End of March

Hello friends, before the start of another month, here are a few completely finished stitching projects that I haven't shared here yet.

This sweet little design is by Cathy of Hands on Designs -you can find a blog post all about it here.

I used a small piece of Weeks Dye Works gun metal linen with most of the recommended threads, some pretty Tilda fabric for the back and Lady Dot Creates chenille trim, Brickhouse, for the edging.

Next up is Merry Christmas by Pineberry Lane. 

For this one, I used Lady Dot Creates mini pom pom trim, Vintage.

What else do I have for today? My book piles - all of these books I thoroughly enjoyed.

February:

and March:

More beautiful dahlias from the gardens at work, they have been prolific this year and absolutely gorgeous. 

Our greenhouse tomatoes are slowly winding down but the one cherry tomato plant we planted in the middle of the garden went crackers and I have picked 100's over the past few weeks - they've been given out at my work, my Mum's work and to our neighbours.  I've also been making roasted tomato sauce to go into the freezer most weeks.

I can't believe it's nearly April and not long now until the Easter break and school holidays for Hannah. We're hoping for some fine weather to get some gardening work done at home and maybe a trip out to the beach in the campervan. We've also got a little mini break to look forward to with friends at the end of April.

Stitching plans for April include a small bit of Easter stitching, 3 Christmas ornaments and more progress on some sampler projects from 2020 and 2021.  I've also got an order coming of some newly released charts from Nashville market - I'm sure one or two of them will make their way into my stitching basket!  Last week the last two kits from the Silver Needle's Friends Stitching Circle arrived and they are both lovely , pics to come.  

See you soon x

This Week

The days seem to be flying by at the moment - my work days are busy as we navigate operating our community service in the RED Traffic light setting for the Omicron outbreak, Glenn has lots of different projects on the go as usual at our house and also, helping his Dad with some of his new house jobs, as he hasn't been in the best of health this year so far but is on the mend. Hannah has settled well into high school life and this past weekend was fitted for ballet pointe shoes, which was very exciting for her and lots of $$ for us!

One of my work goals this year is "to not eat lunch at my desk and have a break" so I've chosen a stitching project, the Little Deeds Sampler, to take to work.  I took this photo last week and it's surprising to see the progress I've made in a few days, even if I just stitch for 15 minutes.

I have a couple more finishes to share from the projects I started in December: 

This was a lovely stitch and I used most of the recommended threads, unsure of the fabric type.

FFO - this is Merry Christmas by Blackbird Designs, I really love the colour of threads in this design.

I stitched this design on 36 count vintage mocha linen and used some Lady Dot Creates rick rack for the edging.

This past weekend was the Art Deco celebration in Napier, although it was greatly down sized to accommodate the current Covid restrictions.  Our little town hosted a Farmer's Market and it was a lovely sunny morning to browse the stalls, and check out all the interesting items for sale.  

Our little vegetable garden is going well, one cherry tomato plant is producing containers and containers every week! The capsicum plants are doing well too.

This Cashew and Coconut slice is a new favourite of ours - so moreish!  You can find the recipe here if you'd like to give it a try.

See you soon xx

Friday Finishing

My sewing machine is back out for 2021 and first up, some recent finishes, made into simple pillows.

 

Merry and Minty, a free design offered by Brenda Gervais in December 2020.

Merry & Bright, by Pineberry Lane. This can be purchased from the Pineberry Lane website in PDF file.

 

I've got a little pile of stitched things from last year to finish so I'll try and make a dent on this over the next few weeks. 

See you soon x

 

This Week

Just like that, it's February! We have a long weekend coming up so we're heading to the beach for our last stay there of the summer. I'm looking forward to some chilled out days and I've packed plenty of stitching, including a new project to work on.

Last week I was happy to see Sew by Row by Lori Holt had been released as a PDF chart. I found a piece of 28 count ice blue Lugana in my stash and I'm going to use the suggested DMC threads. This will be a fun design to stitch.

