🤗🤗 whoo hoo 🤗🤗

It's finished 🤗😄🤗😄🤗 last night I completed my Sampler Bouquet by Jardin Privè, the finally motif being aptly H 😁

Hot off my stitching frame, unpressed and taken late evening the photo is not brilliant but you can see it all, I'll take more once it's pressed and framed.

Sampler Bouquet completed 29th June 2018

It is for our bedroom so once pressed I need to go to the framers with the huge French map we have hanging there as I want a similar colour frame and matching mount. Hopefully it will not be too expensive, cheaper a bit as I will frame it myself.

I can now start on my Summer Exchange piece for Needlecraft Haven. This year we have to stitch a card on the theme of summer, include a printed or handwritten summer recipe and a summer treat - perfect with the glorious sunny weather we are enjoying at the moment (if a little warm😮)

I can also now share the latest 60th gift I sent to my friend in Norway, her birthday is on our wedding anniversary which we celebrated last weekend with a short break to Birmingham. I have blogged about our adventures in my travel blog Aimetu's - oh that spiral perm!!

K for Kathy's 60th

I am so so pleased with my finished Sampler Bouquet and cannot wait to put it up, there's a few little bits of stitching I want to do next but then I'm going to start another piece for our bedroom, hopefully that will not take me so long hee hee

Whilst they play football!

I'm not a football fan, rugby is more my game, neither is my Hubby, but when there is a big tournament on he does watch. As it's the World Cup we have been watching a few games and I have been known to cheer if there's a goal. However I cannot watch the game as I do rugby so it's an ideal stitching time 😉

Since my last post I have stitched another 60th gift and two more bookmarks but as they are gifts I cannot reveal them yet .... so what am I stitching?

Well, at Needlecraft Haven we have a virtual stitching room called The Parlour - Barb opens up each Wednesday and usually has some (virtual) cakes, biscuits or other goodies which we can all enjoy worry free 😄

Julie has been encouraging us to stitch on our ufos, unfortunately  she has been unwell for a while and doesn't always join us but she does remind us to get stitching when she does 😍

How does this for with the Football? Well I have been opening The Parlour each day and evening so those ladies also using the football time to stitch can have a little peace. It's perfect especially if listening to music using headphones - a virtual stitching world.

I am trying to get my Sampler Bouquet by Jardin Privé finished as I want to put it in our bedroom. All these gifts have slowed me down but I have decided this week's focus while the football is on will be my SB.

I did really well the other evening completing a top motif before I noticed the branches were out on the vase below - first error I have made. Most of that football match was spent frogging which wasn't a bad thing as I was finding it hard to concentrate, the crowd had those whirring noise things 😕

Before I started

Top section done - branches frogged
and restitched

The photos are not very good as they were just quick snapshots, to show our daughter on WhatsApp but hopefully you can see my progress and correction.

Last night I stitched quite a lot more, just cheering from the crowd which was much better. I am hoping to complete the vase motif tonight, I have no idea who is playing but I don't think it is England.

Quite a bit done last night

Straight off the frame so please excuse the creases

Happy stitching everyone, I hope the football is not affecting your life too much but if you do support a team I wish them good luck ⚽️

Two gifts at the start of June

The start of June sees us on holiday in France, all our trips and visits are in my 'Aimetu's - wine, food and travels' blog, but before we left I had two birthday gifts to finish.

This year seems to be full of special birthdays for my friends - birthdays are always nice but zeros are the best! This year already there has been a 40th and two 60th - there are two more 60th, a 30th and a wedding so my 2018 is full of gifty stitching.

The first gift was for my friend who is recovering from a back operation, although she isn't celebrating a significant birthday I wanted yo stitch her a gift. This is a freebie chart from Victoria Sampler  I have stitched it many times, it us quick and enjoyable to do.

My other gift was for my very good wine friend who is celebrating the big 60. I wanted something wine related and remembered this chart on an old magazine. The label names were originally in Italian but my friend loves Spanish wine so I changed the lettering.

As we're on holiday I have of course brought some stitching, another gift hee hee as there is another 60 birthday at the end of June. I don't stitch a huge amount when we're away and this being a little something it was ideal to bring. I'm nearly done too which means I might have time to make a start on another project I brought with me, especially as the forecast is unsettled for the next few days.

I hope your June started well, hard to believe we are nearly halfway through 2016 and it will soon be the longest day of the year!

As May closes

I have not blogged much this month, or had time to read many blogs for which I apologise. Since DH retired we've been busier than ever, holidaying but also working hard in our garden.

My stitching has been only for gifts which I shared in my last post for Gifted Gorgeousness. My latest two pieces are also gifts but I cannot share these just yet ..... so here's what's been happening in our garden.

Tree gone, old deck gone
New slabs down and new deck laid

A few weeks on with our hard work putting up the gazebo
and moving stones/slate around

New bird feeder and my pots which have grown
since this was taken

New slate and more pots that have also grown 

Newly painted birdtable
The chairs, pergola and these plants are the
next to be done

Well deserved coffee in my new Turkish cup at our new
table and chairs, on our new deck, under our new gazebo

There is just the top right corner to do, taking down the pergola and having a new shed but this needs a skip so will be done in a few weeks when we return from our holiday in France.

DH has worked so hard,  thankfully we had lovely weather. It has been raining since last weekend with thunderstorms, great for my pots and we were pleased the gazebo was waterproof.

As I said we're off to France for a week, self catering as I am missing 'being French' and am looking forward to shopping at the markets and cooking for ourselves.

I'll be sharing those gifts when we return and of course showing my holiday stitching which is packed already .... off now to pack some clothes too!

Gifted Gorgeousness - a little late

I'm late, I'm late ... but with two good reasons; we've been away and the last of these three gifts will be given today 😄

My first gift was a 40th birthday coaster for a good friend at scouts. I have known Sarah since she was born and she was one of our bridesmaids when she was 11.

The chart was a freebie card chart from a very old magazine, I added the 40. The coaster was a gift to me from my Needlecraft Haven friend Gill.

My second gift was for Deb, another Needlecraft Haven friend who lives overseas. It was her birthday whilst we were away but I managed to get it in the post before we left - however she received it after her birthday as she was away celebrating her daughter's Masters Graduation 👩‍🎓

I used Weeks Dye Works for this, I love the way the variegation works; the thread was Hunter.

My final gift will be given tonight, one of my scouting friends is 60. I have looked at this Quaker chart many times and finally found a reason to stitch it. Most of this has been stitched on our holiday in Turkey sitting on our balcony looking at this view - wouldn't it be lovely if that was my permanent stitchy seat 😍

I adapted the centre and added 60 - the thread was  Six Stranded Sweets Sugared Violets, another variegated but very subtle. I'm very pleased how it turned out, again I used one of the coasters Gill gave me. I hope Bev likes it 😉

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching - every month on the 15th our blog posts are about gifts we have sent or received - it's a lovely way to say thank you to our fellow stitchers, my thanks this month go to Gill for the two lovely coasters 😍

May Day

Happy May Day everyone - it's a french tradition to give Lily of the Valley flowers today but mine are only just sprouting so I will not have a bunch in the house this May Day. All our garden seems to be a few weeks late, this is my Lily of the Valley in 2014.

The garden is the reason I have not been stitching so much, plus the fact I am working on a couple of gifts so cannot share. We've had our deck replaced and new slabs on the patio. Over the last few weeks DH and I have been cleaning the slate in our borders, repotting some of our larger plants, painting fences and generally tidying up. We still have quite a bit to do but it's looking good so far.

Our old deck being taken out

Our new deck, new slabs and
cleaned slate

Our potted plants and new bird feeder

Today he put up my new bird feeder, we used to have a tree here from which we hung feeders. Since it's been down we hung the feeders the other side of the garden - the birds were very confused again today when they moved back on the new hanger.

Last week DH and I joined some friends for a week in Burnham-on-Sea - you can read about our holiday on my travel blog Aimetu's. One of our days out was to Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Tor, the tapestry coat of arms panels and cushions in the Cathedral were stunning. My ankle is improving; I have a strong support when walking and wore my hiking boots for walking any distance which really helped. So much so I made it to the top of the Tor on a very very windy day. There's photos in my other blog, but I thought I'd show the beautiful needlework here too.

Stunning work 

I hope the sun stays with us and we can finally see some flowers appearing - I hope your gardens are coming to life too.

A little progress

I have finally finished March's Challenge on Needlecraft Haven, although I have yet to make it up. The dedign us Christmas Joy by Cuore e Batticuore. It took a little longer than I thought as I changed the design to include two girls. This will be a gift at Christmas for someone I send something to every year; they have two girls.

Stitched but needs finishing

My other progress is on my Bouquet Sampler by Jardin Privè - I haven't worked on it for quite a while as I was busy doing the Easter Exchange, the challenge piece and another birthday bookmark but I did join everyone in The Parlour (Needlecraft Haven) on Wednesday. It is growing and there is not too much more to do..

Before

After

The bookmark was for Dusty, my friend overseas. It's always a worry posting abroad especially with it being Eastertime but it did arrive in time for her birthday.

Dusty's Bookmark

Today I need to look at my projects and time as I have a few more birthdays coming up, some big ones so I need to find suitable gifts to stitch. We have two holidays as well, almost back to back so I really do need to plan ahead, always exciting.

Huge thank you to everyone who sent the link to their first posts for my blogiversary, I really enjoyed reading them and looking back to how we all began. Thanks too to everyone who posted, it's always nice to receive your comments.