A finish and a couple of starts

And the finish isn't even that big - it's another piece of Round Robin. My lines are from Patricia Ann Designs' Woodland Walk.

The starts:

One is an online class from Tanja Berlin - Blackwork Cats. I'm still on the first step. The rest of the class is on lesson 2....

The other is a workshop from my local guild chapter. Palais by Margaret Bendig.

I've also got a bunch of stuff for Christmas exchanges planned to do. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

Here's something I picked up at the guild auction - a WIP of Carole Lake's Silken Symmetry:

(I'm not counting it in my WIPs yet though as I don't consider it my WIP until I've stitched on it)

Finally, a piece of artwork that I don't think I've shown off before. I picked this up at a local gift shop one Christmas, and used my Christmas money to buy it. It's not obvious in the photo but it's layered and sort of 3D and really cool.

Happy updates :D

Wow - finishes - yes, multiple. I forgot to take photos of the teacher bookmarks (did I say that already? I can't remember when I last posted) so no photos of them, but they were appreciated.

Then more Sue Hawkins stuff - a scissor fob and matching bookmarker for a friend.

If you like her stuff her website is http://suehawkins.com/ - and I can highly recommend her kits - generous amounts of materials, great instructions, and apart from stuffing usually everything you need to finish the item is included.

Then there is my fathers piece - I finished that last night and I'm really pleased with how it turned out:

And a progress pic that I never did get around to posting earlier:

Next up for attention - my brothers wedding sampler - hopefully finishing in three weeks for when we see them (sorry no pic, but it's not far different to the last one I posted of it).

And I finished my 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle:

Since last time I posted we also took a road trip to Nashville, and stopped at Graceland on the way up where we saw these wonderful peacock stained glass windows:

Then on the way home we stopped at the Barber Motorsports Museum. If you have any interest at all in motorcycles you need to go there - it was amazing (they even had a Britten bike) - five floors of motorbikes, and some cars, and interesting displays, and overlooking the race track.

And in food news I found Oca (NZ yams) in a local(ish) supermarket today - I've been stalking an online grocery store for them, but they haven't shown up yet, so I was doubly pleased to see them. I'm hoping to save a few to plant - although with my gardening skills I'm not holding out much hope of succeeding, but I'm going to give it a good shot. Now to just find some NZ Marmite (yes, this is different (nicer) to UK Marmite that you can get at World Market) and my pantry will be set :) I have found somewhere not to far away that sells it but they are still out of stock from the lack over the last couple of years due to the earthquake damage at the Christchurch factory.

Progress and new starts

As well as the class I've already posted about I've been doing a bit of other stitching lately. I've made good progress on my Stained Glass Sampler - almost all the 'leadwork' done, just a bit more gold to do:

Next up are a couple of new starts - first for my brothers wedding is Marie Barber's Happily Ever After - I have to thank a wonderful blogger for passing her chart on to me since it's now OOP. Yeah, I know, I need to stitch a bit faster than this if it's to be finished in time.

And for DH's approaching '0' birthday is Sue Hillis' Piracy - it would be going faster except that I'm trying to avoid stitching on it when he's around:

And finally, just for good measure, the latest Lego plane to land here - the Sopwith Camel (it goes nicely with the Fokker DR1 in this post too). There was also a matching small one but I haven't taken a photo of it:

Dress

Today I made a dress for DD. It actually came out rather well, if a bit big and long. But hey, that just means it'll last a bit longer (hopefully). And at least it covers her butt which is more than most of the ones you can buy seem to do.

Daphne Reborn

I've just finished my two days of class (and had a great time) on this and this is what I have to show for it:

Now for some photos of my new stitching station - Mum, this is why I wanted the chair with the centre console.

See how nicely my current canvas fits between the seats, and behind it is the project bag with the supplies. Then the drink holders make a nice place to put a pin cushion and an ort pot (as well as providing somewhere safe for a drink). Just to the right you can see a bit of the upright to my light.

