Red Work

Last Friday afternoon was the first time in about ten weeks I was able to do some stitching with two of my friends and what fun it was, to have a chit chat while we did some crafting. I pulled out some red work to work on, one friend was making birthday cards and my other friend was getting some Christmas crafts underway. How I missed these get togethers over the past few months.

I really enjoyed stitching on the red work project, I haven't done any red work for ages. I'm using DMC 321 and the pattern is by Natalie Bird from the Birdhouse Designs. The fabric was pre printed so no tracing out involved :)

See you soon x

Stitch Maynia 2020 Week 3

Last week was a slow stitching week for me but I managed to get stitching done on all my current projects and start two new ones for Stitch Maynia 2020.

The first one is the Rarest Flower by Blackbird Designs, such a pretty design and I'd been wanting to stitch this since it was first released. I'm using 32 count Putty Belfast linen and the recommended threads.

My 2nd start is technically not a new start as I actually started this during last year's Stitch Maynia but I had only put about 5 stitches into it lol.

Blessed Bee by Brenda Gervais, With Thy Needle and Thread, I'm using 40 ct vintage mocha linen and the recommended threads.

As we head into the last week of Stitch Maynia, I have the last two of my new projects to start - one is Hands on Designs design, a freebie that can be found here, and lastly, Blackbird Designs All Joys for Thine.

I've already decided that for June, I'm going to do repeat of my May stitching, but not starting anything new and I'll also be getting some charts sorted for Jolly July - I'm hoping to get the bulk of my Christmas ornaments underway as I've been a bit slow there this year so far.

See you soon xx

Stitch Maynia Week 2

Stitch Maynia Week 2 done and dusted and how fast the weeks seem to be going!

8th May - roof stitching on Kringles by Little House Needleworks. I'm using 32ct smokey white belfast linen and I think its going to take a few good stitching sessions to complete the roof!

10th May - #santasundayxs, Part 3 finished on Jack Frost Tree Farm, Family Fun, my fabric is 36 count Wren by Picture this Plus

11th May - #merrymondayxs, a little bit more on Peppermint Pals

 12th May - a new start, My Friend by La D Da, this was club kit from the Silver Needle

14th May - a new start, Sew Tweet by Luminous Fibre Arts.

Luminous Fibre Arts charts can be purchased as pdfs from here - there's some real cute ones!

See you soon x

Rainbow Blanket

One of my younger cousins is having her first baby this July and I have a couple of things in the making, some knitting, a cross stitch baby sampler and over the past few weeks I worked on this Rainbow crochet blanket.  Several years ago I made one for a friend and had enough yarn left over to make this one.

The pattern and colour inspiration is from the Patchwork Heart and can be found here

I used all Stylecraft Yarn, which I'd purchased from the Wool Warehouse in the UK a few years ago. I really need to get back to finishing my Cosy Stripe blanket now.

See you soon xx

Stitch Maynia Week 1

For Stitch Maynia this year I've decided to work on a mixture of new starts and carry on with some of my projects already underway. I've kitted up and have ready to go 9 (my lucky number!) new projects, which I'll start at on various days during the month.

1  May :  Kringles by Little House Needleworks - some fabric arrived in the post and while it's not my original first choice, it works ok. It's 32 count smokey white Belfast. 

 2 May : Needle Nick by Lizzie Kate, my weekly stitchalong with Kath & Clare

3 May: Santasundayxs Jack Frost Tree Farm, I've started on part 3

4 May : Merrymondayxs Peppermint Pals by Brenda Gervais

5 & 6 May : a new start - Smallest Things Sampler by Heart in Hand, this is going to be gift for one of my cousin's having a baby this July. How cute are the little buttons!

7 May : a new start, In my Garden by Blackbird Designs, this was a club kit from the Silver Needle

Week 2 is underway and I have a couple of new starts to look forward to!

See you soon x

Fabric Santas

Look what I've made, 8 log cabin Santas, all set for gifts later this year.  I've had this tutorial on my Pinterest board for absolutely ages. They did take a bit of time - ironing, cutting and sewing, but I happily sewed away watching Netflix or Floss tube.

A good way to use up some of the Christmas fabric in my stash - don't worry, there's still plenty more. They did turn out a bit larger than I thought they would but you could sew less of the log cabin rounds to make them smaller.

See you soon x

Be Well

Thank you to the designers out there that have so generously shared patterns with stitchers all around the world.

I've printed off a little stack of these charts to stitch over the next few weeks and here is the first one:

Ewe Be Well by Shepherds Bush, a link to this can be found here: 

I used most of the recommended threads and the fabric is a piece of hand dyed lilac coloured linen.

My scissor fob is from the Shepherd's Fold series a few years ago.

See you soon xx

Santa Bags

It's been quite awhile since I last got my redwork stitching bag out but when I did recently, I found these Santas, unfinished and probably stitched about 5 years ago!

The pattern is Santa's goody bag by Gail Pan Designs, and the instructions for the little bag are included with the pattern. 

I used DMC 115 for the stitching, which is one of my favourites for red work stitching. 

See you soon xx

Jack Frost Tree Farm

So here's an update on Jack Frost's Tree Farm by Little House Needleworks.
I started this at the end of last year and I can't believe it's taken me all this time to get Part 1 and Part 2 done.

I'm using 36 count Wren fabric by Picture this Plus and using most of the recommended threads.  I'm stitching this all together on the piece of fabric.

See you soon x

Two New Project Bags

Earlier in the year I made a list of several sewing projects I wanted to complete during 2020, mostly finishing off some stitched projects and also some small hand made items for gifts.

When our NZ lock down started, one of the first projects I worked on was a new project bag. I'd had this in mind for this stitched piece for quite some time, I bought the matching fabrics well over a year ago.

For this bag, I used a You Tube tutorial by Lisa, Kindred Stitcher. It is very easy to follow. You can find it here :

I Belong to the Cross Stitch Nation is a design by Heartstring Samplery and I stitched it on 32 count vintage mocha belfast using the recommended threads.

I had to sew the fabrics to the stitched piece to match the measurements used in the tutorial.

The next project bag, I used a stitched design that I actually finished last year. This is the Love My Stitching design by Cathy of Hands on Designs. Once again I used the tutorial mentioned above. I was down to my last zip and it was a bit short so I added some tabs to the end of it. Zips will be one of the first things I'll be stocking up on when my local sewing shop reopens!

As you can see I used my own colour combination for the thread choices, red, grey and white DMCS and the fabric, although it doesn't show clearly in these photos, is a light blueish grey colour.

This is for Kringles, the new chart by Little House Needleworks, all set to go, and yay, my fabric arrived in this morning's post so I can finally get it underway. 

See you soon xx