Time to Dust off the Sewing Machine

As Summer fast approaches Autumn, I'm pleased to say that our weather here in the UK has finally gone back to what's normal for this time of year, instead of the prolonged heatwave we have had.  As I'm getting older, I'm definitely finding it much harder to cope with the heat, Lol!

The hot weather didn't stop me from stitching though and August proved to be a productive month. 

My stitching diary shows that I worked on 3 wip, had 2 new starts, finished 3 projects and managed to fully finish 4 projects.

The first wip that I stitched on was Bluebird of Happiness from Cottage Garden Samplings, which was last worked on in back in May.    This is where it was left.

I stitched on it for another 8 days and this is where it is now.

Just love the little houses in this series!

The next wip was Coffee Shoppe from Dimensions.

I stitched on this for a total of 7 more days.

The final wip I worked on you have already seen because it only took another 4 days to completely finish it.

That was 'Santa Claus is coming to Town' by Historische Stickmuster.

The two new starts you've also already seen and they were both finishes too.

'8 Maid's A-Milking' - 12 Days of Christmas - from Bothy Threads

And 'Bristol Berries 2' from Erica Michaels, which is also the first of my 4 fully finishes.

I think I may have caught the ‘Berry Bug’ because I can’t wait to stitch the other two on the chart and I’m finding myself looking for more to stitch………….I’m sure I’m not the only one to go down that particular rabbit hole, Lol!

When it comes to fully finishing, I always find it a bit of a task, because despite having a dedicated craft room, it’s sadly small and doesn’t have enough room to leave my sewing machine out all the time.

So for that reason I tend to leave them until I have a few projects that need attention and this time there were a couple of other items that needed attention too, (a pair of curtains that needed taking up and the sleeves of a beach cover-up needed shortening) so the time had finally come!

I dealt with the two ‘boring’ projects first and then tackled the fun stuff.

I had the final 3 panels from ‘Beach Rules' by Primrose Cottage that needed sorting.

 ‘Build Sandcastles'

‘Roll with the Tides'

and finally ‘Make Memories’ 

I decided to make this pillow with a little pocket.........because I have a plan and a story!

You have to go back to my childhood and also think forward to a trip I have coming up in a couple of weeks.

From the age of around 5 (in the early 60's) my parents took myself and my two brothers down to Woolacombe, North Devon for our summer holidays, on five consecutive years, so as you can imagine, I have many memories of those trips.

I visited there again once in the late 70’s with friends, but haven't been back since.  

I'm sure you'll have already guessed, but for my late summer break I'll be going back for another visit, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much it's changed over the last 50 years.

The little pocket is destine to be filled with some 'Now & Then' photos and other little trinkets I might find. 

 Here’s my final display of ‘Beach Rules’

lay of ‘Beach Rules’ I don't know how much stitching I'll get done during September because I have a Big Birthday (70) coming up and as well as a few celebrations planned I also have two short breaks away.  

So we'll play it by ear and see where my needle takes me.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

x

FFO Frenzy

During my last post I said that my sewing machine was coming out and that I would be ffo’ing some of my finishes over that weekend. 

Well that didn’t happen for one reason or another and since then I’ve had some more new starts and finishes, so yesterday I eventually pulled out everything I needed and got stuck in at long last.

First off, I did the quick and easy finish of the Mill Hill Ornament ‘Angel with Lantern’,  by  making a beaded hanger with the left over beads and then covering the back with some sticky backed velvet.

The next ffo was also a simple one because it was going into a frame that I’m going to change out each season. 

That was ‘Floral Etchings 2’ from Heart in Hand. 

It involved lacing three flat pieces.

And they have been put into this frame for the Summer season.

This was Spring (Floral Etchings)

The third thing I had waiting to be ffo’ed was ‘Patterned Pretties’ by Jeanette Douglas, which was a Christmas gift from Stasi, over at Bee-mused and Bee-stitching.

It was a kit which came with the wool backing fabric, and I added some cream cotton lace around the edges.

Then, I as I was looking through my bits and bobs from my scrapbooking days, I came across a little oval frame that I thought might look ok on the back, with my stitched initial in it.

Then it was onto the three finished panels of ‘ Beach Rules’ from Primrose Cottage,.

Beach Rules

Soak Up The Sun

And 'Ride the Waves' which I had just started and mentioned in my last post.

With four more panels to stitch, last night I finished another new start, ‘Build Sandcastles’, so that's already in the pile to ffo with the next batch!

Here’s my little display so far

My final new start and ffo was my Cross Stitch Camp piece for JUne, ‘A Stitch for all Seasons’ from the summer 2026 edition of Just Cross Stitch.

Originally I was thinking I would make all four panels into pillows and I may still do that with the other three but when it came to the Summer panel, I decided to make a thread bed.

I still have to stitch this year’s camp badge and will be doing that with the same threads that I used for my June project, so until next time…

Happy Stitching!

Sue x

Let’s talk About Winter

 
It’s the end February at last,  which means the end of meteorological  Winter, and hopefully some bright, sunny days to come…….......now wouldn’t that be nice!

My goal to continue working on ‘Winter’ stitching until the end of the month went well and I finished three more pieces, getting them all FFO,d as well.  

I have to say, it’s very satisfying having them done and dusted and not just sitting in a drawer, collecting dust until I decide to have a finishing day.

I had already finished stitching ‘Frosty Tiny Town’ from   

Heart in Hand and couldn’t decide how I wanted to finish it, but in the end I decided to go with a drum.

Going through my fabric box I was lucky enough to find a small piece of wool which was perfect for the top and I finished around the top edge with sequins and white ball top pins. 

Now I just need to fine a couple of nice pins for the top!

Next, I continued to stitch and finish ‘Let’s Talk About Winter’ from Hands On Design.

I mentioned that I was concerned it wouldn’t look that great on the Pearl Grey linen, because it was originally designed to be a chalkboard effect, but I’m so happy with the way came out.

The frame is from Picture Frames Express.

Then I went on to stitch the ornament from the same chart, making mine into a little (not so round, lol) pin pillow.

The final piece, using the same thread pallet, was a free chart from The Drawn Thread. 

I’ve had ‘First Snow’ sitting in my download folder for years and just never got around to stitching it, but this little chart was perfect for the threads I already had out.

Oh how I love all the little birds sitting in the branches of the tree!

Next up was my two day (25^th & 26^th) Christmas stitching on ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ from Historische Stickmuster, which actually ended up being four days.

This is where it was the last time you saw it

And this is where I am now.

That's the full width now, so the only way up, but still not loving stitching on the raw linen though.

And last but not least, I did manage to sneak in one last new start.

You know I said at the end of January, I had plans for the left over thread and fabric from the Modern Folk Embroidery / Evertote /Roxy Floss Co collaboration for the Quintessential Frisian Smalls Sal, well that's what I made a start on.

In the book there were several bonus charts, so in keeping with the different shaped finishes we have already stitched and some inspiration from the Jeanette Douglass Sewing Box that I finished last year, I came up with my plan

I’ve picked  six of the charts and I’m making a pin cube, which I think will fit in with the collection perfectly.

So that’s the last of my stitching for the month.

My plans for March are very open as usual.

I’ll stitch the next panel from the 12 Days of Christmas and finish my cube and then I’ll have a look and see what spring charts I have and see what takes my fancy, because I’m still trying to stitch what I already have and it’s time to start on them.

Please understand that that’s not me saying I won’t be buying any new charts though, Lol!

Wishing you all bright, sunny and warm days,

Happy Stitching!

Sue

X

 Oh no wait, I forgot, I have one last FFO to share and that is the 2025 Holiday Countdown from Modern Folk Embroidery / Evertote /Roxy Floss Co. that I finally framed.

Here’s my shelf with all of the four years of Advents and two other Modern Folk Embroidery pieces.

I decided to frame all the Holiday Countdowns the same and all the made to measure frames were from my usual place, Picture Frames Express.

That really is it this time!

Happy Stitching!