Just a little late...

...for the reveal date which was yesterday but here it is, the little pillow I made for Februarys challenge on Jayne's forum. The design for this month was Valentine Heart, a complimentary design from Kristine (Dragonfly Stitches). For the fabric I chose 32ct Belfast cream with Six Strand Sweets Plum Parfait. The ribbon trim is another first for me which I've wanted to try for some time and thought it would be just perfect for this finish. I followed Judy Odell's Ribbon Gathering instructions which were included with a chart I have. I was very pleased with how it turned out.



I really wanted to use a pretty blue fabric for the backing but couldn't find anything suitable locally. I did find a couple of pieces online but I decided against buying anything as the chances were it would be the wrong shade of blue when it turned up so instead I played safe and backed it with the cream Belfast adding my initials and date.


Next months challenge will be one of three complimentary designs by Blue Ribbon Designs. I've wanted to do all three so don't really mind which one will be voted for in the poll, they are all lovely! :o)

The Busy Needle - Little House Needleworks

HOORAY!! DH left my camera home with me today so I can at last share my latest finish! I'm a huge Little House Needleworks fan but somehow missed this one! I only became aware of it while browsing a message board towards the end of last year. Someone had posted a picture of the stash they had received from a very generous stitcher and I spotted it peeking out from beneath the pile. I recognized it at once as one of Diane's designs, but how come I had never seen it before, especially as I just adore anything bees! Well like Barnabee off I went on my quest...lol! I didn't have to Google too long though before finding it at The Busy Needle in Tuscon. It turns out that it is a shop exclusive chart thread pack that Diane had designed especially for The Busy Needle. This was such fun to stitch and I thought it would be the perfect design to try out my very first flat fold following Judy Odell's wonderful instructions from her Flat-fold Book. I used the Crescent Colours threads that came with the thread pack on 32ct Belfast Raw Linen and for the cord and tassels I used DMC 3051.


I have a couple of thank yous too. First to Yuko for the lovely comment she recently left me on my birthday post, which reminded me that I still hadn't taken a picture of my new Momiji Dolls that I had for Christmas. My Mum spoilt both my sister Sarah and I. As well as our main Christmas present she also bought us both two Momiji Dolls, the Limited Edition Angel which comes in it's own little tin and Missy Flake. My youngest DS also surprised me with a little extra pressie too. He bought me Snowflake wearing her bobble hat and scarf. My new collection is now off to a very good start!

I hope you get to see this post Yuko and thank you so much for your very kind offer of help if I should ever need it. I have found a few UK websites where I will be able to buy the Momiji Dolls, so hopefully it won't be too difficult for me to get hold of the ones I would like.


I was so thrilled in the week also to find that Mel had nominated me with the you Make My Day award! Thank you so much for this Mel it really made my day! :o) Now the rules are that I should nominate 10 other blogs that make my day too, which shouldn't be too difficult really because there are so many wonderful blogs that I love to regularly visit! What would be impossible though is having to narrow it down to just the 10! So I would like to nominate this award to all of you whose blogs I visit and to let you know how much I enjoy looking at all the beautiful stitching and wonderful things you create. :o)

Christmas Ornament

Too late for Christmas but I thought I would get this little ornament finished anyway so that I could put it away. The stitching was actually completed at least a couple of weeks before Christmas but I just never got around to making it up! It's Christmas Heart, a Mary Garry's Sewing Cabin design from the 2000 issue of JCS Ornaments. I wanted it tiny so I've stitched it 1 over 1 on 32ct Wichelt Lambswool Linen using the listed Gentle Art Sampler Threads. For the cording I used DMC 221, which matched up well. I think it turned out really cute done 1 over 1!




I'm now looking forward to making a start on the monthly challenge for February on the Jayne's Attic forum. The design chosen is Valentine Heart a complimentary design by Kristine Herber (Dragonfly Stitches). My fabric and thread is ready and I think I've already decided on how I would like to finish it!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! :o)

Eliza's Pyn Pillow

I can at last share a finish I've had for a couple of weeks, as today is the reveal day for the Monthly SAL Challenge on Jayne's forum. The challenge this month was to stitch Eliza's Pyn Pillow, a complimentary design from Ellen Chester (With My Needle), using our own choice of fabric, threads and finishing. I was really excited about this one as it's been on my 'to do' list forever! The chart for Eliza's Pyn Pillow can be found on the With My Needle website.

I chose to finish mine as a mattress pincushion using 32ct Belfast cream linen and substituting the listed silks for GAST Dungerees, Harvest Moon and Sable, for the letters, carnations vase and motifs and WDW Scuppermong for the stems. The date on the back was taken from Ellen Chester's Quaker Hornbook. I've also added the same little diamond motifs that are on the front of the pincushion to the back and again stitched the same motif around the edge of the pincushion.




The challenge was fun to do and all the ladies have done some wonderful finishes. I hope to be able to join the challenge again for next month. :o)

Christmas at our house

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Our eldest Jason was home from the 18th to the 29th so our's was perfect! The day before Christmas Eve we had a lovely time over at my Mum's house with a little family get-together and the day after Boxing Day we had a lovely evening with my sister Sarah and Mark. As always far too much to eat, with some of us also having a little too much to drink! Not me of course I just quietly sip away at my Baileys...lol!

This was our first Christmas in our new home. We won't be here for next year though because hopefully we should be all settled into our new self-build at Spire Hill. Christmas 2008 will be our fourth Christmas in a row in a different house!

Before it's too late and this year comes to a close I just wanted to share a few pictures of our Christmas.



This beautiful handanger ornament was sent to me by my dear stitching friend Hilary.



Every year we have a new Christmas puzzle to do. I had a lot of trouble trying to get hold of this one this year! It's Thomas Kinkade's Village Christmas. I had seen it for sale with an Amazon market place seller, used for £25 but got lucky on Ebay and won this one, brand new and the box still sealed for £13.50 including p & p. Not a very good picture I'm afraid!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and I would like to wish you
all A Very Happy New year for 2008!

My Birthday

Last Thursday was my birthday and I had just the best day! First thing my eldest Jason who lives away from home in London rang to wish me a happy birthday and to have just a quick chat because he was at work! It made my day to know he was thinking about his Mum! The rest of the day I spent with my Mum and sister Sarah. We met up in town for lunch and then went birthday shopping for me!! After our girlie shopping spree we went back to Mum's until DH Colin could pick me up on his way home from work.

I had a really lovely handbag from Colin which obviously was chosen by myself, and to hang from my new handbag my Mum bought me the gorgeous Yves Saint Laurent bag accessory you can see in the picture below. The little compacts contain the new Elle in a solid perfume and a lip gloss. I really, really love this...thank you again Mum! The little Momiji Doll came from Sarah wrapped up with some money which I still have to spend with more money! Sarah has just started to collect these herself and I shall have to start collecting them too...they are just too cute! Hidden inside is a tiny card where you can write your own special message. Sarah bought me Sister from the celebrations range. Thank you, thank you Sarah! :o) I also had a few charts I'd been wanting from Carriage House Samplings...couldn't let my birthday go by without something a little stitchy related too! :o)

A few of my pressies:

Just Nan - Tie One On

Colin remembered to bring the camera home last night so I can now share my Tie One On, Limited Edition Whimzi from Just Nan. I don't know why but it took ages to get a half decent picture of this one, it's still got a slight blur to it even now! This was nice and quick to stitch and finish in the little whimzi frame!

I'm still around...

...but there's not a lot of stitching going on here! As you can see though I've found a little time to make my blog just a little bit festive!

I do have a couple of little finishes, one I've already made up and will hopefully get to post a picture of tomorrow, that's if Colin remembers to bring the digi camera home! He's been forgetting it for about a week now but has promised faithfully he'll remember it tonight...we shall see! I had so many little Christmas projects I wanted to do which sadly won't get done now before Christmas. I'm sure I'll get a couple more finished this year though and I've promised myself I shall start a lot earlier next year. I've not really been feeling 100% for a few weeks which is why I've not been picking my stitching up in the evenings like I would do normally but I do feel more like doing a little now.

I would like to thank you all for visiting my blog and for all the wonderful comments that have been left, I appreciate them all. :o)