Stitching up a Storm

Clear and crisp

2012-01-28T14:37:00.000-08:00

Today started off crisp and clear with a beautiful sunrise. I took this picture from the wall at the bottom of our garden this morning. I braved the heavy frost in my nightgown, a huge cardigan, thick hiking socks and a pair of cowboy boots. I must have been quite a sight for any neighbours who may have happened to be looking out of their windows!

One thing our day lacked was snow. DS Cameron is desperate for snow. He is beside himself with nervous energy and has developed the habit of looking up the weather forecast at regular intervals during the day in the hopes that they will tell of coming bounties of snow. I hope we do get some soon, he's not the only one who enjoys sledging!

We did have some cross stitched snow though.

Kipper is finished :-)
The backstitching really brings him to life I think. He's now all safely packaged up ready to be posted off to LoveQuiltsUK on monday morning to be made into a quilt for a lovely wee boy called Jack. I hope Jack will love Kipper just as much as I have loved stitching him.

With Kipper done and dusted, it was time for a new start :-) here are the raw materials for my next start.
It's a small design from an old issue of The World of Cross Stitching. The design is inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and will most likely be a pin cushion.

Just time to squeeze in a little more stitching before heading off to bed.

Night night.

Sadie x

Kipper the Dog

2012-01-25T05:02:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone :-)

Hope you are all keeping warm and well. It's so cold here today! I've lit the fire and as soon as I'm finished with this blog post I'm off to sit in front of it and stitch :-)

Thanks for all the lovely new year wishes on my last post, they are much appreciated x

I've spent the last week or two working on this adorable little chap.

It's Kipper the Dog and he's from an old issue of Cross Stitch Crazy. I'm stitching him for a little boy called Jack for LoveQuilts UK. There is not too much stitching left to do and then it is onto the backstitching.

I have another couple of cross stitch projects lined up for the coming months, I'm going to try to get them kitted up from my stash this weekend, then I can share some pics :-)

Short and sweet today, the fire is calling my name!

Sadie x

Easing in

2012-01-11T03:25:00.000-08:00

Hi peeps :-)

Wishing you all the best for the coming year, may it be filled with happiness, love and joy.

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas, ours was very relaxed and chilled out this year, no huge parties hosted or attended, just quality time with family and friends. And food. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of food! LOL

Was Santa good to you? Did he fill your stocking with lots of stitchy goodness?

Santa AKA the hubs, bought me two books, Craft by Kirstie Allsopp and sew! by Cath Kidston. I have not picked out anything specific to make yet, but I have spent many a happy hour drooling over them contentedly.

He also gave me a bottle of my favourite perfume, a DVD, a(nother) book and a Toblerone, which may or may not have been eaten by 7pm on Christmas day!

Spoiled indeed, I must have been good this year!

I finished the stitching on a few more ornaments at the start of december, but I didn't get them made into actual, hang on the tree, ornaments. Oops. I also finished up an exchange ornament and my first charity square for LoveQuiltsUK. After that, I didn't pick up a needle until a couple of nights ago. No notion whatsoever.

Let's get to the pics shall we :-)

Every year my mum and I look through the ornament issue of JCS and rate/slate all the designs, it's great fun! Then mum picks out her favourite and I stitch it for her. This is the one she picked out for 2011.

I ran out of stitchy steam before I finished it though so mum didn't get her ornament this year. Awwwwww.

I know, I'm a terrible daughter, but on the bright side you'll get two ornaments this year mum :-) Love you! x x x x x x x x x

Also from the JCS christmas issue is Christmas Cat Tree by Brittercup Designs. I stitched this one for our tree, because this is where you can usually find our cat sat at christmas time.
Another one for the home tree is Joyeux Noel from L*K Tiny Tidings XV. I'm not sure if it might be too big for a tree ornament though so it could end up as a flatfold maybe!?!

Next up is my square for LoveQuiltsUK. This little guy is a Margaret Sherry design from CrossStitcher magazine. Isn't he adorable! (you can click on the picture for a better look if you want!)
I've just signed up for my next square :-) If you would like more info about LoveQuiltsUK and the wonderful work they do go here. They are always happy to have new stitchers and quilters to help out, and you can do as little or as much as you want.

Lastly here is the ornament I sent out for Marie P in the Christmas ornament exchange on HoE.
It's a cute little freebie from Sandy over at Stitchin' and Life in a Small Town.

Okay then, how about we leave it there for now. I haven't blogged for two months, better ease in gently, wouldn't want to overtax myself! LOL

Sadie x

Ornament beginnings

2011-11-14T04:03:00.000-08:00

It's been awfully quiet around here recently hasn't it. Day to day happenings have kept me away from my blog. Some personal issues have been causing considerable stress on my part and so I have not been able to relax enough to enjoy any form of sewing or crafting for a couple of months. Thankfully, some of those issues have now been resolved and I have the urge to pick up a needle once again.

Disclaimer

Those of a nervous disposition may want to return to this post after Thanksgiving.

It's all christmas, christmas, christmas from here!

In an effort to try to kick start my stitching mojo, I took part in a christmas ornament exchange on HoE.

This is the wonderful ornament I received from Diana. She designed this herself, and it is beautifully stitched and finished. If you hop on over to her blog, Diana has very kindly offered this chart as a freebie, so you can stitch one too :-)

Thank you Diana :-) I love it.

A few weeks back I asked if anyone wanted to do a magazine swap for the JCS Christmas ornament issue. Syd got in touch and offered to send me the magazine, no swap needed. Wasn't that so kind! Thank you Syd :-) as you will see I have been busy!

First up is Winter Squirrel from Victoria Sampler. In our house he has already been named Nutty, after a soft toy DH bought for DD years ago.
I went with beads from my stash rather than having to order buttons and wait.

This next one is Merry Christmas by Country Cottage Needleworks. Those of you with a copy of the magazine will notice that I have not followed the colour scheme on this one. In the magazine, the colours are pastel pink, green and aqua, and although very pretty it would not fit in with my red/gold christmas colour scheme. So I changed it to suit me.

* Edited * I've had quite a few requests for my conversion so here is a list of the colours I used.

DMC 304(red) 319(green) 535(grey) 3045(gold) Blanc(white)

and

Crescent Colours Brandied Pears(brown)

Last up is Deer in a Forest by Niky's Creations. I really like this one, although DS Cameron looked at it and said the bit at the bottom looks like a fire and it looks like it is melting the deers legs!

So now I'm calling it Deer in a Fire!

Sadie x

Everything must go

2011-11-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

I'm downsizing my cross stitch stash.

I've listed some christmas themed charts on ebay, my seller id is sadiew2006.

There are some L*K, Prairie Schooler, Bent Creek, Country Cottage Needleworks, Plum Street Samplers, Heart in Hand, JBW Designs, Imaginating and Milady's Needle.

Take a peek and grab yourselves a bargain!

Sadie x

Swap it?

2011-10-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

Hi peeps :-) I'm still here :-)

Such a busy time right now, with kids, holidays, brownies, paperwork, cooking, costume making etc, etc, etc.

Hardly any progress at all on crafty fun stuff!

I was wondering if anyone had a copy of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Issue that they would like to swap with me. I will send the current issue of UK CrossStitcher magazine in return.

Please comment or email me.

Sadie x

Cat fight

2011-09-16T03:08:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in the kitchen this morning, sewing my latest SBS block and also making some jam (Susan!) when I heard a whole lot of angry cat noises coming from the garden. I looked out the window and saw this.

The grey cat in the foreground is our cat Travis, obviously defending the boundaries of our (his) garden. His foe is UFC (Unknown Fat Cat) They stayed like this for ages, long enough for me to go and get the camera and take pictures, all the while making very unpleasant noises at each other.

Then I went outside.
And got the evil eye from UFC, who then slunk off, still giving me the evil eye!
I gave Travis lots of fuss and some cat treats for doing such a great job of defending our little kingdom from UFC.

Drama over, or so I thought, it was back to the sewing. This is Ohio Star.
This block was going really well until I got to the last corner (the top right in the pic above) I've had that corner in and out and in and out and in and out, so many times, and it's still not right. Then I noticed that the eyelets on the lighter purple triangles were all pointing in the same direction, apart from two! Can you see how they all go up and down, but two of them go sideways. Not what I was aiming for at all!

I think I will remake this block, but not today. I need a break from it or I might just end up chucking it on the fire!

Instead I am going to concentrate on my jam (Susan!) and see if I can steel myself to tackle the ironing :-)

Sadie x

WIP wednesday No 44

2011-09-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

I gave my hexagons a little attention this week, they are now all sewn together.

Next up for this project is to finish the white hexagons for the border and sew them on.

This week I finished up my Tickled Pink crochet baby blanket, weaved in all the ends and blocked it, so it is now officially off the WIP list :-) Sadly no pics, it's so dark here today!

I added a new project to the WIP list, and I also finished it so it came off the list too :-)

Double star cushion.
No progress since last time on the Skill Builder Sampler or the LoveQuiltsUK cross stitch.

This weeks stats:

New projects +1

Completed projects 2

Currently in progress 3

Linking up with Lee

Sadie x

Set design

2011-09-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

The last block I made for the skill builder sampler, Double Star, came out a bit on the small side.

Rather than try to force it to fit for my quilt, I chose to use it to make a cushion cover.

Although, I have made cushions before, this particular cushion held a couple of firsts for me.

My first time quilting.

My first time making and stitching binding.

To say that I am thrilled with the result doesn't even come close to how happy I was when I finished making this cushion. I absolutely LOVE it!

I added a 2 1/2" white border to my double star block to make it bigger and to make sure that the block wasn't lost in the binding. I quilted 1/4" on each side of the horizontal, vertical and diagonals on the block itself, and then I quilted concentric squares 1/2" apart on the white border.

It's easier to see the quilting on the progress picture below.
For the binding I chose straight rather than bias as it won't be getting a lot of heavy usage. I machine stitched to the front and then hand stitched the back. For binding width, I found some people used 2 1/2" whilst others advocated using 2 1/4".

I couldn't decide so split the difference and used 2 3/8" which worked perfectly well. I do think that in the future I would use 2 1/2" though, simply because that width of fabric is more commonly used and any leftovers can be more easily re-purposed.

It's not perfect, but it is far better that I had dreamt it would turn out. I can certainly live with it, most happily!

Now, would you mind going back up the way and taking a peek at the first picture on this post. (go on, I'll wait here)

Now, see the flowers on the right, they are Hollyhocks. Because of the lack of sunshine here in Scotland this summer, they are only now coming into bloom. Sadly thanks to some strong winds earlier in the week, the hollyhocks now lie nearly horizontal.

But horizontal does not make for a prettified picture.

So, dear (long suffering) husband Stuart was roped in to hold the hollyhocks in an upright position whilst I took pictures of a cushion. And then I cropped him out!

Here he is uncropped.
It was our wedding anniversary on Tuesday, nine years!

You know you have the right man, when he is willing to hold hollyhocks up for you whilst you take pictures of a cushion and he does it with a smile on his face.

Love you honey x

Sadie x

August round up

2011-09-01T03:09:00.000-07:00

August was mostly about the skill builder sampler for me. I made five blocks which keeps me caught up :-) The pincushion was made from scraps and I don't know what I would do without it now. Double fat jack was a really fun make, just need to quilt it and bind it. Hopefully I can include a finished pic in next months round up.

1. arizona, 2. bow tie, 3. pin cushion, 4. double fat jack, 5. virginia star, 6. breaking out, 7. double star, 8.first nine blocks, 9. feelin' festive

Linking up with Lynne for Fresh Sewing Day.

Sadie x

WIP wednesday No.42

2011-08-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

I can never seem to be organised enough to take part in WIP wednesday every week, I've missed the last three weeks. Wednesday is a really sneaky day and it just seems to creep up on me each week!

This week, it's all about the Skill Builder Sampler.

First up is block seven, Virginia Star. It went together like a dream :-D

Block number eight was Breaking Out. This one was a little trickier and is a little bit squint, but just a little bit so I can live with it. I like the magic method of making the flying geese.
Block nine was Double Star, which I really love ( not as much as Arizona! but it's close) this one still needs a little tweak and it is also my smallest block to date. It measures 12 1/4" one way and only 12" the other. Oops! I used the exact piecing method, apparently I'm not that exact!

So I think that this one may well end up as a cushion cover to match the quilt, rather than a block in the quilt.

Here are all three flying geese blocks together.
And here are all nine blocks so far.

This weeks stats:

New projects 0

Completed projects 0

Currently in progress 4

There has been no progress on anything else this week, kids are back to school, and I'm back to being a glorified taxi driver :-)

Sadie x

Feelin' festive?

2011-08-26T03:45:00.001-07:00

I was, and so I joined in with the Lizzie Kate round of the perpetual christmas exchange, over on Hooked on Exchanging.

I had Melissa to stitch for and I chose this little cutie from L*K Tiny Tidings XV.
Love the button nose :-) I'm (im)patiently waiting to see who was stitching for me and what they stitched.

Last week I was browsing through the tutorials on Lynnes blog, when I came across the Double Fat Jack. I had an afternoon to myself, so I decided to make one :-)

Here it is waving gently in the breeze on my washing line.(Waving gently in the breeze sounds lovely doesn't it, but it does not make for easy and fast picture taking! Oh no.)

I am (im)patiently waiting for some batting to arrive and then it will be a-quilting I will go!

Fabrics used were pink regular polka dot from the Red Rose Farm line by Elizabet Scott for P & B Textiles, blue floral from Happier by Deena Rutter for Riley Blake and white Kona cotton.

In other news, it was our village gala week last week. There were events held every night including a beetle drive, quiz night, guided 3 mile walk, treasure hunt, BBQ, dance and of course the actual gala on saturday afternoon.

Highlights of the week were winning a prize in the treasure hunt for bringing a pair of knickers for one of the items :-)

The hubs getting to be the official drummer in the band :-D

And spending time with my sis as we were door staff for the dance. Bee!

There was a fancy dress competition which the kids entered.

Cameron went as a set of traffic lights.
And Caitlin went as a bunch of grapes.

Cameron didn't come away with a prize (he wasn't bothered, he won in the races!) but Caitlin won first :-)

Well that's all for today folks, I'm off to spend the rest of the day catching up with the Skill Builder Sampler blocks I've not done yet.

Sadie x

Arizona on my mind

2011-08-11T03:58:00.000-07:00

Husband Stuart had a week of work last week :-) and thankfully we had quite good weather. We spent happy, peaceful days fishing, being outside as much as possible, cooking sausages on the camping stove, eating ice-cream and not being slaves to mobiles, computers or clocks. It was bliss :-)

This week we are back to routines, but feel refreshed after the break.

Time to catch up on the blocks I was behind on the Skill Builder Sampler.

Here is block 5 - Arizona

I really, really love this block. Even though not all the points are great, and I cursed it at the time I was making it, I still love it! It is such a striking design. I chose to make this a full colour block instead of going with white to keep up the balance of full colour blocks and white blocks for my finished quilt. I've certainly had Arizona on my mind this week :-)

Block number six was the Bow Tie
This block was so nice to do after the very challenging Arizona. It went together like a dream :-) and it means that I am all caught up just in time for the next block coming out on Friday.