 

I forgot to share this little finish the other day, Merry and Bright by Pineberry Lane. I stitched on this during my summer break. I used most of the recommended threads and the fabric is 36 count Light Examplar I think?

The new school year started for Hannah this week and her usual activities are underway again - swim squad, dance classes, orchestra, etc. Year 8 this year and off to high school next year, where have the years gone?

See you soon xx

 

 

On the Go

I stitched the very last of my 2020 Christmas ornaments last night, well I think it is, I need to do a count up this weekend, ha ha. Then I have a pile of finishing to do! 

I have so many projects lined up to get more stitching done on, or to start, and I'm also going to participate in the Jolly Housewives SAL with Kimberly from the Fat Quarter Shop and Priscilla and Chelsea. I've got several of the Stitching with the Housewives designs printed off ready to go, and I also thought I might squeeze in a couple of the charts I didn't get to during Jolly July.

But my first new start is going to be this lovely chart by Pineberry Lane, Merry & Bright. I was so happy last week to see it was available on the Pineberry Lane website, it can now be purchased as a pdf, after being a club exclusive design for the past year.

I've been trying to get few rows in every week on the cosy stripe blanket, the colours are so vibrant.

I'm up to the very last part on Jack Frost Tree Farm series, started at the end of 2019, I am really hoping to have it stitched by the end of this month.

This super cute and sparkly needle minder was sent to me recently by Deanna of Cherryhill Stitchery, isn't it gorgeous.

Recently I decided to restart Blessed Bee, which was one of my Stitchmaynia starts. I'm much happier with the 32 count fabric, vintage mocha belfast.

How's your Christmas gift stitching going, if you do any, or have you started any new projects lately? 

See you soon x

Tea Kettle Pinkeep

My dear friend Clare recently celebrated her birthday so when I came across this chart I knew it would be perfect - it's the Tea Kettle Pinkeep by Pineberry Lane.  

I purchase all my Pineberry Lane charts as e-patterns directly from Pineberry Lane - instant gratification!

Stitched on 30 count parchment linen using Red Pear thread by Weeks Dye Works, I trimmed the pin keep with some Lady Dot Creations chenille trim, vintage colour way & backed it with some lovely red fabric.

I also attached one of the little charms my friend Kath gave me for Christmas.

See you soon xx

Last Week's Stitchmaynia

For my second week of Stitchmaynia, I worked on several new projects as well as adding a few stitches to my Wips.  Over a couple of nights I also made some progress on the Cosy Stripe crochet blanket, Hannah's socks and the baby blanket I started a few months ago.

So first up, newly started Merry & Bright by Country Cottage Needleworks :

A few more stitches on Birds and the Bees:

Working on the border of Merrily Merrily We Welcome Spring:

New start for #merrymondayxs, Be Merry snippet by Lizzie Kate

O Tannebaum by Pineberry Lane for #santasundayxs

I had a quiet Sunday afternoon at home in front of the fire catching up on some of my fav TV shows from during the week so I decided to start The Stitching Bee by Little House Needleworks.

This is the latest club kit from the Silver Needle's Friends Stitching circle. Isn't the needle minder gorgeous?

See you soon xx

Merry Christmas 2018 xx

Merry Christmas dear friends,

I hope you have a fun filled Christmas with lots of love and laughter.

Thank you for your friendship this year, and for stopping by here, all your comments really mean a lot to me and I look forward to sharing my stitching with you during 2019.

Take care, and safe travels too if you are going to be out and about. All the best for the festive season and I hope that Santa is very kind to you!

Pineberry Lane, new fabric and latest reads

This little design by Pineberry Lane was quick stitch one night last week.  I have stitched this design before with red thread and this time I went with DMC 501 on natural belfast linen.

This ornament will be soon making it's way to Australia as it's for a friend's little grand daughter.

On my travels earlier in the month I picked up some new Christmas fabrics and I already have plans for these!

The fabrics were purchased at Spotlight and Cottage Flair. The whimsical Alice in Wonderland will make a great knitting project bag.

A couple of newly released books arrived in at my local library and both of these I enjoyed.

Read any good books lately? 

See you soon xx