Stitching - Yay!

You will all probably be relieved that this blog will now be getting back to the more relevant and serious things in life once again: stitching! LOL

Another JA/S&S Tuesday UFO Night has been and gone and Guen was glad to receive some attention after two weeks of neglect (got a queenly strop on about not coming away on holiday with us LOL). This time around I managed to complete all of the outlining of the dress and the folds:

That called for stem stitch - not whip stitch as I kept thinking (in brain fart mode again!). Good job I checked the instructions before starting or I would have been spitting - and frogging! I managed to find a bookmarked link to a site that has short video clips for various embroidery stitches, so I watched it a couple or three times before starting: glad to say it helped and I felt more like I knew what I was doing and made a much better job of the stitch this time around. :0)

Next Tuesday there's a chain stitch collar to do in metallic thread and some background, which I think is also in metallic. A HD is so close now I can almost taste it! LOL

I haven't, as yet, started the JA/S&S Monthly Challenge piece for August due to technical problems: my printer quit just before our holiday and it looks like it'll be having a one way trip to the great printer graveyard........... more commonly known as the electrical goods skip at the local amenities site. :0( DH is dithering over whether to network my PC to DS's printer or give in and buy an upgraded model that scans and does a few other things and sounds like it's only just short of having a built in coffee maker. ;0) Hope he decides soon because a printer is desperately needed now for a backlog of chart printing that's fast beginning to resemble a full-on log jam.

Wednesday got off to a good start with a pinkie from Jayne. Inside was:

On the left is this month's COM fabric called Gladioli, which is much more vibrant IRL (the digicam flash has washed the colours out a little). The goodies on the right are the fabric (Chocolate Crush - yum!) and threads for Jayne's new SAL piece called Friends Count that's due to start shortly. Can't wait to receive the pdf and start it, as it's a beautiful piece and sentiment......... and that's another reason for the urgent need of a printer!

Inside the pinkie was a sample swatch for another of Jayne's beautiful hand dyed fabrics that she kindly sent to see if it was what I was looking for for Sea Stars. It's perfect: just the right colour mix, shade and mottling (to suggest a moving sea) that I wanted. In fact it's so spot on I'm beginning to wonder if Jayne is psychic, as it isn't the first time she's been able to come up with the perfect fabric for me just when it was needed.......... it's getting spooky now. LOL I'm going to be a tease and not share a pic though - will wait until all the threads are chosen and it's been started. Well, a girl has to have some secrets. LOL

Thanks for all the kind comments re: my knee etc. The knee is now down to a dull ache (so long as I don't kneel on it or crouch down) and I only occasionally feel the need to take pain killers. I can even tackle the stairs without too much hassle - good job really, with the amount of laundry/ironing I've had to ferry up and down them this week! Oh for the convenience of a separate ground level utility room - a girl can dream! LOL

Angela: Fortunately our 'van wasn't as scarily propped on bricks as some were. Mind, if I'd known the site was like that I wouldn't have booked it (despite DH and DS). Would go back to the Valley again (out of season) but doubt we'll stay at the site again. BTW, you're already doing what Book Crossers do. :0) Registering and adding books doesn't take that long, plus you can even get an explanatory bit to print out and stick in the front of the books before you launch them into the wild. So hope someone picks Labyrinth up soon.

Thanks for all the kind comments - hope you've enjoyed your visits. :0)