Christmas Thanks and A Happy New Year

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy and Peaceful New Year

Before we finish with 2015 though, I'd like to share some of the wonderful Christmas presents I received from on line friends

From the top left, a beautiful turned wood scissor block, assortment of Carrie's threads and a decorative tape measure in the shape of an ice cream cone from Nancy (no blog), an adorable penguin shaped handwarmer from Barb, two skeins of dragon floss and a gorgoeus little trillium shaped pouch made from kimono fabric from Karan, some delicious penguin chocolates from Julie and some fun Christmas socks, a thimble and a little chocolate yummy from Clare. 

Thank you all so much, I'm feeling very spoiled.

And if all that wasn't enough, I also won these two adorable little decorative elephants in the East on line Advent Calendar

Christmas was not, of course, without its customary geekiness, as, among other things, the girls presented me with these awesome goodies

My very own Davros, an Azog the Defiler coaster (because who doesn't want to put her tea down on the Pale Orc), and a wonderful cosy fleece Star Trek scarf (Science Officer blue of course).

I'll share some of the things I made for other people in a later post.

Happy Christmas

Exchange and Birthday Gifts

The Needlecraft Haven ornament exchange partners have now been revealed. I showed this beauty before when I received it, and I can now tell you that the exquisite beadwork was done by Lindsay. Thank you Lindsay I love it.

And here is my ornament which went to Angi (I don't think Angi has a blog). The holly design is from the same French magazine as the Holly Girl ornament in this post

I also wanted to share all the lovely stitchy related goodies I got for my birthday from on-line friends

Clockwise from top right: A lovely Tournicton sampler chart from Karan, two fat quarters of gorgeous penguin fabric from Julie, Some super nautical themed linen type fabric and a decorative tin of pins with an ingenious click-close lid from Barb, a beautiful stitched pillow ornament from Sally and a skein of Caron thread and a pretty beaded stitch marker from Clare. Thank you all ladies, I love them all

Gifted Gorgeousness - December

It is the day to show our "Gifted Gorgeousness" as hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching

Yes...

Well...

This will be a Christmas present for a friend

How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away

Number One. The Larch   The Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree. The Christmas tree.

David knocked this up for me from an old pallet we had in the garden (doesn't everyone have random old pallets lying around? No? Just us then?). 

Its just a 2:1 ratio triangle cut around the central strut thingy - I'm sure the central strut thingy has a proper name but I've no idea what - and then I stencilled a few simple snowflakes onto it. Ta Da! Almost instant Pinterest level Christmas loveliness. 

What's This? What's This?

I made a little wreath

There are children throwing snowballs

Instead of throwing heads

Jack Skellington bauble made by drawing with sharpie on a plain white bauble and adding a felt collar, otherwise normal decorations and florists supplies.

On-line Advent Calendar Day 6 and An Exchange Received

Welcome to day 6 of the On-line Advent Calendar as brought to us by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching.
This year Jo has asked us to talk about Christmas Eve traditions in our families and/or corners of the globe.
We aren't the kind of family who tend to always do the same things on the same days, and now that the girls are grown we don't leave out a mince pie and a glass of whisky for Father Christmas, she just goes into the kitchen and fetches her own whisky thank you very much.
We do pretty much always have a baked ham for tea on Christmas Eve, and sometimes we'll play a board game or cards as a family. Monopoly used to be a particular favourite and, of course, it will come as no surprise to regular readers that I have Star Trek TNG Monopoly, (and if Mum doesn't get to play with the little model Jean-Luc as her token there will be words had), but again, the girls being grown, it's as likely to be Poker or Cards Against Humanity these days.
Anyway without any real family traditions to share I am substituting a traditional Cornish Christmas Carol ~ The Sans Day Carol ~ St Day is a village near Redruth if you're wondering where the name comes from
Now to the piece of Christmas Stitching we are supposed to show. Ahem. Not got any. (Blush)
I was going to show the ornament I sent out for the Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange, but it's a secret exchange and since, unfortunately. a couple of them are held up in transit so we haven't had the reveal yet so I can't post that picture. I can post a picture of the one I received though, so we will have something pretty for those of you who have stuck with this long and rambling post.
Here it is.

It is so much more sparkly and beautiful in real life you can't begin to imagine. Thank you partner, I adore it.

This Week I 'Ave Been Mostly...

(insert your favourite "Fast Show" joke here)

...sewing
I discovered a lovely folded fabric ornament on Cathy's blog (Crafty Cat)
The original tutorial is by Crouton Crackerjacks and can be found on You Tube here.
I have to say I didn't find it as easy as he makes it look. He sewed 2 fabric circles together, turned it out, gave it a little poky with a chopstick and got a perfect circle.
Yeah, right. I got an irregular polygon...
Still it came out OK in the end I think.

The sparkly bit in the middle was originally a decoration on a fancily wrapped bar of soap I got last Christmas.
The bulk of my sewing adventures have been quilt related though. Following on from the Kantha Quilt I made for Nim, I decided to make another for us. This one uses the blue and red coloured squares from a Moda Layer Cake called Beach House and will live in the conservatory with all my other beachy bits and pieces.

Look out for future projects using the leftover green, aqua and pinky squares

At Last! Some Stitching!

Yay! I finally did some stitching. This little Holly Girl is part of a design from a French cross stitch magazine (De Fil en Aiguille - Nov/Dec 08 issue), that I acquired from Sally (Thanks Sally). There are loads of lovely designs in it so expect to see more soon. I stitched it using orphan threads from my "I am never going to stitch that hideous cover kit but the threads might come in handy" bag and made it up into an ornament with a gold ric rac edging which is a bit sparklier than it looks in the picture

And another view of Prague, this one drawn with Derwent  pastel pencils on black Murano pastel paper

A Holiday and Gifted Gorgeousness - November Edit

Gifted Gorgeousness is a SAL organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. On the fifteenth of each month we post about something craft and gift related.
Sally very kindly gifted me this lovely LHN chart "Potted Poinsettia"

I was hoping to have it finished and re-gift the chart in this post but that didn't happen. Stitching time was curtailed this month by a mini-break to Prague. If you've never been I recommend it, it's a beautiful city. Here are a few pictures.

And finally in other craft news, I made another Pinterest inspired felt ornament. This one is supposed to be a Nativity

I believe there may be a special level of hell reserved for those of us who succeed in making the infant Jesus look like some kind of elaborate sea slug.

A Little Progress

Still not what you'd exactly call a blanket, but a little bit closer to one:-

I've finished a Christmas Ornament too, but it's for an exchange so I can't show it yet

The Most Tenuous Gifted Gorgeousness Yet

It's Gifted Gorgeousness day, the day where we show our gift related projects in the SAL organised by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. 

I've not a lot to show this month, but I have been playing with felt to make this little chap, who was inspired by some lovely little fat felt robins I saw on Pinterest. Anyway, some of the felt I used I won in a Facebook Giveaway from Felted Fancies (great site by the way), so it's kind of a gifted gorgeousness make.

I bought myself a little gadget the other day for attaching snap fasteners (because I'd made myself a shirt and I'm rubbish at buttonholes), and I just loved the brand name. 

I think you will too.

An Ornament Finish

Here is my finish for the Monthly Ornament Challenge at Needlecraft Haven.

We are not going to mention that it is June's Monthly Ornament Challenge.
The design is from The Primitive Hare here, stitched with orphan bits of thread and linen, and finished as a flat ornament with some lime green pompoms along the bottom, because, after all, there is nothing in that cannot be improved by the addition of lime green pompoms.

September's Gifted Gorgeousness

It's Gifted Gorgeousness Day SAL, the day when we show something we have recieved, made as or made from a gift. As explained much better on Jo's Blog. Here is my September offerering.
A little Happy Sushi purse, all ready for Naomi to take off to Uni.
And a crochet blanket... NOT all ready to take off to Uni
Oh well, maybe it'll be finished by Christmas.

Just for fun I thought I'd share September's page from my kitchen calendar. It features vintage advertising images, and while some of them are lovely, others have not stood the test of time as well and are frankly quite bizarre. Like this one, which clearly illustrates a psychopathic older sister, force feeding her little brother a delicious bowl of Cornflakes and Strychnine.

Mod Kantha Quilt

Naomi is off to university in a couple of weeks, so I made her this little kantha stitched quilt.

