14.18: hum, I typed the blog adress wrong, and it led to a Bible studies website !!!! The joke is on me… ;)

We have to adapt.

If you are a regular reader, you might have recieved an email about my blog moving to http://angelsan.blogspot.com .

My website was disactivated because of spam in the comments of this blog. So I move it to blogspot. Problem is the spam is still coming through, so I don’t know… I will have to do some programming.

Anyway, please go to the new blog to see my 3 new posts.

Can’t say it’s growing fast… I’m stitching the house. It’s a solid DMC 3828, as I don’t like the variegated effect of the original. The white isn’t white, it’s 3866. It makes me think of painted wood, where you see the colour of the wood through (a little bit). The chart has an error, as the white around the door is marked as dark brown like the roof. But that’s not what the picture shows. And I decided to go for white, it’s nicer, especially with the black windows. I started the grass… and it’s an original thing. You have to use variegated, diagonally. But I love the way it looks….

Chiloe, see previous post (well, last week?) to see the picture of the fabrics. Becky, you raise an interesting question: when will I remove my decorations? I have fall ones, and Halloween… so I don’t know… On the other hand I just set them up, so I guess I could leave them a little later than Wednesday…

So… because I didn’t go to Alexandra Palace this year, I felt I could order stuff off the internet. After all, I needed fabric, and I wanted charts.

My order from ABC Stitch finally arrived (ok, one week to get the stuff ready, one week travel… not so bad!). It is Little House Needleworks patterns, Acorn Hill, Acorns and Pines, and Garden Pleasures. From Sew and So, I finally ordered the 2 last DMC variations boxsets, and “Simply Snowdays” from Waxing Moon.

So I’ve put Forest Snowfall on hiatus to start Acorn Hill. After all, that pattern is of the season… so it has to be stitched now ! And that where I’m glad I got the new DMC variations: Acorn Hill only calls for silk overdyed. I hate working with silk, and I don’t particularly like the variations on the design. So I had to replace everything with DMC, plain and variegated.

Ok, I don’t hate working with silk, they seem a bit fragile, ok, but they are expensive when the final result is not really different from cotton. You know me. No advantages, no use ! And this will give a very interesting look to the project…

I was a bit… away lately, mostly because of neck/head pain, the typical brain killer. So if I can’t write and barely stitch… no posts, obviously.

One of the good things about my new home is the fire place. Of course, it’s a fake fire, and the central gas heating system is in there (British thing?) but it means I have a mantel to decorate. And I decided to put seasonal decorations on it. And decorative cushions are an obvious choice…

You can see I turned Scream girls and Joan Elliott’s witch into cushions as well (click to see full size), and add the little Mill Hill witches. I still have a Mill Hill Halloween project in the making. I plan on stitching that when DBF comes on Saturday, as he doesn’t understand why I stitch snowy Christmas scenes already !

Yesterday I received my copy of Zelda, the phantom hourglass, and spent most of the evening playing on my DS console. I have to say I’m a big fan on this game, the fact that you play entirely with the stylus is a great idea ! The next game I’m waiting for is the Simpsons, the game. BTW Lauren, did I reply about the Katamari games? I tried a PS2 demo once, but like Loco Roco, the fun and interest was short lived… Plus I wasn’t good at it ;)

Here is a proof I have no head. I read comments asking me who designed the pumpkins of the week end, and thought “can’t people read?” (grumpy grandma, the return…). But obviously it is I who can’t write, because I forgot to say it’s from Little House Needleworks, even though I would have bet my life on the fact that I had written it in the post. I did write it in the gallery picture though. A little tip for later. For technical questions about what I stitch, designers, magazines it’s from, colours changes…. go and look for the project in the gallery.

To add to the “no head” case… Lili, you are right, I have DMC 4045… and it’s the one I use for the green of Forest Snowfall. Problem is… when I sorted my variegated threads, I was using it already heavily, and forgot to write the number on the bobbin. Doh !
So when I decided on the threads to use on the pumpkins, I thought it would be an obvious choice, but I was afraid to run out of thread. And as it was not labelled, I thought it was one of the variegated Anchor threads I bought in Menin, and so didn’t dare compromising Forest Snowfall for the pumpkins.

Yes, and all that hard thinking was done before 8am on Saturday morning….

Samantha, Nic, I never used or even tasted butternut squash. Somehow it looks like an alien vegetable or something… And I don’t mind making a lot of soup at once, because I freeze most of it, so I have a stock for the rest of the year…

jennR, I tried a few variegated, and I think DMC is the best, maybe Anchor along with it, because they are colourfast, and the threads don’t seem fragilised by the overdying operation. Most overdyed threads don’t glide in the fabric well.

