Completion weekend

Before you all panic, no, we haven't decided to move house or anything.  This is more exciting, by far (imho at least!) and certainly cheaper and less stressful!  I was determined last week to stick at it over the weekend and finish some long-overdue projects, if for no other reason than to have something to tell you all about!

So, Friday I added to my list of (finally) finished UFOs by sewing the binding to edge the Breton napkins I started last century.

Breton napkins to match DM's tablecloth - started c.1999, completed May 2013

I also finished a gift for MIL (a 'commission' from FIL) - a (very) small keyring of the Canterbury cross.

But the major achievement was to finish (and hang) the dining room curtains.  I didn't make quite as much progress on them on Friday as I'd hoped, but at least each layer was cut out and ready to put together.  Most of Saturday was spent doing that and getting the header buckram into place (with a few gardening sojourns when DH needed a second pair of hands), but was cut short when I ran out of said buckram (pants!).  Thankfully a quick trip to John Lewis curtain department was possible on Sunday after chapel and so, while DH demolished a shrub tree in the garden, I got on with pleating the curtains so we could hang them before the day was over.

It was much easier making these.  The main thing was that there wasn't quite (understatement of the millennium) as much bulk in them as there was in the living room curtains.  But obviously, I'd made one pair already, so I had a much better idea of what I was doing and what worked well etc from my previous experience.  Another 'improvement' I made with making these was to cut the interlining to the hanging length (plus top seam allowance) so that the final stretch of finishing the hems off should be slightly easier.  That is the plan at least.  I'm still waiting for the weight tape for both pairs, so I won't finish them completely until that arrives.  However, in the meantime I'm hoping the pleats will set reasonably with their ribbons holding them in place and shall look forward to drawing curtains in both rooms and sitting back to admire my hard work.

Key to it all

Now, how many of you realised that cross stitch was hi-tech?!

Well, believe it or not, I've been stitching these keyrings/magnets with the help of my DH's i-Pod!!!

Thanks to the 'newstand' app, I can now get my favourite cross stitch magazine on my i-Pod and take my patterns with me whereever I go!  How fab is that?!

But returning to lo-tech, here's another keyring I stitched on another train journey as a gift for MIL.  I did cheat by copying a photo of a larger cross stitch, but 'downsized' it to fit the keyring by stitching over one thread of evenweave.  I initially intended to use Aida, but I just couldn't get all the detail in.  Surprisingly, it was less of a fiddle stitching such tiny stitches than I expected and I think it is rather sweet.