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Monday 30 April 2012

Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward IV

You do know that Theme-a-licious is a "It's Geek to Me" activity, don't you? 
Click the above pic to find out more.
April's Theme was Amazon April or your biggest projects.  I decided that BAP stands for Big Alphabet Project and worked on both Dark Alphabet and my Turquoise Baby Alphabet.  I also worked on My Lovely Sewing Tools (which actually has an alphabet in it, scattered around the piece) and had a completely unexpected start in Papillon's Around the World in 80 Stitches.

ATW80S is certainly an enormous piece of fabric for me and it's a full two years project so that will definitely count as a BAP.

Pictures:

Papillon Around the World

My Lovely Sewing Tools (includes an alphabet!)


Turquoise Baby Alphabet



Please come and follow The Stitching Gift blog.  There are a group of us who love the Gift of Stitching magazine and are going to be showcasing our WIPS and finishes from the magazine.  The final issue came out this weekend and it's a great finale.  Kirsten will still be involved in designing and sending out her newsletter.  She will also continue to offer the old issues to buy as bundles or individually.  There is currently a sale on, where everything is half-price!  You can get a whole year's bundle for only US$12.  Amazing.


May Memories -
Remember when you took that class? Or decided to commemorate that event? And then abandoned your poor WIP? Take a stroll down memory lane by working on it again.

Green Goddess is becoming a distant memory!  So maybe I should give her some love.  I also have an old Autumn sampler in my stash chest I could dig out.  Or I could decide to make some new memories - stitching things which relate to my blogging friends, charts they have sent me or recommended the designer.

I have signed up for a couple of small partwork SALs.  No, ATW80S is not counted as one of them.  First was a Hungarian Mini Mystery SAL from Manka's Blog which I found via Blu's SAL Directory Blog.  Manka blogs in Hungarian, English, and other languages too.  I do love multi-lingual bloggers, as Google Translate should be renamed Giggle Translate due to the weird translations it comes up with.

(edit to add - when you go to Manka's blog, the cursor turns into a little rose!  Even cuter than falling things!)

The 2nd small SAL I found via Dulcinella's blog.  It's from a French blog Voyage sur Toile.  You need to sign up for the newsletter and you will get Parts 1-3 with Part 4 due soon (Dimanche is Sunday, right?).  There is a Translate button at the top but for some reason my brain thinks it can read French although it can't.  Saying the words with a fake French accent is not the same as understanding what they say!


Finally, I have switched to Photobucket for my photo storage, my Picasa album was nearly full due to the fact I don't make my photos smaller before loading them on!  I could not be bothered to resize every photo in my blog so I've switched.  Sheila said she has trouble seeing the photos last post, so here is a link to the album.  If anyone else has difficulty seeing them on the blog, please let me know and I'll think again.

edit July2017 - switching to Photobucket was a huge mistake!  They decided to start charging for storage at no notice whatsoever and are holding our photos to ransom.  I can't even download my own photos from my folder there, so I'm having to photograph my screen to get them!






Wednesday 25 April 2012

IHSW update and a forthcoming Giveaway

Last weekend was the third in the month and International Hermit and Stitch Weekend.  For more details in how to join in, just click on Hermie the Crab on the right hand side of this blog.

I decided to spend all of IHSW on My Lovely Sewing Tools from Gift of Stitching magazine and made some good progress as you can see:



I also finished the CCN design Cherry Hill Cottage which I will scrapbook.  I need to visit the craft shop and maybe buy some cherry themed trimmings.  I used the variegated DMC 107 for both the red and the pink but forced the colours by cutting the skein into red and pink sections.



The background is the scrapbook paper which I will be using.  Obviously the fabric will be trimmed to size and backed with plain white paper so the pattern doesn't show through.  But you get the idea.

I also made good progress on the Needlecraft Haven monthly challenge piece which I can't show here yet.  The progress was due to it being my handbag project this week.  The Small Boy has started Preschool this term, two days a week just for two hours a time.  I have decided to stay for the first two weeks but in a separate room while he settles in and his Key Worker gets to know him.  So far, so good.  Which means I have nearly 2 hours of uninterrupted stitching twice a week!  Although I did help with the washing-up today LOL.

(for overseas followers - in England children attend Preschool anytime from 2.5 to rising 4, then Nursery from the year in which they are 4, then proper school in the Reception class from the year in which they are 5.  Unless you work fulltime then they can attend a creche style setting confusingly also called a Nursery but it's from babyhood.  Preschool is mainly just playing with a little bit of structure at the beginning and end of each session.)

