WOYWW 817/37 - spot the difference...

Well - hello!  Welcome back to WOYWW as hosted by the fabulous (and Chalet School Friend!) Sarah of Sarah's Craft Shed, who is the most able successor of our dear Julia.

Thank you all for your lovely and kind comments last week. Nobody is to feel bad about missing previous news or not commenting etc.  I've been AWOL for a long while and am not the most diligent/frequent of bloggers or readers, and I've missed a lot of everyone's lives. Sympathies, love and hugs are automatically given from me and should be assumed as sent whatever your situation.  This community has been a family for a long while and whilst prodigal son I am not, occasional returning sheep I am.  I know you all are supportive and I am blessed to have you within my circle, albeit quite a widely spread one. That said, I mentioned to Mr B that there's a WOYWW crop coming up (mentioned, as one does, with one internal eyebrow raised to see what the response would be hehehe) and he said to book somewhere to stay overnight as Stoke is a loooooong way north.  Although permission is not required, blessing is generally sought and I would say that was definitely given!

I'm sorry I didn't get round to y'all to return the comment favour but I plan on making sure I do this week. I might even remember to answer some of your questions either in this Blog or in my visits, so if I forget, do please give me a poke!  And come back here later in the week in case I've added (or corrected) something...

First the desk.  As the title says, spot the difference. LOL  

I did actually complete two projects that have been waiting to be dealt with. Well, not projects per se but "things wot need fixing".  One was a zipper pull I'd previously made for a project back for Mr B, but the clasp of which had broken so the whole thing needed taking apart and remaking.  It's two inches long, took me all of 5 minutes to fix, but has been waiting at least a year.  What am I like?  So, job done.  It was in fact hidden on that pile of a desk last week, and is gone now - but you'll never spot it.

The other task was the embroidery scroll frame that was on the chair last week.  The staples had rusted through the webbing (to which you stitch your fabric) and new webbing needed stapling onto the rods.  Finally got round to that as well.  Another 5 minute job.  An easy win.  A quick dopamine fix, so to speak.  I do not know why it took me so long to sort out but it's done now.  The scroll frame is ready to go back in service and another item ticked off the list.

Stitching wise we have progress further into Siren's Lament, now on the next couple of rows below where I was....  can't wait to work more on her face.

BJ asked if it was cross stitch - it's actually tent or half-cross stitch.  Some would say needlepoint.  There's no hard and fast rule with full coverage, just personal preference.  With this particular design, and there being such a large area of pitch back, I decided to use three strands of floss over one thread on the fabric, and do tent stitch.  It gave me the coverage I needed in the black.  another one I'm doing is two strands over one (we shorten it to simply 2 over 1) tent stitch, but some folks do 1 over 1 full cross.  I work on the theory that I can stitch twice as fast with two strands and tent stitch but it does have its issues, such as warping the fabric if you're not careful.  I try, but it won't be until it's finished and washed that I'll know for sure.

And the Alluring Sorceress has moved on further too - squint and you'll spot a third shade of blue appearing.  The colours are just gorgeous....

Angela (Crafting With Jack) - I'm happy to have been of storage inspiration!  You asked how I reached the top shelf and the answer is simply - with a step ladder!  I have my very own two-step ladder in the craft room.  It never leaves and is solely for the purpose of hopping up and down as necessary.  Sometimes I stand on the futon to reach the shelves above there but the rest of the time a mini ladder suffices.  In answer to your second question, I try to put things up there that I rarely need.  So that I don't have to get up and down too often.  That said, both myself and Mr B are quite short so the next shelf down sees a fair bit of ladder action!  I hope that answers your questions?

Well, I'm late posting this and now the dogs are complaining that I haven't walked them so I'd better fly....

Happy hopping!

Morti x

WOYWW 816/36 - A very belated Happy New Year!

I'm here, I'm alive and I'm ok!  A very belated happy new year to everyone.  Life kinda caught up with me, overtook me, and left me standing still.  LOL

So first things first - let's get the elephant in the room out of the way.  I pretty much left everyone hanging and so I'm pleased to let you all know that my results from my operation came back and they're all clear. No cancer, and no need for accelerated re-scans.  Once every three years is sufficient, apparently.  I have what is called a "radial scar" or a "sclerosing lesion" and whilst there is a risk of malignancy much later on, it is a very low risk.  Or so I'm told.  I'm not going to worry about it as there's no point stealing joy from the now on the off chance there may be trouble a long way ahead.  I'm well now and that's what matters.

