February's GG

Here is my February post for Gifted Gorgeousness - Jo's Blog Hop, where we get a chance to show off our gift related crafting every month.
I've got a few things this month. First is the Valentine's Exchange at Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched card, a skein of thread and some sweet treats to our partners.
Here are the goodies I received from Gill

I love the card, and will have to figure out a way to frame it so it can stay on display
And here is the card I sent to Julie.

The stitched section detaches to form an ornament. The design was one I found online, but I've forgotten where. I also forgot to take a picture of the other bits, but I sent a skein of  WDW "Ladybug" and some chocolate ladybirds/
Next is a little "plant" I made from buttons for Barb's birthday

And here is the prize I made for Jo, for winning my guess the number of finishes/books/shoes competition last year.

It says "Mae Govannen", which is Sindarin for "Well met". It's stitched in a Kate's Kloths overdyed green floss on Crafty Kitten's 32 ct Murano in Faded Olive
And finally, not stitch or craft related at all unless you count cooking, but I won  a caption competition on Ainsley Harriott's Instagram, and got this fantatsic goody-box with one of every Ainsly Foods product (there's a load more than you can see in the picture) and  best of all, a signed photo of the man himself (which is up on the kitchen wall now)

Secret Stitching Sweetheart

Welcome to the Secret Stitching Sweetheart blog hop as organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching
If you visit Jo's blog you will find a list of all the blogs participating in the hop. Each of us has sent and received a stitched picture, and none of us know where our picture will have ended up.
Here is the gorgeous picture I received:-

How adorable is that? And the cuddly little dragons? Just too cute. I love it. If you are my Secret Stitcher please own up.

I'm off now to see if I can find out where my picture ended up.

Signs of Spring

After last weeks snow we are starting to see some small signs of spring:-

Crocuses in the garden

Playing with my new toy at the beach

Some "green" days on the Temperature SAL

Snow and Stitching

Yes, we had snow. Not too exciting for some people, but it's quite unusual around here.

You can see the small patch of blue stitching showing the colder few days in my Temperature SAL

and if you look carefully you'll see that I indicated the snow by filling in the background of the relevant squares with white.

I've also stitched a Valentine's Exchange piece, which I can't show yet as it's a secret, and this little Year of the Pig ornament to add to Naomi's Chinese Zodiac collection.

He's stitched in GAST Schoolhouse Red on Crafty Kitten Just Peachy. I couldn't find a chart I liked so I charted him myself. I drew the Chinese character by looking at various New Year greetings online, I hope it does indeed say "Pig", and not one of the more colourful Chinese expressions from Firefly.

Temperature SAL

In 2018 Hetti of Stitches in Blue designed a Temperature SAL, where a small block is stitched every day of the year, the colour of which is determined by that day's temperature.  I discovered this when I saw the version that Jo stitched. I really enjoyed watching it grow over the year and loved how it turned out, so when Clare said she was going to do a 2019 version of the design and asked if anyone wanted to join her in a SAL I decided to have a go.
I'm stitching mine on Crafty Kitten 32 ct Oatmeal Murano, and using variegated threads (mostly DMC plus a couple of Fincas), and here is my progress.

Last Friday

This Friday

I'm really enjoying stitching this so far, though, as you can see, we haven't had much temperature variation here in Cornwall.

Kicking Off Gifted Gorgeousness for 2019

New year, new Gifted Gorgeousness, same format - a forum to show of our crafting gifts and gifted crafting - for full details see Jo's Blog here.
First of all some gifts I received for Christmas
This beautiful little stitched stocking from Clare

and these lovely fabrics from Karan

And here are some things I made as gifts:-

I made Eloise and Naomi a snappy pouch each. These have strips cut from a retractable metal tape measure in the top so that they snap closed. They get double GG points because I originally received my own snappy pouch and instructions on how to make them as a gift from Julie

And here is a jumper I knitted for Naomi (Pattern and Paintbox Metallic DK yarn used available here)

This is the front - nice, but not earth shattering, however take a look at the back!

I'm really pleased with how this came out.

And finally, as she was packing to go back to University, Naomi complained that she needed something to brighten up the front room of her rented house and "make it look like adults live there", so I knocked up a little runner to go on their coffee table.

Rounding Up 2018, A Winner, and a Tree Explained

Happy New Year!

Here is my annual round-up post. The official total for 2018 stands at:-

Finishes - 78
Including these two last minute ones.

The tattoo heart brooch cover kit from the January 2019 issue of Cross Stitcher, which I couldn't resist starting when the magazine popped through my door 3 or 4 days ago. It is now gracing Naomi's new laptop bag
And this little chap.

I bought a whole book to get this pattern (It was only a small book, but still)
As you can imagine the really tough part was eating the two choc-ices to get the sticks for his skis. I am a martyr to my crafting.

Books read - 46
A bit down on previous years, but in my defence some of them were pretty long books

Shoes bought - 8
Yes, I was very restrained this year wasn't I?

So, that makes a total of 132, and the closest with a guess of 73, 54 and 12, was, for the 2nd year running

Jo!

Well done Jo, a prize will be on it's way. 

Please comment  on this post with your guesses for 2019 if you want to be in the competition next year.

Finally a tree explained. In my last post I showed you my Geekmas Tree - I've got so many geeky decorations that we decided they merited a tree of their own and so the concept of the Geekmas Tree was born. (we also have a much more traditional tree in the living room). I challenged you to spot the fandoms and other geekiness represented. It would have been hard to get them all as they aren't all clearly visible in the photo, but here goes.

The angel on the top is Castiel from Supernatural and then reading from the top of the tree down we have:-

An ornament made from Scrabble tiles

A Golden Snitch (Harry Potter)

An ornament made from Lego bricks

A stitched penguin wearing a Jayne Cobb hat (Firefly)

Winnie the Pooh

Iron Man 

Batman

A Chemistry bauble with an organic molecule on it (the one that gives Christmas trees their smell)

Thor

Deadpool

Donald Duck

A bauble that says "Shiny" (Serenity/Firefly quote)

A glass Dalek (Doctor Who)

A stitched Hello Kitty

Ghostbusters

Tigger

A Winchester Brothers bauble (Supernatural)

Captain America

A stitched Lieutenant Worf (Star Trek TNG)

A glass TARDIS (Doctor Who) also a gingerbread TARDIS and a stitched TARDIS

A stitched Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek TNG)

The Incredible Hulk

and an undead fairy