Sunday Stitching

During my stitching time on Sundays I've been working on a few projects to go into the gift box.  My latest finish is this redwork sampler design from Gail Pan's Simply Christmas 2014.

Love the cute reindeer!  I used a Cottage Garden thread called Running Postman.

Next up is this stitchery by Rosalie Quinlan, which I've had for ages.

This is the first time I've stitched with the Cosmo thread, it came in the kit. I've noticed a lot of quilting and stitchery designers use it now in their projects. I'm not sure if Cosmo threads are widely available here in New Zealand but I'm definitely keen to track down some more colours, its great to stitch with, very silky :)

See you soon x

Easter Crafting

For the past few years Kath and I have exchanged a little stitched gift at Easter time. Sometimes it takes me ages to decide on a design, other times I have it worked out straight away. This year I chose a pattern by Homespun Elegance:

Sampler Bunny by Homespun Elegance

stitched with recommended threads, unknown fabric

This is what I received from Kath - love the pink and the spots!  A chocolate bunny, nom nom!!

Next up is the spoolie bunny I made for Hannah's Easter basket - I bought this little kit back in February from the craft show.  This is by Cameron-James Designs.

I knitted some hand warmers to go with our nieces' Easter eggs - Hannah helped to pick out the colours for the girls.

This little Lizzie Kate pillow went into my little basket of Easter smalls.

"Chicks" - Lizzie Kate kit

used recommended threads and fabric from kit

One of my friends recently went to Melbourne for the Australian Quilt Convention and bought back a few goodies for me including the pattern and fabric to make up this bunny.

Quick Easter Bunny by Rosalie Quinlan

I'll definately be making some more of these cuties!

Lately

Hello there

Hasn't the last week gone by fast and of course, now December is nearly here there's definitely no chance of the days slowing down!

I've been trying to fit in a bit of sewing whenever I can lately, even hand sewing during my lunch breaks at work. Over the past few months I've been working on some Christmas crafts here and there and now it's time to get them made up and popped into the pressie box.  

This is the ornament I chose to stitch for my lovely Mum, made into a hanging Christmas cracker.

Love Jingles Flip it by Lizzie Kate

stitched on 32 ct cream linen with recommended threads

These little angels, design by Rosalie Quinlan, were made up from the kit I purchased during our Auckland holiday:

Pretty quick and easy to make so I'd like to make a few more sometime.

Last weekend Hannah and I headed away for the weekend to Palmerston North to stay with family and do some Christmas shopping. As always, we had a wonderful time, lots of laughs, good food and company!

I love this photo of Hannah I snapped while we'd stopped for a cold drink and snack at one of the cafes, boy, did it get hot there over the weekend!

We spent lots of time with this lovely lady, my cousin Donna, and on Saturday evening we went for a walk through a new nature reserve being worked on just down the road from where Donna lives. This is going to be a beautiful spot in years to come once all the planting and walkways are completed.

Glenn had a great weekend too, he spent a couple of days with friends on a chartered fishing trip in the Marlborough Sounds, something he'd been wanting to do for a long time, and came home with lots of delicious fresh fish! 

See you soon x

Lately

Hello friends, did you have a lovely weekend? We did - the sun was shining all weekend so I spent a bit of time outside in the garden, DH worked some more on our house extension and he's also made some new shelves for my sewing and stitching fabrics to go onto in our office/craft room, pictures to come soon. Hannah spent a bit of time with Nannie and Grandad, and we also enjoyed a lovely walk & scooter ride yesterday afternoon. 

As usual, I've got lots of crafty projects on the go at the moment so I've sorted out a weekly rotation so I get a little bit of time spent on them all.   

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings have been spent stitching on Christmas Garden, CCN's Garden Girl or Santa's Village, and LHN's Sheep Virtures.

I'm really pleased with my progress on Christmas Garden:

Wednesday nights have been set aside for stitchery projects and then over the weekend is when I stitch ornaments or other small designs. This is a recent finish:

Maison Rouges by Cathy Roy

Le Chalet des Perelles 

two free designs to choose from 

stitched with DMC 321, 32ct white belfast

I'm also trying to fit a bit of knitting in as I've been asked to make some handwarmers by some of the ladies my Mum works with.

As usual over the winter months, I've been reading a lot more and I love getting new books in the mail - these two arrived last week :)

Have a lovely week x

New Stitchery Project

Hello there 

I always look forward to my Wednesday night stitching time as over the last few months instead of cross stitching I've been trying out some red work stitchery.   My favourite thread colour to stitch with is DMC 321.

This is my latest project:

I love my new scissor fob, which my friend Janet made for me last week.

Doesn't it match my little scissors just perfectly?

Have a happy day xx