Easter Treasure Hunt

 Hello, and welcome if you have hopped by here on the Easter Treasure Hunt. For a full list of participating blogs please visit Jo at Serendipitous Stitching

Here is my Easter themed stitching. This little cutie is a free design from Durene Jones' Facebook page

The letter you need for your Treasure Hunt is:-

And the next stop is:-

Elfin Stitches

February Gifted Gorgeousness

 Running a little late with my GG post this month. 

If you aren't familiar with GG pop on over to Jo's blog for a full explanation, but in a nutshell it is a monthly show and tell of gift related crafting.

So what do I have to show this month? 

I took part in a Valentine's Exchange on Needlecraft Haven. This is the beautiful card and stitched pillow I received from Mary

I sent to Clare but I forgot to get a photograph before I posted it so you'll need to check out Clare's blog to see it

I also made this shirt for David this month

Check out the little Kylie and the Machine label I tucked under the pocket

 

Gifted Gorgeousness - May

It's time for Gifted Gorgeousness, the monthly Blog Hop organised by Jo where we show the things we've made as, received as, or can otherwise shoehorn into the category of gifts.
Quite a few sewing projects for my GG post this month. Lets see...
I made the girls a top each from some funky tattoo print jersey

I made this top for Eloise for her Birthday

and also this dress

Loki approves

The sharp eyed among will notice that all the pictures are of Naomi, this is because Eloise lives some distance away, so her makes have had to be posted to her.
This was a cover kit with Mollie Makes magazine, so that counts as a gift right?

And I finished off the blackbird applique I showed a couple of posts back. The design/kit was from last year's Spring Craftpod, which was a gift from me to me :)

Let The People Choose - Penguins

Let The People Choose is a SAL organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, with a different theme each month. This month it's penguins! It can't have escaped your notice that I am fond of penguins. I have a lot of penguin related crafting to show.
Here we go:-

This New Year Penguin is a free design from Aliolka

I made this cuddly felt penguin from a kit from House of Zandra

Here is a silk scarf I block printed

and a little knitted penguin - pattern in 20 to Knit - Tiny Christmas Toys

bought the whole book for that pattern

A penguin Christmas Ornament (design by Cthulu Crochet)

A penguin in a Jayne Cobb hat!

Penguin walks down the street in that hat, you know he's not afraid of anything.

and this is a mixed stitch penguin sampler I designed for Stitch Magazine, many years ago.

And finally, not penguin related, but here is the February page from the subversive calendar the girls designed for me

Gifted Gorgeousness January 2020

Welcome to my January 20220 Gifted Gorgeousness Post. If you don't already know, Gifted Gorgeousness is a SAL devised by Jo, which allows us to show off pretty much anything that we can describe in a sentence using the words gift and craft. For full details see Jo's blog here.

Kicking off the Gifted Gorgeousness Year is always the easy post because of  Christmas. I already posted about all the wonderful craft related gifts I received in my Happy New Year post, so this post will be about various things that I made for other people.

Lets see... I knitted the girls a hat each. Pattern is "Head Sock" from The Purl Bug. Here is Eloise wearing hers on Christmas Day at the beach. 

I forgot to get a picture of Naomi's hat, but here she is wearing a little devore velvet slip dress I made her. 

The pattern is New Look 6347. Double GG points on this project as I was gifted the fabric by Minerva

I also made them a silver necklace each, (it's just the lighting that makes them look gold)

I made some of these star shaped fabric mats in a variety of colours and patterns for a few of my friends. 

And finally, a little Year of the Rat ornament I made Naomi for her Chinese Zodiac collection

December's Gifted Gorgeousness

Here it is, the last GG post of the year (for more details about the GG blog hop please see Jo's blog)
I've just taken part in the annual Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange, which I'm pretty sure counts as Double GG (sounds like a bra size!)
Here is the wonderful ornament and other goodies that I received from Clare

And here is the ornament I sent to Mary

Design from this year's JCS Ornaments Issue. The red and lime are the new DMC Etoile threads. It's the first time I've used them. I wasn't sure at first as they looked as though they wouldn't give very good coverage, but actually they've worked really well and the glimmer from them is lovely and subtle.

Hallowe'en Exchange, Challenge and Temperature SAL Catch Up

You know what it's like. You wait all month for a bloggable stitch, and then three come along at once!
The exchange first. This was the Hallowe'en Exchange on Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched ornament, a trick and a treat.
Here is the lovely gift I received from Mary.

Thankyou Mary, they are all wonderful. I shall be displaying my "Christine's Potions" ornament all year round.
And here is what I sent to Justine.

