A Stitching Love Affair

Another update on Chenonceau I have started on the outer border so not far to go! I have also had another start.... Opps! 28 count Ivory evenweave This is another Chatelaine Design called Pompeji, I'm loving the colours so far! I have also had these Teresa Wentzler charts for a long time, so I finally purchased some fabric to start them Magical Night will be stitched on 28 count Ice Blue evenweave and Carousel I have 28 count Grey evenweave. Never ever again will I do a Teresa Wentzler piece on 32 count linen, I value my sanity lol. I have also brought New York by Thea Gouverneur. Now this has 18 count aida in the kit and I will not be using that, mostly because I don't like aida much so I think I will get some evenweave 28 count. It is stitched with one strand and I am considering using 2 strands. Obviously there won't be enough thread in the kit so I will have to match up from my DMC threads . Has anyone used 2 strands? How does it look? ...

Well since I had some time on my hands today, I got out all my WIPs and UFOs to have a look at and cringe about how many I have Basically here is the list: English Garden Sampler By Teresa Wentzler I really like her designs but I really don't like the huge amounts of backstitching and blended threads, in saying that I have 2 of her designs on the go... Summer Carousel By Teresa Wentzler This is my oldest WIP (probably now a UFO) Started around 17-18 years ago Oh Christmas Tree By Lavender & Lace Stitching Accessory Book By Designing Ladies Angel Dwell Here By Mirabilia Santa By Mirabilia New start on 28/12/2016 The Enchantment of Winter By Dimples Designs Roman Building By Unknown Petit Marche de Noel By Cuore e Batticuore Athena By Mirabilia Ballerina Beauty By Dimensions A Cat Lovers Biscornu By Sandra Cox Vanosdall N...

It's finished!!! I finally finished Tuscany Town mandala on Friday, I had to finish it by then so I could enter it in the Oxford A&P show. And I won! 1st prize, premier exhibit and most outstanding cross stitch! I can't believe I have actually finished it! It has taken about 2 years, which is quite a while but I don't really spend huge amounts of time stitching every week. I also started the Multiplication Sampler by the Historical Sampler Company, this chart was very kindly lent to me by Nicola . This chart is now out of print so I was very lucky that Nicola could lend me hers! I also got some more stash!  I'm really looking forward to doing one of the Scarlet Letter  samplers, as they have lots of specialty stitches which I love to do! I hope everyone had a happy Easter, I know I have enjoyed some lovely autumn weather here, unfortunately daylight savings finishes next weekend which is always a bit sad because wi...

As the title suggests I have good and bad news.. Firstly though, thank you for the kind thoughts and comments on Tuscany town and my accident, it's really nice to have such lovely readers of my blog out there! I will start with the bad news because it leads to good news...kind of... In my last post I reported my wee bike accident, well 4 weeks on it was worse than the orthopaedic surgeon thought, it's now classified as a type 5 injury rather than a type 3 dislocation of the AC joint. Considering it's quite a severe injury, it hasn't been that painful, and I have quite good range of motion in that shoulder (I put it down to good fitness and I regularly stretch anyway)  So (deep breath...) I now need surgery to relocate the collarbone down to where it should be, which involves keyhole surgery and a rubber band, so to speak...well not quite a rubber band, but they attach a band or loop to my collarbone and hook it around the corocoid process (which is a sticky out ...

I was very very excited to receive 3 parcels of stash from ABC Stitch  in the mail this week! In the first parcel was 6 charts I had ordered They were: Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplers, Countdown to Christmas by Blue Ribbon Designs, The Flood and Fruit of the Spirit by Plum Street Samplers, Kringle's Christmas Tree Farm and Contentment by Praiseworthy Stitches. In the second parcel was The Library by Little House Needleworks The third parcel was 32 count linen - Waterlily and all the beautiful crescent colour threads for the Nora Corbett letter M. So as you can imagine, what do I start first? Well I decided to go with the letter M as I have the linen and threads to start. Also and update on Holiday Cookies, which is going well mostly because it's really easy to stitch, and also quite exciting because I don't have any idea what it's really going to look like when finished. Before - After - I also brought a couple of knitting book...