SAL – Pooh’s Flowers #04

This is the scheduled three-weekly post for the SAL that I’m doing with several other crafty blogs and I’ve been stitching some more on Pooh bear.

This is where I was up to last time. And this is the finished piece. Yup, it’s happy dance time!

Pooh’s Flowers, kit by Designer stitches. Worked on 32 count Murano in antique white, instead of the provided aida.

I’m so happy to have finally finished this. It took way longer than I was expecting.

Precious Dreams is back out of its box now and ready for me to carry on with it so hopefully there’ll be some progress on that for the next SAL update.

For the stitch-a-long I’m linking up to these lovely blogs:
Avis, Claire, Gun, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Sherrie

Do allow for people being in different time zones, so not posting all at the same time, but it’s well worth doing a bit of blog hopping to see all the lovely projects that are being worked on.

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SAL – Pooh’s Flowers #03

This is the scheduled three-weekly post for the SAL that I’m doing with several other crafty blogs. Last time I hadn’t managed to add any stitches to Pooh bear but I’ve done a little bit for this update. The thought of not having anything to post for the SAL spurred me on.

This is how it was previously.   And this is where I’m up to now. He has a body now but it’ll look a lot better with some backstitch. There’s still quite a bit of flower and grass to be added but it’s getting done, slowly but surely.

I’ve been spending most of my time in the garden or doing papercrafts. That and reading. I’ve also bought some pretty fabric to make some PJ bottoms, although I’ve no idea when I’m going to fit that in LOL

For the stitch-a-long I’m linking up to these lovely blogs:
Avis, Claire, Gun, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Sherrie

Do allow for people being in different time zones, so not posting all at the same time, but it’s well worth doing a bit of blog hopping to see all the lovely projects that are being worked on.

SAL – No stitching, but a bit of scrapbooking

This is the scheduled three-weekly post for the SAL that I’m doing with several other crafty blogs and I haven’t managed a single stitch in the past three weeks. I’ll leave the pic of where I was up to, as a reminder of what I’m working on, and hopefully there’ll be some progress in three weeks time. Would  you like to see what I have been doing? Last weekend it was International scrapbook day and I spent three days doing lots of challenges and prompts all themed to The Movies. The weekend was run by Cal from The Scraplab and was lots of fun. I managed ten layouts and have a few more to do.

This is my favourite from the event. The challenge was to use a sketch and theme it to flowers. I used some photos from one of the Disney holidays. I’m sorry that there wasn’t any stitching for you to see this time, but I’m sure my friends on the other SAL blogs have lots of stitchy progress so do take a look.

For the stitch-a-long I’m linking up to these lovely blogs:
Avis, Claire, Gun, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Sherrie

Do allow for people being in different time zones, so not posting all at the same time, but it’s well worth doing a bit of blog hopping to see all the lovely projects that are being worked on.

SAL – Pooh’s Flowers #02

This is the scheduled three-weekly post for the SAL that I’m doing with several other crafty blogs. Last time I had a new project and asked if you could guess what it was. This is how it looked then.I think it’s pretty obvious what it is now that I’ve started stitching the head and body to go under that famous red top.   I love these little kits. I stitched Eeyore’s flowers a few years ago and still have Piglet and Tigger to do.

I haven’t felt much in the mood for stitching lately so I’m happy with the small amount that I got done. Hoping my mojo returns to get this finished and then I’ll get back to Precious Dreams.

For the stitch-a-long I’m linking up to these lovely blogs:
Avis, Claire, Gun, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Sherrie

Do allow for people being in different time zones, so not posting all at the same time, but it’s well worth doing a bit of blog hopping to see all the lovely projects that are being worked on.

Some Alaska layouts

I did another layout a few days ago and realised that I had a folder of layouts that needed to be photographed. I’ve now done that and they’ve been placed into their album.

I haven’t managed to do much scrapping lately, as there are now two nosey kittens to interfere, but I have done a bit. The last layout was done while Sammie watched carefully from inside my stash box, on the desk right next to where I was scrapping. It meant I couldn’t get at any more supplies, but it did keep her from walking all over the partly done layout. It’s a compromise 🙂

I’ve been scrapping the cruise that we went on after our few days in Vancouver and am about half-way through. I’m getting a bit bored with double layouts now though so I may give in to temptation and do a few singles of the cats. I do have rather a lot of photos of them…

This is the latest batch of Canada/Alaska layouts, once again in a gallery format.

