Marjolein Bastin's Cross Stitch - The Four Seasons...

Happy weekending everyone...

This reveal post has been a long time coming.  I have finally framed and hung Marjolein Bastin's cross stitch, The Four Seasons.

It is framed in a deep pine with no matt which is simple and suits our modern home. I am deeply in love with the design and would stitch another Marjolein Bastin in a heartbeat.  It came as a kit and is stitched on 32 count evenweave. A similar design can be purchased here.

I have been absent over the last week due to my daughter's dancing eisteddfod which finishes tomorrow night.  So far she has placed 3rd in a tap solo (pictured), 2nd in a ballet group and 3rd in a song and dance group.  Four dances are left to perform over two days.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Thanks for wandering through my flower garden...
                                                                    Jan x

Blothy Thread Cut Thru' Castle progress and a win...

Despite a busy working week I have managed to put some stitches in the Bothy Threads Cut Thru' Castle.  A king is nearly born! I am stitching this as part of a SAL at Linda's blog.

I am loving stitching on this as it is really easy.  The thread glides through those holes like butter and the chart has larger print than usual for the graph.  Also the humour of the pictures within it make me smile as I recreate them on the fabric. Below is the kit photo of the centre section I am currently stitching.

I had a sweet postal this morning.  Back in May I was delighted to be the winner of a giveaway at sweet blog Lilly My Cat.  Here is the giveaway post. The parcel took a little longer than usual to arrive in Australia all the way from the US as it was redirected back to Pat's house at one point. We are both so happy it arrived. I really love the crochet pin cushion that she handmade. Wow, what a beautiful crochet. My current pin cushion is old and tatty so I now have the prettiest one to replace it. She also enclosed a cute cat card. Pat and I share a love of cats called "Lily/Lilly". My hubby and I owned a Himalayan cat called Lily who passed away three years ago.

The next two weeks are school holidays so I may not be able to update as frequently. There are two dance eisteddfods over that time that my daughter is participating in. Wish her luck.

Thanks for stopping by my garden...

                                                      Jan x

Elsie's Quilt...

Welcome to my blog garden.  I hope you had a relaxing weekend.

It lifted my heart to give my 18 month old God-daughter, Elsie a quilt. It will share her bed and hopefully keep her warm this Winter.

I sewed it in the Shabby Linen quilt style. I made a similar one using French linen in 2011 you can see here .

The fabric is a devine range by Moda Bunny Hill Designs called Putting on the Ritz .  I adore the crown fabric. The pink fabric range I used for the front and the grey version as the backing. I think this fabric gives this quilt the modern touch.

I bought this range as 10 inch Layer Cake in pink and grey so I only had to cut out the wadding and binding which made for a relatively quick sew-up.

Today I am linking this post to the Linky Party Handmade Monday at Handmade Harbour.

Thank you for strolling down my garden path...
                                                                  Jan x