Geoff the Giraffe

It has been a sad time these pass few weeks, my Father died on the 24/4/10 he had prostate cancer which had spread, he spent his last 2 weeks of life in a hospice with his family around him he received superb care and died peacefully. He had wanted to go to his grandsons christening which was yesterday but it was not to be.

I have found my cross-stitch a great help as I took it to the hospice and sat by his bedside and stitched for many hours.

I had already mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to knit a soft toy to go with the Birth Sampler I made for my Nephew Christening here he is Geoff the Giraffe he was taken from Knitted Wild Animals by Sarah Keen, I may have to knit a couple more of them as he was very popular once people saw him.

Here is the Birth sampler framed it was not easy choosing a mount to go with the stitching, I am very pleased by the end result.

I went to a workshop at Robinhoods Bay last week which was a welcome distraction, It had been arranged by Jenny we had requested a workshop on finishing Techniques so she had invited Julie from Spellbound Beads who worked us hard all day. She showed us how to make loops with wire and wrapped loops, how to open jumprings, Calotte crimps and beading threads, Alternative endings for multi-stranded designs, use of stranded beading wire and crimps how you hide the thread in beads and the use of lace ends.

When we arrived all the equipment needed had been provided for our use and she had brought loads of beads for us to uses, we had all been given a bag of findings we would need to use. We all came away with many finished items earrings, necklaces and bracelets, usually I came away with a bit of beadwork about 2-3 inches long and certainly not finished.

Jayne

Birth Sampler Finished

I have finished my Sampler for my Nephews Christening, it has taken me just over 3 months to do, I decided to do the storks on the center panel in white as they where more in keeping with the real thing as this is for a boy.

I have nearly finished Knitting the soft toy to go with the sampler so will post a picture soon.

I will now have to find a new project to stitch, I have many things waiting in the wings also a few UFO's.

Jayne

Pin Pillow Exchange

I took part in Becky's Pin Pillow Exchange, here is what I stitched for Raffaella it is the Pin Pillow from Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers Pattern 39, it is stitched in recommended threads on 32ct evenweave.

Jayne

Sampler

As you can see I have nearly finished my Sampler. I am on the last panel in the center, there are 2 stork's on this panel, they are meant to be pink not sure as this is for a boy, I tried one out in the pale blue/grey which is already used on the sampler but I can not decide which to use what do you think?

I have also decided to knit an animal on the sampler watch this space to see which one I do.

Pin Pillow Exchange

As you can see I have nearly finished my Sampler I hope to have it completed by this weekend so watch this space!

I took part in Becky's Pin pillow Exchange on her blog and I received a beautiful Pin Pillow from Anne she has used a Quaker pattern and stitched it in my favorite colour purple, you cannot see from the picture but it is also edged in purple beads. I have just sent my Exchange off to the USA so will show a picture once it has been received.

Jayne

HOE LHN

I took part in HOE Little House Needlework Exchange I had Linda as my partner who lives in Singapore.

I decided to make her a needle case I used the top of the chart from LHN Winter berries.

I also decided to make Linda a Thread Tag using small motifs from the pattern.

More Snow

We woke up to more snow this morning by lunchtime we had had about 5cm of snow the dogs love it, Penny the little one just loves catching snowballs.

I have also been working on my felted bag this week as we had a car trip, we went to the Coal Mining Museum at Wakefield as they had a photography exhibition on which my Hubby wanted to see, while we were there we also went down the mine which was very interesting, learning about the history of coal mining and the advances in technology.

I have been working on the bottom right hand corner this week and outlined two other boxes, two people on the SAL have finished there projects this week hopefully it will not be long before I finish mine.

Jayne

SAL and TUSAL

I joined the TUSAL last month so here is my 1st post of my waste threads, I have also included the thread labels and some trimmings of fabric.My Sampler is growing, I finished two boxes this week, I love the Tigers, I have about a third left to do. I have also been working on my HOE LHN exchange but I can't show that yet.
Jayne

SAL and Wirework.

I have managed to finish the letters P to T and outline the next box and do some of the external border on the left side. I thought I would show my Sister what I had done just to get her reaction and she said she liked it so that is a great weight off my mind.

I have now attended 3 of my Bead and Wire classes, we have been making jump rings and we had to make a bracelet which is below I made it with two different sizes of jump rings. This week and next week we have been given a Valentine project to do not very keen on what we are doing so I am just focusing on the technique rather than what we are doing.

Jayne

Felted bag

When I was at the Knitting and Stitching show last November I picked up this Felted Bag kit, I had the wool changed in the kit to my favorite colour which is purple, like many things it has been sat waiting in my stash for my attention. When I am on a long car journey I like to have something to do so I knit or stitch, as we when to Sheffield last week I thought this was the ideal opportunity to get it out.

On reading the instructions I needed two stitch markers which I didn't have, while at the show I had seen a stand selling just stitch markers and she had made them on bead stringing wire, so I delved into my bead stash

and came up with these.

Here is the progress of my bag knitted on a circular needle, it is rather big and flimsy at the moment, I have never felted any knitting before so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Jayne