He's done!

Here he is in all his glory! Hope you like him and, more importantly, hope his new owner will like him when I give him (and the bellpull) to her this afternoon. Such a shame when friends leave and I realised yesterday that Jacquie is the person in our congregation who I've known for the longest!

We sat up watching one of the new Jane Austen productions last night, it was a 2-hour-ish version of 'Northanger Abbey' and was very enjoyable! Love JA, she's fab!

Nearly through with Cataflute

Here's how he
looks right now ->

Not far to go, just the est of the top-stitching to put in. I decided, in the interests of time saving, that I would drop the music stand, thus its non-appearance (for those who are familiar with the design). I've come to the conclusion that I like Margaret Sherry's designs, but they're really quite dull and a bit of a nuisance to stitch. The amount of fractionals - including vertically and horizontally splitting stitches - that are in this is just a pain in the neck, so I've removed her from my wish list and doubt I'll ever do Catafiddle for myself!! If I run out of things to stitch and get desperate, then perhaps I will, but I can't see that, can you??!! Should be able to post the finished Cataflute tomorrow evening. It'll be finished in the nick of time, methinks!

Still recovering slowly, and it is slowly. I obviously still have an infection, but I have reason to beliave that it's been bubbling away in my system at the very least for 3 months before this crescendo (brought on by all the dental work of late). It's possible that, given about 10 mysterious 'viral' epiosodes I've had since August 2005, it's all been the same thing and has been an issue under the surface (most of the time) for well over 18 months already! I suspect I'll need more Penicillin, but I've had to quite the mouthwash as my stomach was becoming upset and I felt sick at the thought of using the wash. Sometimes you just have to trust your intuition - the body knows best what it likes and dislikes!! So, I'm just using the anti-bacterial type of Listerine instead and will see what the Doc says. Will almost certainly need to be seen on Tuesday, but if it brings this 19-20 months of roller coaster health to a better level, then I don't mind one bit.

Slow progress....

Cataflute is coming along slowly, but the good news is that my friends aren't leaving until a few days later than I'd thought, so I have until Sunday, not just until tomorrow. So, he should almost certainly be ready in good time to leave on a 'plane for the Big Apple!! Here he is:

Bellpull complete and ready for viewing!=)

Here it is, completed and finished into a bellpull. The bellpull ends that I had to order were far too big and I then found that I had this odd end in my stash. Actually, it was the other half of the one used on the wedding bellpull. On that one, I just used the top end and so had the bottom one, complete with tinkling little bell, left over. DH kindly took the bell off the hanger for me, leaving the bell intact so that I could attach it to the bottom. I'm very pleased with the effect. What do you think? Click on the photo for the full sized version and more detail.

Here's the current state of affairs with Cataflute. I don't think it'll be finished on time, (I'll see the couple these are gifts for for the last time on Weds evening), but I'm going to try. If it isn't done, then I can post it on to her - it's always nice to get something through the post. Having said that, it's even nicer to meet a deadline and to see for yourself if someone likes what you've made for them!=)

Something to show - at last!!

<- affairs="" bellpull="" current="" hardanger="" here="" of="" on="" s="" sampler="" span="" state="" the="">

And here's my latest cross stitch ->

You can see what it is already, can't you???!!!LOL Seriously though, it's going to be Margaret Sherry's 'Cataflute'. I love her designs, they're gorgeous, just dead boring to stitch!!

I'm hoping to get the hardanger piece done by close of play on Sunday, then really crack on with the cross stitch.

Oh, I got the rest of my Coton à Broders from Tandem Cottage this morning. I must say that I think Anchor haven't got the best selection of colours in this range, which is a shame as it's a nice thread and would have more potential if there was a better colour range.

ConGRADulations!

And here he is, Margaret Sherry's 'Clever' Cattitude. I just changed the background colour and simplified it to half stitches instead of whole crosses, (mostly owing to lack of time....).

<-And here's the back for those who like to see backs.=) Oh, my photos are up on the Helen M Stevens' site. This is the page showing all the students' galleries and mine are in the Selection Box one, first on the list and my two pieces are even there as the first two, so they show on the main list too! Can't think why when the other lady's are much more glam, using Pipers' super shiny silks and so on, but I'm dead pleased anyway.

Pearsalls got those missing threads to me extremely quickly, so a big thumbs up to them for service there. Also, decided not to stitch the other card, but to do a papercraft one as I just don't have time and all this pressure to get stuff stitched to tight deadlines is too much.