The Wanderer Returns

Hello dear friends, long time no see!

I bet you’ve been wondering where I had got to, since it’s been almost seven weeks since you last heard from me, but despite being a little lax keeping up with my stitching (if I’m honest I lost my mojo a bit) I did manage to stitch on four projects, had two new starts and three finishes. 

September got off to a good start, with a day trip to Henley on Thames

and a boat trip along the Thames to Marlow on the 1st of the month.  I even made a new friend of this little Egyptian Goose.  

Don't you just love his little pink feet!

Then on the 9th, I celebrated my 70^th birthday with special friends and family, at a favourite local fish restaurant ‘Smiths’.

The following day, my cousin and I headed down to North Devon for the nostalgic short break that I mentioned last month.

It was fun visiting some of the old places that we holidayed in as young kids!  Much was as we remembered,

but it was inevitable that after the passing on more than 60years many things had changed.  Those cone shaped buildings are on the site of the old seawater swimming pool we used to go to and it's now a theatre, but the little row of Victorian shops and the ice cream parlour were still along the road behind me.

Then, we were back just over a week before we were off once more, this time up to north Yorkshire, again visiting places we had been before.  

Unfortunately no photos this time because I came down with a chest infection and sinusitis on the day we went and spent at least one day in bed and slept all the way home on the coach, which wasn’t the best of outcomes.  One course of antibiotics later, I’m still not completely over it, but getting I'm getting there!

Back to the small amount of stitching that I did during the month and the first new start.

‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ from Bothy Threads and that was ‘Nine Ladies Dancing’ which I finished on 23^rd September.

As you have come to expect, there was another letter from Emily.

Jan 2
Look here, Edward,
This has gone far enough. You say you're sending me nine ladies dancing. All I can say is, judging from the way they dance, they're certainly not ladies. The village just isn't accustomed to seeing a regiment of shameless viragos, with nothing on but their lipstick, cavorting round the green, and it's Mother and I who get the blame.

If you value our friendship, which I do (less and less), kindly stop this ridiculous behaviour at once!
Emily.

 My second new start was ‘Sleigh Ride’ a beaded Christmas Ornament from Mill Hill, which was finished on 14^th September.

As with all of the Mill Hill ornaments, it's decorated with many tiny beads which make it sparkle and this one came with a cute Santa charm

My third finish of the month was ‘Bluebird of Happiness’ from Cottage Garden Samplings.

I started stitching on this back in March and picked it up on 22 days to stitch on.

The last piece I stitched on during September was ‘Coffee Shoppe’ from Dimensions.  This is where it was when I picked it up

And this is where I left it after working on it for two days.

That’s about it as far as my stitching has gone and as I’ve already said, my mojo is still on a break, but what I have been doing though is some knitting, because while in Yorkshire I purchased some wool and a pattern! 

I’m so pleased with the way this is going and I’ve already reached the armhole shaping on the back.

And the stitch is just a twisted stocking stitch, so I don't have to concentrate too much, which is a bonus.

So that’s about it for now.

I really do need to get back to my cross stitch if I’m going to say on plan with the 'Twelves Days of Christmas' and I still have a couple of Autumn stitches that I wanted to get done, so wish me luck.

Hopefully I’ll be back at the start of next month, so until then…….

 Happy Stitching

Sue

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Time to Dust off the Sewing Machine

As Summer fast approaches Autumn, I'm pleased to say that our weather here in the UK has finally gone back to what's normal for this time of year, instead of the prolonged heatwave we have had.  As I'm getting older, I'm definitely finding it much harder to cope with the heat, Lol!

The hot weather didn't stop me from stitching though and August proved to be a productive month. 

My stitching diary shows that I worked on 3 wip, had 2 new starts, finished 3 projects and managed to fully finish 4 projects.

The first wip that I stitched on was Bluebird of Happiness from Cottage Garden Samplings, which was last worked on in back in May.    This is where it was left.

I stitched on it for another 8 days and this is where it is now.

Just love the little houses in this series!

The next wip was Coffee Shoppe from Dimensions.

I stitched on this for a total of 7 more days.

The final wip I worked on you have already seen because it only took another 4 days to completely finish it.

That was 'Santa Claus is coming to Town' by Historische Stickmuster.

The two new starts you've also already seen and they were both finishes too.

'8 Maid's A-Milking' - 12 Days of Christmas - from Bothy Threads

And 'Bristol Berries 2' from Erica Michaels, which is also the first of my 4 fully finishes.

