Exchange and/or Winter Friends finish ...

Dear all,

Sarah and I had an exchange recently. The theme was our favourite seasons.

Sarah's was winter ... and knowing how much she loves sheep I made her the following:

It is 'Winter Friends' by the Snowblower Diaries. (This was the chart I bought back in February).

this was what I sent - had to borrow the image from Sarah
as silly me forgot to photograph everything but the sheep

And this is what I received from Sarah:

I feel very spoilt ...

... lets say almost all of the tea is gone now ... a part from a few elusive bags I took with me to work and are now waiting for me to return from my secondment to another department.

And look at the wonderful biscornu Sarah made for me ... isn't she oh so wonderful and patient.

I always marvel at how she attaches the panels! And there is a cute button on top. My season which you probably have guessed by now was Autumn. 

Till soon,

 

Big update: TUSAL and Wipocalypse - post 10, 2 finishes, thank you, an exchange, and a giveaway

Dear all,

You must have notice me being away from blogging and emailing for some time now. I was a 'little' busy. But I am back (I hope). I thought I would do one big update ... but not sure if I will manage and it might stretch over a few posts. 

TUSAL

First up ... belated [sigh] TUSAL update. To find out about this click HERE:

October next to 2013 (so far)

2013 (including October)

Next up Wipocalypse (yet again belated) ... I have two finishes so thought this might be the quickest way to update you on them.

Wipocalypse:

1st finish is "Blue Bird" by Sub Rosa. I have done it as part of the 2013 SAL

For 2013 SAL blog click HERE.

For Sub Rosa blog click HERE.

For Sub Rosa shop click HERE.

The boring info: stitched on Kiwi Illusions (Hand-dyed embroidery fabric), Jubilee 28ct, Drifting Sands; in Anchor: 10, 131, 143, 281, 310, 754, and an unknown (I lost the number from the dark pink.

There is a second design of a set with just flowers which I will do at a later date. I was planning some lovely cushions from this but unfortunately a) we still have no sofa to put them on, and b) there are a few other projects demanding my attention.

2nd finish is a bookmark I have designed and stitched as part of an exchange with Sarah. More to follow on that. It features the Big Ben, which I designed using colour pencils and graph paper. I am now a proud owner of a cross stitch software programme, so will convert this into a proper chart some day for others to stitch.

It is stitched on Zweigart 32ct, Belfast Linen, Cobblestone; in DMC: white, 413, 414, 420, 471, 501, 524, 645, 729, 738, 904, 938, 3371, 3770, 3817, 3822, and backstitched in DMC white and 3371. I had the shade numbers for the brown and blue tapestry threads used ... somewhere. Until I find where I kept them are left guessing.

detail

Some progress on the QS Literate Dragon:

June 2013

October 2013

Will I finish this by the 2nd December? Most likely no ... especially if I pick up a few extra projects to do between now and then.

Field of Poppies:

June 2013

October 2013

Vertical gridding done. Evenweave is a pain to grid! I just can't wait to start stitching. All I need to do now is the horizontal lines [grunt].

Thank you

I would like to say thank you to Bernadett of Petite Armoire (click HERE to see the blog) for the lovely gift she sent me. 

I posted the 2009th comment on her blog (when Bernadett's younger daughter was born).

Exchange with Sarah

As you have probably guessed from the above I have done an exchange with Sarah of Sarah in Stitches (click HERE). This was great fun.

Gifts I received:

Sarah sent me some exciting tea (how I love tea!), a hoop, some patterns, a card, ... 

... gorgeous aida wich would be perfect for a pillow's front panel, and ...

... a snowman hanging (just noticed that in my closeup the christmas tree charm is out of place ... silly me and my photography).

And I sent Sarah:

There are also some newly dyed fabrics by my talented mum to share. But I will update you on them next time. 

Giveaway

Lets finish on a nice note ... a lovely giveaway from Nancy of the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe:

Deadline: 15th November 2013

To enter: click HERE and don't forget to mention that I have sent you.

Bye bye for now,

P.S. Don't be surprised if you get a few months old reply from me... if I ever end up getting around to replying.

Oh dear there is me again ... with exchanges and Valentines

This seems an extreme luxury, I haven't had this many frequent update since ... well ever.

Life is slowly trying to settle into a pattern again, although a few deadlines and tasks are still on the horizon (but that is just a case of life).

So I am going to post few things. 1st up is a Margaret Sherry exchange I have participated in last summer ...


Check out Summer Exchange Flashback for all involved.