My followers are slowly increasing in number, the Easter Treasure Hunt was great for helping me and all the participants make new friends.  I was thinking of a 250 Giveaway when I received an email for Yiota, remember Yiota who sent me a lovely Cross Stitch Kit to review?  She was offering to sponsor my next giveaway!  Three winners will receive an email chart of one of Yiota's lovely designs.   So while you're waiting for my followers to reach the magic number, why not pop over to Yiota's Cross Stitch Kits site and have a look at all the gorgeous designs there and try to decide which you would like to win.  Don't tell me yet!

Anyway, "talking" with Yiota inspired me to make a start on the Coffee Fairy.  As my kit was supplied with aida I decided to use some evenweave I had.  I bought this piece from Sparklies with Nora Corbett's Trick or Treat Fairy in mind.  It's called Monarch - should be Mad Monarch!  I have never seen such an outrageously mad fabric before.  But it is perfect for Coffee Fairy.  I'm planning on just stitching the fairy, her cup and biccies not the background.  But here is the beauty of my plan - if the fabric is too overpowering then I can stitch as much of the background as I need, maybe just an oval around her.  Here is one evening's progress, it's the rim and handle of the cup:



This is a completely accurate colour match for the fabric, it really is that mad!

So now we have a rotation of sorts -

Coffee Fairy 1 day a week,
Baby ABC - 3 days a week alternate with
My Lovely Sewing Tools weekends and
2 different Round Robins weekdays as and when.
And Green Goddess must be fitted in too, and Papillon ATW, and I got the fabric for Snapdragon today...

That's just the evening stitching.  There are all the smalls for daytime too.

Finally, I got my copy of Just Cross Stitch (the American mag) through yesterday.  Gorgeous projects, there are several I want to stitch, so much better than the English mags!  I'm definitely going to cancel at least one of them later this year (when a certain series of charts finishes!) and spend the money on fabric instead.

Saturday 21 April 2012

April TUSAL

Sadly my April TUSAL photo is lacking Madame Muriel, she is currently residing in Arizona with Miss Zoe, Gracie and Mr. H.



So, just the TUSAL jar, my three-pages-a-week calendar and My Lovely Sewing Tools which is the project for IHSW.  Not so much progress, that little beige hornbook on the left took ages!

I have also nearly finished CCN Cherry Hill.  I need to know - are there any other cottages the same size in this series?  I've seen the lovely monthly cottages but would like more smaller ones.  This one is only 78 x 78 stitches.

Finally, men are bringing me luck!!  First of all Lesley's son picked my name for her blogaversary giveaway, the amazing Snapdragon chart and other goodies.  Then Shebafudge's hubby picked me for her fabric giveaway (which was a lovely piece of Silkweaver fabric).  Thirdly, Heather's hubby chose me to win some earrings, I don't even think he'd seen my earring post either!  So a big Thank You to all those lovely men!  So much nicer than the old random number generator.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Y, Y, Y does it have to end?

Okay, it hasn't actually ended yet, but Y is the penultimate block on A Dark Alphabet



This is my favourite block of all (I know I've said that before!).  I love the design and the stitching technique, a nice geometric pattern.  The trunk and roots are as charted but the leaves are stitched in DMC 4045 a lovely variegated green.  Yggdrasil is the Celtic Tree of Life and as usual Becky has found out lots of information about it and posted on the Note of Friendship blog.  Apparently Julie is the designer for this alphabet who comes up with the pictures then sends Becky off to research and write the blog.  I think Becky deserves a huge round of applause for finding out so much about so many diverse subjects!

(edit - Yggdrasil is, of course, the Norse Tree of Life not the Celtic - thanks to everyone who reminded me of this fact!)

If you go read the post for Yggdrasil you will also find out which inspired person thought of using it - Me!  The Large Boy and I play "Guess the Next Letter" each time and we sent our suggestions for W,X,Y and Z to Julie who chose our "Y".  Fame!

I have signed up for the new Papillon SAL - Around the World in 80 Stitches.  I'm doing the speciality stitch version although I've heard the plain cross stitch one is nice too.  I'm going for a plain white fabric and I'll be choosing my colours this IHSW, probably pinks and purples.  I noticed bloggers all over showing their floss tosses and started a little list.  Then I thought it'd be nice to share this list with everyone.  So I asked Yvonne's permission and she said "of course you can".  So there is now a nice new page tab at the top of this blog which will take you to a list of Stitchers Around the World and a link to their latest SAL blog post.  There won't be photos, that's what Yvonne's Gallery is for, but it'll be a great way of finding other SALers and stalking following them.

So if you'd like to be included and I haven't asked you yet, step up and leave a comment.

Cherry Hill is steaming along.  I love this design and the Newcastle it's stitched on.  I made a slight error with one sheep, it's a line lower than charted so I had to fiddle with the word "Hill".
There are two different variegated greens in this, 92 and 4045.


Finally, while browsing T'internet (as they say in Yorkshire) I found this fascinating chart on Sprite Stitch:

Game of Thrones map

Anyone a fan of the books/TV show?  I love the opening titles.  Most programmes get them fast-forwarded but we always watch these ones in full!  I do love a book with a map in it.  When I was a child I used to spend hours copying the maps from my favourite books!

Sunday 15 April 2012

Theme-a-licious April Update and my Blogaversary Easter Treasure Hunt Giveaway Winners!

Nice long title there!


April's Theme is Amazon April, stitch on your biggest BAP.  I've decided to go for A Dark Alphabet as it's a 26 parter which is pretty BA.  It'd be even bigger if I'd stitched it over 2 so I'm quite glad I didn't.  Here is the bottom half so far:

See that, I'm on the bottom row now!

 And a close-up of the Wyvern itself:
I stitched him using a DMC variegated number 4145.  I am wondering if I should have stitched a solid outline first like the Kelpie but he's done now and I'm not frogging over 1 stitching.

Here is X for Xaphan the Demon:

He's rather cute for a Demon, he fans the flames of Hell, hence the bellows.

And now onto the exciting bit, the Easter Treasure Hunt.

The Mystery Phrase was indeed Chocolate Bunny as worked out by everyone!  Well done, I hope you all enjoyed blog-hopping as much as I did and found some new blogs to follow.  I gained several new followers and a couple of stalkers who aren't officially following (yet).  Hello New People (waves).

I put all the names into two piles and selected one from the Picture Posters and one from the Treasure Hunters.  If you did both then you went into both piles.  If you remembered it was my Blogaversary then you got your name put in twice.

The winners are - Drum Roll -

Picture Posters - Christine from The Alchymyst's Study

Treasure Hunters - Lelia
(I believe Lelia came from the Mouse House to visit)

Then, because Cross Stitcher magazine gave some sweet little cards as their cover gift this month, I decided to do four bonus draws and send those people a little Thank You card.  It won't be the designs in the mag because I don't like them, it will be something else!

1. Katica
2. Mel
3. and 4. I'm not telling!
(I have your addresses already so it will be a nice surprise LOL)

So there we are, Easter all over until next year.  My next event will be an online Summer Postcard Trail which will start on 1st June and last all Summer, so be thinking about what you have/would like to stitch.  I'll tell all in mid May.

As I mentioned it was my Blogaversary on April 8th, my First Blogaversary!  Here are a few stats:

*
1 year,
111 posts,
239 followers
1,552 comments
29,503 page views
WOW

The most popular post was the Advent Calendar with 859 views, not surprising as it was updated every day for 24 days.  Then it was my First Post with 345 views.  I guess alot of people come to the blog, read the recent posts then go back to beginning to find out how I got started.  I often do that with new blogs. 
The next 8 most popular posts all have more than 100 views and are all Activities or Giveaways including Travelling Patterns and Granny.

I'm so pleased with the way this blog has grown and developed over the last year.  I've "met" so many lovely people and taken part in so many great Giveaways (Giving and Receiving) and Activities.  I have a whole new vocabulary - TUSAL, WIPocalypse, Theme-a-licious, IHSW, SABLE, PIF, RAK, SAL, ORTS, Followers.  I have a new awareness of the phases of the moon too.

Finally I'd just like to say a Big Thank You to everyone who follows, stalks, comments, joins in, pops by, reads, or just looks at the pictures.  Without you, I'd just be talking to myself, nowhere near as much fun!

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Do You Do Voodoo Too?

I'd gotten a little behind with The Dark Alphabet, partly because of stitching on the Joan Elliott Round Robin and partly because Julie is banging out the letters this year!!

So I'll be putting the hours into it this month to try catch up.  V was for Voodoo and as usual The Note of Friendship blog is full of information about the letter and plenty of useful links if you want to know more.
This wasn't the most exciting block to stitch, the lettering was great but the little figure got a bit tedious!  When I stitch over 1 in rows I get a ridge between every other line, which is great for some of the pieces but for this one I stitched diagonal rows which made it a little more interesting.  I dangled the carrot of "Wyvern" to get me through it.  I'm using a variegated for Wyvern and it's so much more fun!

The green scarf is stitched in the Van Dyke Stitch, quite fiddly over 1 but a nice little effect.

The next piece is my current daytime project, Cherry Hill by CCN.  This was a giveaway from Crafty Rahenna and I'm loving it.  I'm using DMC on 40 count Newcastle linen, over 2, a mixture of 2 strands or 1 strand depending on the effect needed.  I'm using two different variegateds for the green and there'll be a variegated red coming soon.

Not a brilliant pic because I'm using my scanner.  It's quicker and easier than using the camera for WIPS.

The third project is my alphabet sampler for my friend's new baby boy.  I shifted the letters around to include his name... 

I'm so pleased with the wobbly lower case letters!  I charted them myself on a piece of graph paper and they looked a little upright and straight so I kind of free-styled them on the fabric.  I'll be adding Big Sis's name further down.  This chart was published in Cross Stitcher magazine this year.

There's also a charting project called "I Blame Karen" after Stitchy Woman.  She makes these throwaway comments on stitching forums which set my mind ticking and before I know where I am, I'm surrounded by pieces of sketch paper, graph paper, charts and being accused of being a "Manus-o-phile".  Non-Latin speakers will have to wait to see if this ever comes to anything other than an in-joke and a moment of madness on paper.

Finally, the Easter Treasure Hunt was a HUGE success, it was so much fun blog-hopping to see the letters.  There was only one Picture Poster who couldn't make it, she was away for the weekend but everyone managed to guess the missing letter!!  I'll keep the entries secret until the Friday deadline just in case anyone is behind in their blog-reading.  I used the Easter weekend to catch up on mine, I only have today's posts outstanding and have been commenting all over the place which I love to do.

Sunday 8 April 2012

Easter Treasure Hunt..is closed. Winners to be announced on Sunday 15th

appearing here soon.  It's half past midnight and I've only just finished beading my piece so I will post the full hunt in the morning.

My stitching time didn't start until 10.30 because I had to make a real egg hunt for the Large Boy complete with clues!

Watch this space...


Card made by The Large Boy, note the egg and cross graphics in the top letters

Still watching?  Here it is:

All you have to do is visit each of these blogs in order, note down the letter above the Easter / Spring themed pic and remember the short phrase they make up.  Come back here for the last letter and leave a comment saying what the phrase is.  I will select one person at random to win a small stitched prize.  I will also randomly select one of the Picture Posters to win a stitched prize too.

The trail starts here with:

Nia of Caixinha de Pirlimpimpim then onto
McKenna of Chic Crafting (or should that be "chick crafting" for Easter?)
Measi and Measi's Musings
Heather says It's Geek to Me
Mel writes The Daily Mel
C in DC of Pencil Crossings
Christine in The Alchymyst's Study
Anna the Stitch Bitch
Gracie of Needles, Pins and Dragonflies (Madame Muriel's new host, I wonder if she's there yet)
Shirlee is The Easily Influenced Stitcher
Beth of Beth's Blog
Deb is The Thread Gatherer
Mouse writes her Tales of a Stitching Mouse and then finally back to
Me! Phew!

Here's the final picture of the hunt:

Y

This is Dewdrop by Just Nan, mounted on a scrapbook page with the ribbon Jan wrapped the parcel in.
Last year Jan admired my Little Red Xmas House so I sent her the chart.  She thanked me by adding another chart to my Just-Nan-a-thon!  Perfect for this Easter Hunt.
Stitched on 28count evenweave with several substituted colours including the rabbit's browns.  I blended two browns to make his fur.  I also used variegated greens for the border.  I'm pleased with the way the beads have caught the light in this photo, makes staying up late to stitch them worth the time!


