Flower Fairy

Another item made for the charity fair which I'm told raised a total of £7,500!

I made one of these for myself years ago (in different colours) and she sits on top of the tin I keep my needles in.

The thing in her hands is a flower shaped bead and I hadn't noticed it was on it's side when I took the pic and I no longer have her to take another.

With this post I've made it to the end of NaBloPoMo 2013 and have managed to post every day with resorting to posting an old TW finish, yay

Half a happy dance

The stitching is finished on Firefly Fairies and tomorrow I start the beading.

Tonight I started the last of the projects for the same lady

Rosie pic

Rosie's new favourite place to lie is in the top of the radiator.

She started last week when I had a few bits of washing drying there so I put an old towel that was destined for the rag bag there for her to lie on

Mary's Sampler

I finished Mary's Sampler yesterday like many others this week :)

I'm really happy with it even though I have no idea what I'll do with it now!

I used an ooops piece from Country Stitch (are they still going?) and the called for DMC.

The only change I made was to Mary and Joseph's outfits colour, I subbed 902 as it is a little brighter

Weekend progress

I had a very busy weekend so not much stitching time was had but I did make a little progress.

Next weekend I have 18 queen stitches to look forward to

Firefly Fairies

Last week's progress on the fairies.

I'll be beading them by the end of the week

More pen toppers

Few more of the pen toppers I did for the Charity stall a few weeks ago

Kris Kringle

I've been on a class today with Oak Tree Crafts to make a Christmas decoration called Kris Kringle.

It started off badly for me and it took 3 attempts to get his hat started!  Then it took me I don't know how long to figure out why the white at the bottom of the hat refused to sit in the right place on the mould but I got there in the end.

I did manage to get him done by the end of the day and I've booked myself on a class in January so here's hoping the weather plays ball for me to go.

Here he is in all his glory

Better view of his hat

Better view of his beard

I had a phone call while I was there to tell me that a friend from WI passed last night and I have to say it's shocked me quite deeply as she was only 50 and in good health.

Harrogate stash

I went to Harrogate for the knitting and stitching show yesterday and a few things made their way home with me.

I've decided that it was time to invest in a quilters ruler and rotary cutter but don't have any plans to take up quilting and I picked up spare blades as well while I was there.

I've been lusting after the Christmas double flips its since they came out and they were on sale so it would of been rude not to :)

Some more jingle bells in a couple of colours I don't have and extra gold ones, a few delica's, a couple of earring kits and the bead pack to make a Christmas tree brooch.

A piece of Gina's Delight from Sparklies that I have no plans for at all and that fantastic tape measure fabric which I do have plans for.

A few other things came home with me as well but I had to leave those out of the the pic because they are to made up into Christmas presents for people that I know read my blog.

More charity bead work

This time it's a few tube ornaments.

These are done round the tube's that beads (mostly Delica's) often come in and the patterns are all from Threadabead.  I spotted a new one on facebook I think it was that's a reindeer and he's really cute.

Anne over at Feather Stitching asked about the tassel from yesterday and where to get it.

I should of posted the link and I forgot to, sorry about that :(  anyway it's from Spellbound and comes in a few other colours

Balmoral Tassel

Another project that was made for the charity event a friend did.

She gave me this kit and asked me to make it up so I did.

It was a more enjoyable make than I expected it to be and far more sparklie as well.

Thank you all for your support over the death of my family member.

It's probably going to be at least a week before a service is held for him as his repatriation has still to be arranged (he passed in Saudi)

Mary's sampler

Only one week to go, wonder what the last part is.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers for the next few weeks, we lost a family member today 

New weekend project & IHSW

With finishing Legends last Sunday I was in need of a new project for the  IHSW weekend and for the last few weeks this one has been whispering in my ear I think it's because it's the right time of year.

Meet Jingle Bells Christmas Tree Farm from Victoria Sampler.

Here's my before pic and my starting point

And after.  I've decided that because I'm working this on a scroll frame I would add the beads as I went and put felt over them should I need to 

Matrioska aka Russian Doll

I love Russian Dolls, they fascinate me and always have so when I saw this free pattern for one I just had to do it.

I started it back in June but other things came along that needed to be done sooner rather than later so it got put aside, last week I sat down and got her finished.

Firefly Fairies

Here's this weeks update on Firefly Fairies.

My goal was to get the red one half done and I think I just about did it.

