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

Wet and grey

The weather that is , though I was rather soggy myself after the school run this morning ,lol.
Here we are mid May , and it only seems like yesterday that it was February. I can hardly believe that the kids have this week and next week at school before half term , and then it is the last few weeks before the summer holidays. My son's last year in Primary school starts September , wow.
  Enough of that anyway , before I get all misty eyed ,lol .
I finished my last sign up .

 It was kind of hard to get a good picture, it's one of those that looks better at a slight angle , but hopefully it will go down well.

 Recently finished this as an a/c .

 I have started a Jack Russell for my son, but the chart is not pleasant and I seem to have a bit of a mental block when it comes to stitching for my kids. I don't know why but I seem to put it off all the time and find other things to do . Not good!
  I was tidying my shelf the other day (aka looking for something) and came across this cover kit I'd forgotten all about . It was with Cross Stitcher 315 March 2017 .

 Thanks to my mum , my daughter has started watching Babushka on TV , and has got a bit of a thing about Russian dolls , so I stitched this up for her. It took slightly longer than the two hours it said , but not much and I love it .

 I backed it with some felt to protect the stitches as it was very difficult to run the threads under the back to finish off . Other than getting a sore finger from puling the needle through , it was lovely to stitch .

  So , if anyone has one of these kits that they do not want to use , please let me know , I'd be happy to pay up to £2 plus postage . I'd like to stitch more in different colours or even different patterns and make a collection for my daughter. Thanks .


 I'll leave you with a pic of my boy flaked out on hubbys' trainer  ,lol

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

Quick stitches

I have been very naughty and hardly touched my HAED for the last couple of weeks. I hope to get back to it next week. No hope at the moment as it's half term , both kids and hubby have had/got a horrible cold bug thing and I'm not getting much sleep so not even trying to go there .
 I needed to do something with colour , so started this

 and finished it . It will be an a/c square for Love Quilts.
   Then I decided to do this one , which I managed to get a sign up for a named quilt with.

They both need a quick wash along with the Pug before being sent . None are urgent though , so I may just wait and see if anything else is ready to go with them ,lol.
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Winter

Wow , it only seems a few days ago that I was posting about my Autumn walk , and now we are nearly at Christmas.
 I have done some stitching since last time , but not as much as I would have liked. The last couple of months have seemed to lurch from one problem to the next .

 After my hip got better , I came down with a really bad cold, which is only now starting to go, five/six weeks later. I went from a sore throat to the blocked up nose , then got the cough which seemed to come and go. then I got blocked ears so last week , every time I blew my nose the world started to spin , I got so dizzy that I threw up. Not pleasant.

 We had a plumbing problem which was not cheap , hubby broke the crown off one of his teeth and has had several dental appointments to sort that and other problems out.

We lost my boys' much loved pet gerbil on the 14th November. Gracie was a real character and will be very much missed, but we now have four of the little buggers. My son got another two and after deliberating as she originally wanted Degus , my daughter has two gerbils now as well. They are all very tame and love to run round on us all . Love them to bits.

 And now we have a problem with the washer not draining properly. I think it's actually the sink pipes that are blocked so hopefully we will get that sorted tomorrow. The car goes for its' MOT on Friday and I'm dreading it .

 Also got a bit of a shock this morning with a horrible message from someone I care about , still reeling a bit from that.

 Had to go into town this morning on the bus , and an old chap told me that things can only get worse , and I wanted to clock him one ,lol.

Anyway . on to the important stuff, let's look at some stitching .

 Another Love Quilts square , I have done now for this year , and not sure how much I will do next year. I really want to do more of my own stitching , and I'm out of aida at the moment , so will have to see how it goes .

  For some reason , blogger will not show this the right way up , but I love this little guy , just looking at him makes me smile . I need to get him framed.

I have started another project , but not got very far on it. I've also been working on my oldest UFO and hope to get it finished before the end of the year.

 I am hoping to join the HAED challenge that begins on Jan 1st , to stitch a page before 3rd March. It will mean a new start so I want that UFO out of the way.

  I will be back with the years efforts and plans for next year , until then though , wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas , hope the season brings you all that you wish for. I just want a lovely day with my family.

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

A few finishes .

I've managed to get a bit of stitching time in over the last few weeks. The boy has been playing out with friends most afternoons , and the girl retreats to her bedroom to watch silly videos on her phone ,lol , so peaceful time for Mum . In between conquering the laundry mountain , and other mundane things of course.
 A few Love Quilts squares done , two labels.

 And two named squares .

 This one was finished just this afternoon, very happy with how it turned out .

