Little House Neighbourhood finished and framed and Chocolate Shoppe framed

Little House Neighbourhood finished

I finally finished Little House Neighbourhood ( English spelling ) for my sister's Christmas gift, however, it was not without it's trials and tribulations! I started stitching this in January 2011 thinking that I would have plenty of time to finish this, I had everything planned and thought  it would be an easy task. Now, the pattern is very easy to follow and I had no worries there, however, the time skipped happily by and before I knew it September had come and gone and then I was in the middle of October thinking "Oooooo must finish my sister's cross stitch" but I got busy with other commitments.

Finally I had one week left before Christmas to stitch merrily away on Little House Neighbourhood and then this happened........................

I sprained my thumb by banging it real hard on the door handle! The bruising soon appeared and it was quite painful but all I kept thinking was Christmas Day approaching fast!!!! Aghhh!!!

Panic set in!!!! .lol 

I struggled through finally putting the last stitch in thinking " wonderful, it is now finished" and suddenly realised I had stitched it in the wrong colour and forgot to alter the chart for the English spelling of neighbourhood!  I knew if I left it with the American spelling everyone would think I had spelt it wrong, so it was much easier to change it.  

         

I then had to unpick all the stitches and start again! I decided it would be best to put it away for a couple of days, trying not to think about Christmas Day getting ever nearer! lol     

I finally finished framing and gift wrapping very late on Christmas Eve! lol

I framed it in a Cherry wood frame.

I suppose the moral of the story is.................

If you ever start stitching a piece of cross stitch in January don't presume you will have plenty of time, don't procrastinate because one never knows what may happen! lol

My thumb is much better but it is still quite sore, but at least I got it finished, and, by the way, my sister Ann- Marie loved it!

I framed The Chocolate Shoppe today.

Thankyou for all of your lovely comments on my little red box set in the previous post and welcome to all of my new followers! 

Have a wonderful New Year, see you in 2012! 

Happy stitching!

Christmas box exchange finally arrived at destination and a free pattern for you.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year!

I was very pleased to finally hear from the moderator of the Hooked On Exchanging blog that my box had finally arrived at it's destination, I was ever so worried that it had got lost in the post as I sent it on the 1st December.

I painted a little box and hand made some polymer clay roses and a red brooch to go inside the box with some pretty red ribbon.  I lined the box with white fabric and edged the inside with red cording.

The cross stitch pattern is my own design and is available at the bottom of this post for you to print.

Other stitching news

I have finished Little House Neighbourhood for my sister's Christmas gift, I shall show pictures in my next post. I am really pleased with the way it turned out, I have framed it in a simple cherry frame and even though I say so myself it really looks lovely.

Hope you have a lovely New Year, until next time,

Happy Stitching!  

Christmas Cross Stitch Box arrived from Marie

Look what arrived in the post for me!

This lovely Christmas cross stitch box arrived from Marie ( blog here ) and I absolutely love it!

Marie very kindly sent me the beautiful box that contained chocolates, a Mill Hill beaded cross stitch kit, some lovely Christmas buttons, ribbons and a small cross stitch chart.

Thankyou so much Marie for this lovely exchange! 

The box I sent to my partner has not arrived yet, as soon as it does I will post a picture and a free cross stitch pattern.

 

If you would like to see how to make a covered cross stitch box then check out my cross stitch box tutorial here

The trim looks ,like snowballs - how cute!

I am looking forward to making something with these cute buttons.

 This is the beaded kit that was included.

Thankyou for all of your lovely comments and welcome to all of my new followers.

Happy stitching everyone!

Teatime, snowflake patterns and stitching news

This is just a quick post to let you know what I have been up to!

 It has been a while since I have done any blogging, I just cannot believe how quickly the time goes by! I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate a couple of weeks ago, my sister and I had a fun  day out, I bought a quilt kit that included the pattern and the fabric but goodness knows when I will get around to stitching it! lol  

My latest cross stitch patterns are these two tea patterns and the snowflake design, I like these because they are quick stitches and great for a beginner too, I have also designed a larger snowflake pattern that you can see below.

I have not much to show at the moment because I have been working on a box for the Hooked on Exchanging Too blog, I sent that last week, therefore I can only reveal the box once my partner has received the gift.  I am looking forward to showing it because I have designed the pattern myself and will be offering it as a freebie in the next post. 

