Smalls SAL April update, plus, plus, plus....

... a Super Crafty Sunday and April Hallowe'en Ornie SAL update and a Santa's 12 Days of Christmas SAL update.  

Warning: Pic heavy and lots of stitching!

I had a super Sunday this weekend, in terms of being super productive that is.  I finished my  April Smalls SAL piece, my April Halloween Ornament plus some other finishing.

Let me show you....

First off the rank is, my Smalls SAL piece.

The Smalls SAL 2015 is hosted by the lovely Heather, from Stitching Lotus. On the last Wednesday of every month you sign into the sign in post on her blog, here and link to your Smalls SAL post. 

Basically, we....
"Stitch a small every month. You get to decide what a small is for you. 50×50 stitches? 100×100 stitches? It’s up to you."

This is my finish for April.
It is Tall Sheep (again!), slightly modified (again!) as I decided that the butterfly and the bee and flower buttons were going to make it too fussy.

I decided to be a bit adventurous in my finishing, so I hot glued some pretty ribbon to the front and the back and added an antique button to the top right corner.

I adore this backing fabric, I like to think that Miss Grace is the shepherdess of the Tall Sheep - lol!

Tall Sheep

Shepherd's Bush

28 ct Flax Linen

Mixture of CC and DMC threads.

Next up is my Halloweeen Ornie SAL, hosted by the wonderful Jo from Serendipitous Stitching.

Every month, a group of us post a Halloween Ornie based on that month's theme. April's theme was tombstones, can you see my tiny tombstones on the left hand side - a bit of a long bow re the theme but I just had to stitch that castle!

Happy Halloween

Freebie from La Comtesse de la pointe de croix

32 ct Belfast Linen 

Hand dyed "Evening Sky"

GAST Royal Purple

I have used this leftover quilt backing for the back.

You can check out everyone else's tombstones, here. 

Next month's theme is Pumpkins and I have already found a design I like from La Comtesse, so that is a good start.

Then I finished "Counting" as a long cushion for my Friends Swapaway.  I used the same leftover backing fabric for the front and back of the cushion.

Then, on Monday night I finished Day 9 of my Santa's 12 Days of Christmas SAL which I do every Sunday night with my lovely friend, Linda.

I think that Day 9 is my favourite Day so far.

On Sunday, I felt like Baking, as well, so I made some gorgeous peanut butter and choc chip cookies, named Outrageous cookies and some lentil soup - yum!

Earlier in the week, I had tried my hand at homemade crumpets.

Terribly fiddly to make but delicious with some blackberrry jam.

Lastly, I meant to show you my ANZAC biscuit tin last post.  Every year, Unibic, put out a limited edition tin of ANZAC biscuits for ANZAC day. The tins commemorate Australian soldiers in some way. This year reflects the 100 year anniversary of the Gallopoli landing.

Well, that is all from me, don't forget to follow the links to see what everyone else has been up to.  Maybe next post will see a pic of my finished scarf!

hugs, 

It was a great success!

For me, IHSW this month was highly productive.  It really helped that TraderVic and I had a very quiet weekend planned and the weather was miserable - most inducive to staying indoors and stitching.

For those of you who do not know what I am talking about......

"International Hermit and Stitch Weekend takes place every 3rd full weekend of each month, from Friday till Sunday. In our very busy and hectic lives, IHSW is a chance for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." It is a time set aside to take care of us and our love for stitching."


It is hosted by the lovely Joysze from Random Ramblings and you can see who else signed up here.

So, why was it such a great success for me?

Well, I finally finished both of the designs for the round boxes for my Swapaway Gifts!  You know the ones, I was having trouble working out what to do?  You can read about that here.

I am so thrilled with how they turned out:

Modified Tall Sheep

Shepherd's Bush Designs

Stitched on 28 Ct Country French Linen - Spring Meadow

Using a variety of speciality and DMC threads.

I cannot express how happy I am at how they have finally turned out - at last I am satisfied with what I have accomplished!

I also found time on Sunday to stitch some more on my Sunday SAL with my dear Linda, Santa's 12 Days of Christmas.  Day Nine is one more Sunday away from being finished, I think!

 

Lastly, I have had some success in the garden, too, as my pansies have started flowering.  I just love sweet, little pansies.

So, I hope that your weekend was as productive as mine.

Love to all and stitchy hugs,

Gifted Gorgeousness _April update

.... Bloggy friends are the best!

I am a bit late posting these gifts (seems to be my usual refrain at the moment) but I have been sent some lovely gifts from wonderful bloggy friends over the past month. So, in the end it seemed best to showcase them in my Gifted Gorgeousness SAL post for this month.

Just to remind you:

The Gifted Gorgeousness SAL is run by the wonderful Jo fromSerendipitous Stitching.  The idea is that every month we link to Jo's GG blog post to show off whatever we are stitching that is Gift-related.  It can be something we are making for someone special or a chart or threads with which we have been gifted or basically anything else we can shoehorn into the basic premise.

It is such a good idea, as we all have something we are doing in at least one of those categories, don't we?

So , here we go:

Firstly, my SSF (Stitching Sister Forever),  Kim sent me these gorgeous gifts as part of our Swapaway (you will notice from my sidebar, that one of my April goals is to finish my gifts for Kim and June for the swapaway but I am having trouble with deciding on a pattern for the next gifts I am making). I hate being so indecisive but I want the stitchy gifts to be just right!

The idea is that the gifts spell the word  "FRIENDS". I can tell you, Kim really spoilt me!

... and this is what was inside - oh boy! Kim is such an exquisite stitcher and finisher!

Sorry, I do not know why some of these photos are sideways!

Thank you, thank you, dear, dear Kim.  You are indeed my SSF!

Secondly, I sent the lovely Sarah a Little Sheep Virtue pattern as a gift as she did not have it for our LSV SAL.  Well, she is truly lovely as she sent me all of these gifts in return (I can promise you, the pattern was originally sent with no strings attached!).


A gorgeous, gorgeous bookmark, a small Janlynn kit (which I posted about last GG SAL update), a needleminder , a book from an author whom we both like (Sarah Addison Allen) and some camel soap.


Unfortunately, my photos are playing up on my camera so I only have a pic of the gorgeous book mark to show you:

Thank you so much, dear Sarah. I absolutely adore this book mark and all of the other gifts, too.  The novel was a great read and I have already lent it to my sister!

I have done some GG stitching but no time for that this month.  I will reveal all next month.

Take care and don't forget to check out everyone's GG stitching at Jo's blog.


hugs,

Friends Swapaway Winner Announced......

Drum roll, please.....

The winner of the Friends Swapaway

is 

JUNE

from Butterfly Wings

Congratulations, dear June, Kim will be in contact shortly via email to sort out all sorts of details with you on behalf of both of us.

Thank you to everyone else, who played with us.

hugs,