Weekend Wrap Up...

Last weekend was busy, busy, busy but surprise, surprise I did manage to get some stitching done and I even managed to complete one of my December goals!

So first up we had FNSI and Friday Night Frolics......

Friday night's stitching was all about the creepy tree and friends that I have been trying to get finished for the November and December Hallowe'en SAL Blog themes.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" - Praiseworthy Stitches

The pic above shows you where I was at with this before Friday night's stitching and the pic below is the creepy tree finished.... along with the raven, cat and resident ghosts!

"Dancing in the Moonlight" - Praiseworthy Stitches

I didn't really need to do too much on Friday night - just finish the branch off near the left hand ghost...  I still need to add beads and a bit of backstitch but that will be done at the end when everything else is stitched.

Did you notice my lovely new needle minder?  Just perfect for Halloween stitching - a spider in his silvery blingy web!

The tree on this piece was the big hurdle to get done and now the rest will be easy to pick off one piece at a time!  But for now "Dancing in the Moonlight" will go away until I am ready to do some more Halloween stitching :o)

So that was Friday night's stitching..... I didn't get much of a chance to do a lot of stitching on Saturday as it was a busy day with a visit to the hairdresser, washing and other "exciting" things and then we went out for dinner.... but Sunday afternoon I managed to get some Christmas stitching out of the basket again.

The last time I stitched on Nora Corbett's Christmas Eve Couriers was quite awhile ago so I thought I would bring "Prancer" out to play.

"Prancer" - July 2015

While not a lot happened on this one yesterday the ribbon has progressed and it now looks a bit more like a ribbon!  (the fabric colour looks so much prettier and more true to life in the photo below for some reason!)

"Prancer" December 2015

You may have also noticed another new needle minder in the picture above....

Remind me to post a picture of all my new minders... they are so boo-tiful..... ♥♥♥

That's it for today.... the countdown to Christmas is on and I only have one more day of work to get through before having 2 and bit weeks off work!  Hopefully during that break I will actually be able to catch up on my blog reading...

Til next time, happy stitching

More Christmas Finishes....

Hello again!  Goodness it ended up being a couple of weeks between posts. Work has been stupidly busy the last few weeks and I have been collapsing in a heap every weekend lately and, unfortunately the last thing my brain has been able to handle is facing the computer and blogging!  I have managed some stitching throughout the week but not on Friday nights... so I have nothing to report for the Friday Frolics blog, and I missed FNSI last weekend! (I had every intention of stitching but the office Christmas party had other ideas.... I so should have left early!!) This post is also a slightly late post for IHSW.... oops....

So onto the stitching update!

Surprise, surprise... I do have two finishes to show you today!  Both are "entries" in the Christmas Ornie SAL Blog... October's theme was Angels and November's theme is snowflakes / snowman or a winter scene.

October's theme first:
Remember some time ago I showed you my "Joy Angel" and she was looking bit strange....

Well, she is all finished now and currently on her way to England to be added to the Christmas Tree of Joy that Clare-Aimetu is organising for her local church.  Hopefully the tree will be full of cross stitched ornies from around the world all with the word "Joy" on them in one form or another.

The chart for this design can be found in the Cross Stitch Christmas magazine (1999), the design is called "Joyful Angels Triptych" (Designer Mona Eno).  There are three angels to stitch but I chose this one as she has "Joy" on her banner!  I stitched her on "Waratah" 32 count fabric from Stitches and Spice with DMC and Kreinik threads.  Unfortunately the shine I added to her wings doesn't really sparkle in the picture but it is there!

The second finish that I have to show you is my choice for November's theme.  I love snowmen and had a terrible time choosing which one to stitch.... so in the end I didn't do any!! Instead I went with a Fizzy Moon freebie and shoe-horned this into the wintery scene choice!

This freebie was published in the Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine (issue 92).  I decided to cover the plain white card with a vintage winter scene scrapbook paper that I had and then added a snowflake to fill in the rather large white space at the top.

This card is going to head off to the USA soon... The Birthday Thread Exchange Group that I am in on FB is doing a Christmas Thread Exchange, so I thought it would be nice to stitch a card instead of sending a bought one!

Well, that's all I have to show you today... the last couple of weeks stitching has been all about finishing these two pieces!  Now it's back to my November Halloween piece....

See you again soon.... have a great week!
Hugs xxx

FF, FNSI & IHSW Round Up

It's Monday.... and time for a weekend stitching round up post!

First up is Friday Frolics.... nothing to report as nothing was stitched on Friday :o(  Epic fail....   We were out on Friday night and by the time we got home it was a bit too late to even think about threading a needle for a few stitches....

And of course you know what that means don't you??  Double epic fail!

Friday night was also FNSI and while I did sign up for this and I was hoping to be home in time to stitch with everyone... it just didn't happen! :o( :o(

But I am an optimist and I also look for that silver lining.... last weekend was also IHSW and I did manage to stitch most of the weekend!!  Having a cold, damp Spring Sunday helped immensely!

