Theme-a-licious Jardin January round-up

So this was this months theme...
Jardin January

The holidays were a little stressful...let's relax in a nice garden. Work on any piece with flowers or gardens.

My original thoughts...
I have the perfect project for this - the poppy biscornu that I want to stitch to finish off my basket of biscornu challenge. The blackwork sampler I want to start also has flowers in it too.

I'm so glad it was an easy theme for me to get started on. As I showed you in the check in, I did the poppy biscornu and thank you for all of your lovely comments. I've tried to reply to as many of you as I can by email. Apologies to those who don't get a response, It's because you're a no-reply blogger and when I get my email notifications I don't get your email address. (You can change it in your settings if you want to to show email)

Crikey that was quite some tangent. So here is where I was when I last posted on the blackwork sampler

and here is the latest bit I've done. I've not stitched on it for a couple of days, hopefully it'll get an outing tonight as I've almost hit the half way point.

and the big picture, not the best picture, the light was almost gone when I got in from work this afternoon.

In case you were wondering the design is by Jane Greenoff and was featured in an ancient WOXS from back in 2006 (issue 114)

The optional christmas ornament SAL theme was tree or wreath so I'll claim the Christmas biscornu as that. Result!

Here is February's theme and my thoughts again...
Figural February

Who are the people in your neighborhood...your WIP neighborhood, that is? Give your people-populated projects some face time this month.

This has got to be my Big Bang Theory chart!

I've got a couple of other February projects lined up, if I think very hard I can twist the theme to fit too!!!
To find links to the blogs of others taking part in Theme-a-licious click here
Happy stitching

Blackwork Sampler update

Hello Friends,
Welcome to my new followers. Thank you to McKenna for posting my giveaway on her blog, I have a feeling that some of my newest followers may have come to me that way! There is still time to enter if you haven't yet, it's here if you need the link.

I've been busy this morning putting Rice Pudding into the slow cooker for pudding later. It's the first time I've ever cooked rice pud, let alone doing this recipe in the slow cooker so fingers crossed it turns out nice. I LOVE rice pud so I'm looking forward to this already! I've used the slow cooker 3 times this week - a record for me!!!!

Right I said blackwork progress so This was the first picture I showed you taken on Thursday morning after one evening on it. Only a couple of hours as we were watching Bake Off - Did you see it? W3asn't it good fun!

Here is the sampler where I left it last night, Well that's not strictly true otherwise I'd have to take a photo of the gap down the side of the sofa, but this is where I got to with the stitching.

I'm glad the gold has shown up as I spent an hour or more fighting with the metallics last night. I tried 3 different ones and ended up setting for a DMC light effects one. It wasn't the recomended one, I've looked for that and it is rather expensive for what I need when I can make do with something 4 times cheaper. I'm trying not to buy stash when I can make do or do without. I can't help buying fabric scrap packs for my Hexagon quilt so I need to avoid spending in other areas.

Well we're off to the library in a bit so time to get a move on! I'll be back on Wednesday with the January round up for Theme-a-licious. I finished a bookmark Thursday, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until April to see this one as it's for the travelling box.

Have a good weekend everyone!

101 time again

Hi Everyone,
Firstly I must welcome all may new followers, Since my last 101 update 3 weeks ago, 12 of you have joined the madness here! I wondered when I listed 20 new blog followers as one of my things, whether that was actually achievable, well not only did I hit the 20 a month ago, but I'm only 4 off doubling my following when I started my 101/1001.

So here is the update on my 101 progress.
Days to go: 836
In progress: 28
Completed: 9 (8%)

Seems a bit crazy to have 28 in progress but a lot of them are ones that will take a year or even the full 1001 days. Since my last update I've been trying to keep up with all the birthdays, (2 cards were late, but at least I remembered) Thomas and I are now reading the BFG, I've started the no unecessary stash buying one, (24 days in, unnecessary stash brought = 2 FQ's in a sale. The rest I can certainly justify and I have a spreadsheet to prove it!!! To be honest I have an idea or two for the FQ's but it's whether it actually happens, if not the one becomes a cushion cover front!

I'm kicking myself a bit that I didn't take advantage of the snow and tick off my sledging challenge, but as much as I wanted to I just didn't feel up to going out. My participation in the family snowball fight lasted about 3mins before I settled myself back on the sofa and left hubby and the kids to it.

My three new 'in progress' are (1) stitch a band sampler. I started work on a blackwork band sampler last night, and thoroughly enjoyed stitching it. It's been a while since I stitched on evenweave so I've decided to start a daytime project too so this will be (2) stitch bookmarks for the ladies in my Mum and tot's group (called Refresh). I've found some great ones around the internet and I've just brought a lovely pattern from Etsy that I'm sure will be stitched more than once (infact I may stitch the pattern in a different colour for each of them. I've enough 2" aida band to stitch at least 5 bookmarks, so I might do one for the travelling box too, although I did just find a fabulous CS Lewis quote too. (3) is to research and blog the history of a craft - well it had to be blackwork and here is the start of my reference material.

Where was I, oh yes blackwork...So here's the sampler after 2 hrs work last night. Not a huge amout of progress, but that is almost one band complete! 14 more to go. I'm thinking this is going to take me about 4 weeks as it has quite a lot of gold to add in. I haven't decided what gold to use. I don't have the recomended madeira one (#12) but I have light effects and a couple of different madeira ones so I'll make do with one of those. The design is from an ancient WOXS.

Other progress reports - I've watched a fair few movies recently for the alphabet of movies - mostly romcoms as I tend to mostly watch those. So I've completed C,D,F,I and W. The movies were..

• Crazy, Stupid Love and the Chalet girl
• (The) Decoy Bride
• Friends with benefits
• I don’t know how she does it
• What’s your number

So that's about it. I've got 2 exchanges coming up so watch this space as they count towards the 101 too!

Thanks for stopping by everyone, Happy crafting :-)

Ta-dah!

Hi Everyone, Have you begun to thaw out if you're in old Blighty?

So here is the final biscornu before it was stitched up.

a close up of the top.

And ta-dah!!! all stitched up. (Probably should of turned the flash off, but the light is so poor at the mo.)

The design was one of Steph's designs. Just click on the freebie treats bit in her blog. Her designs are a joy to stitch and I would highly recomend them for anyone looking for a quirky stitch or a biscornu pattern. You can also see her fabulous art work of the Wee Witchies and the gorgeous wild women brooches. I've got 4 more of Steph's charts printed out ready to do inbetween bigger projects. (now I've got you guessing Steph!)


I can now say I've completed my basket of biscornu challenge. Here are the 12 together (well 13 but the two crochetted ones count as 1).

And here is my Biscornu bowl as it I can't believe this dish is almost full too.

I'm planning on writing a little letter to the cross stitch mags about this challenge in the hope I can get it printed and then I'll be able to tick another off the 101/1001 things list.

There are several giveaways floating round in blog land at the moment. Mine is open until the 2nd Feb and you can find it here. Most of these below close on 1st Feb. Sorry if I've missed anyone off.
McKenna at Chic Crafting is having a giveaway of a very cute Ami Octopus
 Jo at Serendipidous Stitching is offering a chance to win some charts
Astrid at Dragon Stitching is offering a mystery prize
Heather at It's geek to me has something handmade and more goodies to giveaway
Xstitch Librarian has a goodie bag waiting for one lucky commenter
Christine at Alchemy Stitchcraft is offering a pretty corsage.
Mii at Mii stitch is offering 2 lucky winners one of two kits

Well I think that is enough to keep you busy for now!
Happy Stitching

A quick Sunday post

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to share the snow and what has been keeping me busy the last couple of days. I've really gotten back into my Hexagon Quilt the last week or so and I've managed to put in a couple more rows. I got to the point where the last few hexagons I had made up didn't fit with the ones already stitched in, so I tacked a few more and here they are ready to be sewn in. I've still got about the same again cut ready to make up and I also had a sort out of the Christmas fabric as there was lots in there I could add in. So here are the 40 I've tacked.

