Spring is here ...some stitching and updates

Hello Friends,

Hope its getting warmer in your part of the world..

I have been meaning to write a post since long ...I wanted to share all the pics have been clicking of spring signs here in Scotland. I'm currently addicted to spotting new to me flowers that are popping up here.

First Daffodils spotted on 23rd Feb during my walk

Glory of the Snow at Kellie's castle garden

Daffodils at Kellie's castle garden

I wanted to write about Spring on Easter day , funny it snowed here in Glasgow on Easter. We have been told its not common to see snow in Glasgow even in winters ...so this was exciting. I really enjoyed the experience.

I have been stitching regularly apart from some days when we are out exploring places around Glasgow. We visited Kellie's castle and spotted many samplers there:

Dated 1791

Dated 1812

Dated 1929

The days are longer now and we have sunshine for few hours most days.

I participated in Spring Exchange at Needlecraft Haven hosted by Clare . I was a bit nervous about fully finishing the ornament , however Clare was very encouraging .This is what I stitched for her

I also included an ornament for her church tree, pattern is from Ruth 

I'll be honest I'm not very happy with the finishing of ornaments, its hand sewn. I miss using my sewing machine , I'm clearly not good at hand sewing.

I received a lovely parcel from my partner Christine, such neatly finished ornaments and goodies.Thank you Christine, the chocolates have been exclusively claimed by me.

I have finished few more small pieces, which need fully finishing.

I think I missed sharing this finish from January- a gift for my penpal's daughter who was born few days after I moved to Glasgow...I feel lucky to be able to send such gifts thru mail now that I have moved to a country with a reliable postal system.

Hope you like the spring blooms , and get to enjoy them in your region.

Let the people choose-July-Finishing

Hello Friends,

Today I join Jo for another SAL which she is hosting called THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE SAL. You can read about it on her blog.

The theme for this month is Finishing-that is final finishing.

I haven't been posting on my blog as I'm still not crafting specially cross stitching since my move. So I didn't think I could post for this SAL, however Jo's post gave me some ideas.

I have read that most of the stitchers dread finishing and have a pile of completed projects waiting to be framed or turned into something.
Call me weird but I have never dreaded finishing. In fact , I'm not boasting, I don't have a single project waiting to be FFOed. Well there are two reasons for that : fully finishing makes me super happy , secondly all my stitching is done for gifts, so I try to FFO the gift before giving it to the recipient. I made a mistake of not framing two pieces and gave the stitched project as gift. The pieces  haven't been framed after 3 years(I know that because I keep asking about it) and it hurts me...Anyways
I have tried few easy methods of finishing my projects apart from framing, let me show you the first of each kind.
My first book mark, made in Aug 2014 .

Now something you can laugh at , a project pasted on cardboard and covered with clear plastic sheet. Look what I did to the logo of Volkswagon😅

My first cross stitched card , made in Feb 2015 .

First heart shaped ornament,made in July 2015

First pillow shaped ornament,made in July 2015

First fridge magnet, made in Aug 2015

First hanging :stitched piece glued to foam sheet, made in Sep 2015

First hanging :stitched piece hung on plastic hanger that came with the kit, made in Nov 2015

First cushion cover finish, made in Dec 2015

First hanging :stitched piece sewn in as insert on fabric, made in Dec 2015

First project as potpurri sachet which was pre sewn,made in Feb 2016:

First ATC ,made in Sep 2016

First luggage tag, my own design

First biscornu, made in Mar 2017

First no-sew cube,made in June 2018

First hoop finish,made in June 2018

Oh, I'm tired just including the pictures,I'm sure you are too looking at them.
Year 2015 was clearly a fantastic year with so many firsts. Actually this was the year I discovered cross stitch blogs and was inspired to try finishing other than framing.

Do you have a favourite among these?
May be looking at all these finishes will inspire me to pick up my needle.

IHSW June Check-in

Hello dear friends,

It's time to show what I stitched for International Hermit & Stitch weekend . If you don't know what  IHSW is, its a SAL which was started by Joysze at Random Ramblings .Here is how she describes it "International Hermit and Stitch Weekend takes place every 3rd full weekend of each month, from Friday till Sunday. In our very busy and hectic lives, IHSW is a chance for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." It is a time set aside to take care of us and our love for stitching."

Weekend in my part of the world is on Friday & Saturday, so I will be stitching from Thursday to Saturday and post on Sundays whenever I participate in IHSW.

We had a extra long weekend due to Eid holidays from Friday to Monday  . I was a true hermit this time , stepping out of the house only once in 4 days to visit family friends who live 500 m away from our house 😁.
If you think this would have given me a lot of stitching time , oh well this isn't the case. 
Thursday : I sat down on Thursday evening to finish  Eid gift  called "Eidee" to be given next day. After few hours I could clearly see that I wouldn't be able to finish it during the night. 
Friday: It is weekly cleaning day which meant very less stitching time in the day. I decided to visit our family members for Eid on Friday evening without the gift and told them I'm late and will finish it soon. Friday night I sat till midnight to finish the stitching . 
Saturday : Morning I FFOed it with help from Dana's tutorial .  The gift was delivered and appreciated by the recipient.The rest of the day was spent cooking for a pot luck dinner at my place. 
So what is this gift which took me so long... ha ha another small project  .

Dimensions kit : Flower Mason Jar

This is my first cross stitch finish in a hoop and I quite like the result.This Dimension kit was a recent gift from my penpal in USA . I really liked stitching it , the floss was nice and in excess of required quantity .  However, I made many mistakes while stitching it. I had to frog thrice and decided to continue with the two mistakes I made as I was short of time. I guess stitching when you are going thru emotional problems is not such a good idea.

Now about the pot luck dinner ..the dinner was a success , everyone liked the food and there were leftovers which were shared and eaten next day. We played UNO and Tambola with kids which was lot of fun.

You see my cat, Twitch is not used to having kids in the house and associated sounds . She was hiding under the bed the whole time while we had guests. After the guests left, we went to bed at midnight and Twitch came to our bed after a while. She was scared and disturbed and didn't wanted to sleep alone. We have trained her in a way that she never sleeps in our bed. But this time she didn't wanted to leave the bed and wanted to sleep with mommy. It took us two more hours to put her to sleep and sleep ourselves. 
Sunday was a hangover of sleep deprivation .. ha ha which meant no crafting. 
Yesterday we were busy packing for vacation , so I put 10 stitches in my WIP. 😄 

Well I have no regrets of lesser stitching time as I enjoyed spending time for my other hobbies :cooking and travelling.

That my friends is an account of my long IHSW . I fly tomorrow for our vacation in Georgia. There will be no Smalls SAL post this month, I'm shoe horning the finish as my Small SALs entry too.

If you have any tips on how to calm down an elderly cat for a new cat momma, pls leave a comment.