Theme-Tas-Stitch October link up post

It's the 21st, so time for Theme-Tas-Stitch

This month's theme was...

Opulent October -

Break out the bling - stitch with beads, charms, metallics or on sparkly fabric.

A bit of a challenge for me this one as I have lots of projects that could fall into this but aren't necessarily blinged up yet!

I was reading my post from last month's TTS and realised that I didn't actually show the tree keeper from The Drawn Thread. It was stitched on some random fabric that was actually the piece from the kit up next. It has way more beads than were called for, but hey, it's a Christmas ornament it needs bling!

The fabric was from a cover kit from Crosstitcher in 2015 I think. The kit was enough to stitch one of the houses but I liked all three and had some nice natural linen from Sew it all grab bag and the kit floss was actually enough to do all three houses so that's what I did. I substituted the single cross stitches for beads to show snowfall. The little Christmas tree has gold beads and the snowman has petite black beads for coal.

My last bit of bling was on Plum Street Samplers 12 days of Christmas and I finally put in five gold rings. It wasn't as hard to stitch on 25ct with metallics over 1 as I thought it would be.

I also made some needleminders from buttons and pendants I've had for a fair while. If that owl isn't opulent then I don't know what is!

Link up here and show us what you've been up to. 

Next month's theme is:

No X November - 

Blackwork, Hardanger, pulled thread or speciality stitches the choice is yours or maybe it's time to tackle the backstitch on some of those almost finished projects.

I have more ideas for this month than stitching hours in the day so we'll just have to see how well I do. I plan to start the black work lady from walks, finish the half stitch on my giraffe silhouette and have a new Christmas start as part of #santasundayxs on Instagram. November is a very busy month for us so no X November could well be no stitching at all Eek. I'm back on the PTA at school so I could end up making felties all of November too...

You can now find me on Instagram as Kerry_in_stitches and I've also ventured into the world of Floss tube. I have 3 videos now - my channel is Kerry in stitches there too! Pop over and say hi!

Happy stitching friends. Have a great weekend.

WIPocaylpse - January check in

Morning friends,

That's always a dangerous thing to say when it's fast heading to midday and you have a tendency to take ages to write a blog post.

Right last Sunday of the month means WIPocalypse hosted my Measi so here are my offerings this month.

I have two finishes to share - you will have already seen these so just to tick them off the WIP list we have...

Finished birth sampler, you can read more about it here.

I also finished the little tree decoration in my last post.

Right on to new stuff and this is the biggie...Progress on The twelve days of Christmas. The design is by Paulette Stewart at Plum Street Samplers and was released as the Christmas 2015 SAL I didn't get quite as far as I had planned but considering I was here at my last check in with this project.

and now I'm here - it's not bad progress. I love the wreath around the Goose's neck

I also brought 2 frames for completed stitches in my box of shame...progress! I just need to do something with them now.

I have a present to make this week and then I shall be back stitching this for Theme-Tas-Stitch in February along with that pesky biscornu. 

Edited:

 Oops I forgot the WIPocalypse question: What SALs are you taking part in this year?

I’m taking part in 3 SAL’s this year and hosting one of my own.

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by Jo and we post on the 15^th of each month about our stitching that is for gifts or made up of items gifted to us (thread, chart, fabric etc).

Smalls SAL hosted by Heather –posting on the last Friday of each month we finish something small each month of our choice.

Wipocalypse  hosted my Measi – posting on the last Sunday of the month about the WIP’s we’ve worked on.

And...

 Theme-tas-stitch is a SAL I am hosting each month where we use pieces in our stash to stitch around themes set. Many of you will remember Theme-a-licious - well basically I contacted Heather and asked if I could re-launch it - she said yes so here we are. More details can be found on the tab at the top of my page.

Have a great stitchy week friends

Gifted gorgeousness - January edition

Morning folks.

I've not a huge amount to show for makes this year so far as I've been crafting for a swap, but I did a fair bit of making before Christmas as I did crafty advent calendars for Steph and Laura. Laura make me one a couple of years ago and it was so much fun I decided to return the favour and also make Steph one as she is always so generous. 

This is everything for Laura before I wrapped them all. I put in similar stuff for Steph too. The advent calendars were made up of craft supplies, chocolate and treats, Christmassy stuff like socks and also several hand made bits. The wrapped pile looked great! Each was labelled with the date to open. 

These were Laura's hand made bits above. I made earrings, a penguin brooch, fabric hanging decoration (Laura's was the owl one, Steph had a house). I stitched 2 of daffycat's reindeer for them (click here to check out all of them). . There were a couple of repeats from the Christmas travelling box - Laura had a biscobell and Steph a button tree and I also made a ball for Steph which was inspired by a conversation about satsuma's - as you do!  

It was my birthday a few weeks ago too and along with a Cath Kidston handbag and Paperchase vouchers from hubby, I had a lovely box of presents from Steph including these two beautiful stitches. 

I did make a little heart for my friend Ria for her birthday in October. 

I spent most of December making felties but I did make this little decoration for our friends daughter. It was a cover kit card design from Crazy I think. I did change the hair colour to match Alice's

I think I need to stop blogging now and actually make some stuff so I have something to show in February! 

Happy crafting friends x 

The 'C' word

Hello everyone

Yes I dared to mention the C word in October. Well as Strictly has started it means the countdown has begun. Did you watch it last night? Jay's jive was a-maz-ing!!!

The Travelling box ladies and I are having a small Christmas version of the travelling box that made its merry way to Cornwall this week. We decided that we would only take four items or less as Christmas can be a rather busy time for crafters. As the box was starting from scratch I made 10 things to get the box on its way. It's been a couple of years since I enjoyed crafting  for Christmas as it's always seemed a bit of a rush.

So here are my makes. First up is a little biscornu from a pattern I designed myself

Here's the back. Just a simple border so I could pop on a Christmassy button. 

Next up are a couple of snowman designs, the stitched one is a freebie I found on Pinterest.

 the wooden one uses buttons and a heart from button-it and coloured using gelly roll pens. The little wreath is made up from 1" hexagons. I made a few of these last year too. 

On a quilting theme I made this little coaster using 1" hexagons again. It has a  tree design in the middle. It's pictured with a granny square mug cosy. As you all know granny squares are about the extent of my crocheting ability 

I love this little nativity scene.

 

Next up is a little tree made of buttons 

I made a little stocking for each of the ladies and filled them with a little chocolate. 

Lastly is the biscobell. I found the make up instructions on Pinterest and designed the stitching myself. If only you could have seen me trying to photograph

it. 

It's stitched inside too...

I'm so proud of this. 

This eek is a crazy busy stitching week. I have a small 4" x 6" sampler to do for my in laws ruby wedding anniversary on Saturday and I want to get Steph's birthday present stitched. Busy busy! 

Have a great week all xx

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

How lovely are your branches...

Just a quick post to show my Christmas tree and all my hand made decorations. This is a collection that has grown over 4 years and has decorations from some of my lovely crafty friends and some carved ones I've brought from our city's annual Victorian Fayre. 

Here is my tree and fireplace. A very good friend came round to film a parody of the John Lewis ad with our Minister dressed as a penguin (perfectly normal!!). Her description was that it looked like someone had vomited Christmas all over my lounge!!!

And here is all of them...

There are 71 on the tree and about 15 round the room. This is the ones that were new this Christmas just gone. I had decorations from Laura, Joan, Lori and Amanda. I was very lucky to win Laura's crafty advent calendar so had lots of lovely ones from her including the penguin, folded fabric star and the cute stitched reindeer. The frilly looking crocheted ones are candy cane holders made by Joan along with santa. Lori sent me a Christmas pud and a star square and my friend Amanda made the tree garland, snowflake and wreath. 

I wonder whether we'll hit the 100 mark this year??? I might give out a little prize if anyone can guess the correct number when I take them down next January 

Thanks for reading, I'll share all my 2015 goals in my next post. 

Kerry

2014 round up

Hello friends (if you are still there!!)

I'm sorry for my absence, a few secret makes I couldn't share and then starting a new job (an Internship in Youth Ministry for a year) meant I have fallen behind. So I shall wish you Happy New Year and I thought I'd do a quick round up of 2014. I'm setting myself a goal of blogging monthly so that I can realistically keep up as I am doing the Internship until September. 

January
I finished off the Big Bang Theory chart.

February 

Another TV related stitch, this time Game of Thrones

March

It was a month of finishing off WIP's so I shall just add a link to the post. Although the post is dated April, most were completed in March as part of themealicious.

April

The Spring swap with Steph. As you've all seen the posts about this, I'll just put a pic of my favourite make and link back to the original post.
 

May 

This is where all the new stuff comes in as my last post was mid May. Everything below is new to the blog and starts with Lori's birthday...a blackwork cat card and biscornu. 

June

Laura's birthday was at the beginning of July so In June I made her a dragon cushion and biscornu. 

July

July was a very busy month. I went to see the Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, which was a dream come true. Steph and I did our summer swap so I made Wimbledon bunting and a strawberries and cream biscornu.

A tea for two bundle

In the garden was next, which included a stitched bookmark and cushion, beaded insects. I also did a seaside themed book page with the other side being a picnic. I made a small granny blanket too.

Steph made me a fabulous bundle...

August

The travelling box arrived brim full of amazing makes. I made bunting, scissor case, chicken scratch bookmark, necklace, fabric owl, covered notebook and pen holder, biscornu, 2 brooches and an embellished purse. 

I selected the following to keep...

August was also my friend Caroline's birthday so I made a biscornu and Steph made me a brooch to give her as Caroline admires my collection. 

September 

I started making for the autumn swap and Steph's birthday and didn't get very far at all as I started the  Internship and went from working 10 hrs a week to 30. My youngest started school too  Laura and her husband celebrated their anniversary so I did manage this chicken scratch heart. 

October 

This saw much of he same where I was too tired to do anything, bits got done, but nothing finished 😔

November 

My birthday and my kind a generous friends sent me lovely presents. 

This was from Lauren 

Laura sent me these goodies. I love the colours of the bag. 

Steph sent me some beautiful threads and a brooch to match a skirt I have. 

My friend Amanda made me wrist warmers. 

December 

I actually made stuff and completed them!!

Triangle trees, chicken scratch snowflakes and folder fabric trees for Steph and Laura. They were made in different colours and also included bits is picked up at the hobby crafts show in November. 

I made this for my pen pal Janet's little girl from a DMC freebie chart.

I also made a chicken  scratch heart for Caroline but forgot to take a pic. 

I had some lovely presents from my crafty friends. Steph sent me a fabulous bundle carrying on with the autumn theme. 

Laura sent me 

 And Lori sent me these as my birthday present was lost in the post (so sad)

I also sent Steph an autumn bundle with this mini cushion

I was very lucky to win Laura's crafty advent calendar and had all these fab treats that included stash, makes and chocolate goodness. 

I'd forgotten about the swap we did within the travelling box group. Joan made me a fabulous Santa and candy cane holders

And I made a Joy decoration and sent choc and a few buttons from the NEC.

So that was 2014. I hope you've managed to stay awake through all of this. 

Best wishes 

Kerry