Here is the view from our front door of the snow. This was taken this afternoon so the kids have been on it and it's thawed slightly. I think we've had about 6 inches of snow. Well that's my guestimation based on the roof of the car!

Right I'm off to finish clearing the tea things now that Thomas has nearly finished. This boy must be the slowest eater in the world. He's had his dinner 40 mins! It was a rather yummy Chili though!

I'm almost finished with the top of the last biscornu so hopefully I can share the finished thing mid week. I may get started on my January project in January after all!!!

Happy crafting friends .x

2 down one to go!!

I hope you are all wrapped up warm if you are in snowy parts at the moment. Hubby took the kids out earlier on the sledge and they've had a play out. I've got go sledging on my 101 list so hopefully we can do it tomorrow, I did specify a particular hill we used as kids, but I might mark it as complete as long as I sledge down any hill not just the 'top ten' as it's known. I've no idea why it's called that, but it is!

So as discussed and thank you to those who helped me make the decision here are the Christmas and November biscornu. The links to them can be found on my January Theme-a-licious check in post. So here is the November Poppy top and bottom and then the December Christmas one top and bottom

Thanks to all of you who have entered my giveaway already, who'd have thought so many of you would want a few cover kits that I just wouldn't stitch! Anyway it's open for another 2 weeks yet and here's the link - Stash busting giveaway

I started preparing the Hexagon Quilt Kit too ready for my next giveaway too. I think I've cut round 50 hexagons so far, got tacking and sewing threads and some hexagon papers. It should be a good kit and certainly get the recipient off to a good start! I'm not sure when I'll launch it but it'll be soon. If you're wondering about what a hexagon quilt look like when it's slightly larger than a place mat check out Strawberry Mouse crafts. Laura has kindly let me use her tutorial along side this giveaway when it is launched.

Stay warm folks!

Stash busting giveaway

I had a huge sort out of my stash over New Year and I’ve decided to have a giveaway… of stash!

There will be two prize bundles which will include: cross stitch patterns, cover kits (with charts) thread, ribbon, embellishments (stickers, buttons), and a little handmade something from me too.

Here's a sneak peek of the start of the two bundles...

If you’d like to enter, just leave me a comment on this post by Saturday 2nd February and I’ll draw the winners sometime on the 3rd!


I thought a stash share might be fun- and also help me to make some room in my ever expanding craft boxes!!

I'll be back tomorrow to share my two biscornu, but now I'm off to sort out another giveaway for another time which will be a hexagon quilt kit!

Thanks for stopping by.
Kerry. x

Theme-a-licious - Jardin January Check-in

 

So, not a lot of stitching round here due to my M.E being a bit of a pig, but here is my first offical Theme-a-licious post. I hoped to have caught up with my biscornu so I could have made a start on my band sampler which is my main project for January's theme. Anyhoo, one of the designs I had left to do for my biscornu challenge was this one and as you can see it's almost done (big smiley face).

The design is from Kincavel Krosses called in rememberance, I decided a long time a go that I'd stitch this for the November biscornu and I have (well better late than never). It fits with the Jardin January theme quite well I think being a flower and all that!

I know you all saw this in my last post but I figured trees fitted the theme nicely too! It's one of Steph's amazing designs and you can find them on her blog here.



So my decision tonight is do I sew these two up or do I start work on the last of my biscornu???? I'm not usually one for having lots of projects on the go. I've chosen the buttons for these already so apart from the running stitch borders that need doing on the trees and on the poppy, Sewing up is all they need. I'm off to finish the back of the poppy one now before I cook tea (spaghetti and meatballs).

