Spring Exchange

Nicki emailed me yesterday that my last seasonal exchange has arrived for her this time it was 'Spring'. The design is called 'My Gift to You' and its by Blackbird Designs, I have adapted it a little as I wanted to make a small stitchers pocket. I have stitched it 1/1 on 28ct linen and I used the recommended thread colours and all the finishing I did by hand as it was too small for me to use the sewing machine.

This is the back of the pocket and I used the background pattern of the design and changed the outer border slightly.

This is the inside of the pocket where I added our intials and the yesr, again I adapte the outer border a little. Its lined with a pretty MODA fabric I had in my stash. Inside the pocket I added a little tiny hornbook for Nicki to decorate herself.

I was pretty pleased with the finished result and I am glad to say that Nicki is too, I have enjoyed stitching for Nicki in the past year for our seasonal exchange my next partner for this will be Barbara , this time we are doing it differently we are partnering each other for the Year so I send to Barabara and she sends to me so it will be fun as I have all sorts planned in my head as to what I want to do for her.

Its a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, and the weather is warm and windy, I was in the middle of doing this post when the electricity power went off for about 1 hr 30mins or so, came back on for 10 mins and went back off again for another 15mins, I am glad to say it appears to be staying on this time!
I hope everyone is having a good weekend, and getting some stitching done maybe, I am busy stitching on a couple of exchanges, I have a couple to send out next week too.
I might get some pictures of my garden taken next week too, now I'm off to make lunch.

Golf anyone?

Believe it or not but this is a golf course. Mark plays here at least once a month, and its just 2 miles down the road from where we live, isn't it pretty. You can just see his trolley on the left.


This is near one of the water features and look there is even a bench to sit and watch them play and enjoy the view around.


Couldn't tell you which part of the course this is, but the view is lovely. - Can't you tell I'm not a golfer.


You could really lose yourself here with views and birdsong!

I was very lucky this week and was given an award from Mary Kathryn I was ever so chuffed to receive it Thankyou Mary Kathryn, especially as she has such a wonderful blog herself and completes such wonderful finishes (another heroine of mine is she).

I have been very hard pressed to appoint it to 5 other blogs as there are so many I visit and enjoy very much, and so I will award it to all of you other bloggers out there as I think everyones blogs are amazing and long may you all continue to show us your wonderful finishes and inspiring ideas.

I've been asked after my previous posting if I made the actual box for my MIL - No I didn't, it was a fancy box of chocolates, its only small about 5 inches long and about 3 inches wide and I wish I could make them, I have a book on cartonnage but haven't dared attempt anything yet (plus the book is in french which makes it a little difficult as my French is not brilliant)

Thanks to all my new commenters too, its so kind of you and I am so glad you wanted to leave me a comment.
I'm a little slow this week going round the blogs and answering emails, I decided I would go back to work and see how it went, the guys have been lovely and are not putting any pressure on me at all, so I can more or less work to my own pace and if I feel a bit off, the boss said I can go home anytime which was really nice of him.

We had another stroke of bad news last week, Marks other grandmother passed away on the Bank Holiday Monday, we had her funeral a week yesterday and gave her a good sending off that she would have appreciated, she would have been 95yrs on the 13th, so it was a wonderful but hard long life that she has had, she hasn't been herself really for a couple of years, she has been suffering from dementia and often didn't recognise any of us, but she was a tough ole bird with a wickedly dry sense of humour and we dearly miss her.

Hopefully come JUNE, our life will turn the other way and all the rotten things that have happened since December 07 will stop and we will have a happier next 6 months.
Hope everyone has a good weekend, I'm going out in the garden to do some gardening and be nosey as the house next door was sold and its exchange day today and I want to see who we have moving in. I can't show you any stitching at the moment as I have been doing exchanges, but I hope to have maybe a couple of things to show you next week, one of which will be an exchange as its getting posted on Tuesday and its going to the UK.

Birthday gift

It was Marks mums birthday yesterday and I decided this year I would stitch her something and as she hasn't had a box from me before and she is always admiring the boxes I have done for Dawn, I thought I would make her one of her own.

As I'm on a Mary Beale phase at the moment I decided to stitch her another of the little designs from Pocket Needlebook No.2 (August 1999. I've stitched it on 28ct evenweave (colour unknown) and used the recommended thread colours. I've lined the inside base of the box with some pretty moda fabric I had.

Thankyou everyone for visiting and leaving comments its great to hear from you and welcome any new readers to my blog you are Really very Welcome.

Forget me Not

A little while ago Nataliejo (my heroine) was very kind and gave us a tutorial on how to make a floss holder, I wanted to use this great finishing technique and went looking for the perfect design, L'R de rien meantime brought out this wonderful design which says Forget me Not and I just wanted to stitch it as soon as I saw it and knew that was the design for my first thread holder, isn't it a lovely design? I have stitched it 1/1 on 32ct evenweave using the recommended colours and was really delighted with it when I had finished it. I really enjoyed making this and it certainly won't be my last one of this type of finishing Thankyou Natalie for the clear tutorial and the inspirational idea.

Another Mary Beale

This time I have stitched 'The Shepherdess' and isn't she lovely, I do so enjoy stitching these small designs again its taken from Pocket Needlebook No 2 (August 1989), which though I stated last time is OOP, you can get it still from Wyndam Needleworks I think.

I've stitched it on 28ct evenweave - colour unknown and used the recommended thread colours. I have finished it as a small pincushion and double trimmed the edges with cording and beads.

This weekend is a Bank Holiday here in the UK and hoepfully the weather will improve here where I live. We have a wedding 'night' do to go to on Saturday, beacause I'm still not really feeling much like gadding about, but because its a daughter of a long time friend of Marks, we have decide to just pop in and 'show face' as they say here, We are sure that they will understand that we won't stay long, and as its in the village hall the do, its not far to wander up too, as I wanted to go and see the bride and groom. My recovery is going well, I had a bit of an 'off' day yesterday for some reason, but felt much better today. Tomorrow I have to get more bloods done, I'm beginning to feel like a pin cushion LOL!

On the stitchy front I've completed a couple of other things, which I have to do the finishing on, I want to do the finishing on Nickys last seasonal exchange too and get that posted to her, on the Grant a wish exchange I've got a couple of wishes to do for folks, both are tin toppers and I want to get them started over the weekend I think, plus I want to get the 2nd part of the Tournicoton mystery sampler done, in fact I want to finish the 1st part too, but ran out of thread for one part of it already!
In the post today I received a wonderful surprise from Kathy, who sent me the B is for Bee etc etc (5 charts in total, for all the alphabet) of the Sheepish designs charts that I have had on my wishlist forever, It was a huge surprise and I was really touched by her kindness.

*edited to state its Wyndam Needleworks not Shakespeare Peddler