WOYWW 778 - Did ya miss me, briefly?

Ha!  I'm here.  I kind of forgot last week, and didn't have very much to show really.  So I skipped a week but I'm still here.  Heheheh

Today's gratuitous desk shot - more of the same really.  The needleminders all have been resin'd and magnets attached, and the scissor fobs made.  All bar one.  I was short by one solitary 4mm red, faceted, crystal cube.  So naturally I bought a couple hundred.  LOL.  I could have bought a single Swarovski bead for about £4 including postage but imagine if it didn't turn up, or wasn't the right size.... or was the wrong colour?  So I bought two job lots in two colours and the rest will go into stash. I'm sure I will use them before long.

Stitching wise, this month's WIPGO is now complete with 5 days stitched on this Spooky House design by Sandra Parlow, charted by Xs and Ohs. I started this back in 2022, I think, so you won't have seen it before.  Here's a shot of what it looks like currently, and one of what it will look like when done.  The windows and the moon are stitched with glow in the dark Kreinik braid (the devil's floss) and look fab for all of 9 seconds after the lights go out.  A bit of fun nonetheless.

The WOCS SAL moved along and I have completed part three - still three sections behind but I'll be cracking on with those shortly.

The May WIPGO was called and it was three numbers - 5, 13 (spare square) and 19.  For me that means I have two more - and different, for a change - works in progress to work on, The Pirate and Alluring Sorceress, and a new start. The new start will be a blackwork piece which I'll commence on Saturday for Star Wars day. :D

Speaking of May 4th, tomorrow I start a few days' holiday and will be heading up to North Wales for that stitching retreat with friends that I mentioned last post - it's suddenly come around very quickly, and indeed, our Michigan friend starts her journey tomorrow with the first of three flights.  Once in the UK she'll be having to navigate London to get a train up to Chester where I'll be meeting her.  Brave lass!

So, that's my two penn'orth for this week.  I'll say it now, I don't think I will have time to hop around the blogs this week because today is a full and extended working day, tomorrow is shaping up to be manic, and after that I'll be busy socialising (how very dare I?! LOL), so please accept my apologies for not paying you a visit.

I will be making an ATC or two, by the way, although I'll not be able to join the Crop this year, sadly, so do let me know if you'd like to swap ahead of time and I may just get myself organised enough to do them in a timely manner.

Happy Hopping!

Morti

x

WOYWW 627 - Not so flamin' June - and G7

Hello, lovely deskers!   Welcome back to another round of WOYWW...  that weekly bloghop looking at the underbelly of creativeness, the mess and mayhem that is our desks... LOL.

As I type this, the weather is typically British summer - drizzle but warm and distinctly muggy.  Yuk.  Despite this, we have a major influx of visitors to Cornwall (no surprise there) but this has been augmented and indeed frustrated by G7.  I live about 7 miles from Carbis Bay and Tregenna Castle, and it's causing a lot of trouble.  Road closures - including all the bridges and overpasses for the A30, the main road that runs down the spine of Cornwall - and full accommodation are making things difficult for locals and visitors alike, and we get daily flyovers of USAF Hercules etc.  Don't get me started on the parking issues in Falmouth, where the media circus are hanging out.

Regardless, I'm sat in my cosy little nook, keeping myself to myself, and busy plying my needle through fabric.  They can keep their shenanigans!

The desk this week is suffering a bit from "pile it high" syndrome - I've not had the opportunity to sit and clear it up but my fingers are itching again to get on with it...

I'd also like to say a bit thank you to my swappees for the ATCs - what a lovely little collection!  So thank you LLJ, Ali and Spyder for your lovely ATCs and postcards!  I loved the little folder Spyder sent her ATCs in (and the little spider on one of them - too cute... :D).

Stitching - Siren's Lament lies untouched, with good reason!  Myth & Magic Stitch Wars, round 14, is well under way and there's just too much confetti in it for me to get a good stitch count in a hurry on.

However, The Christmas Moose (why didn't they call it The Christmoose?) has had a significant amount of progress - you can even make out where the roofs will be on that side.  Loving working on this!

Peppermint Purple's SAL is up to date as of last week and today's chart is now out, so I'll be working on that shortly.

