It's Spring!

Yes the sun is shining, my washing is hanging outside on the line and the birds are twittering...Spring is finally here :-)  I've found the only trouble with the sun finally coming out is that I look around and see all the jobs that now need doing in the house....the staircase still needs painting and our lounge definitely needs re-decorating, the garden lawn needs cutting and also the patio finishing so I've a feeling my stitching time may be taking a cut in hours for the next couple of months.

Good job I've some progress on my SALs and also a small finish. My gift SAL is coming along but not very fast as it keeps getting relagated to the bottom of the pile. The Darcy photostitch is moving slowly as I've hardly worked on it thanks to my boys wanting their things doing. Here is a photo of the whole project up to tonight and also a close up of some of the confetti stitching.

My French SAL designed by Maryse is coming along, I've completed March...well the design anyway, I've just got to do one side of the frame.

Our son Luke goes to a craft club on a Monday afternoon after he's finished nursery where he makes all sorts of things. Last Monday he made an Easter bunny picture and they were also making flowers. Luke wasn't impressed with the flowers saying they were for girls so he coloured while I made the flowers, have to say I enjoyed making them and am quite pleased with how they look as they only took 5 mins.

I've also been drafted to make our DS1 Peter an Easter bonnet for his school Easter parade. As he's a boy and not really a 'bonnet' person I bought a straw trilby and spent ages putting this together. It was going to be held in the school playground so parents could watch as the children did their parade but due to wet weather so far this week and more forecast the school decided to hold it in their hall which isn't big enough for all us parents. A shame as last years was wonderful but I'm sure the kids will enjoy themselves whether we're there or not.

Luke has finished nursery for his Easter break so came with myself and Darcy to playgroup at our local church. I promised Luke I'd post a photo of him on my blog for everyone to see so here is a photo taken of them both playing together (nicely for once!)

My son Luke also saw a design of a Chocolate Bunny by Carla Rizzie that he had to have so I managed to stitch it for him. If the backing looks a little lop-sided ...it is!...having a 3yr old helping to put 'his' bunny together wasn't the easiest task I've ever done LOL!  He's thrilled with it though so that's what counts, it now hangs on our mirror next to the kids Easter cards they've all made at school.

Not 1 but 2 Blog Awards

I'm so thrilled, I've been given not 1 but 2 blog awards in the last week, it's such an honour.  The first is from Gillie and is the Beautiful Blogger Award.

Simple rules

1. Accept the award
2. Thank the person who gave you the award
3. Add a link to the person who gave you the award
4. Put the award on your blog
5. Write 10 things about yourself others might not know
6. Pass the award on to 10 others

So here are the 10 things about myself that others may not know......

1.   Craft wise knitting was once my first love until stitching took over my life
2.   I'm a big fan of old fashioned musicals i.e. Deanna Durbin, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly etc
3.   I've lived in 20 houses since I was born
4.   I don't like red or rose wine, it's white all the way for me
5.   Although DH is an amateur photographer I hate having my photo taken
6.   I was told at 21 I wouldn't be able to have children (we now have 3!)
7.   I once dressed as a rat to promote Sheffield Goes Wild in the 90's
8.   I wanted to name our sons after Formula 1 drivers but DH said no
9.   I've always wanted to learn to ride a motorbike
10. I'm naturally left and right handed (came in handy when I broke my right hand Xmas 08!)

The second award is The Sunshine Award from Babs A big thank you to Babs for the honour.

The rules for this award are that this award is for someone who has inspired you in some way...

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award to 12 bloggers.
3, Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

The hardest part is picking the blogs to award, I read so many wonderful blogs that inspire me not only in stitching but reading and blogging but here are a few of my favourites for both awards.

1.    Mel on http://epicstitching.blogspot.com/

2.    Dawn on http://fripperiesandstitchery.blogspot.com/

3.    Geneva  on http://craftwoman2008.blogspot.com/

4.    Vickie on http://reading--stitching.blogspot.com/

5.    Marguerite on http://stitchingniche.blogspot.com/

6.   Cindy on http://flossjunkie.blogspot.com/

7.   Rene on http://renelafrogsramblings.blogspot.com/
8.   Ally on http://allysstitchinglife.blogspot.com/
9.   Meg on http://blog.fiberholic.net/
10. Claire on http://astitchinthelifeofclaire.blogspot.com/
11. Tanya on http://atthehoneysuckletree.blogspot.com/
12. Marchann on http://stitchingagain-marchann58.blogspot.com/

A Full Calendar Year

Our daughter Darcy has been ill so my stitching all but stopped for a week and I couldn't really get onto the computer for any decent time to catch up on my groups and favourite blogs. I did manage to put a little time into the Darcy photostitch which is growing nicely now. Thankfully she's all better now and Luke who also caught the virus is better. I did manage to get a lot of the confetti stitches completed on Thursday morning as Darcy went back to nursery so I sat down watching Lost In Austen and had a lovely relaxing morning.

Here are all 12 months of the calendar project all stitched up....now comes the hard part, putting them together. I'm planning on all 12 being part of a quilt. I've got the material to make a frame around each one; it just needs cutting into the correct size strips and putting together...unfortunately that could take a while as
with the children around even the smallest task takes twice as long.

I've also bought the fabric for DS2's dragon...he's been constantly asking when I'm going to start making him a dragon. It's going to be on red aida, I do prefer stitching on evenweave/linen but the red I found wasn't the right shade so had to go back to aida. I got a huge 1m piece of 16ct that I can also use for cards, ornaments etc. Now just need to get the threads as typically it calls for colours that I haven't got in my collection.

DS1 has seen another snowman from the Just Cross Stitch Ornament mag I bought and wants that stitching...thankfully it's a small one so shouldn't take too long. The boys have decided they want an ornament each making in time for Christmas but they want to pick the design. But I have finally put together his snowman that I finished last year but not in time for Christmas...hurray!

I've also managed finally to stitch February on my french SAL by Maryse, only took me a couple of evenings when Darcy was on the mend so hopefully I'll get March done in the next week so I can go back to my Beau Bands SAL.

It's a bit creased as I hadn't had time to iron it before DH took the photographs

My 2010 Olympic Reading Challenge is coming along...while Darcy was ill I spent quite a few nights sat on the sofa with her and ended up reading aloud to her....she quite enjoyed Beat Until Stiff by Claire M Johnson (a cooking murder/mystery), makes a change from her In The Night Garden book anyway! 

Everything seems to be back to normal with the kids (for a while anyway!) so I may manage to catch up on a couple of projects that have been put to one side.  The F1 season has kicked off so I should get some stitching time in while the races are going. Thank you for all your comments, the encouragement has helped especially when I've felt like I'm getting nowhere fast.

SAL Update and Small Finish

I finally finished a square for my Quilts for Breast Cancer group that I've been working on for a few weeks. The design was for a pitcher jug but for some reason I've lost the original design I had so found myself having to design one from scratch. That was the easy part, it was the actual stitching that was the hardest, I've found I'm no good at massive blocks of the same colour...I get too bored and find myself picking something else up!  Quilts for Breast Cancer is a Yahoo group that is made up of voluntary stitchers and quilters who make lap quilts for those who are either fighting or recovering from breast cancer. They are a wonderful group of ladies who always welcome new members, all you have to do is click on the link in this post to go to their page. You can either stitch a square for a specific quilt or send in 'spare' squares that you can stitch anytime you'd like for emergency quilts. Breast cancer is a horrific disease that we know well in our family, these lap quilts are mostly a big surprise for the recipiant and just lets the ladies (or gentlemen...as yes they can suffer from BC) know that they're not alone and we're all thinking of them.

I've been working on my Beau Bands SAL and have managed to complete section 1. Beau Bands is a private SAL with my Yahoo group Friendly Stitchers and is designed by the very talented Abi. Here are some close up photographs of my band taken by DH.

 Bands 1 - 8 and you can just see the top of band 9 which was the drawn thread band.

Bands 8-15 you can see the ribbon threaded through band 9. I was a bit fussy about this band and re-threaded twice on one end until it looked neat enough for me, I've left quite a big bit on each end but these will get sewn in on making up.  Bands 11 and 15 were new ones for me; Vandyke stitch and Fly stitch both of which I've never tried before but really enjoyed doing them. 

Close up photos of my drawn thread band, Snake stitch which was 'snaked' with metallic and cross stitch hearts.  Finally a photo of the whole of section 1.

Now I'm back to my Darcy photostitch as Beau Bands is up to date, still got a calendar square to finish but I'll try and do that this week when all 3 kids are in nursery/school.