Rosey Progress and Turning 11

Hello there, 

we're enjoying our first fine weekend in quite some time - the weather is wonderful, warm and sunny. Got to make the most of these nice days as they've been few and far between so far this year!

At the moment I've got a little bit of gift stitching and crafting going on but I'm also making good progress on Rosey by Little House Needleworks. I've loved stitching this design so far.

Looked who recently turned 11 years old, my gorgeous niece Zoe, so we celebrated with a family dinner and some yummy chocolate muffins with strawberry buttercream icing, and lots of family photos too, lol.

Hannah just adores her big cousin, and we do too.

Have a happy day, thanks for stopping by!!

End of the Week

Good morning friends, I'm very pleased its Friday today. I've been under the weather for the past week with a viral infection but I'm slowly feeling back to my normal self.  Now DH is starting to head the same way, oh dear.

Last weekend some parts of New Zealand were hit with a "weather bomb".  We were lucky not to have any major damage in our area but we did get a lot of rain and wind so we were stuck inside all weekend, it felt like it was the middle of winter, not the start of March!!

So there was plenty of time for stitching and I finally finished Part II on Sampler aux Bouquets:

Hannah and Zoe had a great time making up little beds in the lounge and snuggling up with Poppy while they watched several dvds.

We finally watched the Smurfs movie, oh how cute! I absolutely adored the Smurfs when I was little, don't tell DH I said so, but he did too, and his Mum still has his Smurf figurine collection, which now Hannah and our nieces play with :)

Have a happy day xx

'Tis the Season ready to go

One of the local quilting shops had a sale recently so I decided to take a look at the fabrics. I had been puzzling over what fabrics to go with for my 'Tis the Season project for a few months now, as Kath and Clare would both tell you, I've had long discussions with them about it :) 

Remember how I like polka dots, well, that's what I decided to base my fabric choices on, and once I'd chosen my DMC thread too, the rest came together quite easily.

It's going to be "bright"!  I can't wait to get started on my first stitchery block :)

Have a happy day xx

A new start

This chart has been in my stitching basket, all kitted and ready to go, ever since it was sent to me last year from a friend in the US.  I've been wanting to start it for ages so on Saturday night out it came :)

So here's my progress so far. I'm going to put this aside for the next few nights so I can finish off Part II on Sampler aux Bouquets, nearly there :)

Thanks for your visit and kind words!

Jardin Prive Pillow

Hello friends, here's a little pillow finish to share with you today. I stitched this for my friend Clare for her recent birthday.  

one of the Mini Rouges designs by Jardin Prive

stitched on 32ct white linen, DMC thread

I'm really enjoying all this red stitching this month.  I'll be back tomorrow to share a pic of a new project I decided to start over the weekend.

See you soon x

Gift Making

Hello friends,

During February and March I have several friends and family members with birthdays so I decided to get busy and make up some gifts to put away in my pressie cupboard :)

I found this great tutorial a few months ago so here's my version of a Tissue Pocket:

With the cooler and wet "summer" days recently, I've felt like knitting so out came my knitting needles, a few balls of DK wool and a pattern I've made up lots of times now:

(My friend Wendy made these little gift cards for me last year to attach to knitted gifts, aren't they neat)

I've also made a few mug cozies to give as future gifts.

This particular pattern is from Mollie Makes, Issue 7. I'm so pleased that I've found a NZ source, Sew Pretty, to buy this from as its a great source of ideas and so many pretty pictures :) I have also bought a few digital back issues through Zinio, but I'm hoping I'll be able to source paper copies of these eventually.  

Thanks for dropping by, see you soon xx

Valentine Day Stitching

Hello friends, thanks so much for the wonderful comments about the Joy ornament in my last post, my thanks also for taking the time to visit and your friendly messages :)

I'm a little bit late this week in sharing but here's two little Valentine pillows I stitched up recently.  I like to try and stitch something each year for Valentine's Day, and I thought both of these designs were just perfect for this year's choices.

On the left is:

Sweet Love Pincushion by Romy's Creations

from the Gift of Stitching Issue 70 Jan/Feb 2012

stitched with GAST Schoolhouse Red

 and on the right is:

Valentine by the Primitive Hare

freebie design found here

stitched with GAST Schoolhouse Red

The sampler thread I used for these two pillows is fast becoming one of my new favourite reds to stitch with - watch this space for some more "red" stitching to be revealed later this month :)

Its been a quiet weekend around home for us, although I wouldn't say relaxing as both DH and I have been busy catching up with jobs. I spent most of this morning washing ceilings and wiping out cupboards in our laundry and bathrooms, they're sparkling clean! We've also been able to get into our pool this weekend, although the water was a tad chilly, for the first time in well over two weeks. What a strange summer we've had this year, a few hot days, but lots of rain and many cooler days. 

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of the weekend!  See you soon xx

Joy of the Snowflake

Hello friends, here's my first Christmas ornament for 2012, another of my favourites from last years JCS ornaments magazine.

Joy of the Snowflake - Little by Little Design Co, 2011 JSC Ornaments magazine

stitched on 32ct mocha belfast with DMC 799 & 3371

I chose a black and gold fabric for the back and then found a lovely trim at the local scrapbooking shop.

I hope you're enjoying the weekend whatever you might be up to. Its late Sunday afternoon here and I've just finished the last of my usual Sunday afternoon chores, the ironing, lol.  I actually don't mind ironing, as long as there's not too much of it to do!

See you soon x

Hannah's Sunflower

Before the end of last year Hannah came home from daycare one day with a tiny sunflower seedling - all the children had potted up their own sunflower seeds, and had very carefully looked after and watered the seedlings until they were ready to go home with each child .

Well, several weeks later Hannah's sun flower is enormous, and boy does it need alot of water, sometimes two lots of watering a day!

She's so proud of her sunflower :)

And of course Miss Poppy wanted to say hi as well! (This is a regular pose for her)

Thanks to everyone who left a comment about my sampler problem - I'm still unsure as to what I might do but many thanks for your suggestions, especially Patty C :)

See you soon x

Stitching Party

Hello friends I hope the week is going well for you - almost Friday again already!

Last weekend DH was away for a few days and as my Mum offered to have Hannah overnight for me, I thought it was time for a stitching party! lol.  Its been quite some time since we had our last stitching session together.

I made some great progress on Sampler aux Bouquets but sadly I've realised that due to fabric restrictions I'm probably going to have to finish it at Part Two. I'd honestly thought I'd cut my piece large enough but I'm going to run out of fabric with about 50 stitches to go.  A shame really but I've thought about incorporating some of the third part -I'll just have to see if I can work it out!

Janet (no blog) was working on her first Shepherds Bush project, a scissor fob, and Kath was stitching away on her Lizzie Kate Christmas ABC's

Clare was stitching on her birthday project, lots of beautiful over 1 stitching, a With My Needle design I think?

We also had our dear friend Wendy join us this time and she was busy sewing on some quilt blocks for her son and daughter-in-law.

Of course an afternoon and evening of stitching isn't complete without some yummy snacks!

The ladies also stayed on for a potluck dinner, and dessert, berry layer and meringues, made by Kath, was absolutely delicious.  What a fun and happy time we all had!

See you soon x