Tag: cross stitch

Simple Pleasures

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there

Hope that you are all having a nice weekend, I have been very busy with decorating since early this morning so have decided to have a nice sit down and do a post with a cup of tea before I go and cook.

Ellie has gone back to University – we helped her move in to her new house on Thursday and left her to unpack.She has got a bigger room this year which is good as she had a lot of stuff! It is a very nice house with a brand new kitchen (not at all like student digs in my day!) so I’m sure she will be very happy there.  

I had a good journey back just sitting stitching  another JBW Xmas ornie with a cup of tea, looking at the lovely views out of the train window now and again. It was a very lovely couple of hours and I really enjoyed it. I do love using trains, I’m sure that driving is very useful and I can see the advantages sometimes but I was very happy sitting and relaxing with my stitching and reading my book.I felt very peaceful and mellow, it was great!

I have treated myself this week to some new books that have been on my wish list on Amazon for a while so I thought that I would show you them (in the absence of any finished stitching – do have two Xmas ornie WIPs which should be done soon!) I do love reading – again another one of my fave things to do and am very sad that the book below is the last in the series at the moment. I started reading the Elm Creek Quilt series  last year on the recommendation of a friend from knitting and I love them, they are a wonderful mix of quilting patterns, history and the story of the women who make the quilts.

New Quilt book Sept

This book as you have probably guessed is about the American Civil war and picks up the stories of the lives of some of the quilters in earlier books such as The Sugar Camp quilt and The Lost Quilter. I really hope that there are more planned for the future!

My other great pleasure is of course finding out more about the history of needlework and this is a book I have had on my wishlist for a long time, I noticed last week that there was a very cheap second – hand copy for sale so snapped it up. The book is a history of American Needlework written by Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ fame. It was Rose who encouraged Laura to write all her books, being a successful author herself and I can’t wait to get some time to study this in more depth.

Needlework Book 1

Here is just a little taste of the lovely stuff inside, some red embroidery, traditional patchwork blocks and an applique quilt from the Brooklyn Museum.

Needlework Book 4

Needlework book 3

Needlework Book 2

I have also treated myself to some new JBW patterns  from Sew and So  – yet more little Xmas ornies! I love these as they are so quick to stitch.

New JBW Sept

My last treat is some new silk thread from The Silk Mill  to stitch all these ornies with – an Xmas colour pack and some extra greens as they are having a 35% off sale until the 5th Sept – to good to miss. That has not arrived yet but will take a pic of it when it does for you so you can admire the silky loveliness!

Well I do hope you all have a lovely week ahead, we are gearing up for the start of a new term with Jake back at college this week, my new students will arrive the week after so it will be all go then, no time for being mellow but I will try to factor in lots and lots of stitching time!

Thanks for visiting.

A little finish and some wonderful quilts

stitchesoftime4 Comments

I have finally got around to completing the little pillow I have made for my friend who has had a baby girl recently. The pattern is again a JBW one, called Teddy Bear  – they have cute patterns for all events and seasons not just Xmas ones. I get these mail order from Sew and Sew. I backed the pillow with some of the fabric that I had in my stash left over from my bunny quilt and at the Birmingham Quilt Show I was able to find these very cute buttons which go so well with the design. I don’t know if you can see from the pic below but there is a rocking horse (just above the K) and a pram (to the left of the horse) actually in the design so I thought they were perfect for it.

Baby pillow

As I mentioned Ellie and I had our first visit to the wonderful Birmingham International Festival of Quilts a couple of weeks ago as part of a coach trip with our group. One day was not really long enough at all but if I had gone for longer I would have been so tempted to spend more! Here is a small selection of some of the lovely things we saw – made into a slide show again with my new toy Smilebox.

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More Glamping

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there

You may remember last year I did a couple of posts on the art of glamorous camping or glamping – well we have been adding to our stock of glamping gear and have just spent a lovely weekend at the Tribfest Music Festival  in North Yorkshire where we had a very sunny and enjoyable weekend listening to lots of different tribute bands. My absolute faves were the Take That tribute band ‘Back for Good’  on Saturday night, I have never seen the real group but these were excellent and I very much enjoyed myself.

We had very good facilities again including the most glamping portaloos ever – of course they still got smelly but this is what they looked like. Sinks and mirrors and pretty pictures on the wall! And inside were real flushing toilets with wooden seats and everything!

Glamping 1

My sister bought me some new glamping accessories for my birthday – some wine glass holders that you can use in a  field. You just push it into the ground and it provides a very stable holder for your tipple! You may remember that I have previously posted on the little accessories we have for our drinking round the campfire and these are very lovely for when I do not have my little wine glass table. She bought them while on holiday earlier on in the summer, sorry I do not know where from. Here is Ellie modelling them for me while pouring me a little pre-mixed G and T on Friday night while getting ready to have a BBQ.

Glamping 3

As befits a sophisticated festival there were lots of lovely outfits and some wonderful fancy dress – one of my faves was the Alice Cooper lookalike on Friday night – you can just see him in the middle of this pic, complete with plastic snake!

Glamping 2

I am just about to buy a new tent for next year on the grounds that they are all reduced at the moment, the one we have had for the last 3 years, a Vango Tamor 500, has been great but is starting to show signs of wear and there are a couple of split poles that we have had to patch so we are going to keep that as a reserve, festival tent that kids can use (as in I don’t mind if it comes back even worse for wear) and get another Vango, this time the Icarus 500 which is an updated version. These are great tents for us as they are light weight for taking on the train, sleep 5 so plenty of room for us and all our kit and also have really good bedroom heights so that we can hang our re-enactment clothes up and get dressed in comfort.

I managed to get a good pic of the Seasonal exchange I got when I came back from Spain which was this lovely flower pillow from Lynn. I have put some ribbon on it so that I can hang it with the others in the dining room.

spring ornie from Lynn

Have not got any other finishes to show – things have been very slow around here what with all the being away and we are away again this weekend at Bolsover Castle  for our last re-enactment show of the year.

Hope you all have a lovely week and I will be back again next week with hopefully more pics of sunny camping!

Thanks for visiting.

Lovely life!

stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello there and I hope that you are all well and happy. We have just got back home from a very lovely day out – my very first trip to the Birmingham Quilt Show which was very good. I went on a coach trip with Ellie and my quilt group and when I have sorted out the pics will post them. I was very restrained and stuck to my shopping list of practical items to finish existing projects plus a very small bit of Xmas fabric (well you have to don’t you – it all needs a good home and I will probably be in China in November when the Harrogate show is on so have to stock up 😉 ).

We have been in Spain all week, lucky us, enjoying very hot weather which meant that little could be done except go to the pool or beach, read and stitch on the terrace. I have nearly completed another little stitched Xmas ornie for me (very appropriate stitching when it is 36 degrees outside!) and have been working on a baby gift as well. We did of course see the family including the recipient of our handmade gifts who I am pleased to say really liked them. Here is Anna-Mae with the cat that Ellen made her and playing with her farm quilt.

Spain - Anna-Mae cat

Spain - Anna - Mae quilt

She is so gorgeous and was a delight to watch playing with the animals and helping ‘Great Nana’ open her presents from us as well. Nana was 99 a few weeks ago and is looking forward to her 100th birthday celebrations as she just had a little party this time!

Spain - Anna- Mae Nana

We also went out for some very nice meals including a Spanish restaurant near our house which we had not tried before that had a very good ‘menu del dia’,  3 lovely courses including a half bottle of wine for 10 euros – Ellie was very impressed with the wine carafe!

Spain - Ellie wine

The flight back was brilliant, there were clear skies till halfway across France which meant I had some wonderful views and was able to get some very nice pics for the Scavenger Hunt which I will post at the end of the month. Here is the view as we left Alicante.

Spain - from air 1

And of course it wouldn’t be one of my Spain posts without a cactus pic now would it! This is variety I have not seen before which looked like little cabbages on stalks.

Spain - Aug cactus 2

And this is a palm tree waving in the wind as we waited for the bus to the beach.

Spain - palm tree

While we were away my Summer Exchange  partner got her stitched piece from me and I had a lovely little pillow from my partner in the US. I have not had any good light yet to take a pic of the pillow but here is the pin and scissor keep I sent to Gaby  in Germany.

Summer Exchange piece front

Summer Exchange piece back

This is a freebie design from The Workbasket website  called Quaker Tree which I have stitched before – again done on sparkly evenweave with Silk Mill thread. The backing fabric I bought from one of the women at quilt group who has a fabric shop and I had the ribbon already in my stash, the ribbon is stitched on to the top of the little pocket that holds the scissors. Charms as before from Stitch Direct.

Well I have a nice quiet week ahead so I am looking forward to some finishing off of stitched items including the large pile of Xmas ornie hearts I have on my coffee table! We are away next weekend and the following one so I am making the most of this time. Hope you are having a nice time wherever you are. Thank you for visiting.

Unseasonal Stitching

stitchesoftime3 Comments

Hello there

It has been a very busy week for me – work wise, family wise and crafting wise. We have got a lot done this week – am spending most of the next couple of weeks at work finishing off the marking and admin for this year’s group of students and starting the planning for next year so we shall be busy before we go away on holiday.

 Jake has been very busy with his assignments as he finishes college next week – he has been doing some very impressive 3D modelling as part of his Games Design course. We went to Teeside University Open Day this week to look at a Games Design degree for him and this week are going to Newcastle for their Open Day – all very exciting stuff!

Ellie and I have been doing lots of crafting – she has been doing it all week (lucky thing!) but I have only been doing bits evenings and weekends but we have both had a very productive weekend. This is what Ellie finished off this week. The cat is a present for one of the family babies and the bags are for friends of hers, aren’t they lovely – especially the glasses case in the last picture.

The pattern ideas all come from the Cath Kidston Sew book I bought her for her birthday but she has adapted most of them. She is now working on a pile of very cute pincushions from the same book – pics to follow!

Ellen's knitted cat 

Ellen's bag

Glasses case

I have been mainly finishing and making Xmas ornies this week – hence the title of this post though it has not been very summery weather until today when it was scorching hot so it did seem a little strange in my very warm conservatory with all the doors open putting together Christmas fabric.

The first two pics are stitching finishes – one of the latest in my JBW ornie  series with a cute little tree and the other reindeer ornie was a cross stitch mag freebie that Ellie stitched a while ago that I have turned into an ornie.

June Xmas ornies

June Xmas ornies 2

Both of the backing fabrics for the above ornies were purchases from the recent Malvern Quilt Show and are from Makower’s  current Xmas fabric range – I am very pleased with the way that the reindeer ornie matches the backing fabric – as if they had been made for each other!

I have started working on my stock for Xmas craft fairs this year – using the same ideas as I did for all the little patchwork trees last year. This time I am doing some hanging ornies. I have used the same technique of a backing fabric with Bondaweb ironed on and then lots of fabric scraps crazy patchworked on. I have then zig zag stitched all the joins then I cut out the shapes.

I have done a set of hearts this weekend and I think that they look very cute when finished with one of my little brass charms. The pics below show the cut outs with the ‘Merry Christmas’ backing fabric I have used with a couple of finished hearts and a close up of one of the hearts.

Xmas hearts 1

Xmas hearts 2

Well it is late now and I have a busy week ahead so will have to say bye for now – thanks as always for visiting and have a lovely week!

