Welcome

To the 2 newest members of our family
Banana Monkey and Tigress

Via Creating Paper Dreams I found Lizzie Made who had a small tutorial on how to make sock monkeys. Next thing I know I have brought some socks and was starting to make one, however he got adopted twice in the space of 5 mins so when finished I had to quickly make a 2nd. Not bad for 1 afternoons creations. Although I do now have socks to make cousins and friends so watch this space for more additions....!

Happy Mail

Everyone loves receiving surprises and things that make them feel special.
Well I am no exception to that and so was really lucky when I got a little package from my friend Alison over in Spain.
I say my friend, but we have never met, but in this day and age I don't think that makes any difference. You connect and bond wherever possible. As the saying goes....A Season, a reason or a lifetime. People come into your life for whatever the reason.

Here is what I was lucky enough to have received:

An adorable little handmade card with some lovely reassuring words inside. Just what I need at the moment whilst desperately seeking a new job.

A cute little mixed package of cross stitch stuff, several little DMC threads, how well she knows me to know I don't do Anchor! A lovely little cross stitch kit to make and a little bird to watch over me whilst I sew.

The kit is of a milk jug with tea cups and comes with everything you need to complete it. I will have fun one day making that up.

So thank you Alison, it finally arrived and in good time too, only took a week, although customs had opened it to inspect it (I know as there was a slip of paper in there telling me so!) but that doesn't bother me as one reason New Zealand is so beautiful is because we have such vigilant custom people who keep the country that way.

Thank you

Friday Night Sew In Update

Friday night has been and gone and as I write this the weekend seems to have done the same as well.
But man have I had a productive weekend, thanks to FNSI I seem to have managed to do some stitchin all weekend.

I spent Friday night sorting and planning.
I first sorted all the new DMC threads I had been lucky enough to acquire from Christmas. So I had to cross them off my DMC thread list and then rearrange my thread box to accomodate all the new ones.

Then I spent the rest of the evening designing my heart for the swap I am taking part in for Valentines Day. My cross stitch design programme works wonders and I have it all ready to go now.

And then in between other little errands that needed doing around the house this weekend, I have managed to cut out and stitch together a fleece blanket for Ben.

Alex already has one that he received for his 5th birthday 2 years ago from a friend. I liked it very much, as does he, and decided that Ben needed one too as they are very useful. I brought the material to make his about 8 months ago and it has sat there untouched since, but thanks to FNSI I got going with projects and hey presto one finished blanket.

It is a blanket that is sewed the wrong way round and then all the seams are snipped to give it a raggy look. Needs to go through the washing machine now to get it looking really soft and raggy but for now Ben is happy with it.

I also came across the beginnings of a sampler that I obviously designed many years ago for someones wedding.

Sadly I have lost touch with them since then and also I had only stitched about 4 lines of it. The more I looked at it the more I realised that I would be able to adapt it to suit someone else...like me.

So with a little unpicking of stitches I have been able to adapt the date to suit my own wedding date and now I just have to finish it, maybe adding a little more to it to make it bigger.

So for me a very productive FNSI and weekend.

How was yours?

Stitching Bug

So the stitching bug has finally caught up with me.

This pattern is one I have had for more than 15 yrs and I think I have had it on the go for that long as well.

It is all set on my nice wooden frame that conveniently sits on my floor standing frame. So it is already to be completed.

Now I just have to remember where the floor frame is and decide which corner of the house is going to be mine to stitch in....!

Inspiration has Returned

My mother is a crafter, she can turn her hand to just about any craft (with a needle or thread) if she tries, so it is no surprise that by the time I was 8yrs old I had started to stitch.
I gained my first sewing box filled with threads and material at this age and I have never looked back!
Of course when first starting out I didn't do much sewing but in my 20's sewing took over and everyone got presents for weddings etc cross stitched and personalised.
Go check out my quilting page to see pictures of my first stitchings and more about my story of stitching.

When I moved to New Zealand 14 yrs ago I actually started quilting and the cross stitch got put a side. Then 9 yrs ago I gained the first of the 2 reasons that everything went away. The boys!
Stitching on a regular basis more or less disappeared out of the window. I neither had the inspiration or the time but I decided that the pay off was 2 wonderfully growing boys who had lots of attention and loads of loving as they grew.

Well I can honestly announce that this Christmas my inspiration returned.
My interest in stitching suddenly appeared and showed some interest.
I have done some stitching, I have finally put needle to thread.

And I loved it!

Steve brought me some DMC threads for Christmas, I now have more than I realise I actually need but then everyone always needs every shade of pink or blue that is available because you just never know when you might need a shade just 1 tone darker or lighter than the one you were previously using!
My inspiration has come for only cross stitching at present not quilting but I am happy to start with one and know that eventually other types of stitching will hopefully show through.
So for now I am checking out stitchings I would love to complete, I am happily reading stitching blogs and finding even more inspiration and I am getting some stitches on the fabric of a pattern I started many years ago. It is a large pattern but every stitch helps. I will blog more about it an little later.

So for now, happy to stitching to all

Stealing Posts

My mother's favourite line in her blogs is always "here is something my daughter had over on her blog, so I have stolen it....!"

So now I am doing it back to her.
She posted about Alex staying with her and seeing as she had the pictures then I have just stolen borrowed them for here as well.

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This is Alex's master piece ... I traced a picture from a colouring book of Lightening McQueen from Cars movie ... (now come on, own up, I bet you have all seen it at some time?)

He actually stitched it using a frame hows that for good training from the word go he also had good tension and stitch length.

Well he has finished it and here it is all framed ready to take home

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He was very proud of himself when he got home here, already to show daddy what he had been doing at Grandma's.

Thank you Grandma he had a great time with you and can't wait until he can come and play again.

Spider Web

I like to think I know a little about quilting, well I do, a little
But there are still blocks that I know nothing about.
After reading what Heidi had to say here I realised that I didn't know what she was talking about.
So using trusty old Google I searched for the answer and this is what I found..........Spiderweb Quilt.

What an awesome style of quilt with so many variations and styles available.
I love that further down the page the writer of the Spider Web Quilt page writes about how her son mentioned a spider web quilt looked like a pizza, I can so see that and had a giggle at that.

Guess I am going to have to put this on my 'to do list' or is that my "wish to do list"

Quilting

As I have mentioned a few times before, I like to quilt.
And as I have mentioned many times before as well, I haven't had much time for it in the last few years, but that seems to be changing.

I happily read blogs and get inspired by what others are achieving and also looking at the wonderful patterns they have managed to find.
Now I also manage to, on occassion, find sites that have free BOM happening. Some of them I like and others I think I would really like to make one day.

Today I came across this site 'Val Laird' and she has this gorgeous BOM called 'Gifts of Grace'.
So I have set the site up so I keep up to date with each new pattern being released.
I think it is a cute little design.

I have also found free stuff over here at Bunny Hill Designs.

Not overly fussed about the current free BOM with Snowmen, but did love the one from last year, so have the pattern and will one day make it up. It was 12 designs around a basket for each month of the year, so cute.

Followers

I follow about 20 blogs.

I am sure there are more to follow but I try not to get to greedy otherwise I never get to visit them all.

But I am very good at deciding to stop following one if I realise that I haven't been checking them out lately or I get bored with them. Sorry, I am not saying you are boring, just that sometimes people change the focus of their blog and it no longer holds my interest. At least I am honest.

I am trying to get my inspiration back for crafts so am finding all these new blogs that showcase what they have been up to lately and love perusing them to see if it gets me back in the mood!

Once in the mood, I will try to find the time, but seeing as the boys are a little older now and I am not so tired at the end of the day, Maybe I will start getting some little things done.

Now I just need to sort through all my UFO's and see what I can start with, has to be something little though or it will never get done....!

Friendship Bag

Back in July I agreed to take part in a small swap for a wee little bag. It was all arranged over here and it all looked simple enough to do!

So during September I made up my little bag to send to me swap person who lived in New York, USA. I had a trial run in August and this is what it turned out like....

A little bag with a nice little New Zealand feel to it. So at the right time in October, well give or take a day or two, I sent off my bag to the person in the US and a week later I received my bag through the post.

Now my bag did not come from the person I sent to, mine came from Germany.

It is so cute, she kindly sent a fat quarter of the material she used on the inside and also a pattern for another style of bag (it is all in German, but sure I can translate it to use it!)

So thank you to the people that organised this little swap and thank you to the kind lady in Germany who sent me this gorgeous bag and little gifts.

Sewing

When I was a little girl, I picked up the sewing bug from my mum.

She had always been sewing and embroidering for as long as I could remember. She even did an evening class in sewing at one point and got a little certificate etc, can't actually remember what the course was, I was only 6 when she did it! But I do remember her going to college and I even remember going to the college to see her there.

Anyway, when I was about 8 or 9, I finally got the privilege of having my own sewing box.

I got it for Christmas. It was an old style Mothercare Baby Box, just like the one in the picture on the right. It was a big plastic box that was originally used for keeping baby products for nappy changing time in, but mum, being as creative as she was, turned this one into a sewing box for me.

It came with a nice amount of blue aida, needles and some DMC threads, just enough basic colours for me to do something with. There was also a little pattern book in there. Now everything was geared towards cross stitch, so that is where my sewing history begins....Cross Stitch.

I still have most of the first projects I worked on, even still have the book, oh and the threads.

Below are a few pictures of some of my first projects.....

I also did a lovely cross stitch of an Easter Bunny pulling a cart of presents. It is so cute. When I find it I will take a picture and post it sometime.
Over the years I have worked on many projects, I was always making things for people to celebrate weddings, birthdays and babies being born.

My brother also drew a picture of a car on graph paper one time, and for Christmas, I made the design up in cross stitch and then framed both the picture and the cross stitch picture together and gave it as his present. Hopefully he still has it somewhere at his house so will try and get a picture of that as well.

This also means that I have a very special box of my own now.

Mum and Dad brought it for my Christmas Present in 1996. It was brought from a little sewing shop in Lincoln, Great Britain whilst Mum and I were there shopping at the Christmas Evening Festival they held.

And when you open the lid

It is filled with all my DMC Threads that I have purchased over the years, and yes they are all on their own little card and yes they are all numbered and in order! (The box came empty by the way, I have filled it since getting it)

I also still have my first DMC Thread Colour Chart that you could tick to show what you had at home and what you still needed to buy if you were ever lucky enough to have a few coins left over to buy new threads with whilst a student. I obviously did ok!

As you can see, I have most of the threads, well this was the list from about 1990!

DMC have since brought out many new ranges of threads and colours, so now I have realised that I have a few more to collect! So I will have to get another box for all the treads I still don't have.

So even though I am now dabbling in quilting, Cross Stitch will always be my first love.

Advent Swap

Ok, so I know Christmas still feels so far away, and I have to agree, it is.

In fact if you look at my side bar on the right, you will see a little Christmas countdown, quite frightening actually when you look and see how many days it tells you.

Anyway, my mum told me about an Advent Swap that she is getting involved with, so I went and checked it all out.

Looks like a little bit of fun, and the more I read about it, then the more I decided that in fact I think I might be able to manage this.

So I signed myself up. Maybe I need a little challenge in my life at the moment.

You do not need to be an addict on sewing etc to join in this swap, if you read the rules correctly then you can put anything in as the little advent presents, ok sewing related does help, but a few fun things and niks and naks will make the giving all so much more fun.

So if you fancy having a little bit of fun over the next couple of months either making some little gifts (25 of them) or just collecting little gifts to swap with someone somewhere in the world, then this is the fun for you. And just think......at the end of it you too will recieve a little gift box of 25 gifts ready for the countdown to Christmas at the end of November.