Lastly, my Field of... er... Ducks is coming along nicely.  There's good blocks of colour so yesterday evening I churned out over 320 stitches on it which was pretty awesome and very necessary - our clan had been "poisoned" by another clan and had to collectively stitch 1000 stitches as fast as possible to reduce the damage being caused over time.

Note the strategically positioned needleminder!

The "ducks" caused a bit of a hoot over on my YouTube channel last week, and I also coined another phrase, where SAL no longer stands for "Stitch-a-Long" but "Stitch-a-Later".  Seems a couple of folks are going to adopt that now... heheheheh

So that is that, this week.  I found this "funny" on the web this week and had to share it - it takes a bit of thinking about but is v clever...

Happy Hopping!

Morti

x

WOYWW 625 - Another Year Older

Greetings and salutations my fellow deskers!  So last week was the 12th Birthday for WOYWW, and today is my own birthday.... toot toot!  Have to blow my own trumpet as I'm sat here today, preparing for a full day of work (I work Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday afternoons, but all day Wednesdays currently, how rude is that? LOL) and on my own bar the animal companions.  No Mr B - he's currently stuck somewhere around London with a delivery - and Miss B is sleeping the day away in Exeter, having worked a late shift at the bar she's at.  Her dissertation was submitted without a hitch (fingers crossed) and now it's the waiting game.  At least she's back at work and has something to take her mind off it a bit!

Anyone not a regular here?  WOYWW is a weekly desk hop in crafting land, hosted by the lovely Julia and all the deets on how to join in are here...

So, onto the desk.

Oh my.  Have I got a treat for you - not.  The desk as you can see is relatively clear (who am I kidding???).  The roses in the pot are still waiting for me to do something with them, and I have another 10 black silk roses downstairs that I'm at a loss for what to do with them.  The urn you see on the desk is needing a coat of paint of some description, to tie them in, and the roses need shortening somewhat.  However, it's a bit small so I'm thinking of treating myself to a nice vase from Weird and Wonderful Ceramics.  Homewares for the darkly inclined.  We bought some of their kitchenware, and were just about to complete the set when they discontinued the particular range I had my eye on. Sigh.  I have a plan, though, being the consummate crafter, on how to get around that.... hehehehe

I'm digressing.  Back to the desk.  I made 8 ATCs in the end, and they've all got homes to go to - I'm just waiting for one address (Ali!) and they should all be going out in the post today.  I missed the post yesterday or they would have gone then (apart from Felicia's - I need to visit the post office for that one!).  I'll share the ATCs I made (they're not particularly special I'm afraid) once they've all arrived at their destinations.

But.... wait....what's this?  Gah.  I seem to be spreading!  It started out with a couple of frames and a bag of bits on the sofa and suddenly... yikes!  I'd better get myself sorted out.

In my defence, the sofa is now bloomin' uncomfortable to sit on and is causing me to have considerable pain in my left hip, and a trapped nerve/sciatica on the right side (a new sofa is on its way, don't worry).  So as I've physically migrated seat wise, so has all my stitchy stuff and where I bought the trolley a couple of weeks ago, it seems I'm now overflowing it.

Stitching... it's only been a week so not much has been done.  The only updates are to:

Siren's Lament

and the Peppermint Purple SAL - I added last week's box, and this week's has only just been released online, so that's yet to be done.  But I am what I'd call "up to date".

Another new start though - and this has a short tale attached.  I'm on a FB group - Cross Stitch Friends in the UK - and they usually have various swaps etc going on.  This month they elected to do an ATC on the theme of stitching.  What ho! says I - this could be interesting.  So, in my all knowing wisdom I decided to do a fully stitched ATC.  Then forgot about it until a couple of days ago - it needs to be posted on Friday.  Cue plenty of "assertive stitching" (a phrase I nicked from a fellow YouTuber, Georgie, rather than "panic stitching") in order to get it done.  I'm on track - just got a couple of little motifs to stitch, and then the back to do.  And then to post it..... I must be nuts.

Julia commented last week on the fact that my starts seem to be located in different places all the time - the top left corner, the centre, the words - and how did I decide where to start.  Welllll, she says, cracking her nuckles and setting to the keyboard, it's like this.

