A finish and a new start

Happy Dance! I have finished Mirabilia's Spring Queen. It must have taken me around 3 years, but of course, it was only part of my rotation, and at times, I had to put it on hold completely for urgent other stuff such as wedding samplers etc. But boy, it turned out so beautiful at the end. The dreaded beading was really easy actually, and took me no longer than 2 weekends. I couldn't stop stitching this weekend actually, its always like that when the end is near LOL.

And here is the new kit which goes into the rotation: 'Giraffe and baby'from Dimensions. Ruby loves giraffes, so for a while, I collected cross stitch of giraffes to go in her room. At the moment, her room is full of Hannah Montana and High School Musical though;-))

Update on Spring Queen. And it's nearly done!!! I've finished all the backstitching in 2 evenings, and than on to the beading. it was much easier that what I remembered and I made great progress - finished the hair, necklace and I'm on to the sleeves. What a great feeling to finally see this coming to an end. I would finish this in just a few days but I'm being strong and commit myself to the rotation, so Spring Queen was packed away Sunday evening until the next rotaton in 5 weeks - but than I'm gonna have a finish! And I think I'd rather save up to have it framed professionally. I had Summer Queen framed professionally at Hobbycraft. I'm not any more 100% happy with it. The frame and mount are georgeous, but the fabric is sort of hanging, it doesn't sit tight. The framer in Hobbycraft is not any longer in business, but there is a small LSN in towncenter where I will ask.

Already the 3rd week in January. Can't wait now for the days to get longer again! Its already a small improvement that we still seem to have daylight by 4:30 pm. Well, I have finished Spring Queen! Almost, anyway. All the cross stitch is done, now on the backstitch (not a lot, but I'd forgotten about it, I was about to start on the beading). Yeah, well, and the beading. I do not look forward to the beading! The Spring Queen is in rotation in another 5 weeks anyway. I actually copied the chart again, and coloured all the different beads in different highligher colours (I've done that while sitting in a very boring court case LOL!). That should make it easier, and the beading may turn out to be a nice change, who knows, maybe I'll enjoy it!

Merry Christmas Everyone. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, whereever in the world you are.

I've put my turkey in, yes, it is turkey this year after last year's disaster with the goose which really didn't taste nice. I'm sure it must have been me and I did something wrong rather than something wrong with the product, but I really don't want to take that chance again. So we went to West Ham yesterday to get meat. We finished work at 1 pm, than I dashed home and quickly tiedied the house up. Then I picked Nafees up from West Ham, and back home, we wrapped the presents. The children don't believe in Father Christmas any more anyway, so I placed the presents under the tree (I personally don't feel it is such a big deal to believe in this anonoumus figure of 'Father Christmas'... ? Sorry, I don't mean to be a scrooge or something, I love the season etc).

We bought the children a PC for Christmas, so at least my laptop will be all mine now! :-))

Anyway, here is some progress from the last two weeks: Nearly finished Spring Queen, but than it suddenly came to me what to stitch for Rachel - a towel with a little Poodle, so I quickly finished that last weekend. I forgot to take a picture, but will ask Rachel.

An update and a finish!

Spring Queen is needing the end, maybe another 2 or 3 rotation weeks, and than it will be the be only the beading left to do. No rush on it though, as I would really like to get it framed professionally, and need to save up for it. I'm not really good framing myself... yes, I do it on smaller pictures, and I find that my framing skills never do justice to the picture, and it is annoying me. So, especially for the big pieces, I'd rather save up for a professional finish.

And I finished the Glasgow Rose Cat picture. With hindsight, I should have stitched it on much smaller fabric size. This is 14ct Aida, and it comes out so big, the crosses are really big to me as well. I don't mind Aida too much, but in the future, I will probably only stitch on 16ct or 18ct, nothing bigger than that, for a neater and tidyer finish. This picture is rectangle, panel-size and it might be more suitable for a wall-hanging.

Despite the finish, I'm not going to add a new piece to my rotation (*sigh*), as this now leaves me with 5 pieces in my rotation, and that is more than enough. I need another finish before adding on another piece. The new one coming in then is going to be: Giraffe Mother and Child from Sunset. This is going to be for my daughter Ruby's room, she loves giraffes ever since seeing one at London Zoo when she was about 5 years old or so. The giraffe sticked out its long tongue, and Ruby was so impressed and couldn't stop talking abut it. I hope she still likes her room decorated with giraffe pictures, as nowadays she's got High School Musical and Hannah Montana on the wall....

Here is my progress from Spring Queen (rotation for last week). I managed to get quite a bit done, and it almost looks finished. Still quite a fair bit to do in the bottom right corner, but 1 or 2 more rotations, and she is done... and then the beading of course.

As I now have a 6 weekly rotation, this piece won't come out again now before November.

I admit - I haven't been a very good blogger! Life just seems to get in a way... and unfortunately I cannot update the blog at work:-)). So...as I mainly would like to concentrate here on my cross-stitch, I think I just show my updates and try to update more often. As I have to finish the Poodle for Rachel's birthday, I'm working on it 5 days a week, and do my usual rotation only over the weekends.

Sorry about the bad picture quality - not much to see, only a large blob of white - that is the top of page 1 of the poodle. I tried several settings with the camera, this was about the best I could do - sorry, I'm no expert on this. And yes, that really is all just white crosses....

I finished the 2 trees quite a while ago, and now finally framed - they are hanging in my hallway. I think the frames really set the pictures off. The design is from Gerda Bengtson, my alltime fav. designer (Danish)

Another Fremme design - my part in the round robin for Anita. I did the flower on the left. Fremme thread is such a pleasure to stitch.

I worked on Spring queen last weekend. Nearing the end - I can't believe it. Then there's only the small matter of beading.

I have really neglegted my blog in the past few weeks... here is my update on Spring Queen - yes, she is coming along nicely and almost finished. The card is for Beverly from the birthday exchange group. This week, my rotation is the Glasgow rose cat.

I 've had a week off 2nd week of Jan - I was absolutely shattered after Christmas/New Year. Work was so extremely busy and we had only sceleton staff as it is usual I suppose - instead of 10 there were only 3 of us, and often I didn't leave the office until 7 or 8 in the evening (I usually finish at 3.30pm). The week off was bliss - and I managed to get quite a few things done. Finally registered with a dentist (after 5 years!! shame!), Raja had his annual jabs... Hopefully I'm getting someone to come around to have a look at our fence which needs replacing. I feel reluctant to call someone from the Yellow Pages - I know I'm gonna get ripped off with builders and such, as I really haven't got a clue.

Ruby started swimming lessons and I do go regularly again on Saturdays/Sundays. Ruby's lessons - well, I don't know. She is in a beginners class, as she never had lessons, but all the other kids are 3/4 year olds, and lots of the lesson seem to involve simply getting the kids used to water (e.g. splashing about, retrieving balls from the water) -pretty silly for a 9 year old. I payed a small fortune for 10 lessons (each lasting only 30 mins) - let's hope she is eventually learning to swim! oh, btw, I tried to teach her several times but failed, I'm just an awful teacher I'm afraid.

Here's an update on the Spring Queen from last week. didn't do a lot. unfortunately, I still don't get the pictures with the Digicam right - I'm no whizz with technical stuff etc. well, I just put the camera on 'AUTO' setting, but this it what it produces...

and here is the heart I did from a booklet by 'Sticken und Staunen' (German designer). Well, I've run out of thread (Caron Waterlilies), isn't it annoying!

Here's an update on Spring Queen. I just so enjoy working on those!

Tonight, one of the kittens is going. A bit sad, but I'm also quite relieved. That will leave us with 4 (+ Thomas).

I have just been so so lazy this week! Nothing particular going on, no TMA (TMA03 was finally posted on the due day Wednesday). Nafees started his new job, and it seems to be going quite nice. Only the travel to Maidstone is a right pain! Once I come home from work, it takes me about 1 hour to clean up after the kittens. As cute as they are - I can't bear this much longer honestly. And they are all over the house, and Nafees insists on closing our bedroom door at nighttime, can't sleep with 9 kittens running up and down and playing upsailing with your bedcover.

Here is my update from Spring Queen last week, not much done. This week is Monet, but I hardly did a stitch. Have been mainly reading in the evenings.

Here is my progress for Spring Queen last week:





I finished a large block of the yellowish-beige colour in the bottom right. They are such a pleasure to stitch , large blocks of colour, but it still doesn't get boring. This week, it's Monet in my rotation.


This is how the second plate of my pixel art giraffe looks at the moment. its quick to do, and I do it 'in-between' when I sit upstairs studying.


I've got a day off work today, it's so wonderful having a long weekend. And next week (Easter) all over again - this got me in a right good mood over the weekend. I managed to finish a few chapters in the Theories book, finished with Psychological and Social Criminologies. this week it's on to Radical Criminologists which include Marxism - plenty of articles in the reader on Marxism, hope I can get it finished this week. Hey, good news as well, I passed TMA02 with 85%!!! This is the highest ever mark since I started with the OU. I think I'm on the right path with Criminology, even though I had my doubts as I miss the Psychology.
On another note - Nafees has now finally decided to change his job, he will start his new job on 23 April. I'm not sure if I should be glad or not, after all, as a book lover ('Leseratte' as they say in German), having a husband work in a book shop was just fantastic. Well, what can I do... it is a sort of career progression for him, his new field is more related to his study subject (Software Engineering). He is going to work for a firm of Solicitors as IT Technician. I have the usual worries about probation-period etc. Keeping positive!