Catching up with Challenges

Hot on the heels of the June Monthly challenge I have now finished July's. This is Cardinal Heart from Kissy Cross (chart here), although I tweaked mine to make it a Robin Heart.
A bit of an experimental finish, I cut it out about 1/4" away from the stitching, glued it down onto the fabric tag, leaving the edges free, did a quick running stitch around the outside, and frayed it back a bit to the glue/running stitch.
The "tag" is a furnishing fabric swatch from that well known British store where we all buy our underwear. It's "Bowen Chenille" in red if you're interested.
I'm just wondering if it needs a little ribbon bow under the heart. What do you think?

I've been having another bit of a play with paper cutting as well. This one is from a purchased template (from Stacey Sansom - here). It didn't quite fit the frame I had so I've had to improvise a bit but I quite like it.

A Late Challenge and A Pebble

So, I finally finished my June Challenge for the Needlecraft Haven Monthly Ornament Challenge (yes, I do know it's September).

The chart is from Luli, and can be found here. I moved the text across a bit on mine to make the design a little more circular so it would fit in the lid of this gold satin box (part of my Advent Exchange parcel from Becs last year). Fabric is Sparklies "Autumn Glow", which matches the satin beautifully, threads are just what I had lying around.
For a long time I've been admiring all the lovely crochet covered pebbles I've been seeing around the interwebs. Sadly crochet is something I've never quite been able to grasp, I can do a granny square, or simple things like the notorious Mollie Makes apple cosy (here), but I know my limitations and lacy stuff is beyond me, so here is my take on the crochet pebble cover.
A tiny vintage doily stretched and stitched around a varnished pebble. I'm really pleased with how it came out, and may have to make some more.

Here it is in its new home in my collection of beachy treasures, or as David calls it when he walks into it, or knocks something over and breaks one of the glass tanks the sea glass is in (which happens with depressingly monotonous regularity), my pile of old junk.

Summer Postcard Bloghop

I have received a postcard in the Summer Postcard blog hop organised by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.

My lovely postcard comes from Chiara at The Grey Tail

Chiara wrote:-

“ciao Summer Stitcher!

these are pictures of what I’ve been working on this summer. sometimes clearly summer/garden related, sometimes you need to refer to the post I wrote about them in order to see it my way. here is a link: http://thegreytail.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/a-summer-garden-galore/

now, I have a soft spot for gardens, as a matter of fact I plan to work on our family garden this spring so that it will host a variety of flowers and herbs preserved by the Seed Savers Exchange organisation.

I appreciate big big gardens too, one that you can visit nearby where I live is the garden surrounding Villa Pisani, a beautiful place with big gardens, a small wood - and a maze! I blogged about it here if you want to lean more about the place: http://thegreytail.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/getting-lost/

I hope you had a great summer, our wasn’t hot at all and very rainy. the kind I like! 😉

big hugs, chiara”

Visit Chiara's blog for more details about all the beautiful stitching in the photo, and Jo's blog to see all the other blogs taking part in the hop