The Expensive Thread Arrived.

Last week saw three shopping sprees which added to my stash haul.

Firstly I had an order arrive from Sew & So which was less than 36 hours from being placed to arriving. I also managed to break my daylight bulb so as I was out walking in that area I headed to Bakewell and Wye Needlecraft. For the first time in about a year they actually had the bulb I needed in stock so I went mad and bought two. I also picked up a piece of hand dyed fabric which I just couldn't resist.

The rest of the picture is my Sew & So order. Elisa had recently bought some Floss-A-Way bags from there and with the Belle Soie thread being so expensive I thought they would be ideal for keeping it safe and clean. I especially wanted to keep the red thread separate from the rest of my threads as when I was using it I noticed it bleeding into the white. The rest of the order will be used for stitching family Christmas cards.

On Saturday the Belle Soie silks and the fabric I ordered to justify the postage arrived. I have to say the fabric is gorgeous.

]This afternoon will be spent finishing my Mums birthday present then I will take it to the framers and hope that it will be done in time for her birthday.

There hasn't been much sewing over the last week as I've been busy working on my walking website, along with planning and writing up walks. Last week I was asked to contribute walks to a second local magazine, which is great news, but meant I needed to sit down and work out what walks I was doing when. It might sound daft but I spent a good few hours planning which walks I would be doing for not only the 2010 editions but also some of the 2011 editions. For some of the walks I need to take the photos nearly a year in advance in order to meet printing deadlines e.g. I can't take pictures of snowdrops in December 2010 to meet the January 2011 deadline for the Feb/March 2011 edition.

I have also more or less decided to set up my own business, which is going to take some planning and preparation. As the business revolves around walking the first task is for me to get much fitter. The second is getting my website converted to php and some new sections developed. On top of that I also need to acquire some qualifications, more for insurance purposes than anything, but they will require time commitments as well.

As if that's not enough I have also got some ideas for designing my own cross stitch charts and want to get some of them down on paper and stitched up. Not sure if this will come to anything but I did come up with a name. What do you think of 'Titch Stitches'. No prizes for guessing how tall I am or what I was called at school.

I think I need the days to get much longer!!

Washing

Thought I'd share two conversations I've had with the 2 male members of my family/household in the last 48 hours regarding washing.

Sunday evening Husband is collecting together his ironing, whilst I'm doing something on the computer:

Husband: Have you washed my shirt?
Me: Which one?
Husband: The light blue one.
Me: Yes ...................... pause and then think
Me: When did you last wear it?
Husband: Wednesday.
Me: No. I usually wash light blue stuff on a Monday/Tuesday with the towels.
Husband: I didn't know you were that organised.

Now I know he pays no attention at all to what I do. For years now he has been emptying the washing machine and putting the tumble dryer on overnight. Has he never noticed that because between them he and my two children have very little other than black clothes I rarely do a mixed/coloured wash!! I reckon I do 2 dark washes to every white or mixed coloured wash and that includes bedding.

P.S. I refused to iron his shirts long before he moved in as he's so fussy about them. I could iron my late Husband's shirts well enough for the Royal Air Force but apparently not well enough my for current Husband.

Earlier this evening I realise I haven't done any of Son's shirts for work over the last few days and he's at work tomorrow.

Son is a shift manager at MacDonalds which means he gets to wear a white poly-cotton shirt that generally gets covered in tomato stains, grease and black stuff from the grills (I think). As they are poly-cotton I can't wash them on a hot wash, so I have to treat the various stains overnight, before they go in the wash. He has four of them and I try to wash them in batches of three, which usually allows me to stay well ahead of his shift pattern. The trouble is he's just about to do the 5th day in a row and I forgot to sort any out last night.

Me: Dashing into his bedroom and desperately hoping that he has a shirt in his wardrobe. There is after all only one in the washing basket.

Son: I used the last shirt this morning.
Me: Well there is only one in the washing basket.
Son: They're on my floor.
Son's Friend: It's such a tip on your floor, how's your Mum meant to see them?

Thank goodness for tumble dryers as at least I can wash and dry his shirts in time, but I love the fact that it wasn't the fact he hadn't put his dirty clothes in the washing basket that Son's friend commented on, but rather the fact I couldn't see them on his bedroom floor.

