Breaking the long silence!!

Hello dear friends and fellow stitchers, its been such a long while since I posted anything on my blog!  I'm not proud of that by any means, however I’m back to share some of what I have been doing over the past months.  I’ve been doing some cross stitching but still need to do some finishing.  I am also stitching my Christmas ornaments and am pleased to say that I am one month ahead, yeah!!  During my long absence, there was a Spring Exchange with my group from Hooked on Exchanging (HoE).  My partner was Marie P and I choose a motif from Signs of Spring from the Prairie Schooler Book No. 163.  It was a fun stitch and I was pleased with how it turned out considering there was a lot of frustration on my part putting it together.  My sewing machine broke down which meant I had to stitch it by hand.  Marie seems pleased with what I made for her and I breathed a sigh of relief thanking God that she liked it.

Design: Motif from Signs of Spring

Designer: The Prairie Schooler

Finish: Pincushion

Fabric: Creame Jobelan Evenweave

Cotton fabric for backing

Trim: Olive green satin ribbon

I received my exchange from Linda O.  She stitched a sweet “Lizze Kate” design made into an ornament.  Thank you Linda!

With that done, I’m off to start my next exchange – HoE summer 2013 Exchange.  It should be fun stitch again. Along with that I will be doing my Christmas ornaments and hopefully some finishing to show off.

Bye for now and happy stitching!!

Sandrajay

Starting all over, again.........

And I hope it wouldn’t be rough..........

 

It's been more than a year now since I haven't added anything to my blog and I must say that I'm not so  very proud of myself.  Honestly, I became disinterested in blogging, but  have decided after all this time to make a fresh start at blogging, again.  Although I was away from my blog, I had not put away my stitching but rather, I have been doing some stitching whenever the time permitted.  I have a whole host of "finishings" to complete along with lots of stitching projects to start.  I just have to get myself organized during my vacation in August.  Then I hope to accomplish lots of stitching,  finishing and keeping my blog updated.  Hopefully, I can get all this done while keeping my fingers crossed.

Here are a few pieces and an exchange I did for fall on the HOE for 2011 while I was away.

 Design: Pique aiguilles (Freebie)

Fabric: Jobelan 28 Count Linen

Thread: No name orange variegated thread
Trim: Orange Ribbon

Finished as: Pin Cushion 

Designer: Found here 

This cushion finished up much bigger than I expected but nevertheless it was a joy to stitch and the flower in the center was very easy to make. I just love the colours surrounding the cushion.

My next finish is another pin cushion called 'Love'.  This is the first of its kind for me.  I love the leaf stitch and the satin stitch in the word love.  I love how this turned out.  Thanks to Carol from Just Carol's Place who substituted with DMC colours.

 

Design: Love (Freebie)

Fabric: Jobelan 28 Count Ivory Linen

Thread: DMC Nos. 315,523, 3046, 3727 and 3740

Finished as: Pin Cushion 

Designer: Betsy Foster of Elizabeth Designs

Next, I tried my hand at stitching a mattress pin cushion.  I was a bit disappointed with the finish as it turned out a little crooked. I guess practice makes perfect so I will stitch another one when I find a pattern I like for a mattress pin cushion.  The pattern I chose is the Rabbit motif from the Prairie Schooler book In the Wood.

Design: Rabbit (In the Woods)

Fabric: Jobelan 28 Count Beige Linen

Thread: DMC recommended

Finished as: Mattress Pin Cushion

Designer: Prairie Schooler

I did a pinkeep as well.  I wanted to stitch this pattern from the first time I saw but only now got the opportunity to do so.  It is a freebie from Aion Designs designed by Christine-Ann Martin.  Unfortunately, it is no longer available and I believe their website no longer exist.

Design: Sampler Motif (Freebie)

Fabric: Jobelan 28 Count Cream Linen

Thread: DMC recommended
Trims: Pins, violet blue ribbon and backing fabric,
 violet glass beads

Finished as: Pinkeep

Designer: Christine-Ann Martin

Well, that's it for now.  I will share the others at some other time.  Thanks for stopping by!

Reactivated!.........

I just couldn't think of any other word to get my blog going again after such a long hiatus!  I'm happy to say that I'm alive and stitching and hopefully I wouldn't be away for such a long time again!  Well, what can I say, the demands of life really took over for the past months and have been taking a toll on little old me.  I haven't had a lot of spare time to do much stitching but I try to participate in an exchange or two and do some other stitching since I haven't been blogging.  I have a few pieces I want to share with you all over the next couple of days.  So here goes!

So, how was everyone's Christmas and New year holiday?  I hope the holidays were good for everyone and I do wish everyone a healthy and prosperous 2011 and most of all I wish you lots of finished stitching projects.  By the way, I wish myself the same thing, too lol.  Oh, how I wish I can have lots of finished projects done  this year but I shall see how things will go.

During the month of August 2010, I took part in the HoE For the Birds exchange where I received from Nic my partner from England. She stitched me a design from Brenda Keyes, a British designer. She used DMC threads, one over one and finished it into a pillow.  Isn't it cute!  Nic's stitching is so lovely. She also included some goodies which will surely be used.  Thank you, Nic!

and the goodies!

And this is what I sent to my partner Nicole in the US.  I stitched a pattern from one of my favourite designers, the Prairie Schooler.  I chose  "From the Heart" from their Designer Series.  I loved stitching this pattern for Nicole and from all reports she liked it as well.

Designer: The Prairie Schooler

Design: "From the Heart"

Threads: DMC Recommended

Finish: Pin Cushion



Well, that's it for now.  Will continue later, not too much later, I hope.  So bye until then!



An apology and some stitching news

First I must start with an apology to Patti who was my partner in the "By the Sea Exchange" on the HoE Board. At the time of posting my exchange, I forgot to mention that I had received her stitched piece. I received her exchange late due to her illness but she did a good job of stitching me a pincushion and she also made me a beautiful beaded fob. She also sent me a Biscornu Pincushion from the Sweetheart Tree which I hope to stitch soon. So Patti please accept my apologies for not posting about your exchange but it was not intentional.
I added the towel as I thought it went well with the theme of the exchange.

My first Christmas ornament

For Christmas 2009 I managed to stitch my first Christmas ornament! Hopefully for 2010 I will make many more of them as I had fun stitching up this one. It was a freebie from Plum Pudding Needlework, stitched on natural light jobelan linen and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I thought it was a cute pattern to stitch.




In a previous post I mentioned that I won a prize for being the 1000th poster on the Freebie Gallery site. I received my prize from Carol around Christmas. She stitched me a wonderful Christmas ornament. Thank you Carol for my prize!

So, it's time to prepare for work tomorrow which mean searching my wardrobe for something to wear which is always a chore. So until next time, hugs and happy stitching!

Sandrajay

A very pleasant surprise!

In my previous post I mentioned that my Biscornu exchange from August 2008 had gone missing and my partner, Maria (lolopx.blogspot.com/)from Venezuela, graciously made me another one. Guess what,! The first Biscornu arrived safe and sound at its new home and it is a very beautiful biscornu. I love it and the extras are just lovely, especially the floss. I hope that you can see the delicate stitching on the biscornu. Thank you, Maria for all the hard work you put into this exchange!

It's been a while.......

As you can see, it’s been a while now since I wrote anything in my blog. No, I haven’t been having writer’s block or anything like that but the latter half of 2008 was not a particularly happy time for me and my family. As you can imagine, it was very difficult for me to concentrate on blogging and most of all spending quality time on my stitching was out of the question. Just when I thought my life was going fairly well then I was suddenly in a tailspin which left me wonder what next to do. Though the problems are on-going, I‘m trying to cope and I am taking one day at a time. As a result of all this, I’ve only completed small pieces of stitching. I’ve also participated in some exchanges which gave a welcome break from all that was going on around me. I am happy to say that I did a couple of exchanges with my favourite group,none other than Hooked on Exchanging (HoE). As mentioned before I love exchanging especially on the HOE board from which I have received some lovely exchanges. I did a Biscornu exchange on the SBEBB Board also in late August 2008 for Susan in the US. I had a couple mishaps with this exchange and had to start over at the last minute and then I made a mistake in her address! It got there eventually after returning to me. Here is what I did for her. I also included a fob to match the biscornu.


And this is what I received from Maria in Venezuela. Her first biscornu was lost in the mail so she did another one which came only in January this year. Thank you Maria, your second biscornu finally arrived and it was well worth the wait.

That's it for now. Will publish more picture soon and I promise I wouldn't take another year to do it, lol! Thanks for stopping by.

Sandrajay