Until next time............  

here is the larger snowflake design, email me in my profile if you wish to purchase this.   

Happy stitching everyone, thankyou for all of the lovely comments and a big welcome to all of my new followers.  

Scissor fob exchange arrived at destination and more stitching news.

I have another scissor fob or two to show you, these are my latest stitching addiction!

I made this for Ina in the Hooked on Exchanging blog for the Halloween exchange, I did not include any gifts for this, I usually like to make my extras but I ran out of time, I spent that much time on the stitching on this one that time just flew by and before I knew it the send date had arrived.

It may not look much but there was quite a bit of work in this!   

It is a Just Nan pattern from a Halloween issue of  Just Cross Stitching magazine from 2009, to be honest I was not too sure if I liked the design or not but at the time I did not have any other appropriate halloween scissor fob patterns.

I have also been stitching  a Christmas scissor fob from my Christmas Cat cross stitch design. 

 

You can see a cross stitch scissor fob tutorial with detailed photographs on my finishing blog here

I trimmed the tassel  with black mill hill beads 

I stitched our names on the reverse with a hand made with love tag

And now for the Christmas scissor fob, I hope you are not bored by now!

I designed this Christmas Cat cross stitch pattern but then decided to design a smaller pattern to make a scissor fob or small pillow.

I trimmed it with mill hill red beads and metallic silver thread

The tassel and cord were made from DMC stranded cotton.

Here is the pattern!

Until next time, happy stitching everyone!

Halloween exchange received from Lisa.

Hi everyone, I have received the halloween  exchange from Lisa S, it is a lovely scissor fob with a small pumpkin charm that jingles when you shake it, isn't it cute!

Thankyou so much Lisa for this lovely exchange, I love it!

You can see Lisa's blog here 



Halloween Scissor Fob now finished

Halloween will soon be here so I thought I would show you the scissor fob that I talked about in the previous post, this is the one made from my free pattern here, I only used three colours but I think it looks quite nice. 

I really enjoyed stitching this, although I have not done much halloween stitching this year I have put pictures in my blog header of the stitching I did last year, one was for an exchange I did and the other was a gift for my sister.  

I have since been meaning to stitch the Just Nan halloween tin for myself but haven't got around to it just yet, it has been in my craft room since last year in my stash!

I have stitched a halloween Just Nan design onto a scissor fob, if you check out my tutorials blog you can see the finishing instructions for it here

Here are some more photo's.

I handmade the tassle out of matching DMC thread, stitched mill hill black beads around the edge and added some beads to the tassle.

Happy stitching until next time.

Free halloween pattern, work in progress and a new pattern.

Hi everyone, I have plenty of stitching and creativity to show you this week, I have a free pattern for all my readers and progress photo's on Rosie from Little House Needlework.

   

I have been busy with Halloween stitching this week, I have just sent off the Halloween Scissor fob to my partner in the Hooked on Exchanging Halloween exchange, I can't show you that yet until my partner has received it, although I enjoyed stitching the scissor fob so much that I decided to make my halloween cat into a mini freebie to stitch as a scissor fob or mini hanging ornament.

I have completed the pattern in grey colours so that you can see the stitching lines etc but I am stitching mine on black fabric, I have finished stitching the pattern and I am going to trim the edge with black beads.

Here is the pattern, just click on the picture and print.

Here is my scissor fob, I am going to attach a handmade tassle and maybe a bright orange matching cord, hopefully I should have this ready for my next post.  

EDITED: This is now a fully finished object (FFO) you can see it in my next post here  

Stitching news

Next up is  my progress  on Rosie, I love the way she is turning out, I can't wait to get this framed. 

Happy stitching, hope you enjoy the scissor fob freebie!



My first design has been published and my latest felt stitching.

Hi everyone, I was going through some of my photos and saw that I had not published this needlework set I made in August, it is made from blue felt and stitched with spider web roses and mill hill beads, it is one of my own designs.

Here is the inside of the needlebook and the reverse side of the pillow

Stitching news.

I was very excited this week when I visited the local book store, I saw that my first design had been published in this months World Of Cross Stitching Magazine, it was on the front cover! This has been in the planning stage for some months but I did not want to say anything until it actually happened.

Unfortunately, my magazine has not yet arrived in the post, it should be arriving any day now, when it does I can show the magazine on my blog and you can see the Christmas design that I stitched, you will have to buy the magazine though if you wish to stitch the pattern.