I'm hoping to get an hour on my quilt after tea and before the kids go to bed. I cut a load of fabric yesterday ready to make the hexagons to sew in. I've got 7 or 8 made up still to sew in, so thats my plan for later, then the big hex make begins later in the week!

To find out more about Theme-a-licious click on the page above. I did try and put the banner on but I'm a bit of a technophobe really and will wait for hubby to come home and help me. I clearly wasn't paying attention last time!
Have a good evening folks. x

updated to say Hubby home and he told me how to fix banner issue - yay!

Ornaments, biscornu and a very small quilt

This is a bit of a random post as I've been wanting to write a blog post for a week and had nothing to share so here are a couple of bits, mostly christmassy still too but never the less here they are.

When we took our tree down last weekend I gathered all the handmade decorations and decided to photograph them all together,  here is my wonderful collection. There are 55 decorations made by me, Thomas and my fabulously talented friends.

I got my quilt out this week and sewed in a couple more hexagons. I decided to have a think how big I wanted to make it and here it is laid out on one of Lotties blankets.  As you can see I have an awful lot of work to do!

This is what I've been working on when I've not been too tired. It's one of the biscornu so I can finish off my challenge. It just needs sewing up now. It's one of Steph's and is first of many of her's that I intend to stitch.

I decided to do this one as the Santa reminded me of a little tree ornament we picked up at the local Victorian fayre.

Well that's the lot from me, I'll be back in a couple of days with my first Theme-a-licious update...it's all rather exciting!

Stay warm friends. xx

2013 project list

I'm keeping my list rather short this year as I don't want to pressure myself too much this year.

The 3 biscornu to complete my basket of biscornu challenge and to get these done by 14th January.


There are a few kits I'd like to start...
Giraffe Silhouette by Maia

Anchor Sampler

Mother and baby Giraffes (maybe)

Blackwork sampler fromWOXS

Japanese bookmark (anchor)

I'd like to do some of the cover kits I have and I've selected the first 10! I won't be doing so many swaps, but the travelling box is due back to me in April so I will start putting bits together for that soon. I'm thinking these will break up the big projects. I have 17 craft projects on my 101 list so I will try and do some of those too. The kits will also help towards this.

So what do you have planned for 2013?

Well have a good weekend, I'm off to stitch another biscornu and watch Glee!

A little shopping

I received the second half of my Christmas pressie from Hubby today...126 DMC threads :-D

I was so excited when hubby showed me a parcel when I got home from work this afternoon

I'm not looking forward to bobbinating all of these, especially as there is a further 25 to come. It's going to be wonderful to know I'll be able to start a project whenever I want and not have to order threads as I now have a complete set except for 321 which I've just run out of!! I did pop into my local sewing shop for it today as I need it for a project I've started to kit up, but they'd sold out! Whilst I was in there I did get one of their scrap packs for my hexagon quilt. I'm supposed to be on my buy nothing unnecessary for 101 days kick, but I failed miserably today as I brought a Thomas Tank Engine FQ too. I have an idea for it but who knows whether that will pan out. The scrap book had some gorgeous fabrics in it so they are all in my box ready to add to my quilt. I want to try and spend a couple of evenings a month on it otherwise it'll never grow but my fabric stash will.

I have a bit of a fun idea that I will try and fit the Theme-a-licious themes in with my quilting too. I think most of them could be fitted in. April and September might be a bit of a challenge, but I'm kind of thinking maybe hexagons that echo what projects I'm stitching that month.

I've had my date for the next round of the travelling box and April will soon be upon us so time to get my thinking cap on for that too.

Almost the weekend so have a good one and don't forget to take those decorations down.

