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All gone quiet

(16 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Andrea Thompson
  • Latest reply from Barbara Stone

  1. Andrea Thompson
    Moderator

    I imagine that everyone is way to busy with their embroidery to post up on the forum.
    I have a mental image of all of you sat there, eyes down, daylight bulbs on, stitching like there's no tomorrow.

    Sunday was a bit like that for me. After dragging myself out for a morning run I decided to abandon my plans to go for a walk until it stopped raining. Instead I spent the whole afternoon getting on with my flowers-in-a-heart-shaped cross stitch which I'm turning into a wedding sampler for my friend. Just me, endless cups of tea, my stitching and Star Trek Next Gen episodes on TV.

    It was a great, well spent Sunday. :-)

    So, how is everyone else getting on with their projects?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. Auntie Beryl
    Member

    I was beginning to wonder if everyone had hibernated ! That sounds like my kind of Sunday. I have started two projects and run out of threads for both of them ! So that means a trip to the Black Sheep but as we usually stop of for lunch somewhere it is not all bad .I have plenty of UFOs to fall back on .

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. Christine Berrett
    Administrator

    Still gamely working my way through the UFO that I dug out on New Year's Day.

    I will finish it...I will finish it...I will finish it....

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. Jean Strange
    Member

    Went to Pinks Barn on Saturday so came home with another project to finish, never mind the unknown number of not started projects in the pile. Won't get much time this week (school including 2 "training days" for the special 1:1 programmes I deliver), then going to visit the inlaws for the weekend as it was father-in-laws birthday last week. Never mind will try for the next weekend. Then hopefully half term will have quite a bit of "me" time. Have put Jane's half done Map of England on my new frame and stand and it is calling to me from the corner of the room every time I walk in!! Just like you Christine I WILL FINISH IT!!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. Janet
    Member

    I don't have any projects on the go at the moment, I have plenty of new ones to start, I don't seem to have had the time to start one, and when I have had the time I have been too tired and I don't like stitching when I'm tired as I make mistakes and have to start the dreaded unpicking. I am going to my monthly craft group on wednesday night so I will take my linen and threads with me and start as I mean to go on, although I suspect there will be more chatting than stitching with plenty cups of tea and biscuits.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. Brigitte Gant
    Member

    I have been getting on with my leopard after finishing my son's birthday card and a little book mark which is for a project in my German stitching forum. I have decided to get the 'Big Five of South Africa' done this year. The elephant and lion have been waiting patiently for their mates. I have managed to finish the buffalo just after Christmas. The leopard is driving me mad. So many close shades and crosses dotted all over the place, so it's not speedy. Won't get a lot of stitching done this weekend as DH and I are away for a change of scenery.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. brenda midgley
    Member

    Hello Everyone - well I am just beginning to come out of winter hibernation!. God what is it with me and dark mornings/evenings. To say I am useless is putting it mildly.

    I have however been beavering away on my UFO's as I promised myself. I am now on the brink of finishing our Bradford project (yes, only just!) It's all stitched now but I have a nice lining I want to sew to it and then I shall stitch it into its little bag shape and use it to keep my threaded cards in when I set up for a project. I do love to be able to make use of stitched things rather than have everything framed and on a wall;although some things are of course.

    I've been stitching for a good hour and a half this afternoon - it's now coming up to half 4 and still light in our conservatory to see well. I'm currently working on something from an old News and Views which I eventually want to make into a box (top).

    I like the sound of your leopard Brigitte - being an animal lover anyway I think there are some striking big cat projects out there.

    Well, I must soldier on as they say, I'm at choir practice tonight so tea mustn't be late and would you believe it - the potato peeling fairy has taken a day off today so I've got to do the flipping things myself! A hated chore - don't ask why, I don't know. Ironing comes second.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. Barbara Stone
    Member

    Thank goodness somebody's started another topic on the forum. I'd begun to think that any comment from me automatically stopped anybody else from replying. I've finished one thing that I started before Christmas, then had to go back to my City and Guilds work, as the term started last week. Since then, I've been adapting panto costumes and finishing my C&G homework, so I haven't picked up any cross stitch for the last two weeks. Can't wait for the panto to finish (roll on February) so that I can do some more cross stitch!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. brenda midgley
    Member

    I'm replying right now Barbara - it's always interesting to see what others write - most of the time we all talk a lot of rubbish anyway (well, I do) but the point is - we are communicating and with me being such a nosey parker I want to know what everyone else is up to, be it stitching, watching television or singing in the bath.

    I sat and stitched in the conservatory at first light this morning - me, a cup of tea and quietness outside, a heron flew over twice and I felt sorry for the poor thing as it is no doubt skirting over everyone's gardens hoping to catch a goldfish or something in someone's pond.

    Thank goodness Spring is in front of us - already there are tight buds on a little pink blossomed tree in our back garden. Not sure what it is as we inherited it when we moved here some 30 years ago; but it's bareness now I know will become gloriously alive in a month or so's time.

    Stick at it with the panto costumes - your endeavours will be rewarded when you can pick up the cross stitch again. Have you got a particular project in mind that you are longing to get to?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. Barbara Stone
    Member

    I'm doing the Magnolia Pattern Darning of the Flower Sampler Book - finished the blackwork page, and thought, okay, I'll get started on the next page. Well that was a laugh!! It was two weeks ago that my husband said "Have you thought how you're going to do the Ugly Sisters beds yet?" We bought the material before we went on holiday back in October, so I thought I'd better get it done. Well I've sat in a freezing cold shed on the Cadbury site (alas now closed) for hours sewing material together, but today when we had a rehearsal and the beds were used for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised at everybody's reaction. So only two more weeks until the panto finishes, and I'll be able to get back to the cross stitch (If I don't have any homework to do for the City & Guilds course in Patchwork and Quilting, to do.) It seemed such a good idea when I started it - I'm having second thoughts now, but I'm definitely enjoying myself, so I'm glad I decided to do it. Big Garden Birdwatch weekend next week, so if you've got nothing else to do for an hour, sit and count the different types of birds that land in your garden, and let the RSPB know your results. TTFN.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. brenda midgley
    Member

    Oh didn't realise the Birdwatch survey was back again - I normally see it advertised in the Radio Times so perhaps that's intended for the issue which I shall be picking up when out shopping on Wednesday morning. I usually do the survey - trouble is the pesky little feathered fiends seem to know and they all fly away for the weekend (well, the interesting ones do in the garden at chez Midgley) and I end up recording that we've had sparrows/blackbirds/collared doves/wood pigeons and magpies!. Just what the RSPB want to hear about I'm sure.

    The Magnolia pattern darning is lovely - I've looked at it myself a couple of times even though I am not doing the Flower Sampler book.

    The panto sounds fun so carry on enjoying that - now if you need a couple of Ugly Sisters - I can think of ....no, I'd better not say it; I shall get myself in trouble again!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. Andrea Thompson
    Moderator

    The City and Guilds course sounds interesting. I've often thought of doing a course to learn a new technique or to just learn something new! Not really got around to it though. So many things I'd like to do but this pesky "work" keeps getting in the way.

    Alas not sure I could take part in the Bird counting thing for two reasons... 1 - I haven't got a garden, I live in a 2nd floor flat, and 2 - I'm pretty bad at identifying different birds. I'm always so impressed by people who can tell different birds so easily. I genuinely don't think I'd be able to identify a sparrow.

    I live near a canal though so I could, possibly go and sit on the tow path for a while and count swans, ducks and moorhens (ooh I only know a moor hen because someone told me what it was). Once, when I lived in Salford, I spotted a green paraquette! Living wild in the trees of Salford! who'd have thought.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. Christine Berrett
    Administrator

    I'm not very good at identifying birds. If we ever had a blackbird or robin in our garden I might be able to identify it, but we get mostly starlings, pigeons, jackjaws and "little brown jobs". No idea what the lbjs are - not even whether they are all the same make. But we did once have a bird of prey catch and consume a pigeon in the middle of the lawn - quite fascinating in a gruesome sort of way.

    On the canal I can recognise ducks, geese and swans when I see 'em - there's sometimes even a heron.

    But the one thing I really enjoy is to be able to lie awake listening to the dawn chorus in the early morning. Losing sleep is a very small price to pay for being able to hear such heavenly music!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. Barbara Stone
    Member

    Because the little toe rags won't come and feed in my garden until they're in full nesting mode (when we're beseiged by our feathery friends) I normally go and do my birdwatch in the grounds of the school where we are doing our panto. I couldn't have identified some varieties until a few years ago, but Bob and I decided that we needed a hobby we could do together, so with the aid of a friend who is an expert, we started bird watching. Since then, its gone from strength to strength, and we now go to various interesting places in the world, and watch the birdies.
    The City & Guilds course is very interesting and I'm learning a lot, but other things have had to take a second place. Its also costing lots of money, which is why I still work two days a week, after I took early retirement two years ago. They insist on me working at the hospital, before they will pay me - I can't think why!! Anyway, as I've got a free evening, I intend to get on with the Magnolia Pattern darning. See you anon.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. EILeen
    Member

    Iknow what you mean Ilove the birds I went to the garden centre today I whent to one of the shops and I was so suprised to see a robin sitting on a till now back to crossstitch I got a kit the other day started my work and did I scream there was a brown mark on the adia a right patch I had sorted my silks out so could not take it back so out again to buy a piece of adia by the way how do you get your folds out of your adia
    the more I try the worse it gets

    hope you see a lot of birds in the summer and enjoy them

    hope to correspond with you soon Eileen

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. Barbara Stone
    Member

    I know the feeling. Try either washing it, or steam it with the iron, and the creases might come out. Alternatively, just take it back to the shop, as its not fit for purpose, and they should replace it. Argue with them - they've sold you something that isn't fit for use, so its their responsibility. As you can imagine, I'm feeling militant today. Good luck, and don't worry about having sorted the threads - they're okay, so just make them replace the Aida.

    Posted 13 years ago #

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