Smalls SAL 2018_February Update

Hmmm!  Also just getting my February Smalls SAL post in by the skin of my teeth this month as well!

                                  

Although I do have a good excuse for being behind - our building project has started!  Woo Hoo!  Maybe by Christmas but certainly by the end of next Jan, we should have the first of the two houses (which is rather confusedly called House 2) we are building on our existing block (we will eventually be pulling our house down to make way for a new house) finished and ready to move into whilst House 1 (our dream home) is being built!!!! Exciting times and lots to do, cleaning out twenty years of seven people's junk/detritus/belongings/memories!

Anyway, onto the stitching....  I have four Smalls finishes this month.

1. First up is "Warm Hands, Warm Heart", which is the January Ornament for the JCS Christmas Ornie FB SAL  - The Little Stitcher, p. 52 from JCS Christmas Ornie Magazine. 

I do love this spotty fabric for Christmas ornies.

2. Next is Love Never Fails which I stitched for The Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop and also for the Needlecraft Haven's monthly challenge - although I was a fail on this as I forgot to send my pic to Christine!    Too much going on here - Aaagghh!

Love Never Fails

The Primitive Hare Freebie

You can find it here

Over-dyed lilac linen

Changes: beaded the word "Love" and changed the key to white

Pink floss is CC Cerise

3. 

I picked up Santa's Sleigh Ride by JBW Designs as a Friday Frolics piece a couple of weeks ago. This was also for my Rotation Relay for the Winter Olympics for WIPocalypse SAL (on FB). I 'm very happy to say this is now a finish, too.

4. My fourth and final Happy Dance for this month's Small's SAL is this very cute design by Paola Gattiblu, "Proverbi 4".   This was the Friday Frolic piece that I chose for last Friday's FF.

This is the companion piece to Proverbi 3 (you can see the two pieces together if you scroll down). 

The saying "Gatto ci cova" means "The cat is hatching" ie up to something no good! You can read more about it here.

So, there you go, that is my Smalls Update for Feb, 

if you want to see everyone else's Smalls Update, 

please click here.

hugs, 

Revealing my Secret Stitching Sweetheart...

This is a follow up post to my Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop post, where I posted this gorgeous heart....

The answer as to who sent it to me was soon revealed....

Yes, this stunning heart was stitched by the gorgeous Joysze from Random Ramblings.  

Thank you so much, my Joysze, I love this heart dearly.

..... and who received my Valentine?

Love Never Fails

The Primitive Hare Freebie

You can find it here

Over-dyed lilac linen

Changes: beaded the word "Love" and changed the key to white

Pink floss is CC Cerise

Well, the recipient was none other than my very dear friend from across the continent, Stitching Noni from Fireflies and Cats in the Garden.

I hope that you enjoyed my heart as much as I enjoyed stitching it, Noni.

If you want to see all of the Secret Stitching Sweethearts for this year, 

please click here

hugs, 

Smalls SAL_May 2017 plus May TUSAL, too....

Well, here I am again, playing catch up with the Smalls SAL but what the hey? At least I am remembering to post, eventually!

So, what Smalls can I show off to you, I have a few a lot this month, I think... Let me go rummage in my Girl's Nest and see what I can find....

Let's start with April and May from one of the SALs that I am doing this year - Rainbow Gallery's 2004 Cross Stitch Surprise series (January to December).

Oooops!  Forgot to add the kitty cat!

Next is another freebie, The Drawn Thread's "First Snow".  I substituted white beads instead of Smyrna crosses for the snowflakes - I am very happy with the effect.

I have also finished "A Spot of Spring" (another The Drawn Thread design) for my "Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CALL" SAL, which I am doing with dear Jo.

Lots of beading on this one, too, I even found a beaded pale pink button to use as the flower!

Next up is my version of "You are so loved", a gorgeous freebie from The Snowflower Diaries,  which I changed to "You are so blessed" and stitched for my Memento Box.  You can read more about this in my this post.

.... and some more pieces for the windows of my Memento Box....

This little house is from this sampler:

... and the sweet little fox is from this Sampler book

I also stitched a version of this freebie from The Primitive Hare ....

Phew! That is a lot of Smalls this month! I think that I am quite impressed with myself, really!

Please click here to see lots of other great Smalls from other stitchers.

... and to finish off, here is May's TUSAL report - the pile of ORTS is growing!

You can check out everyone else's TUSAL report by checking out this post on DaffyCat's blog and scrolling down to the comments section.

hugs, 

Gifted Gorgeousness_March Update...

I must begin this month's update with an apology to a dear bloggy buddy, Sharmayne from Country Fragrance, as last GG post I forgot to post about the wonderful exchange gifts she sent me for the Initial Heart Swap, which is run by dear Cheryll every year.

But first, in case 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 about anything which is stitchy gift-related that we have been up to that month.

Anyway, dear Sharmayne sent me the most gorgeous journal cover, some jelly beans and a sweet crocheted heart.

In turn, I sent her a little pillow, with the year and her initial on it, a bear tin and some chocolates.

With a cat postcard, of course!

Great swap, Sharmayne, thank you so much, I love my new journal.

Next, I have a languishing WIP, which I stitched on for Friday Frolics a week or so back ....

"Noel Blanc", the design was kindly gifted to me by my dear Jo, from Serendipitous Stitching, of course!

Noel Blanc

Designer: K

Designer: A  Mon Ami Pierre

Fabric: 28 ct Willow (I think that is what it is called.)

Floss: Suggested DMC threads

The true colour of the fabric is closer in the second pic. I must say it looks much prettier in real life

 The last time I stitched on this piece was in August 2015!  So sorry, Jo, I could not believe that so much time had gone by before I touched it again but now it is definitely back in my rotation (which seems to get bigger by the day - lol!)

Next up is a sweet Easter stitch all finished for a friend.

Spring Celebrations design by The Primitive Hare.  It is a freebie which you can find here.

... and this is another FFO for a friend from my Book Club (the stitching was completed in September 2015)

Lastly, I have started on this gorgeous nutcracker Christmas design, kindly gifted to me by the delightful Melinda from Family Business.

It is a really sweet design from an old magazine and features five different nutcrackers standing to attention all in a row, with an alphabet above and surrounded by a candy cane and heart border - just adorable - all in time-honoured Christmas colours.

Thank you so much, dear Melinda.

Well, that is all my GG for this month.

Please check out this link for all the wonderful work of the other GGers!

hugs, 

FNwF and Friday Frolics...

....  again involved a little bit of creative timing because, as seems to be the case so often and was indeed again this Friday, I was quite busy.  A very good excuse this time - I spent ALL day helping my sister move house!  So, once more I fudged a little and started my FF on Thursday and then snatched a little bit of time on Friday evening once I had settled myself in my comfy stitching chair with a heat pack for my back (sore from all that bending and lifting and unpacking boxes) and a cat to cuddle.

But first, in case you do not know what I am talking about ...

Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics (or FF) is a SAL blog run by me to help us work our way through some of our WIPs and UFOs, each Friday.

Friday Night with Friends or (FNwF) is a monthly SAL, run by another wonderful SAL Mama, Cheryll, from Gone Stitchin' again to help us get some of our stitching goals accomplished.

If you would like to see everyone else's stitching for the various SALs, please click on the following links:

                                                       FNwF

                                                       Friday Frolics

Firstly, I worked on finishing this sweet Spring Celebrations design by The Primitive Hare.  It is a freebie which you can find here.

I found a scrap of overdyed fabbie and just managed to squeeze the design on it but I changed all of the colours to hopefully create a very sweet, very pastel, springlike feel.

Once I had finished this piece, I was too tired to go rootling around in my Girl's Nest for an old WIP, so I settled for a more recent one, one that I am finding very soothing to stitch.

Design: Do more of what makes you happy

Designer: Abbey Rose Designs

Fabric: 32ct Grey-spotted

Floss: Mixture of suggested and own choice over-dyed threads

These pics below show you where I got up to last time I posted about this piece in January - as you can see, I am close to finishing.

Anyway, enough "rabbiting" on from me for now - off to do some laundry and hopefully some sewing in my Girl's Nest.

hugs, 

Kaye