Still stitchin'

And keeping busy . Latest finishes :

A LQ any child square. I have been doing these in between stitching on the next finish

  A Jack for my son. He is eventually having a dog quilt and absolutely love Jack Russell's , so this is the first of a few but it was a total pain to stitch . I love the finish , but definitely not stitching again.

 And this was finished last night. We are in desperate need of super heroes at Love Quilts. 155 kids in the lottery for a quilt and more than 30 of them want super heroes. Best get cracking then ,lol.

I am waiting on some stash , but it's just more aida and a few threads , so nothing exciting. I have however taken advantage of the HAED flash sale 50% off , so added these to my ever growing collection .

So , can someone please find me a philosophers' stone . Thank you , and see you next time .
Cath x

Stitching and gifts .

Well , I finished the LQ a/c square , and here it is . It is one of four designs from a magazine , intended to make a cushion cover , but works out quite well for a square .

 Then I moved onto this one , intended to be another a/c square , but I ended up getting a sign up with it. Superheroes are so popular with the kids that the stitchers tend to get a little bored of them , so the quilts take a while longer to get filled .

 And then this one as a sign up as well , superheroes again ,lol. This is the second time stitching this chart , and probably not the last . I was intending to do this in a couple of months , but with it being half term needed something fairly easy to be able to pick up when I got chance so this worked out fine.

 I have one more sign up to do , which I'm hoping will be a quick stitch but I'm so tired I can't see straight so you never know .

 I was very lucky and crazily happy to receive two RAKs in the recent HAED sale , so excited.
 This one has only recently been added to my wish list , but I've seen someone stitching it on the HAED FB page and it is gorgeous .

  And someone has completed this one too , so cute.

Well that's all for now , hope to be back soon but have got a teachers gift to chart and stitch which may take some time , till then ...
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

I did it !

I managed to finish the HAED challenge of a page between Jan 1st and April 7th . Actually , I did two pages but page two was only 5 stitches across ,lol.
 I have taken loads of pictures , but still cannot get the colours to show properly , or the sparkle from the kreinik thread , but here it is .

I finished yesterday , but didn't have time to post , though I did post it on the HAED FB page ,lol. After all the fretting , the kreinik was not that bad to stitch with. The chart called for two strands on 18ct , I'm stitching on 16ct and found one strand to be plenty. Glad I bought the thread heaven though.
 Have to say , I love it and am sad to put it away , but I have a teacher gift to do which may take some time so have to get on with that next (once I've done my LQ a/c square anyway)
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Marching on .

Well , the year is flying by already . February was not a fantastic month as we had a big whoops with the car and had to get a new one. not an accident before anyone starts worrying , just lack of knowledge and circumstances leading to the head gasket blowing, not good.
 Anyway , with all the stress etc, I didn't get a whole load of stitching done , but I have done some.
I was getting disheartened with my HAED , with all the confetti stitches it felt like I was going nowhere fast so I decided to do some block stitching , and it really made a difference.

 I have done more random and confetti stitches , and am back to feeling like I've made no progress ,lol. After a couple of hours today I got really annoyed at finding yet another stitch that I'd missed so put it away .
 My last lot of LQ squares have been posted out , but I have done this one since. This is for a back-filled quilt, where all the squares are taken from stock other than the label. This has been sent directly to the person who is making the quilt up .

I found myself wanting to start two new things , but only have one spare frame , so debating between buying another one , trying to make one and just buy the clips, or get a grip and cut down on my WIPS ,lol.
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

28 Days later .

Time for a stitching update methinks .

 This little guy

 Now looks like this .

 Yep , he's all done , completed on the 24th . It's a good job I love him , as I've got to stitch him again , and maybe again after that ,lol. My son has decided that he wants his quilt to be dogs , and my daughter kind of likes it too .

 The HAED challenge is progressing . From this :

 To this .

 Actually , posting this has really helped me see how much I've done . It really seems to be slow going, but there are lots of scattered stitches . I'm leaving the big blocks til the end . Also , I'm only working on it for three or four days a week. Thursdays are usually busy with other stuff as it's hubbys' day off , and weekends are filled with noise , homework and kids stuff . I am still hopeful of finishing by the original date of 3rd March , even though we now have to April to complete the challenge.

  Forgot to show my new stash last time , so here it is .
 Fabric and threads to stitch Promise of Spring , and threads for Pumpkin Patch Inn.

 And , some more white aida and a refill of some DMC I was getting a little low on .  I am lucky to have plenty of thread ,so seldom run out of any , though with HAEDs I tend to kit up fully with new skeins , then whatever is left goes into the general pot .

 My ort jar has a lot of neutral colours at the moment , so I need to stitch something bright to jazz it up a bit . Now my LQ square is done and I have no more sign ups at the moment , I've gone back to my carry over project from last year , but I'll show pics of that next time .

 Thanks for dropping by .
Cath

A quick update .

Hi ,
 just wanted to do a quick post and update events .
My daughter has been to the Harry Potter studio tour today , so she is buzzing, had a great time .

I started my sixth book of the year so far today , so going well with the reading . There will be slower times as it depends on what mood I'm in , but enjoying the new books that I had for Christmas and a couple more I bought from the Works when we went into town last week.

Stitching wise , I'm still enjoying my HAED , this is where I'm at after todays' efforts.

 I am hoping to get this done fairly quickly as I have so many plans of other projects . I'm also planning a secret stitch as an end of year gift for my sons' teacher . He has had the same teacher for two years and she is absolutely brilliant , so I wanted to do something a bit special. More on that at a later date .
  I needed an easier project for evenings and weekends so started my LQ square too , this is where I've got to . I'm hoping it looks a lot better when it's done , lol.

Thanks for dropping by ,
Cath

Out with the old.

In with the New.

Happy New Year everyone , I know I'm a day late . I was going to post last night , but then hubby asked if I wanted to watch a DVD with him while having cheese and crackers . Can't turn an offer like that down , so blogging had to wait ,lol .

Anyway , time for the recap and plan post , so here goes.

 Last year , I read 114 books , a huge improvement on the last couple of years , so I'm pretty happy with it , especially as it did not look like I'd get anywhere near that at the start of the year.
 I had a lovely pile of books for Christmas to help me get a good start in this year .

I've already read the two on the right and made a start on the third.

Stitching wise , I had 44 starts , and 48 finishes , which again I'm quite impressed with especially as some of those finishes were old UFOs .

 I stitched 28 squares for Love Quilts , and a card  , a card for hubby , 4 bookmarks for my lovely kids , two other finishes for me , and two UFOs finished ,and one of them was finished on the 30th December , so you haven't even seen it yet !

 I have one WIP , which will probably be left for a while as I had a new start yesterday , but that comes in with the plans bit ,so more in a short while . First , the ORTs !

 My ort jar from two angles , lots of pretties in here , but it's now been emptied out all ready for a new years worth .

So , my big finish at the end of last year was my oldest UFO , started in 2009. I was stitching on it when my cousin was killed in a car accident and just put it down . I've picked it up on and off occasionally , but decided that it needed to be finished . After I finished up my owls earlier on last year , I admit I did put this off a bit , but once I got going it wasn't actually that bad . I have changed a couple of things ,and added some personalisation , and overall I'm quite pleased with it.

Forgive the bits of paper , I don't post my familys' names on line. It is also in need of a good press , but as it's going to be put away for a few months I'm going to leave that until I'm ready to have it framed , probably around my birthday  ,then it will be ready and waiting in time for next Christmas.
 I'm quite excited about it now it's done , this is my first seasonal stitched piece .

Plans ,well , I don't make definite plans , just have ideas of what I'd like to do .

My new start yesterday was a HAED , which I'm doing for the FB challenge of stitching a page between Jan 1st and April 7th . It was going to be until 3rd March , but they extended it . I'm stitching TT A Pale Comparison for my Daughter , and she's quite excited about it.

This is my progress from yesterday and today .

My other plans are really to do more personal stitching . I do love stitching for Love Quilts and will continue to do so , but I need to get more of my own projects done . I have so much stash , it's shameful . Also , I want to do more for my kids , so once this one is done , I'll be starting a HAED for my son. I'd also really like to complete Rosita, so three HAEDs on the go ,lol .

I am planning on stitching Pumpkin Patch Inn this year too , and hopefully Holmseys' Winter Wonderland , and probably Promise Of Spring by Silver Creek Samplers which I bought from the lovely Mouse .

 So , looks like I'm going to be fairly busy this coming year .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

November !!!

Well , just had to go and read my own blog as I couldn't remember what I posted last ,lol.

I have been stitching , though at times it was harder than I would have liked. The squares for my daughters' quilt are finally finished , though they were holding me back a little. I was getting so fed up of the colours and the designs that the last few were quite hard work .

I deliberately left this one until last to give me a much needed colour boost . We chose the colours ourselves and I had to fiddle with placement a bit , but very happy with how it worked out .

  So , all 15 squares are done , now to source and decide on fabric and get motivated to turn them into a quilt. We'll see how that goes .

  I then did another sign up for Love Quilts ,
I loved stitching this , and love how it turned out .

 I also signed up to stitch the card for the same child. Here is the stitching , yet to be made into a card . Both pieces need a quick wash.

 After that , I felt like some indulgent stitching. I wanted to do one of my LHN or LK charts , but not sure where my stash of special threads are at the moment , so settled on this at the weekend instead.

This has also been a long time coming. I left off the wording at the bottom.

In other news , I had a birthday since my last real post, Got mostly money ,so was very selfish and splurged it mostly on stash . The local dept store was closing the Coates department , and all the Anchor threads were down to 20p each. I am usually a DMC stitcher , but have some lovely Anchor charts and have been trying to build up my stash , so I took advantage and ended up buying around 200 threads.
  Then , someone on a FB group was selling a load of DMC threads at a really good price , so I bought those too .
 Of course , then I had to buy a load of bobbins , and storage boxes and a new drawer unit to keep them all in ,so most of birthday money spent ,lol.
 Over 500 threads

Anchor

DMC

I did have enough left over to treat myself to a few new HAED charts though .

 Polani

 Mini Cries of the Night

 Mother of Dragons

Looking forward to these.

Thanks for dropping by .

Cath

Very busy , getting nowhere.

I can't believe how quickly the time is passing . Not helped by the kids having an extra week and half off round half term due to moving into their new school building. They go back tomorrow , so hopefully I'll be able to now get lots done.

 Stitching time has been interrupted , but still managed to get some done , and have time to go to the park when it has been nice weather wise. We also managed a day at the coast on Wednesday , which was a lovely change. I would so love to move over that way.

More a/c squares for Love Quilts

Disney Princesses and Super Heroes are forever in demand .

  This one was finished just yesterday .

Only two more squares to go , and I've done 100 !

I now plan on finishing the wolf I am doing for my daughter , and maybe one other project before starting anything else , though I am itching to start ,lol .

  I am hoping to start at least one more HAED this year , but maybe even two or three. Yes , I am that sad ,lol.

 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Framed!

So last week saw me getting two of my pieces back from the framers, though I wasn't expecting them to be ready until this week at least , it was a happy surprise.
 I am very happy with how they turned out.

  Close up of the frame .

  This one was quite hard to get a good picture of. The mount is actually a dark blue/grey .

 Love them both. Got to start saving up for the next ones now . It may take a while .

 The Young Voices concert was amazing, much better than I had expected . Laura Wright sang a couple of songs . She has a beautiful voice . I could have sat and listened to her all night. We were also entertained by  The Beatbox Collective in between the schools singing , and Urban Strides ,a street dancing group were there too. Fantastic !

 Thanks for dropping by ,
Cath

Shock , Horror !!!

I forgot to post my projects for last year ,lol.

 Never mind we are still only very early in the New Year.
So in 2015 , I finished 42 cross stitch projects , 25 of those were Love Quilts squares and 4 were for another quilt that is to be made for a music cradle at a respite centre. I also spent most of November working on my current HAED , so not too shabby.

 Books wise, I only read 70 last year . This is lower than the year before and way down on previous years. I kind of lost my way with reading towards the end of the year and couldn't decide what I wanted to read so ended up with nothing. Anyway , hoping to at least equal that this year , but it would be nice to improve.
 Already made a start with my first book finish .

 My lovely nephew bought me this and two other books for Christmas . Have to say , it is quite bizarre , but still an enjoyable read .

  Also had a couple of stitching finishes.
Started this New Years Eve , it's a cover kit from World of Cross Stitching mag. Hubby will be receiving this tomorrow as we will have been together twenty years (makes me feel old).
 We have had some pretty tough times over those twenty years , but got through it together, and I wouldn't change what we've got. We have two amazing kids and are very happy together .

 And I finished my Daughters' tiger . Love it now it's done , but it did get me down a bit at times.

 Have to say I was spurred on a little by the arrival of this:

Now I can kit up my next two HAED starts. Very excited , but still determined to finish those UFOs first. I think I will be eagerly stitching on them very soon so I can get to the next ones ,lol.

 Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath