Fair and Square Round 2

Well i posted my squares for the Fair and Square Exchange 3/4 weeks ago now. Unfortunately my partner for the exchange moved house and i didn't have her new address and she isnt having her mail redirected so i don't know if she'll ever get these. Very annoying indeed! So i thought i'd just post these pictures of what i stitched to prove that i did stitch them!! I read that my exchange partner liked houses and trees and samplers so found this chart, which i had to ammend to fit 50x50. It is a freebie from Les Grilles de Maryse. I really enjoyed stitching this and might stitch it again sometime.Ive made good progress on Donna's RR this week! I know it's not due for posting until the 7th October but im keen to get it finished so that i can work on some other things without this being at the back on my mind.
Today is my mum and dad's anniversary and as i found out at dinner the other night that my Dad reads my blog i shall take this opportunity to say "Happy Anniversary to you both!"

SBEBB and Sewing Nights

Yesterday i joined the SBEBB (Stitching Blogger Exchange Board) and i am so excited about it! I thought long and hard about whether i'd have time to do it and came to the conclusion that i do, even if that means i'll never stitch anything for myself ever LOL. Today i signed up for my first exchange which will be the "Specific Designer Exchange." The designer chosen is LHN so that suits me just fine seeing as it's one of my favourites and, as you know by now, LHN is the theme of the RR we're doing at the moment. Here's how Donna's is lookingSo i now have to keep a close track of all my deadlines which im going to post in the sidebar to help me keep record.

Thanks for all the comments about the quilting! Im really looking forward to it and for those of you who asked - i will definitely still be stitching! I'm also so excited that one of my friends has really got into sewing these days and has signed up to come to the class with my mum and i. Someone my age who shares my hobby! Yeah!! In fact, last night, we had our first "sewing" night at my house, much to the amusement of our other friends! It was actually only Lori and I stitching, the other 2 watched a dvd and laughed at us. This is me pretending (badly) that i haven't noticed the cameraand here is Lori surrounded by stash boxes!and i'll leave you with this cute picture of Fiona, Lori's little one, wondering what on earth i was doing!

Im gonna be a quilter!

Im going to quilting classes! I've been wanting to learn to quilt for ages but just haven't had the opportunity to try it yet. My mum has started getting interested in it too after visiting one of her quilting friends. Anyway, last week we found out that there is going to be a quilting class in the wee community centre in my village which is right opposite my house. The lady that runs the class (which is for beginners) is only taking on 6 class members so mum and i make up 2 of those. We start at the end of september and it runs one night a week for 10 weeks and is a good price too. Im a bit worried about it as i'm hoping i will be able to do it as im not experienced at sewing at all. Least my mum will be there and can help me out though.

When i told my sister about this she couldn't stop laughing and said "What are you going to do when you're old? You're going to have no hobbies left, you're using them all up now." The cheek of it! It did make me laugh though.

Here are some stitching updates. This is where im up to on your RR Donna. LHN's "The counting house." Im using the recommended WDW, Crescent Colours and DMC threads. This one is an enjoyable stitch as it's nice and simple. A good tv stitch (a piece you don't have to concentrate too hard on).I haven't done much on Amitie recently but i got home from work earlier yesterday and sat in the sun for a while (yes, you read right - we've had sun...and heat!) and worked on it for a little while.As usual, im glad it's the weekend. No plans tonight which is fine by me as we were out last night and im tired today. Tomorrow night i'm dragging DH and 2 of our friends along to a work event. Im taking some of the young people i work with to a concert organised and performed by other young people in the area. Not sure what it'll be like, just doing my bit and showing face at it!

Have a good weekend everyone!

RR's Arrival

Monday has arrived too quickly. I had a great weekend. One of my bestfriends came up to stay from Birmingham. It was great to catch up. We stayed up til about 4am chatting on Friday and then on Saturday afternoon we headed to a bbq for our other friends 30th birthday. We had a good laugh despite the rain! She left late last night.

No stitching at the weekend but the most expensive RR ever (see previous post LOL) did arrive on Friday and i started work on it straight away. This is Donna's piece that im working on. For those of you that don't know, we are doing a LHN themed Round Robin. You can follow our progress on the Heartfelt Friends RR blog. Donna's fabric is lovely, much nicer than the one ive sent on. Mine was just a plain cream cashel linen. I think she said hers is a 28ct hand dyed jobelan. Donna wants a country or lodge theme. There's nothing more "country" in Scotland than some sheep! Im using LHN's "the counting house." Here's a close up (sorry about the shadow). I hope you like it Donna!In my last post i wrote about the kindness of stitching bloggers and once again i have been showered with kindness by a relatively new blogging friend. Selina sent me a gift voucher at the weekend for her online store. Selina, thank-you so much. That was so kind of you and so unexpected! I really appreciate it. You should check out Selina's website sometime!

Thank-you to everyone who comments and reads my blog. I really do appreciate you all. I've had a few new commentors recently, please leave me a link to your blog and i will stop by. I like to visit the blog of anyone that stops by mine. I guess that's why i have so many in my google reader :) I enjoy seeing what everyone is stitching, it's great motivation.

Finally, i have no West of Scotland weekend photos for you so i'll post this one that i took in Crieff last weekend. This mushroom was growing in the middle of no whereHave a good week!

The kindness of stitching bloggers

I have had the worst luck with post recently. Firstly i thought some stash i ordered was lost in the mail (fortunately it wasn't), then i posted my squares for the Fair and Square exchange and then got told her address had changed (so who knows if they'll ever arrive) and finally and worst of all, Donna's RR is stuck with customs with a £50 charge attached to it. Can you believe that? I can't dispute the charges until i have the parcel in my possession and i can't have the parcel until i pay the charges. So i had to pay and hope to goodness that they will accept my dispute of the charge. There's only a bloomin' piece of linen in it for goodness sake!! That should arrive on Friday but it surely must be classed as the most expensive RR ever!

So today, i was so happy to come home and received a parcel that had no problems (or charges!) attached to it. Ive only been blogging since January but since then i cannot believe just how kind stitching bloggers are! The kindness and generosity of people i have never even met never ceases to amaze me. Mercy was one of the first stitching bloggers i came into contact with through the stitching bloggers yahoo group. Today i received the following RAK from her.

LHN's herb garden with all the floss as well! Mercy, thank-you so much. I love this piece. If you haven't checked out Mercy's blog before you should. In particular you have to see the flatfold she made recently from this design. It is beautiful.

Now some stitching updates. I haven't worked on Dollhouse since the beginning of June but i pulled it out of the WIP box recently and got another room done. Click here to see my last update picture.

Not one of my favourite rooms. I don't really get the watering can?? Here's how it looks overall. 5 rooms down, 7 to goIve been working a bit on Amitie when i have time at work. Here's my latest progress

Back from the east

There was absolutely no camping this weekend as the rain arrived in full strength again. We kind of thought this would happen so we decided to treat ourselves and book a nice hotel instead, which we did, in the Perthshire town of Crieff, about a 2 hour drive from here. We left on saturday morning and it did rain all day on saturday. We spent some time wondering around the town and then just enjoyed the facilities at the hotel; swimming/hot tub etc. Was nice. The hotel dates back to Victorian times! We had a gorgeous meal in the evening. Today the sun came out which was great. We went walking and climbed "the knock of Crieff." The views were lovely. Here are some East of Scotland weekend photos!After our walk we went to Scotland's oldest distillery. It dates back to the 1700s. We had a tour round the place and then had a whisky tasting thing. Ergh, i do not like whisky! Was an interesting tour though.

It was really good to get away.

In stitching news....my stash finally arrived! 2 weeks to arrive from England, unbelievable! The Blackbird designs book is great and there are loads of charts in there that i want to stitch. Im working away on Amitie and have started working on Dollhouse again. I'll post some progress pictures during the week. I'm now awaiting the arrival of Donna's RR so i can get stitching on it. I've already decided what i'll be stitching for her. Can't wait to get going!

