My MOJO went for a walk ......

Hi every one ... yes its me... that little mouse that has been silent for a wee while ....well pull up a chair and grab a brew and I shall tell you all about what has been going on around the mouse house ,...
When I squeaked to you all last I had done a wee gift for some one and not long after I went to a quilting class and gave the gift to Stuart Hillard who was over the moon with it ...I made him a special stitchers tray which I cross stitched too and made a wee scissor fob with his initials on sooo that he never lost his scissors :)
The quilt class was fab and I learnt loads of new tricks and Stuart was impressed with my perfect seams ...lol not sure if they all were as when I measured the finished square it was slightly off ... now that could be it wasn't pressed at that particular time .. still isn't as, as the title says my mojo went for a walk and has only just come back this last week ....
I have been popping into a few blogs and saying helloo here and there but other than that I have done nothing stitching wise .....other than a bit of back stitching and doing a bit more on my crochet blanket.... I have been soooo tired and came down with a chest infection and I ain't 100% even now .... ho hum ... but I have to be brave as on Thursday its the annual stitching retreat to Harrogate and I am meeting up with fellow stitchers as well as staying there till Sunday :) and I am not missing it for the world ......
Master Bentley celebrated his third birthday on Bonfire night and got lots of new toys and yummies too ... it has flown really fast since we brought him home .... We went to Kaboom at Castle Howard and had a fab time there and I managed to get some fab photos of the fireworks ( Master B didn't come with us btw .... )
The craft room is a little bit nearer to getting finished ... I am waiting now for our joiner to fit me in to finish the wall off where the water has been coming in and to sort out the Belfast sink as it still has the lead pipe to it ...and fix it onto the work top....then I can start to get the walls done and painted and rearrange the furniture and start to move in :) mind you I think I am going to have to get some peeps into help me do that bit too ... any helpers to help me with my stash ???
Work wise there has been lots and lots to do .... with me moving to to my new office and finding thinks haven't been done as they should have and to cap it all today I found out that some thieving barstools have broken into my nice office ... kicked the door in and trashed my room and took the petty cash tin !!!! luckily I had taken the banking home with me otherwise they would have got more :( .. they had also gone and took other stuff from the other offices in the building .... I hope that karma gets them and bites them in the rear !!!!
Any hooo onto nicer things ....and another brew ....
I received my exchange piece from Libbie and I love it :) sooo I can show you what she made me .... and see if you can spot me on there ....
I have been going through my stash as well to find my mojo but it wasn't there but I did have a wee think while doing sooo and  wondered if any one would be interested in charts that I have stitched ... all gently used and will I post anywhere,  all I would ask is to have the postage costs covered ... let me know what you think :)
well I had better go and search for the photos to show you ......oooo I forgot that I had actually put some stitches into the "Casting a Spell " by Blackbird Designs .... most likely be finished for next years Halloween now ...lol and I did this last week stitch on my RR piece with the Friendly Sitchers RR group ....it is now on its merry way to the next person to stitch on it :)

Hellooo lovely to see you all here :)

Stuart with his gift

Me and Stuart with two of my squares for my quilt

close up of the gift

and the the other side of the fob ...did add some scissors  :)

From Libbie 

can you spot me 

here I am ....

the backing fabric :)

getting there ... will be done for next year:)

fireworks from Kaboom

cheeky chappies having a bath above my stitching room now :)

seee almost finish finished this :)

birthday boy and one of his new toys :)

my round robin piece which is now on its travels :)

Sooo there you have it ... hopefully by the time I get back from Harrogate I will be refreshed and fired up ready to stitch more and have lots of photos to show you of the show and hopefully some stitchy goodies ....and to be inspired :)
sooo until next time take care and happy stitching every one :) love mouse xxxxxx

Operation Craft Room and other tall stories

Hi every one :) please pull up your favourite comfy chair ... grab a brew and some cookies .... this could turn out to be a looonnngg post ...lol 
This past week I have escaped from work and had a week off ... the purpose was to start work on the new craft room and have some work done on the new mouse house too ... well things were going swimmingly until a drain stopped play ...
We have had a wonderful new garage put on the back of the house and outside of my room and in the garage is a drain .... well there has been some water leaking into the craft room and we thought it was because the pipes needed sorting out and the drain top re aligning ... alas it wasn't meant to be ... the real reason was the main drain pipe from next door had been broken once on their side and then the other on ours hence the wet floor in my room as the water has been seeping through the walls ... good job it is a Yorkshire stone floor and not carpet .... soooo we now have to wait to get it sorted before I can continue with the room ... luckily the furniture was out of the way ....
I have done some prepping work on the walls and scrapped away all of the loose paint on half of the room and that is as far as I have got as by then bending wasn't an option ...lol .. the reason for this was on Monday DD1 and I took a road trip in the mouse mobile to Harrogate as she wanted to go back to some shops and have another look round the park again .... the weather was glorious perfect for a pootle through the park and through the woods ( we had to cross a main road to continue) and finally arriving at the RHS Harlow Carr ... we kept on saying will just see what is around the next corner ...lol and as we weren't rushing and I was taking or rather trying to take photos of the sqwibbles it didn't seem that we had gone really too far ... that was until DD checked it up on the map ...lol ... we were lucky that the garden centre had a Betty's Tea Room and as we originally said we would go for something to nibble on in the one in the town, we decided as we were there we would try this one out ... all I can say is although a wee bit on the expensive side it was worth it as a special treat :) ...the cakes on display were fantastic .... unfortunately no photos of these were taken ...  but I did manage to get a picture of my cuppa with the silver tea pots .... hopefully will be able to get this one off my phone ... me and modern technology don't always get on hehehehh...
We popped into the garden centre shop next door and there was a balcony so I managed to get some pictures of the wonderful gardens which we said next time we would go for the day just there .... and then we had the long pootle back which seemed shorter ...lol 
The rest of the week seemed to pass in a blur of checking on the building work and bits and bobs but I did get to meet a friend I had not seen for ages on Friday and we went to Wentworth Garden Centre and it was a lovely day sooo that was good ....
Saturday was a really good day too as Ally and I tootled over to Holmfirth to see Frances and her house guest that had come over from America ... can you guess who it was ??....Well if I say britsh lady by the lake does that help .... it was our lovely Gillie ... she had come over with the WT to France then bobbed over our side of the channel to meet up with us and a few other peeps she knows .... Frances put on a wee spread for us all and boy was it delicious ... the cakes were very very scrummy ....and home made ... must remember to ask for the recipes ...lol .... we spent a very pleasant afternoon stitching and chatting and I did some crocheting :) before heading back home to reality .
Blimey a week has passed and I haven't finished the post .... I had a busy ole week at work went to a different branch to cover and loved the office ... I had a large window with a view ... trees ... there was a road too but a much better out look than a printer ..lol 
managed to get a present finished too ... more will be revealed next time as I can't show you yet in case the person it is for reads my blog before then ...lol
done some more on my TP but not taken a photo yet .... that will be remedied .... worked some more on my wee blanket ...
My exchange piece arrived safely to Libbie and she loves it PHEW sooo I can show you that now :)
coooo another few days have passed by and I have still got more to tell you ... I am now moving branches with work .... I will be going to my own office with a view of trees and a pub but its a view ...lol and it all beings on Monday next week ....  
I also managed to get the fabric for my quilt lesson with Stuart Hillard of the Great British Sewing Bee fame ... bless him he has to put up with me for a whole day ...lol
well I had better get the photos up otherwise this post will be delayed even more .... I will get round to visiting peeps this week now things have calmed down a bit and hopefully I will get some stitching done .... watch this space ..lol 
I shall bob the kettle on again and get some more cookies for you :)

more work on the TP

Loving how this is turning out 

wee giftie for Gillie 

and one for Frances 

Ally and Gillie don't ask me what they were laughing at ....

scrummy spread by Frances ....

squibble in France's view from her garden

the moon the other night

now you see it 

now you don't

poorly drain :(

see I did managed to get a bit done in there that week 

exchange piece for Libbie

Harrogate Park

finally at the garden centre refreshments ...

goodies from Betty's 

Soooo there you have it folks ... hope you have enjoyed your visit to the mouse house again :) take care one and all and happy stitching and I shall squeak to you all soon again ....love mouse xxxxx

Pumpkins for Cathey :)

I can't believe a year has gone past , missing your emails and letters but I am sure you are happy stitching away merrily on your wee cloud in the sky and shining down on us at night from your star ....
((hugs )) to your DH and Junior .... love mouse xxxxxx

If any one wants to know more please click on links below .....

http://talesofastitchingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/pumpkins-for-cathey.html

http://talesofastitchingmouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-new-bright-star-in-sky.html

Stitching, Stash and the Same Celebrity :)

