Mini Pincushion Finish

Hi from a somewhat cooler Cape Town! Yes, our temperatures have finally started to drop - great news for heat-hating me!

To top that, I actually have a small finish to share. This design is part of the "Stitching Treasures Needlework Set" by Deborah Thorpe in The Gift of Stitching Magazine.

It is supposed to be a scissors fob, but it is a bit to big (it is stitched on 28ct evenweave and they recommend a 32ct), so I finished it as a little pincushion instead. The set also has a needle book and a sweet bag, which I would love to make in the near future. I'll also use one of the small motifs to make a matching scissors fob.

Here is my progress on the Hardanger pillow by Lee Albrecht:

I have finished the cross stitching on it, now it is on to the pulled thread work.

I have another small lined up - the quick finishes are such fun!

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

Ink Circles Progress and Hardanger SAL

The start of a new week...again! I stitched one of the big "fishtail" corners of Book of Ink Circles by Ink Circles this week. It is my favourite block on this piece so far and was divine to stitch. I am hoping to do another small block or part of the border this month in order to keep up with my goal of finishing this piece this year.

Here is the third part of the Hardanger SAL by Mamen:
The fourth part of the SAL is already due again by the end of the week!

I think I should try to stitch and finish a small before then, so that I can at least have a finish to show. (I often find it "depressing" when you only stitch on big pieces that are nowhere near finished. A small finish always helps to boost morale and makes you eager to get back to those big pieces!)

I have my eye on a pretty little scissors fob, but I will keep you posted!

Hope you have a great week with lots of stitching time!

A Lot of Hardanger

Oh my, I am such a bad blogger - I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last posting!

I have been (mostly) working on Hardanger the past two weeks. Here is part two of Mamen's SAL, stitched in ecru and blue-grey.

When this SAL is done it will be finished into a lovely bag like this:
I have also started on the Hardanger Pillow kit that Lee sent me. I have done all the Kloster blocks and started on the cross stitching.

Here is a closer view of the centre design:

Since I have not been doing such a lot of stitching I thought I would share some stitching that I did at school. I made this Candlewick pillow when I was twelve years old. We had to do it as a project for needlework class and it was supposed to be our project for the semester.

Of course, already loving to stitch at that age, I finished it within a week! My teacher didn't know what to do with me for the rest of the semester, so my mom had the idea of making an entire bedspread out of various blocks like these. The bedspread is packed away at the moment, so I will share some pics of that at a later stage.
Here is a close up of one of the hundreds (really something like five hundred!) Bullion roses on the project.
Here is a close up of the cotton lace and satin ribbon on the edges of the pillow. The lace and ribbon are repeated on the bedspread.
Well, it's a four day weekend here - I have a lot to do at home and hope to get some serious stitching done!

I hope you all have a good weekend and a Happy Easter!