My Christmas gift for Carol

Hello All. Thank you to all those that have been to visit the blog recently and an especially huge thanks to those who took the time to leave a comment - I just love to hear from you! Here are some photos of the gift that I stitched for Carol for Christmas......

My stitching is part of a larger design by Renato Parolin and you can see the pattern here. I ordered my pattern from Casa Cenina and they provided excellent service.

I rushed out to Sainsburys the week before Christmas and you can imagine my delight when I saw the frame just sitting on the shelf. It went perfectly with the design and I didn't need a small mortgage in order to buy it! :-)

I stitched it using recommended DMC thread and some pale blue 32ct linen from the stash.

Thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon,

Jackie x

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all, although I must say that the Christmas and New Year Holiday seems a very dim and distant memory already! I thought that you might enjoy looking at the wonderful Christmas gifts that my friend Carol made for me. Imagine my delight when I pulled this beautiful box out of the gift bag............

Unfortunately the photos are not in the order that I wanted here, so here you see the entire gift set in all it's glory - such a pleasure to behold and the smell coming from the little pillows was just gorgeous - cinnamon and spices........

Here are the little pillows before I opened them up - isn't that tissue paper just delightful - I LOVE crows..... :-)

Here is a close up of one of the pillows



And here they are all are, in all their glory - such a wonderful gift; I am very lucky!

I am hoping to get back to blogging more regularly in 2010 as I really do miss reading your comments and I find that displaying my progress here keeps me motivated to stitch more too. I will be back shortly to upload the photos of the gift that I made for Carol....... Thanks for visiting!

Love Jackie x

From me to thee

Hello one and all..... where does the time go? Since I last posted we have been to Lochcarron in Scotland for our annual holiday. A lovely time was had by all and whilst we were away it was Carol's birthday. Sophie and Matt organised a cocktail party in honour of the day and here are photos of the gift that I stitched for Carol this year. The design is 'From me to thee' by Blackbird Designs.

Thanks for visiting!

A birth sampler

Thanks for all your comments, I have really enjoyed reading them! This is what I have been stitching on since the weekend. It is 'Borage and Bramble' from the Bramble Hearth leaflet by Shepherds Bush.

It will be a birth sampler for my friend's grandson. I stitched the 'Blue Berry Button' sampler from the same leaflet for his older brother, so I am hoping they will like this one too!

Here is my total progress so far; as you can see, I am not stitching it exactly as the pattern. Once again, the colours in the photo are not showing well. This is stitched on a light sand linen (soft buttery/sandy yellow) and the DMC colours are 778,315, 316, 524, 520, 932, 931 and 823. As always, all photos are clickable if you want to see larger versions.

Bloom where you are planted

I can hardly believe that I have another little finish to show! This one is 'bloom where you are planted' by Birds of a Feather. It is stitched on Belfast light-sand linen, although you can't tell that from these photos I have worked out how to get clear photos with this camera, but decent colour really eludes me! I had most of the required variegated threads and subbed just a couple with DMC.........

This is quite a colourful piece but nowhere near as brash as it looks in these photos

Here is the overall finished result.......... This was a straightforward, pleasurable stitch and I can recommend the piece, it is very pretty.

I have had a very pleasurable day so far, in spite of being temporarily extremely deaf. I am already completely deaf in one ear and the hearing in my other ear (the one previously known as my 'good' ear by all who know me) has decreased suddenly this week. My GPs surgery advised me to put ear drops in to clear the ear canal and now I have done that I can barely hear anything....well, maybe it has to get worse before getting better and who knows, I may get a little more stitching done if I am not distracted by the sound of the TV this evening? I have been looking through my Shepherds Bush stash today and have realised how many SB pieces I want to start at once LOL. So many lovely things to stitch and so little time.

Many thanks to all of you that take the time to visit me and especially to those who leave comments. I do love to read them all!

Good old Carol......

Just L@@K what my friend Carol turned up with on Sunday - yum, yum..... fairy cakes!!

They looked so pretty and tasted as good as they looked

.....and, by sheer fluke she had made just the right number to fill up my cup cake holder. Doesn't it look pretty? What a pal and needless to say they have all gone! The family descended when I texted them a copy of the next photo :-)

Thanks so much for my 'cheer up' gift, Carol - you are the best!

Thanks so much to everybody that has commented on my last post, I really do appreciate all your kind words. I did some more stitching last night and so should finishBOAF 'Bloom where you are planted' tonight. I hope to have some photos to show shortly.....

Princess Pamela......

This post is a very sad one for me as I am writing it to mark the loss of my little dog Pamela who died last Saturday..........

We have had her for 10 years as she was already 2 when we got her. We inherited an extremely timid but loveable little dog who blossomed into an affectionate and fun companion. It is certainly true that she believed that she was in fact a princess and not a dog at all and eventually she managed to bring us all around to this idea...... :-)

Here she is with Maisie who is our lab/collie cross

We will miss you Pamela; we will even miss your extraordinarily imperious ways......... :-)

As always, thanks for visiting.....

BBD finish

This piece is finished and I am very pleased with it. I used the suggested DMCs and gingham fabric.

I decided to use the same fabric and threads and make a little pincushion. I have wanted to stitch this up ever since I bought the book. It is almost done.....

Thank you for visiting....... :-)