Often, patterns will give you an indication of where the centre point is on the chart, and tell you how big the finished piece will be.  Generally, you add an extra 2-3 inches of fabric to allow for stretching and framing, and you then have a choice of where to start - either 2-3 inches in from the edge, or in the centre once you've located that point.  When you're working on a piece that is not "full coverage" (like Christmas Moose, and the cactus in a pot I did a few months back) it makes sense to start from the middle and work outwards, as it saves an awful lot of counting to find where to start, and you're guaranteed to have placed the motif in the centre of the fabric (provided you got your fabric the right way up to start with!).  Full coverage pieces like Siren's Lament are a different matter.  You know exactly where the top corner is, and when you're working on something that big (35 A4 pages - 28 full and 7 partial!), finding the "middle" is nigh-on impossible.  I start top left, but I know others start top right or bottom left or right.  It all depends on preference, but the way I see it is that I'm right handed, and by working left to right, I don't fluff the work up by rubbing my hand on it.  The text start (Field of "ducks" LOL) is actually a top left corner start, and although it's not a full coverage piece, the majority of the design as at the top and on the left, so I worked out the inches I needed for framing etc, and just stuck in.

The box lurking on my desk contains some jewellery making stuff delivered yesterday, which I only opened this morning being forgetful, and therefore unsure if it was a birthday present!  I am thinking of making some needleminders and project bag dangles - I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the footie one I did for David.  Maybe in next week's blog!

Happy Hopping, everyone!

WOYWW 619 - the wanderer returns

Greetings and salutations, lovely deskers. Welcome back to another round of WOYWW, hosted by the lovely Julia over at Stamping Ground.  For all the deets check here, but do have a read below first!

I have been somewhat AWOL for the last four weeks.  Sincere apologies. Life kind of got in the way, not least with the ailing health of my father in law which culminated in him passing away on Easter Sunday, the 4th of April. 

Bill had Alzheimer's, and was heading into the last stages of it.  He'd got to the point where he - like small children are wont to do - would spit out any tablets he was supposed to be taking, or would hide them in his mouth and throw them away.  This wasn't good for a man on heart medication, but became a much bigger issue when he needed antibiotics for a urinary infection.  He ended up in hospital on IV antibiotics, and did rally, but then as is all too often the case developed pneumonia.  As he had a DNR in place, he was allowed to slip away in peace with the nurses making him as comfortable as possible.  His funeral is on the 21st April.

Now, those of you who know my family (or indeed have seen on FB), will know that my in laws are up in Liverpool and we are down in Cornwall.  So there has been a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, and there will be next week.  Poor Miss B is at Uni in Exeter, too, and her dissertation is due in on the 28th April.  I believe she's applied for an extension, as Granddad was a special man in her world.  

RIP Bill

We've also got a camping trip coming up, a social with fellow reenactors in preparation for the re-enactment year slowly gearing up.  The dogs need breaking in to the whole concept of tents and campfires so this should be interesting!  It'll be good to meet up with our Domus Lunaris family, and a few others we know.  I'm sure I'll have some photos to share later!

Anyway - you've not come here to see me witter on about family news.  To the desk!

Oh dear.

Yes, not much has been done this month.  There's been a bit of stitching but not overly much.  Well, I say that...

In my last blog post I mentioned that the March Mayhem didn't go according to plan?  It failed miserably.  I finally finished off the sassy spider...

He now has a hanger. 

And started the next Mill Hill Kit....

And that was it.  Can you tell what it is yet?  LOL

I also finished the Hardanger!  Suggestions on what to do with it, please... It's too small for a tray cloth, too big for a scissor keep.  I could frame it but I rather suspect it's going to end up languishing in a box somewhere.

The Peppermint Purple SAL has moved on, but is still behind...

The Moose on the other hand has moved on a fair bit...

and Siren's Lament has had some notable work done on it!

The last round of Myth & Magic Stitch Wars really took it out of my team - it was stressful (but fun) and has left us debating continuing.  It doesn't help that FB isn't geared up for that sort of thing and was very glitchy, so the organisers are now trying to move it off FB and onto other platforms but we're not sure it'll work.  

