Brummie Blogger

It's nearly that time again

Formula One time, that is. The first race of the season is this weekend in Australia and I can't wait. Stephen has just persuaded me to join him in playing Fantasy Formula One on the Autosport website. We've started our own league of just the two of us and will be competing madly with each other all season. Obviously I'm going to beat him. (and now I've said that, I hope, I really hope that I do)

We've been enjoying the new F1 channel on Sky so far and are looking forward to all the live coverage and extra magazine programmes that they've been advertising. Lots of lovely Grand Prix stuff.

I'm afraid that I may have to brag on here each race if I beat the pants off Stephen pointswise. If I don't mention anything, you'll know he may have squeaked past me by a point or two.

Let the battle begin.

 

The Hamilton cross stitch

I sort of forgot to do a progress report on this after the last Grand Prix, mainly because I was still stitching away on it. Once again I didn't get much done during the actual race as it was another exciting one, so I wanted to try and get a bit more stitched before putting it away. Especially as there was a long break before the next race. And, as I won't be stitching during the next two races. So, I carried on for another week and a bit. Then I just got busy with holiday planning. Very busy, so no stitching and not an awful lot of updating of stitching on the blog.

So, before I vanish across the pond, this is what the piece looks like at the moment.

I managed to get the rear wing more or less finished, plus his helmet and I'm happy to have got his number one in place. There's still a lot of fiddly stuff left to do in that central section but once I get out towards the tyres on the right it should go fairly quickly again.

 

 

Hamilton cross stitch update - Silverstone

I got a fair bit done on this during the Saturday chatter and qualifying but not a lot on the Sunday. As usual I was busy watching the race, and there was just too much going on during this race to take my eyes off the screen. I've been doing a bit during the week which is why it's only just being put up.

I'm quite happy with the progress though. The tyres on the one side are almost done and it's starting to look like a Formula one car now.

I've hit another block of fiddly bits now which is slow going but I'm hoping to get plenty done next weekend.

Hamilton cross stitch update - Europe

I didn't get as much done on this as I'd hoped. I'd wanted to finish the first page but I didn't quite make it. I made a start on the fiddly section to the top right which is the top centre of the design. This takes in the back spoiler and Hamilton's helmet, which I was very keen to get done. I managed to get almost all of this done on the Friday and Saturday and planned to finish off the easy filling in of the tyres on the Sunday. I just didn't feel like stitching on Sunday when it came to it, so what you see here is as far as I got. I'm still happy with my progress though and I have strayed quite a bit over into page two so that'll help.

This is what it looks like now.

 
There's just a small band to do on the helmet and that bit of filling in on the tyres to finish off page one. It should get done during the next race and hopefully I should get a good crack on into page two.

I'm now working on August's Winnie the Pooh and should have that finished in a day or two unless my current book calls me too strongly. It is a very good book so it's a toss up which one wins to be honest...

Hamilton cross stitch update - Canada

I didn't get as much done to this as I thought I would. Even considering that we spent two hours of the race with the cars sitting on the grid in the pouring rain under a red flag. Usually, I spend quite a lot of the three race days stitching but this time I only stitched during qualifying and the race itself. I think it was because it was an evening race so the timing threw me out a bit.

Even so, I can see a bit of progress. You can just about see that the grey blob on the left is a tyre. A wet tyre, of course. What else would it be after that very soggy race in Canada? I think the next race should see me finish the first page as there's just a bit of tyre left and the top of the spoiler plus Hamilton's helmet. I'm going to change the yellow provided for the helmet for one from my stash as it isn't quite the right shade. Almost, but not quite and it'll bug me if I don't change it.

This is what it looks like now.

 
I've just started on August's section of the Winnie the Pooh calendar, although I'm itching to carry on with an old friend that got picked up again last week. Photos of that to come soon. And a nice parcel arrived from Sew and so today containing another two Victoria Sampler kits, the fabric for the Pixel People Firefly chart and some 18ct Aida.

I've decided that I really don't like the fabric that I started Starry Night on so I'm going to restart it on Aida before I go any further. I've been thinking about it for a while, which is why there's been no progress on it. I decided it would be best to restart it now while there's only a tiny bit done than to carry on and not be happy with it. I'm not keen on redoing that corner with all the confetti but I know what to expect this time and will be able to keep the back tidier so that'll be better. I may finish Winnie the Pooh before restarting it so I can give it more attention. Or not. I'm undecided. Sigh. So many projects, so little time.

Hamilton cross stitch update - China

I managed to get a fair bit of stitching done during the practice sessions for the Grand Prix last weekend. And then again during qualifying. This was fortunate as the race itself was so exciting that I got very little done while it was on. The few minutes before the race were nail-biting as it looked for a while there as if Hamilton would be starting from the pit lane, if he started at all. He made it out with seconds to spare and then gave us an amazing start.

As for the race itself. Quite often I spend most of it with my hand suspended over the stitching with my needle hovering over the fabric. Last weekend, I just gave up and put the needle down. I didn't dare take my eyes off the screen. It was that good. And Hamilton won! What a result.

I'm quite pleased with how this is coming on. It really is a pleasure to stitch this one. You should be able to see what it's meant to be better once I've stitched a bit more, but those are his fingers on the steering wheel.

