I Love My Postman!

Having spent yesteday chasing a parcel that the post office had failed to deliver on Tuesday they finally re-delivered it this morning. It was my Christmas in July exchange from Johanna. A lovely stiched ornie, some Polstitches Rippling Rosebud thread, some pretty candles and yummt chocy.




Thank you very much Jo, it is all lovely and I feel very spoilt.


However, this wasn't the only treat the postman bought. There was another parcel with a post stamp from DMC! Hubby asked what I'd been ordering now and I honestly replied "nothing!" It was very exciting. It turns out that I had won the spring DMC/Cross Stitcher competition and the envlope was stuffed with four charts/kits.





There's a gardening bag kit and an orchid kit (bottom two shown) and then two charts by Kate Knight (Timless and Lacy Flowers). I've been smiling all day, it was such a suprise. I don't think they are charts I would have chosen, but I'm sure I will enjoy them. I officially have unplanned for stash for the first time. I usually buy things and do them.


Anyway, off to finish the July Juggy Bug square now, before August is issued tomorrow.

HDYGG Progress

Well, I worked on this last night and a bit today and I've now finished part one (except for the beads). I had intended to use some purple ones that I've already got but they just look to big for the design so I will have to get some more at some stage.

Tuesday today, so I might get out the Bouqet for Cheryl and try to make some progress on that tonight.

I think my parcel for the Christmas in July exchange arrived today, but we were out at the cinema watching the 2nd Narnia film, so I'll have to go and pick that up tomorrow. (It was a great film though!).

I'm Back

We've had a fantastic week away, cruising the Oxford Canal. Totally relaxed and all sporting great suntans!

While I was away Rachael has given my blog an award.

Thank you Rachael, I've never received one before and really appreciate it.

As for stitching, well it's all very quiet. I did very little while we were away (as expected). I'm planning to do a bit more of the HDYGG tonight so that there will actually be something worth photographing and showing you later.

Thanks again, Rachael, for the award, I'm really touched.

How does your garden grow?

I've decided that I need a small project to take away on holiday. Cletic Winter is just to big and detailed for the confines of a narrow boat. So I'm going to give How does you garden grow? a go. I'm going to do the speciality version and teach myself some new stitches. The fabric I'm stitching it on is an off cut from the Juggy Bug piece and is just big enough, leaving me with very little to finish it, so I will have to be creative about that when the time comes.

Anyway here is a pic of work so far (not a lot!)

And, just to keep you all in the picture, here is Celtic Winter as she is now.

I've also been working on the July Juggy Bugs which is very nearly finished. I'll try to finish that off today, before we go away and if I have time I'll update later.

The Lady Progresses

All I've been working on recently is my Celtic Winter lady and, on the whole, I'm really enjoying her. I've hit a tough bit at the moment using the whisper thread, a fluffy white one. It uses two strand of whisper and one of DMC which makes it so thick to work with, combined with the fluffyness of it, it's just a real struggle. Thankfully there's not much more of it to do but my heart sinks each time I think about it. I've decided that I'll do one needle's worth of work in the whisper and then one of plain DMC and alternate. Hopefully it will soon be done then and it won't put me off the project.

Celtic Winter Update

I've not managed to get much stitching done this weekend but there is still some progress to show.

My eldest has been stitching a bookmark with her name on and she has nearly finished it now. I can't quite remember when she started it, it's taken her so long. She's taken it into school today to show the class at show and tell. If she does actually finish it soon I'll post a pic.

Happy stitching!

Christmas in July

My christmas ornie and other gifts have safely arrived with Rachael. Unfortunatley I forgot to take a picture before I sent it so if you want to see what I made you'll have to visit Rachael's Blog.

I'm still really enjoying Celtic Winter and she now has hair. I don't really like to take her with me to the children's swimming lessons etc so I'm also stitching a Wabbit as my "on the move" piece.

Hope everybody is doing well and thank you for visiting.

Edited: I managed to copy the pic from Rachael's blog (hope you don't mind!).

Celtic Winter

I've managed to unpick everything now and have made really good progress. Here is an update.

As you can see I couldn't resist adding a few beads just to see what they are like. I'll leave the rest to the end now as they will get in the way of the frame as I work. I am still really enjoying this.