It's Nearly Christmas! And the world didnt end!

I have been very naughty and havent posted anything in a while, but I do have good excuses tho: It was my birthday ont he 4th, my son's birthday on the 9th (Little Eddie has turned 3), my nephews Christening and my parents/brother/brothers girlfriend coming to stay with us for Christmas. They arrived on the 15th and my house has been mental since then.

But you will be happy to know I have been stitching and my needles are smoking :)

Finished part 8 of my ATW project. This was quite pleasant apart from the damn lazy daisy stitches. Dont know what the matter with them. It's never quite nice, round or symetric.

ATW80 - Part 8 - Close up

ATW80 - Part 8 - Full piece

Then I had some more done on my House of Needleworker from LHN

LHN - House of Needleworker

And the postman has brought me these stitched ATCs. They are from a birthday exchange group at the Craftbubble community and Im delighted with them. 

I have been naughty and bought lots of threads at 123stitch. Got the email saying they have despatched it already so now is back to stalk my postman!

And last but not least, my little man (cant believe he is 3 already...) and his new hair cut.The crochet blank is from the Henry Bear foundation. He was given it when leaving ICU after a heart surgery 2 years ago. He loves it soo much that I keep it on my couch so we can cuddle while watching tv. Please dont mind my stitch stuff in the background!

Hope you all have a Wonderful Christmas and may God Bless your house.

Cami

Crazy week, Christmas Exchange and RAK

Hello all,

I've had a crazy week.  Don't know if it is the cold weather or the imminence of my 30th birthday (next Tuesday), but it has been very strange

It all started with my hands going very sore on Monday. I suffer from carpal tunnel and sometimes the pain flares up and it goes away after a couple of painkillers. But I think I overdid the previous week (stitching, cleaning the house, laundry, ironing, crochet...)  now i have to deal with it.

First is my House of Needleworker. Im enjoying this sooo much!! And it is coming along nicely. Havent touched since last week but there was a bit done before Monday:

LHN - House of a Needleworker

I've seen this little apron on a craft fair and it really caught my eyes. I thought it was sooo cute. When I got home, off I go look through my fabrics and I remembered I bought some fat quarters with fruits prints. My hubby caught me measuring my bottle of Fairy liquid (i just wanted to make sure I would get it right the first time..) He thought I was going crazy... Anyway, here it is. Doesnt it look cute??

Fairy liquid Bottle - Apron

On Wed, I stalked my post man (literally). Helen from Emerald Isle group emailed me to say she posted my Christmas exchange and it was a registered post. My post man comes around at 8.30am, but I had a hairdresser appointment at 9am (the second time I have been in the hairdresser this the year...) so I went around the house estate looking for him. The depot is not far from my apartment but I was dying to see what she had done for me. It just couldnt wait. Postman now laughs when he sees me and called me Mrs Impatience.

Christmas Exchange - from Helen - Emerald Isle Cross Stitch Group

Then on Thursday, Maud (here) sent me this beautiful pressie. I have been looking at this pattern for a while but the size and amount of threads scares me deeply. I enjoy big projects, but HAEDs projects are not my cuppa. Anyway, I told her one day that if I had to stitch one of their projects, this would be it. And now I have it!!!! Thank you soooo much Maud. Off I go to buy threads now and this will be my 2013 project

Pressie from Maud - HAED filigree Series

Then on Saturday, Angie from Magicas Puntadas (here) has posted she is taking names for her next 2013 SAL. I just love how she place flowers together in one big project. So I have joined in for the Bird Sampler. Isnt it just gorgeous?? I know some of the girls from my local group have done some of her sals before, and I know she is very strict on her rules and how she sends the parts monthly, but I think that for a fee of €3, I might give it a try.

Bird Sampler - Angie Designer pattern - Coprighted - for illustration only

Then it is Sunday (today), and hubby got called into the Barracks for some shooting training and of course he's not coming back til Thursday (maybe...?). So that means spending my birthday by myself. Well, not by myself as I have Edward, my nearly 3yo boy, to keep me company but you know what I mean. The joys of been an army wife!

Since I havent stitched all week, I've decided to read all the books on my bedside table. So far, I read Fifty shades (book 1 and 2) and Im reading a book from August Cury at the same time. I do hope to be back on track this week.

Talk soon

Cami

Finished Ornaments and Cards

Hello all!

First I would like to thank Melissa for awarding my new blog the Liebster Award. It is an honor to have an award in such little time of existence.  THANK YOU!! And thank you to all the new followers. Nice to see the group growing

So... Christmas is just a 4 weeks away. Cant you believe it??? And I need to explain something about me: I dont deal well with the Christmas madness that infects every single person and cause a mayhem in our lives. I just dont do madness. Not that kind at least. Another thing is that I believe that open up your post box and finding a card from a friend instead of the everyday bills makes a day much better and put a big smile on my face

I have been making Christmas Cards throughout the year so I wouldnt have last minute crafting. Same with my tree ornaments. So this week I've decided it was time to get all cards addressed and ready to go to post office when December arrives (Im from Brazil and a good number of cards have a long trip to make, so the earlier the better). I had all inserts printed already and only had to address, sign the cards and write my personal little messages in it. It was quicker than I had expected. And here are a couple of the cards:

 

Last week, while Jenny was stitching her stockings (see previous post) I was cutting cardboard for the stitched ornaments. I managed to cut and attach the wadding in all pieces of cardboard but didn't have time to actually finish it. So this week, it was time. Mounting these ornaments is a new thing for me so I'm trying to learn how to use the trims and how to choose them for each piece. Needless to say I love LHN huh?

And this is the Eskimo from 2 weeks ago. I turned it into a round ornament and not sure where I will put it but I'm love with the twisted cord. I used a Lucet to make the cord. I'm learning how to work with the Lucet and how to make different cables. So far so good

And last thing done this week: Aiveen had offered to give me a hand scrapbooking my wedding album. I had an accident with glue leaking through the album pages (don't ask... I have already cried so much over it...) and now the whole album is done. Thank you so much Aiveen for the dies and paper and Thank you Jenny for getting this organized. I wanted to keep it simple and really just hide the marks but managed to create something nice. Here are a couple of pages:

Thanks for stopping by!

Cami

Busy Busy Week...

I was trying to keep these post weekly but I have done so much on the past week that this is gonna be a long one again. 

Last week Jenny came to visit me. She is into Quilting at the moment, and is dragging me to her new hobby. This is not a complaint and Im enjoying lots learning the new technique but hubby is already moaning about fabrics and pins everywhere. I reckon he will have to learn how to live with it : )

So the first project I've finished is a needle/scissors/bits case. The pattern is from The Stitch Witch and outer fabric used is from Kilbora Quil Shoppe. All bought last RDS show and I just couldn't wait to make it and put all my bits in it.

 The outside of the heart

 Open heart - Still needs to put all accessories in it :)

Second project was my Stocking for Christmas. I bought this pattern/fabric from the Limerick Quilting Centre. The lovely lady at the stall said it was an easy project, not that easy if you are a totally beginner. We did manage to make 4 of them (2 for me and 2 for Jenny) and it was fun trying to add embellishments.  I have decided to leave mine without them, apart from the little square and pearl in one of them (left side one).

Christmas Stockings - Limerick Quilting Centre

 And then I started a new stitching project. It is a LHN pattern called ' Home of a Needleworker (too)' (you can see it here). I had to replace the threads from the pattern as I dont have any Crescent Colour in my stash so Im using Anchor/DMC and Week Dies Threads. This is what I got so far, and I reckon it wont take me too long to finish.

