St Nick's progress

Well I don't have the virus yet! Tony is much improved, thank you for all your good wishes. He was able to help me in the garden for a while this evening, once things had cooled down a little. We got up to 29.9 C today. We could do with some more days like that to help ripen the chillies.

The plants are laden with huge fruit but it is all green. I picked some yesterday to use in a relish. Nine jars of lovely relish made and stashed away.

My two days off work are done, amid the chores, relish making, the gardening and looking after Tony I was able to sit and stitch for a good while on both days and made some great progress on St Nick.

Here he is last time I took his photo.

And this is how he looked when I put his cover on 15 minutes ago.

I'm almost done with the two pages that make up the centre of the chart.

I feel that I had a very successful couple of days stitching. I'm glad to get the garland done, there were lots of colour changes in there and there is more of the same to come as I stitch more toys and gifts in his sack.

Back to work tomorrow, but hopefully I'll make time for a few stitches too. 

This n' that.

On Saturday I zoomed with Chooky and the girls. It was a quiet day, with just a few of us on and as you see not everyone was sewing. Deanna was preparing chowder and bread rolls for a meal. Yum!

I did not pull out my designated Zoom UFO! I was so close to getting Grogu completed that I opted to stick with him.

And here he is in his pram/pod/transporter thingy.

What a cute and happy wee face he has.

I found the pattern on Etsy, an instant PDF download. 

And at a very reasonable price.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have covered the back with a piece of black felt.

So he is all ready to hang on the wall.

The recipients live in Auckland, so I might just hang on for a week or so before I mail him and let things dry out a little. 

While we were sewing and chatting, poor Tony was sick on the couch. He tested positive for the dreaded virus. Nurse Belle looked after him, as you can see.

Sunday was an extra shift at work for me. Yes, even though Tony has the virus I must still go to work, with the most vulnerable people in our community!

I test every day and wear a mask. I also wash my hands way more often than I need to.

I'm hoping like heck that I do catch it from Tony as I don't want to be that Tiny statistic we were discussing during zoom. 

The one who can't go to Scrub Stitchin' at the last minute because of.......

I digressed! 

So, Sunday was pretty much a day of research, I was hunting for a particular pattern, which I have now found and have ordered. No peeks, it's a secret.

Today I took the time to hunt through my thread collection, looking for just the right grey to repair the mouse cross stitch. As I mentioned, it was completed many years ago but I had used the wrong thread in a couple of places.

Spot the difference?

If memory serves, this was a madeira kit, so uses madeira threads.  Well I have DMC threads, but was able to find one that is very close. In real life and very up close and personal it is a little on the blue side. But I'm happy with it. The mice look the way they should. Now to find a frame.

Oh and one last thing.

The plums became jam.

Well most of them did, I kept a few for eating. 

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That's my news.

I have an early start at work today. We have a deaf blind gentleman coming to live with us, so I need to learn some NZ sign language. I've already had a crash course, more to come today. 

When life gives you lemons....

They say you should make lemonade.

What then do you make when life gives you plums?

A friends mum has a bumper crop this year and she gifted me a big box full of plums. they are very sweet and tasty, but way too many for us to eat before they become over ripe.

I think I'll be making plum jam. I just might be married to bloke who likes a bit of jam on his toast.

But that is a job for later, or maybe tomorrow.

In stitching news, I haven't done a great amount. What time I did have for stitching has been spent on Grogu.

He is almost done. It's a damp and miserable day here today, so I may just get him finished today.

I plan on leaving him in that wee hoop. I'll finish the back with a piece of felt. 

How is your weekend going? 

Fixing an old error and a new start.

 It's still all about cross stitch here in Loulee land. I keep going in to my room and poking about, then leaving without doing anything. The call of the cross stitch seems to be loud at the moment, so that is what I'm working on. I'm nearing the top of the page so almost a third of the way done with St Nick.

Teddy now has a tiny horse to keep him company.

One thing I did do while in my room yesterday was kit up a quick stitch project.  When I was sorting through my stash of aida fabrics to find just the right piece, I came across an old finished project. I stitched these two quilting mice about 25-30 years ago, long before I started blogging. 

I did an amateur job of framing them and gave them to my mum. After she had hung them on the wall I realised that I had made a huge mistake!  The mouse on the right has lots of black stitches where she should have grey stitches.

There were also one or two other areas where black should not have been used. 

When we were packing up to immigrate I discovered that my framing job was falling apart, so pulled them out of the frame and packed them away safely with my cross stitch fabrics collection.

And yesterday they spoke to me, I have unpicked the mistakes and just need to find the correct shade of grey to fix them up, then I'll refinish them. A job for another day as I was keen to make a start on the quick project that I had just kitted.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Friends of ours have just discovered The Mandalorian, one of the star wars spin off series.

She is particularly fond of Grogu. (A baby Yoda). So I couldn't resist doing this piece when I came across the chart on Pinterest.

If anyone is looking for me today, I'll be in my comfy chair, stitching the day away.

I hope to have a finish very soon. 

Slow Progress and thank you.

First the thank you.

Thank you to everyone who send get well wishes, they worked and I'm feeling much better. Today my tummy grumbled at me because it is hungry not poorly. Taking things slowly though, no fancy feasts or banquets and no bread in the house for toast, so I had dry crackers for breakfast. LOL

The bread machine is working away as I type.

Thank you also for the congratulations on completing my course.  It feels very good to get that out of the way. Many of you have urged me on when I have mentioned it here and your support was appreciated. Finally I can have some of that missing me time back.

And speaking of me time, yesterday I felt well enough to stitch again and made a little progress on St Nick. This first image is where I left him on New Years Day.

And this is where I stopped yesterday.

That does not look like much progress for over two weeks of cross stitching, but between work, the garden and a certain tummy bug.....

Not bad going.

The bottom of my work is now disappearing around the roller bar so this morning I decided to unroll it and see how things look. 

There is still a long way to go. But at least I have a friendly face for some company now.

This cute wee ted is peeking out of the top of St Nicks sack of gifts.

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That is my news, now I'm off to catch up on some of the neglected housework before I sit n sew for the rest of the day.