November !!!

Well , just had to go and read my own blog as I couldn't remember what I posted last ,lol.

I have been stitching , though at times it was harder than I would have liked. The squares for my daughters' quilt are finally finished , though they were holding me back a little. I was getting so fed up of the colours and the designs that the last few were quite hard work .

I deliberately left this one until last to give me a much needed colour boost . We chose the colours ourselves and I had to fiddle with placement a bit , but very happy with how it worked out .

  So , all 15 squares are done , now to source and decide on fabric and get motivated to turn them into a quilt. We'll see how that goes .

  I then did another sign up for Love Quilts ,
I loved stitching this , and love how it turned out .

 I also signed up to stitch the card for the same child. Here is the stitching , yet to be made into a card . Both pieces need a quick wash.

 After that , I felt like some indulgent stitching. I wanted to do one of my LHN or LK charts , but not sure where my stash of special threads are at the moment , so settled on this at the weekend instead.

This has also been a long time coming. I left off the wording at the bottom.

In other news , I had a birthday since my last real post, Got mostly money ,so was very selfish and splurged it mostly on stash . The local dept store was closing the Coates department , and all the Anchor threads were down to 20p each. I am usually a DMC stitcher , but have some lovely Anchor charts and have been trying to build up my stash , so I took advantage and ended up buying around 200 threads.
  Then , someone on a FB group was selling a load of DMC threads at a really good price , so I bought those too .
 Of course , then I had to buy a load of bobbins , and storage boxes and a new drawer unit to keep them all in ,so most of birthday money spent ,lol.
 Over 500 threads

Anchor

DMC

I did have enough left over to treat myself to a few new HAED charts though .

 Polani

 Mini Cries of the Night

 Mother of Dragons

Looking forward to these.

Thanks for dropping by .

Cath

It's my Birthday .

 Well ,strictly speaking it isn't my birthday , my birthday was on Friday  , but I have been too busy to post .
 I organised a thread exchange this year and so would like to show my lovely cards and threads that have arrived.

 From Sharon

 From Valerie

 From Gaynor

 From Donna

 From Mary Jane.

Thank you so much ladies , they are lovely and hopefully there are more to come .

  I also had a little stash enhancement from hubby. Love this design so much , I have been wanting it for over a year.

How can anyone not love that cute little face ?  I have two squares to finish for LQUK before the end of October , then I am planning some serious personal stitching time . Can't wait !

Thanks for dropping by ,

 Cath

My Blogoversary / Birthday giveaway

 Today is my fourth blogoversary , and as usual , I will have a little giveaway.

 This year will be a bit different though , as my birthday is next month , and it is a biggie . I am gaining a zero .

 Yep, I am turning 40 , so I am kind of mixing the two things together . The giveaway is open from today , until my birthday (26th September) ,and all you have to do is comment on posts between now and then . For every post commented on ,you will get one entry in the giveaway draw.

 I am not sure what I will be giving away just yet , but I do promise to try and be more organised than the last one ,lol  .

 Thanks for dropping by  ,
 Cath

More gifts .

Lynn has now received her giveaway package , so I can show what I sent her .

  I also sent this little pillow to my lovely friend Jane . Jane has had a rough few months with family worries ,and I wanted to let her know that I was thinking of her . Jane loves her bunnies ,and also liked her pillow. ;D

  It was my dear friend Laineys' birthday in September too , and I sent her a variety of ornies that I'd made over a few months .

  I also sent some other little sheepies , but you can see them on Laineys' blog .

 And , here is what Lainey sent me . I was very excited to get two lovely parcels from the postman .

  Inside the big flat one was this lovely cat print. My daughter has tried to snaffle it up to go in her bedroom , at the moment it is at the side of my seat in the living room.

  A lovely picture that Lainey stitched for me .

  A gorgeous kit , I love this so much I am on the look out for the others in the series .

 And lots of other lovely goodies .

