Spooky Time!

Yay, I just love Hallowe'en, and I tell you, these Brits don't really go for it in a big way, so I struggle. I've lived here for 10 years and not once, NOT ONCE, has my bell ever been rung or my door rapped on Hallowe'en to reveal little trick-or-treaters. Can you believe it?? So, when the opportunity came to join a couple of Hallowe'end exchanges, of course I signed up straight away (no no, not regretting it, but truth be told both of them have yet to be posted *grimace*).

But guess what, my HOE Hallowe'en Exchange has arrived! My partner ended up being Paula, and it turns out we've had some eerie pseudo-coincidental happenings in our lives - I live the UK, but I'm not British. Paula has lived in the UK too, and she's not British either! I lived in East Anglia for while - so did Paula (East Anglia - just FYI it's the eastern part of England, just under halfway up). Paula now lives in Washington State - and I'm from British Columbia, only a stone's throw away! Spooky, eh? Okay, admittedly not that spooky, but work with me here I'm trying to get into the Hallowe'en swing of things :)

Paula made up a very cool package for me, and the crowning glory was the pinkeep she stitched for me - she used a Bent Creek freebie called 'Owl on an Egg' which I absoultely love - just check out this masked owl!

And look at the fabric Paula used for the reverse - see, he's in a tree!


I love the ribbon she used to surround the pinkeep - I've tried to take this next shot to make the ribbon more obvious - it's so beautifully vibrant.


But do you think she stopped there, with this wonderfully stitched and expertly finished pinkeep?? No, she did not, she continued to spoil me rotten (it's like a state of grace for me, I never say no to rotten spoilage!)

LOOOOK: 2 charts, a skein of seasonal floss, some Hallowe'en stickers, 3 fat quarters of seasonal fabric, some Hallowe'en treats (hidden away from husband's greedy fingers straight away), and the Hallowe'en issue of JCS (which is difficult to find here, so doubly appreciated!). Thank you so much Paula, I absolutely love it all and I am delighted that you were my partner for this exchange!

Now, in order to avoid the guilt, I must head off and finish these 2 Hallowe'en exchanges that are very soon due - including the HOE one. I will be back in a couple of days to update you on all the secret stitching that I have done in August and September - not a single stitch in anything for myself since the end of July! So lots to share, but time is of the essence - get cracking Stephanie!

Happy stitching!

A Beauty!

Lucky me, Friday brought an excellent treat for me - I discovered that Rowyn was stitching for me and she sent me a great little pillow, which I adore :) She used the F is for Friendship chart from the PS alphabet series (how appropriate!) and told me this was her first finish using her sewing machine - hopefully the first of many because she's done a stellar job.

Rowyn was kind enough to also add in 2 charts from my wishlist - of course, one was a Prairie Schooler chart! - and also included a beautiful leather bookmark from New Zealand and a beautifully handmade card - she definitely has talent :)


Thank you so much Rowyn, it's a beautiful exchange and I am thorougly delighted :)

Hopefully more news from me tomorrow as I have to update you on a couple of exchanges and gifts that I sent before my holiday and haven't had a chance to post about, and also it looks like my HOE Hallowe'en Exchange has arrived, so I'm going to open that one tonight.

Happy stitching!

More Freebie Exchange

Katrina posted that she received the HOE Freebie Exchange I sent her, and that she’s really pleased with it, which is a relief as it was another ‘first’ finish for me and I hoped she would like it. I stitched a freebie from Shepherd’s Bush called ‘Scatter Sunshine’, which unfortunately for you all I can’t post a link to as it was a paper freebie that I received with an order I placed some time ago from a stitching shop (I can’t remember which one now, sorry folks!). I stitched it on 28ct Waterlily Jobelan, and pretty much completely changed the flosses from the charted ones as it was charted mainly for Crescent Colours floss, which I don’t have a lot of (sadly!) in my stash, and I thought it would be more in the spirit of the exchange to use floss that was already in my stash – it was a freebie exchange after all :) So this is a mish mash of DMC, Crescent Colours, Olde Willow Stitchery, Carrie’s Creations, Weeks Dye Works, GAST and Atalie threads. I finished it as a pillow, using my quilting skills (such as they are!):


Katrina says it goes perfectly with her stitching chair, and when she isn’t occupying it, the pillow will :)

More photos are on the HOE blog, here.

I was away last weekend on the north Devon coast for a hen weekend – we had absolutely gorgeous weather, and I had a great time. The region is really beautiful, and the coast is just amazing – wonderful beaches too! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so sorry no photos to show you. I’m on another hen weekend this coming weekend, in County Galway in Ireland, and I’ll definitely bring the camera this time. I’ve just checked the weather though, and apparently it’s meant to be 14C and raining – boo!

Happy stitching!

Freebie Exchange Arrived from Shay - WOW

OMG, wow. I am completely and utterly charmed by what Shay (no blog) made for me for the HOE Freebie Exchange.

She clearly put a lot of thought, time, patience and effort, not to mention considerable skill and talent, into this exchange for me - I feel honoured! She stitched me this really lovely scissors keeper, and personalised it with my name and the exchange and the date - I've posted quite a few photos, but I wanted in some way to do this exchange justice (although that is debatable given my lack of photography skills!)

Front of scissors keeper: see my name?! It closes with the pink ribbon and the dainty crystal heart

Back of scissors keeper

Inside of scissors keeper - see where Shay has stitched 'HOE and May 2008' (next photo shows the date better!) The beautiful scissors came in the keeper!

I tried to show the detail in this photograph, so you can see the sumptuous silk lining, and the skill with which Shay put this all together

Wow. Seriously wow. Thank you so much Shay, I just adore this scissors keeper, and it's already sitting beside my stitching chair waiting for me to sit down and stitch tonight.

Shay also kindly included some lovely extras: 2 FQ of fabric, 3 skeins of Needle Necessities floss, a journal and matching notecards, and a very handy calendar.

Happy stitching!

Biscornu Exchange and Goal Roundup

I had a nice email from Margie, who was my partner in the Hooked on Exchanging biscornu exchange – she was kind enough to let me know that she liked what I stitched for her, which is always a relief! Here are some photos of the biscornu I stitched, and as per usual I didn’t take a photo of the rest of the goodies, but she has some photos on her blog so go and check those out if you are interested (her photos of the biscornu are also much better than mine!!).

Biscornu for Margie (front above, back below)

Tudor by Cross Stitch Direct

Silkweaver 32ct Periwinkle Mist linen

Carrie's Creation 'Clouds in the Sky'

I’ve been busy with exchanges and finishing, so not much else to show you – I have just started re-stitching my SBEBB Here’s to Ewe exchange as I made a bit of a boo-boo with the finishing! Luckily it is not a large design, so I should have this finished fairly quickly – thankfully, as the sending date is looming!

Happy stitching!

Goal roundup for March

Stitch, finish and send the three exchanges due this month – yes, sent HOE biscornu exchange to Margie, SBEBB Spring Quaker and personal exchange with Becky
Start stitching for two further exchanges – yes, I started my SBEBB Here’s to Ewe Exchange (which, due to a finishing error, I now have to re-stitch – oops!), and one further exchange that I can’t talk about yet
Carry on stitching one gift – no, I didn’t manage to do this
Snowbird SAL - stitch Paradigm Lost on Thursdays – yes, every Thursday like clockwork
Awake the Dawning Day - stitch at least one day – yes, did manage just one day
Spanish Wine - stitch at least one day – no, unfortunately due to the SBEBB mistake above, I didn’t manage to fit this in
Mini-Christmas ornament SAL with Leena - stitch at least one ornament – yes, and I might even keep this one for myself!
Choose what I'm going to stitch for Fair & Square Round 6 once my partner is assigned – yes, and I even stitched 1 of the 2 squares
Start a mystery gift for a special birthday – yes, but haven’t gotten very far with it!
Sort-of-mini-quilting SAL with Nicki – get to grips with cutting and sewing – try to make a whole block?? – well, I’m going to give myself a big tick, because although I didn’t quite finish a block, I’m mostly finished 6 blocks, which is more than I thought I’d accomplish!
Start a sewing project – yes, and finished it too

I also ran a giveaway draw for my blogaversary, which Becky K won, so stitching that one will be included in April’s goals, which are:

Stitch, finish and send 4 exchanges due this month
Stitch, finish and send Becky K’s prize for winning the giveaway
Thursdays – Snowbird SAL – keep stitching Paradigm Lost
Christmas ornament mini-SAL with Leena – stitch at least one ornament
Keep stitching the special birthday gift
Keep stitching the other gift
Keep stitching Awake the Dawning Day
Keep stitching Spanish Wine
One new start
Finish the 6 quilting blocks

HOE Exchange Received!

