Ornament exchange

Last Friday was opening day for the Needlecraft Heaven ornament exchange.

As usual I sent out a beaded ornament, this time I went with a star.

I've used this pattern before and it is one of my favourite ones to do but as you can see I went with Christmas colours.

I sent it off the Christine in plenty of time (for once!  I often end up as tail end Charlie) and by pure chance Christine also sent to me

And this is the beauty she sent me

From reading Christine's post it's Carol Manning's design from this year JCS ornament issue with a few changes and finished with vintage lace.

He is perfect for me and I love him

Hug Exchange

Today was opening day for the hug exchange over on needlecraft haven.

We had to include a card on the theme of love, friendship or hugs and I struggled to find anything suitable locally so planned on stitching a Lizzie kate freebie I gave in my stash when I found this as a kit.

We also had to include a couple of skeins of thread, a sweet treat and a pamper treat.

My exchange looked like this

And this is the one I received and opened this morning.

The ribbon was tied round my sweet tray and such a lovely colour I plan on reusing it at some point in the future

I've realised that I should of also made this my gifted gorgeousness post as well but I'm a day late to have it count

April Gifted Gorgeousness

Gifted Gorgeousness is the brilliant idea of Jo to encourge stitchers to use those items in our stash that we have been gifted or those things we stitch that will be a gift.

I only have one bit of stitching that counts this month and here it is.

This is Christmas Delights an old freebie from The Cat's Whiskers stitched for the RR I was taking part in.   I was the last person to to work on this one with a theme of pink/grey so as you can see I used a Needle Necessities thread in pink.   3 times I counted and checked my placement and I still got it wrong :(

And I just realized that I could also included a pic of my completed RR as well now it's home but as yet I've not got round to taking a pic of it :(

March Gifted Gorgeousness

Gifted Gorgeousness is the brain child idea of Jo.  The general idea is to use those items in our stash that have been gifted to us over the years or that is being given as a gift

First for me this month is the Needlecraft Haven Monthly challenge from Feburary.

Christine picked out this freebie for us we could pick which one we wanted to do or stitch both if the mood struck.  Fella saw me print them out and commented how much he liked this one so I stitched it and made it into a little hanging pillow for him.

Next came opening day for the meet exchange over on Needlecraft Haven.

This is the one I sent out to Justine

And the one I received from Tina

Believe it or not that bar of Chocolate is still sat in the fridge it's not that I don't like it but being diabetic I rarely eat it but bowling season kicks off soon so I can enjoy a little before I go and play 

Such a pretty lining fabric

And lastly some progress on My Ark for Fella's grandson

Skill Swap

Long time readers may remember that last year I did a skill swap with Julie she very kindly knit a penguin for me and Made her an ornament.

Well we've done it again this year.

This time it's an elephant called Hatty

for a 3D star

Julie had no idea what ornament she'd end up with so it was a leap of faith on her part and I'm pleased to say that Julie is very happy with it :)

Ornament exchange

I took part in the Needlecraft Haven ornament exchange again this year and opening day was Dec 1st.  I did open it on time but only got round to taking pics today :(  life has been busy the last couple of weeks and I've hardly been at home during daylight hours to take any.

Here's the one I sent out to Angi, I do love making stars :)

And the gorgeous one I received from Mary in France.  Mary also sent me some fabulous festive coloured threads that just demand to be used on something Christmassy 

Another snowflake

The postman brought me another snowflake today :)

Rosie decided to sit in the way as I went to put it down for a pic so I did it anyway the bonus being that you get to see her again today

A very late Gifted Gorgeousness post!

I'm just a little late with my Gifted Gorgeousness post this month!  No idea how I managed to miss the date by a couple of weeks but I did :( at least I've remembered in the same month

Back at the end of May I went to Nuneaton for a meet up and whenever we have there is always an exchange, this time it was for something off the card you picked or something that had happened/been said on the day.

Clare picked my card and send me this fabulous ornament.  I'd taken my quilt with me to show so Clare based her ornament on quilting

I drew Angi's card but my ornament had nothing to do with what was on it.

She was telling us about a conversation between 2 girls that was overheard on the train while they were stopped because of an incident on the line.   These 2 girls were talking about cows in a field when one of them started to run across the field.    One of the girls in complete amazement said 'I didn't know cows could run!' and everyone in the carriage was trying hard not to laugh loudly!

That story stuck with me and so when I drew Angi's card I knew I had to stitch this design for her :)

It's a TW called Grazing Bovines and the fabric it's on is the backing, I'm not happy with the bottom of it but didn't have time to fix it before it had to be sent 

Birthdays

Last Saturday was my Birthday and I had some lovely gifts off my family and fella which will probably be making an appearance at some stage but I also had a couple of stitching friends.

Over on Needlecraft Haven I took part in the Birthday exchange and received this package from Deb, she sent me the thread to stitch Friends Forever and a kit for a lovely little bracelet which I have made up but haven't taken a piccie of yet :(

And Clare sent me a lovely scissor fob, I'm still trying to decide which scissors to put it on!

Yesterday was my fella's Birthday and I gave him Elefante

And made him a set of coasters, the fabric in the background is the one I used for the back of them

Easter Exchange

I took part in the Easter Exchange on Needlecraft Haven this year and we had to stitch a card and an egg shaped ornament for it, this is the exchange that I had to buy a chart for and that I couldn't share in my Gifted Gorgeousness post last month but now it's opened I can :)

This is the beautiful ornament and card I received off Dusty in the US, the background is a gorgeous scarf she included.

And this is what I sent to Mary in France

An exchange and gifted gorgeousness

Yesterday was reveal day for the Sweet Feet exchange on Needlecraft Haven we had to stitch a card with hearts, love or friendship and send it along with a pair of socks and a skein of thread.

This is what I sent out, the design is a freebie I found on the net

And this is what I received but as yet I don't know who sent it but I do know those socks are lovely and warm :)

And of course you've already seen this but it counts for GG as does the card I sent out for the exchange

An exchange and progress

Last November I went to Nuneaton for a GTG with the girls over at Needlecraft Haven and an exchange is organised while we are there.  We get told what the item is, this time a bookmark,  but no idea who you'll be sending to until postcards have been written, mixed up and picked.

We go off, pick out design, stitch it and send it or in my case, lose the postcard, spend weeks looking for it, get everyone to post their answers to the questions in the hope that the person you think is says the one thing you remember which she does, get worried because you can't find a design to start with  and then start stitching it 10 days before it's due to be sent!

I thought my person was Julie and I turned out to be right 

and this is the beauty I received from Kate.   It's the first time I've ever received something beaded in an exchange when it was a beading based one

And lastly this past weekends progress on Toy Gatherer, I'm about halfway across the bottom border now fingers crossed I'll get it finished this weekend and make a start ont eh sheep 

Ornament Exchange

I took part in the annual ornament exchange over on Needlecraft Haven again this year opening day was Dec 1 and here I am 10 days later only just getting round to posting it.

This is the beauty I received from Dusty 

And the one I sent to Ursh

couple of close up for you

Goodie Bag exchange

I finally got round to taking a pic of the goodie bag exchange from last Saturday!

The theme this time was Saints and after much head scratching on my part and getting no where Lucy had the bright idea of St Anthony

It's difficult to put lost items in a bag so all my items were to try and help things not to get lost

This one escaped the pic

This the one I received from Clare's Mum based on St Anne and I have to say I was a little gobsmacked by some of the items esp. the tattered lace cat

Exchanges

Last month I took part in a couple of exchanges.

The first one was a card exchange on Stitchy Pen Pals a new group on Facebook for folks who want pen pals and to receive good old fashioned letters in the post :)

This is the one I sent.

I used a cover kit from a very old issue of Cross Stitch Collection that I discovered when I was looking for a design to stitch

This is the one I received, my partner told me that as soon as she knew I lived in England it jumped out at her as being the perfect one and she was right :)

Monday was reveal day for the Meet up Exchange over on Needlecraft Haven this time we had to stitch a coaster.

I dug this out of the depths of my stash for my partner who likes to garden

And this is the one I received from Clare along with a bag of my favourite humbugs :)

A closer look, Clare told me it's a Just Nan design and she changed some of the colours to purple 

Exchange stitching

Today was exchange opening day over at Needlecraft Heaven for those of us that attended the meet up in November.

We had to stitch a saying and make it into a hanging ornament, simple enough you might thnk but finding the right saying wasn't easy!

This is the beauty I received from Maggie

I think it's a Lizzie Kate and the back is the same purple heart fabric that's top and bottom

Here's the one I sent to Lynn.

It's called Stitching Days and you can find it here
I made a few changes to it as I wasn't overly happy with the original version but didn't know that until I'd stitched it!  

Bookmark Exchange

When I went down to Nuneaton for the NH gtg a while ago we had a book exchange and those of that took part in that then took part in a bookmark exchange and today is reveal day for it.

We had to write down our favourite colour, nibble and flower as well obvious things like address.

Here's the one I received from Ursh, she got it spot on with all 3 :)  the bookmark is now residing in my current read

Here's the one I sent to Clare 

The bookmark is far brighter IRL, I stuck to the called for colours ie pink, green, yellow, orange and white but changed the ones used to the new range of delica's that have only been out a few weeks apart from the white background.

And a closer view of it.

Julie you could do this with new found skill, it's the same stitch you've had a go at

Afternoon Tea Exchange

I went to the Needlecraft Haven meet up on Saturday and we had an Afternoon Tea Exchange.

This is my bag and it went to Diane (no blog that I know of)

In the tea cup is Curly Swirl from Glorious Cupcakes by The Cat's Whiskers I've wanted to stitch one of the designs from it since I got my hands on a copy and this was the perfect time

With the pins added

This is the one I received and it's from Racheal

Of course Rosie had to have an inspection of the contents!  There was a Battenburg in it as well but that didn't survive long enough to make it into the pic :)