Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

Tidying up for the Easter tea party. *sweep sweep* All the painted eggs are hanging from pussy willow branches in honour of Lyudmila. The shelves are stocked, and the flowers have all been placed in readiness.

What a lovely idea! (Depending on whether Lyudmila is Orthodox, however, she may not celebrate Easter until May...) I've brought lots of greenery and pebbles and twigs if anyone would like to make an Easter garden.

Lovely! Can I offer moss? (Can you tell I've been in the gardens...)

Yes, the Julian calendar does make for difficulties. But perhaps we can have two celebrations?

You can never have too many celebrations!

Moss is very welcome. I rather like it in our own garden, but DH has the English preference for a proper lawn. My thinking is that as long as it's green and doesn't require looking after, I'll have it

Starting the roast dinner in a couple of hours. Pork & chicken with all the trimmings. MIL is coming round. Beware of cats drawn by tasty smells at your feet.

Regards,

Richard.

Leg of lamb, here. Ditto with trimmings. No cats to trip me up, though.

OK, it's not the World Domination that DH keeps urging on Mabel, but Stitch magazine have asked if I'd like to be their Meet the Artist profile feature for the edition with Bunny Beware in it. I'm chuffed to bits - beverages-with-snack-of-choice all round!

Congratulations!

Thought I'd come in a dust, polish some glasses, tidy up the broken crockery destress suite.

It's been very quiet on the forum lately. How's everyone doing? I'm now set up to start a small weaving for my summer course and then there's the garden. But I'm still beavering away at my daily stitch (though I'm one day behind ). Once through next week, which seems to have an awful lot packed into it), everything calms down. Whew.

I'll sit here with my tea and watch the unicorn foals. What's everyone else doing?

Not as much as I'd like to - partly for very pleasant reasons like outings and a cousin visiting from the Netherlands, partly work and other commitments, but it means I have done no Certificate homework at all, and FoF is sadly neglected. Also, my eye problems are getting worse, which is worrying.

Still, I also have lots of stitchy plans - I have just proofread an article for Stitch magazine, and the programme for the Knitting & Stitching Show (2 workshops) as well as submitting a course proposal for our local adult education centre (*cough* for which I have not actually finished designing the projects...), plus Mr Badger and Henry the Harmless Lion.

And then there are the grandchildren, including granddaughter who will be 1 tomorrow - can she come and play with the unicorns for her birthday party?

Here she is enjoying bubbles at Rhythm Time which I take her to every other week:

Serinde wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 8:11 am It's been very quiet on the forum lately. How's everyone doing?

What's everyone else doing?

I try to limit my stitch posting to once a week because no one else seems to be cross stitching anything. We seem to have lost Wendy when the forum crashed, I saw Nicola commented on a post the other day but no stitching updates and of course it is ages since we heard from Lyudmilla or Sally.

I've side tracked onto quilting or rather patchwork (as it is difficult to quilt on a standard sewing machine). My aim had been to join a local quilting group but it seems they are lacking numbers so are not meeting this month.

And yes it is gardening season: just about to have the first new potatoes of the year with my dinner I had hoped to start regularly visiting RHS Wisley this year but with the M25 junction by its entrance being worked on it has rather put me off.

Jo

Mabel Figworthy wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 4:19 pm Not as much as I'd like to - partly for very pleasant reasons like outings and a cousin visiting from the Netherlands, partly work and other commitments, but it means I have done no Certificate homework at all, and FoF is sadly neglected. Also, my eye problems are getting worse, which is worrying.

Still, I also have lots of stitchy plans - I have just proofread an article for Stitch magazine, and the programme for the Knitting & Stitching Show (2 workshops) as well as submitting a course proposal for our local adult education centre (*cough* for which I have not actually finished designing the projects...), plus Mr Badger and Henry the Harmless Lion.

And then there are the grandchildren, including granddaughter who will be 1 tomorrow - can she come and play with the unicorns for her birthday party?

Lovely granddaughter would be most welcome to play with the unicorn foals, provided of course, that no one mistakenly thinks any human will ever actually ride one!

Lots of projects! But the eye sight stuff is very worrying. Presumably you are in capable hands!

Steam.Jo wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2024 5:38 pm I try to limit my stitch posting to once a week because no one else seems to be cross stitching anything. We seem to have lost Wendy when the forum crashed, I saw Nicola commented on a post the other day but no stitching updates and of course it is ages since we heard from Lyudmilla or Sally.

I've side tracked onto quilting or rather patchwork (as it is difficult to quilt on a standard sewing machine). My aim had been to join a local quilting group but it seems they are lacking numbers so are not meeting this month.

And yes it is gardening season: just about to have the first new potatoes of the year with my dinner I had hoped to start regularly visiting RHS Wisley this year but with the M25 junction by its entrance being worked on it has rather put me off.

Jo

Saw the bit about the M25 on the news. Gack. But new potatoes make up for it... we just planted our main cropper. We don't much try with earlies; although the weather has been so warm over winter in recent years the ground is sodden. Wonder if they'd manage in bags the unheated greenhouse?

We like quilting here on the forum, being an open-minded sort of place. You're right about people dotting in and out, and I've spoken to WW, who is doing lots of knitting recently and also away quite a bit. Hope we'll see more of our beloved wombat in due course. And it is gardening season. Perhaps we need a new topic along the lines of "Through the garden gate"?

How about "The creative thread" ....

Jo

Jo, I know this is the cross stitch forum but over the past years the members have been really kind to me and others as we've posted projects in other techniques - I think as long as it's done with a needle and thread it's allowed!

And of course we have the All Other Crafts section for things not done with needle and thread! (well, I know knitting is strictly speaking done with needles but they're a different sort of needles )

I really enjoy seeing your stitching Mabel. You have enlightened me to other stitching skills/techniques that hither to I was not aware of.

My concern is that for a newbie looking to take up cross stitching the pieces I am posting are rarely beginners pieces and where I am happily single I have more time than others to indulge my creative hobbies so progress can be rapid. Both of which can discourage a beginner.


As an aside I do other creative activities: like sock knitting most evenings (after a glass of wine) when I am tired as it is easier to unpick a few rows of knitting that I have added features to than correct my cross stitching pieces. And making my model engines which is far from needle and thread work. As for the quilting: I like to always be learning stuff - this year is quilting, last year was simple engine design followed by fundamental botany which got the better of me .

Jo

Simple engine design. (at the "simple" bit). Good on ya!