Another tea block....

 ....this time, it's green tea.  Not my favourite tea....in fact, if truth be told,  I can't stand green tea but it does looks good in cross stitch! 

I now only have three more blocks to do then the sampler is complete! Who would have guessed that I (probably the world's slowest stitcher) could complete a sampler this quickly! Hope I haven't jinxed myself by saying that :)

Not only did I complete the tea block, but I started one of the little free kits that comes with the World of Cross Stitching magazine.  I love these little kits as they are  quite quick to stitch and come with a pre-printed card and envelope......nice and easy.....usually!  

But this time......

....it looks like someone was having a bad day when they cut the aperture for the card!  

Guess I'll have to get out the card blanks and do some paper crafting....after the stitching is completed, of course!!!

Hope you're having a better day then whoever did the card aperture!


Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

And this weeks winner is.....

........Butterfly!

Congratulations, I will email you the chart tomorrow.

And speaking of winners, I was a lucky winner and received this wonderful gift form Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching....

Some gorgeous Christmas fabric (which I have just noticed that I've photographed upside down....sorry, Jo!) and the cutest little Christmas charms....

...which refuse to load properly....so maybe just turn your head to the side to see them better! :) Thanks Jo.....that was such a sweet surprise!

No stitching to show this week......hopefully lots to share next time!


Until then....happy stitching!

Rhona

We have a winner!

In fact we have two winners for the Ugly Jumpers charts! Both bits of paper with the names on them   came out of the bowl together, so I figured it was a sign that both these wonderful stitchers should receive the charts!

The winners are....La  trame della Galaverna and Justine ! Congrats to both stitchers....emails with the charts will be winging their way to you tomorrow!

Since I'm having so much fun giving away charts, let's have yet another giveaway! This time the chart for this cutie is up for grabs.....

....this is how he was finished off and made into a cute Xmas card....

Sooooo....same as always, if you'd like to be in the running to win this chart, please leave a comment below. I'll announce the winner next week, Monday 21st November. Please feel free to share this on your blog.....I'm enjoying meeting new bloggers. 

Please ignore the web site details on the photo....the web site no longer exists :(

So, what have I been working on this week? No surprise for regular readers.....another tea block! This time it's Oolong....

I've had a few emails asking about details for this kit - it's called 'Tea Time' by Design Works and the kit number is 2596 . The original artwork is by Krista Hamrick. Hope that helps those of you who are looking for the kit.

So I'm off to start another tea block so that I'll have something to show you  next week!

Until then...happy stitching!

Rhona

Christmas chart giveaway....and more tea!

So, who still has some Christmas stitching still to do? Here's your chance to win another one of my charts....this time it's for six 'ugly' Christmas jumpers! 

Here's one of the designs that I have stitched up......

These designs are great for cards or for finishing as an ornament....or whatever else you want to do with it....the choice is yours!

There are six ugly jumpers in the set - the one pictured above, snowmen, penguins, Xmas pudding, Santa hat and Rudolf .

If you would like to be entered into the drawing for the chart of all six jumpers, please leave a comment below and I'll announce the winner one week from today, Monday 14th November, giving the lucky winner plenty of time to stitch this for Christmas.....or to just add the chart to their stash! :)

So onto the next tea block. I finished the back stitching of the Chamomile tea block....

...and completed the block below it....

I'm not sure if I like the spacing on the letters on the  word Grey....so I might go back and unpick it....but maybe not....I can't quite decide :)

The pictures aren't great as my DD took my camera ....thank heavens for cell phone cameras!

Anyway, another block done....I'm over half way with this sampler! Woohoo :)

Remember to leave a comment if you'd like to be in the running to win the chart....and feel free to spread the word of the giveaway....it's always nice to meet new bloggers.

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Some tea and some winners!

I know I said that I would pick a winner for the gnome charts, but instead I decided to pick six winners!  Yes....six lucky people will be receiving a copy of the gnome chart. And the lucky winners are....

The first six names from the state of the art, giveaway name supplying bowl were Caitlin, Gominam, The Crafter's Apprentice, Ariadne, Mii and Lynn B.  I will be emailing the charts to you shortly!  Please do check out these lovely blogs if you haven't already met these wonderful bloggers. 

