September Makes

Hi everyone, The months are flying past! It's the last day of September already and I really don't know where the time has gone. Most of what I made this past month has been done on the sewing machine but I've had a fancy to do some knitting as well. Just a little bit of cross stitch but nothing that is ready to be shown just yet. Anyway, on with the pictures! First up is a bag.

the pattern for this bag is this one by Stephanie at Loft Creations

I love Stephanie's designs. Her patterns are very easy to follow and always turn out great. Now anyone that knows me well also knows that I just can't make a bag without something to go inside so I also made a matching sewing bag and a jumbo pincushion. The fabrics I used are Pure by Sweetwater for Moda. The pattern and labels on the sewing bag are also by Sweetwater and can be purchased here

Here's how the sewing bag looks inside. The labels are ironed on and then machine stitched close to the edge.

No sewing bag is complete without a pincushion. This one was fun to do

I did a little bit of stitchery on the needle case for friend Sheila who is cat mad. The design is Here Kitty by Lynette Anderson

Inside the needle case. Fabrics used are Rhubarb and Ginger by Blackbird Designs for Moda.

Now on to the knitting. I've had a bit of an obsession with Ravelry this past month and have knitted two pairs of fingerless mitts

and five cotton dishcloths. All of the pattern details, yarn etc can be found on my Ravelry page

finally things that have made me happy :) A new quilting book

and a lovely Cath Kidston surprise in the mail from my daughter in UK

I think that's it for this time. I'm afraid I haven't been very good at keeping up my own blog or keeping up with my blog reading/commenting. I'm trying to catch up and will hopefully be visiting your blogs soon. As always a big thank you for visiting and for taking the time to leave a comment. I always enjoy reading your commentss and try to reply to them all. Wishing you all a happy October! Margaret

Olympic stitching and other stuff

Hi everyone,

It's very hot here and I haven't felt like doing much this past week but yet I still have a few things to show you because of things I had made earlier :)
The first is this sewing set consisting of a bag, needle case and pincushion




The pattern for the actual bag is Poppy's Sewing Set by Australian designer Gail Pan.
I've made the bag a couple of times already but this time I changed the stitchery designs to the ones shown on this machine cover by Bareroots.

The green fabric is Moda Essential Dots and this picture shows the cute sewing notions fabric used for the contrast


another stitchery design on the back of the bag



and here are the accessories






For my Olympic stitching I chose Sampler Farm by the Goode Huswife.
I started it the day after the opening ceremony and I finished it two days after the closing ceremony.
Not a great choice as it is stitched on 40ct linen with several areas that are stitched over one.


I had a hard time getting a decent picture of this and it's come out rather small but I think it should be clickable for a better view if you wish.

I signed up to do the mystery SAL on Niky's Creations blog

I had a bad finishing day where first I made it into a pillow which I decided I didn't like and it finally ended up as a small sewing pocket




inside




Another lovely free design by another talented Italian designer Teresa is this mermaid. I stitched her on 32ct Bonnie Blue linen using my own choice of silk thread for the mermaid tail.



backed with the same linen I did a beaded edge and stitched on a little mermaid charm to finish





My family came out from UK for ten days and my daughter raided my stash to stitch up this Shepherd's Bush Skating Sampler. She doesn't have time for stitching these days but with me doing all the cooking she stitched it not once but four times!
However, guess who got the job of finishing!



fabric used to back the pillows



This is my skating superstar grand daughter Amy aged 12yrs who lives and breathes ice skating. One of the pillows was for her, one for me and one for each of her two coaches.



When friend Angela was here we did a tin covering workshop with Angela as the patient teacher and me as the moaning, whining pupil :)
I didn't find it easy and it's far from perfect but here's my first covered tin attempt. Design on top is Stash Keep by Homespun Elegance



Inside - more of the Moda Essential Dots fabric which is all gone now! I had intended to make a tiny fob to go inside the tin but I only had a scrap of the fabric left and somehow I lost it. However, I put one of Angela's lovely pinbooks inside and it fits perfectly.
Angela makes and sells her pinbooks to order and you can see some of them here



One last thing to show is my win from Catherine's blog




I can't get this magazine here in Spain so I was thrilled to be the winner. Thank you Catherine I love it :)

Well, I just hope it cools down here soon as I have a fancy to get back to some knitting and crochet.
Welcome to my new followers and a big thank you as always for taking the time to visit.

Margaret

Travelling pattern winner

Hi everyone,
Just a quick post to announce the next destination for the Life's a Stitch travelling pattern. It is now on the way to Mouse in the UK.
So for those of you that were not lucky this time you can check out Mouse's blog and keep an eye out for when she announces it is time for the pattern to travel again.
I have not done much stitching or sewing since my last post so have only a few small things to show.
First is this strawberry pillow which I bought as a kit from Simone at Soed Idee
I didn't want too big a pillow so I swapped out the 30 ct linen in the kit for 40 ct and then I had to cut some of the fabric pieces down slightly.
I also used some of my own ABC trim instead of the letter N that was included in the kit.



Next is a heart shaped pillow using one of Dany's designs


I took a small section of the pattern to stitch a little sprig of the flowers on the back and the date is stitched over one.



In my last post I showed a needle case or huswife made in pink toile fabric and I mentioned that there were two more in the works.
Here they are finished



I used fabric from an old Blackbird Designs line called Madeira in a schoolgirl sampler print. Here's how the outside of the case looks



Out shopping the other day I found a cute little wooden tray in Casa and had to buy it. The base is only four and a half inches square which I thought would be perfect for this lovely design from Blackbird Designs book A Schoolgirl's Work



Since I'm a bit short on stitched/sewn things to show you here's a pic of some yummy new stash from Simone at Soed Idee. Actually, the thread and ric rack are by Nancy at the Victorian Motto Shoppe but it is cheaper for me to buy them from Simone than to send to the USA for the same thing.



Lastly, I forgot to show this lovely Queen's Jubiee tin that friend Angela gave me on her recent visit. It was filled with yummy Marks and Spencer shortbread which is, sadly, just a happy memory now.




As always a big thank you to followers old and new for your continued visits to my blog and for your lovely comments.

Margaret

Life's a Stitch - the travelling pattern is ready to go again

Hi everyone,

I was happy to be chosen by Michelle to be the next stitcher of the LK Life's a Stitch travelling pattern. I dropped everything to get it stitched up fast and here it is finished as a pinkeep.

I found the perfect fabric in my stash for the backing.




So now the travelling pattern is ready to move on. If you would like the chance to be the next stitcher to take part please leave a comment on this post.
You must have a blog and you need to stitch the piece in a timely manner and then send it on to another stitcher. I was stitcher #16 and the pattern has been to Canada, USA, UK and Spain so far.



I've been in the mood for some finishing so I pulled out the Hedgerow Birds Project Bag by Blackbird Designs which I stitched about eighteen months ago. It's been lying in the stitching basket ever since so I'm very happy to have it finished at long last.
This is the front of the bag


Here's the back. I chickened out of doing the buttonholes because I knew that if I messed them up it would turn into something very ugly and I didn't want to take the chance.



Here's a peek inside so you can see the lining fabric I used. It's one from an old Blackbird Designs line called Rhubarb and Ginger.
The Ric Rak is one of Nancy's hand dyed from her Victorian Motto Shoppe. It is the perfect match.


I haven't stitched many Christmas ornaments so far this year but I've had this one on my mind ever since I saw it stitched and finished on Carol's blog
and I wanted one just like it. I stitched this over one on 25ct fabric and finished it with homespun fabric.
The design is by The Sampler Girl and is in the 2011 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue.



Here's another one from the finishing pile that finally turned into a finished object.
This is Shepherd's Bush Mermaid Sampler. Friend Sheila gave me her chart and leftover threads from a kit and I loved stitching it.
I used silk ribbon for a ruched ribbon trim



the backing is silk Duponi courtesy of friend Angela.




There hasn't been a lot of sewing done in the last couple of weeks but I did manage to make one small needle case from some pretty toile fabric


it's my go to pattern from the Remembering Adelia book by Kathleen Tracy

this is how it looks inside



there are two more in the works that I will show next time.

Finally, I showed a pack of Cath Kidston postcards in my last post that were a gift from my friend Angela. I found some cheap frames in Ikea, chose my four favourites and now they are ready to hang in my craft room.



I think that's it for now. As always a big thank you for visiting my blog and for your lovely comments.

Margaret

Where to start.........

Hi everyone,
I didn't mean the gap between posts to be quite this long but I have had a V.I.P guest staying and I wasn't at the computer as much as I would normally be.
Friend Angela from UK came for a ten day visit. This was very exciting as we have emailed back and forth for about twelve years and spoken on Skype but until now had never met in person.
Angela brought paper chains, paper hats and little UJ flags so that we could have a belated jubilee party on the day mutual friend Sheila came over.
It was actually morning coffee rather than afternoon tea but how we enjoyed our cheese scones and coffee cake!




It was almost like a birthday party as there were gifts!




with a patriotic theme - fabric, ribbon, cotton tape and Angela's gorgeous handmade pinkeep cards.



and also some Cath Kidston goodies - fabrics, buttons and a fabulous set of postcards.



Once we had demolished the edible goodies we set to work and soon the table looked like this!



Angela had made me a very special gift of a covered notebook with a beautifully stitched mermaid on the front. Isn't it gorgeous?




She wanted to learn how to make a bag so we had a little bag making class and what a great pupil she was!
Here's the bag Angela made using fabrics from Moda's Peace on Earth fabric line



and here's one I made earlier made from Rural Jardin fabrics by French General for Moda. The pattern is the Charm Party Tote by Quilts Illustrated




I also made a tiny keychain clutch from this pattern to attach to a tab inside the bag



Angela has had this primitive doll on her wishlist for some time now so I granted the wish and made one for her



I think that's probably enough for this post but since there is not a lot of stitching content this is Letters Scissor Pouch by Stacy Nash that I stitched a long time ago and finally finished.



It was so nice to spend time with a stitchy friend who I am missing already!




I learned how to do an altoid mint tin finish and hope to show that off next time.
For now thanks for your continued visits and lovely comments.
Wishing you all a very happy weekend.
Margaret