The ornament is a design from Aliolka , The treat is a Lush Bath Bomb, and the trick is a mint tin filled with creepy crawlies.
The Alioka designs were the chosen designs for the Seasonal Challenge on Needlecraft Haven, so that finish killed two birds with one stone, but I decided to stitch another of the designs as a gift for Eloise

So then, of course, I had to stitch one for Naomi as well, only all the Aliolka designs had that cute little spider, and Naomi does not do spiders. Not even very cute ones, so I combined Aliolka's skull motif with a kitty from a Barbara Ana design and stitched her this one (which you've already seen if you saw the Hallowe'en Blog Hop post)

And finally here is an up to date picture of my Temperature SAL

2019 Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my Trick or Treat Blog Hop Post.

Here is some Spooky Stitching

This is a combination of a couple of designs, the cat is part of this design from Barbara Ana Designs whilst the skull is from an Aliolka design

Your letter for the Blog Hop is

Now please go to An Arizona Stitcher for your next letter

Easter Exchange

I thought you might like to see the ornaments from the Easter Exchange at Needle craft haven
Here is the one I sent to Sue

And here is the lovely ornament and goodies I received from Deb

February's GG

Here is my February post for Gifted Gorgeousness - Jo's Blog Hop, where we get a chance to show off our gift related crafting every month.
I've got a few things this month. First is the Valentine's Exchange at Needlecraft Haven. We had to send a stitched card, a skein of thread and some sweet treats to our partners.
Here are the goodies I received from Gill

I love the card, and will have to figure out a way to frame it so it can stay on display
And here is the card I sent to Julie.

The stitched section detaches to form an ornament. The design was one I found online, but I've forgotten where. I also forgot to take a picture of the other bits, but I sent a skein of  WDW "Ladybug" and some chocolate ladybirds/
Next is a little "plant" I made from buttons for Barb's birthday

And here is the prize I made for Jo, for winning my guess the number of finishes/books/shoes competition last year.

It says "Mae Govannen", which is Sindarin for "Well met". It's stitched in a Kate's Kloths overdyed green floss on Crafty Kitten's 32 ct Murano in Faded Olive
And finally, not stitch or craft related at all unless you count cooking, but I won  a caption competition on Ainsley Harriott's Instagram, and got this fantatsic goody-box with one of every Ainsly Foods product (there's a load more than you can see in the picture) and  best of all, a signed photo of the man himself (which is up on the kitchen wall now)

Secret Stitching Sweetheart

Welcome to the Secret Stitching Sweetheart blog hop as organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching
If you visit Jo's blog you will find a list of all the blogs participating in the hop. Each of us has sent and received a stitched picture, and none of us know where our picture will have ended up.
Here is the gorgeous picture I received:-

How adorable is that? And the cuddly little dragons? Just too cute. I love it. If you are my Secret Stitcher please own up.

I'm off now to see if I can find out where my picture ended up.

Snow and Stitching

Yes, we had snow. Not too exciting for some people, but it's quite unusual around here.

You can see the small patch of blue stitching showing the colder few days in my Temperature SAL

and if you look carefully you'll see that I indicated the snow by filling in the background of the relevant squares with white.

I've also stitched a Valentine's Exchange piece, which I can't show yet as it's a secret, and this little Year of the Pig ornament to add to Naomi's Chinese Zodiac collection.

He's stitched in GAST Schoolhouse Red on Crafty Kitten Just Peachy. I couldn't find a chart I liked so I charted him myself. I drew the Chinese character by looking at various New Year greetings online, I hope it does indeed say "Pig", and not one of the more colourful Chinese expressions from Firefly.

Kicking Off Gifted Gorgeousness for 2019

New year, new Gifted Gorgeousness, same format - a forum to show of our crafting gifts and gifted crafting - for full details see Jo's Blog here.
First of all some gifts I received for Christmas
This beautiful little stitched stocking from Clare

and these lovely fabrics from Karan

And here are some things I made as gifts:-

I made Eloise and Naomi a snappy pouch each. These have strips cut from a retractable metal tape measure in the top so that they snap closed. They get double GG points because I originally received my own snappy pouch and instructions on how to make them as a gift from Julie

And here is a jumper I knitted for Naomi (Pattern and Paintbox Metallic DK yarn used available here)

This is the front - nice, but not earth shattering, however take a look at the back!

I'm really pleased with how this came out.

And finally, as she was packing to go back to University, Naomi complained that she needed something to brighten up the front room of her rented house and "make it look like adults live there", so I knocked up a little runner to go on their coffee table.