Virtuous sheep and a Rosie cushion

Hiya everyone,
I have been busy and feel like the sheep very virtuous.Hands to work and all that. Well by the title you will have guessed I have finishes to show you. An anniversary and an outing also and purchases too. So where do I start?
As it is a sunny day lets start with yesterday the 18th ,for Martin and I a special day our 47th wedding anniversary. We had phone calls from family in the morning and then set off with Ollie for a wander round Abbotsbury sub tropical gardens.

I know I have taken you here before but not at this time of year. As you enter you see the formal bed.

More or less the only "formal"bit in these gardens. The weather did drizzle on us a little but it soon cleared. We wandered up and down and round and round, Ollie had to stay on his lead ,which is only fair. He met a little border terrier who was so cute named Sorrel and was only 7 months old. She so desperately wanted him to play,but he is a staid old man now and does not "do"playing.

No hanging about for a dog in a hurry. The sunlight coming through the trees was lovely. There were flowers in bloom though and camellias were just finishing.

Hellebores in all shades , dark almost red pink , pale pink , maroon, So much to see.
This is called the Magnolia walk and lots still to come into flower. But the daffodils, I was going to sit amongst them for a photo shot but thought they looked better on their own!!

Underneath them all the way to the top, was this.

A host of golden daffodils. At the top of the walk , the view was somewhat hazy but still seeable. Is that a word?It is now.

The fleet looking toward Portland which has vanished in the mist, it does not run downhill either,blame the person who took it. Looking the other way toward Bridport and Lyme Regis.

 Not a great shot. I do like this wall that curved around the top of the hill we walked up.

On the way down Ollie was no longer pulling on his lead ,in fact he decided to sit amongst the daffodils.

He chose a patch were there were only a few . Walking on we came upon this fallen tree, the gales we had recently must have caused it to fall.

Wonder if they will do what they have done to this one.

Front and back view.

Then just around the corner ,and there are a lot of corners, we came on these having a dip.

Speaking of wildlife ,something we did not expect to see but we certainly heard them. 

Kookaburras ,yes a little of Australia here in Britain. Ollie was quite intrigued by the noise they were making.

If you are ever this way it is a lovely place to visit, as well as the spring flowers there are also the bamboos etc. One of which I loved the Culms , the stems of the bamboo, Think I may have to ask Dale ,if we could have one for our garden.

So after the visit we went to our local hostelry and had a pub lunch. Martin and I before we were married lived 300 miles apart. In those days ,way back when, we had no phones, no e mail , phones were in a box at the bottom of the street, so letters were sent every day ,sometimes twice! What did we find to write about,heavens knows, but letters it was and a meeting every 3 months. So my dear man saw this and thought it would bring back memories, 

A boofle with a letter and an envelope with SWALK on it. Oh so many memories. The tulips were also bought for me. He is a sweetie.

More wildlife the Sheep Virtue series from LHN that I have been stitching along with Sally. I was going to put these on an afghan and back it with fleece. However, I changed my mind and did this. Sally has been wondering why I sent Martin out to buy rope!

What do you think.

Here it is in situ. 

Also sitting on the bed is Rosie. Here she is finished and I must thank Julie and Mr Stick over at Needlecraft Haven and the girls of course ,for encouragement in finishing this on the UFO nights.

Then another little finish Day 5 of the Little Stitchers 12 days of Christmas. 

The birds should be all red but I cannot get my head round red birds.I have had stash arrive too from the releases at Nashville that I ordered from the U.S. 

These were a birthday present and today came fabric I thought I could do it on but is it too light ,and grey. Opinions please.

This was the other one I had.

I have to save up for the Valdani threads.I did look for a conversion to Dmc , but a few are not on the list so I shall bite the bullet at some point and get the proper ones. So my dears I think I have given you chapter and verse , I see I need one more person to follow me and I shall hit the 200 ,who would have thought. If you would like to mention me on your blog and ask the person to say who sent them I would love to get to the magic number. 

One more thing came today , I have been loving the trailer music for Shetland . I found out who was singing it and it arrived this morning.

