Why OH Why Wasn't I More Careful?

Its been another wet day here !Will Summer ever make an appearance ?Last night I continued to stitch on The Bitterest Flower Sampler ,but I haven't taken a photo yet ,and in one of those I can't believe I was so stupid moments I forgot to match the stitched lines on my Strawberry and didn't notice till I had trimmed the seam AHHHHHHHHH, so I guess I now have one to hang on my tree and will have to stitch another one to give away (Hey Karen sorry about the enabling LOL), and as if that wasn't bad enough I braved the weather to make a trip to Spotlight today as I needed to buy batting and backing fabric for a couple of quilts I have finished (now I don't normally shop here if I can avoid it as the service is terrible but my favorite quilt shop is not open on Sunday) what a MISTAKE every man and his brother was there )they have recently reorganized this store and now the fabric is all upstairs in a tiny space which makes it impossible to see the fabric properly as people are also having to queue there to be served meanwhile there are bins of specials falling about all over the floor and magazine racks to negotiate around and as if that isn't bad enough they never have enough staff serving and you end up waiting forever for your turn ,all in all a very frustrating day.I guess tonight I will make a start on my replacement strawberry I might stitch one of the other designs in order to avoid the same mistake.
Well thats about it for now so Take Care.

A little break from Christmas

I decided to take a little break from Christmas ornaments last night and stitched on this instead ,it is Bitter Flower Sampler by Birds of a Feather .
Thank you everyone for the comments on the strawberry ornaments Margaret the reason I have managed 11/50 finishes are that most of the things I've stitched are small LOL ,I have a huge pile of these small projects which is why choosing to stitch 50 projects didn't seem so daunting.
Well I better be off ,I have a huge list of things to do today and while the weather is good today I hope to get back out in the garden ,the weather is so changeable here at the moment, one minute its hot the next its freezing and so windy.Take care

How cute are these!

Aren't these little Christmas Strawberries so cute , they are by Prairie Schooler I can imagine a whole tree just decorated with these , however these two are gifts that i have stitched this week and with a seemingly endless list of things I want to stitch as Christmas gifts I doubt I will have time to stitch any for myself lol, never mind maybe I'll get round to it next year.
Thanks to everyone for the comments on my last finishes I'm never sure if things look ok when I finish them.
I am pretty pleased with myself as I had hoped to get 10 of my 50 finishes done by Christmas and with these two ornaments that takes my total to 11/50 so maybe I could reach 20 by January ! I have two exchanges to post off this weekend which means I have completed three exchanges this year which I know is not many compared with some people but I am pretty new to this exchange thing so I don't think I've done to badly and I have really enjoyed the stitching.
Well I'm off to do a little gardening now as the rain seems to have finally eased off so Take Care.

Busy finishing Christmas Ornaments.

As you can see I have been busy finishing off my christmas ornament (silly me I forgot to turn the photos around before adding them ) this is only the second time I've finished an ornament this way so I hope the person I'm sending it too likes it.I have also stitched a strawberry ornament by Prairie Schooler as well but I forgot to take a picture so I will add that tomorrow.
This morning I had a visit from the daughter of a dear friend of mine ,they live in Wellington and I don't get to see them very often so it was a lovely treat.
I have finally set up my frame to stitch Mermaids of the Deep and will probably make a start on it at the weekend as I want to stitch another strawberry ornament first and make a start on a scissor fob as well, I'm really looking forward too starting a bigger project as I seem to have stitched endless small pieces lately .
Well thats about it for now so Take Care.

Supersize Me!

Here are photos of the quilt top I finished the other day ,the fabrics are mostly Batiks and hand dyes which I bought last year with my birthday gift certificate ,I had only the last row of blocks to sew and then to put them all together ,now I just have to buy the batting and quilt it.And to this end I bought a floor quilting frame on Trade Me yesterday (I am not going to include my quilting in the 50 projects list) this is the first time I have ever bought something on Trade Me (well actually DH bought a couple of things for me earlier this year) so I was really pleased with myself.
I also visited my LNS yesterday as DH had given me a gift certificate for my birthday ,yes this was a big temptation for me but I was very good and bought threads for various up coming projects ordered some fabric and bought some little gifts to add in my exchanges and still had money left over!!!!!I then rushed home and spent the afternoon on the sofa with DD1 watching Supersize Me ,I have never felt so pleased to be a vegetarian!!!!! if you haven't seen this movie it certainly is food for thought(no pun intended), while my children and DH do eat meat , we eat very little in the way of processed food ,my moto is pretty much if you cant recognize what it was to begin with don't eat it.
Today I will be visiting my FIL to get new webbing added to my floor frame rods so that I can start stitching Mermaids of the Deep ,while this means I have to stitch in my sewing room it has the advantage of not having to remove the piece from the frame while it is being stitched, so hopefully I will be able to start stitching this week.
Well thats about it for now so Take care.

Yay another finish ! taking my total to 9/50 , this needed to be finished by the end of the month so I am now well ahead of the deadline for both exchanges, I only have to sew my ornament together and package both exchanges up ,so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself.
I spent sometime yesterday looking through my charts to see what I will start next ,I think maybe Mermaids of the Deep ,I definitely feel in the mood for a bigger project after stitching so many small things I may even try a rotation of a couple of things ,yes I know in the past this has not really worked for me but I really have so many things I want to stitch LOL.
Well thats about it for now so Take Care.

Well here are photos of the pieces I have finished lately which as I said yesterday takes my finishes to 8, sorry these photos arent better I think it is time to invest in a new camera ,maybe for Christmas !!
I am still working on my Christmas exchange piece and hopefully will get it finished tonight, I've never stitched a hand-towel before ( and truth be told I probably won't again) but it does look very festive .
Not much more to add today I have a mountain of household things to get through and I better get started so Take Care.

New Photos

At last I can update with a few photos which I will spread out over a couple of post the first is a lavender sachet stitched with Danish Flower Thread on Belfast ,I haven,t filled it yet and will probably give it as a Christmas gift ,I always seem to need a few little gifts as emergency stand -byes.


And next up is a photo of the very cute Elle_Anna Rose who is almost three weeks old and gets sweeter by the day.

I thought I had taken a photo of my finished sampler but apparently not so I will add that tomorrow along with a photo of the scissor fob and two christmas ornies which will take my tally of finished projects to 8 YAY,I also finished piecing the top of a quilt I started last year yesterday so I will add a photo of that as well (do I include that in my 50 finishes or should it only be stitching ? what do you think?)
Well thats about it for now I'm off to do the grocery shopping (lucky me!)Take care

Thanks for the Birthday wishes Sue and Karen .Yesterday was my birthday (15th) I had a lovely day and received lots of lovely gifts, including a new key board for my computer as my old one suddenly died hence the fact I have not been able to post lately but all is fixed now YAY.I have been busy stitching away on my christmas exchanges and have almost finished apart from the sewing needed on them, hopefully my camera will be returned this week as I do have a few finishes to show.
I'm amazed to see how many people are taking up the stash reducing challenge ,I'm really in the swing of it now ,I've even begun finishing a couple of quilts that I had not finished and some knitting as well ,I feel really pleased about being committed to finishing these projects and being able to put them too use or even give them as Christmas gifts.
This morning I managed to read a few blogs and catch up on what everyone is up to, I have really missed this much more than I thought I would ,I have especially enjoyed seeing all the Christmas ornies ,very inspiring!
Well I better be off work calls Take care.

A day of shopping

Yes I'm still here !!I have been busily stitching away this week but still cant show you any pics as I haven't gotten my camera back yet.
Yesterday Sarah (D1) and I went into Auckland city for a day of shopping ,Sarah wanted to visit all the Skate/Surf shops and I went to the Embroidery store ,this stores is in a lovely old building with several other lovely stores that we enjoy visiting one is Isabelle Harris which is beautiful store specializing in soaps, handcreams etc ,we managed to find a nice gift for my SIL who's birthday is on Sunday.Then it was upstairs to find a few stitching gifts which was not difficult even though this store is fairly small she stocks some nice gift pieces like needle holders etc.After that we shopped for a new pair of shorts for Sarah and she also bought a new T-Shirt by then I was shopped out so it was off home for us.
Well not much more to add I'm not sure what I'll stitch on today I have an exchange piece I need to start but I dont think I'm in the mood for that today we'll see later on .Take care. 45/50

Elle-Anna came home today.

Another busy weekend here ,on Saturday I looked after my nephews for the afternoon while Marc spent sometime with laura and Elle-Anna at the hospital, we also had my sister and Nephew and a friend of his visit with us for a little while as well as a group of DS friends ,so all in all a busy day, then yesterday DH arrived home although unfortunately his luggage did not LOL,however it has turned up and has been delivered to us today.DH and I visited with his mum yesterday afternoon as it was her birthday on Saturday, it was nice to catch up with her.This morning we had the boys again while Dad went to pick up thier new sister ,she is so little and so cute with lots of black hair I promise a photo as soon as possible ,but at the moment I have lent my camera to Marc and Laura so they can take lots of photos of her.
On the stitching front yesterday I stitched a little scissor fob from the JCS christmas mag. and another little ornament as well and will post photos as soon as I get my camera back.This takes my finishes to 45/50 yay for me.Tonight I'm going to stitch another ornament as I need to get a few of these done as gifts and exchanges.I also received the last of the charts and threads I had ordered from Stitching Bits and Bobs in the post today they are letters D-N of CHS alphabet series ,now I only have to stitch 45 more things before I order the rest of the alphabet LOL.
Well thats about all for now Take Care