Ta-Dah!!

 Im very excited to show my finished Jacquie magic needle book from Faby Reilly's stitch a long! Sewing it together was tricky but it was definitely worth the effort. The first photo shows all the components sewn together,

before attaching the last piece where the blue pins are to turn it into a 'magic' needle case.  I must admit it was only ten stitches but very fiddly!

I learnt a lot doing this project, but the instructions from Faby were excellent as was the support via the Facebook page.  I'm looking forward to her next stitch a long!

I've also been working on my cotton and twine winter cross stitch.

This afternoon for slow Sunday stitching I am going to start my 2021 Christmas hanging heart.  I've been making one of these every year since 2014!  Hopefully next week I will be able to show a finished heart (well maybe that's a bit ambitious, but at least started!)  

Hop on over to Kathy's blog and see what everyone else is working on today.

 

Cross stitch

 Its been another busy week but I have done some cross stitch. This one can only be worked on during the day but progress is being made!

In the evenings its easier to work on Aida rather than linen so this week I started on a cotton and twine subscription box that has been sitting around for a while.  This is Winter and will complete the four seasons.  It doesn't need to be done until January though. I decorate with Christmas projects during December so plenty of time to finish this!

Tomorrow I will link up with Kathy for some slow Sunday stitching.

We managed a walk at Kingston Lacy, a lovely National Trust garden this week and the autumn colours were stunning.  So I will sign off with some pictures!

Little Sisters and Jacquie needle case

 I finally managed to get the binding on the 'Little Sister' table topper.  Just don't look too closely at the corners (because they aren't right angled corners I had a real job getting them flat!)

Tomorrow Faby Reilly publishes the last part in the Jacquie magic needle case stitch a long, so I had to get a bit of a wiggle on to get the first part completed.  The four felt pads are stitched together along with the cross stitch/embroidery words.  They are whip stitched together using the blue outline around each piece.  I must admit it's a bit fiddley but the end result looks so good - smooth and neat!  The coloured pins were also placed in very precise places and I understand its important to get the colours in the right place to make assembling easier (I will let you know if easy is the right word to use!)

Today for slow Sunday stitching I will pick up Ambers little cross stitch and add a few more crosses!  Have a lovely Sunday!

Little Sisters table topper

 Ten days ago I set myself the task of quilting one Little Sister block every day.  I am happy to say I met my target and I even managed to quilt the four joining triangles!

The skirt of each Little Sister is stitched slightly different - all straight lines and using the perle 8 or 12 thread so the stitches are rather large in some cases but I actually like that look.  I've added a photo of the back but its even harder to see the quilting I think. I added the larger International Sister block because I knew it would probably sit in my box of UFOs for ever if I didn't use it!

Yesterday I went through my batik fabrics looking for a suitable binding and couldn't find the right one.  Then remembered years (and I do mean years) ago Faye gave me a jelly roll of brown batiks for Christmas.  I made it up into a quilt top but it just didn't work - not enough contrast.

Its hard to see but the border has a thin bright green fabric between each square and I thought that might make an interesting binding so yesterday I set to and started to un assemble the flimsy. But I think its going to be too bulky and maybe too fussy for the binding so I will use the brown batik instead.  So today for slow Sunday stitching I will sew that on and then hand stitch the binding down.  Hopefully next Sunday I will have a finish to show!