Last finish of 2020

 I just put the last stitches in this my last finish of 2020

It’s from Cross stitch with art on Etsy

The fabric is the October fabric club from Sparklies which actually a very pale blue and I used DMC 606 and 699 

Secret stitch finish

 I got it finished in the end but it was a couple of days late for Christmas 

This year’s family ornaments

 It’s a damp, breezy day in November as I write this post and set it post today.

I can’t have the post go live as soon as it’s written as at least 2 of the recipients of these read my blog occasionally.

Earlier today I finished the last of the ornaments for family.

I’ve been making ornaments for my parents and both daughters for a few years now and I always try and make sure they are similar 

This year I went with this stocking set from Threadabead

Had a few hiccups along the way with them, like spending an hour looking for one of the oranges in the snowman’s nose and giving mum a call with the long shot of having lent it to her for something even tho she’s not beading right now and finding I had!  To using the beads I’d set side for the hanger on Santa’s secret book and having to find something else I could use.

But I’m really happy with the way they turned out and will eventually get round to making a set for my tree.

Secret stitch

Earlier this year I bought a gently used chart off a Facebook selling site of a Harley after checking with my fella that he liked it and told him I’d stitch it for him next year.

Early in October I had the bright idea of stitching it for him in secret for Christmas year and started it and then promptly didn’t do any more on it for a few weeks!   The last 10 days or so I’ve made sure I’ve worked on it for a few hours every day while he’s at work and I’ve made steady progress on it.

This is how far I got up to Friday evening and I’m hoping to get the back end finished off before he’s off at the end of this week.

Baby’s first Christmas ornament

 This year as you know we have an new family member, this handsome little guy Elliot so to mark the occasion of his first Christmas I made him a star.

The pattern is from Hookin’ to the beat 

I’m one of her test beaders and when this one was posted I jumped at the chance to do it.  I’ve also put in my claim to test next years version of it ready for the bump that’s on his way 🙂

Santa’s secret book

I finished this a few weeks ago and it took me until a few days ago to get round to taking pics of it!

The design is from Threadabead

I added the hanger so I can put it on the tree 

Slightly dotty snowmen finish

 I failed in my weekly update on these 🙁 but at least I’ve finally remembered to add the finished project!

Loved stitching these with a fiend and we have our next project planned but the kits are out of stock currently so until then we are doing ornaments from this years JCS ornament issue.

If your tempted to stitch these guys yourself, be quick as the kit is being discontinued in January 

Remembrance Day

 

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them

Snowman update

 This last weekend I stitched Reindeer jumper guy and made a start on my next one and his mini me

I’m looking forward to Saturday when I can stitch mini me’s grown up friend

Winter Scene Christmas Drop Ornament

Another recent bead finish that I didn’t share!

This is as the post title says Winter Scene Christmas drop ornament and it’s from Threadabead

I’ve had the pattern for years and thought that while I’m in the mood to make ornaments I’d get it done

 

Apologies for it being a bit dark

This weeks stitching

I’ve finished a model this week and obviously I can’t share but I will when it’s released (if I remember!)

Once I’d finished it I picked Thimble fairy back up and made some decent progress on it.

 I also started a Harley Davidson Evolution for fella as a Christmas gift.

He knows I have the chart but not that the first few stitches have gone in.  Lucky for me the hours he works will make it quite easy for me to stitch it in secret  

Penguins finish

Over the last couple of months this has been my travel project and yesterday I put the last stitches in.

It’s from Brittercup Designs and it’s a Christmas gift for Teejay who adores penguins 

Slightly Dotty Snowmen

 A friend and I are having a SAL on Bothy Threads Slightly Dotty Snowmen each weekend.

Blogger has decided that no matter which way I upload the pics they have to be backwards!!

So this is after this last weekend

Weekend 2  (Sept 26/27) saw mine look like this 

And after weekend one Sept 19/20

Not being a fan of Aida I switched to silver lurex Linda, the last piece in my stash 😢

More Crimson Poppies

 It’s had a little more love recently but had to be put away to work on a couple of models

Let it snow ornament

 I’m going to try and play catch up over the next few days but no guarantee it’ll happen!

First up is a recent finish, the instructions where given by a lady named Dawn. M Turner in a Facebook group I’m in last year for the monthly SAL they do there, I think it was in November and I got round to it last month.

Crimson Poppies progress

Since finishing Persian Buttercup I’ve been working on my neglected Crimson Poppies.

I started these in 2008 and I have a feeling I’ve not worked on them since then!!

I’ve gone from this

To this

The last few days have been hot here so I’ve not been stitching much but I just realised that another reason is that I’ve had enough of these for now so they are going away and I’m going to treat myself to a new start 😁

Fingers crossed it’s not another 12 years before I work on them again

Persian Buttercup

Started 8 July and finished at lunch time today

Persian Buttercup from John Clayton, part of the shades of nature collection.

I’ve got several finishes to post from the last few weeks but I keep forgetting to get them done, fing Eros crossed I remember at some point

Have to say I’m not a fan of the new interface!

Wayward Garden progress

I spent May working on Wayward Garden and went from this

To this

Star box finish

This was my beading birthday start this year and I finished it this morning.

Star box from Crystal Star Gems on Etsy.

With a tea light in

Hopefully this will work and you can see the flicker of the tea light

Marigold finish

Finished this afternoon my Birthday start from 2018.

