Summer 2012 Catch-up

After much thought, I have concluded that my friend’s band (The Dale Von Minaker Band) deserve their own page on my blog. Because my blog is primarily intended to be a stitching-themed blog, it just didn’t seem right to have posts relating to the band appearing on the same page as stitching-themed posts.

Unfortunately, I have nothing to report stitching-wise. For the past few months, Delphiniums (by Derwentwater Designs) has been gathering dust. I really do need to pull my finger out, but just cannot seem to get myself into the right frame of mind to stitch. Because it’s for my gran, I had initially thought that would be enough to motivate me and spur me on. The crux of problem is that the design just doesn’t appeal to me. In addition, the chart has been printed on four sheets of A5-sized paper, which I find somewhat overwhelming.

On a positive note, a close friend of mine is getting married next year. As soon as I found out, I was on the internet looking at wedding samplers, but couldn’t really find anything that seemed quite right. What I’d wanted was a wedding sampler with space for the bride and groom’s names, the date, and the name of the church. In addition, I wanted there to be an image of a church, along with a bride and groom. My friend and her fiancé are fun-loving people, so I wanted a design that reflected this, as opposed to sickly-sweet. I don’t ask for much, do I?

Trying to find the perfect wedding sampler, which ticked all the boxes, was impossible. Eventually, I didn’t purchase one wedding sampler, but two – a spur-of-the-moment decision.  I happened to be out one day, and saw a wedding sampler kit by Design Works called Wedding Couple. It wasn’t the design itself that grabbed my attention, but the font (as bizarre as this may seem).

Wedding Couple by Design Works

The second kit was more along the lines of what I had been looking for; Wedding Arch by Bothy Threads. The kit includes glitter thread and beads, and the option to personalise the hair and eye colour of the bride and groom.

Wedding Arch by Bothy Threads

Initially, I had thought of stitching the smaller kit as a large greeting card, but have since dismissed that idea. When the time comes, my friend can choose if she wishes to display both samplers in different rooms, or just display one of them, and replace it with the other when she fancies a change.

Spring catch-up

It’s been some months since I last paid a visit to my blog, and you might be wondering what I’ve been up to during my absence.

At Christmas, my services were volunteered to complete a cross-stitch kit, which my gran had received as a present. Her vision isn’t as sharp as it once was, and to be fair, she’s more accustomed to working with tapestry kits.

The design (called Delphiniums by Derwentwater Designs) is considerably larger than the size of designs I’ve been used to stitching in more recent years. Progress has been slower than I would like, not helped by the fact that the design really isn’t my cup of tea. Therefore, I feel it would be highly accurate to look upon this project as a labour of love.

At the beginning of February, I succeeded in achieving a BCS Level 2 Certificate in IT User Skills, which I was extremely relieved about. The latter part of the course had proven to be incredibly hard-going, as my mind had regrettably been on more pressing matters. During the weeks leading up to the final exam, I’d found it impossible to get myself into revision mode, and had felt certain I would fail.

While I am proud of my achievement, and learnt a great deal, it hasn’t resulted in opening any doors for me as far as job hunting goes, or at least not yet! However, perhaps that’s a story best left for another day, and certainly not for the likes of this stitching-themed blog.