These scissors are the latest addition to my scissors collection. This lovely pair of ornate scissors are from Toledo in Spain and were made by the Tres Claveles company. They date back to the 1970s and are 3½" long with impressed leaves and fleur de lis on the handles and a blackened damascene pattern on the blade. They have already taken up residence in one of my glass frogs!

A few weeks ago our Stitch-n-Bitch group met up for an afternoon/evening firstly so that June could teach us how to make quilted pouches and here is my effort. I raided my fabric stash and you may even have contributed to this pouch as a couple of these fabrics were gifts from fellow stitchers/bloggers! The pouch is lined with the plain pink fabric. June makes the most fabulous pouches - I have a gorgeous one in black and white in my laptop bag which holds the charger and a mouse which she gave me a part of a birthday gift. I hope to make a few more of these in the future and, hopefully, will get more prolific with practice. The second reason for our meeting was to celebrate June's birthday - we had a lovely afternoon and evening with a Chinese takeout.

Lastly but by no means the least, Elisa of Old Ragged Threads has very kindly awarded me the Stylish Blogger Award. What an honour - thank you Elisa!

The rules of the award are :

1 Thank the person who has awarded you

2 List seven thing about yourself

3 Pass the award to 15 other stylish bloggers

Seven stitching related things about me:

1 I love to stitch miniature - usually on very high count linens (48 and 55ct)

2 I use Bohin 28 needles

3 I have a complete set of DMC threads (and spares) which I rarely use

4 I taught children's cross stitch classes in my LNS

5 My first design was a scissor fob which I made for my daughter

6 Despite having a very large collection of scissors I use the same pair of Dovo scissors

7 I have numerous UFO's and completed stitching awaiting framing/finishing

Now to give the reward to 15 other stylish bloggers. This is difficult as I think that everyone who takes the time out to blog deserves an award. In no particular order, here goes:

1 Valie's Blog

2 NieNie Dialogues

3 Time to Xstitch

4 The Craft Room

5 Blacksheep's bit of the Web

6 The Cherry Blossom Girl

7 Sylvia K Kreuzstich Liebe

8 Amy Stitches

9 Danybrod

10 Chez Elisa

11 Fog City Dweller

12 Mademoiselle A ...

13 Plum Street Samplers

14 Tempus Fugit

15 Spinster Stitcher

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The model for Sew Strawberry Fields is stitched and I need to 'finish' it. I have also made a new start on another design - not too sure about the name yet so this will be a surprise for both you and me!

Thanks for visiting

Take care

I received the Kreativ Blogger Award from Wendy Jo - thank you Wendy Jo! I am supposed to forward this Award on to 8 other blogs but I'm sorry, my head aches and I really should not be on the computer so I will award this to all those bloggers that read my blog, to those who comment on my blog and to those who do both. So consider yourself awarded! 

Oh my, two Awards in a week - I hope I don't get too big-headed!  I just heard from Meari that she has nominated me for the Brillante Weblog Award. Thank you Meari I am touched by your thoughtfulness.

Here are the rules for the Award:

1  Put the logo on your blog;

2  Add a link to the person who awarded you;

3  Nominate at least 7 other blogs;

4  Add links to those blogs on yours;

5  Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

So, here are my chosen 7 that I think are 'brillante'. In no particular order:

1  Deb

2  Yuko

3  Edgar

4  Carol S

5  Andrea

6  Nicole

7  Valerie

It's been a really lovely day here today so after doing the household chores I went out into the garden with my stitching. I stitched the scissor fob to match the Quaker Alphabet and, hopefully, I will get both the scissor pocket for the Monthly Finishing Challenge and matching fob finished in the next few days. I then worked for a while on Hannah Beeby until one of my stitching friends called round with a selection of red fabric for the scissor case finishing. I chose four and will make my final decision shortly. Thank you Lynn! The weather forecast is hot and sunny again for tomorrow so you if you fancy "Stitching in the Garden" you are welcome to join me.

Thanks for visiting

Take care 

I have been nominated twice for the above award, firstly by Yuko and secondly by Deb. Thank you to both of you, I am so honoured!

Firstly the Rules:

1  The winner may put the logo on her blog.

2  Put a link to the person you got the award from.

3 Nominate 5 blogs.

4 Put links to the blogs.

5 Leave a message for your nominees.

It is very difficult to chose 5 blogs as I love so many so I am going to nominate some newbie bloggers. It's hard when you first start blogging, few people leave comments, in fact you wonder if anyone out there is actually visiting! So here goes, in no particular order: