Better Late than Never . . . . A WINNER!

A big thank you to everyone who left such complimentary messages on my last post! ~ they all mean a great deal to me xxx

A very BIG apology for the delay in posting a winner of my 'Little Owl' kit but AOL very kindly decided to close our Intenet connection down on Monday without any reason or notification to us and after some very long and heated telephone conversations (steam literally coming out of DH's ears) and a 3-day duration of no internet we have now received an apology and normal service has been resumed so without any further ado . . . . .

Sixteen entries . . . . .

Tilly ~ please pick a winner . . . . .

Number 1 ~ Crystal ~ Midnight Stitcher

With no internet available on Monday my random generator AKA Tilly decided ticket number 1 was rather tasty so Twin II and I had fun and games trying to rescue the piece of paper before having to unfold the other 15 to see which one had nearly been eaten ~ success!

Crystal please let me know address info and I will get this in the mail to you as soon as I can.

Now, down to stitching.

  As I said in my last post, 4 spooky stitches have been waiting for completion and again with no internet

connection and time to spare I squeezed a fifth in!

First up is 'Fright Turn' by Lizzie*Kate from her Halloween Highway collection stitched on 28-ct Antique White evenweave fabric with my choice of Gentle Art threads.  The star is stitched in Madeira gold metallic thread and the pumpkin fabric was from my recent fabric stash addition with brown ric rac and bronze seed beads to finish:

Next is another Lizzie*Kate design ~ 'Hats Off To Halloween' which I stitched last month.

I stitched this on 28-ct Sand Minster linen again with my choice of Gentle Art threads and have used a spider fabric to finish as a pillow:

A small design next but really cute and love its smiley face!

This is 'Itty Bitty Pumpkin' by Twisted Threads which I stitched on 28-ct Natural Linen with the suggested DMC threads.  Sorry, but yet again I finished it as a small pillow with pumpkin coloured fabrics and a raffia decoration pinned at the bottom:

'Spooky Row' by Bent Creek was another piece stitched last month and due to its size I was a little unsure what to do as a finish so a wall hanging seemed to be the best idea and 'at long last' I hear you say it's something different from a pillow finish!

I found some nice black fabric with white spots which I used for both the back and front and added some tabs at the top for hanging but found it also looks good hanging from the mantlepiece over the fire with candles sitting on the tabs holding it in place.  I added some self-cover buttons to each corner with the orange fabric used in Itty Bitty Pumpkin and they match the stitched pumpkins in the design perfectly!

And finally (hope you're still there?) a small design using two patterns from cross stitch books ~ Boo and a Black Cat.  I coffee-stained some 28-ct white linen and stitched the design in just black DMC, frayed the edges, gave the kitty 2 silver seed beads for eyes, added 4 small purple buttons with matching ribbon at 2 corners and a loop to hang and finished ~ yep! you guessed! ~ as a pillow with the same fabric as Spooky Row above.

That's me done for Halloween!  I an now in knitting mode and have just started a chunky knit cushion cover which is done on 10mm needles so literally grows before your eyes.  Knitted cushion covers in natural colours are very much in fashion here at the moment but they can cost as much as £45 (ouch!) so with this pattern only needing 3 balls and costing only £12 this is a great saving but a great temptation for Tilly who's decided to move on from eating my Gentle Art threads and feels a balls of wool is much tastier!

Take care everyone, Happy Halloween to you all for the 31st and until next time:

HAPPY STITCHING

xxx

'HAPPY DANCES' BUT WHO ATE THE SOOT ???

 This was such a fun, easy stitch and I can't believe how quickly I was able to celebrate with a spooky happy dance!  I love the black cat peering out with its green eyes and the pumpkin coloured hat is my favourite!

Lizzie*Kate - 'Hats Off To Halloween' stitched on 28ct Sand Minster Linen

 with my choice of Gentle Art Sampler Threads

I didn't have all the exact colours listed on the chart so used some similar and some of my own choice and not having enough 'Purple Iris' for the writing I chose 'Soot' instead, plenty of that one . . . . at least until I got to the 2 letter e's in the word 'Halloween' and this was all I had left . . . who's nibbled the Soot?

If I curl up in my wooden tunnel she probably won't notice me . . .

If I disguise myself with hay she may not notice . . . .

And I camouflage well with the kitchen floor so that's always a good option  . . .

but I was there stitching with Mum at the time and it did look tempting so I only ate one length of it, how was I to know?

Tilly, you pickle!  I just had enough to complete the lettering, if it had been 'celery' or 'spring grass' I could have understood!!!

So with my threads and fabric under threat now I need a new stitching pal and with huge thanks to Cath (The Stitchin' Chicken) that's what I now have . . . .