SAL and (another) new start

I managed to work a bit on my SAL this week. Progress is quite slow but i only manage an hour, or two at the most, on this a week. Here's my progress picture, my little people now have hair I also have a new start to show. It is an ex-freebie from this site. Im stitching it with DMC 115.
*edit*if you want this chart, it is no longer a freebie but you can purchase it. I also finished and posted my squares for the Fair and Square Exchange. Ive since heard that my exchange partner has a new address though and so i don't know if she'll get my squares or not, because i had her old address. I'll be gutted if she doesn't receive them after all my stitching :(

After moaning about the rain on Sunday, we have had a lovely week. Not hot, but dry and bright. That's better than rain anyway. Because it has been nice we cancelled the swimming plans and have been biking 2 nights this week instead. My legs and bum are so sore after tonights ride. If the weather stays nice we're hoping to get away to one of the Lochs this weekend. We might camp over night on saturday, we havent decided yet, but we'll definitely go away for the day on saturday and take the bikes. Should be fun!

Rain, Rainbows and a Round Robin

Remember the stash i blogged about it in my last post? It still hasn't arrived! These postal strikes are driving me crazy! It should have arrived Wednesday being sent first class on Tuesday but no sign as yet. So with that in mind i will be posting my RR off (first class) to Lesley tomorrow or Tuesday. It has to be with her by the 12th. I won't have my square finished but i never really planned to anyway. Here is where im up to with it so far. It's LHN's Daisy Lane Cottage. Im hoping to finish the roof and the front door before it leaves me for a few months on its round the world tour!I will be receiving Donna's to work on soon! Here's a link to our RR blog if anyone wants to follow our progress.

Today is has rained all day. We are having a really poor summer. I can remember some hot weather back in April for a few days....maybe that was summer LOL. It has been a much needed quiet weekend. On Friday night i went to see Hairspray at the cinema with my friend. I loved it, John Travolta was really funny. Yesterday DH and i watched Click on dvd and didn't enjoy it that much. Tomorrow is a local holiday and i have the day off work! Woo hoo! DH doesn't as his company only has UK wide holidays. I am meeting a friend for lunch and hoping to go swimming in the evening. Speaking of swimming....i am trying to swim at least once a week but preferably twice. With the rubbish weather ive not been out on my bike much and i gave up my gym membership because i rarely went so i need some other exercise. My mum has been coming swimming too which is good as i probably wouldn't go by myself.

Now look what arrived in the mail (yes, an actual mail delivery!) on saturdayHeather read this post on my blog after we had returned from Canada in June! I do miss Swiss chalet. Heather, thank you so much, it did indeed make me smile. You are very kind! Now if could just send me some Maple Dip Donuts from Tim Hortons and some Dill Pickle Lays my Canadian food cravings will be over LOL, just kidding!

I will finish with a West of Scotland Weekend picture. Enjoy the rainbow!

*Edit* Can anyone tell me if there's a DMC with different shades of green? Like the red DMC 115?

Stashing and SAL-ing again

I had a small pay increase at work so thought i'd treat myself to just one new chart. Seeing as we're doing LHN designs for the Heartfelt Friends RR i thought this chart would come in useful!

LHN's "The counting house." When i went to buy from my favourite online shop Thread Bear, minimum order was £5 and so i had to get something else. I could have just brought 1 skein DMC to bring it to the £5 mark but no, i bought this lovely book instead, bringing me way over the £5 mark! Kate at Thread Bear emailed to say that the package had been sent out 1st class yesterday. So i should have had it today. Unfortunately we have a series of postal strikes in the UK over the next 3 weeks and today was one of those days! I'll just have to be patient!

Here's a picture of the frame i got for the baby gift. The light is bad because it was taken late last night before i packaged it up for the mail. The frame has lovely sequins all over.I'm back to working on my RR again now as i'll be posting it off to Lesley soon. However, Jamie and i have started our Coffee Menu SAL again after quite a break. Here's the latest, rather wrinkled, progress picture

Looking forward to seeing where you're up to Jamie!