Wishes Granted No 2

Phew......... I had a real panic on, I sent this last Thursday to Chris and it wasn't really going that far in the UK to where I am, but it didn't arrive until today. Chris made her wish on the Make a wish board, and this is what the wish fairy came up with.
The design is 'Tender Heart' by Shepherds Bush I just missed the writing off, and I also changed the colours of the outer border to match the fabric I wanted to line it with.

This is the second wish I have managed to grant, the first was the LHN tin topper to Susan, there are two more out there, being whisked to their destinations as I type, they too were sent last Thursday but have a bit further to go. I have had a lot of fun stitching different ones and I hope that I will get chance to do a few more.

Nancy asked me what the beaded background was on one of the pictures of Barbaras exchange, its a bag, and a very pretty one too, that I got for my birthday off my friend Karen last year it just shouted to me that it wanted to get in on the photos and was a perfect backdrop I felt for the lovely ornie.

I have also been asked what camera I use - well its a Sony Cybershot 8.1 and I love it.
We had a great weekend, we were at a BBQ on Saturday with the Golf Society and it was a lot of fun, this weekend I'm off to Penrith for the night, another golf do, but this involves some shopping through the day - yippeee!
Hope that everyone is having a good start to the week and are fine and perky. I've made a new start on something LHN Garden Pleasures, can't quite decide what I will do with it when its finished hmmmmm!

Thankyou for the lovely comments and visits that you have been doing to my blog I really appreciate it.

Autumn Exchange from Barbara

Barbara is my partner for the next Seasonal exchange, this time its being done slightly differently than last year we both send to each other this time. Anyway Barb is well on the ball and has sent me my Autumn exchange and boy what a lovely parcel it was. It was a huge affair, and I wondered what was in it. Inside there was a wonderful willow wreath and its huge, but the best was yet to find and I got 3 ornaments - yes not one but three - WOW! and they are so lovely.

I apologise to Barbara for not getting my pictures on sooner (I did thank her though the day it arrived), but here feast your eyes on these lovlies, I think they are brilliant - Thankyou again Barbara for the first of our Seasonal exchanges. Mine is still to stitch for Barbara and will be getting started with it in the next week.

What else to tell, well I have finished all my Grant a wish bits and bobs and they are out in the post tomorrow. One should get to its destination by Friday as its to Chris in the UK, one is going to Gaby in Germany and another to Carolyn in the USA. I have almost done with the finishing on Yuko's exchange piece - we are doing a private exchange and I am almost finished the finishing too on the Garden exchange with Mum - another private exchange.
My next plans are to start on Barbs Autumn piece - I have my patterns picked out and fabric.

I had another hospital appointment earlier this week - hence my not posting earlier and I had an endoscopy - not pleasant but its done and dusted just waiting for the results to come they take about 12 weeks apparantly just in time for my next appointment with the consultant.

Hope everyone is fine and healthy and happy, I will hopefully get back in the rhythm of blogg commenting I'm a bit out of sync with myself.

Keep your fingers crossed for the weekend as we are out to a Golf society BBQ on Saturday at the moment rain and heavy rain and rain is forecast for Cumbria on Saturday :-))

Edited to add more pictures of my Wonderful exchange as the slideshow wouldn't work properly and I wanted everyone to see each piece, its a real smile exchange.

Spring Exchange

Claudia's final seasonal exchange dropped through the letter box today, and its another beauty. The design is by Tralala and is called Un air de Printemps..........

.......as you can see Claudia has come up with another wonderful finishing idea and made me a lovely little sewing bag and floss fob. Claudia told me that she changed the stitches around as it was all cross stitch, and she wanted to add a little more interest and has done satin stitches amongst it all and the result is perfect. I LOVE it. I also received some wonderful scented bags and tissues in my favourite fragrance of roses and some pretty floss.

This is the last Seasonal exchange I will receive from Claudia and I am sad that we have finished as its been such a wonderful year of surprises from her. We are going to do a personal exchange nearer to Christmas though which will be fun.

I'll leave you with some pictures of all the wonderful stitching and finishing Claudia completed for me throughout the Seasons 2007/2008.

Spoilt

As the title says I am so spoilt after last weeks wonderful exchange I received from Nancy, I have now got in my hands another one - this time from Becky.
As I mentioned in previous post below - Becky and I were doing an exchange, well it arrived this morning and I couldn't wait to open the box and inside I found such lovelies, Becky had stitched not one but two stunning things, a pinkeep and a scissor holder and both designs have been on my wishlist for the longest time, so now I don't have to wish for the charts anymore as Becky has stitched them for me.

The scissor holder is "Keeping the Bees" by Shepherds Bush.

The pinkeep is "Tending the Blooms". They really are so very perfect and lovely. Becky also added some wonderful goodies of fabric, pins and charts, which was so kind and generous of her.

I love my new pieces and feel so very very lucky to receive ALL these wonderful exchanges. Exchanging is so much fun and I would like to Thank all the Wonderful ladies I have been exchanging with again for your really lovely pieces that you have sent to me I feel very honoured to exchange with you all.

For Becky

My private exchange with Dear Becky
has arrived at her door safe and sound today.

It was such an easy choice as to what to stitch for her, as we all know Becky loves bees, and I had this chart in my stash and knew that was what I wanted to do. I have stitched it on 40ct linen, using the recommended DMC colours, and I also finished it as a flat ornament, using quilt padding inside in layers. The reverse fabric is some wonderful hand dyed silk moire in the perfect gold/yellow colour which was given to me by my dear friend Angela, it was the perfect choice for the wee skep. The design is by Carriage House Samplings.

My other stitching is coming along well, I am now stitching my exchange piece with my mum, I have finished stitching all my others and just have the finishing to do. Usually I do my finishing at the weekends but this weekend is the Durham trip to my SIL's we are taking some friends with us for the first time and we are all really excited - lots of shopping to be done LOL! Sooo finishing will have to be done next week instead and I have a couple of new ideas swilling around in my head.

Ooo before I forget, our new neighbour is a rather charming young fella called Chris ( he's rather good looking too and very charming) he's about 25yrs and has a very nice girlfriend.

Another has arrived.....

safe and sound - that little old pigeon has been flapping her wings overtime I think. Susan made a wish on the Grant a wish exchange and I said I would grant it for her. Susan let me know tonight that it had arrived today for her. As Susan's wish was for a tin topper and I knew how much she loved LHN designs I chose to stitch her Needle Necessities - only modified slightly to fit too which was good.

The inside I lined with a pretty fabric I had in my fabric drawer that I felt matched perfectly. The outside I trimmed with crochet lace and gingham ribbon in a toning colour. I've stitched it 1/1 and used the recommended DMC colours.
I am so pleased that Susan liked it.

I'm up late as I am having trouble sleeping so I have been busy stitching another exchange and have finished all the stitching, this one I want to do a different finish on - all will be revealed at a later date if it doesn't work than I will have to have a re-think. Tomorrow I'll start on another Grant a wish, I've picked my pattern out, now I just have to get started.


I hope everyone has a great weekend its been lovely and sunny here in Cumbria and more is forecast this weekend.

The Pigeon has landed

Hooray the pigeon landed in the USA safe and sound and at Nancys' door today -
it even left her a couple of feathers from its journey (Just kidding the feathers are from Marks pheasants)

As I said in the previous post we were doing a redwork exchange and I know I know that the Mary Garry piece isn't strictly redwork, I just couldn't resist including it.

The hearts I have so admired when I've seen them on the French blogs I just wanted to give one a try, so Nancy got the first one I had ever made - they are so fun to do and I wanted to cover it in the fabrics that I used on the pinkeep and Mary Garry piece.

The pinkeep is a L'R de rien design and I stitched it on an unknown count of linen I think it may have been 30ct I'm not quite sure.

Its taken a week to get to her which isn't bad as it arrived a day after Nancys did to me (pics in the below posting of her wonderful exchange)
We have agreed to stitch another exchange this time for Christmas and it will be so much fun I know.
I posted Beckys exchange out this evening so if the post is the same she should get it next week (fingers crossed). I've yet to hear that Susans wish piece has arrived to her, I posted it at the same time as Nancy's so it should be there any day now.

Such a Beauty

Myself and Nancy decided to do an exchange amongst ourselves and we thought we would do it as a Redwork exchange, well when I got in from work today the postman had delived a great big envelope to me and it was from Nancy - (note: we both posted on the same day, but mine hasn't arrived to her yet- lets see how much longer it takes, my pigeons must be flying slower than hers are, or maybe mine are battling the jet stream LOL). So I made myself a cup of coffee - I was so excited, I carefully opened the envelope and inside was this wonderful cushion


My pictures do not do this exquisite stitched and finished piece justice I feel, its so lovely, Nancy told me that the lace, buttons and ribbon are very vintage- she got them from estate sales that she likes to visit.


I also got some lovely bits and bobs too, one of which was a pretty little bodkin set for lacing ribbons through my work, at the moment I use a large eyed needle so these will be perfect.


Its quite funny really about this JBW design I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and got the pattern to stitch for myself, then I thought I would do it for Nancy then changed my mind as I worried that I wouldn't want to send it once I had stitched it and then it comes all done to me - Nancy really does seem to know my taste and I love this vintage look its so feminine. Thankyou once again Nancy I adore it.

I've been absent a bit as I have been busy stitching exchanges (3 down, 3 to go), and as the weather has been so lovely here in the Lake District I have been gardening a lot and also not so great, working a lot, my assistant is off at the moment and so I am covering his work too, but at least it makes the day go quicker and I did kind of leave him in the lurch when I was off ill the other month.
I hope everyone is having a great week and THANKYOU to you all who have been visiting me I really appreciate it