I thank each and everyone of you for the comments and for reading this. I keep meaning how to find out how to answer your comments but so far not had any luck.

So for this time its goodbye from me and take care of yourselves.

See you next time.

Has Spring sprung,

We have a had a few beautiful springlike days here ,after all the rain of the winter how lovely it is to see the sunshine. I do hope wherever you are it has been as good .
Well since I last posted I have done the workshop , done one panel of the bag and binned it ,started another and happier this time. Here are some pics for you to see of last weekend (is it really a week ago) and some of the ladies and their work.

This is how far we had got in 6 hours !!

This is my new start on my first panel.

I will show you more as this progresses. I also took a pic of the "class" and some of Annettes bags. 

Another side.

The fourth side.

Annette brought another bag with her called her angel bag. I only took a few of this one.

She had done the most gorgeous little angel tag. 

The tag is on the left of the bag.Here is a pic of the class in the old school we use.There is a gap here and I do not know how to fix it!!!!

So there you have it last weekend ,redwork stitching. I have almost finished another sheep , The very last one so just have to play putting it together. Joyfulness hopefully will be finished tomorrow with Sally.

I could not stitch on Rosie last week as I had run out of Schoolhouse Red and was waiting for it to arrive. I did stitch last night and will show you a pic of that next time. Also last week I finished Day 4 , I did not use the dark colour for the writing ,instead used a silver metallic thread.

Here they are all together .I almost finished day 5 on Friday but not quite so that will be another finish next time.

On Wednesday I stitched in the parlour with the ladies over at Needlecraft Haven and In the Meadow is growing. 

I did have a couple of surprises this week. Martin sent for these 2 items for me.

Do you think he wants me to stitch faster as I now have 2 memorial pieces to stitch. He also saw Annettes stitching book and this arrived yesterday as he thought it might be useful.

Sorry it is on its side, no matter how hard I try the gremlins will not turn it round. Also you may have noticed there is a gap in the middle somewhere. Again those gremlins have been at work. As I am on the subject of books I have acquired these 2 this week.

This last week in the UK it has been Shrove Tuesday also known as Pancake Tuesday. Being Tuesday the tribe were here for dinner ,and nanny had to do pancakes , I do not know why it is so disappointing for the children if they do not have pancakes ,so all was gathered together.

They were yummy but since I was the one making them they were no sooner cooked than eaten so no pics.

Sam did quite well as he came for dinner today too, Sunday roast beef as he had homework to finish, he has been making a sword and shield with his Grandad.

Then he was off to football. I have just finished watching England v Wales in the 6 nations . Whoo hoo we won. I have let Martin take Ollie as I just had to see what happened. So I thought I would try and get this finished before they get back.I have had another finish for Alfie ,Sams younger brother ,this is Scales a lizard scarf I have shown you in the process of being knitted. 

Pleased to say Alfie loves it, not so sure of the legs myself. Next is an Owl cushion for Ella. Sorry if this has been a bit disjointed. I want to thank you all again for your comments, it is surprising what a word or two from the readers of my blog does to my spirits. Sunshine all the way. 

To any new readers hello and its good to meet you

To my old friends , much love and hugs.

Barb xx

Stash and a few little finishes.

Hello everyone, well it is sunshining here at the moment, washing is blowing in the breeze and I am hoping it will dry. How are you all ,well I am hoping. I do a lot of hoping. Firstly I would like to thank everyone for the kind comments on my last post ,I was so excited to get 20 , maybe I may get a few more (wink) this time!!
Well onward you will want to see what I have been up to the last few days.
As you know it was my birthday and I have been spending some of the pennies I was given . Some of it has arrived but still awaiting the Nashville new items.
Firstly I ordered the Dickens charts from Gaynor ,you can find her here:- www.stitchersanon.com.
I have done Bah humbug which was a freebie and now I have 4 others to stitch and more on the way I hope.Not too quickly though eh Gaynor.

This is the fourth one,

Not sure how to stitch these ,on one piece of fabric or as individual pieces -any ideas.
Another one that has arrived from Italy this time , and it is a design I shall be stitching very soon.

