My own kind of Maynia !

I am intrigued by the idea of Maynia and kind of wanted to take part , but I don't really do smalls as such and the idea of having that many starts would terrify me .
 So , as I have been on sick leave for the last few weeks following surgery , I decided to start a new HAED , with the aim of working on it every day of May and seeing how much I could get done.
  Coincidentally , On the HAED fb page , a challenge popped up starting 26th April to do a new start and try and complete a page by 26th June , my kind of thing.

  So , I decided to do this one as it was already kitted up , apart from fabric , and most of it from stash. .

 The first page was completed on 20th May

 I was cursing the confetti at the end , but the eye looks fabulous.

 And this is where I'm at with the second page.

 There are two partial pages underneath , so I am hopeful of a finish in the next couple of months as I am totally loving stitching on this.

   A couple of quick finishes for a friend , an Easter card and bookmark that I made.

 Still waiting on an appointment with a liver specialist , but my blood tests are showing improvements so , got to look on the bright side.

  Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Stitching

With everything going on , I needed some stress reliving stitching but I found it hard to concentrate so went for some easy block colour charts.

   I loved doing this as a sign up for Love Quilts , adding my own twist by using variegated floss.

 Was so excited to finish this

 Then when I finished this I realised that I hadn't done the back stitch on the previous one ,

 So ....

 Nice and easy

 Not sure what I will do with these at the moment. If my daughter wants any of them turning into something , that will happen but they are more likely going to be any child squares for Love Quilts .

   I got some stash !  Love these charts by Cottage Garden Samplings and will definitely be getting more. Quite sad that they call for Weeks Dye Works threads though as it would work out quite expensive . Still debating whether to save up or just bite the the bullet and stitch using DMC

 I ordered these just before Mothers Day , so they became part of my gift as as usual , hubby left it far to late to organise things for the kids.

The "new" threads are for this chart. I have started it but not gotten very far , will try and get pics next time.

   I am also doing my own thing for Stitch Maynia , but I will post about that at another time. Let's just say that enforced sick leave is doing wonders for my cross stitch ,lol.

  Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

A New Year !

Means time to re-cap .

 So , 2017 was a bit of a flop stitching wise , I had 32 starts and 29 finishes , 21 of which were squares for Love Quilts . No big finishes and not as many small ones as usual. I fell into a bit of a funk towards the end of the year , mainly due to stress and jury duty ,but thankfully things are improving now .
 My Orts for last year :

 My jar was emptied ready to start afresh .

Books read last year came to a grand total of 133 , quite a bit more than previous years but with not as much stitching , I had to be doing something , right? 

  Christmas saw a big enhancement to my book stash .

 And these were purchases from the charity shop  , so I am set for a few weeks ,lol.

I have been busy stitching since the holidays.

   This was started last year , but finished on the 2nd of Jan and is a sign up for Love Quilts.

This one was started 2nd Jan and finished on the 9th , another LQ sign -up. They have both been posted now along with the Green Lantern logo which was originally an a/c square but has since been used for a sign-up.

 After Mickey , I stitched this for my daughter. It was complete , but she's now decided that she wants her name and birth month putting on , but it shouldn't take too long to do .

I love doing my Love Quilts squares but I really do need to start doing more of my own stitching , my stash is languishing and has been for far too long , so I am now stitching on a personal project which is quite different to what I would normally do , but I'm loving it . I will show that next time .

 I did have a teeny bit of stash for Christmas , I ordered it before hand as I knew I would be getting mostly money , so just a few bits. Most of my cash went on new clothes as I have lost over a stone in the last few months and I was getting a bit fed up of my bottoms falling down ,lol .

So , Happy New Year , here's to a year full of stitching , stashing and reading and whatever else you would like .

 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

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

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