Progress with the bedding set

Haven't done a lot of stitching of late, but <-here's the completed M:





And the transfers for the sheet.->

I'll post the quilt designs when I get to that bit!! The wedding is this Saturday and, had I nothing else to do, I could get it done in time, but given that the couple'll be away in Italy (how jealous am I???!) for a fortnight afterwards, they're hardly going to be wanting it straight away. So, I'll see them the day after they come back and hand it over then.

On the off-chance you come back again, Moira, thanks for your nice comments. The little cushion you were admiring is indeed a kit, made by the Royal School of Needlework here in the UK. If you Google search for their web-page, then look in the shopping section, you should find it, and the rest of the strawberry and rose collection there.

First monogram done.=)

<-Got the first pillowcase done of the bedding set I'm working on. As you can see, it's a very simple design and won't take long at all to complete the whole set. In fact, I hope that a total of 10 days should see the whole thing completed and ready to give.=) I plan to do the 'M' pillowcase tonight. I haven't re-pressed this one yet, so the finished thing will look smoother, although I doubt the pic will show up the minor creasing here. It took about 2 hours to do, including tracing and transferring the design from the sheet I did the previous night and the trial piece I did to test threads and stitches. The chain stitch letter is worked in #8 pearl cotton and the rest in stranded cottons. The green is one of DMC's Color Variations shades. The basic letter outline came from 'Embroidered Monograms' by Susan O'Connor, but I put the rest in myself.

Do I seem to work fast, Tannia? I suppose I do as, once I get into a piece, I just get on with it - often as I'm racing a deadline!! That waterlily was neglected for weeks on end though, so progress seemed horribly slow to me!

So does progress on my lesson planning. Oh, how I WISH it was all done and I could forget about it! Talk about something bugging you 24/7 and, as I work mostly at home on it, I'm in the office all the time too! I've taken to retreating to the bedroom for all rests!!!! I never work in there, but the living room is 'polluted' now! LOL! Well, at the rate I've planned, Semester 1 should be completed this month, then I'll give myself the next month or two to get Semester 2's work done. Then it's on with another long neglected project. Three biggies back-to-back. Yes, it's a real stress, but, as I was reading in a book on stress management and health yesterday, if you never get these tasks completed, the stress response cannot turn off. So, a gruelling few months ahead, but we'ew planning to have about 10 days away somewhere warm in early January, after the holiday season is over and the prices go back down. Thinking about Madeira, so hope I get chance to learn some Portuguese first!!=)

First Posting from my Laptop!

Yup, I've gone really techified and got a laptop. Actually, it's Sir's businesses laptop, but as he'll only need it for training future clients on the software they'll be renting through him, to all intents and purposes, it's mine - and legitmately tax-deductable too!

Thanks a lot for all the lovely compliments on my stumpwork finish. Dunno if the recipients liked it or not yet as it wasn't opened in my presence, but I can find out next week when they get back. Need to get on with designing and stitching the next gift, then I'll sew up the cushion cover I stitched in July. After that, it's only nice, relaxing cross stitch for the rest of the year! If I do anything other than that, it will be someone else's design with lots of instructions to follow!!

Not much needlecraft going on as I'm in the thick of serious lesson planning. I got a nice order through from SewandSo today with the #8 pearl cottons needed for the bedding, which will be our gift for the next wedding on 22nd. Mercifully, I'm keeping this one very simple. As you can see though, I bought one or two extra items....... I know some don't like these 'scrap bag' things, like I've got here from Kreinik or that Weeks Dye Works at least used to sell, but I think they're great and am looking forward to using this one.



On the musical side of things, I played a simple piece that I hadn't touched for about 3 months yesterday and I can honestly say that all the work on bowing is paying off! No problems catching strings on the crossings now and even the B, which always sounded strained, is clearing up. That's a 'too close to heel of bow strain and scratch' problem, so I need to think about where to bow that one in order to get it to sound good. The joy has come back to viola playing though and I break from uni work and play Violette for a few minutes a few times per day, so progress should be much faster for the next few months whilst I'm slaving over a hot laptop.

OK, let's see if I can get the photo to upload as I'm still quite uncertain about what's where on this new machine as it's software that's 7 years newer than the packages I'm used to!