I just could not resist this one when I saw it. Then a completely different design ,which Martin wants me to stitch for the exhibition in June , they are honouring the centenary of WW1 and he asked me if he got it would I stitch it. I am going to put my grandfathers brothers name on it I think. I have chosen the fabric aptly named Vintage Khaki.

The fabric is top right. I have most of the threads so got the chart instead of the kit. I do however have to put an order in as I do need some. Isn't it always the way.
I think this one may be my Tuesday or Thurday stitch.
I had to order some sewing goods this last week as I am being very brave and doing a workshop this coming weekend, A red work bag. The tutor is Annette Bolton and in the past I have been to a good few of her workshops , however I have not been to one for a while now so I shall be feeling a bit apprehensive. Think of me next Saturday. This is what I am attempting, do you see why I just had to do it. Will have to show you it at the end as I need a man that can ,just found him.

This is a pic of the sheep part  just hope I can do it justice. Isnt it lovely.

I can show you the little needlebook I did in 2007 ,yes that long ago.

I have been getting the bits and bobs together and see the red scissors , well they couldnt go naked could they.So here they are with a little attachement.

The back view.

I also made a little cushion for my pins from a free pattern from The Primitive Hare.

And they sit nicely in my Needlework Book. 

I have to find a red pen to go in with the book.on the other side.

This was a class by Annette in 2007. If you want to look at her work go to Annette Bolton textile artist. If you live in the UK she may be doing a workshop near you. 

So my dears I have one more finish to show you ,which is the monthly challenge over on Needlecraft Haven. I had in my head reveal day was the 27th , losing the plot here ,it was yesterday so I have just sent my pic in . Christine gave us this design a freebie, to finish as we wished.

Not sure about the finishing of this one. However it will have to do. Now onto the other weakness ,books. I have been good this last week and I bought Martin 2 which he is not sure he has read,so I shall have them. He picked up these 2 as they were free with his paper and I quite like the look of them.

I am reading Blue Monday at the moment by Nicci French. I have not got into it yet , but I will persevere a bit longer. I am expecting 2 new releases this week argh will I never learn. The fabric I used for Winter Tyme with the Y backwards on the header (supposed to be that way) I saw on JB fabrics that they only had a little left so I got a larger piece and sent Sally a piece as she wanted to finish her 12 days with the same fabric. Whilst there I got a piece of red and white ,yes for the redwork bag, and the same moss one ,along with blue of the same design, lastly a piece of red check again for the bag.

Tonight I shall be stitching along with Sally on the last sheep of the series so a new start. Martin has a committee meeting so he will be out. Wednesday I will be in the parlour and stitching a tree in the meadow. Here is progress.

On Friday last I started my 4 th day of the 12 days of Christmas that again I am stitching with Sally. I did not do a lot ,but I did get the skater done.

Another wip is the one I am doing as a ufo, it has come to a halt this weekend Miss Julie, I have run out of the Crescent Colour thread for her dress so I shall have to do the middle panel and some writing this coming weekend. I have ordered the thread but it is out of stock at the 2 places I buy from in the UK so have to wait until it comes in.

Last week I promised you some sea pics and I have a couple of my girlies to show you.

Caitlin and Ella on a cold windy day.9th February. Graeme and Sue the same day but in disguise.

The sea on that day. Although rough was not as bad as it had been.

The pebbles at the top of the beach have all been swept away and left just the blue clay. Something I have never seen before.

The next week on my birthday we went over with Sam and Kate to see what had happened during the week. The sea wall has great chunks of tarmac torn up and it was scary looking through the railings to see the rusting supports. Sam had to wear his grandads coat as he forgot his!!!

I think that is all for now I shall leave you with one of the sea and wish you all a good week with plenty of sunshine and lots of stitching.Take care all,leave me a comment if you have time and to anyone that is new I am waving hello. I will be back again soon.

Sorry one more to make you smile,This is what has passed for footwear on Portland lately.

Hugs Barb.