Mary Glover SAL and a huge WIP

Believe it or not - I actually have some stitching to show! I have joined in the wonderful Mary Glover SAL hosted by Emmanuelle after seeing it on Siobhan's blog. It is stitched on a light, natural colour 28ct evenweave in DMC thread. Some of the threads are in the recommended colours and others I had to change to match the fabric.

Here are a few closeups of the details - I just love the soft colours.
I have also resumed work on a piece I started about two years ago. It is Historic Countries Sampler and was given as a mystery sampler over twelve issues of The Gift of Stitching Magazine a few years ago. I am stitching it on antique white Jubilee in DMC thread. It is a HUGE piece and is made up of twelve 'samplers' summarizing the historical aspects of each country's samplers. The piece in the bottom left is Spain and the piece to the right hand side of that represents the Scandinavian countries. The small band sampler is the first part of Holland. The Holland sampler is quite big, but I am looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to Ireland, which will go at the top of Holland.
In addition to cross stitch this piece contains a lot of specialty stitches that make it even more interesting:

That is enough stitching for me for one post! I also have another 'semi finish' to show, but I will share that in my next post.

Until next time,

Happy Stitching!

Some Stitching and a Gift

I have some stitching (but no finishing!) to show! I'm going to try to stitch more Christmas ornaments this year - my first one for the year is 'Winter Sheep' by Little House Needleworks. He is stitched on 28ct straw evenweave in DMC threads and topped off with a little Christmas tree charm. He is pictured on the fabric I'll be using for the finishing:

This piece I stitched towards the end of last year, but never finished it for Christmas. It is such a cute design by Tra-la-la and is stitched on self-dyed 28ct evenweave in DMC stranded cotton and DMC colour variations. It is also pictured on the fabric that I will, eventually, be using for finishing:
I stitched this piece, 'Beneath Sunlit Skies' by Black Bird Designs, also towards the end of last year. It is stitched on a Natural 28ct evenweave in a variety of variegated cottons. I did not follow the recommended colours for this chart, but instead had a look at the pic, grabbed my floss box with variegated threads, and pulled whatever I liked and seemed would work. It was really fun to do and also a great way to use some stashed threads! (Some of the colours are very soft and don't show up too well in the photo.)
Here are a few closeups:
Last, but certainly not least - I would like to thank dear Edit for the lovely Christmas present she sent me at the end of last year. Look at all the lovely goodies - fabric, ribbon, beads and a beautiful snowman ornament. (The ornament took pride of place on our Christmas tree and looked great!) Thank you again Edit, it was an unexpected and wonderful gift!
That is it from me for now. Hope to have some stitching updates again soon.

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments on my previous post - it is appreciated.

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

I'm Back!

I can't believe it has been more than four months since my last post! A lot has happened in the past few months, though. Firstly - I got married! I don't think I even told you that I got engaged :)

Here are a few pics of my husband and I on our wedding day:

Remember the Hardanger and cross stitch piece by Lee Albrecht that I was stitching? My mom finished it into a ring pillow for me and it worked perfectly and looked beautiful:
In other news, I obtained my Masters degree in medical biochemistry last year and have now started my PhD study, also in medical biochemistry.

Unfortunately, we also had some losses over the past month - my grandmother died two days before Christmas and my grandfather died on the tenth of January. They were married for sixty years (I made an anniversary sampler for them - ironically, my previous post) and they will be greatly missed.

As you can imagine, not a lot of stitching has happened, but I will post about the little that I have done soon.

Until next time, Happy Stitching!

I am still here!

Wow - I didn't mean for it to be more than two months between posts, but things have been really hectic on this side! Thank you so much for all the emails and comments throughout the past few months - I really appreciate it! Stitchers and bloggers are really nice people, so all you stitchy/crafty bloggers are super nice :)

I do have some stitching to show. I stitched an anniversary sampler for my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary in August. It is adapted from a piece in a Cross Stitch Gold Magazine and is stitched on Bone Lugana in Chameleon threads in a Mushroom colour. The details in the heart are stitched in a House of Embroidery thread called "Ajuga". (It is such a lovely shade - I'm looking for an excuse to use it again!)