It's Mr B's birthday on Friday, and I've made something for him but can't share it here for fear he'll see it.  I mean, he rarely looks at my blog, but this would be the one time, ya know?  I’ll share it next time!

I shall love you and leave you here.... Happy Hopping!

WOYWW 615 - caution warning, stitched spiders ahead!

 Greetings, Desk Hoppers!  Welcome to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  All the deets are here, provided by our Mistress of the Hop, Julia...  Just a quickie from me this week, so I hope you'll excuse the brevity of language throughout.

I'm back. A brief absence, but an absence nonetheless.  No real excuses, just time gets away from you.  Plus the next bout of Stitch Wars is on, and time is a premium when you need to be a-stitching... LOL

So what gives at Morti Mansions this week?

The desk is a mess.  A proper mess.  What you can see front and centre is a stack of cards we've received over the last 18-24 months, including New Home cards!  they've been left to pile up on the Welsh dresser (hutch for our American friends) downstairs until I've had enough.  At the very least they're up here to go through, decide if any require keeping (like from the olds) and which can be thrown.  And if there's anything to be salvaged from them to make gift tags or components for other cards.  Do like a good recycled card, me.

Speaking of which, I never posted the outcome of my last Rudolph day, so here you are...

and a second one

Inspiration from Pinterest.  The ornament stamps were by Stampin' Up!, and  I used a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in white for the strings and doodle border.  The tall card was made using paper and components from various magazine freebies.  Again, inspo from Pinterest.  The next Rudolph Day is next Thursday...

I made these on 25 Feb, the day after my last blog hop, and I had a stark reminder of just how long I've been a crafter.  When I made the ornament card above, and heat embossed the ornaments in white, I managed to put my thumb through the lid of the EP pot.  Now, you could say it's French quality that caused it, LOL, but I've had two other pots go that way, brittle with age.  I've worked out, based on the fact that the pot is all in French, that I probably bought it back in 2004/5. The other two were bought for me by my mother when I was 15 and heat embossing had just become a "thing", back when it was de rigeur to use a toaster and judicious placement of fingers to avoid burning oneself.

Stitching-wise, I've been stitchin' up a storm.

Siren's Lament has moved on considerably...

As has Mr Moose.  He's looking adorable.  Won't be long before I'm done with brown and can do some other colours!

I've finally picked up the Peppermint Purple Stitch-A-Long, and am almost fully caught up with it.  I say almost - a new square was released today and I've yet to stitch that, but as of last night I was up to date with all the released elements at that point.

March Mayhem has not quite gone to plan.  I've managed three of my kits so far  The big spider needs to be fully finished off yet, with snipping out around the legs and a hanger attached.  A bit dismal, that we're halfway through the month and I've only managed three, but I tell myself it's three more than before and we still have two weeks left!  The first one I did, the lovely blue background for web and spider, has about 1300 stitches in it which is quite a bit, I can tell you!  The other two have about 700 and 500, for comparison. Considerably smaller.

What other news haveth I?  Well, the re-enactment season is somewhat upskittled but provided everyone plays ball and campsites can reopen on April 12th, we have a re-enactment social weekend where we can camp and see our friends, and spend some time ensuring kit is ready for the rest of the season, such as it may be.  Many events have been moved or cancelled - certainly those in April/May/June, but the July, August and September ones all seem to be going ahead at present.

Mr B has fixed the car - we needed a new fan for the heating and air con - t'was rather horrid driving along without it.  The windows kept misting up which meant we had the windows open and in January, was not fun!  The fan cost us a whole £330 new from Renault, but fitting was free as he did it himself.  I'm not sure what labour is at Renault, but at the garage 300 yards up the road its £50 an hour, and the whole fit from removing the old to replacing the new took about 5 hours.  Quite a saving...

The offending broken fan

Anyway, this is turning into a ramble, so I shall leave you with a lovely photo from a couple of weeks ago, sunset up on Carn Brea, 

and a "and finally" in honour of our lovely Shaz.

WOYWW 611 - the one without Her

 Good morning, lovely deskers.

