Cat Lovers

 We've just spent a few lovely days in Dorset to celebrate DHs birthday.  We stayed at Corfe Castle and did lots of walking, eating and generally enjoying ourselves! That for me did include some stitching.

 Progress on Cat Lovers is coming along nicely.  I have made the rooky mistake of cutting my fabric a bit on the mean side so I might have trouble when I come to frame this! Not sure what went wrong, maybe I miss counted!

So I've just cut some fabric for my next project and made sure it is plenty big enough.  I have obviously broken my promise not to start anything else until something is finished but I'm counting Monkey and the House sewing case as finishes so I can legitimately start something new!! I know who am I kidding!  I will be starting this little Home cross stitch (it's going to be a house warming present) this afternoon for some slow Sunday stitching while cooking a roast dinner and watching the Belgium motor racing on TV - like most women I'm good at multitasking!!  Hop over to Kathy's Blog for some slow Sunday stitching to see what other people are working on today!

Black work sampler

 It's been over a month since I've last posted a picture of progress on my black work sampler and I'm nearly half way through.  There are 41 elements in total and I've completed 19, so good progress.  I'm still not keen on sewing the Assisi blocks but the over all effect is very pleasing so I will persevere!

I'm linking up with Kathy and other sewing enthusiasts for some Slow Sunday Stitching - Enjoy

I also wanted to show this rather lovely sewing box that was given to me by an elderly neighbour, she is 86 and the box was made for her Mother by her Father, so is a really precious possession, so I feel very lucky to be given it!

 And it is full of lots of treasures and here are a few.

Monkey!

 I have another Ta-dah moment......I've finished my Tilda monkey and he is so cute, I just love him! and yes despite saying last week I didn't think I would want to make another one I definitely think I will now! The idea is that if you have more than one they link together by the hands, feet or tail! that said this one is probably going to go to my niece for her Birthday in October, which means I will have to make two more (so they link) for me!!

 And I think I need to add more rouge to his cheeks too!

I'm also going to blow my own trumpet here - that's two finished for August!!

House needle case and Tilda Monkey!

 I finished the stitching off on the little Mandy Shaw needle case that has been sitting around for ages. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it, so will probably save it as a gift for someone one day.

 I've been busy trying to get the 24 completed stars on my travel EPP project attached to the main part. 24 is way too many and despite working on it all day last Monday at my Creative group and every evening I still have 7 more to add.  When they are attached I will post a progress photo.  To give myself a break from it I decided Friday to start the Tilda Monkey kit I've again had sitting on the side lines waiting for the right moment!

The kit comes with enough gorgeous Tilda fabric to make two monkeys (different fabric) and although I've enjoyed constructing him, the turning through the limbs and then stuffing said limbs took me all yesterday afternoon.  So not sure if or when I will attempt the second one.  But in the meantime I plan on spending my slow Sunday stitching afternoon ladder stitching the gaps in his body parts, assembling him and hopefully giving him a face too!  I will link up with Kathy's blog so you can see what other people are sewing today.

Creative Group and Project Linus

Yesterday I went to my creative group for some lovely sewing, chatting, eating and generally enjoying myself time! I was working on sewing together some of the 60 degree diamonds on my travel memory quilt to free up more templates and surprisingly I did quite a lot (sorry I haven't taken a photo of progress) But we did decide that in Jan/Feb we would make some Project Linus quilts. Locally in 2017 2,029 quilts were delivered, making a total of 18,701 quilts gifted from my area since Project Linus started in the UK in June 2002. That's a great achievement and I have made them in the past (when I belonged to a quilt group many years ago).  But it got me thinking about all those UFOs and blocks I have made that are sitting in my box waiting for inspiration...and Project Linus could be just the push I need to use some of them!

This morning I've had fun arranging squares, deciding how many more I would need, which ones needed borders, which ones would just take too many blocks to make it any where enough for a quilt and some of course that wouldn't be suitable for children - although Project Linus covers premature birth to 19 years old. Just need to buy some fleece to back them and of try to stop myself working on them before January!!

House needle case

It's another scorching hot day on the south coast of England - last Sunday of course we had a whole day of rain, it was blissful, but not a drop since!

For my slow Sunday stitching today I've decided to try and finish something (I want to be able to tick the UFO list for August) and decided I would finish this little Mandy Shaw house needle case.  I thought it only needed to be assembled but I now realise I've got to button hole the roof, do the decorative stitching on that, stitch the chimney and then I can think about assembling it.  Well I can make a start today and see how far I get with it.  In the meantime below is a progress photograph of Cat Lovers.

I've been working on this during the week but yesterday I received a cross stitch book I ordered from Amazon because I want to start a Home Sweet Home embroidery for my son and his girlfriend for when they move into their new house in September, another reason to finish the house needle case (I am trying not to start anything new until I've finished something else....and it's so hard!)

Hop over to Kathy's blog for some Slow Sunday Stitching inspiration and have a good day!

Stitches and Buttons

I haven't posted any pictures of this project since May 22nd and admittedly not a lot happened during then and the start of July (I spent two weeks in France and then three weeks in China, so I do have an excuse!) But at the beginning of July I started working on the blue and turquoise sections of the project. And Below you can see progress to date - not sure why the photo, taken this morning, is so pink!