First finish of 2013

Hi Folks

So here is the first finish of the year - a biscobud. This should have been my October Biscornu but as I got a bit behind my challenge to myself is to finish the last 4 over the next 2 weeks. I've no idea where the design came from or the finishing instructions. I saw a pic of one on line and hubby charted this version of it. I knew the dimensions from a random blog I read ages ago (May 12?) when searching for biscobud/pagoda patterns and make up instructions so the base square is 48x48 stitches and the top 24x24 so I'm guessing that as long as the ratios are the same you can do any size.

The sewing up was fiddly as I only went by pics I could find on line so I did go horribly wrong the first time although I should have taken a pic, named it and started a whole new style!

Here is the top view - stitched on 14ct sparkly aida with Dinky Dyes Luna Park thread.

It's slightly askew and I'm not sure whether I'd do another one but it's done and I'm pleased I attempted it. This is what the bottom look like.

So there you have it, my first finish for 2013!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Kerry. x

Theme-a-licious 2013

Hi Folks,

Welcome to 2013 and my first post of the new year. Last year I read with interest a couple of blogs by people who had participated in Theme-a-Licious 2012. It was a really interesting concept and basically there are themes each month in which to base your stitching. I quite fancied giving it a go so I've signed up for the 2013 one. I've created a new page at the top of the blog so I'll keep progress in there as well as the updates on the 15th and last day of the month.

Here are the themes and written in green what I plan to stitch for that month.

Jardin January

The holidays were a little stressful...let's relax in a nice garden. Work on any piece with flowers or gardens.

I have the perfect project for this - the poppy biscornu that I want to stitch to finish off my basket of biscornu challenge. The blackwork sampler I want to start also has flowers in it too.


Figural February

Who are the people in your neighborhood...your WIP neighborhood, that is? Give your people-populated projects some face time this month.

This has got to be my Big Bang Theory chart!

March Madness

Work on something different every day...it's madness...of the funnest possible kind.

Time to make a start on all those cover kits I think, although I may limit myself to just 15 projects as 31 WIP's would probably push me over the edge!


Amazon April

Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!

There are 3 projects that fall into this one, the Anchor Sampler, My QS Iris and the Mother and Baby Giraffes.

Monochrome May

Pick a color, any color, then stitch only on projects that contain that color for the month!

Maybe brown or blue so that could be the Giraffes or my HAED

Jumanji June

Is it a jungle out there in your stash? Give some love to the projects with animals or birds.

More projects than I thought have animals in them so either of the Giraffe projects or the Sampler

Jubilee July

It's time to celebrate! What are you celebrating this year? Stitch on your holiday-related projects, OR find some WIPs you know you'll never finish and set them free.

Not sure about this one, maybe a couple of Christmas ornies and get a head start!

Airborne August

What's that soaring through the air with the greatest of ease? It's the things with wings on your WIPs!

Sampler again!!!


Sampler September

Whether you're stitching the alphabet over and over (and over), starting your own band (sampler), or marking some spots, this is your month!

...And again!

Opulent October

It's time to don your tiaras and bring the bling! Stitch on projects with sparkly fibers, beads or charms.

Another month where we see whats happening

No-Xs November

What can you make without making an X?? Blackwork, hardanger, embroidery, needlelace, and the list goes on! Don't panic...you can even backstitch for the month!

Maybe I'll get the blackwork kit I want for my birthday, But like I need an excuse to do blackwork!!

Detritus December

It's the end of the year...are there some projects you thought you'd have done by now? Let's take a walk down memory lane and start the new year with a clean plate.

Projects I'd have thought I'd have done by now...Probably all of the above!!


There is also an optional ornament/christmas decoration theme too. I've added them in just incase I decide to do one of those too.

January	tree or wreath
February	snowman (or snowlady!)
March	3D ornament
April	Santa or elves
May	any monochrome ornament
June	reindeer
July	your choice
August	angels or birds
September	verse
October	bells
November	hardanger or blackwork
December	your choice--or do some ornament finishing

Wish me luck... I'll be back tomorrow with my first finish of 2013!!