 Well ,that's about it for now , I'll  be back soon .
 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

PS, don't forget , there is still time to enter my giveaway for he magnetic bookmarks/needle holders . just scroll down for the chance to enter and leave me a comment on the relevant post.

Show and tell . (Lots)

Well ,after not much at all to blog about , I now have lots to catch up on ,lol .
 First off, I received a lovely e-mail from Marilyn , to let me know that she had received her giveaway package , and she likes it , thankfully . Then , Sharon posted on her blog that she had received hers , so just waiting for Lynns' to arrive and we're all sorted.
 This is what I sent to Marilyn :

 And this one was for Sharon .

I had to order the charts and wait for them to arrive , so it took a wee while .
 I will show what I sent to Lynn  when she has received it.

 Secondly , it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago , and the lovely Bekca of the Stitching Lion had chosen me to receive her birthday RAK for September . Look at the lovely goodies she sent me .

 There were also a couple of packets of sweets. but they disappeared with my Daughter ,lol .
I also got a new kit for my birthday from my lovely hubby .

 It is much prettier than this photo shows, I can't seem to get the colours right at the moment. I mostly got money for my birthday , hence the debate on the lap stand. I'm still undecided ,lol .

 And , this is what I was up to most of yesterday .
 My Daughters' friend asked me ages ago to stitch her a Pokemon , and this is the one she chose. I finally got round to making it into a little pillow for her ,and as it was her birthday yesterday, wrapped it up and gave it to her .

 I'm quite pleased with it , and my hidden closing seams are getting better .

  Also made up the cushion covers for my two . They chose the fabrics themselves , but didn't know I was doing them yesterday , so got a nice surprise this morning . It took me ages last night to sew on the closing snaps.

Almost lastly, progress on Calm Seas .

 I have almost finished this cliff , only two more and the beach to go ,lol .

 Notice my needle minder in the top right corner ? I was browsing around wilkos and spotted these .
 I wouldn't use them for bookmarks , but they are perfect for needle minders .

They hold the needle really well ,

and are strong enough to hold scissors too.

 I like them so much , I went back and bought some more to share , so I'm going to have a little competition .

 If you would like the chance to win some of these fab little magnets, leave me a comment on this post only, telling me how many projects you have on the go right now. I mean projects that you are actually working on , not just things lying around .
 This is open to followers only ,though new ones are welcome to join in too . I'll leave it open until the end of the month , so feel free to comment until the 31st October , and I'll let you know who wins sometime after that .
 If you are still reading , thank you , it's a very long post ,lol .

 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

Birthday Season

Well , I can now share with you a couple of my secret stitches that were for birthday gifts.

First off it was Laineys' birthday last weekend , and knowing her love of sheepies and purple , I was well chuffed a few months ago when I came across the perfect chart for her.

You may recognise it , LHNs' Lavender Hill . I really enjoyed stitching it ,and will have to do it again at some point for me ,lol.

I was planning on making it into a pillow , but didn't have enough stuffing , and they didn't have any in , where I usually get it from , so came up with this instead.

A tote type bag , in lavender fabric. I'm pleased to say that Lainey likes it .

The day after Laineys birthday , it was Auntie Janes' at SFPSFC , and this chart was just crying out to be stitched for her. It's from the "Children of Southern Roots" chart book , and the little girl with a teddy and blanket just said what we do in the charity group so much. As I was on a roll , I made this into a little bag too .

Then , it was my birthday !

Lainey sent me this lovely mag ,

And this fantastic pillow . I just totally love this to pieces , and it is so well co-ordinated with the trims etc .

And here it is with a couple of other lovely hand made gifts from special friends. Love my new kitty , and the boys aren't even a little bit jealous , lol.

I also got these two fab books from my Husband and friend .

And I treated myself to this I have found a few charts that I like , but on first impressions, I don't think it is as good as last years issue.

Mostly , I got money for my birthday , so I've bought some fabric to make Spooky Row into a wall hanging , and now I'm on a stash hunt ,so look out for some yummy stuff heading this way soon .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath