Happy New Year

Hello friends,
Welcome to 2014!

We have been enjoying a slow few days since New Year's Eve, which has been lovely after the busy time over Christmas. We spent New Year's Day at the races, which was a wonderful day out, big crowds enjoying the first day of 2014, and so much for the kids to do.  I had a few small bets and made my money back, my Dad and Glenn did quite well too. There is a local racing meet coming up on the 12th January so we might take along a picnic lunch and spend the day there to celebrate my Dad's birthday.

I received some lovely crafty and handmade for Christmas from some of my friends - from Celeste, Wendy, Elizabeth and Janet:

From Kath, this beautiful runner made from the most perfect fabrics and a set of the new DMCs. Kath also gave me the Luminaries, a book by NZ author Eleanor Catton.

 
Clare made the gorgeous angel for me and a block roll, to fill up with this year's stitching projects.

My niece Zoe gave me her first sewing project, a plastic bag holder, she was so proud to have sewn it all on her own.

My gift from DH and Hannah  was something I'd been wishing for a long time:

Delicious, I've been having a lot of fun trying out the samples that came with it, working out which ones are my favourite.

I found one more ornament photo that I'd forgotten to share, this is the ornament I stitched for Clare:

This is my Joy - Little House Needleworks

I'll be back soon to share my last stitching finishes for 2013 and the first finish of the year.

See you soon x

Some 2013 Ornaments

Hello there

Here's the first batch of my 2013 ornaments finished and ready to be gifted before Christmas :)

Most of these have been stitched over recent months but it wasn't until just recently that I found some time to sit at my sewing machine for a decent sewing session.

As always, thanks so much taking the time to leave a comment or send me an email :)

See you soon x

Lately

Hello there

Hasn't the last week gone by fast and of course, now December is nearly here there's definitely no chance of the days slowing down!

I've been trying to fit in a bit of sewing whenever I can lately, even hand sewing during my lunch breaks at work. Over the past few months I've been working on some Christmas crafts here and there and now it's time to get them made up and popped into the pressie box.  

This is the ornament I chose to stitch for my lovely Mum, made into a hanging Christmas cracker.

Love Jingles Flip it by Lizzie Kate

stitched on 32 ct cream linen with recommended threads

These little angels, design by Rosalie Quinlan, were made up from the kit I purchased during our Auckland holiday:

Pretty quick and easy to make so I'd like to make a few more sometime.

Last weekend Hannah and I headed away for the weekend to Palmerston North to stay with family and do some Christmas shopping. As always, we had a wonderful time, lots of laughs, good food and company!

I love this photo of Hannah I snapped while we'd stopped for a cold drink and snack at one of the cafes, boy, did it get hot there over the weekend!

We spent lots of time with this lovely lady, my cousin Donna, and on Saturday evening we went for a walk through a new nature reserve being worked on just down the road from where Donna lives. This is going to be a beautiful spot in years to come once all the planting and walkways are completed.

Glenn had a great weekend too, he spent a couple of days with friends on a chartered fishing trip in the Marlborough Sounds, something he'd been wanting to do for a long time, and came home with lots of delicious fresh fish! 

See you soon x

Nordic Holiday ornaments

Hello there

This little set of Prairie Schooler ornaments were stitched during my October holiday break, and I've finally got around to making them into simple felt backed ornaments.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend!

See you soon x

Silent Night

Hello there

I've been stitching on the last of the 2013 ornaments for the Christmas pressie box over the past few days.

This ornament is for my niece Zoe.

Silent Night by Lizzie Kate

stitched with DMC threads, 32ct natural belfast

See you soon x

Gingermen

Hello there

At long last I've finally finished off these Gingermen!  From the cutting out, hand stitching, sewing by machine, then finishing with a bit of hand sewing, there was quite a process involved, lol.

These little gingermen are just so cute!  More little gifts for the Christmas pressie box.

Oh yes, the pattern for these can be found in the lovely Fa La La Felt book.  I bought my book from a New Zealand Quilting shop.

See you soon.

Love Birds

Hello there

Each year when the Just Cross Stitch ornaments magazine arrives in the mail, I sit down and write up a list of all my favourites, and then try to stitch one or two before Christmas rolls around! Usually one or two really jump out at me and this year, it was this pretty design:

Love Birds by Country Cottage Needleworks

stitched on 32ct light grey belfast using recommended threads

Soon this will be posted on its way to one of my friends in the UK.  

