The "no frills, no gremlins (hopefully)" cross-stitch cafe

Coxy11

Hi everyone,

No stitching/knitting/crocheting this weekend as haven't been feeling too great. Early nights Saturday and Sunday (7.30pm!) so my usual evening crafting has gone by the wayside.

Mrs MP - hope all goes well today x Your tulips are looking lovely.

Ailsb - Henry looks fantastic You've done such a good job of the framing, well done you :T I also love the Home Sweet Home gift for your nephew. That frame was a bargain :money:

Hippipal - winnie and piglet are looking good. I love those Disney designs and I too did the alphabet and numbers for the childrens' nursery years ago - they are now in the loft awaiting my grandchildren :rotfl:

Re crochet wool. I tend to stick to Double Knitting DK but any wool is fine, and yes do start with a square rather than small fiddly pieces otherwise it will drive you nuts :rotfl:

No work today although I just went to a friends to take a look at some gardening she needs doing. I'm feeling a bit better, so I'm going to do some housework and spend this afternoon crafting.

Have a good day all
Coxy

flowerofscotland

hippipal Your're making good progress on WTP. I stitched some of these designs years ago as birth samplers because that's what the mum wanted but they were never my favourites. I did a couple of the sketch WTP designs on linen and I did like stitching those. But the effect will be worth it as they are very like the Disney cartoons when completed and your design is fabulous

ruthhoney Lovely throw and scarves. I'm like ailsb and just cannot get the hang of crochet - I tried it again recently and was hopeless. And that's with one on one tuition. I can knit and have done quite complex designs in the past so I don't really understand why I can't do crochet But I don't NEED any more crafty hobbies unless I find that magic time machine ......:beer:
Looking forward to hearing about your show visit (the next best thing to going)

FE I'm loving Line of Duty

nmm I'm not stitching a Mother's Day card this year. I did make 2 sample cards and 32 card kits for DS's primary school class (not XS) on Saturday

ailsb Love the house warming present and very :money:

flowerofscotland

Following the success of putting the butterfly from a card into a coaster last weekend I dug out 3 more stitched cards I had been given and put them into coasters as well


image by stitchyfeather, on Flickr

Also managed to stitch some more of my heart wedding sampler though I won't post a photo now that I have added the names as the couple frequent this site - not the Cafe so far as I know but I want to maintain the surprise. As discussed earlier I substituted "Bride and Groom" with their actual names and replaced "Good Luck" with the date and am pleased with how it looks.



I'm currently on the I do line and I think I am doing to add the white birds from the bottom of the sampler to the top to round off the top of the heart shape

Hope all who haven't been feeling too good will have a better day

mrs-moneypenny

costers look gorgeous as does the wedding sampler photo

Ruth_honey

Hi everyone!
Wow, I'm much further behind than I realised. It might take a few sessions to get up to date.

nmm-Your fingerless gloves look lovely and I might well try to do them myself. I've put the pattern in my favourites and bought some pretty aran wool that's really soft, so I'll let you know how I go.
BD is looking great. I bet you can't wait to have him finished and on display to admire him.
Hugs to Tikaani. Hope the seizures become less frequent.

Flat Eric-I've recently finished Don't Tell The Groom, on your recommendation and enjoyed it. Also spotted I've got another of her books on my kindle. It must've been free a while ago and I ordered it. Got a few library books to work through first, though. Never enough hours in the day...

Erics Mum-Your cat looks so cute and content on your lap. Hard to say no when they want a snuggle.

Chickywiggle-Did Little Bear turn up?

Mrs-moneypenny-Glad you enjoyed working on linen. I personally prefer evenweave, but linen does give a lovely effect.
The heart design is very nice in the variegated thread.
That Which Craft kit sounds horrible. What poor quality!
I stitched that tulip design four years ago. I love tulips-they're my faves.

Sweetcarer-How are you doing, honey? Sorry if I'm overstepping the mark, but have you thought about bereavement counselling? It sometimes helps to talk to someone who doesn't know you. Cruse might be able to help, or point you in the right direction of somewhere local to you.
I love the purple flower you stitched for an exchange. Looks very cheerful. The twisted band sampler is stunning and it's a great idea to stitch it in memory of your mum. Rainbows remind me of my Grandma.

Emily926-Dolly Mama looks great in that frame! Well done for thinking about painting a frame to get the colour you wanted. That wouldn't occur to me.

Coxy11-Good luck with the Hobbycraft interview next week. My brothers ex-fiance used to work there and if I remember correctly, every now and then they had special staff discount days where you got 50% off. I hope they still do!

Ailsb-Wow, that Henry kit looks so good. You've done a great job of framing it too. Did you lace it, or use sticky mount board?