Let's switch topics and talk about what you're really here for - WOYWW.  What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.  Once hosted by the lovely Julia, we now have it hosted by the equally lovely Sarah over at Sarah's Craft Shed.  The idea is to show your work desk, warts and all. The Chaos behind the Creations.  Well, we still have chaos...

Much as I love my crafting, and my craft room, I never seem to have the time to create and when I do, I don't have the energy.  Well, if I'm honest, I have the time if I stop wasting it on pointless pursuits (doom scrolling, anyone?), or stop stitching.  Sometimes one feels a little like a hamster on a wheel where the stitching is concerned, hehehhe.

So as you can see below, chaos has indeed resumed.  I mean, technically it's been reshuffled.  But there have been some biggish changes (new boxes in the Kallax, for example, to hold my DMC Threads) and the desks are still holding WIPS to be completed. I WILL get there.  

I just need my job to quieten down a little after the flurry of a new start and all that goes with it - answering immediate queries and dealing with post-Xmas issues, onboarding new clients who failed to return paperwork pre-Xmas, supporting a client as they bring in new HR software systems (and drag their reluctant employees into the 21st century!), and getting to grips with my own new systems.  Then I also start a part time job in February - still working from home but it's likely to be a big time suck three days a week as any job is.  So as I see it, I have this week and next to clear that pile on my desk and to get back to creating new stuff.

Stitching wise, here's some of the latest progress:

Siren's Lament - finally got to the end of that row!

The "Alluring Sorceress" by Dimensions is really starting to become more defined and you can see the patterns appearing in that robe,

And Lilith of Labrador's tail is really coming along with gaps being filled in.

I have a list of outstanding tasks that need doing (I owe a certain H an ATC - I've not forgotten and I WILL do it!) so time to sign off, and get on with clearing that pile of finishes waiting for me. And I'll document them and share next week so there's my accountability!

Happy Hopping!

WOYWW 810/30 - Not much changes round 'ere fast...

Seems I can't manage to remember to post regularly, but infrequently is better than not at all, eh?

There's not really any change to the desk this week.

Still has the same bits on it - maybe a couple extra even (LOL) but basically the room is still a mess and the cushion isn't finished and the Christmas stitching still isn't framed.  Maybe 2025 will be the year of finishing? Perhaps if I capitalise it, it will make it a thing. The Year of Finishing.  Sounds like a title for a fantasy book.

There has, of course, been stitching, and we're in the throes of Flossmas so daily vlogs are de rigeur right now.  The average vlog can take two hours to prep, film, edit, and upload, so it does take a considerable chunk out of one's day.

Where was I?  Oh yes, stitching.

So the whole Flossmas thing means that there's less time for stitching so a limited amount of progress gets seen.  Amongst the current suspects are:

Alluring Sorceress - art by James Himsworth, published by Dimensions - how it looks, and how it will look when done...

I'm currently adding in the darker shade of blue to add depth.  It's going to take a long time but I also had this in stash for nigh on 20 years so a couple more won't hurt.

Next up is Cead Mile Failte, Design by Joan Elliott, published by Design Works.  Another one that's been hanging out in my supply box for a long, long time.

What you can't see is the judicious application of some blending filament to the yellow to make it glitter and appear more like the gold leaf that would have been there.  If you squint.  Sideways. Heheheh.

I've also worked a bit more on Cherith.  Loving this one but it does require concentration and longer arms.  None of which I really have at the moment. This really does need you to pay your full attention to it because the threads need to lay just so in order to look nice and neat, and not like the canvas had a fist fight in a needlework shop.

The picture on the left shows current progress - you can see the straight line across the top where I've reached the topmost point of the centre panel.  I just have the corners at the top and bottom (plus that purple at the bottom) and the lightest diamond to stitch in.  then single stitch width of border and I can work on the zig zag border before moving on.  Again, this will take me a couple more years to do but I'm really enjoying it so far. I plan to get this centre panel finished during Betwixtmas, ready to move on next year. The picture on the right shows the design in its original colourway, and I know that more folks have done different colourways to mine as well.

Regarding next week, it's highly likely that I won't be posting a WOYWW, unless I pull my finger out and schedule it on Tuesday night.  In short, I had a mammogram back in October which flagged an anomaly and after 2 needle biopsies the doctors would like to do and incision biopsy under general anaesthetic. the prognosis at this point is pretty good because the previous two biopsies showed no issues, they just want to be really, really, really sure. My last day working for my current is therefore on the 17th and I have the joy of recuperating ahead of Christmas.  Fun times!

So there you have it.  This week's WOYWW.  Happy hopping, y'all...

Morti x

WOYWW 802/22 - Dismal, damp, and dreary...

Greetings, fellow deskers!

Short and sweet (and late) from me this week.  Circumstances as ever conspiring against me to get me here on time.  One day I may even be early.

So, no desk from me because nothing happened to it.  I did however start the inexorable task of going through the boxes that came from Mum's and we've managed a whole two.  Well, one and a bit to be precise.  The trouble is they're full of small things and treasures that were either too good to let go, or two useful.  Rulers and stencils, a box full of Windsor & Newton inks, this little witchy poo diorama...

One treasure was a box full of embroidery skeins that had been wound onto home-made bobbins (probably made by Dad) and which will turn out to be their very own nightmare.  You see, (and as some of you know) there's more than one brand of floss.  And did Mother write on the bobbin which brand it was?  No - she only numbered them.  And each brand bar a couple have different numbering systems. Jeez..... I will need to go through, unwind each floss and rewind onto an acid free bobbin, then work out what number it's meant to be and which brand. What a task, eh?  Some would say I'm crazy, others that I'm frugal.  LOL

Mum was what we call a promiscuous stitcher - she used lots of brands in one piece.

Not sure what we have going on here… yikes

There's also been some amazing finds - vintage British silks which I think are from the late 40's/early 50's, and some imitation silks which were lurking in Mum's stash.

Such beautiful colours!

It's a shame you can't zoom into the photos - you used to be able to but now you can't and I will need to work out how to fix that.  So, for the time being, here's a close up of the moons on the Cryptids piece.

I rolled the scroll frame down, and last week was mostly about frogging (unpicking) the border that was in the wrong place.  A whole 919 stitches had to come out but I feel much better for it.  Some folks think I'm crazy.... oh, I said that already.... 

Before

After

I've put it to one side to do my other WIPGO for this month, Nevermore, and I've finally picked up Siren's Lament after 9 months' break.  And after two days have realised exactly why I took a break - I was struggling with the basic stitching.  It gets hard work when there's lots of "confetti" but we have some progress. You can just about see the masts of a ghostly ship to the right of the mermaid's head.

Mary Anne asked last week if I have all my stitched pieces up on the wall.  I have one my Mum did, and then eight, I think, I stitched (including two of my own designs, tralala) myself and two that David did. There's a further 7 (2 mine, 5 his) waiting to be framed, and one which my best friend stitched for me currently at the framers.  We have plenty of wall space though.  Once the 7 waiting to be finished are done I'll share those ones here.  I think the others may have already been shown at some point. I don't sell them, but I have gifted some in the past, and so has David.

What was that about short and sweet?

Happy Hopping!

Morti x

PS - I was offered the job, which I've accepted, and Jeanette I think has an interview for hers.... yay!

WOYWW 801/21 - Where did that week go?

Blinked and missed it, that's where.  How is it Wednesday again so soon? I didn't get round anyone's desks last week either (shame...shame....) but I have every intention of doing double duty this week to make up for it hehehehe.

WOYWW - currently hosted by Sarah at Sarah's Craft Shed - is a fascinating blog hop across the desks of many crafters, a warts and all look at what's actually going on.... hehehe.... rather than the pristine display conditions you often see when folks display their beautifully made cards.  Well, not such pristine display conditions here!  Lots of mess and plenty of stitching. instead.

This week's desk is.... same as the last two.  In fact, I dare you to play spot the difference.  Go on, do!  I know that something has changed there but I'm not telling you what... hehehehe

Second desk is looking a little tidier but that's only by dint of the fact that it's normally where my sewing machine lives.  As the machine is not currently there, there's a little encroachment going on (no I did not make the project bag you see, that's a purchase from Big Stitch)

Stitching wise, I've not done an awful lot in a week to the World of Cross Stitching SAL, but the first skein of thread in the right hand box is now complete.  3 to go, and the border, then I can move down and work on part 9.

(By the way, any weird grid/mesh effects or whatever disappear if you click into the pic!)

WIPGO called Cryptids for some love, for the second time this year.  You last saw it week 790/10, and now it's out for another 5 days.  I've done 2 days so far and definitely moved it on - Nessie is now complete and I'm working on the border.

Zoom in and you’ll see pale cream moons down the right hand side - they need an outline, I think, though they’re more obvious in person.

Busy Busy Busy....

Good news - gosh, how things can change in a week - is that I have had a verbal offer of a permanent, part-time role with one of our existing clients, starting Feb, and several others have expressed an interest in retaining my services on a formal basis going forwards.  Watch this space to see what happens!  Even my colleague Jeanette is in talks with the same client and may have a job out of it too.  Just so happens that they have a couple of leavers themselves, who are in roles that would suit us.  Yay!  Fingers crossed it all pans out.

Happy Hopping everyone

Morti xx

WOYWW 800 - What a milestone!

I’m here!  I’m here!  I nearly wasn’t though 😬

It's WOYWW time again... and this week sees the 800th post/week of WOYWW.

It was started by lovely Julia Dunnit, and Julia has recently passed the torch to Sarah Brennan of Sarah's Craft Shed to continue the WOYWW phenomenon into the future.

Last week, Sarah asked us to share this week our first ever desk picture that we posted for WOYWW. I'm quite fortunate, I think, in that we've moved around quite a bit and I recall which house we were living in the first time I posted - so that gave me a date range.  I was quite surprised to learn that my first week was week number 62, all the way back on 10 August 2010.  So about 15 months into the "show and tell" shenanigans.

It's a bit cleaner and tidier than the current state of affairs, and I had all the intentions but still didn’t make the effort to get the space tidy for this week. The week 62 post says that I'd been instructed to keep the space clean and tidy so Mr B could work at it as well for school stuff, because he didn't like clutter.  ROFL.  Our house is one big clutterfest these days.

It's also interesting that, back then, WOYWW regularly got over 100 joiners.  That number has considerably dropped off now (still doesn't necessarily mean that I get round to everyone though!) and I took a hiatus of a couple of years myself before re-joining albeit somewhat intermittently.  Life gets in the way, some of our deskers have passed away or stopped crafting (or changed what they were doing), and some just stopped posting. I do need to get back into my crafting a lot more though.

So this week, what have I been up to?  

More work on the WOCs SAL though it’s not the most up to date photo...

Five days for WIPGO on Lilith of Labrador...

A trip to Bristol for the stitchers day at Engineers House in Clifton... (that was an early start - I picked my travel companions up at 0530 - yikes!)

Family news this week - as it's now official following an announcement to our clients on Tuesday, I can share that the job I've been working at since moving to Cornwall in May 2019 is coming to an end.  The decision has been made to close the business for various reasons which I won't go into now, and that leaves myself and my colleague Jeanette looking for alternative employment as of the 1st Jan 2025. I see it as a big opportunity to make a change, although whether or not I will remains to be seen.  We will have to see which doors open...

Dare I say it? Here’s to the next 800 WOYWW’s? That’s a tad ambitious I suppose, but the sentiment is definitely there!

Happy Hopping to you all…

Xxx

WOYWW 790/10 - a tentative hello

I've been AWOL for 9 weeks....

I've thought about joining in with WOYWW (hosted by the lovely Sarah @  Sarah's Craft Shed) again for the last couple of weeks, but today I've finally made it.  I feel a bit like I've been driving through fog and am just coming out the other side to clearer skies.  Grief is a bizarre thing in the way it affects people in different ways, and one of the ways it affected me was with inertia.  A need to just stay in one place and not move unless I had to, mentally as well as physically.  There were weeks with no stitching, and weeks with lots of stitching, there was a week of mad clearing, sorting, packing, moving to get Mum's bungalow cleared.  And weeks of overwhelm - at the sheer amount of stuff my mother had (nearly two dozen boxes & bags of fabric and trim gifted to a local theatre group for costume, for example) and which now needed rehoming, mostly into my house it seems.  We hired a Luton to bring everything home and we filled it.... sigh.  My dining room has disappeared under a dolls house.  Yikes....

Ah yes, the dolls house.  The first place we went to declined the offer of our donation, citing a lack of available space for display (to be fair, true), and on reflection we decided to bring the behemoth home to make repairs (turns out some are significant) before sending it to its forever home.  We have our eye on a couple of National Trust venues, so fingers crossed they take it.

