Last Finish of 2014, a Gift and a wish

I've had this kit for ages and finally got round to having a go at it this week. The patchwork piece was ready made for you to add the silk ribbon embroidery. Backed with a piece of gold silk dupion and made up into a tiny pillow (or a slightly oversized pincushion depending on how you look at it)

It's opening day for the Needlecraft Haven Winter Exchange, and I was lucky enough to receive this gorgeous pincushion from Mary. The design is "A Spot of Winter" by The Drawn Thread

Thank you Mary. I love it.

And here is the one I sent. Funny how I chose to make a pincushion finish too. The chart for the one I stitched is available here

Finally I'd just like to wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year

Wishing You Joy and Serenity at Christmas

Literally

Finished both of these today. Joy ornament design from Woollen Sails (Needlecraft Haven August Challenege - just a teensy bit late)

Penguin in a Jayne Hat design from Cthulu Crochet, 

Penguin walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything. 

There are a gingerbread man and a snowman as well, but I chose this one. 

Because penguin.

Birthday Thank You

I just wanted to say thank you to all my lovely stitchy friends who sent me Birthday presents

a gorgeous stitched pillow from Sally

 a beautiful turned yew wood pen from Barb

yummy chocolate and threads from Clare

a very pretty handbag sized pen (with my name on it so no-one else can pretend they "thought it was theirs") from Karan

and a lovely silk ribbon embroidery scissor keep kit from Julie

as you can see, I've made it up already. I'd forgotton how much I enjoyed doing silk ribbion embroidery. I really must get back into it.

Thank you to all of you, you make me feel really spoiled.

And a forest grew...

...kind of.
Little patchwork trees inspired by the ones in this Liberty blog post. The "pots" are old cotton reels.

Advent Exchange

It's that time of year again, the one where we can't show anything we are making on our blogs in case the person it is meant for sees it, but what I can show is days 1-14 in my Secret Advent Exchange package. Thank you so much to my partner, you have chosen some lovely gifts for me.

Online Advent Calendar Day 4

Hello, and welcome to the Online Advent Calendar organised by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching

If you haven't been here before, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Christine and this is where I blog about my various crafts (I'll try almost anything craft related), my love of all things geeky, my family, and life in this beautiful little corner of North Cornwall. (Check the link in the sidebar if you want to see my other blog, which is dedicated to our Wedding photography business)

The "rules" for this Blog Hop are to post a picture of some Christmas stitching and write about the best present you ever had. The first one is easy. Lots and lots of Christmas stitching around here.

This is the ornament I made for the Needlecraft Haven ornament exchange. The design is by Olde Colonial Designs from this year's JCS Ornament Edition. Made pretty much as given in the magazine, except I swapped out the threads and fabric for what I had on hand that was similar in colour, and added the outer part of a shisha mirror to the top of the hanger. Because, shisha mirors.
And this is the beautiful ornament I received from Angi, and which I just adore.

Both DH and I did a spot of crafting yesterday. I made up this charm pack runner, having been inspired by one I saw on Tanesha's blog here (hers is much better than mine), and David made me the gorgeous beach pebble Christmas tree.

Well, I've prevaricated for long enough, I have to write about my best ever present, and I'm drawing a complete blank. I've had so many different great presents over the years, all wonderful in unique ways, from the bits of tinselly, glittery gluey-ness that the girls made for me when they were small, to books and crafty goodies, from beautiful bling to geeky gloriousness. I just can't single one out, so I'm hoping Jo will forgive me for writing about the worst present I ever got instead. Yes, the year that David bought me...

An ironing board cover.

Yes, an ironing board cover.

Damn thing didn't even fit the ironing board.

The rotten bugger kept his face straight for very nearly half an hour before he caved and gave me my proper present.