Lizzie Kate Summer Sampler

I have been really busy this week and I have not managed to stitch as much as I would of liked. But every stitch counts! I swapped blues for purples on the house as I did not fancy the blues :-)

We have been very busy in the garden making way for our new pets as well as preparing the garden for growing our own veggies.

Colin (on the right) and our friend Phil having a break whilst reading instructions and Lindita Stinky Rita being nosey lol.

One chicken coop!

Hopefully we will be getting our three chickens over the next week to ten days. We will also be adding a run to the coop but we have been advised to keep the chickens in the coop for the first 3 to 4 weeks.

Phil made us a lovely bird house!

Birdhouse and Coop in situ.

Colin also put together a frame for either the runner beans or peas.

There is still absolutely tons to do in the garden. And I have to say that my house resembles a green house as we have propagators on nearly every window sill in the house lol.

Woohoo, A Finish!

Definitely a big woohoo! Not only is it my first finish of the year but my first finish in months!

Back view:

Humming Birds by Barbara Ana

Stitched on a piece of scrap 28ct linen from Polstitches.

Close up view before it was stitched together.

I have already started a new piece.

It is Lizzie Kate's Summer House Sampler. I have changed the colour of the house to purples though :-)

Stitching of Different Kinds!

I finally got around to doing a little stitching. I picked up Castles in the Air. The piece is getting big now and hard to take a good picture.

Here is a close up of the are I am working on:

Lots of embroidery stitches. I love to do them but find it slow going.

Next up, I finished a crochet blanket for my granddaughter Doullie.

It is quite large. I did flower granny squares. I sewed them together using a chain stitch and then did trebles in rounds around the outside.

I have also been doing some knitting.

I love these two colours together, they are so pretty!

I am making boot cuffs! If I like they way they turn out, I can see myself knitting several different designs and probably a few in black and red for when the drumming starts up!

I have decided to grow lots of different veg this year, so spent the last couple of days preparing the garden ready for sowing in a couple of weeks. I will be growing a lot of the produce in containers as it is surprising just what you can grow in them. I have seeds in window propagators for tumbling tomatoes, chives and oregano. Tomorrow I will be staring seeds off for sweet peas (flowers) as they will climb nicely amongst green beans. I am going to grow spuds in bags and have beetroot baskets as well.  I am not sure whether we will plant carrots this year as I don't think we have time to try and find some old planks on the cheap or free to make raised beds for them, but who knows.

This time next year hopefully we will have built a chicken coop and we want three chickens which will produce around  10 to 15 eggs a week. They are cheap to feed and make funny pets. 

Knitted Teddy

Things have been really hectic and I can not remember the last time I was able to cross stitch other than the fact it was before Christmas! My son has moved in with me with his two small children and stitching around them is impossible. It drives me batty not to be able to do anything so I got the old knitting needles out and knitted my granddaughter a little teddy.

I am not 100 percent happy with how it's head looks but it will suffice. I guess practice makes perfect. I am currently crocheting a granny square blanket  for the above mentioned granddaughter. She loves to sit with one over her whilst she is watching telly. I am doing it all in pastel shades. There is not too much left to do. I am sewing all the squares together at the moment and then that just leaves putting a border on it.

Green Man Cernunnos

I have worked exclusively on this over the last week.

Here is a before photo:

I managed to finish page one:

This is what it looks like now:

It is so nice to get onto the actual foreground instead of doing all the background!

I have not decided what I will be moving onto next though.

Over Due Update

I have not stitched as much as I would of liked over the last several weeks, in fact some weeks I did not get any stitching done due to ill health and personal issues. I am hoping to be able to get back into a routine.

First up is Natures Vision:

It is slowly coming along ;-)

Next is Spirit HAED:

Next is Dragon's Lair:

Not too much left to do on this one accept

 for all the beading.

Last up is Humming Birds Scissor Fob:

Thank you for looking and any comments are hugely appreciated :-)

Dragon Moon and Autumn Wreath

I have managed to get in 1600 stitches in my 10 hours of stitching on HAED's Dragon Moon.

The moon is stitched in Petite Treasure Braid instead of Kreinik. It is much nicer to work with.

This is what it will look like when finished.

I have also started Mill Hill's Autumn Wreath. It is supposed to be done on perforated paper but I have used a piece of Polstitches fabric for it instead.

The photo does not do justice to the fabric though.

On Saturday the 6th of October we drummed at Eastbourne Carnival and had a great time.

Gone are the nice girly clothes and make up as it is the Bonfire Season. Unfortunately I missed my home town procession due to ill health. Rather gutted over it as it is one of the largest processions in the bonfire calender.

Here is a video montage Colin made of six of us lol. And we were all SOBER!

Natures Vision Update.

I have got three quarters done of the first wing. I am really liking how this is turning out. It will look even better once the back stitch goes on.

I have started a Mill Hill kit which I have had for some years called Autumn Wreath. It will be 5 x 5 inches when finished. I have swapped out the perforated paper for a nice bit of overdyed evenweave.

I am really peeved off to say the least as Webshots is closing and reopening as Smile. That means now no more streaming my photos from there to my blog which means ALL my blog entries that have photos on, the photos will disappear. I have emailed Smile pointing this out and have yet to have a reply from them that's if they can be arsed bothered!

It is now Bonfire Procession Season for Section 5 Drummers so out goes all my lovely lady garb and in comes jeans and tail coats and not to mention the face paint eek! It's a bugger hard to get off. I also had to strip my top hat down and take off all the veils as it's a fire hazard with the flaming torches, so in place goes  a big skull and other odds and ends plus lights.

My fellow drummer Roz and myself.

Colin trying to look scary and not succeeding lol.

Dragon's lair and Green Man

First up Dragon's Lair by Black Swan Designs:

Here is a close up:

It is looking really colourful now don't you think?

Here is a before of Green man Cernunnous:

And what it look's like now:

I was going to keep stitching on it until I finished the page but after 10 hours boredom was beginning to set in. When I get to page two it won't be so bad as the detail starts :-)

I was going to start Angel of the Sea by L&L but I don't have enough bobbins for the threads so I need to get some. I have moved on to Natures Vision.

HAED Spirit Update

I haven't been able to stitch as much as I would like to have lately, so here is my 10 hours on Spirit.

Before picture:

What she look's like now:

You can see most of her face now :-)

I have started a new project, but won't be able to post pictures as it is a surprise for someone, until they have received it. ;-p

I am currently working on Dragon's Lair, which is next in my rotation. It is slower going than what I thought it would be due to constant colour changing and blending. I will be leaving the three packs of beads till last!