Birthday Stash

Afternoon all!

As stitchers and stashers we all love receiving cross stitch goodies, even if we tell ourselves that we have enough things and don't need any more. I am no exception!

When it comes to birthday and Christmas presents from my mum, I am very cheeky! You see, she rarely goes out and can't browse the www for bargains as I do, so if I see a cross stitch item I like I often buy it on her behalf. This year I have (she has) been collecting Lizzie Kate charts so yesterday I received the following "surprise" birthday presents from her:

Lizzie Kate A-B-C-razy

Lizzie Kate Tiny Tidings VIII, IX, X, XIV and XV

Lizzie Kate Santas 1999, 2000, 2001, 2007 and 2012

Thanks mum! I love them all!

These will definitely be put to good use as, during 2016, I intend to stitch one LK ornament each month in the same way I have been stitching a LK flip-it stamp each month this year. They are small and easy enough to start and finish in a few days so will not add to my huge pile of WIPs. And I already have the fabric - nothing like forward-planning!

The more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I have already used the A-B-C-razy chart for the little I and J fobs I stitched a couple of weeks ago. I cheekily borrowed the chart before my mum wrapped it!

The postman and internet also delivered surprise goodies from my two bestest stitching buddies.

Ingrid was a VERY naughty girl and gave me the other three charts in the Lizzie Kate Seasonal Alphabet collection to go with the Spring Alphabet I already have.

Lizzie Kate Summer, Autumn and Winter Alphabets

Justine gave me a voucher with which I wanted to buy something special and completely different rather than "yet another" LK chart! Bearing in mind that Justine had previously given me a selection of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Halloween-themed hand-dyed threads, I did go completely different and bought two Halloween-themed charts on which I can use those gorgeous threads. I shall certainly have fun choosing which fabrics and colours to use for these designs! Purple pumpkin anybody!!

White Willow Stitching

Tribal Pumpkin and Tribal Witch Hat

(pictures taken from sewandso.co.uk)

Thank you both so very much for your generosity. Now all I need to do is slip these additional projects into my 2016 stitching schedule as "special" pieces.

Right, enough yapping. With so many WIPs and potential new starts calling me I had better go and do some stitching!

All the best :)
Rachel x

Weekend Stitching Retreat and New Stash

Good afternoon everybody!

Back in April I met up with Ingrid (Mii Stitch) and Justine (Justine's Cross Stitch) for a day of chatting, stitching and stashing. We got on so well that within a couple of weeks we had arranged another rendez-vous, this time a weekend at The Dairy Cottage in Staffordshire. It was a lovely little cottage in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by beautiful countryside and a perfect location for chatting and stitching to our hearts' content.

Our weekend started with the obligatory exchange of Halloween-themed goody bags. Here's a selection of the goodies I received:

beautiful hand-made ornaments.....

.....a candle and holder, backing fabric, Lizzie Kate chart, beads,

needle keep, stitched owlet kit, hand-dyed Halloween Mist fabric, ribbons,

Halloween-themed threads from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.....

.....and a host of Halloween decorations and sweeties

(which for some reason are no longer available to be photographed - yum yum!)

Thank you both so much. Everything is (was) awesome!

You'll have to pop over to their blogs (links at top of posting) to see my gifts to them.


Stitching-wise, we had all agreed to start two new projects during the weekend. Ingrid and Justine opted for small projects. Justine even finished one of hers! But me? I went for bigger ones of course! I started Owls in Love and Dragon Eye, as they were already in my 2015 stitching plans, but I will save pictures of them for another post.

We looked through each others' piles of WIPs and "helpfully" prioritised our favourites. A couple of doubtful WIPs were even discarded!

And we exchanged a few charts, meaning my stash pile is now even bigger. To be fair though, most of these will be quick stitches:

Lizzie Kate - Spooky String

JBW Designs - French Country Witch, Alphabet Pumpkin and Sweet Nothings

CCN - Snow Love, Dear Santa and Holly Jolly

The others also relieved me of some of the lovely fabric I bought at Alexandra Palace. I had intended to go home with less than I had taken but didn't realise quite how little that would be! I'm glad I could help them out though.

It was such a perfect weekend and, sadly, over far too quickly. It's a terrible cliche, but I'm lucky to have met two great bloggers who very quickly became two great friends.

