The white cat, an update of problems, and an enforced rest!

There was a white cat in church on Sunday morning. I was taking a service in the north part of Derby, and afterwards, whilst talking to members of the congregation, I noticed a  large, stuffed white cat on one of the seats. As I approached its owner, I thought I detected a twitch, so I asked "That cat's not real, is it?" At which point, the stuffed cat lifted his head and peered round to see who was talking. He had been there during the whole of the service quietly lying on top of his carrying bag. He and his owner let me make a fuss of him before he was picked up and zipped into his bag where just his head and shoulders were visible for his journey home.

No update photos on this entry. I'm not sure if I'm just too lazy or if there really isn't anything worth photographing. The problem was with the piece of 32 ct sparkly mid-blue evenweave I bought for the Xmas 2013 mystery.  I started the stitching, and then realised it was fraying badly, so out with the Fraystop. Then I looked more closely, and discovered that two edges of the fabric hadn't been cut straight, so that by the time I had reached the end of the long side of the design, I wouldn't have enough around the edge for framing. I lost about an inch in width down each side which I wasn't very happy about although there is still plenty of fabric for the project. Ok, I hadn't got very far, and "only" had to frog about 120 stitches, but it had taken me a lot of experimenting to find just the right amount of sparkle in the thread combination, so I felt very frustrated. But I have now caught up and progressed further, but it isn't very exciting to post a photo of part of a rectangular border of white!

On the way home from my guitar lesson last week, I stopped off (as is my custom!) at Hobbycraft at Bridgemere Garden Centre. They had a really good offer on Siesta bar frames, so I stocked up on some sizes I needed. Now, most of my projects are pinned to those, and I quite like the way they handle when I'm stitching. (That would be another boring photo!)  I haven't yet discovered if my floorstand will hold them in its jaws!!

Finally - I have my surgery for the removal of a rather large ovarian cyst scheduled for 10 days time!! (Hooray!!)  It looks like I shall be forced to put my feet up for a while afterwards, so think of all the stitching I could get done!! This is a cyst which has remained undiagnosed (and growing!) for several years while I was being told "it's your age" or "you've had three children, what do you expect" when I saw my GP (woman) to explain my body wasn't working right. It took a bout of pneumonia which left me with unexplained symptoms before anyone would listen properly, and then it was a man!! So, I am looking forward to a good summer once I have recovered, rather than another struggle. And if I still need to rest, I shall sit in the sun to stitch.. :) The downside is that it will be a while before I am up to visiting grandchildren and I won't get to this year's Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC.  On the plus side, Harrogate will be all the nicer!!
Till next time,
Happy stitching!