What wasn't a dream though, was when I cut my finger with the rotary cutter whilst cutting the fabrics for this block. I cut a chunk out of my left index finger and part of the nail too. Obviously it was too close to the edge of my ruler! It happened when I was cutting white fabric (eek) and I managed to not get a single drop of blood on it!

Silver lining and all that!

Panic not though, I'll live to stitch another day, but I'm going to be kinda slowed down for a bit, until it heals.

I also can't do any dishes.

Sigh.

Back to the sewing!

After finishing the bow tie block I had some little triangles left over from trimming the corners so I used them to make myself a pin cushion. Can you believe that despite sewing in one way or another for over ten years, I didn't have a pincushion! I know, how did that happen.

Well, now I've got one :-)
Cute as a button :-) measuring just under 3"x5" and backed with the tiny turquoise flower fabric. I stuffed it with polyester wadding, which is nice and squishy, but I feel that it could have done with a little more weight to it. What do you use for stuffing pin cushions and other smalls? Any suggestions?

Cut carefully,

Sadie x

WIP wednesday No.37

2011-07-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

Another week, another WIP wednesday and another two new project have been added to the list :-)

*you'll have to make do with craptastic pics this week I'm afraid (not that they are any better on other weeks!) I have surprise guests today. The kids asked to have some friends over, so I called friend A, friend B and friend C. Friends A and B I left answer machine messages for the parents suggesting wednesday afternoon and received no reply. I spoke to friend C's mum and we agreed on her coming over on thursday afternoon. The doorbell rang half an hour ago, and there stood, friend A and friend C. Oh my!*

My first new project is a cross stitch piece. A few months ago I read an article about LoveQuiltsUK and was interested in getting involved. Whilst I am not yet able to help out as a quilter I can certainly participate as a stitcher, so I signed up to make a heart block.

The heart pattern is provided on the LoveQuilts site and you choose what to stitch in the middle. I'm stitching a cute little cat sitting in a teacup from issue 229 of CrossStitcher magazine.

If you are interested in taking part too, why not pop on over to the LoveQuiltsUK website and have a look around. They are always in need of any help you are able to give, whether as a quilter, cross stitcher or in the form of fabric/monetary donations.

New WIP number two is a crochet blanket. I needed something to do whilst the kids were at athletics on monday night so grabbed two balls of wool and a crochet hook and this is the result so far. It won't really get too much bigger as I'm running out of wool, that's why there are only three rows of dark pink in the outer row :-)
I'm calling this Tickled Pink :-)

Hexie progress has been made :-) I've finished all the Terrain hexies and I now need to start work on the white Bella solids for the border. I've been messing around with the layout for these and I think I have settled on this.
I plan to make a long cushion for our sofa. It would really help to cheer it up a bit. I'm stitching these hexagons as part of the Hex-a-long :-)

No progress this week, so far, on the skill builder sampler. I had planned on getting stuck into it this afternoon, but that's not going to happen now! Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow, if friend B doesn't decide to turn up, with friends X, Y and Z in tow!

This weeks stats:

New projects +2

Completed projects 0

Currently in progress 4

Doubled in one week!

I quickly wanted to say hi to my new followers, HI. Don't be shy, please feel free to leave comments or email me. I'm glad you came over for a visit :-)

I'm also now on Twitter, @SadieWishart . I'd love it if you popped in there to say hi if you tweet too :-D

Sadie x

Sewing table

2011-07-26T11:46:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, I manage to tear my eyeballs away from the computer and all the wonderful things other people are doing for long enough to actually accomplish something myself :-)

This table sits in our living room and is my sewing table. No drinks are allowed on this table, the kids (and the hubs) know that this table is just for mummy's sewing stuff.

It is a dull table.

Dull, dull, dull.

Not any more!

The map of Belgium was 10p from a local charity shop. I sanded the table, used PVA glue to stick the map on, then gave it two coats of clear, matt varnish. I love it :-) and it only cost me 10p as I already had all the other supplies. You can click on the pictures, should you fancy a closer look :-)

I also made a peg bag. The fabric is from my stash, when the hubs and I had our first flat I used this fabric to make the curtains for our living room :-) Shows how I don't like to throw anything away, I still have the leftovers from those curtains over 14yrs later!
The ready made binding was also in my stash :-) Another cheap and satisfying finish for our home.

Time now to make the most of the fab weather and enjoy an evening of crochet in the garden :-)

Sadie x

WIP wednesday

2011-07-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

Good things come to those who have no self control and spend too much time online with a bank card in hand :-) See!

I read all about the hex-a-long over at Lily's Quilts and was not even tempted to join in as I knew that it was going to be too much for a novice like me. Then Lynne posted some step by step instructions on English Paper Piecing (EPP) and I thought, I could do that.

My first effort was this tumbling block.

Which was okay, not great though, so I decided to try out plain hexagons instead.

Oh my, I'm in love!
With both the fabric and the hexagons :-)
I was making these until 2am, and I only stopped and went to bed because I ran out of paper templates. The printer is in our bedroom and printing more would have meant a very cross and grumpy husband.
I can't wait to make more today :-) but I'm going to be a good wee housewife and do the housework first.

Other progress this week has been on the skill builder sampler. Here is block four, pinwheel parade.
This block was a bit of a pain to make, I had real problems with the bottom left pinwheel in particular. It was in and out more times that I would have liked. But it's done now :-) I really look forward to fridays when the next block is revealed :-)

This weeks stats:

New projects +1

Completed projects 0

Currently in progress 2

That's it for this week, head on over to Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else has been up to this week.

Sadie x

Pinwheel parade

2011-07-17T06:55:00.001-07:00

This weeks block for the Skill Builder Sampler was pinwheel parade. It was hard! This is my finished block.

Four out of the five pinwheel blocks worked out really well, but you see the little turquoise gingham check one in the bottom left corner, that block was a little ~~shit~~ difficult. It's still not as good as I would like but there is a limit to my patience and so the block is finished ;-)

Here's the glamour shot of the blocks so far :-)
I like that the newest block helps to balance out the full colour blocks nicely.

I'm still waiting patiently for a suitable, dry day to be able to take some pictures outside :-) it is very showery here, with just the odd break in the clouds. It would be quite useful to get some washing dry too :-)

Sadie x

Morse code

2011-07-14T08:52:00.001-07:00

Week four of the Skill Builder Sampler was a bonus block :-) Leila asked us to sketch out some ideas for a block using a 4x4 grid. Below are the different variations I came up with.

I decided to make block number 9 because it was something a little different and there were no HSTs :-) . So I worked out how many pieces of fabric I would need and what size to cut them.
Then I set about cutting and sewing.

Here is the finished block.
I've called this my morse code block, because it is dots and dashes :-) Made with Kona Cotton in white and Michael Miller Ta Dot in Ocean. I plan to make this into a wall quilt for our bedroom. I'm going to add a white border and then bind it using the ta dot fabric. I'm very excited and also quite nervous too. This will be my first effort at quilting :-) Wish me luck.

Oh! I've just had a thought! (scary I know!) If I make two of these blocks they would be perfect for the tops of our bedside tables (which I have yet to make!). Sounds like I just talked myself into twice the amount of work!

We've had a lovely spell of weather recently, so we headed off to the beach to take full advantage while it lasts :-)

The tide was way, way out so we had lots of fun exploring the old boat wreck and the rock pools.

I found this little heart shaped lichen, isn't it cute!
Sadie x

Churn dash

2011-07-06T11:11:00.001-07:00

The third block for the Skill Builder Sampler is the churn dash. I was super excited about this one after seeing it pop up all over the place as part of the Farmers Wife QAL. My favourite of the three so far, I would love to have an entire quilt made of these blocks.

There were two different methods for making the HSTs, making them exactly to size (meaning very, very careful measuring, cutting and sewing) and making slightly oversize and trimming down. I much preferred the trimming down method. Although, i did forget to trim one of them down and had to do some unpicking! Oops!

All three blocks so far.
Linking up with WIP wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Sadie x

Nine patch

2011-06-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

Block number two in the Skill Builder Sampler is the nine patch. This block was to showcase colour value and to continue on with accurate measuring, cutting and sewing. In the set of fabrics that I chose for this sampler, there are not enough lighter colours to really do this block the way it was intended, but not one to be put off I carried on and did it anyway :-)

There should really be a bigger tonal difference between the two different nine patch sets but I think it still looks pretty :-)

On the measurement front this block went slightly awry, it is 1/8" too big from side to side and 1/8" too small top to bottom. I had to do a bit of easing to get all the seams/corners to match up but on the whole I am very happy with how this one turned out.

I couldn't resist taking a picture with the light behind it to get the stained glass look :-)
I have ordered some more, hopefully complementary , fabrics (it's hard to know if you are getting the colours right when you have to do things through a computer screen) to give me a bit more choice and hopefully a better range of colour values to work with. I'll share pics when they arrive :-)

Edited to add - I know I posted this last friday, but it is the only thing I've worked on this past week, so I'm linking this post to WIP wednesday :-)

Sadie x

Log cabin

2011-06-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Another week, another wednesday :-)

This week I picked out my fabrics for the Skill Builder Sampler. I've chosen five fabrics from the Bonjour collection by Diane Kappa for Anthology Fabrics and two Kona Cottons.

top to bottom

Happy Garden in Amethyst

Oval Eyelet in Amethyst

French Wallpaper in Amethyst

Bright Buds in Amethyst

Tiny Flowers in Turquoise

Kona Cotton Azure

Kona Cotton White

I adore these fabrics, the colours are so beautiful. See the Kona Cotton in Azure, that's the colour of the main wall in our bedroom, everything else is white. I am hoping (fingers crossed) that I will be able to use this sampler to make a quilt for our bed :-) wouldn't that be cool!

Block number one is the log cabin, and this one was to help with accurate cutting and sewing.

Before I started I tried a practice piece as suggested to see if I was sewing a quarter inch seam, I wasn't :-0 mine was too big. I used some electrical tape and my quilters ruler to mark a quarter inch on the bed of my sewing machine and then I practiced a bit more. It's much easier now and I am able to achieve a consistent quarter inch seam :-) as long as I don't get all over excited and go too fast. All bets are off then!

Here's the finished block.

I checked the measurement on this block after every piece and I was able to make some minor adjustments as I went along so my finished block measured 12 1/2" by 12 5/8" I'm very happy :-)

As someone who tends to jump right into new things with no preparation or real idea of what to do I think that this skill builder sampler is a chance for me to do things right for once, learn the basics and give myself a really solid start on my quilting journey. Thank you so much Leila for all the hard work in running the SBS. With your help, together, we can do it! :-)

Linking up with WIP wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Sadie x

Sparkle

2011-06-17T01:12:00.001-07:00

I signed up for the snowman round of the year long christmas exchange on Hooked on Exchanging. This is what I made for my partner Gwen. Isn't he cute!

Sparkle by Bent Creek

28ct mocha evenweave

DMC floss

Whilst I enjoyed stitching him and I enjoyed finishing him, he hasn't given me the itch to stitch. I didn't enjoy sending him away though. Not at all. I wanted to keep him :-)

Sadie x

That's all folks

2011-06-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

This past week has been a busy one! So don't expect too much :-)

I made a few more pinwheels. I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'm still having fun making them :-)

Sadie x

Pinwheel

2011-06-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is a quiet night here with me, Stuart has a very, very early start on thursday morning so he is usually in bed at the same time as the kids, which leaves me free to do what I want :-) I was mooching around on Flickr the other day and I came across this quilt and fell hopelessly in love! So last night I set out to try my hand at making a pinwheel.

I set up the machine at the kitchen table and set to work with a sunkissed charm pack and a white bella solids charm pack.

I was super concentrating on keeping my seams even, so it was a bit of a surprise when I spied this little furry face over the top of my machine!

Travis seemed quite interested in what was going on, until I got out the cat treats and then he was too busy filling his little furry tummy to care much about what I was up to any more :-)

Four legged distraction taken care of and I was away again. I still need lots more practice at keeping my seams even, and I'm very, very s-l-o-w, but I did okay.

So, here is the result, my first pinwheel.
I am so pleased with it :-) I nearly ran through to wake up Stuart to show him, but made do with showing the cat :-) he wasn't interested!

Sorry! What? You're asking if that's all I did? One measly pinwheel in 3 hours! Well actually, yes it is the only pinwheel I made.

But......

I also made this little lot.
So, soon there will be pinwheels aplenty.

Sadie x

Practice

2011-06-01T03:02:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I purchased some pre cut 4" squares of fabric on ebay, and they have patiently sat, waiting for me to do something with them ever since. Over the weekend I decided to try my hand at some practice pieces, just to see how I got on and the pre cuts were the perfect thing to use.

First up were some simple seams just to make sure my sewing machine was working

(My sewing machine was a 21st birthday present from my parents, and even though it is now just over 10 yrs old, it still works like a dream, probably because it has only ever had light usage!) and I also wanted to see how straight and even I could sew a seam

I did quite a few of these, and I tried my hand at chain piecing too, but I didn't get a pic of that.
Next up I tried a simple four patch to see how well I could match the seam. In the interest of full disclosure I should probably tell you that the four patch was supposed to have matching colours on opposite corners, but I got them mixed up and ended up with them next to each other. An early lesson in paying attention and checking twice, sewing once :-)
Next it was onto a nine patch.

Lastly I thought I would try a half square triangle.

It didn't go too well :-)

So, there you have my first efforts. Overall, I'm please with how it went, my seams were even and , for the most part, straight! The seams matched up pretty well and I'm now keen to carry on and see if I can actually make something. Maybe a cushion cover.

I'm also thinking about joining in with Leila over at Sewn for the Skill Builder Sampler. What a great idea, I'm just hoping that I have the time to fit it in.

I'm linking this post up with Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts.

Sadie x

Plates

2011-05-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

When I found these plates buried away on a low, awkward shelf, I fell in love.

The colours really appeal to me.
I initially only found two of the plates below.
But with help from my partner in crime, Barbara, I ended up with a set of six.
As my son would say, they're all different but the same too.
They range in size from side plate to dinner plate.
And at 10p each! Bargain :-)

Linking up with Selena at Apron Thrift Girl.

Sadie x

Scarf

2011-05-25T03:08:00.000-07:00

When I started knitting this scarf, we were enjoying some of the nicest, warmest spring weather we have had for years. And I wondered if it was really sensible to be knitting a warm, snugly scarf when there would be no chance to wear it for months. But I carried on because I was really enjoying knitting it, and the pattern was super easy, and the yarn was so beautiful.

Turns out, I must be psychic, because the weather here has really turned. It's cold wet, windy and wild. Just like spring in Scotland should be :-)

Drop Stitch Scarf

2 x Noro Silk Garden colour 275

5 1/2mm needles

Made for DD Caitlin

Pattern found on Ravelry

I made this scarf for my daughter Caitlin as a birthday present. Here she is hamming it up for the camera. And wearing the scarf :-)

The Noro was lovely to work with and I used two skeins so that the scarf was long enough to wrap multiple times. It's just the thing for keeping out the chilly spring wind, and it has green in it which makes it an instant hit with Caitlin :-)

Sadie x

Linking up with April over at KoolBeenz for Funky Fresh Fridays

Hello...

2011-05-10T02:03:00.000-07:00

...is anybody there?

Hello......

......hellllooooooooooooooooooo.

Oh, hi there! Yes it's me, Sadie. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth after all. I've been keeping myself busy whilst I haven't been blogging. Spending lots of time in the garden (glorious spring weather), we've had friends to stay, working on my leader qualification for Brownie Guides, running here, there and everywhere after the kids (athletics, brownies, beavers, violin, piano), reading loads of books (Stuart McBride and Karen Rose), knitting a scarf, listening to music (Ellie Goulding, Lissie) and sometimes just busy doing nothing.

I haven't done any cross stitch at all for over a month now. I have no inclination at all. I've been checking out cross stitch blogs, thinking that maybe seeing all the wonderful things you are doing would jump start my stitching again, but so far nothing. I joined an exchange too but that hasn't ignited a spark under me either.

So now I'm thinking to just go with the flow and not try to force myself to cross stitch, because that might just take all the joy out of it. Instead I've started visiting quilting blogs, and I'm getting the same excited feeling and itchy fingers that I used to get from looking at cross stitch. The voice inside me that says, 'I want to do that!'.

So I'm going to try my hand at quilting, and see how it goes.

Thanks for those who emailed me to make sure that I was okay :-) it is sweet to know that you care. Thank you x

So, I'm still here, I've not been abducted by aliens, I haven't run away to join the circus, I haven't joined a convent or taken a vow of silence, my computer hasn't been stolen by a cunning band of thieves and Stuart has not buried me under the patio. Yet!

Sadie x

Chicks and flowers

2011-03-15T07:11:00.001-07:00

I haven't actually done any stitching al all since my last post :-( it has been rather busy around these parts recently and it looks like it's going to continue to be busy all the way through until the end of May! I'll have to sneak some stitching in somewhere or I'll go mad!
Here are the pics I promised last time :-)
This little cutie is from the current issue of CrossStitcher magazine, stitched with DMC on 32ct white linen. A quick and enjoyable stitch and I think he would look fab as a scissor fob.
Next up is L*K Summer Basket.

Stitched on 28ct mystery evenweave with DMC. This was a super quick stitch, I really got into it and couldn't put it down :-)

Finally, it's time to announce a winner for my spring chart giveaway :-)

The random number generator has spoken :-)

Come on down, lucky number 14!

Megan!

Congratulations Megan :-) Please email with your address and I'll get the charts out to you this weekend. My email is sleepback @ yahoo . co . uk (delete spaces)

Well, that's it for today folks. I'm off to a Girlguiding 'meet and eat' tomorrow night for all the adult members/leaders in the local area. It should be good fun, but first I meed to get baking! I'm taking along some Triple Chocolate Brownies (well, I am a Brownie leader!) and I'm also making some Caramelised Onion Relish to take along too. We're having hot dogs and burgers, sounds so yummy but not great for the diet! BTW I lost a pound and a half last week :-)
Off now to fire up the oven.

Sadie x

Back on track

2011-03-04T06:47:00.000-08:00

The weather here in south-west Scotland seems to be getting back on track for the time of year. This past week has seen rising temps and clear blue skies :-) I've even been able to get some washing dried outside! In the garden I see daffodils starting to sprout and there are snowdrops and crocus flowers to be found on my morning walks. It is also getting lighter in the evenings now too :-) Maybe we can finally wave goodbye (and good riddance!) to winter :-)
So I'd like to share a little bit of spring with one lucky person! Up for grabs are these three spring-y charts.

L*K - Spring ABC's

L*K - Spring Basket

The Trilogy - Happy Bunny Bunny Day

To be in with a chance please leave a comment on this post only. I'll pick a winner next friday (11th March)

Also back on track is my weightloss :-) After the half pound gain last week, I've worked really hard this week and have lost two and a half pounds :-) That makes a total of fifteen pounds lost, I'm very happy :-D

Stitching wise this week, I've stitched two more spring designs, one is L*K Spring Basket (see above) and the other was a little easter egg design from the current issue of CrossStitcher. No pics yet :-( naughty Sadie! Promise I'll do a proper stitchy update with pics next week.

Have a great weekend,

Sadie x

Flutter by

2011-02-25T04:42:00.000-08:00

I took a break from my Crazy January Challenge pieces to stitch this adorable little butterfly. The design is from the current issue (237) of CrossStitcher magazine, and I used 28ct white linen and the called for DMC floss.
When I saw it I just had to stitch it, the colours are so very spring-y. I think I will make it into a little scissor fob.

Before starting the butterfly, I managed to finish up the Angel from Simply Red Ornaments by Imaginating but it's not ironed yet so you'll have to wait for a pic of that one :-)

Next up, today is weigh in day! And, uh-oh! This week I gained half a pound :-(
I'm not really that upset about it though, I did have a pizza pig out one night, and I hurt my ankle on wednesday night so I couldn't do my thursday last chance workout and I also had my period too, so I'm just going to take the gain and move forward. I knew that I would at some point have a week where I gained instead of lost and I was a little worried about how I would react when it happened. I pictured myself reaching for the chocolate and ice cream to make myself feel better! That is what I have always done in the past, and that is also why I am overweight in the first place! But it hasn't happened, and although I didn't lose any weight this week, I still feel really proud of myself for reacting in a positive way. Strange but true :-)

So, this weekend is going to be a busy one. On Saturday I have a rag rug making workshop to go to, I'm really looking forward to it. I always get a little nervous going to things like this by myself, it's the little kid in me - what if no one talks to me, what if I can't do it - well to combat this I think of my best friend Kim. When she lived close by, we were always doing new things and it was such fun, when she moved away I stopped doing stuff because I had no one to go with. This year I'm trying to change that, and thinking of Kim helps me to remember to not let the fear of the unknown stop me from getting out there and doing stuff. I have a tear in my eye now, better not cry onto the keyboard, it might fry the circuits!

Onto Sunday, and I have a Brownie Guide get together to attend for World Thinking Day (find out more here) which will take up the whole afternoon, should be good fun! And then on Sunday evening I will crash on the sofa and maybe, just maybe do some cross stitch :-)
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,
Sadie x

Mid week report

2011-02-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

It's the kids mid term here this week so not much stitchy stuff has been going on. What time I have had, has been spent on Angel from Simply Red Ornaments by Imaginating. This is one of my crazy 15.

Another evening or two and she should be finished :-) Just have the backstitching to complete.
I've been a bit naughty this week and I've had cake and pizza! Have to see how that affects the weigh in on Friday, hopefull my workouts will help to limit the damage :-)

Thanks for all the get well wishes on my last post, thankfully no one else got sick :-) and we are all back to top form.

Off now to tackle Mt Washmore!
Sadie x

Belated Valentine

2011-02-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

I'm running slightly behind this year :-)
How about we try and go through things in chronological order.

Last week, I finished up Happy Bunny Bunny Day by The Trilogy.

There are supposed to be buttons along the leaf borders at the top and bottom but I don't have them (undecided yet as to whether I will get them or not, what do you think?). I decided to make this my valentine gift for Stuart so I used the pink to highlight our shared initial :-)

I ran out of time to actually make it into something but he didn't mind. What a star!

Last Friday's weigh in saw a one and a half pound loss again :-) for a total of nine and a half pounds so far. Steady progress.

Friday afternoon we headed to Edinburgh to stay with my little brother and his family for the weekend. We met up at IKEA and had our dinner there (mmmmmmmmmmm meatballs!) This is my nephew Charlie and my SIL Samantha. Not long after this photo was taken Charlie was sick :-( but although a little subdued he was fine once we got back to my brothers house. Saturday morning I looked after Charlie whilst everyone went horse riding.

Above is Cameron on his horse Max and below is Caitlin on Gizmo.

They all had a great time, although I think it was a little more challenging that they were expecting since just about all of them were beginners. Above (l-r) Gavin on Geoffry, Samantha on Levi and Stuart on Whisper.

Charlie and I had a lovely time visiting all the horses in the stables and then had a relaxing cuppa in the cafe :-) Saturday afternoon saw my brother struck down by whatever Charlie had had the day before :-( but he had it considerably worse. So on Sunday we left mid morning to let them all get some rest and we went to the National Museum of Scotland, well worth a visit, but if you don't like heights avoid the glass lifts! And also a quick wee visit to Greyfriars Church to see the Greyfriars Bobby memorial. If you are not familiar with the story of Greyfriars Bobby (he was a very loyal dog) you can find out more here. It's such a touching story.
When we got home on Sunday evening, we heard that SIL Samantha had now been struck down by the bug that Gavin and Charlie had been through :-(

Monday and the kids were back at school but DH Stuart had the day off so we could spend Valentines day together :-) then we got a call from the school at quarter past nine to say that Cameron had just been sick, could we please go and collect him. That's four people in four days! Thankfully nobody was sick on Tuesday, so we thought we had finished with it. Think again! Wednesday I was sick :-( and then Thursday my mum got it :-( Thank goodness it was only a short lived virus but my goodness it got through us all so fast! Fingers crossed that Stuart and Caitlin are in the clear.

So that brings up to today and I haven't picked up a needle since saturday, oh well, life is just like that sometimes isn't it. Kids are on holiday three days next week too so probably not too much stitching next week either.

Todays weigh in saw a three and a half pound loss :-D which I think is at least partly due to the fact that I was sick on Wednesday, but I'll take it! So that is a total of thirteen pounds! OMG! One more pound and I will have lost a stone :-) and I'm down a dress size too!

So that's me all up to date, are you still awake! LOL

Better get off the computer and see if I still remember how to stitch.

Sadie x

eye roll

2011-02-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

Today I was hoping to share progress pics of the designs I have been working on from the Crazy January Challenge, but it is way to overcast and dark today to attempt pics *sigh*
So, instead I thought I would share with you all what happens when DH and the kids are left unsupervised with the camera.

I had no idea they had been doing this until I uploaded some cross stitch pics to the computer and got these as a bonus !?!

You can never take life too seriously when you live in our house, there is always someone around to inject a little sillieness into the day. Sometimes it is me!

But I don't have pics of that :-)

Today was weigh in day. And .................................. I lost a pound and a half again :-)Woohoo! That's a total of eight pounds so far. I'm very pleased and I feel great, I just need to keep at it and I will get to my goal weight.

Off now to cosy up in front of the fire with my stitching,

Sadie x

Hallelujah!

2011-02-03T07:31:00.000-08:00

That is the word that springs into my head everytime I look at this sweet little angel. I think she is singing the Hallelujah Chorus :-)
She also reminds me of my sister :-) who is also a little angel :-) but not in the clouds, she is 'little angel working at the hospital'.
My fifth finish of the year, and one of my favourites. She was a little hard to stitch as the scrap of linen I used was too small for my q snaps so I had to stitch her in hand. It's a good job she is small cos my hand was starting to get sore. I can't believe that I used to stitch in hand all the time, I would be lost without my q snaps now!

Little Angel in the Clouds by Heart in Hand

32ct sand linen

DMC floss

It's weigh-in day tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed. I feel like I have had a good week, we'll see if the scales concur.

Off now to cuddle the kids,

Sadie x

The bird

2011-01-31T06:38:00.000-08:00

I managed to finish up Red Winged Blackbird :-)
He is so cute! Design is by Bent Creek, stitched on 28ct natural linen with DMC floss.
I have flitted from one project to another since finishing the bird, but haven't really done enough to warrant loads of update pics. I spent Sunday stitching on PS Rain.

The fill stitching is pretty mindless, so I'm going to save it for nights when I don't have it in me to concentrate too much. Do you get nights like that too?

Friday morning weight in was good again this week with one and a half pounds lost :-) That makes a total of six and a half pounds so far :-D I've gone in a notch on my belt and I'm nearly into the next size smaller in my jeans too. Thank you all so much for your continuing support and encouragement, you are really helping to keep me motivated :-)

Off now to make the curry paste for tonights dinner,

Sadie x

Stash report

2011-01-26T10:37:00.001-08:00

So, here is what my bout of 'ebay claw' has netted me :-)
3 Three Prairie Schooler charts :-)

Another Bent Creek Row, winter this time and a super cute band sampler from The Drawn Thread.

L*K Tiny Tidings XV with the embellishment pack and a bewitching mermaid from CHS.

A trip to the local charity shops today saw these two books coming home with me :-)

There is the most wonderful blackwork snail in the Jane Greenoff one, DD is getting a Giant African Land snail for her birthday this year :-) how could I not buy it!

My last ebay purchase was this copy of JCS. The little snowman was very kindly passed on by Staci when I was the lucky winner of her giveaway :-) Thank you again Staci x

And finally two pieces of fabric which were a wonderful gift from my MIL, to say thank you for looking after their pets whilst they were away. Both are cream and huge! 54" x 16" one linen and one evenweave.

So that is the end of the stash report :-) I'm itching to get started on a couple of my new charts, but I want to make a little more headway on the Crazy 15 first :-)

Off now to see if I can finish Red Winged Blackbird,

Sadie x

3 .........

2011-01-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

.. is the magic number :-) Because that is how many pounds I lost this week :-) (or should that be eliminated Libby!) I feel great and I'm confident that, despite a busy week ahead, I can still eat healthily and find the time to fit in some exercise. I'll let you all know how I do next Monday. I'm a day late this week as DH had the day off yesterday, so no computer time.

Stitching this past week has seen me finish my second project for the year.

A Very Merry Spring by JBW Designs

36ct Grape Ripple linen from Silkweavers

Anchor 1335 floss

And also my third :-)

Now I Know My ABC's by Blackbird Designs

32ct creme brulee linen from Vikki Clayton

Called for WDW & CC floss

Today I have been working a little more on Red Winged Blackbird by Bent Creek.

Probably another evening and he will be finished too :-)

I have been having fun on ebay spending the last of my christmas cash, I'll be back with a pic tomorrow.

Have a great week,
Sadie x

Phase one complete

2011-01-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

Hi peeps :-) well as the title says, phase one of the Crazy January Challenge is complete. I have started a new project every day for the fist fifteen days of January. To bring you up to speed here are the last of my new starts.

Day thirteen

Awake the Dawning Day by Blackbird Designs, stitched on a piece of palest lilac 28ct linen with the called for WDW.

Day fourteen

A Very Merry Spring by JBW Designs, stitched on 36ct Grape Ripple Edinburgh linen from Silkweaver with Anchor 1335. I love the colours in this floss, it is so sherbet sweet that it hurts my teeth just to look at it :-) Perfect for this easter egg I think.

Day fifteen

Happy Bunny Bunny Day by The Trilogy, stitched with DMC on 28ct light mocha evenweave.

I have ordered all the supplies I was missing, so when they arrive I will have everything I need to get all of them finished. Despite being desperate to work on Moon And Stars by LHN again, I am going to pull out A Very Merry Spring again first. It is so close to being finished, an hour or two tonight should do it :-) then I can move onto the LHN.

Friday was weigh in day and I lost 2lbs :-) I'm really pleased. This week I am dog sitting, so there will be no excuse to not be out and about, walking the pounds off.

Have a great week,
Sadie x

Friendship

2011-01-13T05:17:00.000-08:00

My headache has now gone :-) I think it was a tiredness headache so a few early nights should get me back on track. Yesterday saw quite a good bit of progress on my Crazy January Challenge piece.

Day twelve

Friendship by Brightneedle, stitched on 32ct white linen with DMC, Gast and NN floss. This pic is a bit gloomy but it is a lovely piece. I'm stitching this for my best friend Kim. She lives a six hour drive away so we don't see too much of each other but we are hoping to get together this spring and again in the autumn this year. Can't wait. I think I will give this to her for her birthday when we visit in the autumn. Hope she likes it.

I'm having second thoughts about one of the projects I have chosen for the CJC. It is French Country Snow Globe by JBW Designs. I am really not happy with my fabric choice and I don't have a suitable alternative in my stash so I think I will be picking another design to take it's place.

I am really enjoying this challenge and it doesn't bother me at all that I will have 14 WIPs at the end of it. *I'll only have 14 because I've finished one already* I have been toying with the idea of continuing to stitch on a different project each day until all 14 are finished, but I'm not sure if I could keep to that :-) LHN Moon and Stars is practically screaming at me to pick it up first and not put it down until it's finished :-D I guess it will be a case of wait and see.

Off now to do my Cardio Box DVD, it's weigh in day tomorrow. I'm hopeful but nervous too.

Sadie x

Short but sweet

2011-01-12T04:43:00.000-08:00

Much less stitching than I had hoped last night thanks to a killer headache.

Day 11

Now I Know My ABC's by Blackbird Designs, stitched on 32ct Creme Brulee linen from Vikki Clayton with CC, WDW and GAST. When I kitted this one up I didn't really like these green/grey/brown colours but now they are stitched, I'm in love. Swoon.
Off now to choose which project to start today :-)
Sadie x

Now I know my ABC's

2011-01-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

I saw this on Dani's blog yesterday and thought I would join in too. Here are the ABC's of me.

A - Age - 31, although I have trained the children to tell anyone who asks that I am 29 :-)
B - Bed size - King size. DH is 6'4" we need the space.
C - Chore you hate - cleaning the toilet, hate, hate, hate it.
D - Dog's name - we don't have a dog, we have a cat named Travis who acts like a dog.
E - Essential start of the day item - cuddles from my kids
F - Favourite colour - Red
G - Gold or silver - Silver
H - Height - 5' 7"
I - Instruments you play - none but I live in a very musical house. DH plays drums, guitar, violin and piano, DD plays violin and piano and DS plays drums and piano.
J - Job - Stay at home mum
K - Kids - two
L - Living arrangements - Me + DH + DD + DS + cat + 4xfish
M - Music you love - I will pretty much listen to anything. Pop, rock, country, hip hop, dance. Favourite at the moment is Ellie Goulding.
N - Nicknames - My parents call me princess, still. :-D
O - Overnight stay at hospital - 2, one when I had my daughter and one when I had mystery stomach pain last year. Still don't know what it was but it hasn't happened again.
P - Pet peeve - When someone uses the last of the toilet paper and doesn't get another one out. Also when people don't say please or thank you.
Q - Quote from a movie - 'You guys give up? Or ya thirsty for more?' - from Home Alone.
R - Right or left handed - Right
S - Siblings - 1 younger brother and 1 younger sister
T - Time you wake up - My alarm goes off at 6:30 and I usually lie and listen to the radio until 7 when I actually get out of bed.
U - Underwear - Always. Depends on what I am wearing as to what kind, but never granny knickers.
V - Vegetable you dislike - none
W - Workout style - I'm not sure I have a style but I like to power walk and also cycling.
X - X-rays you've had - Dental
Y - Yummy food you make - I like to think that all the food I make is yummy. I really enjoy cooking. My personal favourites are a boiled leek and onion pudding and a parsnip and squash bake.
Z - The best place to visit - Always friends and family

So now you know a little bit more about me, why don't you play along too.

Here is yesterdays progress on the Crazy January Challenge.

Day ten

Red Winged Blackbird by Bent Creek, stitched with DMC on 28ct natural linen. I had very little stitchy time yesterday but I enjoyed what I did manage to get done.
Today I am going to work on Now I Know My ABC's by Blackbird Designs. I should manage a bit more stitching today as sadly, there is no Brownies tonight as the hall we hold our meetings in has a burst water pipe. Another casualty of the very cold weather we have had.
Off now to make the fire and then snuggle up with my stitching and the snooker.
Sadie x

Rain, rain go away

2011-01-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my last post. I have to say that it was quite scary putting my weight on my blog for all to see but the support from you all has been wonderful. I feel ready to tackle my weight and get it under control. Thanks guys :-)

Back to the Crazy January Challenge.

Day seven

Little Angel in the Clouds by Heart in Hand, stitched on 32ct sand linen with DMC floss. Poor little headless angel at the moment with only one wing :-( but she will be finished before too long no doubt.

Day eight

Simply Red Ornaments (Angel) by Imaginating. I've decided to stitch with white on red for mine, they are red on white on the chart. My fabric is 26ct evenweave so it is going to be too big for a tree ornament but I think it will be lovely on one of the hallway doors. We woke up to snow on Saturday morning, just about 1", but then on Sunday morning we woke up to about 3" of snow, so after some taxi driving for DD Caitlin, Cameron and I hit the slopes :-) it was cold but so much fun.After the sledging there wasn't much stitching time left, so not much got done on Sundays project.

Day nine

Rain, rain go away by Prairie Schooler, stitched with DMC on 32ct cream evenweave. (I'm stitching the medium sized design) This design turned out to be a clue about what was to come (weatherwise), because this morning I woke up to rain! And, unless I blinked and missed it, it hasn't stopped all day :-( and all the snow is nearly gone. Driving is not going to be fun when all this rain and slush freeze tonight. I'm glad I don't have to be anywhere.
I haven't decided which project I will stitch on today yet but I'll be back with pics tomorrow.

I am on the mailing list for our local arts centre, and today I received their program of events for this spring/summer. I have already been on the phone and signed myself up for two of their workshops. One is an introduction to basket making and the other is a rag rug workshop. I'm thinking that these will make great presents for birthdays and Christmas :-) and hopefully I will be able to make things for our home too. I have a while to wait though as one is the end of February and the other is the end of March, but that just means I have lots of time to get really stuck into all the cross stitch WIPs I will have when I have all fifteen projects for the CJC started :-)
Off now to see if the rain has stopped.
Have a great week,
Sadie x

How much?!?

2011-01-07T03:13:00.000-08:00

First up is yesterdays progress for the Crazy January Challenge.

Day 6

Winter Welcome by Country Cottage Needlework. As I guessed yesterday, I really would have loved to carry on stitching this one :-) but I am really having fun picking out which project I am going to start on each day, so it's not really such a hardship to leave it behind for a while.

Now, as I mentioned yesterday, my personal goal for 2011 is to lose weight. Well I weighed myself this morning and I currently weigh in at 15 stone 10lbs, that's 220 pounds. OMG!
I worked out that to get to about 10 - 11 stone (140-154lbs) a sensible weight for my height (5' 7") , I will need to lose just over one pound every week. Now that doesn't sound so hard does it? But in reality I know it will be hard. I am not following a specific weightloss or diet plan, I am just trying to cut out fat and sugar and also go easy on the carbs (I could eat rice or potatoes until I popped!), I aim to exercise every day too, either through walking or cycling.
So that's the plan :-) I'll be weighing myself every Friday and I'll let you all know how I do. Hopefully seeing the number on here and sharing them with you all will motivate me to keep going. Or shame me into it! :-)
Off now to make the fire, it's chilly here today.
Sadie x

This and that

2011-01-06T04:28:00.000-08:00

A headache stopped me doing lots of stitching last night, but I did make a start on the next project in the Crazy January Challenge.

Day five

Hope Perches by The Sampler Girl, stitched on 28ct white evenweave with DMC. It looks quite plain doesn't it, but it will be lovely when finished :-)

The last of the christmas presents has now left the building so I can show it here.
I knitted this scarf for my SIL Jenny. I had the purple wool in my stash and knew that I was going to use it but I didn't have enough. Oh no! So I used the plain black wool to make make the purple stretch further. I love the stripes, I so wanted to keep it.

The pattern is available free on Ravelry, it's called Baktus.

Yum!

Today I'm going to work on Winter Welcome by Country Cottage Needleworks, I suspect that this will be another one that I won't want to put down after one day :-)

My stitching goals are in place for the year, simply to finish the Crazy January Challenge and stitch gifts as much as I can. Pretty simple really. My personal goal for this year will be the same as it was last year, to lose weight. Last year was pretty much a bust with me ending the year at much the same weight as I started it. I am hoping that this will be the year :-)

Is anyone else aiming to lose weight this year? I know that it is usually a common resolution, maybe we can cheer each other on :-)

Off now to burn some calories with the hoover and the duster :-)

Sadie x

Crazy January

2011-01-05T06:11:00.000-08:00

Hi peeps :-) Happy new year to you all, hope you are all recovering from the festive period and that you are settling nicely into 2011. Our January has been a little crazy so far, with Stuarts car packing up and the heating not working. Thankfully the heating has now been restored but alas, there is nothing to be done for the car and so it will be going to the great scrap heap in the sky.
More January craziness has been going on in the stitching department, with the Crazy January Challenge. Here is my progress so far :-)

Day one

I had lots of stitching time on the 1st, so I actually finished this one :-) Spring Fab Fob by Lizzie*Kate, stitched with the recommended floss on a piece of 28ct Sadie-dyed evenweave.

Day two

Coffin Buzz freebie by Plum Street Samplers. I am liking this so much better now that I am stitching over two!

Day three

Moon & Start by Little House Needleworks. This is the one I am stitching for my son Cameron, I could have quite happily carried on stitching until it was finished. I bet this will be the first project I go back to stitch on the 16th :-)

Day four

Cat freebie of unknown origin. If anyone knows who this freebie is from, please let me know so that I can credit the designer, thanks :-) This one is going to be for my daughter Caitlin, I think it will be a needlebook, but I'm not fully decided yet.

So, that is where I am at so far, no stitching yet today but I will get an hour or two in this evening.

Finally, here is our new family picture for the new year.

Wishing you all the very best that 2011 has to offer.
Sadie x

Gifts

2010-12-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

All my latest stitching has been for gifts, isn't it always the same at this time of year!
I must confess that a couple of items have left the house with their new owners and I haven't any pictures of them. Oops!
Well anyway, here are the ones I have got pictures for :-)
This bookmark was for my Dad's birthday, he is a bit of a train buff. The pattern is from one of my old cross stitch books, I changed the colours to suit my dad a little better. Stitched with DMC on 28ct white evenweave, backed with felt.
BTW the book is one of my favourites, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. It is so very good :-) I'm hoping my dad will love it too.
This little ornament is for my mum :-) She picked this out of this years JCS ornament issue. It's 'Angels Sent' by Still Stitching with Susan. I used HDF silk in BeRedded on 32ct cream linen.

Lastly here is the little ornament I made for DH Stuart. Crap picture, but it really is a sweet little finish :-) Stitched with DMC, over 1, on 32ct cream evenweave.

I have managed to select and kit up all 15 of the projects for the Crazy January Challenge. What fun I had, but it was so hard to get to my final 15. I don't have all the floss I need for each project, but I have enough to be able to make a start on each one, and then I'll order what I need when I need it.

Sorry! What was tht? Oh, you want to know what my 15 projects are? Well, I've put a list in my sidebar over on the right. Where possible, I've also linked to a picture of the finished design too. When I get started they'll link to a current WIP picture.

I haven't bought any new charts, all 15 were in my stash already. Most are simply 'for the house' in that they are for us to decorate our home, there are a few that deserve special mention though. Moon & Starts is for my son, Cameron, who loves the night sky. Friendship by Brightneedle is for a very, very dear friend. Also I think Coffin Buzz deserves a mention because I already started stitching this design ages ago. Ages ago as in 2008! I was stitching it over 1 and was really getting sick of it, so it was put away and hasn't been worked on since. I found it whilst looking through my stash today and knew that it had to be one of my 15, but I am going to restart it over 2. I still love the design it is just the over 1 I was over! :-)

So that's my lot. I have all presents wrapped, all food prep done and now I am going to go and have some mulled wine and a mince pie.

Wishing you all a very merry christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Sadie x

What I did....

2010-12-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

....when I wasn't blogging. Grab a cuppa this is a looooooooooooooooong post :-)

First up is the biggest of all the finishes and a big happy dance for me :-) 'Autumn Row' by Bent Creek. Please excuse the creases, I wanted to get pictures before the sun disappeared, so didn't iron first.

Close up pics too.

I really enjoyed stitching this one and I have a frame already so next year I will be able to hang this, and spooky row too, for all to see :-) Many thanks once again to Cath for the generous loan of the chart x

Can you guess who this is for? Yep, you got it. Wasn't really that hard to work out was it! This one is for my wonderful little brother, Gavin. He is a joiner (carpenter) and this year he has really helped us out with work on our house, work that we would not have been able to have done had he not done it. We are so grateful for all his help and hard work, he really is a star.

Lizzie Kate, 'A Brother' Snippet. Stitched on 28ct light mocha evenweave with DMC floss.

I've placed a ruler in the next picture so you can see just how tiny my next finish is.Just under 2" tall. This tiny beauty is for my DH Stuart, who is the most amazing man. I changed the year from the one charted. This is a design by the wonderful Tanya over at The Sampler Girl, and is called 'Merry Christmas, My Love'. Stitched over one (what was I thinking!) on 32ct cream evenweave with DMC floss.

Three bookmarks for DH's grandma to give as gifts to friends. All were stitched with DMC on 2" wide, gold edged, 18ct aida banding.

My favourite is the middle one. All patterns taken from the book '500 Flower & Animal Cross Stitch Designs' by Julie Hasler.

I picked out this next design with a particular person in mind, but I took so long to finish it that the season has now past. I was going to stitch something else but I have now decided to just finish it and send it. It wouldn't bother me to receive something 'out of season' and I'm sure it won't bother the recipient either. Hopefully :-) Such pretty colours. Stitched with DMC on 28ct white linen.

The design is called 'Autumn Leaves' and is by Jodi Watson. The pattern is available for free on Cyberstitchers. I did change some of the colours as I felt they were too bright and didn't fit with the rest of the colours. I have kept a note of the changes I made (somewhere!?) if anyone wants to know what I used, email me and I'll hunt them out.

One of the LHN ornament series next. This is ornament number five, 'Winter Sheep'. Again, please forgive the creased fabric.

Stitched with DMC on 28ct bayleaf jobelan. This one is staying here with me and will hopefully be on the tree this year :-)

Another one that is staying here with us :-) This is 'French Country Star' by JBW Designs from this years JCS Ornament issue.

I didn't fancy the over one stitching after already stitching DH's ornament over one, so this is over 2 on 28ct white evenweave, with CC Apple Fritter. I couldn't stand it not being symmetrical, so I made it the same on each side :-) OCD much! LOL

Another one destined to remain here with us :-) and my favourite :-D you all know how much I love Prairie Schooler!

This is 'Blue Crescent Santa' By Prairie Schooler (booklet 53) stitched on 28ct black evenweave with DMC floss. I'm thinking a blue/white cording for this one. Yum!

So, as you can see I have been very busy stitching up a storm, and now I need to get busy finishing up a storm!

Well done to all who have made it to the end of this post, maybe I'll have commemorative badges made :-) LOL

Sadie x

Santa baby

2010-12-07T01:05:00.001-08:00

I see that my ornament for the HoE exchange has arrived at it's new home with Melissa, glad you like it :-) So I can now safely share a picture of what I stitched.

