Stitching and gifts .

Well , I finished the LQ a/c square , and here it is . It is one of four designs from a magazine , intended to make a cushion cover , but works out quite well for a square .

 Then I moved onto this one , intended to be another a/c square , but I ended up getting a sign up with it. Superheroes are so popular with the kids that the stitchers tend to get a little bored of them , so the quilts take a while longer to get filled .

 And then this one as a sign up as well , superheroes again ,lol. This is the second time stitching this chart , and probably not the last . I was intending to do this in a couple of months , but with it being half term needed something fairly easy to be able to pick up when I got chance so this worked out fine.

 I have one more sign up to do , which I'm hoping will be a quick stitch but I'm so tired I can't see straight so you never know .

 I was very lucky and crazily happy to receive two RAKs in the recent HAED sale , so excited.
 This one has only recently been added to my wish list , but I've seen someone stitching it on the HAED FB page and it is gorgeous .

  And someone has completed this one too , so cute.

Well that's all for now , hope to be back soon but have got a teachers gift to chart and stitch which may take some time , till then ...
 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

Catching Up.

Hi everyone .

I do not know where my mind has been lately, I'm forgetting so many things ,lol . The good news is , it means I've got plenty to show you now.

I've been forgetting to show off the lovely gift I received from a friend for Christmas , so here it is . My friend is very talented , and I've been lucky to receive some lovely things that she has created. I've even been lucky enough to keep some of them , lol , as my kids keep pinching them.

I've also been forgetting to show the lovely charts I won in Barbs' giveaway . (Blogger is still not letting me put a link in here )

Anyway , I have plans for these little cuties , so thanks again Barb. x

The last RAK has arrived safe and sound . I stitched up this lovely chart . If I remember correctly , it's a freebie from Primitive Betty , but I will check on that. Apologies if I'm wrong.

I turned it into a little pillow and sent it to Mylene . I'm glad to say that it got to her safely ,and she likes it .I got my stitchy bug back , but didn't know what to do so I decided to finally finish this little guy. That blanket was sending me potty last time I was stitching it , so it got put away for a while ,but once I set myself to finishing it , it didn't take long . Not sure what to do with him now , maybe a bag ,but we'll see. I may yet stitch some more Newton charts.

While I was debating on what to stitch , I really wanted to start a new project but I've got so many in my stash I didn't know where to start or what with . I finally narrowed it down to two I needed to start soon ,and this one won out , purely because I've had it longer . I can't believe that it's two years since I bought this chart pack . LK , ABC Lessons . Not loads of progress , but I'm enjoying working on it. It can be slow going with doing it stitch by stitch , and I'm having to get used to holding the frame again after working in hand for so long , but so far , so good. With all these new starts , I have also had some finishes. I made some gifts for Mothers Day . The little bird has gone down very well , both my kids want one , so I have another one stitched and one part done , and my SIL wants me to make some for her for Easter , so lots of birds coming up ,lol.

And here's what my lovely pair got me for Mothers Day (With a little help from Daddy).

Some good viewing coming up.

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

Fifth RAK received

I heard from Gaynor (http://stitchersanon.blogspot.com/ or see my sidebar) last weekend that she had received the RAK I sent her , but hadn't had chance to open it straight away.

Gaynor is an amzing woman , going through radio treatment at the moment , following surgery and chemo , for breast cancer. She is sharing her journey through this on her blog , and it is really inspiring. I've follwed Gaynors' blog for a few years now , and she usually tends to make me laugh about something, so I wanted to send her a little something to let her know that I was thinking of her .

I searched online and found the perfect chart ,a Lizzie Kate freebie that was in a mag and is now available online. I saw it and knew straight away what I wanted to do with it , and thanks to an exchange gift from Lainey , I had the perfect fabric. I used the DMC threads as listed apart from the blue writing , and it was a lovely stitch .

I then used the fabric to make a cover for a hard back notebook , and attached the stitching. It is not perfect by any means , but I am very glad to say that Gaynor likes it .

I included a small pair of scissors too , as we all need a few spare pairs , lol .

Just one more RAK to go for now , hope it hasn't gotten lost on it's journey .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

RAKs received .

I have heard that four out of the six RAKs have been received ,so I can show a few pictures .

I made these two bee keeps , the chart is a freebie from The Drawn Thread . One I sent to Becky , and it got to her really quickly .I'm glad to say that she loves it. If you haven't visited Beckys' blog before ,please do so . She does some gorgeous stitching , amazing finishing and she is a lovely person to boot . The other one went to my friend Dawn who fosters two beehives , lol . I made two little pillows using a Lizzie Kate freebie . One was sent to Hazel , and one to my new blogging friend Bernadett . In a comment , Bernadett said that she is unable to buy evenweave where she lives ,so I sent her a few pieces of fabric as well. I'm hoping the other two have arrived safely , but will have to wait and see.

And , I received a gift myself through the post .

A while ago , Bonnie ( morethanjustcrossstitching.blogspot.com ) (blogger won't let me put in a link here for some reason ) had a little competiton on her blog to find the deliberate blooper in a picture , and I won . I received a lovely hand care kit ,which I may just use tonight whilst in front of the TV , lol .Thanks again , Bonnie . Just need to let people know that I have changed my comment settings to disallow anonymous comments , as after removing word verification I started to get some trash messages.

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath

RAKs revised .

I have changed things round a little bit with the RAKs I will be sending out. As hubby is unable to work and I have not yet managed to find a job , the pennies are being watched very closely and it is looking like it will be that way for a while , so this morning , I posted out six RAKs while I still had a bit of my own spending money. I am still hoping to send out more this year , but it depends on a lot of things . So, some of them will hopefully get to their destinations within a couple of days , the others will take longer . I will show pics as soon as they are received . Meanwhile, if you are a follower and not already on my list , but would like to be , please e-mail me with your info . Thanks , Cath

Year of the RAK

Hello again . Back so soon ? lol I have kind of decided to send out some RAKs this year, hoping for one a month , but I am not holding myself to anything . So ,here's the thing , I have some names and addresses and some of my followers are on the list , but are there any more out there who would like to be included on my potential RAK list ? If you are interested in maybe receiving something made by me , please send me an e-mail (in my profile) with your details if I haven't already got them . Please don't be shy , just jump in . Thanks , Cath

Green eyes? Look this way ....

I am going to make you soooo jealous .

A while ago I entered Gaynor's draw to win a RAK of something handmade by her . she let me know on Tuesday of last week that it was in the post , so I was on tenterhooks waiting for it to arrive . Boy was it worth the wait .

Look at the lovely package I received. I've got to admit , it got me quite emotional .

The gorgeous stitched piece is backed with the fabric shown , which Gaynor kindly sent as well ,and she included the chart . How cool is that . I totally love it , and can see myself stitching it more than once in the future . So , a BIG Thank you , once again Gaynor for such a gorgeous RAK . I absolutely love it. This is the first stitched thing other than bookmarks that I have been given , so it's even more special .

If you are interested , Gaynor has just offered up her next RAK , so go over and put your name in .

I am still open for people to let me have their details if they want to possibly receive a RAK from me at some point. just let me know.

Other news ,still no stitching to show , but I have made a few more cards

notice a trend here ? lol .

Thanks everyone for your comments , I do appreciate them very much.

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath