to come home with me. Now all I need to do is find the time to learn how to make a quilt.

Lazy Sunday

I am having a very lazy day today, I am spending a lot of quality time with my sofa and doing nothing more energetic than a little bit of knitting and some stitching. The last couple of weeks have been a real rollercoaster ride and I need some down time. I finally got myself back to what passes for normal for me when one of my closest friends and neighbour became very ill - she still has not had a definate diagnosis but is scheduled for exploratory surgery this coming Tuesday. And then on Thursday my father was rushed to hospital in extreme pain, after a sleepless night for all the family he has been diagnosed with gall stones and an infection. Once the infection is under control he will need an operation but is feeling much better now he knows what is wrong.

All this has left me with little time for the internet but I have been crafting. Since I last posted I have completed several braclets (apologies for the poor photographs)

and have added a few personal touches to a plain plastic pot that I had lying around which I am now using to contain my finishing reward fund.

Yesterday I put in the last few stitches and added the buttons to Spring House by The The Trilogy but forgot to take a photograph before taking it to my framers. While at the framers which doubles as my LNS I purchased five charts by Heart In Hand Needleart, the border for their Monthly Markings series and the first four months. This is my first purchase since I started my finishing reward fund. I now just need to finish a few more things so that I have some money to spend on more stuff.

I've Been Thinking (again)

Firstly thank you for the kind comments on my last post, I promise to try and post more regularly from now on.

Secondly I have been thinking about my stash and have decided that being on the crafting wagon is not for me but on the other hand I really really want to reduce the amount of stuff I have lying around the house waiting for me to create something with it. Not only do I have loads of stuff for my long-term hobbies (cross-stitching, knitting and beading) but I also have a very bad habit of deciding that I am going to try a new hobby and then going wild buying supplies before actually doing anything. For example when my niece was born 5 years ago I decided to take up card making and scrap booking. I promptly went out and purchased 4 large crates full of supplies and to date have created 1 scrapbook page and about a dozen cards. So in order to help me stay focused on finishing projects and not buying large quantities of new stuff I have decided to set up a “finished it fund”. The idea being that each time I finish a project I will put aside a pre-determined amount of money. This will then be the only money that I am allowed to spend on crafting related purchases. The sum of money set aside following each finish will be determined based on the type and size of project plus time taken to finish but within the following limits:
Card – 25p to £1
Scrapbook page – 50p to £2
Gift Tag – 10p to £1
Gift box / bag – 50p to £2
Pair of earrings – 50p to £2
Bracelet - £1 to £3
Necklace - £2 to £5
Knitting or stitching projects – £1 to £10
Note: Stitching projects that are to be framed will count as a finish once all the stitching is complete. Stitched pieces to be finished by other means (e.g. flat folds, pincushions, bags etc.) will only count once stitched and finished.

For Margaret

A progress picture of Awake the Dawning Day:

Sorry I have not been around much but I have been struggling with a neck injury which is resulting in loss of sensation or severe pain (I am unable to decide which is worse the feeling that the arm has been amputated at the shoulder or intense pain) in my left arm. This has led to, in part to a bout of the blues and a massive round of comfort eating which means my weight has sky rocketed and has led to me feeling even worse about myself. I have also had to restrict the amount of time I spend stitching, knitting and gardening as all of these become painful after awhile. However yesterday after months of seeing doctors and various consultants at the hospital I had an appointment with yet another specialist but this time came away feeling that progress has finally been made towards sorting out my arm and maybe getting back to normal. Last night I got a good nights sleep in for the first time in months and have woken in a much more positive frame of mind and really feel that a corner has been turned. So no more feeling sorry for myself just postitive thinking from now on.