Sevenoaks Sewers (title to be confirmed).....

Hello lovely bloggers, 

I think that I have mentioned (at least in passing) my sewing group to you, we are tentatively called the "Sevenoaks Sewers" and we meet on the second Thursday (and sometimes more often) of the month to sit and chat together.  

The lovely Helen, from Helen's Patchwork Passion, is kind enough to open up her home to us each month.  Where we are made so welcome, especially by Eddie and Seven, below.

Aren't they cute?

Unfortunately, this month, two of our group (Dawn and Sue - we missed your great company, ladies) couldn't make it, but the three of us left (Helen, Anna and I) had lots of fun starting our new project....

Red Robin pouch and jewellery keep by Melissa Grant from "One Day in May".

Anna made great progress on her first robin panel (and she has already sewn up the patchwork section).

Helen made great strides with her stitching.

And I managed to trace out my first robin panel.

As I had some leftover fabric from making my dilly bag and lots of pink and green fabric in my stash and ....

 .... I adore the pink/green colour combo, I am making a "Pink" Robin pouch

and jewellery keep.

Here is my progress so far....

We are actually meeting again in a fortnight and I hope to have at least this panel finished before then and maybe the pouch completed??????? (Frail hope, I know but I can dream, can't I????)

Anyway, here it is Friday again, so off to check out my WIP/UFO pile to see what to stitch for Friday Frolics and later on, (maybe tomorrow), there will be a Smalls SAL post (and TUSAL, too, of course) - so please come back to visit.

hugs, 

P.S.  As I am super busy the next couple of days (doing fun things, of course) - there is still time to join in my Merry Xmas in July Exchange.  Just click on a present below to sign up.

FNSI for May....

Last night The other night was Friday Night Sew In (FNSI), hosted by the wonderful Wendy from Sugarlane Designs.

Unfortunately, I seem to have missed the last few months (oops!  I actually haven't had a FNSI post since January!!!!!) but I actually managed to get my act together this month!  And now, I have a bit of a serendipitous story to tell.

Once upon a Friday, it was time for May FNSI and as it was a Friday, it was also Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics night, so I went to my Girls Nest and pulled out this UFO project.  I started this at the beginning of 2015.  My dear friend, Marie (of Sunday walks fame) was doing some clearing out and she was going to throw out his gorgeous wooden photo storage box.  Now, I thought to myself, I can do something with this and I started stitching like mad to create a memento or personalised sewing box for myself.  (Good idea, hey?)  I managed to finish five "windows" before the project somehow ended up on the back burner.

(I just checked back and the one and only, very brief, mention of this project was at the end of this post way back in March, 2015!!!!!)

Anyway, here is MY box as it is looking now:

 Now, as luck would have it, that very morning, I was reading dear Carol's lovely blog, Stitching Dreams, where she showcased a very special piece that she had stitched for her dear Mother's 90th birthday.  

It was a gorgeous freebie from The Snowflower Diaries.  Now, this design (sans border) looked perfect for my memento box, so I quickly printed the design and off I went.

However, I did change the word "loved" to "blessed" and added a third baby bird to represent my third child.

\\

... and every fairy tale has a happy ending (or dance), so here is my finished piece.

I am so pleased that FNSI and FF inspired me to get this project out again - who knows, maybe it will be a FFO very soon?

Thanks for visiting, everyone and if you would like to see what everyone else got up to for FNSI, please click on the pic below:

hugs, 

P.S.  As I am super busy the next three days (doing fun things, of course) - there is still time to join in my Merry Xmas in July Exchange.  Just click on a present below to sign up.

Friday Frolics Update.....

I thought it was about time that I updated you on my latest Frolicking on Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics.  My SAL blog, where you can join me on any given Friday to stitch away on a UFO or WIP or even a new start, if that is what takes your fancy!

So, here are my two latest FF stitchy projects..... 

(Last Friday and the Friday before and here it is Friday again!  I wonder what I will find in my WIP/UFO pile today?????)


My Seventeenth Frolic (Friday, 5th May) was a real bust!  I picked up an old UFO from a few years ago - Bothy Threads Cut Thru' Castle and I did start stitching on it again BUT!!!!!!!

I had to face reality - I had made a bad error right at the start, in the background stitching (making a cross stitch over three threads, not two - rookie mistake, I know) and instead of biting the bullet at the time and pulling it out when I found it - I kept trying to fudge it.  But, of course, I knew that the mistake was there, but I kept compounding it by trying to stitch around it and so the project was abandoned.
When I picked it up for Friday Frolics the other week, I just couldn't ignore the mistake any longer and I started frogging it - which was a thankless task.  I think that now I am going to abandon it altogether - I will use the unused portions of the fabric for smaller designs and just ditch the stitched part. 

A shame really but I have so many other things that I want to stitch that it seems to be the best plan, really.  Maybe one day I will return to it, maybe not - who knows?