Joyce didn't post a sign up page last week.... but I didn't let that deter me.... want to see what I stitched on Saturday and Sunday?

Saturday saw me rummage around in the Stitching Box and come up with "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy, which was good timing as I needed to stitch and post my "ghost" on the Halloween Ornie SAL Blog before the end of the month.... indeed before Halloween which falls at the end of the month!!!

I am really pleased with my weekend stitching progress... because not only did I start and finish the Ghost square... but I also started and nearly finished the Jack (pumpkin) square!  (If the Argentina/Ireland Rugby game had gone another half hour I would have probably finished that one as well!!!)

So first up... here is the "Ghost" square

"Halloween Sneak Peek" designed by The Trilogy

After a weekend of stitching on the Ghost and the Jack, the whole piece now looks like this:

"Halloween Sneak Peek" designed by The Trilogy
as at Oct 2015

Not bad progress for Saturday and Sunday, even if I do say so myself!!  I have only one more square (the witch) to stitch on this one and then back onto the border.....  Before I post my Ghost on the Halloween blog I need to do some Halloween decorating... have no idea what I am going to do but I think a trip to Spotlight is called for, or maybe I should just take a photo of the cobwebs and big black spiders that we have hanging around on the back patio and use them as my decorating!!!

I am going to put this one away now so that I can start on my Christmas Ornie SAL Blog piece for October.  Hopefully I will have something to show you all next week....

Til next time, happy stitching!
Hugs, xx

Friday Frolics & FNSI

Happy Saturday!

Now if today is Saturday, then that means yesterday was Friday.... and Friday now means "Friday Frolics".... and as it was the third Friday of the month it was also "FNSI"!

You would have seen FNSI (hosted by Sugarlane Designs) around before, but "Friday Frolics" is a new Friday stitching plan/idea suggested by Kaye (Kitten Stitching).

Kaye has set up a blog with the aim of stitching on WIPs or UFOs on a Friday night and then posting our progress... and who knows we may all end up with more finishes.  Link to the "Kitten Stitching & Friday Frolics" (FF) blog is here.... and also on my sidebar where you see this gorgeous badge that Kaye created just for the blog :o)

Without further ado... here is my FF & FNSI update for this week:

As I have been doing all week... I continued stitching on Lizzie Kate's "Feelin' Festive" as I really want to finish this one by the end of the weekend.

"Feelin' Festive" looked like this when you saw it on Monday for my "GG" post...

and now it looks like this:

I am now so close to finishing this one that I can taste it!!! :o)

Before I go.... this weekend is IHSW so if you're planning on stitching this weekend why not pop over to Joyce's blog (Random Ramblings) and sign up and then post your stitching update on Monday!

I shall now leave you to enjoy your Saturday - hopefully you have some gorgeous weather where you are, and no doubt if you have a cat they will have found whatever scrap of sun they can just like Oscar did the other day!

He wedges himself in between Hubby's bedside table and the window so that he can lay in the morning sun as it comes through the corner of the window!  He just adores the sun.... right now they are both outside on their "catio" (cat patio) sunning themselves in the Spring sunshine!

Til next time, happy stitching!

FNSI & IHSW August Update

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month - hosted by Wendy from Sugarlane Designs.

Friday night saw me putting in the last of the back stitches on my Santa Claus.... You haven't seen him yet as I only started stitching him in the last few days and now he is finished!! Yippee :o) Amazing what a cold, wet couple of days in front of the telly can do for your stitching progress!!

August 2015

This little cute Aussie Santa and mates is my August choice for the Christmas Ornie SAL 2015.  Another task ticked off the list!!  The design is from the Cross Stitch Crazy magazine (issue #171) and is designed by Jenny Barton.  There were a number of Santas from around the world but the Aussie one tickled my Christmas funny bone!!  (I was toying with the idea of putting a red dot in the middle of the spider for the classic Aussie Red Back Spider.... but I don't think it would have worked!) 

If you think he looks a bit strange.... I stitched him on plastic canvas, then trimmed it down before gluing on some felt to the back of him yesterday morning.  I still have to trim the felt down a bit but I will do that later in the week once I am happy that everything is well stuck!

If you want to have a look at who else joined in for Friday Night Stitch In, head over to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) for sign-up links.

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW).... held on the third weekend (Fri - Sun) of every month - hosted by Joyce (Random Ramblings).

This month saw Joyce have a two part IHSW!  Part 1 was last weekend and....  this weekend was Part 2!

My plan for the weekend was to yet again stitch on "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy.  As the month draws to a close I need to finish my "Black Cat" for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog.

When you last saw this piece I had just finished the "Haunted House" for last month's Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog post:

July 2015

Over the weekend I managed to get 2 box borders finished and 3 sides of the "Black Cat" one stitched.

Tonight I will get that last side stitched and then start on the cat and with a bit of luck by the end of the week I will have the black cat ticked off the To-Do stitching list!

If you are wondering what everyone else did over the weekend, drop on over to Joyce's blog and have a look at sign up post for a full list of who was participating.

