Needlecraft Haven Meet-Up

We had another fabulous day yesterday - this time we met at The Abbey in Nuneaton - having full, private use of their lounge all day :-) Being in the centre of town many members travelled by train, a new experience for Julie.

Needlecraft Members who came along were: Julie, Tina, Maggie, Lindsay, Ursh, Lynn, Jane, Rachael, Diane, Gill and myself.

We had a goody bag exchange on the theme of Afternoon Tea and to swap bags I made cupcakes and displayed them on my lovely stand. I put a raffle ticket under each cake and Julie put the corresponding numbers under a goody bag - everyone chose a cake and whatever number was underneath they had the matching numbered goody bag.Of course they ate the cake too :)

Here is the goody bag (well box actually) I put together and Rachael won

Afternoon Tea - won by Rachael

My number was on a blue gift bag - inside were some amazing gifts from Maggie including some homemade cookies that disappeared too quickly to be in this photo.

Goody Bag from Maggie

I don't drink tea but the beautiful ornament Maggie stitched has a perfect home - I have a set of coloured Royal Albert cups, saucers and side plates that were my Grandmother's. I remember them in a glass cabinet when I was a very young girl. They are in our display cabinet now and Maggie's ornament is the perfect addition. (I opened the glass doors to take the photo else all you would see would be my reflection hahaha)

Grandma's cups

We also did a mystery book exchange where we each wrapped a book we wanted to pass on and I put all the books in a bag - lucky dip time resulted in my picking a book I wanted to read. On a visit to Julie's recently she was telling my about this book, I was so intrigued I added it to my wish list. Amazingly I picked Julie's parcel and the book was inside.

For the first time we're doing an exchange for just the 'meet-up' members. We each filled in a little card then picked one anonymously. No-one knows who has whose card - we now need to stitch a personal bookmark for our partner using either the notes they put in the card or things we chatted about yesterday. I knew exactly what to stitch for my partner and have ordered the items already :)

All my other stitching is for gifts so I cannot share just yet, sorry but you  can pop over to my other blog Aimetu's and read about my recent wine adventures. Thanks for calling by - May wishes to everyone x x

Time flies in so many ways

edited with a bit more at the bottom:

April already and yes I have started my Drawn Thread piece. It's a little odd though as it's an Easter theme and for this year Easter was in March. It is a beautiful design and will of course be making an appearance for years to come when April will most likely be our Easter month.


April - The Drawn Thread

The Easter Exchange with Needlecraft Haven was great fun. This year we stitched an egg shaped ornament and an Easter card. My egg was just about egg shaped but I was pleased with how the card turned out. My Easter gifts travelled to Elaine's and my Easter gifts arrived from Christine who stitched a beautiful egg.


My card and egg for Elaine
 

My egg from Christine

My other stitching is still secret as it's more gifts. I'm not sure how many I'm stitching but it will be quite a few by the time I am finished. I seem to keep finding more designs that I think someone will like. I must get them all made up soon too. If you want to see I have shared them on Needlecraft Haven.

We had a lovely break at the caravan, and a little bit of a surprise/bonus with a Tesco wine order - all those details are on my other blog, please pop by.

Nick and me on our walk - yes it was breezy!

I have not done any stitching on my LHN A Place We Call Home on a Wednesday with Barb in The Parlour because of my school stitching but I will be back soon. I have heard that Miss Barb has a VIP visiting the Parlour next week - I wonder who?

That's all from me - hopefully soon I'll have April finished and on the mantle. The theme this month is not quite finished, I need to think about it a bit more but I'll let you all see when it's done :-)

edited:

I have now finished April and the mantle - I didn't want to do a new blog so soon so have added them on here.

April finished

April Mantle

The mantle theme this month is friendship as we have the Needlecraft Haven meet up at the end of the month. I used two mail art pieces from previous years and the fairy is a water gauge but she'll be staying inside. The centre piece is a candle for Dad - a year Thursday - along with the gorgeous pillow Barb stitched me at the time xx

March completed

Just a quick update from me - I have finished my March piece from The Drawn Thread. I wasn't too sure of the colour for the leaves as I did not use Dinky Dyes but a DMC stranded cotton and the conversion looked a little blue. However against the grey evenweave it's perfect :-)

I have been doing  other  stitching but it is for the Needlecraft Haven Easter Exchange so unfortunately I cannot share my work just yet. NH is a great forum  and to be honest I don't have to do much 'running', if you've not popped by for a while or you're new it would be great to see you there.