I don't have any more sign ups at the moment , so now I'm going to try and get the squares finished for my Daughters' quilt. Only three more to go,
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Summer holidays.

The last few weeks have been rather busy , alas not with stitching , but sometimes real life has to come first ,lol.
 The end of school year is always busy , more so this year as my Daughter has now finished primary school. We had the usual Summer Fayre and day trips , but also some special events.
 Junior Prom , Leavers Assembly and the celebration assemblies where special awards are given out.
I was a very proud Mum when once again , both kids got awards. Daughter got an attendance award for being there more than 98% of time , and my gorgeous Son got the award for best effort for his year . His name will go on a plaque on the wall in the main hall . My Daughter has received at least one award every year at this school ,and so far so has my Son , so very proud of both of them.
  So , now we are in to Holiday time , so less stitching usually. Hubby has been off this week too , so we've had a few trips out and about. Today was a lazy day at home ,so I have managed some stitching time . I've also been reading rather a lot .
  After Batman , I stitched up this little lovely. A real pleasure to stitch , and it didn't take too long .

 Then I finally got round to finishing this one for my Daughter. It was started end of April but got neglected for a wee while. Glad to have it done though .

  After that , I had an enforced stitching break due to developing Shingles. The rash was where I usually rest my arm when stitching, and it was sore and uncomfortable for a couple of weeks . I had already started this one , again for my Daughter , and it should have been a quick stitch , but hey ho .

I've done bits and bobs over the last week or so , but quite a lot today to get it to the end , mind you , I know about it .
 Though the rash is mostly healed over, the flesh is still quite tender and it has been bothering me today , still, on-wards and upwards. I need to chart out a couple of labels for LQ now.
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

I'm a centurion !

 Kind of ....
   today , I completed my 100th square for Love Quilts UK. Pretty good achievement if I do say so myself , especially after a stressful time dress shopping with my gorgeous daughter . ~She leaves primary school in three weeks time , and they are having a prom. Personally I think it's a bit much at age 11, but there you go. Anyway , she now has the option of two dresses , two pair of shoes , one handbag and make-up. Boy they grow up too quickly nowadays.
 Anyway , back to the stitching, first I have to show you number 99 ,lol.

 I tend to stitch in colour blocks , so took pictures of the different stages

 And here it is all done .

 And now for the big 100 !

 I have stitched this one before , but Superheroes are in such big demand at the moment , over 15% of the kids on the lottery waiting list want Super hero quilts , that's over 40 quilts at 12-15 squares per quilt ,a heck of a lot of Super heroes ,lol.
 I have a feeling I may stitch this one yet again at some point .
 Heading in to the less stitching time of year , end of school year and summer holidays means more kiddy time, so not sure when I'll be back , but I will.
 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

Hello

 So , got the laptop back last week, just been too busy to post ,lol.
 The screen decided to go kaput , so we thought it might be the back light , which would cost £60 - £100 to fix , still cheaper than a new computer. Fortunately the light was fine , just some loose screws and hinges putting pressure on one of the cables was causing the problems . Not so good , on giving it a health check , they discovered that the hard drive was failing , so replaced it . Fortunately we had already backed up all the important stuff . I've had to re-install a couple of things and it was frustrating trying to get back on here , but all is well in the end ....

 Well, with the computer at any rate.

 Thursday before last , we got back from school, kids went up to get changed and my daughter came down to tell me that there were cracks in her ceiling with water coming through , not good. Now, I have never been up in our loft before and truly believed that I would never manage it , but I did . Leaking pipe causing the problem, so tried to put tape round it to no avail . Passing things down to my daughter , who turned round too quickly and banged her her on the stair bannister.
  A massive lump came up in less than a minute and she said she wanted to go to sleep , so mad dash to A&E. Two hours later (pretty good) we could go home with instructions to have the next day off school .
 Hubby got home from work , we had to turn the water off fully as he couldn't fix the pipe there and then. All calm until 10.30 pm , when we heard a thud as part of the ceiling came down.

 Temporarily fixed the next day , with plans to do a better repair this week as hubby is off work.

 Last week was full of stress as it was SATs so my daughter was incredibly wound up. So glad it is over. I am looking forward to getting to relax at some point in the next few months ,lol.

 Anyway , I have still been able to do some stitching , so here's what's been done since last time.

  Lots of Love Quilts squares.

 Really pleased with this one , the theme is Star Wars and space , so I charted a couple of SW planets.

 I had ten squares to post in , so took a picture of all of them together before washing.

 This one is only recently finished .

  I have also made some bookmarks for the kids , but they are in use , so I will have to get pictures another time.
  And , just because ,a pic of my lovely boy Fraser , flopped.

Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath