Nothing Much

Nothing happening to the right....

Nothing happening to the left....

Nothing happening straight ahead....

Nothing much happened here today.

Hope your day was more exciting.

Sunday Afternoon

Sunday Afternoon Snack

Sunday Afternoon Cuddle

Sunday Afternoon Nap

Sunday Afternoon Stitching

How was your Sunday Afternoon?

Teacup Pincushion 2

"Needles & Pins"

Designer: Maria Diaz

Stitched on 28ct Off White Cashel Linen

DMC threads

You might remember my Teacup Pincushion here:

My Teacup

which I stitched a few weeks ago. Since then I've already had quite a bit of interest from friends wanting me to stitch one for them. Last week I visited a friend who has just undergone major surgery and I noticed she had lots of lovely teacups in her display cabinet. This one used to belong to her mother. It's the Royal Albert "Moss Rose" design.

Maria Diaz original design worked just perfectly with this teacup and I was able to use all the recommended DMC colours for it.

I'm really enjoying stitching these little teacups. They are so quick and easy to make and the finished product looks just gorgeous. This one took me just three hours to stitch last night.

Stitched on 18ct Black Aida

DMC and Anchor threads assorted.

Design name: Unknown

Designer: Lakkana Jones for The Weekly

Circa: 1960-1970s

This unnamed cross-stitch was one I stitched many many years ago. It's a vintage pattern that I remember finding amongst my mothers sewing things when I was a young girl. I still have the pattern on a very old black and white photocopied piece of paper and all it says is that it was a Handmade Tapestry to stitch. I though turned it into a cross-stitch and chose my own colours. It was stitched on 18ct black Aida and used a variety of DMC and Anchor threads that I had available at the time.

It reminded me today of one of Nurdans' from Nurdan Kanbers' Workshop lovely original pieces. She always designs her own cross-stitch work and I eagerly look forward to reading her blog and seeing what she has been stitching. She never disappoints with her very original designs.  

Look at me! Look at me!

LOOK AT ME!!!!!!

Cavalier Slippers

It's Winter here and it's turning cold. But who needs slippers when you have two furry friends to keep your feet warm.

My Teacup

"Needles & Pins"

Designer: Maria Diaz

Stitched on 28ct Off White Cashel Linen

DMC threads

This was my favourite little teacup that I've had almost as long as we've been married. I accidently dropped it from the drain tray on the kitchen sink a few weeks back and it developed a very fine hairline crack inside - not terribly noticeable but enough that I don't feel safe drinking from it anymore in case it splits while I'm having my hot cup of tea. I was so reluctant to throw it away that it just sat on the kitchen bench for three weeks until I stumbled on a lovely idea to repurpose it.

A new era in cross-stitching for me was when yesterday I downloaded a few different cross-stitch magazines onto my iPad including

Britain's No.1 Cross Stitcher

with it's free sample magazine Issue 243 from September 2011.

As I leafed through all the lovely designs to stitch and contemplating the easability of stitching from a pattern directly from the iPad I was so delighted to find this design on page 9

"Needles & Pins"

The original design is stitched using pinks and blues but I adapted it to suit my own teacup using yellows instead of the blues for the smaller flowers.

Here is Maria Diaz' original design that I worked from.

Where is Sara? Can anyone help?

A very dear friend of mine owns this gorgeous Royal Doulton 'Lady Sara' figurine. She also has a beautiful painting of her. I would love to do Sara in cross stitch for my friend. I recently saw some Royal Doulton cross-stitch designs on Ebay and found Sara but missed out on her. So I know she is out there..... somewhere.....

Here is cross-stitch Sara in Red. I found her on Google images but the link was from 2009 and I can't find anyone who still stocks this pattern. If anyone knows where I could source the pattern and then I could adapt her to the blue/pink colouring I would be really appreciate it.

This lovely lady is Royal Doulton "Take Me Home." This elusive little lady is one I am searching for. I've seen her on Ebay a few times now but have always missed out on winning her.

Any guesses why I would love this one????

Sam and Peeps

Sam and Peeps

"Windy Day"

Genny Haines Collection

Goldleaf Needlework Kit

Stitched on 14ct blue Aida

Finished Sam last night. This one is for our 'Little Miss'. She wants me to make it into a small cushion for her bedroom.

I reframed 'Home of a Needleworker'

I picked up this timber shelf from Bunnings Warehouse and my DH painted it for me to store my button collection jars. At the moment it's sitting on the sewing table but not sure yet if I might want to mount it on the wall so that my work surface isn't cluttered up.

.... or maybe it would look better here next to my WIP box where I sit and do my stitching.

'Oola Lah'

Semco bookmark kit purchased from Spotlight

Lastly for today sharing my Little Miss's latest finish. She is getting faster. Last night she started on her first bigger piece. Ssshhhh I think it's something for me, but don't tell her I told you I know.

Latest Creations

This week I finished my first Little House Needleworks sampler

"Home of a Needleworker Too"

Fabric: 28ct Beige Quaker Cloth

Threads: From my own stash of Semco, Anchor and DMC threads.

I really loved working this piece for several reasons. Firstly, it was quick!!! I finished it over two weekends which is a record for me. I love the colours and found this gorgeous frame which was just the right size. I'm going to hang it over my sewing table.

By the way - don't look too closely at my framing attempt. After taking the photo I realize how awful it looks. It's coming out tomorrow morning to reframe it. I was just too eager and excited to share it with you. I shouldn't do that. A badly framed piece really detracts from all our hard work stitiching it in the first place. I hope you'll forgive me this time. Promise I will fix it and repost a better photo in daylight. In fact I loved stitching this piece so much that I'm going to make another one in a different colour for the house for one of my crafting friends, maybe change the wording to Home of a Crafty Chick and perhaps change the little black bird to an Australian Crimson Rosella instead. What do you think?

So where do you store your WIPs so they are easily accessible to your stitching area? I've tried various different locations and storage containers or sewing bags or baskets over the years. This year I decided to store them in the loungeroom in this lovely cardboard box from the bargain store.

It's big enough to hold all my WIPs, threads, scissors, needles, fabric etc... but tends to get a bit heavy when I'm sitting to just reach in and take out what I need. These are my current WIPs - another LHN design I want to stitch soon - "The Family Sampler"; my "Weekend A Paris" by Gold Collection (which I must admit I am a bit bored with lately. I finished the lovely elegant lady and now all that beige stitching is sort of all over the place and it kind of annoys me when it does that. Having to jump from 3 stitches here of one colour and then 4 of another colour, then back to the first colour etc... Does anyone else suffer from stitching detail boredom at times? I guess that's what I loved about the LHN piece. It's so lovely to work on and easy to follow and count your stitches that it flows so easily and you don't have time to get bored with it.

I also received my "Sam and Peeps" kit in the mail last week. I actually ordered two of them. This one is for my favourite young mans room. Of course when Little Miss saw it she straight away said "Please can you make me one too" - knowing your kids and thinking ahead pays off. I ordered her the other Sam and Peeps design and you'll catch a glimpse of that one further down.

On Friday while out grocery shopping I found this lovely book box for under $10 at the bargain store. It's A4 in size and very light weight. So I decided my immediate WIP will be stored in this one. I can place it on the arm of my stitching chair.

I just loved the colours on it and it looks lovely as a decorative piece on the coffee table or bookshelf when you're not stitching. But, what I really love about it is that it has some sort of hidden magnet just under the lid so it snaps shut and nothing can fall out.

Needles, thread, cross-stitch chart and WIP.

What else do you need on hand right?

This Sam and Peeps design is called

"Windy Day"

Fabric: 14ct Blue Aida cloth

DMC threads included in the kit

This is what I am immediately working on this weekend.

Semco Bookmark

"Seahorse"

Kits available from Spotlight stores.

Lastly I'm sharing my Little Miss's first bookmark finish. I'm very proud of how quickly she has picked up counted cross stitch. I'm also so excited that she enjoys my favourite hobby almost as much as I do.