Thanks for the comments on my throw and scarves. nmm-I'll need to measure the throw (eta-It's 50x38" approx. I've added a pic of it later in this post so you get an idea of how big it is on a double bed). I used 5x 250g balls of aran from Poundstretcher and had 80g left from the last ball, which I used to make a mini version for Blossom. Had to add some different colour variegated which my friend gave me as I underestimated how far 80g would go!
Here is the pattern-http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/corner-to-corner-throw-3
but I struggled to understand it, so I used the youtube video-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNrS4s5C8vc
It *is* easy to do, but I am a newbie. It only uses chain stitch and trebles (which the Americans call double crochet-I could do without that confusion!) and you can make it into a rectangle if you prefer. It took me about four weeks, I think, but I'm sure you would be quicker.

Flat Eric-I got a good book from The Works. DK Crochet Step by Step. It was £4.99, which is cheaper than the magazines. I also find youtube videos helpful too. It might be worth seeing if your local library holds any craft sessions. I go to one which has a real mix of women and they do such a range of crafts-cross stitch, knitting, crochet, quilling, quilt making. One of the ladies there taught me what to do and helps me when I get stuck.
I have used normal wool so far-DK and aran. Again, this group has a big box of wool oddments to practise with, so you can use that to play with before making something with 'new' wool. Use a pale colour first, as it's easier to see the stitches!

I went to the knitting & stitching show at Olympia last week. Got a great price on tickets through Amazon local deal (the full price I think is a bit much for a show!) and went with the lady who taught me crochet. We had a great day and it was good to be looking out for more than just cross stitch. The Nimble Thimble was there, as was Jane Greenoff, The Black Sheep, Sew It All, Craft Lines of Essex. I did buy two very small cross stitch kits from The Black Sheep (christmas ones) and the rest was wool for crochet. Didn't go mad, as I can't fill the house with wool, but bought some for the next few projects. I want to do a baby blanket (maybe 2, as I have 2 friends due soon), some fingerless gloves, a shawl, a scarf for DH and, when I'm done with that, I've found a pattern for a men's jumper I want to try. DH birthday is November, so I've got time! LOL! I haven't done any cross stitch for about a year now. I do miss it, and feel guilty that I haven't stitched in so long, but I've just lost the bug totally. At least I'm still doing something crafty and it's nice to be able to make things that are useful.

Edited to add pic of throw with the wools I bought from the show...


Right, I think that's a long enough post! Sorry it's taken so long to get caught up. I'll go and measure my throw and come back and edit this post with the size.

Also, Happy St. Patricks day!!!!

tellmeitsfriday

I went too - on Saturday. I am obviously getting old and grumpy because I wasn't that impressed. I think I need to give craft shows a miss for a year or two - and stick to the internet. I am not feeling the love. Too crowded for me

I did take the opportunity to see We Will Rock You in the evening - and that was epic. It finishes on 31st May - so go while you can.

Ailsb

FOS - coasters look nice. I think it's a lovely idea to turn the cards into coasters. We all know how much work goes into making a card and for it to be, at best, consigned tk a drawer is hearg breaking. The coasters are a much better idea.
Ruth - I'm glad you had a good day at the show. I have ordered my ticket for the show at the NEC from Tesck Clubcars, it cost me £3 of vouchers. I'm going on Friday, I normally go on my own (I'm Billy no Mates) which means I can do a couple of make and take sessions. Really looking forward to it.

TMIF - sorry your experience of the show wasn't too positive. I think I'm giving the show before Christmas a miss as I felt the same way, it all seemed to be the same old stuff.

Have been sitting in the sewing room doing my quilt and realised that I haven't shared 3 of the pictures I have hanging in here. They were stitched a very long time ago, the 2 that match I did for my Nana and was given them back after she died which was 22 years ago. None of them are actually cross stitch they are all various stitches on canvas. Hope you don't mind me sharing them with you. Close ups of the 2 matching ones are in my flickr account. Sorry about the photo quality.

Pictures are in the next 3 posts due to the way my tablet works with adding photos.

Ruth_honey

tellmeitsfriday wrote: »

I went too - on Saturday. I am obviously getting old and grumpy because I wasn't that impressed. I think I need to give craft shows a miss for a year or two - and stick to the internet. I am not feeling the love. Too crowded for me

I did take the opportunity to see We Will Rock You in the evening - and that was epic. It finishes on 31st May - so go while you can.

Oh, I got like that the last few shows. Too busy, too hot, not enough cross stitch. I think this time because I was looking for wool for my new hobby, I was all fired up and didn't find it too annoying.
It's good to see the range of designs at a show, but they're not always cheap.

I've seen We Will Rock You twice and loved it. Will definitely go again before it closes.

Ailsb

20140317_113921 by Ailsb1, on Flickr

Ailsb

20140317_113936 by Ailsb1, on Flickr