Those of you who read Andrea's blog will be familiar with her beautiful cross stitch. Recently Andrea had a very generous giveaway for not one but eleven cross stitched Christmas ornaments and I was lucky enough to win one of them.
I think you'll agree that this ornament is just beautiful! It's so dainty being stitched mainly over one and has a beautiful beaded edge trim. I love it and will take great pleasure in bringing it out each year. Thank you Andrea!
I made another Couch Companion from Leanne Beasley's pattern. This is the front
The back
and here it is open
The next thing I'm going to share with you was one of my most favourite ever projects to work on. It is called the Gentle Arts Sewing Pail and the pattern appeared in an old issue of the Australian magazine Patchwork and Stitching Vol5 no 1
Three friends from my quilt group wanted to make it along with me and although one had never done any kind of embroidery before everyone did a fantastic job. I wish I could show pictures of all of them together but for now here's mine.......
We all had great fun adding our buttons, charms and silk ribbon in addition to the embroidery stitches that were new to us
Plenty of room inside - I think I may keep my most special fabric fat quarters in this
and one last picture just to show all round the sides
I think all of the pictures should be clickable if you want to get a closer look.
Another fun thing I made at my quilt group is this
It's a pattern from the British Patchwork and Quilting magazine and is actually supposed to be a bread basket but who wants a bread basket when it would make such a perfect sewing basket?
Plenty of pockets for threads, thimble, scissors or whatever and I made a pincushion from the Fig Tree Quilts Petite Gateaux pattern which sits perfectly in the middle.
Another pincushion attempt which came from a tutorial on Olga's blog see her post for 3rd November to see a beautiful cross stitched version. Mine is rather clumsy and as it was a first attempt I didn't use my best fabrics. I'd like to try a smaller one next time
The last few things I have to share are cross stitch. I can't remember how many years ago I stitched this Bent Creek design of the Black Cat but I finally got round to turning it into a pinkeep
Some fun fabric on the back
I stitched Mary Little by the Goode Huswife on 40ct Flax linen and love how this tiny little pincushion turned out
I took the little motif from the front and stitched it again and added a few buttons for a bit of interest
Finally my first (and probably my last) attempt at a floss tag. I think I need a bit more practice on these :)
I already have more things finished and photographed but will save those for next time. As always thank you for visiting my blog and for your nice comments.
Margaret
