Autumn Exchange TO Claudia

Phew !!! I am SO relieved as finally this Autumn Exchange that I sent to Claudia in Italy has arrived :-)) This is my second exchange of four that I am doing for Claudia. I chose to do a little Hornbook as I know from Claudias blog that she loves them !!

Seen as it was such a tiny Hornbook I needed a tiny design for it ;-) I opted for Mary Garry's 'Seasonal Momentos' (of course choosing the Autumn design from it) for two reasons... the first is I love this sweet design and have wanted to stitch it for a loooong time, the second is I knew it would be the perfect size stitched 1/1 on 32ct for the Hornbook. I stitched a little Pinkeep featuring just the witch to make a little set :-)

I was on a mission to find some Picot edge ribbon which is VERY hard to find here for some reason ?! Very luckily I found this lovely ribbon in York and couldn't believe it shaded in just the right colours I was looking for and came in the right width :-))) I was so excited as only us crafty people know ;-) about my find and my spirits still were not dampened even though once outside I realised the woman in the shop had totally overcharged me! I do love this type of edging on ribbon, this one yet again is a French Ribbon. It seems as if it made of a linen/silk mix but I am not sure.

I tied a little pumpkin coloured silk bow to the ribbon that finished the Hornbook and added a tiny black bead on each side to match up with the pins on the Pinkeep.

I felt really lucky in the fabric I found for the reverse of the Pinkeep as I wanted something with 'soft' autumn colours and if possible a touch of a blue somewhere as I know Claudia loves blues. I was over the moon my (not so) LNS had this in stock as it was all the right colours :)

I had good fun assembling the stitching onto the Hornbook and felt rather pleased with how I managed to get it for my first attempt at one........until........wait until you hear this LOL........a couple of days after I sent it on its way LOL :D :D I suddenly realised I had stuck the design on the Hornbook the wrong way up, yes!!! LOL it is upside down !!! Did you notice too?? ;-) Maybe it will start a new trend ;-)) because in my humble opinion it actually stands up better this way for display. I am sorry Claudia and really hope you don't mind having a faulty one in your collection ;-)

 

Life is returning to normal now the holidays are over and I shall get caught up with you all again soon, so until next time have a great weekend with hopefully lots of stitching :)))

Aint it Pretty :)

Have you seen what is coming soon?

This is the pretty, latest chair from designer 'Cat's Whiskers'. You can pre-order it from here Hollie Stitch where you can also see a preview of The Queens Treasure Chest from the same designer :-)) The picture is clickable........Happy looking !!

Autumn Exchange From Leena

Look what has also arrived at my house :-)

Leena from Finland :) my seasonal exchange partner, tells me that this second exchange she has stitched for me, in our series of four ...... is a sampler from an old SANQ magazine - Winter 2002. Leena has adapted it (very cleverly,  I might add ) to become a scissor-case.   I have a few SANQ magazines and love the style of some of the projects in them, so really, this is a superb choice for me for Autumn :-)

The Inside, look at these gorgeous, rather special, petite Bohin scissors Leena sent to me too

The back, personalised with my initials

2 of the packages that came were for my little DD and DS they are so excited to have something come too :-))

Thank you so so much again Leena for this beautiful stitching you have done for me and for all the extra things you sent for us to enjoy, you are very thoughtful and kind and we love it all :-)

What a brilliant start...

..to my New Year mail :) :) ALL of it to date has been so nice and exciting. I have been receiving some VERY unexpected Christmas treats from some wonderful blogging ladies.

This gift I have to show is a wonderful chart from Blackbird Designs, this is retired and pretty hard to get hold of. One of the nicest blogging ladies, my friend Debby, who lives in that faraway land of Texas in the US, knew that I was after it and decided to treat me for Christmas !! Whoo hoo I am so pleased and happy and you are such a sweetie :)




Now, I am going to show what a surprise I had arrive from Italy, my partner Claudia who I stitch for in our Seasonal Exchange wanted to send me a gift to say a thank-you. I have this cute Santa Mitt , a wonderful Italian designer chart and the most fab Italian JCS type Christmas Ornie magazine. It is not something I have seen or known of up to now and I have my eye on some ideas from it :) You really are very kind to do this Claudia , you didn't have to..... but I am sooo happy you did :-))




Next I have really been taken by surprise and didn't see this coming at all, not at all LOL . The very lovely Von has totally surprised me here :) (Can you tell ;-) LOL... I am repeating myself) Von is very clever as visitors to her blog will know and rather multi-talented, she made the pretty card as well as the Hardanger 'snowflakes' as I have christened them. They are just so tiny and perfect and really so pretty , my first Hardanger pieces...ever !! I shall certainly be treasuring these and will enjoy bringing them out every year.




And a little closer with a bit clearer picture :-))




Thank-you for your friendship to all of you, I know each of these gifts come from the heart and that means the world to me :) and for getting my year off to a great start xxx

My DD Amy has updated her little blog and is planning another posting over the weekend :)