Gold, Ashes and Hair

Last week was spent doing very little other than watching TV and stitching. With the World Athletics Championship on most mornings and every evening I was already going to be spending a lot of time in front of the TV, but when you add to that the final test match in the Ashes series, then clearly, not a lot else was going to be done. As both of these sports are good for stitching and watching I decided to get going again on Celtic Autumn.

I set myself the target of doing her hair, so as that in the future I could combine working on the border with doing the few bits, other than the white stitches, I have left to do on her dress. I have got that far with her now that I can almost feel a Happy Dance coming on by the end of the year.

I also received some stash last week, the two snippet charts I purchased from Elisa and some books I ordered with the last of the Waterstones voucher my brother gave me for Christmas. The books are being saved for when we go camping in the Lakes in a couple of weeks time. I'm planning on stitching up the snippets as Christmas cards for my young nieces and nephews.

I have heard from Thread Bear that the silks I need to finish my Mum's birthday present need to be ordered from the States, so it may be another 2/3 weeks before I'm able to finish her present. I only have one corner of the border to do but it's unlikely it will be framed in time for her birthday.

Having done very little last week I now need to catch up with everything else I neglected to do, so as today I have the house to myself, I'm going to get all of the housework out of the way. Then I have a long list of jobs I need to tackle that will involve a lot of time on the computer. We won't mention the weeds in the garden that seem to have appeared over the last week.

Totally Useless SAL

As it's the 22nd August and I joined the Totally Useless SAL, here is my first picture of my orts and ends.

The bottom layers relate to some secret stitching that I have been doing and really must get around to making up.

The red threads come from the Little House Needlework design that I have been working on for my Mum's birthday.

The final layer, of mainly orange threads, are a result of my work on Celtic Autumn. I have been stitching on her whilst I have been watching the cricket and World Athletics. Once they have finished I'll post progress pictures for her.

So Frustrating

My plan for the weekend was to work on and hopefully finish Gentle & Kind so as that I could take it to be framed today. I had a weekend of watching the 20/Twenty Finals and the World Athletics Championship along with a bit of ironing and a lot of stitching planned. I managed to achieve all 4 but hadn't counted on not being able to finish the piece because I ran out of thread.

I have completely run out of the light brown and the green threads and suspect that I will also run out of the red thread before I finish all the lettering. In each case I'm a maximum of two strands of thread short. I am so frustrated.

I wouldn't mind if I'd wasted the thread but most of the time when I'd finished with each strand there was barely enough thread to secure the stitching with and no frogs that resulted in wasted thread. All I can say is that someone was incredibly tight with the amount of thread they allocated to this Thread Pack.

As it turns out I love Crescent Colours, so I don't mind buying the threads, as I'm sure I'll use them again, but from now on I'll be buying the charts, not the thread packs, whenever that is an option.

Now to place my threads order, which no doubt will mean some extra additions to my stash as I'm not paying for postage for just 3 threads.

Ouch - just ordered the threads they were the Belle Soie Silks at nearly £5.00 each. If I had a safe I'd be keeping them in it when they arrived!!

Quilting

I have just heard that my RAK has arrived at it's new home. Bilbo has assured me that she likes it. As the theme of the design suggests Bilbo likes to make quilts, when she's not in her garden.

Little House Needleworks: Quilting
Fabric: Hand-dyed 30-count Summer Sunset evenweave from Chameleon
Threads: Crescent Colours

It was my first attempt at a mattress style pincushion and also my first time using hand-dyed floss.

I decided to repeat the border for the back and used some of the detail from the border on the sides.

I had ummed and arrghed for a while about what colour to use for the edging and eventually settled on yellow. Shortly after which Bilbo started her latest quilt Yellow Peril, which was very weird, or fate, depending upon how you view these things.

A New Start

Late last week my order from Down Sunshine Lane arrived.

I have no plans for any of the Summer Showcase charts, although I'm sure I'll find a use for them soon. The LHN Gentle and Kind chart is planned as a birthday present for my Mum.

As her birthday is in September and I'd like to get it framed, I thought I'd better get a move on, so I started it last night. Fortunately I'm fast becoming a LHN fan and know that they stitch up very quickly, so, hopefully, it will be finished and at the framers by next week.

I also have a parcel in the post, so there will be a reveal coming up soon of some of my secret stitching.