BBD progress...nearly there!

I hope everyone who celebrates Mother's Day in March had a wonderful day. My son made me a lovely picture instead of a card as he told me I could then keep it up all year instead of a few days like a card aww he can be sweet!

My kids gave me some lovely homemade gifts this year and all very practical too.

A very handy tote bag personally designed for me 💕

And a beautifully handcrafted wooden spatula 💕

I even managed to squeeze in a little bit of stitching over a few days last week.

I've managed some stitching on 'her sampler' by BBD. Another band of those bloomin eyelet stitches sheesh! so glad they are over and done with.

Oh what joy to be back stitching cross stitches and how much quicker my stitching went too.

This is where I am up to as of today. Another border of those blasted eyelet stitches has finally done for me lol. I've given up and put it away again. Although to be honest I had to put it away in favour college course work. Hope you all have a faby week and thanks for stopping by.

Stitchy progress

It's not all work and no play for this girl *grin* I have some progress pics to share with you, BBD Forget Me Not is nearly finished as you can see just a little to do at the bottom, it kind of got put to one side as I lost one of my skeins of blue thread ( think I left it behind at the swimming pool when taking twin 1 to her swimming lesson)

So while Forget Me Not got put on the back burner I pulled out my kit for the Miniature Needlelace Lavender Hearts by Jenny Adin-Christie, these are soo teeny and cute! Smaller than I expected and took longer to make than I expected too lol but I love them! Jenny's instructions are frankly foolproof she takes you step by step with plenty of pictures you just can't go wrong. I can see me making lots of these in odd moments they are sooo addictive and the smell of the lavender is just...ahhh....gorgeous! I have put mine on my scissors for the moment and can't stop picking them up and smelling them. I love the dotty backs, they are so cheery and make me smile.

Took a little break from making the needlelace hearts as my wonderful hubby treated me to an introduction to stumpwork class at the Wemyss School of Needlework at the end of June to make this...

For completing my first year at college. The class was taken by Helen McCook and she is an amazing teacher with lots of patience and willing to spend time showing us and explaining what we were to do, some of the lady's were quick learners and got on with the task in hand some and here I include myself in this group were not so quick lol and needed a lot of support. Helen was lovely and would come round to those of us needing help individually.
I have not done any form of embroidery since I was very young when my gran taught me but it really never grabbed me and I much preferred doing cross stitch. However I have always admired the old stumpwork pictures that you often see in old stately homes and wondered how they made them so this class really appealed to me. I can honestly say it did not disappoint. I did not get my butterfly finished at class it took me another week or so of on off stitching to complete it but I am kind of proud of it and like to think my gran is looking down and saying ' thank goodness she's finished something!' Well here it is..

The Wemyss School of Needlework is a wonderful place to hold a class, in the classroom itself you are surrounded by wonderful examples of old needlework and the windows let in plenty of light so we didn't really need to use the lamps that were supplied for our use. I was fascinated with the work stands supplied called Lowery Stands they are not the most attractive looking stands but boy were they sturdy and did the job.....no I mustn't be tempted I've got a floor stand already and I am meant to be de-cluttering!
The school is also a museum and there were examples of needlework and old photos on all the walls even in the toilet which might explain why some of us seemed to spend an age in their *sheepish grin*
We ate a lovely lunch surrounded by more examples of needlework and kits and threads, sadly I had to rush out the door at the end of the class due to fractious kids and hubby waiting in the car for me so didn't get a chance to have a good look and spend some pennies....hmm perhaps in the light of current goings on in this house that may not be such a bad thing...but I will go back. I would love to do another class it was a wonderful and memorable day. Sadly I can't share any photos of inside the school with you all as we were not allowed to take any I assume because of the old needlework and pictures, I would recommend if you are ever up this way do check out if any classes are on or to even just visit the shop and museum well worth a visit in my humble opinion!

I can now work again on my Forget Me Not sampler as I have ordered the missing thread and ordered some threads and linen to finally make a start on on Black Bird Designs SAL which I signed up for but as yet not started so no excuses now.

Finally we have had a couple of wet days (well it is Scotland) which means cool nights and I have managed to get a little more done on my socks. They are progressing but very slowly, I seem to spend as long un-twisting my needles and yarn as I do knitting! Hmmm maybe I need shorter needles, I certainly need to pay more attention to where the pattern starts on my yarn in future.  No matter these are just for me but I am rapidly coming to the conclusion I am no natural sock knitter *grin*

Thank you for popping by.

New stash

Following on from my last post regarding my trip to Dundee, I paid a little visit to a wool shop and added to my stash. I got some cheap wool ( it was reduced honest! ) to practice knitting two socks at the same time, here's hoping I can get two matching socks. I've already made a wee start on them even though I haven't finished the last pair off, naughty me.

I just had to start them off to see how the wool was knitting up. I am using Drops Fabel and liking them so far.

I also bought this ball of sock yarn by Schoppel as I really like the colours but will make sure I can knit a matching pair first before I start using it.

They will be bright and cheery for cool autumn days. I know we are heading into summer and the days here are starting to warm up but I am slow at knitting and need to plan ahead.

I've also been doing a little online shopping to add to my stash. It was exciting when the parcel arrived through the post even though I knew what was going to be in it I was like a child at Christmas  full of anticipation. Oh boy the parcel didn't disappoint. Would you like to see what I treated myself 

too? I thought so ok then.

I've had my eye on the BBD Forget Me Not pattern for quite a while but it has been out of stock every time I've gone to order it but luck must have smiled on me cos I've got one now. While browsing, cos it just seemed silly to buy one little chart when there was shipping to be paid, I fell in love with this Stacy Nash Primitives Tribute to Summer Sampler. There is just something about the colours in this one that just called to me. Ok you will have noticed that I didn't just buy the charts I thought I may as well kit them out so they are ready to start when the mood strikes. I don't know about you but I hate wanting to start a project then having to wait while I order the necessary threads 

and linens...inevitably I go off the boil....and start something else.

Forget Me Not will be stitched using the recommended threads but will be stitched on 40 count linen as they didn't have the recommended count I don't mind will end up a little smaller but that's ok.

Summer Sampler with there commended threads and linen. The colours look lovely here don't they? Well I have one teensy wee gripe about some of those colours.....

These two threads GA Apple Cider and GA Lambswool are according to the chart the colours for the outer border leaves and flowers. Now I know that computer screens and chart colours can be a little misleading but do these threads look remotely summery to you? Cos they certainly don't to me!

This one in particular really had me scratching my head, I've been on line searched for images of this sampler completed, looked at colour samples for GA Apple Cider and they are all GREEN or various shades of green but definitely green folks! I know colour lots can change but this is pretty dramatic. Now the above thread to me looks brown no green not even a snifter of green in it and there is no way, no how, nuh uh that I will be stitching a border of dead brown leaves on my summer sampler. Whew! Glad I got that off my chest lol! So what to do? Well I am just going to have to look through my stash for a green that I do like and a lighter shade for the flowers simple.

Now this combination is much more pleasing to my eye, lighter coloured flowers and green leaves, much more summer like.......and breath....