Tigger and Temptations

Doing better this week stitching wise but to be fair anything would be better than last weeks disasters(~grumble~)

I have done a little frogging but that's no fun to report.

I have completed a rotation on a new addition to the list: Winnie the pooh kit from my crazy January list

Here's where I was up to from its day in Jan

And now after it's 10 hours

Stitching up nicely don't you think, lots of fractionals going on but still a comfortable stitch

Now lets see my rotations are currently:

1. Motherly Devotion
2. Xmas Tags - finished those so need something new adding in here
3. Tapestry Cat - on hold (rippit) :( maybe thinking to replace it with something else and add a little frogging inbetween each rotation. 10 hours of frogging would be torture.
4. Winnie the Pooh

Right so back to Motherly Devotion it is then. Seems to have gone round quite quick but I guess that's due to a finish and a hiccup.

My hubby is a bit addicted to rooting round in charity shops for gems (he says) junk (i often say lol) hazards of being married to a hoarder ~ahem~ I mean collector.

But now and again he turns up with something like this

Gem!!! I have quite a pile of X stitch books that I'll never get to stitching everything but they are nice to look at lol.

On the matter of too much to stitch. I'm seriously tempted with a few bits at the moment still having my birthday money to spend. I quite fancy doing an afghan for the new baby but this would mean putting some of the other stuff on hold to get it done and then makes me think I should do a bauble for this ones first Christmas like I did for DS1. hmmmm...... hubby has reminded me there is an unfinished patchwork quilt for DS1 ooops. It doesn't have much left to do I did all of the patchwork before Vinnie was born but have slowed to a halt with the quilting aspect. I always have these dabbles in other crafts but really I always come back to my lovely XX's. Oh well that's something else to add to the list. ~sheepish smile~ Oh and I'm still looking at the threads for the LL Angel I got the other week.

So torn and tempted....

What would y'all do? Be good or go for it?

Keep stitching...

TUSAL

Here's my TUSAL jar kind of a jumble of colours from everything lol. I think I'll empty it so I can at least see some progress for all my frogging lol.

I'm totally shattered after taking my new little walker out on his reins to the local museum yesterday - I was in search of a rainy day activity. He loved it and ran all over and thought all the touchy things they had were great too. But I'm aching the back of my legs feel like I've done a work out. And guess what he doesn't think he should have to go back in the pushchair ever now, even though we'd never get anywhere and I'd be on the bottom. Sigh lol

Keep stitching...

Found it!!! ~sob~sob~sob~

Thanks for all your comments and support. Having spent some more time scratching my head and counting. I have now found the error or at least the main one there must be another somewhere to make the problem area at the top.

Thanks Chris for pointing me in the direction of the blue flowers.

There should be a block between the point of the blue flower petal and the little pink flower on the inside. So the border on the right must have another mistake so that it is correct at the top where as the left side is correct so is one extra at the top.

So it looks like frogging the whole of the outer border and bottom flowers. I did think that frogging was going to happen on this just wish it wasnt so much!!!

Only other thing is to find the mistake in the right border and correct to make the border right and loose the extra in the flowers which isn't as bad as a wonky border.

Still going to set it to one side for a bit. At least now I have an idea of what is wrong. Not a happy bunny.

Keep stitching...sob

HELP!! Frog or Fudge or F*@x???

Arrrrgggghhhhhhh..........

After success on my rotations I have hit a huge snag and could do with your advice on what I should do. I'm trying to decide what is going to be best. I have been back on with Tapestry Cat and I got so far round and have found that the border has raised by one block somewhere along the top.

I have discovered this from where I have got to on the fill just above the cat's head. Here's a couple of close ups

On the one above just left of the green that swirl is down by one block from the bit before that. I have counted the green connecting and this is correct. It is the other side that is definitely up by one as I have added another green connecting piece in on top left (see top pic) and this doesn't join by the one block. So I have counted the side and can't for the life of me find where it is out - I'm not kidding I have put hours in on this counting no stitching so frustrating.

Normally in this case I would give up and fudge round it. However this is the border and it needs to be straight!!! My mam reckons to fudge it too due to the leaves distracting from the lowered border. I have thought on that further and that solves the bottom edge but the top would have to have an extra row of beige yellow to bring it into line.

So this leaves frogging but as I can't find the mistake I don't know where to frog?? And some of this stitching has been in this for years so I'm thinking that it would do more damage than good to frog much.

