Numbers Afghan - a WIP

Hi everyone,

I have finally managed to take a few more photos. so I am ready for another post.  Below you will find a series of photos of my Numbers Afghan.  This is a Lucie Heaton design which I found in a cross stitch magazine.  I am making this for the baby of a dear friend at work.  I started it  whilst Misal was pregnant and now the baby, Zara, is one!  I am getting there, though.  One reason for my slowness (not counting the fact that I have several projects on the go), is that after I chose this project and had bought the afghan fabric and all of the threads, I discovered that it is petit point and is stitched over one thread!  This, of course, makes it a much longer term project.

I hope that you like it, here we go, lots of pics to follow:

This is a view of part of the Afghan, showing some of the numbers, it is just too big for me to take a picture of the whole thing.  Here are the numbers which I have completed:

As you can see, it is a big project but one that I am really enjoying working on.
Wish me luck with it.

Bye for now, Kaye xoxox

A day in Lancefield

Hi everyone,

Well, today I left home really early - 6.15am - to attend a conference in Lancefield.  An hour or so north of Melbourne.  Last year when I went to this conference it was absolutely miserable - wet, windy and cold.  Luckily,  this year it was not as cold and the sun was out.  I saw ducks and a black swan on the little lake on the grounds of the conference centre.  It was a long day - as I did not arrive back home until 6.45pm.

So, now I am just chilling out watching "Game of Thrones" with DH and youngest son. I have read all of the books - just waiting for the new one "Dance with Dragons" to come out in July.

 Must stop blogging now, so that I can get on with some stitching!

Bye for now, Kaye xoxox

Back Home Safe and Sound from Brisbane

Hi everyone,

Well, I have just arrived home from my conference in Brisbane.  My presentation at the History conference went very well.  So, I am pleased.  At one stage I wasn't sure if I would get up to Brisbane at all as that pesky Chilean Ash plume came back early this week and so the planes stopped flying again.  Luckily, by Friday all was back to normal.

I managed to finally finish "The land of painted caves" by Jean M. Auel whilst I was away and I also read Book 3 of the Riley Jensen Guardian series.  Two flights gives you plenty of time to read!

Anyway, off to bed now and I promise to do some stitching tomorrow.

Bye for now, Kaye xoxox

WIP: Elizabeth I, Angel with two faces finished and Furio update

Hi everyone,

I thought that I would show you the picture of what Elizabeth I will look like:

and here is my progress so far.  Not much but you can see that I am working on the diamond pattern in red at the front of her dress.

Sorry, it is sideways but I don't know how to rotate it within a post - it is rotated in iphoto!  I will take another one next time, the right way around.  A long way to go but I have made some progress this past week.

I have also just finished reading "Angel with two faces" which is Book 2 in the Josephine Tey crime series by Nicola Upson.  And yes, the heroine is the author Josephine Tey.  An interesting concept to take the author of crime novels and make her the key figure in your own crime series.  It was quite interesting read these novels set in 1930s England.

Now, I have been working from home to day correcting page proofs which proved quite difficult as Furio (on the left) kept stealing my pencil and my rubber to play with!

Off to dinner with my Book club now.  We are going to an Asian restaurant in North Carlton - yummy!

Bye for now, Kaye xoxox

Flower Fairies started

Well, this is my third post for the day.  I doubt that I will be able to keep this up but time will tell, I suppose.

I am starting on the Flower Fairies design which came as a freebie with the latest issue of "The world of Cross Stitching" (176).  Here is the picture of the finished design:

Pretty, isn't it?  However, I had a hard time sorting the threads.  I tried to do it last night but the light was just not good enough to distinguish light peach from peach, etc.  See the picture below:

See how similar all of the colours are?

Well, I am off to start stitching it right now.

Bye for now, Kaye xoxox

Milo is found!

Hi all,

Guess what?  About two minutes after I posted I went out to help with the Milo search and found him!  He was in an old shed down the lane. My daughter, Amy, is now patiently sitting outside the shed with a chicken neck trying to entice him out.  We can hear him miaowing but can't see him under all of the old junk in the shed.  Now, if this was Furio (who thinks he is a dog but more on that in another post) we would have him out already as Furio absolutely adores meat of any kind but especially chicken necks.  I don't think that Amy is going to let Milo out of the house again any time soon.

Bye for now, Kaye xoxox

First post on blog!

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on my new blog.  I am a first time blogger so please be kind!  I did intend to add some photos of my stitching - I thought that I would show a finished piece and then something that I am working on but the camera battery is dead!  Next time I will try to be more organised.

I have been knitting, stitching and quilting for probably over 40 years now. Wow, that does make me seem old.  But I did start fairly young.  Despite nearly failing needlework in Year 7 at school I have actually gone onto develop a passion for craft.  At the moment I am really back into cross stitch but as a teenager and in my early 20s I knitted like a crazy woman.  Then it was cross stitch and long stitch, sewing (when the children were little) and then quilting and lastly, at the moment, as I said cross stitch again.

I also love to read, love history and love to travel.  So, I intend to post about those elements of my life on my blog, too.  Cooking is a great pastime, too, although nightly meals do become a bit of a drag!  Lastly, I love my TV and films, so they will probably get a spot in the blog as well.  I hope that it doesn't become too crowded.

I have called my blog "Kitten Stitching" after the two family kittens: Furio (ginger, half-Tongkinese) and Milo (grey tabby) - both males.  Unfortunately, Milo seems to have gone walkabout at  the moment (for the first time) so we are all a bit anxious about him.  Will keep you posted as to when he comes back.  In the meantime, here is a picture of the two of them:

Fingers crossed that Milo comes home soon, safely.

Bye for now, Kaye xoxox