Simply Stitchy

Finally managed to get some time to sit down and get this one completed!  Now, I just need to find the box that I packed my Lion in when we moved and I might be able to get that finished to! Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, Bye for now Olly

Hi there, This is a Slime.  It's another character from the online game Minecraft.  This one is even easier to make than the Creeper.  It's literally just a cube with a face on it. The Slimes come in different sizes so you can make large ones or small ones.  This one is an 8" square.    Isn't it sweet?  In the game, they bunny hop around the place making a strange sort of slurpy squelchy noise. This one is a birthday present for another of Youngest's friends.  They all seem to be Minecraft potty. Now I'm off to make one for Youngest.  Bye for Now Olly 

Hi there, These slightly strange looking guys are Creepers.  They are the monsters from the online game called Minecraft.   Youngest is a bit of a fan.  She and her friends play it all the time.  Apparently, Creepers are miserable because they don't have any arms so can't hug anyone.  They are so upset by this, that should you get too close to them, they explode!  They give a bit of warning though, they make a strange sssssing sort of noise. Here's one that exploded earlier... not a pretty sight! Youngest decided that a cuddly creeper would be an ideal present for her friend's birthday... so managed to talk me into making one for her - and her friend! I did a bit of research on the trusty internet before I started on this project.  I came across a website called http://www.instructables.com/ which has some hints and tips about how to go about making a creepy... er.. I mean Creeper Plushy. It's fa...

You might remember from my last post on this blog that I was having a bit of a crafty block with nothing going right. Well, I think the block is starting to lift!  Here is my current progress on Winnie the Pooh.   Nearly there! Bye for now Olly

Do you ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go according to plan?  Its Father's day here in the UK and the girls and I decided to take T out for a pub lunch as a bit of a treat.  Unfortunately, everywhere was booked up so we ended up at the local KFC.  That was also full so we used the drive through.  As always, they forgot the milk for the tea, the straws for the cokes, the sugar, the spoons for the coleslaw so we ended up going in anyway to get the missing parts of the order.  Still, at least they remembered the chicken! The weather hasn't been that brilliant so after the KFC, we came back home and T spent the afternoon watching the remake of King Kong.  The girls were busy with homework so I decided to spend some time catching up on some projects. First of all I sat down to so some knitting on a pair of socks that I have been working on.  Well, when I say a pair I mean one sock.  Actually its just the top of the first sock....

I can't believe it's the middle of May already.  It's been a hectic few months and I haven't had much time for doing any stitching. I've recently moved house - again.  That makes twice in a little over a year.  So it's been a busy few months of packing boxes and then unpacking boxes at the other end.  I thought I'd give you a quick update on the stuff I was working on before I moved. My stitching stuff was among the first bits to get packed up so I haven't had a chance to look at any of these since the end of February! First up, my little lion: Last time I worked on this, I was concentrating on filling in the gaps in his body. Next up a half knitted sock: Well, its more like less than a quarter of a sock really.  And lastly,  poor old Winnie The Pooh: I've made no progress whatsoever with him.  I got off to a flying start as its such an easy kit. The bit above only took an evening so I was sure I would have this finished in no time....

My Little lion has moved on in leaps and bounds since my last post.  His head is pretty much done. All I need to do now is the last few remaining bits to fill in on his body, the grasses at the base and the backstitch. Then I just need to decide what to make it into! Bye for now Olly

Winston Churchill once said "give us the tools and we'll finish the job" and he was so right.  Getting stuff done is just so much easier when you have the right tools. I've been working on my Born Free kit by Pollyanna Pickering for a few months now. My main problem was not being able to see the different colours unless it was natural daylight.  Even then, as the lion is being stitched onto 28 count linen, it's a wee bit small to see.    T heard my pleas for help and came to the rescue.  He got me this magnifying glass with built in light for Christmas.  It's amazing the difference it makes.  It means I can now cross stitch in the evenings, at weekends,  in the wee hours of the morning when I can't sleep.  It's brilliant.  Now all I need are more hours in the day! Te he! This is the latest picture of the lion.  Since taking this shot, the lion has progessed even further.  I've done a bit more on the nose, hi...

I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic at heart and decided that this year, instead of buying the usual commercially produced cards and gifts, I'd have a go at making something myself. I've designed this cross stitch chart to be simple and easy to make.  It's free for you to use if you want, as long as its for personal use not commercial.  The stitching measures about 4" x 4" when completed on 14hpi aida, so you will need at least a 6" square of fabric.  Each cross stitch uses two strands of embroidery cotton.   I only used two colours - Red and Black.  A downloadable chart can be found on my Deviant Art page http://fubsnspuds.deviantart.com/ . This is what I made with it: Let me know if you use the chart - leave me a comment.  I'd love to know what you make from it.  Bye for now Olly

I was in need of a bit of retail therapy last week so popped into my local fabric shop for a bit of window shopping on different yarns and some kit-gazing. Kit-gazing is what I call it when I just go in and check out what cross stitch kits are available and which ones I would like to do next.  (I don't buy any T, just look, honest). Anyway, there I was head down in the bargain bucket full to bursting with cross stitch kits, when I overheard a conversation between two women standing next to me. They were also looking at the cross stitch kits and were awe struck at some of the beautifully designed and detailed kits that are available these days. The main problem they had though was having never done counted cross stitch before, they wouldn’t know how or where to start. Oh, I thought, that’s not good. Now, I’ve been cross stitching for years, so it never occurred to me that to anyone one who doesn’t know how, cross stitch kits, especially counted cross stitch kits, can be a bit da...

My sewing box is crammed full with all sorts of odds and ends. Threads for general mending, needles, embroidery skeins, buttons, safety pins, the quilting foot from my sewing machine, rotary cutters, scissors, beads, bits of aida, yarns of wool, knitting needles.  The general bits and bobs that stitchers tend to accumulate over years of crafting.  In fact I've managed to accumulate so much stuff that the first sentence should read "my sewing boxes" as I actually have two. I recently had to empty them both out as I couldn't find my needle threader.  Now, the little red one is a relatively new addition so I sort of knew more or less what was at the bottom of that one.  Not my needle threader unfortunately, only some rather nifty dressmaking pins with hearts on the end and my glow in the dark embroidery skeins. The blue box has been with me for the best part of twenty years so is slightly fuller and the finds at the bottom of that ...