Easter, birthdays and RAK's

Hi everyone,

I had an Easter parcel from my friend Steph O, which was a lovely surprise. She sent a lovely ami Easter bunny, some chocs and a bag of buttons, beads etc. I've just looked for the picture and can't find it on my phone so, here is the bunny and bits minus the chocs!

A few weeks ago, Laura ran a competition on her blog and asked about favourite animals and chocolate etc, I didn't win, but Laura decided to RAK me a prize as she liked the challenge of my answer! Everyone knows how much I love Giraffes, but I'm quite fond of snails too, especially cute cartoon and ami ones!  Laura also sent me lots of buttons and a very sweet snail biscornu too. I had a box of Turkish delight and I'm the only one who likes them in our house!

Both my children had birthdays last week so Steph sent them an ami each, she also sent me some fabric and some buttons from her mum. I also had the Mary poppins omnibus to read.

I had a belated Easter present from Laura, containing some lovely things she'd picked up at the shows she's been to recently. Laura sent my children a craft kit and a chicken in a little sleeping bag. Lottie named him Frank! I had a lovely quilted bag, chocolate, fabric and buttons a cross stitch kit and a pretty blackwork (greenwork!) card. 

Here's a close up of the bag. 

And the lovely card.  

I've been working on my quilt lately (more on that in may next post), but I'm experiencing a bit of a fabric shortage as I don't like most of the scrap packs I find and I can't really afford to keep buying FQ's just for a little fabric. I try and get a few charm packs when my local stores have them as they are so helpful and I like to support them. anyhoo, long story short, Teresa came to my rescue as she is a self confessed fabric-a-holic and sent me all these wonderful scraps.

Here are a few of my favourites.

I'm very thankful for kind and generous friends. 

Have a good weekend. 

Wedding makes and holibobs

Hi Everyone,
Thank you for all the lovely comments on the spring swap.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a beautiful wedding of some dear friends. I made a penguin card as the bride is rather fond of them.

I also stitched a lucky horseshoe from a DMC blackwork occasions chartbook.

I thought I'd share the beautiful table flowers and the awesome cake. The groom loves his retro cars and has an Allegro like the one on the cake!

On to our holiday. We had a week at Butlins, Minehead at an event called Spring Harvest. We had glorious weather and the beach at Minehead is lovely.

The kids had a fab week, there was so much to do for the kids and it was great to spend time not worrying about the mundane and just be together.

So just a quick post here, I've got some Easter goodies to show you and I've been working on my quilt too.

Thanks for reading. x

Spring swap part 2

Me again!

In my last post I shared all the gorgeousness Steph made me so now is the time to share what I sent to Steph. 

As you know I've been learning to crochet so I made a small granny blanket (moon pie sized let's say!) in colours that reminded Steph of spring. It's funny we both said yellow and green, Steph said white too and I said purple/lilac. Here you can see it with two new sock of the day candidates, a unicorn bag and some bits that went into the parcel.  

I made Steph a daisies in the lawn biscornu, it's funny that we both used daisy buttons on the biscornu! 

I also made Steph a felt book too, I made it so a page can be added each swap. The purple is the cover and green the spring page. The four seasons design is from a book called 2 hr country cross stitch that I've had for years. 

The inside cover has a place for cards and the spring page has an iris on which is one of my favourite flowers. 

The other side had a pocket to hold a mini cross stitch kit. 

And the back cover has a 4 seasons charm on some lovely hand dyed felt Laura gave me ages ago.

As it was Easter I made this little bunny cushion with Pom Pom tails. I found the chart here 

I enjoyed making all of this but I think my favourite make - just, was this stitch. It's a design called spring ride from The floss box and I knew as soon as I saw it it would be perfect for Steph. I finished it with some fairytale fabric into a cushion. 

The box wouldn't have been complete without some crafty bits, I really liked the varigated wool and the tortoise fabric was cute! 

I always end up with a last minute make and this was it. My daughter goes to preschool down a village lane and there is a bank of muscari which inspired me to bead this. 

So that was the spring swap. The ideas for the summer swap are already in flow and I've even made a few sketches and have several bits on various wish lists on t'internet!! 

Next up is the wedding and a few holibob pictures. Thanks for reading xx

Spring swap part 1

Hello,

Earlier this year Steph and I decided to have a 4 seasons swap and just before Easter we exchanged our spring parcels

Steph in all her marvellousness sent me an awesome Easter egg hunt...

Here it is all unpacked on the beautiful blanket. 

The blanket was made of the softest wool and is lovely for my lap on cooler evenings

Steph stitched this beautiful spring bunny cushion. You can find the link to the design on Steph's blog. 

There a stunning and very long granny square scarf. It was very handy on our break to Minehead last week as it was a little breezy. 

Steph stitched this friendship biscornu 

And the back with a lovely daisy button

A needle felted sheep...

Then there was this wonderful bag, stuffed full of goodies including a Lindt bunny, sweets, candle, charms, 3 cheerful crocheted brooches and flower garlands! 

Steph is a very talented artist too and painted me this postcard, here's the front...

And the back, I love the fabric in the heart. 

Still with me as there is so much more still to go!!!

Flower garlands

Bunny and monster egg covers for the kids

And one of Steph's fabulous fabric books. It's really worth reading Steph's blog about this as she explains is so much better than I can. 

The cover with a granny square in the same wool as my cosy blanket

A spring lamb in the field and spring is the time to get creative...

And of course a spring giraffe!! The back cover below had a beautiful mandala on it. I did hint to Steph that it would make a stunning brooch! 

And last of all is a wee Witchy postcard...

So as you can see I was truly blessed with the swap. Steph is an amazingly talented lady. I'm already plotting the summer swap. 

