Christmas cross stitch

Happy Christmas Eve!  It makes a change not being at work on Christmas Eve!  Last night I finished off my last Christmas card. This year I made and sent a grand total of 3 Christmas cards... to be honest, I'm amazed I made any at all the way the past three months have been.  But things are looking up...

Some of you may have seen this work in progress on Instagram.  I got it finished...

Then I made it into a card.  Unfortunately, the photo was on my phone and my phone just inexplicably died on Tuesday.  I can't remember if there were other photos I hadn't uploaded to Photobucket, so I may be missing others.  You'll just have to imagine it!

I made this one whilst spending a lovely 3 days with my parents at my brothers' house with him, his wife, stepdaughter and my 4-year old nephew.  I added eyelets to the corners and a simple peel-off greeting.  All the designs are from issues of CrossStitcher (the UK mag), but I can't tell you which ones as I don't keep the magazines, just the patterns I like.

This one took AGES to stitch.  I didn't think I'd get it done in time.  The backstitch went on forever!  Luckily it's for my parents so I can take it round today.

I'd like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas, or, if you don't celebrate, have a lovely weekend.  Thanks for all your support over the last few awful months.

Breaking needles

I have done a little needle felting in my time, never anything 3d (must give that a go) and not much.  Back in November I had an urge to needle felt, so got out my supplies of wool roving, my needle tool and my foam pad.  The needle tool holds 3 felting needles which differ to sewing needles in that you can't thread them and they have little barbs on them which grab hold of the wool and make it felt (magically, I don't understand the science behind it).  Those needles are sharp.

Abd fragile.  

Unfortunately they were the only needles I had and I'd managed to break all three in one foul swoop.  (Is that the right expression?  Is it foul swoop or fell swoop or something else entirely?)  I had to put the needle felting to one side whilst I waited for some more to come in the post.

When they did, I felted this vase of flowers and made it into a card for my mum's birthday.  The flower centres are little jewels that I glued on afterwards.

I didn't design this card, I took it from Beginner's Guide to Needle Felting by Susanna Wallis, and I really enjoyed it.  I'm not quite sure why the roving and needles got put away after that as I had planned on making more.

The reason I'm showing you this now, rather than the beginning of November when I made it, is that I forgot to take a photo and only just got one from my mum.

A couple of cards

It's hard to imagine now, but I used to be an avid card maker.  I spent all my free time making cards, but these days I hardly ever make any.  The silly thing is, that when I do make them, I enjoy it.  I think what stops me making more is having my craft room upstairs.  When I was at my card making peak, I lived in tiny little flats where I used the dining room table as my craft room.  With them being tiny little flats, the table was in the living room, pushed up against a wall with towers of storage on top.  I miss those days...

The quilled cherry blossom was made into a card in record time (for me).  I sent this off to Mr CA's nana (would that be Nana CA?) as a thank you for my birthday present.  I simply layered it up and added some brads in the corners.

This card was made from die cuts and a birthday cake candle and found its home with my dad for his birthday.  I needle-felted a card for my mum's birthday but neglected to take a photo.  I'll have to ask her to take on as I know she will have kept it.

Christmas cards

Well check me out, I'm organised for Christmas already!  OK, so that's not strictly true as I've done nothing else to organise, just made my cards, but that's a good start.

I used my Sizzex Big Shot to cut out the Joy, tree and stocking motifs from funky foam.  I did a set of each in two different colours, then swapped parts of them over.  

Each motif is backed with a square of patterned paper and the tree has some tiny jewels added.

I used some of the cut out parts to make a square card using three complimentary colours of tree and a single joy.

Simple, quick, done!  Now I just have to remember to write in them and actually post them... 

Can I think of an interesting title? Nope.

At the Stitching and Knitting show at Harrogate last year, I bought quite a lot of strips of fabric panels.  I thought they would be ideal for baby books, or for cards.  Turns out I bought a lot more of them than I thought!  I frog-loving friends birthday prompted me into action.

I simply cut the panels out, layered them onto patterned paper and stitched with a wide zig-zag on my machine.  I then stuck them to square card blanks and decorated with brads and little gems.  

My mum made a load of Christmas cards one year like this.  Later on she was laughing at me for changing my sewing machine needle.  I asked why and she said she'd changed hers exactly once, that was when the existing one broke.  So she sews fabric and paper, all with the same needle... it's a wonder it stitches at all!

I've got quite a few panels like the Hot Chocolate one above but with different kinds of coffee.  I am intending to make them into little spill mats for inside my coffee machine.  That coffee machine really is a messy bugger, but I love it with my life!

Now I just need to make an effort to remember people's birthdays!

book review embroidery

Good morning ladies.  I hope you're having a lovely sunny weekend!  I can't believe the sun is out for a change!  Oh and happy Mother's Day if that applies to you.  Me and my wonderful mum had our Mother's Day yesterday, when the restaurants aren't so crowded and overpriced.  We had afternoon tea and a silversmithing workshop!  I'll tell you all about that soon, but today I want to share the card I made her.

I was offered the opportunity to review some books from the fabulous craft book publisher GMC and of course I jumped at the chance.  The first book I selected was 500 Simply Charming Designs for Embroidery (Design Originals).  Before we go any further, the disclaimers.  I was sent the book for free to review but I was not told what to say and all opinions are 100% my own.  I didn't receive any monetary compensation.  Links in this post, as with all my book posts, are affiliated.  If you click over and buy something, I get a few pence towards an Amazon voucher.  It doesn't cost you anything (unless you buy something of course!  but only the price of the book and shipping, no extras).

I was drawn in by that image of a hedgehog on the cover, and the book did not disappoint.  I was delighted to find 4 bunnies amongst the 500 motifs!  The book starts with a quick introduction on how to use the book, then has a few pages of projects, showing you how the motifs can be used.

I'm not sure I'd take the time to embroider my socks!  Then there is some basic embroidery information and stitch guides for the 15 stitches used in the book.  This information means that anyone could pick up the book and start to stitch, even without any experience.  Of course, for the more advanced embroidress, you can use the motifs however you like.

Each set of motifs is on a double spread.  On the right is the motif embroidered which gives you a lovely idea of how they look.  On the left is the traceable part with information such as which stitches were used, how many strands of embroidery floss and the Olympus colours (I assume this book is Japanese).  I ignored the colours in my project as I wanted to stitch from stash.  I did follow the recommended stitches, but you don't have to, you could embroider them as outlines if you prefer.

Categories of motif include home and hobby; nature's living things; special occasions; tasty things to eat; letters and numbers and borders and lines.

The motifs are all whimsical, but the alphabets and borders are just beautiful.  Look how elegant some of them look in this photo.  There are also a handful of cross stitch designs at the back and a conversion chart Olympus - DMC.

My mum loves pigs, so I knew straight away that I wanted to embroider the pig.  I had to enlarge the pattern by 200% (luckily my home scanner/printer/copier does that - though I've only just realised it does!) to make it big enough for a stand alone motif on a card.  I stitched in silk threads, my first time.

The pig is all done in satin stitch and I love the dimension he has. I did struggle with the silk though.  My stitches would be all nice and flat, laying smooth and even, I'd put a few more stitches in and find that an earlier one had raised and twisted itself!  I Googled stitching with silk threads for some advice but couldn't find any.  Anyone got any tips for me?

I made up the card very simply as I wanted that silk embroidery to shine.  I machine stitched it to a card blank, unfortunately the linen I stitched on stretched at the corners!  I should have used interfacing.  I added eyelets in each corner.  They broke as I applied them but as anyone who's used eyelets knows, once they're in, they're in forever!

This is the monogram I used for the first M.  At first I traced MUM with these monograms, but realised after I'd finished the first M in the recommended stem stitch that it would be too wide and look silly.  I took it out and retraced using the M from this page and the other letters from another, less ornate, alphabet.  I do regret the U being wonky, but mum will love it anyway!

Overall, I really like this book and I'm glad it's come to live with me.  I can see me making use of a lot of the motifs, especially as they are small so only take half an hour or an hour to stitch.  The alphabets (of which this is only one) are lovely and very useful.  If you fancy getting into embroidery, or have some experience, I'd recommend this book.

Book details:

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Design Originals (7 Mar 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574215094
• ISBN-13: 978-1574215090

RRP: £9.99

Disclaimer:

I was given a review copy of the book by GMC Publishing however this review and all opinions are 100% my own, I was not told what to say.  Amazon links are affiliate links.

I'm also linking up to Fiona's Something New for 2014 as this is my first time stitching with silk and Chrissie's Stitching Sundays.

