A month since I blogged .... oh dear....
I've not been away whipping up lots of things with needle/thread or wool. In fact, I've not done a lot at all really.
The computer had done some updates and that's caused a lot of hassle. Emails not arriving till 3 days after they were sent, things you know are on the computer don't seem to want to be found and such a lot of time has been wasted when I could have been doing something more productive and that has made me very cranky, grumpy and stressed out. It's not just fun stuff, but work has taken lots more time too. A friend suggested that perhaps this latest Pokémon craze has caused internet chaos for all with it being school holidays and the worldwideweb going into meltdown??
Today, it's decided it will play nicely and as a surprise it will remember the software for the camera is in fact on here and I can upload some pics of work done last month and things I've received - at the moment it's behaving, but that could all change and you don't get this post at all ....
The last Sunday of the month is the deadline for the Christmas stitching challenge organised by
Christine at Needlecraft Haven forum. Regular readers will see this each month as I try hard to keep up as you have 12 lovely things for Christmas gifts at the end of the year. June's deadline came and went, stitching was complete but not the making up, that's rectified now.... the design being from
here.
July's challenge was a quick stitch and I decided to make mine into a little gift tag for a Christmas gift. The design Christine chose was from
here (eagled eyed stitchers will notice from the chart that I failed to add his tummy buttons and only realised when I had made it up). As we are now in August the reveal day for that was last Sunday.
Last time I showed you some nice pink wool that I was going to knit up. It started so lovely, but unfortunately the frog came and what I had done was undone (who wants to have to pick up stitches for every piece you knit to join it to the previous piece - not a nice pattern at all) so a different pattern started, it's almost finished and needs to be done for the weekend deadline, fingers crossed it is.
The blue tit socks which were asked for have been finished off ...
Two school cardigans have been requested for the new term in September, the first is knitting up nicely....
As all the knitting is for gifts they would have fitted nicely into a Gifted Gorgeousness post but that got missed in July. I did have a lovely letter in the post from Jo over at
Serendipitous Stitching who organises this each month. It arrived last week and as it was in a smart posh envelope and I had a birthday coming up on the Saturday I put it away with other cards i'd received. Such a nice treat to open a letter from Jo on my birthday not with birthday wishes but a friendly hello from a fellow blogger, thank you Jo, and I agree it is nice to receive a letter in this technological world we live in. The cards are from a local artist where Jo lives and you can check out her work
here where they are available to order.
Talking of my birthday, thank you so much to all those who sent cards, thank you for remembering me. Also, a lovely selection of gifts too from Barb, Christine, Clare, Maggie, Tina, Kathy & Angi
Don't you just adore that knitting bowl, want to see it close up...
handmade and all the way from Scotland and it's got a bunny on it. The potter even added 2 lovely pottery buttons as a 'Happy Birthday' gift from her to me, now that was a very thoughtful trader.
When my DS asked a while ago if there was something special I wanted for my birthday, there was nothing I needed but at the time I was reading a blog and showed him what was on it. So, he bought me that, it's a copy of our dear friend
Gaynor's wonderful book of Holmsey Hare and my granddaughter Isabelle and I have enjoyed reading it together.
Isabelle commented about her knitted bunnies I made for her and it made me think of the one I sent to Gaynor when she was having her first treatments a few years back now. I do hope she is bringing comfort still to this lovely lady {{hugs}} to you Gaynor. Have you bought one of these wonderful books for yourself, (link on a post at Gaynors blog) or perhaps you have some of her cross stitch charts in your 'to do' pile? Have you visited her blog, stop by and say hello.
Other crafting goodies from family included a lavender sachet cross stitch kit, some nice expensive Symphonie knitting needles and natural undyed alpaca wool from a herd that is only a short drive from my home. That will be interesting to knit up, better look for a nice pattern for 3 x 50grm balls of yarn....any ideas? I have a faint memory of a nice neck scarf Christine did last year, better trawl her blog and try to find it, perhaps that will fit the bill.
This was very special from Isabelle....
August 1st arrived and with it was opening day of the spring meet-up exchange. This time we were to stitch a coaster on the theme of the recipients birthday month and include their favourite sweet treat.
Angi sent to me..... isn't he magnificent
and I sent to
Clare. Some of you will know that when Clare turned 50 last September she embarked on walking the route of the London Marathan over 12 months as a personal challenge. With the walk ending on her birthday this September I decided to make up a design to commemorate the finish of the walk and came up with this...
You can read all about her
journey so far in the fabulous write up she does each time she completes the next 3 miles. Roll on September 10th for the finish line ... GO CLARE (and Nick). There's a donation button on her page too if you feel inclined to give a little to the charities that she is supporting by doing this.
Were you expecting to see the Joyful World SAL for July in this post, sorry, but all that's been stitched on that is one flamingo, so its official, I am a month behind (or more if I wanted to show each at the beginning of the new month) on this SAL now.
To be honest, I have lost interest at the moment in these and not sure if that is why the stitching mojo has gone AWOL, they do take quite a while to stitch and with the knitting as well I don't seem to have stitched much of anything else at all this year, maybe it's time to call it a day on these and come back to the next 6 months another time, how are you doing with yours, are you up to date and still enjoying them.
That was a marathon catching up session and the computer is still behaving so I had better sign off and press the publish button whilst the going is good,
Thanks for stopping by, i'm so very far behind on blog reading myself with all the computer woes that perhaps you wont get a comment on all of your posts whilst I catch up but I will stop by to see what you have all been creating and adventures you have been having.
Love and blessings to you all
Julie x
