Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 - Days 5-8

Hello all!

I hope you're all enjoying the Winter Olympics, and maybe doing some winter-themed stitching to accompany them?

Here's my starting point, and thoughts and progress, over days 5-8:

Day 5 - 8th February

I only really caught the round-up show tonight, although an awful lot was still packed into an hour including the usual curling and skiing.

Best moment - Eileen Gu winning the freestyle skiing women's big air. She was absolutely (forgive the pun) head and shoulders above the rest and, being Chinese, her win went down surprisingly well the spectators!

Day 6 - 9th February

Again, only the catch-up show but it included snowboard cross, skiing and speedskating.

Best moment - the men's double luge. As if sliding down ice at over 100+kph on a sled isn't insane enough, these guys lie one on top of the other. The faith of the bottom person in the top one must be unquestionable. But added to that, the winners, Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt have now won this event three times in a row.

Day 7 - 10th February

More snowboarding was on the menu today, along with some skiing. I don't know about other countries, but our skiing commentators always SHOUT, so the downhill and slalom are best watched with the sound off! Such a shame, as I really would like to know what's going on without being SHOUTED at the whole time!

Best moment - the gold medal winning performance of figure skating's Nathan Chen. His performance was sublime to watch and in Beijing he really was in a class of his own.

Day 8 - 11th February

I caught a little bit more of the Olympics today, being strangely fascinated by the cross-country skiing and the halfpipe snowboarding. You have to admire the courage of these snowboarders to perform such complicated twists and turns so high above the snow.

Best moment - the men's snowboard halfpipe and the world record breaking height achieved by Kaishu Hirano during his run - he was 24'4" above the pipe. I couldn't find a video link, but see if you can. It's amazing!

And here's my stitching finishing point at the end of day 8. I've now stitched all of the words and added the edges of the snow globe. The base of the snow globe will be my focus over the next four days:

Back on 16th with more Winter Olympic fun!

Take care,

Rachel x

Naughty November New Start #4 - Let's Be Frozen

Good morning!

I can't believe it's already the last week of Naughty November; four starts is obviously shorter than the 17 I tackled earlier this year, but it's still over with so quickly!

For the final weekend I started the fourth Ursula Michael's seasonal word 'snow' globes:

This is the one for which I had to swap out the seasonal fabric, as Shades Of Winter was more of a greeny-grey and did not coordinate with the blues at all. At least I had a suitable substitute.

 Let's Be Frozen by Imaginating

Stitched on 16ct Cloud Winter Sky by sewitall.com

Stitching time to date - 5 hours 40 minutes

So far I've blinged it up by stitching everything in Etoile; I say so far because the lightest of the three colours doesn't have an Etoile comparison and I'm undecided what to do. I've tried a bit around the outside in white Etoile (to the left of the word flurries) but it looks a bit grey and doesn't show up very well On the other hand, it also represents the dullness of a cloudy winter's day.

Alternatives are to use normal DMC, choose the closest Etoile shade (which is a bit too turquois-y) or use white beads. I'll try all four options when I get to the big snowflake and decide then

In the meantime, here's the linky-thingy if you want to link-up. You know how to do it by now - URL. name. thumbnail!

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Considering I have a fairly small readership, many thanks go (so far) to Barbara, Cathy, Faith, Jo, Katie, Leonore and, of course, my fellow multi-starter-in-arms, Tiff for joining in. I hope you have all enjoyed your new starts as much as I have. ;)

So that's the end of Naughty November, with four more WIPs added to my pile. I do have plans in the coming months to finish some of them but, you know me, I yield to new starts far too quickly and easily! I'm very proud of those of you who chose small designs and/or finished them too. Maybe I should focus more on that next time?

Talking of which... anyone up for a 'next time'? I'm thinking Mischievous March perhaps??? It's nestled nicely between New Year and Maynia, and a good chance to do some Easter stitching. Unsurprisingly, I already have four projects in mind.....!

Take care,

Rachel x

Naughty November New Start #3 - Let's Breeze Into Autumn

Good morning!

Welcome to the third week of Naughty November.

If you're taking part I hope you're enjoying your new starts so far; if you're just reading I hope you're enjoying seeing lots of new start loveliness.

For weekend number three I started the third of Ursula Michael's seasonal word 'snow' globes:

And again, I found the perfect matching fabric:

Let's Breeze Into Autumn by Imaginating

Stitched on 16ct Shades Of Autumn by sewitall.com

Stitching time to date - 5 hours

The only Etoile at the moment is in the three hearts, but there will be a lot more as I work my way down.

And now for your links. You know how to do it by now. Please add your page URL, your name, and thumbnail. I look forward to seeing them all!

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Last week's link will remain open until Thursday if you have yet to join, or would like to see the entries.

Seeing as I've started Spring, Summer and Autumn so far, I bet you can't guess what my final Naughty November new start next week will be! There are only three colours in it, and they all have matching Etoile, so there is a possibly it might all be stitched in bling; how cool would that be?

Take care,

Rachel x

Naughty November New Start #2 - Let's Have Fun In The Sun

Good morning!

Whether you are linking up or not, welcome back to this Naughty November mini new start binge, a bit of naughty fun as we head towards the end of the year.

For weekend number two I started the second of Ursula Michael's seasonal word 'snow' globes.

I think you'll agree, it's another perfectly-matched fabric:

Let's Have Fun In The Sun by Imaginating

Stitched on 16ct Shades Of Summer by sewitall.com

Stitching time to date - 5 hours 45 minutes

Last week I forgot to mention that I will be adding some bling, stitching the motifs and bolder letters using one strand of DMC and one strand of Etoile.

Of course not all of the colours have matching Etoile, but rather than changing the colours to match the available Etoile, I am using the closest Etoile to the colour listed. This means some of the stitching will have a tweed effect, as can be seen in the starfish and the bottom half of 'hello'. I rather quite like the extra dimension it adds.

But enough about my new start, I want to see yours too, so here's this week's link for you to add your page, name, and thumbnail. I look forward to seeing them all!

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Last week's link will remain open until Thursday if you have yet to join, or would like to see the entries.

See you next Monday for start number three. :)

Take care,

Rachel x

Naughty November New Start #1 - Let's Bloom

Good morning!

As if 17 new starts between April-July wasn't enough, Tiff and I decided that another new start binge was called for before the end of the year. We agreed on four new starts during the four weekends of November, leaving enough time to recover from our previous binge and slotting in nicely between Dark October and Christmas.

All credit to Tiff for affectionately naming this Naughty November.  :)

I knew straight away which four charts I wanted to stitch, especially having found the 'perfect' fabrics for them (well, for three of them as the fourth wasn't quite right).

So here's the first one. This is a spring design called Let's Bloom by Imaginating and is one of Ursula Michael's many designs in her 'Words' collection.

I was lucky enough to find extra stitching time on Saturday, so here's my fantastic amount of stitching over the weekend:

Let's Bloom by Imaginating

Stitched on 16ct Shades Of Spring by sewitall.com

Stitching time to date - 6 hours

This is also a big hint as to what's coming for each of the remaining weekends in November.

A few of you have said you will join in, so I'm looking forward to seeing your starts, especially if you've used your time wisely to stitch Christmas ornies.

Here's the linky-widget-thingy. Please add your name, a thumbnail, and the URL of your actual post, not your blog. The link will remain open for ten days. There's no pressure to link-up if you don't want to, but it would be lovely to see lots of gorgeous new starts all together. 

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any enabling!

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See you next week for start number two!

Take care

Rachel x