Thank you to everyone who entered...... and since it was such fun to meet some new bloggers (and hopefully spread some happiness!), I'm going to do another giveaway next week! I just have to decide what  chart to giveaway....so please do pop back next week. 

And now for some tea!

The next tea block hasn't been going as quickly as the others. First of all I had to frogging some of the design as I didn't like the colour choices on the chart....

The tea colour just didn't seem right. So I frogged it and started the tea afresh! I like the new colour combination much better. This square seemed to stitch up quite slowly, but I think it's because I didn't really like the colour of green thread....why on earth that would make stitching it happen more slowly, I don't know, but I really didn't enjoy stitching this block as much as the others. Anyhoo, there's not much more to do and this block will be definitely be completed in the next couple of days.

Once again, congrats to the six lovely stitchers receiving the chart and thank you to all who entered.

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

Tea....and an award nomination!

More tea....this time peppermint tea!

These blocks are stitching up so quickly....I can't believe how much I'm able to get done each week.

I did change some of the lettering on this one.....I just hope that the designer Krista Hamrick doesn't mind. I altered the letter 'p' so that they were both the same....she had each one slightly different and my OCD just kicked in :) It's not a huge difference and I'm happy with it, which I guess is what it's all about!

So, on to the surprising news! This little blog of mine has been nominated in the British Craft Awards for the category of Best Cross Stitch Blog.....wow! 

I'm thrilled and humbled that of all of the wonderful stitchy blogs in blog land that my little blog has even been noticed! So, if any of you dear readers would like to vote for me, please click here. You can vote from anywhere in the world. Please click on the Cross Stitch category and there are a couple of other questions to answer (all about cross stitching)  and will take literally less than a couple of minutes of your time. It would mean the world to me if you could do this. Please do check out the other nominated blogs.....they are all fantastic!

Thank you!

And some other good news.....look what arrived from Lion Brand.....

The replacement yarn! So not only did they replace the six balls that I had originally purchased, but they added another ball just to make sure that I had enough yarn of the same colour batch to complete the project! How awesome is that? So another big shout out to the customer service team at lion Brand....especially Ben who co-ordinated it all for me....Ben you are wonderful!

Just a quick reminder that there is still time to add your name if you'd like to be in the running to win the Christmas Gnome charts. If you'd like to add your name to the drawing, click here and leave a comment. Winners will be announced next week, Monday 31st October 2016.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

More tea.....and a giveaway!

Another tea block completed.......my needle is smoking hot!

 Black tea.....my favourite to drink!

I like my tea piping hot just as this one looks with all the steam coming from the cup....perfect!

My next decision is whether or not to do each block in order or to jump around the chart and use some different colours! Mmmm...what to do?

I might not be able to get as much stitching completed over the next couple of weeks as I am doggie sitting for my friend while she is on holiday and her pooch is rather an attention hog. Also, the thought of getting doggie slobber all over my stitching isn't very appealing. Sooooo.....a perfect excuse to have a little giveaway so that I'll have something on my blog over the next couple of weeks!

Remember my Christmas gnomes......

...well there's actually fifteen....yes fifteen all together. (You can see close up pictures of these three here.) There are twelve of the larger gnomes and three of the smaller ones.....and I thought it might be nice to share these little cuties with you. If you would like to be in the running to win the chart for all fifteen Christmas gnomes please leave a comment below.  I'll announce the winner two weeks from today which will be October 31st, giving the winner plenty of time to stitch these for Christmas :) Please feel free to share this giveaway on your blog if you want to. If there are lots of entries, I'll pick a couple of winners!

Good luck!

Until next time....happy stitching!

Rhona

More tea!

This little Tea sampler is just so much fun to work on.....I think it's because each little block is a finish in itself . You know how we stitchers love that feeling of a finish :)

So here we have blackberry tea...

....block number three in the sampler so far...

 ...loving the bright colours in this block...

 I originally thought that the blue was a bit strange for the cup and saucer and was in two minds whether or not to change it to white and greys, which was how the picture on the packet looked, but in the end, I decided to go with  designer Krista Hamrick's choice......

....she knew best! It looks great.

And the wonderful Krista Hamrick has designed a coffee counterpart to this sampler which you can see here. I think this coffee chart just might be going on my wish list to Santa!

Until next time..happy stitching!

Rhona

A surprise appearance by.......

.....good old Max! 

I finally finished stitching the third and last block. As you can tell the back stitching still has to be done.....I'm truly wishing that I had done the back stitching on each block before starting the next block....but I didn't, and now have to do it all....urghhh!

Here's how all three blocks look. 

So, decision time....do I crack on and get this finished or do I do another tea sampler block and then do the back stitching? Mmmm.....I know which one is calling my name!!!


Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

Tea.......and a shout out to the Lion Brand Yarn Company!

I just had to share a wonderful email that I received.

Those of you who are regular readers may remember my heartache over the baby blanket that I had started (click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about !)  I have to make it very clear that the fault was all mine....a rookie mistake if ever there was one! I had not purchased enough yarn to complete the project and the new yarn I bought on-line was completely different.

Anyhoo, I received a wonderful email from the Lion Brand Company from Ben who has probably the most enviable job ever....he interacts with bloggers from the crafting community! Sweet job, Ben....I'm rather jealous! He contacted me  with the offer of sending me replacement yarn for the project or a project's amount of any other yarn from their site! Talk about great customer service :) I'm totally over the moon with this offer from them. I love the original yarn and really would like to finish the blanket using this yarn as I think it's just a tad different for a baby blanket. Anyway, since we usually only hear of complaints and bad service, I wanted to highlight great customer service. Thanks Lion Brand....you rock!

Hopefully I will be soon able to show you, dear readers, a completed crochet baby blanket using that gorgeous multi-coloured yarn!


What I can show you today is another tea block completed....

 ...a bit of a grey day, so the lighting isn't too good.

 ....and with an empty teacup so that I don't have another panic attack!

This sampler seems to be stitching up pretty quickly!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

A cup of tea!

Quite literally, a cup of tea all stitched ....

...and back stitched too! And rather bravely of me (or maybe that should be riskily or stupidly, you pick the most appropriate!) here it is with the real thing...

...which was placed there just for effect and then whisked away rather quickly before there were any accidents with the tea spilling onto nice white fabric!

I had thought that each time I had completed one of the tea blocks I could photograph it with a different teacup or mug, but after the heart palpitations I had when the tea was close to the stitching, (I won't even begin to describe my panic as the teacup was placed onto the fabric!) I think I might just change my plan :)

Last week, hubby and I decided to head off to Canada for a short break (hence there was no post last week) Montreal was the place of choice since the World Cup Of Hockey had an exhibition match being played there.

Loved the hockey and loved Montreal...such a beautiful city....

I have to say that Montreal feels just like Paris, but with ice hockey and maple syrup.....lots and lots of maple syrup! 

And beer sangria.....

So, from tea to beer sangria all in one nice little post!

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona

All mixed up!

These bank holiday weekends really do mess with your head! Monday seemed like Sunday and today feels like it's Monday.....hence I'm late with my weekly post!

The bank holiday was great and hubby and I got loads done around the house and in the garden.....the to-do list was getting so long it was ridiculous. So, with all the work being done there wasn't really a lot of time for stitching or crocheting. Luckily I had a few nights earlier in the week where I had indulged in  my crafting therapy! :)

Max had some more stitches added.....not an awful lot, but better than none at all being added!

I really want to get him finished as I can feel myself becoming a bit bored with him. I don't want to put him to one side as I know I probably won't pick him up again if I do! Anyone else end up feeling like that about a project?

As for the baby blanket saga,(Click here if you didn't see what happened!)  I heard back from Lion Brand yarns asking for a picture of the colour change in the yarn and they said they would be looking into the differences in the dye lots. I was pleased that they had responded, but still not sure about what to do with the yarn that I already have and how to salvage what I had already started. Thank you to everyone who gave some suggestions....time to put my thinking cap on!

While I was waiting for a response from Lion Brand, I was itching to start something for the new baby.....so, this is the start of my new baby blanket.....

...and this time I have LOADS of yarn! Lesson learned :) The pattern for this blanket can be found here. I changed the colours to make sure I didn't have the same problems as last week :) I have so much white yarn that I could probably make two baby blankets....and some booties....and a hat or two!

Hopefully this week I will be able to find time to work a bit more on both of these projects.

Until next time...happy stitching!

Rhona