Holiday stitching.

I don't know why but I have stitching which I keep and only do on holiday. At the moment it is a set of Tuscan cats which have been coming on holiday for the last 2 years with me. I choose them as I do love them (obviously) and they're a set of 4 designs which have a good mixture of block stitching which makes them easy to do and confetti stitching which keeps the piece interesting. When I'm not on holiday this kit lives in my bedside cabinet so on the odd occasion I do stitch in bed I find this easy to pull out and pick up and continue stitch in from where I left off. 

As I said they are a set of 4. I have completed 2 already. 

This is where I was at at the start of my holiday with the current one. 

This is where I am now. 

I haven't done loads but hubby has been really poorly with a stomach bug so we haven't been going out as much, especially on a night and when it's been red hot in the afternoon sun is when I retreat indoors to the air conditioned apartment where I've had an hour or relaxing, reading and stitching. 

As we only have 2 full days left of the holiday I know I won't get it finished before I get home so I'll pack it away in my bedside cabinet getting it out occasionally to stitch in bed (though usually I'm so tired by bed time I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow!!) and I'll pull it out again for my next holiday. 

Stag Update

I had hoped to have this finished by now. I had 12 days off work and planned to spend every afternoon stitching. I was lucky if I got 2 hours stitching over the whole time off. I never stopped, in fact I find it easier being at work. I did get some long over due jobs done in the house. 

I am enjoying working on this but must admit I'm finding stitching on red difficult. I'm struggling to see the holes and need my lamp on to stitch, even through the day. 

Today though I have had a rare treat. I've had the house to myself all afternoon, so after doing some house work I have had an hour stitching. Yes a whole hour of stitching. Unfortunately I won't get any chance to do anymore today as I have to get ready soon to go out with a friend. So here's my update. 

This weeks offerings

CI have been working mainly on this. 

It's Dimensions Stag at sunset. I started it last Saturday and as I always start in the bottom left of a piece it's been mainly black so far. 

I have not worked on my other two pieces this week. With my seaside picture I've stitched the wrong colour. On the wind breaker on the left it should be blue. I've been using my pako thread organiser and loading up lots of needles at a time. I've accidentally out the colour for symbol S where into the section marked $ so when I've come to use that thread I've used the wrong colour so it's to unlock and re stitch. Also I've ran out of 676 so I can't go much further until I buy another 2 skeins. Here it is so far Mistake and all

On the left where it's pink and blue I've stitched a beige colour rather than blue. 

I've also been working on Heritage Stitchcraft's Fair game. I must admit I'm not enjoying it much. There is loads of half stitches and straddle stitches so I have to count several times to make sure I'm putting the stitch in the correct place. I also struggle to see the holes on the 28 count even weave. I think it's an age thing. Even in daylight I have to have my lamp on. Here it is so far. 

It also has lots of back stitch so I'm going to try and do that as I go along. 

A week when my stitchy bug came back

last Monday (4 April) I had a really bad day health wise. I suffer from a degenerative disease which I usually manage on a day to day basis but last Monday (after I'd got dressed for work) I had a massive flare up which left me bed bound. In the morning the pain Es unbearable and even though I want taking strong pAin killers it was not getting rid of the pain. A mixture of pain killers and the bodies natural defenders meant I shut down and slept the morning away. By the afternoon although still in pain I thought some stitching might help take my mind off the pain. As I couldn't get out of bed I asked my daughter to bring me some stitching up. I store each project in a popper type folder so asked her to pick one one bring some scissors and a highlighter. She brought me this. 

This was where I was at as of last Monday. I don't have a picture of what it should look like but it's a vase of flowers which looks like a water colour picture. I have loved working on this over the last week. When I started this I kept a record of the days and times I worked on it. So I kept on doing this while I was working. A week later this is what it,oils like 

and here's a photo of my time sheet. The 2 *indicate when I took the photos. So the first * is the photo after 4 hours 25 minutes stitching and the second photo is after 13.30 (or there abouts. You'll notice on the 10 April I recorded the start time of 18.35 and forgot to record the finish time. I think I stitched for about 15 mins that sitting) 

I know compared to some people it not many hours spent stitching but it is for me, especially over the last 6 months or so when I seem to have lost my stitchy bug. Ive got my next 3 projects lined up so I can't wait to make a start on them but I'm going to finish my case of flowers first before I stet the next one. 

Here's my next 3. I don't know how  I'm going to manage them yet. I'll have to let you know how it goes. 

Things aren't going to plan and a massive realisation.

There is no way I'm going to get my flower finished in the suggested 10 hours and I have realised how little I stitch. Lots of times I look at other peoples finishes and think how did they do that in such a short time and it takes me ages to do a small design and I've realised its because I don't spend a lot of time stitching.  I only work 3 days a week but I leave the house at 7.50 am and get home at 6pm. On Mondays and Wednesday's I go swimming after work so it's more like 7.30pm when I get home. Then make tea and by the time I sit down I'm too tired to start concentrating on stitching. I try and do as much as I can Thursday to Sunday's but this week did do some stitching through the day on Friday as I was poorly on the couch. 

Here's this weeks time sheet. After 2 hours 25 mins of stitching I realised I'd made a mistake. Sometimes if it doesn't affect the design too much I leave the mistake but I realised this would knock the whole pattern out. Fortunately it only took me 15 minutes to frog and then I could get on my merry way. 

Here's where I am now. 

The 2 stains on the left are red wine stains. Fortunately it doesn't affect this design but there is a lesson to be learnt there!!!! So it's taken me over 7 hours to get this far. There's no way I'll have it finished in 10 hours but I stitch for pleasure and never usually give myself time limits. I'm going to continue timing myself just because. 

Have a great Sunday. 

A Little Experiment

I'm very naughty but last week I was looking through some charts that were in my 'to do' pile and I saw a set of 4 bright flowers which I loved. I thought that if I did them on 18 count they would be a great size for coasters. I love stitched coasters. I use them at home and work. I have been looking at the charts and thinking the best way to stitch them for the past week. Today I cracked and started them. No I haven't finished my owl but I just couldn't resist them any longer. While I was photocopying the charts I noticed it says they take 10 hours each to stitch so I thought I would test the theory out. I use to record how long I it took me to do each project. I kept a record as I went along then recorded the times in a spreadsheet. Unfortunately my computer crashed and I lost everything. No I didn't back it up. Don't know why (doh) and I never bothered after that. So here's tonight's stitching. I'm going to record it on my blog as I go along cos even if my computer crashes it's still out there somewhere (as long as I can remember my password!!!). 

So after 1 hour and 40 mins stitching here's tonight's offerings. 

Owl update

I'm not updating as often as I would like but I am still enjoying working on this. It's a perfect project for a good stitchy session with a good drama on the TV and a cuppa. I've been doing lots of crochet too. I'll post pictures of my crochet another time and hopefully I'll not leave it too long for updates.