My first TW finish

Yes, after a mere 4.5 years off and on I have finally finished my Egyptian Sampler! I would have finished a week ago but there weren't enough beads in the kit - grrrrrr. How annoying! The colours in the border are really vibrant IRL but it's a very dull day and I've struggled to get a halfway decent piccie so this will do for now I guess. There are a few other TW's in my stash which I may get to, but not for a while. I have an urge to finish a couple of other WIPs that have been on the go for a while too.

I haven't got much news I'm afraid - I've been to the cinema a couple of times recently to see Hancock and The Dark Knight. Hancock was a little disappointing - it seemed as if it couldn't make up its mind as to whether it was a comedy or an action flick. The first half was great, but the second, not so good. The Dark Knight I really enjoyed - Heath Ledger definitely deserves an Oscar nod for his performance. I'm hoping to see the new Mummy film soon and also Mamma Mia which has been sold out every time I've been to the cinema, so I'm guessing it must be good!

I've been nominated for an award by Sally (Stitchyangel's Treasures) - thanks Sally! I've not received a nomination before and I'm really chuffed! If you haven't visited Sally's blog before, take a peek as her blog is always a great read and she has some beautiful WIPs on the go.

So the rules of the award go like this:

1. Put the logo on your blog;
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
4. Add links to those blogs on yours;
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I will nominate: Kathy's Kreations, Karoline's Corner, Obsessed Dragon Stitcher, The Fireside Cat, A Joyous Place, Ginnie's Cross Stitch and So Much Stash - Sew Little Time. I've aimed to nominate people that haven't been nominated yet, so please take a few minutes to explore these blogs if you can. I'm getting the urge to stitch now, so enjoy the rest of the weekend folks! :o)

Egyptian Sampler

First of all, a little update. As I may have mentioned, I've been stitching Teresa Wentzler's Egyptian Sampler on & off for the last 4 years! Hence, for the last 6 months or so, it has become my project that lives at my Dad's, giving me a chance to stitch on it usually about once a week. I am determined to finish it this year... especially now as Dad has bought me a Dimensions Gold kit - The Guardian - which features wolves and he thinks it would look nice opposite the Dimensions Gold "African Lions" I stitched him a few years ago! I've promised him that I'll start it as soon as I finish ES. Anyway.... here is my progress as of yesterday:

Sorry, it's not a good piccie! It was getting late & I was in a bit of a rush. I've still got a fair amount of the border to do. The central part is nearly finished, I just have to finish off the twisted band which I started yesterday. I'm sure the end is in sight!

Andy & I have just returned from the garden centre, where we've managed to source some bee-friendly plants and also a bee nesting box! Bees are under threat and if nothing is done to help them, we could lose our busiest garden visitor. The nesting box is great - hopefully a queen bee will make it her home very soon & get busy nesting! It has a lifting lid and see-through window at the top, so if successful, I will try taking some photos.

On Friday I gave a presentation of one of my college projects to the rest of the class. Eeeeeekkk! I'm really not comfortable with the whole presentation thing, but I made it as humorous as possible and it seemed to go ok. I've got another 8 weeks left and then it'll all be over! Phew. Not that I'm counting the days or anything. I'm having a family & friends party on the Saturday after to celebrate finishing and I can't wait! By coincidence, Wimbledon fortnight follows and I have 2 weeks off to relax and enjoy it! ;o)

Stitchy progress

Hello everyone - I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. Mine was quiet, but in a nice way and I got a fair amount of stitching time in. Here's what I've been up to....

Some progress on TW's Egyptian Sampler which I've been working on for eons! I've stitched the left and top borders and stitched some of the details in the corners of the border. I was so sick of those colours by the time I finished the top border, I just couldn't face starting the final part on the right! It has been one of my new year's stitching resolutions to finish this for about the last 3 years, so I declare that 2008 is the year! I'm stitching much more frequently on it now that it's the project at my Dad's house, meaning I get to work on it weekly!

