Gifted Gorgeousness & TUSAL - December

Hello my friends,

Here's my TUSAL for December. I know, I'm late, but as it's the end of the year and I have collected quite a few ends from this month's stitching of "Butterfly" and "Stitch by Stitch", gathered in my mini thread catcher, I sooooo wanted to join in!

It really looks as if some sewing has been going on here!

But, I guess ..... come January we start a new jar?

If you haven't heard about TUSAL pop over to Daffycat's for all the gen, and if you would like to join in ..... now is the time to let her know ..... ready for 2018! Go on, what are you waiting for!

"GIFTED GORGEOUSNESS" 

..... a monthly link party run by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. We can link up each month from the 15th until the end of the month. If you would like to find out more and maybe join up go HERE!

I nearly forgot to say "Butterfly" and "Stitch by Stitch" were both gifts I've received ..... and, as such, qualifies them for Gifted Gorgeousness - read all about who's joining in with GG HERE (on Jo's blog).

"Butterfly"

..... has taken a long while to stitch as its been my "travel stitching" this year, and our journeys have not been very long, but hopefully it should be finished any day now!

"Stitch by Stitch"

..... looking back I haven't blogged about this one since July, when our big cat "Tom" decided he was going to claim my lap to sit on each evening. Well, he tired of that idea and I've bought new lamps for evening stitching and its gone from this .....

Stitch by Stitch

to this .....

It's only a quarter of the picture and actually I've started another quarter of the picture already, but don't have any photos yet.

Just before Christmas I received a very sweet gift from my blogging friend Benta, of SLIKstitches: a very handy scissor fob (just the right colour for my new purple scissors and a bag with a really appropriate quilt saying. In case you don’t know Benta, she’s really handy with her sewing machine and embroiders lots of badges for people, apart from the wonderful crafts that she teaches. You might not be able to see very clearly in my photo but the panel was stitched on with a very neat sewing machine buttonhole stitch.

There was also a lovely card enclosed ..... a picture of a quilt Benta had made. Thank you again, Benta!

Thank you all for visiting me this year. I look forward to your continuing visits, and to visiting you too in 2018!

I'll take this opportunity of wishing all of you a Very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Take care out there!

Hugs,

Barbara xxxx

Bag It - 3 entries

Hello my friends,

Thank you everyone for all your lovely comments on my most recent posts ..... I will be replying as soon as possible, but I wanted to quickly enter this post for Bag It, then I will be back to visiting. Soooo ..... Many apologies for my delay in reading/commenting, but I haven’t forgotten you!

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I am rather late but hoping to enter these Mini Thread Catchers (about 2 1/2" high) and Tissue Cover at Patty's "Bag It" party. They were all made in October, therefore within the “Bag It” timescale.

I wrote about them HERE.

However, maybe you would like to make yourself a Mini Thread Catcher? You can read how to make one HERE, or THIS version has more pictures.

Or if you would like to make Tissue Holders read HERE - the quick version, or HERE for the neater finish which only takes fractionally longer to make!

Any queries, don’t hesitate to let me know. If you don’t want to comment on the blog, you could always email me. Email address in RH margin.

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Thank you Patty for holding your “Bag It” competition. It’s been great fun, and a super opportunity to meet likeminded bloggers!

Happy Christmas everybody!
Hugs,
Barbara xxx

Day 12 of Jo's On-Line Advent Calendar Blog Hop - 2017

Every year "Jo who can't think of a clever nickname" holds a seasonal blog hop, and this year a "few" of us are joining her for .....

Jo's Online Advent Calendar!

However, some of you may not know Jo, so let me explain:

Jo's blog, Serendipitous Stitching, is all about Cross Stitch ..... in a big way! Pop over to have a look ..... later, (she has links to freebie cross stitch patterns too, so if you think you would like to cross stitch take a peek at the files in her header!).

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Soooo ...... here is my Day 12 .....

As in previous years, Jo has asked us to display a piece of Christmas stitching .....

When I picked up my Goldwork piece again recently I found I had lost my meticulously written instructions, but I was able to check with our tutor at my Handicraft group for guidance. For more info on starting Goldwork follow this link. You can see here where I left my stitching last December.

After speaking to our tutor I was able to continue stitching right up to last night to finish. I couldn't take photos then ..... and now, although it's  frosty, it's a brilliantly sunny day ...... just right for photos!

I really meant to be finished well before today, but things didn't go according to plan! Maybe they will next year!?!

It was very hard to take a clear photo, showing all the aspects of the Goldwork!

The little circles were tricky at first, but
once I knew what I was doing, it was quite fun!

Another view because the light reflected
on the Goldwork better here!

and now, to answer the second question from Jo: "What are your plans and traditions for Boxing Day?"

We don't really have any great family tradition, but I remember that, before I married, when I lived with my parents, we used to have my Mum's Mum come to visit one day and my father's parents would come the next day ..... not that they didn't get on or anything, it was just the way it was!

My Mum and her Mum (Nan) used to make: Christmas Pudding, Christmas cake, mince pies, sausage rolls, and Dundee cake, as well as the main meal of roast turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing and “all the trimmings”. There was so much food it kept us going for weeks afterwards ..... I think it was really so Mum didn't have to cook over Christmas! Tee hee!

There was lots of TV viewing, of course, and card playing ..... we played Newmarket too, Jo! and, as kiddies, it was such fun winning all the pennies, and lots of other board games ..... oh and, Cluedo too!

These days Christmas is a lot quieter! My mum and sister come to visit over both days and we have a Vegetarian Christmas lunch, and then play cards, or possibly Rummikub this year (using my new Game Piece Bag which you may have seen on the previous post!).

Boxing day was pretty much more of the same.

That's about all I can say I'm afraid, so thank you for stopping by today, and now, if you haven’t already visited, here's the link to:

Jo's Online Advent Calendar!

Many thanks Jo, for all your work organising us all again this Christmas.

Tell me, what Christmas traditions do you have?

Wishing you all a Very Happy Christmas,

Hugs from Barbara xxx

And tomorrow it's Christine of  "The Alchemist's Study" 

Friday Night with Friends / Bag It / Finish It Up Friday

Last night I was stitching with Cheryll (of Gone Stitchin') and friends as part of "Friday Night with Friends", and stitched the finishing touches to this Game Piece Bag:

While writing I'm taking this opportunity to link to Patty's (Elm Street Quilts) "Bag It" competition, oh, and as this is also a "finish" I'm linking to Amanda Jean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) for "Finish It Up Friday".

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I'm so pleased that I treated myself to a new quilting ruler a few weeks ago!

The old one had had a nasty accident ..... a long time ago ..... I finally decided I couldn't put up with not having that corner any more - can you imagine how awkward it's been every time I've gone to start cutting my fabric and realised there's not enough ruler there  ..... and how does it always end up that the broken side is the one I'm using !!!!

Anyway, I didn't really look too closely when I bought this new one, I was more interested in the fat quarters I couldn't resist ..... it's a ruler for goodness sake ..... but, silly me, until now I hadn't realised how much clearer the numbers were! It's so much easier to use.

The new ruler helped me cut the fabric so much quicker, and the pattern was so easy to put together. I used Patty's Game Piece Pattern - here!

And by Friday night .... all I had left to do was to stitch those horrid ends in, and stitch the turning gap closed. Thank goodness for my Easy Threading Needle.

This morning Mitzy just had to help with the final photo-shoot! 

I was really pleased with the finish,
especially as my stitching matched up beautifully

Thank goodness Mitzy soon decided she had found a great new place for a rest and I was able to carry on with my photos! She's not allowed to lay on this tablecloth very often!

I am so pleased with this bag and can certainly recommend it! It's just the right size for all the Rummikub tiles, and will work really well during a game as you can pull the cords a little tighter and a hand can go in and take a tile without anyone being able to see the tiles.

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I hope you have enjoyed your visit here today, and that you will have a little time to pop over and visit these links, and see what is going on! They are all great fun, and there is a lot of amazing stitching to see!

Thank you to Cheryll, Patty and Amanda Jean for hosting your link ups!

Linking to:  "Friday Night with Friends" / "Bag It" /  "Finish It Up Friday"

Thank you for visiting everyone. I hope you will come back and visit again.

Happy stitching!

Hugs,
Barbara xxx