Reindeer Games

As you can see above, I received my Reindeer Games exchange from Lisa on Friday. Lisa said that its an American folk arts design of a reindeer dated from 1666 and she finished it as a no sew cube. It's lovely! She also included great gifts - a reindeer ornie, a reindeer tea towel, threads and cute christmas buttons. I love everything Lisa, thanks so much! I just hope the exchange i sent arrives okay now!

I also reached another milestone with CDC. Ive finished 2 pages now and started the third! Im right back into this again although i need to put it aside to finish Janice's RR which ive embarassingly had far too long.

In pregnany news, i have one month to go and i've finished work!! Woooo Hooooo! Cant tell you how good it feels. Im going in this week but just for a lunch and i plan to attend the Christmas night out but that's hardly work!! So good to have that stress away. I am 36 weeks pregnant now and here's the most recent bump shot taken last week at my baby shower

We picked up our pram yesterday (i love the pram we got) and DH had the job of putting it together. My job was to oversee.....obviously LOL. What can i say? I was tired!!!

Summer House Exchange

I received the most gorgeous summer house exchange from Joan on Saturday. Take a look!My first ever tin! Joan also made me a project bag, a chicken pin cushion and thread drops! And...is if that wasn't enough, a PS Santa with the fabric and floss to stitch it, oh, and some mints too which i notice arent in the picture but that's because DH stole them as soon as i showed him LOLThank-you so much Joan, i love this package you put together for me! It was a great treat to open on Saturday.


Thanks for the awards i received recently! From Lesley
which i will now pass on to the following people

Donna's Daisygirl Stitching
Mercy's Pretty in Pink
Michele's Just another Stitching Blog
Kathy's Sit and Stitch


and from Jessie
which i will now pass on to
Vonna's The Twisted Stitcher
Tanya's At the Honeysuckle Tree
Stephanie's In Stitches
Lesley's Tintock Tap

The sun is out here! Woo hoo! Makes a nice change, July has been pretty disappointing so far but the last week has been warm and sunny! Im hoping to leave work early today to enjoy it whilst it lasts! My friend is cooking dinner tonight for a group of us which should be good.

In pregnancy news ive only been sick once in the last week! Had a midwife appointment on Friday and heard the baby's heartbeat which was nice and reassuring :) 17 weeks now!

Happy Easter

A long weekend at last! What are everyone's plans for Easter? We are enjoying being home this weekend. We have got plans this evening and will be at church tomorrow but that's about it. I hope to (maybe) get some painting done, my bedroom needs refreshed, and DH is putting new taps in the kitchen sink. Nothing like a holiday weekend for some DIY! I had hoped to get some serious running in but ive pulled a muscle in my lower calf and it is sore. I really don't want to stop running as im doing really well fitness wise, but i know i should stop training for a few days until it's better in case i do anymore damage. Very annoying!

So i have a few stitchy pictures to share. First of all Carol received the Tea Time exchange i sent her. I stitched one of Tanya's freebies and finished it as a pincushion.

I am also doing a PS Spring exchange with Anna. I am going to post yours soon Anna! Here is what i received this week from her

The chicken is actually a salt shaker! I love it! Anna thank-you so much! I love everything! So perfect for this time of year.

I started a new piece last night which, when complete, i am going to send to my Quilts for breast Cancer group. They are still looking for stitchers if anyone's interested? Or quilters to piece the stitched pieces together.Yes your eyes aren't deceiving you, i am stitching this on Aida!! It's been a few years since ive used Aida (im not a fan of it) but this group says Aida or Linen and i had some Aida of the exact size so thought i would use it up (then never buy the stuff ever again LOL) This is a design that was in the Gift of Stitching online magazine in September 2007. I am using a variagated pink that i received in a previous exchange.