The Ship

The Ship

At Sea

Tracy Arm

Skagway

Why is it that I can never get them to look square when I photograph them? And often manage to make it worse when I attack them in Elements? Just take my word for it – they are square, level and not at all wonky. Sigh.

Winnie the Pooh calendar – August

I’m keeping up with this project a little better this year and have finished August’s section fairly quickly. September’s looks a bit more time consuming but I’m keen to get it done as October’s is a lovely one with swirly leaves in it.

I rather like this one as it’s the only month so far to have used a blended thread – used for the shells. Plus it looks lovely and summery and it was a very nice change to stitch sand colour instead of the usual grass green.

The wonky lettering, designed to be that way, is irritating me a bit as I do like things to line up nicely. It’s meant to be wonky though so I’ll just have to lump it.

I’m currently stitching away at my lovely McLaren piece which is coming on beautifully. I should have a nice update on that after Silverstone. There may be tyres. Woop!

Winnie the Pooh calendar – July

This section seems to have taken ages. There’s so much of it. As well as WtP, there’s his picnic basket, all that grass, the flowers and finally those fiddly, fiddly bees. And lots and lots of backstitch, which I did as I went along, as much as I could.

I tell you, all those fractional stitches on 18 ct Aida are just no joke. I really wish I was working on evenweave as it’s driving me nuts. It is rather satisfying to finish each section though and July was one of the largest so I’m very happy that it’s done. August has a lot less in it so I started a very small project last night to give me a break from the larger ones.

Eeyore. With flowers. Oh yeah!

Well this took longer than expected. I could use the excuse that I’ve had my nose in a book, but then you’ve heard that one before. I could mention the vile migraine I had last week that stopped all stitching and reading but then that wouldn’t really explain why it’s taken quite so many weeks to do such a small project. No, I have to come clean. I’m just a really slow stitcher. And this had tons of those miserable fractional stitches, and masses of fiddly backstitch.

But, it’s finally finished. Hooray. I really should have put it down and carried on with the next thing in the rotation at some point, but I wanted a finish. I needed a finish. I’ve only had that teeny one this year and to be honest, I can’t see another one any time soon apart from the SAL. My gallery is looking decidedly bare. So, here he is. Eeyore with his pretty, and very backstitched flowers.

I’m really glad I went with the 32 count Murano instead of the 16 count Aida. It looks so much better having all that unstitched area in the finer fabric. I’m also happy with having chosen the antique white as it looks just that bit nicer than the glaring white.

Next to be stitched is September’s My Little Heart SAL and then back to the Winnie the Pooh Calendar, Venice Street and then a new project. I’ve got the chart and the floss for that and have just ordered some 28 count Cashel linen in Light Mocha plus some gold metallic thread. I’m very excited by this project as I’ve tweaked the chart to personalise it. More details and a photo as soon as I have all the stash.

 

 

 

Finished!

That was very satisfying. I completed the last bit of that Winnie the Pooh cross stitch kit yesterday and I’ve just steamed it to get the creases out that were left by the ring.

Now granted it was very small, only 10x8cm but it felt so good to finally have a finished piece in front of me again. It was exactly what I needed to get me back into the rhythm of stitching again. Some of the backstitch is a bit wobbly where I was getting used to it again and there is a teeny error on the cross stitch on Pooh’s tummy but I don’t think you can see that. All in all I’m very pleased with him. He’s such a cute little chappie.

I’m raring to get cracking on that Winnie the Pooh calendar now. I’ve sorted all the threads and got the charts enlarged at Staples. I now have an A4 for each month which’ll be much more pleasant to work with. Easier to see and won’t flop all over the place like the two A3 charts provided.

Oh, and to celebrate finishing Pooh bear yesterday, I took Tree’s advice and started reading that Stephanie Plum book. I finished it this morning and thought it was very good indeed. A worthy reward for completing a project.