Birthday cards and parties

We had a lovely weekend.... although the weather has really turned today and it is raining and grey and cold!!

We didn't make it to the St George's Day festival, Laura had decided to go to the cinema instead.... so I became Mom the Taxi as usual!! So I managed to get some stitching done on Saturday afternoon. All was quiet in the house just the birds singing as the back door was open, the 2 dogs (mom and dad's was staying all weekend) were asleep, Stuart was on the computer, Laura out and Becky in her room. So I started and finished a small letter J with a butterfly for my Aunt's birthday in May. Sorry haven't taken a photo yet so will have to show you that one next time.

I also made the girl's stitching into their birthday cards, I am so pleased with these I think they look very effective.

Saturday night was our friends Pete and Lesley's Silver Wedding party. We had a lovely time although Becky had hurt her back on Friday and was in pain by the end of the evening, she didn't even get up to dance...... But I did and here is the proof, me and Laura dancing - look I do have legs!!

And these are our friends on the left being made to do a silly dance in front of everyone! (Laura was one of the ring leaders!!)

Next is their daughter's wedding on June 6th, I have nearly finished Wedding Row I just have their names and the date to add. I think I will continue that this week along with my Family Tree so I can get it to the framers.

Sorry my sewing machince didn't come out on Sunday so I'll have to do my bell pull/hangers next weekend.

Have a good week.

Ginnie x

Housework

No, I'm not moaning about housework in general (although I could) but I am introducing my latest finish "Housework"

Housework

Lizzie Kate

Recommended fabric count and DMC threads.

I plan to make this into a hanging thing too.... you'll see what I mean when I have it finished! I ordered some Bell Pull ends yesterday for D for Dancer and some other dowel type rods for this one. I will try to do some sewing over the weekend if the goodies arrive tomorrow.

Although I have a busy weekend ahead, firstly we have mom and dad's dog to look after as they are going away for the weekend. I think tomorrow Laura is going to a St George's Day parade and festival with Brownies so I may go with her. Then Saturday night is our friend's silver wedding party. So I may just want to cross stitch on Sunday not get the sewing machine out!

I have nearly finished stitching Becky's popcorn bear for her card so I must get those made up as their birthday is only just over a week away! I have also worked well on Wedding Row and may finish most of this by Sunday. I'll just have the names and date to fill in then next time. I am running very low on the "old blue paint" colour but think I might just have enough!!

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Ginnie x

Henry

Just a simple title, it says it all!!

Here he is with 4 of his wives (well you can only see 3 in this photo!)

And his poor wives....... none of them have any bottom halves yet!! Catherine Howard doesn't even have a mouth !!

I intend to do the top half of each wife then roll the frame down to do the bottoms!!

I do think it is looking splendid though!! And no mistakes this week!!

I also have another finish on my list! This evening I finished Lizzie Kate's Housework. I will show that on my next post. I also worked on Wedding Row last night and have been hurrying to finish the Popcorn bear for Becki's card.

I must spend some time soon making these cards up, I haven't yet made the Silver Wedding card up and we go to the party on Saturday.

That's it for now, just a brief posting as I'm trying to get my ironing done and I'm looking out for the Tesco van with my grocery delivery!!

Ginnie x

D for Dancer finished!

First, I am proud to present a new finish - D For Dancer.....

D is for Dancer

The Victoria Sampler

28ct platinum cashel linen

with recommended silks.

I finished the main stitching on Friday and took it off the frame to do the hem stitching around the edge.... then decided I was happy with it as it was without doing all that fiddly cutting of fabric etc.... I declared it completely finished!! I want to finish it as a bell pull so need to get some "ends".

The frame is now waiting with a fresh piece of fabric on, to start one of the HAED charts!!! I have decided to work on Candle Lights first and I intend to have a Sunday HAED night. I intend to start tonight but want to do a little more on Henry first as I was out last night with my dear friend Steve and got no stitching done at all!! Update on Henry on next post (I have started Catherine Howard's head !!)

I also thought I would show you a picture of my Lilliput Lane cottage that I have been working on for the Step-a-long SAL. Most of the cross stitch is complete but there is so much darn fiddly back stitch everywhere I'll be just about finished by Christmas!!

Thanks for all the well wishes for Laura'a appointment. All went well except the hospital had forgotten to tell us that the appointment had actually been re-scheduled and that the letters had failed to go out.... so we could either sit and wait or come back in July!! As I had booked the day off and we had made the effort to go by train we decided to sit and wait (2.5 hrs!!) But there was no change with her heart/valve leak and they said we will discuss next year whether to continue her check up after age 16 at adult cardiology clinics. The only thing he did say was that in the future if she gets pregnant she will have to be monitored more as that can put extra stress on you heart and valve leaks can get worse. But I'll worry about that another time!!

I have been busy in the garden again today so am looking forward to relaxing tonight and doing some more stitching. Next week it's back to Wedding Row, I hope to get most of this done as June will soon roll around.

Anyway until next time.

Ginnie x

Day out and stitching update

We have had a lovely day out today, we went to Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. Although a lot of it is in ruin (thanks to the "Slighting" process after the Civil war) you can see how beautiful it must have been. The weather was ok too, a little rain at first but then it brightened up. The original part of it dates back to Norman times, the part in the picture below was built by Robert Dudley for Queen Elizabeth I's visit in the 1500s. It is great that the girl's love history (well especially Laura) and they enjoyed their visit as much as me!!

This picture is of Becky and Laura in an original Norman window... hard to believe this part was built nearly 1000 years ago!!

We then had a lovely pub lunch out, it was great just to spend time together as a family!

Otherwise over the Easter weekend we managed to get the garden turfed over and I have started painting in the bathroom ready to spruce it up a bit!

Here is my stitching update, Country Idyll is really taking shape. The car is almost complete as is the roof of the cottage. You can also now see the lady getting out of the car. Once again I have loved working on this last week!

You'll be pleased to hear that it is Henry week again, and so far so good..... no mistakes! I have just completed Ann of Cleves face and headwear. I will continue on this tonight but I am very tired now after our busy day!

Tomorrow Laura has her annual hospital checkup. The girls were born 8 weeks early and had regular health checks from birth. Becky was discharged at the age of 2 but Laura has continued to be seen as she has a slight heart problem. We have had to go to the Birmingham Children's Hospital every year to be seen by the cardiologist there. Luckily her heart problem doesn't effect her health in anyway, they have labelled it an "innocent heart murmer" but want to monitor her until she is 16. Not sure what will happen then. The actual scans of her heart show a slight "thickening" on one of her heart valves which means it doesn't close completely so a little bit of blood flows back! Although she is fit and well and it has never got any worse I still worry before each appointment in case things have changed! I hope for peace of mind they still check on her after 16. So it is an earlish start as it is easier to get to Birmingham on the train and her appointment is 10.10am. I will be glad when it is over and so will Laura!!

So until next time.

Ginnie x

A new purchase.

I have to confess to a little purchase and it was because I was stressed! Well that's the excuse I am sticking too! I have admired the lovely HAED designs that many of my readers are stitching and had thought "I'll buy one of those one day" Then they went and had a sale on!! and then Stuart annoyed me (he is out all day today and tomorrow morning and it's Easter for goodness sake!)........ so I bought 2 charts!!!!! I have only bought the QS ones as I thought the really large ones were just too much for me to tackle. I got the girls looking at all the lovely charts and we decided on 2 by Ching-Chou Kuik. Here are the pictures off the HAED website.

I downloaded them and printed them off at work.... then looked at them later at home. Oh my they do look fun....25ct stitched over one!! Where's my magnifier!! I promise not to start them just yet I really must finish something else first, but I feel a lot better now I have made a purchase!!

Anyway here's Laura's Geisha Girl card, I have some new gold beads now so I'll get them sewn on later and that'll be complete. Becky has decided she wants a Popcorn Bear card and luckily I have a freebie kit of one so I have just started it.

Otherwise I have been working hard on Country Idyll, although last night I realised I had stitched full cross stitches on some of the half stitches..... but I think it'll look ok, it is only in the tree on the right hand side!

Thank you if you have given me an award recently, I'm sorry I always forget to post them on here and I never actually pick anyone to pass them onto as I can never decide who. I do appreciate your kindness and for thinking about me.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter, I have a nice Rolo Easter Egg just waiting for me to eat!! And I am off work until Thursday .... yeah !!

Ginnie x

Cones !

Well I managed it, I sewed together my Easter Cones on Sunday afternoon, with not too many mistakes. Did my usual trick on the first one and sewed the ribbon on the inside not the outside..... I always do that! Then my cotton broke a couple of times but I think it is cheap cotton, it came free with the machine. But the end result was a good one. Sorry the photo doesn't do them justice and you can see the clutter through the glass cabinet doors!! They are a bit fuller now as I bought a few more mini eggs yesterday. The knitted chick in them was from someone Stuart works with, it has a Cadbury's Cream Egg inside it (I have one too!!)

Here is my Family Tree update, I wanted to complete the pretty bird up the corner, which I did. I also wanted to complete another box, which I also did. I enjoyed stitching on this last week more than I have recently. My dad spotted it when he popped over and said how impressive it looks. It'll be so great when it is finished and framed.

I forgot to mention last week about some more of my girl's achievements, I am very proud of them. Becki passed her Grade 4 Tap exam with a B grade (infact only 4 marks off an A) she was really pleased considering she thought she had failed it! Laura got enrolled as a Young Leader at Rainbows and Guides, tomorrow she is taking the Rainbows (5 - 7 year olds) to The Sealife Centre in Birmingham... they are going on the bus!

I didn't manage a lot of stitching yesterday as I seem to have come down with another cold, at first I thought it was hay fever as I had been in the garden a lot... but now I just think it is a cold. I feel better tonight so I can continue with my stitching, it is Country Idyll again this week.

Laura's card is also nearly complete, all the stitching is done but I need some gold beads and I don't seem to have any left. So I'll finish it as soon as I get some more, in the mean time I must start Becky's. There was a lovely free gift in the World of Cross Stitching this month called "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady," I want to start that too for Becky's favourite teacher who is leaving next term, she teaches her Maths and it is because of her that Becky has improved so much in Maths, she'll be missed!

Until next time,

Ginnie x

Chickens and another card...

We are in the middle of a lovely weekend here in the Midlands, I even did a bit of gardening yesterday! And plan on doing a little more today. As it is now Easter holidays I have plans for the garden that Stuart can be working on while he's off and I'm still at work! We have a large, wide boring slabbed path that I want turfing over... so that should keep him busy! Although the weather forecast is not so good for in the week, hope it improves again.

Today I have Easter Cones to sew together! Here are the finished chickens, just need to iron them and put some interfacing on the back. You can also see the lovely lilac checked fabric I bought yesterday and the matching ribbon to make the cones with. The instructions are in the cross stitcher magazine..... I hope I can follow them!!

I also started the stitching for Laura's birthday card in the week. She had pointed out, a while ago, these Geisha Girl designs in an old issue of World of Cross Stitching so I decided to stitch one of them for her. It is coming along really well and I love the colours in it, although so far you can mainly see peach and black!!

I have put in a lot of time on Family Tree too and will show the update on that next time. I have completed the things I aimed to do this week so I am pleased with that. I have also stitched the correct names not the incorrect next generation up.... thank goodness.

Anyway I must go and get some ironing done.... then I can get the sewing machine out. Hopefully I'll have some great Easter Cones to show on my next post too! Full of yummy little Easter Eggs!!

Ginnie x