Crescent face santa from booklet 53 by Prairie Schooler

28ct black evenweave

DMC floss

Homemade cording using DMC floss

I had such a hard time parting with this one! It was a really fun, quick stitch and I love how it turned out. Yet another one that I will have to stitch again for myself someday :-)

I think I may have slightly lost my mind! I have signed up for this challenge. The idea is to start a new project every day, for the first 15 days of January, and then finish them all by the end of the year. Gulp! I am going to start choosing my 15 today, I expect it will not be an easy task, but I know it will be fun, I love stash diving!. Are you doing it too? :-)

I was out in the garden yesterday and couldn't resist taking a picture of this spiders' web. Decorated for the season by Jack Frost

Isn't it so pretty.

Stay warm,

Sadie x

Easing back in

2010-12-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hello folks :-) So I'm feeling a little less stressed out about the situation I very vaguely mentioned in my last post, I am such a worrier at times. Thankfully I feel like things are going to be okay and fingers crossed everyone will be happy.
And I think that it is about time that I made an appearance here on my blog (what do you think of the new festive look?). Thank you all so very much for your patience and also for your wonderful comments and the lovely emails I have been receiving, they all mean so much.
Although I have not been blogging, I have been stitching :-) and I will have some pictures for you next week.
I took part in a christmas ornament exchange on the Hooked on Exchanging blog. Stitching for me was LynnB. I have long admired Lynn's beautiful stitching, so I was thrilled to be the recipient of this lovely ornament.

It really is fab. Thank you so much Lynn :-)

We have been luck to escape much of the snow that has been blanketing the rest of the U.K. we have only had about 2" but we are suffering with the bitterly cold temperatures though. I can't remember a time when I have had to wear so many layers! Thankfully we have central heating, and a coal fire in the lounge which has been helping to keep us all cozy, and get the washing dried too :-)
I hope that wherever you are, you are managing to keep warm too.
Sadie x

Nice

2010-11-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

I think that one of the most important things a person can be in life is nice. It is such a simple thing, but can have a huge impact. I have always tried to be nice, to do the right thing to never judge too hastily and to always think of others feelings. It is something Stuart and I have worked hard to try teach our children, by both our words and our actions. Some time ago a situation arose and I made a decision. It was not an easy decision to make but after giving the matter lots of thought I chose to do the right thing, I chose to be nice. fast forward a year and my decision has gone on to cause hurt and upset to people I love dearly. I ,and they, know that I acted with the best of intentions but I cannot shake the feeling of guilt I have. I am now faced with another choice and no matter what I choose to do, I will be hurting someone.
I am going to take a break from my blog for a little while, I will still keep up with commitments.
Sadie x

Martha who?

2010-10-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hello again :-) Thanks for all the comments on yesterdays post, we really enjoyed our time away and I had great fun going through all the pictures we had taken and sharing some of them with you.
As promised, today I have a stitchy update. I did take some stitching on holiday with me but I forgot to take my q snaps so I didn't get any stitching done at all :-( on the bright side that meant that my evenings were spent beating DH at Scrabble :-) Before I left I managed to squeeze in this little finish.

Trick or Treat freebie found here

28ct Sadie dyed evenweave

DMC floss

My weekend evenings were somewhat back to normal so I was able to get some stitching in on a new start. I'll hopefully get this and the others awaiting finishing made into pillows for my halloween basket, before halloween!

Pumpkin Kitty by San-Man Originals

28ct Sadie dyed evenweave

DMC floss

Finally, Caitlin has been inspired by our trip to the Sealife centre and has been crafting up a sea creature storm the past few evenings. Last night she made a super cute jellyfish out of a yoghurt pot, coloured paper, string and cotton buds (q tips). I asked her where she had got the instructions from and she said nowhere, she made this up all by herself! Martha Stewart better watch out!
Happy stitching (and crafting!),
Sadie x

Away days

2010-10-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Last week we went away for a few days to Fleetwood. We had a wonderful time even though it was very cold, thankfully I had packed lots of warm clothes and also extra blankets, hot water bottles and an electric blanket too!
*Now might be a good time to get a cup of tea/coffee and a snack, there are lots of pics!*
We had some great day trips whilst we were there, first up was the Blackpool Sealife Centre, where I took the wheel :-)
Sadly, it seems that I am not destined for a life on the ocean waves, oiled with rum, as I managed to steer us into trouble! Firstly the kids were attacked by a shark.

And then Caitlin was chased by a fearsome sea monster.

On the plus side I did manage to get a decent pic of DH.

We also visited Chester Zoo, which was amazing!
The kids got to ride on a baby elephant.

And Cameron was reunited with his long lost twin brother :-)

Seriously, we had a great holiday. I can highly recommend both the zoo and sealife centre, they were such fun and the staff at both were friendly and knowledgeable. I did take some pictures of the real animals, not just my two monkeys! Here are some of my favourites.

I have a little bit of stitching to show but you'll have to come back tomorrow for that :-)

Have a great week,

Sadie x

That 70's pumpkin

2010-10-13T06:23:00.001-07:00

This little pumpkin is just soooooooooooooooo 70's! It reminds me of the curtains that were in our bedroom when we bought this house :-)

Pumpkin freebie from cyberstitchers

28ct hand dyed linen

DMC floss

CUTENESS ALERT

The next two finishes pack a lot of cuteness into a small package :-)
First is this little witch and her familiar.

Freebie from cyberstitchers

28ct 'Fire' linen from Sparklies

DMC floss

And here we have quite possibly the cutest wizard I have ever seen.

Freebie from cyberstitchers

28ct black evenweave

DMC floss

Well that sums it up for my stitching so far this week, I'm currently working on something that I can't show just yet and I also have Bent Creek 'Autumn Row' kitted up and ready to go too. I can't wait to get started on it.
Thank you to everyone who left a comment or emailed me about my Spooky Row finish, you are all so very kind. I love to read what you have to say, so don't be shy about commenting or getting in touch through email :-) I promise that I don't bite.
Off now to sit beside the fire, and stitch of course, as it's rather chilly here today.
Have a great week,
Sadie x

Spooky happy dance

2010-10-10T05:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I put the final stitches into Spooky Row :-)
Here is a picture of the whole piece.

Spooky Row by Bent Creek

28ct tobacco evenweave

DMC floss

And here are closeups to show the details better. All pics are clickable to make them bigger :-)

I really like the skeleton, his wonky eyes are awesome :-) This was my first time with colonial knots, they seem to give a more consistant result than french knots in my opinion, or maybe the problem is with how I do my french knots! Either way, I like colonial knots.

I LOVE the vulture, I think it looks like he is eyeing up the pumpkin for his next meal. Maybe he is a vegan vulture.

Thanks to a very generous loan from Cath, I will soon have Autumn Row to be getting on with :-) The piece of fabric I used for Spooky Row is big enough that I can stitch Autumn Row below it, so I will wait until I have it stitched too and then I will separate them and get them framed :-)

Last night I kitted up several more little halloween designs, so they will be keeping me busy for the rest of the weekend.

The kids are now off school for two weeks so they will be keeping me busy too!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend,

Sadie x

Winner

2010-10-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Thank you all so very much for the kind comments and congratulations on me reaching my second blog birthday. It really means a lot and I enjoyed reading through everything you had to say.
So, it turns out that all glamorous assistants are on strike this weekend. Something to do with being objectified I think. So I had to make do with DH Stuart. LOL
Here are all the names in the bowl.
And here is Stuart mixing them all up.

Drum roll please.

The winner of the blog birthday celebration giveaway is......................

Congratulations Deborah, an email is on it's way to you. Please get in touch with your mailing details and I'll have your prize out to you ASAP :-)

I'll be back tomorrow with a stitchy update :-)

Have a great weekend,

Sadie x

Row ho ho

2010-10-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

and a bottle of rum :-)
Here is this weeks progress snap of Spooky Row by Bent Creek.
And a close up. You can click on the pics to make them bigger.

I haven't really done much stitching this week. I have printed off loads of new freebies to stitch though. I probably have enough to keep me going well into next year :-)

When I am finished with this piece I would quite like to stitch one of the other rows by Bent Creek, particularly the Christmas, winter and autumn rows. Does anybody want to do a little swap? My chart is care worn so if you want to swap and then swap back when finished that's fine. I would also consider any of the other alphabet rows :-)

Cameron had a great weekend of birthday fun. I didn't get a good pic of the birthday boy himself (that boy never sits still!) but here is a snap of his cake.

DD Caitlin helped and we decided to call it a 'Chocolate Extravaganza Cake' I bet you can probably see why we chose that name :-)

Tomorrow I will be drawing a winner for my blog birthday celebration giveaway. there is still time to enter. You need to go leave a comment here for your chance to win. Good luck.

Off now to see if I can get in a few stitches before I call it a night.

Only one more sleep till the weekend :-)

Sadie x

Huge smiles all round

2010-10-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

First things first, this year Missy Ann has teamed up with Annette to host the 31 days of Halloween. That's a giveaway a day for the whole of October! How wonderful is that! For more info and details on how to enter go check this out. Spooktacular indeed :-)

I discovered a new to me blog this week. It's called Beadlework and is written by the lovely Ann. Go on over and say hi. It is a great blog and there is also a destash blog :-) I snapped up this BBD booklet for just £4 ( I know, amazing) , I ordered it on Monday evening and had it in my hot little hands by Wednesday. And just take a look at the extras that I found when I opened the package.
Ann, thank you so much. This really put a huge smile on my face, and on the kids faces too as they got the sweets! I have plans for just about everything already.

This weeks stitching time has gone into Spooky Row by Bent Creek.

I have done a little bit more since this pic was taken and I'm now about three quarters of the way done. I'm enjoying stitching this immensely, the colour changes and motifs are often enough that I don't get bored with stitching the letters, but not too often that I get sick of re threading the needle :-) I think I am excited about this one too as I have the frame for it already. I got it at Wilkinsons, and it was marked half price so it was only £5. The mount board that comes with the frame has five smaller apertures cut into it to hold photographs but I am going to cut out the middle to leave one large aperture. I really hope this works out as well as it does in my head! LOL

I spent an afternoon finishing off some of the pieces I stitched last week. The L*K freebie 'Spooky Patch' went into this little black, glass frame.

Being glass, it was impossible (for me anyway!) to get a good picture. That's my hands holding the camera you can see in the reflection :-)

L*K's Halloween Flip It was finished as a flat ornament. The fabric it is lying on is what I used for the backing.

Last up is part of the banner from When Witches Go Riding by Prairie Schooler. This one was also ridiculously hard to photograph. The flash kept causing loads of glare and turning the flash off got me really dark pictures. This is the best I could do. (you can click on the picture to go large if you want, as you can with all the other pics too)

I bought this papier mache form at my local craft shop. I then painted it black and artfully (!?!?!) splattered it with orange, yellow and green paint. I removed the twine hanger and attatched my own homemade one to tie in with the cording abound the design. This is my favourite of the three finishes, it is such fun, and brings a huge smile to my face everytime I walk past it.

Next week I am hoping to get some more halloween/autumn stitches finished and then maybe I will have a pic of them all in the basket I mentioned.

Thanks to DS Camerons birthday this weekend, my days will be filled with presents, relatives and friends, cake, bowling, pizza and hopefully lots of huge smiles and laughter too. I hope I have the energy to pick up my needle in the evenings!

Don't forget to enter my blog birthday celebration giveaway too. To enter, just go leave a comment here. The winner will be drawn on the 8th october. Good luck :-)

Have a great weekend,

Sadie x

Blog birthday celebration giveaway

2010-09-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago my blog was two years old and last week my followers topped the 200 mark. Wow! (does this mean I now qualify as a cult?!)
So I would be most honoured if you would come and celebrate these milestones with me.
There will be balloons.
Cake.

And a special surprise giveaway!

If you would like to be entered into the giveaway please leave a comment on this post only. I will draw a winner on Friday 8th October.

Thank you friends, I have enjoyed my two years immensely. So let's raise a glass to many more years, and friendships, to come

Sadie x

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

It's beginning to look a lot like.......

2010-09-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

...HALLOWEEN

I have been stitching away in my spare time this week and I have some more autumn/halloween finishes to share with you all today.

First up is the tiny little pumpkin freebie from Elizabeths Designs. I chose not to stitch the word 'pumpkin' underneath. I think it will make a lovely scissor fob.

'Pumpkin' by Elizabeths Designs

25ct white evenweave

DMC floss

My next finish seems to be a very popular design, I've seen this popping up on loads of blogs. I can see why, it's such fun and a quick stitch too :-) I think this will be a little pin pillow, and I might distress the fabric a little too.

'Boo Tyme' freebie from Plain and Fancy Merchant

28ct light mocha evenweave

WDW and DMC floss

I stitched part of the banner from the top of Prairie Schoolers 'When Witches Go Riding' for my next spooky finish. I think this would look great as a little flat ornament with some ribbon or cording or both!

'When Witches Go Riding' by Prairie Schooler

28ct white evenweave

WDW & DMC floss

Lastly is a Lizzie*Kate freebie I had lurking in my patterns folder.

'Spooky Patch' by Lizzie*Kate

28ct white evenweave

DMC floss

I am not sure if I will buy the suggested spider charm for the web block on the top right. I'm not sure if it looks okay without it. This will be made into a pinkeep, I'm going to used black ribbon for the edging and then multicoloured pins to match the colours in the design, maybe some beads too.

So, that's what I've been up to stitchy wise for the past few days. I bought a lovely little oblong basket from the charity shop last week for 25p and I want to fill it with all my halloween stitches and have it on display in the living room. Looks like I am going to have to have a finishing day next week to get some of these finished fully and into the basket. I promise to take pics :-)

Next up on the stitchy front is some exchange stitching, so that will have to remain a mystery for now :-) After that I have 'Spooky Row' by Bent Creek all kitted up and ready to stitch :-)

I'm looking forward to that one!

Next week is going to be a busy one, I'm helping out at the kids school on Monday and then I have a friends kids (3yr old and 7 month old) three times during the week while my friend has driving lessons. I also have my weekly Brownies where I am a trainee leader. And just to top it all off my son Cameron will be celebrating his 7th birthday a week on Sunday! So there will be presents to shop for and wrap (and hide!), birthday cake to make and plans for a secret, extra special day out to arrange.

I think that by the time Sunday night rolls around I will be needing a glass of wine! And possibly some chocolate too :-)

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone for the lovely comments about the glass pieces I made last weekend which I showed in my last post. I think that it is wonderful that people take the time to comment on the posts I write, I love to read what you have to say and I'm always excited when I see that there are new comments. Is that just me? Barbara, I will try to remember to bring them with me on Tuesday so you can see them in the flesh :-)

Oh well, I have spent much longer on this post than I had intended. Oops! I'd better clear the decks before the kids arrive home from school.

Happy stitching,

Sadie x

Old dog new tricks

2010-09-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for the anniversay wishes on my last post, they were lovely!
I have two cross stitch finishes to share today :-)
First up is this eye searingly colourful little thing.

'Tricks or Treats' by Val's Stuff (2010 JCS Halloween Issue)

32ct Thalia linen from Sparklies

My own conversion of WDW, SSS and CC floss

I am really thinking about making this into a floss tag, it is roughly 2" square so would be the ideal size. I have all the supplies and tools to add an eyelet but I am not sure if I have the nerve to make a hole in it! What if it goes wrong! Maybe I will try some practice pieces first. And then still go with the easier and less risky ribbon option :-)

My second finish is this cute freebie from The Stitcherhood.

'Autumn' by The Stitcherhood

32ct creme brulee linen from HDF

Called for DMC floss

I'm not sure about the finish on this one, maybe a long pin pillow, maybe an ornament. You'll have to wait and see.

On Saturday I went to a full day, kiln formed glass workshop run by local glass artist Amanda Simmons. I had a blast! I really enjoyed working with the glass, only cut myself once! Amanda was a wonderful teacher, always explaining things clearly and on hand when things didn't go as planned or when I had questions.
During the course of the day I made two coasters,

and seven pendants. I only have five pictured as the other two didn't work out as planned.

I was thinking about using some of the things I have made as Christmas presents but, honestly, I think I will be keeping all of them :-) I will definatly be trying this again in the future.

I have a couple of super busy weeks coming up here (how is it that I manage to say yes to everything!) so I might be a bit quiet, but rest assured I will be stitching away when I can!

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Brown Owl!

2010-09-08T01:55:00.000-07:00

This post's for you :-) :-) :-) (some pics of 'Lo would be nice!)
So, the kids are back at school and I am beginning to get back into my routine. Kinda!
I've taken on a couple of new things this year which will mean a little less time for stitching but that's okay. I'm now a Brownie Guide leader in training, and I will be helping out at the kids school too.
Now onto the stitching, yes I have done some! Apologies first for the less than stellar pictures, my camera is on the fritz :-(
It was our wedding anniversary on Monday, eight years. I stitched this little pillow, and personalised it with our names. I thought about changing the colours to be more like our wedding but I like it the way it is. At our wedding, I wore a red dress and Stuart, being a Scotsman, wore a kilt.

Little House Needleworks 'Trustworthy and True'

26ct Forget Me Not Blue evenweave

Crescent Colours Belle Soie silk

Next up is my first Halloween stitch of the year.

Lizzie*Kate 'Halloween Flip It'

28ct tobacco evenweave

DMC & Gast floss

Lastly here is my newest start, another halloween design, from this years JCS halloween ornament issue. The fabric I am using is from Sparklies and this colour is called Thalia.

Well, that's all I have for now. I am hoping to get a few more designs kitted up today, with less stitching time I don't want to be wasting it by having to go hunting for stuff.

I hope you all have a great week and it is so nice to be blogging again, I've missed you all.

Sadie x

Watch the birdie(s)

2010-08-20T04:41:00.001-07:00

I took part in the 'For the birds' exchange on HoE. This is the lovely pillow I received from Amy VM. So cute!
Thank you Amy, I love it :-)

I had to send to Deanne. I chose this little freebie for her, it's called 'Four Fat Friends' and is by The Drawn Thread. I finished it up as a pin pillow :-)

The robins are so cute!

Well that's it from me for now. I am keeping very busy with the kids, hence the long time no post! They go back to school next Thursday so I will hopefull get back into regular posting and stitching then.

Sadie x

Nom nom

2010-07-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

I told you last time that I had finished Season of Love, well I finally got round to taking a pic.

Season of Love by Country Cottage Needleworks

(in the 2010 JCS ornament preview issue)

32ct cream evenweave

WDW and DMC floss

I made a start on some of the designs I had kitted up. Well I made a bit more than a start, I have finished one of them :-)

Frosty Flakes by Little House Needleworks

28ct tobacco evenweave

CC and DMC floss

This little guy is my favourite of all the ornament designs released so far, I could not put it down.

How can you resist a face like that!

Cute!

Next up is my progress on LHN's ABC123.

I think it looks a bit like a halloween design as it stands.

You can't tell in the picture but the fabric has a wonderful mottled look to it and is a much warmer tone that the gray it looks like in the picture. I coffee dyed the fabric at the start of the week and I'm really pleased with the result. I will aim to get much better pictures the next time I update.

Lastly here is a pic of something I can't get enough of at the minute.

Thank goodness I have children, because if I didn't have to set a good example, and cook healthy, well balanced meals I would be eating these for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks!

Peanuts and chocolate go together so well!
Every once in a while I make this super yummy, ice cream sauce. Serve it, still warm, over vanilla, toffee or chocolate ice cream or all three for a real gut buster!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Sauce by Nigella Lawson

175 ml double cream
100g milk chocolate, chopped
100g smooth peanut butter
3 tbsp golden syrup

Put it all in a pan over a medium heat. Stir occasionally. Ready in about 2 minutes.
Pour over ice cream whilst still warm and for an little extra sprinkle over some crushed salted peanuts.

Oh my. I am so making this at the weekend.

Happy stitching,
Sadie x

Drumroll please

2010-07-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's time to draw a winner for the 6" q snap cover I made last week. Here are all the names in the bowl.
And the lucky winner is........

Congratulations Kathy :-) Please email me your postal address and I'll get it out to you this week. (My email is in my profile).

Thank you to everyone for the lovely comments about my Simple Joys finish, they are greatly appreciated. And I would also like to say hello to all my followers, old and new, I have noticed that the number has grown this past week. Please don't be shy and say hello or leave a comment if you want to. I don't bite, promise :-)

Today I finished up the stitching on Season of Love, no pic yet. I have also kitted up my next four projects.

They are :

LHN 'ABC123'

LHN 'Frosty Flakes'

LHN 'Trustworthy & True'

L*K Halloween Flip It

That should keep me busy for a while :-) I'm not sure yet if I will stitch them one at a time or if I will make a start on all of them. I will just play it by ear I think.

The weatherman got it wrong and so far there has been no let up in the rain :-( my garden is loving it but I really would like the sun to come back!

Oh well, time to think about feeding the family.

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Simple Joys

2010-07-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

It's finished.

Simple Joys by Little House Needleworks

32ct ivory jobelan

CC and WDW floss

I have loved stitching this design and it was extra fun stitching it as a SAL with Danielle. This is another one for the awaiting framing pile but I am putting it at the top :-)

Don't forget to enter my q snap cover giveaway, I'll be drawing a winner tomorrow :-)

Well that's all for now folks, hope your weekend was a good one.

Happy stitching,

Sadie x

Nearly there

2010-07-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

I didn't manage to fit in a nap yesterday :-( so when it came time to sit down and do some stitching I was not able to do very much. I think if I had not been so tired I would have pushed on and finished Simple Joys last night. I am hoping to be able to finish it tonight or tomorrow at the very latest. I have really enjoyed stitching this.
Have a great weekend
Sadie x

Landscaping

2010-07-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

I made a start on the flowers last night, still need to backstitch the windows. I am stitching this as a SAL with Danielle, check out her piece too :-) it looks great.
I am so tired today, I stayed up too late watching rubbish on the T.V.
Do you ever do that? I'm paying for it today though, I can feel a headache already and it's only 9am :-(
Fingers crossed that a wee afternoon nap works magic.
Have a great weekend,
Sadie x

Construction

2010-07-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Last night I finished up the stitching on the walls of the house, now I just need to add in some backstitching on the windows and the house is done :-) I am looking forward to stitching the flowers tonight.
A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Christina asking if she could please have my mailing address as she had a chart from my wishlist that she would like to pass on :-D what a lovely thing to do. Well it arrived last week, here is a pic.

Thank you Christina :-) I like all the designs but my favourite is the cat.

Stitchers are the best!

Don't forget to enter my q snap cover giveaway.
Enjoy the rest of your week

Sadie x

Snappy dressers

2010-07-14T01:44:00.000-07:00

Last night I made some q snap covers.
Here they are on my 8 and 6 inch frames. I followed this tutorial for a bit and then I went my own way. I wasn't happy with the raw edges showing so I came up with a different way to join the ends. I chose this bright, cheerful christmas fabric from my stash. I love it!
No progress on Simple Joys last night but I did do a tiny bit of stitching on Season of Love, we now have the start of a little gingerbread boy :-)

So, how would you like have one of my q snap covers? I made 2 of the 6" covers but I only need one so I'm giving the other one away. To be clear, the prize is for a q snap cover to fit a 6" frame, made in the same fabric as the ones above, you have to provide your own q snaps :-)

To enter, leave a comment. That's it :-)

I'll draw a winner on Monday 19th July.

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Giveaway is now closed

Green fingers

2010-07-13T05:02:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I was at the garden centre and they had some potato plants on sale. I bought two, planted them in buckets, earthed them up and watered them on dry days. Yesterday was harvest time :-) this is what I got.
And I can tell you, they were delicious!
To further prove that I do indeed have green fingers lets look at exhibit B.

Last night I stitched the big green hill on the right, and the red flowers at the top.

See, definatly green fingers! ;-D

Have a great day,

Sadie x

Invisible walls

2010-07-12T01:44:00.000-07:00

Last nights progress on Simple Joys. As you can see we now have a roof and windows and a door, all held up by invisible walls :-)
I'm not sure about the purple chimneys. I'll have to live with it for a while but I may rip them out and restitch them the same colour as the rest of the roof.
Next up will be the huge pile of grass on the right of the design :-)
Have a great week,
Sadie x

Christmas in July

2010-07-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Today has been filled with Christmas stitching so far.

Joyous Heart by Homespun Elegance

32ct Ivory jobelan

my own HDF conversion

Red seed beads

Here is a shockingly bad picture of the Mill Hill piece I stitched.

'Gifts Galore' Holiday Pin by Mill Hill

Finished as an ornament

This picture shows just how many beads there are on this tiny little ornament, and it is a much better representation of the colours too. I really enjoyed making it and the perforated paper was not the nightmare I had imagined it to be at all. I think I might be hooked :-) I have been browsing the Mill Hill website and have made several additions to my wishlist ;-D

I finished it as an ornament rather than a pin as I think it will look lovely on the tree at christmas.
Lastly here is my newest Christmas start, it is from this years JCS Christmas ornament preview issue.

Season of Love by Country Cottage Needleworks

32ct Ivory jobelan

DMC & WDW floss

Well, it's back to stitching on Simple Joys for the evening :-) I'll be back tomorrow with an update on it.

Happy stitching,

Sadie x

Christmas is coming

2010-07-11T03:34:00.000-07:00

Not too much progress to show today, last night DH and I watched Saw VI on DVD. Not one for the faint hearted, and it was kinda hard to concentrate on my stitching. I loved it though :-)
I've also started some Christmas in July stitching, I've already finished a little Mill Hill beaded tree kit and I'm now working on Joyous Heart by Homespun Elegance. I've switched from the called for floss to HDF silks. It's stitching like a dream :-) I'll have pics of them later.
Hope your weekend is filled with stitches,
Sadie x

No more frogs

2010-07-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

I think all your kind words from yesterday did the trick and I had no more trouble from the frogs yesterday.
Add in a couple of child/husband free hours and I made a good amount of progress :-) I'm really enjoying stitching this.
Have a great weekend
Sadie x

Third time lucky

2010-07-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

Here is my progress pic of Simple Joys by LHN.
I started stitching the red diamond border from the top, when I got to the bottom corner I discovered I had made a mistake right at the top and so it all had to come out. I started to restitch it and got about a third of the way down when I realised I had made the same mistake again! So out it came again. Like the post title says, it was third time lucky and hopefully I will not have to frog the red part of the border again! Keep your fingers crossed for me :-)
Sadie x

Blackbird

2010-07-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

I started this BBD freebie a few months ago. It fell by the wayside as I was busy with exchange and birthday stitching. I picked it back up last week and finished it up a couple of days ago.

BBD freebie pattern (can't find the link so you'll have to go a searchin)

32ct Belfast linen called Enchantment from Silkweaver

HDF BeGrimed silk floss

This one will go into the awaiting framing pile. It was quite nice to just be working with one colour, but I am ready to have a bit more colour back in my stitching now, so here is the floss toss for my newest start.

I'm stitching 'Simple joys' by LHN and I am doing this as a SAL with Danielle. I'm using the called for WDW and CC floss and 32ct ivory jobelan. Here is my progress so far.

I'm going to try and post a little update every day, we'll see how that goes!
Off now to get in some stitches before I fall asleep sitting here at the computer :-)
Sadie x

I do all my own stunts

2010-06-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

First up, I have some stitchy pics to share :-)
The pillow I stitched for Sheril for the HoE ABC exchange has arrived safely with her :-)
The design is by Prairie Schooler, stitched on 28ct evenweave in a mystery colour with the called for DMC floss.
I also received my part of the exchange this week too. Stitching for me was Annette and here is a pic of the beautiful pin pillow and matching scissor fob she sent me. Thank you very much Annette, I love them :-)

The fob is personalised with Annettes initials and the year on one side and my initials on the other. As you can see from the above picture, Travis the cat decided that he had better come and inspect what was going on (that's the back of his head in the bottom right corner of the picture)

I finished the stitching on L*K Valentine Flip It.

Stitched on 32ct white linen, with a mixture of CC and WDW floss. I didn't have all the called for colours so I just picked out similar ones from my stash. I think this will go into the finishing pile and will be saved for Valentines day next year.
I also finished the stitching on L*K Spring Fab Fob. I'm not 100% decided on how to finish this yet but I am leaning towards a floss tag as I don't have one. It will be quite big but I think it will be okay.

Stitched on 28ct, hand dyed by me, evenweave using the called for CC and DMC floss. The fabric is actually a much brighter IRL.
Now, a cautionary tale! If you are going to attempt to dye your own fabric, please wear gloves.
If you don't then this could happen to you.

Remember folks, ~~I do the stupid stuff so you don't have to~~ I'm a trained professional :-)
Thankfully my hand has now returned to its normal colour, after several days and lots of scrubbing.

Well school finishes for the summer on Thursday and we are packing up the wagon to hit the road for a few days :-) Can't wait!

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Swap?

2010-06-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Does anyone have a copy of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament preview issue that they would like to swap for a current UK CrossStitcher magazine? Comment or email me :-)
Thanks Heather for swapping with me :-)

DH was rather thrilled with some of the comments about his appearance in my last post. I am having all the doorways in the house widened to allow access for his big head! :-)

As I mentioned last time, we have had a house guest this week in the form of my in-laws dog Jugal. Below is a pic of our cat Travis asserting himself and claiming Jugals bed as his own. It doesn't seem to matter that she is at least 3 times his size.

I stitched L*K Spring Fab Fob earlier in the week and I'm now working on L*K Valentine Flip It. Pics next week. Rather than say I am behind for this year I prefer to say that I am getting ahead for next year!

Have a great weekend,

Sadie x

A weekend in pictures

2010-06-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Friday started off with walking the in-laws dog. She is with us at our house all week, so there will be lots more lovely walks :-) her name is Jugal, which is old scots for dog.
We walked past this old ruin. When I first moved here, about 20 years ago, it still had a roof and plaster on the walls.

This is the view from the ruin. It would make a lovely house, it's about a quarter mile outside the village, so quiet but not isolated.

Friday evening we all went for a picnic to the park at a neighbouring village (Shawhead). The park is actually about a quarter mile outside the village so it's really peaceful and not overlooked by lots of houses. We had the whole park to ourselves. DH met us there when he finished work. We took the camping stove and had sausages on rolls. Doesn't food always taste better when you are outdoors. I climbed up to the top of the slide to take some pics.

