April update

Sorry I've not blogged for a couple of weeks. Things at work have been very busy since my boss left and I've also been snowed under with work for college. However, I wanted to share a few piccies....

Firstly Tribal Butterfly, which has now been framed correctly:


I picked this up today and this is the second time I've had to pick it up from the framers! When I first collected it, the day before my boss was due to leave, I was too busy looking at the framing to notice anything. I took it home, prepared to take a photo of it and suddenly I noticed a strange looking thread running across the body of the butterfly. Then it dawned on me - they had framed the butterfly back to front! I was looking at the back of my work!!! :o( I had to explain to my boss why she wasn't going to receive her leaving gift on time & took it back to the shop. They weren't very apologetic, just remarked that it must've been because the back of my work is so neat & said they would get it re-framed for me. I finally got another call from them yesterday saying it was ready for collection. She even said that they'd had it since Friday, but had misplaced my number & had only found it yesterday! I am pleased with the end result, however, don't think I'll be going back there again in a hurry.

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments on Tribal Butterfly. I think Claire asked if it was a kit or chart. You can buy it as either. In my previous to last post (when it was a WIP) I put a link in to the designer 'Sparklies' where you can see it. There's also a gallery where you can see some other colourways that have been stitched.

I also thought I'd share a couple of snowy photos I took when we had our little April shower the weekend before last. Within about 2 hours of the snow starting to fall, the back garden looked like this:


And this is the street outside my house. Look at my poor little red car covered in snow over the other side of the road!

It didn't take long to melt away, but the next morning my windscreen was still covered in frozen snow! We don't get proper snow down here on the south coast very often, let alone in April, so it was a most unusual day indeed.

I've been stitching on Snow Princess, and my polar bear has a face! I need to stitch a bit of the blue around him to make him stand out a little more, so once that is done I will share a piccy. Happy stitches everyone!

Tribal Butterfly HD

Yes! I'm proud to announce my first finish of 2008.....

I finished this just a few minutes ago & am so pleased with how it has turned out! My boss leaves on Saturday, so hopefully if the framing shop are on form, I should just be able to get it framed in time.

Yesterday Andy took me to the annual stitch show at Olympia, London and we had a great day. Funds are tight, so I wasn't able to have a splurge, but did manage to pick up a Daylight portable lamp at a bargain price. I've wanted a decent stitching lamp for ages and it seems perfect! I also picked up Cut-Through Noah's Ark which I have wanted for a while & the stitched model on display at the show helped persuade me as it has lots of sparkly threads in it! Being a magpie, I just couldn't resist! I also found some scissor sharpeners which will be very useful for all my scissors that have lost their 'snip'. There didn't seem to be as many stalls there as in previous years and I noticed that a couple of regulars that sell Miras and L&Ls weren't there this year. It was great to see lots of sparkly, colourful stitchy type things though.

I'm not sure what I'm going to pick up next.... perhaps a bit of Snow Princess? I'll have to see what is screaming at me the most!

A new start

No Taj this week as I'm frantically stitching a leaving gift for my boss, who leaves on 5th April. I have a few days off so I should just have time to finish this as it's stitching up pretty quickly. This is my progress on 'Tribal Butterfly' by Sparklies:

I'm stitching this 1 over 1 using 4100 DMC Variations on Polstitches limited edition Turkish Delight Jobelan fabric. I love how the top right of the wing looks like an owl's face!! Sorry about the creases in the fabric...

I was meant to be up in Yorkshire this weekend visiting my best friend Sharon, but unfortunately my car has decided it doesn't want to go anywhere. So instead, as well as frantically stitching, I am going to spend the time researching my next (and final) college project. It's a biggie so I'm going to need all my concentration to bring it all together.

I'd also like to wish everyone who reads my blog a very Happy Easter! :o)