Hodgepodge

Found some frames for a couple of my finished stitches - at the moment I just have them sitting in the frames - when I stop buying stash I will buy some acid free mounting board and mount them properly - lol!

 

 

Next up is called Artic Cuties from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine - I thought I had a finish on this one however my son found out his sister will be getting more artic cuties because her name is longer - so after his fit of crying at the unfairness of it all, I'm trying to squeeze in one more on the end for him - sometimes children can be so hard to please.



I am back working on my Blessings and Kind Wishes by Blackbird Designs, and by the way, I did iron!  I really love R&R Reproductions fabric but boy they sure do come with a lot of wrinkles!

 

I feel a real bad case of startitis coming on - I hope I can resist!

 

I really should go and clean the house now - sigh - I really wish I was one of those people that can ignore the mess and blissfully stitch - oh well I better go and do what I gotta do so I can get back to what's really important - Stitching!

 

Hugs & Stitches,

Amanda

Happy as a Lark

I have just finished this little cutie - Happy as a Lark by Birds of a Feather



This chart was generously loaned to me by Beth from Garden grumbles and cross stitch fumbles - thankyou Beth I really enjoyed stitching this one up.  Now I am on the hunt for the others in the series, which is proving rather difficult as these are OOP,  if anyone could help me out I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for stopping by,
Amanda

Town of Halloween Finished!

Well I did it!  The  Town of Halloween is finished!  I am so happy - now I can start another project that has been waiting patiently for my attention.  I was a bit worried about the staining I did on the linen as it looked a bit blotchy, but with all the stitches in place it looks pretty good - just a second while I pat myself on my back ..

 



.. onto some non stitch news - Oh my gosh you would never guess what has happened!  Drama! I tell you - one of my um.. er .. how do I put this?  Oh heck who cares!  One of my Boobys has deflated - well I can't say that can I?   it's not a balloon .. okay one of my boobys has sprung a leak and is rapidly shrivelling down to .. well you get the picture.  So one big one  - one little one, not going to work so well for me.  I've ordered myself some more - some nice big wobbly jelly like ones this time, had enough of those saline filled plastic baggies - I mean really those things never look good, and I would know I already have in my second pair - useless sloshy little things, so this time I'm going to make Dolly Parton proud and buying myself some big guns!  Hope they pass through customs - I wonder what gets written on the declaration form?  Anyways I am booked to go in for surgery in 2 weeks so wish me luck!

Amanda

Giveaway winners are...

Okay it's time to announce my Giveaway winners - first I would like to thank everyone that entered, this has been fun.
First up is the result for my La-d-da Giveaway ... (hosted by my lovely daughter Rebecca)

 

 Congratulations Stitchinrose!

 

 Next up is the drawing for the Keyring Giveaway ...

 

 Congratulations Lynda!



Lynda if you could please contact me with your mailing address as I can't seem to reach you through your email - thankyou.
Stitchinrose - I cannot find any contact details for you, so I will wait for you to contact me.

Take care everybody and enjoy what is left of the weekend.
Amanda

Town of Halloween

I have seen this around on a couple of Blogs and couldn't resist my very own "Town of Halloween" by The Primitive Hare ...

... and to celebrate my start, I would like to give away a key ring I made myself using a freebie pattern from The Primitive Hare - I made one for myself and one to give away - what can I say?  I have Halloween Fever!

 

If you think this is to your taste and would like to have it, then I will make it very easy for you to have it - all you have to do is say you want it!  Easy peasy, right?

 I will pick a winner this weekend - Good Luck!

 

Now back to stitching ..

Amanda

Here are my buys from HAED

Heaven and Earth Designs appreciation week - I already have more than enough of their charts but I don't want them to go out of business so here are my buys ..

 

 

 

... makes me want to start them straight away!  Who knows, maybe I will?

 

Amanda

Travelling Pattern Winner is ...

Here is the very official drawing of the Travelling Pattern "Jolly Jack"

 



 

 

wait for it...

 

 .... excuse the dirty face, just been eating a cracker and the blurry thing in the hand is ...

Congratulations Denise!
If you could please email me your address details, I will send Jolly Jack to you.  Hope you find him a fun stitch just as I did.

On another note, here is a progress photo of my Alphabet Ryhme by Little House of Needleworks.
As usual photo dosn't do it justice - the camera is not picking up the colours correctly - imagine it lighter and brighter - I will try to get a better picture next time.

 



 

Smiling while I'm Stitching - how can I not?

Amanda

Travelling Pattern - who will be next?

Jolly Jack is all finished and ready to travel to the next person - who will it be?
If you think it's you then leave a comment to enter - but remember he's not for keeps!  You must stitch him up and send him on!  I want to send him off in a hurry - I don't want to wait - Halloween is near - we can't be late!

Offer ends this Friday night on the 7th - after that I will announce a winner.
Good luck!
Amanda

Isolated Stitch

Someone asked a question about how to do an Isolated Stitch, as I am currently working on a piece with isolated stitches I thought I would take some photos of how I do them - I make no claims that this is the correct way or the best way.
For this you will need a sharp needle (one with a pointy end) and you will be using a single strand of floss.

 come out in the of the middle hole in the first leg

 leave a little bit of thread hanging out the back

 go down into the top hole of your first leg then came back up through the bottom of your first leg (where you would normally start)

 go back down into the middle of the first leg

 come back up into the bottom of the first leg

 then go back down into the top of your leg

 come back up at the bottom right corner to make the first part of your second leg

 then again to make it equal two threads

 go to the back - this is where the sharp needle comes into play - go through your stitches not behind - once ..

 

..then again one more time

 snip thread fairly close to stitch

 sit back and admire your work : )

 

I tried to make this as clear as possible - if you have any questions I will try my best to help.

Hope this makes your stitching more enjoyable as personally I am not a big fan of knots, most of the time they come undone or look to bulky.

Happiness is Stitching

Amanda

 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway also I will soon be sending this pattern 'Jolly Jack' on his way to the next lucky stitcher.

GIVEAWAY TIME! Yay! Yipee!

Okay, looking at the title of this post I think it is pretty obvious that I am extremely excited by this Giveaway - any excuse to have some fun!  But oh no whats this?  I was looking through my stash and came to the realisation that I didn't have anything suitable to giveaway!  Apparently I love Samplers - Christmas and Spring - but no Autumn or Halloween themed anything! 
What to do, what to do ... yip, I see my followers have now reached 52 - so where's my 50 followers giveaway?  You're all waiting ... panic starts to set in .. a very dim light goes on in my head ..what is it - make something - kit something ... DO SOMETHING!
So, without further a do - here is my 'Something' -

(You will all have to excuse the night shot, I am a busy Mum and the kids rule my daytime.)

Sarah Lowell by La-D-Da - I will provide the linen and silks to go with this chart, so there is no excuse not to do it!  The chart says to use 'Straw' linen but when I stitched it I wanted it to look exactly the same as in the picture so I used 'Sheeps Straw' linen - I have both available and will let you choose which one you want.
If you have this years Halloween Issue of Just Cross Stitch you will recognise the ornament in the photo - Boo To You by Linda Ebright of Lizzie Kate - this I will also include.

So what do you think?  If you want to Enter my Giveaway - you know what to do.
If you want a second chance to win - post my Giveaway on your Blog.
Entry for this Giveaway will close 15 September, shortly after I will draw a name and announce a winner!

You know I all love ya!
Amanda