‘Hatched and Patched’ stitchery and a Pincushion

I recently spent a weekend with my luverley cousin, Gwyneth (no blog) who lives in South Wales (as mentioned in my last post). As also mentioned, we went to Cross Patch in Llandysul where Gwyneth spent rather a lot of money – it was her first visit to a fabric store as she’s just getting into sewing. A ‘Hatched and Patched’ stitchery took Gwyneth’s fancy, but being a complete beginner, she needed some help from me (happy to oblige of course) and the easiest way to help was to do a stitchery myself ……… this is my long-winded route to justifying why I also bought a stitchery and as I liked one in the same range, I bought this one – ‘Flower Basket Sampler’:

 

It was very pleasant sitting in Gwyneth’s garden in the sunshine stitching together and I made a good start that weekend (it was that wonderful weekend when our Andy won Wimbledon …. Yay!!). Anyway, I finished it off last week and after some indecision, decided to make it into a wall hanging

 

I’m sure the real deciding factor rather than make it into a cushion, which I’d thought about, was so that I could use this gorgeous wire hanger I’ve had in my stores for ??? years!!! The fabric matches beautifully, although I think it’s a Lynette Anderson one (not Hatched and Patched) – honestly, I spent so long choosing, I couldn’t remember afterwards who’s fabric it was – no matter though, as it matches nicely. I also couldn’t resist the bird and heart buttons I’ve put at the top – these too are Lynette Anderson. So thanks Gwyneth for giving me an excuse to make something other than a rag doll!!

Next is something I should have shown before. I’d taken photos, but then forgot to blog about it. Another new (ish) sewing fan is my lovely Auntie Iris (more like my mom really since my mom passed away when I was a child). Since her son and daughter-in-law bought her a sewing machine a little while ago, there’s been no stopping her; children’s aprons, pillows and plans to soon make some bunting …… and this is all in between all the knitting she does!! Anyway, Auntie Iris mentioned she could do with a pin cushion, “IDEA” says I and set about making one for her birthday earlier in July and this is it:

I cross-stitched a design pinching a bit from here and bit from there! And then stitched ‘Iris’ down the side. I found some co-ordinating fabric for the sides, some pretty ribbon to trim and used a nice rose colour silk (no photo) for the back. And then finished off with a ‘rose’ decorated pin from ‘Just Another Button Company’
 

 

One pleased Aunt!

 

That’s it for now – back to rag dolls next time. For anyone who remembers the ‘Tilda’ inspired dolls I made (about 4 years ago), I’m making another batch, having had more requests recently.

 

See you soon!

 

 

A weekend in Wales, stitching, a rag doll and ANDY!!

And my latest offering is ..... yes you’ve guessed it, another rag doll. To be fair to myself though, I should have had a small cross-stitch pocket to show you too (just to prove I do make other things too sometimes), but, flippin’ heck, I seem to have forgotten to take any photos of it – what a plonker!! And as it was a gift, it has already been despatched! The doll and the cross-stitch pocket were both for my lovely cousin, Gwyneth who lives in South Wales, which is where I went last weekend for a 3-day visit .......... and what a lovely relaxing weekend it was too. Breakfast on the decking, in the sunshine and a view, blah, blah, blah – jealous? yup!!

Anyway, back to the rag doll for now. Doll doesn’t have a name yet, as that’s for Gwyneth to do, but I made her a Gardening Angel owing to the fact Gwyneth is a bit (or a lot of) a gardener – loves her garden she does! So here goes with a few piccies (taken in my back garden for better effect):-

Isn’t she cute and quirky!?

I bought a little wooden birdhouse and added a label, but this is my favourite part – a garden basket containing packets of seeds and a ball of twine!

Apart from a hoarder of fabric, I also hoard (on my computer) all sorts of images that take my fancy ....... lots of crafty/quilting pics, art, cottages, shabby chic stuff and vintage and these are vintage images of old seed packets which I nicked from somewhere or other ages ago. So I reduced them down to size, printed them out and cut an area around them, which I then folded up into little envelopes! And then, just for added reality, before sealing them down, I put a few grains of rice into each seed packet, so when you give them a little shake, they sound like seeds .......... “how old” I hear you say LOL - don’t care though:0)

I do hope you like her – I was very pleased with how she turned out.

