I'm late, I'm late, I'm very very late or Stitch from Stash #5

I just got back from visiting friends and family down South this morning (night bus is not the best way to travel) and need to rush out to work. So pictures at a later stage (I'll try to edit the post when I come home).

I bought:

$9.50 'Moonlight and Moonbeam' by Ravenscroft (HAED chart) ... it was on 50% sale.

£3.96 14 packs of assorted Madeira embroidery thread (ebay)

£1.39 'Cross Stitch Herbs Fruit and Flowers' book after 30% (Works)

£6.49 Simply heritage flower charts (ebay)

£1.20 Cross stitch material Magic Guide 14" x 18" ecru (ebay)

$/£15.82 was carried over plus the $/£ 25 allowance. I have $/£18.28 to carry through to next month. Mind it was a close call. I didn't bid on about 6 kits I was planning onto. Go me.

Till soon,

Tuesday extravaganza returns and another orchid photo

Hello all,

A few years ago I have started stitching my first HAED 'Christmas Candle' in conjunction with my sister's first HAED. We decided to call this (sort of) SAL: Summer Extravaganza. It was meant to be a competition of who gets to finish first. Then the life slightly got in a way and although we have both been stitching, neither of us updated on the progress in the official Tuesday post. For my sister's blog click HERE. I think she updating hers a day late (naughty, naughty ... though who am I to judge, judging by my frequently late posts).

So here goes my current week's progress

last update that you seen (Wipocalypse me thinks)...

13/05/2014

close up

You can see from the closeup that I have all the confetti to look forward to now.

And a terrible photo of my other blooming orchid:

my purple blooming orchid

Mind the colours are a lot deeper in real life. The pot is dark purple ... unless you shine the lamp on it, and the three flowers are also more purple (although also intense and bright). I'll try taking better photos.

Till soon (I still need to brag about my 'finishing' mode),

Smalls #4 - a lovely The Snowflower Diaries finish, my new orchids & TUSAL #5

Hello all,

a slightly belated post on my latest finish for the smalls sal. It is 'Cherry Tree' by TheSnowflower Diaries. If you remember it was gifted to me as a kit for Christmas by my sister. 

I am not sure if many of you are aware but I was struggling, through my own fault, with this design. The green grass on the bottom left I stitched in columns of six (as I was stitching from centre outwards and did not want to make a counting error). Well, as you know this hand dyed stuff tends to be slightly variated. So I had myself columns of six highly visible. I was then debating of whether to leave it that way or unpick it. In the end I unpicked half of the stitching (as the rest was not too bad) and tried matching the shade of floss to the remaining block (to avoid the dreaded line). I think it has worked. 

fabric and thread info

Here are some close-ups of my new orchid. I bought it for £6 (half price!) in a ceramic pot. Pretty good deal as a pot normally costs £2 at least.

And my Tusal update. Not a lot as my last update was soooo late.

2014 so far in a jar

and after some prodding

Till soon (I have another finish to show off),