Mini Finishes on Show!

Nope... sorry.... no Frolicking was had on Friday.... we went and watched Daniel Craig in Spectre.  I just can't go past a James Bond movie - they are always so good for a laugh, and this one proved to be a right giggle in places! :o)

So I may not have stitched on Friday night.... but I did get some stitching done over the weekend while watching the cricket match between Australia and New Zealand.  I know I should have actually gone to the cricket seeing as it is on at the WACA at the moment.... but then I wouldn't have been able to stitch, especially seeing as Saturday was a whopper of a hot November day - 40 deg C! Hottest November day in years and then we finished up with a couple of wonderful thunderstorms that night. Unfortunately one of the thunderstorms happened right when everyone was signing Happy Birthday to Prince Charles... oops....

Now as my title suggests I have finishes to show.... and I am very pleased to show you my finished Cats and Mice...

First up I want to show you my ABC Chats from Les Brodeuses Parisiennes...

When I last showed you these gorgeous little beauties on my TAC post I had just started on "C"

ABC Chats as at 7 November 2015

Now "C" is finished.....

ABC Chats "C" finished 15 November 2015

I also finally got off my backside and ordered all the missing threads that I needed to finish off "A" and "B"... so that's all three done and dusted!  Right now my TAC ABC Chats afghan looks like this:

ABC Chats as at 15 November 2015

Aren't they so cute?  That is 3 down.... only 23 more to go!!  I must try and make a start on "D" before the month ends.... but somehow I don't think that will happen as I have some other deadlines looming that I must get stitching for!

I have also finished the final mouse from the set of 3 Margaret Sherry Christmas mice that I started way back in January!

Now that they are all done I will try and get around to finishing them into a bell pull or something similar...

So that's it... Cats and Mice finishes..... it does feel good to be able to finally show something that is finished!

Til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween
web image

Boo!!

Yep, today is Halloween.... and while we don't really celebrate Halloween here in Australia as much as other countries it has certainly started to gain some popularity recently.... and I am more than happy to jump on the bandwagon!!

Today's post is two-fold - firstly I will show you my Friday Frolics stitching from last night and then it's onto my Halloween bit....

As you would have read on previous posts, Friday Night is all about frolicing around with our WIP's and then posting what we have stitched on the "Friday Frolics" blog which is hosted by Kaye (Kitten Stitching).

Last night I stitched on my Margaret Sherry Christmas Mouse.... Mouse number 3!  Yes, you're right that means number 2 is finished :o) (will show you a pic shortly of the finished mouse #2)

So when I started stitching on Mouse #3 last night he looked like this:

Before Friday night's stitching

and after some stitching last night he now looks like this:

After Friday night's stitching

I am now on the backstitching of this design so fingers crossed I will get it finished sometime today (or early tomorrow morning while watching the Wallabies game!!)

As I mentioned earlier I finished Christmas Mouse #2 this week,

MS Christmas Mouse #2 - Designer Margaret Sherry

Isn't it amazing what you can achieve when you focus on one thing at a time!

My Meerkats all dressed up in their Halloween Finery!!

Now who's ready for a Halloween Blog Hop?  Yep, you got it right - it's time for Serendipitous Jo's Annual Halloween Blog Hop......

Each year Jo asks all the participants to show a picture of something Halloween related that they have stitched and she also sends us a Letter for a the mystery phrase - so now you need to write down my letter.... and then click on the link below to go to the next blog on the hop.  If you get lost head back to Jo's blog and she will have all the blogs playing along listed in order so you can make sure that you are on the right track!

 Now for the reveal... my letter is:

(web image)

Rather appropriate for someone who's name starts with an "L", don't you think?

I love Halloween stitching because it generally incorporates my two favourite colours - orange and purple together!!  Over the last couple of years I have stitched one or two pieces for the Halloween SAL Blog and while I have a couple of favourites I have to show you my absolute favourite Halloween stitch so far....

Margaret Sherry Halloween Kitty

I stitched this kitty a couple of years ago for an exchange... it is a Margaret Sherry design (no surprise there!) and I added the bat border before making it into a pillow backed by the halloween fabric that you can almost see in the background of the photo.  Original post about the exchange is linked here

So, now that you have finished with my part of the Halloween Blog Hop it's time for you to fly over to the next blog on the hop.... say hi to Lenore at Needle, Pen and Sword for me....

Well that's it from me for today....

Hope you have a great Halloween, stay safe and happy stitching

Hugs xx

Go the Wallabies!!! Good luck boys in your campaign to bring home the Webb Ellis Cup

Angelic Weekend Stitching

Well hello to another Monday!

I have a little bit of stitching to show today... and both pieces are almost finished!

So first up we have my Friday night stitching which I will also post over on the "Friday Frolics" blog shortly.

This time around I didn't stitch on an old WIP.... I decided to stitch on my October piece for the Christmas Ornie SAL as this month is rapidly drawing to a close and I haven't done my angel or nativity piece yet.

I actually started this new design on Thursday evening, so when Friday came around the Angel looked like this:

Before FF stitching

After stitching on Friday night, the Angel looked like this:

After FF stitching

and seeing as I need to finish her by the end of the week, I continued stitching on Saturday and Sunday on her as well... she now looks like this:

as at Sunday 25 Oct 2015

I know she looks a bit weird at the moment..... I have to find (order) the colour for her hair and locate some more of the colour of the shading around her wings, so I stitched what I could and then started backstitching the lower section.  I am not stitching the bottom of the dress as I need to keep this as a small design (further details on why later...).  You will probably notice that I changed the word "Joy" and stitched it in gold Kreinik.  I have also embellished her sleeve and head dress with green Kreinik just to bling it up a bit!!

For those of you that might like to know where this design came from.... she can be found in a very old Cross Stitch Christmas magazine (1999) - design is called "Joyful Angels Triptych" and is designed by Mona Eno.  I am stitching her on a piece of "Waratah" 32 count fabric from Stitches and Spice.

Once I had gone as far as I could on my Angel yesterday, I decided to pull out my little MS Xmas mouse again and pop a couple more stitches in him.

The last time I showed you the MS Xmas mouse #2 he looked like this:

now he looks like this - main stitching is now finished and backstitch has begun:

That's it for another weekend stitching round up.  See you all again soon!

Til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx

Stitching Cats and Mice!!

Happy Monday.... :o)

I have a bit of a stitching update for you today and even a very small finish!

On my last blog post I gave you an update on my "ABC Chats" afghan - which is very slowly moving along!

Kitty "B" looked like this last weekend:

"ABC Chats - Kitty B" as at 3 Oct 2015

Kitty "B" now looks like this:

"ABC Chats - Kitty B" as at 8 Oct 2015

Almost done....little bit of backstitch left on the kitty and just some filling in of the bow when I get around to ordering the missing thread.  I need to now find the time to start on "C" before the end of the month.....

Now onto my Friday Frolics stitching!  Link to my FF post is here.... but in a nutshell, I decided to stitch on a small on Friday night as I was feeling completely cream crackered after a very looonnngg week at work and I didn't want to stitch on something that I needed to think about (and stuff up) and then frog it all out next time I picked it up!!!

I picked up this cute little Christmas mouse and very nearly finished him on Friday...

Before I started stitching on Friday night....

and after a couple of Friday night wines he looked like this:

and then on Saturday afternoon I finished off the last of the backstitching:

Christmas Mouse (1) finished Oct 2015
Designer: Margaret Sherry

One more WIP ticked off that very long Crazy January start list..... :o)

While I had the trio of Christmas Mice out over the weekend I decided to stitch a bit more on another one on Saturday as well.  The last time you saw Christmas Mouse #2 was way back in January when I first started stitching on him....

He now looks like this.....

He is almost done now.....
Amazing what you can achieve when you sit up til 2am Sunday morning watching the Rugby World Cup!!! (Amazing game by the Wallabies to beat Wales.....)

I will save my Sunday stitching til later in the week as I picked up one of my GG pieces so that I would have something to show on Thursday!! :o)

So that's it for today's update.  Quite a productive week and weekend overall!  (Although some people would probably say that I have been very lazy stitching all weekend!)

Have a great week!  I will try and post tomorrow for my TUSAL update and then I will be back again on Thursday for GG, and then before we know it, it will be time for FNSI and IHSW at the end of the week!  The month of October is just flying by...

Til next time, happy stitching!
Hugs xx

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL 2015 - Update #8

Goodness me where is the time going..... here we are again - it's the middle of the month and it's time for my Gifted Gorgeousness post for the month.

This month I have one of my original GG designs that I have slowly been stitching on and I also have 2 gifts to show you.  First up is:

Lizzie Kate - Joyeux Noel 
Giveaway win from Kay's Random World - link to Kay's original giveaway post here and link to my post about the giveaway win is here

Tiny Tidings XV - Lizzie Kate

The last time that you saw 'Joyeux Noel" was in the June update when it looked like this:

After a couple of hours of stitching the other night it now looks like this:

Almost finished.....

Gift Number 1
The first stitching gift that I have to show you is a Margaret Sherry design that I stitched for the "Send a Smile" Exchange on the MS Lovers Blog.

Mouse... designed by Margaret Sherry

This gorgeous little mouse was a freebie gift from Cross Stitch Crazy.  I painted and stamped the frame and then coloured in the stamped image.  The little cutie then went off to the Netherlands.  Angel's post is up on the MS Lovers Blog if you would like to see what else I sent to her.

Gift Number 2
A couple of months ago the lovely Anne, from Doll's Musings, became a Mum!  Her delightful bundle of joy arrived safe and sound and I finally got my act into gear and sent her the little Koala that I started as part of the Crazy January stitching I was doing.

This little Koala was designed by Carrol Nielsen and came from a larger design of delightful Koala's and gum leaves.  I just love Carrol's designs... they are so cute!

Koala - designed by Carrol Nielsen

So that's it for another GG post.... goodness it feels good to be able show a couple of finishes!!

Don't forget to visit Jo's blog for the link ups to everyone's GG post for the month!

Til next time, happy stitching
Hugs xx 

If you're not sure what this particular SAL is all about.... Jo from Serendipitous Stitching hosts this SAL - the link to my post late last year about the SAL is here.... but essentially this SAL is about stitching charts/kits or using fabrics & threads that we have received as gifts, won in giveaways or anything that is intended be a gift or giveaway prize... or anything else that you can loosely use the word "gift" for!!  If you wish to sign up for this SAL, click on the button below or the button on my sidebar and you will be re-directed to Jo's blog.

It's a wrap! FNSI & IHSW July Update

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI).... held on the third Friday of every month

Let's start with Friday night's stitching....  I had great intentions of doing heaps of stitching on Friday night but.... I was so knackered when I got home from work that in the end I decided to grab one of the smaller designs that I have been slowly working on rather than risk stitching on something larger and frogging it all out again on Saturday!!

Friday's lucky stitching winner was the little Christmas Kitty freebie from Margaret Sherry.  I started this one back in January, put it down again until April and then forgot about it again until now....

Before I started stitching on Friday night he looked like this:

Christmas Kitty - April 2015

Now he looks like this.... nowhere near finished though!!  Oh well, I am sure there will be another opportunity soon to get him finished!

Christmas Kitty - July 2015

Now after all the fun of a Friday Night Stitch In, don't forget to head back over to Wendy's blog (Sugarlane Designs) to see what she got up to over the weekend.

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend (IHSW).... held on the third weekend (Fri - Sun) of every month

As I mentioned on Friday, the weekend just gone was also IHSW time.  Now that you have seen Friday's stitching effort, let me show you what I stitched on during Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday saw Nora Corbett Christmas Eve Courier "Prancer" come out of the stitching basket.

When you last saw "Prancer" at the beginning of the month he was missing a leg or two...

"Prancer" - 2 July 2015

 I have now managed to completed his two back legs and started on the front leg.  As you will probably notice the top part of the ribbon is still in the same spot as last time!!!  I am trying to leave all the white stitching to the last possible moment.....

"Prancer" - 20 July 2015

Sunday was a very dark and damp day... perfect weather for stitching on a Halloween design!  Which was just as well as I remembered on Friday that I hadn't got myself organised to stitch the Haunted House for the Halloween Ornie Blog post at the end of the month.

So enter "Halloween Sneak Peek" by The Trilogy.  Now the last time you saw this one was way back in February when it looked like this:

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - February 2015

As you will notice I have stitched some more of the black border and completed one inside box border.  This little inside border will have a haunted house in it eventually!  All I have to do is get the house stitched before the end of the month....

"Halloween Sneak Peek" - The Trilogy - July 2015

If you are wondering what everyone else did over the weekend, drop on over to Joyce's blog and have a look at sign up post for a full list of who was participating.

So that is it for my stitching weekend.... I did do some "finishing" to my MS Lovers Blog exchange piece on Saturday and Sunday.  Fingers crossed that should be in the mail by the end of this week and then hopefully in a couple of weeks time I will be able to show you a finished finish!!! :o)

Enjoy your week, happy stitching
Hugs xx