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

Gifted Gorgeousness March

 Well that came around fast! It is time for the March edition of Gifted Gorgeousness, the monthly blog hop where we show off our gift related crafting. For a full explanation see Jo's blog

Just the one thing to show this month. This little pillow I stitched for Barb for her birthday

The design is free one from Kincavel Krosses though I swapped in my own colours. The little rosette decoration is just a length of the ricrac gathered and rolled.

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

 

Secret Stitching Sweetheart

 Hello and welcome to the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop organised by Jo. Pop over to her blog at Serendipitous Stitching to see a list of all the blogs taking part.

Here is the Secret Stitching I was sent. 

Isn't it lovely? So delicate and pretty, I wonder who stitched it

I'm off now to see who got the one I stitched

The Last Gifted Gorgeousness of The Year

 Hi and welcome to December's Gifted Gorgeousness post. See Jo's blog here for full details, but essentially Gifted Gorgeousness is a monthly chance to show off anything we can shoehorn into the category of "gifts".

As is usual in December a lot of what I've been making I can't really show yet, but I can show you the ornaments I sent and received in the Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange

Here is the ornament I sent to Julie

And here is the truly beautiful Christmas tree ornament that Clare sent to me

Also I made me and the girls matching Christmas t-shirts, because we aren't too old for that right?

Gifted Gorgeousness September

 It's Gifted Gorgeousness time again, where we share our gift related crafts. For a full explanation, and a list of all the participating blogs please see Jo's blog here.

A little bit of stitching to show this month. It was Clare's  birthday last week. As you may know, Clare decorates a themed Christmas Tree at her Church each year, and this year her chosen theme is a bouquet of stitched flowers, so I stitched her this little pansy, then I stitched it again on plastic canvas and made up a matching brooch for her.

Double bonus GG points for this one because the chart was in an Italian Cross Stitch magazine that Naomi bought for me when she was studying in Siena.

I can also include this dress I made for myself as the fabulous gingham effect and floral fabric was gifted to me by Minerva. The pattern is the Rockabilly Dress from Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book

That's about it for this month. Hoping to be more productive for the October update

Still Catching Up with Alice

 Here is my latest block finish for the Alice SAL. This is "Painting the Roses"

The back stitch on this one was insane!

Next up "The Duchess"

Gifted Gorgeousness - August

 Welcome to August's Gifted Gorgeousness, the monthly showcase for gift related crafting hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching

This month I can show the pieces from the Cyberstitchers Christmas in July Exchange I took part in.

Here is the Needlebook I sent to Theresa (It has her initials on the other side)

And here are the wonderful stitched goodies I received from Deb.

and finally a little cross stitch I did using a free design from Durene Jones

Quick Alice Update

I'm about a month behind on the Alice SAL, but I just finished up block six - the Dormouse and the Hare.

Next up, Painting the Roses Red.

Alice Update

This month's character in the Alice SAL was the Mad Hatter.

I also made this mixed media picture of a sardine tin this week, following a tutorial on the Seasalt website.

In un-related news I planted a Kiwi plant in the garden when Naomi was very small (they were her favourite fruit). It has grown like a triffid ever since without so much as hinting at a kiwi, but today, after 18 years it has flowered!

And in case you were wondering, here is this months not-so-uplifting sentiment from the calendar the girls made me

Alice Update

Running a little late on this month's installment for the Alice SAL, but I got it finished before the next one came out so I'm calling that a win!
Here are the Tweedles

Next month is The Mad Hatter, really looking forward to that one.
A gratuitous picture of Loki, because the way he was lying made me laugh so hard

And here, for those of you who have been looking forward to it, is the May page from the "inspirational" calendar the girls made for me!

Gifted Gorgeousness - April

A couple of days late, but here is my gifted gorgeousness post for April (If you are new to this GG is a Blog Hop hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching, where we show off anything we have made as, received as, or made from something received as a gift - or anything else we think we can get away with shoe-horning in for that matter)
I've got a few things I can share this month (and a few I can't, so that's next month's post sorted too!).
First up is the pendant I made for a friend's birthday. It is a piece of local seaglass for which I made a claw-setting from recycled eco-silver. A bit of a steep learning curve making the setting but I think I've got the hang of it now!

Then there is this shirt I made for my husband. The pattern is Simplicity 1544, and the fabric is a cotton lawn with a kind of William Morris-ish pattern of stylised bluebells. The collar band and inner cuffs are in a contrasting plain purple cotton.

And finally the piece I stitched for the Needlecraft Haven Easter Exchange.I finished as a "lollipop" and it's displayed with a wooden tulip my girls bought for me in Amsterdam. The design is from La Comtesse et le Point du Croix It's still here as we are keeping the exchange virtual for now and posting out later, so I can't say who it is for in case they read this.

That's all for this month. Off to work on some May gifts now.

Slightly Late ISHW Post

Still trying to keep up with my Alice SAL. This is where I've got to now:-

Really enjoyed this month's block. I wonder who we'll get next month, I'd rather like to see the caterpillar.

March Already? Late February IHSW

I did actually stitch it in February, I just didn't get round to blogging it. Here is the current progress on Cross Stitcher Magazine's Alice SAL

I've also been doing a Scrap-busting challenge with Sugar Bowl Crafts, I'm hopelessly behind on it, but here are the first four squares laid out together.

And Finally, the March page in the subversive calendar the girl's made for me

The caption reads "The best things in life are actually very expensive - you know like truffle oil ... or cocaine

The Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

Hi, and welcome to the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop. This is a blog hop organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. We all sent her a picture of something Valentine related that we'd made, and she mixed them all up and sent them out again. If you pop over to her blog you'll find a list of everyone taking part.
This is the Valentine I received.

Thank you Secret Stitcher, it's so pretty.
Please comment and let me know who you are.
I wonder who got mine...

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

IHSW January

I'm going to try and do an IHSW post every month this year. Try. No promises, especially in the summer when I work pretty much all weekends. The reason I want to try and keep up with it is to keep me motivated with the "Alice" SAL being run in CrossStitcher Magazine.
The first installment was the individual motif frames and the border. The rest of the year will be a motif a month to drop into them.
Already behind as I've only done about a quarter of the frames/border motifs and the next magazine arrived today, but here is my progress so far.

Wish me luck!

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

First Finish of 2020

My Temperature SAL

Design by Hetti of Stitches in Blue

Stitched on Crafty Kitten 32 count Oatmeal Murano

using DMC and Finca variegated threads

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.