July - how did that happen???

We seem to have slipped into July and I have no idea how .... I guess it's because I have been so busy with various things not just stitching.

Firstly here is my orts jar for June - it is filling up nicely.

June orts

With leaving work soon (and there are now 13 people going at the same time) there are a few 'dos' and the first was mine :-) The English department all went for a drink from work and then enjoyed an Indian meal at a local restaurant. It was a great night and tonight we're out again as another member of our English team is leaving. This time we're going to Frankie and Benny's.

School puts on a musical every summer, thanks to a huge amount of work from Miss Mason our music teacher, the students (as cast, orchestra and crew) and half a dozen other teachers. I was Front of House before the show and dresser during the show. This year we performed The Wedding Singer, Tuesday and last night - the show was amazing.

Last week we took the cast to see the show performed at Leicester by a professional cast - for some of our students it was the first time they had been in a theatre. The cast met them before the show, answered their questions and gave them a few tips. Last night 10 of that cast came to our school to watch the students - this caused many more nerves but the students were so proud to perform with them in the audience. The visiting cast all stood to applaud at the end and came on stage to chat to the students. A superb end to a superb show.

So as you can see with meals out and the show (rehearsals all weekend) I have missed the end of June. I did remember to change the design on Needlecraft Haven - it's definitely a July theme :-) but I forgot to take my Orts photo so I'll have to do that later.

I have been stitching, mainly my secret gifts but the 30th June was Reveal/Opening Day for two Needlecraft Haven exchanges.

In April at the NH Spring Meet Up we set up a secret bookmark exchange. On the day everyone wrote their name and address in a card along with their favourite colour, flower and sweets. We all chose a card and kept the name inside a secret. The exchange was to then stitch a bookmark for that person using ideas from the card or anything else you knew about them.

I picked my next door neighbour Ursh's card and knew immediately what to stitch. She has a birdbox which is on our side of her house so we also enjoy the blue tits that nest there every year. I don't usually use a kit but just loved this DMC one from Sew and So:

Meet-up Bookmark Exchange for Ursh

And it was Lindsay who had my card. Lindsay makes some amazing beadwork and she sent me a beaded bookmark which is just stunning. She also sent some beautiful speciality threads.

Meet-up Bookmark Exchange from Lindsay

The other exchange on Needlecraft Haven is the Holiday exchange. For this we put together a free chart, thread and fabric to stitch it and sent it to our partner by 30th June. The theme for this was holidays - anywhere we've been, would like to go or a general holiday idea. This is also a secret exchange so we do not know who sent the chart. We have to stitch it up by Reveal Day:1st September.

This is the chart pack I received, well just the fabric and thread as the chart is to be kept secret:

Holiday exchange fabric and thread

Well that's about all my news for now, I will soon be able to share my gifts and you'll see then why my blog has been a little quiet this year, something I hope will change once I finish work. Thank you for all your lovely comments, I do enjoy reading them.