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Noah's Ark Cross stitch update...

I stitched on Noah's Arc tonight. I wish I had more time on it but that is the way it is with a child dedicated to her dancing lessons. We didn't arrive home until 9pm.

The cows are now outlined in backstitch. Here is the link to the previous post to show my progress in embellishing. When I am backstitching the outlines appear crude.  Once completed the outline really lifts the animals off the background.  Next up is to outline the kangaroos you can see. Speaking of which, a cute roo was in my driveway when I drove in tonight.

 



Thanks for dropping into my blog. I hope your weekend has crafty time planned into it...

                                                                                 Jan x

I really love deer cross stitches...

The recent popularity in the deer being featured in home décor, has fuelled my passion for deer cross stitches and deer ornaments (which are currently packed away in the Christmas decoration boxes so I can't show you). 

I would love to own a pet deer but I have been told they are as destructive in the garden as wallabies (aka small kangaroos). I witness nightly the ability of animal teeth to wreck foliage in a garden in 2 minutes flat so I will stick with the cross stitched kind.

Last night I started a delightful little deer out of the cutest of books A Rainbow of Stitches written by a team of French stitchers. I have only stitched the head onto the linen. Expect more later in the week.  I will make it into a book mark to gift myself.

I am in a SAL with girlfriends stitching from the alphabet series by The Prairie Schooler. This design is L for Leaves. You can see my previous post here. I am pleased to have made some obvious progress as I am only stitching on it once every 3 weeks. The colours are so autumn and rich.

Thank you for walking in my little plot of cybergarden...
                                               Jan x

London cross stitch...

I hope if it was Mother's Day in your part of the world that it was fabulous. My Mother's Day was filled with family time, a Sunday market, golden autumn leaves, a cat show and yummy brekkie in bed.

Mother's Day brought out the best in creative talents from my Miss14. She designed and sewed the most devine "rose sewing basket". Here is a peak. I will have to get her to help me design a tutorial for it so we can share her designs. She quilted the material on the sewing machine and made these adorable beaded pins.

It was fun to relax on the sofa tonight in front on the TV cross stitching. It has seemed a long time between drinks since I have done this. Last week's evenings was full of school meetings, picking up children from activities and doing some sewing on dancing costumes. Tonight I started watching a boxed set of the TV series "Waking the Dead" which kept me on the edge of the couch and was aptly English.

I finished stitching the word "England" tonight. Here is a link to my last post about this design. I like the simplicity of this cross stitch design with the modern touch. I am thinking it will become a cushion. What do you think it should become?

Thanks for wandering through my garden...

                                                                      Jan x

Mail eye candy...

Look what arrived in the post today...

 

 

Isn't this the prettiest envelope?  It is from Kellie at Give a Girl a...Stamp Shop. Check out her sweet blog and shop.

 

Next was the unwrapping.  I will definitely use the envelope and embellishments in a scrapbooking layout.

 

Then finally the unveiling of the delicious stamps inside. This was a prize I won for sketch the layout at Life Project Scrapbook.

 

 I am in total love with these stamps. They will be so useful on my layouts particularly as I seem to use date stamps nearly all of the time.  The tag and arrow stamps are so cute  and versatile too.

 

To all those Aussie mums out there...happy Mother's Day on Sunday. Maybe you will be spoilt with crafty time over the weekend.

 

                                                                                                         Jan x





Noah's Ark cross stitch update...

 Promises Kept by Scissors Company.

This is a slow stitch. I have been working on the roof for months. There are a lot of mixed colours (one strand of one colour stitched with one strand of another) which means concentration plus, plus, plus.  The colours aren't labelled well either so I needed my university degree to keep track of which colours to mix.  Despite all that I am liking the detail especially the camels! I have a bit more backstitching to do to bring the other animals alive. When I compared to my first post here I have come a long way. 

It is the season to...

Autumn, the season of cold mornings, golden leaves and hot chocolates, gets me in the mood for knitting.  I recently discovered this scrummy, chunky cushion on Pinterest (which I am totally addicted to) and decided I had to knit something similar. The yarn I am using ( Nature Spun 3ply 100% wool) is probably not as chunky as the photo, so my next cushion will be even chunkier. I am using 9mm needles. I had the joy of yarn buying from a cute and  newish shop in Hobart called The Stash Cupboard.

 

 

Slow cooked Lamb Ragu is also part of this season.  

 

 



 

Have you any favourite crafts or recipes for Autumn? I would love you to share with me...

 

 

Enjoy the sunshine in your life...

                                             Jan x

Guest designer excitement...

I made it as a Guest Designer!!! The website is an Australian scrapbooking site called  Life Paper Scrapbook. I don't know if I will ever be lucky enough to be a guest designer again so I have cracked open the champers. Check out my layout here.

I had to design a layout based on a sketch so I had fun playing with the main Studio Calico Spencer kit and the card kit from March.

The card kit contained the funkiest "light bulb" stamp and associated cute phrases made by Lawn Fawn. I saw them and immediately thought school layout.  Master J is quite an academic so the stamps were a perfect addition. I have been very proud of how he has has been as "cool as a cucumber" about the transition from the public to private system.  Learning to put on a neck tie seems to have been his biggest challenge LOL.

 

 

If scrapbooking ain't your thing I'm posting next about a new knitting project - chunky cushions. Thanks for stopping by...

                                    Jan x

 

Similar products to those used above can be bought purchased at the following links:

- wooden veneer arrows

- shipping tags

Cath Kidston kit review from the Stitch book...

The cross stitched bag which came as a freebie with the Cath Kidston's book Stitch completed and ready for your inspection. You can see my earlier posts here and here.

It really is a darling little purse. The roses are quaint and pretty.  I wish I could show you all in person but you will just have to be satisfied with the photos.  I will use it as a sewing bag for my stitching scissors and threads for small projects. 

The dissolvable canvas came away very easy in warm, soapy water. I was surprised at how it dissolved almost like glue but then washed off the thread so easily leaving no sticky marks.

Apart from not having enough light pink thread for one rose (I colour matched it with one from my stash) I had all the bits and bobs to finish the project.

The kit assembly instructions were a little confusing initially. The kit fabric came all in one piece and the pattern kept referring to the 3x pieces. It didn't actually tell me to cut them apart. So I put scissors to fabric and cut them (with my fingers and toes crossed) hoping I was doing the right thing. And yes I was!

I am beaming that I finished this kit. I am notorious for not doing small kits. Silly me always does the big projects. I will definitely stitch more from the Stitch book. Why, oh why, when I can produce a cute number in such a short time that is so functional? Are you working on a small project at the moment? Tell me as I would love to check it out on your blog if you have one.

Thanks for skipping on my garden path...

                                                          Jan x

Cath Kidston sewing kit progress...

Happy Sunday to readers and followers new and old.

Remember the Cath Kidston purse I am creating from her book Stitch? I have nearly finished cross stitching the front panel design. The crosses are made over plastic, dissolvable mesh. I don't think the stitches are as neat as using this method but it looks better the more I stitch. This came as a kit and I am slightly annoyed I have nearly run out of one colour and still have a flower left to stitch. I haven't wasted the colour so I think they should have allowed more thread. I will colour match with a different thread out of my stash.

It seems that there a few of you who share my love veggie gardens judging from my previous post. I have been giving my patch a bit of TLC lately.  Butternut pumpkins, broccoli and cabbages are thriving at the moment in this Aussie garden.

It's back to cooking pumpkin soup for me. Thanks for walking through my garden...
                                                                                                        Jan x