Monday, 14 February 2022

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop.....

 Hello my lovelies and Happy Valentine's Day....



 ... and this means it is time again for the fabulous Valentine's Day Blog hop organised by the Blog hop Queen,  Jo from Serendipitous Stitching -  Jo has randomly given us a sweet Valentine stitching picture from our Secret Stitching Sweetheart. We then visit Jo's blog to start the blog hop to find out who has our Valentine picture and let them know who we are and you can all play, too!

As I live in Melbourne, Australia and we are ahead of much of the world, it is Valentine's Day already here but not in England where Jo lives, so the link above goes to her blog but once Jo has posted the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Post I will update for you.

In the meantime, here is my absolutely gorgeous Valentine ....


I can't wait to find out to whom this belongs - is it yours?

If you are my Secret Stitching Sweetheart, please leave a comment below.

Love to you all on this special day of LOVE, 

Update: Please click on the pic below to follow a link to Jo's Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog post to join in the fun of the Blog Hop.





hugs, 


Saturday, 12 February 2022

Fully Finished Gallery SAL_February 2022 Report

 Hello Lovelies, 

 So, it is that time of the month again - time to show off my Fully Finished Objects...

 Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This is a great SAL, designed to motivate us all to do something with that box of Finished pieces instead of just storing them under the bed or in my case, in a drawer! The idea is to link up on Rachel's blog on or after the 10th of each month (10 Hour Stitcher - 10th of the month)..... 

For February, I have finally finished Cardinal Winter by LHN, which I started in March last year.





The colours are actually a bit more vibrant than what is shown above.  I am very happy with how it turned out.

I also have Fully Finished the four dishcloths I have knitted for DS1. 


These are all free designs from Garlene from The Kitchen Sink shop - she releases a new one each month. You can find her designs on Ravelry, here (or click on the pic above) although you have to pay for last year's designs now. But if you sign up for her newsletter you should get these year's designs for free each month.  I find these very soothing to knit and so pretty and useful.


hugs, 


P.S. I also did some Friday Frolics Stitching (where I did up a UFO and stitch on that on a Friday), you can check out this week's post on Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics.

Wednesday, 9 February 2022

New Kitten Stitching Happy Dance Blog

 Hello my Lovelies, 

The redoubtable and inspirational, Jo from Serendipitous Stitching, who has a sister blog called "Come Happy Dance with Me" has inspired me to start my own Happy Dance Blog, called "The Kittens are Happy Dancing".  Please click on the pic below if you would like to check it out. I am going chronologically and so the first four posts are from 2011 (but please do excuse the poor quality of the photos and yes, they are out of order already as I found a later Happy Dance post with an earlier (2010) finish - so annoying to be out of order alread - lol!).


hugs, 

Monday, 7 February 2022

The Joys of setting up a new garden...

 Hello my lovelies, 

One of the joys of having built a brand new house is the chance to start a new garden and boy, have we (mainly TraderVic) been working hard on landscaping, planning and planting our new garden.  Here are a few pics to show you the bounty from our garden - I love flowers....   In another post, I will show you some more pics of the actual garden.           







hugs, 


Sunday, 6 February 2022

Okay, let's see if I can post more in 2022!

 Hello my lovelies, 

I am so sorry that I have not visited with you all since April last year - not sure where the time has gone - especially as we (like so many of us) were in lockdown for most of it.  I promise you, a lot of reading, stitching and knitting got done but for some reason, I really hermitted and posted on IG rather than on Blogger.  But it is a NEW YEAR, so here goes. 

This is what I have been stitching this month....

Unfortunately, for me, despite stitching like mad all month I didn't quite finish my choices for two of the themes: One (12 Days) and Four (Nutcracker) for the Christmas Ornie SAL which I host.  Although I did make a lot of progress on my Nutcracker Village for Theme Four.  

But firstly, here is my 12 Days design - by Jim Shore - this is a picture of what it will look like when finished....

.... and here is my rather pathetic progress on it!


