A little catch up

Hi everyone,
I hope that you have all had a lovely Easter. My lot are on the last day of the hols. I'm pleased to say all the homework is done and bedrooms are almost tidied. I just need to iron the uniform and pop to tesco for the packed lunch stuff. I'm sure that is enough about my domestic arrangements so on to the crafting.

I had a commision for Black Pear - a kitty keyring, now I'm not a cat person so this was quite hard for me to do. anyway here he or is it a she is. I wanted to use safety eyes but couldn't get any locally so I cheated and used black brads, It'll be fine as a its for a (late) teenager. The ribbon was lilac and the ears and nose a pale pink, as they seem to have come out white in the picture.

The back was personalised for the birthday girl. 

I was a bit late getting my ATC's done for this month but it's great to know that I have a couple of spare ones now. As you can see I've not made them up yet but I will do when I do May's themed ones (Birds and Jubilee/Royalty). I've picked the designs for them so I WILL meet the May deadline!!! I must remember to stock pile some stamps too! The mermaid was from an issue of Crazy and the Loch Ness Monster from WOXS. The theme was fantasy (or fanta-sea) as I've renamed it)

The two flowers were from the recent WOXS chart booklet

I started work on the April Biscornu over the weekend and I decided to try stitching the square outlines first, I must say it was a good way to do it and something I'll probably do again. The design is a Kincavel Krosses one, but I'll say more when it's done.

Mum liked the yellow rose biscornu I made for her, I remembered to give it to her on Saturday. She was impressed by the neatness!

Well, time to get on, a woman's work is never done and I want to spend some time stitching this afternoon as I have a job application to finish as soon as the little darlings go to bed tonight.

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Finally some finishes

Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all having a nice Easter, It's rather wet in my part of the world, which is disapointing as we were hoping for a walk today. So instead we're continuing family movie weekend (we've watched Hop, Mary Poppins, Enchanted and now Chicken Little with Flushed away and maybe a full Wallace and Gromit run through later too) and hopefully, I'll get a bit of stitching in too as I need to start my ATC's for this month and get them in the post ideally by Wednesday. Nothing like stitching to a tight deadline is there. 3 of them are my choice and 2 are fantasy themed. The fantasy ones will be a bit of a challenge as it's not something I stitch very often. I have a couple of ideas but I will leave that one until last.

So on to the biscornu...
I did get them finished although I miscounted on the bottom of the rose design by one square all round so instead of unpicking and restitching, I just started again and now I have a spare base for another one at another time.

Firstly the Yellow rose biscornu for Mum

The design was slightly adapted from a Woman's Weekly pincushion designed by Helen Phillips. I put a simple pattern on the base corners an attached a rose charm to the corner. I didn't quite get it done before I went over to Mums, but it's all done now and I can give it to her on Wednesday.

Here is the March one...

The design is from the chart booklet from the latest WOXS and stitched with the Madeira threads. The lovey bead in the middle is one Laura sent me a while back and worked perfectly. The bottom was done with a simular corner design to the Yellow rose biscornu but I added 4 buttons to give a bit extra. I wasn't sure how they would look, but I'm really pleased with how they look.

So this brings me another post nearer my giveaway, so I need plenty of encouragement (and badgering) to get stuff done, as the more I finish, the nearer to my 100 posts giveaway. Steph over at Show and Tell is having an amazing giveaway too... you can find it here.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday. xxxx

Confessions of a slacker stitcher!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my new followers and Happy Easter to you all!

Todays pics come in the form of a confessional and a bit of a progress report. I still haven't finished March's biscornu and I had hoped to finish one for Mum for Easter as I failed to get it done for Christmas, Mothering Sunday and her Birthday. (Oops!) So my plan for this weekend is to finish both biscornu as have found intructions for a 6 sided biscornu, 15 sided biscornu, a biscobud (sometimes known as a pagoda) and a biscofleur so roughly translated that's April, May, June and July sorted for biscornu! If anyone knows of any other variations please let me know I'd love to try them out. I'll put links on as I make them for the ones I've mentioned.

So here is as far as I have gotten with the March Biscornu. The design is from the Madeira chart book from the current WOXS. It was going to be an ATC but I thought it was too big, Having just measured it, It would fit...just. So anyway, I need to finish the purple backstitch and and then bead it, oh and do the bottom!

This is the one I started for Mum. It's from a Woman's Weekly craft special and was for a pin cushion, but I thought the design worked well for a biscornu, I changed the colours as Mum loves yellow roses and the design was for pink ones. Hopefully I can get it done today and give it to her tomorrow. That certainly will be a tough challenge.

Last picture is the progress pic of my fabric brooch I started at the NEC. I've tidied it up a bit and started on the beading too. I need to sort out a few more green bugles but hopefully I can get it done over the next couple of weeks.

Well time for lunch, I've just re-heated leftover cottage pie, and I can't wait to eat it. Beats a sandwich hands down! Have a lovely Easter weekend. xxx

Sunday stroll, fabulous ATC's and Easter present

Hubby, the kids and I had another trip over to the local country park yesterday to make the most of a sunny Sunday afternoon. We took another route through the woods and walked back up by the two ponds. We took the kids on the park and I sat making daisy chains. The Bluebells are just coming out so I'm looking forward to another walk up there in a couple of weeks to see the carpet of blue.

I was very excited to have a lovely parcel today from Laura today. We swapped 2 ATC's and some little goodies too. My parcel hasn't made it to Laura yet as the postie took it back with him. so here are the lovely goodies I got...

Two gorgeous ATC's...I love the Giraffe one, Laura knows my Giraffe obsession and this will make a welcome addition to it.

Laura also sent these very cute little bunnies and I now have a Tiny Owl too!!! Yay! The little choc chick is safely in the fridge until Sunday, however, if it makes it past midday it'll be a miracle. Laura's Mum remembered one of her friends loved Giraffes and sent me the little Giraffe motif which she'd picked up at a show. Such a lovely thought, I guess all the Giraffe goodies Laura made me for my birthday last November must have stuck in her mind.

 

So above is the ever growing Ami family, not a bad collection considering I can't crochet and the collection is less than a year old. A big thank you to Laura, Steph and Dotty for these.

I haven't forgotten about the March biscornu, hopefully I'll be all done tomorrow as it just needs beading and a bit of backstitch, a bit late I know, but better late than never, My only stitching plans for April are 2 biscornu and half a dozen ATC's. I've decided just a little target this month in the hope I can actually get it done and not feel defeated and therefore lose my stitchy bug.

Thank you for stopping by as always. I love reading your comments so please leave me one even if it's just to say hello. xxx

NEC Sewing for Pleasure...

= STASH!!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, illness in the family and the lack of crafting means I've just not had anything to share so I'm hoping my trip to the NEC on Thursday will give me lots of inspiration and the boost my crafting needed.

I went with my friend Liz and we decided to do some workshops too. I did wire coiling and needle felting with one tutor and made a fabulous fabric brooch/corsage with another.

so here is my lovely, lovely stash.

The heap of fibres are in preparation for a technique Liz is going to teach me so I can use for making stuff for Black Pear, I really fancy a go at Decopatch, so I got a few blanks and some papers for that. The usual aray of buttons, charms, ribbons and other embelishments for the ATCs. I did have another lovely strip of ribbon but I've lost it somewhere (sniff sniff). I also brought the bits I needed to get started in needle felting. So below are the colied beads I made and my two first needle felted beads. I loved doing those and I'm looking forward to making something with them.



Here is my brooch as far as I got with it, despite a few sewing machine issues we were able to get started. there wasn't enough time to get it done but I plan to get it finished over the coming week and maybe try another one. The design brief was:

ALL PINNED TOGETHER

Machine stitching onto a background of Angelina and painted fabric, edge stitched then beaded and manipulated into an individual and unusual brooch.

The angelina was fab to work with and I've already made my next sheet of it ready for another design and had a go at the fusing with rubber stamps. It hasn't come out very well in this pic and it's still sat on the baking parchment.

I've just found a couple of pics from last week of the lovely display stand my friend Clare gave me. You can see my latest makes, the 3 dogs, Violet, Dot and Spot

I hope you are all enjoying this glorious weather, we went for another walk in the local woods with the in-laws today and saw a Buzzard and a Greater Spotted Woodpecker. It felt lovely to blow the cobwebs out and the children have been loving playing in the garden too.

Well time for bed, especially as the clocks go forward,  I'm at work most of tomorrow, but at least I have plenty of crafting time whilst I'm there. I'll be finishing Laura's ATC's for our little monthly swap.

Take care folks and thanks for reading. xxx

 

Blog awards

Hi Everyone,
Sorry for being so remiss in passing on these lovely blog awards that I've had recently. Thank you to Laura, MsStitcher, Steph and MaryJoan for thinking my blog was up to par. xx

Here are the rules:

1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster to.
2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blogs so they know about the award.
4. Share five random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

So, I am passing the blog award on to:

1. Jordan at In it to knit it
2. Dotty at The Dotty One
3. Lori at Hippywitch crafts
4. Catherine at catherines sewing corner
5. ...sorry I'm really not sure as it would have been one of lovely ladies who kindly gave me this award

as for random things about me...

1. I have a collection of antique glass dressing table sets.
2. My favourite flowers are Yellow Roses, Irises and Freesias.
3. I'm a huge Formula 1 fan. (and I'm sat watching the Malaysia quali now)
4. I love Giraffes and have 2 five foot wooden ones in my lounge.
5. My favourite kind of music is punk/rock by bands such as Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Clash and The Jam.

Thanks for reading and my next post will be all about my day out at the NEC for the Sewing for Pleasure show.

New Black Pear makes

Hi Folks
I can't believe it's been a week since my last post and it's taken me this long to acually complete a project. here are a couple of makes I did for Black Pear.

First is a roon sign, appliqued with a Thomas Tank engine and personalised for my Son.

And here is a little phone case I made inspired by a bookmark that was in the travelling craft box by Laura.

I've been having a bit of a craft drought where despite so many ideas I can't seem to get anything done. I'm planning on finishing my ATC's tonight for the swaps, or more to the point starting them! I've got my Mum's birthday in just under two weeks and I have a biscornu half done for her. So many projects, so little time. I did have my first sale as Black Pear and sold Max the Dog (yay!) So I need to make a new one now.

Thanks for reading. xx