Spoiled

Hi everyone, I recently did a private exchange with Ellen in Singapore who told me her favourite colours were Autumn. After a couple of false starts I finally decided on some small cross stitch designs by the Prairie Schooler which I then turned into a drawstring bag, needlecase and pincushion.

The front of the bag has a pumpkin and the back has a black crow. The bag pattern I used is this one by Gail Pan

Here's how the inside of the needlecase looks. It is a pattern I've used many times before and comes from the book remembering Adelia by Kathleen Tracy

Close up of the cute owl design

The package I received from Ellen was stuffed full of goodies. This gorgeous rose pillow and matching biscornu scissor fob

Both are just as pretty on the back as the front. Ellen's stitching and finishing are perfection.

and as if that were not enough there was two fabric FQ, a pretty tissue holder, lace, buttons, charms and more! It was such a fun package to open. Thank you so much Ellen I love it all.

Another beautiful stitched gift I received came from Brigitte in Germany. I had admired this pillow on Brigitte's blog never dreaming it would be coming my way. Thank you Brigitte I really love it.

Friend Sheila showered me with all kinds of lovely things for my birthday. This message holder looks very Cath Kidston - ish but Sheila tell me it was actually from Avon

Then there was this box with a crochet granny square design on it

with lovely leather handles

and inside there are all kinds of lovely treats.

It looks rather nice with my crochet squares inside. One of these days I might actually show you a finished blanket!

Do you remember the triple zipper pouch that I showed in my November post? It was made from patriotic fabrics. Sheila gave me these Union Jack scissors to go with the pouch and hanging from the scissors is this beautiful fob that she and her sister Pamela made for me. So pretty!

Finally here are some of the books that have been making me happy.

The Red Home and Tis the Season books were needed for the Chookyblue's SAL I am taking part in. Hopefully I will be showing you some finished projects from the book soon. Do visit the SAL blog as there are some lovely projects being shown there. As always as big thank you to followers old and new for visiting me here. Margaret

Three SAL's

Hi everyone, I love the start of a new year when I can think about the projects I want to work on during the year. Right now I'm involved in three SAL's one of which will probably take me well over a year, one which will be finished around September and the other should be finished in a matter of weeks. I signed up for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year Challenge and I started my sampler on December 26th. I've managed to get the top border done. I'm stitching on 36ct Lakeside linen Vintage Light Exemplar with DMC threads. Hard to get a good photograph of this. I think you should be able to click on it for a better picture if you wish.

It's a long time since I've tackled such a big cross stitch project but I'm enjoying it and hope to have at least some progress to share each month. The second SAL I'm involved in is Chookyblue's Stitch-a-Long 2013 This will involve making a variety of small projects from three books. These are just the kind of things I love to sew so I jumped right in. The project for January was either a shoe bag or a thread basket. I chose to do the thread basket.

A few years ago I was trying to teach myself Redwork and I still had this little block lying around from that time so I made use of it. The design was a freebie from Bird Brain Designs The third SAL I'm doing is 1905 JHA SAL which is currently free on this blog but only for a limited time so if you want to do it at some point you need to get it now. I'm stitching mine on 36ct Antique White Zweigart linen with Vikki Clayton silk. Here is my progress so far

I didn't manage to do a blog post in December but there are a couple of Christmas things left to show. This is a Shepherd's Bush design Sadie's Pocket. I think this was a kit with a pre-finished pocket but friend Angela sent me her pattern and the fabric to make my own pocket. My mum was called Sadie so I thought of her often while I stitched this.

Next is a little pillow using the free Christmas Robin design from here

Another small pillow from a design by The Primitive Hare which was in Gift of Stitching magazine issue 64

Now for some lovely gifts that I have received. This pretty pillow was stitched for me by sweet blogging friend Michelle for my birthday and she also sent me this Cath Kidston address book, handbag mirror and card of buttons for Christmas. Thank you Michelle you really spoiled me :)

A few weeks before Christmas I was the lucky winner of a giveaway on the Green Rabbit Designs blog Vivienne makes the most delightful little crochet bunny rabbits and beautiful crochet flower corsages to sell in her Etsy shop I was delighted to receive a pretty corsage, a gorgeous little tin bird tree decoration and a handbag size diary as my gift. Thank you Vivienne I love it all!

I think that's it for this time but hopefully there will be lots to share in my next post. As always a big thank you to everyone for visiting my blog and welcome to the new followers. Margaret