A Finish and a Couple of WIP's

I'm back a little later than I'd intended, but I do have a finish to share with you. After a year of stitching, on and off, I've finally finished Prairie Schooler's "May". It's stitched, I think, on 32ct Antique White Murano using the called for DMC threads.

Last week I decided it was time to resurect an old WIP - Floralie from Papillon Creations. It's ages since I last showed a photo of this and I have worked on it since, before putting it down for other things. Last Friday afternoon I finished off the letter "X" and completed the letter "T".

I've also been stitching on Blackbird Designs Reward of Merit - Summer Iris. This is on 32ct Antique Ivory Belfast Linen using WDW and GAST threads.

Isn't technology great - when it works! Since upgrading to the new Blogger look I've had no end of trouble writing posts, trying to get things in the right place. I really wonder why they have to keep changing things, it all seemed to work okay before for me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!! Other technology that isn't working for me is e-mails. I'm having no end of trouble e-mailing my friend Julianne in the U.S., my e-mails just don't seem to be getting to her. Julianne, if you're reading this I have replied to your last e-mail this afternoon.

Many thanks for all your lovely comments, and a warm welcome to my new followers and readers.

Nicola

Yiotas XStitch Review

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Yiota from Yiota's XStitch to ask if I'd like to review one of her cross stitch kits. Yiota and her husband run the company, designing, manufacturing and selling a large selection of kits. Being half Dutch I chose to review Field of Tulips by Monet. The cover photo shows the finished cross stitch rather than the painting that it was taken from.

I chose to review this kit on evenweave, which is being introduced throughout the range. I was very impressed by the threads supplied, which are Madeira and neatly wound onto numbered, sturdy cardboard bobbins. (A pet hate of mine with kits is having to sort out bundles of threads before I can begin stitching.) The instructions are very clear as are the charts which use black and white symbols. This design comes with two A3 charts and there is an overlap marked on the second one to aid matching up. The key, however, is only printed on the second part of the chart and I feel that it would be helpful to have it on both parts. The key also gives the thread numbers for DMC should you wish to use these threads.  

You can also buy the kits as charts as by post or by e-mail, in which case there is no charge for postage. I have already picked out another chart that I'd like to stitch and will be buying it this way.

All in all I was very impressed with the quality of kits and the service from this company and would thoroughly recommend it. (Can't wait to start stitching this lovely kit!)

I'll be back after Easter with a finish - at long last.

Have a good Easter!

Nicola



Yarns From My Crochet Hook

It's been a while since my last post and that's really because there has been very little activity from my stitching needle. Although it has stitched a small amount on "May", there isn't enough to justify a photo, and I also have some unpicking and re-stitching to do. However, my crochet hook has been busy and in just a couple of days I made this little mat to protect the top of a chest of drawers from a vase base. It's an old pattern by Twilleys that I've had for ages and I used an unknown crochet cotton.

This card is one I've made for my mum for Mother's Day, which, here in the U.K. is on the 18th March. I had intended stitching one and did make a start, but it soon became apparent that I was not going to have enough time to finish it, so it was abandoned in favour of this decoupage one using a kit from Hunkydory.

It's been a lovely spring-like day here today and my first daffodil is almost out. I hope this weather continues as Mr. L. and I are off on holiday a week on Saturday. Yes, you've guessed it, we're going to Swaledale again! After the awful December we had a change of scene is well in order.



There are some bloggers that have been unhappy with Blogger's updated word verification, I know I don't always find it easy to read those words, so I have turned off the word verification on my comments page. I still have comment moderation enabled so that should stop any spam.

Many thanks for your lovely comments on my last couple of posts, especially for the congratulations that you sent my son. Wedding plans are under way for a late April wedding next year. Paul and Carla are currently looking at prospective wedding reception venues.

I'll probably not have another post before we go away, so I'll see you all when we get back.

Nicola

A Very Short Post

As the title says this is just a short post to show you my progress on PS's May. I didn't do very much but did manafe to finish the wording. There isn't very much more to stitch now, just the little picture in the top left-hand corner and the rest of the border.

I need to put this down now in order to get on with my Mother's Day card. Once again this day is creeping up on me fast, but hopefully I'll get it stitched in time.

Before I go though, I must just share with you all a bit of very happy family news. On February 4th my son and his lovely girlfriend became engaged and are now busy planning their wedding which will probably be mid to late April next year.

Nicola

May

No, I haven't gone mad and fast forwarded to May, wish I could though, no I've been stitching on PS's "May" this week. It's been a while since I've shown this and I have worked a little on it here and there. The lambs at the bottom have been bugging me, I've not enjoyed stitching them at all, but I was determined to get them done and move up on the design. Here's where I left it yesterday.

I have now finished the stitching on side one of Jingle, I just have the pearls and beads to stitch on which I'll probably do once the second side is stitched.

Tuesday was Needlecraft Haven's TUSAL day and here are my ORT's for January.

Now a little bit of family news, mainly for my U.K. readers. This coming Saturday (4th Feb.) my son, Paul and his partner, Carla will be appearing on BBC's Saturday Kitchen Live, they'll be the members of the public sitting at the table along with the guest celebrity, who, according to my TV guide is going to be the actor Samuel West.

Thanks for all your lovely comments, they really make my day!

Nicola

It's Been A Quiet Week

Just  a short post this week as I've really not done that much stitching-wise. I did make a start on Just Nan's Jingle biscornu on Wednesday and also worked on it yesterday. It's a really quick design to stitch and I'm really enjoying working on it. I've changed the fabric from 28ct Cashel, as I don't have any, to 28ct white Jobelan, the threads are DMC as recommended.

Many thanks for visiting my blog and for all your lovely comments on my last post.

Nicola

More Stash and Merry Christmas

Yes, that's right I've treated myself to some more stash this week. Sew and So have a sale on at the moment so I treated myself to Just Nan's Jingle biscornu chart while I was ordering some other bits. I'm justifying it because it's a biscornu and doesn't need space on the walls. LOL

I needed another needle minder so bought this Hibiscus design by Kelmscott Designs.

I also bought another floss storage box and some more plastic bobbins. The winding, however, is going slowly!

I'm hosting a Greetings Card SAL on the Needlecraft Haven forum, and this is my first card. It's from Mary Hickmott's Cross Stitch Gallery magazine issue 4. I can't finish it off just yet as I've run out of the Krienik braid and it's out of stock at Sew and So. You can see that I only have the letter "C" to finish, but it will have to wait until I next go to Sew and So or Cotswold Needlecraft at Trentham Gardens.

That's all for this week. Many thanks for all your lovely comments on last weeks post, I really do appreciate them all. It was also lovely to see some new readers and followers of my blog.

Nicola