FNwF November get together

Many thanks to Cheryll for organising our get together again - visit Cheryll's blog here to see what everyone was working on.

I started the afternoon with these two stitcheries that have been awaiting attention for a while now.

By the end of the afternoon (with some garden work in between!) I had these two mini flimsies.

They have both now been layered up and are waiting to be quilted.

In the evening, by the fire, I finished off these two swap flowers

and then I started to play with some knitting. I have long wanted to try some Domino knitting and recently came across a small project that I thought would be great for experimenting. Barbara of The Flashing Scissors showed some lovely Domino mittens on her blog - do go and have a look - and very kindly sent me the pattern. I did not get very far but I think I now have the hang of it. Anyway, here is my progress so far.

Well that was my Friday - I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else was working on. Have a great weekend.

The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade 2017

This was such fun last year that I have been looking forward to joining up again this year. Many thanks to Ida at My Sister Made Me do it for all your hard work in setting this up and arranging for all the lovely prizes!

I went to a car boot sale - vide de grenier as they are known here - last year and spotted this owl pincushion.

He is pewter and had belonged to a friend of mine who had died earlier in the year. Her family were selling some of her things. I could not resist! However, he is a little sad I thought and so I removed the ugly blue lump that was the 'pincushion' and replaced it with a big fluffy velvet pin cushion. Here he is now in all his splendour!

He sits on a little cabinet watching over all the sewing that I do.

A couple of years ago I fell in love with this design from Natalie Bird.

I bought the pattern and then it sat in a drawer for a year. But then last Christmas I decided that it would be my Christmas present to me and so I made up my version.

I based it on my favourite Tilda fabric - the grey with roses which went beautifully with the dusky pink spot - I wish I could get hold of some more of that pink spot!

I replaced the wool applique of the original with embroidery.

And beacause I filled the pincushion with crushed walnut shells it is quite hefty so I replaced the bobble on the top/nose with a loop to make it easy to move around.

For some reasdon this pincushion did not make it to last years post and yet it sits on the table next to me every evening!

Made for me by a dear friend, the extra large thread catcher is useful for storing my handcream, glasses, tapemeasure etc

A tile used as the base makes it nice and stable and the magnetic strip holds my scissors safely in place. The pincushion is large enough to hold masses of pins.

Next up is this Christmas pincushion which again missed out last year - because it is stored away with my Christmas things!

It's a Gail Pan design and I love getting it out to use during December.

I am looking forward to seeing lots of beautiful pincushions in the link up - hope to see you there!

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.

CTTY and a Scheepjes update

April is here, well nearly over actually! and it is time to link up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for Christmas Through the Year. I do hope you will join in and share any gifts that you are making as we all need some inspiration and it is good to see what others are doing. Anthea is showing a very pretty bookmark that she has made.

Sadly Anthea, despite my best intentions and scheduling it in to my stitching journal, I have very little to share. But I will share what I have.

This little stitchery is a Gail Pan design from her book Patchwork Loves Embroidery and is destined to decorate a little Dorothy bag - hopefully you will see the finished bag next month!

I am using a pretty Cottage Garden thread for the embroidery.

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A quick update on my Scheepjes CAL. I have completed week 4 and have been working on the crochet for the centre panel of the shawl. I am now ready to start decorating again.

We came home from our week away to find our Wisteria flowering and looking it's best ever!

However, there has been no rain and we have none forecast for the time being so the garden is very dry. Fortunately a friend took pity on my pots and popped in a couple times to give them a drink. But we are enjoying the beautiful sunny days which are giving us a chance to tidy up the garden.

This coming Friday is FNSI hosted by Wendy - if you fancy joining us for a virtual sew-in then pop over to Wendy's blog here to sign up and join in the fun. I hope to see you there.

Happy New Year and FNWF

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for visiting me last year, for your encouraging comments and I hope that you will continue to pop in over 2017.

Many thanks to Cheryll at Gone Stitchin for hosting our Friday night get together - you can see what everyone got up to on this first Friday of the year here.

We arrived home after nearly four weeks in UK on Thursday and I have been busy unpacking, sorting tidying etc ever since. However, I did make sure that I spent yesterday evening in front of the TV with some nice relaxing hand sewing.

I started work on this Gail Pan design during my early December trip to UK (more about that later) and then put it aside in favour of some knitting. So last night I was able to crack on and as you can see there is only the second heart and the running stitch border to do now - maybe tonight!

While we were away I read about Crazy Quilter on a Bike Elaine's Task Master Journal and thought that it might be a good way for me to keep track of my projects for the year. The idea is to have lists of 'to do's' - UFO's gifts etc and also weekly task lists which break down your projects into manageable tasks. Click on the link above to read all about it.

So I went out and bought myself a note book - only £2 in The Works so no great financial layout!

I do intend to make it a nice cover when I get some time. First up I made a list of lists! Then I started making my lists - here is the first one, my UFO list.

OK, so not a long list but, I was working from memory and there will be a lot more added to this list once I get to tidying my cupboards! There are also lists of things I need to do (gifts mainly) things I would like to do (this one will definitely grow over the year) a CTTY list and a list of monthly tasks (swaps, RSC etc)

Then starting at the back I have my weekly to do list - anything not done at the end of the week will get moved to the next weeks list.

There are plenty of pages in the book so I intend to add photographs of everything I finish through the year too.

Many thanks to Chantal for the link to Elaine and her Task Master post and also her Motivational Monday posts. I hope that 2017 will be a great year for you all.

It's CTTY time again

Christmas Through The Year is hosted by Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches.

Do go and have a look to see what everyone has been stitching and maybe link up with your own project. There are a couple of lovely items already linked up so have a look and you might get some inspiration for your own projects.

Here is my project for the month.

This is about 9" square and uses a Gail Pan embroidery for the centre. It can either be used as a table centre or using the little corner flaps on the back be hung on the wall.

Happy Christmas stitching.

Christmas Through The Year!

It's the first time that I have linked up with CTTY - thank you Anthea for hosting this and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been doing as I am looking for ideas!!

So this is my first Christmas finish

A lovely Gail Pan design mini quilt.

Am busy working on my next item now.