A little snowy stitching

Well, the wintry condtions continue here in the UK. We still have lots of snow and it looks as though the cold spell is set to continue here for a couple of weeks or so. We were due to head off to the Yorkshire dales this morning for a week, but we have had to cancel at the last minute as the owner of the cottage phoned to say the it was impossible to get in or out of Cotterdale due to the snow. Ah well, never mind, we still have the week off from work and I am now rather looking forward to a little staycation and the house is warm and we have done the dreaded supermarket shopping and this house is chock-full of stitching goodies! At least this way I don't have to worry whether my stitching chair will be comfy in the holiday house - LOL. We have postponed our booking and will now visit Cotterdale next April for my birthday.

We live in a cul de sac and there was a bit more snow overnight but it has stopped now and we appear to have a little fog .......now comes the decision as to whether we can manage the drive to Manchester to see Sophie and Matt and meet little Thora at long last.....watch this space!

In the meantime I have been stitching a LHN ornament and was going to attach a photo here, as well as a photo of the first lot of snow in our garden but blogger won't allow it this morning. Ah well, maybe next time!

Thanks for visiting, love Jackie x

So close and yet so far........

Hello all,

Carol and I have been making cushions over the last week or so. Mine is finally finished and I am very pleased with it (so close)......... I have tried to buy a cushion pad for it today and cannot find anything even remotely the right size (so far) .....That is very annoying!!! The cushion was easy and the instructions were clear, now all I need is a cushion pad........ Wish me luck!

The wait is over..........

I am pleased to announce the safe arrival of our new grand-daughter, Thora!

Thora Urska Smedley arrived on Friday 26th November (which, it turned out, was not Brians birthdayafter all, in spite of my last post..... his birthday is 27th November and always has been for the thirty something years that I have known him :-) For some reason I had it fixed in my mind that his birthday fell on a Friday this year Anyway, back to the baby...). Thora weighed in at a healthy 7lbs 1oz and mother and baby are both doing well!

We have had snow this week, hence the rather wintry feel to my blog. I have spent a large portion of today wrapping Christmas presents so I am hoping that will free up some time to play with my new sewing machine tomorrow evening. I have also been sorting through my stash of Just Cross stitch ornament magazines. Every year I promise that I will stitch a selection of ornaments and every year I leave it a little late ..... okay, more than a little late I agree......oh well, I have baby things to stitch for now anyway....... :-)

Only a few more days of work and then I have a week off and may just get a little stitching done. Then I may even have a picture or two to share, who knows?

Thanks to all those that continue to visit and leave comments!

We wait and wait and........

we wait some more and still no sign yet of Sophies baby......... :-) Sophies due date was 13 November and we are all (especially Sophie) getting impatient to meet the little one and find out whether it is a girl or a boy. Brian (DH) is really hoping that the baby comes on Friday 27 because, if so, he and the baby will share the same birthday. Brian would really love that and it would be a fabulous birthday present for him, so I am hoping baby comes on Friday too.....watch this space!

Little Daisy, who was born in February, continues to be the apple of everybodys' eye and has been crawling for a few weeks and has now learned to walk along whilst holding herself up on the sofa - so cute!

I have managed to get in a little more stitching recently than I was a few months ago and have also invested in a new sewing machine as my old Elna decided to start playing up. I am now the proud owner of a Pfaff Grandquilter as Carol and I went on an adventure on Friday afternoon to look at machines. We had a wonderful time and Carol drove to The Cotton Patch in Birmingham and back, on the motorway, in the FOG - what a heroine, she is fearless!!! Actually I should probably mention that Carol also bought the same sewing machine which suits me just splendidly because now we can learn how to use it together!

Carol and I also had a wonderful day together on Saturday making cushions and I will take photos just as soon as I can....... they are very pretty, even if I say so myself.

I will leave you with a couple of photos of stitching that was completed earlier in the year and hope to be back soon with some newer stitching photos and also with some baby-news. Now, for some reason, which is a complete mystery to me, Blogger has published the photos at the top of this post and I have no idea how to move them down ! The first photo is of a little applique piece which Claire made for Daisys' room, the second is a completed Shepherds Bush sampler which I made for my friends grandson (WIP pictures are further down the blog) and the last one is by Plum St Samplers and I love it........

As always, the images are clickable if you should so wish........ Thanks for visiting!

October 2010 - Where did the time go?

I can't believe that I haven't posted here since January - where has this year gone? I have revamped my blog for Halloween and hope to start posting fairly regularly agan.

Well, I have been incredibly busy at work which has taken a lot of my energy..... so much so, that I have barely lifted a needle all year. Anyway, I am hoping to remedy that situation very soon and, after our recent holiday on the island of Islay I am feeling much refreshed and have now got lots of stitchy plans running around my head.....so watch this space! The photo at the top of the blog was taken on holiday and is a photo of the mountains and moorland on Jura, which is an island which is just a very short ferry ride from Islay.

On the family front this has been an amazing year - I am now 'Granny' to our first grandchild, Daisy, and am soon to be a 'Granny' again in November when our second daughter is expecting her first baby. Just like all grannies worldwide I think my grandchildren are the most gorgeous, clever and interesting babies in the world and I really need to get busy stitching birth samplers, don't I?

Anyway, time to hit the 'publish post' button and head off to bed........

My Christmas gift for Carol

Hello All. Thank you to all those that have been to visit the blog recently and an especially huge thanks to those who took the time to leave a comment - I just love to hear from you! Here are some photos of the gift that I stitched for Carol for Christmas......

My stitching is part of a larger design by Renato Parolin and you can see the pattern here. I ordered my pattern from Casa Cenina and they provided excellent service.

I rushed out to Sainsburys the week before Christmas and you can imagine my delight when I saw the frame just sitting on the shelf. It went perfectly with the design and I didn't need a small mortgage in order to buy it! :-)

I stitched it using recommended DMC thread and some pale blue 32ct linen from the stash.

Thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon,

Jackie x

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all, although I must say that the Christmas and New Year Holiday seems a very dim and distant memory already! I thought that you might enjoy looking at the wonderful Christmas gifts that my friend Carol made for me. Imagine my delight when I pulled this beautiful box out of the gift bag............

Unfortunately the photos are not in the order that I wanted here, so here you see the entire gift set in all it's glory - such a pleasure to behold and the smell coming from the little pillows was just gorgeous - cinnamon and spices........

Here are the little pillows before I opened them up - isn't that tissue paper just delightful - I LOVE crows..... :-)

Here is a close up of one of the pillows



And here they are all are, in all their glory - such a wonderful gift; I am very lucky!

I am hoping to get back to blogging more regularly in 2010 as I really do miss reading your comments and I find that displaying my progress here keeps me motivated to stitch more too. I will be back shortly to upload the photos of the gift that I made for Carol....... Thanks for visiting!

Love Jackie x