Sunday 28 June 2015

Stitch from Stash June 2015

It's the last post for part one of Stitch from Stash 2015 hosted by the lovely Mel at Epic Stitching. It's been a great 6 months and I am very pleased with my limited spend :)


My budget carried forward from May is: £190.98

Month: June
Spent: £8.99
Earned: £4.00 

My budget at the end of June and Part A of Stitch from Stash SAL is: £210.99

I have not done much stitching this month really and I certainly have not stuck to my rotation plan. I have a secret project to do and it's is giving me so much trouble. It's a lovely design and I have used the fabric before but I have had to do so much frogging as I keep being one stitch out. I have no idea what is going on, in over 30 years of stitching I have never had such trouble.

Anyway my first finish is the May Monthly Challenge on Needlecraft Haven. It's a lovely freebie design by Ajisai Press' Warm Winter Collection - it's called Woolly and Cosy. I have yet to make it up though. I earned £2 for this finish.

May Challenge 
My other finish is my second Joy ornament for my church tree. It was a freebie from Kissy Cross and is called 'Joy'  I also have to make it up. I earned £2 for this finish.

Joy Ornament 2
I have really enjoyed this SAL - I did last year too - and I'm looking forward to taking part in Part B with a little more stitching . Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog over the last six months and a special thank you to everyone who left a comment, they are always so nice to read, thank you :)

Tuesday 16 June 2015

Gifted Gorgeousness June

Gifted Gorgeousness is a year long SAL hosted by the lovely Jo. It's not such an easy SAL as gifts cannot be shown until they are given hee hee - I have one such project on the go at the moment.

However I have a few things to share this month. Firstly my Earth Sampler, which is progressing slowly but is looking good. It does need an iron as it's been folded away whilst we've been on holiday.
Earth's Sampler
My other gifts are two more scissor fobs - one for my friend Niki and the other for a fellow stitcher Hazel.
Scissor fobs for Niki and Hazel
I started my second ornament for church at the Meet Up and I managed to finish it whilst on holiday - I need to make it up now.

Church Ornie number 2 
That's all my stitching news, hopefully I'll have a bit more to report for SFS later this month. We had an amazing holiday - my Aimetu's blog is full of photos if you'd like a read

http://www.serendipitousstitching.blogspot.co.uk/p/gifted-gorgeousness-sal.html



Thanks for calling by, I hope you've all had a successful GG month :)

Monday 1 June 2015

Spring Meet Up

It was just about spring for our meet up - 30th May is the latest we've ever held the Needlecraft Haven Get Together. It was another great day, it is always so nice to meet in person and have a day dedicated to stitching.

The venue this time was our Scout Headquarters - ironic really as this is where I held the first meet ups I organised with Angie - I think the first one was 2004 !! It's a good sized room, great light for stitching. It was lovely to be able to sit around one big table and have free use of the kitchen for making tea/coffee.

Julie, Lindsay and Lynn drove over (Lynn and her hubby made it a weekend and stayed overnight locally). The HQ is not far from the town centre so it was easy to pick up Jane, Angi and Gill who came by train (although Angi and Gill had a delayed arrival).

clockwise from empty chair
Gill, Angi, Jane, Julie, Lynn & Lindsay
It was also good to have more room to show our work - I took quite a few finishes that I have not actually made into anything, and looking at them (and more in the cupboard) I really should. Everyone's work is so lovely, we are certainly a talented bunch. It was interesting to see all the different finishes for the monthly ornaments too.

My stitching that still needs making up
My french Marquoir still needs framing too
Gill's gorgeous work
Julie's amazing variety of craft work 
Lindsay's stitching and beautiful bead work
Angi's gorgeous work including her 'Bee' from
her Autumn Meet Up Goody Bag 
As always we had a Goody Bag exchange - this time the theme was the Rainbow. We had to chose one colour from the rainbow and all the items in the bag had to be that colour. The contents of the bag can be stitchy and non-stitchy with a minimum value of £5. It seemed an easy theme but surprisingly tricky for some colours. We had three yellow bags, two red and one green.

I chose yellow and many of the items came from my stash or I found as sale/offer bargains in town. I did initally think pink but haha that's not a rainbow colour although it is in the song;

red and yellow and pink and green, 
orange and purple and blue
I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow
Sing a rainbow too

I'm sure you know it but if you don't click here to enjoy !!That song will stay in your head now - but it's a nice one :) Jane picked my yellow bag and I picked Lindsay's green bag - both picked at random using my cupcake raffle. I tried to bake multi-coloured cakes this year but only baking a small number of cakes did not give me much mixture to divide and colour - the taste was good which is all that matters really !

Goody bags (with their raffle tickets)
Cupcake raffle - tickets are under each cake,
you chose a cake and get the corresponding
ticketed goody bag 
My yellow goody bag picked by Jane
Lindsay's green goody bag that I picked
The book exchange is always fun too - the trouble is I always want to read the one I've bought. I have plenty on my shelves that I have yet to read but don't want to give them until I've read them. I think I need to add reading time into my rotation or daily routine. I try to read in bed, morning or night but I either fall asleep or feel stiff; this needs serious thought !

Book Exchange - all wrapped
My book from Lindsay
Needlecraft Haven is a lovely forum to chat on - everyone is friendly and so much craft work to share. As it's a Yuku forum it does have ads which can be annoying. Members do donate to make the forum ad free ($6 minimum which covers 1 month). At each meet up we have a raffle to help. Everyone brings small raffle prizes and the money taken pays for ad free months - this time we raised enough for 5 months ad free - quite good for just 7 of us, and of course we all had raffle prizes to take home!

I did some stitching at the meet up - I started my second ornament for the church tree. It's an online freebie from Kissy Cross on Pinterest. I'm just doing the bauble, she has some gorgeous designs.

Joy ornament number 2 
On  personal note the meds have improved my walking, I'm certainly not so slow and even danced twice at a party on Saturday night. I am still slow at stitching and feel a bit woozy from taking the meds but it's getting better each day. Yesterday we went to Leicester to the King Richard III's visitor centre as it was my Mum's birthday and I didn't need to hold onto Hubby to walk around. This feels really good, especially as we're off to France on Friday for 10 days holiday.

And a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to my Cake Bake - either in person or online. The online raffle is now closed and the name picked to win the LHN Baked Goods chart was .... Mary !! I'll post the chart to you soon :) The total raised has now reached nearly £300 which is incredible - thank you x x