My latest finish

I wanted to do something that was more spring like and so I stitched Midsummer Night Designs 'And she gardened' I have stitched 1/1 on evenweave and finished it as a flatfold I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out.

5 more days and we will be flying to Lanzarote - I can't wait and we are both so looking forward to this holiday, winter has seemed to last forever and we keep getting cold and 'bugs' so a bit of sun will do us both the power of good we feel.
Tash is being left in the very capable hands of mum and dad who are having a holiday at our house, which is great.

I have finished the finishing on Vonnas tin and will be posting it on Monday to her so watch out for the postman Vonna.
Nothing much else to tell really, my cold is starting to come out so I'm hot and sticky all the time and tonight we have friends coming round for supper - I've decided to make curry and that way it might clear my sinuses LOL!!

Some-one asked me which designer DT was - sorry I have forgotten who it was that asked - its Drawn Thread!!

Today...

Well today was supposed to be a good day as it was a day off work, but it certainly didn't start that way - phone calls from work at 7:15am, sleepless night the night before and I woke up with Marks cold - thanks Darling!!

But it did start to improve, I managed to almost finish the finishing on Vonnas tin so I can send it out on Monday, and the sun started to come out a bit and then the postie arrived with a parcel from The Netherlands Barbara was the stitcher sending to me in the SBEBB Spring Quaker exchange (we had to stitch in either green or mauve on either green or mauve) and she sent me a parcel full of goodies - thanks Barbara (I have emailed you privately), the first goodie is this wonderful fob that she has stitched for me, its all done 1/1 isn't it stunning.

On the back of the fob is the year and our initials -its so exquisite.


Also included in the package are the scissors attached to the fob, some overdye fabric and some plain fabric, some threads and a needlework finishing form (I have wanted one of these for sooo long!!

So as you can tell my day has brightened up considerably since 7:15am, now to shake off the cold before we go on holiday next week.

I have also done the finishing on the Midsummer night designs stitching I was doing and I will share that with you over the weekend.

Final freebie for this months challenge

For my 4th freebie finish I have chosen DT freebie, I have stitched this on 40ct linen using Soi D'Alger silk thread and Kaalund silk thread and I used the same Kaalund silk for the trim and tassels. I enjoyed stitching this very much and it was fun making it into the fob as you can see from the photo its quite small.




Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful comments you have left and for those that don't comment, thankyou so much for visiting my blog - I appreciate both comments and visits

Part 4 GoL completed

I've finished part 4 of our SAL and am about to start Part5, I love how this is turning out so far.

I've almost finished my 4th and final freebie from the challenge this month I am just doing the finishing on it - hopefully I will have pics tomorrow.
I have lots of other finishes but can't show them yet as they are all secrets, as they are to do with exchanges, but I will eventually be showing them soon.

I have been quite naughty too and have ordered some stash from Mary Kathryn so hopefully that will be winging its way to the UK sometime this week.

Spring finish

This is my 3rd freebie finish of the freebie challenge for this month - Just one more to do. It was a quick finish too and as I had seen on Vero's blog this design finished as a pinkeep I thought I would do the same (I know its copying), but it makes as a great tiny pinkeep, and I have changed the colours to make it more zingier, I stitched it on 32ct Polstitches hand-dyed jobelan called sky high.

Vivi's tin

Yesterday the postman arrived with a parcel from France for me from Vivi. With great excitement I opened the parcel, inside there was a beatifully wrapped parcel and it contained my tin!!



Isn't it lovely, so beautifully stitched and finished.

On the outside it was edged with 2 different toning ribbons which were perfectly matched to the stitching on the top.



Vivi has lined the inside of the tin with a gorgeous fabric - I wish I could find fabric like that I loved it!



Also the fabric she has used on the base is lovely too. - Again I've not seen this fabric in the UK anywhere.



Inside the tin there was some goodies - a bar of french chocolate and some nougat and also nestled inside was this tiny wee fob - On one side it had a flower taken from the design on the tin top and on the other side it had my initials.



I have so enjoyed my tin exchanges I've now received 3 with one more to receive and I have sent 2 and still have 2 to send.
My plans this weekend changed too as I was either going to stitch freebies or finish tins but Real Life got in the way a bit and neither so far has been done - but I will catch up with myself.
I did finish stitching 'And she gardened' I have to iron it yet and then there will be a picture of that to show.
We have finally been forecasted by the weather men for some snow (a bit late now), and this morning its certainly been trying - so far I think we had been the only part of the UK that hadn't had any snow but now it looks like it could be arriving!! Maybe we might get snowed in again like we did a few years ago and I couldn't get to work - that would be marvellous - just think of the stitching I'll get done LOL!!!

Destination - France............

.... and its arrived safe and sound. This is another of my tin exchanges - this time I was sending to Vivi. I was getting a little worred as this one has taken a little over a week to arrive on her doorstep, but luckily she mailed me today to say that it had arrived.
This time I have stitched an EEF (Ewe & Eye & Friends) design called teaching sampler this of course isn't the whole sampler its just part of it, I loved the colours that is in it I have used all DMC thread and its stitched on 40ct cream linen



I lined the inside with MODA fabric that I had, and padded the inside lid and the inside base as well as the lid top, on the outside I edged the tin with lace that I had in my stash and trimmed that with a narrow ribbon that matched the colours of the flowers (I pinched it off a dress I had - which was lucky really as I couldn't find any ribbon that colour in the shops) The base of the tin I covered in a matching hand dyed felt.

I'm really enjoyed stitching this for Vivi and fingers crossed I 'll receive mine soon - it seems to be stuck somewhere between here and France at the moment and poor Vivi is getting a bit worried - I reckon it'll arrive tomorrow!!

My tin exchanges have been great fun I have finished stitching the tops for my last 2 but I haven't put the tins finishing together yet, I might just do that this weekend, though I might stitch another couple of freebies this weekend then I've finished my challenge.
Whatever you decide to do this weekend I hope that you have a lovely time.

Freebie weekend

This weekend I thought I had better make a start on the freebie challenge from FGBB seeing as I was the one that set the challenge LOL!! I stitched and did the finishing on 2 different designs. Now I have just 2 more to go, and I think I have decided which ones they are!!



The first is the sewing angel from http://www.casamiainitalia.com/hp/crossstitch.html. Its such a dinky wee design, its stitched on 36ct raw linen using a NN thread I had in my thread box, and I've finished it as a fob and trimmed it simply with 4 ribbon bows.



The second - again finished as a fob and again in the redwork style this time using DMC and stitched on 32ct linen - now I can't remember which web site I found this as its been in my stash for ages, but its called Cadeau de l'amitie - designed by Edith A pour le PCB if thats any help to anyone. I trimmed this one with a red beaded trim.

Both designs are backed with red and white gingham fabric.

Thanks everyone for your concern about our health - I must admit I have felt better but never mind eh!!

Thankyou for all the lovely comments you have all left too about mine and Evas tin exchange.
Someone asked me where this exchange was set up from - well it was from here, I asked a while ago if anyone would like to do a small tin exchange with me and 4 lovely ladies said 'Yes !!!' - Vonna, Eva, Vivi and Angela, 2 tins have now been sent - 1 received, I'm waiting for Vivi to get hers, and I have received 2 tins - 1 from Vonna and one from Eva, I still have to send Vonna and Angela theirs.

I've started a new small project for myself last night its by Midsummer Night Dreams and I'm loving it!!

Its arrived FROM Eva

Am I a lucky girl or what!!! Evas tin arrived for me (see previous post about exchange), I couldn't wait to get in from work today to see if it had come.
I opened my beautifully wrapped packet and this was what was inside:



- Gorgeous isn't it. It looks and feels like Eva has stitched it using silk thread.



Look at the outside, its beautifully trimmed around the outside of the tin with lace.



So now I've opened it and what did I find inside, a tiny fob with tiniest tassel I've ever seen. Eva has put my name on one side and her initials on the other and its trimmed with beads. There was also a pincushion with birds on one side and on the other its says Tin Box Exchange and the month and year.



Inside the box its beautifully padded and lined with the prettiest fabric and Eva has covered the base of the tin on the outside with felt.



Thankyou so much my friend its truely lovely and I can't wait til we decide to do another exchange with each other in the future (my fingers and toes are crossed that we will LOL!!)

Tin exchange TO Eva

Eva e-mailed me tonight to let me know that she has safely received her tin from me today. this is the first one of my 4 tin exchanges to go out, it arrived in France super fast too!!

I stitched BBD - Vintage flowers as Eva is a big fan of BBD's - It was Eva who moderates and organises the BBD SAL's that I join. We have become quite good friends over the past few months I'm pleased to say.

The tin top as I mentioned is Vintage flowers and its all stitched in the recommended DMC colours. I stitched it on soft cream 40ct linen. I added the different beads in colours that are in the design rather than just x stitches as I felt it added more interest. I edged the sides with vintage cream crochet lace.
Inside I lined it with 2 different moda fabrics and trimmed the inside bottom with cord around the edges. Inside the lid I added some silk ribbon to tie on the scissors and another piece of lace (the same as the front edges) to hold the scissors in safely). The bottom of the tin I have put some hamd-dyed felt so that it has a soft 'bum' LOL!!

I made a wee fob and took elements of the top design there's the rose and then on the reverse of the fob I stitched an E and used again part of the main design for the eyelet flowers. I edged the fob with some toning beaded trim and used the same hand-dyed silk ribbon to make the scissor fastner part of the fob.

I really enjoyed stitching and making this up for Eva and my next tin exchange went out today too so hopefully that will arrive the early part of next week.



I apologise for not doing my normal blogging, but we have still been feeling off-colour but I have been very busy stitching and getting on with exchanges and things andso I'm afraid that blogging has suffered a wee bit.

Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments on my work, and for the nice emails too, if I owe you an email I will get mailing soon I promise.