WIPs and new starts

Just two of my WIPs not that I have a lot on the go but do have quite a few to start!!
Here is my Blue Ribbon piece which is lovely to stitch


And of course my Beatrice Potter sal, I have made good progress with this this month and can feel a finish is in my sights!

As well as these I have completed a LHN which is a pressie so will show that again and I have been busy with my PIF pressies so all in all a busy month!
Our Travelling Stitcher sal now has 8 stitchers to take part and 11 followers.
I have my fabric cut and edged ready for LHN Prairie Sampler sal starting tomorrow and some one has kindly lent me a frame for my Celtic Lady and as I have all the materials I can feel a new start coming on!

Happily stitching
Chris

Travelling Stitcher SAL

Sue and I are starting this as a SAL January 2nd 2010 if you'd like to join with us just email me.
Hope you do the more we have the more fun it will be.

Because I'm worth it!!

So when you're feeling down, what do you do??? Buy, buy, buy ofcourse!
This is only part of what I have bought this past week, I am waiting for the fabric to arrive for my other buy.
This is for the LHN sal 'Prairie Sampler' which is to start Nov 1st.
I couldn't get cappuccino so I have bought the mushroom colour and it looks very nice too and all the Belle Soir silks.



And on a good note I actually lost a pound last week so not good good but ok! And as DH pointed out I have lost 2 1/2 pounds in the last 4 weeks, which is good for me, so trying really hard this week.

Thank you friends, I am trying!!

A very big thank you to all you who have written encouragement on my struggle to lose weight. I am very hopeful that at tomorrow’s weigh in I will have lost weight and if it is only half a pound, it will be half a pound less than I am now! Like my friend Mary says.. ‘Just chip away at it and it will go!’


I have been busy planting up my winter pots and very nice they look too. I love pansies such pretty, little faces looking up at you! And I had to have an ornamental cabbage although when it is going over it pongs a bit!



And of course here is Nell looking as though she could do with a bath and a good brush... any offers??? LOL

This Autumn sun is glorious and lovely to have as it staves off the long winter months that are to come. Although as a fanatical stitcher it means sitting in the warm and doing what I love best, well after reading

A bit of a downer!! But I can get up as long as I go down!!

Today was my weigh in at SW's group and after trying so hard all week I have only lost 1/2 pound. It is so hard to hear others say that they have lost pounds and pounds and had nights out eating and drinking and I haven't. I had one half a glass to taste one of Mike's home made ones which was very, very nice and that was all.
I did not (for once over indulge) on sunday which is my danger day!
But truth be told I haven't had a very active week, but it was too dry to plant my new pansies and then it was too wet to go out to the garden. So I am miserable but then this was my Proverbs 31 verse today.
Ephesians 2:10: "For I am God's beautiful masterpiece. He has created me anew in Christ Jesus, so I can do the good things He planned for me long ago."

So with new enthusiasm and knowing that it is already God's plan I can lose that weight I am encouraged to stay at the food plan, I don't want to be megga thin just out of the dangerous obese register.
I know what to do, I have had encouragement and ideas, but if I don't put those ideas into action I am not going to do it.

What a great day, not a lot of stitching done but lots of chat!

Clare taking time off from stitching and taking a turn with baby Keely(not hers!!)

Such concentration

Tina and sitting alongside her is Vicki of India Grace designs. I wish I had photographed her calendar that she had designed and stitched it was beautiful.

Hazel who is the Moderator of the Beatrice Potter SAL and who does a great job of it too and her friend Tracey

Lynn who organised the day, thank you Lynn...Just look at that concentration

Kathy who was stitching her Celtic Lady which was superb! Or was it a Lavender and Lace she has quite a few WIPs!

These were all that came: Jacqui and Craig, Kathy, Chris, (me) Tina, Hazel, Tracey, Maureen, Angie,Clare and Jan (Clare's mum), Vicki, and Lara and her mum.
The happy stitchers some stitching with tremendous concentration, some not!
But it was a lovely day to meet other stitchers and to see the fantastic work, why didn't I take photos of it??? Wish I had!
It has given me my mojo back for even my Cat Sampler, well maybe not that one but to see Hazel's Beatrice Potter for real you could appreciate the colours. Tina was stitching an LHN design on a darkish colour and given me some great ideas for a piece of evenweave I bought from ebay and didn't know what to stitch on it. (Well it was a bargain!)
I bought chart from Vicki (www.indiagrace.co.uk) and can't wait to get started. Seeing Cathy's beautiful Chatelaine stitching has pushed me to order the silks to do my Convent's Herbal Garden and Lynn has said she'll show me how to do a hardanger piece, so all in all it was a super day. I only did a little stitching which I had to frog!!! But I learnt so much just looking at the work of others and listening to their advice and tips.
Roll on next year when we will be meeting again in April.
Happy Stitching all and may all those blooming frogs stay in that pond!!
(Just taken these from Clare's blog)
Isn't fantastic work?