So that is it for my stitching weekend....

Now before I go.... I have a quick update on some stitching that I have now started doing for "The Alphabet Club" posts.  August was our first month of posting and but I failed to show a stitching piece... but I can sort of fix that now!!

I have decided to stitch an afghan using the gorgeous ABC cats from Les Brodeuses Parisiennes.  I have admired the designs from this French designer for a long time and finally got up the nerve to place an order.... (and it ended up being a rather large one at that.... Euro to Aussie Dollar is not kind!  I wish I had thought to go to their shop when we were Paris a couple of years ago....) I just love Parisienne / French inspired stitching.... ooh la la!! ♥♥♥

I still have a little bit more of the "A" cat to go before starting "B" but I had to put this down for a while to concentrate on other stitchy things.  I must say stitching on the very soft afghan material is going to be quite challenging I think!!

That's it for today... see you again soon!

Enjoy your week, happy stitching
Hugs xx

It's a wrap! FNSI & IHSW July Update

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month

Let's start with Friday night's stitching....  I had great intentions of doing heaps of stitching on Friday night but.... I was so knackered when I got home from work that in the end I decided to grab one of the smaller designs that I have been slowly working on rather than risk stitching on something larger and frogging it all out again on Saturday!!

Friday's lucky stitching winner was the little Christmas Kitty freebie from Margaret Sherry.  I started this one back in January, put it down again until April and then forgot about it again until now....

Before I started stitching on Friday night he looked like this:

Christmas Kitty - April 2015

Now he looks like this.... nowhere near finished though!!  Oh well, I am sure there will be another opportunity soon to get him finished!

Christmas Kitty - July 2015

Now after all the fun of a Friday Night Stitch In, don't forget to head back over to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) to see what she got up to over the weekend.

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW).... held on the third weekend (Fri - Sun) of every month

As I mentioned on Friday, the weekend just gone was also IHSW time.  Now that you have seen Friday's stitching effort, let me show you what I stitched on during Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday saw Nora Corbett Christmas Eve Courier "Prancer" come out of the stitching basket.

When you last saw "Prancer" at the beginning of the month he was missing a leg or two...

"Prancer" - 2 July 2015

 I have now managed to completed his two back legs and started on the front leg.  As you will probably notice the top part of the ribbon is still in the same spot as last time!!!  I am trying to leave all the white stitching to the last possible moment.....

"Prancer" - 20 July 2015

Sunday was a very dark and damp day... perfect weather for stitching on a Halloween design!  Which was just as well as I remembered on Friday that I hadn't got myself organised to stitch the Haunted House for the Halloween Ornie Blog post at the end of the month.

So enter "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy.  Now the last time you saw this one was way back in February when it looked like this:

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - February 2015

As you will notice I have stitched some more of the black border and completed one inside box border.  This little inside border will have a haunted house in it eventually!  All I have to do is get the house stitched before the end of the month....

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - July 2015

If you are wondering what everyone else did over the weekend, drop on over to Joyce's blog and have a look at sign up post for a full list of who was participating.

So that is it for my stitching weekend.... I did do some "finishing" to my MS Lovers Blog exchange piece on Saturday and Sunday.  Fingers crossed that should be in the mail by the end of this week and then hopefully in a couple of weeks time I will be able to show you a finished finish!!! :o)

Enjoy your week, happy stitching
Hugs xx

It's sign up day for FNSI & IHSW!

Well.... this is a first for me!  Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month!

I have seen this monthly event around on Blog and FB for some time now, but have never got around to signing up and posting about it - but this month I saw the link up post on Wendy's blog in plenty of time!  So now that I have signed up, I just need to get ready for a good Friday stitching marathon - not that I need an excuse to stitch on a Friday night!! :o)

This is probably one of the simplest SAL's to join.... just sign up for the party and on Friday Night (tonight) join in the stitching fun in any way, shape or form, stitch to your heart's content and then share your Friday night stitching pics on a blog post some time over the weekend.

Stage 2 of the party fun is to visit everyone else over the weekend to see what they got up to on Friday night!  After all the fun of the weekend, check back in to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) on Monday night to see who has won this month’s FNSI randomly drawn prize.

See, I told you it was easy.... I will be stitching tonight anyway so I thought I might as well sign up for the fun of the party.

If you want to join in, go over to Wendy's blog and sign up - the link is right here!  Will see you at the party!

Who needs another reason to stitch all weekend??  Not me, but I will take whatever excuse is on offer to prove that I just have to stitch all weekend, especially as the weather forecast is for a very wet, cold wintery weekend here this weekend!!

So as I mentioned before, today is the third Friday of the month - so that also means that this weekend is IHSW!

Joyce has now posted her sign up post for this weekend... hurry on over and link up for a great weekend of stitching!  And don't forget to visit everyone's blog that is taking part in IHSW from Monday when all those lovely pics and posts will start appearing!

Have a great weekend of stitching... see you on the other side!!

Enjoy your Friday, see you soon....
Hugs xx