WOYWW 612 - Rudolph Eve

Hello, deskers!  Welcome back to WOYWW - that weekly roundup of all things deskish, hosted by the lovely Julia.  Details can be found here if you'd like to join in, or want to go on a bloghop round the desks.

This week is more of the same (stitching, not crying!) with a random card thrown in for good measure...

The desk itself has had a bit of a tidy up, but there's a load of stuff sat on it ready for tomorrow's Rudolph Day, when I shall make a couple of Christmas cards, and maybe work on one or two other things.  I have Thursdays off at the moment (which will switch to Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri mornings off from next week.  Flexi-furlough, don't you know.

One of the other desks had a bit of a tidy up too.  It had been piled high with fabric and assorted oddments.  Now it has been cleared, but there's still quite a bit on it.  I've got a couple of projects on the go there, and also some stitchy stash waiting for me to film a flosstube where I can show off my recent haul.  There won't be much more purchased going forwards though!  Time to rein in the spending a little.... heheheh.

So, updates:

Siren's Lament

Mr Christmas Moose

Peppermint Purple's 2021 stitchalong - not much done to it but YAY! Patterns!

Also found lurking and needing love is this hardanger piece I started goodness knows how many moons ago (the needle had rusted into the fabric), and is worked from a pattern from an old Jane Greenoff Cross Stitch magazine.  I have no idea what issue number it is... I did try to find out when the magazine was last in print and know it was going until at least 2005, but couldn't find out any concrete information.

Next month is March Mayhem - a group on FB of stitchers who broke away from May-nia which was another group of individuals doing a crazy challenge stitch wise.  I think there may be a competition to see who can do the most new project starts, or how many WIPS you can be working on at any given time!  My foray into this world of craziness is that I'm going to do "March Mill Hill Mayhem".  Nicely alliterated, I thought.  But basically, I'm going to try and do as many Mill Hill kits as I can in the next month.  The idea being to do a bit of stash-busting and get them stitched and up on our craft tree this Christmas.  And Halloween.  We have a Halloween/Samhain tree too.  I have 5 more Halloween Mill Hill kits to do.  And about 16 Christmas ones.  Best guess is that I might get a quarter of them done if I'm lucky but if I persevere, maybe half.  Which will be ten more than I would have otherwise.  Apologies for the glare on the top three.  

So, back at the beginning of this post I mentioned a card, and I alluded to it last week when I said that I never thought I'd be kicking off my non-Christmas card making with this particular variety of card, but here it is.  

Needless to say, it was sent to Doug.  Forgive me if I don't tell you all I wrote in it, but the night before I wrote it, I was binge-watching Criminal Minds and they start and end the programme with quotes.  One episode ended with:

"Death ends a life, not a relationship", Mitch Alborn.

That quote has stuck with me, and I put it into the card along with our own sentiments. How very true.  

And in recognition of the lovely Shaz, I'm going to add a finishing funny:

Perfectly describes this household currently...

Happy hopping!

WOYWW 611 - the one without Her

 Good morning, lovely deskers.

As I join in with WOYWW today, I write with blurred vision and tears rolling down my cheeks.  I made the fatal mistake this morning of reading Julia's blog from Monday about Shaz, and it set me off again.  Sorry Shaz, I know you're thinking "idiot woman, it's all good...", but your departure has unexpectedly blindsided me, as it has many others, I do believe - no matter how much many of us were prepared for this to eventually happen. The lovely Donna (Doone) and I were comforting one another at stupid o'clock this morning as we both happened to be online, on Facebook, at the same time and managed to set each other off.  For newer WOYWWers who are not on FB, Donna used to take part in WOYWW before she moved to France a few years ago, and was part of the Crop Brigade up until that point, so knew Doug n'Shaz through Julia too.

I'll get to my desk in a moment, but first I'll do as Julia asked and share my Shaz story.  It's short, but no less poignant.  You see, Mr B and me, we're Metallers.  Rockers.  A lil' bit goth and a whole lot pagan.  And we craft.  So you can imagine our delight walking into that first crop and meeting Shaz and Doug for the first time.  Our tribe!  Wonder of wonders!  A like minded soul and an instant friendship. I have wondered if she felt the same... David and Doug got chatting as well, and although Doug is not known for picking up needle and thread or double sided tape and card, I hope he found some company and acceptance from our lot.  Cos Doug n' Shaz were..... Doug n' Shaz.  An entire unit. Shaz also struck me as being the perfect balance between Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg... generous to a fault but I wouldn't have wanted to get on the wrong side of her.  Assuming she had one, I never saw it if she did.  

So, I will stop my maudlin and lachrymose meanderings, pull up my big girl pants and get on with the show.

Welcome back to my desk.  Apologies for not getting round folks last week but, ya know...I will however endeavour to respond to comments from last week in here.

First up - the desk.  A little bit of activity.  There's actually a finished card on there but I hope you'll forgive me not showing it until after the recipient has had it.  It's not the card I really wanted to kick off my non-Christmas card making with, if you follow...

Stitching - well...

Siren's Lament has a teensy bit of work done on it...

The PPSAL has moved on a bit as well, but the reason it's not further along is that I had to unpick the entirety of the border that you saw last week (plus the extra I did after that photo).  I'd forgotten to include the outer framing line before starting the border - and without that it affected the knotwork placement.  As it's supposed to be a direct pair to the turquoise one, I had to address that...

Regarding the problematic two shades of purple thread I had, Lisa-Jane pondered whether or not I could have blended the two colours.  Unfortunately not - this is all stitched with one strand of thread, and although even the single strands of thread are ultimately two ply, I love my sanity more than I love saving money.... 

Especially for Felicia, who was disappointed last week not to see Mr Moose, I made sure I worked on him for you this week and here he is....

He has eyes now!

Eagle-eyed Spyder spotted a "horse and stable" in my desk photo last week.  I think I may have shared photos a long time ago but they bear a second outing here.

My father - who passed away in 2007 - was a toolmaker and mechanical engineer by trade, and a model engineer by hobby.  I know for a fact that had he been alive when "book nooks" became a thing, he'd have been all over them.

He made so many things, and one of those was this little diorama, which I nabbed a couple of years back when Mum moved house and we had to re-home the myriad of trains, buses, cars, dioramas, paint, figures - you name it (and now I know where I get it from).  

So, the stable is not in fact a stable, but a farrier's cot/blacksmiths.   

The lid lifts off, and inside is a whole other world.  

From the other side:

Tools and all sorts!

I love that there is a rusted out bucket just outside by the tap.

And the other side...

It needs a little TLC where the glue has dried out and failed, as do a couple of other items of his that I have, and this is why it’s tucked on the shelf above my desk. When I’ve made the repairs it’s going in my curio cabinet in the dining room.  I shall try to repair them over the coming weeks and share them here.  Dad's most notable achievement was the dolls house he made for my mother in 1997.  I'll save that story for another day, but suffice to say here that she needed a whole room for it... I also have a pair of dolls houses - one of them was the last thing he worked on before he died and Mum had to finish it off.  Again, I'll save those for another time.

Anyway, enough waffle/ramble - I shall love you and leave you, and salute to the fallen....

Happy Hopping!

WOYWW 610 - simply not feeling it...

Today's blog is a tough one.  It's hard to write of fun stuff, and all the achievements you've made that week when a friend is in hospital, effectively fighting for her life.  But, Shaz is an indomitable spirit, and I'm sure if she were able to she'd give me one of her looks and tell me I'm being daft so....

Welcome to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  The usual weekly round of blog hops where we bare all to the world and show everyone what's going on with our desks.  All the usual information is here, over at Julia's place.

I actually moved stuff on mine.  Well, just about.  So here's a photo - I'll let you all play spot the difference! Hah!

As per usual, all the activity is on the stitching front.  No Mr Moose this week, he got some R&R on the back of the sofa.  However, we do have a finish in Dracula, who has been completed and fully finished off (FFO'd) with a bead hanger and felt on the back (not that you can see the felt).

Siren's Lament is progressing nicely.  Slowly, but nicely.  The section I'm working on at the moment is confetti hell, but we're getting through it.  After this there'll be quite a bit of solid colour work, including plain black, so that'll be quick to do ( I hope!).  5,385 stitches done so far, 2.6% of the total.

We also have a new start, LOL.  I finally got the Peppermint Purple 2021 stitchalong (SAL) under way - yay!  I'm about 6 weeks behind, but I'll catch up eventually!  Figured that as I know what the border will be (as this piece is to match last year's), I'd get it started while I wait for the filler threads to turn up.  Therein hangs a tale.  I had a skein of 3837 (mid purple).  I know I'll need two for this, so I ordered one.  Turns up, totally different shade, although if I showed you a photo you wouldn't see it but one is definitely more blue purple than the other. I should have known better, veteran stitcher that I am, and order two at the time because the dye lots would be different. Doh. So I've now had to order two more skeins in the hope that they will both match each other, cos it'll be just my luck to order one, and it not match either of the two I already have!  LOL. I'm sure I'll use what I already have, eventually.

And that's it for this week.  Short and sweet.  It snowed here yesterday, briefly, even settled for a time.  But now all that's left is tiny pockets in corners.  Hardly worth the effort, I say.  And it's cold - bitterly cold.  So I'm staying in (aren't we all) and keeping the heating on.

Happy Hopping, folks.

WOYWW 609 - February just slidin' in...

