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. 

Noro Virus is not fun...

It's been a very slow week as far as crafting goes. I did another of those seven shifts without a break at work. Well I tried, on the seventh shift I crashed about two hours in and came home. Noro Virus has struck. For those who don't know what that is, think of the worst tummy bug you ever caught or maybe a bout of food poisoning, and have it last for 5-8 days. It's not fun. Talking to my boss this morning there are several staff members out with it and a few of the residents are ill too. 

That said I think I am on day five and I think, over the worst of it now, though when I try to move about and do stuff the tummy pain comes back. I might just sit still a while longer. I tried to work on my St Nick cross stitch but didn't get far as I couldn't concentrate, maybe today?

Before all of that struck I was able to get Lucy on to the frame and with Tony's help I've selected a pantograph, now I just need to get that all set up and wind lots of bobbins. 

Winding bobbins may be a job I can achieve but I think I'll wait a day or two before trying to quilt. 

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In other news, I got an extra payment from work. Back pay of the pay rise I achieved by completing my course, all of the public holidays over Christmas boosted it to almost $400. Very nice too, I popped it right in to the Scrub Stitchin' savings account.

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The garden is doing well, I've harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, chilli peppers and no end of greens. The peas are finished but the beans are just getting going. Tony's dad brought me 7 Kgs of shallots and assorted baby onions to be pickled. They are all done and he is a very happy man. I wonder if he will leave them alone for a whole month, or give himself belly ache again! We didn't pull our onions yet, but I suspect we will have a few babies to be pickled too. 

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I've been flicking through books, magazines and Pinterest looking for a project to make as my Scrub Stitchin'  Make it, bake it or fake it gift, but that is as far as I have gotten as I lack the concentration to do any more than that. 

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Well that was my week. I hope yours was better.

 

Proof!!

I could have taken 27 months.

I did it in 14.

My studies are over, I've received my certificate and now hopefully I can regain some me time. 

Slow progress...

The garden and work are getting in the way of my creative time. But I have still managed to make some slow progress.  I've finally finished quilting the Frivol UFO.

Not sure if the design is leaves or hearts, or maybe heart shaped leaves. LOL

The binding is not on yet, but it is all prepared and ready to go.

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My farmyard churndash quilt top is all put together and I need to decide how to quilt it. (This was taken a few days ago, before the decorations came down).

Once it was completed my 15 mins a day in the sewing room has been taken up with cutting and kitting up a project to take along to Scrub Stitchin' in April. 

Work in the garden has been getting in the way a lot and now Tony's dad has gotten in on the act. He dropped of a bucket full of pickling onions this morning.

So that will be tomorrows distraction from what I would prefer to be doing.

All of that has meant very little progress on St Nick.

Maybe before I go to work today I'll get to sit with him for an hour. 

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That's all I have managed to achieve this week.

I hope your week is going better.

A BIG finish and a broken resolution.

I blame Chooky.

I didn't say it out loud, but I had quietly committed to myself that I would spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day in my sewing room in an effort to take the focus away from my cross stitch and keep some other things moving along. I have mentioned previously that I found time on Christmas day to add some sashing strips to the second batch of churndash blocks and on 1st of January I got the fist row put together. Yay! Go me. I also made a start on some quilting. More on that in a few moments. 

Then later that day I spent some time zooming with Chooky, so put away my cross stitch and pulled out Lucy until it was time to go to work, adding the pieces that took me around the final corner on the edge. The end was very close indeed. 

I slept in on the 2nd and awoke to find another zoom invitation. 

Still in my jammies and with my hair un brushed,  it was in that session that I finished Lucy.

Here she is, a night time picture with the Christmas tree twinkling away.

Now to figure out how to quilt her.

Of course there was still some zoom session left......I felt a little lost without Lucy.

What to do.......?

I pulled out a UFO that has been waiting for me since February 2021. So not terribly old by some standards, but old enough to bug me.

This is a BOM by Gail Pan called Bring me flowers.

Of course I'm stitching it in blue.

Januarys pieces were all done and this one had been started, so I finished it before it was time to head off to work.

So of course all of that meant that I did not spend 15 mins or more working on the churndash top.

Hmmm.

I made up for it on the 3rd, getting another row sewn on.

I was there for way over 15 mins trying to get rid of that wave, right in the middle.

I pinned and sewed and unpicked so many times the fabric is getting tired so I decided in the end to leave it and hope to quilt it out.

Today should see the final row put on and maybe tomorrow I'll get some borders added too.

I mentioned quilting at the start of this blog post and here it is.

I had also quietly committed to getting some of my many finished tops quilted and like the churndash that commitment was put aside in favour of zooming. LOL

But progress has been made.

I took this photo when I had stopped on the 1st, before sitting down to cross stitch.

It has since progressed even further. Hopefully today it will be finished and I can get some binding on to it.

Then I might put Lucy on to the frame.

I had planned to do some straight line quilting on her, but now .........???

Watch this space.

Cross stitch?

Snowy St Nick has progressed too, I'll get an updated image soon.

Today was Lucys big day.