Oh, wow, did I ever get spoiled! I was really excited to see Tuula’s name on the return address portion of the lovely fat envelope that made its way through our mail slot yesterday – I’ve been admiring her stitching so knew that I had a treat in store :) And I was right! She stitched me this gorgeous red biscornu scissor fob, taking the design from a Papillon Designs freebie, and using a beautiful Atalie thread called ‘Rubis’. I absolutely love it – it is so me! I’ve immediately looped this on to my scissors, and even H has commented on how beautiful it is :)

Front
Back

Tuula was also kind enough to include a number of wonderful goodies for me – linen, backing fabric, threads, pins – all the sorts of things that, as she rightly pointed out in her note, stitchers can never have too much of.

Thursday was of course my Paradigm Lost SAL night, and here is two weeks’ worth of progress – I didn’t get much done either last week or this week (mainly this week because we went out for a few glasses of wine at lunchtime, and one is my limit! So I was concentrating v e r y h a r d in order to see the chart, although it was still a bit skew-whiff – I’m hoping I don’t have to frog too much!).


Don’t forget to sign up for the Giveaway – leave a comment on this post by Sunday morning UK time – I’m giving away a stitched item by me as a thank you to all my wonderful readers out there as a celebration of my recent one-year blogaversary. Good luck!

Happy stitching!

GIVEAWAY!

Brrrr – it was really cold this weekend – we had snow flurries and hail flurries, mixed in with sun (albeit cold wintry sun) and rain all weekend. So my plans to get out into the garden and tidy that up and our idea of going golfing – nope, all didn’t happen. So the weekend became mostly about indoor pursuits – stitching, quilting, sewing, baking, (and, yes, the ubiquitous laundry), and of course sampling the gorgeous Easter egg that the Easter bunny brought! How did he know my exact favourite?? :)

Now, I believe I may have mentioned recently that my blogaversary is upcoming…well, I didn’t manage to post on the actual day (which was Saturday just gone) – but don’t think I’ve forgotten! And because it’s all of YOU who make blogging so rewarding (let’s face it, I’d be doing the stitching anyway!), I think you should be the ones to get a big thank-you, so I think a giveaway is in order, don’t you? If you want to be entered in the draw for a stitched item (which I have yet to stitch, so I can’t tell you much about it at this point LOL) to help me celebrate one whole, full, satisfying and very exciting year of blogging, leave a comment on this post and I’ll enter you in the draw! H will help me draw names on Sunday morning (30th March) UK time, so you have until then to enter (he likes his sleep, so it’s likely to be quite late morning LOL). Good luck!

Now, Nicki and I agreed that we were going to use the Easter weekend to, in her case catch up with her quilting project(s), and in my case start my very first ever quilting project. And I have to say it was quite a learning curve! I managed to rack up about 5 hours on the phone over several days with my mum, my personal quilting guru. I thank the stars for digital cameras and instant messaging, because we spent a lot of time saying ‘What? I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me …MSN me a photo of what you’re talking about.’ Here is what I managed to achieve – 6 blocks that are nearly complete. I have yet to attach the last two strips to the top and bottom of the block, and then it’s on to the sashing and corner blocks (yes, you can see I’ve been trying to pick up the lingo from my mum as well!). I am only praying at this point that the blocks are somewhat straight, or I’m going to have to claim that it was a crazy quilt pattern to start with!


In addition to quilting, I managed to put in a few stitches on both ADD and PL, but the emphasis is definitely on ‘few’ – even with side-by-side ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos you’d be hard pressed to identify any progress – so I’m just telling you about it, and not posting any photos. Hopefully next time with each of these I’ll make better progress and have something worth showing!

Much of the weekend was spent sewing and stitching for exchanges – my HOE biscornu and SBEBB Spring Quaker were posted, my personal exchange with Becky is finished ready to post, SBEBB Here’s to Ewe is stitched and sewed and ready to finish – so I haven’t much in the way of photos that I can yet share. I’m going to slow down on exchanges after April to focus on one bigger project. I haven’t decided whether I’ll be posting about it or not (as it’s meant to be a surprise), but I think perhaps I might – you’ll see soon enough :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break – happy stitching!

Happy Noel!