Happy WOYWW day, fellow bloghoppers!  All the usual deets are over here at the fabulous Mrs Dunnit's blog, if you have no idea what I'm talking about.  Not sure any random humans stop by any more, but heigh ho!

So, the desk this week looks much the same as last week.  I've not touched it at all.  So much so, I’ll just insert last week’s photo! LOL

But, that's cos we're still on stitchy duty with Siren's Lament :

And oh, woe was me on Monday night!  It had all been going along swimmingly, and then.... this....

Two near identical symbols (asterisk and sun) which despite a good light and a pair of magnifying readers, I got muddled up with.  

So I frogged some stitches - fortunately not many - and tried again, and made the same mistake but in a slightly different place and fewer stitches this time.  Definitely said "fudge it" a few times - and decided I actually would and no-one would notice if three stitches were steel grey instead of grey-green.

After that I dusted off my tablet, and loaded the charts into Pattern Keeper - a mysterious but genius app that allows you to zoom in, and pan, and highlight and mark off and KEEPS COUNT FOR YOU.  Oh happy day!  Wonder of wonders... It's been sat on my tablet for a good year, and I've been a bit "pish!  old school!  not cross stitch if you don't mark off in pencil on a paper chart!" since getting it and hadn't tried it.  Tonight I spent a few minutes marking off the 4,265 stitches (go me) already completed (didn't take as long as I feared it would), and tomorrow I'm ready to embark into 21st century stitching.  What an idiot not to have done it sooner!

Christmas Moose is looking a little pathetic by comparison - but he has received some love this week:

As has Dracula.  Nearly done!

I'm joining in with some other stitchers on March Mayhem, where we pick something a bit crazy to do during March.  Some are only working on WIPS, some are playing WIPGO (like bingo, but with works in progress), others are starting a new project every day.  Me, I'm going to work on my Mill Hill Kit Mountain - I have 16 small ornament kits and they keep multiplying, so I'm determined to bring that number down.  More on that come March!

In the meantime - keep well, keep smiling, do your very best to keep sane, and.....

Happy Hopping!

WOYWW 608 - and January comes to a close...

Good morning my fellow lovely WOYWWers!  Welcome back to the Mad Ramblings blog, and to another Wednesday's post.  For all the details head over to The Stamping Ground here where our lovely Julia will have all the deets....

So!  This week, progress on many fronts.

If you remember from a couple of weeks back, I mentioned Rudolph Day.  Well, that was two days ago and...ta-dah!  Two Christmas cards.

Second one is a more modern style...

Might not seem like much, but it's kind of a big deal here. Now to keep it going.

So, the desk itself is showing signs of a creativity aftermath - or craftermath as I've seen it referred to elsewhere.  LOL

Stitching wise, we have a lot of progress.  The spoon has gone home to the memorial maker.  Finished off the rose, added a few twisty vines and some freehand embroidery to look like handwriting at the bottom.

(If you're really interested, I have a Flosstube here where you can watch me being an idiot on YouTube)

Christmas Moose has moved on a little....

And we have started a Mill Hill charmed ornament, Dracula.   Hehehehehe.

The big movement is on the HAED (Heaven and Earth Designs) project, Siren's Lament.

I really disliked how untidy it looked, doing full cross stitches on such tiny fabric.  So, I swapped out to doing just tent stitch (half crosses) and am much happier with the result.  And as you can see, major progress.  I should get it completed in double time as well!

So the next couple of weeks will be about getting down to stitching and other creativity, see if I can't shift some of the lurking projects that are around.

Oh - and Morti Jr sent me a photo of her in her jumper, for me to share with you ladies...

Happy Hopping!

WOYWW 606 - another Wednesday

Good morning my fellow lovely WOYWWers!  Welcome back to my blog and to another Wednesday's post.  For all the details head over to The Stamping Ground here where our lovely Julia will tell all....

So, first things first, a correction from last week.  As per Julia's comment, the movie canvas was indeed made up of the average colour from each scene, not each movie.  That was me being an idiot with a typo.  I've corrected the post now but thanks for pointing it out, Julia - much appreciated.

Therefore, without further ado, the movie was....

Drumroll please.....

BLADERUNNER

There weren't many guesses but Caro suggested Star Wars which was probably closest!

Yes, Mr Morti's favourite film is Bladerunner.  I'm not sure if he's amused or irked by the fact that it's the film most likely to send me to sleep watching it.  I've assured him that it's not because the film is boring, but Vangelis' music is so soothing... zzzzz

A fairly quick post from me this week as there's not actually much to share, same as last week - a little bit of movement on the stitching front and nothing else.

The desk is not looking any different - the cards have been split front from back, and the back recycled.  I've cut a couple of bits out, but am thinking about breaking out the die cutter and using proper shapes.

The HAED has had a further 100 stitches added.  I've worked out that if I managed 100 stitches every evening - and I mean EVERY evening - it will take me 5.5 years to complete.  Oh dear.  A 10-year project it is, then.  :(

The moose has also moved on with a further 200 stitches...

The numbers, by the way, are to do with Myth & Magic Stitch Wars, where we count our stitches and "buy" ingredients to make spells and attacks.

The most movement has been on the "wooden spoon".  I've started stitching bullion knots in the centre to make a rose but I'm not happy with the placement of the first two leaves, so may have to change it.

and that is that, for this week.  Back to normality, such as it is!

Keep well and happy hopping!

WOYWW 605 - Twelfth Night

Good morning and welcome back to the blog, and another week of WOYWW.  All the details can be found on the glamorous Ms Dunnit's blog here.  Do go and check it out if you're new here, and join in if you can!

This week has been a quiet one.  The decorations came down on Sunday, and whilst the house looks bare, we seem to have much more room again!  LOL.

For Christmas I bought Mr Morti a canvas from Frome - these are made using a piece of software that plays the film and takes the average colour from each movie (correction, scene), and puts a line of colour on a canvas to make a picture.  Can you guess which film this is?

In return, Mr Morti bought me an all singing, all dancing record player.  He has some notion that he can connect it to our old cinema surround sound system, so has bought an amp and we'll see how that goes!

 

The saga of our dodgy builders continues.  We had discovered that our new guttering was leaking, and we needed to fix it ASAP so prevent a repeat of the problem in the bedroom, where years of water pouring down the wall had destroyed the plaster indoors.  So, outside, he climbed up the ladder and took a look at the offending join. He discovered that not only had they cut the guttering an inch too short, the seal at that joint was missing.  A quick trip to B&Q and £2 later, a new joining piece was purchased to enable the seal to be taken out and put into the section.  The picture below also shows how wonky they put up the downspout!

The desk has seen no action other than to have all the Christmas cards we received dumped on it.  The bog standard printed ones will be turned into gift tags for next year, the handmade ones put into a box to be stroked at a later date, or used for inspiration, and the personal family ones kept.  

I always keep the ones we've sent each other, out of sentimentality.  Also, with my memorial jewellery making I am all too aware of one day it being the last card we receive from certain people, and having an example of their handwriting may come in useful.  The necklaces I showcased on last week's blog are a case in point - the Nannie in question went from fit and relatively healthy on a Monday, to no longer with the family by the Friday of the same week, one of the earliest Coronavirus victims. Not only could the family not see her, nor visit, nor be with her when she passed, they were unable to obtain a fingerprint impression which meant I had to be sent her handwriting from greetings cards in order to make the pendants.  Having known the lady since I was 11, it hit home rather hard, and I must confess to them being some of the emotionally hardest pieces I've had to make.

Anyway, onto lighter news.

The 2020 SAL was finally finished! Here it is in all its glory...

The fabric for the 2021 SAL finally showed up yesterday, and it's rather stiff and unyielding so will need a wash and press before it goes on the frame.

The moose hasn't moved on at all, but with good reason.  I have at long last framed up the fabric for my giant Heaven & Earth Design (HAED from now on), Siren's Lament by Anne Stokes.  This piece is being worked on 25 count (the number of holes per inch) evenweave fabric, and the grey gridwork on it identifies it as what is called "easy count".  (Finger in picture for scale!)   

I'm working full crosses in two strands over one thread (we'd say 2 x 1)  - so that will be 24 stitches per inch, or about 9 per cm.  I have made a start on the stitching for it, and at the moment I'm not overly happy with the way it's coming out as the stitching is looking a little bumpy and uneven.

However, I've taken some advice from my fellow Vampire clan members and they've said that I need to increase my tension and it will sort itself out.  So, I'm sticking with it.  It'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to do as this is two evening's work - although I hasten to add that I don't work on it for more than a couple of hours at a time, I'd go blind!  

I've also decided what I'm going to do with my Medicine Spoon Memorial piece, but I really need to get onto that!

That's it for the moment.  I'm also trying to figure out my YouTube channel.  We Geminis are mercurial butterflies who like to try all sorts of things, and have so many interests, and my channel kind of reflects that.  It's (going to be) a mixture of home renovation, hobbies, travel and being a Goth, which I know isn't a recipe for success (you should really do a consistent single thing) but it's me all over....

Speaking of YouTube channels, if you fancy a bit of escapism I can really recommend watching NickiPositano - her vlogs are about life as an expat living in Positano and are actually really rather good. A gentle, simple life with amazing scenery and some fabulous characters.  She's been vlogging for the last 10 years, but has really ramped up her vlogs and posting over the last year and is now looking incredibly professional.  I can see big things in this lady's future - she'd make an excellent travel TV presenter.

So on with the hop!  I'm terrible at getting round to everyone but I will endeavour to make more of an effort in the future.... so much to do, so little time.

Happy hopping!