See you soon x

Christmas Trees

Hello there

As well as some of these, I've been making up several of these felt Christmas trees. These are for the little girls that Hannah goes to before and after school care with.

The patterns are from this lovely Fa la la Felt book, which is jam packed with lots of neat felt decorations. I decided to use red and white felt, rather than the pink and lime green in the book.

I learned a new embroidery stitch while I putting these together, glove stitch, pretty easy and it gives a tidy finish to your work.

See you soon x

Prairie Schooler Stitching

Hello there

Here's a couple of little finishes from during my holiday break, from the Nordic Holiday leaflet.

Such a lovely series, I'll definitely be stitching more of these.

Last night I started the first of the ornaments I liked from this year's Just Cross Stitch ornaments magazine, you'll never guess which one, Country Cottage Needlework's of course!

Have a fun weekend!

Lizzie Kate 2012 Ornaments

Hello there

My little holiday has now come to an end and it's been back to work today for DH and I, and Hannah, who has another week of school holidays, went off to her daycare. She couldn't get there fast enough this morning to see her little friends. We had a good break, spending a few days helping my parents move to their new house, and then it was time to take off for our family holiday, this year to Auckland and Taupo. If you follow me on Instagram, I shared a few of our holiday snaps there. I'll be back soon to share some here, and some stitching ones too, but in the meantime I'll leave you with these ornaments I finished before we went away on holiday.

I'd been wanting to stitch this little trio of Lizzie Kate designs since the pattern came out last year, not sure yet how I'll finish these yet :)

Flora McSample 2012 Ornaments by Lizzie Kate

stitched on 32ct mocha linen with recommended threads

See you soon x

Prairie Schooler Nordic Holiday Santa

Hello there

This little Santa was a quick stitch and I'd like to stitch a few more from this leaflet.

The thread colours I used were DMC 321 and 3816, not as bright as the colours recommended on the chart.

Which one should I pick next, they are all so nice!

Another August Ornament

Hello there

I'd been wanting to stitch this Blackbird Design stocking ever since it first came out - I love the pea pod green colour.

Merry Christmas by Blackbird Designs

stitched with mostly recommended threads, 32ct mocha linen

Now to pick out September's choices. 

See you soon x

Lately

Hello there

I've had a random assortment of finishes over the past week or so including two more of the LHN Sheep Virtue series:

Simplicity By Little House Needleworks

stitched with recommended threads, 30 ct Cocoa Linen by Weeks Dye Works

Faith by Little House Needleworks

stitched with recommended threads, 30ct Dark Chino linen by R&R

The first of August's ornaments:

This is my Joy by Little House Needleworks

stitched with GAST Country Redwood, 32ct cream linen 

Next up is the completed baby blanket, which I just need to block sometime:

Newborn Baby Blanket by Altadena Green

4mm circular needles, The Wool Company Utiku 8ply cream 400 grams

A little crochet hat for baby Milla:

Little Sister, pattern by Linda Permann found online here

Started last night is another baby blanket, this one is for my friend's baby girl due in December:

I've chosen a melon colour from the Cleckheaton Country Aran range for the middle of the blanket and cream for the outside border. It's so lovely and soft.  The pattern is from this book, which I bought after seeing it reviewed on Retromummy's blog a few months ago.

Earlier this week I picked up the lastest issues of Mollie Makes and Simply Crochet, which I look forward to reading over the weekend.

Hannah was so excited as Hairy Maclary came to stay with us for a few days.  Her school class recently celebrated Hairy Maclary's 30th birthday as a project and each student was able to take him home and then write a story about his stay.

Hairy Maclary loved his afternoon tea with Hannah, lol.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for your visit xx

July Ornaments

Hello there friends

A big thanks for all the wonderful comments on my recent posts - you guys are awesome!  And a very warm welcome to my new followers, hitting the 500 mark this week! Wow, that's so amazing, and I think a little thank you giveaway might be in order sometime soon :)

When I look back on this year's stitching it mostly consists of Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks or Blackbird Designs patterns - funny that, since they are all my favourites to stitch!  

So continuing the LHN theme, here are this month's ornaments:

Joy & Peace by Little House Needleworks

stitched on 32ct mocha belfast linen

recommended threads

Six Little Cardinals by Little House Needleworks

stitched on 32ct platinum belfast linen

recommended threads

I really hope to have a finishing session on these ornaments soon but DH has a bit of work going on in our house extension at the moment, meaning my usual spot for sewing, the dining room table, is covered with boxes and containers from Hannah's play room.

