Catching up

Hello friends, well, it's been some time since my last post - the winter bugs caught me and I have had a few weeks of feeling not very well, the usual goings on at work, extra after school things on for Hannah, and also, my father in law's house has now been sold, which meant lots of time sorting out household items, the tools and machinery from his workshop, property maintenance and cleaning too. 

This week is the last week of the school term for Hannah, then the holidays start. We are getting excited as our family holiday is almost here - we are heading to the Gold Coast, Australia. It's been five and half years since our last trip to Australia (we had a fab holiday to Melbourne just before the pandemic), so we are all looking forward to some sunshine and some chill out time together.  Of course there might be shopping involved, ha ha.  It's almost ten years since we took Hannah on her first overseas holiday, which was to the Gold Coast, and I was looking back on the photos and things we did on that trip recently, just seems like yesterday! 

But first, we have an exciting event coming up this weekend, Hannah has her very first ball to go to. The dress and shoes are ready, appointments for nails and hair have been booked, on Saturday it will be all go!  I can't wait to see our beautiful girl all dressed up on Saturday evening. 

I was taking some photos the other day of my stitching finishes to get ready for this post and there's a little pile waiting for me to get to my sewing machine for some finishing time. I haven't done any sewing all year, haven't really felt like it, but over the coming winter months I hope to get back into the swing of things.  I'm going really well with my destash in my craft supplies and it would have been completely done if I hadn't been sick for a few weeks.  I'll be back into it after my holiday.  

So here we go, all my stitching finishes from the past few months. 

Cottontail and Company by Scattered Seeds Samplers, stitched on 36 count light mocha linen.

Spring Fling by Brenda Gervais, stitched on 32 count opalescent pink fabric by Silkweavers

Peace & Goodwill by Brenda Gervais, With thy Needle and Thread, stitched on Picture this Plus, 36 count Legacy linen. 

I've also spent time stitching some of my sampler wips too but don't have any progress pics to share of them.

Next up are all the ornaments I've stitched so far this year:

JBW Designs French Country Santa

Christmas Fawn by Satsuma Street

Love & Joy by Heartstring Samplery

Birds that Sing by MommalovesyouGB

Hands on Designs free chart 2024

Hands on Designs free chart 2024

Several months ago I was browsing the Spotlight store website when I spotted this fab little storage tool box. At the time it was out of stock but recently, they were back on the site and better still, on sale, so I purchased one for my craft room.  

It now sits on my sewing desk and contains all my extra scissors, thread drops, thread rings, DMC bobbins and number labels, needle packets and a whole lot more.  

I have been working on a sewing job for a friend, she recently completed 15 little red work embroideries and I offered to finish them for her as they are going to be donated for a fundraising craft event later in the year.  So cute.

Last week I was able to spend a bit of time with some family visiting from Australia, three of my younger cousins. It was so good catching up with them as it had been a few years.  

Out walking with Diesel on a sunny winter afternoon is great way to forget about things for awhile, he just loves his walks on the river tracks. 

Talking of Diesel, we are so going to miss him while we're on our trip but he will be having the time of his life as our friends Bruce and Alison are going to be looking after him, and he will get to hang out with their black lab Meg.  

I'll be back in a few weeks time, middle of July, wow, how the months have been whizzing by this year.  

See you soon x

Last of the 2021 Christmas Ornaments

I've decided to do a series of posts over the next few days with all the stitching things I'd like to share. Today is all about the rest of the Christmas ornaments I stitched during 2021, many of these were stitched over our winter months.

These designs are by Lila's Studio and are from the Spirit of Christmas series:

Snow Globe by JBW Designs:

Doves by JBW Design:

Stocking and Star by JBW Designs

Plum Pudding by JBW Designs

Merry & Bright by Primrose Cottage Stitches

Joy, a freebie pattern by Misty of Luminious Fibre Arts:

Holly Jolly Christmas by Sub Rosa Designs

 If you would like any further details about these ornaments, feel free to get in touch!

See you soon xx

Last Three

I had a wonderful time over the weekend sitting at my sewing machine, DH was away down in the South Island on his annual fishing trip and Hannah was spending the day with a friend, so I ploughed through a pile of unfinished Christmas gifts - photos to be shared next month I promise!

These three ornaments were also made up recently and I think these will be last for this year, I say "think" because you just never know when more could be stitched, lol.

