Star Trek, Seas the Day and Hello Pumpkin July update

The last month has flown by pretty fast and I meant to update before now, but I've managed to get a fair bit more stitching in than I expected to on some of my main projects, although I'm still a bit behind on the SALs.  Here are my July updates!

Firstly, the two SALs I'm doing from Caterpillar Cross Stitch

Hello Pumpkin (month 1)

Seas the Day (Month 5)

And then a couple of photo updates of my Star Trek Holodeck piece - I'm mainly sewing this one while travelling on the tube, since I get a seat some of the way sometimes!  But every stitch helps get nearer the end, and I'm almost done!

Back to work...

I'm glad I managed to fit in all the Stitch Maynia stitching this year because straight afterwards, I was offered a wonderful job, and that has meant huge changes in our household!  It's been 7 years since I worked in an office and to say the first couple of days were a shock to the system is a major understatement.  I'm at the end of my second week now though and feeling much better.

BUT apart from the tube journey, I'm enjoying using my brain in this way again whilst my hubby has enjoyed doing all the school runs.  I feel lucky to have been offered such a wonderful opportunity in a company which the staff all clearly love and I fully intend to make the most of it!  But man, it's been super tough getting up to date with all the technology I've never used.  

I've even managed a bit of stitching on the tube on the few days I've managed to get a seat... so stitchy updates are coming!  But for today, it's a comfy seat, a quietish house (at least for a couple of hours), a really really naff film and my stitching.

Enjoy your Sunday, friends! 

Stitch Maynia Weeks 3-4

Ok, I haven't managed to stitch daily during the last half of May, but I switched to some of my WIPs for a nice little change, and actually had a lot of enjoyment from them. 

We also spent a couple of days away with friends during the school hols and I've been interviewing for a wonderful job, so it's been a super busy time.

Anyway, back to the stitching updates... here they are!

Bluebell Lane by Derwentwater Designs

Dolphins' Domain by Dimensions

Holodeck piece from Star Trek Cross Stitch book

Seas The Day part 4 by Caterpillar Cross Stitch

Seashore piece by Dimensions

Tea Ceremony (Snipz) (Esmira) by Paine Free Crafts

Ugly Duckling by Dimensions

A little bit here and there and I'm really happy... lots of different colours, so it's hard to be bored with these!  Hope all of you that were joining in enjoyed Stitchmaynia 2019!

Stitch Maynia 2019 Week 2 Update

Hello again,

Lots of stitching has been happening, but life got in the way of my post last week.  For week 2 I moved onto a combination of cats and boats.  Mainly because it was easy to pull the colours together quickly, and I thought it would be handy to make progress on the cats since I'd started the first one more than 10 years ago I think!

Also, I wanted to try again stitching on evenweave with some small projects.  I always think that the end result looks somehow more neat and polished than Aida. However, the counting is so much harder.  Luckily, the boats don't have any gaps, the whole thing is filled.  I'm not sure how I'll fair on a different project.

I haven't managed to do too badly, out of 15 days, I've managed to do 14 new starts, which is more than I expected.

Until the end of May, I'll be stitching on WIP projects. Look out for the next update.
Have a great week!
Jo

Stitch Maynia 2019 Week 1 Update

I've impressed myself with the fact that I've managed to start a new stitch every day except for 1.  I'm starting with a set of flower pieces in a stained glass design. These were in The World of Cross Stitching magazine that I used to subscribe to years ago and I thought they would give me a good start and also a stash of spares to make cards so that at the end of term I'm not up until midnight putting stitches into teacher cards. 

I think the colours are lovely and bright and I've used up a piece of grey fabric that I didn't know what to do with.

I'll continue with these in the second half of May, but for now, it's on to the next ones!

Olympic Park on a Sunny Day

Stitch Maynia

I came upon this last week.  I've joined the facebook group.  The premise (if you were to follow the original idea) is 15 new starts thorough the first 15 days of May, although I think it's more flexible if you wish it to be.

I've just been through my stash and discovered so many pieces of fabric that I bought many many years ago, presumably at a stitching show.  There are a lot of unusual colours plus a bunch of neutrals.  Not all are big pieces.  But I'm thinking that starting on some new smalls would be nice, I could handmake a few cards ready for birthdays or Christmas.   It really makes me feel bad that it's all just sitting there!  Plus, it's a good chance to try out different materials, counts, use up some scraps of thread etc.

Ok, I'll admit, I've been sucked in by all the other pretty planning everyone else has done.  I'm gonna do it.  I'm not so organised to work out every project more than a day or so in advance and perhaps not all new starts, but definitely some.  Watch this space for updates.  Who else is joining in?

April Stitching Update - Seas the Day

And so it continues...the latest instalment of Seas the Day by Caterpillar Cross Stitch dropped into my email box this morning, and by some miracle I'm up to date with part 3 and ready to get stuck into part 4.

Here are some photos of my completed part 3.

I also spotted this fab idea on someone else's facebook post - the amount of times I have to go back and look up which symbol is which colour - well, I'm hoping it will help save me a big chunk of time to stick the list on the box!

Part 4 looks amazing, so I'll be back with a further update soon I hope!

March stitching update

It's been a busy one with plenty of stitching.  So here's a progress update!

I've completed part 2 of Caterpillar Cross Stitch's Seas the Day... Part 3 is in my inbox waiting to be started tonight!

I've picked up a little card from the Nutmeg Company that I hadn't touched for a few years and found again - I really dislike the metallic thread but it looks so pretty because of it...A bit more edging to go yet.

And finally, a bit more progress on the Star Trek Cross Stitch piece.  Loving the blocks of colour and it looks really striking on the black.

Patch testing

Well, this week, I'm having fun and games with the patch testing guys down at the hospital. 

A few times over the last year, when away from home, my face and hands have randomly swollen up and become itchy.  It's taken a while to get to the nitty gritty of what it might be and so I'm spending this week with little discs taped down on my back (87 of them to be precise!!)

Not sure if I'm imagining the need to scratch at them or if it's just the tape they've been stuck on with or if there's some kind of reaction going on under there but I guess we'll see! They come off on Wednesday and then I get looked at on Friday to see what's going on.  I can't get my back wet until then, so it's going to make for a fun week... now... dry shampoo or go somewhere nice for a hair wash and bouncy blow dry (yeah, right, with my scarecrow hair!) in the meantime???

Hope you have a lovely week! 

February Update

Hello!

Time for an update, this time with photos as I feel like I'm actually making progress with things!

Last week I went to the first meeting of a new craft group in my local area... I took my 'out and about' stitching piece from the Star Trek Cross Stitch book... It's easy as they are blocks of colour.  Despite all the chatting, I managed to finish the wording at the top.  Hard to stitch on black but better because it was a daytime stitch group.  Nice that there were a variety of crafts to look at, with people bringing crochet, knitting, embroidery and card making pieces to admire.

I'm also making slow progress on the 'Seas the Day' Caterpillar cross stitch SAL... I know a bunch of the SAL group are already through month 1 stitching, but I'm dragging it out to make it last... and Endeavour starts again this weekend which I love to watch while I'm stitching in the winter! It means I get a good solid chunk of time and an interesting story to watch while I do it.

Finally an update on the Ugly Duckling... A little bit further!

Thanks for dropping by!

January Update and starting a new SAL

Hello everyone,
A bit late in the month but Happy New Year! We stayed in and had a quiet one this year as we were meeting friends on 1st January.  I just about made it to midnight but it was hard work to keep my eyes open.

Lots has been going on over January it seems.  I am continuing with the KonMarie clearout (after binging the entire series on Netflix). I've tackled clothes and books now... and the next category I'm dreading as it is papers.  It's not that they are scattered over the house, they are actually contained only to a couple of places but there are so many old letters and things, that I have kept since I was a teenager, and then all the adult things like bills and payslips.  I don't know why I still have them! I started looking through them at the end of last week and decided it needed a full week at least to sort through them.  Which things do you keep hold of?  I was big on penpalling back in the day...so you can imagine what a lot of things I have.

It has also been busy with birthday parties for little ones. Something every weekend!  I had heard that it is quite full on when they start school, and it certainly is! 

I've been trying to relax in the evenings and make some stitching progress... it's all going well, there will be things to show soon.  I'm not sure who made me aware, one of you lovely folks whose blog I read I think, but over Christmas I saw a few people stitching a 'Caterpillar Cross Stitch - 12 Days of Christmas' piece.  Not knowing the brand, I followed them on Facebook and was happy to see a new SAL starting yesterday.  Luckily, I have a giant box of all the thread colours which was a gift from my hubby years ago, and the perfect coloured piece of fabric, so I ordered 'Seas the Day' and began work on it today.  It is spread out over the next 9 months.  for more information or to join in, take a look here. It is the most beautiful site and the colours in this SAL or so bright and colourful that it is a welcome change from the brown, yellow and green I've been using for the last few months!

Well, I'll sign off here... well done if you made it this far.  Enjoy the rest of January!