My makes for the swap coming up in part 2...

Thanks for reading. xx

Wipocalypse and themealicious catch up

Hi everyone, 

So once again a month has passed since my last post so I am planning to sit and write several and schedule them for the coming week too. I hope you all had a lovely Easter, we had a week in Minehead and had glorious weather and also went to a friends wedding too. I'll share some pics later in the week.

I've missed a couple of wipocalypse posts so here are are the couple of finishes. I finished the Mouseloft kit of the blue tit for my mums birthday and the Mouseloft sheep as a biscornu. It's got a sheep button in the back with some simple cross stitches in the corner.

I continued on with the cover kit challenge I set myself and stitched the typewriter heart from cross stitcher. I changed the colours to coordinate a bit more and have more of a retro feel. 

Each month Measi poses a question for us too so here is the March one...Show us your favorite places to stitch..

A lot of you have seen my corner of the lounge. I sit surrounded by my clutter. I've been known to stitch on the bus on the way home from work and outside the pre school whilst I wait to I get my daughter. 

In April Measi asked...How do you keep your stash organized?

From the photo above you can see I have a unit that I keep my boxes of special threads in like metallics and varigated ones. It also houses my button tin too. The bottom draw has my letter writing stuff in. The spotty box on top has needles scissors etc. it was one that came with some DMC threads and accessories. The blue 6 draw unit has beads, buttons, charms and the like. On top sits my fabric box. On the floor is my WIP basket, magazine rack and generally stuffed in the corner is my bag of crochet and other bits and bobs. I do have almost a full collection of DMC threads on bobbins in their boxes and my fabric is in a big box under the kitchen table. Anyone who knows me knows my craft stuff is basically scattered in boxes round the house! 

 

So on to themealicious and March Madness. I aimed for 15 pieces, most of what I stitched I'll share with you in my spring swap post. Here is the list. 

Biscornu for Steph 

CS typewriter kit

Blue tit (Mouseloft)

Sheep (Mouseloft)

4 seasons

Iris

Tulips

Book titles x 3 

Daisy biscornu

Unicorn

Granny blanket crocheted

beaded felt brooch

So not a bad attempt at madness! I thought I was barmy at sometimes during March. April's theme is April showers and Heather has set the following challenge...

What pieces can you find in your flood of WIPs that include water? Rivers, lakes, oceans, or rain (and anything that lives within). 

The only one I can think I of is a little Mouseloft kit of the beach. I might actually be able to get that one done! 

I'll be back over the weekend with my spring swap post!

Themealicious fantasy fiction February

Just a few days late...oops!
Theme-a-licious is organised by Heather at It's geek to me and is a monthly themed SAL.

So this months theme was...

Fantastical Fiction February

What kind of fantasy creatures inhabit your Works in Progress? Or perhaps some fictional characters have leaped from the pages to your needles? Let's stitch on projects inspired by imagination.

Fantasy fiction isn't really my thing but it is hubby's and one of my wips from last year was this Game of Thrones design. Hubby is a huge fan so this became his valentines present. As you can see it's not been made into any thing yet as I usually give him a choice how he wants it made up. He has asked me to frame this one so it can be hung in our bedroom. 

The chart is from x stitch my heart on etsy. 

This month is March Madness. My plan finish some of the wips from last years march madness! trust me there are a fair few. I'm aiming for 15 projects over the month.

Plenty of choice in the WIP basket! 

Happy stitching friends

Wipocalypse February

Hello all

A couple of days late but here is my Wipocalypse progress and I'm pleased to say there is progress!!! Whoop whoop!!!

I decided to tackle the sewing list as I know the stitching will get done. I've done 2 projects and worked on a third. I also completed Game of Thrones stitch that's waiting to be framed. 

So here are the two completed sewing projects. I started this cushion cover this time last year when hubby brought the fabric as he loves Chinese dragons. I started it and made a mistake on it. So it got shoved in my sewing machine box and ignored. I was sewing this week and thought I could finally get it done for hubby for valentine's day. It's one of those silly things that it actually only ended up taking half hour to unpick and finish. Here it is with the little Mouseloft design I did for hubs for valentines day too. 

The second was the fabric brooch that I started in a workshop at the NEC 2 years ago! Here's the original post. I forgot to take a before photo but this one shows it at the time of the workshop. I'd put in 3 of the rows of bugle beads at some point since. 

So that was where I picked it up last night. Most of the beads were included in the kit I got with the course. I added in last night a few more bugles and the blue and large green beads. 

I'm pleased with the finished brooch. It'll go with a lot of what I wear so I'm looking  forward to wearing it. 

I've been busy making up hexagons for my quilt too so I'm going to get that out and spend an hour or so on it this afternoon. 

Each month Measi is posing a question too...
 How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time?  Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!

I was always a OAAT stitcher until I discovered forums and then blogging. I like taking part in swaps and SAL's and I have a few crafty friends who I love to do swaps with I have a spring themed swap coming up with Steph and the travelling box will be back in the summer. .  I have a basket full of started things (about 10) and a huge list of to-do's. I keep a little note book with a list of anything I need to stitch over the coming couple of months - there are 16 stitched projects in there, all but one are smalls. I'm trying a rotation at the moment too as I don't seem to find the time for the larger projects. This has really helped me get a couple of medium projects finished and  make progress on the sampler too. I have several sewing projects on the go too so I've tried to make time for them even if it means only doing an hour on the quilt on a Sunday and getting the sewing machine out once a month on my Thursday morning of peace! In shout - I always wish there was less started in the basket and blame March Madness entirely!!

 I'm off to catch up on my blog reading this afternoon. Have a good week and I hope my UK readers have all stayed safe in the storms.