Nutcracker, blanket and Colly bird

 The cold, wet weather continues here in the UK and despite there being a sudden burst of daffodils everywhere I can't help longing for the rain to stop and the sunshine to come out!  I didn't think I had achieved that much this week but now I've taken photos I realise I haven't done too badly at all.

Some work has been done on the Nutcracker and I ordered the gold and silver thread from a local wool shop which means I can finish off his trousers (hopefully tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching)

Quite  few more rows were added to my Attic 24 crochet blanket.

And one wet afternoon I decided to put Ambers 4th Christmas decoration together (I know I really am ahead of the game!)  Unfortunately I didn't realise until too late that when I copied the pattern on to the Sulky I forgot to change the settings to actual size and consequently it is much smaller than it should be.  If I had realised I would have used two threads instead of three on the embroidery.  And also if I had spare sheets of Sulky I would probably have remade it.  Still too late now and I don't suppose Amber will mind/notice!

Table topper, nutcracker, March!

 I've got a couple of finishes this week.  Firstly I completed the clematis table topper.  Because I wanted to showcase more of the shadow stitching I had to rethink the wavy border which resulted in two of the corners not quite matching up.  I added a pink petal to each corner as a cover up.  If you don't look too closely it looks lovely LOL!

This is mostly hand stitched except the wavy border.  I tried to stitch it with a blanket stitch but there were just too many layers (two of them batik + the wadding and white background fabric) so went round with the sewing machine and I extended a couple of the shadow stitch flowers onto the border.  And finished off with some beads and French knots.  Clematis have a fluffy bit in the middle which I could have added but it will probably have a vase of flowers on it and don't want it to be unstable.

I then moved on to complete the little March stitchery I started a while ago.  This was prompted by reading Kathy's Valentines Day post.  She had completed the Heart in Hand February block which was gorgeous!

The pattern comes from The Snowflower Diaries blog.  I then turned my attention to putting more stitches into my Nutcracker stocking. 

It's another very wet morning here in the UK, hopefully the rain will ease later this morning so I can get Lola out for her walk and I won't get soaked!  In the mean time I will join Kathy for some slow Sunday stitching.  Hop on over and see what others are stitching today!

Clematis table topper and crochet

 The poor dog twisted her foot/leg/ankle again yesterday after a lovely sunny walk along the beach. We dosed her up with analgesic left over from the last time she did it, but it means we won't walk her today, so I will get a good couple of hours more time to stitch!  So what shall I choose?  I haven't worked much on Nutcracker this week, so I'm sure I will get some stitches added here.  Although I would like to carry on with the project I started at my craft class on Monday.  Each month one of our members (there's only nine of us but they are a talented lot) chose a project.  This month it's needle turn applique. I am not a fan of this technique, especially when it contains small bits!  But I gave it another go!

These few bits took several hours, so after thinking about it over night I removed said offending flower and leaves and started again with my best friend Bonda web!

I have happily spent the last week adding the shadow flowers and leaves and I must admit really enjoying it.  The pattern has three different sections with a different varieties of flower but I am sticking with the one.  It also has a wavy border that I really like but will have to do some planning to get the mitres and curves right.  If I stuck with the pattern it would cut out a lot of the shadow bits and I really like them.  So that will be this weeks aim.

I've also managed to get some more stripes added to the blanket I am crocheting - 33 rows in total.

I will link up with Kathy later today for some slow Sunday stitching.  Hop on over and take a look!

Nutcracker

 Once a year my DH goes up to London for a weekend with our son while they visit an Astronomy exhibition over two days and listen to experts talk about Astronomy!  Its my time to do exactly what I want and I look forward to it every year (btw I wouldn't want him to go away for more than two nights I would miss him!)

So what have I done? Watched trash TV, eat junk (well pizza and a Chinese take away) on a tray, put together some long over due photo albums, walked the dog (twice a day) and a bit of cross stitch....

a bit of crochet

and made some serviettes for a girlfriends birthday.

I've also read a whole book!

He is home this evening and I am looking forward to seeing him, as is the dog (who incidentally has spent quite a bit of the night on the bed with me!)

I will link up with Kathy tomorrow for some slow Sunday stitching!