Hi every one :) hope you are all as well as can be expected ... the kettle has just boiled and I do have some cookies in and I think some cake too ... help yourselves with your brew :)
Well I must apologize for not bobbing round as promised to your blogs this last week but I haven't had any spare time to do much to be honest ... hopefully normal service will resume asap :)
The stitching side of my title is not very much ...lol I have managed to finish the exchange piece for Libbie my partner over on Friendly Stitchers  and have decided how I am going to finish it and that is a far as anything has got .... and as such I can't reveal it any hoo ...lol
The stash side is a wee bit more heheheh .... Its not all stitching stash but to do with stitching ... I have bought some fabulous bureau drawers and a cute sewing box for my new room when it is finished ....and a couple of items from the charity shop which caught my eye .. I even remembered to have my camera with me to show you them and how the room is progressing a wee bit :)
I did buy some more fat quarters but that is another story ...lol
On Saturday morning Ally and I took the mouse mobile to a wee village not far from the mouse house where my celebrity was signing his book again, yes you've guessed it Stuart Hillard was at the Oh Sew Sweet Shop and we called in on the way and got Chris to join the merry gang to go and say hello again :)
We had a fabulous couple of hours were I got to be the photographer for a few peeps while they had their photos taken with Stuart ... even I managed to have one taken as well eeekkkk ..lol  and Stuart is as lovely and entertaining in real life as he is on the tv:) he was telling how things were done for the Great British Sewing Bee and he also had some of his quilts with him (the ones that are in the book ) and boy are they nice and my kind of level of quilt making too .... soooo much sew that I have booked in for his class there in October .... eeeekkk I will have to get the machine out and have a practice :) I joked that I was his number one stalker (in a nice way ) and one of the ladies said "well you know you have made it when you have one " hahahahah.. I bought some Christmas fabric just because  and also some lovely pastel fabric for my new room to do something with .... and I wasn't going to get anything whoops .....
My other bit of stash is a chart from Belinda  from Samplings  from a blue ribbon ....she is doing another 60 mile walk over three days to raise money for Breast Cancer research and other excellent avenues with her team "Twinkle Toes ... if you click on the link it will explain it all in more detail ... I donated last year and also this and can't wait to get the charts kitted up and started :)
Gaynor from StitchersAnon fame is also doing something for this worthy cause ... for every euro you donate you will get a raffle ticket and you could win one of the lovely prizes donated .. I need to wait until my next pay day now to get my raffle ticket due to being skint now ...see above ..lol 
oooo and I remembered I have got the "Without a mouse " chart by BBD .. I ordered it at the Harrogate show from Trudy Ann and it arrived this week :)
I have it authority that the sweetie bouquet I made for Jennifer was delicious and I realized that I hadn't show you the finished project .... that I shall remedy in a few minutes ...
This morning Ally and I took Master Bentley for a pootle in the woods and I took my camera with me ... there were thousands of mushrooms all over the place and I managed to take a few decent photos of them too and we bumped into Jasper who is a wolf hound crossed with a lab ... he can smell yummies a mile off ... he sat for a photo for me with the promise of one ... this I gave to his dad to give him as once you have given him one ...he bounds at you all the more ...lol  It was a lovely walk and you can tell the season is changing ... the leaves are starting to turn brown and fall from the trees like a flurry of snow and there are signs that the squirrels are hiding the nuts for through the winter .... It was a lovely walk and we were out for ages .... needed a restorative cuppa when we got in ... Ally was amazed at how many grapes we have on the vine and they are just about turning from green to black .... once the birds have had their fill on them the vine is going to be cut right back and hopefully we can claim a wee bit more of the garden ....lol I was amazed as well to see that the million bell clematis that is on the fence had a flower out in bloom today too .... 
Well I have just made another brew and shall join you in sipping it mouse like while I upload the photos for your perusal :)

hellooooooo :)

this is soooo me :)

my new welsh dresser

found the perfect mirror for the room too

start of operation back to black :)

just a wee bit more to go heheheh

Stuart signing some books at the shop

my new sewing box 

my new big  fabric drawers :)

stitching box closed 

new door ...getting there :)

Ally , Stuart and Chris

one of the ladies helping Stuart show off his quilts 

another colourway which is just me :)

apparently this one took a weekend ..lol 

charity shop finds :)

whoops a wee bit of stash 

inside the Oh Sew Sweet Shop

Mouse and Stuart :)

the moon last night

this made me giggle ... zipper lighter ,..lol

million bell flowered in September 

escaping back to the car 

Hellooo from Jasper

grapes any one ???

Jennifer's present :)

Soooo there you have it folks, another chapter in the life of the stitching mouse :)... I hope you have enjoyed your visit today and that you all have a wonderful stitchy week ... take care one and all :) love mouse xxxxx