Thursday, 31 October 2019

Trick or Treat Blog Hop

👻 Happy Halloween 👻


Our children are grown up so there is no-one spooky dressing up, instead I have dressed up the lounge with Halloween stitching I have received in the past; ceramic pumpkins, flowers and a cushion our daughter stitched in 2006 when she was twelve. I love having all the spooky things around and will be making 'ghoul'-lash for dinner tonight.

Beautiful flowers with a bucket of sweets
ready for any spooky visitors
My ceramic pumpkin Houses which I'll be lighting later
Our Halloween mantle
Philippa's cushion
The lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching has organised another super blog hop- Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2019 

To follow the hop simply visit each blog in turn to find the letters displayed and see everyone's Halloween stitched picture. The letters will reveal a Mystery Phrase which you need to leave in a comment on Jo's post.

Here's my letter for you

The next blog you need to hop to is

http://primpair.blogspot.com

This is my stitching picture for you, it's the ornament I stitched for Christine for last year's Needlecraft Haven Halloween Exchange. It's opening day today for this year's exchange, I'll be opening my parcel soon and will blog about the gifts tomorrow.

Enjoy your spooky fun - Happy Halloween 🦇

Friday, 18 October 2019

Gifted Gorgeousness - October

A very quick check in from France to say just before we left my order from 123stitch.com arrived in the post.

How is it connected to GG, well my friend Deb in the US gifted me a certificate which I used to buy a new needle minder and a chart I'd been looking at for a while, thank you Deb.
My new needle minder 
Great design
In my September Gifted Gorgeousness post I offered the seasonal hearts chart by The Needle and I that I had previously won on Rosie's blog.

The winner is ........ Jocodine

Please email me aimetu.clare@hotmail.com so I can post it to you - congratulations.

Gifted Gorgeousness is a great idea hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching,  if you visit her blog you'll find the links to everyone's Gifted Gorgeousness posts.

Monday, 30 September 2019

September update - giveaway winner announced

I cannot believe it's the end of September and we are just three months away from 2020!

I was very slow this month stitching my Temperature Quilts as we were away but I have now completed them both to 28th. The hot weather in France is very clear on my day quilt and a warm evening on my night quilt.
Temperature Quilt - day
Temperature Quilt - night 
I have been doing some more hardanger for my church tree but not ornaments. I've found an old chart in my stash for making a hardanger angel so I decided to make one for the top of my tree.

The chart is not the easiest to follow. It's a good job hardanger is something I know how to do as I don't think it would suit a beginner. It's looking ok so far and hopefully will turn out ok.

My angel 
In my September Gifted Gorgeousness post I offered the seasonal hearts chart by The Needle and I that I had previously won on Rosie's blog.

The winner is ........ Jocodine

Please email me aimetu.clare@hotmail.com so I can post it to you - congratulations.

Next month is Halloween so my focus for a while is doing my exchange stitching for Needlecraft Haven's Halloween Exchange - always an exciting exchange, this time we have to also include a trick and a treat !

Sunday, 15 September 2019

Gifted Gorgeousness - September

It's that time of month when we share gifts we have sent or received. It's hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching.

At the moment I am in France enjoying a birthday (it was 10th) trip. We spent my birthday in Sancerre which is my favourite wine region. You can read about it in my latest blog post on Aimetu's- wine, food and travel.

I was stunned by the beautiful Sancerre bottle my friend Sarah decorated for me, it really is a work of art.




As we were going way I opened my gifts on Sunday - thank you Julie for the lavender cream, mats and zipper pouch, all so very useful. Thank you Christine for my Michael Powell book, there are some great designs in it. 

My gifts from Julie
My book from Christine
A while back I won one of Rosey's giveaways - Seasonal Hearts. I have finally stitched them, I did change the summer design as the original was very American.
Stitched on 11count plastic canvas using half stitches.
I'm offering the chart as a giveaway to anyone else who would like to stitch these hearts - I'm happy to post anywhere. I'm sorry I do not have a photo of the chart but it is on my GG February post.  Please let me know in the comments if you would like to be entered into this giveaway.

Finally here are two coasters I stitched for our friend's daughter and husband who have just moved into their first bought home. 


Thank you for calling by, I hope you've had a good GG September- au revoir from France!


Sunday, 1 September 2019

As September begins ...

We've a busy month this month, it's my birthday month and we're going to France for 12 days. My Temperature Quilt has certainly had some changes in colour due to our holidays so far. I've stitched to August 31st but September stitching maybe a little late. Here's how they look now.

Temperature Quilt  - day time 

Temperature Quilt  - night time
The latest hot days and nights are from our few days in London. This trip was my treat to put the last two years behind us. We had a super time including Afternoon Tea at The Waldorf Hotel and a evening at the theatre to see Les Mis in concert.

I've blogged about our few days in the capital on my wine, good and travel blog - Aimetu's. Here's the link to each blog post:



I have been working on a seasonal chart that I received as a gift from Rosey in one of her giveaways. I have one piece to do and hope to have it finished in time for GG September although I'll have to take it on holiday to finish it.

I'm also hoping to get a few more hardanger ornaments stitched for my tree, which reminds me I need to order some more perle cotton.

I love cooking for dinner parties, especially if a themed evening. Last month we held a Turkish evening for our friends who are coming to Turkey with us in October. They have not been before.

I wanted a table runner but the one I found was very expensive. By chance Hubby and I popped into a charity shop where I picked up the perfect solution .... a silk scarf, it looked amazing.

Our Turkish dinner
Turkish nibbles
Baklava, Turkish Delight 
It was a great evening, I loved making the food. We did buy bread, baklava and the Turkish Delight from a Continental store that sells food from all around the world. I'll be cooking this again as two of our friends could not make the evening and having seen the photos have asked if we'll do it for them.

To end my not very stitchy post I have some photos to share. Our daughter and her partner have just returned from a holiday in Malta. Hubby and I have said it's somewhere we would like to visit too. They had a super time, staying in three separate locations so managed to explore all the island and Gozo.

One reason for choosing this Mediterranean island was my Dad was stationed there at the end of WWII. Her partner's grandfather was also there for a short while although we are not sure where exactly.

We do know where my Dad was from his photographs. He served in the Royal Navy in the R. N. Hospital in Bighi which is on the cliffs at Valetta. We managed to find the building on Google maps, amazingly it is still there so whilst on holiday they were hoping to visit.

Not only did they find the building but our daughter managed to stand in exactly the same spot as my Dad had stood in his photo.

Dad in his Navy whites aged 19 - 1946
Philippa - 73 years later !
Dad's photo of the hospital at night
Philippa with the hospital in the background - I love this photo
I was moved to tears when I saw the photos, tears of happiness and tears of sadness. I so wish I could show him but I'm sure he was looking down with pride.

I hope your September brings flying needles, peace and tranquillity as we move into the autumnal time of year.

Wednesday, 21 August 2019

Temperature Quilt - no red this week

A quick update on my Temperature Quilt. It's been much cooler here so no red on my day chart this week. It's been quite a wet week too and very windy!

The forecast is for warmer days next week, we're in London for a few days and it's usually warmer there than here in the Midlands.

Temperature Quilt  - day

Temperature Quilt  - night
It's great fun doing these quilts however I am still undecided on how to finish them.

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

Gifted Gorgeousness - August

It's Gifted Gorgeousness time - on the 15th of each month we share our latest gifts. Any gift given or received and any item made using fabric, threads, buttons, ribbon, chart, backing fabric that has been gifted is also allowed in our GG posts. 

This great idea is hosted each month by the lovely Jo at Serendipitous Stitching,  if you visit her blog you'll find the links to everyone's Gifted Gorgeousness posts. 

I have a few things this month to share, the first items are very special. Our super daughter and her boyfriend have moved into a new flat, no more sharing, this is just for them. 

As a new home gift I stitched them a zodiac coaster each and we bought them matching mugs. They were delighted with them. The designs were in an old magazine and matched the mugs perfectly. 

Zodiac coasters 
Coasters and matching mugs.
 Our lovely Philippa and her boyfriend Michael
As I was stitching for them I also made our son a coaster. This one I designed myself. He organises and runs game nights for his friends, they play Dungeons and Dragons. He's the Dungeon Master!

He loved his D & D coaster 
A while ago I stitched this for Hubby's sister who will be 60 in October. She lives in Michigan so we gave her her card and gifts when she visited the UK in June. She couldn't resist opening them which is why I can share the photo now.

Gift for my sister-in-law 
My final gift this month is a rose I bought for my Mum to say thank you for all her help whilst I recovered from my fall. It's a pink patio rose called 'thank you and I found the perfect colour matching pot at the garden centre.

Thank you patio rose
It's great to at last be able to show the gifts I made, there are a couple more but they will have to wait until next GG as I haven't given them yet.