Norweigan Sampler

As I've said before, the gift of creating something for someone is a gift of love, and this was a real labour of love.  My mum doesn't cross stitch any more, but she'd bought this cross stitch in the 1960s and could never get to finishing it, so she gave it to me to finish for myself.  Being her she wouldn't have dreamt of asking me to do it for her.  But it was clear she loved it so I applied myself and earned some major brownie points and a huge smile, what more could I want!  Funnily enough she'd always kept the frame she had made for it, and it fitted and looked great.  It was lovely to work, really soft linen and soft colours and because it wasn't solid cross stitches it was actually done quite quickly.  I usually flatten out hoop marks by stretching, but my mum would be taking it home on the train so it needed to be roll upabble.  So I gently ironed it with a steam iron from the back, hovering just over the fabric at first, and it came out great.

From grindstone to personal joy

I am deeply joyful to say that finally, after a spell of time making bags and quilts for other people, I'm able to get back to my own stuff. It's been a hard lesson, realising how much creating for myself and those I care about means to me, and how much I need to be doing for myself rather than giving my energies away. Both are UFOs (UnFinished Objects), dear to me because I have loved doing them and they were both given to me by two beloved people

Japanese Maiden is a cross stitch created by Dimensions, it's part of their Gold Collection, the great thing about kits is that everything you need is there in one place The Gold Collection are kits created with an enormous range of colours, variety of stitches and numbers of threads in the needles which create beautifully shaded results. In this case, the picture is of a Japanese lady under a willow tree in a traditional kimono decorated with cranes, symbolic of longevity, prosperity and good health. I love the delicate shades of her face, which I have just done, and the teracotta of the kimono which is subtly blended with gold thread, a nightmare to sew with but a joy to achieve. Japanese Maiden was given to me by my dad in one of his characteristic moments of generosity at Letham Craft Shop in Angus, I mentioned that I was planning to buy the kit and he offered to buy it for me. It wasn't cheap, but with a kit there is no added expense, unless it be framing.

Cat Tails was given to me for my birthday by one of my best friends, Lesley, and has been a delightful education in new techniques and familiar ones. The background is machine pieced and rotary cut, I'm (more than) familiar with all that, but the applique is felt pieces cut from templates, lots of leaves!, and sewn in place bit by bit. I'm currently working on the hand quilting, which I've done a bit but not a lot of. It's been wonderful seeing it come together under my hands, the cats are just so cute!

Ruby Wedding Sampler

This is (finally) the sampler I made for my in-laws' Ruby Wedding anniversary this month. Taking tips from my samper quilt I severely restricted my palatte, using three shades of green, five shades of red/pink, mostly dark ruby reds, and two shades of gold. It was amazing how different combinations of the colours changed the appearance of both colour, eg, rose pink changed from quite wishy washey pastel to strong rose depending on the colour put with it.

I originally sewed the thing on double the stitch count, ie, two over two threads on the 28 count Linda fabric rather than one over one, but thought it looked clumsy and although doing it one over one needed to be done only in good light I was much happier with the result.

The pattern is taken from a disc I had but I altered the central panel to include the names, dates and a blackwork rose for love. Blackwork is a confusing term, it would originally have been done in black but it's the name of the technique not the thread, and of course I didn't have black in my palatte. I put the word Ruby in and used Kreinik braid to sew it, a nightmare to sew with but it looks good! There are also ruby red beads in the design.

Apologies for the photograph, I realised when trying to photograph the sampler that I should have done so before I got it framed. It was framed by a local man who did a lovely job with the thin red border and gold really bringing out the shades within the sampler, was very quick and cheap.

Once upon a time...

I got really excited when I got this title and had ideas about tiny cathedral windows and secret gardens as I learned how to do in my first bit of sewing from an article from Lynne Edwards and I came back, as ever, to The Snow Queen again but then I changed my mind (!) and decided to marry cross stitch, my enduring history, and atcs.

I stitched each motif on some great sparkly aida I had left over from a long ago advent calendar project, I love the way each suggests a story rather than being about one, seeding the imagination.

I had great fun choosing the font, I downloaded a wide range from 1001freefonts and was able to find one called The King and Queen Font which was just perfect. I like paying as much attention to the reverse as the front of my atcs.

I printed the front of each card pink using my printer and cut the motifs out carefully leaving three or four lines of holes on each side, and using a needle to pull the threads out to give a pretty frayed look, then I stuck them on. So the cards look very thin.