Better Late Than Never

My finish for the Winter Challenge at Needlecraft Haven that is. It should have been finished by the end of February.
We had a choice of a Christmas or a Non-Christmas design, and I went for the Non-Christmas one, a sweet little bullfinch from Aliolka (Chart here, there is also a Bluetit, which I might go back and do later)

I finished it off as a small pillow with a log cabin style mis-matched fabric border
At least I'm up to date on my Temperature SAL...

Hearts and Sloths

You may remember the sloth I knitted for Naomi in January, (pattern from Fiona Goble), no sooner had I shown it to her than one of her friends asked if I could knit her one as well, so here we have sloth #1 and sloth #2.

It's reveal day for the Needlecraft Haven Monthly Challenge. This month we all stitched this design from The Primitive Hare.

Mine is stitched in Carrie's Creations Sorbet (with the key in GAST Wrought Iron) and finished with some lovely deep rose coloured ric rac and a little black bow.
The gallery of everyone's finishes can be found here
And finally, this is the little heart shaped ornament I stitched for the Secret Sweethearts blog hop.

Design from Le Grenier de Zoe, stitched with orphan threads on Crafty Kitten Vintage Petals linen, and trimmed with some vintage lace.

Sloths and Challenges

Naomi doesn't just like snarky quotations from cult TV shows, she's also rather partial to sloths, so when I saw a pattern for a knitted sloth I knew I had to make her one.

The pattern is from Fiona Goble, and it's knitted mostly in King Cole Tinsel.
Also Sunday was reveal day for the Monthly Challenge. This month we had a pattern from La Contesse et le Point de Croix. I stitched mine on some orphan blue linen, and made it up into a small patchwork cushion.

Monthly Challenge, Dressmaking and Upcycling

Sunday was reveal day for the Needlecraft Haven Monthly Ornament Challenge. This month we did these fairisle style heart designs from Luli.
Here is mine, stitched in my favourite variegated red (Crescent Colours - Ruby Slippers), and white, and finished off with a teeny tiny pom pom trim.

The rest of the gallery is here
I've also been doing a spot of dressmaking. This is my version of the Lisette Traveller dress, done in a white broderie anglais for the bodice and a Lewis and Irene print cotton for the skirt, and finished with vintage buttons. I think it has a nice mid-century modern vibe.

I just hope we get enough good weather for me to be able to wear it!
And finally the upcycling. I'm sure you've seen the fancy marble coasters in the high end shops (eg John Lewis have a set of four for £20).
I picked up these ex-display samples of composite stone worktops for 10p each at a local DIY place.

All I needed to do was stick some self adhesive felt on the backs of them. Bargain!

Completely Forgot!

It was reveal day last Sunday for the Needlecraft Haven Monthly Challenge. This month we all stitched our own versions of this New Year design from Aliolka.
Yes It's a Penguin. No I'm not sorry.
I stitched mine using Gloriana silks, and finished him into a little pillow

The other finishes can be seen in the gallery here. It's always fun seeing how different people interpret the same design.

Better Late Than Never

Two finishes!
The March and April Monthly Ornament Challenges from Needlecraft Haven (don't ask about the May Challenge, I'm thinking I'll skip it and move right on to June)
The March Challenge was from Sub Rosa here.
As always, I re-worked the little Cardinal birds to make them into robins. I wanted a simple finish for this one and planned just to hem-stitch the linen all around. Yes, well... I cut the fabric too close by mistake and my simple finish turned out to be anything but. It's taken me ages.
The idea is to tie it around a fat church candle at Christmas, but I don't have any of those to hand, so here it is tied around a Cornishware jug instead.

The April Challenge was from Romy's Cross Stitch here.
I don't know about you, but normally I start by choosing my thread colours, then pick the fabric that works best, and finally choose the trimmings when the stitching is finished. This one I went about completely backwards, by knowing which trimmings I wanted to use, namely two funky coloured jingle bells that came attached to a re-usable Christmas bubble bar/wand from Lush.
The result is definitely not what you would describe as being traditional Christmas colours, but I think it's rather fun.

Take Two

The Monthly Challenge, restitched, on pre-stained fabric, without the colour runs. 

The chart is from Pineberry Lane and can be found here

Finished in a deliberately primitive style (I can do blanket stitch neater than that, honest), with tea stained lace, a twine bow and a rusty bell

Mind you, the final placement of one of the tea stains is a bit dubious

Rudolf!

 I nearly trod in that! I ought to rub your stupid red nose in it!

Fail!

