Sunday Stitching update.

Not much crafty happened this week, I think after my finishing frenzy last week my bugs disappeared for a well deserved break ;) hopefully they will come scurrying back next week as I have an exchange piece to finish!!

I popped along to Needles & Natter again on Thursday, met some more lovely crafty people and enjoyed a few cups of tea and....I learnt to crochet!! Only the basics so far, I can make chains and join my chain to form rows.

I was super excited and popped into my local wool shop on the way home for some scrap yarns to play with & keep practising. Soon got bored making rows and rows and rows though so went on youtube to find out about Granny Squares. One of the main reasons I wanted to learn to crochet in the first place is because I found this lovely Granny Squares Throw pattern on Ravelry from Attic24.

I am a great admirer of Attic24, as are many of the ladies from Needles & Natter, we had great fun discussing our favourite patterns she's produced. Mine are Summer Garden Granny Squares Throw, Ripple Throw & Crochet Bag and I'm hoping to make all three...

Anyway, the tutorial Lucy of Attic24 has written for Summer Garden Granny Squares seemed simple enough that even a total newbie like me understood them, I did struggle with connecting my chain to form a ring and where to go from there (hense youtube) but other than that I did manage to make a square!! I fudged my trebles and I know exactly what I did wrong now but I still ended up with somethign that was almost square & certainly looked like a granny square!!

I will upload pics of my crochet endevours soon!

I also managed to stitch half of my next halloween rule, still 4 months behind though, will have to get back to it after my Alice exchange pieces are done!!

xX Fiona Xx

Christmas Yoshi

Tiki I got the pattern from spritestitch.com but as I can't find the pattern to link to it I'll just post it here.

Hope this helps :)

The finishing pile is no more :)

I am thrilled to announce that apart from 3 pictures that require framing~which I may or may not do this afternoon~ I have completly emptied my finishing pile :)

My final ornament- lil valentine

Peep Cube

Top view

ABC Pumpkin

Check out the backing fabric!!

Santa 10

Backing fabric~so happy that I have enough for all 11 Santa designs & enough for this year's design too :)

Newton's Law Blossoms

All my finishes from this week together, bit of a collision of holidays but it makes me feel quite proud to see it all in one place.

My goals for my second week of holiday are:

• Halloween Rules catch up
• Finish Alice exchange piece
• Button Button (at craft group on Thursday morning)
• Finish Eat Local on Green Series
• Finish Hello Kitty stitch

Bit of a long list but as I'm off and the weather is looking pretty grim this week I might supprise myself again :)

Happy Stitching!!
xX Fiona Xx

Flat Fold Finish!!

Today was not as productive as I'd hoped...I managed to finish one flat fold.

Still it had been in the finishing pile for ages and now it's not, plus it was a type of finish I hadn't tried before so that may have had something to do with the time spent on it.

Halloween Short Stack by Waxing Moon Designs.

The flash has made the ribbon look really bright, it's more of a golden yellow in real life.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the sewing machine out and get making some cushions & pillow style ornies, maybe finish Peep as a cube and Lil Valentine as my last flat back orny too.

Till next time, happy stitching

xX Fiona Xx

Needles & Natter & More!!

More first :)

Keen observers/followers of my blog will have no doubt noticed a shiny new page at the top of my header.

Very early Wednesday morning I couldn't sleep so I decided to sort through my finishing pile and see just what I had in there and see if I could come up with some way of organising it better so that I could try and work through some of it before adding more finishes to it! I divided my entire pile into seperate catagories for flat back ornys, cusions/pillows etc and wrote them all down on my new page under the different catagories.

I'm hoping to get my entire pile finished off before I go back to work on the 13th. So far it's going very well, I have finished 7 things since Tuesday!!

Lots of flat backed ornys

My oldest finish, cosy christmas wishes from 2009

My first January Challenge finish, Lil Easter

Life's A Stitch

All Hallow's Eve

Peppermint Twist



Christmas Yoshi :)

Also the theme for August is 'Try something new', so in keeping with that theme I tried a new type of finish, I finished Is It Too Late as a present style cube :)

Really pleased with how well it came out and at how simple this type of finish was, will be doing again I'm sure :)

I also went to Needle & Natter today for the first time, as I have been playing with fabric & trims & glue for the last few days I haven't been stitching so I decided to take Button Button along. The ladies there were really friendly & although there were 10 of us there today including my mum & myself that is apparently a quiet day!! Despite doing an awful lot of 'nattering' (introductions as everyone showed up, explaining what crafts I do and for how long etc) I did manage to get a little bit of stitching done.

(The picture is shiny because I took it without getting my stitching out of the plastic pouch I store it in when I'm not working on it)

One of the ladies at the group has offered to teach me how to crochet! I'm very excited to learn as it's another craft I can do when my stitching bug deserts me! (and I've been looking at Ravelry again) I'm looking forward to next week's meeting all ready!!

Tomorrow I hope to finish one last ornament (lil valentine) a cube (peep) and try my hand at making flat folds, I'm a little nervous of those....Then I just have two cushions to make & a few framed pieces to do and my finishing pile will be gone!!

Wish me luck!!

Till next time, happy stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

it's here, it's here!!!

Yes my halloween copy of Just Cross Stitch finally arrived!!!!

so excited!!! Found too many designs I want to stitch!

Obviously I couldn't just order a magazine...these are the other bits that snuck their way into my basket prior to checkout :)

LHN Tree Farm, WMD Primative Greetings, Stitchy Kitty's Snowman Trio (and the buttons to finish)

Plum Streets Christmas Is Coming & Threadwork Primative's Kingle's Crow

Stashing aside I have also been stitching today, here is how button button is progressing, pretty happy with the way it's turning out so far. I am almost halfway though :)

I have two other bits of crafty news to share, firstly I discovered Ravelry today. I'd heard of it before but after an email from stitchyangel about some mitts she finished recently I thought I'd go and check it out....big mistake!! I have found sevenal patterns I've been wanting to knit/crochet, many from Attic24 of who's work I am a great fan! It's all such colourful hooky goodness :)

My second bit of craftying news is that I have found a craft group about 5 mins away from my workplace, they meet every Thursday from 9 till 12 at a local tea room called Rosie's. The group is affectionatly called 'Needles and Natter' and apparently any and all types of needles are accepted! I'm going along on Thursday to check it out and I'm thinking of taking either Witchy Brew or Dandy Dreams with me. Originally I was going to take Button Button but I think I may have it finished before then but if not I may take it along and finish it.

Till Next Time, Happy Stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx

Button Button update

More progress to show!! Stitched some more while watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Probably the most I will actually watch of the Olympics too, much rather be stitching ;)

Before I show how much I have done, I have noticed that more often than not I will put my stitching down to make a cuppa, answer the phone or door etc, (a problem that every crafter no doubt faces) but instead of pulling my needle through the fabric and parking it at the side, most of the time I leave it like this....

Yes that's right, with the needle poking straight up through the fabric...honestly sometimes I have to wonder at my own stupidity, I mean I manage to poke myself with it when I pick it up again too and I still do it!!

Anyway, inepitude aside, here is how much I got done tonight

I'm hoping to get more done tomorrow but as I'm going to Portsmouth to see family I can't really see it happening, still you never know!

Till next time, happy stitching!!

xX Fiona Xx