Happy Halloween

I hope you have a wonderfully Spoooooky night!!

Prairie Schooler

Here is my 'not' Christmas Ornament finish. Its by PS - A praire year stitched on soft pink 32ct linen using the recommended DMC colours, stitched 1/2. I trimmed it with a beaded pink trim.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and thank you to my new visitors for their lovely comments I really appreciate them.

A Treat

arrived in the post for me today it was a belated birthday gift from my very dear friend Angela. Angela has stitched for me this gorgeous flat fold in colours that she knows I love with the perfect sentiment for the two of us, I really love this special gift - I'll be ringing you later Ang, I just wanted to show it to everyone as I think its so lovely.

On my stitching front I have done another ornament, and completed the finishing on 3 others, I will have pictures to show, but I don't think I'm going to manage them this week, it'll more likely be the weekend now, but I have a not Christmas ornie to show - well almost to show I'll be finishing the finishing (if you know what I mean) tonight.

I received another package too from my mum and what a treat was in there too, but I want to show them with my Christmas stitching so I'll just tease a bit about them, but they are lovely what she has made for me.

Think Pink

As we all know this month is Think Pink month in aid of Breast cancer awareness, so I stitched and finished yesterday this wee pincushion. The deisgn is Assissi birds from from The Gift of Stitching, the thread is a polstitches Dragon Floss - but I lost the label so couldn't tell you the colour. I've stitched it on 32ct linen.
I'm wanting to stitch the lovely pinkeep that Mary Kathryn designed, I ordered and received it a couple of weeks ago, but not had time yet, but I do hope to have it done before the end of the month.

As you probably can tell my finishing Mojo has returned, from wherever it visited, so I'm pleased about that! so much so, I have now done the finishing on my Autumn seasonal exchange - look out Nicki, it will be coming down to you this week sometime, and also my SBEBB LHN exchange, thats all done and dusted too in readiness for posting next month.

Currently finishing Christmas ornies, pictures of those later this week perhaps.

Embellished bag tutorial.

I have had some problems posting the pictures for this tutorial on the Focus on finishing blog (link in previous posting), so I decided I would also post the tutorial up on my own blog too with all the pictures.

Materials:

stitched piece, leaving a generous margin around the design. My design was 9 cm x 16cm (3 1/2″ x 6″) and I added a 1-cm seam allowances for this project
fabric of the same size - I tend to cut mine slightly larger
ribbon for the hanger
Beaded trim
lace
sewing thread that matches.

Tools:

ruler or measurer’s tape
scissors
(optional) pinking shears
pins
seam ripper or small pointed scissors
chopstick or whatnot to turn your work inside out and make crisp corners
hand-sewing needle
Sewing machine (optional)

This is a very easy project, and while a sewing machine will make your work go quicker, you can do this by hand. Anyone can do this project


Step 1: Cut backing fabric slightly larger than stitched piece, For this particular design I have allowed 5cm from the edge of the design to the seam and 1cm for my seam. For the top allow the depth of your lace plus a further 5cm for turning over to make the top neat. - As you can see from my picture I didn’t remember to allow extra at the top and so had to make a cuff. Iron both pieces and turn fabric allowed for top over and iron flat.


Step 2: Either hand sew or machine stitch the 2 sides and the bottom together


Step 3: Trim the corner so that when you turn it to the right sides and gently push the corners out they won’t be bulky


Step 4: Turn the bag right sides out. Push the corners out gently.Iron your pouch - its not a bag til the handle is on!


Step 5: Measure the top of your bag (mine was 15cm) and cut your lace that size. Pin or tack your chosen lace to the top of the front of your back, then handsew into place only going through the lace and the front of the bag.


Step 6: Pin or tack your ribbon or cord for the handle (this should be cut to your chosen size), either to the inside of the bag where you can’t see the tails or to the outside of the bag where you will see the tails, then handstitch into place securely.


Step 7: Measure the size of the bottom of your bag and cut the beaded ribbon to size. Pin or tack into place on the back of your bag at the bottom so you can see the beads hanging down. Hand sew into place.


Step 8: I added some tiny glass beads to the ends of my lace for extra adornment. You could do the same.

This type of bag lends itself to all sorts of designs and sizes and trims. Let you imagination run riot instead of beads and lace you could add tassels and pom poms, ribbon and cording etc etc.

Remember too that this is my way of making these bags I’m sure there are other easier ways than this, but this is how I do them.

If you do make a bag please share it with us all so we can see, it would be especially nice if you could post your finished bag on the Focus on Finishing (link in previous post)blog.

Embellished Bag

This weekend on the Focus on Finishing Blog I'm doing a tutorial on how I finish my embellished bags, if you want to see the posting about how to do it, it will be up tomorrow with hopefully step by step pictures and text, I'm not always the best at explaining unless I have people in front of me, so hoepfully it will be clear enough.

This is a LHN design I stitched earlier this year and thought it would be perfect as an embellished bag so I finished this on Tuesday night. I think its very feminine with its beads, voile ribbon and lace.

From my mum

This is part of the birthday gift I received from my mum - the stitchy part - isn't it lovely, I love the wee cat in the middle, mum says that its Tasha in our garden.



Tomorrow I will show you a finish I did last night.

Thankyou again everyone for your best wishes, I really did have a great birthday - my last year in my 40's (sigh)

From Barbara

Isn't this just so sweet! Can you see the wee snails I Luuurve snails - I received this from Barbara - I know that I have already mailed you privately but I want to say thanks again. I love my little floss fob its the first I've ever received and I think they are smashing I really appreciate it, and knowing as well that really you should be resting and stitching for yourself and Arden :-))

This is a picture of the back of the fob, I love the verse its wonderful.



I would also like to say a HUGE, HUGE Thanks for all your birthday wishes its so nice of you and for the cards and e-cards I have received, thanks Girls you are all the best - hugs

Today...............is

...........My Birthday!! so please help yourself to a slice of cake!

...and I couldn't wait to thank some friends and family for their good wishes, love and gifts, I'm not going to show all my stitchy gifts at once, but BIG huge thanks to Yuko, Babara and mum for the most gorgeous stitched gifts a gal could get.


The one I'll show today is what I received from Yuko. Now whenever I get a parcel from Japan I know it will be such a beautiful thing to behold as Yuko is such a wonderful, wonderful stitcher and finisher. Inside my parcel which I very carefully opened was the most gorgeous tin, I truely adore it, the design Yuko informs me is by M Designs. - Isn't it just lovely, and I love the accessories that I found inside, there is a tape measure, a dainty wee fob and a pincushion, Yuko is so talented and I am proud to be her friend - Thankyou so much my dear Yuko I am very moved by your lovely gift.



Tomorrow I will show you something else I received, I didn't want to show them all in one posting as each is so very lovely and should have a post and a day of their very own - LOL!!

Thankyou Claudia too for my lovely virtual bouquet of flowers, I can smell them from here they look so beautiful.

Lost Mojo

Anyone seen my finishing Mojo anywhere? I appear to have lost it, if you find it can you send it back home to me please I have loads of finishes to be doing and without it I'm stuck and not at all inspired - OR could it be I've lost my inspiration - again if you find that can you send it home to me I would be ever so grateful.

So you can take it from that I haven't done my finishes Ooops LOL!

Got quite a shock on Monday I had over 500 visitors to my blog, so I traced where they had all arrived from and someone on a Russian stitching chat board had placed a link to my blog - so welcome to my new visitors, I managed to get the gist of some of the comments using a translator so I would just like to answer a few here as I couldn't on the board
1. No my house doesn't look like a museum its a home :-))
2. No I don't have a problem with dust and allergies, I regularly dust my guest room and my treasures get dusted using a cold setting on the hairdryer so I don't need to use the vacuum cleaner on them - wouldn't that damage them?.
3. No I don't think I should just look at them and put them away in a box or a glass case, they are in my mind, there to be appreciated by me and any guests.
4. Yes I love stitching and finishing and yes I'm quite a fast stitcher, as for finishing please see above LOL!!

Anyway I really do appreciate ALL my visitors whether they do or don't leave comments here or elsewhere, you all make my blogging worthwhile

Still busy

....stitching away, so still nothing new to show, but I thought I would show you where I have some of my stitching treasures, as I have been asked a couple of times to show where I put them.

I have them all put out around the home, but the majority live in our guest room, so if you ever come to stay this is what you'll see in there. The picture above shows my pinkeep wooden basket, its divided in 2 halves the front has my pinkeeps I have either made or received through gifts/exchanges and the back has all the needlebooks again that I have either made or been sent.
Also on the dressing table (which is a family heirloom, - Marks grandad made it for his grandma as a wedding present when they married - there is a matching wardrobe, in the middle sits all the redwork pieces I have.



Above the dressing table to the left is my pretty hooks I hang tassels and small hearts.



To the right on the dressing table is my beautiful thread box that mum made me for Christmas last year and a small basket with pincushions in. As you can see I make full use of all available space and have small ornies and my bags hanging from the mirrors.



To the right of the dressing table next to the wardrobe is my set of multi-drawers, which again is another painting project I have in my minds eye how I want to paint these, but again haven't had the time this year, they store all my fabrics.
On the top of the drawers is my fob/ornament tree and around its base I have tins and flatfolds.

As you can see I have almost run out of space in here, so my dad brought me some great shelving to put up, that is like boxes, dad kindly undercoated them but as yet I haven't found the time to paint them and get Mark to hang them up, which I will soon.

I love my guest room even though its north facing and isn't the lightest room in the house, I think its because this is my stash room too and I also have a lot of my framed pictures on the walls in here. I spend quite a bit of time in here.

Tomorrow is going to be finishing day, so next week I may have some pieces to show, but not everything as quite a few have been secrets.

Busy, busy, busy

I have nothing new to show you so I'm showing you an old design which I don't think I've published on my blog before it is by The Drawn Thread and was a Round Robin I was in either last year or the year before I've modified it by adding the house at the top and trees.

The reason I've nothing to show is that everything I'm stitching at the moment are BIG secrets - they are either gifts or exchanges and of course I don't want to spoil the surprises so its a case of wait and see LOL!!

Quick stitch & finish

This is by The Needles content and its called Sampler heart - I've stitched it 2/1 on 28ct, I decided to stitch it 2/1 so that it was a more heavier look, though I found that my stitches didn't sit at all neat, but its for me, if I was sending it away I think I would have gone back to 1/1 and unpicked it all.

I've finished my stitching on my seasonal exchange for autumn and have the finishing to do, but I'm waiting to start that as I'll do that and my LHN exchange piece at the same time as I'm just starting the LHN piece tonight.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Whats the buzz FROM me

I haven't a clue yet whether my partner has received the 'Whats the Buzz' exchange I sent to her as I know that she is away on her honeymoon to somewhere lovely, so I thought I would just publish it now as I sent it last month and it seems like ages ago and I am sure Nadine won't be surfing blogs whilst she is away so won't get a peak.

The design is by Victoria sampler and I finished it as a pinkeep I used the recommended DMC for this.



I have still got a couple more finishes to show but I haven't done the finishing yet I'm getting carried away with something else at the moment which I can't share I'm afraid.

Thanks everyone for the Congratulations for my 9th place in the onion show, I'm still quite delighted with it!

Well I never...........

........would have believed it you could have knocked me down with a feather yesterday, when I saw how WELL I had done at the onion show!! I received 9th place!!!! I was so surprised as it was not where I expected to be placed I really thought I would be in the 20's somewhere, not as high as 9th. The picture above is of my onions!!


Here you can see part of all the onions that were presented in our little show - there are 30 members of the club and we each have to show 3 onions of a kind (similar size and shape) and one onion for the heaviest onion category which I failed miserabley at, pictures below show mine and Marks heaviest onions and the winning heaviest - we both had a lot to catch up with there.




A lot of hard work and organising the show entails here is a picture of Karen our secretary working out the points for the heaviest.


Later on in the afternoon we have the grand presentation, Colin our chairman resigned after the show he has been our chairman for the past 7 years and he has been brilliant - he's such a comedian is our Colin and he will be sadly missed, but he isn't leaving the club he will step down to vice chair for a couple of years, the lady members suggested I stand as Chairlady but I don't think I will, as I remember all the blood sweat and tears it entails when Mark was chairman, but maybe another year I will stand.


Here is a picture of the winning onions and very well deserved was the winner his onions were great.


By the Way our onions are wonderful to eat, full of flavour even though they are very large, they cook beautifuly.

Oooh and P.S. Mark came 22nd

Edited to add - The judges are looking for conformity of shape, 3 onions that are as identical as possible in shape, size and the way they are dressed (i.e. necks tied accurately with the same distance from top of onion, the bottoms where the roots were neatly cut and and level with the onion)

Exchange FROM Simone

I received yesterday from Simone this lovely Flatfold for the 'Whats the Buzz' exchange on SBEBB, isn't it just so cute!!!. Simone also sent me lots of lovely goodies too which I forgot to photo, This is really lovely and its by 4 my Boys, I really love it, you couldn't have picked a more perfect design for me - thankyou so much Simone.

On another note its our Onion Show today, I really don't think I'll win 1st prize this year, but there are some lovely onions on show - more photo's over the weekend.

I've been busy stitching but not finishing, and I have started my autumn exchange for the seasonals, and its looking pretty good if I say so myself, it might not get to Nicki yet LOL!

I have also been stitching up one of the pieces for the CA Wells workshop I'm going to in November, its not my usual style and I can't say I'm loving it all and I have been very disappointed with the chart quality etc etc, for all the money its cost I had hoped it would be much better than what it is but hey never mind you pays your money and you takes your choice, Hopefully the class will be worth it as I'm sure it will, thats what I'm really looking forward too!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and thankyou all for your visits and comments I do appreciate you taking the time to come.

Birthday gift

I can show you this now as I know that its arrived safely to its destination and the package has been opened (naughty, naughty not your birthday til Sunday LOL!)

The design is by A Needles Content and I stitched it on 32ct fabric using the recommended colours. The angle I took the pictures at actually make the fob look much much bigger than the scissors but it isn't really IRL.



On the back of the fob the writing is stitched using tent stitch over 1.

I'm still waiting to hear from my 'Whats the buzz' partner that she has received my exchange for her I do know that she has been on honeymoon or still is, so it shouldn't be long now til I know that its arrived safely at its destination - I don't know about you but I always worry until I know that whatever I have sent has arrived safe and sound.
I'm still waiting for my exchange to come to me I know that my partner posted in Septemeber but its not arrived just yet!

I also received a lovely little package from Isabelle at the weekend I was a lucky lady as my name was drawn out of the hat for one of Isabelles competitions and I recieved the most lovely heart and some chocolate (which I didn't share with Mark as it had nuts in and he is allergic to nuts and I cleaned and mouthwashed after I ate some of it as he is that allergic so kissing him would have been a problem) and the stitching small Au fil Aiguille magazine which is wonderful and have some plans to stitch a few things from it.

Pinkeep for Yuko

I received a lovely email from Yuko today letting me know that her pinkeep had arrived and how happy she was to receive it - I was so relieved to hear that it had arrived safely and that she loved it.


I chose for her LHN - Ladybug, ladybug as I knew that she loves LHN designs very much, its stitched using the recommended threads on 40ct R&R light cappacino linen.


I double trimmed the edge with silk ribbon and a red flower braid I had and edged it with black and red headed glass pins. The top of the pinkeep has a handmade (not by me) pin in reds and yellows that matched the trimming and fabric I felt.

Now I'm looking forward to our next exchange Yuko!!

Seasonal exchange - Summer

A while ago I was invited to join a Seasonal exchange where we are given a partner to send to for a whole year, the first time we send is a secret to your partner (like the posting below with Claudia, she is sending to me), but of course for the 3 others after that, they know that its you sending to them. I was given Nicki as the person I was to send to and I was truely delighted as we like a lot of the same type of designs and I knew it would be fun to stitch for her.

Now I knew that Nicki was a lover of 1/1 and of redwork, so I really wanted to at some point in the exchange stitch something in redwork for her and I deliberated whether I should do that for Winter, but I changed my mind as I found the cutest design by L'R de Rien in my stash and decided that it would be perfect. Its very small when done 1/1 especially on 32ct linen, it turned out about almost 2 inches in size. I wanted to finish it as a hornbook as I had an itsy bitsy wee one that I wanted to use. Nicki emailed me yesterday to let me know that it had arrived and that she really liked it so I was quite chuffed that she did.


I would like to thank everyone thats sending comments my way and visiting my blog I see a few new names are appearing and I am so pleased that you like to visit my blog, it really makes blogging more fun when folks visit - Thankyou to all my visitors old and new!

Holiday stitches Part 2

Though not technically a holiday stitch, I did finish Blackbird Designs - Garden of Life whilst on holiday. Many of you will know that I was part of a SAL for this earlier in the year, but it fell by the wayside a little - sorry Eva, as other commitments took over, but I am pleased to say that its finally finished.



I stitched it on 40ct linen in cream and used 1 strand of the recommended colour threads, so its quite soft in colour.


I did enjoy stitching this very much - now to decide how to finish it - cushion?, picture? bag?