Halloween

I forgot to post earlier so here's my decorations before I take down my Halloween, the Autumn things will stay up until 1st December which is the start of winter bbrrrrrrr

I don't really do spooky, my Halloween items are more cute than scary. 

This year Needlecraft Haven our Autumn Exchange was opened on the 22nd October, autumn equinox. I will post about my sent and received gifts in November's GG post but as my ornament from Mary is on display here's a sneak pre-view 

I don't have green fingers but amazingly our indoor plants are blooming. I'm amazed at my cactuses and I do seem to be able to do well with orchids. 

For the first time in many years our plant from M&S is flowering ... does anyone know what it is? 

Enjoy the final month of autumn and all it's beautiful colours. Thank you for stopping by.

Gifted Gorgeousness October 2024

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. GG, on the 15th of each month, is when we share our latest gifts. These can be gifts given or received, or any item made using fabric, threads, buttons, ribbon, chart, backing fabric that has been gifted.

I really enjoyed stitching this beaded sampler for my friend and her husband for their Ruby Anniversary. It's a while since I did any beadwork but I managed to find my beading needle, annoyingly it still didn't go through some beads as their holes were too small.

For my Mum's 80th I made her a travelling sewing kit, you may remember it from my GG post in June 2019. The sewing kit is now mine, I have slightly changed the top and added a few more fastenings. It was perfect for taking away my holiday project on our recent trip to Scotland.

Thanks Jo for hosting another month of sharing, happy stitching everyone.

The Longest Yarn

 We saw this on BBC Breakfast and really wanted to see it in person especially after our recent holiday to visit the Normandy beaches. 

The Longest Yarn is a knitted tableau of 80 scenes from the D-Day landings. The work is incredible, so many clever knitters giving colour and texture to the scenes. 

Each scene is housed in a glass case giving a bit of reflection on photos but you can see the amazing skill from these I took on our visit to Southwell where it is on show until the end of September.

My favourite scene was Pegasus Bridge, it was amazing to see it knitted and looked exactly as we saw it. The scene with the full bridge, the cafe and the gliders brought a tear to my eye as I remembered the story of those brave men. 

A massive congratulations to everyone involved in this stunning project, espevially the knitters. The web site has details of the companies that are helping move this important exhibition around the UK, there is also a list of dates of where it will be .... The Longest Yarn is definitely worth the long queue!

Gifted Gorgeousness September 2024

September is my birthday month so this is always my biggest GG month. My first GG is very special, you may have seen it on my Fully Finished post but as it is so special I'm very happy to also show in Gifted Gorgeousness.

The end of August was our daughter and son-in-law's first wedding anniversary, yep it really has been a year already. It's paper for a first anniversary so I tried something new, embroidery on a photo. I printed a colour photo to get the colours matched and a black & white one to stitch on, I'm thrilled with how it turned out. 

I received another Santa from my good friend Gill, she has stitched 5 for the tree, thank you Gill.

Gill also stitched my a beautiful card for my birthday. I have received quite a few cards from Gill over the years, all so lovely. I've managed to upcycle most into ornaments and I'm looking forward to doing this one too.

I received some lovely gifts from my stitchy friends: hand knitted socks from Julie, a beautiful kit from Gill and a Cornish recipe book from Christine. 

I had a great birthday in Cardiff including a visit to the Royal Mint, you can read about it here. I felt very spoilt especially when the restaurant surprised me with a dessert.

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. GG, on the 15th of each month, is when we share our latest gifts. These can be gifts given or received, or any item made using fabric, threads, buttons, ribbon, chart, backing fabric that has been gifted.

September's Fully Finished Objects

Rachel, Ten Hour Stitcher, is the super host of Fully Finished Objects which is a great opportunity to show and tell about our crafty items that are completely finished.

I have three Santas finished, they will probably be my last ones for the tree. I do have some felt Santas that I made for our children to hang at Christmas many years ago so they will also be on the tree.

I also finished a beautiful Santa my friend Gill sent to me. She has already stitched four but sent this too, it's so cute 

My other FFO object is very special. It was our daughter and son-in-law's first wedding anniversary at the end of August, their first year has really flown by. 

As a 1st Anniversary is paper I decided to have a go at embroidering a photo. I have seen this on Instagram but have never tried it. It was so tricky as the back is just white so you gave no real idea where the needle is coming up and if too close to a previous hole the photo could tear. 

I was so pleased with how it turned out, the roses and tiny flowers were a joy to build up. I really enjoyed this, from matching the colours to building up the stitches. I'm pleased to say Mr and Mrs Lang liked it too.

I haven't stitched much for a few months but I have spent time sorting my stash and sewing bits out, I now have quite a few projects to work on. 

August Smalls

I've just made it before August disappears.

Rachel at Ten Hour Stitcher is the host of Smalls SAL 2024 and this month my Smalls are again for my tree.

Just one Santa that isn't quite finished. I'm hoping it will be this weekend and that I can do a second one. 

My other Small is a mini kit bead ornament. I made the one that came with the kit earlier this year (or maybe last year) but there were plenty of beads left so I've stitched another.

No hints but can you guess what might be in my September Fully Finished Objects post 🤔

Gifted Gorgeousness August 2024

I didn't post last month, in fact I haven't posted much lately and, like many, I'm a bit slow at blog reading. I'm hoping my stitching and blogging will be back on track soon. 

Gifted Gorgeousness is hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching. GG, on the 15th of each month, is when we share our latest gifts. These can be gifts given or received, or any item made using fabric, threads, buttons, ribbon, chart, backing fabric that has been gifted.

My GG this month is about a multi gift, tomorrow I'm hosting another wine night with our friends and I thought we'd do some blind tasting to see how are senses are  ... and if we can recognise the wines as we've been having these events for ten years so hopefully our noses and palettes have improved .... we'll see.

Anyway I've made some bottle bags!

These are made with gifts from everywhere, a bit of something in each.

• the shirts were donated by my Hubby and stepdad
• the ties I bought from a charity shop so had been gifted in and I gifted a donation when I bought them 
• they will be gifted out at the tasting as raffle prizes
• I made them using my late Mum's sewing machine which has been gifted to me 

As I said these bottle bags have been gifted all round, I hope they gift smiley faces tomorrow when everyone sees them. 

Thanks Jo for hosting again thus month, fingers crossed I'll have more to share next time.