Better late than never!

But first I would like to thank all my loyal subscribers and those who have recently signed up for being so patient in waiting for this. I hope it was worth waiting for.

There have been a number of things happening in my offline life that prevented me getting back to the site this summer. Firstly my youngest child left home to set up in his own flat. Due to the close bond that we formed, when Ben was in hospital after being badly burned as a youngster, this shook my very foundations and I found it difficult to cope with an empty nest at first. Working from home made this especially difficult as I was on my own, in this quiet country village for many hours a day and I DID NOT like it!

Eventually, of course, I grew to accept the situation. This was helped by Ben only being 20 minutes away by car so we still spent some time together once a week. I forced myself to look at the positive changes this brought about, such as not having to go out to pick him up from work when I finished at 11pm each night! And having a couple of hours extra to myself in the mornings now I didn't have to try to wake him up and then take him to work.

Moving on….Ben is now engaged to a lovely young lady and a very happy lad.

That wasn't the end of my troubles however.

My health has been deteriorating as the year goes on, and eventually the doctor informed me that I need to watch my blood sugar levels as they were approaching diabetes stage. So I had to get used to eating a much more healthy diet.

This was tricky as I already have dietary restrictions due to celiac disease. On the plus side, it has helped me to lose 35 pounds so far!

Other health issues led to hospital visits, x-rays and blood tests, culminating in a gastroscopy in two weeks time. Uggghhh! I hate those.

Let's talk stitching!

I want to express my delight and surprise by the number of people who have contacted me regarding the ebook I am writing about starting your own needlework business. Although it has been on the back burner through the recent upheaval, I am now back on track and working hard on it. There will be a special offer pricing for subscribers when it is released so watch this space.

Although I haven't been able to write much new content for the site over the past few months it has continued to grow in strength and popularity. Some of the e-mails I receive saying thank you, bring me to tears, If I haven't replied to your e-mail over the last few weeks I do apologise, there are just so many of them I'm not sure where to start!

Your questions

One section of the site that has been growing in the interactive area.

Questions come in thick and fast and even when I don't get the chance to answer the rest of you have jumped in and helped out.

I would like to thank one contributor in particular, Valerie. She has been actively assisting with your queries and is a mine of knowledge on all things needlework. I believe she is going to be setting up her own Web site in the near future and I will be sure to let you know the address as soon as she gives it to me. I will try to create a page that links to all her wonderfully helpful answers some time soon.

Some needlework questions come up regularly so I thought I would address one or two of them here.

Cross stitch for beginners Cross stitch is a great introduction to needlework. Recently a question came in where a cross stitch kit was purchased by a beginner and the fact that the fabric was blank came as a big surprise.

Although you can buy stamped cross stitch kits, where the crosses are printed onto the cloth, many of them are worked from a chart instead. My very first attempt at cross stitch was actually a stamped tablecloth. It still sits in my cupboard 30 years later, not finished.

Even though the pattern is not on the fabric, these kits are not that difficult to work. It is just a case of finding the middle of both the chart and the cloth and checking the color key to see which thread to use where. For full instructions on how to follow a chart like this please see my learn how to cross stitch page on the site.

Threads or holes? Another question that I noticed was whether you count the fabric hreads or holes when stitching. It is also a question that comes up in my offline hardanger classes.

To a certain extent this depends on what needlework technique you are working on. And how the chart is presented.

Most cross stitch charts show a symbol in the gap between grid lines. Each stitch will of course be worked over the fabric threads, either an Aida block or two threads of an evenweave cloth. But the stitches are not shown straddling the grid lines.

When you look at my hardanger or needlepoint charts such as my free bargello bell, on the other hand, the stitches are shown as they would look when worked, covering as many grid lines as they will do threads. My students seemed to find these diagrams easier to follow. However, we still had the debate over whether to count threads or holes in class. What do you do?

The dogs

Of course no Stitchin'Times would be complete without the dogs!

Poor old Clover has been suffering lately. She managed to pick up kennel cough somehow (still not sure where from) and has been hacking and choking for the last couple of weeks. She is on antibiotics and is improving I am pleased to say. With her age (she is roughly 15) the vet was worried that her heart could be involved.

Luckily, Skye seems to have avoided catching it so far.

Although, being such a clever girl, she did try running to me and "pretending" to cough so that she would be let out ,on one or two occasions.

The dogs also missed Ben when he moved out and jump all over him when he visits. Skye even jumped high enough to lick his nose last time!

Her jumping is actually a problem, as she can negotiate our neighbours 6 foot high fence!

He recently added a string about 6 inches above it, and last time she attempted to clear it she got tangled up and fell into the side of the shed. The explosion we heard was the glass falling out of the window! Luckily she was not hurt and the pieces were large and easy to pick up and put out of harms way. Maybe she will have learned a lesson?

Well I hope you have enjoyed this issue and won't have to wait as long for the next one.

Thank you for subscribing

Lastly I would like to thank everyone of you for signing up for my newsletter. If you know anyone else that might like to receive it please let them know.

Regards,

Carol