Mel's Pass Out Parade

For 3 weekends this month Mel has been away on her PI (Potential instructor) course for Cadets, the first step in becoming a fully fledged adult within the ACF.

Today I was very proud of her while I stood and watched her pass out parade and get handed the the slide that says she's a PI.

The little red square on the front of her uniform is what she has been presented wth today. The next step is another course that will be the next step up the ladder but she may be exempt from it as it's basically the same thing she did last year to become a Sargent and it's only a little over 12 months since she did the course.

Well Done Mel I'm really proud of you

UFO Night

Over the weekend I joined the Stitch & Stash forum and they have a UFO night every week so I joined in.

You all know how much I want to get my PHD number down over the next couple of years and having a UFO slot in my rotation has helped in the past only this time there's the treat of a visit from Mr Stick hanging over my head.

First one I'm going to work on is Caleb's Birth Sampler, the last pic I can find on my blog about it is here I have worked on it a few times since then so I thought I better take an updated pic of my starting point.

After a couple of hours it looks like this now

Fingers crossed I'll finally get it finished before to long

UFO RR

The newest round of UFO RR has started and yesterday I sent Rahenna's Oriental Butterfly on.

It arrived looking like this

And left on it's travel's yesterday looking like this

Friday's beading class

So as you'll of guessed by the title I took a beading class on Friday :)

First of all we started on this strip then went back and added the crystal on the end

Next we started on another strip only this one has a a split in the middle

See it is there, all will become clear when I share the finished article

And lastly we joined 2 square crystals together

I decided to go with the same colours the tutor had used in her original one and it turns out that the last colour was out of stock at the bead shop so hopefully it'll be in on the order that's due in about 10 days time so I can finish it.

ABC Christmas update

I've been giving this some attention the last few days and I'm almost finished. I could of easily carried on with it and finished it this month but I decided that if I did that I may not get the other things stitched this month that I want to so look out for a happy dance early next month.

Thank you for all you good wishes for Caleb he will be getting a spiker cast put on tomorrow and will probably be in hospital until Monday at least. Mel and I are hoping to get down there on Monday to see him, keep your fingers crossed for us

Mary Wigham update

A few days later than normal but at least I've posted it :)

I worked on finishing the brown motif bottom left and started the yellow one underneath it.

Rosie decided she just had to inspect my progress while I was taking the pic

And in a bit more detail

Please could you all send healing vibes to Caleb.

He fell out of bed this morning and has fractured his leg :( he'll be spending the next few days in hospital having traction and might have to stay there for upto 6 weeks depending on wither or not they need to put a cast on him.

They are also going to run tests to see if there's anything wrong with his bones as this is the second time in a few months he's fractured a bone, last time it was his wrist if you remember when he fell over the cat

Socks finish

Last weekend I was struck with the urge to finish some of the pairs of socks I've got on the go and the first pair I went for were these.

They have already gone to their new home with a friend and fellow WI/ bowls team member

Mary Wigham

Since both Pat and I finished our Quackworth's we decided that we would both pull out our Mary Wigham WIPs to continue our Friday Quaker SAL rather than start another new project.

Mine last appeared over 12 months ago in this post and now that the model is done I can get back to her every Friday and so in time I can cross another WIP off the list but I don't see it being this year.

Beaded Reversible Triangles

Yesterday I took a class at my local bead shop on reversible triangles. I have to say that the tutor was one of the best I've ever had and her instructions were absolutely fantastic so imagine my surprise when I found out that a) she's only been beading for about 3 years and b) it was her first time teaching!

The first thing she had us do was a sample to learn the technique and we were advised to use 3 colours and do stripes so I did and here's how mine turned out.

I was one of the few that finished the sample so I made a start on my first one for the necklace I'm going to do.

Here's how it was at the end of the day

And half done

This is with one half finished and the other half done upto the ridge

And here it is finished.

This will be the centre focal triangle of the necklace. The plan is start off with solid blue ones and gradually add in the crystal as I go up but all the back's will be in crystal. Clear as mud right :) don't worry I'll be sharing pics as I finish each one so that should help

TUSAL

Yesterday was the new moon and time to post our Totally Useless SAL and while I did take this pic yesterday I didn't post because I don't like doing more than one post a day.

This time there's orts in there from Spiderman, ABC Christmas and that huge pile of black is from the Tribal Dragon. There's also red, white, black and silver KO thread (same kinda stuff as nymo but much better IMHO) and some fireline.

Model Happy Dance

Meet Tribal Dragon designed by Kate of Sparklies

He took me 110 hours to do the 16,180 stitches and he measures 26 1/2" X 21" approx on 32 count.

Talk about cutting it close I put the last stitch in him at 4.10pm Monday afternoon grabbed a fw quick pics and had him at the post office by 4.30pm!!

The fabric is Sparklies own opal fire

He's being launched today at Ally Pally so if your going there over the next few days drop by and say Hi to Kate and admire him in person.

CdC update

I've been spending an hour or so a day on it and some of the circles are really starting to show now, there's still a good 20 odd rows before I start adding the red in but I'm really looking forward to getting that far.

There's still time to sign up for my PIF in my last post so far I've got one taker :(

PIF

The model is finished, Wooooohoooooooo. Check back in a few days for pics.

I was lucky enough to be one of the folks picked to receive a PIF from Patti a little while ago and I now finally have chance to post about and see if anyone wants to receive something from me in the next 12 months.

If I get more than 3 I'll do a draw

Here's the plan...

The idea is that 3 of you join my Pay It Forward and then

I will send a hand made gift (made with love!!!) to each one of my THREE

within the next 365 days!

Then, those 3 people must also host a PIF on their blogs

and ask for 3 people to join their PIF - To pay it forward!

So this is me, asking for 3 people to join my PIF -

just leave a comment to this post !

That's it...no Catches!

NOW...

I only need THREE...

who wants to be my THREE????

So please come and join me and be one of my THREE because I would really love to make something special for you. It doesn't have to be cross stitch that you make, just so long as it is made by you with LOVE. So whatever you want to make for your PIF will be PERFECT!!

September Progress and October Goals

For September I said

Decide on my UFO for the RR Done, I sent out Celtic Cross

Stitch an ornament No failed

Do a SOLAK square I started one but it's fallen by the wayside while I get the model finished

For October

Finish the model

UFO RR

Stitch 2 ornaments

Finish the SOLAK square

I had a good month last month thanks to the model with a total of 117 hrs 21 mins!! My best month so far by a mere 2 minutes.

I had 2 starts and no finishes and I picked up a needle every day

Current PHD total = 39