Farmhouse Christmas series

One of my favourite projects to stitch during 2018 was the Farmhouse Christmas series by Little House Needleworks.

Once I finished stitching all the patterns, over several weekends I slowly got each design made up into individual ornaments. I chose to use jute trim and ribbon, gingham ribbon and rusty bells to accessorise each one.

For the backing fabric I chose this pretty red and light fawn colour.

What a lovely series this was and I'm now very tempted by the new designs coming soon, Jack Frost's Tree Farm. Decisions, decisions, lol.

See you soon xx

Joyeux Noel

I received this gorgeous chart from Kath last year for Christmas and finally stitched it this last week or so.

Peppermint Twist by With Thy Needle & Thread, stitched on 36 ct Weeks Dye Works twilight linen with all the recommended thread.

See you soon x

Two finishes

Taking inspiration from Priscilla's blog, I recently finished this little design into a hanging. This is for my auntie Stephanie, who looks after Hannah for us before and after school each day. She loves decorating for Christmas and she will love this I'm sure:

"Tis the Season" by Country Cottage Needleworks, colours used suggested by Priscilla.

My one and only red work stitchery this year has been finished and given to my lovely Mum.

This is another cute design by Gail Pan and the variegated thread is a Cottage Garden thread called Kangaroo Paw.

See you soon xx

PS Santa

Now that I've finished all my Christmas ornaments and other gift stitching, I have a few little projects I'd like to finish before Christmas, here's hoping!

This Prairie Schooler Santa has been kitted up in my stitching basket since it first came out in 2016! I love this one, and have a couple of other Santa's ready to stitch next year as well.

See you soon x

And now it's December

Like most people I'm guessing, I'm still trying to figure out how it got to be December so quickly???

Hannah now only has two weeks of her school year left and Glenn and I have three weeks before our annual summer holidays begin, its crazy how fast the days are going by!

This little design by Country Cottage Needleworks, finished last week, was the very last of my Christmas gift stitching, now, that's a good feeling!  I chose to follow Priscilla's colour choices for this design, and also left off the snow flakes. 

I still have a bit of finishing to do and of course, some of my recent stitching will have to remain secret for a bit longer, but all will be revealed soon!

Last week I went out with friends for coffee to one of our local cafes and also visited a Christmas shop, oh, all the beautiful decorations, we could have spent a small fortune as we all love Christmas time!

You might remember Hannah's naughty elf Elvis made his first appearance last year? Well he's back for 2018, umm, I wonder what hi jinx and mischief he might get up to over the next few weeks??

Hannah and I went along to the movies on the weekend to see the latest Disney movie, and what a lovely movie it was:

An early Christmas treat has arrived in the mail too. By Blackbird Designs, as soon as I spotted this sampler I knew I just had to buy it.

Love, love, love the thread choices and the fabric is a colour I've used before with other Blackbird Designs patterns.  I'm going to start this very soon!

I just had to share this lovely hand made card, made by one of my clients at work, isn't it sweet?

See you soon xxx

Santa Claus

This was a lovely stitch, all of my favourite Christmas colours.  I used the recommended threads on 32 count vintage mocha belfast linen.

As I'm making my way through the last of my gift stitching and finishing, I've added this to the pile but I'm not sure yet as to how I'll finish it.  I have the second design on this chart ready to stitch too.

See you soon xx

Noel Birds

This little ornament had been in my stitching bag half stitched for several months so it was time for a finish.

Noel Birds  by Homespun Elegance from the 2014 Just Cross Stitch Ornaments magazine.
I trimmed it with some Lady Dot Creates Chianti pom pom trim.

See you soon xx

Chalkboard Ornaments

I absolutely loved stitching these chalkboard ornaments by Hands on Design. I had originally intended to stitch the whole series this year but the rest will have to wait for 2019 now :)

I mostly used the recommended threads, substituting Chalk gentle art sampler thread with DMC 3685, on 32ct black belfast linen.

See you soon xx

Sampler Claus

I was so happy to see that I was still going to be able to get my annual Lizzie Kate Santa fix when this cute design was released by Lizzie Kate a few weeks ago. It's available exclusively from 123 Stitch, one of my favourite online shops. I love that I can keep a "wish list" on their site and add charts, threads, etc until I'm ready to order. I have a few on my list at present, just waiting for the latest With Thy Needle charts to be listed. It's quick service to NZ too, so I don't have to wait too long before new charts arrive.

See you soon x

Two finishes to share!

First up today, is my latest santasunday# finish, Merry Merry by Country Cottage Needleworks.

Another for the 2018 collection, this one is for my niece Zoe.  This is the second time I've stitched this lovely design now, I love recycling my patterns!  Finished into a small pillow using some of the Lady Dot Creates small pom pom trim in Sizzle, my favourite Christmas red colour.

I recently completely finished another stitchery too. I stitched this late last year but didn't get time to sew it into a pillow.

This is a Gail Pan design and is from her Simply Christmas Book 2017 (No.5).  The thread I used was Earl Grey by Cottage Garden Threads.

See you soon x

Farmhouse Christmas Series

Last night I finished Part 7 of the Farmhouse Christmas series, Cock-a-doodle-do.

Only two parts to go now and the next part should be here any day.

See you soon xx

Catching up on #santasundayxs - 3 finishes

Here are three more recent finishes from #santasundayxs, a stitchalong on Instagram. 

Very Merry by Lizzie Kate

2017 Just Cross Stitch Ornaments magazine, trimmed with Ladydot Creates Barndoor Chenille

Noel Nostalique by Fleurs de Lin

Winter Sheep by Little House Needleworks

I love this sheepie design - I've stitched this one several times since it first came out.

Thank you so much for visiting and kind words!  See you soon xx

Merry Little Stitches

I couldn't resist buying this chart when it came out, late last year I think - Merry Little Stitches by Pineberry Lane. 

I purchase all my charts by Pineberry Lane as e-patterns directly from Pineberry Lane. Instant gratification! 

These little stitches were my #santasundayxs project during July.

Finished as simple flat ornaments with cording made out of the same coloured DMC used in the pattern, 355 & 822. In the above photo you can see the fabric I chose for the backing, one of the lovely pieces I picked up on my recent shopping trip.

See you soon xx

Two Finishes to Share

The end of another week has rolled around again and this week we've been treated to some winter sun - frosty and chilly to start the day but then a day of sunshine. 

Great for the second week of the school holidays, which Hannah has been enjoying to wind down after a full on term of school and extra activities. She's spent time with my niece, friends and been into work with me a few days. Glenn and I haven't had any time off work over this school break, we're saving our leave for a bit later in the year for our annual family holiday, more about that another time!

Anyways, I'm certainly on a roll with Christmas ornaments, with this one stitched and finished last week.  I love the colours in this, and it's reminded me how much I'm going to miss not having any new Lizzie Kate's Christmas designs this year. 

This little design is from Lizzie Kate's # 171 Seasons chart.

I used some Lynette Anderson fabric for the backing and this will be travelling off  to a special friend later in the year.

I recently finished my latest socks and they were just waiting for a wash and the blocking.

All the details:

Pattern: Drippity Drop Socks by Kay F Jones
Yarn: Hollyhock by Knitcola 
Needle Size: 2.25mm
Size: M

It was certainly interesting seeing how this yarn knitted up!  I do love this pattern and will be knitting this design again soon.

See you soon xx

Santa Sunday Ornament Finishing

This year's mission is to have all my 2018 Christmas ornaments for family and friends stitched, finished and popped away by September. So far I'm on track as I've been participating in the weekly #santasundayxs on Sundays and sometimes fitting in more ornament stitching during the week.  Another thing that helps is to have plenty of patterns kitted with threads and fabric ready to go so as soon as one is finished, I can get started straight away on the next.

I recently had a lovely afternoon finishing a few stitched ornaments, also catching up with some crafting friends.

Majestic Bird by Homespun Elegance

from an earlier issue of Just Cross Stitch Ornaments Magazine

stitched with recommended threads on cream 32 count linen

Starry Night by Helga Mandl

pattern from  the Gift of Stitching magazine 

stitched with recommended threads on 32 count cream linen

A Year in Chalk - December by Hands on Design

stitched on 30 count gunmetal linen with recommended threads

Hallelujah by Little House Needleworks

stitched on 30 count straw linen with recommended threads

See you soon xxxx

Current Projects

I was so pleased to see another chart in this series has just been released and it will now be on its way in the post. I started stitching this chart, number 4,  last month when I was home from work on sick leave but only managed a small start. 

The linen for this design is 36 count Oaken by Picture this Plus.

This week I finished another ornament from Hands on Design's Chalkboard ornament series. I had planned to stitch one of these a month over the year but so far I've only done two!

My Cosy stripe blanket is underway  too:

A few rows each week and it might be done by summer, ha ha.

See you soon xx