Postie calls…

Hi everyone,

Something other than patchwork here for a change. Regular readers will know that I also have a blog for everything other than patchwork here. That’s where this post really belongs but I thought, if I show cross stitch here, just for once, it might encourage all you quilters to get out a needle and thread and do some cross stitch or embroidery for a change, that is if you don’t already enjoy other crafts. What crafts do you do when you don’t have much spare time?

I haven’t been blogging much lately, either reading or writing. I haven’t really had time to do any patchwork but I have managed to do quite a lot of cross stitch in short bursts. Anyway, I was happily stitching away on this project the other day and keeping myself out of trouble, as you do.

IMG_20161012_140140590 Then my postie rattled the letter box. This is what he brought.IMG_20161012_140112453Yes, it’s another kit from Claire from the same series of decorations. She really does spoil me but I appreciate it 🙂 She’d spotted these kits at a bargain price and simply couldn’t resist. Dimensions kits are such good quality. Lucky me!

I’d already finished Holly and Ivy a long time ago…

IMG_20151019_121023508 …and Claire then sent me more kits for Christmas which are still waiting in my stash. So now I’ve got the full set 🙂 It’s been nice to work on something small in between stitching for the SAL. Anyway, this one is now all stitched and waiting to be finished with felt and ribbon. IMG_20161018_144223985 I’m considering making all of the others first and then finishing them off as a job lot. I reckon it’ll be quicker that way. How long will it be before I get the other four stitched I wonder?

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Crafting Eye Candy!

Hello everyone,

It’s almost the weekend again. I was just having a little tidy up around the sewing room and I rediscovered my lovely Christmas crafting goodies so I simply had to share some photos of them with you. My family and friends know I love crafting gifts and they were so generous again this year.

In no particular order, first up is a pack of Bali Pops. This time they are in the Lorikeet colourway. I have no idea what I’ll be doing with them yet so they are sitting on my cutting table awaiting inspiration. You may remember that I made a large quilt top and a bag with the Brown Sugar Bali Pops my sister bought for my birthday last year and I still have some left. They really do go a long way! This pack is in lovely tropical colours.

CIMG3825 My dear friend Lin gave me these chocolates. What a fab sewing themed prezzie! The scissors are huge and white chocolate is my favourite 🙂 I’d actually given her a present including some craft embellishments in the form of buttons, cotton reels and scissors. So I couldn’t believe it when I opened my present from her.

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Also a knitting themed note pad. I love this cartoon.

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Lin has been raiding her stash again. She found these and decided she would never get around to using them. I definitely will! I’d never heard of waste fabric before (the one on the left) so I investigated and found out that it is for adding cross stitch designs to ordinary fabrics. You pin or tack it to the fabric, complete your cross stitch and then remove the waste fabric which is soluble. What a clever idea!

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The following fabrics were sent to me by blogging friend Claire from France. Aren’t those owls cute? These are Japanese fabrics and they are so fine. I can’t wait to use them and I’m looking for inspiration. Any ideas? Also, what is the name of the flowers in the centre fabric? I’d love to know.

CIMG3830Claire also sent a fabulous handmade Christmas decoration for my tree which I’ve now put away with the other decorations so you’ll have to wait until next Christmas to see that, sorry!

Next, my daughter has been travelling again and she is always keen to add to my fabric stash from wherever she goes which I very much appreciate 🙂

She brought me these batiks in Bath, England. The one on the right has a sort of marbled design that you sometimes find on the inside covers of old books.

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There’s also some Christmas themed fabrics, all with sparkly metallic highlights…

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and a special surprise from Austria. Chickens!!!

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I have no idea why she thought of me when she saw the chicken fabric 😉

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The chicken fabric is from Stoff Salon in Vienna, Austria. I’ve included the business card in the photo and if you go to the shop web site you will see that the lady in the shop really does look like this. I’ll certainly visit there myself if I ever go to Vienna.

Some of you may recognise the two log cabin chickens in the photo. The red one flew all the way to the North East of England from Stowe, Vermont, USA and it was the original inspiration for the Chicken Run. The green one came from Australia. It was made and sent to me by Carla over at Granny Maud’s Girl. Carla was the very first winner of the Chicken Run 🙂 She has an amazing blog with the most gorgeous patchwork you could ever imagine.

The latest leg of the Chicken Run, over at the amazing blog Knettycraft was won by Laura in Oregon from May Rose Sewing. She has now held her own giveaway and will be sending this little beauty to Theresa, the winner in Chicago 🙂

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If you want to see all of the chickens so far, you’ll find the gallery here.

So, that was my crafty Christmas eye candy. I also received a selection of sewing machine feet and a large pack of spools. You can never have enough spools in my opinion.

My next plan of action is to delve into the box of Indian fabrics. I have finally decided what to make with some of them 😉

Have a wonderful crafty weekend!

Avis x

How could a chicken be so lucky?

Hi everyone,

I’m still rather busy up here by the sea but the Chicken Run Giveaway Swap is still chugging along in the background.

Carla, the latest winner from Dancing Moon, has made lots of funky chickens and one of them could be flying off to you. If you’d like to win, pop over to see how to enter.

Here’s a sneaky peek at the quilt I’m working on at the moment. It’s the one with the Bali Pops. My sister is going to love it because she bought me the fabric. I’m such a lucky girl!

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It’s the Brown Sugar colourway………deeeelicious and it was so worth doing those partial seams.

Bye for now,

Avis x

Is it a mug rug?

Good morning everyone!