The design is based on one in an old issue of Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine, I added in a couple of solid colours and only did the kantha stitching on the solid blocks, and made it a block bigger in both directions.
The prints are from Robert Kaufmann's Mod Tex range and the inner layers and backing are flannel (I used vintage flannel sheets for the inside layers)
Now if only the blanket I was trying to crochet for her would grow a little faster. At this rate she'll be lucky to get it for Christmas...

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.

July Gifted Gorgeousness

and only a couple of days late as well.
Gifted gorgeousness is a SAL organised by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching, where once a month we show off gift related stitchy stuff. I'ts been a busy week here with the village carnival, a week long event culminating in the carnival itself tomorrow, (pictures to follow) and four weddings in eight days so crafty type things have been on the back burner a bit. I did make up these three little coin purses, and the Strawberry Shortcake fabric was a gift from Shroo so that counts right?

Also I received a lovely gift through the post from Mary Anne, of all these fabulous pieces of old lace. I shall have to think of something extra special to use them for, maybe combine them with some of my denim squares in some way...

Cushions and Bunting

When I bought the panel I used for this bag, I couldn't resist buying another design as well. Here it is made up into a cushion complete with super duper orange pompom trim. (Hello, my name is Christine and I am a pompomoholic)

Fabic panel from Cat & Vee.
DH had some less than tactful things to say about how much we didn't need another @#$* cushion.
It now lives on his pillow.
Mine is an evil laugh...


And here is some bunting I knitted (mostly because I'm rubbish at crochet)

Gifted Gorgeousness - The June Edit

The fifteenth of the month. Time for Gifted Gorgeousness as hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching, in which we show off any stitched gifts or gifted stitching.
Recently Hazel from Quietly Stitching very kindly gifted me a Loopylou chart, Tranquility, that she'd finished with, along with the leftover speciality threads, and this is my (meagre) start on it, (recommended threads on mushroom coloured fabric)

I love Hardanger, and I'm enjoying every stitch of this so far. Thank you Hazel :)
The link up post for the SAL is here if you want to see the other posts.

Gone to Pot

Not much crafting going on here lately so I thought I'd share a couple of garden pictures. I love heucheras, I've got several different coloured ones in pots around the garden so I couldn't resist buying this lovely dark one, "Liquorice" when I saw it at the Royal Cornwall Show last week. I've just finished planting it up into this display for by the front door alongside Cosmos "ChocaMocha", the chocolate cosmos, which is almost the same colour and has the added bonus of smelling exactly like chocolate.

I've seen a lot of pictures on Pinterest of "fairy gardens" made from broken terracotta pots, so I had a rummage and found a couple of old pots and some broken bits, and planted them up with some off shoots from my houseleeks, moss and a little bit of Corsican Mint

I'm not at all sure about this at the moment, it's nothing like the picture I had in my head, but I'm hoping it will look better when the little succulents establish themselves.

A Small Challenge Finish

It's reveal day for the Monthly Ornament Challenge at Needlecraft Haven
This month the design was from Ajisai designs (chart here)

I missed off the background blackwork snowflakes from mine as they didn't really show up on the fabric I chose, replaced the backstitch bow with one made from real ribbon and finished it as a mug cosy (you can't see in the photo but it fastens around the handle with a button and ribbon loop)

A Cover Kit and Some Sewing

There was a half decent cover kit on Cross Stitcher magazine this month, so long as you ignored the minor irritation of it telling you to use a loop start and stitch with three strands. Yeah, sure, OK,,,how?  How do I do a loop start with an odd number of strands? Oh, and also, if you want me to use a loop start don't cut the threads to 12" lengths. Just saying...
Anyway other than that it was a nice little kit to make this brooch.

I really enjoy stitching on these wooden blanks. He's a bit bigger than I'd normally wear a brooch, but I think he might look quite good on my denim jacket.
On the sewing front I actually made something for me for a change. This is Simplicity 1612 made up in a nice ponte roma jersey I found on EvilBay.

Some slight tweaks to the pattern, (see my full pattern review here if you're interested) but it made up quite quickly, and I'm thinking of making another in a lighter weight jersey. I particularly like this soft-twist keyhole effect at the back.