Last Three

The last three makes of the Christmas Challenge,

A decoupage bird
[Awaiting Image]

Little Knitted Stocking. I am still very new to knitting but im really pleased with this little cutie :) I found the pattern free here Here.


The next one is my first ever Biscornu, stitched on 18 count cream aida. I am particularly chuffed with this because I designed it myself too. Hard to see from the picture but it also has some metallic thread. The little charm and button is from Debbie Cripps.

Front

Back

I would love to share the chart but can't work out how to put it on here yet :P

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I am of to update my stitching diary that I keep of all my stitching projects, to do's and WIP. Its nice to have it all on paper to look through :) I wonder how much of my TO DO'S 2012 I will actually get done and how many other things will sneak in too hehe! 

Happy 2012 to all!

Late Post :(

Sorry I meant to post this a few days ago but William has caught Chicken Pox and has kept me distracted. My husband has never had it and is trying to avoid it so I am not really getting much help (typical!) as William is only four I think he is being a star... I have only had to tell him a handful of times not to scratch. He even has a massive one under his eye which means he can only half open it and he still isn't complaining!

Anyway here is 2/5 Christmas Ornaments from my mum and mines challenge

Salt dough..... I love this stuff. Just incase you want to try here is the recipe:

2 cups flour mixed with 1 cup salt and 1 cup of water. Roll out dough. Use cutters or just hand shape then either leave to air dry for a day or two or bake on the lowest oven setting for an hour or so.

I used acrylic paint once dried but you can add colour to the dough. I added a few bells and a bit of glitter too :)

Here are a few of Mums

Aren't they lovely! I especially love the heart!

Not an Owl

update but a CHRISTMAS post :)

This year my parents threw away there 25 year old Christmas tree for a lovely (non-sagging) new one. Mum wants to mainly go back to traditional decorations. So we decided it would be fun to make our own. I am so excited as although my mum is arty, she has never gotten into stitching, no matter how much I try :( and she rarely makes time for crafts these days so this should be so much fun!

We have set a challenge of 5 'different' decorations. Although we haven't really set any rules it would obviously be really boring to have 5 exactly the same. And I want more than 5 decs at the end so I will be making 2 or 3 of each thing if I can!

So I had a trip to Hobby Craft for some felt and ribbon today and here is my first:

3 little Gingerbead Men. They were so easy to make, I just drew around a cookie cutter for the shape, decorated with buttons and ribbon, then stitched it together using blanket stitch, then stuffed!

Mum hasn't made it to a craft store yet so im not sure what she is planning. But I will give her some felt incase she wants to make one too! I will post pics of here's on the blog too.

And can you see the edge of the sewing box behind the Gingerbread Man? My gorgeous hubby spotted it reduced to £15 whilst I was on my felt finding mission and bought it for me, because I have wanted one for so long-what a star.

Black Cross on Our Door!!

Oh dear we have had a tough few days!
Firstly I came down with a bad cold and congestion which left me really tired and head-achy... so no stitching :(. Then my 4yr old son was suddenly come down with a stomach bug and was off colour for 2 days. Then along with my cold I came down with the stomach bug and so did my 22 month old! Seeing the eldest being sick is hard but seeing the baby so sick was heartbreaking! He kept looking at me like.. 'please make it stop' My poor husband had to spend the night on he's bedroom floor to look after him as I was too ill to help! We are finally all over that bug but now we all have colds erghh!

I'm hoping to get a little stitching done tonight though. Hopefully on my owl! I will try an update with a picture soon.

Sad News :(

My parents cat Lottie past away of old age last week!

 My mum found her in my school playground when I was 5, that was 20 years ago now!She was being chased around by children and was terrified. Mum scooped her up and put her inside her coat and got the bus home with her like that! After no replies to adverts saying we had found her Mum took her to the vet for a check up and they guessed she was about 6-9 months old and had been living 'rough' for a while. So we got to keep her.

 Obviously my parents are really upset as are my brothers and I as she was also our childhood pet! She was such a lovely natured animal and put up with a lot from us when we where younger, being dressed in dolls clothes and things. She had 3 litters of kittens in her younger days too, and she even outlived some of them bless her. (different family members had some of them). She certainly bought us lots of joy and will be sadly missed.

I have been stitching my parents a little something to remember her and finished it today. The original was an RSPCA chart called 'Smudge' that looked similar to her, so I just changed the markings and colours. 

With my dad in 2008, that is my eldest son on he's lap.

I'm going to frame it over the weekend and give it to them next time I see them. I will get a better picture of it once it's framed hopefully!

Ouch

I cannot believe I haven't posted on here for so long again. I'm a bad blogger and will try and do better in the future :)

I have been doing a bit of stitching though- and even better some machine sewing hurray!
As the winter is almost upon us and the heating bill will possible bankrupt us this year we are on a mission to use the heating as little as possible. I mean we have double glazing so it shouldn't be on as much as we have used it in previous years. Shamefully sitting here in short sleeves because the heatings on!!!
So we are going back to basics. Out come the heavy jumpers, blankets and ... hot water bottles. Which gave me a great opportunity to get stitching.

The children are emergency services mad at the moment so I designed them something along that theme.
A police car for William and a Fire engine for Thomas. I used an old fleecy cot blanket for the actual covers which  I needed to double up to make it thick enough to take the heat! It was so thick that I was convinced it would never go through the machine, but it did.( Which has also convinced me my machine should be fine for quilting) They turned out fabulous. I'm really pleased with them, especially as I designed the cross stitch myself :) A few years ago, even though I was stitching then, I would have just bought a few covers instead at goodness knows what cost, but now I have something that cost next to nothing, that is really personal for the boys and that I can feel proud off! I'm definitely going to try more home-made items from now on.

Even though I still have lots to be getting on with I am already designing a needle book and pin cushion. Although updating this blog has made me realise I really should be aiming for some finishes soon!!

Testing out the.......

sewing machine tonight.
My 18 month old son has outgrown his little cot pillow but not his cot and cot duvet. So now we had a duvet cover with no matching pillow case. Seen as he will be using the cot for another 6 months ish I wasn't to keen on mismatching with a plain large pillow case. So out came the machine :)
Pillow Cases Before:

After:

It is a little wobbly but as a first attempt I am pleased. I had to completely unstitch both cases, sew the small pillow case fabric to the large then sew the large back together again-phew!!  He has a similar set in blue that I will do once it is washed, I will learn from my mistakes and hopefully have no wobbly bits!

Also today my little nephew (20 months) came to play with my boys (3yrs and 18 months)  so we decided to do a bit of baking and look what we made. We had so much fun and they tasted DELICIOUS!! 

HAED Update

I haven't had anywhere near the time to stitch on this as I had hoped but here is a small update!

You can see his foot starting to form on the edge of the boat!

My parents are hoping to look after my two children for at least the afternoon on Wednesday and my husband will be at work so im going to be naughty and ignore the housework and get a bit more done....can't wait!!!

A Finish

Sorry I have been so late posting this, it has been a whirl wind of day trips, trying to get on top of mountains of washing, Ironing and housework and entertaining the children since the summer holidays started. I did manage a small finish though, so another UFO to cross off my list!

Before                                                                       

After(Sorry haven't got round to pressing it yet!)




I am planning a good stitchy session on my HAED tonight so I will update with pictures soon!

1. Finish my 3 UFO'S (Unfinished Objects) which are mainly stitching magazine freebies.  2/3 Finished
2. Finish Owl in Flight - John Clayton
3. Finish at least one more page of my QS Pirate Dragon- Heaven and Earth Designs.
4. (Possible design) Stitch and make a needlebook.

Another UFO picked up....

I visit a cross stitch forumCheck it out here :http://www.crossstitchforum.com/ now and then and they run a UFO week  between the 1st and 7th of every month, so this week I am working on another UFO from my 'To Do' list.
It is a freebie from a magazine that I started with the idea of stitching it in the car when we were on longish journeys. What a great use of the time- or not! It turns out I can't stitch in the car, I miss the holes, loose track of the chart and cant concentrate when being asked to change CD's find dummy's for crying babies etc.! Hence it became a UFO.

So here it is before I start

I'm hoping to have it finished in 3 days, then I can get back to the Pirate HAED, I want to get a little more done before show you :))

Not that kind of Stitch!

Im feeling very proud of myself . I ran the Portsmouth 10k Race for Life today, in memory of my father-in-law who passed away from throat cancer 4 years ago.
I had to walk some of it, mainly due to stitch(the bad kind hehe) but I still felt great as I crossed the finish line. I have been training whenever I had the time since about April, but before that I could not even run 1k let alone 10k. I also managed to raise about £50 so feel very happy tonight!

Pirate

I have fished out my HAED (http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.com/)  Pirate Dragon to take some progress pics. Unbelievable I started this about 3years ago, and Its only a quick stitch! I really want to get at least the page im working on finished this year but would really love to get another one done too!

I really love how its looking. The detail is amazing, really worth all of the effort I have put in over the years. I am working 2 threads over 1 on 25hpi Laguna linen.  It took a while to get used to it but I think the coverage is great. I'm not sure I would have felt 100% happy with anything else. I mainly see these designs stitched in tent stitch which would make it a lot quicker but im not planning to do one bigger than this anyway so full cross stitch is perfect. 


                                                                                                    

                                                                                   

Close up of the area im working on

               

Stash Sorting

I've spent the last few evenings sorting my stash cupboard rather than actual stitching. After finding the problem with my Owl in Flight I have been thinking it over and have decided I will have to frog at least the owl... hoping to get away with tweaking the sky around it but I cant quite face it yet! So stash sorting it was. I came across different fabrics and threads and charts that I had sorted for various projects I wanted to start and to be honest should have started and finished in the time that has passed since I first sorted them. Never mind! I'm back to it now at least. I love stash sorting almost as much as stitching itself, all those possibilities in one cupboard, marvellous!

I also came across some treasure in a local charity shop, which I endlessly look through and have only once ever found anything stitchy related! Well my luck was in. There hidden on a low shelf in a dark corner was a Needlecraft subscription folder full of magazines form 1992-1993. I have been reading through them one at a time and although I am yet to see anything im eager to try its fascinating to see how the trends have changed so much in ten years, and how the prices have gone up so much too hehe!

Not Good!

First of, sorry about the sideways pics, I took them on my phone and never thought about the fact I may not be able to rotate them, I will remember next time!!!

Well after my resent finish I decided to work on another UFO. Owl in Flight. Here is my progress so far: (In the last week I have stitched the main body and face of the owl)

 The trouble is it was in a hoop and tonight I realised it wasn't matching up... gulp!Can you see... the sky and foot underneath is 1 stitch in than the top? The trouble is the chart is over so many pages that I cant work out what has happened. So all I have done for now is mark the bottom of the page of chart with white thread and I have gone back to the bottom of the design to start the right hand side. I will leave this page until last to see if it needs frogging( please no!) or just a bit of tweaking!

On a good note, I saw a bargain piece of stash and somehow managed to persuade my husband that it was essential that I own it, wanna see lol?

It was about half price in argos and I have wanted one for years. I have had a practis but I really need to get through my UFO's before I start new projects. Although I have already gone through hundreds of ideas in my head :)

A Finish

Well my lovely husband did indeed do my ironing for me, leaving me an entire evening to stitch, meaning I finished my Culinary cat

Such a cute face.  Im hoping to get a nice apron to add it to.

Well my husband has had a weeks holiday from work. we can't afford to go away at the moment so we just had a week at home, catching up with some gardening and DIY projects ( and getting back to some serious cross stitch sorting :)) 

He went back to work today... so it was only fair that I got back to housewife duties lol. Only this is what was waiting for me this evening..........

Ouch...........

 double Ouch.............................

Only this is only half of it. Note to self, never ever skip a weeks ironing, the magic holiday fairies will not come and do it for you :P 

Luckily my husband has said he will do some tomorrow mmm..... we will see.

So this is the sort of thing that has been keeping me away from stitching, although if I don't get a chance to stitch tomorrow evening then I will 100% get time on Wednesday evening because I refuse to do anything but!!

1st on the list, those UFO's!!

I think I'll start on these at the moment because one is very close to being finished. It is Margaret Sherry's Culinary Cats. I originally started it as a gift for my mum for starting a new job in a cafe- unfortunately I didn't finish it before she started so it became a UFO. Its been so long that my mum doesn't even do that job any more :) Because I wanted it to fit onto a card I stitched it on 18ct rather than 14ct aida.

 All that's left is the white stitches, a bit of shadow under the cat and then the backstitch.

Stitching goals for 2011

O.K So it may be a tiny bit late to start a list of things I want to do for 2011 but there are still 6 months left so better late and all that so here goes:

1. Finish my 3 UFO'S (Unfinished Objects) which are mainly stitching magazine freebies.
2. Finish Owl in Flight - John Clayton
3. Finish at least one more page of my QS Pirate Dragon- Heaven and Earth Designs.
4. (Possible design) Stitch and make a needlebook.