Packed Post

Lots of things to show you…so I will keep the wording on the light side….firstly I can reveal my exchange received and sent for the Summer Holiday Exchange on the “Stitched With Love Exchange” blog…this is what I received from April…

and this is what I sent to Shannon…

I stitched Tanya’s freebie “To The Beach” using hand-dyed linen and Crescent Colour threads and edged it in ruched ribbon.

I finally got around to making up some pillows today..

I did have a little spurge at my favourite shop yesterday….a mug in a tin, sewing scissors in a case, vintage buttons (used on the pillows), a fat quarter bundle and some green/rosebud fabric (used for the garden pillow)

No more writing…it’s getting late…have a good Monday

Hugs & Stitches

Treats, Gifts, Progress & Finishes

Firstly as promised here is the gorgeous Valentine’s Giveaway gift I received from Lynn at Happiness Is Cross Stitching…isn’t it gorgeous, it’s so delicately and perfectly made…I will treasure it!

I had a childfree weekend as the children were staying with their Dad, so I managed to root out the sewing machine from the cubby hole under the stairs..I finished 3 exchange pieces and my next PIF (which I cannot share at the moment).

I also finished up the 2 tissue cases which I have made for Mark’s Mum and my Mum for Mother’s day gifts.

Polstitches “Pearl Tissue Case”

Left: 28c Brittney “Olive” using Six Strand Sweet threads and pastel coral seed beads, lined in apple coloured shot silk fabric.

Right: 28c Brittney Lilac using Six Strand Sweet threads and lilac seed beads, lined in aubergine coloured shot silk fabric.

Both are filled with Cath Kidston decorated tissues!

I finally got around to making up my Lizzie*Kate “Living with Charm” wall hanging, I backed it with iron on Vilene and a lovely contrasting fabric and used wooden bell pull ends and a cappuccino coloured ribbon to hang it from…not a brilliant picture as the sun kept shining…lol…shouldn’t complain I suppose!!

Finally here is my progress on TSG “In the Garden with Jane Austen” SAL…I hope to have a HD this week on the flower motif top right to complete and the picket fence to run along the bottom on the design…then all done…I have loved stitching this design.

I have done a small amount of stitching on my “Home of A Needleworker” WIP (no photo at moment), I have almost built the house, just the roof to complete and the windows to fit!!

I have updated my for sale/trade page…please let me know if anything takes your fancy!!

School Governor’s meeting tonight, so I won’t manage any stitching, I may have time to do some knitting when I get home…

Hugs & Stitches

Fancy One This Friday??

A Jane day that is? I stitched this little treasure over two evenings and finished it up as a pillow last night…I love this design.

The Sampler Girl - “Fancy A Jane Day?”

28c Cashel Linen in Antique Ivory

Dinky Dyes Silk “Nana” (Ltd Edition)

I have also finished up another piece for an exchange so cannot reveal that to you as yet.

I am waiting with baited breath for my Down Sunshine Lane delivery of my next LHN Ornie chart as along with this is coming the JCS Christmas Ornie edition….can’t wait!

I am still busy stitching the curtains and bunting for Martha’s room, I managed to get into town on Wednesday (in between the wind and downpours we have been having all week) to buy the extra piece of curtain rufflet and some purple gingham which is the other fabric to go alongside the pale lemon and white polka dot fabric.

Isaac is all excited today as all the children from the Catholic schools in the city have gone to the racecourse to watch the Pope’s Big Assembly on the BIG screen, they spent yesterday making flags and banners. I remember going to see Pope John Paul II at the racecourse in 1982, we set off walking from church at 5am on a pilgrimage, it was a boiling hot day and there was thousands there for the Mass…a day to remember!

A bit of exciting news…I am starting to teach needlework at Isaac’s school every week to the Yr 4’s (8 year olds) they are studying the Victorians so we are going to design little samplers for them to stitch..SO a little plea…does anyone know where I can obtain paper to use to design the samplers or does graph paper do the job?? I also am going to be helping out in Isaac’s class with maths, which is a bit funny as maths is not my strongest subject, hence I have taken the bull by the horns and enrolled myself on a course starting next week, teaching me to teach maths to little ones :0).

Well I have rambled quite enough..I hope you all have a fantastic weekend…

Hugs & Stitches

Elisa x

Emma Finally Finished

I have finally finished stitching Tanya’s “Jane Austen and Me…the Emma Project” I adored this piece, the colours are so lush…a total joy to stitch. It is stitched on 32c Antique White Belfast Linen with the recommended DMC threads.I have not decided how to finish her as yet but will show you when I have.

 

I took a couple of piccies of a chocolate faced little monkey yesterday so you all could see..

 

Not a lot happening here at the moment, we did manage to get the garden into some semblance of order over the weekend, just in time for the sunshine :0) great planning eh!!

My friend has got 3 girls and has just given me a huge pile of summer dresses for Martha so the washing machine is on overtime…at least I can hang them all out to dry in the lovely sunshine.

Back to the bathroom this weekend, wood cladding to finish then for the painting to commence.

Hoping you all have a good week…

Hugs & Stitches

Elisa x

Birthdays,Walking,Decorating & Some Stitching

It seems like an age since I last blogged but this have been hectic here as always and I just haven’t had the time to get on the pc much apart from emailing checking!! Plus I have been a bit under the weather..unfortunately one of the wounds on my back where I had a mole removed developed a nasty infection and I have been on the hugest strongest penicillin..they made me feel quite rotten. But it’s all cleared up now so I am back to fighting fit!

Isaac celebrated his 6th Birthday at the end of April and had a good day and received lots of presents: a scooter, DVDs, Ds Games, books, a globe, clothes and a special day out at the North Yorkshire Moors Steam Railway, as he wasn’t having a party I decided this would be a nice day out for him and 2 of his friends. He is going to wait until the weather improves so we can spend a lovely day out having a picnic on the moors…it’s just too darn cold at the moment…I am sat here with a big wooly cardi on to try to keep warm.

Walking…..well finally Miss Martha is up and off she started walking 2 weekends ago and there is now no stopping her…along with the walking came the non stop talking she is such a chatty little girl, she is 18 months old on 21st May..where does the time go…unbelievable really.

Mark and I have been busy each weekend wallpaper stripping and preparing the bathroom, this weekend as the kids were at their Dad’s we really cracked on with the tongue and groove cladding for the bathroom walls, I have to say I was a dab hand with the power tools this weekend, I mastered the art of a jigsaw and palm sander quite well…lol!!

Next weekend as we are not child free we aim to (weather permitting) tackle the wilderness that tries to pass as a garden!!

I have done quite a bit of stitching this past month…firstly for my lovely friend Michelle’s birthday I stitched her this needleroll..I used Carol’s Sew Blue design stitched on 28c cream Jobelan using Japanese Marblethread.

Other stitching progress includes a small amount on my “Cheryl” SAL piece I am using 32c Murano Vanilla fabric and Dragon Floss “Precious”, it is coming along slowly.

Again a small amount of progress on my LHN SAL piece…I am currently 2 ornies behind where I should be so I need to get the old needle smokin’ on these too. 

I have naughtily started a new piece which I just couldn’t resist it any longer…it is Tanya’s Jane Austen “The Emma Project”, I am stitching it on Belfast Linen in Antique White using the recommended DMC threads…

A small stitching finish to share too…this is for Isaac’s teacher for the end of the year, I need to finish it into a little hanger, this is stitched on 28c French Country Linen in Cashmere using Vikki Clayton silks. Notice the lovely gingham heart…my special friend Michelle kindly brought that back from her stitching weekend in France, which I was originally booked to go on but sadly could not attend, isn’t it delightful!!

Oh and finally…no Elisa blog post would be complete without a bit of CK…lol. I have had my eye on this piece for months and months…so I finally treated myself to it…it is the perfect size to put all my stitching essentials in to keep in my corner of the lounge where my stitching lamp and WIPs are housed…

    Thanks for reading my wafflings…lol and many thanks as always for all your kind comments.

Happy Stitching

 

Elisa x

As Another Year….

draws to a close….and we plan our New Year’s Resolutions…it’s time to plan another year of stitching..woohoo!!

But before this…here is a picture of a piece I finished stitching a few months ago but had not got around to making it up..

I finished this piece as a cushion with ribbon trim and vintage mother of pearl buttons using a delicate pale green, cream and pink paisley fabric which I had in my stash.