A lovely part of our weekend however, was realising that I have been a bit of an inspiration to my cousin in that she has started to take quite an interest in sewing. Up to now, Gwyneth has done quite a lot of card and jewellery making, but no sewing – sew much sew (get it LOL), she is all but giving up the card making. And to really throw her in at the deep end, we went along to a gorgeous fabric shop only 30 minutes or so from her house (wish it was so close to mine!!) called Cross Patch. There’s actually two shops together – Cross-Patch is for patchwork/quilting supplies and the other shop is called Polstitches, which is all cross-stitching/embroidery supplies – both tucked away on farmland in the depths of South Wales ....... lovely!! WELL, Gwyneth was like a child in a sweet shop!! She wanted to buy just about everything – we all understand that though don’t we? And I nearly had to call the paramedics when the nice lady totted up her ‘few’ purchases – her face was a picture ....... perhaps that’s what they call a baptism of fire!!! Te he he.

Of course, I made a few purchases too (couldn’t not could I?). One of them being a ‘Hatched and Patched’ stitchery, particularly as Gwyneth was buying one. So on Saturday evening we sat (outside again on the decking with a view!) having a little workshop of our own – thankfully my cousin is a quick learner and she soon started to produce some lovely stitches – must keep tabs on her though to make sure she finishes it. Must finish mine too of course, then I can show something other than a rag doll ................ oh go on, you know you love them LOL

The whole weekend was then topped off when I got back home (more than topped off really) ...... completely made my day, week, month etc ........... and that was our Andy winning Wimbledon on Sunday. Oh boy did I shout, scream, dance and weep – thankfully I had forewarned my new neighbours that they may hear what sounds like a crazy woman later on, otherwise they’d have moved right out again! I am just a little bit of a tennis fan you see:0)

Anyway ladies, that’s the lot for now

A stitchery next time – promise!

Pin keep pressie!

Lookey, lookey at what I got today from my super, wonderful, talented friend, Wendy over at The Quiet Room ......... isn’t it just gorgeous? It’s a Stacey Nash cross-stitch pin keep drum. I’ve been watching Wendy’s progress on her blog in recent months, as she’s made several of these, but little did I know I was to the lucky recipient of one of them.

 

This is the top – love the rusty pin and bell and the red wool heart

 

 

The next three are various points around the side

And the last picture is of the bottom

Thank you so much Wendy, I love my pin keep – you’re a treasure - I feel very special!

 

It’s good to have something to put on my blog too, as I haven’t completed anything for ages, although I hope soon to have – yes you’ve guessed it – more rag dolls LOL  it’ll probably be another month or so, as I’m making several.

 

Sewing buddy:0)

....... and another rag doll!!! Well, actually, she’s a sewing buddy, not strictly a rag doll I suppose as she has no long dangly legs – she’s designed to sit on your work table and pass you your sewing requirements, i.e. scissors (see in her top pocket),

thread (in the bottom pocket) and pins in her hat .... clever eh?

And where did I get her from you’re asking – aren’t you??!!! – from a shop I’ve been wanting to go to for ever such a long time

.... ‘Liberty Bell’ in Chester (YES, Wendy I’ve been at long last!!) – Wendy is a big fan and has been loads of times, but it required a special trip to get there as it’s a bit further afield for me. Well, I could have bought up the whole bloomin’ shop; it’s full of so much, well, just lovely stuff!!! But I didn’t go too mad, I restricted myself to a McCalls candle in a jar (much better than Yankee candles in my opinion! fabric (of course) and the pattern for this lovely doll called ‘Born to Quilt’.

My version of the doll does look a bit different admittedly, so you could say I’ve been inspired by it rather than making an exact copy.

As I mentioned earlier, she doesn't have the usual long legs. Instead, she has a flat bottom, which is weighted down because she's designed to sit on a table. She has an underskirt, a dress and an apron, topped by a lovely wool coat (seen better here from the back). 

 

What do you think?

Easter bunny for Alice:0)

At last, something to show!!

My old neighbour was coming to visit with her 16-month old daughter, Alice, so the perfect excuse (if I needed one) to make another ragdoll and as it’s Easter, what better than a rabbit. The base rabbit is the Tone Finnanger (Tilda) one, but with my own take on the clothing etc. here she is again sitting under my Easter tree:

 

The starting point was when I recently spotted this ‘Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit ‘ fabric ..... who could have resisted eh? So it just had to be a rabbit rather than a doll.

Hopefully, I shall have something else to show pretty soon, as I’m halfway through another project – OK, yes, another doll ..... I just can’t help myself though!!! So, watch this space.