As I join in with WOYWW today, I write with blurred vision and tears rolling down my cheeks.  I made the fatal mistake this morning of reading Julia's blog from Monday about Shaz, and it set me off again.  Sorry Shaz, I know you're thinking "idiot woman, it's all good...", but your departure has unexpectedly blindsided me, as it has many others, I do believe - no matter how much many of us were prepared for this to eventually happen. The lovely Donna (Doone) and I were comforting one another at stupid o'clock this morning as we both happened to be online, on Facebook, at the same time and managed to set each other off.  For newer WOYWWers who are not on FB, Donna used to take part in WOYWW before she moved to France a few years ago, and was part of the Crop Brigade up until that point, so knew Doug n'Shaz through Julia too.

I'll get to my desk in a moment, but first I'll do as Julia asked and share my Shaz story.  It's short, but no less poignant.  You see, Mr B and me, we're Metallers.  Rockers.  A lil' bit goth and a whole lot pagan.  And we craft.  So you can imagine our delight walking into that first crop and meeting Shaz and Doug for the first time.  Our tribe!  Wonder of wonders!  A like minded soul and an instant friendship. I have wondered if she felt the same... David and Doug got chatting as well, and although Doug is not known for picking up needle and thread or double sided tape and card, I hope he found some company and acceptance from our lot.  Cos Doug n' Shaz were..... Doug n' Shaz.  An entire unit. Shaz also struck me as being the perfect balance between Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg... generous to a fault but I wouldn't have wanted to get on the wrong side of her.  Assuming she had one, I never saw it if she did.  

So, I will stop my maudlin and lachrymose meanderings, pull up my big girl pants and get on with the show.

Welcome back to my desk.  Apologies for not getting round folks last week but, ya know...I will however endeavour to respond to comments from last week in here.

First up - the desk.  A little bit of activity.  There's actually a finished card on there but I hope you'll forgive me not showing it until after the recipient has had it.  It's not the card I really wanted to kick off my non-Christmas card making with, if you follow...

Stitching - well...

Siren's Lament has a teensy bit of work done on it...

The PPSAL has moved on a bit as well, but the reason it's not further along is that I had to unpick the entirety of the border that you saw last week (plus the extra I did after that photo).  I'd forgotten to include the outer framing line before starting the border - and without that it affected the knotwork placement.  As it's supposed to be a direct pair to the turquoise one, I had to address that...

Regarding the problematic two shades of purple thread I had, Lisa-Jane pondered whether or not I could have blended the two colours.  Unfortunately not - this is all stitched with one strand of thread, and although even the single strands of thread are ultimately two ply, I love my sanity more than I love saving money.... 

Especially for Felicia, who was disappointed last week not to see Mr Moose, I made sure I worked on him for you this week and here he is....

He has eyes now!

Eagle-eyed Spyder spotted a "horse and stable" in my desk photo last week.  I think I may have shared photos a long time ago but they bear a second outing here.

My father - who passed away in 2007 - was a toolmaker and mechanical engineer by trade, and a model engineer by hobby.  I know for a fact that had he been alive when "book nooks" became a thing, he'd have been all over them.

He made so many things, and one of those was this little diorama, which I nabbed a couple of years back when Mum moved house and we had to re-home the myriad of trains, buses, cars, dioramas, paint, figures - you name it (and now I know where I get it from).  

So, the stable is not in fact a stable, but a farrier's cot/blacksmiths.   

The lid lifts off, and inside is a whole other world.  

From the other side:

Tools and all sorts!

I love that there is a rusted out bucket just outside by the tap.

And the other side...

It needs a little TLC where the glue has dried out and failed, as do a couple of other items of his that I have, and this is why it’s tucked on the shelf above my desk. When I’ve made the repairs it’s going in my curio cabinet in the dining room.  I shall try to repair them over the coming weeks and share them here.  Dad's most notable achievement was the dolls house he made for my mother in 1997.  I'll save that story for another day, but suffice to say here that she needed a whole room for it... I also have a pair of dolls houses - one of them was the last thing he worked on before he died and Mum had to finish it off.  Again, I'll save those for another time.

Anyway, enough waffle/ramble - I shall love you and leave you, and salute to the fallen....

Happy Hopping!