December's Gifted Gorgeousness

Here it is, the last GG post of the year (for more details about the GG blog hop please see Jo's blog)
I've just taken part in the annual Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange, which I'm pretty sure counts as Double GG (sounds like a bra size!)
Here is the wonderful ornament and other goodies that I received from Clare

And here is the ornament I sent to Mary

Design from this year's JCS Ornaments Issue. The red and lime are the new DMC Etoile threads. It's the first time I've used them. I wasn't sure at first as they looked as though they wouldn't give very good coverage, but actually they've worked really well and the glimmer from them is lovely and subtle.

Online Advent Calendar Blog Hop Day 1

Hello and welcome to Day 1 of this year's Advent Calendar Blog Hop. For the list of participating blogs please see the Advent Calendar page on Jo's blog.

I thought you might like to see this embroidery that I finished a couple of days ago. The design came as a printed outline on fabric from Anne Brooke (H-Anne Made) here. Such a pretty design and  I love that you can use your own threads and stitches and make it completely unique to you. As you can see I made mine look like a Winter Robin and it's very different from the one on Anne's website

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For the second part of the Advent Blog Hop Jo has asked us to talk about our favourite Christmas film. Well I don't know about anyone else but Christmas doesn't start properly in our house until we've sat down with some Gluhwein and watched Love Actually.
There are so many priceless moments in that film that it is hard to choose a favourite to share with you, but here is Billy Mack singing "Christmas Is All Around"

So if you really love Christmas, come on and let it snow

Gifted Gorgeousness for November - Nothing to See Here

Nope not a thing. No stitched gifts, no exchanges. Nothing. I have been working on a lot of gift pieces, but I can't show any of them yet. Pop over to Jo's blog to learn more about GG, and see how much better everyone else has done this month.
I did make myself this dress using fabric gifted from Minerva, so that is going to have to do.

Sorry, lots more to show after Christmas I promise

Hallowe'en Exchange, Challenge and Temperature SAL Catch Up

You know what it's like. You wait all month for a bloggable stitch, and then three come along at once!
The exchange first. This was the Hallowe'en Exchange on Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched ornament, a trick and a treat.
Here is the lovely gift I received from Mary.

Thankyou Mary, they are all wonderful. I shall be displaying my "Christine's Potions" ornament all year round.
And here is what I sent to Justine.

The ornament is a design from Aliolka , The treat is a Lush Bath Bomb, and the trick is a mint tin filled with creepy crawlies.
The Alioka designs were the chosen designs for the Seasonal Challenge on Needlecraft Haven, so that finish killed two birds with one stone, but I decided to stitch another of the designs as a gift for Eloise

So then, of course, I had to stitch one for Naomi as well, only all the Aliolka designs had that cute little spider, and Naomi does not do spiders. Not even very cute ones, so I combined Aliolka's skull motif with a kitty from a Barbara Ana design and stitched her this one (which you've already seen if you saw the Hallowe'en Blog Hop post)

And finally here is an up to date picture of my Temperature SAL

2019 Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my Trick or Treat Blog Hop Post.

Here is some Spooky Stitching

This is a combination of a couple of designs, the cat is part of this design from Barbara Ana Designs whilst the skull is from an Aliolka design

Your letter for the Blog Hop is

Now please go to An Arizona Stitcher for your next letter

Struggling to Come Up With an October GG

It's not that I haven't done any gift related crafting this month, just that none of it is with its intended recipient yet, so I can't show it.
(For a recap of Gifted Gorgeousness see Jo's blog here)
So, having wracked my brains for sometime over what to post I believe that I may well have come up with the most tenuous shoe-horn in the long and proud history of shoe-horning...
I made myself this dress last week.

Pattern is New Look 6632, and the fabric is a mid-weight lurex jersey from The Textile Centre.
How is it gift related I hear you ask. Aha! Since I don't have an overlocker, and sewed this on a regular machine, I used a short piece of vintage seam tape on the inside of each of the shoulder seams to stabilise them.
And the seam tape?
This seam tape?

It was a gift from Julie
Boom! Gifted Gorgeousness!

Gifted Gorgeousness AKA Where Did The Month Go?

Gifted Gorgeousness has snuck up on me again. In fairness August is our busiest month so it kind of slipped past me, and now here we are again with me desperately seeking something even vaguely gift related to show. (If you check out the rules for GG on Jo's Blog, you'll see that "even vaguely related" is just fine)
I did make this dress for my daughter (and the gorgeous sequin fabric was gifted from Minerva) so this will have to suffice.

The pattern is the Elsie Dress from Sew Over It.
I'll try to do better next month.

August Gifted Gorgeousness - Warning: Picture Heavy

Running a couple of days late with Gifted Gorgeousness this month as it was the annual Village Show yesterday, and since I'm Show Secretary it keeps me rather busy. If you are wondering what Gifted Gorgeousness is, by the way, you can pop over to Jo's blog for a full explanation, but the short version is it's a monthly blog hop where we show our gift related crafting.
I've got a few gifts to show this month.
First up is the VSCyberstitchers July exchange (which happens too late in the month to make the July GG post). Here is the absolutely gorgeous gift I received from Pat

And here is the one that I sent to Marietta.

Then there is this shirt that I made for DH as an anniversary gift.

The pattern is Simplicity 1544, and it is made in a lovely soft ex-Hugo Boss linen, with the contrast details in Liberty Tana Lawn.

I can thoroughly recommend this pattern, it makes a very stylish shirt, though I might be tempted to go a size smaller when I make him another one as there's a lot of ease in it.

I'm going to finish up with a few pictures of the Village Show I mentioned earlier

   

And a spot of shameless bragging about the cup I won for Best in Show Art, with this pastel drawing. (I've no idea who she is, I drew her from a photo I found online)

Naomi also won a cup for best close up floral photo, and we got quite a few 1st place cards between us, so all in all it was a very successful day.

Before and After

Before :- 

Some really rather ugly shoes from Tesco

After:-

Funky new "Fruit Salad" trainers (motifs adapted from a sampler in CrossStitcher magazine. dip-dye effect laces from EvilBay)

A Quick Update on the Temperature SAL

Spent this morning getting caught up on the Temperature SAL

Don't all those lovely warm colours around the outside make a difference to how it's lookin
In unrelated news I've had the chalk pastels out - here are some bubbles I drew, not quite sure I got them right, but it was fun playing with all those colours

Gifted Gorgeousness July

Running a little late with this month's GG post (if you aren't familiar with Gifted Gorgeousness pop over to Jo's blog for a full explanation) because I've been away for a few days attending Naomi's graduation.

Naomi Wilkins BA (Hons) - German and Italian

I haven't got a lot I can show for gifted gorgeousness this month, but there is this dress which I made for Eloise

It counts double because the beautiful slinky jersey fabric was gifted to me by Minerva Crafts as part of their Minerva Makers programme. The pattern is Simplicity 1653. Full blog post and review here

Two Bees or Not Two Bees

I completely fell in love with this wonderful golden bee printed jersey from Stitch Fabrics, and I was in such a hurry to buy it that I misread the units of sale and thought I was buying it by the half metre, when actually it was by the full metre, so naturally I ended up with twice as much as I needed.
Well there's only one thing to do when that happens - make two somethings!
First is a Tilly and the Buttons Agnes top for me.

And second a racer back tank top for Eloise (pattern is Simplicity 8338)

And just in case you thought I'd abandoned it, here is my up to date temperature SAL, look at all those lovely reds and ornages!

Gifted Gorgeousness June - AKA I blinked and Missed a Month

Well, I know it's my busy time of year, but honestly, where did that month go?
I'm afraid I've got so hopelessly behind with reading blogs that I've just had to skip ahead to now and it is time once again for Gifted Gorgeousness - Jo's blog hop where we show off anything we can vaguely shoehorn the word gift onto.
You might remember that last month I showed you the sundress I'd made for Naomi, well I've managed to finish one for Eloise as well.
Here are the two dresses together.

More tenuously, I've recently been accepted onto the Minerva Makers team at Minerva Crafts, and my first blog post for them went live a few days ago. Here is the dress I made myself from the fabric Minerva very kindly sent to me.

The pattern is Simplicity 8137

Gifted Gorgeousness - May

OK, who stole the first half of May? I'm sure it was there a minute ago. So it would seem it's time for Gifted Gorgeousness again, the time when we show off our gift related crafting. For a full description of how it all works, and to join in the fun, see Jo's blog here
So this month I have a few things to show.
You might remember that last year I made Naomi a skirt using a Botticelli print in a very fine semi-sheer cotton lawn, well she decided she'd like a sheath type dress in the same fabric to wear over a little black bodycon dress, so here is the Primavera Dress.

Front

Botticelli panels from Stitch Fabrics, pattern Simplicity 8293, adapted to omit the centre back seam, and bind the neck with a satin bias instead of using a facing which would have shown through.

Back

Next we have an organiser bucket bag I made for a friend of mine for her birthday

The girls are doing a grand tour of Europe (well bits of it anyway) in the summer so I'm making them a sundress each. This is the first one, in the fabric Naomi picked. Eloise's isn't finished yet so I'll show that next month.

Fabric is an Indian block-printed cotton, pattern is New Look 6491

As a bonus gift for me (shoehorn alert), Naomi decided she didn't care for the first fabric she chose once it had arrived - the perils of on-line shopping - so I made myself a top rather than wasting it

I think that's about it for this month. 

Easter Exchange

I thought you might like to see the ornaments from the Easter Exchange at Needle craft haven
Here is the one I sent to Sue

And here is the lovely ornament and goodies I received from Deb