The other WIP that has been getting some attention is Titania:

2007 has been a real non-Mira year. I have 3 Mira WIPs and the only one I had picked up was Lady of the Mist which I started way back in Guilt-free January. I have fallen out of love with Miras a bit and wanted to stitch a few other projects this year. After I finished Tatty, I wanted to pick up something to work on during Dec and I noticed Titania fluttering her eyelashes at me from the WIP drawer. It was quite nice to work in large blocks of colour for a while and I do really love this one. Who knows, she may get another turn on the Q-Snaps before too much longer. ;o)

What are your stitching plans for 2008? I'm starting a Taj Mahal SAL with Gill and Kathy on 1st Jan. We will be stitching every Tuesday. Other than that, I want to stitch the 2nd row of Snow Princess and I have a couple of HAED QS's I'd like to stitch: Peridot by Meredith Dillman and Dragonfly by Jessica Galbreth. Both have such beautiful colours in. I did start Dragonfly in the summer & decided to try tent stitching using 2 strands on 32ct fabbie, but wasn't happy with the result, despite test stitching beforehand. I preferred my tent test stitching of 1 strand on 32ct but wasn't sure how well it would cover. I may try a higher count fabric using 1 strand and see how that turns out.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots more stitching from you all in 2008, so all that's left to say is have a very happy new year!

Progress

A little bit more progress on my TW Egyptian Sampler:


I finished the Queen block and have started on the border at the bottom. I'm going to work my way around the border as much as possible.

I'm working on a commission at the moment for a friend, so will post a piccie when it is a bit more legible! It is a backstitch laden design, not my usual sort of thing, but it's not a huge piece so shouldn't take me too long.

College coursework is taking up alot of time right now & really bogging me down. There have been both tears and tantrums! We submitted our main project proposals last week & are now waiting to see whether they've been approved or not. Tomorrow we have to hand in our homework - we had to redesign a recruitment advertisement which is much more my sort of thing! Next week though we have to hand in our first written assignment which I'm dreading.....

A few piccies

I picked up Crescent Dreams from the framers yesterday & I'm really pleased with the results:

I decided to take some arty type photos in Dad's garden, by the lavender I planted as a tiny plug a few years ago & it is now this enormous bush, which is always swarming with bees collecting pollen. The frame is silver with a tinge of gilt and both mats are in shades of lilac. I shall be giving it to Sharon next week, although I don't really want to part with it now! :o)

To the left you can see the aforementioned lavender bush. I love lavender as a plant, although the fragrance I find quite sickly. Give me a beautiful rose fragrance anyday!

Catkin (right) came up to see what I was up to. She doesn't like having her picture taken & doesn't usually stand still for long enough! Catkin is approximately 8. She turned up unannounced on my doorstep one day and decided she wanted to live with me - she tried to follow me in my front door! I already had 2 cats at the time and didn't really want to have another, but when she was still hanging around a couple of hours later, I felt sorry for her & let her in. She made herself right at home and has been there ever since.

Her elder 'sister' Bobbi is now 14 and I've had her since she was 6 weeks old. I was first introduced to her when she was a tiny 1 week old kitten - she didn't even have her eyes open! She sat in the palm of my hand & mewed contentedly. She's never been a lap cat, but has a very sweet temperament. She is the image of the 'Felix' cat, although a little rounder in the tummy department! Unfortunately, Andy is allergic, so my kitties have to remain with my Dad.

Last but not least, I have a stitching progress picture for my one and only TW - Egyptian Sampler:

I've been stitching this on & off since 2004, in the run up to my holiday in Egypt. I've left it at Dad's house, so now whenever I visit him, this is the one I work on. I've been working on the Queen square, as you can see. After that, there's two bands to complete and then onto the border...! I have several TWs in my stash, but they have so many colours & blends, I don't think I could cope with having more than one on the go at any one time! I will definitely start another TW once this is finished. I'm wondering if her beautiful Illuminati will be finished by then - I saw it on her blog the other day & it looks amazing so far. I have more than enough to keep me going in the meantime though! Have a great weekend everyone. :o)

Stitching goals

I pretty much achieved what I set out to do for my April stitching goals:-

I completed the gold border outline of Egyptian Sampler:

I started & finished another corner Moon panel on Midnight Hunting:


And I finished stitching Titania's headress and added a little to the bottom of her dress:

My goal for May is to finish page 1 of Snow Princess & the Polar Bear which I started in April 2005, stitched half a page of & hadn't picked it up since! I've been gazing at some of the beautiful HAED WIPs around recently, so thought I should pick one of mine up & follow suit!

Life has been pretty quiet, although we did go to my nephew's wedding last weekend (photos in my Webshots album). It was a great day, although one of my BIL's fell down a staircase in the dark & broke his wrist :o(

Other than that I've had some car trouble, but nothing that a good service wouldn't sort out & after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing my little motor has now been serviced & is ok, although they've picked up a few things that might be picked up on the MOT next month :o(((

I've got a day to myself today so am hoping to get stitching a bit of blue on Snow Princess (boy, I really didn't realise there were so many blues before!).

Stitching Goals for April

I've seen this on many other blogs & thought it might be a good way to inspire me to work on a few of my WIPs!
Titania:
To finish hair/flowers in hair & continue with her dress.
Midnight Hunting:
To start & complete one of the 2 remaining corner moon panels.
Egyptian Sampler:
To finish stitching gold coloured part of border/frame.
I don't seem to get a great deal of stitching time right now so even those 3 goals will be a challenge for me, though achievable if I set my mind to it!

Well, I really couldn't resist the new Passione Ricamo design 'The Night' - it is totally utterly breathtakingly gorgeous! Once I can afford a little splurge on a larger piece of hand dyed fabric, I will definitely be starting this amazing design. Laura's designs seem to be getting better & better so I can't wait to see what she has coming up in the future.

I've been working today & things were really busy. I ran my first company induction, although I had assistance as there were 11 new people starting, whereas normally there's around 2 or 3. I used to run huge inductions when I worked in HR before, although that was around 4 years ago so I felt a little nervous first thing. It's awful when I'm nervous as I start to get my words all mixed up! It went ok though & I'm sure that with a bit of practise it will be fine & I'll feel much more comfortable with it. I had so much to do though today & was mainly on my own, so only managed a 10min teabreak early on! I had been planning to leave early, but there was just too much to do. Inductions always generate a great deal of paperwork plus I had lots of other things to keep me busy. Thankfully Andy was off today so had been busy at home & cooked me a lovely dinner for when I got in. :o) I've got a lovely relaxing day of doing nothing tomorrow, so am planning to get to work on my stitching goals!

Early mornings.

I'm on a day off today, as I was yesterday. However... Andy's car broke down the night before yesterday - his starter motor had decided to give up the ghost. Its really an old banger of a car and I'm surprised that it gets him from A to B most of the time! He's on a long term placement at the moment as a supply teacher in Surrey which is quite a trek in his car every day. So, as he does each morning, he came to say goodbye before going to work yesterday at 5am (he normally leaves at 6). He was planning to walk to Brighton train station which is around 5 miles away and the weather was absolutely freezing cold! I told him not to be so silly and to go scrape the ice from my car so I could take him... I really was still half asleep and after I got back home, went straight back to bed. Then when I woke later it seemed a bit like a strange dream - all a bit surreal really! Thankfully the garage managed to replace the starter motor so it's back to normal today, but I was wide awake after he went at 6 and here I am on my PC at some unearthly hour once more!!

I updated my Blog links somewhat yesterday as many Blogs have moved/changed names etc, so hopefully I've not missed anyone. Plus I took a couple more photos: Egyptian Sampler which I haven't touched for a few months now and hadn't taken a photo of in ages, and also a new one: Frederick the Literate which I started in October and haven't gotten very far with... yet!