Cath was celebrating her blog birthday with a giveaway and this cute Stitch Pal was her prize.  I lost my best stitching pal a little while ago, my lovely Buttons, so whilst I get Teabag, sorry Tilly into shape (DS was telling a friend about her on the phone and he misheard him and thought we had called her Teabag!) this is my new partner.  Cath also sent me some crafting scissors, always a necessity to me and she had stitched this cute little bunny which has a pink fabric on the reverse with a bunny holding a big bunch of carrots!  It has a lovely pink ribbon attached and I shall use it to keep my cross stitch needle safe ~ I have hundred of needles but I always use the same one and if it goes missing or I drop it it's everyone on the hunt to find it!!!

Thank you so much Cath, this was the first giveaway I'd ever entered and I was so thrilled to win it.

Another quick and easy Happy Dance this week was Pine Mountain's 'Tie One On' Kit ~ October.

I can't find the pillow form to go with it anywhere here in England so I think I will have to make one of my own but I love the big black ribbons on the sides, they will look great when they're tied in bows ready for the witching season.

I haven't stitched since Thursday as I've been in complete agony with an abscess on my tooth.  After being up all of Wednesday night, my Dentist was really good and saw me the next day and prescribed antibiotics for 5 days . . . . it's the first time today, since then, that I actually feel more comfortable with it and back to myself, don't think I've every felt pain like it and not being able to eat or drink (what's the weekend without a glass or two of wine?) hasn't helped!  DH and the gang have said they will cook the dinner tonight so I can catch up on some sewing (aahhh, how sweet even if I probably won't be able to eat it!) 

HAPPY STITCHING . . .

THE LONG AWAITED NEWS . . .

After what seems like an eternity of waiting this happy little eskimo more commonly known as DD collected her exam results on Tuesday and clever, clever DD passed all of them with merits as well!

Soooooo, sooooo pleased for her and with her final interview with the College next week her place and all of her chosen courses look to be guaranteed ~ well done DD you deserve your success xxx

The gang only have 1 week left of their Summer Hols and although we have not been away the days seem busy and my job as taxi driver continues.  I don't see to be able to settle to any one project at the moment so 'Washing Day' has had no progress to it at all and my little Mousecroft garden friends are still waiting for their finish BUT I did squeeze in this small stitch in the week ~

This was a kit called 'Sew Stitches of Love' by Trudie Ann Designs bought back in April at the London Stitch Fair.  I stitched it on the 16-count Rustico Aida that it came with but changed the colours to my choice and added a bunny to the bottom.  The two rusty tin hearts also came with the kit and I used the chequered fabric for the backing of the pillow.

Tilly seems to like it and an attempted nibble on the top corner seems to prove this!

The weather here in 'the not-so-sunny-England' has been horrible and not what the Summer Hols should be!  It's grey and gloomy most days and our longed-for rain not so long ago has now overstayed its welcome, the evenings have been so chilly we have even contemplated switching the central heating on - this is August we're still in isn't it? 

So when these gloomy days appear that's when items of comfort come calling!  Is anyone else like me and has something or someone (usually food) that cheers you up and gives a good warm feeling - my weaknesses are Rice Pudding with Strawberry Jam, hot custard that's runny enough to drink out of a mug and an extra cup or two of cappuccino!  I cannot bear to be bare-footed and slippers are my biggest comfort and the more pairs the better.  DH and DD went shopping the other day and came back with these little furries for my feet - how cute, I've yet to introduce them to Tilly but something tells me she may make best friends with them pretty quickly!

I see a lot of blogging friends have started, and many already finished, some Halloween stitches. I always think cross-stitch is the best at this time of year, there are some great witchy stitches and fun pumpkins to be created and sitting at the bottom of my Stash Box are quite a few which have been overlooked again and again until it's too late and back they go to the bottom of the pile.

So this is the first one I shall tackle ~ Lizzie*Kate's 'Hats Off To Halloween' and I shall use some Gentle Art colours that again always get left at the bottom of the box:

Although my stitching progress has been slow my unveiling of our gorgeous chair hasn't!  I am rubbing this all down by hand using good old sandpaper and I'm really enjoying it, as you can see from the 2 photos the original wood is lovely and light and has nice patterns in the wood grain.

years of stain and varnish

and

now:

And finally, those gloomy days shouting out to me that Winter is getting closer and closer had me hunting out my crochet hook.  Now this really is a thing of the past for me but I have seen some lovely creations on blogging friends posts recently so I thought I'd give it a go again.  I'm not crocheting individual granny squares which I know do give a better finish and a chance to play with colours, I am keeping it simple and round and round I keep going just changing the colour when I feel like it.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend, tomorrow is a Bank Holiday here in England so an extra day off and for us it will be a celebratory tea for Grandad's birthday and DD's exam results.

HAPPY STITCHING . . .