You have seen what I received from Marcinha in my earlier post click here:

I am now using it to store all the threads from the QS Literate Dragon SAL. Very useful and pretty.

But I haven't posted what I sent to the next person in the list...

It is a box with Margaret Sherry's design 'June cat & mouse' from Margaret Sherry 2012 Stitcher's Diary, a free gift with the World of Cross Stitching magazine issue 185.

And now back onto recent issues. I have recently for Valentine's had an exchange of stitched cards with McKenna of Chic Crafting. And this is the lovely card I have received in the post from her:

The colour is very close to purple ... which is great as it is my favourite colour. The card I sent to America for this exchange is:

The stitched cup is from the set designed by Rhona Norrie 'Coffee Cards'. She frequently appears in the stitchy magazines, and I especially like her quick and quirky designs. Check out Rhona's blog Tangled Threads by clicking here. I changed the colours a little (to be a little creative and use leftovers): Anchor: 370, 360, 304, 302; DMC: blanc, 818. The 370 and 360 was also used for backstitching.

And for consistentcy I'll also post the one other Valentine's card I stitched this year:

 Also from the same set designed by Rhona. This time I used the following threads... Anchor: 233, 360, 370, 316, 850, 158, 77, 304, 851; and DMC: blanc, 3688. The backstitching used 233, 360, 370 (already listed).

Till another successful update lets hope,

                                                              
P.S. Promise to be better at responding.

The World of Giveaways, Exchanges, Wipocalypse, and Extravaganza

It is a very long time since I have posted ... missed an entire week's worth of Extravaganza, but hopefully my excuses are good enough to warrant lack of blogging/stitching.

I have now officially graduated! And here is proof:

me outside the Cathedral

So now I am a Master of Mathematics with a 2:2 in the subject from Durham University. A little disappointed in the grade, but it is life and there is nothing I can do about it now. Things could have been worse after all. I missed my offer for the graduate course at Newcastle University, but they gave me an interview and decided to take a chance on me. So I am going to study for another year in an    ex-Durham college. (Newcastle used to be part of Durham, but have gained independence sometime in the past.)  

I have now also moved out of my Owengate room:

my old room

I am going to miss it very much, along with the view out of my window:

view of opposite roofs

to the right

to the left

and to the right again

And there is even the Durham Cathedral in the background.

From my room photo you can guess that I have lots of things. More than 3 car loads ... and since I haven't managed to convince anyone to help me move I had to hire a van. Two hours and bit later I had moved out (though it took an entire day to pack). And sadly now I cannot find most of the things that I own. Since everything is packed up in bags. Luckily I have located my camera and some of the stitching, but not all.

Giveaways:

First of all a thank you to Thea of the Gizzimomo's Stitchy Place for a wonderful gift I have won on her 200 followers giveaway. I wanted to include a photo, but the gift is packed away. It was a 'My Memories Suite 3' software, which I am excited to try out ... once I manage to clear out my poor little MacBook from the junk on it. Fairies, and Angels cross stitch booklets, fabric, cross stitch kit, a knitted pincushion and some stitching bits and bobs. This the first blog giveaway that I have won, so I was very happy to receive the package.

When I was showing off my gift to friends over lunch, someone pointed out that it is now my turn to return a favour and do a giveaway myself. I think I'm going to make myself a promise to do one once I reach 100 followers, but that is still in a distant future.

Exchanges:

I have participated in a Margaret Sherry's Summer Exchange. Which is what I spent stitching most of my free time... but I am unable to share it since it is still in the post to its final destination.

But I can share with you what I received from Marcinha (a big thank you):

front

back

I love the snail so much! I have seen it previously on MSherryLovers blog and was planning on getting a chart myself. I haven't decided yet on what I will use it for. I will probably need to unpack everything before I can decide what this will be used for.

Extravaganza: 

My HAED stitching is still stuck on the first page:

part 3

So I have finished almost all dark blue (I now realise I missed a little) and started purple. This was the progress I was meant to post last Tuesday for the Extravaganza update ... but miss located camera etc ... and now the stitching too ... so one update short:

part 4

And finally onto ...

Wipocalypse:

The progress on the HAED:

June 

July

And then as I lost it in the move I have picked up John Clayton's Venice:

June

I was a little annoyed that the stitching is at the top and bottom, so far way, but if I want to wind up on bobbins the leftover thread I should stitch all the combinations of it first: 

July

And the closeups:

I have furniture arriving today ... so maybe a little more unpacking and I can find more stitching.

Until next time,