And the winner is... and blackwork flowers

Greetings to you all on this rather miserable day.

Today is the draw for my lovely Rhodes Butterfly Biscornu and goodies. I've entered all you who took the time to follow me and to leave me a coment. I got my 6 yr old to draw the winner and...

The winner is... HIPPYWITCH!!!

Congratulations to Lori and I've sent you an email. Thank you to you all for entering.

I showed you all the blackwork wall hanging that was done as part of a round robin last summer, well Kayla gave me a chart of another design that complimented the one she had stitched so over the weekend I stitched it and finished off the hanging. I'm so pleased with the overall look. The final design is a Mary Hickmott design from the New Stitches magazine.

Here's the full hanging. It's the only stitched stitched piece in my lounge apart from the bowl of biscornu and is one of my favourite stitched pieces all that I have. Another big thank you to Debbie, Kayla and Laura for stitching on it.

I started stitching one of the pieces for my 2012 challenge, The Japanese bookmark. I only did a tiny bit as I'd had a migraine all day but was feeling very frustrated that I couldn't do any thing. I stopped after about 50 ish stitches when I realised I could barely read the chart. I've got an idea for a family biscornu so I'm going to spend sometime designing the layout for that.

Thanks for reading and have a fab week everyone. xx

My 2012 craft challenges

Hi Everyone,
Firstly Hello to my new followers, so pleased to have you on board and secondly don't forget the giveaway I'm running, still plenty of time to enter.
I'm going to set my self a few challenges of crafty things I'd like to achieve this coming year. I won't call them resolutions as they are not changes as such. They fall into 3 catagories:

• Stash Reduction
• Learning new techniques/skills
• The Biscornu challenge

So for the stash reduction I'd like to complete 2 kits from my box and 2 charts I've got on my list. The kits are Giraffe Silhouette and Japanese Bookmark. I haven't decided on the charts yet, maybe a blackwork design. Feel free to badger me for progress reports. I'll post pics on the side of the blog for motivation too.

Giraffe Silhouette by Maia

Japanese Bookmark from the V & A collection by Anchor.



As for the New techniques, I'm hoping these will be a mix of self teaching, attending a course or two at one of my local sewing shops or being taught by someone who is in the know! I'd love to expand my repetoire of makes with the sewing machine - new handbags, maybe a bit of quilting and who knows what else. I'd like to produce a Band sampler with lots of speciallity embroidery stitches on. I've started to learn to knit and I would like to master the basics this year, maybe produce something other than a scarf. Anyway here is my first attempt. I made this a few days after Christmas.

I'm trying to set up a monthly crafternoon too at my local church. This is a project which I'm quite passionate about as my town lacks craft groups that are inexpensive. the last one I went to cost £3.50 a session and was poorly attended. I think the price put people off. It was aimed soley at stitchers and I want a group where all crafts are welcome and people enjoy themselves, share tips and get the support and encouragement from fellow crafters I feel when I blog. I think it's to chase this up a little via email.

Lastly I read a blog last year about a basket  of biscornu challenge . I'd love to create my own basket where each month you make a biscornu for the basket and at the end of the year you have 12 biscornu for yourself. Now last year I made 29 biscornu and gave away all but 5 so I'd love to have a few more of the ones I've made. I've got 6 of the patterns sorted already! I'll still be making them for presents and I've 2 in mind for the next couple of months for mum and a swap.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to sharing more soon.