And Finally, Happy Birthday Susan in your Yellow Flower Meadow:
I've been stitching the WOCS' Flower of the Month series for the Birthday club on Needlecraft Haven but we didn't have an April Birthday so I asked for volunteers among my followers.  Susan obliged and received a Daisy for April.  This time I coloured in the background using my pens rather than the flower, making an assisi style card.  Needlecraft Haven have covered the next few months but I have a space for August so if you're an August Baby then let me know!

Happy Hunting!

Friday 6 April 2012

April WIPocalypse

April WIPocalypse

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.

Part 1 - My 12 in '12

1. No progress on Green Goddess.  But she will come back for Amazon April.

2. Completed "U" on the Dark Alphabet, started "V" for Voodoo.

3. Stitched a couple of days on My Lovely Sewing Tools, and joined the new blog "The Stitching Gift" to display my progress.  Gillie has set up this blog so we can post our WIPS and completed projects from the magazine so everyone can see them as well as the members of the Yahoo Group.  Every poster is including the issue the design appeared in so if you want you can go and buy the relevant back issue.  These will be on sale for the foreseeable future.  I used my subs money to get all of 2010 so now I have 12 back issues to read through and drool over the designs!

8. Baby Sampler.  Baby Boy arrived last month, sampler started.
This is a nice quick stitch, I can do one or two letters each evening.  I'm planning on adding baby's name and his big sister's name next to their relevant letter which will involve a little tweaking of the design.  I've moved the elephant over to save 3 squares and will move the apple too when I come to it.

Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon

Started "Dewdrop" a little Easter rabbit.  Rather different to all the samplers in my collection.  Picture to follow.

Part 3 - Theme-a-licious: March Madness and Amazon April

For March Madness I planned to stitch as many different designers as fit in my schedule and managed 12!!  Not too shabby for a former OAATer.  See this post for all the pics.

As the Full Moon rises earlier each month there will be less and less on the 2nd month's Theme.  In other words I haven't stitched anything Amazon for April yet!

I also finished my block for Jacqui's Joan Elliott Round Robin:


Angled shot to show the beads:
Close-up to show the single bead of a different colour.  I decided to buy a whole pack rather than subbing on the grounds that it is sure to be needed later on in this RR.  Or I might stitch the whole lady one day and there are plenty needed in the rest of the design.
 The whole thing:
Jacqui's theme is "Your Favourite JE design".
I love Joan's Oriental pictures and thought it would make a nice change to stitch one for this piece.  The design came from Cross Stitch Collection magazine issue 186.  Also in the RR are two fairies, one fantasy, one Xmas and one small fairies plus my Flower Fairies where I stitched the centre piece of all six flowers.

Recently while I've been stitching I've been listening to audio books from the library.  Most appropriately, this week's choice was Empress Orchid by Anchee Min read by Pik-Sen Lim.  Audio books are great for stitching time as they are much less distracting than the TV.  They also keep my mind on something other than worrying about the world!  Plus I'll be helping my local library which is still under threat of closure despite increasing their lendings this last year.

Finally, watch out for the Easter Treasure Hunt this Sunday.  I have 14 Picture Posters taking part and there will be a prize for one lucky person who finds the Mystery Phrase!

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Giveaway winnings and my twopennorth on the Great Copyright Debate

What's this inside this dinky little bag?

 Could it be a hand-made scissor fob with my initial in my favourite berry colours?
It could!  Stitched by Nataly of Nataly's Needle Creations and now attached to my only pair of decent scissors.  Which look rather shabby and are not berry coloured (unless you count blueberries I suppose).

So next time you're all trying to think of a giveaway prize, how about some new scissors?! LOL.

I got my subscription copy of Cross Stitch Collection in the post this afternoon and was delighted to see they've printed another of my stitching tips!!  I said stitchers on a budget should try stitching over 1 on 28 count evenweave.  You need a quarter of the fabric and an eighth of the threads!  For that tip I'll be getting a £10 voucher for Willow Fabrics.  Yay, more stash!  I think I'll buy the blue fabric I need for my cousin's baby picture.

