Smalls SAL

Wow, that came round quickly! The Smalls SAL is run by Heather at Stitching Lotuswhere we choose a small project to work on over the month and show the finished thing.

So for the next couple of months I'm going to share my work on the lovely little ABC SAL that Ele is running. It's a tiny little alphabet sampler with each design only being 30 x 30 stitches square with a new pattern released fortnightly.

Here is my progress over the last month as I was a bit late starting. 

A is for acorn...

F is for flower...

H is for house...

And them all together...

I'm stitching them on 20 ct belana over one and the bag label says it's just yellow, but I've found its a really hard yellow to capture on camera. 

Part 4 K is for key is ready to stitch which I'm hoping to find time for in the coming week as I know once in behind that will be it (Plum Street's 12 days sampler is a good example of that). 

So my plan is to get the PIF's done this weekend and then I can tick something off my 2016 list. 

Happy stitching friends 

Wipocalypse February

Hello dear friends,

Today saw the children back at school following the half term break. I didn't get a huge amount of crafting done over the holiday as my time was taken up with cake baking (clearing up after children) play dates (clearing up after children) and being a 24 hour cafe (feeding, then clearing up after children). I was really glad to go back to work today! 

On to Wipocalypse...hosted by Measi, sharing each month the projects we want to finish before the end of the world! 

My list is in the 2016 Goals tabs and I've made a bit of progress forward! 

The winter swap is coming along. My fabric has finally turned up so I can do the bottom of the biscornu. The rest of the stitching is done and the book pages laid out and they need sewing up. The blanket is coming on and with the help of a pyjama day during half term I got all the squares done and started to assemble it all using the join-as-you-go method. 

I started the 3rd of the PIF's and I was really pleased with the design until I discovered that the aida blocks weren't  square so it won't sew up properly. I shall save it and make a little sachet or something when I need a small gift.

 I did make up the dolphin one and that has been sent too. You can see it in the gifted gorgeousness post. Tonight's plan is to restitch number 3 and hopefully when I go to work on Wednesday I'll remember to print the last 2 charts. 

Each month we're posed a question...

February - If you have any of your pieces on display in your home which attracts the most plaudits?

My Christmas tree always gets lots of lovely comments as it has over 100 handmade decorations on it in all sorts of mediums made by me and many friends. All year round it has to be my bowl of biscornu. For years it lived by the TV but it moved last week into my newly revamped craft corner. People seem to be facinated by tiny 3D embroidery. 

It also forms part of a little competition I'm running here, there is still plenty of time to enter. 

I'm hoping to have the winter swap done,  the PIF's finished, cards made and the next square of the plum street sampler done. 

You know what they say about best laid plans...

Gifted gorgeousness - February edition

Hi friends,

It's the 15th so that can only mean one thing...it's time for Gifted Gorgeousness hosted by the lovely Jo atSerendipitous Stitching  . The basic idea is to stitch something using something that was gifted to you - such as the chart, threads, fabric or embellishments or stitch something that will be a gift.

Nothing new to share I'm afraid, I did finish making up the dolphins (Mouseloft kit) for my friend Lauren and sent it to her with some stationary. 

I gave my friend Caroline this...Scandi Heart design from an old Cross Stitcher stitched on 28ct ivory evenweave using Dinky Dyes thread Aussie Dreams. I framed it in the hoop with a felt back and ribbon tie. 

And she gave me this beautiful kit and chainette yarn. 

I stitched this for another friend who's been under the weather lately. It's from a Cross Stitch Crazy chart book by Joan Elliott. I made a couple of adaptations so I could use the buttons on it. It's stitched over 1 on a bit of leftover 20ct Belana from a picture I stitched my Mum years ago, using a mixture of DMC threads (gifted by hubby) and Dragon Floss (gifted by Steph) in New Arrival and Grass Green, and finished off as a flat hanging with a beaded edge. 

So that's about it, I'm off to stitch the bottom half of the biscornu I've been doing for the winter swap. Nothing complex just a snowflake design I charted myself. (If I can find it after clearing out craft corner at the weekend). 

Don't forget my giveaway on the previous post and happy crafting. 

Serendipitous Stitching

Time for a little competition.

Hi friends,

I've not run a giveaway on my blog in a long while so when my lovely giveaway prize came from Christine today it gave me a little idea. To win Christine's prize I had to guess the number of finishes she'd have along with the number of books read and shoes purchased over the course of the year. So here is my competition:

To win random mystery prize you need to guess the answers to the following and comment on my blog with your answer and what your favourite colour is (to help with what I decide to do for prize). I will draw the prize in January 2017. (By which point you wil have totally forgotten that you entered this!)

The questions:

1.How many biscornu and little stitcheries in my bowl?

2. How many biscornu will I stitch this year? (I mean standard 8 sided ones)

So pop your answer in the comments (something like 10 in the bowl and 125 stitched in 2016, favourite colour green) As you can tell that answer is totally wrong but you get the idea. I'll close the competition in the middle of March. 

Happy guessing 

Goals progress - February

Hello friends. 

I've decided to try and do a monthly goals update so I can try and achieve them. You can see the goals on the tab above. 

So on to the progress. I've worked on the following: 

Scandi heart - and I've finished it too! The design is from an old cross stitcher mag and stitched with dinky dyes thread - Aussie dreams. 

I met my friend Caroline who it was for and she loved it! I call her the queen of hearts as she is always stitching hearts into things and that's what Cross Stitcher had called this design! 

Winter swap - I won't share any pics but I'm making great progress, the top of the biscornu is done, I'm waiting on fabric to do the bottom. I've almost finished a Snowflower Diaries design for the second stitched piece. The blanket is coming on well and I've laid out the felt book and designed a brooch too. I'm happy with all that. 

I've finished one of the RAKs and kitted up a third so this is going ok too. I'll post pics when people have received them. 

I've been making some paper embroidery cards too. 

I've stitched some and got several ready to stitch. Some will be Easter cards too. I just need to make them up. 

So all in all I'm pleased with my progress after 1 month. I'm hoping to finish the winter swap, the RAKs and do some work on Plum Street over the next month. 

Wish me luck