Designer: The Goode Huswife
Design: Dutch Strawberries
Fabric: 32ct Sassy’s Latte
Threads: NPI and DMC
Date completed: 12/2/2009

Here’s last week’s progress on Linen and Lace, for the DT SAL I’m doing with Katrina:

I finished all the centre motifs and made a (small) start on the bottom and RH bands (just to use my thread lengths up). I’ll probably work on the bottom band this week. It was nice to see from the comments on my previous progress pic that people like my colour choices This is going to hang in our (heart-themed) bedroom, so I had a particular colour palette in mind. It took me a long time to decide on threads – I ended up simplifying the number of pinks from the original 6 NPIs to just 3 overdyes to get the effect I wanted. I’m using a mixture of Gloriana silks and Silk ‘n’ Colors and both are lovely to work with.

I also finished my goal for August on Simple Little Quaker – I stitched the green motif, top RH corner:

I’ve been working on other WIPs too – 12 Days of Christmas, Golden Garden, Emblem of Love, Katrina’s Quaker RR – but I haven’t made enough progress worth sharing yet.

Knitted bag, made with Patons Coast and Patons Washed Haze Aran, from a free pattern by Coats.

Simple linen and cotton tote, inspired by Soulemama:

with a matching cotton lining and pretty polka-dot grosgrain ribbon trim:

Stripy cat bag, made using this tutorial at U-Handblog but with different handles:

with a little surprise inside (remember the cat banner?):

This was my first attempt at several techniques:

1) Chevron stripes.

This was Really. Hard.  Yes, it took 3 tries and a bit of fudging.  And yes, I had the mother of all temper tantrums after attempt number 2 (patience not being a virtue with which I am heavily endowed), which wasn’t helped by DH saying it was just fine.  When to me (your average Type A OCD perfectionist)  it obviously wasn’t.  Picking fabric with really narrow stripes for a first attempt probably wasn’t the wisest move in the world.  However, I am happy with the finished result.

2) Piping.  Not as difficult as I thought it would be and I got to practice a bit more with my zipper foot   It’s not quite perfect in a couple of places around the top but I’m really pleased with the pocket edging.

3) Inserting magnetic clasps as closures.  The one in the pocket is perfectly aligned, the one in the inside lining is a bit off, but not noticeably.

Overall, it was a great tutorial, very clear and well-written and the bag itself is very sturdy, with lots of layers of interfacing giving it a padded feel.  I love the shape too and the front pocket (my first time adding a pocket to a bag as well – lots of firsts here!)  Any errors are purely on my part and not Lisa’s

and here’s last week’s progress on Linen and Lace for Katrina, my DT SAL partner:

Oops – not ironing it and taking the photo on the bed probably wasn’t a good idea but never mind!  This is a fun stitch

Tweet is a Melly and Me pattern, purchased from Buttonberry (ooh, I’ve just noticed they have the new M&M patterns in.  DO NOT blame me if you click on the link and feel compelled to spend lots of money, OK?)   He’s made entirely from scraps of fabric and felt and was A LOT of fun to make.  His shorter-legged but still incredibly cute companion, Hooty, is still at the cutting out stage, but will hopefully be assembled shortly.

Thank you, Tanya, for choosing me as one of your “Rockin’ Girl Bloggers” and to Michelle and Cathy, who both included me in their list of 5 special bloggers this weekend. I really appreciate all the kind things that the three of you wrote about me and my blog

I’m supposed to tag 5 more people who I think deserve the award; I’m not going to tag, as such, in the sense that you don’t have to join in (unless you want to, of course), but I have put together a list. It’s hard to pick just five bloggers, as I enjoy all of the 150+ blogs I read, but here are a selection of my favourites:

Seahorse Claire – Claire is a wonderful knitter and homemaker – go and look at her amazing home-grown veggies, I’m so jealous! – and also a fabulous mum to her brood of 4

Katrina – Katrina is such a sweet and generous friend and always has some lovely eye candy on her blog, whether it’s stitching, stash, beautiful hand-made cards, bags or Poppy the cat

Isabelle – Isabelle is one of the few overseas bloggers I’ve met in person and she really is as sweet in real life as she appears on her blog. Her sewing skills are amazing and I’m totally in awe of the fact that she made her own wedding dress recently. I wish her and Seb every happiness

Niky in Italy – I love everything that Niky stitches. She is amazingly prolific and has the most creative finishing ideas (which I file away in my brain for future reference )

Anne in Australia – Anne is another sweet friend, who, despite having had a pretty horrendous year, always seems to retain her sense of humour and fun. I’ve loved “working” with her on the finishing blog this year and she always brings a smile to my face with her posts and emails.

There are many more people that I could have included here; some have already been tagged/listed by others, so I decided not to duplicate. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog, especially to those who take the time to comment – I really appreciate your visits and your friendship

I’m stitching this with the recommended threads on 32ct Summer Khaki.

The next 2 pics are WIPs that I met my monthly goals on last month I’ve finally finished the last full medallion on Emblem of Love:

and made a start on this month’s goal (the bluebells heads, the little heart next to the “to” and the basket/cornucopia ). I noticed once I’d scanned it that I hadn’t put in the swan’s eye and nose (just 2 stitches), so try to imagine them there

Finally, my progress on Peacocks II by the Workbasket:

Again, there’s a couple of missed stitches in the border, but I didn’t want to start a new length of thread this time around. This one is stitching up very fast; I picked it up at odd intervals over the weekend and never for more than a few minutes at a time and I completed my goal easily. I’ve been suffering with very dry skin and a touch of eczema on my stitching hand, which is making me a bit reluctant to stitch with silks, as they catch more. It’s a bit better today, so I’m hoping that the ultra-strong hand cream I used last night is taking effect.

Update on the camera: thanks to those of you who suggested claiming on the household insurance. Unfortunately, we found out when I broke the last one that we *could* claim, but if we did, the insurance company would put our premiums up. Not surprisingly, we declined their generous offer; there are worse things than a broken/lost camera that we may have to claim for in the future, after all, and there’s no sense in putting up our monthly premiums unnecessarily. So, after much discussion and going through the finances with a fine tooth-comb, we’ve decided to get another one, since we’re both missing having it rather a lot. The decision was partly swayed by the fact that it’s DH’s birthday this month and asking for cash towards the camera (since he doesn’t really know what else he wants) would be a good way of helping to defray the costs. We’ve actually ordered one already and it should be here within the next few days. We’re going to treat it with kid gloves and attach it to ourselves with a padlock every time we take it out of the house, I think