Then you lift up the cushion and find all my stitching supplies - they're all nicely tucked away in their bag at the moment as I haven't used them since getting home from the class, but normally the scissors and needles and things would be on top of their bag for easy access. Under the bag I've got the thread for the bookmarks and the round roll of banding is there at the front so I can just do one whenever that's all I can handle. Then hopefully they'll be ready when I need them. DD has also decided she needs some stitching tools like Mummy so that's her pink bag in there too.

Then across the other side of the lounge is the coffee table with all my current(ish) project bags and other supplies, mounted canvases down one side, a stand at the other end, and underneath are stretcher bars and another stand. It's all working rather well so far. Oh and the puzzle is supposed to be the next one we are working on, as at one point we decided that table would be a good puzzle table where we could just leave one out to be worked on. It did work for one puzzle, then it kind of fizzled out.

New starts

Well, after getting my list down a little I've just started another corrospondence course, this time in a group with the Cyberpointers chapter. Serpentine by Ro Pace - here are my beginnings:

I've also started the pre-stitching for a class I'm taking in June - Daphne Reborn by Michael Boren.

And another project finished as well - my patchwork cushions:

And I also finally started cutting the squares for one of the quilts that I've been gathering supplies for. At my Monday class the tutor said there was a quilting bee I could attend on Friday mornings, so I figure if I do that I may actually get the quilts done (you know, before the kids are too old for pirates and princess castles).

Quilting classes

OK - so I picked up a couple of quilt patterns/kits at the Houston show last year. I've been quietly organising them but never actually stitching them. So I thought if I took a basic introduction course at Jo-Anns I could figure out what all these fun bits and pieces I've been buying are actually for. So over the last week I've taken two classes and learnt a bit more about what I'm doing.

The first class was a big square which I immediately decided could be a new cushion to replace the one I made way back in the distant mists of time at intermediate school that is now mostly just the seams holding it together as the rest of the fabric has disintergrated under much use by DS. Of course this meant that DD felt left out so I had to make a second square when I got home and will now have two cushions so they can have one each.

The second class was coasters and so now I have two of those and a DD wanting to make more. Which is fine as I have heaps of the fabric.

My latest time-waster

I got an iPad given to me recently and I put some games on it. One of these is called Disentanglement and is so far my favourite game. And yesterday I got one of the high scores. Since this isn't going to last long I took photos and am sharing them with you as proof :)

And the other two levels:

I should say this was given to me for my stitching as I'd mentioned it would be cool to be able to have the chart on the screen and blow it up as needed, and highlight it there too as I went along. So DH remembered this and then went out and surprised me. I have now found the right apps to let me do this easily, but I've still got to test it out - I want to finish Twas the Night and An Open Heart first - they are so close to finished that it's not worth fiddling to see if I can do it with them. Just think - no more having to print those pdf download charts, although I think I'll still print the colour key for easy reference. And hopefully no more losing the chart either - although it's usually the threads I lose and it's not going to help with that.

Passing the lego on

I decided it was time to pass on some of my toys to the children. So first I assembled the Lego and Knex planes I had, took photos and then added it to the kids collections. And just because I'm feeling sentimental about the planes I thought I'd share the photos.

All of them:

Fokker DR1:

Knex biplane:

Small Lego biplane:

Decorating the House

We've been having the house decorated in preparation for selling it when we move. The difference is stunning. So I thought I'd put up pictures of the first weeks work - the three bedrooms.

Here is the first bedroom - this one was originally not far different in paint colour, but it also had a floral border around the centre, and pink carpet. It looks much nicer now. In the second photo you can just see the orange carpet in the hall and stairs, just to give an idea of the colour combinations originally. If you squint you can also just about see a bit of the floral border that was around the whole top floor.

The inside of this cupboard was a pale green. The inside of the door was the same - most doors on the top floor were different colours on each side.

Now the next bedroom. This one was bright pink to start with (again with the floral border), with greyish carpet - there are a couple of photos further back on my blog from when I was making the curtain.

Lastly the master bedroom. Strangely I think this room looks smaller now - the others looked bigger. This one was blue cloudy wallpaper that was falling down, with blue threadbare carpet. The woodwork was bright aqua blue - including the wardrobe door and the inside of the bedroom door - the outside (which we saw the most often as it was usually open) was pink.