Blessed by Little House Needleworks

Tis the Season by JBW Designs

Merry & Bright by Country Cottage Needleworks, 

from the 2010 Just Cross Stitch ornaments magazine

Soon some of the ornaments I've shared recently will be their way to the recipients.

See you soon x

Two More

I've always loved JBW Designs patterns and have many of the Christmas ones in my collection, but its been sometime since I've stitched one of them.

A Very Merry Christmas by JBW Designs

32ct waterlily jobelan, with recommended threads

And another from the Little House Needleworks ornament series:

Gingerbread Village

stitched on 32ct mocha linen, recommended threads

Feels good to get these made up and ready to give out to the recipients!

A Few More

Hello friends

Here's some of the last of my 2012 ornament finishes: 

Christmas Dove by JBW Designs

stitched with GAST Schoolhouse Red, 32ct white belfast

Christmas Wishes Pillow by Beehive Needleworks

freebie pattern can be found here

stitched with DMC thread, 32ct cream belfast

We had a fairly busy weekend just been, with the last of the Christmas functions we'd been invited to held on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.  We also spent a lot of time in the swimming pool - its been sweltering here over the past few days, I don't remember it being this hot before Christmas for quite a few years.

I finished my auntie's gift recently, this is for my auntie that looks after Hannah for us every day.  

I thought I'd share a pic of how our fundraising wall hanging turned out - this was stitched by some of the ladies that I work with and myself, and then my talented pal Clare finished it into the wall hanging. Thanks again Clare!  I love how it turned out and I've bought several tickets hoping to win it, lol.

Hannah has been busy too, attending lots of end of the year activities including her daycare Christmas party. Here she is all dressed up ready to go! She was so excited to go along, especially since she knew Santa was making an appearance.

Wishing you a wonderful week xx

A Gift and a Couple of Finishes

This morning I realised that I hadn't yet shared a photo of the sweet little pillow that I received from Kath in our annual Easter exchange. Isn't this lovely, and the yo yo's Kath added were just the perfect touch to the finishing - I just love it!

Despite all the crocheting that been's going on here lately, I'm still stitching too! Here's a couple of my recent finishes:

Needle and Thread by Little House Needleworks

stitched with provided kit threads

32ct natural belfast

Holly Bows, 2010 Christmas Ornament by Just Nan

stitched with recommended threads and fabric

Sorry for the poor quality of these pics today, this last couple of days have been very grey and dreary. I might get these made up this coming weekend since its going to be a low key weekend, well, thats what I'm hoping anyway :)

Bye for now!

Some Friday Finishing

Hi folks, well another week has rolled around and in the blink of eye it will soon be the 1st December! Then the countdown to Christmas begins :)



I spent a bit of time at the sewing machine the other day and made up some little pillows using the stitched pieces that I'd not long finished. I found this piece of lovely trim in one of our craft boxes at work. Boy oh boy, do we have some goodies in that trim box!!

French Country Angel by JBW Designs

Merry Christmas by Threadwork Primitives

At the moment I'm stitching away on the last of my 2010 ornaments, the end is in sight! A little parcel of new stash arrived on Friday with the last of the Christmas Rules charts so I hope to get a bit more done on that later this week. I've also been thinking about what my holiday project is going to be - every year when I start my annual summer holiday just before Christmas I pick out a new design to start. Last year I stitched Its Berry Time by Blackbird Designs, the year before it was Blessings and Kind Wishes by Blackbird Designs, and before that, I quite can't remember off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure it was a BD design too, lol. I guess I should be going with one again this time, any suggestions??

Thanks for stopping by and a big hi to all the new posters to my blog, so lovely to hear from you :)
~Katrina~

More Christmas Stitching

Last week I came across a small freebie pattern by Threadwork Primitives that I thought was rather nice. I thought it would be just perfect to stitch several up and make into little stitched pillows for some of my co-workers.

My thread choices were DMC 355 and 580. You can find the pattern here.

This next finish was the small project I took with me to Napier last weekend. I thought this design was just so sweet when it first came out and was rather thrilled when Kath gave me the chart for it recently.

French Country Angel by JBW Designs

stitched on coffee dyed linen with Holly Berry Gentle Art Sampler Thread

I went looking through my fabric bins last night and pulled out a couple of fat quarters that I thought would match quite well so I hope to get these made up over the next few days.

Many thanks for the lovely comments left about Christmas Rules yesterday - I appreciate them so much :) ( A little note for Lisa, the fabric I'm using is 32ct mocha belfast linen).

Thanks for stopping by,

~Katrina~