Next weeks goal is to finish the red one but it may not happen as I'll be out all day Thursday at Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching show.

Zeb asked yesterday what stitch was used to make the Angel pen toppers and it's brick stitch for the body and peyote for the wings

Angel Pen toppers

A friend has been busy beading for the last few months ready for a charity garden party near her that she does every year.

This year I said I'd do a few things for her and here are some of them.

The one top left is in the given colours but I didn't want to do them all the same so used up some oddments of delica's for them.

What colour beads......

would you add to this to finish it off?

All the gaps in the stitched squares have beads on but because I changed the colour the called for ones don't work.

Mary's Sampler

Part 7 has been added and I'm hoping that part 8 or 9 will fill in the gap by the top Angle or I'll have to put a star in there myself or it'll annoy me to much

Legends of the Dragons happy dance

I started this on January 1st 2010 as part of a SAL on the TWBB and after a bit of progress it got ignored until August 3 this year when I made it my next weekend project.

Here's a reminder of how it started out.

Sunday evening I finished Wisdom and so finished Legends and reached one of my goals for the year.

I've really enjoyed working on this again and while I'm happy it finished I'm a little sad the journey has come to an end.

Tune in at the weekend to find out what project is next in line to be finished

Remembrance Day

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them

Firefly Fairies

Last weeks progress on Firefly Fairies and I reached my goal of finishing the blue one.

My goal for this week is to get the red one at least half done

Rosie

I bought myself a shopping trolley this week to make life a little easier and of course as soon as I got home with it Rosie had to get right in and inspect it.

I of course in turn had to grab my camera and take a photo of her doing her inspection

Fiendish Fancy

Back in April when I got my copy of Sweet Treats and made some Fondant Fancies I decided that each time a limited edition version appeared I would have to have a box research.

So when Fiendish Fancies appeared in early October I had to have a box.

It took a bit of time to find the right shade of orange and although it doesn't look it in my pic it's almost perfect

Today while shopping I noticed that Festive fancies have appeared on the shelves so a box of those will have to make their way into my food shop sometime in the next few weeks for more research :)

Christmas poem book

Last year (almost to the day I might add but not planned to be) I posted my finish of the Christmas Carol book and mentioned that I had the poem book to do.

Well it's taken me 12 months to get round to it but it's done at last

Front of the book

Back of the book

And open showing the clasp

It comes as a kit from Threadabead but you can buy extra books which is what I did with Mum last year

Netted Bauble

Saturday was the Needlecraft Haven bi annual meet up and this time we had a raffle the proceeds of which will be used to make the board ad free for however the £ will last.

Donations for the raffle would gratefully received so I made a netted bauble, put a few dangles on it and this is the result.

Firefly Fairies

It's coming along quite well don't you think?

My goal for this week was to finish the blue fairy and I should hopefully manage to do that tomorrow, fingers crossed

Weekend progress

Made really good progress on Legends, the stitching is finished and I'm about 3/4 done with the back stitch as well so next weeks update will be a finish :)

And I've added the lonely shepherd on Mary's Sampler and given him a red head band to cheer him a little 

TUSAL time

It's rubbish posting time once more :)

Since last time I've added orts from Legends, Firefly Fairies, the usual beading threads and 2 lengths of wool from finishing off a sock a few days ago

Find out about the TUSAL here

Mel's Rose

When I posted the pics from Chester Zoo I forgot to post the one of Mel's gift.

I found this freebie on the web years ago and always had Mel in mind for it and I finally got round to making it this year.

It's mounted on a box I painted black out side and purple inside but I can't find a pic of that and I'm sure I took one :(

Unfortunately the link no longer works to the chart as the designer passed away last year so I can't point you to it, sorry folks

October Progress & November Goals

For October I said
Finish the Stocking Store and make decent progress on Reindeer Stables but finishing it would be better   I finished the stocking store and did start on Reindeer Stables but that's as far as I got, Firefly Fairies have taken over! 
Finish Wisdom and so in turn finish Legends  No but I'm almost there


For November I'd like to
Finish Legends of the Dragons
Pick my new weekend project
Get Firefly Fairies to just needing the beads but finished would be better
Start last paid project if by some miracle I do finish Firefly Fairies
Post every day for National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)

I stitched for 85 hours 57 minutes in October which is a little up on September.  I had 1 new start and 2 finishes and spent time with a needle in my fingers every day.

Current PHD total = 34 :(