August's Gifted Gorgeousness - Warning: Picture Heavy

It's time for Gifted Gorgeousness again - when we show our gift related crafting - for a full explanation see Jo's blog here.
This month I'm showing the gifts  sent and received in the VSCyberstitchers July exchange.
Here is the gorgeous sheep design pincushion I received from Margaret.

Isn't it beautiful? I just love everything about it - the design, the ruffly ribbon edging, that sweet little button...
And here is the little pillow I made for Linda.

I didn't have a pattern for this one, I saw a photograph of a similar design on Pinterest and sort of made my own version up.
Also in gift related stitching, a little something I made for Eloise's new kitchen.

And not gift-related at all, it was the Village Show yesterday, so here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Some of the flowers

 and pot plants.

Look at these stunning fuchsias.

Cookery Section: "Picnic for Two" and cakes,

jams, bread and children's cookery section

and some of the floral art,

and children's floral displays.

We did quite well, with quite a few individual class wins.

I got a 2nd prize with the little basket of peppers and aubergines front left in the picture, and a first with my cherry tomatoes, which you can see in the background.

Naomi got a first place with this flower arrangement. The theme was "Good Enough to Eat",  and lots of prizes for her baking, and art.

 Naomi's decorated cupcakes

One of her drawings

The overall prizes were a close run thing this year; Naomi was one point off winning the Most Points in Cookery Trophy, whilst luck swung the other way for me and I took the Most Points in Handicraft Trophy by a single point. I also won the trophy for Best in Show Art with this pastel picture

.
Bonus blog points if you can tell who it is.

The Last Gifted Gorgeousness of 2017

And also the hardest, because it's December, and whilst I've made tons of stuff for gifts I can't show any of it yet!
(If you're not sure what Gifted Gorgeousness is then pop over to visit Serendipitous Stitching - the blog of Jo, who invented the concept  of showing off our gift related crafting every month, and runs the SAL - for an explanation of the rules (though to quote Captain Barbossa they're "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules")
Returning to my annual December quandary, I think these might be safe to show: three little stitched gift tags for the family's Christmas presents.

Double GG points because the tags themselves were a cover gift with Cross Stitcher magazine. I used an alphabet chart I found on the internet instead of the Christmas motifs that came with the kit, and subbed in some of my own threads to get the colour schemes I wanted.
And then there is this.

These little knitted #christmasangels have been appearing throughout the village this week, and the other day I went outside to find some wonderful person had hung one on my door handle. More information about the project can be found here

The Village Show

It was the annual village show last weekend, and I thought you might like to see some pictures.
Prize winning vegetables:-

Not that I can claim credit for any of those, other than the very tiny cherry tomatoes in the centre and a bundle of rhubarb

There were some lovely flowers as well (again none of these are mine)

We did rather better in the Art and Handicrafts section though, winning lots of classes between us as well as three Best in Shows

Mr Penguin, who I've shown on here before won Best in Show - Handicraft

and I got a 1st with this floral arrangement in the class called "Beachcombing"

Eloise got a second place with this life drawing:-

Naomi won the class for Celebration Cake

 and got 1st and 2nd with her pastels (you can see her winning one. of ballet shoes.in this picture)

The large watercolour painting of silver birch trees in mad colours is mine and took Best in Show - Art. I suppose I ought to buy a frame for it...

Village Show

Yesterday was our Annual Village Show. Here are couple of snaps of some of the flowers and vegetables.

And these are some seriously impressive parsnips

No I didn't grow them. I did get a 2nd place with some rhubarb though.
We did rather better than our measly one 2nd place card on the cookery and handicrafts side though, bringing home three trophies and a few class tickets.
Here are a drawing and a pen and wash I did which came first in their respective classes

I also got the cup for Best in Show - Handicrafts for this cross stitch.

I think the judge was mostly impressed by the fact that it's done on black 32ct fabric.
Naomi and I did some of the more involved entries between us, and got the cup for Best in Show - Cookery with our "Afternoon Tea". Ours is the second one in the picture, with the blueberries and strawberries scattered through it, not the one nearest the camera.

And the trophy (it's a rather impressive cut glass bowl) for a themed display based on a novel for this Pride and Prejudice themed entry.

Naomi also did really well with her baking, missing out on the cup for most points in cookery by just one point.
Lets just say we are going to be eating a lot of cake for the next couple of days.

Carnival Time!

Last weekend saw the annual village carnival and I thought I'd share  a few pictures.

Only at Carnival would you see a Roman Centurion waiting for an Electric bus.
Here is our car all dressed up and looking pretty ready for for the parade

We got third place in our class, but don't get too excited, there were only three entries.
And here is Naomi in her "Beached Mermaid" costume.

Let's have a close up look at the scale effect make up and the fishhook prosthetic she made

Gruesome huh?
She didn't win any prizes but I think maybe the idea was a little too "out there" for a small village carnival

August Gifted Gorgeousness

August is a busy month for me, loads of weddings together with the annual Village Show of which I am secretary don't leave me much time for crafting so I don't have very much to show for this month's Gifted Gorgeousness as hasted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching.
I did run up this little elephant from and old pillowcase though, following a tutorial I found here, and since I've given him to Eloise I guess he counts.

And here is a quick snap from the show.

I didn't grow any of these, my garden is largely full of weeds. I mostly enter on the Art and Handicrafts side. This year I entered various bits and pieces I've shown on here before, including my upcycled denim apron, one of my little purses and a patchwork bag, and managed to amass enough points to win the cup for most points in handicrafts. Yay me :)

Mollie Makes Strikes Again

It's been another wedding heavy couple of weeks. Five in two weeks this time. For those of you who commented last time about my active social life, I wish! These were all work weddings. If you want to see pictures they are in the other blog. I've been so busy I just realised I spent all July with my calendar still set to June. No wonder I could never figure out what day of the week it was!
I promised carnival pictures in my last post so here is a snap of the girls ready for the parade

And here is some yarn bombing that appeared in the park, and about which which I don't know anything at all. Not me. Nope. Not a thing...

I did find a little bit of time for crafting last week though when Mollie Makes plopped through the door and I immediately fell in love with the adorable little cuddly felt cacti.

To give an idea of scale the little pots are just over an inch tall. The pale green one is made exactly as given in the magazine, but I added a flower to the darker one (flower made the same way as I described in this post)
I thought you might want to see what Naomi has been busy doing too. She bought herself a Doctor Who t-shirt on Evilbay.

It was described as a "small", but when it arrived it was a medium, and a man's medium at that. It drowned her. So following a tutorial she found online, she converted it into this loose racer back top.

Complete with funky wired back detail.

Showtime and Sharp Objects

I thought you might like to see some photos from the village horticultural show last Saturday. No, I didn't grow any of these fabulous veggies, but I am show secretary so that must count for something right?

As for the sharp objects, I treated myself to the beginners paper cutting kit from the lovely Paper Panda. Oh dear, I needed a new obsession hobby like I needed a hole in the head. Looks like I found one anyway.

I made these two cuts using templates from the starter kit. I even ended up with the same number of fingers as I started out with.

Yes that is a tea ring on the birdy one. The only reason the culprit is still breathing is because I don't actually know which one of them it was...

Anyway, all inspired by doing those I made one of my own.

Words by Page and Plant, cutting by Christine.

The tiny butterflies are a conscious design choice and by no means intended to disguise small mistakes in the cutting.

Off now to cut up some more stuff.