Beware the Stash Gremlin

I've been having a right one this last week and a bit. I seem to have a stash gremlin....and it's been messing with my rhythm. Proper giving me hell and a bit of the stitching blues.

The start was as good as I have been doing I finished framing the Thimble Fairy.

I do love the detailing on it. I can't stop looking at her. One of my favourite finishes for a long time. I just need to decide where to hang her.

 

 

I finished another Mill Hill kit Snow Crystals Aqua.

 

Love the sparkle and think it's going to be a great addition to my hopefully growing pile of Christmas Ornies for next Christmas. So far so good.

 

I finished my rotation on the gingerbread houses.

.

 

I now have all the walls made up and laced onto the plastic pieces. I'm on with the roof and then it will be a construction job. So hopefully next rotation on this I might have a completed house.

 

THEN the stash gremlin struck.

 

I was itching to get more done so had got Tapestry Cat out for its next rotation. Going to fill in my blog when I had a minute. I then discovered....

I'm missing threads!!!!!!

 

Over the years I have raided this box for the colours I have needed for other projects. So yep I know it's my own fault really. Fair enough I need to go through and check off what I have and what I need to order but I know I need at least a handful. OK so I'll leave this for now and come back to it when I have cash and time to sort an order for threads.

 

 I have been enjoying a few of the facebook groups to do with stitching talking to everyone on there and seeing all the work. I recently found one for Joan Elliot's designs and I found that she has designed some dream catcher ones that I have stitched and I suddenly remembered I have had this in my stash as a UFO for years. It's one of Joan's I never realised and so in lieu of Tapestry Cat going back into UFO lurking, I thought perfect I'll be good not open anything new and finish this off.

 

 

And then It struck again. After a very slow start on it due to dreaded teething of both boys, meaning a stitch at a time. This resulted in a few frogging attacks as I'd come back and started in the wrong place.

 

I found the gremlin has stole the dark green!!!!!

 

AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

 

Last night I was tearing my hair out. This box I wouldn't have raided for colours as it's from a kit. The bobbins I have made and labelled with the colour and symbol. WHY? I have no idea why it wouldn't be there. I ave stitched the colour on it already so it was there to start and I haven't got an empty card. I was sick as a chip last night.

 

I have after a long search found the DMC colour match for it but even that wasn't in the thread boxes.

 

~breathe~

 

So I'm hoing that when I sit down tonight I'm not going to have any  more visits from this gremlin and it's gone back to hiding small people's socks. I can handle that lol

 

I did in the meantime, finish one of the three reindeer cards from a crossstitcher kit.

 

Keep stitching....

Merry Stitchmas!!!

 

Firstly I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!!

 

I've been full of festive busy so haven't had chance to update, so I have plenty to share stitchy wise too.

 

We have been getting into the spirit of the season. Especially yesterday we saw Santa's reindeer in the park and a Nativity carol service with a real donkey at a local church.

 

The boys both loved seeing the animals!

 

I received my order from Willow Fabrics for which I had a voucher from having my comment published in Cross stitch collection magazine.

 

 

This means I now have the threads I needed for a couple of projects that were on hold for the supplies.

 

So here is the Noel sachet finished:

 

Love the rich colours. I just need to find a minute to back it and stuff it. Then it can go with the Christmas Angel I had made.

 

I have finally put the finishings to the Madonna and Child.

They are now displayed together for the first time. I think they will become a treasured part of our decorations for years to come.

 

I've done quite a bit of Christmas crafting with the my boys.

 

Nanna and Grandpa visited and left a gingerbread house kit, which the boys loved making up.

Warning: may contain pre licked sweets lol

 

 I have completed a rotation on Tapestry Cat.
Here it is before:

And Now:

 You don't know how happy I am to have that border finally finished. In this rotation I have stitched and frogged it twice. I couldn't tell you how many times it has been frogged now. I knew from last time there was a mistake to compensate for. Fixing the mistake completely would involved taking out the whole of the outer border and the flowers at the bottom too. I think with it having been there for so many years that it would risk wrecking the fabric completely and not mention soul destroying to take it out. However once I finally got it worked out it is a minimal bodge to fix it. So next time I get this out it should be onwards and upwards towards no longer being my longest WIP lying around.

I finished this little project I have been working on.

 

 

 

 

I charted this myself. I saw the quote on a plaque in a card shop a while ago and loved it, totally sums my house up. While I was charting it my son lined his foot up with the footprint...says it all really. I'm so pleased with how it has turned out.

 

Hope Santa brings everyone plenty of stitchy goodies and that you all have a lovely holiday season.

Peace and Goodwill to everyone!

Keep stitching...

In arms of an Angel update

I have to say I'm in love with this Lavender and Lace In the Arms of an Angel.

It really is a joy to stitch. Here it is before this rotation:

And now:

Beautiful. 

I've mostly been up to the usual playground stuff. We did get fish and chips in the park on Saturday, it's the boys favourite. And we got to see the swans and cygnets again, the daddy swan came to see what we had to share too. I quite like crisp Autumn days and the storms didn't really reach us in the north or at least it's normally very windy here so didn't notice much difference lol

I completed the wooden keyring free kit from cross stitcher. 

Looks pretty good. It used four strands to cover the wood. I love the vibrant blue on it. I'm sure it will make its way into someone's Christmas box this year. 

I love Christmas but it certainly is more stressful with little people to sort. I think for me it's the pressure to fulfil the magic that I love and want my boys to have.

Back on to motherly devotion now.

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

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...