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

Pineberry Lane, new fabric and latest reads

This little design by Pineberry Lane was quick stitch one night last week.  I have stitched this design before with red thread and this time I went with DMC 501 on natural belfast linen.

This ornament will be soon making it's way to Australia as it's for a friend's little grand daughter.

On my travels earlier in the month I picked up some new Christmas fabrics and I already have plans for these!

The fabrics were purchased at Spotlight and Cottage Flair. The whimsical Alice in Wonderland will make a great knitting project bag.

A couple of newly released books arrived in at my local library and both of these I enjoyed.

Read any good books lately? 

See you soon xx

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

All things stitching

Over the weekend I finished the very last part of the Farmhouse Christmas series, Ba Ba Black Sheep.

I hope to make a start on turning my stitching into individual ornaments later this week.

I "think" I've finally finished stitching the last of my 2018 ornaments for family and friends - I need to do a count up to check, and of course, there are several that I won't be able to show until after they have been given to the recipients :) This one is from Hands on Designs Chalkboard ornament series.

Started back in May, while Hannah and I were watching the Royal Wedding of Megan and Harry, I have been slowly stitching away on Cross Stitch Nation by Heartstring Samplery.

I couldn't resist ordering the new Lizzie Kate Christmas Santa pattern (available from 123 Stitch) and it arrived in the post yesterday. Last night I sorted the threads and some fabric so I'll making a start on it tonight.  It looks a cute stitch.

See you soon x

Farmhouse Christmas Part 8

Part 8 of the Farmhouse Christmas series is now done :)

Only one part to go of this lovely series - I have really enjoyed stitching this project over the last few months. I'm looking forward to making up these little pieces into ornaments as soon as I have received and stitched the last part, which should be here any day now.

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

From the Weekend

I have finished another design in the Blackbird Designs Loose Feather series - chart 4, All The Hills Echoed.  Stitched with all the recommended threads on 36ct Oaken linen by Picture This Plus.

Good timing as the latest in the series arrived in the post on Friday. I think I might skip ahead to this one, it really appealled to me, and go back to chart 5 & 6 sometime.

Miss H started weekly ballet lessons last term, and she is absolutely loving ballet so far. Her teacher is just lovely and so wonderful with all the children in Hannah's class, from 5 year olds to the older children Hannah's age.  Hannah has her first exam coming up later in the month so on Saturday was the mock exam which Hannah participated in. All good fun and she has been learning so much.

In other news from around here, our house renovations are moving along and the laundry is currently underway.  We had to wait quite some time for a local plasterer to come, he's the same guy we used last year so we were happy to wait but now that part of the job has been done, we can get the painting underway.

This coming weekend the final coats on the walls will be done, then we can move onto the floor tiling. You can see the difference in the paint colours in the above pic as the door to the garage is still the previous colour and now with the black white paint, it's looking so much brighter and fresher. We've yet to decide on bench tops and laundry tub and a new washing machine will be purchased too. All in good time!

See you soon x

Farmhouse Christmas Part 6

Pinewood Farm is part 6 in the Farmhouse Christmas series by Little House Needleworks.

I can't believe this series is now 2/3's of the way along! I'm going to be visiting one of my favourite fabric shops later this week so I'm hoping to find some suitable backing fabric to make these lovely designs into ornaments.

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

Mice in the Sewing Room

This little pattern was a lovely stitch, Mice in the Sewing Room by Brenda Gervais/With Thy Needle and Thread.

I used all the recommended threads and finished it into a simple pillow to display on my craft book shelf.

See you soon xx

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

Farmhouse Christmas Series

On the weekend I finally finished Part 5 of the Farmhouse Christmas series by Little House Needleworks. 

I think I've mentioned previously there had been quite a delay between receiving Part 1 and Parts 2 & 3, so Part 4 had been released by the time the other charts arrived in here in New Zealand. Over the past few weeks I've been slowly catching up, and now Part 6 is on it's way!

I'm stitching all the parts on to one piece of 32 count vintage mocha belfast linen, the colour in the photos isn't very true because of the winter light at the moment. I divided the fabric into sections - there are twelve on my piece so I will have fabric left over for another project.

Whoops, I've just seen a missed stitch in this one!

I am planning to make each one into an ornament but I will probably do this later in the year, once all the charts in the series have been stitched.

See you soon xx

Feliz Navidad - Blackbird Designs

Last week I finished this gorgeous sampler, Feliz Navidad by Blackbird Designs. When this chart was released, I knew it would be a must stitch for me - the colours and the pretty alphabet I just loved.

I stitched this sampler with all the recommended threads (Weeks Dye Works) and used 36 ct Legacy by Picture this Plus fabric.  This design is number 2 in the Christmas Sampler series by Blackbird Designs.

See you soon x

Sampler Hare

A recent finish is this little cutie by La-D-Da, Sampler Hare. My friend Clare had given me the pattern and kit for a birthday gift last year and I started it straight away. But for some reason or another I never finished it.

A few weeks ago, around about Easter time, I pulled it out from my stitching basket and finished the stitching part. Then it was a matter of sewing it all together, all the supplies apart from the stuffing were included and the instructions were pretty straight forward to follow. The most fiddly part was getting some stuffing into the ear lol.  The little tail was made by pulling threads from the cross stitch fabric.

There is now another companion bunny for this one, Sweet Pea, which I'll have to buy sometime.

See you soon xx

Stitching plans, laundry renos and a few days away

My main stitching project at the moment is Feliz Navidad by Blackbird Designs. I've been really enjoying the colours in this and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the border matches when I get around the right hand corner!

On Monday I celebrated my birthday. I was at work for the day and received some lovely gifts and treats from my work friends. Then after Hannah's evening trampolining class, we went across the road to my parents for a roast beef dinner with my brother Marcus and Zoe too. This was followed by a self saucing gingerbread pudding with custard and cream, delicious! More lovely gifts received including the most softest winter dressing gown from Hannah and Glenn - it has already been put to use the past few evenings! I was also very spoiled with gifts from some of my dear friends too, pics to come.

I have had this little pattern kitted and ready to stitch for ages so made a small start on Monday evening. Isn't my bunny mug sweet, Hannah and I both got new mugs at Easter. 

Glenn worked all weekend in the laundry and all the interior walls have been relined.

Next on his to do list is to put the ceiling scotia back up and fill in the holes on the walls.  We've also got to get the old cork tiles up sometime, what a job that's going to be.

Hannah has a two week holiday from school coming up. She's getting very excited as this weekend we are off on a girl's trip for a few days with her bestie Abigail and Abigail's Mum, my good friend Tracey.

We're heading south to Palmerston North - we'll be staying a few nights with my family there, and the girls have a big list of activities they'd like to do, and shops to visit. All good fun!

See you soon xx