Rescued - Not my work

 I do love a mooch around a charity shop, It's not often I find anything other than books but sometimes I get lucky, like with the Fat Face skirt I found for a fiver a few weeks back, I was pleased with that find.  

But back in the Summer I came across this finished cross stitch in a basket with some paintings, I thought It was perfect to put with my other Autumn pieces.  I paid just £4.00 for this, which is a lot less than the kit would have cost, not to mention the hours it took to stitch.

This is one of the Four Seasons by Derwentwarter Desings.  If you look very close you can see that It wasn't professionally framed, but It's not too bad.  There is a sticker on the back saying Handmade by Jean Knowles, so thank you Jean :-)

I believe Bothy Threads bought out Derwentwater Designs but you can still by the kits for all four of the seasons.

I saw this next one hanging on the wall behind the charity shop counter in a local town, and you can see that I paid £3.50 for this one.

I'm not sure but I think this is/was a DMC kit, the only thing I can find similar is called The Christmas Window and is for sale on AliExpress, but that piece is larger than this one, perhaps whoever stitched it only stitched half the chart?  I've no idea about that but I do know that It was framed by my local needlework shop where I get my framing done because there is a sticker on the back with the their information.  Whoever stitched it wrote the year 2010 on that sticker so we at least know that it was framed fourteen years ago

I always think It's so sad to see someones hard work sold for so little, but at least these two pieces have found a good home with me.

We've had the boys staying over for the weekend as Jenny and James have been to London.  Goodness can those boys eat, lol.  You forget that having children around is a constant round of preparing food, tidying up and breaking up squabbles!  I love them to bits but It's been a noisy few days so I'm looking forward to some quiet time tomorrow.

-X-

Stitchers Day Out

 Today was the Quarry Bank Stitchers day out, this is their third day retreat and the second one I've been to, they have been a great success.  The food was lovely, and the company even better, we had lots of laughs.  People got to show their finishes, which Is always lovely to see, there was a de-stash table and a freebie table as well as a couple of sellers, including our local needlework shop, Betty's.

I took my Carriage House Samplings girl, Mary Margaret to work on.   I'd made a small start a few months ago and haven't picked her up since, until today.

And this is her after todays stitching

This was just what I needed to get me in the mood to stitch again, there's a long way to go on this one but I think I'm in the stitching zone again 😉

There was a lovely gift for us from the organizers, Karen and Annabelle, thank you ladies.

And I did make a purchase.  I've had my eye on this for a while and because I sold quite a bit on the de-stash table I went ahead and treated myself.

It's a kit, not something I usually go for but I really like it, not sure when I'll make a start but Sharon was offering a 20% discount on everything today so It was a good buy.

I've had such a great day today, being with like-minded people, chatting and laughing and seeing what others are stitching, It's just what I needed.  The weather has been glorious again, I have a couple more garden jobs planned for this coming week so fingers crossed the sun continues to shine.

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