Ooops!!

This past week has been a chapter of accidents, so no new photos. On Monday my bicycle kicked me as I was getting on it to ride home after posting a letter. Result: one heavy landing, one badly sprained wrist, one thumb (the other hand, of course) missing a bit, and lots of bruises not to be on public display!! Stitching has been well-nigh impossible as I couldn't hold a needle or support a frame. I can't even manage to put up the stand I have hidden in a cupboard somewhere. DH is doing all the vacuuming and washing up, and most of the cooking, including making lots of cups of tea as I can't be trusted to hold a kettle safely! A lot of my journeys are by public transport, which I'm quite enjoying, actually. (I can sit fairly comfortably, now!)
On Wednesday DH reversed our car into a rather sturdy laurel bush. I doubt if it will ever be the same again! (The car, I mean, not the bush!) Next-Door-Neighbour thought he was responsible for the damage to our car till I reassured him that no, it was my DH who had caused it.
By Friday, I knew I had picked up a "bug": sore throat, loss of voice, deep cough. It's not a cold as I am not sneezing. I managed the services yesterday both morning and evening, but I'm now cancelling everything I don't actually need to do. I have a friend with COPD, and daren't go near her.
I had a bit of "me time" yesterday afternoon. I sat in the sunshine in our back garden for half an hour, and put in a grand total of one full cross stitch and four half-stitches. Better than nothing! So now  will see if I can manage a few more.
Hope this hasn't been too depressing for you all. I shall continue to enjoy an enforced rest!

A visit and some updates

The wallcovering at Kedleston Hall

 Last week I visited Kedleston Hall, a National Trust property near where I live, intending to concentrate on some books which were on open display, and not usually visible to the public. I found they had recently replaced some of the original silk wallcoverings with new. They had found some which had been protected from the light, and so were able to reproduce the original colour. My photo doesn't do it justice!

Chatelaine - errm - progress?

The past couple of weeks I've slowed right down with my stitching. I've been really busy preparing services, and then went down with a migraine - not a bad one, just a mild one which lingered for over a week. The net result was that I didn't dare do a lot of stitching as I knew I would then waste a lot of time frogging. I have put a few stitches into both the projects I'm concentrating on, though. Neither photo was taken in the best light, but then the weather hasn't been good for that and I find flash photography tends to drain the colour!. I'll try to do better next time

Cushion progress

I visit an elderly friend in a care home most weeks, and it finally dawned on me that I had stitched him a picture of an owl for his 75th birthday almost seven years ago, and I had no photographic record of it. I was quite touched when he moved into the home 3 years ago to find he had kept it and it was hanging on his wall, so I now have a photo of it.

Dennis's owl

That's all for this week. Maybe there'll be more to report on next time. I must say that writing this blog tends to keep me more focussed on my stitching than I have been in the past.

Mayday update

The second part of the Fairytale Castle arrived today - and I've hardly started the first part! I need to spend most of my time stitching the Ottoman Elegance cushion - about 200 stitches per day to get it finished in time. It was 170, but I've missed some days. But so many other designs are calling out to me that I'm going to get very side-tracked if I'm not careful. So I shall have to see if I can prioritise a bit and set aside some dedicated stitching time. I notice our local library has started a craft group on a Monday morning. I had been wondering about starting something like "Bring and Stitch" or "Stitch'n Chat" at our church which is right opposite, so perhaps a different day might be a good idea if we're to avoid clashing. Maybe September would be a better start date, but I intend to investigate the library group for ideas!

Here is an update on OE

The colours are as near as I can get them. The original photo was rather grey because of the light - also rather grey! I adjusted them on a photoshop-clone, but everything is a little green. If we ever get ant decent sunlight I intend to have a photo session outside.