Christmas Throught The Year

Just popping in with a quick post for CTTY - many thanks to Anthea for hosting this linky.

These two mini quilt wall hangings are the last of my Christmas sewing for this year - whoopee!

Do pop over to Hibiscus Stitches to see the other linkups.

Have a great weekend

Christmas Through The Year Linkup

Many thanks to Anthea for setting up the Linky especially as she is unwell at the moment. You need to look here to see what gifts people are working on.

Nothing very exciting for you to look at from me though I am afraid! It's all secret stitching. However, just a glimpse is allowed.

Looking at his eyes in this picture I can see that they may need modifying! Looks a bit scary - like something from Dr Who.

We had a day out to the coast yesterday - sorry no pics! but we did stop in the small town of Cozes for a drink as we made our way to friends inland and found this beautiful covered market place.

Some of those upright posts date from the 15th century although most of what you see now is from the 18th century. It is still in use for the Wednesday market.

Hope you are having a good week.

CTTY

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting CTTY - she is showing some cute little buckets this month that will make great containers for gifts - see them and everyone else's work here.

One small make for me this month.

These little bags are super easy to make - I have made another for a swap but will not be revealing just yet! The tutorial by Bee In My Bonnet is here and easily adaptable both in size and design. I made use of this little Gail Pan stitchery but it could be all patchwork, a combination of patchwork and applique or just a larger stitchery. The choice is yours.

Happy stitching.

CTTY for May and it's a finish!

Many thanks to Anthea again for hosting CTTY. Pop over to her blog here to see what everyone has been making.

I have finally finished the little bag that I was making to showcase the Gail Pan embroidery that I showed last month. It really is good having the CTTY deadline as I had to crack on with this yesterday - it might have been in my UFO pile for months otherwise!

This was a simple little make and I think very effective. There are lots of lovely designs in Gail's book.

Tomorrow night is ...

..still time to sign up - just pop over to Wendy's blog here and then join in the fun.

Have a great weekend.

Christmas Through the Year

And this will be my last CTTY post for the year as I think I have completed all my Christmas stitching!

Many thanks to Anthea for keeping us on our toes this year - you can see what other people have been up to on her blog here

I have finished two more wheat bags

and a couple more crazy hearts.

Then I decided that it was time for a Christmas gift for me! I love this Mouse Pincushion pattern by Natalie Bird and bought the pattern last year when I finally tracked down a copy in the UK. But that is as far as it went. Now seemed like a great time to make it.

And here is my completed pincushion.

I adapted the pattern to suit me as I don't do wool applique - instead I embroidered the large mouse and flower on the side panel.

I also swapped the felt ball on the top for a loop - filled with crushed walnut shells this is quite a hefty pin cushion and the loop makes it easy to move around.

I used some of my favourite Tilda fabric and this dusky pink spot which sadly has now all been used up.

The pattern even includes some of my favourite hexies! These are 3/4".

So that's me done for this year - I already have a few ideas for 2017 so watch this space!

Christmas Through The Year October update

Linking up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for this months CTTY update. I thought I had better get cracking on a few more gifts this month so have a few in progress shots to show.

First of all I have a production line of wheat bags on the go

Loosely based on an Anni Downs design you can see some I made earlier in the year here.

These pieces of decorated felt have been cut out ready to sew up into some secret stitching.

And this little Jenny of Elefantz owl is now a complete project apart from her eyes and I need to find suitable buttons for those.

This is a little crazy lavender sachet aprox 4" x 4"

I hope to make at least two more of these if I get a chance.

Autumn is now in full swing - we have lit our first fires of the season and had several frosts.

This walnut tree glowed in the mist when the sun struggled to come through the other morning.

Sadly a very poor crop of walnuts this year.

And a little more autumn colour.

IT's FSNI tomorrow night so if you have not signed up yet then pop over to Wendy's blog now and do so.

Happy stitching

Christmas Through the Year update

Linking up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for CTTY again

I am pleased to say that my Gardener Girl is complete and has been put away safely until Christmas. Here she is.

A close up of the embroidery.

I enjoyed working on this design which came from Lilipopo

Also linking up with Super Mom no Cape Stitchery Link Party.

Back tomorrow with some EPP - see you soon

Also linking up with Needlework Tuesday at Books and Quilts - thank you Heather. 

Christmas Through The Year

Thank you Anthea for hosting this link up for our Christmas makes. Go to Anthea's blog here to see what everyone else is making - and to get some ideas for your own Christmas stash!

I am also linking up with Super Mom - No Cape and her Stitchery Link Party.

After FNSI I showed you this little peek of a stitchery that I am working on.

I fell in love with this design as I watched it being stitched on Instagram by designer LiliPopo so as soon as she released the pattern I had to have it! It's called The Flower Gardener. Isn't she sweet!

Sorry for the poor picture - she needs pressing which of course I can not do until I have removed the blue pen lines. I am really enjoying working on this. You can find the pattern in LiliPopo's Etsy Shop along with lots of other delightful designs and some preprinted panels.

Hope you have a super stitchy week.

FNSI and CTTY!

I write this in haste as I have only just got my computer back from being updated to Windows 10 (so far so good, thanks mainly to our local computer whizz who has set most things up as they were before!) and we have guests arriving tomorrow and I want to catch the deadline on CTTY.
So here we go.

Many thanks Wendy for having us round again - good to be sewing with friends. Don't forget to go and vist Wendy to see what everyone was doing on Friday.

My next big UFO to finish this year is my Four Seasons crazy hanging and to do that I needed some fabric for sashing and bordering the blocks. I knew I wanted velvet and so having a large quantity of white velvet in my stash it was time to get my dye out. I bought a pot of olive procion dye powder a while ago in preparation and so as it was a nice afternoon out came my bucket and dye was mixed and used outside.
Here is the result which I am very pleased with - lots of nice subtle variations which is the look I am aiming for by not stirring the fabric about too much.

While I had my dyes out I remembered another UFO languishing in the cupboard. This bag was made a couple of years ago and then I didn't like the colour of the handles! And there was only the lining to add and it would have been finished.

Five minutes with the unpicker and the handles were free - why had I not done this before!!
The handles have now been redyed so watch this space for an update, hopefully on the finished bag.

The trouble with dying is that one thing leads to another and so another piece of velvet and some threads and lace were treated with some marine violet and lemon dye - I am very pleased with the results.

So next on my list while the fabrics were soaking in their dyes were these two heat bags which just needed machining together as I had finished appliqueing the hexagon flowers.

I have used the Anni Downs pattern which is like a pillow case so that the bag of wheat inside can be removed to allow the outer to be washed. Brilliant idea I thought. They have not got their wheat bags yet but as they are going in my Christmas present box they can be filled later and in the mean time take less space.  And so this is why I am linking with Anthea and Christmas Through the Year!

Thank you Anthea.

Have a great week.

Christmas Through The Year is back!

Yes my friends - it's never too early to start making Christmas presents and Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches is just the person to get you motivated!

Anthea has revamped CTTY so why not pop over to her blog here and read all about it.

Happy Stitching

WIP and a couple of small finishes

It has been a sad weekend for France as you will know. Thank you to all those of you who sent messages of support - they were very much appreciated.

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So, work in progress is on my November CQJP block and here it is.

There are a couple of TAST stitches in there. Crossed Buttonhole

and Half Chevron.

When I was at Ally Pally last month I was looking out for a small project to work on while I was away and found a sweet little scissor keep kit on Sue Hawkins crowded little stall. I finished the scissor keep a few weeks ago but have only just got around to photographing it. Not an easy task for something so small and oddly shaped!

I do love Sue's kits - always such a lot of lovely little details.







My other finish will be a Christmas present and it's another pattern that I found on the Popular Patchwork site. The Simple Sewing Companion is a free pattern.

There are three little pockets so space for a tape measure too which I shall buy in UK so that it has inches as well as centimeters! I should have put a little ruler in one of the pictures - the folded case measures between four and five inches.

So that is my news for now - don't forget that Friday night is FNSI, sign up here to join in with an evening of cyber sewing fun!

I am linking this up to Anthea's CTTY post.