Travelling box

Hello,

The travelling box has been again and as always it was full of beautifully made things. Here are the things we chose from the

Joan made the wrist warmers and bag of juggling balls. Rae stitched the lovely coaster. Debby made the hair slides. The butterfly bag charm was made by Steph O and Laura made the Hama bead butterfly, notebook, blackwork biscornu and ami piggy. 

The travelling box really is a family affair and the first two makes were made by my hubby (dragonfly) and the heart by the children.

I made two biscornu, both designs came from recent issues of WOXS

The left one is a friendship one, I changed the colours a bit to be a bit brighter and stitched on sparkly aida. The second is blackwork stitched on a dmc pre printed fabric. The fact they have the same buttons is a happy coincidence.

I made some jewellery too. Over the summer hols we've been up to the countryside centre where they've had various workshops. We did the bead one and I made a necklace and earrings for the box. I also crocheted a flower bracelet with teal beads and copper foiled some sea glass. 

I stitched the cover for this little album and made a lavender sachet filled with dried lavender from my garden. 

Now that I've had a good catch up we're back to all the half started stuff for presents. Hopefully I'll have a progress report soon. I'm off to the theatre this afternoon to see The Bodyguard. I'm looking forward to it. 

Travelling box and a PIF parcel

Hello friends

I've been very spoilt this month with a visit from the travelling box and also receiving a Pay It Forward parcel from Laura 

Here are my picks from the travelling box 

Rachel made the beautiful bookmark, Laura made the mouse and pencil ami's.The  super cute hedgehog brooch was made by Teresa and Steph O made the grey glittery head warmer. The biscornu was in a bag of bits made by Steph S along with the keyring and covered buttons. I'm going to make the buttons into badges for my bag. 

My last minute pick was this hair tie made by Cucki. I think it will make a fab brooch so I'm planning to pop a brooch back on it at some point. 

Did anyone else end up at the sewing machine at 11.30pm the night before world book day? My lovely 4 year old decided she should go as Mr Tod the fox from the Beatrix Potter stories.  Fortunately we already had the mask as lovely boy went as fantastic Mr Fox a couple of years ago. So cue me scouring charity shops for a jacket and waistcoat to alter and making a cravat and tail...any hoo here's DS as Mr Tod. 

Finally ages ago Laura did a pay it forward post on Facebook to send out 5 surprises to the first 5 commenter's on her post. Long story short, I did and this is what she sent me...

A lovely shawl, my favourite Turkish delight a cute felt card and a new brooch to add to my collection. Here's a close up of the button brooch and the cupcake card. 

So the postie has brought me lots of loveliness lately so I need to get on with finishing the winter swap with Steph and making a leaving present for my friend Caroline who works in the office downstairs from mine. She's craft mad too so I've found a lovely stitchy freebie and have a couple of other things planned too.

Hope you had a great weekend, I did, the  Formula 1 is back! 

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL

Morning! 

Well this one completely crept up me! I didn't do last month's Gifted Gorgeousness run by Jo as I was making for the travelling box. Click here to see the gifts I made from freebie charts and with gifted fabric!! You could say threads were gifted too as hubby brought me most of my DMC threads too. ) Boom! I'll share my favourite make again though. The pattern is here

This month, once again I'm making for friends. I can show you a little bit of two I'm stitching for gifts and 2 I have kitted up ready for gifts too. 

Below is a Gazette 94 pattern. 

This one is actually one I found that is a Hama bead design but works well as a cross stitch design. I've had a few visits from the frog on this one including one where he stopped a very long time. 🐸

Next are the 2 I have kitted up and they'll be started over the next week. Both are freebies again. One I managed to print the wrong design as there was a spelling error so I shall do that at work tomorrow. I've shown it here with the design with a mistake as it won't change much at all. I've changed the colour too as I didn't like the really muted colours. My friend Caroline who the piece is for, is a vibrant person so it needed more colour. The pattern is here, just keep scrolling!

And this one is with the backing fabric too, I've chosen a red that's a little more pink to match the fabric. 

I hope all the UK mums have a lovely Mothering Sunday. We're off to church soon and then to my mums for lunch. I've already watched the F1 so a great start to the day for me. 