And relax ………..

stitchesoftime1 Comment

I have just come back from a great week in Spain , I went this time with my lovely friend Kerry who very much enjoyed herself and it is now the end of term so after this week no more teaching . Hopefully I am set for a mellow summer – a lot of marking to be done but I am very much looking forward to the next few months. That is the very nice thing about my job that it is quiet during the best times of the year so that I can get my work – life balance better when the evenings are lighter and the weather nice (though we did return to good old Yorkshire rain which looks set in for the rest of the week!)

Very little crafting was done this week though I did manage to finish a square for Knit in Public Day on Saturday. Lydia from Spun yarn shop  here in Huddersfield is having a Knit and Natter on Saturday to sew all of the squares together to make charity blankets – sadly I can’t go as I am teaching but Ellie is going and she has made some squares as well.

Here is mine – the pattern is Moss Stich Diamonds from my Knitters’ Bible book in some left over Sublime yarn.

And these are Ellie’s in garter stitch made from Escape – a lovely variegated wool.

Knitted square 2

I have also finished another Xmas ornie – a little JBW tree  from the Christmas Keepsakes 2 chart from Sew and So that I have backed with pretty red tree fabric, this one I have added seed beads to as well on the tree and all around the edging.

JBW tree ornie 1

JBW tree ornie 2

Ellie was busy while I was away – she has used her birthday pressies to make the gorgeous Cath Kidston bag that came with her Sew  book and to make some other little bags as well for herself and friends. She says that she is having trouble the straight lines with her quilt but she has made a very good job of the bag – I love the button detail on the side.

Ellen's CK bag

Ellie CK bag detail

Ellen's toilet bag

Now that I have the batting I am planning to finish off the throws for the sofa soon and am still cracking on with Xmas ornies. Am having a little problem with the pattern for the pink Sublime baby cardi so that is on hold till I can find a correction for the pattern as the instructions for the left front make no sense at all!

I will leave you with a few pics from Spain, the cactuses that I took pics of the last time I went have flowered and here is a lovely door in Oriheula at the cathedral – I could have saved this for the ‘architectural detail’  pic for this month’s scavenger hunt  but have many lovely other Oriheula pics to choose from.

Spain cactus 3

Spain cactus 4

Spain Oriheula door

We went back to the park in Guardamar where we saw some cute little red squirrels and this time I took some bread for them. They were very tame, here is one letting me feed him with pieces from my hand and a close up of him later playing on a tree.

Spain - squirrel 1

Spain squirrel 2

Hope that you have had a lovely week and are gearing up to Summer. Thanks as always for visiting.

Never too early for Xmas crafting!

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hope everyone has had a nice week. I have been getting on well with my Xmas ornie targets for this year – I am aiming to make one new ornie for me a month as well as the usual present ornies and stock for at least one Xmas craft fair. So I will be starting that stock as soon as term finishes at the end of May and I have a bit more time.

So far for me I have finished three JBW stockings (plus a blue one to hang on the conservatory door) and this week completed the JBW Xmas pudding ornie and another one which is taken from a bigger design using blackwork of ivy leaves from one of my old New Stitches magazines. I have made the ivy leaf ornie before for my Project Nepal fundraising but want to re-make a lot of past ornies just for me and this was my demo piece at last week’s WI craft bee. They are both backed with some nice holly fabric from my stash and the pudding one has a great stocking ribbon that I got at the Harrogate show last year.

Xmas ivy ornie

                        Xmas ivy ornie 2

Xmas pud ornie

Xmas pud ornie 2

Xmas pud ornie ribbon

I am now working on a JBW tree ornie for me. I have put together all of the blocks for my stained glass window Xmas fabric throw with the sashing and this afternoon will do the border which is pieced from all the Xmas fabric used and the backing. Hopefully that will be finished this afternoon as I have been very good and got up early to do the housework and spring clean the cellar!

stained glass window quilt top

I am very pleased with the way that it has turned out – I did have a bit of a challenge with the outer sashing as I discovered that the bottom row of blocks were quite a bit smaller than the top row (my inaccurate cutting!) so I had to stretch that row to make it fit but it turned out ok. With the left over block I am going to make a cushion in the same style and have cut out single pieces for a matching cushion. I have also got lots of odd rectangles from cutting the border so thought I would make a small runner for the coffee table so that my room can be very co-ordinated this Xmas.

