Last Minute Makes

Hi everyone,
I'm off to UK tomorrow to spend Christmas with the family but I just wanted to squeeze in one last blog post for 2011 to show a final round up of the last of the Christmas ornaments and a few other bits and pieces.




Top row left is Ze Rink part of the Winter Snapperland by Bent Creek. I stitched it for my 7 yr old grandson who is heavily into ice skating along with his sister.
Top right is a cute little freebie design offered by Pineberry Lane


Bottom left is a Waxing Moon gingerbread man UFO that I must have started maybe ten years ago. I have no idea what took me so long to finsh something so tiny but I decided it was time to finish it and will give it to my baby grandson Max.

Bottom right is Little House Needleworks Peace on Earth finished as a pinkeep style ornament.

Two of the ornaments are backed with the red checked homespun fabric and the others as shown



I have received some lovely surprise gifts :)
A box from Roberta containing this gorgeous Whitman's reindeer tin



Inside the tin a beautiful stitched strawberry by Blackbird Designs



other goodies inside the tin Mary Engelbright notecards and nail file and three bag patterns.
Thank you so much Roberta you really spoiled me and I love everything.



I have a bit of a thing for lovely tins and boxes and was over the moon with this one that friend Sheila gave me last week. It was filled with yummy cookies but I'm afraid to say they are just a happy memory now :)



Another lovely surprise from Valie in France. Valie had shown a set of Olde Worlde Santa's wearing national dress on her blog. I had admired the French one little knowing that he would be coming to Spain!
I just love his beret and the fact that he is carrying baguettes rather than a sack of toys :) Thank you Valie you really made my day.




I've been giving myself a few early Christmas gifts too. I think these will keep me busy for a while :)








All that remains for me now is to wish all of you a very happy Christmas, good health and happiness for 2012.
Thanks so much for your friendship over the past year. I have loved getting to know you through your blogs and from your visits to mine.

Margaret

SSCS exchange, a win and a few finishes..

Hi everyone,
December already! Where did the year go?
This year I signed up for the annual SSCS exchange on Chookyblue's blog
and my package arrived a couple of days ago. The main gift is not to be opened until Christmas but we all made an ornament which can be opened when the package is received.
My partner turned out to be Annie in Australia and here's a picture of the lovely way she wrapped my goodies


I opened my ornament package which was wrapped in a FQ of some lovely teacup fabric which I will put to good use.

My ornament turned out to be a little Matryoshka doll angel. What a cute idea. I love the pinwheel fabric she is wearing :)



Thanks Annie. I love my ornament and can't wait to see what is inside the big package.





I haven't been able to do much stitching over the past few weeks because of my arm/shoulder problem. However, I turned to my box of things that needed to be finished and I spent a few days putting things together.
The first one I stitched so many years ago I no longer remember who the designer is........
I'm guessing Lizzie Kate but I have no idea what the design is called.
I finished it into a simple pillow and it looks so pretty I had to wonder what took me so long.




Backing fabric is Moda Peace on Earth


This next ornament is another oldie. It was stitched many, many years ago and finished into a tuck pillow. All I can remember about this one is that the design is by Bent Creek. I decided it was time for a bit of a makeover so here it is brought up to date



The next ornament is a more recent finish.
Peppermint Twist by Little House Needleworks. I didn't have the special button but I think it is pretty enough without it. I backed this one with the same fabric as the Lizzie Kate ornament. It is stitched on unknown linen using the recommended threads.




I'm sure this one needs no introduction being one of the Prairie Schooler Santas




and another one



I stitched this little pillow for my 11 yr old grand daughter Amy who is crazy about ice skating. It's a JBW design stitched on 32ct linen with DMC thread. You can't see it very well in the picture but I stitched a Mill Hill glass treasure star onto the bow because to us she is a star :)



If you click the link you can see her skating in one of her competitions

I was lucky enough to win this gorgeous pincushion on Mary's blog




Isn't it gorgeous? I absolutely love it and was thrilled to be the winner as I doubt it is something I would have made for myself. There is a LOT of work in the Dresden Plate pattern and it would have been very fiddly to make with such small pieces.

Lastly a tiny Christmas quilt I made a couple of years ago but never showed here on the blog. It is decorated with stars and bugle beads, It was a lot of fun to make.



I think that's it for now. Welcome to my new followers and a big thank you as always for visiting and taking the time to leave your lovely comments.
Margaret

Catching Up

Hi everyone,
Sorry for the even longer than usual gap between posts. I have a very painful arm/shoulder which has caused me a lot of grief and has slowed down production.
I'll try to keep it short but here a few things that were made a while ago but not yet seen on my blog.

This bag is from Anni Down's Some Kind of Wonderful book.




The linen is a 50/50 cotton/linen from Ikea and I used Carries Thread in the colour Black Cherry.



It is lined with the Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 fabric that I also used on this zippered pouch.



This pincushion is from a Leanne Beasley pattern



a bit of fussy cutting to make the back look good



I have had this Fig Tree Quilts Sugar Pumpkin as UFO for a couple of years now. I finished it in time for October but sadly I did not post to the blog in October so missed showing it off during pumpkin season.



I had fun making this cute little purse from Lynette Anderson's book Quilting Cats
and Dogs






I made a journal cover from this tutorial using linen and a few scraps of Rounneries fabric



A little quilt from a pattern by Australian designer Val Laird



and finally a picture of some lovely fabrics that I won in a giveaway on Madame Samm's Sew We Quilt blog



They are very bright and colourful so I'm looking forwrd to making something special with them.

I don't have any cross stitch finishes that I can show this time. Hopefully there will be a couple of ornaments in my next post.
I hope you are all enjoying your festive stitching/sewing/crafting.
As always thanks for visiting my blog and for your lovely comments.

Margaret

Hi everyone,
Another month has flown past and I seem to have very little to show for it.
Anyway, here is the round up for September.
A while ago friends Angela, Sheila and I decided to work on this Jardin Privé design as a SAL.



Angela does not sew (or so she tells me) so the deal was that if she stitched the piece I would finish it into a bag for her and Sheila would make her own bag.

Here are the bags I made. My piece (the bag on the left) was stitched on 32 ct linen and the one Angela did is on 40ct linen so the bags are slightly different in size



The fabric line is Petite Maison by Bunny Hill Designs for Henry Glass Fabrics.
I love the little house design used for the back of the bag



If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know I love to make things into sets so I made matching pouches and eventually, there are to be fobs too but those are still a work in progress.



and finally here's a photo shoot of all three bags which includes the one (on the right) Sheila made for herself


On to other things............I'm enjoying the SAL with Carol so much so that I'm stitching the piece twice
here it is in blue stitched on 36 ct antique white linen with Vikki Clayton Paua Abalone variegated silk.



and here is the pink version stitched on palest pink 40 ct linen again using a variegated silk by Vikki Clayton



A while ago I showed you my progress on a Stacy Nash piece. Here is an update on where I am with it now



There's not that much more left to do and I'd love to get it finished but other things keep getting in the way.

Finally a couple of pictures from our three day mini break to the beautiful city of Toledo which is dominated by the Gothic style cathedral which was begun way back in 1226






We took the little tourist train which is a 45 minute (very bumpy) ride around the outskirts of the city



which afforded us some panoramic views of this historical city



and the medieval walls around it



Finally you may have noticed the new blog layout which includes a for sale button.
I am about to load some pictures on there as soon as I publish this post.
If there is anything you are interested in please email me.
Postage is not included in the price but will be charged at actual cost.
Thanks for looking!

Margaret

Last day of August

Hi everyone,
As always I'm having a last minute panic to get a blog post in before the end of the month. So, with just a few hours to spare, here's some of what I worked on during August.
A couple of posts back I showed you the lovely book by Anni Downs that I won in her giveaway to celebrate the launch of the book.

This is the needlebook and pincushion from the book and I also took one of the little designs to make a scissor fob



The needlebook has more stitchery inside



and opens up further to reveal a felt needlekeeper and pockets



The zippered project bag and supplies pouch are not in the book but I wanted to make a bag to keep everything in. I took the stitchery design for the pincushion and stitched it onto the smaller pouch.



to make a nice set


I'm afraid I've fallen behind with my Christmas ornament a month stitching challenge.
I cheated by finishing a small design that had been in my finishing basket since last year.
It is a free design found on Nan's blog
I stitched it over one on 28ct fabric using Vikki Clayton silks and I used the beaded edge finishing tutorial on Andrea's blog





I took the small holly design and stitched it on the back only this time over two threads





So that's my ornament for July but I still didn't make one for August!

Another one out of the finishing basket that I stitched months ago is this pillow.
It's Basket of Memories by Blackbird Designs. I stitched it with GAST Antique Rose and finished it with a crochet edging using DMC perle cotton.


In the past I've struggled with putting lace or trims around a pillow and had never thought to use crochet until I saw a post on this French blog
see post for August 29th. I thought it was a great idea but had no idea how to do it so Google to the rescue and I came up with this
which worked a treat. It's not easy to crochet with a pillow dangling down!
Maybe I can improve with a bit of practice but overall I'm quite pleased with it.

I've been trying to get into embroidery a bit more and have been enjoying Bari J's website We Love French Knots

I stitched this fun sampler from a free download on Bari's website.



Finally, I can't resist showing you these





Those of you from UK that have been to Betty's Tea Rooms in York and have sampled their Big Fat Rascals will recognize them :)
Sheila sent me Waitrose recipe she found online which I took as a massive hint that I had to bake them for her next visit so I did and they were good!
They are huge and I'm sure they are 1000 calories each so only for special occasions!
Well, that's it for this time. Thank you for visiting my blog and for your lovely comments on my last post.
Margaret