What a glorious sunny day it is here in the North East of England. I hope you are all well and that crafting is keeping you happy. For me, it’s just been work, work, work these last couple of months so I’m very pleased to be back here with my crafty friends at last.

I finally had a day off yesterday and decided to finish a little project that I’d started weeks ago. Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I don’t like scraps of fabric. If I make something, I cut the pieces in the most economical way and often achieve no-waste projects. It takes an awful lot of planning but the pleasure I get from having used every square inch of available fabric makes me very happy.

So, not having any particular project in mind, I decided to get rid of a few scraps. I had several strips of blues leftover from bindings so I split them up the middle and began to sew them together not knowing what it was going to turn into. Before long I had two different rectangular blocks that I thought would make a nice mug rug or maybe a mini quilt table topper.

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It is actually rectangular in real life Smile.

Well, just before the binding was sewn on I had a brainwave (which doesn’t happen to me very often). My tablet could do with a case! So I turned it over, grabbed some more scraps, made a lined pocket and HEY PRESTO! It’s a tablet case Smile.

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I also added a fabric tie.

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Look at that wobbly edge at the bottom. That happened because I stretched the front block as I was attaching the lining Sad smile. I used nice thick wadding/batting to protect the screen.

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I think I like the back the best.

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Here’s my tablet, all snug as a bug in a (mug) rug Winking smile

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Some of you may remember my previous scrappy playtimes. Here’s a quick reminder.

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All proof that you can make it up as you go along. Have fun scrap busting! I did Smile.

Avis x

Another year over…

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve been in the quilting zone. I’ve been concentrating on lots of hand stitching over at Sewing Beside the Sea. I’m sure the quilting bug will find me again when my sewing room warms up a bit. At the moment it is far too cosy in the living room sitting with my feet up, doing a bit of blackwork, cross stitch, knitting and crochet….not all at the same time of course!

I was just updating the “Finished 2013” page above and I can’t believe how many things I managed to complete, especially as it has been such a busy year for me apart from sewing. I’ve enjoyed every single project as well as reading all of the lovely comments and emails from people along the way. Your blogs have been very inspirational too, so I have many ideas stored up for future projects in 2014.

Here is a little gallery of my finished projects this year. Please note that from May onwards, I only included patchwork and quilting projects on this blog. So, if you’d like to see the hand sewn projects from then on, just hop over to Sewing Beside the Sea. If you’d like to visit any of the posts relating to the pictures in the gallery, just go to the “Finished 2013” page above and then click on the photo.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have lots of exciting projects lined up for 2014 🙂 Now….where did those chocolates go?

Avis x

The finishes are rolling in!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and having a thoroughly crafty time!

I’m having a bit of a break from blogging but several of the Mystery Blackwork stitch-along ladies have sent me photos of their finished projects, so I thought I’d let you see an update of the gallery.

If anyone else has a photo of their version I’d be pleased to include it in the gallery below. I’ll even put a free link to your blog 😉 Just send them to ohsewtempting@aol.com. Thank you in advance!

I still need to update a couple of photos and I promise to get to work on that very soon!

So, here they are 🙂

Starting with mine.

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Alison

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Angela

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Cath

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Cathie

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Christiane

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Claire

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Corinne

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Debbierose

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Elizabeth

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Gun

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Jule

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Julie

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Jocelyne

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Leela

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Masha

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Mau

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Nora

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Titoune73

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Valerie

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Wivi

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Avis x

The Woolhogs Made It Challenge for June has started!

This is just a quickie reminder that Maryanne has once again organised a fabulous Woolhogs Made It Challenge this month.

I have entered my blackwork embroidery which some of you will have already seen.

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There must be something you could enter too! I’m on link number 33 if you’d like to vote for my project and you can even vote every day if you really want to! However, the voting is just for fun and does not determine who wins the challenge.

Whether you decide to enter or not, please support some of the other crafty bloggers by visiting their lovely blogs. However, BEWARE! You may be inspired to try something new 🙂

Here is the link to The Woolhogs Made It Challenge. Just click on the frog when you get there!

Avis x

Mystery Blackwork Stitch Along Part 6 (The Final Part)

Welcome to Part 6, the final instalment of my Mystery Blackwork SAL 🙂

Here is the sixth part completed.

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Please respect my copyright.

I hope you have enjoyed stitching along. I know you will have lots of ideas on how to finish your embroidery and I would love to include your final photos in the gallery. Please send them to me as usual for part 6 and of your final finished project.

I have chosen to display my blackwork in a frame after adding a little extra pulled thread embroidery around the edge.

If you have been following the stitch along but didn’t tell us before, please send me a photo of your finished work. It would be lovely to include it in the gallery with all of the others 🙂

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Happy stitching everyone! I’m looking forward to seeing all your lovely ideas 🙂

Who knows, maybe I’ll share another one of my own designs with you in the future…..if anyone is interested.

Take a peep in the gallery before you go!

Avis x

Mystery Blackwork Stitch Along Part 5

Welcome to Part 5 of my Mystery Blackwork SAL 🙂

Thank you so much for all the lovely photographs of your work which can be found in the gallery of last week’s post.

Here is the fifth part completed.

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Please respect my copyright.

Enjoy! See you next week,

Avis x

STOP PRESS
Jule has spotted an error….
My chart is slightly different to the way I’ve stitched the fans. You can decide for yourself how you prefer to stitch them. As long as all four fans are the same, nobody will know 😉

Mystery Blackwork Stitch Along Part 4

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Part 4 of my Mystery Blackwork SAL 🙂

Here is the fourth part completed.

Stage 6

Please respect my copyright.

Enjoy! See you next week,

Avis x

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