Who wants to go on a Treasure Hunt?

Welcome to the 2015 Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop

2015 brings us another lovely Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop hosted by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching

As part of this blog hop, all the participants will be posting a picture of their Spring / Easter inspired stitching.  My picture (above) is a Margaret Sherry design that I stitched a couple of years ago for an Easter Exchange.  There are more pics on my post which is linked here....

The second part of the blog hop is the Treasure Hunt:

As you can see my letter is "N"

All you have to do is visit each of the blogs that are participating in order (Jo will have the full list on her blog) and note down the letter and remember the short phrase they make up.    Once you have all the letters head back to Jo's blog for the last letter and leave a comment saying what the phrase is.

The next step on the blog hop trail is:  Karamino - link to her blog is here

Good Luck everyone and Happy Easter!

Til next time, "Hoppy" Stitching

Hugs xx

April... surely not....

Wow, can you believe it - it is April already... and as it's the first day of April how many April Fool's jokes have you seen so far today?  I am sure that there will be some good ones out there somewhere!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter.  We have had a very quiet long weekend... lots of crafting and relaxing... and not a lot else!  Both of us have really needed to just have the time to veg out.  Hubby has been doing some very nice machine embroidery squares and I have been stitching, while Mitzi and the kitties sleep the day away.  The most activity we have had is taking Mitzi out for a walk each morning and trying out her new extended lead.  She loves it - 8m of freedom!!  As yet we haven't taught her to walk off the lead... suspect that she would become very easily distracted and take off... so the new long lead is just what she needs in the park.

Yesterday while I was stitching, Mitzi was as usual lying beside me snoring... then she moved to the other end of the couch and disappeared.  I thought that she had got off the couch but no... she had buried herself in amongst her cushions.

Somewhere in amongst the cushions there is a puppy!!

As I mentioned in my last post I have been stitching the Margaret Sherry "Puppy Love" ... which I am still stitching - no further update though - will leave that for the next post.  While I have been stitching this and the other MS designs for my secret stitching I have been thinking about starting my next Chatelaine.  Have had very itchy fingers for starting one of these!  On Sunday I decided to give in to the urge and started one.  Not a big one - just a little wee one to whet the appetite - CHAT 038 Mini Mandalas II.

photo of A, B & C

I have started the first one in the group of 3 mandalas and I am really enjoying it so far.  I purchased all the correct threads and beads from the European Crosstitch Company as I thought I would I give these different silks ago for the Chatelaines.  So far so good... I have been a good girl and been using Thread Heaven and it does seem to make the threads glide through the fabric.  Might have to use it with my DMC threads as well.  No twisting and knots... love it!!  Once I have stitched these three I will take the plunge and do a larger one.

So do you want to see a photo of where I am at so far?  Of course you do...

WIP Photo - Mini Mandala A
1 April 2013

After a week of stitching I am really pleased with my progress so far.  I will stitch on this some more today and then switch back to "Puppy Love" during the week.

That's it for now... hopefully I will be back again on Friday with an update on both projects.

Have a wonderful Monday and week, til next time, happy stitching
Hugs

Happy Easter!

I hope that everyone is having a safe and happy Easter.  We are having a very quiet break and making the most of the time off work to catch up on some gardening and some crafting.  I am still in recovery mode after having had a very nasty bout of Gastro for over week...  finally on the mend!  Just in time to eat chocolate!!!  Although chocolate and diets don't mix very well!

While I was off work sick for the week I did manage to get some stitching done - but not as much as I would have liked.  The first few days weren't very nice and most of the time I just wanted to lie around and sleep...  I didn't even spend any time on the computer so I am very, very behind in my blog reading.  So I must apologise for not visiting you all and seeing what you've been up to lately.  I hope to rectify that this weekend!

So what have I been up to since my last post 2 weeks ago... can you believe it has been that long since I last posted!  Don't know where the time has gone too.

In my last stitching update I had almost completed 2 of the 4 monkeys for Wyatt A's quilt square.  Well, now all 4 have been stitched and the finished square has been sent to Quilts 4 Kids.

"Monkeys"
Stitched for Quilts 4 Kids (Wyatt A)
Corner 1 - Cross Stitch Crazy, Issue 134
Corner 2, 3, 4 - Cross Stitch Crazy, Issue 112

I have also managed to complete the whale square for Zachary L.  Zachary's theme is sea life (beach, water & sea creatures).  I found the perfect whale pattern on the Cyber Stitchers website.  Lots of grey stitches to do but this design stitched up reasonably quickly.  And no back stitch!  Bonus....

"Whale Spraying" - free design Cyber Stitchers
Stitched for Quilts 4 Kids (Zachary L)

And now I have started the next one.... a cute little puppy for Jacob K.  His theme is Dogs and Puppies.  The design that I chose to stitch for Jacob is from a Debra Page chart booklet called "Playful Pups".  I started this one last night and hopefully will get it finished by the end of the weekend.  Fingers crossed.....  Will post a picture once I have stitched a bit more - nothing much to see at the moment!

Once I have stitched Jacob's puppy I have one more square to do for the Quilts 4 Kids project and then I will be able to catch up on some of my other stitching - such as my Margaret Sherry cats!  While I have been busily stitching the quilt squares I haven't had time to stitch anything on my three cats.  But I will get back on to them in the next couple of weeks or so.

Not only have I been busy stitching, but I have also been a bit naughty.....  I have added to my stash!  Not that it needed adding to but the items were on sale at the Fox Collection, and what could I do!!  I just had to have them....

"Flowerpot Kitty"
"Departure by Leah Jakusovksy"
HAED "Peacock & Doves in a Garden by Eugene Bidau"

Well, that's about it for this update.  We have some lovely rain today (at long last) so I am going to sit in front of the telly and watch a Midsomer Murders episode or a good movie and do some stitching!  Just for something different on a Sunday (not!).

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy Easter, don't eat too much chocolate, take some time out to relax and reflect on what this time of the year means to us all, and I'll see you all again real soon.

Take care, til next time