A Gathering of Stitchers

Great excitement as I am off tomorrow for a Stitchers Away Day! Organised by Lynn in Nuneaton. Lots of on line stitching bloggers to meet and some I met before as I went to the one in March and thoroughly enjoyed myself, so I have looked forward to this for a while... so which WIP shall I take??
My 'Cats Sampler' which I am doing for the 2009 Stitchalong that Gaynor started?
Its some thing I bought years ago and probably wouldn't buy today. Although it isn't difficult to stitch as it is 14c aida, its grubby and I don't like stitching it!
So not this one!

My 'Bea SAL' is coming along nicely and I like stitching it as it is all one colour, well a varigated Vicky Clayton HD called Dried Roses and although the colour doesn't show well in photos, I think it is lovely, shades of pink and brown.. but it is quite big and I need to concentrate stitching it, so can't chat while stitching so not this!

And then theres my Blue Ribbon, 'Between the Lines.' I started this while on holiday last month, but its quite big too so not this.

Then there's this Bothy Threads, 'Buzzy Days-Wishful thinking'which is pleasant but too many colour changes to do while talking, I'll end up with the wrong colour in the wrong place!

Which leaves my LHN 'Coffee,' which I love stitching and it has rows of the same colour so just right to do while keeping up a conversation, so this is the one.

Just got to sort out my goody bag to take and I shall be ready... wahoooo A lovely day planned stitching with stitching friends!

LHN SAL

I have been invited to join the new LHN sal, so I have ordered my chart and floss and hopefully I will be all ready to go on November 1st...wahooo I am raring to go! Come and join us?



http://salapuntodecruz.blogspot.com/2009/09/sal-prairie-sampler.html

This link now takes you to the blog.

When I was young..... I loved....?

I am back after a lovely weekend but tiring! Must be my age erum???
Linda and I had booked this trip in November so we were really looking forward to it as it was her birthday on the Saturday. It started like a damp squib, as the coach was an hour late. We were relieved that there were others there waiting too otherwise we would have thought we were at the wrong place! Then it was so disorganised... there were supposed to be ‘comfort stops,’ but because it was late the courier suggested that we went straight to the hotel which was not in London and was only three quarters of an hour away, but several people who had been on that coach for three hours before it got to us said they wanted to stop. So we did at Stanstead services.
Linda and I had our picnic, smoked salmon and treats so we were alright! Then it was off to the hotel which was in Old Harlow in Essex, way out of London??? But it was a superb hotel,one of the Swallows chain; it was very comfortable and we did have a very, very yummy full English breakfast on the Saturday, which we wouldn’t have had if it had been in London.
Then off to O2 area. We made better time than was anticipated so we had loads of time and went for a snack meal at this ‘Eat the Latin Way’ Restaurant and very nice it was too.( I am dreading weigh in at my slimming group on wednesday!)

So then the show!! What a to-do! Cliff and the Shadows were wonderful but our seats were dreadful. They were on level 4, right up horribly high in a stack of side seats. We could hardly see the stage we were so far away, let alone people on it. But no matter there was a screen except that there were these huge sound thingys hanging down in front of our view so we couldn’t see a thing! We saw lots of people all filing down past us and going off to find different seats. So at half time we found someone to talk to and I made a fuss. I overheard someone saying there were free seats next to them, so I grabbed Linda and in front of some other people rushed to these seats for the second half, and it was wonderful. Quite a few people in our group didn’t move but then they didn’t have me at the helm making a fuss!

On Saturday, we spent the day in London and Linda and I went to Covent Garden, mooched around, and had a wonderful day! I bought a scarf; well a girl can’t have too many scarves! Just need a nice grey coat to go with it, so off to Stratford on Thursday to get one, M&S have just the one I want!

I can see Cliff looking older but I still love him and have done for 50 years!!Sigh!!

Miss -tree or is it Mys-try???

I wanted to do something for Clare's church christmas tree but hadn't seen anything suitable then I found this in an old magazine..

In my usual rush to get to the post office I packed this up and posted it off last week with a whole lot of stuff, but then last evening I was looking up some one's address and horror of horrors I thought I had posted this to the wrong Clare so had to phone her(still had her number written down from the stitching day back in march) And it had arrived! Whew I thought a senior moment had caught me again!!
This year we will make time to see the tree at the church at Christmas time.