Gorgeous Gifts

Finally I have got some time to do my blog with loads to tell you all this time...I thought I may as well do it all in one go while I have the chance... there are some pretty pictures further down ;-)))

Firstly, I would like to say a big THANK-YOU :-))) to everyone, for the sooooo nice comments you left on my last posting. You are all very kind and I really appreciate that you take the time to leave me a small word and that you like the wee things I do :-)) I myself, on the other hand am way behind on my blog reading, I will get caught up with you all in the near future.

I have, for my excuse... not been online an awful lot as I have been busy making the little gifties to send which I am going to post today, a bit later than I had said! Those who know me quite well will be giving a nod as this can be quite usual... I did try for the week target I gave myself but I felt my home was going to rack and ruin being the only one to chase around after 3 other people a cat and a dog ;-) So I had to stop before doing the third to sort things out. I can't think if my house is not ship-shape, for some reason! I like the good vibes and energy that run through when all is done ;-) To get back onto what you might like to read about... Gift number 2....hmmmm gift number 2... it just would not behave for me when I was finishing it! I did everything right so I thought, I took my time, I measured, I pressed it, I pulled it this way and I pulled it that way, I started again. Finally at 1.30am I thought I was all done so feeling rather pleased off to bed I went. Next came the morning and a look with fresh eyes (I think I prefered my tired ones) as when I looked at it was a bit skew wiff! No problem thought I, give it another press and a wiggle here and there and it will be fine!! Aha, no it was not, have you ever ironed anything stuffed with a good puff of steam?? If not, then don't !! My little thing was now not only cock-eyed but flat like a biscuit and basically starting to look like it had been a cat toy for a few days as I had pulled it about so much :( I decided there was nothing for it but to start again with a different one altogether including the design. I'm now glad I did ;-))
My only defence to myself for this wonky disaster is I have been full of cold so it must have affected my eye for a line...lol ;-) I am bright as a button again now (I hope) :-))) which is good as I am going to do the Pinkeep for the exchange on SBEBB this week as that is to be posted on Saturday and I have no time to make an error. After that I am doing a fob for the exchange on the FGBB which I am looking forward to :-)

My plans from then on are to finish two things I have made recently, one of them is a gift which I really, really will have complete and get it sent to my lovely friend!! The other is something which I think is for myself that I showed you the start of a few posting ago (the thing with the star ) ;-)

Speaking of my lovely friend...here is another beautiful gift I was lucky enough to have received from her :-)) I got this a good couple of weeks or so ago and it is from my friend the 'amazing stitcher' Colette... who if you remember gave me the other lovely Pinkeep I showed further down the page. I am absolutely delighted with this one as much as the other one and can't believe I now have two :-)) This one is so gorgeous as it is tiny and I really love tiny things, it is about its actual size as you see it here and I 'think' it must be stitched on something like 56ct linen as it has such tiny weeny crosses and they are over 2 threads!! It really is an exquisite Pinkeep and now one of my most treasured stitching gifts :-)) Colette has such a way as I have said before of being so kind and generous and making you feel happy hearted and all emotional all at once. She also has impeccable taste as you can see :-)) As a reminder if you look here you will be able to view her albums full of glorious works :-))) Thank-you so much again from the bottom of my heart Colette if you are reading this, I love it as you know :-)))))




My other gift from Dianne who is doing the Neighbourhood RR with my Mum (Veronica) and sister (Su). Dianne makes these cute little cards and all three of us got one each as a surprise. Pictured here is Veronicas along with my own they are really lovely and a very thoughtful thank-you to us. I don't know the details of Su's as she of course has her own but hers and Veronicas are for stitching on her RR, Mums is called 'Time to Sew'. I was shocked to get one as mine was a thank-you for visiting her blog and doing the NRR blog postings with Veronica who has no computer, mine is called 'Friends Appreciated' and is the one on the right as you look at the picture. They are clickable so you can see them enlarged and all the details :-)) Thank-you again Dianne from Veronica and I, they are really special and mean alot to us all :-)))




As I have been doing this posting my Postman has just been and brought me two nice packages, one is some Moda 'Blackbird Designs' fat quarters from the US. Not my usual style or colour ~ a bit of a change ??!!




The other envelope is this gorgeous little gift you can see below, I am very excited about these ribbons as I have been looking for goodness knows how long for some of these :-))) Niky has made my little dream come true today and I am delighted and ever so grateful.....thank-you so much again you lovely kind lady who has made my day :-))) Incase you don't know Niky she is an Italian lady who has a very, very nice blog which you can find here. You should really go and take a look as she does some fabulous stitching and there is loads to see .




Speaking of gorgeous blogs and stitching friends another friend of mine Nataliejo has re-opened her blog after a bit of a break. Those of us that knew her and her stitching really missed her blogging and we are all so, so pleased to see her back again with her beautiful finishes, stunning stitches and such pretty photographs the stitching blogging community was not the same with your inspiration Natalie !! Many of you may know of her but for those who don't or didn't know her blog was on the go again.....I promise you it is definately worth taking a look :-)))))


Finally....Here is Hamish who is looking really cute today, (he could sell chocolates with that face) and I have got this cheeky little face patiently waiting for me to take him out for a walk...lol!! Better go...how can I not?? I'll be back when my little gifties have arrived so I can show you what little things I made. Hope you all enjoy the very inspiring links and have a very nice week :-))

Happy Birthday Blog

Yes it is one year ago today that I made my first posting to the blogging world :-))

I was given the idea from my sister Su whose blog you are nearly all familiar with. Before that time the only blog and album I knew about was Vero M's :-)) which I loved. Since then I have found so many more :-)) I was a bit unsure about starting my own blog, as I don't have alot of time to do my hobby and thought I may not have enough of frequent interest to feed a blog...but with a bit of encouragement from Su......I thought why not :-)) I also thought it would encourage me to make time for myself to do my hobby!

I had no idea I would actually get any visitors to my site when I started and when I got my first comment, from another person, apart from Su I was amazed and delighted. I also had no idea that nearly 28000 of you would visit my small space in the year. Although this is quite a small figure compared to other blogs traffic, to me, it is incredible and I value each one of them, not just from the lovely people who comment but the quiet visitors too...I know you are there :-)) I also know I am not very well known yet in the stitching world having only been around online for 1 year.
I have a summary of
85 visits per day
596 visits per week
2285 visits per month
4% of my visitors leave a comment :-))

I really appreciate all these visits and comments... as I know ;-) I am a much slower stitcher than most of you and I only blog when the inspiration takes me. Inspite of that you still come to see my finished works and for some to leave me a kind word, I am very grateful :-)) My stitching world has expanded this past year...I have joined a couple of BB's in this last year for the first time ever, made new friendships with some lovely, lovely ladies and acquaintances with other lovely ladies, joined into my first SAL (which I have yet to finish, I will Eva, I promise) and taken part in exchanges. All this is such good fun and I love the friendship that we have together as 'embroidering machines'. Don't you think its great how that French word sounds translated into English ;-)

I love the hobby that we share as a common passion and the pride we all take in our works big or small. We all only have to take a look around the blogs and albums that are on-line to feel instantly inspired by something or some-one. We all have our favourites that we naturally gravitate towards and this is a good thing as it gives us all admiration and a little dream or a hope to be able to achieve and create something beautiful ourselves from our own heart . Needlework 'finishing' has been something new to me this past year and I have totally been enjoying the experience, I love to challenge myself to new things and to improve and develop the stitching talent I already have. I have a long way to go and alot to learn to get to where I want to be but even then I will move the boundry further out, this in itself is what I most love about embroidery in its many forms, you can never get bored!!

So my dear 'embroidering machine' friends of every nation and country there is some amazing talent out there...many of them are you... so remember, we are the stitchers of today, creating a future for our hobby and the history and heirlooms of tomorrow with every piece we stitch in whatever form it takes. I am so happy to be one of 'todays' stitchers with the technology available today to be able to share in this great passion.

I want to thank-you all yet again for taking the time to come to my small space, I have found looking through my comments that one lady in particular has been with me from the beginning offering kind words and support this lady is Von (On the Dry Side) and I say an extra special thank-you to you :-)) I would also like to say it is very close and another 2 ladies have supported me right along the way, these ladies are Nicky and Barbara again a special thank-you to you both. I was going to offer a small gift to just one person (Von) as a thank-you but feel as it is so close I would like to give a little something to Nicky (Plush) and Barbara (Mainely Stitching) as well. Now this may not be a xstitched little giftie (you know how slow I am ;-) but it will be something made by me just for you, so if you can send me your addresses I will get them out to you this next week. I dearly wish I could have the time to make each and everyone of you a little gift to show my appreciation but sadly this is not possible as 'real-life' gets in the way sometimes, I hope you will understand and know I do appreciate each and everyone of you, so very much :-)))))

I shall now leave you with a slide show of the works I have achieved in this last blogging year, I am very proud of my 'small things' I have accomplished and I hope you will enjoy it too. :-))




love Helen xxx

My Stitching for the exchange

I love the look of Antique Needlework tools and when I can I will try to collect some for myself. One I like is 'The Chatelaine'... I do not have my own antique one but have got some beautiful pictures in a book I have. As this was a 'Love of Needlework' exchange I very much wanted to do my own modern day version of a ' Chatelaine' plus I really wanted to do something a bit special for my partner. I don't know my partner at all but I know from a couple of visits to her blog she has had such a rough time lately. I like this Sepia photo as it makes it look like a Vintage Needlework accessory :-))

A Chatelaine

I sent this to Natalie (Natty68)as I was given her name on SBEBB for this exchange. I have stitched the design from Mary Garry's free sampler chart Sew & Sew using all the stated overdyed threads. I have used 32ct cream Permin linen and stitched it 1/1. It has a slight alteration to the charted design in that I made the girl look like she was sewing instead of holding the big needles as I had already used that idea for the time I did one for Annemarie and I wanted this to look a little different :-)

The Front design Sew & Sew

The Back

I also wanted a different shape to finish it with so I decided to go for an oval as you can see above... for the back I have used a pretty co-ordinating pink cotton fabric. It is all completely handsewn together. I have used 2 layers of chiffon ribbon to go round the edge with Couch Stitch to attach it.

More Details

This picture above shows some more of the details...you can see the edge with the Couch Stitch a bit closer and the bows that I did in the 2 ribbon colours to attach the needlework tools so that they can be easily removed for use. I did a double layer bow for the top and you can also see the ribbon embroidered bag that I sent the stitched piece in.

The Clover Tools

Above, now you can see the needlework 'Tools' that I attached to the ribbons hanging from the Chatelaine. They are a Clover Cutter, Clover Needle Threader and Clover Needle/Pin sharpener which I think is the most gorgeous little tool going :-)) I love its red velvet ribbon and the vintage look to all of these!

Pins and Bows attaching the Tools

The last picture is a full view again of 'The Chatelaine' but in colour this time :-) I was really pleased with how this idea for the finish turned out and even more pleased that Natalie has said she is delighted and will use it :-)))

Colour View of The Chatelaine

Barbara...the scissors in the posting below are gorgeous, I love them and they are what my friend Eva got me from the AEF show that was held in Paris recently. She very kindly offered to do some shopping from the 2 Paris shows on mine and Su's behalf :-)). I got some really nice French goodies that I had been after :-)))

I won't leave it too long before I am back, hopefully at the end of the week or early next week with the PS finish.

And.....Thanks for visiting you very welcome here and incase I don't call in before...I hope you all have a lovely Easter time or Easter holiday if you should be so lucky :-)))

Exchange recieved from Cathy...

This morning I recieved this lovely pillow stitched for me by Cathy, for the 'Our Love of Needlework' exchange from the SBEBB. The design is from the Glory Bee website. Cathy has stitched this on what looks like 32ct evenweave and has changed the colours from the stated ones to these really soft shades as she thought I might prefer it this way. The back is a very pale pink cotton that matches beautifully with the chiffon ribbon hanger. I also got a little gift included in my package :-) Thank-you Cathy for the thought you have put into stitching this for me, it is really sweet and I love the cute saying :-))

Pillow stitched for me by Cathy from SBEBB

I know you will all be curious to see what the stitching is underneath the pillow so ta da...a little peek at my current WIP ;-)
It is from one of the new Prairie Schooler charts... more details on this soon as I hope it to be finished this week!

My WIP

I'm chuffed you all liked the little mice...lol, I was really bowled over so thank-you ladies :-))

I'll be back 'real' soon as I have heard the exchange I stitched has arrived too!!