The kids didn't keep still for long enough for me to take pictures but I managed to get DH as he was packing things away.

He's smiling because I told him he was going on my blog :-) he thinks I'm joking!

Saturday evening we went fishing at the loch just outside our village.

We didn't catch anything, but that's okay.
Sunday was spent visiting our dads for fathers day, I gave my dad Jean-Luc, and then in the evening we went fishing again.

Still no fish.

I love weekends like this, mostly spent outside, having lots of fun, laughing, running and just being together. I hope our summer is filled with weekends like this one.

Well, no stitching to show here but I think I know what I am going to stitch next. I don't have the colour of fabric I need so I will have to dye some :-)

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Bees and cupcakes

2010-06-08T05:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone for the lovely comments you left on my last post about the scissor pocket I made and also about our garden. Thanks to some beautiful weather this past weekend we were able to enjoy lots of time out in the garden without thinking 'Oh god! Look how much work there is to do out here!' It was so relaxing.
I am currently between projects with my cross stitching. I just can't settle on what to stitch. Saturday afternoon I spent a couple of hours sitting in the garden going through all my cross stitch magazines but nothing shouted 'STITCH ME NOW'. I have one more exchange to work on this week, it's stitched just need to do the finishing, and then we will see what happens.

DD had a fantastic time at Brownie holiday and made friends left, right and centre. I'm so proud of her as she didn't know any of the other girls who were going. She is the only Brownie who went from her group. I think that DS also enjoyed having DH and I all to himself for the weekend.

I recieved the most wonderful scissor keep from Lisa for the scissor keeper exchange run by Becky. Isn't it beautiful!

My scissors are already safely tucked inside :-)

Lisa said that this is her first time making a scissor keep but you can't tell. Her stitching and finishing are perfect as is her attention to detail. The inside is lined with the cutest bee print fabric and the button closure is adorable. Thank you so much Lisa, I love it :-)

Now, just because I haven't been doing much cross stitch this past week, doesn't mean that I have been sitting doing nothing! I stitched up another two tea towels for gifts.

This fabulous little cupcake is one of four designed by Mollie Johanson from Wild Olive exclusively for DMC. The pattern is a freebie and can be found here. One of these is for my mum, it was her birthday last week :-) we had a wonderful mother/daughter day out shopping together. The other is for one of DD's Brownie leaders, Snowy Owl. As DD was the only one going to the Brownie holiday, Snowy said that she would be happy to take DD and bring her home too, saving us a 140 mile round trip. Snowy would not take any money from me to help toward her fuel costs so I hope she will accept this little gift as a mark of our appreciation.

Well, that's all for now. hopefully next time I will be able to tell you all about my new cross stitch start :-)

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Scissor pocket

2010-06-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Another exchange has arrived with its new owner :-)
I stitched this for my partner Melanie for the 'scissor keeper exchange' on Beckys exchange blog. I'm so glad that you like it Melanie. I really loved working on this, the design stitched up very quickly and the construction, although a bit time consuming, was straightforward and hitch free :-)

I love this fabric and thought it was perfect for the backing and interior. And I picked it out all by myself without any help from DH this time :-)

I made the cording to match.

The design calls for an orangy red colour of floss but it didn't fit with the backing fabric so I switched it out for the purple.

Scissor case design from 'Pins and Needles' by Prairie Schooler

28ct cream linen

DMC floss

Cotton backing and lining

Homemade cording using DMC floss

So finally, I have some pics of the garden :-)

This is the view from the gate as you enter the garden from the entry way.

The flower bed you see on the left is against the end wall of the garage and gets the sun all day (the garden is south facing so we pretty much get the sun all day in the whole garden) so in there I have a honeysuckle and some sweet peas to climb up the wire and some poppies, candytuft and livingston daisies for some low down colour. There is also a squash in there too. For some nom noms.
This next pic is the bottom half of the long flower bed that runs down the whole of the left hand side of the garden. There aren't too many plants in here at the moment as the slugs keep eating them all :-( I'll get them this weekend though, a little beer bath should sort them out. Peeking in the corner is our compost bin. I quite often use the stone wall you see as a backdrop to pictures of my stitchy finishes.

Thanks to the kids and their bikes, scooters, skateboards etc. the grass is very thin this year. I'll sew some more seed in the autumn to thicken it out again. It's pointless doing it now as the kids are out there all the time.

This is the view from the bottom of the garden towards the back of our house. That's the kitchen window you can see.

These are all my herb/veg/flower pots under the kitchen window. From left to right we have tarragon, sunflowers, thyme, rosemary, sage, curry plant,cauliflower, candytuft, lillies (red) new potatoes, mint and more sunflowers.

This last pic is the view from the bench you can see in one of the photos above. Our garden finishes at the wall at the end of the grass.

Well I think that will do for today. DD is off to Brownie camp this weekend so I need to help her pack.

I hope that wherever you are the sun shines for you this weekend.

Sadie x

From me to you (part II)

2010-05-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

Back again with the next installment of the weeks stitchy happenings. Thanks for all you comments on the last post. It seems that we have all done things like that at some point. And, knowing myself, I'll probably be there again before too long ;-)
So another of the exchanges I sent out has arrived safe and sound. One of the groups I belong to (ILCS) had a Summer Ornament swap. I stitched for Heidi :-) and here is what I sent.

'Strawberry House' by LHN

32ct cream linen

CC & DMC floss

Cotton backing, 1/4" ribbon, seed beads & pearl headed pins

I personalised the back with our names, the group and the year.

Credit to DH Stuart who helped me pick out the backing fabric. I stood for about 20 minutes looking at countless different fabrics and then turned to him and moaned about how there was nothing that would work. He just looked at me, looked at the fabric and said "How about this one?" and picked the perfect one.
I couldn't find peach, pearl headed pins anywhere. And neither could DH! So I used nail varnish to tint some red pins I had. I think it worked a treat. I stuck them in a potato, painted them and left them to dry overnight. I think leaving them overnight was overkill but I did not want to risk getting nail varnish on the stitching.

The top needed something a little more than the round pins. This heart pin came free with a magazine a couple of months ago. Well it was a whole set of hearh pins (not just one) but I only needed the one :-)

Like I told Heidi, when I think of summer I think of strawberries :-) I'm glad you like it Heidi, it was a joy to stitch.

Speaking of strawberries, my MIL has just dropped off a 2 punnets of them. On one punnet is written 'love from us' and on the other it says 'and Jugal'. Jugal is my in-laws dog. When it works out that my in-laws have to work on the same day I help out with Jugal. I either have her here at our house or I'll pop up at some point and give her a walk and some fuss, it is a two minute walk from my house to my in-laws and about the same to my parents house too. She is such a sweet natured dog that it really isn't a hardship at all to spend time with her. When she is here at our house, she can usually be found within a few feet of wherever I am :-) she is a great companion. Thank you for the strawberries mum, dad and Jugal. They will be lovely for pud tonight. Nom nom.

I received my ornament for the Early christmas Exchange on HoE . Lillie had my name and I'm so glad she did! Look at this beautiful ornament she made for me.

Isn't it wonderful! I love the design and the colour and Lillies stitching are perfect. It even has little jingle bells on the bottom, I'll have to make sure it goes near the top of the tree well out of cat swiping range :-)

Thank you so very much Lillie, I really love it.

Well I still haven't taken any pictures of the garden, we have had quite a bit of rain here this week and on the days we haven't I have been busy helping out at the kids school. I went fishing with Camerons class on wednesday, nobody caught anything but it didn't stop everyone having a great afternoon. I'll try and take some garden pics this weekend but that will be depend on the weather, I'm not sure what it is supposed to be like this weekend, fingers crossed for some more sun.

My stitching is still for exchanges so no pics of those till they arrive at their new homes. I have finished another seven crochet granny squares so I have nine in total. I think I am going to make them into a pillow, so maybe pics of that next time :-)

Have a great weekend,

Sadie x

From me to you (part I)

2010-05-24T01:05:00.000-07:00

The sun finally deciced to make an appearance this weekend in Scotland (about bloody time!). We had temps around 25-27 C, which is up into the low 80's. Heatwave! It's a bit cooler today but still nothing to complain about.

Now, our garden is pretty small so you would think that keeping it in order would be a piece of cake, but DH and I are not natural gardeners (through no lack of trying on my part) so our garden has always looked scruffy. Well, last weekend DH made a start on getting rid of all the weeds, and through the week I started to lay out weed control fabric and a good thick layer of mulch. On Saturday DH and I spent nearly all day out in the garden and it is finally finished. The garden looks the best it has ever done and when all the little seedlings I planted start to grow and bloom it will be so pretty. I really wish we had taken some before pics but we didn't (imagine dandelions, weeds, dandelions, more weeds, dandelions, more other weeds, dandelions) so I'll take some after pics and share them later in the week :-)

Last week my friend Hazel celebrated her birthday, so I stitched this little cutie onto a tea-towel for her.

The pattern is a free design and can be found here. Stitched with DMC on 100% cotton and my first try at satin stitch, not as scary as I thought :-)

Finally, I have some pics of the exchanges I have been working on for the last month :-)

Well, when I say I have pics, I actually don't have any pics of this first exchange piece because I didn't take any before I sent it on it's merry little way. So I have snaffled this picture from Maries blog (hope that is okay Marie) as she is now the new owner of this little guy.

This ornament was such a fun stitch, but the finishing was pretty much a disaster. When I finished stitching the design ('House on Holly Hill' by BBD) I picked out some lovely, co-ordinating, red velvet from my stash for the back and then three different ribbons, in red, green and cream, to use as the hanger. I was pretty pleased as they all matched perfectly and I didn't need to go out and buy anything extra, I had it all right here already :-)

(so, that's the pride bit out of the way, here comes the fall, get ready)

So, I pinned the ribbons in place and, using my sewing machine, I stitched round three sides and left an opening in the fourth so I could turn it the right way out. When I came to turn the ornament the right way out, I saw that I had put the velvet on the wrong way, so the nice velvetty side was on the inside of the ornament!

After a small rant at myself, which turned the air blue and made the sailor next door blush, I sat down to see if I could salvage the stitching. I could :-) Thankfully I had left quite a generous margin around the stitching so I snipped off the velvet, cut another piece and started again. This time with a slightly smaller margin and the velvet the right way round and quite frankly, feeling rather chuffed with myself for being so clever and being able to salvage the ornament.

(more pride, you know what's coming next)

So, I stitched round three sides, left an opening, turned it the right way out and ........................ the angels didn't sing, there was no brilliant ray of light bathing me and there was no triumphant punching of ther air with my fist. I had pinned the ribbon hangers on the wrong way, so inside the ornament, I had the best part of six yards of ribbon but on the outside, I had little one inch tufts.

So, after a mammoth rant at myself, which turned the air a thick, dark navy blue and made the sailor next door choke on his rum, I sat down to see if I could salvage the stitching. I couldn't :-(

So I gathered my supplies and stitched the whole thing again, and I very, very, very carefully finished it with the red velvet and the three ribbons and I didn't take a picture, I just wrapped it up and posted it.

Marie, I am so glad that you like it, I had quite the adventure stitching it for you. Twice :-)

Well this post has turned out longer than I had thought it would so we'll have a short intermission I think (drinks and ice-creams are available in the lobby) and I'll see you again with part II in a couple of days :-)

Sadie x

Waiting for supplies

2010-05-13T01:22:00.000-07:00

First up, thanks for all the stitchy love for my embroidered tea towel. I ordered some more blank tea towels yesterday so you'll be seeing more of them in the future :-) They are so inexpensive, it works out at about 90p each! If I could afford to buy them in greater numbers they would be even cheaper.

I have my next two projects lined up in my head but I have to wait for supplies to arrive before I can start. I hate it when that happens.
So what shall I do to fill my time? Well, I was mindlessly searching through Flickr when I found the Granny Squares group. So I dug out my crochet hook and went stash diving in my big bag o' wool and this is where I am so far.

Two down, and who knows how many more to go.

Now, I was just wondering if I am the only person in the whole of the world who doesn't get the whole 'flower/scissor frog' craze. I really cannot see the appeal of them at all. It seems that nearly every blog I visit is either proudly displaying the one found at the thrift shop or bemoaning another empty handed trip *sigh* the search goes on.

So, is it just me? Am I the only one who doesn't get it, or are there more of us out there? I would love to hear what you think, either for or against.

One last question before I sign off. Does anyone have a Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers #25 'Awake the Dawning Day' that they would be willing to loan me in exchange for a stitched item from me? The prices being asked for this OOP chart are way out of my league. I would take very, very good care of it.

Edited : Many, many thanks to Susan for pointing me to the Homespun Sampler website. I just ordered the chart (for the very reasonable price of $8) and now I need to be patient until it is in my hands and I can touch it and hold it close :-) and stitch it of course! Thanks again Susan, I don't know how that escaped my web searches.

I really wanted to get out into the garden today and put some of my seedlings into the ground,but we had rain through the night so the ground is a little wet and it's also a little cold today too. Fingers crossed that it will warm up and the sun will make an appearance and then, maybe, I will be able to get outside later today.

Oh well, time now for a coffee and then onto some housework, can't have Stuart thinking I spend all my time on the computer/stitching/crocheting ;-o

Have a great day,

Sadie x

Kokeshi Kitchen Kitsch

2010-05-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

It was birthday time yesterday for my friend Sue. Happy Birthday! So continuing with this years efforts to give handmade gifts, I embroidered this little cutie onto a tea towel for her.
This is a freebie pattern from Jenny Hart over at Sublime Stitching. Stitched using good 'ole DMC on a 100% cotton tea towel, so it can be washed and washed and washed and the colours will stay put. Even if my stitches don't! Only joking I secured those ends nice and tight. This is my first proper try at embroidery as an adult, I think I did it in school when I was about seven or eight. Some of my lines are a little wobbly (somewhat like me!) but on the whole I'm pleased with it.
Next week the birthday girl is my friend Hazel, can you guess what she will be getting?

Still in the thrall of exchange stitching here so that's it for today folks.

Hope you have a fab week,

Sadie x

Where the wild things are

2010-05-03T04:44:00.000-07:00

We went to Blair Drummond Safari Park for DDs birthday. A really great day out and my brother, SIL and nephew came too :-) This is a pic of the kids doing their fierce faces. They were having a hard time being fierce because of a fit of the giggles :-D

I'm still stitching, but it's all for exchanges so no pics yet. I have a day to myself today as DH and DS are away fishing for the day and DD is away shopping with my sister. I think I will try to do a little work in the garden and then sit and stitch whilst keeping one eye on the snooker :-) I will have to make a fire first though as it has been colder here the last few days, todays high is 9C (about 48F) ,chilly!
Well, hopefully I will be back soon with some stitchy pics, take care and have a great week.

Sadie x

Framed

2010-04-16T05:38:00.001-07:00

I found the perfect frame for BBD 'Their Song' whilst I was shopping this morning. The frame was only £6, bargain! I finished this last September, so it's about time it was framed :-)

It was kinda hard to get decent pictures. It's really sunny here today so lots of glare. Don't forget you can click on the pics to GO LARGE :-)

I'm super chuffed :-) This is the biggest piece I have framed myself. It took me about an hour to get it all laced properly onto the mount board and you know I didn't swear once ;-D
I want to hang this in the living room but only after we get rid of the horrible 70's wallpaper, that might not happen for a few months so for now it is sitting on the windowsill. Don't worry, it's not in the sun.