(The mistake is somewhere in the light blue background, to the right of the red and white striped pole.)

My Eighteenth Frolic (Friday, May 12th) was a lot more successful - a new start!

   Walk through our Village by UB Designs.

... And this is my progress pic.....

Don't you just love the red roof?

So, that is all for me for now.

I  do wonder what I will choose today?

If you are interested in joining the Friday Frolics with me, just click on the image below to get to the SAL blog and check it all out.

hugs, 

P.S.  I would like to invite you to join in the fun of my Merry Xmas in July exchange. Joining up closes by end of day today (19th May)  Just click on a present below to sign up.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL_May update ....

Before I tell you about my two only entries on the GG front this month, I would like to thank everyone for their great advice on going bold on my next project which I posted about last post - everyone was so helpful - I love my bloggy, stitchy friends, thank you so much!

So, onto GG - my first piece is "Afternoon in Paris" by CCN, which I am stitching for a friend's 60th birthday.  Last month I was up to here:

This has now had quite a bit more love and attention and I am now up to here:

My other GG piece is the wonderful Nutcracker Sampler (the design was gifted to me by my dear friend Melinda.)  Here is last month's progress pic.

And now I am up to here, not as much progress as I would like but I did have to frog that red in the border on the right hand side as I discovered that I had used the wrong red!  Anyway, it is growing!

  

Now, if you do not know what I am talking about ...

Gifted Gorgeousness (or GG) is a SAL run by the wonderful SAL Mama, Jo from Serendipitous Stitching.  Basically, on the 15th of each month, we post anything which is stitchy gift-related.  If you would like to see everyone else's GG for May, please click here or on the pic below.

hugs, 

P.S.  I would like to invite you to join in the fun of my Merry Xmas in July exchange. Joining up closes by end of day tomorrow (19th May)  Just click on a present below to sign up.

Some advice please......

I am thinking of making a "brave" fabric choice for stitching a LHN design but I would love everyone's opinion.

This is the design, which came with the suggested CC floss.

And this is the fabric I am thinking of stitching it on - Colours of Australia, 32 count Evenweave.

What do you think?

Too bold? Too brave?

But I am thinking that maybe it will look stunning!

I would truly value all of your opinions, please.

hugs, 

P.S.  I would like to invite you to join in the fun of my Merry Xmas in July exchange.  Just click on a present below to sign up.

My Fair Lady update.....

Here is my update for you of my outing to the Regent Theatre to see My Fair Lady, directed by Dame Julie Andrews, which I blogged about last post.

Oh, it was glorious!  Such a beautiful performance - the singing was great, the sets were fabulous and the costumes so absolutely gorgeous!

The only, little, disappointment was that Julie Andrews did not make an appearance as we had hoped (probably having her Nana Nap before the evening's performance - lol!).  However, the dress rehearsal raised a lot of money for Brain Cancer research, so that was great.

Of course, I had to buy a bit of memorabilia, as this is the 60th Anniversary season of the musical.

I also made a bit of a day of it in town and did a bit of shopping before the show...

First stop was the gorgeous L'ucello, a vintage haberdashery shop in the city of Melbourne.

I couldn't resist these beauties, some silver and gold lace to put in my bits and bobs drawer for use when I do some finishing of projects; some gorgeous au ver a soie silk (just because I couldn't resist the pinks); I have been doing a bit of beading on the odd project or two lately, so I bought a couple of little jars of pink and red beads; a vintage needle book and a stitched fob, which I put on a gorgeous wooden book mark that a friend's husband made for me.

I also visited one of my very favourite shoe shops, Edward Meller, where I indulged myself by buying two pairs of "dressy" runners. I couldn't make up my mind which pair to buy, so I bought both! Both pairs will be suitable to wear to work with long pants or trousers (my work believes in sensible, comfortable clothing in the office as we are not customer-facing, although, obviously, when I go out to schools to present, I dress quite formally).  What I like about them, also, is that they are pull on and very comfortable to walk in (Plus I love the bling on the black pair!)

Last stop was the big Dymock's book store on Collins Street, which I just love going to for a good old browse.  I managed to pick up the next two books in the Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron (the pseudonym for Christian Cameron, who normally writes historical fiction), which I have been trying to find for several weeks now, so I was very happy to find them.  I also had a very nice lunch of quiche and salad in the cafe there and as the book shop was just down the street from the Regent, it was a short stroll to My Fair Lady.

So, you can see that I had a fabulously indulgent day on Friday, one which I feel that I can easily justify by the fact that I have been so very sick with Bronchitis (I had almost a week off work with it and the second week, when I was still feeling quite unwell, I had to do a lot of travelling around Victoria to present at schools - there was a lot of driving) -  it really took a lot out of me, so it was lovely to be so indulgent!

Thanks for reading, 

hugs, 

P.S. I would like to invite you to join in the fun of my Merry Xmas in July exchange,which I am running on my main blog, Kitten Stitching.  

Just click on a present below to sign up.