House of a Needleworker (too) - LHN

I guess that's all for now. As I said, busy busy week but got lots done. Ah! On top of all this, I got my Christmas cards nearly all ready to post when December comes. I have been making them all through the year and I'm very pleased I'm not in a rush now to sort them.

Talk soon

Cami

Papillon Part 7 finished

I will start by Thanking you all for all the wonderful messages I got on my first post last week. I've had nearly 200 visits since then and quite a number of followers so far, so a big thank you to all of you!

I've been having a busy week and somehow I managed to stitch quite a lot in my spare time.

I have finished part 7 of the SAL ATW80s. I am enjoying this piece so much. All the new stitches to learn!

So here are the photos:

 Part 7 - Around the World in 80 Stitches

Part 7 close-up

Complete piece

Isnt it a beauty?

Last week, while doing my groceries, I spotted the latest CrossStitcher mag, and even tho I promised myself I wasnt gonna buy anymore magazines until I can clear out my bookshelf, I couldnt resist this one. It's full of Christmas patterns and I just love stitching Christmas ornaments. So after reasoning for hours, I've given up, bought the mag and went straight looking for materials to stitch a small and simple pattern. 

Pattern from CrossStitcher magazine - November/2012 issue

Photo is not doing any justice to the fabric. It is a bright pistachio green and looks gorgeous with the bright blue

And a huge Thank you to my dear Jenny who gave me the felt for the little fish

I am still learning my way around this blog, so please ladies, if you are still having problems to stalk me or can see photos, please let me know and I will try and fix it as soon as I can.

Talk soon

Cami

Here it is my first real post :) It will be a long one because I have 3 projects to share but I promise posts will become smaller and easy to read.

The first photos are from a project started in May/2012 as part of the Yahoo group Emerald Isle SAL. It is a kit I purchased in 2011 at the RDS Knitting and Stitching show and I have hopes that it will be on my kitchen wall before Christmas. I'm no good in framing big pieces like that, so off to the framer next week.

Vervaco 70.480 - Sunflower shelf

Stitched in 14 count white Aida

Size: 14.8'' x 8''

Next photo is my Halloween decoration for this year. The pattern was a freebie from Kit&Bixby (Thank you Jenny for sending me the link). It was a quick stitch and DS loved the pumpkins. I replaced the border orange single stitches for orange beads and it added a bit of bling to it. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry when framing and ended up with fabric a bit off centre. (Mental Note: fix it before boxing it for next year)

Kit&Bixby - Happy Halloween - 2012

(Freebie)

And last but not least: this one is paper-craft related. Last month I saw in the Stampinup online catalog a paper wreath made using their new set of Christmas stamps and dies, and needless to say, I fell in love with it. Big problem is that we cant get their products in Dublin (so far I couldn't find a single rep in this area), so that left me with the internet to search for alternatives. And it was in my destiny to meet this lovely lady last week at the RDS show, who happens to live near me and happens to have bought the Stampinup set while in Belfast last month. We got talking and I asked if by any chance the Sizzix Framelits set would do the same job and she reckoned it should. So off I went to buy the set and give it a try. And here it is the result:

Sizzix Framelits Ornaments#3

White paperstock

Green paperstock

Red Inkstamp

Green Inkstamp

Red Organza

Red Button

I still need to add the ribbon for hanging but couldn't decided in which one to use it. 

So that's all for now. I will have another post soon as I'm very close to finish Part 7 of Papillon Creations -  Around the World  - SAL. This is has been so much fun to stitch, even though I struggle lots with most of the stitches.

Talk soon,

Cami

Soooo.... This is my first post!
Please bare with me while I learn how to do things here...

I have been stitching since my teens and had a dry spell for 4 years and the bug has bitten me hard this time around. My stash grows at a fantastic rate and my projects have become more intricate and my taste for patterns have changed big time.

Will post photos of my most recent projects as soon as I can (again, please bare with me...)

For now, I think I will have a good look around and stalk some other blogs

Talk soon

Cami