Brummie Blogger

May's Cottage- almost finished

I've been stitching away so intently on this that I've almost forgotten to stop and take photos. I've just taken a break to upload a photo before doing the two borders. I'm keen to get this finished so I can get the next part of The Great Escape done as I printed that off yesterday and as I guessed, it's the flowers, or rather the bush on the other side of the owl.

This is where I'm up to with the cottage at the moment.

I've done the right hand side to mirror the left side so the beehive and bee have been removed. I've also changed the colour of the birdhouse from pink to yellow as I'm not all that keen on the colour scheme for this one. The green is lovely and I like the yellow. The dark brown and white are fine and the other brown is nice enough, but I'm disappointed that there's very little variegation to it. I don't like the pink though and I could live without the two blue/greens. Mostly it's the pink that's bugging me so I'm going to change one of the flower colours in the border too.

I should get at least one border done today and maybe get a start on the other. There's still no sign of the next part of Around the World for which I'm waiting very impatiently but if I can get this finished, and the next part of the Owl before that comes out, at least I'll be able to dive straight into it.

In the meantime, must get on with my bee-less borders.

May Cottage - the stash

Oh dear. I like this cottage, really I do, but I have to say that it's my least favourite so far. And I really am going to have to make a couple of tweaks to it. I just don't like bees and look at it. They're everywhere. They have to go.

And there's a beehive. Yikes! It's been suggested that I could change the bees into butterflies with a slight colour change, and I may do that but that beehive has most definitely got to go. I may move the birdhouse to the other side and add a leaf to the tree to fill the gap a bit. I'm sure a bit of tweaking will do it. Whatever, my cottage will be bee free by the time I've finished.

I mean - just look at the size of those suckers in relation to the cottage. Can you imagine exiting that door and coming face to face with one of those. If I stitched them I'd have nightmares for weeks.

Months even.

I've no complaints about the colour palette though. As usual it's just gorgeous. Not that I'm complaining about the bees. Not as such. The designer isn't to know that I have a bee phobia...

April's Cottage - finished

And in record time too! I finished this on Sunday during the five hours of Formula One coverage that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I really like this one now it's finished with all the pretty purples and greens.

There's a reason that some of my photos look a different colour at the top than they do at the bottom. I put the stash or project, on my desk in front of the window to take the photo in natural light. This avoids getting shadows on it but means that the nearer it is to the light, the more saturated it appears to be. One day I'll find the perfect way to take the photos but until then, it'll have to do.

I spent some time yesterday cutting fabric to size, pressing and hemming. I now have all the fabric for the next six months of the Cottages ready to use, and I would have had the fabric ready for the Around the World project but I hit a snag. Pressing it did not get the fold marks out of it, which it usually does. That meant I needed to hand wash it to get all the creases out and then press it once dry. This afternoon I've pressed it again but there are two distinct white lines running the full length of it where the fold lines are. They look suspiciously like fade marks and they're definitely not creases any more. Looks like I'm going to have to replace it.

I've done a bit more on The Great Escape and will carry on with that now as the intention to make a start on Around the World has been thwarted by the fabric disaster. Sigh.

April Cottage - halfway there

After a week of determined stitching I've managed to get everything but the top and bottom borders done so it's a bit more than halfway. I have a rabbit with some eyewateringly large carrots. I bet that rabbit thinks all his christmases have come at once.

I'm still thinking I'll probably catch up with The Great Escape before starting Around the World but I now have all the stash for AtW so maybe I'll just put a few stitches in it. The yellow-ish colour came and I got a slightly paler colour of beads to give a bit more contrast so I now have everything I need.

Must finish this cottage first though.

March's Cottage - finished

I had another good stitch last night and got the second border completed and then the odd flowers and shamrocks around the month. I kept getting a bit distracted by the TV as I had MTV Rocks on and there was some rather good music playing, but I kept at it until it was done. I was determined to get it finished.

This is what it looks like now. I really like this one.

I'm now planning to get at least a couple more of the characters done in the Firefly project and then start the purple loveliness that is April's Cottage.

I'm contemplating signing up for another SAL. I'm not quite sure why, apart from the fact that it's another specialist stitches type one, this time from Papillon Creations. It promises 80 different stitches, several of my friends on the Cross Stitch Forums are doing it and I just know I'm going to wish I'd done it if I don't and then see their progress. I am questioning my sanity in committing to yet another project but I'll just have to cut back on sleeping or something else, in order to make time. Not a problem...

March's Cottage, now with sheep

Friday's purchases inspired a flurry of stitching yesterday. The idea is that if I finish the Cottages more quickly each month, I can finish some of my other WIPs and then I can start on my lovely Flower sampler book. I stitched all through third practice for the GP, for which I got up at 4.30am, and this is what it looked like by the end of the coverage for that.

