Is there a teenager in the house?

In point of fact there are now TWO
(be afraid, be very afraid),
because Naomi is 13 today.....
Yes, my baby is all grown up
It only seems yesterday when she looked like this!
A good post day too. I won a door prize from Arachne's Silken Web at the Online Needlwork Show, and it came today. Isn't it lovely? Sadly I fear there is absolutely no chance whatsoever of this one being done by Christmas...

I'm weak!

What can I say? Saw it, wanted it, bought it!
This is J'arrive from Tournicoton (available in the UK from HollieStitch) isn't it just gorgeous?
What do you think my chances are of having it done for Christmas?

Two scary things and a long awaited finish

Looking cute for Halloween is seriously uncool when you are 15 and nearly 13, so here are the two undead creatures that manifested themselves in our house last night.

I'm lucky I survived the night with my brains uneaten!



A couple of weeks ago Heidi posted a picture of a cushion she'd just made from something she'd stitched years before, and suggested we hunt out something similarly old and finish it.

Well I immediately thought of a piece from an old TGOSM that was languishing in the bottom of my stitching basket, and on Friday I dug it out.
At this point you need to take a pause and fully understand the scope of that statement. This was not merely a case of looking underneath a couple of charts, this was a major logistical excercise involving the painstaking movement of multiple teetering piles of magzines, fabrics, wool, patterns and books, the temporary loss of the study carpet, and a lot of very pithy words. Anyway, I got there in the end, and I now have a lovely new knitting bag to show for it.

Insert Happy Dance here ;D

Go on, find something old and finish it, you know you want to....

Spooky, piratey, crafty fun

Is "piratey" a word? It is now!

I was expecting to be doing something else today (long story) but it got postponed, and I found myself at a loose end. I'd seen instructions on the web for making skull beads from polymer clay, so a Mum and daughters craft afternoon seemed called for.


Spooky little crania duly modelled, cooked and painted, and strung into very piratey/emo bracelets. Aren't they the cutest most adorable little skullies you've ever seen?

Yet more October ornaments

Two this time, the first is the Monthly Challenge from the Jayne's Attic Forum (Gaynor, Jayne's shop has closed, but the forum is still active here). This month we chose a complimentary design from The Drawn Thread. I changed mine slightly from the original to "anglicise" my birdies a little bit, so I've got two robins, a blackbird, a wood pigeon and a bluetit, (but not a partridge because its not a pear tree). It doesn't show too well in the photo but the fabric is a remnant from a grey and white hand dye with an irridescent finish. I think it came from Silkweaver in the first place.

When I came to finishing this one every trimming I put on it looked top heavy and overdone, so I ended up just pinning a very plain organza bow to the bottom.

The other finishes are in the album here

The second one is a design from Heidi's blog. The only change I made to this one was to put the pudding onto a blue plate. I wanted a very naive, primitive finish on this so I made it up as a little cushion, then very roughly buttonhole stitched the edges and added some little buttons.

Off now to see if I can squeeze in another ornie by the end of the month!

Another October Ornament

...for the Monthly Ornament SAL at Jaynes Attic. This one is a complimentary design by Midnight Stitching.
I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment, so I'm making the most of it, you never know how long it might last!

A little gift

I made this small gift for one of the teachers at school, who has just had a baby girl. No prizes for guessing baby's name ;)


The fabric it is lying on is what I used to back it.