Sunday, January 25, 2009

A change of 'face'...

I am deliberating on whether or not to alter my blogs - I might even combine them again - it seems silly to have two when I don't even get the chance to keep one updated regularly - but I shall muse for a bit longer before I make a firm decision...

However until I decide - I have changed this blog's 'face'. I have always liked this template -Harbour - but I felt that it never related to the content of the blog I was creating - but as this is about as close as I shall get to the sea this year - I am going to use it.

The background makes me feel peaceful, I can almost hear the gulls cries and feel the sun on my skin. From a creative perspective I like the little icons which indicate a new post and the curling pieces that introduces the body of text.

But all this is still not getting any stitching done..

Saturday, January 17, 2009

2009...

Well, here we are in the middle of January and I haven't so much as picked up a needle let alone stitched a stitch - not one - nothing - zero - zilch!!!! They (who ever 'they' are suggest that you start as you mean to finish - so does that suggest I should just quit while I am ahead... What do I hope to achieve for 2009 stitching wise? Yep, there is an answer to this one I am sure - while I have thought about it briefly I don't want to put pressure on myself - perhaps I would like to experiment and not take myself so seriously and have a little fun in the process and perhaps learn a thing or two or maybe three..

While bloghopping I came across Gail Pan's blog and she has designed a free BOM - A Christmas Wish - I have been wanting to start something new but because I have a self imposed stash downsizing happening I didn't want to go looking for anything new that might mean I have to spend money... Anyway I came across this and thought that this could be the beginning of something BIG... I was determined that I would make this from what I have rather than what I want - I went through my fabrics and came up with some red fabric and calico that can do as the centre blocks I am rather lean on green fabric so that is where my Spotlight Christmas voucher may come in handy... I am not even sure I have the right colours in the embroidery threads but again I am going to make do...

I have read the instructions and I think that this is something I could actually achieve each month and at the end of September I shall have nine blocks in which to do... well, do something... It will be interesting to see what it looks like at the end...

So stay tuned and I shall faithfully post a photo of my take on Gail's BOM each month...

I have also found another stitching site called Stitches and Spice which by coincidence was the stall I bought a cross stitch kit and chart last year at one of the shows... They have some charts I could really get serious about had I not put a 'stop' on my stitching purchases. As I said once before I have far to much already and I have realised that in reality I shall not get them all done - still it doesn't hurt to look - just in case there becomes a vacancy in my stash...