This year I've been trying to increase my repetoire of finishing techniques and one of the things I most wanted to try making was a bourse. I made this one from the Heartstrings leaflet by the Cat's Whiskers.
The matching pinkeep and biscornu were stitched using the centre section of the design that you can see when the bourse is open
Can you see the four little Mill Hill glass treasure hearts in the centre of each of the ribbon garlands? You can click on the picture for a close up if you like. The outer fabric is silk Duponi and the inside is stitched on the recommended 32ct Antique White Belfast Linen using DMC threads.
Something else I wanted to share this time is my prize from Christine's recent blog giveaway. Christine made these sweet little spools using instructions she had found in a magazine. The idea is very simple - just a couple of buttons and a drinking straw to make the spool and then you can wrap them with some pretty floss or ribbon adding whatever decoration you like to the top.
I can see that Christine made mine to order once she knew who had won the drawing as one has a little mermaid charm, one a seahorse and the other a shell.
One of the spools is wound with a skein of Dinky Dyes silk and the other two have ribbon. They were a bit difficult to photograph but I hope you get the idea.
I was also lucky enough to receive the most gorgeous fat quarter of quilting fabric with a shell design all tied up in a bow made of pearls. Thank you Christine!
If you go to Christine's blog you'll see lots of othe ideas for these spools. I even see a Halloweeen one :)
Finally, I know Halloween is behind us now and, to be honest, Halloween just doesn't happen for me. When I lived in UK it was something of a non event and it is even less so here in Spain. I don't decorate for Halloween and we don't get any trick or treaters where we live.
However, I did make one small Halloween item for online stitching friend Barbara. Her birthday is October 31st so naturally she is a big fan of Halloween.
I made her this drawstring bag using a Lizzie Kate chart. It has little moving eyes and a silver spider charm. It was a lot of fun to make.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog today and for your lovley comments. I'm a bit behind with my blog reading as have had a few deadlines to meet. Hopefully I'll be visiting you soon :)
Margaret