So now it's back to usual life for the three of us but with lovely memories and the excitement of planning our next retreat in Spring 2016!

Happy stitching everybody :)
Rachel x

A Trip to the Knitting and Stitching Show

Hello all!

Yesterday I visited the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, London. It's about seven years since I last went so was a perfect opportunity for a browsing day out.

My daughter accompanied me as she was interested in soft wool for making scarves and fabric for her quilting and dressmaking hobbies. It was also her 14th birthday so mummy's credit card was an added incentive for her to accompany me!

I tried not to stash too much as I really don't NEED anything else (I know, I know, what's NEED got to do with it?) and I was aware of my virtual SFS budget.

I bought a little box with individual screw-top jars for my spare Mill Hill beads, two cute little charts from an independent retailer and five over-dyed Threadworx threads suitable for Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Christmas projects. These are (shamefully?) the first over-dyed threads I have ever bought. Now all I have to do is find projects suitable to use them on!

Charts - Odd Dog - Sleepy Book and Balloon by Lili of the Valley

Threadworx colours - 10592 Mercy's Spring Bouquet, 11511 Jam Rock,

1076 Honky Tonk, 1140 Moonlit Skies and 1085 Christmas Time

I also bought a couple of other things which I cannot show as they are gifts for people who I know read this blog - hi girls!

Budget wise, so far so good. But then I found the sewitall fabric stall. Uh-oh!

Some of you may recall that a number of my Challenge pieces are stitched on over-dyed aida by Fabric Flair. When I discovered the only supplier that I knew of in the UK had stopped selling it I was devastated. But a bit of sleuthing led me to sewitall.com who, I found out, are the actual manufacturers of Fabric Flair! At the moment they don't have over-dyed on their website but they do have a similar cloud-effect fabric as well as patterns such as snowflakes, holly leaves, paw prints and love hearts. AND everything comes in various aida or evenweave counts AND with the choice of added sparkles. Heaven! Go check them out - you will not be disappointed.

I could have been a very naughty girl but, luckily for me, their selection of my favourite 16ct aida and 32ct evenweave was limited and very few had sparkles. Nevertheless, I bought a good selection, even doubling up on some. Not all are in the photo, nor are all for me as I was purchasing for two others as well. So in fact I think I was actually very restrained!

Aida - Antique White with Sparkles, Cloud Green, Cloud Lilac and Cloud Brown

Evenweave - Cloud Blue, Cloud Blue and Pink, Cloud Lilac, Cloud Grey

Talking of being restrained, I did NOT buy these two kits. I cannot express how much I love the autumnal-coloured artwork of Leonid Afremov. I know that Love Thy Thread and Heaven and Earth Designs have charted some of his pictures but these are by Golden Fleece (Zolotoe Runo in their native Russian) and were £54 each which I could not justify. If they are ever released as just charts I may reconsider.

Romantic Walk and Aura of Rain (my favourite!) 

And here are some more, slightly smaller kits, by the same artist which I may purchase one day:

 Autumn Melodies, Tryst and Autumn Blues

So all in all a good but tiring (and financially fairly restrained) day out! Now to use some of my goodies.....

Happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Stitch From Stash - June 2015

Good morning fellow bloggers!

Here are the financial details of June's Stitch From Stash:

BROUGHT FORWARD - £5.84
JUNE BUDGET - $25 = £16.46 (at 01/06/2015 exchange rate)
EARNED - $8 = £5.27
AVAILABLE TO SPEND - £27.57
SPENT - £27.41
END OF SFS-A CLOSING BALANCE - £0.16


Spending:
* £24.18 on the remaining threads I need for my Challenge pieces
* £3.23 on a chart

Let's Eat Dessert by Ursuala Michael (download from crosstitch.com)

This is another chart I have to thank Jeremiah's Mom Katie for "making" me buy! I love Ursula's Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter charts Katie started in January so just HAD to have a look at the whole series There are loads to choose from so I doubt this will be the only "words" series chart to join my stash over the coming months! Oh dear.

Projects worked on: (post to follow on 30th June)
* dreaming of dolphins
* April showers
* a tatty friend
* polar bears
* cream
* ravenclaw

Projects completed: (both $4)

Lizzie Kate June flip-it stamp      Autumn from The Four Seasons

So, that's the end of SFS-A. I am very proud that I have been honest, worked hard and not once gone over budget.

The lure of bonus money definitely encouraged me to finish projects, although I do admit that I rather naughtily bought far too much new stash with my funds.

I have signed up to SFS-B where I intend to save my budget (mostly!) and continue earning lots of bonus money in order to treat myself to a Gecko Rouge kit at the end of the year. That's a good target to work towards.

See you in July!

Cheerio
Rachel x

Stitch From Stash - May 2015

Good morning fellow bloggers!

Here are the financial details of May's Stitch From Stash:

BROUGHT FORWARD - £0.23
MAY BUDGET - $25 = £16.51 (at 01/05/2015 exchange rate)
EARNED - $11.00 = £7.26
AVAILABLE TO SPEND - £24.00
SPENT - £18.16
CLOSING BALANCE - £5.84


Spending:
* £7.95 on two charts
* £10.21 on a kit

Snowman Row by Ursula Michael (download from crosstitch.com)

These will be stitched as nine individual projects.

Halloween Banners by Artecy (download from crosstitch.com)

(thank you Heather of Fantasy Cross Stitch for introducing me to these!)

Christmas Ornament Pals Kit by Dimensions

(thanks to Katie Jeremiah's Mom for tempting me again!)

I feel very guilty about buying these but they were all on offer and I was feeling down in the dumps that day - a lethal combination!

Qualifying projects worked on: (post to follow 31st May)
* dandelion time
* autumn
* tea

Non-qualifying projects worked on: (post to follow 31st May)
* dreaming of dolphins
* pretty little London
* hufflepuff
* ravenclaw

Qualifying projects completed: ($4, $3 and $4)

 My Treasure                            Friends Forever

Lizzie Kate May flip-it stamp

Although slightly bigger, Friends Forever was categorized as 60x60 as a lot is unstitched. I  also claimed only 75% of the bonus as it became a qualifying project after 1/4 completed.

Non-qualifying projects completed:
* none


My closing balance this month, along with next month's budget, will be spent on threads. Let's see how close I can get to zero for my end of SFS-A closing June balance!

Cheerio
Rachel x

Chatting, Stitching and Stashing

Hello everybody!

Thank you for all the lovely comments wishing me a good weekend break. I had a fantastic time. Here's what happened.....

Ingrid from Mii Stitch, Justine from Justine's Cross Stitch and myself had arranged to meet up in Shropshire from where we would make our way to the Nimble Thimble in Oswestry for some chatting, stitching and stashing.

During our day there we achieved a lot of chatting, some stashing but hardly any stitching! I think we each managed about 50 stitches in five hours - how shameful! We also exchanged goody bags.

Justine had made a lovely little thread collector and coordinating needlework bag containing scissors, needles, hand cream and tissues. They were accompanied by a coaster picturing an uncanny resemblance to the three of us - yeah right... if only!

Ingrid's goody bag contained a beautiful pin-keep, some fabric, threads, charts, notelets, tissues and of course chocolates (not shown - yum yum!)

Thank you both so much for your lovely gifts.

My goody bags to them contained a chart, ribbons, buttons, beads, a needle minder and a key ring. You'll have to visit their blogs to see my gifts as I didn't take photos first!

Back in Shropshire we had an evening meal (with even more chatting over a rather fantastic bottle of French wine) before separating for the night.

We met up again in the hotel lounge Sunday morning where we just sat, stitched (finally) and chatted even more. The time went by so quickly and all too soon we had to leave. Saying goodbye was horrible.

Ingrid and Justine are two lovely ladies and I am glad I have met them. None of us knew what to expect but having only met 28 hours previously it felt as if we had known each other for years.

So, a good weekend all round and a much needed, albeit very short, break from our families!

I can't leave without showing you my stash. I have become a bit of a Lizzie Kate fan recently and simply couldn't resist the following items:

Lizzie Kate Spring Alphabet
Not my usual type of chart but it's really growing on me.

Lizzie Kate Green Flip-It Collection
I've liked these since the first day I saw them.
They will be stitched together using the free border pattern from the Lizzie Kate website.

Lizzie Kate Merry Christmas By The Letter Double Flips
I've never stitched anything Christmassy so am looking forward to starting these.
They will also be stitched together using the available free border pattern.

I'm not allowed any more new starts this year, other than those already planned, so these will all have to wait until next year. Perhaps they will form some of my 31 new January 2016 starts?!

Right, I'm off now to play with some fabric. That's a tease for another post!

Take care all,

Love and hugs

Rachel x

Final New Stash of the Year!

Hello one and all!

I intend to join in with Stitch From Stash next year, so as I still have some birthday money left over (and I know my mum wants to buy me some stash for Christmas) I decided to have a final splurge on charts before being tied down to a budget. Also I have a stinking cold and feel awful so the retail therapy has been good medicine for my recovery!!!

I naughtily bought:

Rabnann (ebay)

Elephant Herd

Stitch count 248 wide by 174 high

theworldinstitches (etsy)

The Four Harry Potter Houses

Stitch counts 95-97 wide by 117-118 high

UAHomeMadeStudio (etsy)

Winter Owl

Stitch count 88 wide by 87 high

UnconventionalX (etsy)

OMG Tigger is Out

Stitch count 162 wide by 200 hig

This is the most expensive single chart I have ever bought. I just love the realistic-looking raindrops and the sadness of the cat so it had to be MINE! It is definitely going to be started once I have completed my latest stint on Dolphin Ruins and it already has a WIP progress bar waiting to be filled!

Gloria and Pat

Young'uns

Stitch counts 71-149 wide by 73-124 high

How cute are these?! They are not as small as I thought they would be, measuring about 100 x 100 but I don't care. I love and want to stitch them all!

Love Thy Thread
Lyx
Stitch count 170 wide by 170 high

So that's it! I certainly don't NEED any more charts. I just have to force myself not to look ever ever ever ever ever ever again!

I hope all of your Christmas preparations are going well. We've still got the tree and a few more decorations to put up but there's plenty of time yet. We tend to do a little bit each day rather than all at once as it gives the children something to look forward to when they come home from school.

Until next time.....

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

New Stash - well, it is my birthday!

Hello fellow bloggers!

I've been a very naughty girl and, as the title states, received some new stash for my birthday. Note I said received, not bought, as these were presents from my mum, daughter and son (bless 'em!). So all of the following, which I just had to share with you, can be justified, can't they?? Of course they can!!

Lizzie Kate 

Monthly Flip-It Stamps (2005)
Stitch counts 47 wide by 47 high

I've noticed a lot of stitchers do Lizzie Kate projects so had to look at the website to find out what all the fuss was about. I'm not into samplers but fell in love with their 2005 Flip-It Stamps set. They will definitely be one of my 2015 WIPs. No offence to all American bloggers out there, but I am going to substitute the November Thanksgiving design for fireworks as that's much more English!

Satsuma Street (etsy)

Pretty Little London and Pretty Little Paris
Stitch counts 123 wide by 110 high and 111 wide by 104 high

All of Satsuma Street's city designs as on my wish list but as London and Paris are the most relevant to me those are the ones I decided to ask for first. The unusual colours should make them fun to stitch.

FluffyFuzzyPatterns (etsy)

Owls In Love
Stitch count 250 wide by 152 high

Oh my goodness... how cute is this??? There are only three shades of grey in the whole design and lots of unstitched areas so it should be really easy to do! Gorgeous.

EvasDesignsBg (etsy)

Dragon Eye
Stitch count 180 wide by 135 high 

This is a fantastic representation of a dragon's eye and I immediately knew that it was hypnotizing me to 'buy me or else'! So I did! There are only 11 colours in this design so would be easy to convert to a different hue if I wanted. Hmm... thinks firey reds/oranges perhaps?

Rabnann (ebay)

Dolphin Ruins
Stitch count 223 wide by 288 high

This design not only jumped out at me when I saw it but has also jumped to the very top of my to-do list. I don't know how long I will be able to resist the temptation of a new start but I doubt it will be long! I love the underwater mysterious lost City of Atlantis effect and the rippling on the dolphins' backs and marble columns. I hope the stitched picture is true to its mock up. Oooh, my fingers are itching already!!!


So that's 17 more projects to add to my to do lists - but in my justification, most of them are small. Anyway, aren't birthdays and Christmases specifically made as a reason/excuse to further increase our stash piles?? Good. I'm glad you all agree!!

As always,

All the best and
Happy stitching :)
Rachel x