This sampler has cross stitching on it and also some basic Hardanger - now all it needs is a frame!
I have also received this "one lovely blog" award from Chrizette. Baie dankie Chrizette - ek waardeer dit!
I am supposed to pass the award on to 15 people, but I don't have the time to do it now, so I would like to award it to all of you! Feel free to take it if you want to :) (The rules are on Chrizette's blog)

Well, I hope to post again soon and even hope to have some more stitching to show. I still have a lot of catching up to do on all your lovely blogs, but will do so in time!

Enjoy the week and Happy Stitching!

Giveaway Winners!

Here are the results of my one year Blogeversary Giveaway! I did the draw the old fashioned way - I printed all the names and cut them into strips of the same size, folded them twice and put them in the rose bowl of destiny!

The first name to come out...
Congratulations Edit - you are the first prize winner!

And the runner up prize.....
Congratulations Zsuzsanna - you have won one of the runner up prizes!

And the third prize....
Congratulations Cath - you have won the other runner up prize!

Could the three winners please email me with their postal details - my email address is in my profile.

Thank you to everyone who entered - I wish I could send everyone a prize :)

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

Shores Block 10 Completed!

Can you believe it - the start of another week! I'm trying to concentrate on typing this post while the Netherlands/Slovakia Round of 16 World Cup match is on - very difficult to concentrate indeed! Hope you are all still enjoying the soccer, coming to you from SA - it has certainly produced a lot of interesting results so far - South Africa, Italy, France, America, Australia, New Zealand and England have all been eliminated already!

Wow -The Netherlands just scored another beautiful goal - they are up 2-0 in the 84th minute! Apologies for the running commentary, but soccer fever has taken over the entire country. The Netherlands is also a very popular team here, since many of us have a Dutch heritage, especially in the Western Cape.

I actually have a little bit of stitching to show - I finished block 10 of Shores of Hawk Run Hollow:

I am really enjoying this piece and can't wait to move on to the next block. I am also working on some small stitchy gifts for the winners of my Blogeversary Giveaway. You can still enter the draw by leaving a comment on my previous post. You must also be a follower of my blog and remember - I will post to any where in the world!

Another soccer update - The Netherlands have just beaten Slovakia 2-1 and are through to the quarter-finals - Yeaaahh! Prepare for some more of the Orange invasion!

OK, I'll try to focus now - entries into my draw are open until the end of the month. I will draw the names on the 1st or the 2nd of the month.

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

Blogeversary Giveaway Announcement! (Edited)

Hi from a cold, wet and soccer world cup crazy Cape Town! As I mentioned in my previous post my one year blog anniversary is drawing near and I am doing a giveaway to celebrate.

I am going to be giving one grand prize and two runner up prizes. Here is an approximation of the grand prize:

I will be including some hand-dyed fabric, threads, beads, ribbons, lace, buttons, needles, hand lotion and a hand made scissors fob. If I have time I also hope to add a small stitched gift. The runner up prizes will contain similar stitch related goodies, but on a smaller scale.

So here are the rules - to enter in the lucky draw for the giveaway all you have to do is be a follower and leave a comment on this post only. It does not matter if it is the first time you leave a comment on my blog - everybody is welcome to enter :) Please leave an email address where you can be reached if it is not on your profile. Entries will be open until the 30th of June.

Edit: Please note that the giveaway is open to everyone in all countries - I will post to anywhere in the world!

That's it for now! Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

A Small Finish and a Big Start

Yes, I actually have a small finish to show! I stitched 'Small Token' by Blackbird Designs on self-dyed 28ct evenweave in DMC threads and finished it as a pincushion. I absolutely loved stitching this piece - the colours are so lovely and look really good on the fabric. The fabric is coffee/tea dyed and was the perfect size for the stitching and the finishing :)

On to my new start - Shores of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings - I have been admiring this piece on many blogs for quite some time and finally decided to also give it a go! This is my favourite piece from the Hawk Run Hollow range.
Here is my start - I'm stitching it on 32ct Harvest Beige Minster Linen in DMC threads. The fabric is a lovely rich colour and seems to be reasonably close to the recommended shade. You can't see the colour accurately on my pic - it has been grey skies and storming - not great for taking accurate photos. That being said, I am extremely happy about the winter weather, especially after the extremely hot weather we had this summer!
I also noticed that I have been blogging for almost one year! When did that happen? I think this calls for a celebration, so watch this space for an announcement about a giveaway!

