Christmas ornament exchange

Sally and I exchange a stitched ornament each year, and this is the one I stitched for Sally, I did consider several others, but has Sally has lots of stitching friends I didn't want to go for the obvious - thinking that someone else would also stitch the same design.  I enjoyed the stitching, and I am well out of practice on the making up front, but was pleased with the overall finish, and added some pretend crystal drops to the bottom.  And phew.....Sally said she liked it.  I was unable to get any really good pictures as it was so dark for many days due to the weather, and this is best I could do.

Sally stitched me a fantastic ornament, but I don't seem to have taken a photo of it, so I have stolen this one from Sally's blog - hopefully she won't mind too much!  I absolutely love it, and the blue fabric is gorgeous.  I don't know how Sally finds such wonderful fabric as she has no fabric shops where she lives.

A Birthday Gift

 Clover Sheep Needlekeep

by Island Cottage Needlearts

I made this for Sally's birthday in December.  When I spotted it for sale in a stitching shop on the web I just knew I had to buy it and make it for her.  Sally loves sheep so it was the perfect gift.  I quickly ordered but discovered that the shop didn't actually have it in stock so had to order it in for me.  I was a little worried as her birthday was coming up, but I needn't have worried as it arrived quickly, and there wasn't too much stitching to do, but then I had to make the sheep, it came with the wool felt for the sheep, but I kept thinking what if I cut it wrong!  Anyway thankfully Sally liked it.

I have stitched a few ornaments so far this year - pictures eventually, and last night was able to make a start on Poinsettia Place, which is No. 2 in the Santa's Village series.

And once again thank you all for visiting and welcoming me back to blogging.

Chris.x

The December SAL

Gingerbread Cottage

by Country Cottage Needleworks

stitched on 28ct Vintage Beige Cashel linen

Each December Sally and I do a SAL, and this year we chose Gingerbread Cottage, now I had not stitched for a while and trying to get back in to stitching and not let Sally down I concentrated on trying to get it finished and actually managed to finish it before Christmas.  Sally stitches on lots of things in her rotation but take a look at her blog - she is stitching up a storm.

As I have not been blogging for an age, here is a picture of  our December 2011 SAL, which I did not finish until January or February.  Now I did decide on a finish for this one but it has not happened yet, but did finally get some supplies for the finishing last month.

Snow Man

by Tralala

stitched on 28ct Raw linen

I just love this snow man, and have great plans for the finishing.

I now have both of these patterns for sale, just leave me a comment.

Sally and I have already decided on the 2013 December SAL - I can't wait for that one.

I have already finished 3 things this year - which is a bit of a shock, so will try and keep blogging and updating you on my progress.  Once again thank you everyone for visiting, and I am grateful to everyone who takes the time to leave me a comment.  I hope to add you all to my sidebar - when I've worked out how to change the layout of my blog.  I have already chosen a new template, and I followed the instructions but it didn't work, but I will keep trying as and when I have time.

Stitching

Santa's House

by Country Cottage Needleworks

stitched over 1 on 28ct

I guess you want to see stitching as this is a stitching blog.  This is my first finish from this year as I try to restore my stitching mojo.  I'm looking forward to the next chart arriving.  I love anything Christmas so this was a must for me, but having decided to stitch over one I have been wondering what I've let myself in for!

I have also had another finish this year and we're only on the 6th January, but I do have a few years to catch up on.  With not blogging my camera has had little use, and I've had to search for the cable to connect it to the pc, there was a large choice of cables but not one that fitted my camera and then I had a thought - looked in the camera box in the cupboard and there it was - must have had common sense when I decided to keep it there!

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

Chris.x

PS.... I am now selling the pattern if you're interested just leave me a comment, and I'll send you an email.

Blogging

Hello to everyone out there and a very big Thank you to everyone who commented - your comments are really appreciated.  Just wondering if anyone out there has any links that they'd be willing to share for blogging/layout instructions and any good template links?  Please................

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all.

This is a test message - as blogger has changed beyond all recognition since I was last here.

Chris

Having Fun

be

Flat beading with Eliza McClelland

Weekend workshop



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Weekend workshop

What a beautiful day



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What am I doing now?

75 flowers

It's not a quiz :)



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The weekly SAL

Testing



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And the winner is.....................................

.........................Kathy Ellen.


