August Gifted Gorgeousness

Just scrapping in this month for GG !

First is TW Intermediate Whitework ornament that featured as a PHD in last months post, it's a freebie and so it's a gift

And the reason I left it till the last minute to post this month is this.

The Bee hive box from Spellbound, the kit was a gift a few months ago 

Weekend progress

Amazing how much you can get done when you have no reason to leave the house for 2 days!

Damask square progress

I ended up being out most evening again last week so not as much progress as I would of liked was made 

Still loving every stitch and with any luck I'll finish it this week 

Working on a beading PHD

It's still PHD time over in the beading group on facebook so while I wait for Sept 1st to arrive with the next part of the train I pulled out another PHD to work on.

This one is the Beehive Box from Spellbound 

As it started out last Thursday

And by the end of my day at beading group.

I've done more now and have finished the lighter colour, really I should of taken another pic this morning but never thought about it :(   these were taken on my phone and it took me a while to figure out how to add them to a post (still haven't figured it out for the ipad tho!)

The kit was a gift from Kate when we met up at Spellbound in March as it was just a few days after the split with fella and she wanted to make me smile :)

Weekend progress

I fancied a change last weekend and worked down rather than across so I have now reached the bottom 

Long way to go before I have as much of this one done as I do my beaded one

Pictures of rubbish :)

Yes folks it's TUSAL time once more and for once I'm only a couple of days late instead of a week or more maybe I'm getting the hang of it again.

I've added orts from Whitework ornament, Cirque, Candy Cane Cottage, Damask Square and a little bit of sewing thread from hexies

And my beading orts, most of them have come from the train this time although there are a few from a Christmas gift I've just finished

Last weeks stitching

Last Saturday I went to the Festival of Quilts to help out on the Sparklies stand for the day and of course I had to get some new stash while I was at it :)

I bought the chart for Ink Circles Damask Square had a root round the oddments box on the stand and went to Paint Box Threads for some silk (I was going there anyway to get the silk for something I plan to start soonish) 

Monday arrived and I couldn't resist starting it

I've loved every stitch of it and will be back on it on Monday but now I'm off to work on CdC for the weekend

I have a train engine :)

I was right it was finished well before the last update post went live :)

Roll on Sept 1st when the next part is released 

I made a few minor changes to bead colours but otherwise it's all the called for colours

Weekend progress

Not much to show again this week :(

I spent Saturday at the Festival of quilts helping out on Sparklies which was interesting because I'd started to lose my voice on Friday night at bowls.

Sunday I felt so off that I wasn't in the right frame of mind to stitch very much

More train

Carrying on from where I left off last time :)

The next stage was to join the boiler and cab together

Than add the skirt

The base for the train came next

Then 2 large wheels at the back

and 2 small ones at the front.

This is the point I left it at on Monday morning and by the time this post goes live I will have done the last 2 bits and my train engine will be complete :)

Last weeks stitching

With my bid to get Santa's Village completed this year I thought I'd better get my backside into gear and get another house done this month.

Monday I made start on Candy Cane Cottage and finished it off after bowls on Friday night

I'm now at 2/3 complete and will need to stitch a house a month to finish this year which once bowling season ends shouldn't be a problem

My train has a boiler

The next part of the train is complete now and it will always be a very special part of it for me.

I was working on the this part while Teejay was here and he helped me with it :)

First day he just picked up beads but every day after that he also added them to the piece although he did struggle a little with the black.

Stitched together

The front of the boiler.

I've made a small change here, the pattern calls for a 4mm facet but I wasn't happy with the amount of thread & space showing between it and the gold so I've used a 6mm

And the back of the boiler.

Again a small change,  I added an extra couple of rows because I didn't like the hole that was left

Next came the base the the boiler to sit on

And that was stitched to the boiler

The next stage is also completed but that can wait till next time :)

Weekend progress

Not much progress last weekend with Teejay here and spending the day in Chester with him and Mel but all progress is good :)

Thank you all for your lovely comments about the Halloween bauble as much as it's not my taste I'm pleased with the way it turned out :)

Lucy's birthday present

Waaay back in March when I posted my TUSAL pic I said that I'd added lots of black from a project I couldn't share until the end of August well this is said project :)

As soon as I saw this in the October 2016 issue of the Beadworkers Guild Journal I knew I had to make it for Lucy.

The boo panel was an extra downloadable one from the members area of their website.

For some reason the only way I could put them together was in this order otherwise the pattern across the top of the panels wouldn't work :(

And here it is all assembled.

I had the perfect colour of bauble for it in my bauble stash (see Lucy there's a reason I'm a bauble hoarder :p )

It took a few months and several visits to bead shops/ fairs to get the right orange's for the dangles.

It seems that orange isn't a popular colour in beads but I'm really happy with the end result and Lucy loves it

Painted box

I've had Teejay with me for the last week and one of the things we've been doing is painting a box to put his Mum's birthday present in off me (that's a post another day).

Teejay helped to decide on the box and picked the wooden hearts as well.

He's also decided on what colour went where and each day we've done a side of it.

From the front, the 3 hearts on the front are painted in copper but it doesn't show up very well

The back view

The bottom, it was Teejay's idea to put his hand print on there and he giggled the entire time I painted his hand because it tickled :)

and lastly the inside

Train cab finished

I've finished the cab of the train :)

In no particular order, the back

An elf

Santa

and the window side.

The boiler is under construction now I've had Teejay with me and he's been having a go at beading while I work on it :)

Christmas train start

Threadabead lauched their Christmas project for this year on August 1st and I amongst others was eager for it to arrive so I could make a start.

It's right up my alley being 3D, it's the type of project I love to do.

If you'd like to see the finished engine now instead of following my progress go here

I've done the roof 

and the gable ends of the cab

 the sides of the cab are coming along nicely now (I took the pics a couple of days ago now) and I'll be back with pics when they are done

Weekend progress

When I asked you all to help me pick my new weekend project I was really undecided between Thread bear and Cirque so with your help I went with Cirque.

Here's how it was when I asked (it's also a good pic of the fabric colour)

And after the weekend

July progress & August goals

For July I said
Finish the Angel   Done
Pick a new weekend project   Done
Finish New Year Fairy   Done
Start Autumn Seasonal SAL    Done
Maybe start Spring Seasonal SAL    No
Get June's NH monthly challenge stitched and finished   No
Get July's NH monthly challenge stitched and finished (If I like it)   I liked it but sadly no
Get a couple of hexie flowers done   Yes
Sell some stash   No

For August I'd like to
Start something new (pref a kit)
Get another bit of Santa's village done
Make good progress on Autumn SAL
Maybe start Spring SAL
Make progress on Rainbow threads SAL
Get some hexie flowers done (or progress on my scrappy cover)
Sell some stash

I had a good month stitching time wise with 95 hours 40 minutes, not quite sure how I managed it tho with being so busy throughout the month!  I had 3 starts and 4 finishes 2 of which were new starts and I had one day of no stitching at all but I did spend the day playing with fabrics when I went over to Kate's for the day to do a stock take :)

Current PHD total = 29