Cross stitch and coffee

My little place to chat about stitching and other things.

Name:
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

I am a mother of three great kids,3 cats and a Fox Terrier.I own an Embroidery store, and my DH owns a Foundry.We live in house that is over a hundred years old and have a large unruly garden.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year ,I haven't quite decided what my resolutions should be this year but I still have a few hours to decide .This year we will be having a quite New Years at home just DH my daughters and I ,DS has gone to welcome the New Year with friends so the girls and I may settle in with some DVDs and chocolate yum.
I haven't managed any stitching in the last couple of days as I have been spending some much needed time in the garden and we have been out visiting my DH sister and her family last night as we they weren't able to join us for Christmas this year we exchanged gifts and had a lovely Barbecue dinner I received a lovely cook book that I had had my eye on for awhile so I look forward to trying some new recipes.
Well I hope you all enjoy ringing in the New Year ,Take Care.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

A little bit of shopping


I thought it was time for a stitching up date and above is what I have been stitching in the last few days as well as making a start on a Noble Pursuit , no photo of that this morning as last night I realized I was suppose to be only using one ply of thread and I had been using my usual two ply arrrrrh ,so I need to undo all I have stitched so far but since I didn't feel in the mood to do that last night I moved on to the next section and stitched that instead.On wednesday I rushed out to my LNS with my gift certificate clutched in my hand and ordered the silk ( I am using the soie d'alger simply because this is what my LNS sells) and bought the fabric to stitch HOHRH well that used up most of my money but I also bought the fabric and threads for AN Accordian Book of Ornament by Cherished Stitches however when I got home I realized I had bought the wrong amount of fabric arrrrrrrrrrrrh!!!!!!never mind I did have some white 36ct fabric at home and I will use that instead.
So after that huge splurge I now really need to get busy stitching I have really been looking forward to stitching HOHRH since I first laid eyes on it and as soon as my threads arrive I will be starting on it immediately !!!!!!!Maybe VOHRH will be on birthday list lol.
Well thats about it for now so Take Care.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone, well for me it is now all over for another year ,I have to say it all went pretty well ,on Christmas Eve we had my family over for a very traditional Christmas lunch of Turkey and Christmas pudding luckily the weather here has been so cold that cooking all of this was not so bad however I did have to get up at the crack of dawn in order to have it all ready by lunch time ! ( the crack of dawn and I have not seen each other much since my children grew up!!), then on Christmas morning it was the usual rising at dawn again to open all the presents which is so much fun, I received some lovely gifts including a gift certificate to LNS from DH and a book on Martha Stewart (actually I asked Santa if Martha could be my Mummy but it seems I'll have to make do with the book) my DD1 gave me a lovely calendar with a different cross stitch pattern to stitch every day !(somehow I doubt I can manage that but the kids seemed to think I could LOL)DS gave me a U2 CD which I love , and last but not least DD3 gave me a fantastic smelling bath bomb from the body shop, yep I was pretty spoilt .After all the ripping and tearing we enjoyed a fairly leisurely day and then in the evening we had a wonderful barbecue dinner for Martyns family which was lovely.
Well I hope all of you are enjoying the Christmas season ,Merry Christmas to all , and to all a goodnight.

Thursday, December 14, 2006


I put the last few stitches in Red Bird Sampler today it has a very festive feel to it and I just love the little bird.So now that it is finished I have decided to try a little rotation I am going to stitch Autumn Leaves by Prairie Schooler, Noble Pursuit and The Token by Long Dog Samplers, I haven't been very successful at rotational stitching in the past but I hope with extra time overs the holidays I may have more success.Speaking of the Holidays I may possibly hold the land speed record for gift buying today with list in hand I managed to get almost all my shopping done!!!! in just two hours , now if I haven't mentioned before how I love to be organized and never shop without a list I will tell you again ,while many in my family have made fun of my list making it is days like today that prove the value of my list making , while many others stood trying to decide on the perfect gift for Aunty This and Uncle That I was in and out of most shops in ten minutes flat and most of that time was spent in the check out line. Now I just have to think what I will be cooking !!!!Well thats it for now Take Care.
19/50 projects completed.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006


This is my second attempt to post today ,earlier blogger ate my post!Its been another busy few days here yesterday DD1 (Mical ) was over and we delivered her kittens to their new homes , she was a little sad to see them go but she does have two cats already .So it seemed appropriate to make her the Britty Christmas Kitty ornament which I stitched for her today , I mentioned I was making her a little gift when I was talking to her on the phone this morning and so she rushed over this evening to get it LOL in fact she was so quick that I hadn't actually sewn it together ,so she paced up and down in my bedroom while I finished it off.then we went off and did a little Christmas shopping ,I have so few present bought that it is now beginning to scare me!!, not to mention we don't have a tree yet and I have not planned what I will be feeding the 30 or so people coming to Christmas dinner Ahhhhhhhh.
On a brighter note yesterday my LNS called to say some fabric I had ordered was ready ,so I rushed over and picked up a WDW thread I needed to finish off Red Bird Sampler as well ,so now as soon as I have finished RBS I can start A Noble Pursuit which I have been looking forward to starting ,I really think I will have to try some kind of rotation because I have so many things I am eager to get on with.
Well thats about it for now so Take Care. 18/50 projects completed

Friday, December 08, 2006

What a Week.

Sorry no photos today ,I have stitched a bit more of Redbird Sampler but I didn't take a photo, then yesterday I realised I had not started the Christmas Quilt I had planned to complete for THIS Christmas (Welcome to the North Pole by Piece of Cake designs) so I bought up containers of fabric from the basement and took over the study (yes I do have a sewing room ,but my son has recently removed his computer from the study leaving a beautiful big table empty perfect for me to lay everything out on as opposed to me having to tidy my sewing room to make space lol) so in a made flurry I managed (between visitors ) to get 5 blocks put together and 2 of those sewn which wasn't a bad effort ,only 8 more to put together !!I will try and add photos of these tomorrow .
It has been a really long week here on Monday evening our factory was broken into (we have monitored alarm) all that was taken were a few castings off a display stand but we had to have the lock on the front doors replaced as they had smashed through the door wrecking the lock in the process. Wednesday night we had a couple of drunken kids knocking over the recycling bins along our road (these are pretty large bins ) so DH raced out and ended up having to call the police as the guys were by then standing in the middle of the road causing havoc with the traffic, Thursday was a doctors appointment for DH at the hospital which went well thank goodness or it might have been the straw that broke the camels back.any way its the week end now and I can only hope things improve next week !!
Well thats about it for now hope you all have a great weekend Take Care.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006


Yesterday I started stitching this little piece Redbird Sampler by Bent Creek it seems like it will be quick to finish and I love the little bird !
Thank you for the lovely comments on my scissor case , I'm looking forward to trying another one of these.
The weather has finally decided to be sunny and warm but we are still been plagued with extremely strong winds which make spending time outside really unpleasant ,which is a pain as my garden definitely needs some attention.
Well I must be off as I really need to hang the washing out oh joy of joys lol.
Take Care.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

No I Haven't Joined The Circus!






No I haven't run off to join the circus ! I've just been really busy with end of year things around here and of course Christmas things as well.
Todays photos are of a scissor case I made for Karen for Christmas ,it was very quick to stitch and I may make a few more of these to give as gifts.The second photo is of The Bitterest Flower by Birds of a Feather which I finished at the weekend .
Apart from these little things I haven't much else to show I do have a few Christmas Ornaments I'd like to stitch so they maybe what I work on this week.In the mean time Take Care.
17/50 projects stitched