Finish or Fling? - Hot Water Bottle Cover

This has moved house with me more times that I really want to count. Observant long term readers of this blog may recognise some of the fabrics have been used in the Advent Calendar Wallhanging, which dates it to about 1992/3.

It was supposed to be a cute hotwater bottle cover of a patchwork quilt. It came from Needlecraft magazine - and I've lost the pattern. And a couple of the pins holding the piles of fabric together have rusted.

Pros:

• Very cute
• You can never have too many hot water bottles

Cons:

• Don't have the pattern
• Some of the fabric is damaged
• The Hermit's Christmas allergy

So: Finish or Fling?


Verdict: Fling. Or at least, subsume the salvagable materials back into my stash.

Spilling The Beans - Clarissa Dickson Wright

Clarissa was born into wealth and privilege, as a child, shooting and hunting were the norm and pigeons were flown in from Cairo for supper. Her mother was an Australian heiress, her father was a brilliant surgeon to the Royal family. But he was also a tyrannical and violent drunk who used to beat her and force her to eat carrots with slugs still clinging to them. Clarissa was determined and clever, though, and her ambition led her to a career in the law. At the age of 21, she was the youngest ever woman to be called to the Bar.

Disaster struck when her adored mother died suddenly. It was to lead to a mind-numbing decade of wild over-indulgence. Rich from her inheritance, in the end Clarissa partied away her entire fortune. It was a long, hard road to recovery along which Clarissa finally faced her demons and turned to the one thing that had always brought her joy - cooking. Now at last she has found success, sobriety and peace.
With the stark honesty and the brilliant wit we love her for, Clarissa recounts the tale of a life lived to extremes. A vivid and funny story, it is as moving as it is a cracking good read.

I think if I ever met Clarissa Dickson Wright in person, we might not get on - I'm a working class vegetarian atheist who hates hunting with a passion - but this is a very good read, and I really warmed to her. Her life has certainly been eventful and through it all, she's managed to keep many of her friends - so possibly I'm doing her a disservice. 

The decline into alcoholism is well written - I think to use the jargon, Dickson Wright was a "high functioning" addict and to drink away quite so much money is some sort of an achievement... and appears to be frank and honest. I do wonder which MP she had sex with behind the Speaker's chair in her pre-sobriety days...

Save Karyn - Karyn Bosnak

 

Drowning in $20,000 of credit card debt, shopaholic Karyn Bosnak asked strangers for money online -- and it worked!
What would you do if you owed $20,000? Would you: A) not tell your parents? B) start your own website that asked for money without apology? or C) stop coloring your hair, getting pedicures, and buying Gucci? If you were Karyn Bosnak, you'd do all three.Karyn received e-mails from people all over the world, either confessing their own debt-ridden lives, or criticizing hers. But after four months of Internet panhandling and selling her prized possessions on eBay, her debt was gone!
In Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back, Karyn details the bumpy road her financial -- and personal -- life has traveled to get her where she is today: happy, grateful, and completely debt-free. In this charming cautionary tale, Karyn chronicles her glamorous rise, her embarrassing fall, and how the kindness of strangers in cyberia really can make a difference.

When I first heard about this on the news, I was sceptical, and a little doubtful as to why people would want to help someone who freely admitted she'd spent the money on ... well, nothing.

And then I read this, and I saw why. Karyn is honest, funny, sweet - and I could identify so much with how and why she spent the money. I've been a bit ... silly... with plastic in the past, and I defy anyone to read this and to be judgemental.

I got out of debt too, eventually, but I'll never have a great credit rating. I'm envious that Karyn managed to do it with so much more grace and humour but I was rooting for her all the way.

Finish or Fling? - Emerald Mermaid

 

One day, The Hermit was with me when I was in my LNS (now closed) and was flicking through the charts as I chatted to Maureen, and had some fabbie cut. He admired several of the Mirabilia mermaid charts and as he doesn't often ask for me to make him stuff, I rashly said I would stitch him a mermaid ... and he picked this one ...

