Happy New Year!

Here is a photo of the birthday exchange which I sent to my friend Ebeth, back in September 2008. The pattern is a freebie from Indigo Rose and the strawberry uses the same design as the pin keep.

Happy New Year one and all. I hope to be back again over the next few days and one of my new years resolutions will be to blog more regularly............ I hope that you are all having fun celebrating as we are waiting on the verge of 2009. See you soon!

love Jackie x

Happy Birthday Carol!

Today is my friend, Carol's, birthday and here are a couple of close ups of the motifs I put on a mail-art envelope for her. Carol and I are going to Dartmoor for a couple of days on Thursday but I hope to post photos of the completed mailart when I get back.

That spooky time of year........

Well folks, it will soon that spookiest time of year again and this last week I have been in the mood to stitch this Halloween piece by Blackbird Designs. I must admit that I love all the patterns in this leaflet and plan to stitch them all eventually. Isn't he just the smartest fellow with his pumpkin? :-) Thanks for visiting and remember that all pictures are clickable if you want to see them in all their enormous glory!

Jackie x

Coming along nicely.......

This piece is coming along nicely. I have filled in all the gaps and it is looking good - such a pretty piece! :=) I have not got a lot of stitching done in the last couple of months, mostly because I have had my new flower beds and all those pots to look after each evening. That said, we have had a lot of rain in the last couple of days, so I have picked up my needle again. I have put the finishing touches on my friend Carols birthday gift and I have also started and finished Trix or Treat by Blackbird Designs. Pictures to follow shortly!

Thank you very much!

I have had not one, but TWO lovely surprises this week! I have been given the Kreativ blogger award by Katrina and Terri. Thank you very much indeed, ladies - I really appreciate it and I am smiling from ear to ear now! :-D

Here are the rules of the award:1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.3. Nominate 5 blogs.4. Put links to the blogs.5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Nominating people is the really tricky bit, isn't it? I read lots of blogs and it is hard to choose just five... so many of the blogs that I visit regularly already have this award. Here goes..... these ladies do such beautiful stitching and have lots of lovely photos for me to drool over. This list could have been much longer, but here are just five of the splendid blogs I visit regularly. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

1. Margie

2. Coni

3.Aprilblue

4. Nataliejo

5. Su

I am off to put the first coat of paint on my sewing room walls now - wish me luck! :-)

No stitching for me.......

I don't quite know where my stitching mojo has gone recently. - I haven't picked up a needle in weeks. Maybe it is because it is Summer and I have been devoting more time to my garden recently....... In the interim I have decided to revamp my stitching room. It has a rather neglected 'junk room' air recently, so today I decided to haul lots of stuff out and get ready to give it a coat of paint. We have dismantled a desk today and I will replace that with a book case and chair. I am hoping that it will become a more welcoming place to browse my stash and get around to some stitching again. I'll try and get some photos as I go along.

I hate to post without photos so, due to the complete lack of stitching photos, I have included two garden photos. The first one is of my 'secret' hosta garden under the acer on our patio. I am really pleased with how it is looking and the second (pink) garden is a fabulous show garden that we saw at the recent RHS flower show at Tatton. I think it is so pretty and I would love a garden like this - so girly! Unfortunately, I didn't take down any details about this garden, but if anybody can help I will be very happy to credit the photo with the designers name and so on.

More on my UFOs

Ok, here I am again :-) I have been looking around to see how many projects I have waiting to be completed..... For me, it is not too bad, although I have a massive list of new projects which are calling me in a very alluring way! LOL

My list of WIPs is as follows (in no particular order):

My Son by Indigo Rose
In the Forest by La D Da
Nantucket Sampler by Drawn Thread
A Heart Sampler by Shepherds Bush - can't remember the name, but I know which one I mean, LOL
Toy Gatherer by Shepherds Bush
Game Board Sampler by Drawn Thread - not a single stitch in this for a year or so :-(
Beekeepers Cottage by Shepherds Bush

Hmm, looking at this list, I think this needs a rotation - any suggestions anybody? ;-)

I also received a lovely parcel of stash from Drema at Needlcarft Corner this week, which includes one large piece of fabric (30ct Irish Cream) and the threads to stitch the new Loose Threads mystery sampler. I just love it!

Carol and I also have plans to stitch the BBD Sarah Tobias needlecase just as soon as we finish DT Nantucket..... oh dear, temptation is so strong - there are just not enough stitching hours in one lifetime are there?

I am off to try and get a little stitching done on MY Son now...... wish me luck!

Thanks for visiting.........

Jackie xx

My long term UFOs

Recently, much to my delight, I seem to have been making some inroads into my many and varied long-term WIP/UFOs......... With very few exceptions these WIPS do not become UFOs because I no longer love them, rather that I get distracted by a new project. I would rather like to become more disciplined so that this doesn't happen so often..... wish me luck! :-)

So, to start we have 'In the Forest' by La D Da. When I pulled this piece out of the drawer a couple of days ago I realised that I had not put one stitch in this in around a year!! Such a shame because I love it; I love the design and the thread (NPI silk), although I must admit that, because we had to swap the linen out, I am not as keen on my version (colourwise) as the original. Still, what can you do? I don't *hate* the colours but they don't pop quite as well on the fabric I am using but I do really like the colour of linen - a sort of dark grey green . It's just that I might have subbed a few of the NPI if I had any way of seeing them in real life......... Anyway, I hope that you agree that she is one *gorgeous* little rabbit and I hope to have her handsome friend stitched up before too long too!

The first photo is how she looked the day before yesterday and the second photo was taken this morning.

Then we come to SB Toy Gatherer. Goodness, I just love this piece and just need to get the backstitch (ugh) on the vine done and then I could just skip along with it. My favourite part of this piece is the moon and the rooftops, they just look so magical.......

Last photo, but by no means least, is of My Son by Indigo Rose. This is another piece that has not been picked up in well over a year. Part of the problem with this is that I have skipped around all over the place with it - the top backstitch is not finished and this continues all the way down the sampler. When I looked at it this morning I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work left to do...... However, I really do love it and want to finish it. I am going to take my inspiration from Terri at http://zoomcity.wordpress.com/ who has recently finished IR Desiderata by stitching on it every Monday for around a year. She gave me the most fabulous pep talk recently which made me think that I really could finish some of these big projects and that I could even start and finish Desiderata myself one day. Her work is superb, go and have a look at her Desiderata. She has posted lovely close up photos of each band as she completed them. Tell her that I sent you!! LOL

So, if anybody else out there is stitching My Son or you just feel that you could offer me some encouragement to get going (and keep going) on it, I would love to hear from you!!

A few small finishes

AYs necessities - this got buried in my sewing room and is finally finished - hurrah - now I just have to decide how to finish it!

This is a little BBD pincushion, from an old Loose Feathers pattern - isn't it sweet? More finishing to do on this one...... oh dear, I hate finishing!! LOL

This is a Lizzie Kate pattern which I stitched using some of the threads left over from my recent SB etui finish. I got this idea after seeing the version that Su had stitched a while back at Contemplating my Needle and Thread - I hope she doesn't mind! I like these colours, although it was still a little brighter than I thought it would be.

A long-standing UFO is finished!

Hurrah, I have finished Garland Fair this morning! This project has been a WIP for far too long, I'm afraid. I absolutlely love it now that it is done and have mostly enjoyed working on it - I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't miscounted quite so often and if the thread had behaved better - I seemed to spend far too much time unknotting the thread........ grrr! The weather here today is dull and rainy and, consequently, the colours have not come out as well as I would have liked, but it is stitched on the recommended linen (a lovely green) with WDW Maple Syrup (also recommended). I hope you like it!

Jackie x

Why does Claire deserve this cup of tea so much?

Well, read on to find out........ ;-)

She is largely responsible for the Magical transformation from this.......

.........to this.......

......resulting in this.......

2008 was the summer that I had planned to try and get on top of the end border in the garden but, due to me having an operation, it seemed as though it might not happen...... until our oldest daughter, Claire, stepped up to the plate :-)

Claire is a very keen gardener and wanted to transform my garden almost as much as I did and what a magnificent job she has done. With some one-handed help from me, the garden now looks just as I had hoped...what a star!! :-) Thankyou Claire!!

Here, at long last, are the little pieces in their finished state! I am pleased with them -I hope you like them! This week I have been stitching on a small Lizzie Kate piece, called 'Bless Our Home'. I'll take a photograph and post it later.........

Thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Jackie x

The final photos for today are an urn of flowers (can't remember the name of the chart offhand) by Ewe and Eye and Friends and Daisy Cottage from Little House Needleworks. I subscribed to all the cottages in the cottage Garden series last year, but this is the first one which I have stitched up. I decided to leave off the border and the wording. I think this may also become a little pinkeep........... The LHN design uses all Crescent Colour thread, which is very nice to use.

These designs are also by Indigo Rose and are freebies. I just love the hearts design and these two will become miniature strawberris to use as scissor fobs. I've used this design quite a few times and never get tired of stitching it (so far, at least, LOL). The ladybirds design will probably become a pin keep. The backstitch on this is done with WDW 'Ladybug'.

Thank you very much to all those who took the time to leave a comment about the SB etui, I really appreciate it! Thanks also to all those, on the boards that I frequent, who told me that they liked it. I have been looking in my stitching basket and realised that I had several small pieces which were either finished or almost finished. I am in the mood to 'clear the decks' a bit, so here are a few of the things which I am hoping to have made up by the end of this week. I hope you like them!

The first lot of photos are of Marys Pin Pillow by Indigo Rose. The colours on this are just gorgeous, particularly the overdyed silk which is called 'rainforest'............

There we are then - lots of photos of the finished etui. I took loads of photos but these show everything there is to see, I think. The colours in the photos are pretty true to life and all photos are clickable if you want to see larger images - I'd love to hear what you think...... :-)

Jackie x

My friend Carol and I have finished the Shepherds Bush etuis and here are a selction of photos of the work 'in progress'. Blogger does not seem to be showing the photos in the order that I uploaded them, but not to worry........ All motifs for this etui were taken from a Shepherds Bush leaflet called 'Wandering Vine'. Here is the SB website, (in the unlikely event that you don't already know them): www.shepherdsbush.net/

The design was stitched on flax linen, using recommended DMC thread. We lined the etuis with silk in an eau de nil colour and used gloriana silk ribbon in Bluegrass. I think that covers everything. I will be back with more photos of the finished item shortly. We are thrilled with the end result and we hope you like them too!