I learned a lesson this week, and that lesson was:-
Check the colour fastness of your threads before you squeeze a cold tea bag over your finished piece to age it.
Feel my pain!

This is what Dexter Morgan's Father Christmas must look like
Oh well, back to the drawing board
This month's challenge reveal will be slightly delayed
On a brighter note, I found these teeny tiny daffodils in a hidden corner of the garden. To give you an idea of scale, my funky little mid-century jug is about 6 inches tall.

January Challenge

It's reveal day for the Monthly Ornament Challenge on Needlecraft Haven. This month our design was a lovely robin sampler from Aliolka (chart here), and here is my version:-

I changed it up slightly to add my initials, and work a few of the small motifs in different stitches. Stitched using Anchor threads on 32 count Belfast linen in colour "Faded Olive" from Crafty Kitten and finished as a pillow with a scrap of lace, some saddle stitch ribbon and a handful of buttons.
You can see the other finishes in the album here, It's amazing how different they all look.

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.

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 Challenge Reveal

It's reveal day for the Needlecraft Haven Monthly Ornament Challenge. This month the design was either of a pair of Santa designs from Kissy Cross
I chose the version with the trees, and worked it on a perforated wood blank.

I got the wood blank from Greek Art on Etsy
I had to jiggle the trees about a little bit and miss off the foreground fence to make it fit. Once the stitching was finished I just stuck a piece of felt over the back and added a baker's twine hanger for a really simple finish.

Two Challenges and a Chair

Two challenge finishes to show today, and one of them is even on time! Here are the January and February ornaments from the Needlecraft Haven Monthly Ornament Challenge.
January's New Year design is from Gazette 94 and February's Stag Design is from Luli, both finished as pillows.

My Ikea chair was looking a bit sad

See. Sad chair :(

So I decided it needed cheering up. I had a pile of small remnants of a lovely scandi style curtain fabric that I bought on Etsy. Just enough to make a cover for the head rest and edge a simple pad for the seat. I added some multicolour pom pom trim from Elephant in my Handbag because everything is always better with pom poms.

Ta da! Happy chair. Much better don't you think?

Although I should probably have taken the picture before I sat on it and got the seat pad all creased...

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.

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.

Another Challenge Piece

Yesterday was reveal day for the Needlecraft Haven Monthly Ornament Challenge. This month we all stitched this design from The Little Stitcher. I stitched mine on the same raw linen as last month's piece, using Crescent Colours - Bing Cherry, which could be my new favourite red, and Anchor 275 for the snow, because white was just too harsh. Finished as a simple ornament with a little cream pom pom trim to look like snowballs.

The other finishes are in the album here, and well worth a look

A Challenge Finish That Could Be More Christmassy

It's reveal day for the Monthly Ornament Challenge at Needlecraft Haven. This month we stitched this design from Mausimom.
I love how mine has come out, with the vintage mother of pearl and crystal buttons from my collection, though I don't really think it's all that "Christmassy"

I used an orphan piece of overdyed raw looking linen for mine. It is stitched with GAST Shaker White thread, and finished with hand dyed Cluny lace trim from The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.
The other finishes (which are a lot more Christmassy) are in the album here

Stash and a Challenge

It's reveal day for the Monthly Ornament Challenge on Needlecraft Haven. This month the design was either one of these two lovely snowmen from Jura Point de Croix.
Here is my finish, stitched on pale blue evenweave using orphan threads from magazine cover kits.
The other finishes are in the album here

I had a fabulous stash parcel this week. Look at these wonderful goodies from The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. Nancy even threw in a few extra free things to help offset the postage charges.

I also had another parcel in the week. I mentioned last time that I'd run out of polyester fibrefill, so I went on EvilBay and ordered another bag, and because there wasn't much difference in price I ordered a 10 kilo bag. Well it came. Big mistake. Do you guys have any idea how big a 10 kilo bag of fibrefill is? No? Let me tell you. It is about the size of a large dustbin. I could take up taxidermy and stuff a baby hippo.
Guess I won't buying any more fibrefill anytime ever...

Monthly Ornament Challenge

Here is my finish for the Monthly Ornament Challenge at Needlecraft Haven. The design is by  Steekjes & Kreisjes van Marijke and is available here.

I thought such a sweetly primitive little design deserved a naive kind of finish so I just made a simple hanging pillow and stitched three slightly rusty jingle bells on the bottom.
The other challenge finishes are in an album here and are well worth a look.
In other news I got some new Converse. Tie dye ones.

Now all we need is a summer so I can wear them