That's it for now! Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

A huge prize received!

Hi everyone! I was lucky enough to win the first prize in Babs' wonderful giveaway. The package arrived this week, and wow, what a great prize it is! Thank you so much Babs!

Here is a pic of all the goodies:

Here are some close up pics:

Babs included a lovely edition of Cross Stitch Gold and two Dutch magazines.
A DMC chart with charms, a chart by Diane Williams and some beautiful 3D stitching books for card making.
I was so thrilled with this - hand dyed threads by Nina, as well as some DMC threads and a spool of Kreinik. I have been admiring Nina's threads for a long time and I am so happy to finally have my hands on some of them! (Babs, the colours you selected are so lovely.)
Look at all these lovely goodies, some charms, ric-rac, very luxurious hand cream and a hand made fob!
Lastly (and this could really be a prize on its own) not one, but two pieces of hand made Belgian lace. This lace is designed by Babs and made by her mother. You can have a look at her other beautiful creations on her blog: Madammeke Ongeduld.

This first piece is the Princess lace:
Here is a close up:
This piece is the Brussels lace:
Here is a close up:
Thank you so much Babs - I really appreciate this stunning gift. Thank you also to your mom for all her beautiful work!

Well, that's it for now. Hope to have pics of a small finish and my new start in the week.

Have a great week and Happy Stitching!

A few stitching and craft related pics

Another two weeks have gone by since my last post - I can hardly believe it! I haven't been doing a lot of stitching these past few weeks, but here are some stitchy, crafty pics to share.

Aren't these cupcake chocolates too cute? They were the craze around here this Mother's day - I gave some to my mom, but insisted on taking some pics before they could be eaten :) They had a soft chocolate centre.

These cuties where purchased at a different store - can you see the theme here? They had a strawberry filling! I think I should try to reproduce these in Fimo at some stage :)
A few weeks ago Annie showed an Altoid tin that she covered with some of her lovely stitching and I mentioned that we don't get Altoids over here. So, what did Annie do? She sent me two tins of these 'curiously strong mints'. Thank you so much Annie - I'll be on the lookout for something to stitch to cover them! At the moment I'm enjoying the mints, especially the Wintergreen flavour.

I coloured some fabrics a few weeks ago - pink, green, blue and some blue-green. I'm not sure what they will be used for yet :) The colours don't show up so well in the photo - the colours are actually a bit deeper that in the pic.

I also tried to 'variegate' some of the fabrics - this one is green and pink - it should be fun to stitch on. (Once again, the colours are more intense in person than on the photo)
I also coloured some of this dark natural colour - I absolutely love this shade - I am currently using a similar piece for Feather Fairy.
Lastly, a little bit of stitching! I stitched this little Celtic knot design a few weeks ago and still need to finish it into a pinkeep. I will probably use the fabric in the background to finish it - it matches very well with the yellow-golds in the stitched piece.
I am working on another small design at the moment and hope to share it soon.

As you might have noticed, all my stitching plans and goals are deteriorating, so I am contemplating an evil plan. You know the kind - when your stitching mojo/momentum is lost - there is only one thing to do. A new start! I am seriously contemplating a new (big) start of a piece that I have been admiring on a few blogs over the last couple of months. Maybe now is the time to get it started - will keep you posted:)

Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

I am still here!

Hi Everyone! I have been missing in action for a few weeks - my Grandfather has been ill in hospital. He is 84 years old, but very healthy, so it was a bit of a shock. The good news is that he is home now and doing much better. We also have family visiting at the moment.

I have hardly stitched in three weeks and have not had time to visit all your lovely blogs :( Things are slowly returning to normal, so I'll be back to checking blogs, commenting and stitching soon!

Here are some pics of the last piece I worked on. It is the Hardanger pillow kit that Lee sent me.

I have done the pulled thread work, so now it comes to the cutting and weaving. I have decided to put the piece on hold for a while - I like to do all the cutting and weaving at one time for the tension to be the same, so it will have to wait for a while.

Here is a close up of one of the corners:
That's it for now - hope to have some more stitching to show soon. Enjoy the rest of the week and Happy Stitching!

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!