Exchange gift has arrived at the destination

Hi everyone, here is the gift I made for my partner Heike in a recent exchange on Ravelry.

A random act of kindness and other stitching..........

Hi everyone, I have been busy catching up on some cross stitch finishes, the first one being this altered design of Little House Neighborhood that I stitched for a lady who I only just met!

An exchange has arrived and my Peacock Design stitched by Ann.

Ooooo look what arrived for me today!!!!!

Little House Needlework, an exchange and my first hardanger piece.

   Hi everyone, I hope you are all well and doing lots of lovely stitching!

I have been stitching a Little House Needlework design called Daisy Lane Cottage, I am also working on my first piece of Hardanger and I have an exchange to show you that I made for Margaret from A Sampler of Stitches blog here  

Daisy Lane Cottage from Little House Needleworks. 

Here is the exchange I made for Margaret, it is not the exact photo of the one I sent to Margaret, it is the one I made for Yana but I forgot to take photographs, although they are more or less exactly the same except for the polymer clay thread holder.  

Margaret made me an absolutely beautiful exchange that you can see in the previous post. 

Here is my first piece of hardanger, it is a work in progress at the moment, however  I am not too sure I like doing this type of stitching, I find it boring, I prefer to have some colour to work with and I found the stitches a bit repetitive.

Happy Stitching everyone, thanks for your visit!



Wow - just take a look at this exchange from Margaret!

More photo's below.

Wow - do I feel spoilt!

Hi everyone, thankyou for all of the lovely comments on my second anniversary giveaway, I am replying to everyone, and I am hoping to visit all of your blogs too. I really appreciate your comments, they are an inspiration to carry on blogging!

There is still time to enter my giveaway, just click on the picture on the right hand side or check out the previous post to this one.

Well, I have had the most wonderful week opening exchanges and I just had to show you this gorgeous exchange  I received from Margaret in Spain, isn't it just absolutely wonderful,  I do feel very spoilt!

Now if you have never visited Margarets blog (click here) then go there now, you will not be disappointed, Margaret makes the most beautiful stitched bags you are ever likely to see, they really are scrumptious, and now I own one yippee!!!! 

Thankyou so much Margaret for a wonderful exchange, you are so generous making me such wonderful gifts, I shall treasure them always. They will also take pride of place in my new craft room when it is finished.  

I have also received a beautiful exchange from Stacy over at Snippets and Stash blog but I have not taken the photo's yet. I will tempt you with those goodies next time. 

My time for exchanging will diminish over the next few months because I have some building works being carried out on my home, however I am hoping to pick up on exchanges nearer to Christmas. I am particularly looking forward to getting my new craft room decorated, and I am sure I will take plenty of photo's to put on my blog to show progress.        

Thankyou once again Margaret for a wonderful exchange, I hope you like mine as much as I like yours!  

Happy stitching and thankyou for the lovely comments, I really appreciate them. 

    

More exchanges!

Hi everyone, I have been doing quite a few exchanges lately, here is the one I sent to Hazel from the

Quietly Stitching blog this week. (The exchange I received from Hazel is shown below) I made the box and covered it with this beautiful fabric from Shabby Fabrics in America, I also made the pinkeeps and little pillow using free patterns from: 

Gazette 94 for the rose pattern, please see previous post for the link to this pattern. 

Amitie pattern is from DesFilles et une Aiguille here

I made the polymer clay roses and the buttons from polymer clay.

Hazel sent me the most gorgeous stitching set below, I am thrilled with it. Hazel made the gorgeous bag and filled it with the lovely matching needlebook and little scissor pillow.

Thanyou Hazel, I shall treasure them always.

Thankyou for all of the lovely comments, I really appreciate them.

Happy stitching!

My exchange has arrived in Russia at last!

Hi everyone, I am thrilled to say that the exchange I sent to Yana in Russia on the 29 March has finally arrived, I had actually lost all hope of it ever getting there, in fact, I had made another one and was ready to post it next week! 

I made the  toblerone using this tutorial here ,although it is in French the pictures are quite easy to follow, I also used some of the fabrics I bought from Shabby Fabrics in America. The cherub pattern was a free pattern from Arianne Pierre, I could not find the link to it, however a nice blogging friend sent me the pattern. For the rose detail on the toblerone I used part of a pattern from the Gazette 94 blog here, just scroll down and you will see the roses as part of this large sampler.

The polymer clay rose pins, buttons and thread holder were handmade from Fimo clay and glazed with varnish to give a shiny finish. If you wish to know how to make the roses just type in polymer clay roses on You Tube and you will see a video showing how to make them. 

I used DMC floss for the cross stitch. 

More pictures below.

     

  

       

I have just sent another exchnage to Hazel from Quietly Stitching blog here , I will show pictures in my next post.

Happy stitching everyone and thankyou for your visit.

My exchange to Glady's

Hi everyone, here is the exchange I sent to Glady's in our recent private exchange,

I designed the box myself, it is trimmed with Swarovski crystals and handmade cord using DMC thread 825.

You can visit Glady's blog here.

 

      

The free pattern for the biscornu and pinkeep can be found here at Les Chroniques De Frimousse blog

Instructions showing how to make this biscornu can be found on my finishing tutorials blog here.

I am so pleased that Glady's liked the exchange I made!

Happy Stitching everyone!

My favourite ornament in different colours and exchange received from Patti.

Hi everyone, I thought I would show you my latest obsession!

I just love stitching this ornament from the Just Cross Stitch 2008 Magazine designed by Nancy Boyarsky of Glory Bee. I have stitched it about eight times now, I gave two to my sister, one for an exchange, and I made a purple one for a giveaway last Christmas that you can see here.

Don't you thing it's amazing how different they look by just changing the colour?

I think the reason I like it so much is because I can stitch it in one evening and it is so effective, and I love stitching the rhodes stitch in the middle of each star design.

Here are the ornaments showing a close up view, you can click on the photo's. 

I think I stitched these on 32 count linen

I have also received a beautiful exchange from Patti in the Year Long Prairie Schooler exchange group.

Patti made me this lovely thread holder in 40 count Permin linen in 1 over 1 stitching and included a scissor fob and some threads, I was thrilled with it, thanks again Patti!

Stitching news

My exchanges are all complete for 2009 and I am now planning one of my first private exchanges for January 2010, I have quite a few planned for next year and I am looking forward to all of them.

I am currently making another box to store some of my pins, needles and threads, I will show a picture when it is finished.

Hopefully I am going to work on The Porch Swing by Paula Vaughan as I have neglected that one lately.

Have a lovely stitchy week and thankyou for all of the lovely comments on my previous post.

Box for Christmas Ornaments, Tatting, RAK for Lizzie and an exchange.

Gosh, I have had a busy week this week with cross stitch, I have finished a Christmas Ornament box for my sister and filled it with ornament's that I have been stitching since last January, I found the image for the top of the box from The Graphics Fairy blog here, under the Christmas section.

I have also just heard that Lizzie from A Stitching Fairy's Rambling Under The Willow Tree has received my random act of kindness, and I have received a lovely tatting gift and an exchange in the mail.

Here are the contents of the box above, I gave it to my sister today and she was thrilled with it.

The box is covered and lined with silk.I have made a tutorial to show how I covered the box, you can see it here.

I received a lovely surprise in the mail this week, it was a tatting gift from Kate, she saw that I liked the idea of learning to tatt and she kindly offered to send me these goodies, needless to say I was thrilled with them, thankyou Kate. 

Here is my first attempt at tatting, only trouble is I  feel another addiction coming on! lol

Here is the lovely exchange I received from Sharlotte in the Hooked on Exchanging Group, thankyou Sharlotte, it is now hanging proudly on my fireplace!

I will show the pictures of my random act of kindness to Lizzie in my next post, for some reason I am struggling to upload the photograph's to my blog for this.

Thankyou for all of the lovely comments in my last post!

Happy Stitching everyone.

Christmas Ornament arrived from Joan

What a lovely surprise I received in the post this morning, it was the Christmas Ornament from Joan in the hooked on exchanging group. She enclosed some tins, piecemaker needles and pins that were on my wish list and also enclosed a handmade chicken pincushion, some lovely ribbon, a handmade bag and a snowman notepad. Thankyou Joan I was very pleased with everything you sent, you read my blog very well!