I do love those sheep. I made a good start on the borders during qualifying and in the afternoon, and I hope to finish this off tomorrow.

The reason I haven't got much done today is that the race itself today was much too exciting to do any stitching while it was on, and as soon as it had finished, I was straight out the door and back to the NEC. There I met up with friends and had a lovely natter while they shopped. I had absolutely no intention of buying anything else today. I went only to socialise.

Then I spotted this.

I've been looking for a new bag that would sling crossways. And this was just the colour scheme I was looking for, and much cheaper than any of the others that I've seen. Pretty, isn't it.

Back to work in the morning after a lovely week off. I'd rather stay home with my books and stitching but what can I do? Someone's got to pay for all this stash.

April Cottage preview

Today I was planning to go to the NEC to the Sewing for pleasure show. I also had big plans for Tuesday. I should know better than to make plans though as on Tuesday morning I woke up with a migraine which didn't go until late last night and I feel much too wibbly today to go to the NEC. Luckily I can still go tomorrow but I'm upset about missing my afternoon out on Tuesday. As I say though, I should have known better.

Still, I've consoled myself today with buying some music from itunes that I've had my eye on for a while -  Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and Muse. I've also put the stash for April's Cottage all together as the last bits of it arrived from the Patchwork Rabbit yesterday.

There are quite a lot of colours used in this one, but some of them are starting to repeat from previous months so I haven't had to buy that many of them. I actually had most of the DMC so I only needed to buy two shades plus the three overdyed, which I feel need a close up to show off their loveliness.

One each from Gentle Arts, Crescent Colours and Weeks Dye Works. Yum. You can't tell from the photo as the sun was washing it out a bit, but that Artichoke is absolutely gorgeous with some beautiful shading in it.

I was a bit dubious about the Cottage as I thought the colours were a bit too purple at first, but when I saw it in real life with the threads, I could see how lovely it's going to be.

I love that rabbit with the carrots! And the bluebirds on the roof and the tree. Oh, and those clouds too. It's all so pretty that it was hard to put it away until April but I really must get on with March's Cottage and finish that first.

March Cottage - a little green house

This is coming on really slowly this month as I haven't been able to do much stitching. My shoulder has flared up quite badly again and for most of the last week all I was able to do was sit straight and read. Stitching was out of the question. It's improved slightly over the last couple of days though and I've discovered that it's a bit easier if I wedge a cushion under my arm while I stitch to support the shoulder. I've spent a couple of hours today finishing off the cottage part and it seems ok so far.

I seem to be getting into a routine of doing the cottage first, then the surrounding scenery and then the borders last. I like the cottage in this month's design, especially the windows, and I'm rather looking forward to doing those sheep next.

This is what it looks like so far.

Part twelve of The Great Escape has just been posted and I haven't done part eleven yet so I'm planning to do some of that tomorrow before continuing with this. It's a different type of stitching, not so repetitive, so it'll be less stressful on my shoulder. Also, I don't want to get too far behind.

February Cottage - finished

I've made a couple of tweaks to this one. There are supposed to be some random hearts either side of of the text but I'm not keen on them so I've left them off. The hearts within the borders should be cross stitched but I've done them differently - just 'cause I can. I had a free pattern arrive by email from Abi Gurden for Valentine's day. It's a heart made up of hearts done in specialist stitches, one of which was a Rhodes heart. It was the perfect size to substitute for the border hearts in the Cottage and when I saw it I thought it might look pretty. Perfect timing from Abi.

This isn't a very good photo. I can't get the colours to look right. Natural daylight is a bit scarce at the moment. Even at 1pm, it's a bit dark so I'll try again on a brighter day and then change the photo if I can get a better one.

I have the next part of The Great Escape to do so I'll be playing with that next and then I may do a bit on one of my other WIPs for a few days. Or I may start something new. I keep looking at my Pixel People charts that I have printed off. I'd really like to start one of those...

February Cottage - A little pink house

It's taking a bit longer than I hoped to do this month's cottage. I've been trying to do most of it while watching TV, but my rate of stitching slows down to a crawl as I just don't have the ability to concentrate on both at the same time.

I've just done a bit more with no TV on and no distractions and it went much faster. Obviously that's the way to go but usually the only time I get to do that is when it's late and I'm tired. Not the best time for stitching. Sigh.

So, I'll just plod on and accept that I'm a slow, slow stitcher.

I do like this month's cottage. It's very pretty with the two variegated pinks. I love the way they blend into each other in the window frame and walls. I have one more pair of flower stems and hearts to do and then I can do the text and the borders. Hopefully the borders won't send me quite so cross-eyed as January's did.

I'm not sure about the randomly scattered hearts around the text in this one. I may not do them as I have a vague idea of something else to do instead. I need to think about it a bit first. I may just be a complete wimp though and follow the design as it is...