Progress on VoHRH

I was hoping to have this square (#6) finished before posting a progress photo of Village of Hawk Run Hollow, but I didn't get much stitching time in this weekend as things were a bit hectic. Hopefully I'll have it finished up soon.


So, as I don't have much stitching progress to share, I found another of these annoying questionnaire thingys to do instead. ;-)

1. How do you hold your fabric? I love my Q-Snaps and Lowery Workstand.

2. Floss licker? Urm... yeah. : ) The wee bit I've licked is never normally used anyway, because by the time I get to the end of it, it's cut off. Yeah, I know... TMI.

3. How do you thread your needle? Trim the end and/or lick it ;) and it normally manages to go through.

4. What needle do you like best? My favourite (that I've tried) are Piecemakers 28.

5. Are you a needle loser? Not anymore. A few years ago I lost a needle, spent about an hour looking for it everywhere that you could imagine (and I never did find it), and I was a nervous wreck that Snoops would find it. I vowed to be very careful in future about stuff like that, and I haven't lost any since then that I know of.

6. What fabric do you prefer to stitch on? Always Linen. It depends on the project, but always 32ct through to 40ct. Belfast, Edinburgh and Newcastle bases are my favourites. I do enjoy using the R&R linen for Blackbird Designs projects: though R&R isn't something I'd normally pick myself for other projects, as it's a bit on the stiff side.

7. Bobbins or floss bags? Floss bags for just about everything. I've never really liked bobbins. I even have a full set of DMC in floss bags. I took a couple of photos to give you a better idea of how I store my "master" DMC set:

I have 7 separate lots of DMC on the rings above (e.g., Ring 1 has DMC Blanc-372; Ring 2 has DMC 400-699, etc.. ), and they're all put into the basket you see. Using the floss bags are also good because you can obviously fit multiple skeins of each colour in each bag. I haven't come up with a better solution for storing my DMC so far (if I want to keep them as they are and not on bobbins, and storing up to about 8-9 of each colour in each bag if I want to). The basket takes up very little space in my craft room too. I've been doing this for about 6 or 7 years.

8. Are you a scissors collector? Not really, but I do have a few of most of the most popular scissors on the market (e.g., Dovo, Gingher, Dinky Dyes, Kelmscott... ) SO I guess I probably do have a wee collection, but I don't consciously collect them.

9. Do you do your own framing, and if so, do you lace or pin? My framer does everything. I've tried lacing and framing myself and it's come out fairly OK, but it's not something I enjoy and I don't feel confident enough in my abilities to do it right.

10. Are you a floss floozy? Oh yeah!

11. Silk? Love. Those I use most are probably Vikki Clayton and NPIs, but I also love AVAS, Gloriana and most of the others. The new(ish) Belle Soie has also become a favourite recently.

12. Railroader? More often than not.

13. Are you a pattern or designer snob? I've never really thought about it, but I probably am.

14. Do you get antsy when you give someone a stitched gift? Not usually. I'm selective about who I give stitched gifts to, and I'm fortunate that I have a bunch of people (friends, cousins, my mum and grandmother... asides from my grandmother and one cousin-in-law, all non-stitchers) that genuinely love stitched gifts. Mirabilia designs always seem to be a hit for non-stitchers for some reason!

15. Have you reached S.A.B.L.E.? Probably many times over.

16. Do you wash your projects? I try very hard to keep my projects clean so that I don't have to. The only projects I've washed in the past are those that were stitched entirely with DMC, and even then it's been very seldom that I've had to.


Thanks everyone for visiting my blog and your lovely comments! I always appreciate them so much.

Coffee Series Finish & Friday Feast #191

I finished the last square in the Little House Needleworks Coffee series this weekend... I'm happy to report no thread shortages on this one. ;-)

That's them all done now! Sorry for the poor quality photo below - shame they don't all fit into the scanner. They were stitched on Vintage Country Mocha Belfast linen with Belle Soie silks.



From Friday's Feast: A Buffet for your Brain

Feast One Hundred & Ninety One

Every now and again I'll do one of these!


Appetizer: What is the nearest big city to your home?

I live on the west coast of Scotland, and Glasgow is circa 25-30 minutes away. The airport (Glasgow) is 15 minutes from us, and I'm fortunate to also live 10 minutes away from beautiful Loch Lomond. Though of course, Scotland is a pretty small country compared to most, so *everything* is close by - Stirling is less than an hours drive, and even Edinburgh on the opposite coast is only about a 70 minute drive away!


Soup: On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets?

I'd say 9? I'm very good with secrets (if someone has asked me to keep a confidence), but I guess no one is perfect.


Salad: Describe your hair (color, texture, length).


It's black, naturally curly and fairly long (though looks deceptively shorter than it is because of the curls). I never (or very rarely anyway) go to the hairdresser. My mum took a hairdressing course when she was in her late teens (she went along to keep her cousin company) and cuts hair really well. It's always a huge decision for me to get my hair cut anymore than just a regular trim, because it takes forever to grow back to (what looks like) a decent length again due to it being so curly... Other than a trim every 4-5 months, I haven't had my hair cut in about 3.5 years (see photos above). I also don't know what I'd do without my leave-in conditioner - if they ever stop making it I'll cry!


Main Course: What kind of driver are you? Courteous? Aggressive? Slow?

VERY SLOW - because I don't have a car! ;-P I don't need one. I'm very central to everything, don't mind walking, and there is very good transport in the immediate area when I need it. If I ever really need to get a car I will, but I don't see it happening any time soon. Stress free and it's nice not to have that expense.


Dessert: When was the last time you had a really bad week?

I have a bad day every now and again, but fortunately no bad *week* for so long I can't remember when the last time could have been!

A Happy Dance & Mini Mandala Mystery 1

I finished Parts 1 & 2 of Mini Mandala Mystery 1. I even added the beads (which I normally leave until the very end). As there's just one more part left, and it fit's comfortably in my q-snaps, I thought what the heck... I can't see any pulling or damage happening to the beading when I do part 3.

If you're stitching this design yourself, you've probably noticed that mine looks a good bit different than it should. I had some BIG issues with the silk perle that you were supposed to backstitch the walls with. It was SO bulky and untidy looking (to me), so I ripped out the bit I'd stitched and used DMC 413 instead for the backstitching (I only used the perle for the gates) and I think, (?) IMHO, it looks much better. More delicate looking anyway. Unless of course I completely read the instructions on the chart wrong... Silk Perle for all that backstitching on the walls??? I dunno... I'm not sure, but it's done now, and I'm not frogging all that backstitching at this point, thank-you-very-much!

And a finish!! Where My Heart Blooms by Blackbird Designs (Loose Feathers #29).

Stitched with all the recommended thread on R&R Korty’s Special Blend linen. This was a SAL with Karen, Nicki & Sue. I loved stitching this and I loved our SAL. :-)

And finally, as he hasn't made an appearance on this blog for a while, I'll sign off with Snoops (looking more than a little ticked off by my disturbing his relax time!)

His Royal Snoopyness

Mini Mystery Mandala I

I haven't stitched a whole lot this past week (the sun is shining in Scotland! Gotta make the most of that when it happens, y'know?!), so I unfortunately don't have any progress photos of Where My Heart Blooms to share this time. I did stitch on it a wee bit, but not enough to really justify taking a new photo.

I do have a wee progress photo to share, though. Of the new Mini Mystery Mandala I by Chatelaine. I'm stitching this one with DMC instead of the NPI silks. I started it on 1 April when the first instalment was released, but I only got so far, as I had to wait on the specialty threads to arrive... they finally arrived at the end of last month, so I resumed stitching and I'm working on Part 2 now too. No beads yet - I always leave those to the end.


Anne was asking what fabric I'm stitching the Little House Needleworks Coffee series on. It's Vintage Country Mocha Belfast linen. I also used that fabric for The Old West. I love it for Little House Needlework Designs and as it's a regular Belfast Linen, it works out a lot cheaper than the hand dyeds too.