I really haven't been doing very much stitching lately, too busy with kids on holiday, friends visiting, cake eating and gardening. I started this about 3 weeks ago, it's a BBD freebie. I'm stitching it with HDF silk floss BeGrimed on 32ct linen called 'Enchantment' from Silkweaver.

I have a few little birthday stitches coming up and a couple of exchanges too and DH's grandma has asked me to make her some more bookmarks, she gives them as presents to her friends and she likes them as they are easy to slip in an envelope with a card or letter. So, looks like I will be a busy little stitcher for the rest of April. I had fun yesterday spending some of my birthday money on stitchy stash. I got some fantastic bargains :-) Hopefully there will be pics next week, if I don't get arrested for harassing the postman ;-O

It was interesting to read all the responses to the post I wrote here , as well as the comments left on that post I also received several emails. It seems that many have had similar things happen, which is a shame, it takes so little time to write a simple email saying thank you. It would be sad though, if anyone let one bad experience put them off ever participating in a swap or exchange again. Because for the vast majority of the time everything goes smoothly. Following my post I did received an email from the person I sent to, thanking me for the pillow. I am happy that she liked it and that she took the time to reply and I think we can draw a line under it now.

This year my daughter Caitlin and I are taking part in Race for Life. This is a yearly fundraising event held by Cancer Research UK at venues all over the UK. We are taking part in the 5k event held in Edinburgh on June 13th. You can find out more here and if you are able, you can sponsor us here. Thank you.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend,

Sadie x

We have a winner

2010-04-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to.........

Branlaadee

I just need your postal address and it will be on it's way to you shortly :-)

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday and a fantastic time last week when my best friend was visiting :-)

I'll have to change my profile now that I am a year older.

Off now to eat more birthday cake :-D

Have a great day,

Sadie x

Pin pillows

2010-04-08T05:19:00.000-07:00

I took part in the pin pillow exchange that BeckySC organised. Here is the beautiful pillow I received from Georgie.
It's lovely isn't it! Thank you so much Georgie :-) The design is by Blackbird Designs and is from one of the Loose Feather series. I love the colours.

Below is the pin pillow I stitched for my exchange partner. Unfortunatly the person I stitched for didn't deem it necessary to acknowledge receipt or say thank you. It took several emails from Becky before she said oh yes it's here. She thought I had sent it as a RAK through a group we both belong to. No thank you on the group either. It takes so little time to send an email or leave a blog comment. And as the saying goes, manners cost nothing. If I am going to spend my time and effort making something for someone I would like to think that it is not a wasted effort. I see that she has posted to the group we belong to several times in the past couple of weeks so it's not like she hasn't been online either. I guess I don't know what is going on in her life right now and that I should just be thankful it arrived. I'm interested to know if this has ever happened to you before.

Well after a couple of days of nonstop rain the sun has finally made an appearance so I'm off to sit in the garden and stitch.

Hope you have a lovely, stitchy day.

Sadie x

Friend time

2010-04-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy this week. My best friend and her husband and kids are here for the whole week :-)
They used to live just a few doors down from me but now they live a six hour drive away.
So, I'll be busy spending as much time with them as possible before they go next weekend.
Happy stitching
Sadie x

Cherry finish giveaway

2010-04-01T02:24:00.001-07:00

I finished it :-)'Cherry Sampler' by Sisters & Best Friends

32ct creme brulee linen from HDF

Called for GAST floss

Finished size 4 1/4" x 7 1/2"

This will now go into my 'to be framed' pile. I would love to stitch the other three designs in the fruit sampler series and have them all framed and hanging together in my hall. That is what I see in my head anyway :-)

There were no takers for a trade for this chart but lots of people said they loved the design so lets have a giveaway :-) If you would like to be the new owner of this very gently used chart then please leave a comment on this post only, making sure I have a way to contact you if you are the lucky winner.
A winner will be drawn on my birthday, april 13th, if i'm not too busy eating cake.
Good luck!
Sadie x

More cherries

2010-03-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Here's where I am at so far.
Very close to the end now. I think I could have finished it last night, but I lost my needle :-( and didn't want to disturb DH ,who was already in bed, to get another one. That is the second needle I have lost recently. It's my birthday in a couple of weeks so I am thinking of getting a needle minder with my birthday money.

I really love the z.

Not so much all the confetti stitches.

When I'm finished with it, I'd love to trade this chart for one of the other fruit salad sampler charts (pear, apple, strawberry). Email/comment if interested.

Busy, busy this week. Kids on holiday from school for two weeks and next week my best friend and her family are coming to visit. Can't wait :-)

Crap weather here this week, non stop wind and rain and even some talk of snow too. Time to huddle up with my stitching next to the fire.

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Edited to add - DH just found one of my missing needles on the floor in the lounge, he said he saw the light glinting off it. One down one to go.

Cherry progress

2010-03-24T02:49:00.000-07:00

More stitching on Cherry Sampler by Sisters and Best Friends over the past couple of days.
Only the z left to stitch to finish off the alphabet.

The colours are so scrumptious. The floss names make my mouth water, Green Apple, Ohio Lemon Pie, Black Raspberry Jam.

When I am finished stitching this design I would love to trade it for one of the other Fruit Salad Sampler charts (pear, apple, strawberry) email/comment if you are interested :-)

I have a bit of housework to catch up on and then I'm going to make the fire and cozy up on the sofa to stitch. It is quite cold and windy here today so I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere.

Have a lovely day,

Sadie x

Music is my sunshine

2010-03-23T01:56:00.000-07:00

Elaine & Missy gave me this lovely Sunshine award for my blog. Thank you both :-)

Now, I'm supposed to pass it along to 12 other bloggers but I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going to share it with you all :-)
On dull, grey, cold days like today, reading your blogs brighten my day and transport me to wherever you may be. But, for me, the one thing that brings the sunshine to each and every one of my days is music. So I thought I would share some of my favourite music with you. Sometimes it is just one song that catches my ear, other times it is an album or at the other end of the scale, an artists whole body of work that I love. Rather than embed videos here on my blog which would make things really slow, I've linked back to videos on YouTube.

So sit back, relax, close your eyes and enjoy :-) a little beam of Sadie sunshine.

Mumford and Sons- A recent obsession of mine. I love The Cave and Winter Winds.
Low - I have the album 'Guns and Drums' it's okay but for me the stand out track is Murderer. So so beautiful.
Biffy Clyro - Many of Horror
The Cranberries - Dreaming my Dreams. Also from the same album Ode to my Family
Pendulum - Propane Nightmares Turn it up loud :-)
Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have An old boyfriend gave me a mixtape with this song on it. The boyfriend didn't last but the music stuck. There is a lovely accoustic version here, it is softer than the album version.
Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits - This is my dads influence here :-) Telegraph Road is my favourite,I love songs that tell a story. Couldn't find it all in one so here is part one and part two. Also love Brothers in Arms and Romeo and Juliet. The Killers did a great cover of Romeo and Juliet.
The Killers - Mr Brightside
Metallica - My favourite album is Load, every song is a winner but this is my favourite :-)
The Lemonheads - Being Around
Lady GaGa - Paparazzi and Poker Face. Also this accoustic version of Poker Face is worth a listen.
Suede - Animal Nitrate one from my teens.
Amy MacDonald - This is the Life, Poison Prince, Mr Rock and Roll and my favourite Run
Shed Seven - Chasing Rainbows, Where Have You Been Tonight
All American Rejects - Swing, Swing & Gives You Hell
Coldplay - Violet Hill. Also check out the covers of this song done by Pendulum and The Kooks
Ben E King - Stand By Me if I could only listen to one more song it would be this one.

I hope you enjoy listening

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Apple smiles and cherries

2010-03-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

This is what I spent a good part of my weekend doing.
'Cherry Sampler' by Sisters and Best Friends. Stitched with the called for GAST floss on 32ct Creme Brulee linen fron Vikki Clayton. The colours on this are to die for!
If anyone has one of the other fruit salad samplers from Sisters and Best Friends (apple, pear or strawberry) I would be happy to do a pattern swap :-) Email me or leave a comment if interested.

I made these smiles on Saturday for the kids. I found the idea on a blog somewhere. Apple slices smeared with peanut butter and mini marshmallows for teeth. They were a big hit with adults and kids alike.

Tasty and fun!

Cameron joined in the fun too, even though he was exhausted from his Beaver Scout sleepover the night before. I think it qualified as a stayawakeover.

Thank you all for the stitchy love for Jean-Luc. You made him blush! As I wrote in my last post I got the pattern from the deviant art website, it's a free download.

Off now to make some more apple smiles :-)

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Star Trek bunnies

2010-03-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

Couple of little finishes to share today.
First up is a little spring/easter stitching.

From 'Prairie Year Rounds' by Prairie Schooler

Stitched with DMC

28ct white linen

I think I'll finish it as a little round pinkeep.

Next up is a little Star Trek finish. The pattern of Jean-Luc is a download I found on the deviant art website. The words I added myself. Stitched in DMC on 16ct white aida.

I love this little guy. Think I will keep him for a while but he will get his forever home with my dad :-) My dad loves Star Trek, we used to watch it all the time.

I am hopefully starting a new project sometime this weekend (fingers crossed!) using some of the yummy floss from my last post, so watch out for pics on Monday :-)

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a great weekend

Sadie x

Gifts and stash

2010-03-15T05:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Mothers Day and it was wonderful. The kids gave me homemade cards and gifts, and wonderful hugs all day long. It was a quiet day and then we went along the road to the in-laws for dinner. We gave MIL a card and some flowers and I made this little bookmark for her.

Freebie pattern found here

16ct white aida

DMC 4030

Backed with white felt

For my mum, I was planning on making a bookmark too. I even knew which design I was going to use, sweetpeas from an old issue of CrossStitcher. When I went to look for the magazine I couldn't find it, typical! So I picked out a couple of other magazines with possible alternatives. The alternatives turned out to be not quite what I was looking for, but in one of the magazines I came across a pattern for a glasses case and it was perfect! So I made that for my mum instead of a bookmark.

CrossStitcher Issue 212

16ct white aida

DMC 310

Lined with white felt and padded with wadding

Mum has just recently got new glasses so hopefully this will come in handy. Mum was away this weekend so I will hopefully see her later today or tomorrow to give the case to her then :-)

A few weeks ago I won Beckys un-birthday giveaway of a gift certificate for $100 for Down Sunshine Lane.
I had great fun deciding what to buy, it took me all day come to a final list of items I would like.

Well, today it all arrived! Yipee!

Here are the pics of my treasures. Charts first.

And I stocked up on floss for several projects too. And a couple that I just liked :-) CC & GAST

Thank you once again Becky :-) You're a star!

Well I think I will go and play with my new stash and try to work out what to start next :-)

Have a great week,

Sadie x

It's a wrap

2010-03-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

I finished this up yesterday evening, I just couldn't put it down :-)

Little House Needleworks 'The Rain Fell'

32ct Murano evenweave in 'Blue Lace Agate' from Sparklies

Called for CC and DMC floss

I'm going to save this one for framing. It will hang on my LHN wall.

When I have an LHN wall that is :-) At the moment it only exists in my head!

Here are some more pics, they're clickable too. So you can go large :-)

Look, she has boots just like mine. And no buttons on her dress, because I forgot to leave spaces for them. Oops!

I have crows that visit my garden but they don't sit in the flowers, they take the birdseed and run.

No flowers in my garden yet, but I do see some lovely green shoots that will soon give me my first flowers of the year.

Today I emptied the pantry and scrubbed and cleaned it from top to bottom. Tomorrow I will paint the pantry walls and ceiling, and then I'm having a cocktail, or two. DH is away for the night tonight so this will be a surprise when he gets home tomorrow. I know it is a job he wasn't looking forward to doing and now he doesn't have to.

Well, I'm tired. Better drag myself off to bed.

Night all,

Sadie x

The Rain Fell

2010-03-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

I started this on Friday. It's LHN 'The Rain Fell'. I've wanted to start this for ages and now I have :-) Stitching on a piece of 32ct hand dyed linen from Sparklies. It is soooooo beautiful :-)
I need to get my bum in gear and stitch mothers day gifts (mothers day is this sunday here in the UK) but I think I will keep going with the LHN till it's finished. It really is a joy to stitch.

The lovely Sharlotte awarded me this blog oscar :-) Thank you Sharlotte x

Meari and Shelley also thought of me for this award, thank you ladies :-)

Now here are seven things about me :-)

1. I have quite big feet, UK size 8 (US size 10 1/2). My feet have been this size since I was about 12. I've also been the same height, 5'8", since I was the same age. I grew fast :-) BTW DD is 8 and is already 5'1" it's in the genes, oh and DH is 6' 4". DS is tall too. It's like the land of giants in our house!

2. My favourite scent is vanilla.

3. I love to watch cookery programs, my favourites are The Hairy Bikers (who I have met!) and Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame.

4. I love to cook too :-) And eat :-D

5. I have very quick labours. DD was 3 1/2 hours from start to finish and DS was 1hr 20 mins from start to finish. That's the whole shebang from first twinge to 'Here's your baby'. Both were born naturally without any pain relief. I'm not having any more kids but if I did, it would probably be born in the car on the way to the hospital :-)

6. My favourite authors are John Connelly, Dean Koontz, Jefferey Deaver, Kathy Reichs, Harlan Coben and Jim Butcher.

7. I like to play Guitar Hero 5 on the Wii.

Okay, so that's it. Feel like you know me better? Feel like you know too much? LOL
I'm passing this award on to anyone who wants to play along.

Edited to answer a question.

Courtney - John Connelly is fantastic. His books are quite 'graphic' but so enthralling. Look out for the Charlie Parker series, they are my favourites. Jim Butchers book are set in the present and are about a wizard called Harry Dresden. Lots of magic, mystery and evil doing. Again really gripping reads :-)

Have a great week,

Sadie x

Stitching up a Storm

Clear and crisp

Kipper the Dog

Easing in

Ornament beginnings

Everything must go

Swap it?

Cat fight

WIP wednesday No 44

Set design

August round up

WIP wednesday No.42

Feelin' festive?

Arizona on my mind

WIP wednesday No.37

Sewing table

WIP wednesday

Pinwheel parade

Morse code

Churn dash

Nine patch

Log cabin

Sparkle

That's all folks

Pinwheel

Practice

Plates

Scarf

Hello...

Chicks and flowers

Back on track

Flutter by

Mid week report

Belated Valentine

*eye roll*

Hallelujah!

The bird

Stash report

3 .........

Phase one complete

Friendship

Short but sweet

Now I know my ABC's

Rain, rain go away

How much?!?

This and that

Crazy January

Gifts

What I did....

Santa baby

Easing back in

Nice

Martha who?

Away days

That 70's pumpkin

Spooky happy dance

Winner

Row ho ho

Huge smiles all round

Blog birthday celebration giveaway

It's beginning to look a lot like.......

Old dog new tricks

Brown Owl!

Watch the birdie(s)

Nom nom

Drumroll please

Simple Joys

Nearly there

Landscaping

Construction

Snappy dressers

Green fingers

Invisible walls

Christmas in July

Christmas is coming

No more frogs

Third time lucky

Blackbird

I do all my own stunts

Swap?

eye roll