Exchange stitching

I really like getting things in the post. When I was much younger, I had quite a few penpals. Sadly I've lost touch with them now for a variety of reasons. Since joining various online communites, I've been taking part in variety of exchanges and at times, I've even run a few of them. In the first online group I joined on what is now yahoogroups, I ran quite a few but after a while, there were problems in the group so I stopped.

Most of my exchange stitching today is as part of the Stitching Bloggers exchange board. I really enjoy taking part and sometimes the best bit is that I stitch things that I wouldn't normally. My last exchange parcel has arrived at is destination just as I received mine in return.

In a strange twist of fate Leena and I stitched for each other.

Leena sent me a lovely bourse using a design by Long dog



The outside looks like this




Leena chose Cats as her critter in this exchange. I'm not really a cat person so I've not stitched any before. I ended up stitching a Sweetheart tree design, Catnip kitty fob

This is the front



And this is the back



I had a lot of fun stitching it and I'm happy as it turned out that Leena had been wanting to stitch the design for a while so it worked out well.

The exchange stitching isn't finished though. I've got a SB exchange piece to finish off for mailing on Monday and then after that, I've signed up for a Halloween exchange and my favourite exchange of the year - The TWBB Christmas ornament exchange.

Thanks for everyone's comments during my recent time off work. I'm pleased to say that my back and foot are back to normal finally and I'm starting back at work next week. I have a few extra days off at first as the two weeks annual leave that I should have took whilst I was off gets returned to me unused. Its going to come in handy as my physio has signed me up for a gym based program of exercise, which I started last week. The aim to attend the gym and follow an exercise program at least twice a week. In the past, I've not really been much of an exercise fan. I've swum a bit and walked a lot but I'm not very well coordinated when it comes to sports. This program appears to have changed that and I'm very surprised to find that I actually enjoy going to the gym and working out. The best effect so far is the reduction in back pain and I've been able to stop taking painkillers. I've got an assigned advisor to help make sure I'm doing everything right and to help tailor the program for me.

Flowers and finishing

The title says it all really. There's a tradition where I work that if you are off work ill for more than a few weeks, you get flowers. Today I answered the door to be presented with some lovely flowers.



At the weekend, I bought a new digital camera as mine has decided to stop working properly. I had put some money aside for it as my camera has been gradually failing. I asked around and Gill mentioned the Fuji finepix S5700 that she got recently. It had all that I was looking for and it has a very good macro/supermacro setting. I had a little play with it using the flowers. Its very cool. The colours seem much better too.





I finally got around to doing the finishing on some projects that have been waiting for too long.

This is Lizzie Kate's Official snow guide on Silkweaver hazelnut lugana.




Lizzie Kate's Sweet Christmas. I stitched this previously for an exchange and had to stitch it for me. I used the supermacro setting to take the picture and its great for taking pictures of stitching.


And Best Witches by Shepherds bush.


I'm still stitching on exchanges so I can't share pictures of them yet but I've got some pictures of a previous exchange that I hadn't shared before.

I stitched this for the SBEBB Monochromatic exchange as a replacement for another stitcher who hadn't received their exchange. Its a design from the De fil en aiguille tout rouge issue and its stitched in a thread called Solitaire SF0060 from Sparklies


This was the orginal monochromatic exchange that I sent to Leena

Stitching and other things

Life is pretty much still a mixture of stitching, knitting and doing exercises at the moment. My physio think I might be able to return to work in a couple of weeks. Whilst not working is nice, I'm a little bored at home all the time. The internet and especially friends at various BBs and on blogs have kept me sane.

On Thursday, I was out and about with my aunt and her grand daughter. Its school holiday time here so there are children every where. Her grand daughter is only 7 and loves Doctor Who so when I heard there was a fan staged exhibition at Paisley museum, we had to go.
At the top of the stairs, we saw this



It was built by someone who builds them as a hobby and it looked pretty good.

There were also Daleks from different times in the series.



All in all, it was pretty fun. Its on for the rest of month and whilst it was pretty small, there's also the Paisley shawl and weaving exhibits to look at. I'm planning to go back and have a better look soon. I really like the motifs in paisley pattern and I would like to design some sort of stitched paisley pattern piece in the future.

Paisley and Glasgow have been in the news quite a bit this past week after some people decided to drive a car into the local airport aiming to kill people and blow up the airport. I live a very short drive away from Glasgow airport, which is actually just outside Glasgow in Paisley. Its been very shocking for everyone locally that this happened here. The west of Scotland hasn't got a lot of experience in having terrorist attacks here, although the proximity of Ireland means there have been connections to terrorist attacks. I guess I'm still in shock that it happened so close to home in what is a fairly small town.

Given that people have seen the not so nice side of Paisley this week, here is a picture of a lovely bit of Paisley's history.



The building is the old Anchor thread mill, which is now converted into flats. It lay in disrepair for a long time after it closed and its so lovely to see it restored. The mill is just past the end of my street. Because of the past history that Paisley has with weaving and threads, many of the streets are named after fabrics - Gauze, Lawn etc.

I didn't get too much finishing done last weekend. I managed to framed two things I finished recently.

Mirabilia's Miss Valentine fairy



When the chips are down by Hobb Nobb designs



I did, however, finish Miss New years fairy by Mirabilia, which started during my recent not blogging time.



During that time, I also finished a couple of Shepherds bush monthly musing designs which need finishing into a cushion and an ornament respectively. I also finished the Halloween fairy.



This week, I've got a couple of exchanges to work on so that will keep me busy.