June, the fabric for the pumpkins cushion is apples indeed, along with radishes for some reason…

So now I still feel I need to stitch a little Haloween project, but I don’t know what… I’m waiting for my order from ABC stitch, I had Fall patterns in it…

Looks like everybody is gone for the week end or something, seeing how few comments I got from the previous post… If it was me ranting about stuff, ok, but I thought it was a substential progress fromthe previous picture ;) I was told (by DBF) that I should stitch for Halloween and not Christmas. ‘Cauz it’s the season. And he’s preparing a special Halloween apparently… I have to say I don’t care much for witches and monsters, the one thing I love at this period of the year is… pumpkins. I love pumpkin soup, but you can only find pumpkins in October. So it makes it extra special.

Lili gave me this pattern on Friday evening, and I had to start stitching on Saturday morning. Instead of the Crescent Colours threads used in the original design, Lili made me a DMC conversion… and I made 2 changes from that as well.

Yes, no variegated at all, Lili, because I don’t have 4045, it’s the new DMC variations I don’t have, but I bought them on Saturday from Sew and So.

About that website, I don’t want anybody to be misled. This time I was lucky to get a free piece of fabric. But I ordered like 10 times from them before, and never got any extra. I jsut like to order from them because they are cheap, theend stuff fast and in several times if they don’t have one of the things on the day… General good service, isn’t it valuable?

Anyway, I was happy witht he pillow I made my mom, so I used the same system, except I used my sewing machine. Not sure it took less time to make ;)

I made pictures of my house now… so click over here. The newest pictures are at the top, dated of today. I left the old ones so you can see the progress… Here is a picture of the fabrics I ordered from Sew and So. They even included a free piece of cream linen ! Such a good service… It only contrasts more with ABC Stitch silence… One week after order, no news from them… hum….

I had to do the biggest frogging of all time. See the picture int he previous post? I kept stitching all the other side of the house, and then realised I made a miscount at the beginning, and so had to frog the whole thing ! But now I’m nearly finished that colour on the house…

Surprisingly, after only one week of moving, my house is a home, everything roughtly where it should be, shelves in place and such…. Pictures will follow, when the British weather doesn’t darken the place ;) So I started Forest Snowfall, on dark cloudy blue linen. I wanted light blue to start with, but I don’t have any anymore (or at least not that big).

I ordered some at Sew and So. At this time of year I usually buy fabric at Alexandra Palace, but I couldn’t go this week end for obvious reasons…

Apparently fabrics will come sooner than the charts I ordered from ABC Stitch in the states last week. For some reason they haven’t sent my order yet, and they didn’t reply my email about it yesterday. Hum…. And I was relying on some of those charts for Christmas presents !

Anybody used them before?

Oh, and Lili will be happy to see me use some variegated in the process !!!!!

Now that my parents are on their way to here for a long week end… I can spill the beans. Mom comes and visit the blog sometimes, it would have spoiled the surprise. Plus I can’t do it faster ;) Here is the whole story. Last week I showed my mom the JCS ornaments magazine, and she told me she likes that design. So I thought I would stitch it for her. I needed an excuse to stitch that Country Cottage Needleworks design as it didn’t really appeal to me. Now, remember that I was moving, and I still don’t have all my stuff around. So I was on a short time schedule and only finished stitching last night. I like the way it is in the magazine, so I just did the same, sewing the design on fabric, then that with another piece of fabric, and voila ! cushion.

May I add I sewed it by hand because I couldn’t be bothered with dragging the heavy machine all the way downstairs? Plus it’s more precise, and not that longer in time isf you think of all the preparation, basting (lost my basting thread somewhere…), rethreading the machine,e tc….

And now… I like the finished piece so much I feel like keeping it ;) The colours on the picture might be a bit off as it’s cloudy today…

And finally, the answer to your next question: “what will you stitch now?” Well, Forest Snowfall from Country Cottage Needleworks. Because of the variegated called for the pattern, I’ll have to improvise a bit. And I decided to stitch it on cloudy blue evenweave, and turn it into a cushion the same way as “Peace”. That’s the plan anyway !

And it’s a wip as well ! This is a Country Cottage Needleworks pattern from this year’s Ornament mag. Not really my taste, I’m stitching it as a gift. But surprisingly, “Peace” is what I feel here. It is quite a central area of town, but all I hear are planes and rarely the neighbours through the wall. Ok, only when I’m inthe bathroom and they play music. I qualify this as being aware you are not alone on the planet, and not nuisance ;) If you follow this blog since quite a while, you know Harlow was hardly peaceful for me because of the kids in the neigbourhood. Thanks for your nice words about my new house. It definatly needs more personal touch, the walls look bare… I realise that I will have more space on my walls, you know what that means: stitching more frames !!!!

5 boxes to go and I will have my craftroom unpacked. I try to squeeze all my stuff in those tiny drawers, but… I have to unpack and try to fit stuff around, I will sort things out later, as I still need my desk to be reassembled and I put quite a lot on it.

Last day of work, and this week end my parents are coming to help and put the shelves and stuff. Then it will be home ;)