New Faces

 Yep, I've gone and done it again. I succumbed to the charms of the Heaven and Earth Sale. Shame on me!
 The worst thing is , it means four charts have come off my wish list , but about five more have gone on .
  I am doomed.

But , you have to admit , they are pretty gorgeous.

Cath x

Fund raising stitches.

A lot of you will know about Gaynors. fund raising efforts for the Irish Cancer Society , if not , please got to her blog and check it out .
 Gaynor has designed several charts , which she is offering for a small donation towards her fund raising efforts. she is pretty busy though , and has a lot of other designs buzzing around her head, so asked for volunteers to stitch up some models.
 I was lucky enough to be asked to stitch up Fight Like A Girl ,and here it is .

 I chose the pink aida to stitch on , so the daisies would show up better .

  I decided to make it into a bookmark, though it could also be a hanger as the backing fabric is pretty stiff .

 It is backed with the fabric it is laying on .

I am really pleased with how it turned out , and have offered it to Gaynor towards her fundraising , so if you are interested in getting this , or even stitching it yourself, along with the other charts, go over to Gaynors blog and see for yourself . ~The charts is a pretty good size for a phone or ipod case too , so multi-purpose .
 Thanks for looking ,
# Cath

Doggy fashion .

 My friend got a puppy last year, and has bought lots of stuff that I did not even know existed for dogs ,lol .
 Especially the likes of this .

 It's a doggy bandanna , which you thread the collar through. OK , they look fairly cool , but she paid £7 each for them. This one was grubby after a  couple of wears and washes ,so I said I thought I could probably make some. She wanted a few , so I cut out loads of fabby and set to work. I made ten before running out of thread for the sewing machine .

 She likes them and has bought four off me , and wants to take some to her workplace with the idea of selling them for me. I am looking at selling them for 2 for £5 at the moment . What do you think ? Would you buy bandannas for your dog ?
 Cath

Summer ? maybe .

We had a lovely few days towards the end of last week and over the weekend. Today has been a little grey and dull , but not too bad.
 I have been doing a bit of stitching on the tiger , this is where I am now .

 It is coming on nicely , I am hoping for a reasonably quick finish with this one. Not had chance to pick up Butterflies yet this week, even though the kids are back at school , I have been really busy .

   We went out for a teatime picnic on Saturday, and went for a walk along the canal . Saw lots of lovely water birds .

 Cute and fluffy ducklings, there were four of them but I couldn't get a good pic of them all together ,they were moving about too much.

 Lovely blossom on the way

  I think this must be a favourite scratching spot for the sheep.

The kids thought it was great and gathered up some of the wool to bring home. I have washed it ,and it came up quite nice. shame there's not enough to do anything with though .

 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Another grey and wet day .

Yesterday morning saw the last of the back stitch on the snails, so another UFO/WIP crossed off the list.
 Mind you, I didn't have to look far for inspiration. Along with the rain , came teams of snails to overpower my garden. The yellow broom was full of them.

 Need a few closer looks?

And here is the nicer version .

 This was originally going to be made into a bag , but my son has requested a stand up frame ,so got to go hunting for one to fit now.
 My daughter asked for a flamingo to start with, but she has changed her mind so often , I lost track of what I was supposed to be stitching for her . Now the snails are finished , she has asked for a tiger , and what do you know? Look what else was in the black hole of started and abandondness.

 So , this will be getting some work done on it very soon, though she is still asking for a bag (at the moment) .

 So ,a finish means a new start , right ?


 Here is Pink Owl on a Branch by Cherry Hill Stitchery. Started 28th May and finished 29th May . Stitched with the recommended DMC threads on 16 count aida .

A little flower detail .

 I loved stitching this , and can see it in so many different colours , so expect to see much more of this little owl ,lol .
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

A little stash

Yesterday , we had a visit to Bakewell . So , I nipped into Wye Needlecraft. I have to admit to not being overly impressed with the shop the last couple of years, I do feel it has gone down hill rather a lot , but last time we were there I went in for a look and saw a lovely  chart I really liked . It was quite expensive for a small chart (£5.95), so I decided to look online and see if it was available elsewhere .
 I turned up nothing in the UK , and with postage being so high from the US , just left it .
So, yesterday , I decided to just go for it and treat myself ( I ended up getting two charts and some needles ,lol )

 This is the one I first saw .

But I couldn't resist this one either ,lol .

There are a few more charts in the series , but I'm happy with these two for now .

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath

Bug days .

First of all ,a big Thank you to everyone who made such nice comments about the quilts. For me , it is an honour and a pleasure to be a part of something so worthwhile. Stitching the squares is the easy part in my mind ,the making up of the quilts is much more work , and I am in awe of the talented ladies who put their time and effort into doing it.

 So , it is supposed to be spring ,though with the temps around here at the moment , it would be hard to guess. We have a lot of flies in the house though . I spray every couple of days , and yet they never seem to decrease in numbers ,despite the bodies littering the window sills ( I do clean them up) . But , on the nicer side , it's time for the prettier creepy crawlies to come out .
 My boy found this little friend the other day , and both kids spent an entertaining hour or two watching it closely and giggling as it tickled their hands .

 As today is an inse(c)t day from school ,they wanted to keep it , but were persuaded to put it back in the garden, though we did have some tears .
 So , with days off and half term , not much stitching will be happening here over the next week or so , so I will leave you with a current pic of Butterflies .

 I am guesstimating that there is about 1500 - 2000 more stitches left to do. I am hoping for a June/July finish , but we will see.
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Charity quilts

A while ago , I asked if anyone liked Barney as I had some fabric and stitched squares that were originally intended to make cushions for my daughter , but she was no longer interested.
 A reader suggested sending them to World of Charity Stitching , so I did . The organisers managed to get a few more squares and have made them into a quilt , so I thought I'd show the end product. What a lovely quilt to make someone smile .

 Also, Jane at Stitch for Pleasure ,Stitch for Charity has recently completed some quilts that have squares on that I stitched two or three years ago , so more pics.

Some fantastic work in these quilts. I do enjoy doing the charity squares. All those lovely charts that you'd like to stitch , but wouldn't know what to do with them afterwards.
 There are a lot of groups out there that do amazing things with stitched pieces ,so if you are thinking about it , I would like to urge you to go ahead .
 Thanks for reading ,
 Cath

A must show

Just wanted to share the lovely gift my hubby got me for our wedding anniversary.
 It's not something I would buy for myself , but I love it and am savouring it as it is for now .

It is a gorgeous lavender scented (with real lavender flowers ) candle in a tea cup . So pretty.

If you like the idea , please go along here and have a look what else they have.

Back to Butterflies ,

Cath

Butterflies and snails (not in the garden).

After finishing Hello Kitty , I needed a small project again, but instead of looking for a new chart I decided I needed to get some of those old WIP's out of the way . I aim to have no old WIP's or UFO's hanging around after this year, hmmm.
 Anyway, it's about time I got my sons' snails finished , so I have been working on that .

 So far , I've done the leaves on the top right hand side and the lower branch. It shouldn't take too long to be finished, but I have been a little distracted with Butterflies.

I have got back into it big time. A couple of afternoons last week and some time yesterday have left me here. Some more green added and lots of the darker outlines . My plan is to do all of the dark blue and then fill in the other brighter colours. I am hoping that when all the blocks are done , I will be so close to a finish that I won't mind doing all the confetti and annoying odd stitches ,lol. Yes, that is the bottom of the chart .
 I am loving it again , and want to just pick it up now , but alas, I have to enter the pigsty of my daughters' bedroom and clean and tidy, which I am expecting to take all day , so maybe tomorrow.

 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath.