Busy day

Yesterday was another busy day.

I still was not doing any cross stitch, so I thought I would do some finishing, and start my Somerset patchwork patches.

My Spanish sampler I made into a small cushion, I want to get four tassells for each corner, I will pop to our local shop to see what they have, if I can't get anything to match I will make some.



Below is all my cross stitch projects finished, I am pleased with all of them, it's great to do some thing different, and not frame every thing, I do not have so much wall space in my office for hanging items. Kev did give me a look when I told him the smaller cushion was for our bed, we now have 7 cushions on the bed, I did promise no more!

I am pleased with the stitching on both of these pieces of work

I sometimes do patchwork with material, and my favorite is Somerset patchwork, the design is made by folding the oblongs into a triangle and then sewing them to a back cloth.

I have instructions for those who may not of heard of the design, to make things easy for me I make a template for the oblongs, I am using a piece of soft wood, which I have marked out into the required size, I cut long strips from my cloth, I simply mark the size on the material with a pen and then cut, I always use a poly cotton, it's hard wearing. the oblong size I use is 5" x 2.5", but you can scale to your project, if you make them very small, they can look bulky.

After I have my strips of material, I place them one on top of the other, how many you have is determined on how sharp your scissors are, cut each oblong to size.

Below is the stages of the folds.

1. With a steam iron, iron flat your oblong
2. Fold a small flap at the top, I do about 10 at a time
3. Fold onto a triangle bring top corner in to middle front, it is best to place both corners together at the same time to make them match.
4. When ironing ensure the top point is neat, this will be on show.
   

A couple of point's to add, I alway do 10 oblongs at once and let them cool before going onto the next stage, the material gets very hot and I find my finger will get sore if I'm not carefull, you will need a large amount of triangles, because you place them on top of each other.
Below I have placed the triangle just for you to see the effect, I have loads more to make before sewing, to sew you use a machine and sew along the bottom ensuring you sew over the folded area to hold it all in place.


I am off for my chemo this morning, it's a nice sunny day, so I hope not to be in the hospital too long. I will do a bit more of my kitten WIP, I did get some done last night, I started stitching the sofa fabric and have done a good amount, one thing I have noticed, the stitching I have already done for the second kitten is wrong, it comes one row lower than it should, so I shall be unpicking it, I'm lucky I had not done too much.

Make it Monday

Today is a crafting day,

I have finished stitching my Union Jack heart, and I have managed to pull all the waste canvas away, so the heart is now on the linen cushion front, later I will draw the letters L,V&E. I am going to use an interfacing to attach the letters to the linen, I will then blanket stitch around each one. I am able to show this on here, Su my daughter is not a blogger.

I am very pleased with this heart, it's the biggest project I have done on waste canvas,
I have also managed to keep the stitching very neat.

I have also made the cushion for my stitched front, it took a few tries to choose the fabric colour, I do have two shades of pink, but they did not look right. I have chosen this green, it is a colour in the patchwork quilt on the spare bed, and there is a small amount of green in one pattern block. I think it looks neat, I have to purchase a green zip for the bottom, but that will be at the weekend.

I did simple corners, letting the cross stitch speak out.

I'm pleased it looks so neat,
I will be a shame for it to be placed on our spare bed,
and not some where it can be seen by every one.

I now have the option of stitching the word "HOME" on two pieces of linen for another project or doing a quick Christmas project. I have seen a kit by Valerie Pfeiffer, Christmas Chick, but I would have to buy it online so it won't be here for a few days. I did get Cross Stitch Christmas Favourites magazine, and have a couple of things in there I like.

Sunshine in September

I am sat here in the sunshine,
our bench in front of the window works perfectly on sunny days,
with my favorite cup with hot juice.

The house smells of citrus, I have added the rind and juice of one lemon and two oranges to dried fruit, tomorrow morning I will bake my Christmas cake, I have followed this recipe for twenty years, it makes a 9" round cake. I find using the citrus instead of booze keeps the fruit moist in the cake.

I have now finished stitching my cushion cover,
I sat up late last night to finish it.
I am so pleased with the end result, it is a bit smaller than I wanted
but I will size it up with the fabric.

I am now going to start on my cushions for Christmas presents as described in my last post.
I also want to do some more small Christmas stitching.

These cards I made earlier in the year and I want to do a few more.

I have a large pile of ironing calling, I did not feel well enough to do any last week, so I am off to get it done, I hate ironing, but hate more to see a huge pile in the basket.

I had chemo yesterday, but with a change of drugs and am not feeling to bad today, I have two more sessions to go, so will be finished in November, Christmas is a family affair this year with all three daughters and their families (2 mine, 1Kev's) coming for the day, so we are planning a great time as I should be feeling much better.

Almost there

I have just five squares to do and then the stitching is finished.

I am very pleased with the design.

Each square has 900 stitches, a total of 90,000 stitches.

Each square took approx 4 hours to stitch, x100 squares, alot of work.

I hope to finish it this week and make it into a cushion for the spare bed. I will also make my Spanish sampler into a cushion for our bed.

Today the sun is shinning, it's a bit cool, but we are off out for a while, hope to find a local market.

Decision is made

I have not been able to do much stitching, I have been so very tired, but yesterday my thoughts turned to my cushion. I could not decide what to stitch as my last pattern, so all afternoon I made sketches and looked at books. I went to my favorite book, below, for inspiration and found the design which fits, so the decision has been made.
I have made loads of designes from here, I do each in cross stitch, the patterns are still the same once stitched. My favorite one being here.I have half stitched a square covering the dirty patch where I unpicked the dark pattern.

It has small light and dark pink squares with the centre stitch done is white or bright red, these two colours are sparkly, they show in my photo. I am now pleased, I have 3 candi stripe squares to finish and then the final 10 squares in this new pattern. I was hoping to finish it by this weekend, but that won't be possible, Kev has a few days off and I am not stitching so much.
Su and Gav have come back from their mini moon, they spent a few days in north Wales, below is their postcard sent to us and a stick of rock they brought back, I love seaside rock. They are now planning their honeymoon for next spring, they want to go to south America, and the spring is the best time for them.

Today Kev is taking me shopping for a short while today, nothing special just a chance to get out. It has rained for a few days and is raining now, the fore caste is not good, so Kev's holiday is a bit of a wash out. We hope to visit Somerset on Thursday to see family and will pop into south Wales on Saturday.

Next week we empty the office and decorate it, so I shall be a few days off line, I can check your blogs via my phone so I will keep up with you all.

Shhhh!!

I am not sure if this is allowed, I am not allowed to show the wedding dress to any one, but I'm sure I can show you bits of it. the silk looks very pale in these photo's, it is champagne in colour.

Su has a shrug, in case she is feeling cool at any point.

This sad looking garter, was first worn by me at my wedding and when Fliss got married to Steve, she used it, and now it's Su's turn. It supplies the following from the rhyme,

Something old
something new
something borrowed
something blue

I have had time to stitch, but spent most of my time unpicking, you can see a dirty square in the middle of my work, I do like the pattern I was stitching, but felt it would be too dark, so I have removed it. Look at my last post to see what I had stitched. At this point I can't decide the last pattern.
Yesterday, Su, Fliss Josh and I went out for lunch, we don't often have lunch together, so it was fun, we enjoyed pasta, salads and pizza, with loads of chatting and giggles.

This morning Josh is coming over for a couple of hours, he is bringing Woody and Buzz, so we should have fun, this afternoon we have to pop to the hotel to ensure the tables are done correctly. This evening Su will be home, she has already booked a chicken pasta for tea,

The weather forecaste is good, in as much as there is no rain promised, family members are traveling to Fareham today, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone, most will pop in tonight to say hello.

On Sunday we are having an open house and BBQ, we will be able to catch up with everyone, share photo's and ensure everyone eats before their journeys home.

Woody, Buzz and party food

Yesterday was Joshua's 5th birthday, Grandma and Grandad visited from Manchester. Mum and dad planned a meal out, but Josh wanted party food, so we stayed in and shared a party tea with birthday cake. I did not get many photo's, Josh was fed up with camera's, below he is wearing his Woody outfit, and yep he is into Toy Story 3.

Almost every present he had was something about the film, we had a very happy little boy!!

My cushion is coming along I have just 16 squares to finish, I love the pink candy stripe I have stitched as pattern 9, you can also see my last design, which I am making up as I stitch. My photo's are not that good this time, the problem is with me not my camera.

Today it has rained all day, so I have been inside, the forecast for tomorrow and Friday is the same, but the forecast for Saturday is dry, so fingers crossed.

We had our stair carpet fitted, it is two colours, pink and grey, each is plain, I have done one step pink, the next grey and then the next pink, it looks good, kev likes it, and it makes the stairs, a dark area a bit more fun.

I think every thing is ready for the wedding, Su has finished work, and will pop in tomorrow, we have a few things to do, ie, collect wedding cake and pop to hotel. We have planned to go to lunch together, the calm before madness takes over.

Good days

Yesterday was fantastic, I am feeling well and getting excited with Su and Gav's wedding next weekend. I popped to the hairdresser and had my wig cut, results later, I popped in to see Fliss and Joshy, did some baking, all in all a good day.

I even did some stitching, most of the work I have done is the white background, every part of this cushion is being stitched, I am at 74 squares with 26 left, I think I know what the last two patterns are, and can't wait to get to them. Click on the photo to see the detail.
I also spend an hour looking at books, showing the village Cannington in Somerset, where I grew up, below is how I remember it as a child, I spent lazy sunny days, fishing with nets in the brook. The countryside in Somerset in the late 60's was stunning. Click on the village name to see more.

I was so pleased tucked in the book was this book mark I made.

In a second book I found this photo, it is my mum's brother George, mum used to tell us of how she would help him prepare the horses manes with ribbons on special days, my uncle's were farmers, Uncle John once gave us a piglet when we were younger, I remember it we all got excited, but mum would not allow us to keep it in the garden so it had to live on the farm.

Our local Town Bridgwater, has a carnival each November, as does many towns in the area, Bridgwater is classed as the top venue, my sister Leanna brought this book for me for christmas, and the photo above is in it. Click on the word carnival to see the official website it is amazing.

I wanted to show you my new hair style, I am so very pleased, it looks like me again.

Yesterday I also baked Veggie Lasagna, which is a favorite dish of mine, with Su and Gav coming to tea I was able to bake a large one, the main problem I have with this dish is Kev is allergic to cheese and therefore can not eat it, well yesterday I made him a separate dish without cheese and he loved it, so the forward plan is to make it without cheese, once cooked I can add mozzarella cheese to mine and grill.

I am now waiting for Fliss and Joshy to pop in, then I can go to my other blog, Somerset House and have Joshy choose the winner of my giveaway. Also today my niece Tracy, hubby Taylor and baby Riley are popping in.

My goodness it's August already

It was again a busy weekend, the time is passing so quickly, today we have 19 days until Su and Gav get married, everything is ready for them, just hoping for a sunny day.

I have managed to do some stitching on my cushion, I have added the next new design, and have stitched 71 out of 100 squares, this design has a lot of white stitches, which is hard on the eyes. I have not yet decided on the last two patterns, I have a few ideas in my head, but will make the decision when I have finished this last design.

I also brought wool at the weekend and knitted my first hat, I got the pattern from the internet, it knits on four needles, and does not require sewing together,I love the random wool colours, now I have the pattern details I will make a couple more with different lace bands. It is so easy to pop on a hat, than tie a scarf.

On Sunday we went out with Su, Gav, his daughter Shannon and his parents, she has just turned four and this was her day out, she loves birds so we went to a wetland centre at Arundel, had fun feeding the very tame ducks, I enjoyed seeing all the wild flowers on the site, and had the very British Sunday lunch at a pub. Below is Shannon playing.

The garden is looking good, below are flowers out at this time.

I am having my second chemo tomorrow, the past three weeks have not been too bad, I am aware the side effects get worse the more sessions you have, but fingers crossed it won't be too bad.

Coffee and Muffins

It's another sunny Sunday morning, Kev is on the golf course and I am feeling good, so I am starting the day with home made lemon and poppy seed muffin and coffee. Which taste very good, I have been only able to drink water for the past couple of days due to a very sore mouth.


I did some baking yesterday and made three types of muffins, cup cakes for Josh and quiche for lunch with Fliss and Steve. I was enjoyable, but by the evening I knew I had done a bit too much.

The roses below was sent to me in the week by friends from a company I worked for 18 months ago, they were a complete surprise and beautiful, I do keep in touch with them but not as much as I should, I hope to pop in this week if I'm up to it.

My quickie is going slowly, I have done a couple ribbons, but I am stitching my cushion front, I am addicted to it, I have done 64 with 36 squares left to stitch. I did make a mistake one evening last week and spent the following morning unpicking and reworking it, so now I only stitch in the day when I am not so tired.

Grace is not happy with me, I always have her blanket on the sofa, and she only is on her bed when we have visitors, last weekend she was happy to be on her bed while Kate and Ian was here, but as I have friends popping in for coffee, I decided she should stay on her bed, but she is not happy with me and I am sure she is sulking!!

The flowers have opened on my orchid, I hope they last until the last weekend of August, Su's wedding, I would like to have them on show.

We hope to go for a short ride on the bike today, but have nothing else planned. Next week I have a few days booked, my plan is to gain strength for my next round of chemo. This one has been a challenge and I know I will have stronger side effects as I have more, but it is something to endure, I still have my hair for now. We are all looking forward to the wedding and all the family being together.