Friday, September 26, 2014

Everything stops for tea........free chart!


Just to give you all a bit of a warning....I am going to be mentioning the 'C' word in this post even though it's only September! :) So if it's too early for you to be hearing the word 'Christmas', you might not want to keep reading...although you will miss out on a lovely free chart!

My goal this year is to make quite a few homemade Christmas gifts - that was  my goal last year and probably the year before that too, but sadly I always leave things to the last minute and end up having to go with shop bought gifts...and a lot of disappointment on my part! 

But this year, I'm starting early! I'm determined to do more homemade gifts this year. Here's part of gift number one all stitched up..... 




I've got a couple of ideas of how I want to incorporate this into a cute little gift, but I feel good that the stitching is done...yayyy me! I'll show you how I finish this off as a gift in another post.


So in the spirit of Christmas (yes, I know it's a bit early for that!) I have a little gift for you....the chart! To get your copy of the chart, click here. (I've got my fingers firmly crossed that the link will work) And for the key, click here. If you'd like to change the colour scheme, please feel free to do so. I stitched this on 14 count cream aida and the stitched area is approx 15.4 cm x 10.3 cm. (85 x 57 stitches)

Please remember that the charts are for your own personal use only. Using the charts to make gifts for family and friends is fine (I'd love to see how you use them!), but please do not offer the chart for re-sale.


If you click here , you'll see how I used the design before....mmmm, don't those cookies look good!!!

I've also done a couple of coaster designs to match this piece...so make sure you visit again....you never know when I'll be giving them away! (Soon, I promise.)

With all that talk about tea, I think it's time to pop the kettle on and make a cuppa!



Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona


Monday, September 22, 2014

A little French Christmas finish.....

After a wonderful trip to Paris with my daughter, I really wanted to stitch something to remind us of our trip.....photographs aren't enough!!! 

Unfortunately for me (perhaps not so for my credit card) the one cross stitch shop that I really wanted to visit (and had figured out how to get there) was closed for the week while we were there. Click here for the website and all their lovely designs.....excuse me while I drool quietly in the corner! 

So, sadly, photographs and memories would have to suffice.....until I came across a lovely design on Pinterest, which I just had to stitch....



It's another freebie design and the chart can be found here


It stitched up quite quickly and the colours look gorgeous although they look a bit strange in the picture - the reds of the ribbon are actually a rich burgundy colour, not a horrible brown as it's showing. 

This freebie design along with the free alphabet heart design that I stitched a few weeks ago, got me to thinking how nice it was to get free charts....so,I've decided that I'll post one of my charts for anyone to download and stitch....pop back next week to get the chart! Free stuff (especially cross stitch) is always good :)

Now, if like me, your thoughts are turning to Christmas stitching and are hoping to be organized and not leave it all to the last minute (Ha! I NEVER do that!), you might want to pop on over to Pull The Other Thread blog and sign up for the Mega Mini Month Madness. The rules and sign up can be found here. (oh my goodness....so many links in this post!) Basically you have to post 5 mini finishes in the month of October...anything goes. I'm planning on getting some Christmas card stitching done....just have to decide what designs to stitch....and that, dear friends, could take me a while!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona





Monday, September 15, 2014

A little Christmas finish...





.....a free kit from this month's Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine. Cute or what?!!  I did manage to get the colours mixed up and stitched the dark purple instead of the light purple, but you'd never know if I hadn't said anything!  You'd think that by now I would be able to read a cross stitch chart correctly  ;) So I have yet another design to be made into a Christmas card....good job I've a got a while to get my  Christmas card making mojo in top gear.

Also on my to-stitch-for-Christmas list are my designs that were featured in this month's Card Shop magazine....


Cross Stitch Card Shop Issue 98
Immediate Media Co.

....I'm totally in love with the little wire hangers...aren't they adorable?  

I've also been quite busy getting odd bits done with my crochet blanket....remember the one that I made rather on the large size....here it is now....




....this is how it looks all rolled up .... and all those loose ends waiting to be stitched in...



...and now you can see just how much I have done! I think I may be almost half way there. Hopefully I'll be finished by the time the really cold weather arrives. 

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona




Sunday, September 7, 2014

Almost a disaster!

Having made the decision to actually do something with my stitching (other than adding it to the 'to be finished' pile) I decided to take the plunge and do the bit I hate....finishing. These are all the bits of stitching that I have, sitting in the above mentioned 'to be finished' pile.....


....mmmm....just one or two to be done!!!

After taking this picture I just unceremoniously dumped the stitching back onto my desk and grabbed the heart shaped alphabet to do something with. I grabbed some pink felt and some card stock and went gung-ho with the scissors. As my courage began to wane I decided to sketch out a template for the heart and grabbed a pen to mark the felt with the shape I wanted. After tugging at the pen top for a few seconds it finally popped off .....splattering bright red ink everywhere! I should have taken a picture but I was in such a panic to get the stains off that grabbing the camera was the last thing on my mind. Luckily the stitching gods were looking kindly down on me, and the ink splatters were only on the edges of the stitching, the bits that shouldn't really be seen....phew! Lesson learned....never open a (leaking) roller ball pen close to stitching.

Anyhoo, my accomplishment for this week is getting the heart shaped alphabet finished as a hanging.....





...and not a single spot of red ink to be seen!


Until next time ...happy stitching!

Rhona

Monday, September 1, 2014

Where did the weekend go?

Another week has flown by....and the weekend too! I didn't get any stitching done this weekend (even though it's been a three day weekend), but luckily I was rather productive last week and managed to get three little designs stitched. 

You can tell that the temperature here is in the 80's as I have been stitching......


.....CHRISTMAS designs! :)




These three cute mice charts were the free gift with this month's World Of Cross Stitching magazine. Aren't they cute? I seem to have become addicted to Margaret Sherry mice designs! I'm on the hunt for more MS mice to do for Christmas cards....time to start looking through some old cross stitch magazines. - this could lead to trouble!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona