Various WIPs

Not a very original title..... but here are a few photos of pieces I have been working on over the last week.

Here is my Family Tree, I have finally finished the cream colour in the back ground of the "Family" box and the central house is all complete. I have now started the right hand side, you can just see the little house and the first person emerging! Also Laura now has her name on here too! I keep thinking I am getting closer to finishing...... but then I look at the chart and realise there is still lots to do!!

Here is the beginnings of Rosie Rabbit for Olivia. It has such a cute expression but it is stitched in mainly 4 colours, so I only do little bits at a time!

I also started LHN - "My needle's work" I had this for Christmas last year with the proper threads so I thought I would make a start. I am using 32ct instead of 28ct so it will be a tiny bit smaller. I think I would like to mount it on a photo album when it is complete and I can keep photos of my stitching in there! Not much to show yet, this is the piece of stitching the lady in the design is holding!

Then lastly I finished another charity square. This one is for a themed quilt - Bugs in a bottle - so here is my spider!! Some little child will love this quilt when it is done with all those lovely creepie crawlies!!!

This week I am back to Henry and have already stitched Katherine of Aragon's head and headwear this week. She is the last of his wives to work on even though she was his actual first wife! I am looking forward to carrying on with it tonight.

Until next time.....

Ginnie x

Very proud.

My daughters got their GCSE English result on Thursday as they had taken it a year earlier than normal as they are very good at English. I am very proud to say they both got an A grade. They were so nervous just to get this result, I dread to think what they'll be like next year when they take all their other GCSEs. Now they start AS level English Litrature, I have just had to buy them 3 course books !!

Here is a photo my dad took today of them holding the notification of their passes.

I must thank everyone for their kind comments about my beach bag, I forgot to say on my last post that the idea came from "Ottobre designs" it was the shoulder bag I based my bag on.

I have now finished Lizzie Kate's September.... just in time. Here it is just after completing the stitching.

Then here it is made into an ornament. This time I used my machine to sew it together and then I added some brown cord to finish it. I like the way I have completed this one and will do the rest in the same way.

I will try to start October soon but have first promised my friend's other daughter, Olivia a cross stitched cushion like the Groovy Chick one I made last month for Alex. She wanted a rabbit on hers so I have picked the RSPCA Rosie Rabbit design to stitch. I plan to start that over the next couple of weeks.

I have been working on my Family Tree again today but had to spend some time unpicking !!! Urrr! Next week Henry will be out again. Tomorrow we have another family party, it was my cousin Sally's birthday yesterday so she has invited us over tomorrow for a get together. I haven't seen her or her family for a while so it'll be really nice as we were very close as children. It gets hard to keep seeing everyone so often as their own families grow bigger!

Anyway until next time, happy stitching and hope you all have a good long weekend if you are in the UK!

Ginnie x

My lovely beach bag!

I have to show you my beach bag, I am very proud of it. The boat stitching was the free gift on the Cross stitcher magazine out this month. I bought it on holiday and thought it would be great to stitch to remember my holiday. I decided to make it into a bag like the one I had made mom a few weeks ago, so when I saw a piece of blue spotty material in one of the gift shops in Charmouth I had to buy it. So last week on my return I stitched the boat piece on the front of the one panel and then made the bag..... in one evening!!! I just need another beach holiday to use it now. Actually I used it at the weekend, it is too nice to wait until my next holiday. It is about A4 paper size and is fully lined inside with just plain white material. I also have enough blue spotty stuff left to make another bag!!!

I haven't quite finished my September stamp, but it is nearly done. I'm sure having a long bank holiday weekend coming up it'll give me chance to finish it and stitch it into an ornament.

Otherwise this week I still have Family Tree on my rota as I only spent 3 evenings on it last week. I have decided to be abit more flexible with my rota and just pick at the beginning of each week what I fancy stitching on.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far, work has been very quiet as several of the lads are on holiday so I have been stitching a little at work also.... if no one is around!!!

Until next time.

Ginnie x

Holiday snaps

Just a couple of my holiday photos, I have many more but don't want to bore you!!! I also have photos from my Uncle's party that I'll post another time.

We stayed at a little seaside village called Charmouth which is in Dorset but is only a couple of miles from the Devon border. Firsty here I am putting my toes in the sea....... I don't like going in the sea and wouldn't swim in it as I am a poor swimmer but I have to test the water every year if I can. It wasn't too cold actually.

We stayed on a caravan site called Seadown and this was the view from our caravan. When you followed the path it led to a small piece of grass and then to the beach and sea. You can just see the sea above the other caravan roofs. It was very beautiful.

Every evening after dinner we went down to the sea to the part along a promanade where the fisherman gathered. It was very relaxing we loved watching the sea and the fishing! This is me and my mom with their dog, Scamp. He loved it too. (Notice the bag by my mom's side? That's the one I made her!!)

