My trip to Bath and recent exchanges.

I thought I would show some  photograph's of my recent visit to Bath in England where Jane Austen lived for five years.

A window display in the Jane Austen Centre.

We had tea at the famous Sally Lunn tea shop, the food was delicious.

The house was built in 1475! 

The beautiful Georgian buildings and neat little shops, all I needed now was a 

Georgian style dress and I would feel complete!  

I found a very pretty bead shop in this square called Bijoux Beads here , of course I had to buy some!

Inside Bath Cathedral there was a beautiful embroidery and calligraphy art display entitled 

The Celebration Of Creation by Sue Symons, the pieces were amazing, Sue is one very talented lady.

I have other photographs that I can show you in another post, if you love embroidery you will love these photo's!

Sue has had her art work published, you can find more details here. 

If you wish to visit Bath here is a helpful website.

Stitching news

I have just received a beautiful exchange from Shay in the Year Long Prairie Schooler exchange group  and I must say the photograph cannot possibly do this beautiful piece of work justice.

Shay made a stitching book with tatted lace inside and gorgeous roses on the outside, the stitching and finishing are perfect and I am thrilled to own such a beautiful piece of work.

I shall treasure this always.

Thankyou Shay!   

Here is the little pillow I made for Joke in the same round.

Holidays

I am off on my holiday's again for a week, I am going to Paris,

I just love it there,  I usually visit every year and I always look forward to going. 

There are a couple of needlework shops that I am going to visit and hopefully

I will remember to take photo's to show on my blog when I return.

We are also visiting a few museums including the Museum of Fashion,

it has collections dating back to the 17th Century so there should be plenty of opportunity

 to get inspired for my needlework.

Posting news

I have posted the first, second and third prizes for my blog giveaway,

I will post the other prizes when I return from my holiday.

Thankyou so much for your lovely comments, I always love reading them!

SEE YOU SOON!

Christmas ornaments

Hi everyone, I hope you are enjoying the summer sunshine, however these pictures will make you feel quite chilly as I have a few winter Christmas ornaments to show.

The picture above is the ornament I have stitched for the Christmas Challenge blog, I was a few days late for the June ornament but I finally managed to get it finished, it is a Prairie Schooler pattern stitched on 28 count and made into a little felt pillow. I really love this Christmas Challenge because it makes me adhere to my Christmas stitching, I can't believe there are only 6 more ornaments to make for Christmas, where does the time go? The pictures below show the lovely Christmas in July exchange I received from Ellen L for the Hooked on Exchanging Too blog, as you can see from the pictures Ellen was very generous with the extras!

Thankyou Ellen I love it all.

Stitching news

I have sent my tea exchange to Jennifer this week so I will have some photo's to show probably by the end of next week. I have started to stitch my July ornament for the Christmas Challenge blog as I do not want to be late this next time, and I am concentrating on the Prairie Schooler round 3 exchange for August and my first anniversary blog giveaway on the 31 July 2009.

Happy stitching everyone, thankyou for your visits and the lovely comments you leave, I really appreciate them all.

Prairie Schooler exchange received and quilting news!

My partner Patti in the Prairie Schooler exchange has received the hand made card and pillow I made for her. I am so glad you liked it Patti, I was getting worried as I posted it on Tuesday and it should have arrived for the next day. I wrapped it in lovely pink cellophane and a soft pink ribbon, I thought it looked quite yummy! You know how it can be difficult to part with stitched pieces sometime, (well all of the time for me!) I did not feel too bad about parting with this one because I had just received the same design from Mylene, she made it into a mattress pincushion for our recent personal exchange! Here

This is a no gift exchange group so I decided to make a nice card, I made it using the quilling method, it is amazing how therapeutic it is rolling up bits of paper!LOL.

The inspiration to make the label in this way came from the lovely pinkeep that Andrea made for me in a recent pay it forward gift that you can see here.

My first polymer clay roses

I decided to attempt to make some polymer clay roses using Fimo clay

after inspiration from numerous blogs, I must admit it is quite relaxing.I absolutely loved making models out of clay when I was in primary school, it certainly took me back a few years!

Stitching News

I have also been sorting out my craft boxes and I found a few unfinished work in progress pieces that I started a number of years ago, one of which is my first ever hand made quilt. I am just putting the binding on and then I will post pictures later.

My sister lived in North Carolina for a number of years until 2005, she started quilting whilst she was there and inspired me to start my own project. I have also got another quilt that is a work in progress but I am not yet looking to finish that anytime soon!

Here is a picture of the first quilt my sister ever made, I am astounded that a beginner in quilting could make such a beautiful piece. I observed while she stitched each little triangle together and I knew exactly how much work she put in this, but the best part -

she gifted it to me!

Thankyou Ann-Marie, I shall treasure it always!

Thankyou for stopping by, happy stitching everyone!

What a lovely week I have had!

My exchange has arrived from Jill!

Jill from Purple Peacock sent me this beautiful needlebook with a Cherub design and included

a gorgeous pink and twinkly fob attached to a large needle.

Jill also included a lovely pink pair of scissors with a crystal fob, my favourite

colours of threads, piecemaker needles which were on my wish list, strawberry napkins and socks.

Thankyou Jill I love it all!

Reverse side of Needlebook
I also received this lovely cushion from Christine in the
Year Long Prairie Schooler Exchange blog.
Thankyou Christine!



I also met a friend for lunch and she bought me these gorgeous flowers,
it was the perfect end to a lovely week!
Pink is my favourite colour and I loved the fact that pink glitter
had been sprnkled on the flowers, it does not show up that good in the photo but
they truly are gorgeous!

Thankyou for your visit and have a lovely weekend!

Prairie Schooler pin keep received.

Here is the Prairie Schooler pinkeep that I made for Cindy F in the February Prairie Schooler exchange. I did keep it a closely guarded secret even though Cindy and I had exchanged emails on the day I posted it. I actually mentioned that I was posting my Prairie Schooler exchange but

she had no idea she was the recipient, I cannot believe I managed to keep that secret!

I made the mistake of putting HOE for Hooked on Exchanging and realised I should have put

PS for Prairie Schooler but it was way too late to change it all, I just did not have the heart

to pull it all apart!