Congratulations, and thank you to everyone of you who entered. I wish I could have a gift for everyone. I got my daughter to draw a name out, and she closed her eyes to do it. LOL

Another Souvenir

I decided to stitch another souvenir, this one is for me, but I've made a mistake. What do you think? Shall I leave it? I'm tempted to leave it? This one was stitched on 45 count linen, so is smaller than the previous one, and therefore not as easy to frog. I'm not going to tell you what the mistake is but I'm sure you can spot it if you look hard enough.

Royal Wedding Giveaway

A Royal Wedding Souvenir
by The Sampler Girl

I have decided to have a giveaway. The gift being this pin pillow which I have stitched and finished, together with a Union Jack Keyring, and a commemorative box of Clotted Cream Fudge.

To enter - all you need to do is a leave a comment on this post.

If you want an extra entry then you should advertise this giveaway on your blog or website and leave another comment with the link to the post.

This giveaway is open to anyone in the world, but if it is doubtful that your country will let the confectionery through, then I can just send you the commemorative card off the front of the box with the other items.

I need to give you a closing date/time, so this will be 8am (UK time) on Friday 6th May.

A special day

Morning all, well it's morning in the UK. I don't think there can be many people in the world who have escaped knowing about the Royal Wedding. So I have decide to have a giveaway. Come back later to see my Royal Wedding Giveaway and join in the fun.

Thank you

I just want to say a Big Thank You to everyone who took the time to leave me a comment. I have received lots of lovely comments from lots of people I have never 'met in blogland' before, and it's nice to visit blogs I've never seen before. If you left me a comment and it includes your email address, then I am getting around to thanking you personally, and if you don't receive an email from me, then I have deleted yours by mistake, but there are quite a few that I have no way of contacting, and I am truly grateful. I also wanted to say that I am still stitching, it's blogging I am having the problem with. However, something has happened this week to give me a little bit of a cheer up, I won't go into detail but this could finally be the end of something which started a long time ago.

And now I'm sure everyone here is thinking about Japan, it is on the news all of the time. My heart goes out to everyone there, I cannot comprehend what they are going through. Their emotions must be all over the place with what is going on. I only know of two stitching sisters from there - I know there will be lots more. It's nice to know that Yuko is safe, and today I have heard from Satomi (who was one of my first exchange partners), but how will their country recover from this.

This is THE END

I've been wanting to post this for the last two weeks. So here it is

THIS IS THE END.

I don't want it to be the end, but that's how I feel. I'm in a real slump at the moment, please send me some encouragement, and some PMA, I really need it.

What do you want to see here?

What do you want me to post about?

What do you like to see best on a blog post?

XX

PS - PMA = Positive Mental Attitude

Happy Valentines Day

Just popped in to say hope you all have a nice Valentines Day. I have lots of stitching to share, but I need to get it on the camera and then uploaded. My mother in law was rushed into hospital late Wednesday night, and with work and hospital visiting on an evening, and a couple of other things I had to do at the weekend I am way behind on HW and subsequently blog reading. I've just had a quick look at what photo's are uploaded and decided to let you seem some random ones.

The birds, there were 8 when I went for the camera,
but by the time I had the camera and got to take a pic,
most had flown away. LOL





The view from the front of my house, looking to the left.
Thankfully the snow has gone, and we don't want it back!

The view to the right from my front garden fence.

The fountain in the city centre is flood lit,
and looked very nice when it was frozen in the bad weather.

More Christmas stitching

Season of Love
by Country Cottage Needleworks

Gingerbread Tree
by Little House Needleworks

Elements taken from
French Country Star
by JBW Designs

Angels Sent
by Still Stitching with Susan

All stitched last year, and not one made up!

Another old finish

Tiny Things
by Victoria Sampler

Another finish from last year - still needs to be made up - no surprise there! LOL When I started Tiny Things, I did not realise that it was for a tiny Altoids tin as I had no idea that such things existed, so I added some extra borders to make it fit the bigger Altoid tin. I guess I must have finished this in February last year, as it was seen as WIP here.

A new project

This is my new project, a crocheted scarf. It's coming together really quick. I only started it today, and I've reached the half way point. The colour is not too good here, but hopefully will be better when I next take a pic.

S is for Spring
by Prairie Schooler

And another finish from last year. I was dyeing some 40 ct linen last year, when I had the urge to stitch something on white. I had a quick look through some freebies I have and found this one, it was perfect for the white background. It was to be finished as a pinkeep, and it's still waiting to be made into one.