A New Finish

Well I hope you all had a really good Easter and received lots of delicious eggs? I had a wonderful few days over in the North East with my family. I stayed with my sister Helen but spent a lot of time with Mum and Dad and my brother and his 2 very handsome young teenagers came up on Saturday and it was so lovely to see them all, we had some good days out - we wnt to Yarm, Durham, Northallerton and Middlesbro', we also went to Helmsley on Sunday and went to a a wonderful craft fayre which was a lot of fun (sorry no pics as I forgot my camera this weekend) and I went shopping and bought a couple of things for the house and some fabric too. I also found inspiration for cushion making.

This cushion above is actually larger than it appears here, its a full sized cushion, and I stitched JBWs 'The Queen Bee for the centre using 28ct Natural Linen and cream silk thread. The cushion is made up of some lovely heavy linen fabric that I had and I trimmed the bottom corner with some 'Love' ribbon that I had in my stash - thats cos I am thinking of giving this as a gift for a very very dear friend.

The trim I have used is some fine crochet lace and I used 2 MoP buttons for added interest.

As I was away I didn't get chance to do any work in the Garden at all, and today has been the best day so far this week - hopefully this nice break in the weather will mean I can get outside and do a bit to it all - I really need to pressure wash and seal my decking before the weather gets to warm and I won't feel like doing it, plus I need to do something with my outside wooden furniture as its quite a mess. Tomorrow I get my onion plants in readiness to pot them on to give them a start before they need to go in the ground in May.

I am still doing a few finishing touches (like making cushions and covering my footstool aand possibly new lounge curtains - Can you tell my Mum and Dad are coming in May LOL) to the house and it should all be finished completely after the first May Bank Holiday and so during May time I will give you my tour, thankyou for your kind emails and comments about my 'tour' idea I hope it won't disappoint.
Mum and I are having a 'crafty' Bank Holiday that first weekend, as they are both coming over hopefully and Mum and I have plans LOL!

Christening Gift

My friend Gill asked me to make for her something she could give her daughter to commemorate Matthews christening next week, so after looing through my patterns trying like mad to find something suitable Gill chose this cute JBW design - Sampler rabbit - isn't it a cutey?
I have stitching him on 36ct Antique white linen using 1 strand of 'Denim' Carries Creation thread. As Gill left the finishing decisions up to me, I thought I would do a simple finish (and as I wasn't feeling 100% this week, I thought would be a bit of a no-brainer finish for me) but like all finishes the ideas just keep flapping around my head until I came up with the one above.  I knew she didn't want anything to fancy so I made a small flat ornament and curved the edges. I added cording I did with DMC thread and then added some narrow navy ribbon for a bow tie for the rabbit and on the top of the flat ornie. The hanger is a cute cream and blue spot ribbon I had - just to add a little more interest. The backing fabric is navy and white gingham check fabric

How I am longing for some better weather now we have cold, rain and wind here in Cumbria - YUK!!

I am feeling much much better thankyou, your kind enquiries I have been very grateful for, as were your comments, I still have an abcess on the side of my gum, but that has started to drain - in total I had 3 - 2 on the gum and one starting on the offending tooth (and this from me who goes to the dentist and dental hygienist every 3 months) my face still feels a little sore as does the gum, but I feel lots better than I did.

Now someone asked me and I really apologise as to whoever it was as I can't remember who it was at all - re the heart finishing on the 'weekend stitchery' post - the answer to your question is I draw the shape on the fabric - allowing for seams and cut it out then I hand sew my finishes - I never use a sewing machine I like to feel in control of my pieces of fabric and the sewing machine never makes me feel like that - I know it takes a little longer by hand but I prefer the finish - HTH??

I am busy stitching a couple of gifts at the moment so will share them soon - again no work on 'Finch Song', but I do have some new ideas buzzing around my head for something a little different.....and ending on a final Happy Note I won a giveaway myself on Annemaries blog ( http://ortsandends.blogspot.com/ ) for a Goode Huswife chart which is OOP, so I was very happy and it really made my day, seeing as I haven't won anything for ages and ages and I have been feeling so very rotten so it was an exciting pick me up!! Another pick me up were the scissors from Yuko has arrived and ooo they are so pretty, I have been showing them off to my ex- SIL Dawn today tempting her to splurge and get some soon I hope!

 I hope that you all have a good weekend