April 03 X-Stitch Diary

I have now finished See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil. It was a real pleasure to sew. I still have to frame it, but as it's small and rectangular, finding a frame to fit won't be a problem. After finishing the kittens, I started last night on Baloo from the Jungle Book. A cover kit that came from Quick and Easy Magazine.

I haven't made any notes in here recently, but then there's very little to report. I've been frantically trying to finish that floral daisy border on the Cats in the Hats RR. I can't believe that I started it on the 7th February!!! I've had a break from this to stitch the little All Our Yesterday's Kit and March's Clever Cat for the Cattitudes RR but the rest of the time I've been stitching nothing else.

Speak No Evil, See No Evil, Hear No Evil at 3 hours stitching

On Saturday, with still one of the long sides of the rectangle to go I decided to have a last stand attempt to get it finished, I completed about 2/3rd of the long side - still leaving a few flower designs to go. I figured that I might have an hour or two to complete these in the morning before we met my mother who was taking us to an Easter Sunday lunch who I was going to pass the material onto so she could stitch a cat. I gave up in the end, the backbone of the design for the flowers was there, just some more stitches needed to be infilled. I guess I'll finish it off when I get the material back.

On the positive side, with the Cats in the Hats off my hands, I've started on the three little kittens on the See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil Pinn kit I got at Stitch 2003. Here it is after about 3 hours work last night.

I attended Stitch 2003 on Friday 28th March. It was probably a really bad day to pick to attend the show because the Railway Guards were striking and the rail service was in subsequent chaos. I got to the station and bought a ticket and the first train to London was due in about 10 minutes and I thought, "oh great, maybe the rail strike isn't so bad afterall". However, minutes before this train was due to arrive at the station, an announcement came over the tannoy, saying that the train was full and that there was no seats, and passengers were advised to take the slow train which was leaving 10 minutes later. Fortunately this train was already sitting on an adjacent platform, so I got on, sat down at a table and got my stitching out thinking "well, this isn't so bad, at least I've got somewhere to stitch!".

Most of the journey passed without incident until the train passed Bromley South station, then it stopped; and we sat there, and we sat there and then the driver came on over the intercom and said that there was a problem with the points on the track and that it was currently under repair and that there would be a delay of about 10 minutes. So we sat there some more, and more, and then the driver came on the tannoy again and said that the point problem couldn't be fixed and that we had to go back to Bickley to change tracks. So we sat there again, and then eventually the train started going again, this time arse backwards! I thought "Great, I'll never get to Olympia now". Anyway we passed back through Bromley south, and then back past the Bickley station before we started going in the right direction again. I think we were delayed by about half an hour in the end.

The journey from Victoria to Earl's Court via the underground passed without incident, but the trains from Earl's Court to Olympia were also delayed and I think I waited on that platform for about 25 minutes for the connecting train. Other people on the platform were complaining that they'd spent over 2 hours traveling and still hadn't reached Olympia. I must admit I thought that I'd have been there in about an hour and a half of getting on the train, not two and a half hours later. I arrived at the show about 12.00.

I had fun at Stitch 2003. I met Piwi there. Piwi and I had never met "in the flesh" before although we are currently a part of two round robins together, so it was great to finally meet.

Piwi and I spent the afternoon walking around the show together. Piwi had been there the day before and already knew where all the bargains and interesting things to see were, especially those heavenly glittering fabrics that The Calico Cat were stocking.

I was quite restrained (mainly due to finances) in buying stash, but this is what I got:

The only disappointing thing about the show was that it was a sort of kit-only haven, with very few stallholders having anything else but kits, kits and more kits. Probably the best thing about the kit sellers were that they had stitched examples of the kits hanging all over their walls, so you could see exactly what you were buying. Piwi and I spent quite a lot of time looking at all the Lavender and Lace and Mirabilia finished pieces, some of these look quite a lot different in the flesh, to how they look as a WIP or even a finished and framed piece on someone's webshots album; in the flesh you get to see the real textures in the designs. Some of the "Queens" had this really interesting wooly thread that looks like royal furlining when stitched.

There were a few stallholders selling other things, too, like Sew It All who had loads and loads of lovely fabrics at 3 for a £10, 5 for £15 sort of prices. DMC threads were available at a few other stands, but were quite pricey at 50p each. I prefer to get threads, materials and get the stash together to sew charts, rather than collecting kits which sit in my drawer until they get shoved around and lost down the back of the drawer.

I was going to get the Purr-pendicular cat designed by Margaret Sherry, and released by Heritage, the one hanging on the washing line with the pants.... but I ummed and ahhhed and didn't buy it straight away, mainly because I've seen it cheaper online - although not by much. In the end, I decided to go back and get him at the end of the show and found that they had sold all the Evenweave kits, having only the aida option left. I was surprised that Heritage Stitchcraft designs weren't being sold by more than one vendor at the show, but I only saw them at one stall, Essex Crafts, I think it was called.

I've got that Purr-pendicular cat now though, I submitted an order online yesterday with Sew and Sew for that kit and some material and the missing Kreinik threads that I couldn't get at the show, I was very impressed that they arrived in this morning's post. Well done Sew and Sew. I even got a mini oval frame as a free gift.

I can't wait to start the three cute kittens...... they are so adorable, but I really must finish the daisy border on my Cats in the Hats piece, it seems to be really slow going at the moment, I'm not even halfway there and I've been at it, it seems, for weeks!

When I arrived home (choosing the Charing Cross Line instead of Victoria for my journey back as I heard that the CX line was unaffected by industrial action) my significant other asked me how much I had spent, I chose NOT to answer ;-)