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Happy birthday mum

coils and curls

Speaking of which, (though we weren't), have I ever told you I recently discovered I have curly hair?  It's the sort of thing you usually know about yourself, but not in my case.  I've straightened my hair for years, in my teens and 20s it was wavy, but messy wavy with some straight bits and others not.  One day late last year, my GHDs died.  A few days later, my straightening hairdryer died.  I couldn't afford replacements, so I let my hair be.  And it's curly!  I'd always wanted curly hair...

Just thought I'd share.

I've been threatening to do some quilling for ages and it finally happened last Friday evening, after I'd been off work ill all day.  I'd been hanging around on Pinterest and decided to blatantly copy a design I found there.  Now, I hope it's alright that I stole the design - I'm not planning on selling it, or anything made from it, it was in fact for just one Mother's Day card for my mum. 

I'm also not claiming to have designed it, it was designed by a Russian lady who's blog you can find here.  That link will take you directly to her magnolia card.  These are magnolias aren't they?

I used to quill a lot as a child but haven't since and it took me a while to get back in the rhythm of it.  I think I was too frugal and used too short strips so my coils aren't as full as I'd like.  The on-edge paper stem was really tricky!  That will take some practise.  There are some amazing on-edge designs out there.  If you're interested, check out my Quilling Pinterest Board.

 

I added the glass butterfly magnet myself.  I didn't make it.   Obviously.  Not too shabby for a first attempt.  The quilling papers are still in the living room so I might just have to try my hand at a few more designs.

christmas cards

No prizes for guessing what this post's about!  It's Christmas Eve and I've finally finished the Christmas cards for my family... so I suppose they'll get them on Christmas Day...

Remember my reindeer?  I stitched another one.  I had to use my own threads as there wasn't enough in the kit, despite the fact you were supposed to be able to get three reindeer from it!

Here they are doing a Christmas jig together.

 

This little fella was stitched from another cover kit from Crossstitcher.  I messed up on the grey - well they did!  Where I've used grey, that should be light grey, but there wasn't any provided which is why I didn't notice until I was supposed to do highlights in dark grey...

 

I attached him to a piece of paper with brads and stuck it to a card blank. This is for Grandma CA.  She's Mr CA's grandma, I lost all my grandparents and Mr CA only has the one, I have adopted her as my own grandma.

One jiggy reindeer is for my parents - constructed the same was as the robin card.

The other is for my parents-in-law.

I used some of the beaded snowflakes I'd made (alas, the orders stopped coming in!) for cards for my brother and his family, and my sister-in-law and family.  The snowflake is suspended from the eyelet (stuck on the back with an easy-peel sticker) so they can put them on their trees afterwards.

 

The bottle caps were ready-made so I just glued them on.

This is definitely my last post before Christmas, so I wish you all a good one!

Jigging that wig

Morning ladies!  I meant to write this post yesterday but the lack of computer at home is making things hard, I'm so behind in my blog reading it's unreal!  I know I could just "mark all as read" but I don't want to!  I'm unlikely to get any work done today, I'm bursting with excitement.  I picked up my "new" car yesterday - he's gorgeous!  I've decided to call him Norton.  I think I've already told you this, but he's a blue Mini One with a checkerboard roof and checkerboard stripes!  I'll take a photo when it stops raining and if the sun comes out at all today.  it's 9:30am and dark as night!  Tomorrow me and my mum are going to Harrogate to the Knitting and Stitching show.  We're staying overnight so have two days at the fair.

Which brings me to my topic of today, I realised I didn't tell you about the Bead Fair I went to a couple of weeks ago.  It was hosted by The Bead Shop Nottingham in a local hotel.  It was quite small but there were plenty enough shops there.  There was also a free mini workshop.  We signed up for the Wig Jig workshop, thinking it might follow on from the class we took a few months ago.  It turned out to be the same, just condensed.  So I freestyled instead!

Here are the designs I made up.  They don't look terribly neat, they'll look better once they're attached and made into jewellery.  Promise!

Want to see my haul?  I didn't actually spend very much, I got quite few bargains!

Not bad eh?  I got bails for putting polymer clay cabouchons or Fantasty paint in, some filigree pieces, some lentil beads and bangle blanks.

Lots of chain, delica beads and some fab painted wooden buttons.

Beading kits.

Spacers, connectors, bead caps, funky shaped beads, lucite leaves and ribbon clasps.

Speaking of haul, my winnings from the Zakka Style Sew Along turned up from Robert Kaufmann...

Yum yum!  Would you believe I've forgotten its name???  I'll leave you with the birthday card I made for my mum.  I'm off to stand by the window and admire my car!