I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend! The sun is out here and im off to enjoy the day :)

Winter Quaker

I received word from Mindi that she received the pillow i made her for the SBEBB Winter Quaker. I was tempted to keep this for myself and my DH really liked it too but a deadline was approaching and it had to wing its way to Mindi!It is a chart from the Gift of Stitching magazine May 2007 issue. There is a quaker chart for all 4 seasons. I chose my own colours to make it more wintery. I sent her other goodies too but didn't photograph them. Mindi's blog post about my pillow made me laugh. She said that she wants to come and live at my house coz the pillow smelt so good! It wasn't a scented pillow so maybe my house does smell good....you can never really tell what your own house smells like but i notice what other peoples smells like.

I have managed to work on my SAL pieces this week. Here's some progress pics. Firstly of CdCand secondly of Dear DiaryI don't get much time to stitch so progress is always gonna be slow. But progress is progress!

The weather is pretty wild here at the moment. We have gale force winds and snow is forecast. blaa. Luckily i have today off and dont have to go outside until later tonight. Im hoping it will be more settled by then.

Have a good weekend!

Winter House and RR

I received word that Cathy got the package i sent her for the SBEBB Winter House Exchange. I stitched her a CCN chart from JCS 2006 Christmas ornie magazine and finished it as a wee pillow. I sent her other goodies too but i don't have a photo, you can see those on Cathy's blog. Funnily enough, if you read my previous post, you will have seen that Jean stitched this design for me too :)I havent done anything on either of my SAL pieces this week (Cirque des Cercles and Dear Diary) because the little free time i had was spent trying to finish of Lizzy's RR to send on to Lesley tomorrow. I finished my square anyway....Here's the whole piece....Doesn't it look great? Lizzy wanted everyone to stitch a LHN Dear Diary chart. It was working on this RR that made me realise how great all the Dear Diary pieces would look together, hence the SAL with Laura and Vonna!

Had a busy weekend. On Friday night my mum and I went for dinner and then went to the cinema to see PS I love You. The film was okay, not as good as the book. Last night we were out at our friends house. Tonight is the usual sunday night girly get together which we havent had in a good few weeks now. Then its back to work tomorrow :(

Have a good week!

Winter House Exchange received

Just a quick post to show the winter house exchange piece i received from Jean this week. She stitched me this CCN design and finished it as a wee felt backed cushion. She also included fabric, 2 skeins of floss and ribbon. Thanks Jean, everything is so great!

Has everyone seen LHN's new January releases? Go here I love them both but particularly the schoolgirl lessons one.

I have been super busy this week at work. Hope to get caught up on all your blogs at the weekend! Hmmmm the weekend......one more day to go ;-)

Birthday Club and Winter Quaker

I joined the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club and must admit to be slightly panicked when i received someone with a January birthday!! However, all was fine and i managed to get something stitched, finished and sent to Wanda right on time! I read on her blog that she like LHN so i stitched this LHN freebie and finished it as a wee pincushion. I was glad to read that she liked it! I sent Wanda other goodies too which you can see on her blog. Go over and wish her a happy birthday!I received my SBEBB Winter Quaker exchange yesterday from Terry. She stitched me this gorgeous pinkeep (sorry about the horrible lighting, its so dull here through January its hard to get decent pictures)Isnt the backing fabric great?! She also and sent me all these lovely goodies tooThank-you so much Terry! I love everything you sent! Im glad the SBEBB is staying open although im trying not to take part in too many exchanges, i want to make good progress on my wips this year!

Have a good week everyone!

Christmas gifts

I had a lovely Christmas and i hope you all did too. It's been fun reading about how you all celebrated the holiday. It was especially exciting reading Barbara's news! Congratulations again Barbara!

We went to a hotel for our Christmas lunch and it was soooooo nice. To start i had Duck Parfait, then i had soup, then a rack of lamb (with all the trimmings), lots of different puddings and then cheese and biscuits (which i was too full for). I decided not to have the traditional Turkey this year and im glad, the lamb was just amazing!

I got so many great presents this year too. DH did good, he bought me an MP3 player, Felicity season 2 boxset and some CDs. My sister and her DH bought me some perfume that i love and have wanted for ages; Stella McCartney Peony and they gave me a gorgeous hand-made necklace. My mum and dad got me loads of great things, in particular lots of quilting stash - a big cutting board, a new rotary cutter, these books...... and that was just some of their gifts!

My in-laws in Canada had asked me what i wanted and i had given them a big list of floss i don't have. I didn't expect them to get me so many!! It's great because floss is so much cheaper over the Atlantic. I can pay 70p if i was to buy it at a local shop. Online i can get it for about 45p but in Canada it's about 50cents i think, so a much better deal!On to stitchy gifts.....on Christmas eve i was so excited to receive my first exchange gift from the SBEBB. This was for the Specific Designer Exchange. Myrna stitched me this beautiful pinkeepand included so many lovely gifts too. LHN's Necessities Sampler which was on my wishlist, some silkweaver fabric, scissors and lovely fabric. I was spoilt! I can't wait to start the Necessities Sampler :) Myrna, thank-you so much for all these lovely gifts! I was thrilled and it was a great package to receive and open on Christmas eve!I also received this lovely package from my friend Lesley just before Christmas. Lesley stitched me this quaker strawberry from the JCS 2006 ornament issue. So pretty and such lovely finishing!

Lesley was also so kind as to include these charts as well, which i love! Thank-you so much Lesley. I really appreciate you sending me all this. That was lovely of you. Can you tell i love LHN?! I have so many charts in my collection now!Im hoping to get in lots of stitching this holiday! Ive finished the stitching on the piece for the Birthday exchange and also for the SBEBB Winter House exchange. Next, i need to work on the SBEBB Winter quaker and then Lizzy's RR. Then im going to limit myself regarding exchanges so that i can work on some wips/ufos. Im also thinking about a big new start for January.....like Vonna, i have also been inspired by Lizzy's RR that i am currently working on (see here) and im thinking of stitching all of LHN's Dear Diary series onto one big piece of linen. Lizzy's RR looks great already and there's only 2 on at the moment. More on that next time.....

First SBEBB exchange

I received word from Edgar that he had received my SBEBB Specific Designer Exchange piece. I stitched a LHN freebie called Miniature Garden Gameboard and finished it as a pinkeep/hanging ornament.I sent him some other goodies too and i was pleased to hear he liked them! This was my first exchange on the SBEBB and im glad i got Edgar's name!

I worked on CdC this week again for the Snowbirds SAL. We work on this one day a week but obviously as i work full-time, i normally only get a couple of hours in but im pleased with my progress. For those that have asked, im using Vikki Clayton silks called "marque des cercles."

I also have a new start to show. I started my JBW French Country Stocking. Im not sure if it'll be done in time for this Christmas though. Im using DMC115.

Ive enjoyed reading your blogs this week and finding out how you all celebrated Thanksgiving. Obviously we dont have thanksgiving over here. How on earth you all cope with all the preparation for Thanksgiving and then Christmas i dont know....the 2 holidays are so close to each other. The Christmas build up seems crazy over here, months and months of build up. I love Christmas but dont enjoy the 4 month build up in the shops and on TV!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

SBEBB and Sewing Nights

Yesterday i joined the SBEBB (Stitching Blogger Exchange Board) and i am so excited about it! I thought long and hard about whether i'd have time to do it and came to the conclusion that i do, even if that means i'll never stitch anything for myself ever LOL. Today i signed up for my first exchange which will be the "Specific Designer Exchange." The designer chosen is LHN so that suits me just fine seeing as it's one of my favourites and, as you know by now, LHN is the theme of the RR we're doing at the moment. Here's how Donna's is lookingSo i now have to keep a close track of all my deadlines which im going to post in the sidebar to help me keep record.

Thanks for all the comments about the quilting! Im really looking forward to it and for those of you who asked - i will definitely still be stitching! I'm also so excited that one of my friends has really got into sewing these days and has signed up to come to the class with my mum and i. Someone my age who shares my hobby! Yeah!! In fact, last night, we had our first "sewing" night at my house, much to the amusement of our other friends! It was actually only Lori and I stitching, the other 2 watched a dvd and laughed at us. This is me pretending (badly) that i haven't noticed the cameraand here is Lori surrounded by stash boxes!and i'll leave you with this cute picture of Fiona, Lori's little one, wondering what on earth i was doing!