Excellent weekend

This weekend I did not join the IHSW as I was visiting my family in the North East of England. I had an excellent weekend, this time Ed' (my OH) came with me. He has never been to the North East before. I can't wait to go back again.

Ah! The coast, Seaburn.

I've not done much stitching lately but I did get the planned backstitch on the trio of poppies done and I started another Christmas card. Here's photos of a recent Christmas ornament exchange.

I made this, I know it's a bit odd shaped but it was my first "proper" finish on the sewing machine.

This is the lovely ornament I received. 

I bought 2 charts in the HAED 50% sale, QS Cherished Moments and Spangler's mini curl up with a good book. I absolutely love Spangler's dragons. I've signed up to HAED SAL, I chose QS Mystic Garden as I would prefer to wait for Literate Dragon to be released as a mini. For now I'll try to get as much done on the Christmas cards as possible.

Sewing progress.

I deleted my last post as I figured out what was wrong. Numpty here forgot there would be seam allowances in the middle but I gave up on it as the instructions for the body were not clear. Therefore I will repost my photo of the finished Christmas card:

As I venture into sewing, I decided to place an order with a fabric shop so that I could practice. I placed my order with Online Fabrics, I bought around 5 metres of different fabrics. I placed my order around midnight and I received a dispatched email 12 hours later. The package arrived the next day. There was a slight mix up with one of them but they were quick with a reply to my email and the fabric was dispatched that day and again arrived the next, very kindly I was allowed to keep the other fabric. I would gladly place an order with them again.

The fabric arrived nicely packaged in a cellophane bag within the postal bag.

My lovely fabrics. 

I finished my cross stitch/sewing piece but as it's for an exchange I can't post a photo of that yet. I made my own headband to match a dress I have, it's a bit messy along one edge but it fits me and I like it :) I'm starting to get the hang of sewing in a straight line. I didn't use a pattern just made sure it fit around the elastic and my head.

Navy polka dot headband. 

www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/2011/05/20-minute-grocery-bag-holder-tutorial.html

I also made the above carrier bag holder with my OH using a free tutorial. 

I hope to get the backstitch done on the trio of poppies so far then I'll stitch another Christmas card or two and then I'll aim to get the second poppy half done.

Christmas has come early!

My dad asked me what I would like for my main Christmas present, I finally decided that I would like a sewing machine. So yesterday I went out and bought it as transporting it 245 miles at Christmas wouldn't have been a good idea. I did a dummy run for a tote bag and found the handles were too close to the sides.

Brother LS14

Practice run of making a tote bag.

I'm looking back through all of my design & technology books/work from secondary school though I decided to go with product design in the final 2 years, I still kept some worksheets from textiles and it is included in my GCSE D&T book. Hopefully this will help when choosing fabrics etc.

Well I'm off to cross stitch and brain storm ideas for my next sewing piece!

IHSW October :)

Yesterday was Derby day for my football team (Sunderland) and we drew 1-1. It wasn't an eventful match but we didn't lose. I lost out on a Nando's, I had a dream that Sunderland won 1-0 (Sessengon to score) so my other half said if that was the case he would take me to Nando's. Well that deal was off within 2 minutes after kick off as Newcastle scored first.

I tried a row of double crochet and I hope it looks right.

I am happy as my stitchy bug turned up on Saturday so I got a nice small amount of a Christmas card done and I made some nice bread rolls!
Here is the result of this weekend's IHSW:

Saturday's progress.

Sunday's progress.

I hope to get this card finished today just as long as I don't spend too much time in Dunelm-Mill and Hobbycraft I should be fine.

Book finish

This is just a short post, honest!

Well I seem to be a little machine when it comes to reading as I've finished another. This one is called "The King's Spy" by Andrew Swanston, I found it intriguing but not gripping and by that I mean I didn't feel like I needed to keep on reading because of the events. It is about an ordinary bookseller who is a good cryptographer that is summoned by the King for his cryptography skills. He's led into being a part of a war he doesn't agree with and receives an intercepted, coded message that leads to betrayal and murder.

I've not got as much done as I would have liked regarding cross stitch though I have finally decided on an idea for the Christmas ornament exchange after I scrapped the original piece I started stitching. I'm also beginning to be organised with my projects by using PandaHobby which is a handy tool I must say. Anyway I better get stitching.

Cross stitch and a book.

Well this year I decided I would stitch Christmas cards for those nearest and dearest which is something I've not tried before. Here's one that I've stitched but I won't be making it into a card until I've done 2 more.

Design from issue 157 of "The World of Cross Stitching".

 I've also managed to do a lot of the sky on the poppies so now it's back to the stem which I hope will spur me on.

Design from issue 165 of "The World of Cross Stitching".

This weekend I had a lovely time in London and although there was lots to do I managed to read a book and start stitching a Christmas card. The book was Dan Brown's Digital Fortress, it was really good. Near the beginning I thought to myself, "I knew that was going to happen" but later on it turned out that I was wrong and there were a few more unexpected twists.

2 book finishes!

I've finished two brilliant books, they were so good I struggled to put them down! The first was "Meridon" the last in the Wideacre trilogy by Philippa Gregory. Again as with the first two books, P. Gregory sent my mind into turmoil with the twists in the story. The second book I have finished is "The Queen's Secret" by Victoria Lamb and I'm happy to know she is working on another book featuring the prominent Lucy Morgan. I received this book as part of the Transworld Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and although I still have one more book to read, I must say I haven't regretted signing up to it.

Well it seems after setting the trio of poppies aside and working on a really small project, my stitchy bug has returned. Fair enough he's still a bit sluggish but I have my interest back at the very least therefore I'll be starting my Christmas stitching soon.

This is my finished piece from Donna Kooler's "555 Fabulous Cross-Stitch Patterns"

I have found that using metal knitting needles is a lot easier than the wooden ones provided in the magazine. I also invested in a 99p magazine called "The Art of Crochet" which came with a DVD. Although this is only part one it has already helped me in terms of holding the yarn and some of the stitches. I hope to have something to show soon in terms of what I have learned in both crafts.