Meet Marigold designed by Nora Corbett.  I stitched her on Champagne from Sparklies (website is still down) with the called for thread but I used best match on the beads using ones from my stash.

And here’s how she looked when I picked her up

Modern Millie Art Deco box

I’ve been working on this in between a very large test bead (I’ll share when I can) to give me a break from it and it’s dark colours.

Really enjoyed this one although at times it’s been a pain in the proverbial to do!

Modern Millie Art Deco box

Teresa Morse

Iceni Bead Design

Much better pic of the colours and a good view of the side panel

This is the decoration on the top and while I was working on it it crossed my mind that 3 corners of it would make a gorgeous pendant and then I could use a single corner to make earrings to match.  If I really wanted to tax my brain I could figure out how to make a bracelet as well!

Whether or not it actually ever happen remains to be seen

Hot Cocoa Cafe

The last stitches have gone in on the Hot Cocoa Cafe of Santa’s village 🙂 which of course means the village is now complete

I started the village when the charts where released back in 2012.  I had them on auto ship along with the weeks and gentle art threads but I chose not to add the buttons.

Elves workshop

I decided it was about time I finished Santa’s village off so I pulled it out earlier in the week and made a start on the Elves workshop.

Apart from the French knots and a little bit of the red in the top border I finished it yesterday.

I’d made a start on Hot Cocoa cafe before I thought about taking a pic!

So fingers crossed by the end of this week at the latest I will have the entire village complete inc. all the French knots

Rainbow hearts

As you know rainbows are appearing in windows all over the UK in support of our wonderful NHS staff ( we really need something for the other key workers as well).

Well I can’t draw at all even something as simple as a rainbow is beyond my skill level but I can stitch 🙂

A few days ago I was doing my daily 10 minute tidy up in the back bedroom ready for fella to turn it into a craft room while he’s off work next week and came across a chart I’ve had for around 28/29 years now!!  It’s from an early issue of Needlecraft magazine (said magazine was what got me into stitching 29 years ago in June) and it fitted the bill.

Quick root round in the Aida box and a couple of minutes pulling the thread and one day of stitching time while on lockdown and here it is.

It’s now in the front window and I need to do another one for my Mum to put in her window

Stay Safe stars

One of the beading groups on Facebook offered a free bead along to help pass the time while the world is in lockdown so I of course had to do it.

We were given colours to use but encouraged to use our own, these are my own and apart from tine silver and gold I had a root in my drawer and used leftovers.

The left hand one is the original pattern the right hand one is exactly the same pattern but assembled in reverse.

If you want a go at making your own the company is DiMarca online and if you follow the link to the website you’ll find the link to their fb page where the pattern is BUT it’s only free until April 9 after that you’ll have to part with your ££ for it

Sunflower progress

I pulled out a few phds and got Andy to pick one and he went with this trouble is I struggle to work on it for any length of time so a few days is my limit but I’ve made enough progress this time to be happy.

For some odd reason known only to my iPad and/or blogger it loaded the pics the wrong way round!

This is the before and shows off the fabric colour really well.

It’s a DMC kit that I bought cheap at a show years ago and I switched from the black Aida included in the kit to Fildais from Sparklies

98% happy dance

Apart from the birth info Elliot’s birth sampler is finished.

It could be a few days before that’s added as Mel is currently in hospital 😢 she has a bad infection in her right wrist and is going to theatre in the morning to have it cleaned out so has more important things on her mind than deciding what info she wants!

It’s not like I don’t have other projects to do in the mean time 😁

Baby Ark Sampler

Bothy threads

Fabric changed to a oops piece from Sparklies
Started March 12, finished March 30 has to be one of my fastest ever

Made some earrings

Couldn’t resist given what’s happening in the world right now

Meet Elliot

This handsome young man arrived in the world at 21.14 on February 12.

He’s Mel and Dan’s first born and my 3rd Grandson

Second finish for the month

After finishing Beatrix I picked up Poppy once more and finished her after less than a week.

She was my Jan 1st last year and I put her down quite quickly to start something else, went back to her in December and put her down again to start Beatrix on Jan 1st this year.

She’s on 32 count opal Champagne from Sparklies ( the website isn’t working right now so no link this time) and I used the called for DMC and Krenick but I used beads from my stash 

I have another post to do that’s long overdue now so I’ll go and write that now and get it scheduled for tomorrow

Ta da

Beatrix is finished :)

The last stitch went in late last night.

I stitched her on 36 count strawflower from lakeside linens and used a silk from now Paint box threads as my main colour and for the highlights I used a needlepoint silk

Thread bear finish

I realised recently that although I finished this last year I never posted the finished article 🙁 and in the spirit of trying to post more I thought I’d fix that

Beatrix update

End of February update

Still loving her

Beading finish

A friend of mine did pattern for a magic folding Y cube and I was lucky enough to test bead it for her with a couple of other friends.

I finished mine just before lunch today.

The biggest challenge for me was having Teejay about full time for the last 10 days after his mum was taken in to hospital while they were visiting for half term.

I loved every bead of this project and I’m thinking of making one for Teejay later in the year as with his ADHD he’s a fiddler and has been fascinated with the cube part of it.

If your a fellow beader and fancy having a go at your own the pattern is for sale with the proceeds going to out local hospice so either email me or leave me yours and I’ll pass on her details