We had a bit of a show and tell of all the different blocks on Monday at Quilt Group. This is a pic of Davina’s blocks that I took at the workshop which just shows how different the choice of fabric and sashing colour can make the quilt look.

May - Davina's quilt blocks

If you go and visit Davina’s blog  you can see the pic she took of the original stained glass pattern with solids and black sashing.

I have had a very nice week, very busy at work but I have had a few trips out to visit my students which is always lovely. On Monday I went ‘over the border’ to Nelson in Lancashire. It was a  lovely train journey through very beautiful countryside, this is a very historic area  full of beautiful hills and moors and lots of industrial heritage – mainly dating from the Victorian era when all the mills were built.  Here are a few pics to share with you – the first two are taken at  Hebden Bridge station, then there is a view of the hills from the train and the flower was near the college I was visiting.

Hebden station

Hebden clock

Hebden view

Hebden flower

I hope you have all a nice week ahead. I am very much looking forward to next week as I am going down to visit Ellie in Worcester and we are going to the Malvern Quilt Show ! There may well be some additions to the stash (it would be a shame if there weren’t!) and then I am helping Ellie bring all her stuff back up as she is coming here for the summer this year which is lovely as we can do lots of crafting together.

Thanks for visiting.

Cross stitch and cactus

stitchesoftime5 Comments

Hello everyone,  have just got back from seeing my wonderful Mum in Spain who was 70 on Monday. Here she is the day before with her very tall and a bit windswept grandson, my lovely Jake .We had a day out with a boat trip to an island just off the coast where I indulged with lots of pretty pics – some which I shall reveal in the April Photo Scavenger Hunt post in a couple of weeks.

Spain - Jake and Granny
On the island of Tabarca

 She had a lovely birthday and appreciated her presents which were a new camera, wool and these wristwarmers which you may remember from a while ago. I also introduced her to the delights of Ravelry so that she can get some lovely patterns to use up all the wool!

Spain wristwarmer
She is a lovely hand model!
 Her friend Eileen had stitched her this  card for her birthday – isn’t this great?
Spain 70 card
The birthday card

I spent a lot of the week knitting and reading my fab Benni Harper quilt mystery books – have finished four this week and am loving them. I am also making good progress on the pink Sublime baby cardi though the eyelets are still proving to be a challenge – have had to abandon the stitch markers as I was doing something peculiar with them which meant I was making holes!

Had great fun with my camera again taking some more pics of the local flora and fauna – look at these wonderful cactus flowers.

Spain cactus1

Spain cactus 2

We are off for the weekend to do our first re-enactment show of the year at Bolsover castle so I am really looking forward to that, the weather forecast is very good for the weekend and  I am really, really looking forward to camping, the first of many this year. I have had four barbeques this week (3 in Spain and 1 here) so am definitely in Summer mood now!

I hope that you have a very lovely weekend and a very Happy Easter to you all – just remember that chocolate is definitely one of your five a day as it is a bean which is of course a vegetable! Thanks for visiting.

Another day, another dollar

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I have been working lots this week including teaching on Saturday so have not had as much time for crafting as I hoped and only made one of the three knitting sessions that I had planned. However it has been a very nice week – I have been out and about observing my students teaching which has been very interesting. I consider myself very lucky to have a lovely job that I enjoy and hopefully it will continue – massive cuts in government funding ahead so who knows!

I have made pretty good progress with the hat – I am making this out of the same James Brett marble chunky that I used for my wristwarmers knitted over Xmas. I thought maybe I wouldn’t get the wear out of it being so late in the year for hats but it has been very much blowing a gale this week so I have been very cold when out and about so will be glad of it. Some parts of the UK have had snow but luckily not us – yet! Though snow at Easter is not unheard of in Yorkshire. The pattern is another freebie from Ravelry called Springtime Sloppy Beret  and has a lacy pattern on the main body of the hat. I might try the same pattern for a scarf and put some fringes on each end as well.

Red chunky hat
The variegated wool looks good on this longer repeat

I have also finished another one of the JBW Xmas Stocking ornies for my tree – this has yet to be made up but I am doing ok so far with my one a month – though this is actually Feb’s ornament as it was started then so will have to get cracking on March’s one. Thinking of doing the Xmas pudding one next. Have also just signed up again for the Seasonal Exchange Blog   Spring exchange (missed the Winter one due to slackness on my part of checking blog) so will have to have a think about what to do for that.

JBW stocking
Look at all the pretty little trees!

I would like to share with you a blog I have just recently found – this is not a crafting blog but a gardening one and belongs to Dave who is the brother of one of my old friends Pete. Pete posted the link on Facebook and I read all of his old posts last night and loved it. He has a brilliant and very funny writing style and the photography is amazing. He is a professional gardener who mainly works at a Tudor Priory in Sussex. The blog is called The Anxious Gardener  so do go and have a read.

Well here’s hoping we all have a nice week ahead,  I have a very nice weekend planned at the end of it – a sewing day on Saturday with the quilt group (might finally get the bunny quilt cut out!) and a sewing day with the girls from the medieval group on Sunday. Am trying to give up housework for Lent so have to find distractions to stop me being tempted!

Thank you very much as always for visiting.

Snowflakes!

stitchesoftime5 Comments
Snowflake ornie front
A little snowy scene

No this time not real ones thankfully – we having lots of wet rather than snow at the moment. I have just finished the first of my winter ornies for my ‘decorate my house collection’. I have adapted the JBW stocking design that I did in red for the Xmas tree and made it into a little hanging pillow to complement the snowflake stickers on the conservatory doors.

Snowflake ornie back
Nice sparkly fabric to go with the sparkly Aida on the front

I chose to stitch it in two different Silk Mill blues to go with some very lovely fabric that I have had in my stash for a couple of  years. I am pleased with the way it turned out though could have made it a little bigger as it is not that obvious that it is a stocking shape as the edges got hidden once I stuffed it. However I do love the way it co-ordinates with the ribbon (that again has been in the stash for a while).

Snowflake ornie side
Pretty little ribbon!

I have also finished the set of Lilac Sublime Wristwarmers and am half way through a pair for me. This was the second attempt at these. They are from Ravelry – a free pattern called Blonde Wristwarmers. The original pattern had garter stitch for the main part and I changed that to stocking stitch but when I  had finished the first one it was too loose around the wrist so I re-did it on smaller needles and added a 6 stitch garter stitch band at the wrist edge – because the whole thing is knitted sideways it acts like a rib. I also shortened them. My finished pair was knitted with 30 stitches on 3.5 mm needles with the last 6 stitches on alternate rows as knit rather than purl if you want to adapt the pattern as I have done.

lilac handwarmers 1
The real colour is much prettier - this looks a bit dull

 

lilac handwarmers 2
A side view – I like the garter stitch rib as it goes well with the lace pattern at the fingers

 

I am very pleased that I managed to adapt the pattern so much and to re-do it. I have got a lot more confident with my knitting and now understand more of the technical side which makes it easier to visualise what a pattern will look like. I particularly like the points or waves at the wrist on these and think I will be knitting a few more of these.

When I get time that is – term has started again and I have been ridiculously busy – I have been working all weekend (which I really try not to do but I have a large pile of marking to get done!) I did make my evening knitting group this month but only for 3/4 hour due to having to work late and have not made any of my other groups for ages 😦  Thankfully I really enjoy my job and have a great time doing it but do wish it left more time for crafting. My new quilt cutting mat and ruler arrived on Thurs but I have not had time to play with them yet – maybe next weekend.

Well I do hope you have all had a good week and thanks for visiting.