Well, it’s a tiny bit out of season, but this weekend was the mini-SAL that Leena and I have to stitch Christmas ornaments. I know that Leena is secret stitching – her ornament is for an exchange with a group of Finnish stitchers who are all busily stitching for a Christmas ornament exchange at the moment. I managed to finish a gorgeous one this weekend (if I do say so myself LOL):

Design: Just Nan ‘Holly Noel’
Fabric: Country Stitches 28ct Lugana ‘Kiwi’
Floss: DMC as charted

I’m thinking this one is going to be a flatfold for myself – I don’t know if I can bear to part with it :) All this Christmas stitching throughout 2008 will have to bear some fruit for me!

Now, I’m just about to post off my HOE biscornu exchange, and I’m just waiting on one piece of mail to post off my SBEBB Quaker Exchange. So soon I shall have more photos to share.

Happy stitching!

More to Show You (Part 2)

Okay, here it is, part 2 of my very long post. This part is the exchange part - hurrah!

First, I received my Hooked on Exchanging scissor fob from Sandra all the way from Barbados! She's done an absolutely top job of the fob she sent me - not only a wonderful choice of pattern and luscious thread, but a great finishing job (check out that tassel!) AND a bunch of goodies! Thank you so much Sandra!!

Next up in the exchange category is my scissor fob that I stitched for Barbara Ana - she doesn't have a blog, but she is a designer (so no pressure there!!) and her website is here and has some really great freebies, as well as showing all her designs. Luckily, Barbara Ana took some photos of the fob I stitched her, because I finished it so late one night and then posted it first thing the next morning, and realised as soon as I dropped the envelope in the mailbox that I hadn't taken any photos of it!! So these photos are courtesy of Barbara Ana. I found out that Barbara Ana likes Prairie Schooler designs and Hallowe'en, so I found some perfect linen in my stash (Pumpkin Patch by Sugar Maple Designs) and stitched her up a fob using some small designs from Prairie Schooler 'Autumn Leaves'.

And, finally, I am so far on track for meeting my goal of initiating one Crazy Exchange per month - Virpi let me know that she received the needleroll I made her. Two firsts there - my first needleroll finish and her first needleroll received! Now I'm looking forward to what she sends me in return :) This is MTV Designs A Touch of Pink Needleroll stitched on 32ct Silkweaver 'Wandering Ivy' linen with Dinky Dyes 'Raspberry Ripple' and Kreinik metallic thread.

Right, phew, we're nearly there! Thursday has come and gone, so that means I have an update to share with you on my Snowbird SAL progress for Paradigm Lost. Getting there ever so slowly! I'm still working on the huge medallion on the right hand side, but the end is (nearly) in sight. There is a ton of backstitching to do on this particular one, so I reckon 2 more weeks and I'll be on to page 4. Yes!

And, finally, a few goals for February:

Snowbird SAL - stitch PL on Thursdays

Fair & Square Round 5 - stitch and send squares to Marg

Crazy Exchange - initiate one exchange

Christmas ornaments - stitch at least one ornament with Leena on our mini-SAL

More exchange stitching - make a start on 5 exchange projects, and send the one with the February sending date

Spanish Wine - spend at least one day stitching this

Awake the Dawning Day - spend at least one day stitching this

Gift - carry on with stitching one gift

Give yourself a pat on the back - you've reached the end! Well done and thanks for sticking with me :) Wishing you happy stitching for the coming week!

Ornament SAL

This weekend was the occasion of my little mini-SAL with Leena - we are going to stitch an ornament a month in the hopes of having a tidy little pile of Christmas ornaments around Christmas time, without the usual last-minute frenzy of trying to stitch them all after Thanksgiving. And I can always use a bit of Christmas cheer, no matter what the calendar is actually telling me!

Here is what I stitched this weekend - it's the Blue Ribbon Designs' contribution to the 2007 JCS ornament issue, and is called 'A Wish for Hope and Peace' - I've stitched it pretty much as charted, just changing the linen slightly as this was in my stash:

Also, I'm just about to send off my first Hooked on Exchanging exchange - it's a scissors fob this time around, and it hasn't really got very far to go so I hope my partner likes what I've stitched.

And just a quick hello to some of the new people I've noticed reading my blog - welcome! In my usual haphazard fashion, I'll be over to your blogs soon to have a look at what you're up to!

Happy stitching!