Twit Twoo

As predicted I managed to get my mini wall hanging finished last night. Good job it was such a small project otherwise I wouldn't have had any hope of getting it done in time for delivering it at the weekend.
I hope my Aunt likes it. It was a lot of fun to make and I enjoyed the fact that there was a mixture of hand and machine stitching to do. It's definitely what I needed to get my juices flowing again, I can't wait to get started on some new projects and get caught up on some of the swaps that I'm lagging behind in.

It was also a great feeling to finally have something else to add to my list of completed projects for 2008 in my side bar, it's been way too long.

An unexpected gift

Yesterday I got an unexpected gift, the best gift of all, some time. I had planned to work from home for the day but away from the constant ringing of the telephones and all the other general office distractions I got my work done in half the time I thought it would take so took a couple of hours off in the afternoon.

It was a beautiful afternoon, with blue skies, a few fluffy clouds and a nice light breeze. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the sun lounger out and sat in the garden for a couple of hours stitching. As a result I managed to get all of the blanket stitch added to my owls. In the evening I also added the borders and most of the binding, but by the time I had got to that the light wasn't very good for pictures so I'll wait until the hanging is completely finished before I share.

I think I definitely had too much sun as at one point as I found myself wondering whether it is possible to get a thimble tan. You know just like one of those sunglasses tans that you often see where someone has been wearing their glasses all day and get the white panda rings around the eyes! So I'll be on the look out now for anyone with a white finger tip as I'll know they are a sun worshipping stitcher :)

What a hoot!

Well as hinted at in my last post this week I have started a new project. Not a big one it needs to be quick as it's a birthday present for my Aunt and I've run out of time for making.

But with the help of these fabrics from the stash ....And a beautiful pattern by Maria Saunderson from this magazine ......Here are my beginnings ............Yes you guessed it my Aunt loves owls. Now I really will have to get a move on I only have 3 evenings to get this done. It is small though at only 14" x 14" so hopefully it will come together quickly.

Next step is to blanket stitch around the applique shapes by hand, hopefully I will get this done today. I have plenty of stranded embroidery threads which I inherited from Mum..........so colour matching shouldn't be too much of an issue :)

Even though I'm just following a pattern I have really enjoyed the process of picking and cutting the fabrics, hopefully this will be just the things to get me back to my own projects again.

Knitting and Precious Gifts

So I still don't have a picture of the finished stitching on my bag project to share. I did take one but managed to delete it and now my camera needs charging. Sometimes I can be so ditsy. Instead I'm going to share something else that I've just finished.

I knitted myself a hat, one of the few knitted things I've managed to finish. Honestly I have half started knitting projects every where, I think the problem is I'm attracted to things that are just a bit too ambitious for my basic knitting skills and have got stuck and the difficult parts of various projects. As you know I don't like sharing pictures of me but what the hell, after the lack of blog posts here for a while I don't expect many people are reading any more anyway!
The picture is a bit dark so you can't really see the beautiful colours in the yarn I used very well, I will try and get a better one soon. I'm pleased with the way it turned out and have bought some more of this beautiful yarn to make a hat and scarf set for my friend Charlotte for Christmas (she doesn't know about my blog so I'm not spoiling any surprises here).

Before I sign off I just have to share some pictures of 2 precious gifts that my friend Vi sent me all the way from Australia. Look at this totally adorable pin cushion (again please excuse the poor quality picture there is not much good daylight at the moment and when there is some I'm always at work!).
Vi also sent me this beautiful friendship doll. She made this with a wonderful rainbow theme to remind me always of my Mum. Definitely one of the most special gifts I've ever received. Thank you so much Vi.

Here's one I made earlier ....

I just heard from Vi that the meme item I sent has arrived so I can now safely share a picture of what I made without spoiling the surprise.

I love cathedral windows so I decided to make something practical and went with a needlecase. I used a brown fossil fern fabric to create the squares and some gold organza in the windows. To finish it off I added some beads and attached some beautiful wrapped cord that Anna sent me.

I am really pleased with the way it turned out and hope to find some time to make something similar for myself in the not too distant future.

I have one more meme item to make for Ali, if you are out there Ali I haven't forgotten you and will send something soon. It will be totally different to this so I'm not spoiling any surprises!