I also treated myself to this magazine:

There are 16 different projects in this magazine with 6 of them being Lesley Teare designs, so if you're a fan then this is a must!  It's available here.  I've added the Contents Pages to my blog page for Magazine Contents Pages (see top tabs).  As usual, I've have only posted the contents pages and will not under any circumstances post or email any of the charts.
Which brings me nicely to the following copyright debate which is rumbling around the blogosphere at the moment ever since the Gift of Stitching decided to fold.  I think we're all aware of the Chinese and Russian file-sharing forums who sell the pdfs on to their group making large amounts of money out of it.  However I was totally unaware of just how much money is involved.  Nicole from Northern Expressions Needlework has been doing some research, here's her original blog post:

http://northernexpressions.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/sad-commentary.html

and here's a response from Laury Lyan
http://perlesdesoies.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/what-is-right-what-is-wrong/

followed by Nicole's answering post:
http://northernexpressions.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/in-response.html

I've commented on all three posts.  I think there are a number of problems for the "stitcher on the sofa" (as opposed to the man in the street!) in understanding this debate.

One is that we have nearly all of us photocopied a chart from a library book, a borrowed magazine or a friend's chart if we are brutally honest.  If someone has wanted to borrow a mag from me and I'm not keen to lose my magazine I have made a copy for her.  It's only one copy to one person isn't it?  She couldn't buy that magazine anymore or the library book is OOP now so it's only the same as borrowing it for 3 months etc etc.

When people start talking about copyright theft we feel guilty for making those photocopies and don't see the bigger picture, the wholesale illegal selling on of designs to 10s of 1,000s of stitchers which is the real problem here.

There is also a lack of understanding of the nature of a pdf versus a paper chart.  We see pdfs as less "real" and less valued.  I certainly struggle to see pdfs I've bought and downloaded as being worth the same as a hard copy chart because they live in my computer along with all those freebies I download.  I know they are but it's hard to feel it.  It's also hard to understand why it's ok to lend or sell my World of Cross Stitching magazines but not my Gift of Stitching mags.  If I want to show my Mum an interesting article in GoS do I have to buy her a copy or am I breaking the law showing her mine on my screen?  I wouldn't email it to her but can I let her see it on my computer?  Where do I draw the line?

I suppose the purists would say we shouldn't really be selling old magazine or charts anyway.  We should make people go to the designer and buy from them direct.  What about travelling patterns or exchanges or stash sales?  Where do we draw our personal lines?

Several people have been comparing the selling of designs online to stealing from shops.  This does show a lack of understanding about people's attitude to the virtual nature of the internet.  If I steal a Mira chart from my LNS they cannot sell that chart full stop.  It is gone.  However if I buy a HAED and sell copies of it I haven't deprived the shop of the original, because it never existed as an actual entity.  That is how these people justify their actions - "I bought it fair and square, it's mine to do with as I choose".  We need a better analogy here!

The trouble is the best analogy is the music industry where people download and share music for free online depriving the original musicians of their royalties.  And once again that is something that everyone feels is okay to do, we all download music and TV off the internet don't we? (actually I don't as our broadband is too slow, so my conscience is clear there!).

For me a commenter called Trish summed it up "People are just greedy and lazy of thought, and more to the point think they are getting one over "the man" if they can get something for nothing, forgetting that "the man" is actually a person who is trying to make a living, albeit a small one."

This attitude comes across in the anonymous person disagreeing with Nicole, she should more or less be grateful to be allowed to design at all and let us redistribute her stuff for free if we so choose!!

Here's Ellen from With My Needle's take on the subject:
sharing-is-not-always-good-thing
In her latest post she also comes up with a really good analogy for chart piracy, so pop along and read that one too!

So what can we do?  Keep spreading the word I suppose.  There are "innocent infringers" out there, people who don't realise how bad these sites are.  People on Facebook who ask for scanned charts to be sent to them without realising it's illegal.  But don't sweat the small stuff; if you've scanned a chart in the past then just buy another one from that designer and restore your karma.  If you see a designer's charts being offered illegally then tell the designer.  That's one of the perks of the internet, we have relationships with the actual designers.  I can exchange emails with Joan Elliott and FB messages with Nora Corbett!  I can say "my friend Nicole who's a designer" even though we've never met nor are we likely to.

There was a debate on the radio today about the proposals to monitor suspected criminals' emails and the hoohah of invasion of privacy comparing it to opening snail mail (which is, of course, totally illegal).  But we live in a changing world where the people making the laws understand very little about the nature of the generation growing up using the internet.  We have to make new laws which work in our new society.

What do you think?  Is it possible to stop this mass piracy?  Is it a big problem or is it being blown out of proportion?

Finally, I finished stitching Jacqui's Oriental Lady for the Joan Elliott RR but it's too late to start faffing around with cameras and leads now so I'll save that for the next post.