Any bright ideas guys???? I'm at a loss as to what is the best plan.

Anyway I'll leave you with the good news before I started this I did work on the Christmas tags and in a couple of hours I have finished the last two tags.

So that is the whole of that kit finished yippee!!

Keep stitching and I'll keep scratching my head while I await your comments - only kidding I'll go and find something else to stitch lol

rocketing rotations and stash enhancement

I've had a productive few days and have completed a rotation in record time!! So Motherly Devotion is flying along.

This is where I had left it last time.

And here's where I am up to now..

Looking gorgeous isn't it. It totally stitches like a dream no wonder the 10 hours have flown by. I really don't feel bad moving on with the next rotation this time and never know I might add another item to it taking it up to 4 but we'll see. It'll be hard to stick to all the stuff I started in January or WIPs but I'm going to try.

It was my birthday on Friday, turned 29 yikes next stop 30!!!!

 I have already got a few stash items and am tempted with birthday money to buy some more stuff but I do have a lot already so we'll see. I know I'm sure to cave lol.
I finally got round to getting my plastic snap frame.

Which I don't know why I didn't do sooner the tension on it is amazing. I mean like wow amazing. I was raving so much my stitching friend bought one there and then on her iphone while we were out for coffee lol. I also got this Lavender and Lace chart 'in the arms of an angel' I'm really tempted to get all the stuff in to do this one but if I do I'll want to start it for sure.

The trouble I have is that my 2 hobbies cross stitch and reading are easy to buy stuff but take hours to get through. I then try and hold off getting stuff but in the end sit with the money unspent till I go what the hell all I really want is threads and books lol.

My folks have also gifted me a kit for my stash

So cute and it was given with I know you have loads but... lol My mam had also made me a cool pin cushion

Its a patchwork cactus how funny is that. Only Vincent had a tantrum cos he wanted it errr don't think so it's full of pins! So it'll have to go out of the way for now.

I also got this from Hubby and DS as I found a local shop which does customisable pottery rosebudceramics but the woman who runs it has started to do personalised silver jewellery.

Its Vincent's finger print in silver how awesome is that and has his name engraved on the back. It's such a nice keepsake and its even nicer to support local crafts as well.

I also found out that baby 2 is another boy :D over the moon Vincent will have a little brother to play with.

Well its back to the grind with work tomorrow.

Keep stitching...

Pretty kitty and more Easter crafts

Bit slow on updating but I wanted to complete my rotation before I posted.

Hope you have all had a nice Easter.

This one is one of my UFOs I intend to finish this year. It's Teresa Wentzler's Tapestry Cat. I started it years ago after searching high and low for a cross stitch chart with a Birman cat on like my lovely cat Dot.

I found this one but it was discontinued but this was no problem with ebay!! I seem to remember taking it off to do a wedding sampler for my brother and sister in law - which they wed in 2007!!! Yikes this really has been sitting waiting to be completed for ages! It has been out on a few occasions over the years and has always come up against things that needed doing sooner like the wedding sampler but was never meant to be a UFO at all.

This is where it was when I picked it up

Every time I have got this out I have actually been surprised with how much has been done more than I remember each time. The only thing with UFOs I think is trying to find where you left off with it all. But I have loved every minute I have spent on this one.

So here's where I have got up to

Maybe doesn't look much but I have been working on the fill of the borders. There are some really lovely things about this design I love the eyes and they look so good as they are worked one over one where the rest of the stitching is two over two. This gives them such depth.

The other things is that a lot of the colours are tweeded using a strand of each colour mixed this gives interesting colour mixes and blending. This was the first design I encountered this on. I love the border on this as well.

So all in all I'm really happy with getting some stitching done on this one and think maybe this rotation malarkey is going to work out after all. I'm thinking I'll be working back on the JE Motherly Devotion next I can always expand the rotation from there but I'll take it slow I think 3 is enough for now.

Vince has decided walking is the way forward now so I have a little Frankenstein bumbling about the house now instead of clinging to furniture lol. This week we got the craft stuff out again and have made a decorated egg....Which won an prize at church!!!!

Vincent actually did all the painting on this himself, so I was super proud. He's getting the idea of what to do and didn't try and eat any paint this time!!! I used to love doing all the little craft projects like this when I was young - bet you couldn't tell - and who am I kidding I still love doing stuff like this lol.

Oh and later today I get to go and find out if number 2 is pink or blue and how they are growing - excited -  just a bit!!!

Keep stitching...