A finish, an almost finish and a new start

Firstly: the finish. I finished the seagull! It isn’t finish-finished yet- no doubt it’ll be added to my pile of Christmas things to deal with later. Unfortunately, the other cross stitch I brough to do is my mother’s, so either I start that and kinda ruin the surprise (she’s the only one here who would notice, so clearly I’m a double muppet at times).

Secondly: the almost finish. I decided to make a pocket hoop to store my scissors, which have this really irritating habit of going missing…So I cut up a pair of jeans I can’t wear any more (I wore out the inseam horrifically…) and stuck that in a hoop with superglue. It’s good enough as it is, but I’m pondering two things

1-what embroidery do I want to do on the pocket? I think it needs brightening up somehow, but I have no idea what. Any suggestions??? I’m thinking sparkly- glitter or beads….or both?

2- do I need to do anything on the back? At the moment it’s bare and I feel as though I should do something, but I’m not sure what. Again, suggestions? Note to self- don’t do the back until you’ve finished the front

And thirdly: the new start. After finishing the seagull I wanted something that wasn’t on plastic canvas and didn’t involve beads. So I rummaged around in my small stash here and pulled out a very small house cross stitch I acquired at Yarndale many moons ago. Stitching on 18 count without a hoop is very fiddly (and there’s so much brown…)

 

This is what it will look like when it’s finished. It’s going to be tiny!Oh, and a bonus thing! I bought some more sock yarn- for a good cause, I swear! One of my friends (tumblr account) is dipping his foot into designing, and therefore needs a sock test knitting. How could I say no? Well, except that the design he made really wants a solid coloured yarn…hmm… new yarn shopping! I was very good and only bought one ball in this purple-grey-blue-brown yarn. Pretty enough for me, solid enough for the socks 🙂

WIP Wednesday- seagull edition

So, the bike ride was delightful, but completely exhausting. I had packed this little mill hill kit to work on in the evenings (there is nothing worse than sitting around with nothing to do…). This is how far I got

*lesigh*. I decided to bead as I went so I could ditch the threads I’d used (none of the beads on the bottom half use the lightest grey, and there’s only the main bling to secure with the white, so I kept a small length of that).

As it was, this was all done at the b&b I stayed at the night before the trip actually started. And to think that I was thinking that I was racing through it and might run out before the end of the trip. *facepalm*

Yeah…I had no free time on this cycle trip. In between reaching the venue we were sleeping in, showering, eating dinner, setting up my bed for the night and actually falling asleep…to waking up early, getting dressed, helping make breakfast, eating breakfast, packing everything up for the bike ride and getting going, free time was completely nonexistant. So this kit will get to remind unfinished for a while as I work on other things. Although I have more trips planned soon, so it might not be unfinished for long… Which is a good thing as it might end up in someone’s stocking at Christmas…if I can justify making others for everyone else…

My life is slightly hectic right now and this is why

In list format

• I just got back (well, technically yesterday) from a very busy summer school. Great fun, but exhausting
• That means I’m kinda dealing with con crud (Which is totally exacerbated by the sort of food they were serving. Very few vegetables)
• I’m leaving again on Thursday for a 200 mile bike ride
• Sposer me here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/josgunns1
• How many vegetables can I eat before then??? (Food is provided, I’m expecting limited vegetables again)
• It keeps raining. While this isn’t in itself a problem, I have washing that I need to dry which is proving awkward
• I finished a thing! (Totally the highlight of the summer school… :P) (yes, that was sarcasm)
• I’m thinking I might take another kit on the bike ride, rather than socks. Beads are so pretty 🙂
• I wrote a list of lists I need to write. This is stressing me out because I’m not sure when I’m going to have the free time to write them
• I finally understand the yarn harlot all the times she was talking about getting home to just walk out the door again!
• It doesn’t end after the bike ride either…
• Ok, I should go tidy up my room or pack, or practice my harp, or…(you get the picture)
• Normal posts will resume at some point (donating won’t speed that up, but I’ll feel better if you do donate 😉 )

Stash enchancement Sunday

So, the bits I ordered a while ago arrived earlier this week! Woot!

Firstly, a mill hill kit. I’ve loved the look of these for ages, but never remembered them when it came to actually ordering stuff online. This has now been remedied, and I sneakily added one to my order. Very excited to work on this, I just can’t decide whether I should do this on the paper they give or wait and do it on some plastic canvas??? Any suggestions from people? (If there are any cross stitch people reading this blog any more???)

The main point of the order was the A-Z Weddin sampler. One of my friends is getting married, and so naturally I need to make a wedding sampler. This one was the only one I particularly enjoyed the look of (the others all looked too old-fashioned for little young millenial me 😉 ), and when it arrived I was rather surprised to see that it has beads!!!!! And metallic thread, which I’m less thrilled about. I may or may not replace that with blending filament, depending on when I get around to starting (which I also haven’t decided on yet)… It also depends on whether I replace the fabric with something with a wider seam allowance…This is something I keep falling foul of, so I’m wondering whether I should just bite the bullet and replace kitted fabric with a larger piece as standard. I may look at standard size picture frames later before I decide. Or just get a frame custom made when I finish the piece. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

I also ordered an oval hoop. I’ve decided that my 2018 word of the year will be preparation. (Really, when you start thinking about it in October will any other word fit???) And I’ve decided that I should cross stitch the word each year and start a collection of words to live by. Then I started thinking that doing it in that style where you run out of space (like the plan ahead cross stitch I think it hilarious), but decided that wasn’t really what I was going for. So ‘Preparation’ will be done in black thread, serious style. It seems like a fairly serious word. I can’t actually make it until I go back to the parents because my big book of cross stitch alphabets is at home, but hey ho. I am prepared to make it when the time comes (I crack me up sometimes!)