Cross stitching, bits & pieces and a lovely Friendly Exchange

The last couple of days, when I have been out and about shopping, there have been a few bits and pieces that I have found that celebrate cross stitching.

Firstly this, Keep calm and cross stitch notebook and in Sainsbury's there were some mugs and another notebook.

So there you go, if you want to track your cross stitch, there are a couple of cross stitchy books you could use.  Of course, you can imagine the embarrassment I caused Rachael by taking photos in Sainsbury's!!

Anyway on to some proper cross stitching now.  I have worked on Bothy Threads Cut Thru Stable a few times and have never taken a photo so as I had the camera out, I got a quick pic.  This really needs an iron! I have been working on the left hand side with the hanging basket and whatever the tall flower is too.  Sadly the greenery on the tall flower has had to be stitched, unstitched, restitched, partially unstitched and finally partially restitched.  I have also stitched the green bucket and part of the girl.

I recently took part in a summer exchange that was arranged on Friendly Stitchers.  My exchange partner was Mary and she sent me a gorgeously stitched biscornu with a design by Just Nan on it along with some lovely backing fabrics.  I love the card she sent me too! Thank you Mary!!

Just Nan SAL - May update

Guess what? Progress!  This is the little bit I have got done on High Hopes.  Any progress is better than none though :)

Belated Theme-a-licious update for April

The only designs I have stitched on in April that feature water are: Just Nan's High Hopes and Chatelaine's The Gardens of London.  High Hopes was just too late to count for my Just Nan SAL for April so at least it edges in here!

Birthday stash and giveaway stash too

First up is all the lovely stash that I received for my birthday. There is a chartby The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and another by Papillon Creations, 2 Just Nans, a Lizzie Kate Santa, one of the Snow Belles, a JBW Christmas Tree one and some fabric - Icicle by Crafty Kitten which is big enough to stitch the other 8 Nora Corbett reindeer on.

I also received my threads that I ordered with my gift certificate from Linda.  Thank you Linda.  They are shown with the chart and fabric which I already had and I can now get cracking on this...soon :)

Theme-a-licious update on February's stitching

Just in case you have been on a completely different planet for the last couple of year, Theme-a-licious is organised by Geeky Heather who gives us themes for our stitching each month.

Hmmmm...last month after taking tips from Jo, Queen of shoehorning themes into whatever she happens to be stitching, I had quite a few things to show.  This month...not so much!

Obviously there is Cinders, who was marching ever closer to a finish...eventually. I will update on the drama that is Cinder-gate in the next few days...

My gorgeous unicorn must count too despite the fact there is currently no evidence of a unicorn! I love this one, it's so easy to stitch with just one thread!

There's my little Just Nan Santa too...not that I am saying Santa is a fantasy figure of course...

And that appears to be it!!  See you next month with hopefully a bit more variety.

Just Nan SAL - February update

I have actually had a start and a finish this month.  I have stitched one of the 3 Santas designs - 3 Star Santa. I really enjoyed stitching this one and it only took me a couple of evenings.  I changed the border a bit. Originally it should have been black and white but I thought it made it look a bit zebra-ish so used the dark green of his gloves instead.  The fabric is either dove grey or pewter jobelan but I can't remember which.

Just Nan
1st of '3 Santas'

Just Nan SAL

Not much progress made on High Hopes this month with the Crazy January Challenge but here is a reminder of what did happen!  Hopefully I will make better progress next month although I do need to mainly concentrate on Cinderella to get her finished soon.