Yay! Photos are back as at 7th June

Unfortunately I still can't post photos on here, so I'll post links to my Picasa album.

I finished the Passione Ricamo freebie angel for my little Great-Niece this week.  She was born on Monday, I added her name and delivered it to her on Thursday.  She is a very cute with lots of black curly hair.  A nice weight of 7lb 6oz, she seems so tiny after my last 10pounder!  My niece is recovering well, she lives at home with Mum, Dad and 2 of her 3 sisters so I think baby will be a communal project.  There are lots of Great Aunties and Great Uncles too as well as two Great Grandmas so there will be no shortage of cuddles for this little IMP (I love her initials, too cute!)

Here's the photo

Other news this week - F is for Furies.  Not my favourite square, especially after E was so much fun!  But very interesting info on the Furies and the Forbidden Stitch.  I have a great "Fury" story to share when I have stitched this one.

Nimue's Baby Swing is going great guns, I love this project.  Someone else is stitching it on the Mirabilia Board as part of her 11 in '11 so it's nice to share.  We both agreed some of the recommended skin tones were too orange and I've made a couple of substitutions.  The mossy branch at the top is so much fun, it's 2 different blends of greens and browns plus 2 straight colours and is just great to stitch.

Here's the progress at 3rd June

There are only 6 weeks until the end of term so I must start on the teachers' gifts.  Each year I stitch a small sampler for the large boy's teacher/s.  It features the name of the teacher, the school and the year they taught him which is why I don't post them online anywhere.  Reception teacher got an ABC, Year 1 got a blackwork castle in metallics, Year 2 got a rhino (her favourite animal!) and Year 3 loves Bagpuss.  The part-time teacher he had in Year 2 got a celtic dog and as he has her again this year (on Fridays only) I will make her a coaster with a JE Celtic Design.  It's either that or ask for last year's back and unpick the dates!!

Blogger fix for comments

Thanks to the wonderful Daffycat, there is a way you can allow your loyal followers to comment again:

"Change your comment form to the pop-up window type.

 

Go to:

Dashboard

Settings

Comments

Comment Form Placement

Choose POP-UP WINDOW
Save"

There are still lots of people I follow that I can't comment on, I'm not ignoring you, I just can't comment!

I've been stitching away on the Baby Swing and the Fairy this weekend.  I'll post pictures when Blogger allows me to.  I want to finish the chubby little legs on the baby tonight then start on the leaves.  The Fairy just needs her border and some metallics for the wand.  As soon as baby pops out I can add her name and details.

Reading wise we've just started the Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern series.  We being the large boy and me.  The first one we're reading is Dragonsong about Menolly and how she found her firelizards and became a harper.  I know the first one should be Dragonflight and Lessa's story but I read Dragonsong first as a child so wanted to follow the pattern.  It was published when I was 11 so I was at least 3 years older than the large boy when I read it to myself.  It's lovely to read it aloud and remember meeting all the characters for the first time so many years ago!

Hope you're all enjoying the Bank Holiday long weekend, I understand it's a long one in America too so perfect for stitching!

EEK, some WIPS

I've started 2 new birth pictures this week, one for my friend's new daughter and one for my great-niece due any minute.

The first is a Nimue design, The Baby Swing.   It's soooooooooo cute I had to have it.  The baby is fairly non-gender specific so it would have been okay for either gender.   The fabric is a 32 count Murano from Crafty Kitten, dyed specially for me.  I wanted a greeny-yellow that had the effect of sunlight though trees.  The chart photo was a plain dark green.
My scanner has decided only to scan the middle of the fabric with the stitching on so it looks very long and thin!

OK.  Now Blogger won't load photos.  How annoying is that?  Also I can only leave comments on blogs where the "follow" button is on the side, not when it's it the top margin thingy!

The second design you can't see is a Passione Ricamo freebie, Fairy Celebration.  I decided to go with the majority and stitch her in white.  It looks lovely and does indeed "pop".  If I was doing it for myself I'd have gone with the tone-on-tone scheme but as it's for my niece and her DD white it is.  I hope it's a DD, she's had a few scans as baby was breech but has luckily turned the correct way up.

I finished E is for EEK! this week as well.  What a nice little block that was, full of Hallowe'en motifs and a nice simple Ermine Stitch for the grass.  Even if I did do the straight line on top instead of underneath the diagonals!

I will post now and try add the photos as a later time.  In the meantime, here are the links to my Yuku album so you can at least look at them there!

Nimue - Baby Swing
PR - Fairy Celebration
E is for EEK!

Yay!  The photo adder is working again!  Sun 29th May

Dilemma!

Blogger is driving me crazy!  I can see my blog in read-only mode but can't get at the Dashboard.  I have to go into someone else's blog, leave a comment to log in to Blogger then I can edit my own blog!  And my Picasa photo album is having a tizzy fit too and won't load any photos.  I have to add them to my blog then move them into the relevant photo album then delete them from the blog.  aaaaaaaaghhhhhhhh!

Anyway I have a decision to make about thread colour.  I want to stitch this fairy for my great-niece who is due any time.  I have a piece of raspberry aida to stitch her on but can't decide on thread colour - magenta? pink? purple? a total contrast?  Any ideas?  I want to do a plain colour not a hand-dyed but other than that I'm not sure.

The fairy is a Passione Ricamo freebie, there are several different fairies on their site.  If you click on "X stitch brand line" on the left hand side of the screen it will bring up the link to the free charts.

I have finished a cute Japanese Beckoning Cat design by Joan Elliott this weekend and framed it in a bargain frame.  The bric-a-brac people left a box of bric and brac in our Toddler Group hall and while I was moving it to a safe place I couldn't help but notice three picture frames.  I was told everything was 10p so I generously gave them 50p for all 3!

The cat is known as Maneki Neko (or Beckoning Cat) and more information can be found here.
招き猫 These are the Japanese characters for Maneki Neko which I might try stitching along the bottom of the picture.  Alternatively I might find some oriental braid and fix that along the bottom.  I found a great shop in town recently which sells lovely trimmings.  The shop is at the grotty end of town and is a bit tatty on the outside.  Inside it's a jumble sale but they do have some great finds if you don't mind rummaging.