Present to self:0)

OK, how many of you have bought yourself a little (or big) crafty Christmas pressie eh? I did. This is my first purchase from ‘Winterberry Cabin’ – I even saved it up to open on Christmas Day LOL. How sad is that!! Te he he

 

Chuffed to (woolly) bits with my purchase I am - I’ve bought two kits. The woollen sheep kit I’ve wanted for ages and the other kit, melon hot pads, just looked nice and as I was ordering from the USA, I thought I may as well make it worth the order ........... and so I then added some swatch sets too. The curious thing though is that I also received a lovely pattern book which I didn’t order (and I haven’t been charged for), but does contain the pattern for the melon hot pads. Anyway, I’ve emailed Phyllis at Winterberry Cabin to see what she says about it.

Can’t wait to get started on my woolly sheep ........... !!!

So what did you buy for yourself?

Christmas pressies:0)

Just a quick little post to show you the contents of a lovely surprise package from my lovely friend, Wendy. Now because Mr ‘stupid’ Postman had left the package on the doorstep (!!!) on a rainy (a very rainy) day, the package was rather soggy, so because of that I felt obliged to open the package – that’s my excuse anyway and here we have a lovely little snowman head tree ornament, a sweet little prim gingerbread man, a Mason jar ‘banana nut bread’ candle ........ and a couple of choccies which lasted for about 10 seconds after the photograph was taken – delicious!! I even love the gorgeous Prim tissue paper they were all wrapped up in!!

Thank you so much Wendy – I love them all.

Christmas stitching

I think my motivation for sewing has started to return to some degree, although finding the time for it is a bigger problem now ......... apart from working full-time, I now also have to keep a much closer eye on my 85-year old dad who has the early stages of vascular dementia poor thing. He’s still just about okay with day to day routine things, but anything outside of that causes great confusion, so as his sole carer, increasingly my time is taken up keeping a watchful eye on him! 

That said, the Christmas/winter bug has caught me recently and I’ve managed to complete two relatively quick projects. First of all I made this quirky looking ‘Prim’ ish snowman carrying his skis

 

I have to confess to the idea for this having been ‘nicked’ from somewhere I simply don’t remember now. I saw something similar, probably on a website or blog at least a couple of years ago and saved the picture – goodness knows where though!! He’s rather cute anyway don’t you think? 

And then secondly, I’ve completed a small cross-stitch pincushion. This wasn’t ‘nicked’ thankfully, it’s a freebie from ‘The Drawn Thread’ and it’s called ‘Four fat Friends’ – also rather sweet and didn’t take too long to finish.

 

Oh yes, I nearly forgot – not on a sewing theme, but homemade all the same is my Pear & Fig Chutney – very nice with a bit of cheese, yum!!

I now have an itch to have a go at crocheting some squares with a view to making a blanket ........ I’ve bought some wool so watch this space.

 

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas!
 

It's me again!!:0)

Well, I know I sorted of wrapped this blog up in January, but due to enforced rest and relaxation at home following a hysterectomy 5 weeks ago, I have had the opportunity to do a bit more stitching than usual, so I thought I may as well share it with anyone whose interested.

My first ‘finish’ (totally out of season I know) is my Father Christmas rag doll – I had planned to make him last Christmas, but time simply didn’t allow. I’m really pleased with him, although bearing in mind how much he has cost me to make, I should be pleased, ha ha!!

He has a pair of proper little spectacles and sheep’s wool for his hair and beard. His coat and trousers are made from 100% wool fabric sourced from one of the Scottish isles (it took me forever to track the right colour down)!

I’ve embellished his coat using silk velvet, other scraps of wool fabric, tiny buttons and holly fimo buttons, and I’ve sewn rusty bells around the base of his cape.

And his sack is made from a beautiful sky blue silk velvet with a lovely iron-on vintage image. He has a sweet little bear in his sack, and I shall add one or two other toys in the sack as and when I can find what I want.

Next is this pretty little velvet cushion.

I just hope the camera does justice to the beautiful lime green colour of the velvet, which perfectly matches the iron-on vintage image in the centre – can you tell I’ve been getting in to vintage images?!! The image on the front of the cushion is edged with ivory lace and the back of the cushion is a lovely rose colour raw silk (sorry forgot to take a photo of the back!).

My last ‘show’ isn’t quite a finish and I shall only show a little of it here, as it’s a birthday present for a family member. She probably won’t see this, but just in case. So this is just a bit of embroidery and you can see some of the tiny beads I still have to sew on.

Well, I shall probably be back at work later on next week, so time for sewing will drastically reduce once again. I have enjoyed completing a few more things, but it will probably be a while before I have anything else to ‘show off’. I haven’t unfortunately been able to work on my quilt (see last post), as having had a hysterectomy, it’s too heavy at the moment to work on. Onwards and upwards though as they say (I think)!!

So until another time!!

PS. Blogger has changed since the last time I posted and my lovely font seems to have disappeared - oh bum!!