That's Better!

Just when I began to wonder if Motivation might have gone on holiday and taken her good friend Mojo with her up they popped again last night, so stitching commenced and not one but two SAL sections got finished! Yay!

First up for some attention was the Ozark Mystery SAL and I got the second motif finished:


Can you spot the mistake? Unfortunately it wasn't until the motif was complete that realisation hit: although I'd correctly altered the motif to be the same distance from the border edge as the other, and despite counting and recounting, I hadn't been totally accurate and it's finished up positioned one stitch lower than the other motif. After venting and bringing it's parentage into question it's been put to one side and left. I shall wait until Part 10 arrives and see what that entails before deciding if it should be frogged and redone....... or not. If it doesn't look too out of kilter I will probably decide I can live with it and leave well alone - the motif looks nice but I didn't enjoy stitching it and, to be honest, don't fancy doing it again.

Next up was the next part of the Good Friends Count SAL and this, thankfully, went a whole lot smoother:

I love that four-sided stitch as it's really simple to do but looks so effective. The next part should be in my InBox soon - am looking forward to seeing what's next.

Tonight is Sea Stars again, so tonight's stitching is taken care of. Tomorrow I shall probably kit up the JA/S&S Challenge piece ready to start that. I had chosen one particular design to do and printed it out but have now decided it's a bit too involved to do at the moment (maybe a future stitch?). I had another look at the links earlier today and chose a different freebie to stitch which I like just as much and it will be much more straightforward to do. I also printed out a second design while I was looking: the Gloria & Pat Cancer poem freebie. I found it quite inspirational and intend to stitch and frame it and donate the piece to the hospice that cared for my Dad, so they can either display it or raffle it to make funds. :0)

OK, I'll fess up now: after completing the two SAL sections I almost had a new start last night. Yes, another one. It's a lovely Lorri Birmingham piece called The Four Seasons that I bought from someone's stash clearance sale last month (yes, I kept quiet about that LOL). I adore LB designs, so how could I continue to resist starting it? I wasn't too sure about the best place to start the piece, so had a count up of all the sections on the chart then counted out on the banding and put pins in relevant places to give me a better idea of the placement of each section. Good job I did take the time to do this as the banding is just not long enough to stitch the design on it and do the fabric turning top and bottom for the bell pull ends to go through. I guess someone is trying to tell me to get real and get some current WIP's finished first! LOL Looking on the bright side: this piece of banding will come in for something else and now I do have a rather good excuse to go shopping. ;0)

DS tells me the first night of Henry V went OK, that he'd enjoyed it and there were around a 100 people in the audience - not full but a good first night turn out. He said the final applause was way better than the one pair of hands clapping and echoing round the auditorium that he had been expecting. LOL Fingers crossed that the audience numbers are either as good as, or better, for the rest of the run. :0)

Sally: which of the fabrics do you like?

Time for me to go cook some tea for DS. He may get nerves before a performance but they certainly don't put him off his food! LOL

Many thanks for taking the time out of your day to come and visit. Hope you're having a good day. :0)

Santa and Friends

No, not Santa and his friends, just in case you think I'm going dotty and having Yule/Christmas mega-early this year - that's Santa and the Friends SAL. :0)

As promised, here's a pic of the fully assembled plastic canvas Santa ornie:


That's another Yule ornament made, though he's a bit too big to go on the tree. He looked quite at home in the spot where I took the pic so he'll probably end up there when it's time to trim the house.

Boy, did I have a nice surprise last night! While DH was getting ready to go out to see his friend I grabbed the remote and channel flicked, prior to settling down with my stitching for the evening, and found: a programme about Brian Ferry and Roxy Music, followed by a televised gig from the 80's over on BBC4. WOW! Was I in Seventh Heaven or what - hardly noticed DH say goodbye on his way out! Had a fab couple of hours with great music, a nice bit of eye candy and a really lovely piece of stitching to do. Luckily the eye candy didn't have me drooling all over my stitching and, despite the big distraction, the frogs stayed well away. LOL Here's a pic of the finished Part 3:

Taken in artificial light again but it's not a bad pic for colour (on my screen anyway). This really is a nice piece to stitch, not just because I like the colours, but because if flows so well, IYKWIM. Looking forward to the next part coming out next week. :0)

DH was up and out to work first thing and has just come home for dinner at almost 2pm. He's off back at around 3.30pm but, as he's feeling fairly tired, we'll not be going anywhere or doing any jobs so he can have a bit of a rest. Am hoping he may decide to go back to work via Screwfix, so he can get the new light for the living room - at least it will then be to hand, ready to go up when he's got the time and does feel up to tackling a job. Thankfully Mr Italian is in a much happier frame of mind because steel is being cast and he can get on with the job he needs to do - dummy is now back in the pram!

DS was up and out fairly early too: he's doing jobs at the LTC Guild Room - something to do with speakers and cables and the like. I guess he'll be back when he's either hungry or needs to get ready to go out. LOL

Meantime I've been playing on the computer, catching up with forums etc, and gathering a couple of bits together to tackle the finishing on the Challenge piece - with immaculate timing DS emptied a box of tissues this morning, so I grabbed the back off that, ready to roll. I know what I want to achieve.......... let's just hope I can get it to actually look like the image in my head. :0)

Stitching plans for today are to get on with the next part of the Ozark SAL and, if that doesn't take too long, perhaps make a start on a Halloween ornie. Glad to say that the Ozark part isn't a choice between six bands this week - just two motifs to stitch and the only choice being which thread to use for which motif. Think I'll toss a coin. LOL

Hazel: would love to know which HAED piece it is that's got that many pages! Will be so impressed if you do ever stitch it. :0)

Thank you to one and all for taking the time to visit - hope you're all having a good weekend. :0)

A Little Something About The Weekend.

We were out in the garden on Saturday, thanks to one of those lovely late summer/early autumn days of sunshine - not been much of that sunshine around this year, so we made the most of it to get some outside jobs done and also sit and enjoy it all. There were lots of birds and butterflies fluttering around though we didn't see the dragonflies this time. Thought I would share some pics and let you see what certain bits look like now. Here's the door to the Secret Garden again:




Helen: we didn't cut it back after the last pic to show you what happens when the ivy is allowed to do it's own thing. We won't be able to get in there soon, so it's going to have to have a trim. :0)

The triffids have decided they are on a mission to take over the bottom end of the garden - before going on to take over the world! LOL They've had a second flowering:



Think the Green Man has just about disappeared now. This is a view of the large daisy type flowers DH's Dad gave us quite a few years ago:

They flower every August and also seem to want to take over the garden. The little pile of dead wood at the front there is for the frogs to hide under, although I'm not sure if they actually use it. The butterflies and bees love those purple flowers on the bush next to the daisies - it's another one that has to be thrashed back hard every year or it takes over and also decides it wants to be a tree rather than a bush.

Saturday evening I finally got round to starting the Jayne's Attic Good Friends Count SAL. Parts 1 and 2 were waiting to be done, so I stitched them whilst watching the first LOTR film on TV. Here's what it looks like so far:

It's on 28ct Chocolate Crush, hand dyed by Jayne, and the threads are: Dinky Dyes silk Ironbark and Finca Perle #8 shade 4000. The piece is one of Jayne's own designs, the second she has released via her Stitch & Stashers Forum, and is just as much of a pleasure to stitch as the Memories piece was. Am looking forward to Part 3 coming out. :0)

On Sunday we had a trip over to my DSis's. We had a meal at hers and DH watched the Grand Prix. Later he took down the old light in the front bedroom and put up the new one for her. He's quite taken with the lights she's bought and has suggested we get one for our living room, as the current bulb and shade makes the room look quite dingy. Not one to stop him willingly spending money on home improvements I've told him to go for it. ;0) Her re-decorated front bedroom looks lovely so far - the wallpaper looks and feels like she has a fabric on the walls. I had hoped that would also have DH wanting to dip his hands in his pocket for wallpaper for our bedroom but he wasn't feeling that enthusiastic. LMAO.

Oh, and here's a pic of something that arrived last week and I forgot to share - the Halloween issue of the JCS magazine:

Of those on the front, the top two and left middle one are definite must-stitches and the right middle one is a maybe and inside are a few more must stitches too. I do love this end of the year and it's celebrations. :0)

Well I've got all my jobs done and Alex is due any minute so I'd better go and put the kettle on.

Thank you to one and all for taking the time to visit. Hope you've all had a good weekend and an easy start to the week. :0)