Lady Lady

She was hanging crooked this morning, an inevitable sign that she wanted to draw my attention and possibly with reason since the last consideration given to her, apart from dusting, was over three years ago when hung in her position on the wall.

My Jocelyn blackwork chart, worked on from a hospital bed and admired by all white clad uniformed staff.

She was worked on 28ct antique white evenweave fabric, using DMC 310, 414, 3799 and gold thread.

A lot of intricate stitching

I didn´t embroider all the design as I thought the rather bold panel on the far right of the figure would take attention away from the lovely lady.

and I also left out a seat in the background

While preparing my blog update this morning I came across this.
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the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade link-up party hosted by Ida at My Sister Made Me and I thought that it sounded fun and decided to take a few photos of my pincushions and join in the fun..... only to discover that I actually  only have one pincushion which I have  already blogged about before as it was the first biscornu that I made.

The Rhodes Butterfly biscornu by the Sweetheart Tree and its permanent place is on my sewing machine.

However I do have a little teddy bear ornament given to me by my daughter.

which hangs by my bed and is used as a pincushion after a couple of bad experiences when leaving  my pins and needles stuck in the bed pillow.

and I can also show one of these little cushions which my student Carmen and I made for her end of term school sale a couple of years ago and I saved one for myself.

but I can´t show anything really pretty or unusual, so do click on the above link and see some interesting pincushions of other bloggers.

Note to myself...........make some pincushions.

Until next week.

Sheryl

August Smalls SAL

Hello hello,  The last Wednesday of the month means it is time for the Smalls SAL check-in, so if you would like to stitch a little something each month, do join us and visit Heather at Stitching Lotus for all the information.

This month I haven´t had time to do much needlework although I did manage to finish the pattern by V Enginger which I was struggling with and it now just needs finishing touches and so now I am posting photos of a needlebook which I made for my stitching buddy Margaret of  Margaret my blog.

I really like this design by Lizzie Kate and I may do more of these as Christmas gifts, needlebooks are always so handy.

I added a tiny length of thread to the bobbins to add a bit of colour.

Hope to get working on some Halloween or Christmas stitching now that all my visitors have gone home and I will have more time.

See you next week.

Sheryl

Halfway through August

In a rush again, seems like I have been in a rush since June and that the summer is just disappearing, we are already more than halfway through August... can anyone please slow down the time?
My daughter and family are visiting so, in a hurry, I snapped a few photos of a knitting needle holder I made for my granddaughter.

She learnt to knit last year and when she sent me a photo of the progress she had made on a red scarf, I thought a needle holder might be a nice detail and useful too.
As she plays, trains, watches and breathes football, her holder is an applique design of herself in her favourite team´s colours.

She likes red, so I chose a plain fabric and another bright happy one for the trim, lettering and the covered button.

 Hope she likes it and will use it.

Giveaway

A very big thank you to everyone who passed by my blog and left such nice comments last week on my birthday giveaway.  You really are an awesome bunch and your visits and comments are very much appreciated.  Thank you for your inspiration and friendship.

I have tried to reply to all of you personally but quite a few of you are `no reply´  bloggers, so if you didn´t hear from me, that is the reason.  I also accidently erased Jackie from the comment list but her name did go into the hat, sorry about that Jackie.

My student Carmen did the honours.

I know, I know, I can´t see the name either but it´s Barbara.

  Congratulations to BARBARA  at The Flashing Scissors, who does such pretty work and whose blog I discovered just recently.  I will be contacting you immediately Barbara so you can send me your postal details.

See you next week.

Sheryl

Just For You

Good morning blogger buddies and visitors.  This is just a quickie post.  It is my birthday today so I have decided to hold a small giveaway, just to thank those who take the time to visit and leave comments and also to my new followers.

I made this little envelope during the week using a toile de jouy fabric from my stash which I am trying to reduce this year - with the hope of renewing next year of course, and lined the bag with cream satin.

I also made a few ribbon bobbins to match and filled the small cushion with lavender from the garden.

Hope you like these and if you would like to enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below and I will announce the winner on the 19th August.

Have a lovely  week

Linking this post to Supermom no cape stitch party.

Sheryl

Smalls SAL - July

Today is check in day for the Smalls SAL hosted by Heather at Stitching Lotus.  If you are interested in stitching a small design each month or just finishing off one already started, do join us and visit Heather for the details.  You can join anytime during the year.

I have got quite a lot of stitching done this month but only this little mirror case is completed.

I found the unknown design in my files and thought it ideal for a compact mirror  pocket or such.

The pattern was very quick and easy to finish and I used red fabric for the backing from my stash and black velvet for the lining.  Nice for a Xmas gift maybe.

The other small design that I have been working on is not proving quick and easy, in fact it is trying my patience.  No one´s fault but my own.  If I insist on getting the blue thread tones mixed up and getting the spacing wrong, I have no one to blame but myself.  In progress..

It is a pattern by V Enginger from a French magazine of 2009 and kindly sent to me by Irmeli as the magazine is no longer available.  You can see her beautiful finished version here.

and another addition to my thimble collection is from Margaret at Margaret my blog.  A gorgeous thimble from New Zealand and she spoilt me with a beautiful tea towel which I shall display in my kitchen and pretty Jobelan 28ct fabrics - we can´t buy anything like these colours here and I am eager  to use them.  Thank you very much Margaret.

  

I  can´t show what I have sent her as she will not have received my packet as yet.  Hope she will be pleased.

See you next week.

Linking to Supermom-no cape stitchery party.

Sheryl

High Seas

Hello stitching buddies,   When I last saw my daughter, I was pleased to see that a pirate ship cushion cover that I had made many years ago, was still braving the high seas and had not sunk into obsoleteness.  It was made for one of my grandsons as he was rather keen on pirates and the suchlike at the time, so here are a couple of photos of the rather old and faded cover.

Here you can see my grandson braving the high seas with our dear unforgotten pet parrot Bobby.

His only shipmate was his sister who was on the lookout for land.

..... or so she said.

of course he had his own flag

 They never found any treasure,

This month I also received some delightful goodies in the post.  Two private thimble swaps with sewing buddies.  Irmeli in Finland, sent me a lovely thimble from her home town Turku, she included postcards, choco and a gorgeous lavender filled embroidered sachet.

The other swap was with Kaye from Australia, who sent two beautiful thimbles from Melbourne and Phillip Island.  She also included an assortment of pretty and useful souvenirs from her part of the world...., just look at that pretty handkerchief.

Very thoughtful and generous gifts, thank you very much Irmeli and Kaye.

 Thank you for passing by.  See you next week for the Smalls SAL  check-in.

Sheryl

Hot hot

Hello friends,

We live on the North coast of Spain and our summer temperatures are never very high but last week we had a heatwave and we had to travel inland to Leon where the temps are much higher... higher! - 38 deg. C......  I thought I might melt and in fear of that hunted about for the little fan I bought a couple of years back. Of course it needed a holder.

I found a lovely little blackwork design by Lesley Teare called `Blackwork Lady´ and decided to use  DMC colours to match the fan 

and 32ct linen star sapphire which I had in my stash.

I added a few touches of applique to her head and to some flowers instead of the called for embroidery and added a couple of beads, - just love beads. I backed the holder with purple velvet and lined it with the purple satin.

As always I didn´t use the fastening that I want because I can´t find a shop that has small pretty snap fasteners, only large dark ones, so at the moment I have used a small transparent snap until I find the ones I want.

Thank you for passing by, see you next week.

Linking to Supermom no cape stitchery party.

Sheryl