Christmas time

 Hello Everyone,

I thought I might pop in with some half forgotten stitching today as everything is calm and quiet at my house  after the hectic days of Christmas cooking and gift wrapping.  Days of continuous coronavirus restriction changes when we didn´t know whether my daughter and the grandkids would be able to spend Christmas with us or not and dithering about whether to send Amazon gifts to my house or to theirs.

I made these little crochet bags last month and somehow never got to post about them

I had been wanting to knit or crochet something, and chose these when I saw them in the magazine Labores, I was pretty sure that I would have some suitable wool without having to buy any.  

and I found these Christmasy colours in my stash and they were quick and easy to make as there was little variation of crochet stitches in the pattern.

and they were just granny squares sewn together.

I thought they might come in handy to hold  Christmas gifts, (in the end they didn´t) but anyway were fun to make.

Thank you for stopping by.  Christmas time blessing and happiness from my family..

to yours. 

Sheryl    

 

Advent Calendar Blog Hop - Day 15

Hello and welcome to day 15 of this year´s Advent Calendar Blog hop hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching.  Check here for the daily links to all participants in this fun hop to get us all in the mood for Christmas.

I was eager this year to start my seasonal stitching well in advance and I started several projects which would  have been finished  by now if there had been more days in November – I´m sure there were less than usual this year.

I´m sharing my efforts at doing a couple of applique hoop decorations as I´d seen some really lovely designs on the internet and thought I would use up some of my felt stash.

Using a piece of net fabric for the background stretched over a hoop. I then  cut out  felt shapes to form a picture, just making it up as I went along – mainly trees as you can see.

I outlined the trees with some Kreinik (bag of bits) sparkly thread which looks pretty but doesn´t show up at all in my photos, added some beads and sequins and then  surrounded the pattern with a piece of trim, forming a loop for hanging.

Jo asks us to mention a favourite Christmas book or story and I really haven´t got one.  I remember as a child having a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale book which I loved and in particular The Snow Queen and The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

I also treasured the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and should still have my copy hidden away somewhere. 

This book as everyone  knows has several different film adaptations, the first being in 1933, although I think there was a silent film versión in 1917 - and the latest remake just last year, directed by Greta-Gerwig.  It will be interesting to see just how far this latest versión differs from the original story written in 1868.

Many thanks to Jo for organising once again this blog hop which I hope everyone is enjoying.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy Stitching.

Sheryl

Cards

 Hi Everyone,

I´ve been really busy this week working on my Christmas stitching, jumping from one project to the next and doing a bit of crocheting again – which I always seem to do at this time of year and then started worrying about how to send Xmas cards if I couldn´t even buy them locally due to our lockdown.

I sorted through a briefcase overflowing with my old cards thinking that I could repurpose some.  My stepmum who lives in Cyprus always sends me really pretty ingeniously repurposed cards but I only got as far as looking through  the cards and reminiscing all the afternoon .

Well, I could try and make some fabric cards using a gorgeous fabric called Heavenly Pixies by Michael Miller which I bought years ago at our local patchwork shop and had no idea at the time just what I would use it for.

And then some festive fabric, I´m getting really low on that, another one for the backing , some batting and I also added another stiff interfacing.

I did a small cross stitch greeting to add to the back  of the card and that´s about it,  Don´t think they look too bad.

Having now finished  these cards , I can get visiting my blogging friends and see what everyone is doing.

Sheryl

 

Fully Finished Gallery SAL - November

 Hello stitching friends,

I´m late, but not too late to check-in for the Fully Finished Gallery SAL hosted by Rachel of Ten Hour Stitcher and celebrated on the 10th of each month,

Just a tiny finish to show today since I haven´t had much time for stitching lately.  This last week, a  lock down week,  was plagued with annual medical revisions, which I had to attend decked out like an undercover agent, with face mask, glasses and a rain hood due to the inclemency  of the weather, and after being questioned, tested and disinfected by  a group of astronauts , was received by another astronaut who turned out to be my doctor/dentist.

So, little time for sewing, but I did manage to finish a second Blackwork  Flowers with Birds pattern by Lesley Teare

I love these pretty little designs. There are six in the collection all very bright and colourful except for the blackwork of course and bit by bit I hope to finish them all.

 I tried sewing another little notepad holder  but this time I don´t like the finish  and it will be redone in a different way.

I think it is the stitched surround which seems to limit how I wish to finish an ítem, but on all accounts  it will have to wait until after Christmas.  Too much to do right now, at this time of year the days just seem to disappear.

I was surprised by a little self sown wild flower which sprouted from a pot a couple of weeks ago and has lovely bright flowers, since this photo was taken, it is much larger now and has 7 blooms at the moment, perfect to brighten these dull worrying autumn days.

Keep safe and sound everyone.

Sheryl

 

Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Happy Halloween Everyone,

I´m joining Jo of Serendipitous Stitching today for her fun Halloween Blog hop.  Check out all the participants in the links given on Jo´s blog and where you can start collecting letters to form a mystery phrase.

My cute little stitched Halloween piece is a free design by Magali found here I stitched it  years ago and it has been sulking in a drawer ever since. 

Last week I cheered it up by adding it to a handy bag

Nothing like having a place to store your spiders

I also hunted about without luck for some Halloween themed fabric to make a few coasters as they  always  make welcome  gifts but in the end I had to rely on my stash as Halloween isn´t celebrated much here and there´s no inspiration anywhere.

Here is the letter you have come for.

Your next stop is with Astrid at astridxstitching blog, so join me now in collecting more letters and seeing what others have been stitching.

Thank you for stopping by and to Jo for hosting this great hop once again this year.

Sheryl

 

Finishes

 Hi everyone,

A lovely  sunny day here in the north of Spain with only  the growing coronavirus situation and  political discrepancies clouding the day.  Best not to listen to more than the News headlines and get working on some Halloween stitching. I thought that today I might  share  one of my finished blackwork patterns by Lesley Teare.

This is one of her Blackwork with Birds patterns and I really love the bright pretty colours

As my tiny pocket notebook could enjoy a surprise, I found some tiny scraps of bright fabric and joined them to the embroidery to make  a little cover  and then  added tiny seed beads to the embroidered flowers although they don´t show up much.

 I have at last, more or less finished my kitchen curtains after having started them last year – I´m obviously not suited  to making large ítems as they tend to fall by the wayside.

They are really only decorative and just hang at the sides of the windows as one window is immediately above the sink and the other is the glass back door. Well you can see by the photos what I mean.  Having them drawn closed would  mean one hanging in midair.

I didn´t buy  any fabric at all for these curtains, just used pieces of old curtains , embroidered handkies,  bits of crochet,  lace trims and odds and ends.

Apart from the inconvenience of sheer fabrics that slip and slide all the time when measured or sewn, I was most concerned that the seams be as small as possible and all edges hidden  or covered with a lace trim

 Most flats in our building have one short curtain and one long and I started to make a longer one for the door but it looked wrong and I didn´t continue. I´m still wondering what sort of valance to make.

 And lastly I must show you  the wonderful pattern that June of Butterfly Wings has sent me.

  It is called The Queen´s Treasure Chest and includes yummy ribbons and threads.  Quite a large project which will keep me busy in the new year.  Thank you very much June.

Hope to see you all again next week for Jo´s Trick or Treat Halloween Blog Hop. All information on her blog here.

Sheryl

A Small Finish

 Hello blogging friends,

I´m making very slow progress on just about everything at the moment.  My start on Christmas stitching is non-existent and my trying to finish a small embroidered project for Halloween is proving all uphill.

I think I´ll put the blame on the Coronavirus, which is getting me down and when you try to buy some fun fabric for Halloween and the two local needlework shops can only show you plain black antibacterial fabric for face masks, it doesn´t help to cheer you up or encourage inspiration.

Today I´m joining Rachel of  Ten Hour Stitcher for the Fully Finished Gallery SAL as I completely finished this little mermaid pocket for a friend of a friend who had seen one of the  mermaid scissor pouches that I made years ago and wanted one for her eye glasses.

A tiny applique mermaid and different embroidery stitches on a very difficult to photograph fabric. The back also has a little embroidery.

This being a pink mermaid, I made the lining  with pink satin and added a few seed beads to the frame

I still have quite a few of these embroideries done from time back, they are all different and  I have been intermittently working on them for months now to use up the remains of the pretty fabric. I will show them all properly in a separate post.

I´m still waiting for the metal frames to arrive so I can finish the pouches off properly.  Hope they arrive before Christmas.

I was going to show my finished curtains in this post but the FFGS is not for sewing, so I´ll leave them until my next post,  Thank you for stopping by and looking.

Sheryl