I think I may have caught the ‘Berry Bug’ because I can’t wait to stitch the other two on the chart and I’m finding myself looking for more to stitch………….I’m sure I’m not the only one to go down that particular rabbit hole, Lol!

When it comes to fully finishing, I always find it a bit of a task, because despite having a dedicated craft room, it’s sadly small and doesn’t have enough room to leave my sewing machine out all the time.

So for that reason I tend to leave them until I have a few projects that need attention and this time there were a couple of other items that needed attention too, (a pair of curtains that needed taking up and the sleeves of a beach cover-up needed shortening) so the time had finally come!

I dealt with the two ‘boring’ projects first and then tackled the fun stuff.

I had the final 3 panels from ‘Beach Rules' by Primrose Cottage that needed sorting.

 ‘Build Sandcastles'

‘Roll with the Tides'

and finally ‘Make Memories’ 

I decided to make this pillow with a little pocket.........because I have a plan and a story!

You have to go back to my childhood and also think forward to a trip I have coming up in a couple of weeks.

From the age of around 5 (in the early 60's) my parents took myself and my two brothers down to Woolacombe, North Devon for our summer holidays, on five consecutive years, so as you can imagine, I have many memories of those trips.

I visited there again once in the late 70’s with friends, but haven't been back since.  

I'm sure you'll have already guessed, but for my late summer break I'll be going back for another visit, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much it's changed over the last 50 years.

The little pocket is destine to be filled with some 'Now & Then' photos and other little trinkets I might find. 

 Here’s my final display of ‘Beach Rules’

lay of ‘Beach Rules’ I don't know how much stitching I'll get done during September because I have a Big Birthday (70) coming up and as well as a few celebrations planned I also have two short breaks away.  

So we'll play it by ear and see where my needle takes me.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Eight Maids A-Milking – Bothy Threads – 12 Days of Christmas

It’s the eight day of Christmas and the 1^st day of a new year for Emily and still the gifts from Edward keep coming.

At last this time he seems to have listened to Emily, when she said no more birds.

But look what turned up this morning, prompting another letter.

Jan 1

Frankly, I prefer the birds. What am I to do with eight milkmaids? And their cows! Is this some kind of a joke?

If so, I'm afraid I don't find it very amusing.
Emily.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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12 Days of Christmas

Designed – Bothy Threads - Kit

Fabric – 14ct Zweigart Aida - White

Threads – Standard Cotton, Pearl Cotton and Gold Thread

‘Bristol Berries 2’ – Erica Michaels

 I can’t believe that we have already reached the last month of Cross Stitch Camp,  and Sheri, the  Colorado Cross Stitcher  has set our final challenge, which is the same as it is every year:- 

to try something new - a new count, a new linen, a new designer, a new finish, a new colour scheme - whatever stretches our stitching journey in some way.

After giving it some thought, I decided to make a strawberry.

Apart from the Hindeloopen Strawberry that I stitched back in

January and was finished in a totally different way, I have never stitched and finished a ‘traditional’ one before.

I already had ‘Bristol Berries 2’ by Erica Michaels in my collection and had never stitched any of her charts before either,  so decided that I would stitch one of the three berries included in the chart.

I’m still continuing to work from stash when I can, so I’ve stitched this piece on a piece of 36ct mystery Evenweave and used a Roxy Floss Co thread, ‘Suitable’ that was left over from the 2024 Christmas Countdown

Tomorrow will be a fully finishing day and I have a few pieces that need dealing with, so it should be fun.

 Happy Stitching!

Sue

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Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Historische Stickmuster

At the end of my July round-up, I mentioned that I was so engrossed with stitching on this project that I carried on stitching beyond the two days I had in my plans and continued stitching until the end of the month.

At that point I was getting so close to a finish, so decided instead of putting it away again until the end the month,  I would keep going until it was done.

Just four days later I had my first finish for August and what’s more, the finish of my first project from Historische Stickmuster.

When it was done, I added my initials and the year amidst the snowflakes.

Here are all the details:- 

Design by  –                                 Historische Stickmuster

Fabric –                                        32ct unbleached Linen

Threads –                                     Soie d’Alge silks

Start Date -                                 25^th December 2025

Finish Date -                               4^th August 2026

Number of days stitched on -    42 days

At this time, I’m still not sure if I want to frame it or make it into a pillow for the chair in my sewing room, but whatever I decide, it will be done into for Christmas.

Happy  Stitching!

Sue 

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