See you soon x

Next up and a finish

Hello there

I think this might be my next big project start. The other night I finished Country Cottage Needlework's Garden Girl (a pic to come as soon as the rain stops here and the light is decent enough) so thought it would be good replacement in the rotation I'm trying to stick too :)

These are the ornaments I've picked out to stitch during July.

Here's a quick finish from last weekend:

Merry & Bright by Country Cottage Needleworks

Just Cross Stitch Ornaments magazine 2010

stitched on 32ct linen using Andrea's colour changes

See you soon x

Lately

Hello friends, did you have a lovely weekend? We did - the sun was shining all weekend so I spent a bit of time outside in the garden, DH worked some more on our house extension and he's also made some new shelves for my sewing and stitching fabrics to go onto in our office/craft room, pictures to come soon. Hannah spent a bit of time with Nannie and Grandad, and we also enjoyed a lovely walk & scooter ride yesterday afternoon. 

As usual, I've got lots of crafty projects on the go at the moment so I've sorted out a weekly rotation so I get a little bit of time spent on them all.   

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings have been spent stitching on Christmas Garden, CCN's Garden Girl or Santa's Village, and LHN's Sheep Virtures.

I'm really pleased with my progress on Christmas Garden:

Wednesday nights have been set aside for stitchery projects and then over the weekend is when I stitch ornaments or other small designs. This is a recent finish:

Maison Rouges by Cathy Roy

Le Chalet des Perelles 

two free designs to choose from 

stitched with DMC 321, 32ct white belfast

I'm also trying to fit a bit of knitting in as I've been asked to make some handwarmers by some of the ladies my Mum works with.

As usual over the winter months, I've been reading a lot more and I love getting new books in the mail - these two arrived last week :)

Have a lovely week x

Ornament Stitching

Hello there

Every year I like to stitch a whole bunch of Christmas ornaments, which I give to my family and friends. I usually aim to stitch two or more every month but so far this year I've fallen a bit behind, I'm blaming the addictive Sheep Virtues and Santa's Village series!

Awhile ago I spent a few hours digging out some patterns and getting all the threads & fabrics ready  and this is the result.

From the top:
1. The Prairie Schooler, Freebie - Santa Rides
2. Reindeer from Lizzie Kate's Ting Tidings XVII
3. Sheepish Designs, from an old Just Cross Stitch magazine, unsure of the issue number
4. Freebie from a french site, sorry, can't remember where I found this one.
5. An Owly Christmas cross stitch by the Floss Box.
6. Freebie from Cosmic Handmade.

Now to find a few spare hours to finish them off!

See you soon x

Ornament Stitching

Hi friends

Many thanks for the wonderful comments left on my last few posts, and a big welcome to my new followers, it's lovely to have you here.

I finished making up these two ornaments recently for the annual ornament collection for family and friends 

Do you hear by Shepherds Bush, JCS 2012

stitched with recommended threads, 32ct linen

Christmas Robin by Soed Idee

freebie found here

stitched with own choice DMC threads, misc linen

I was so happy to have these charts arrive in the mail earlier in the week - guess what I'll be stitching on tonight!

Happy stitching x

Some finishing and other stuff

Hello friends

A few weeks ago I decided to get out my sewing machine and had an afternoon sewing session to make up some of the little projects I'd stitched this year so far. What a lovely time I had, matching up fabrics and trims, stuffing and hand sewing. 

Gingerbread Cookie by Little House Needleworks

A Stitcher's Heart by Little House Needleworks

There's one or two others but will reveal them a bit later in the week - it's a secret!

At the moment our tomatoes in the greenhouse have gone into overload and we have been picking an ice cream container every day!  I also picked the first of the peppers recently -yum!

Glenn and I are going to have a go at making some tomato relish this weekend - that will be interesting! This past weekend we had an attempt at bottling pickled onions, we both love them, now we have to wait three months to see how they've turned out!

We're still swimming most days - we've probably spent more time in our pool this summer then the past three summers combined.  Hannah's confidence in the water over the past few months has gone ahead in leaps and bounds, which is wonderful to see.

I couldn't resist showing this snap of Miss Poppy taken one hot day last week.  This particular spot on the stones is where you'll find her sprawled out, and quite often in the exact pose, during the heat of the day.

Thanks for your kind words. See you soon x