This is the girls one early evening with Charmouth on the right and the bay of Lyme Regis in the back ground.

This was one of the hot days when I went down to the beach with the girls. They bought a new bikini just before we left and were glad they had chance to wear it. They had just been and bought an ice lolly as you can see!

On another hot day we went into Axminster and found a lovely little cafe where I had a lovely Mocha coffee. This is me with my mom..... it was too hot for her!!!


And finally this was taken at Lyme Regis on our last day which was a little bit windy, so all the sail boats were in the bay. I thought it made a colourful picture.

Back with my stitching next time.

Ginnie x

Returned

Hi everyone, I am back off my holidays.

We had a fantastic time, the weather was really kind to us. The only bit of rain we had was on the Monday afternoon and when we were leaving on Saturday. We had 3 glorious sunny days and the rest were dry and warm. The site and caravan were great and we all want to make a return visit.

I will show photos etc about my hols on my next post as I haven't sorted my photos yet. So this post will be a stitching catch up.

I took plenty with me but these are the main 3 I worked on. Firstly here is my Spring cushion I started a few months ago, I want to do all 4 seasons and the first 3 designs have already been published so I better get a move on. You can see the heart shape formed at the bottom. I love the bright colours in this.

Secondly I worked on my Mermaid/Fantasy one. I just love this..... you can see the beginnings of her face and the lovely castle as well as some of the circle border. There are 3 "light effects" threads in this and I usually hate using these but I am getting on ok with them in this.

Then lastly I started Lizzie Kate's September. I was way ahead of time with August but am falling behind on this one. I will try to work hard on it over the next week to get it sorted in time for the 1st of the month!!

My mom used the little bag I made a lot on holiday so I aim to make mine this week. The new Cross Stitcher magazine was out while we were away with a "nautical" free kit on it. So I have also worked on that and intend to use it on a bag. I also bought some light blue spotty material for it. So hopefully I will have that to show soon, shame I'm not by the seaside still to use it as my "beach bag".

Sorry I have not read any other blogs yet, I will try to catch up over the next few days when I have finished all my washing etc.... Oh the joys of holiday return!!

Ginnie x

A finish, good news and my holidays

Just one more sleep until my holiday....yeah.

But firstly my finish, I worked all week on it, the last little bits always take the longest! I thought I had finished it last night then I remembered the french knots on the bushes. So I finally got it complete today. I love the way it looks and I have completed it much quicker than I first thought. I will store it away now and decide on how to frame it sometime nearer Christmas.

Secondly our good news, Stuart's mom is currently on holiday in Devon with his eldest brother, Carl and his family. She phoned on Wednesday night to say Carl and his girlfriend Jane had got married that day, just a quiet ceremony with both parents and Jane's 2 children and there 1 daughter. They reckoned they would never get married so we were very surprised but happy. Lets hope they have a party on their return. Of course if I had known I would have done them a piece of wedding stitching. I think I will try to do a small something for Christmas, a Lizzie Kate "saying" type one.

And now I am preparing for our holiday. Laura came back from Brownie camp earlier, very tired but happy. I have packed most of our cases and sorted the food etc. Just a bit more ironing to sort and Stuart has to find the fold up chairs! We are going to a place by the sea called Charmouth in Dorset and are staying in a static caravan with my parents too. We went near there a few years ago and loved the area so I am really looking forward to going back. I hope the weather is kinder to us than last year.

Tomorrow is our Wedding Anniversary too (17 years!!) so we are having a fish and chip supper in the caravan, bliss. Then next Saturday before we return we will be visiting my Aunt and Uncle who live in Poole. It is my Uncle's 70th Birthday and they are having a party. I will see my 3 cousins who I see very little of, and finally meet my one cousin's wife!

So I'll be back on my Blog the 16th...... with lots of photos and a suntan!!! Hopefully!

Ginnie x

Just dancing.....

No stitching to show today but I have got a few photos of Becki dancing. When we went to watch the mini show at the end of their Summer School week my dad bought his digital camera to take some snaps. He also managed to record 2 small videos of one of her ballet dances but then his battery ran out!! I have been trying to download one of these little videos too..... but it has been "processing" all night and day.... I think something went wrong there!

I have posted it on Facebook though, so if you're a friend on there you should be able to view it.

(2nd left)

She danced really well and we were very proud of her. Sorry the background is just a school hall!! She does her next proper dance show in November at the local town hall, so I am looking forward to seeing that.

As for sewing I have decided to continue with Country Idyll this week as I am close to finishing it. I will try to stitch on Henry aswell but I only have until Friday and then we go on holiday. I will show an updated photo of Country Idyll later in the week. I promise Henry will get some extra time after my hols!!

Laura is away at Brownie camp until Friday, so all is quiet here and Becki is lonely!

Hope you all have a good week.

Ginnie x