This is probably one of the biggest guilt magnets in my UFO piles because it is for my best-beloved. He does have several pieces I've done for him, but this was one *he* chose...

  

One day, it may look like this - you can see how much I have to do...

Pros:

• It's for The Hermit
• It's on linen
• It's not blue

Cons:

• There's a lot of work to do
• Beading and metallic threads
• Size for handling

So - Finish or Fling?

Verdict: Finish. Although possibly not this year!

Finish or Fling? - Daisy Chain

 

This Anchor kit came to me in a bag of bits acquired from a charity shop. I possibly know why the original owner discarded it - there's been a few counting errors. Well, we all know that's a reason for more than a few of my own UFOs...

Pros:

• Not of a lot of stitching to do

Cons:

• Not really my style
• Wouldn't fit my niece's room
• On aida
• Mostly backstitch to do
• Will have to fudge a little

So - Finish or Fling?

Verdict  - I don't really know on this one. Would anyone like to adopt an elephant and finish it?

Finish or Fling? - February Block Flip It

 

This is a more recent WIP - I remember working on it during some journeys to work in Chesterfield in 2008, and losing the bag of threads on the bus :o( - which is why it got set aside.

The design is  February Block Flip It, by one of my favourite designers, Lizzie*Kate.

Pros:

• Like the design, and have the set of charts
• Not a lot of stitching to get a finish

Cons:

• Can't think of any, hopefully the design isn't jinxed though!

So - Finish or Fling?



Verdict: Finish

Finish or Fling? Country Cottage

 

This cute little design comes from Jolly Red, and I bought it from eBay a number of years ago - at least seven years ago, because I remember stitching it on the tram to work from my old house. I put it aside because I made an error on it.

Pros:

• Very cute design
• Would look great in my niece's room
• Simple to work - no backstitch

Cons:

• Need to work out where I went wrong
• Stitched on aida

So, Finish or Fling?

Verdict: Finish

Finish or Fling? Christmas Felt Wallhanging

 

Finish or Fling has had a bit of a break, while I've been thinking of new stuff to work on - even if that's not quite what designating 2010 "The Year of the UFO" was all about...

This was something else I bought in Havant, I think. So it dates back to 1998, if not earlier. It's quite a big piece, it's designed to have three strings of Christmas cards hanging from it.

Pros:

• Quite a lot has been done
• It's very cute

Cons:

• Beading is fiddly
• It's going to annoy The Hermit and aggravate his allergy to Christmas!

So ... Finish or Fling?

Verdict: Finish.

Valentine Biscornu - Linden Bee Designs

 

Design: Valentine Biscornu - freebie design available here

Designer: Linden Bee Designs (i.e. me!)

Threads: DMC in three shades of pink - I've used the "antique" colourway on the chart

Fabric: 16 count aida, grey but overdyed with tea by me.

My design style seems to have settled into incorporating words with little sampler motifs, and the word on this Valentine biscornu is "amour" ... seems a bit more glamorous ;o)

Again, I used some tea dyed aida to give it an antique feel and chose the colours to go with it. I thought about beading the edge, but it seemed a bit too much, as the borders are quite busy.

 

The middle is drawn in with just a single bead, which was quite fiddly!

Valentine Fob - Linden Bee Designs

Design: Valentine Scissor Fob - freebie design available here

Designer: Linden Bee Designs (i.e. me!)

Threads: DMC in three shades of pink - I've used the "antique" colourway on the chart

Fabric: 16 count aida, grey but overdyed with tea by me.

This little fob is stitched from my own design, and I dyed the fabric too. So perhaps I can be excused my little glow of satisfaction :o)

The fabric was some I got in a grab bag, and it was rather a drab grey/blue colour. So I stewed it in some very strong tea and it came out looking suitably aged. Hence my decision to work the "antique" colourway on this.

I was surprised by how much more delicate the 16 count looks to my previous fobs on 14 count.

 

You can't see it very clearly, but there's a heart shaped charm attached at the top, which says "Made With Love" on it.