Hand towel with mermaids.

This is one of two hand towels I received recently from the USA. The other one is a peacock, so it is on my other blog (Patra's Embroidered Peacocks), along with two other embroidered peacocks that have arrived recently.

Guild project as at 30th November.

The word 'greetings' has to be finished off, then I'm back on all those green trees! Hopefully I'll be able to do them faster than I did the left hand side, as I didn't have the tapestry frame then, and I was finding it very awkward to handle while stitching.

Changeover.

Well, I've done it. I thought I'd better - otherwise I may have lost everything! And it was quite painless, really. What am I talking about? The change to Blogger beta, of course! I dislike change in my life ("if it ain't broke, don't fix it") but Blogger was sounding pretty threatening on the Dashboard: "you MUST change before 2007 otherwise there will be dire consequences" (or words to that effect). I was going to change only one of my blogs over, but it was all or nothing, so I went along for the ride and here we are. Can't see any difference at this stage; hope it doesn't have an adverse effect on any of you who read my wafflings!

This is where I am at with my primary UFO (I say primary, because I have so many of them, but this is probably the one I want to get finished first, mostly to get hubby off my back!)
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I'm pretty pleased with my progress on this picture. I'm about half way now, so if I keep going at this pace, I should have it finished by early December, which is when the client wanted it. Crossed fingers!
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Some more teacosies for my collection.

Here are five more teacosies that arrived this week via eBay. I have also put a new picture on Patra's Peacocks, for those of you who are keen on peacocks. Diana from The Lone Beader left a comment regarding the pattern mistake on my Christmas cross stitch project. She suggests that I leave it as it is because trees are all different in reality! Sorry, Diana - I've already fixed it! For anyone who has not seen Diana's blog on her beading, I strongly recommend that you have a look. She creates absolute masterpieces using beads to make up pictures.

Very old whitework teacosy, difficult to scan, but I did it using grayscale, and it's the best I can do.
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Gorgeous old art deco style. I have a couple of doilies that match this - just love finding matches for my linens at a later stage!
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...and the other side.
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The yellow tinge on this is not on the material; it is due to the scanning process. The other side of this cosy has the same design stitched on it.
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I think this one might be very old, even 1930's, going by the style of the design, and ruffle around the edge.
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Teacosy from the U.K.
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Sandie at A Beautiful Place has initiated a UFO challenge for 2007, and asked the participants to put a picture of their Challenge item on their blog. Here is mine as it was about 10 years ago. I have since done quite a bit more, but am still dragging my feet!
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My eagle-eyed husband has picked up an error on this - and it ain't my mistake! In the top left corner, the tree to the right of the deer doesn't look right. The stitches on the left hand side are not symmetrical like the other trees. I have stitched it exactly as the pattern shows, but having just looked at the model photo on the chart, that has been done correctly. WAAH - do I correct it or leave it? Just a matter of adding another stitch or two...I hope.
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Update on my Christmas commission cross stitch.

I am humming along nicely with this project - stitched three hours nonstop today and covered quite a bit. I intend doing another scan to put on here, but it is such a pain to unscrew the frame from the stand, then put it back together again. That brings me to a bargain purchase I made last week at the Guild's 'Paddy's Market". The Guild hold this once a year; it is a kind of trash and treasure day for the members to sell their UFOs and other unwanted stash items to each other (and anyone else who comes on the day). I'd taken a heap of SINS and UFOs to sell, and was doing well - sold nearly $100 worth all up!
I popped into the room where the Guild had their own stuff for sale - this is stuff that outsiders have donated to the Guild, but is not suitable for the Guild Collection. Selling it off to members helps raise funds for the Guild; in fact I have willed my linen collection to the Guild for that purpose. There was a box of tapestry frames and stands, all in bits, and ladies were fossicking around trying to get enough pieces to make up one stand and/or frame, whatever they were after. By the time I got to it, most of the good stuff had gone, and all that was left was a stand with an enormous quilting hoop on it. I decided that Ken would be able to do any modifications needed, and snapped it up for $5. When I got it home, we found it didn't need any modifications at all - except for some extra holes to be drilled in my tapestry frame. I gave the quilting hoop to a friend who does quilting, and she was delighted to have it, even without the stand. As for me, I am also delighted! Those stands cost around $60 (including the tapestry frame I think), and I have been after one for years, but reluctant to spend the money. Wow, does it make life easier when stitching!