Happy crafting

Travelling craft box

Hello friends,

It's been a lovely day here, glorious sunshine has made it feel very spring like. As I was sat watching the children play in the garden I realised that I hadn't shared my makes and what I kept from when the travelling box visited last month. 

I made 8 items and took out 7 this time. I had a little assistance in choosing as usual! 

So my makes were...

I stitched a lot of things this time... My favourite was the friend cushion from a freebie I found on Pinterest. 

I changed the thread colours to match the beautiful fabric my friend gave me from the Downton Abbey fabric range and added the cotton lace trim and wooden wooden buttons. 

I stitched this little cameo and beaded the edge. It reminds me of a ring I have that was my Nan's. 

I stitched a chicken scratch butterfly. 

I also had a bit of an experiment with some felt and beads and made this necklace and matching earrings

I also made a crocheted flower brooch, a felt and stitched button brooch and embellished a bag with buttons and machine embroidery.

I'll share my travelling box picks in my next post. 

Happy crafting 

Kerry

Ps this was written a few days ago when the weather was actually nice. Today has been cold and grey. Brrrrr! 

2014 round up

Hello friends (if you are still there!!)

I'm sorry for my absence, a few secret makes I couldn't share and then starting a new job (an Internship in Youth Ministry for a year) meant I have fallen behind. So I shall wish you Happy New Year and I thought I'd do a quick round up of 2014. I'm setting myself a goal of blogging monthly so that I can realistically keep up as I am doing the Internship until September. 

January
I finished off the Big Bang Theory chart.

February 

Another TV related stitch, this time Game of Thrones

March

It was a month of finishing off WIP's so I shall just add a link to the post. Although the post is dated April, most were completed in March as part of themealicious.

April

The Spring swap with Steph. As you've all seen the posts about this, I'll just put a pic of my favourite make and link back to the original post.
 

May 

This is where all the new stuff comes in as my last post was mid May. Everything below is new to the blog and starts with Lori's birthday...a blackwork cat card and biscornu. 

June

Laura's birthday was at the beginning of July so In June I made her a dragon cushion and biscornu. 

July

July was a very busy month. I went to see the Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, which was a dream come true. Steph and I did our summer swap so I made Wimbledon bunting and a strawberries and cream biscornu.

A tea for two bundle

In the garden was next, which included a stitched bookmark and cushion, beaded insects. I also did a seaside themed book page with the other side being a picnic. I made a small granny blanket too.

Steph made me a fabulous bundle...

August

The travelling box arrived brim full of amazing makes. I made bunting, scissor case, chicken scratch bookmark, necklace, fabric owl, covered notebook and pen holder, biscornu, 2 brooches and an embellished purse. 

I selected the following to keep...

August was also my friend Caroline's birthday so I made a biscornu and Steph made me a brooch to give her as Caroline admires my collection. 

September 

I started making for the autumn swap and Steph's birthday and didn't get very far at all as I started the  Internship and went from working 10 hrs a week to 30. My youngest started school too  Laura and her husband celebrated their anniversary so I did manage this chicken scratch heart. 

October 

This saw much of he same where I was too tired to do anything, bits got done, but nothing finished 😔

November 

My birthday and my kind a generous friends sent me lovely presents. 

This was from Lauren 

Laura sent me these goodies. I love the colours of the bag. 

Steph sent me some beautiful threads and a brooch to match a skirt I have. 

My friend Amanda made me wrist warmers. 

December 

I actually made stuff and completed them!!

Triangle trees, chicken scratch snowflakes and folder fabric trees for Steph and Laura. They were made in different colours and also included bits is picked up at the hobby crafts show in November. 

I made this for my pen pal Janet's little girl from a DMC freebie chart.

I also made a chicken  scratch heart for Caroline but forgot to take a pic. 

I had some lovely presents from my crafty friends. Steph sent me a fabulous bundle carrying on with the autumn theme. 

Laura sent me 

 And Lori sent me these as my birthday present was lost in the post (so sad)

I also sent Steph an autumn bundle with this mini cushion

I was very lucky to win Laura's crafty advent calendar and had all these fab treats that included stash, makes and chocolate goodness. 

I'd forgotten about the swap we did within the travelling box group. Joan made me a fabulous Santa and candy cane holders

And I made a Joy decoration and sent choc and a few buttons from the NEC.

So that was 2014. I hope you've managed to stay awake through all of this. 

Best wishes 

Kerry