But I am pleased to say that my first section of Nutcracker Village by Country Cottage Needlework is coming along very well (although not finished).  It is stitched on the called for sparkly fabric but I couldn't seem to get the sparkles to show up but I must say I think it is one of the prettiest Christmas designs I have ever stitched and I am sorry to say that the photos do not really do it justice.






This is what I have been knitting, all last year and again this year - Dishcloths!


These are all free designs from Garlene from The Kitchen Sink shop - she releases a new one each month. You can find her designs on Ravelry, here (or click on the pic above) although you have to pay for last year's designs now. But if you sign up for her newsletter you should get these year's designs for free each month.  I find these very soothing to knit and so pretty and useful.

... and this is what I have been reading so far this year...


I would have to say, don't bother with either The Girl with the Stars (even though I have really loved all of Mark Lawrence's other novels) or Trigger Mortis (adolescent rubbish, really). I am rereading the Matthew Reilly's Jack West Jr series as the final one has come out but they are a VERY light read and you have to suspend a lot of disbelief.  The real gem that I have discovered this year is Louise Penny and her Inspector Gamache series. At first they seem like a light read, too, but they have so much depth to them which becomes more with each novel in the series.  I can highly recommend them (and I am learning a lot about Quebec, too).  Update: Stanley Tucci's book was a delight!

So, that is me for this past month (yes, I know it is Feb already but at least I am trying - lol!)

hugs, 

Tuesday, 13 April 2021

TUSAL Report_April 2011 Update

 Okay, TUSAL time again, here are my April ORTs....   Travel ORTs on the left and home ORTs on the right, sitting with a pile of my latest Stash Empire acquistions (some lovely fabric for finishing Christmas Ornies).


... and here are all of this year's ORTs so far in my ORT jar.



If you are wondering what I am talking about, TUSAL stands for the Totally Useless Stitch A Long, where we post each month's collection of ORTs (Old Ratty Threads). You can read all about it by clicking on the pic below:

Tusal

If you would like to see everyone else's TUSAL reports for February, please go to Daffycat's Blog and check out the comments section (please note, Sharon has not yet put up her April post so this link to her March post),


OR

You can visit the FB group

Stay safe and well, my dear friends.

Thanks for visiting and please don't forget to leave a comment as I do love a good chat,

hugs, 

Saturday, 10 April 2021

Fully Finished Gallery SAL_April Report + April FNwF

 So, it is that time of the month again - time to show off my Fully Finished Objects...

                                       

 Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This is a great SAL, designed to motivate us all to do something with that box of Finished pieces instead of just storing them under the bed or in my case, in a drawer! The idea is to link up on Rachel's blog on or after the 10th of each month (10 Hour Stitcher - 10th of the month)..... 

So, how did I go this month?  Well, not as highly successful as earlier months, with only TWO FFOs this month: giving me a running total of FFOs for 2021 of TWENTY-ONE!

My first FFO is this cute bib which I found when I was tidying up my sewing room in preparation for our big move to the Front House in about two week's time. Now, I have had this big in my stash for a very long time and every time I "found" it, I would think to myself that I really needed to do something with it.  Well, anyway, I found it again on Thursday and then only seconds later I found the perfect pattern of beachy designs for it, borrowed the alphabet from my latest new start, Margaret Bodin's Work 1802 and Bob's your Uncle - it was all stitched up!  

The bib and the beachy designs are just perfect as this bib is destined for my very dear friend, Lisa's first grandson who often visits them at their holiday house at the beach. 





My second FFO is, of course, my Happy Easter which you would have seen a couple of posts ago.




This was a freebie from My Fanny Designs, which you can find here.


Last night was Friday Night with Friends, so here is my Friday Night with Friends_April 2021 edition


... this is a virtual sew-in hosted by the lovely Cheryll from Gone Stitchin'. Click on the logo above to see what everyone else worked on this past Friday night.
 I put a few stitches into Margaret Bodin...


Stay safe and well, my dear friends.

Thanks for visiting and please don't forget to leave a comment as I do love a good chat,

hugs, 


Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop.....

  Hello my lovelies and Happy Valentine's Day....   ... and this means it is time again for the fabulous Valentine's Day Blog hop o...