I designed and stitched a round Christmas Ornament with swarovski crystals attached.  

I am still stitching Rosey Posie from Little House Needleworks, she is looking very cute and I should have a photo for you soon.

Welcome to all of my new followers.

Happy stitching, until next time! 

My Memories Suite Giveaway!

Hi everyone, I have been asked by My Memories Suite to host a giveaway on my blog, it is not cross stitch but it is something I think you will find interesting!
Have you ever wondered how some blogs have lovely photographs with floral trimmings and ribbons etc and you never understood how they did that? Well I certainly did not understand it, until now that is!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED 

I designed this picture using the 'digital software programme' from My Memories Suite Version 2 and I think it is kind of cute, don't you?  It was very easy to do, I am looking forward to getting more creative with this, I think my next project will be to design a new blog header for my blog, so watch this space!

This software is a digital software programme that allows you to make lots of pretty papers and decorate your blog with the kits that can be purchased from My Memories Suite (Click link to take you to the page)

I would advise you to check out this video here   as it shows you what you can do with My Memories Suite in a little more detail, and there are lots of other videos on the same page to give you lots of ideas to use this 'digital software package'. 

I am offering one reader this 'digital scrapbooking softaware' for free, yes free, for you to make your blog look beautiful, as well as making the most beautiful scrapbook pages. Don't be too upset if you don't win first prize because everyone is a winner in this giveaway, all readers of my blog can use the code below to get $10 off the $39.97 price of My Memories Suite software.

Just enter the code below when you add your software package to the basket on their website and you will get $10 deducted off the price.

   STMMMS44238

What do you need to do to enter?

Visit My Memories Suite website here and choose your favourite digital package, return to my blog and leave a comment stating which one you have chosen, thats all there is to it! 

The giveaway closes on Sunday 2nd October 2011 and I will announce the winner shortly afterwards.   

I absolutely love this software package, it is so easy to use and I am looking forward to making my blog look so much prettier! I will be back Sunday evening with another cross stitch pattern and another cute picture using this software.  

Good luck everyone! 

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Paris giveaway winner and look what arrived for me!!!!!!

Hi everyone, apologies for the delay, someone had hacked into my blog and set a divert to another website, this prevented me from announcing my giveaway winner. Thankfully I managed to fix it quickly after searching in my widgets to see if I could find it, sure enough it was there!

I had to do an awful lot of reading on the internet to find out how to solve the problem.

I have a couple of things to tell you about but first up is the winner of my Paris giveaway, I set up the draw using the old fashioned way of folding up tiny bits of paper everytime I recieved a comment.

The winner is ................................

Lynn from Kearnel's Corner blog 

Congratulations Lynn, you get everyting in the photo below!

Please email me your address details and I will send it to you before the end of next week, however, it could be sooner, depends when I manage to get to the post office.   

Thankyou to everyone who entered and a warm welcome to all of my new followers, I did try to reply to everyone, however some of you did not leave me a way to reply to you, but thanks for your lovely comments I really appreciated them all! 

My next giveaway!

My next giveaway will be in the middle of September, it will not be stitch related.

I have been asked by My Memories Suite to host a digital scrapbooking software freebie on this site, I have never used it before until now and all I can say is that it is really easy to use and I now know what all those digital scrapbboking folders were for! lol

I will be showing some photo examples and be giving away one of these Digital Software programmes free to one lucky reader of my blog, so keep your eyes open for that!      

A gift to myself 

Although I love sewing I think sometimes it is nice to have someone else make something for me as a special treat, when I saw this pillow and gift tags (top photo) I decided to do just that!

It arrived a few weeks ago, it was beautifully wrapped and it was like having Christmas in August!

I bought this from a talented blogger who also happens to be called Lynn, she has a beautiful blog at

Teacup Stitches blog here but I bought this from Lynn's Etsy shop here, go check it out, be warned,  Lynn sells her pillows fast!

There is a close up photo of the pillow below, check out the lovely diamante heart, it's so cute!

Thankyou Lynn, it was such a treat to receive this in the post, I know I will order from you again soon!

Talking of pillows, I have made this black and white pillow after taking inspiration from Lynn!

This beautiful lady image was printed on cotton fabric and then embroidered with french knots in lilac and pink to give it some colour, I also put a swarovski crystal on each flower in the corner.

 That's it for this week, happy stitching everyone, until next time!