 
It's going away until the next race now. I've decided to stitch easier projects during the week after work, and tackle this one on race weekends and Starry Night on the other weekends. We'll see how that works out.

A fast stitch

Well not a fast stitch in that I'll be stitching it quickly, but fast in that the subject is super speedy. I've made a start on the McLaren/Hamilton kit. I know I've got plenty of other projects on the go at the moment but I just like the idea of stitching this one while I'm watching the races. This is what it'll look like when it's finished.

 
I had it ready to go in time for this weekend, but wanted to get another project finished on the Saturday so didn't start it while watching the qualifying otherwise I'd have got quite a lot more done. It took me the first hour of the race day viewing to get used to working over two again, and then once the race actually started I got very little done. Sometimes the races are so exciting that instead of doing any stitching, I spend the entire race with my needle poised over the fabric and my eyes glued to the screen.

On the odd occasion that my gaze dipped to the chart or the fabric, Stephen would shout out "Did you see that?" And I'd have to get him to rewind so I could see what had happened.

This is the small amount that I managed to get done.

 
I really enjoyed stitching it as it's a great chart. The instructions, chart and thread organiser are all excellent. They even provide a gold needle. I did replace the Aida with some Evenweave because I prefer stitching on it and I prefer the look of it when it's finished.

I should have another update after the next Grand Prix, when I should get quite a bit more done. I'm hoping that if I stitch faster it might help Lewis drive faster...

Shanghai

I'm impatiently waiting for Stephen to get home from work so we can watch the Shanghai Grand prix together. It was on much earlier this morning but I'm trying desperately to avoid seeing any results while I'm online as I hate to know in advance what's going to happen.

This is the third race of the season and so far it's been pretty exciting. Some years all you get is a procession with Ferrari and Maclaren at the front and the other teams trailing along at a distance. This year with the new regulations it's all been turned on its head. No points for Ferrari so far (snigger) and the team you'd have been least likely to pick as a potential winner has won twice, both times from pole. (Go Jenson!)

I was quite focused watching the qualifying yesterday, not just because of the sheer excitement of seeing the positions changing every few seconds but because I was looking for one particular chap. I met him last week, chatted to him for five minutes or so but as I have a dire memory for faces the chances of actually recognising him were pretty remote. But, you still have to look, don't you.

I meet some interesting people in my job at the airport, not necessarily celebs. This guy is part of team Brawn, I sold him a magazine and when I got rather enthusiastic about the team and their success so far, he was kind enough to spend some time chatting to me about the last race in Malaysia, the rain there, (so hard it hurt, apparently) and how they'd have liked the race to continue if conditions had allowed.

He was a very nice chap, but I'm afraid I couldn't spot him during qualifying. I'll be looking out for him again during the race but honestly, I really can't recall what he looked like now apart from he had a really pleasant face and a nice smile. I really hope his team did well this morning though.

Spa-Francorchamps

What an exciting end to the Grand Prix this afternoon. Today's race was at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and was a good race from start to finish. The end saw some rain, though, which turned the last few laps into a real fight between Hamilton and Raikkonen. Hamilton won, but has since been demoted to third after an enquiry. Hopefully they'll win the appeal as the penalty does seem very unfair. A bit of a downer after a good race.

That was probably the highlight of my weekend. My back is still playing up quite badly so I've done very little apart from things that required me to be sitting comfortably. Lots of reading, TV and Sudoku. I finished Pride and Prejudice and am now considering starting either another Austen or possibly a Thomas Hardy. I may end up with a nice bit of sci-fi, though. I'm not really sure what I fancy. I did enjoy P&P though so maybe Austen.

I still have more layouts to upload from Gibside. How on earth is it taking me so long to get them on here? This is another Vegas layout. There were some cute chipmonks at Red Rock canyon so we felt compelled to take some photos of them. Several of the photos had nothing but red soil and rocks in them as by the time we'd clicked the shutter, the chipmonks had demonstrated just how fast they can move. We did manage a few scrappable photos though.

Costco paper, QuicKutz Frankie alpha and a Pagemaps sketch.

Hockenheim

We've spent a fair bit of the weekend glued to the TV watching the German grand prix. Qualifying on Saturday was fairly edge-of-the-seat stuff but the race itself started off without anything particularly exciting happening. Hamilton was on pole, and lead from the start. Towards the end of the race it got quite exciting as Hamilton had to pass three cars after he pitted. He did so with excellent style and won the race. That's two on the trot for him so we're well chuffed. Hungary in two weeks, so let's hope we get a nice exciting race with a Mercedes win again.

I've managed to get some scrapping done in between GP watching. I'm really in the mood for scrapping my Vegas photos, which is unusual for me. It usually takes me ages to scrap recent holiday photos. I still haven't finished scrapping Florida 2003, 2004 and 2007, let alone Barcelona, Tenerife and Canada, apart from the odd layout here and there. Vegas seems to be coming on very nicely though. I've done several layouts from our visit to Red Rock canyon and have just done the title page and another single. I have the photos all separated out into the planned layouts for the rest so there's a chance here that the Vegas album will be finished sometime this year.

This is the title page for the album. It's possibly the simplest layout that I've ever done as I had the perfect paper. I've no idea what brand the paper is, but it came from PaperArts. All I had to do was slap the photo on it and die-cut the date. Job done.