We had a quiet family Christmas this year and my parents joined us for Christmas Lunch, the children had a great time unwrapping and playing with their gifts

  

I also received some lovely gifts from family and friends, perfume, smellies, Take That DVD, stitching goodies, Cath Kidston passport case, lots and lots of chocolate…heartfelt thanks to you all xxx

My 2010 stitching includes 3 SALs

LHN Monthly Ornament SAL

Stitchers Showcase “Bouquet for Cheryl” SAL

Stitch & Stash “Just Nan” SAL

alongside these I will be partaking in a minimum number of exchanges..

I also have 1 WIP I need to complete

BBD “Their Song”

and 4 UFO’s to complete

Beatrix Potter Quaker Sampler

L*K Double Flips

Papillion Garden Sampler

Debbie Draper “Little Book of Stitches”

and finally 3 PIF’s to complete…

so all in all a busy stitching year!!

Well on a final note a BIG THANK YOU to all my readers and followers over the past 2 years and I look forward to spending another year with you…stitching, stashing and waffling!!

Wishing you all a Happy Healthy 2010

Hugs & Stitches

Elisa x

Jane Austen HD!!

Well here finally for you to share is my HD, “At Home with Jane Austen” by Tanya Marie Anderson (The Sampler Girl), as soon as I saw this design on her website I fell in love with it…but it took me a while to realise I already had the pattern as it was in my GOSM folder, it appeared in the March 2007 edition of the magazine.

  I stitched it in the recommended Crescent Colours on 28c Polstitches hand-dyed jobelan in “Dusky Rose”. I made a few changes by stitching the main bulk of text in the purple colour rather than the pink, swapping the top border of flowers to pink and changing the initial from “A” to “E”. I think I may finish this piece as a bolster cushion, so I just need to head to buy one from Dunelm Mill and find some fitting fabric too.

I started by September Christmas Ornament the other evening and that’s about half way done…so I am well on track this month…all my exchanges are done…may have to slow down on those in the next couple of months as it’s Christmas present making time coming up…

Martha is full of cold AND teething so it’s not been a fun few days, I did manage to get some sleep last night so can at least function today…here is a piccie of her before her cold…covered in dinner..lol!!

Well it’s my giveaway draw this evening and I have had over 65 entrants…fantastic…I have almost written all the names down ready to be cut up and put in a pot to be drawn at 7pm(GMT)…so still a few hours left to enter if you haven’t already…

Good luck and enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Hugs & Stitches

Elisa x

Childfree Shopping…

Well I enjoyed 3 hours of childfree shopping yesterday and managed to treat myself to some lovely trinkets :)

Here are some pictures of a few of them…

I needed some new coffee, tea and sugar canisters for my kitchen but couldn't find any that I liked anywhere…until…I went into CK and found these delightful ones…this picture is from her website.Theses are from the Peter Rabbit shop, I adore Beatrix Potter and just love the Tailor of Gloucester. The postcard book has 60 postcards in it, some for framing and the others to send…that is if I can bring myself to rip them out…lolI love these little angels and have quite a few of the little gift cards and notepads, I saw these postcards in Paperchase and fell in love with them and also some stylish note cards too.

Other things I bought were a little heart shaped wind chime and a pink sequined photo frame from the Shared Earth shop but I have already put them up in my bedroom and 2 little wooden hearts to hand on pictures of the kids. So all in all a good trinket purchasing session was had by me.

      I was lucky enough to be the winner of the giveaway on Andrea’s blog for the Drawn Thread “Random Thoughts” chart and it arrived yesterday too, here is a picture or two of it, once I have stitched this piece it will be offered on my blog as a giveaway too…just to carry on the stitching kindness we all share.   I have completed my piece of secret stitching and also my L*K Exchange piece they need to be made up along with my August Christmas Ornie, I won’t be able to reveal them to you yet I am sorry to say…please be patient lol!!

The weather is bright and sunny today so I am having a washing fest…all the towels etc will be out on the line in a bit, I have cleaned the bathroom, so just the downstairs to vacuum, but not til after lunch as Isaac has a habit of dropping most of his lunch on the floor…lol. Then I will either to a bit of finishing or just sit and stitch a bit more on my current WIP…which is the Sampler Girl’s “At Home”

it’s a really loving design to stitch, I am using the recommended Crescent Colour threads but have slightly changed them around…so the primary colour is purple…better for matching my bedroom :)

Well enough of my waffling…hope you have a fun day…

As always heartfelt thanks for all your kind words and comments I really do appreciate them.

Hugs & Stitches

Elisa x