Crafting wise, it's mostly sorting out books and supplies Mum had.  She had a Bisley drawer unit just full of trims, which I'm enjoying stroking (LOL) and coming up with ideas.  There was a whole drawer of golden supplies just for Goldwork, and another with loads of silver fabrics and thread too.

I've worked on a few pieces of stitching - I won't go into great detail here at the moment about who/what and when, but will just leave pics of where I'm at with each.

Maybe in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to get to sit at my craft desk and do something creative aside from standard stitching.

Speaking of which, though, I'm a bit busy over the coming weeks.  This weekend coming is Big Stitch 24, the first big stitching convention in the UK.  Up until now we've had smaller retreats where the maximum attendance I think has been 60 attendees - BS24 has over 200, and from overseas as well as the UK, with a guest speaker (Jacob from Modern Folk Embroidery) and vendors from lots of locations. All very exciting and just 2 sleeps before travelling up to Rotherham... eek!

I'm also away in Brixham for a weekend in August with the girls from school.  We've known each other as a group for 42 years, although a couple have been friends since the age of 5.  Lots of years. Mr B is going to stay home for a weekend by himself with the fur babies.

And then in September we're off to Tenerife for a few days, followed by a visit to the final  Overlander show in Stratford Upon Avon.  Time to pick up some campervan conversion ideas for our new van, Gomez.  

More on him in a later post.

I think that will do for now - plenty enough to be going on with!

Happy Hopping!

Morti x

WOYWW 781 - All change, please!

 Gosh.

I missed last week - reasons themselves being fairly obvious from the previous week's post, and I was disappointed to have missed the week and the ATC swap (Helen, I still owe you an ATC and you WILL go the ball.... um.... I mean you WILL have your card!), and also to have not made it to the crop.  Turns out I ended up in Braintree on house clearance duties, but also visited Mum at the chapel of rest and did some Executor business type stuff with my sister on Saturday morning.  Saturday evening and Sunday were spent in some frantic house clearance - more on that in a mo...

Helen’s ATC

And so I logged on today to celebrate WOYWW which hithertofore (good word, that) had been hosted by the very lovely Julia on Stamping Ground (stamping-ground.blogspot.com) but found that as of the 15th Anniversary (last week), the reins have now been handed over to the equally lovely Sarah at Sarah's Craft Shed (sarahscraftshed.co.uk)

Slap me sideways and call me a gurnard.

I have GOT to stop missing weeks!

So - congratulations/good luck in your "retirement", Julia.  May your desk ever (never?) be tidy, in the spirit of WOYWW.  May your rotary cutter stay sharp, and your ink pads never be dry. A toast to Julia Dunnit!

Sarah has been a long time desker herself, so has able control of those reins.  Change being as good as a rest I'm sure, and a new path in life I suspect may well be a welcome distraction from the trials and tribulations of life.  I'd say "welcome" but you've been here a while, my lovely.  But instead, very well done for stepping up and letting JD step back - Bravo!

My crafting bug has understandably taken a bit of a hike, but I've made the effort to get some stitching done at least. I hope to get my WIPGO done this month, but not much else of anything will be undertaken.

I have at least worked on the Snowman Pirate a bit....

But last weekend was all about Mum, really.  Amongst the things we sorted out, we had a good squint at her dolls house, and now starts the task of finding a home for it.  I don't think I've ever mentioned it before, because I don't have the appropriate labels, but Mum (and my late Dad) were model makers and Dad built this amazing dolls house for Mum starting in 1994 up to his death in 2007, and she decorated and furnished it.  I won't go into massive detail here but a couple of photos will suffice.  I'm in contact with a museum local to her, and hopefully they'll take it on.  If they won't, I'm sure somewhere else will, and as a very last resort, we'll just have to open our own museum.  Not quite where I thought my life was going but there you have it. Admittedly, it does need a little work to smarten it up a bit, but we'll see where it's going to end up, first!  

The loom is fully functional, if you have the patience to set it up…

I've also been passed a partially completed piece of needlework that Mum left, which she'd been working on during the last few months, and which I sadly think will need some unpicking of the most recent stitches, and I will complete it ready for framing.  I have a matching one she'd finished before that, and it also needs some TLC.  We'll get there, though!

I think I've waffled on enough for this week.  Not sure if I'll be around next week but I'll give it a try - we travel up to Essex again next Thurs, as my beloved Mum's funeral is on the 31st.... so see you again soon.

Happy Hopping!

Morti x