A short while ago I won Staci's giveaway of the above patterns. When Staci announced my name I emailed her to say that although I would stitch the A-Z pattern, I doubted that I would stitch the Rainforest Romance so I suggested she draw another name. However, she has sent me both patterns and has no objections to me passing Rainforest on! So ... if anyone is interested in having this pattern, please leave me a comment saying you would like to be entered in the draw and I will announce the winner on Friday (March 6). Good luck. 

Still no stitching to show you although I have worked a little on a gift. I think my cold or whatever it was, is hopefully on it's way out although I am left with a cough, it's not as bad as it was so a doctor's visit skillfully avoided! 

After a really beautiful day yesterday, today is wet and dismal - roll on Summer!

Thank you to everyone who left such great comments on my recent exchanges - they are much appreciated! These are my last exchanges until after my hand surgery but I will resume exchanging once my hand is fully recovered. As I do not yet have a surgery date I will continue to stitch on gifts, ornaments for the 2009 Challenge, Beatrix Potter SAL and, of course, my miniature stitching!

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No, it's a White Exchange! When Su and I decided to do an exchange I thought long and hard as to what to stitch for and then I remembered that she had said how much she liked the pink and white pincushion (here). As this is one of my favourite pincushions, which I enjoy both stitching and finishing, the decision was made but now what colour to use? I had just finished my whitework Christmas Snowflake ornament for the 2009 Christmas Challenge (here) and suddenly the choice was made - a whitework pincushion! It's a CA Wells' pattern and stitched on 35ct white Brussels linen with DMC white perle 12 and AVAS Blanc Optique silk floss; the ribbon is a 7mm white silk. To complete the 'white' theme, the extras I sent were, of course, white! I apologise for the poor pictures - I would love any tips of taking pictures of whitework stitching although I sure Su will put great photos on her blog! Maybe I should have waited and stolen (umm - borrowed?) her photos? 

Yesterday I stitched for 4-5 hours on my chosen pattern from the Miniature au Point de Croix book. I am stitching 1*1 on 40ct (I promise to use the 50 or 55ct next time) using HDF OMG Red 1149 and OMG (no pun intended) it's gorgeous - would you like to see? I will work on it again this afternoon so, hopefully, I may even finish it today! I have no idea what I will do with it once it's finished but I am thinking I will hem-stitch it. 

I still have my cold. Despite swigging cough medicine before I went to bed, I coughed for most of the night and hence slept in late this morning. I am now late with the chores so I need to get off the computer without my daily 'blog read'. Hopefully I will catch up later.

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Take care   

I finished my snowflake for February 2009 Christmas Challenge yesterday but it was too dark to take a picture so I waited until this morning and was rewarded with sunlight. It's quite difficult to photograph white on white so I hope you can see the effect - maybe the sunlight was too bright and I will try and reshoot later. The pattern is by Yvette Stanton of Vetty Creations and can be found in the December 2007 issue of Gift of Stitching (page 40). The fabric is my favourite 35ct optic white Brussels linen; the thread is DMC 12 perle cotton and the beads are Swaroski crystal 3mm rounds and silver Delicas. 

I am now working on my last exchange until after my hand surgery although I do not yet have a date. I do not want to sign up for an exchange and not be able to fulfill my commitment so I will continue to work on ornaments for the Challenge and, of course, on Beatrix Potter.  

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Take care and have a great weekend

So the only snow I can show you is a little piece of stitching I did over the weekend - a snowflake ornament for the 2009 Christmas Challenge. It's actually stitched with white DMC 12 perle on 35ct white linen although it looks cream in the photo. The stitching is finished so I now need to check out my bead stash as I want to embellish it with Swaroski crystal round beads. 

Not much else to report so...

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Yesterday I finished my mistletoe ornament for January for the 2009 Christmas Challenge. I have not shown the back as this is where I will be putting my Charland mistletoe charm when it eventually arrives from the US. It is stitched on 40ct flax linen with DMC 926 and 3813 and put together using white Dentelles 80. The round pearl beads that I already had in my stash were just right for the mistletoe berries. I am very happy with this ornament and I am selfishly keeping it for myself!  

I am not stitching today as I have caught some bug or other and have a sore throat, a bad headache and a blocked nose. In fact I'm going back to bed!

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At last I can show you my blogaversary giveaway prize! The pattern is a Lilybet Designs freebie called Birds & Berries and was stitched on 35ct optic white Brussels linen with recommended DMC threads. It is not too late to enter the giveway which finishes on Wednesday but please leave a comment (here) and not on this post so I can keep all entries together! I apologise for the bad photo but it's so dark and gloomy here today - not the ideal conditions for taking pictures!

I am about to finish my ornament for the 2009 Christmas Challenge and I will hopefully be able to post a photo of this tomorrow. I am about to get back to finishing my stitching of yet another exchange for the end of the month and I have also kitted up Beatrix Potter Quaker SAL with 40ct bisque linen and HDF Raisin Wine silk floss ready to start as soon as I have finished my commitment stitching. I am looking to making a start on this.

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I have also been busy crafting and made some gift tags in readiness for doing up my gifts. There is a lovely gift wrapping idea on the site where I buy my ribbons (here) (just scroll down slightly). I have already brought a huge roll of paper and I am now waiting for the ribbon that I ordered to arrive. I decided against using real holly leaves though - hence the tags!

The mailman has just been and delivered a wonderful surprise from Staci. I cannot show this lovely gift yet and I know that Staci understands why but I promise that I will post a picture later in the month. Thank you dear Staci - such a sweet and thoughtful thing to do :o) 

I found a really neat website yesterday (here) with amazing screensavers. I downloaded the 3d fishtank and found to my surprise (or was it horror?) that my screen slowly filled up with water and fish were swimming around in it!  It even sounds like a fishtank and has bubbles and water ripples. I downloaded a free 'coral reef' wallpaper so my fish are merrily swimming around their 'reef'. There is a demo version so have a go - it's brilliant - I love it!

The 2009 Christmas Challenge group is filling very quickly so if you are interested please contact me. There are still a few people who haven't accepted their invites so please do so as quickly as possible.

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Take care

At last I can reveal the projects I have been showing you sneak previews of! Five Christmas needlerolls - they look like tiny Christmas crackers don't they? After stitching one for Kirby (here) I wanted to make another one but I think that I got carried away. I actually only meant to make four more but the top one was a mistake as I forgot to stitch on the name of the recipient but I finished it anyway and now have to decide whether to keep it myself or give it away to someone! They each have a twisted cord attached through the top so they can be hung on a tree. I am pleased with how they turned out and I now have to package these up to send to their new owners. I laid the 'extra' one across the names of those people who will receive these shortly! I am sorry about the poor picture but the light is just awful again today although if you click on the photo you will get a close-up view. They are all stitched on 35ct white linen with Au Ver a Soie silks (1845, 1835 and 2925) and either Japan gold or silver; the bows are made from 4mm silk ribbon. The design is part of The Workbasket's Christmas Sampler from the 2001 Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine.

I am now stitching more gifts and I may just show a peek tomorrow. One is stitched and one part-stitched with more to go. I am not sure if I will get them done in time - where are the days going to?

For those who emailed me about Kirby's outfit in my last post - this was made by Kirby and her fellow design students on her Fashion and Design course and she was asked to model it for their show. Is she the next Kate Moss or the next Vivienne Westwood?

There are still a few places left on the 2009 Christmas Challenge but this is filling up fast so if you want to join in now is the time to do it. 

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Take care

I received a surprise package in the mail today. I didn't recognise the handwriting or the postcode written on the back but I could see that it also said 'Christmas RAK'. I was on my way out but, of course, I could not wait until I got back to open it so I immediately tore into the package and what a wonderful surprise gift from Andrea. I have been wanting to stitch this Blue Ribbon freebie "A Star on Top" (here) for ages but have been too busy stitching for others! Isn't it just beautiful? Andrea's stitching and finishing are as perfect in RL as they look on her blog; my pictures do not do it justice and I am sure that Andrea will post a much better photo. I absolutely love it - thank you so much Andrea - you have made my day!

Nothing to show on my own stitching front. Ken and I went out for lunch yesterday as I had received a birthday voucher from our favorite local restaurant - buy one meal get one free and, of course, we could not miss out on that offer! And I have also been busy setting up the 2009 Christmas Challenge blog. There are still places available for anyone who is interested. Just email me - there is a link on my profile (here) and let me know your blog url, if you have one. For those of you who have had problems viewing this blog you need to use IE browser. 

Thanks for visiting

Take care