To get in the mood!!!

Because...

I thought I would remind you all who is coming soon ;-) I hope I didn't hear any groans?...Are you all feeling Christmassy?? I'm not there quite yet but will be soon as I will start and decorate my blog and house maybe this coming weekend :-)) I had also better do some Christmas shopping before there is nothing left...there is still plenty of time though, isn't there?

Whilst I am still doing secret stitching I thought I would show you this picture that I must have stitched about 9 years ago for the first Christmas in our house. It is from the St.Nick Folio by Shepherds Bush. I stitched it on 32ct that has a silver lurex thread through the weave so it sparkles!! I really love the buttons on this, it does also have white beads on it but my pictures are a bit rubbish and I couldn't decide which was the better one so have put them both on ;-) I framed it myself as you can probably tell!

I am nearly finished with my secret stitching for the exchanges and now only have the Valentine one left to do. I am really looking forward to stitching that one and have very much enjoyed doing the stitching for the other 3 exchanges. I only have one to post this side of Christmas but wanted to do them all early so I could take my time....correction.... to make sure I did actually have the time, as it has taken me nearly 3 weeks of the time I have, to do what I have done, if that makes sense...lol
Now I have some finishing to do but I really enjoy that part. I think my plans for any Christmas stitched gifts will not happen, I will have to see, but if I do any I will have nothing much stitch - wise to put on my blog until January as it would be a secret. Then again, I am sure to find something else for the blog as I will put some pictures on of my tree and decorations when I have them done ;-) plus anything else I can think of :)

Have a lovely week and I will be back in a week or so and hope to catch up with all your blogs and my emails and all the other things I am supposed to be doing. That should happen towards the end of the week and I really don't mean to be neglecting anybody in the mean time :)

Just a little something.....

...to look at whilst I am doing my secret stitching. This was the MA envelope (before stamps) that I did for the card I sent to Annemarie for her birthday. It was a little late getting to her in the end even though I thought I had sent it in time but that just made her birthday last longer :) The design is from one of my Mary Garry charts 'She Who Sews', I altered a couple of colours here and there but nothing major. I absolutely love this as the whole sampler and must stitch the full thing at some point as I do love the Mary Garry charts :-))

This next picture shows the back of the envelope, on it I stitched both mine and Annemaries initials as you can see. I did also add the little black dog as a slightly wacky bit for Annemarie it represents my 'white' dog Hamish after he comes in from the garden on these rainy days...lol I lined the inside with cotton fabric in a toning colour of a pinky-red.





I am doing fine with my secret exchange stitching and have finished stitching the Christmas exchange piece and will finish it into some secret thing this weekend. I am now onto my Winter Quaker exchange piece, this has to blue linen with white thread or white linen with blue thread. Can you guess which combination I have chosen?? Whilst I am asking questions...I am very curious as to how many hours per day you all manage to stitch, do you sit all day or just a couple of hours?? For myself, ahem, I maybe snatch a bit of time on an evening and I'm sad to say some days go by when I do none as I either don't have or make the time to fit it in. After this quaker exchange I have 2 more exchanges to stitch which are a Needlework Smalls one and a Valentine one and I'm going to hopefully be really good and get them all done and at the ready ;-))

Lastly but my no means least, I want to say a huge THANK-YOU for all the amazing comments I got on the previous posting, I feel quite overwhelmed and seriously chuffed that you all liked it so much. I'd like to say Hello to the new visitors to my blog it is nice to 'meet' you and if I haven't already I will be popping over to 'your' (blog) place for a visit soon :-))

Well thats it for now...have a great weekend and I will be back in a week or so... although I'm not sure what pictures I can show as everything is top secret at the moment... but I'm sure I'll find something ;-))

A stitchers case

While at the Creative Crafts Show a couple of weeks ago, I bought myself this chart "New Love' from Blackbird Designs, as I have liked it for some time and had never got round to ordering it from the US. As soon as I had bought it I was getting the inspiration of an idea brewing for how I might like to finish it, so sorry to anyone who I didn't pay attention to, whilst I was thinking and planning ;-)
As you may have known it has now been made into a 'small' by me, this picture below shows the front of the case shut with its corded tie around, it does also have a vintage button fastening. I made just a few changes which were, I stitched the 2/2 initial areas using a Merry Cox alphabet I have but did it full 1/1 crosses instead of tent stitch and personalised it in the ways you can see.





For the inside I have used a hand-dyed Silk Noli which I bought on that same day from Kates Kloths as the colour toned in so well with the colour GAST used for the stitching. Because the finished size would be bigger than a standard needlecase , I knew I wanted to do a bit more with it...the question to myself was what? I love pockets so that was a must and I wanted a gathered one as I like how they look, so this was a start :-) Next, I wanted to store some scissors but so they were still visible, so I have used silk ribbon in a toning shade and made a small silk covered ring for the pointy ends to sit in and another piece of ribbon to tie around the handles. So far so good...for the top area I have covered another larger ring with silk ribbon, that could hold some thread but I will leave it off as I think it looks pretty without :-) The next thing was a pincushion which I have made mattress style and inserted pins into the edges.




These next pictures are for a better view of the details inside if you click the pictures they all go huge.




For the back I used the alphabet and numbers as charted and I have made cording from a toning DMC and used that all the way around the case. I have done all the finishing by hand sewing it together and am pleased with how it has turned out :-))




I have made a small start on my MC Shaker Spool Holder but got side tracked by doing this case and I am also signed up for 4 exchanges on the SBEBB and have made a start on my Christmas Ornament Exchange as that is to be posted first. So for a little while I will have a bit of secret stitching to do ;-) All will be revealed from that in due course and I think I may just start the MC SSH fresh in the New Year if I find I don't have time to fit it in before then. Christmas will be here before we know it and I do really want to do a couple of stitched gifts if I can find time :-))




Have a great week everyone and once again a big 'Thank-you' for the comments you take the time to leave for me!!