Gifted Gorgeousness April check in

It's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL time again (well near enough!) Jo at Serendipitous Stitching hosts a monthly SAL where we stitch on something that uses gifted fabric, threads, kit, or finishing bits or is made as a gift for someone.

As I mentioned at the end of my last post Steph and I had an Easter swap too.

I made some Easter bunting inspired by the bunny brooch Steph O sent me.

I also stitched this gorgeous design from Snowflower Diaries. I love some of the designs on this site, a new favourite for sure.

I did add a little bow button to the design too but didn't take a close up. 

I'm currently stitching a small blackwork kit by Mottingham Cottage designs which was gift to me. im stitching it on evenweave Steph dyed for me a while ago.

I hope all my UK readers are enjoying this lovely weather. We've got a couple of busy weeks as both my kids have birthdays. 

Happy crafting 

October gifted gorgeousness

Well the 15th is rolled around again very quickly. So once again it is time for gifted gorgeousness. This SAL is run by Jo of serendipitous stitching. Each month we share what we been working on that is either a gift for someone or stitched using threads, fabric or finishing stuff gifted to us. 

Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that I rarely stitch for me usually for others so it's not always easy to find something that you haven't seen, especially as those who I regularly stitch for read my blog to so I can't get away with many WIP's. 

Anyhoo long ramble over, here is what I'm working on...

It is my in-laws Ruby wedding anniversary on Saturday so I've stitched been stitching them a little sampler. It's from a booklet I picked up many years ago, well at least 10 as I stitched them sampler from it for their Pearl anniversary. I got it for the bargain price of 20p! I think having stitched two of the designs I've probably had my money's worth! 

I did change the design slightly to enable me to personalise it and I shall put in an extra line towards the bottom to put the dates in. It's taken me about four hours to do that bit with at least half of that fighting with metallics and I still have two bands to stitch in the gold yet. I'm planning to just frame it quite simply with a gold frame. I'll try and get a pic of the other when I go up. I'd only been stitching about a year when I did the Pearl one. 

I was very lucky to have a lovely parcel of goodies from Steph this week. Steph sent me A cosy green scarf knitted by her mum, a Christmas mug, candle, Christmas craft magazine with some Dolly pegs to make one of the crafts and a lovely little stitched snowman which I believe is Barbara Anna design and a fizzy moon card just because I had set off the Christmas travelling box and mostly because Steph is a fabulously generous person. 

Here is a close-up of the card and snowman. 

So once this sample is finished for the in-laws I shall be finishing off Steph's birthday present and then Christmas crafting will be in full swing. 

Look forward to seeing what you've been doing with gifted gorgeousness. 

Byeeeeeee!!!!

Gifted gorgeousness September

Hello,

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and I'm way late for gifted gorgeousness hosted by Jo as serendipitous stitching.

I've not a lot to share as I've been crafting for Christmas! Some of the travelling box ladies and I are having a Christmas edition of the box so I'm making for that so I can send on its way at the end of the month. I've already made 9 things, I just need to get some pom-pom trim and wait for some beads to come to finish the last two. It's been great fun crafting for this one. I designed two of the pieces myself. Here is one before I made it up. I will share them next time. 

I did do a bit on the Scandi heart, although I ended up frogging so much as I was a line out. My progress pic now shows less than last time! I've a deadline on it too. 

I've done a bit on my quilt too although there's not a lot to show as I ran out of hexagon papers, so I couldn't make a lot of hexagons ready to sew in. It's been good fun to have it out again as it had been over a year. 

The granny square swap is on its last round now so I've just got to finish my last one and send it off. I received a lovely parcel of goodies from Joan which I'll share in my next post and show all of the squares together. 

Not the most exciting post today but next month will be full of finishes and progress reports. I'll be stitching for Steph's birthday too and I found two brilliant track so I think she'll love. 

So enjoy the rest of your weekend by for now. 

August Gifted Gorgeousness

Hello, 

It's a lovely sunny afternoon here and we're having a lazy day. I have to do some planning work to do in a bit for church but hopefully it should just be typing up so won't take me long and I can enjoy a bit of crafting this afternoon. 

So on to gifted gorgeousness, Jo at Serendipitous Stitching runs a monthly SAL that I'm hopeless at keeping up with to share things that are made for gifts or using stuff gifted to us. I've three things to show you this time as I shall save my travelling box makes for my next  couple of posts. First are two you have seen and we're both birthday presents

A spot of tea by dragon dreams, stitched for Laura at Strawberry Mouse Crafts

So this ticks a lot of boxes as it was a kit that was gifted, I swapped out the plain white aida for some hand dyed linen from Steph at Show and Tell and given as a gift to my friend Amanda. 

The next one is new! I'm stitching this for my friend Caroline's birthday. The design is from an old cross stitcher. I call Caroline 'queen of hearts' as she is always sewing hearts, so I searched on Pinterest and found this design called queen of hearts. I had the issue deep in my magazine pile so here is my progress so far. I'm loving the design and I'm stitching it in a dinky dyes thread called Aussie Jewels. I'm hoping I have enough thread as I can't find a supplier in the UK of dinky dyes. 

And a bit of a close up

So that's the news, travelling box posts to come! 

Happy Sunday! 

Very late Gifted Gorgeousness

Each month Jo from Serendipitous Stitching hosts a SAL where we stitch using something that is gifted to us - fabric, threads, finishing bits, kit or chart or that is to be gifted to someone else.

It's one of those months where I've stitched 4 things and all but one are secrets at the moment! I'm stitching is for a birthday present next week. I've given myself until Monday to finish that and then I can make it up Tuesday. It's a fab design from an old cross stitcher mag, bigger than I thought though! Here it is kitted up and ready to start...

I've been stitching things for my Pay It Forward's. I'll share the completed one in a minute.  I'm using mouseloft kits for my PIF's and they're coming on well. The mouselofts are my travel projects and you can often find me in the pub stitching with a pot of tea whilst I wait for it to be time to collect my small people from school. 

So here is my first completed PIF for my pen pal Janet. Can you see a bit of a theme! The ribbon and backing fabric were both gifted to me and I have a feeling this was one of a few mouselofts that hubby brought me a while back. 

It was sent with some stationary too from paperchase (love that shop!) 

Hopefully I'll have a bit more to share in my next post as I've been making a granny square or two! r

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