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.

This Used to be Jeans

Not as in "I have stolen it from Jean"  as in "made from recycled denim", a pile of hanging heart ornaments and a couple of Christmas stockings. (There was another, but I sold it before I got a picture.)
They are available for sale in my Folksy shop

A Very Naughty Sampler

So, I stitched this sampler for Naomi's birthday.

Do not scroll down to the picture if you are likely to be offended by four letter words

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No, really don't

Oh you did.

There you go then:-

Trick or Treat Hallowe'en Blog Hop

Yes it's time for the annual Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop, as organised by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching
Now the plan goes like this. You post a picture of something spooky that you have stitched, you post your letter, and then you post the link to the next blog in the list. Visitors follow the blogs in order, collecting the letters and finally finishing up back at Jo's with the complete spooky word or phrase and a chance to win a prize.
Well the thing with plans is, they don't always go according to, well, plan.
I've had some computer problems lately. In the true spirit of Hallowe'en Dr David is trying to resurect my dead hard drive. I'd like to say he is working in a dank and creepy basement, but we don't have one! He has managed to retrieve my word documents (My writing. It lives! It lives!), but so far none of my pictures, so I've had to resort to going onto the interwebs and re-downloading something I'd previously uploaded to my Folksy shop. It's not cross-stitched, but it is stitched.

I hope you're still with me here, this is turning into a novel! Anyway, without further ado, your letter is:-

Now, hop on your broomsticks and head for Crafty Weasel (what a wonderful name for a blog!), and your next letter

Cutting Again

This is getting to be an obsession! I did these three on Friday.
Well, actually I did four but the other one is a bit sweary (well OK it's a LOT sweary) so I'm not sure about posting it on my blog.

These ones are fairly small, the red ones are about 3" square

In other news David tried to throw a away a ripped pair of jeans the other day. Have I taught him nothing???? They have been rescued, and will shortly make an appearance as "something new"

Playing With Knives

I've been cutting things up again.
First to feel the wrath of my blade (yep, I've been reading WAY too many fantasy novels) was a big pile of worn out denims.
Naomi came in the other day and said "You know those jeans I gave you that were too tight, well I've lost weight and I think they'd fit now"
Too late babe, they're a handbag...

Pattern from Indygo Junction here, outer bag from old denims (including one slightly undersized pair of size 8 skinnies, thanks Naomi), lining and pockets from a vintage pillowcase, handles from U Handbag.
I love how this has come out and I can see several variations in the future.
After that I decided to slice up some paper, this is my own design, though not, of course, my own words.

I love that song. Hard to get it to show in the picture but the little diamonds (which were a swine to cut!) are infilled with silver metallic paper and the whole thing is backed with holographic blue card.

Friendship Bloghop

To mark her milestone 500th follower Jo, from Serendipitous Stitching has organised a Friendship Blog Hop to celebrate the friendships we have found through blogging, where we are each allocated another blogger to whom we should dedicate our post.
My allocated blogger is Pat who blogs at The Southpaw Stitcher
Pat's blog tagline reads "I love it all: embroidery, canvas work, quilting, crochet. So much to do and so little time" and a look through her blog shows that not only does she love many needle related techniques but she does beautiful work in all of them.
I decided this piece, designed by The Victoria Sampler, with its  wide variety of needlework techniques, including Hardanger, ribbon embroidery and Bargello work, and its "special friends" sentiment, would be ideal for this post, tying in with both Pat's love of all needlework and Jo's theme of friendship.
So Pat (and Jo) this one's for you ;)

Now, I wonder who got me...

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

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.

An Exchange Received

You might remember I posted the gift I'd sent out in the VSCyberstitchers exchange in this post.
Well my gift arrived this week. Look what I got!

Donna sent me this beautiful dragon fob in shades of green and purple. You can't really tell from the photo, but in real life it is very sparkly, with dozens of iridescent beads. Thank you Donna, I love it.

Carnival 2014

It was the village Carnival yesterday. Naomi went as Lara Croft

Eloise went as a completely terrifying undead thing...

Ah, how I miss the princess days. Honestly, how authentic do those make-up bruises look? I think the St John's Ambulance people thought all their birthdays had come at once.

An Exchange on it's Way

I've just finished my piece for the VSCyberstitchers July Exchange. This exchange is a little different from many others in that we can show pictures of the piece we are sending in advance, we just can't say to whom we are sending it.

Anyway my mystery recipient will be receiving this little thread roll (or I suppose she could use it as a small jewellery roll instead if she wanted).

Outside

Inside

Rolled Up

It's stitched with Victorian Motto Sampler Threads on a piece of Crafty Kitten fabric (I think, I've mislaid the bag I took it out of). The lining is made from offcuts of silk dupion, with mother of pearl thread rings. I was really lucky to find the embroidered piece of dupion, I think it matches the colours and theme of the stitching. rather nicely.

The quote is from "A Winter's Tale", design by me.

I hope she likes it.

A Bunch of Flowers

Corsage pins to be precise, made in the same way as the felt flowers in this post, but with the addition of petals of folded fabrics (some new, some vintage).
I will admit these were so much fun to make that I might have got a bit carried away...

This Weekend's Makes

Another version of the Simplicity 1463 top from this post. This one is in the same lace (it doesn't use very much, I did both tops with 1m and have some left over) and a manga print jersey. Modelled (with attitude) by Naomi. Again I had to cut a size smaller, this is an XS.

This time I remembered to take a picture of the back.

Also I decided that since we're having a spot of summer I should replace the "spring" wreath on the front door. Last year's summery one (see this post) was looking a bit sad when I got it out of the garage, so I freshened it up with a boat and some teeny tiny bunting.

And yes, the front door HAS been painted