Sunday Again?

I can't believe an entire week has passed.

In this week my DH has had contracts exchanged on the sale of his flat - finally. It's only taken over 5 months to get to this point. The flat was put under contract in less than 12 days, but it's taken this long to agree to terms. I have to admit the stumbling block was the solicitors handling the sale on his end. Inept does not begin to cover their description. In fact they are so bad they were struck off the list of firms that the estate agent use. It was a recommendation by the estate agent that had DH agree to go with them.
Anyway, the sale should be completed on WED the 17JAN. Hooray!

Also this week has seen me take a little field trip to a crafting show. It's the semi annual show held at Sandown Race Course in Surrey.
Primarily it was a cross stitch and knitting show, but other crafts have been making inroads there. There's card making, quilting, ribbon crafts, beading, and some sewing to name a few.
This is a small show compared to the ones held at Olympia Earls Court, or at Alexandra Palace. But for the people who can't or won't travel to London, it serves very nicely.

There was a marked decline in the cross stitch offerings. I have to admit I felt very sad to see every one pawing over the kits trying to decide if they should buy it at this stand, or the one on the other side.
Such a shame that the majority of them do not know about the variety of charts, fabrics, fibers, embellishments, to name but a few things, that can be found on the Internet.
To be limited to buying a kit and having to use what comes in it. If they change out the fabric it's a major undertaking.

My stitching world has been enriched by finding designs by Papillon , Long Dog Samplers, any of the lovely Quaker reproduction samplers, etc.
Colour has been added by all the different varieties of fiber, variegated, silks, and so on.
Although I tend to use a lot of Antique White evenweaves or linen, there are so many wonderful reproduction type fabrics and hand dyes out there.
I truly feel sorry for people who have not been introduced to any of this and just plod along with the charts.

And lastly this week - while at my in-laws last Sunday I took a long hard look at my WIP, the Rose Garden. I discovered I was really out on some of it. Because it's mirror imaged...four times...I would have had to frog more than half of it. No way!
I just scrapped it and cut a new piece. I started from scratch. It's coming along well, and I'm enjoying it far more than I would have if I had frogged it all.

I've decided to add a new piece. But more of that latter.