I Love it

Its been a while since I instantly fell in love with an SB design, but this new one of theirs was instant love its called Oh Beautiful and to me it is, this is DEFINTLEY on my wish list!! LOL!!

Summer Exchange

This is what I stitched and finished for Mylene Its a SB design for a fob really (The summer fob), but I could just picture it as a pinkeeper.

have stitched it on sand 28ct linen fabric and used all the suggested threads, I enjoyed stitching this one and I think I might do another for myself.

I finished it with a wee brass bee charm and gold trim and gold glass headed pins. I am so pleased to hear that Mylene liked it.

My Sunshine

I have really enjoyed stitching this - I do love La-D-Da designs, I stitched this 1/2 on 32ct Silkweaver solo that I had in my fabric drawer so cos its a solo I have no idea what the colour of it is. The threads are totally changed I used OWS - Midnight rain, DMC 111, Dragon Floss - Impulse, Dragon Floss - Riverside. I haven't quite decided yet how I will finish this one, probably into a cushion of some kind.

On a good note too, my Summer Exchange partner has posted to say she received hers yesterday, I have some pics to post of what I sent but I will put them up tomorrow.

8 more sleeps - whoppeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

Feeling HOT, HOT HOT, HOT........

Isn't it wonderful this weather I Love it, but I do wish we had Air con, both at home and at work, never mind we don't have this type of weather for long.

I thought I might have been able to show you my summer exchange piece I sent to my partner, but as yet she hasn't said that she has received it yet, I hope that she has, and as soon as she does I will share a pic with you.

Have a tiny bit left to stitch on My sunshine and then that will be finished, should have a pic of that by the weekend.

All my threads and my fabric arrived for the Blackbird 'Remember Me' SAL which has been organised by Eva we are starting Aug 1st and our number has now grown to 11, this will be great fun and I'm looking forward to starting it even though I'm away on holiday for the first part of the SAL and won't be taking it with me, but I know I'll catch up. When we have started I'll put links to our SAL album.

Did I mention we are going on holiday? - No? - Oh well we are going on holiday soon - next week in fact and I'm counting down the 'sleeps', I am taking a wee bit of stitching with me when I go but what I haven't decided as yet, when we come back it will be Helens birthday - not sure if I should disclose her age LOL!!!! but she is younger than me LOL!! so we will call at her house as we will be flying in at Newcastle and then we can journey down to see Helen and the children and BIL, plus of course mum and dad

On a roll

Seeing as I was in the mood the other day for some finishing I knew in my 'To Finish' drawer there was another wee fob to do, this one is a freebie from Dames of the Needle, I haven't quite finished it the way that was suggested I have just done my own thing, this took all of 30mins to actually stitch and another 30mins to finish, I just used some cord I had in my finishing basket and added a beed charm, I think my corners are a bit off, but never mind.

On the stitching front I have started La D Da's 'You are my Sunshine', ever since I saw this one I have so wanted to do it, so whilst I have had a couple of days off I thought I would, and it seems such a quick stitch as well. When I have finished it I'm going to make it into a pillow and give it to Mark cos he is my sunshine.
I have done some more work on Dianne NRR and I do hope that she likes what I have done cos its finished!!!

On a British board I frequent (Jaynes Attic), I have volunteered to organise the Christmas Ornie exchange - Wish me luck as this will be the first exchange I have ever organised, but I must admit I'm quite excited about it.

July Ornie SAL

This is my July ornament, well really this one is a fob, but I'm counting it in the ornies - again its another EEF this time this one is called Rose Basket fob.
I stitched this on 36ct white linen and used almost all the recommended threads but changed the basket colour and used a very pale overdye for the pale eyelet stitch. Again I have used a beaded trim I had in my stah - I like this trim and added a narrow white ribbon for the scissors to fasten too.

Summer Exchange

Look what I received today from Nicki

We were part of the summer exchange that was from The Robins Nest (Renees) board, I absolutley love this, and she also sent me some lovely 40ct linen fabric by Lakeside linens - French Lilac colour and some cute bee buttons THANKYOU so much Nicki - I have emailed Nicki privately with my thanks, ohhhh I am so delighted

Sunshine

We are really enjoying a great spell of warm weather at the moment, and Tash loves the sunshine, so I caught her being particularly cute warming her belly in the sun.

Stitching wise I'm getting on really well with Diannes Neighbouhood, in fact its almost finished. I have also started on this months Ornie SAL project, and will have pics of that in the next couple of days, again its an EEF design.

Not long now til our holiday - 19 more sleeps and I'm getting excited already. We need to have a shopping trip to get some odds and bobs in readiness.

Stitching Bloggers question

Today's SBQ was suggested by Carol (http://carolsxsblog.blogspot.com/)
and is:

Since you started blogging, have you noticed any difference in your
stitching habits? Tell us about them.

Most definitley differences in my habits, on a postive habit note I have made lots of new friends and its shown me new sites for threads and designers I hadn't heard of before which added more to my wish list and anhialated my CC. Also I have gotten into smalls more since I have been blogging which has opened up another world of stitching for me.

On a negative habit note, I have less time for stitching, as I always want to check out folks blogs and see what they have been up too, I have so many blogs bookmarked on my desktop LOL!! Also I seem to have less time for actually emailing folk now which is bad as I want to stitch too.

Blogging has opened up a whole new and very enjoyable world for me, even if my stitching time has lessened.

Peaceful Ways

I just loved stitching this. Its called Peaceful ways by Lori Markovic (La-D-Da, I stitched it on 32ct Desert Sand linen and the only thread I substituted was WDW Scheneckly for Tarnished Gold (Only cos I didn't have tarnished gold) all other threads used are GAST, its stitched 1/2, and I love the mellow but delicate look it gives. I didn't stitch the edging or my initials and year as I want to place it in an oblong box lid.

Amost a week

since I last posted, Where has the time gone, and I haven't been so active around everyones blogs either, no excuse I have just been so busy and the weather has been so lovely.

Thought I would share with you a picture that I took the other evening of a bumble bee having a wash on top of my lily leaves, he was there for ages, so I had fun photographing him.

What else has happened apart from hot sunny but humid days and lots of work, I received a wonderful surprise twice this week in the post, one was from Carol who RAK'd me with Laevender Wings Spring Morning which was in my wish list - not any more it aint, its here by my side calling me to start on it. The other lovely surprise was from Dianne who sent me the most beautiful and unusual bookmark I have ever had, I will take a pic!! it was a thankyou for a magazine I sent her last month. - Thanks ladies I love them both (I know I emailed privately, but I wanted to thank you both here as well.

I have been busy stitching and have made a start on Diannes Neighbourhood RR and I have almost finished Peaceful Ways - La d DA. I have also more or less finished the house exchange from SBEBB, which I know doesn't go out til mid August, but we go on holiday early August for a week so I want it finished before we go. Also tonight I was asked to join in a SAL doing a Blackbird Designs - so busy busy times ahead.

This is another pic I thought to share its one of my beautiful sweet peas that have started to flower, I love this red one. We bought some exhibition sweet peas this year as our garden is so small and I have limited space, there were only 6 plants to a pot which was enough for me to grow.

June Ornie finish

I have completed my June Ornie, this one is stitched on 28ct linen - though I forgot to put a label on the colour it is, but its a lovely soft aqua'ish colour. The threads are the recommended colours. The Ornie is by Ewe&Eye&Friends and is called 'Flower Scissor Companion'. I have trimmed it using some soft aqua beads I had in my stash. The button is a small Capiz shell button. The back has also got the same button and I used some pretty cotton fabric I had in my stash that was cut into the perfect size for the ornie.

I received my Pendibuille....

.........and isn't it lovely, Thankyou so much Pom, I love it!!


Pom told me she put bells on it to bring the summer to me.












In answer to the question on whether I hand stitch or use the sewing machine for my finishes, I have to say for the majority its hand-stitching, I'm OK with the machine for larger things but when they are smaller - even ornament sized I tend to get real wavy lines when I sew LOL!! - looks like I was drunk when I stitched it, so I gave up with that idea and do them by hand its much quicker for me that way.

My new style looking blog is courtesy of my lil' sis Helen ( Lena-Lou ), she was feeling very creative and offered to change my style, which I of course said Yes too, in fact snapped her hand off, for her to do it and I think its lovely, very gardening style which is just me to a T. I love how she has done hers too very seasidey.

Bunnies in the Garden

Well its finally all put together my 'Bunnies in the Garden' by 'With my Needle' from Elegant Stitch, this was such a delight to do.



This is the inside which I trimmed using silk hand-dyed green ribbon and I used a cotton polka dot fabric I had in my fabric box.




This is the outside with my initial. I made very few changes to the colours apart from the blue (darker one) on the bluebirds. I wish I had changed the flower sprigs colour as I feel they are a bit insignificant against the bunny and the linen colour.

Missing

I know I've been missing a bit of late, for this weekend I have a really good excuse, my dad trailed all the way over from the North East to the North West on Friday T-time after I had finished work and picked me up and took me back over to their home in the North East so I have been computerless all weekend, I haven't done a lot of blog visiting either this past week as I have been really busy stitching.

Tomorrow I'll post a pics up of Bunnies as I have finally done all the finishing whilst I was at mum and dads. I have finished my summer exchange in readiness to send and I have almost finished my house exchange piece, but of course the latter two I can't show as yet.
I received my pendibuille from Pom and let me tell you its gorgeous, I 'll post pics up durring the week
Hope everyone has had a great weekend

Nothing new.....

.....to show, as I have been busy stitching exchanges which of course I can't show yet, I have finished the summer exchange and have now started on the SBEBB House exchange. I did start Carriage House Samplings beeskep ornie for this months SAL with Romy and Paula, but somewhere along the way I went wrong and can't seem to find where so in frustration its hidden away in my finishes draw to egt back out at a later date, so I will have to find another to do for this month.

The weather here the past couple of days has been diabolical, heavy rain, wind and its cold, we have had our 2 weeks of summer I think.
On a good note, Carol let me know that the NRR (Veronicas) arrived safely with her today, we were getting a little worried that it was lost as I had posted it on the 10th.

The finish is an old one now, its a freebie from Tournicoton and I finished it as a flat ornament.

2006 JCS Christmas Ornament Mag

Here is a sneak preview of the front cover of this years ornie addition, I love this mag keep your fingers crossed I manage to get one, up to press I have every year, it looks amazing this year I can see LHN, Prairie Schooler, Shepherds Bush, Mosey 'n' me and Brightneedle on the front, can you guess who some of the other designers might be on the front cover?

Pendibuille Exchange

I was part of an exchange on a french board I occasionally visit, the exchange was organised by Wanda and Lisa who were part of the DT RR that I was in. It was to do a pendibuille (sp), it was a lot of fun to do, I still haven't received mine yet but I'm sure it will be here soon, I exchanged with Pom. My pendibuille was based around the colours that Pom likes, and I have added her initial on the front and lots of tiny seed beads. The back I added a wee heart button and also a a 1/1 butterfly. Its all stitched on 32ct linen and the thread I used was Dragonfloss 'Friendship'

Phew it arrived

My mailart to Lena-Lou arrived safe and sound today, I tried to fit around the things that Helen likes, the birdhouse on the front of the envelope is a Cedar Hills design, which I added tiny buttons and changed the colours. The back of the envelope is a mixture of different things, there is Marsha her cat, and a garden with different flowers in and of course a bee skep and some butterflies (stitched 1/1).

Its all stitched on 28ct linen banding and I used DMC linen threads for it all. My pics were a bit of a rush job as I wanted to get it into the post so I scanned the mailart instead of photographing it and of course they are much too bright and not very clear, if you visit Lena-Lou she has taken and posted some much nicer pics than me. Glad that you loved it H!!!xxx

Look what I received today

I did a Mailart exchange with Lena-Lou our theme was summer, and today in the post I have received the most beautiful envelope. For all we both posted on the same day and at the same time (we pre-arrnaged to do this), mine to her hasn't arrived yet, hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.
I absolutely adore it. A BIG HUG sent to you for this.



This is the back


what's more when you open the envelope there is even a wee verse that Lena-Lou made up herself. Its so beautifully lined and stitched.