So not much from me, I am doing other stitching but I can't even mention that on here - but it is on NH.

See you all soon with some Easter goodies :-)

Marching forward

Well here we are already in March - as with the last few years time seems to be whizzing by. We had a busy February - if you haven't already please pop by my other blog Aimetu's for my non-stitching news, mainly our travels around with tips and ideas about making those pennies stretch a little further.

So back to stitching - well almost. I have purchased an easel for my monthly The Drawn Thread pieces. DH found it in The Works for just 99p  - you can just see it behind the clock on the mantle picture - waiting for March to be finished.



March Mantle

Mrs Ticklestick (she is healthy, happy and at home here Julie) is waiting for Red Nose Day and as the month progresses more Easter items will appear.

This is my start on March - it's growing quite quickly which is good as I have Easter exchange pieces to do too.

March progress

My Orts Jar filled quite nicely in February - some pink thread too. I'm guessing this month will be mainly greens and yellows but we'll see.

February Orts

That's all from me as my other work is secret for a while - unless you are members of Needlecraft Haven where it's in the Gallery for this week. If you are not a member but would like to be please apply for membership - we are a lovely group of 'talkative' stitchers :-)

Have a good March - and don't eat those chocolates until Easter !!

Philly's Birthday

Yesterday was Philly's 19th birthday - it's too far to visit her at Uni in a day so we meet in Gloucester for a few hours. It's about half way; Philly travelled by train and we drove down.

I had baked some cupcakes and a chocolate Guinness cake. I bought some cake boxes from Tesco and a small shopping bag for her to put all her gifts in - I liked the bag so much I'm thinking of buying one for myself now :-)

Philly's Cupcakes

Philly's bag

We had a great meal in Gloucester - Philly loved her gifts. She also had a good time doing a bit 'more' retail therapy as you can see from all her bags.

Philly and me outside Gloucester cathedral

All too quickly she had to get the train back but had a wonderful surprise when she got back to Uni - her flatmates had cooked and iced her a birthday cake - they are a lovely bunch :-)

I settled on the sofa and did a little more on my LHN A Place We Call Home

A Place We Call Home

It's half term this week which feels good; I have a few jobs to do at Dad's and we're popping to France next weekend so it won't be much of a rest, still very very enjoyable though.

Thanks for popping by, see you again soon x x x

Happy Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day as it's when DH proposed - 27 years ago today :)

 

I did two exchanges this year - a secret one with Needlecraft Haven and a private one with Parsley.

 

Here's the gorgeous ornament I received from my secret stitcher and the lovely gifts too .

 

Love Bug ornament

Valentine's Gifts

 

This is the ornament I stitched for Parsley and the beautiful one I received.

 

Wee Bird for Parsley

Love Tree

My February mantle was looking a little bare but now I have opened my Valentine's gifts and hubby and I have exchanged cards it's looking a little more romantic.

 

Valentine's Mantle

Wishing you all a very happy Valentine's Day - love and wishes to you all x x x

Stitching catch up

I haven't posted for a while as I've been busy stitching - two Valentine's exchange pieces which I can't share but I can share these :)

The Drawn Thread - February

A gift for Philly as it's her birthday month

I have been working on my LHN A Place We Call Home although I didn't make it to the Parlour on Needlecraft Haven this week, sorry Barb and my Parlour friends.

A Place We Call Home

I have my mantle for February - hubby bought me a gorgeous vase with a red rose plant which looks lovely with my Drawn Thread and my iced crystal candle holders. After opening day I will also have some exchange peices to add.

February Mantle

We've had a lovely weekend away as our Chrstmas present to each other - it's all in my Aimetu blog. Before we went hubby had bought me some daffodils - it was an amazing sight to arrive home to.

Daffodils

Thanks for calling by - I know I don't blog very often, something I hope will change from the summer as I am retiring from work - whoo hoo.