Tiny Tapestry

In my Stitch magazine that arrived during the run-up to Christmas there was an article and instructions for some lovely little tapestry brooches. Needless to say despite meaning to have a go at them I didn't actually get around to doing anything about it until now.

Turns out they are such fun to do and might even be addictive! The brooch on the left is stitched with tapestry wool that I had on hand and the one on the right is stitched with stranded cotton that was also on hand.

 They were so quick to do that I might just have got carried away and kept stitching!

The stitching on the left is more tapestry wool whilst the one on the right is a combination of hand-dyed stranded cotton and cotton knitting wool.

I bought the canvas squares and brooch findings from Tina Francis Tapestry and with another 3 squares of canvas waiting to be stitched I think I will definitely be going back for more brooch findings.

Tina is also one of the giveaway sponsors for this years Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Link Party, so if you would like to try your hand at these cute brooches be sure to link up in April. Of course if you can't wait until then check out Tina's kits here

The Link Party fun kicks off on Monday so be sure to check back then when there will be a chance to win a great giveaway prize for one lucky linker and a new Christmas home decoration tutorial to add to the Ho, Ho, Ho archives.

Grab this year's button and be ready to link up :)

Linking up to

Crafting Away

Last month I signed up for my first IG swap, the #outlandercraftswap. The swappers are a bunch of very talented and highly diverse crafters, so it has been great fun following all of the makes that are being crafted.

Having been a big fan of the Outlander books for several years and now (at long last!) able to watch the TV series on Amazon Prime, I have definitely been inspired to stretch my crafting muscles :)

So far, I have completed two of my planned projects for the swap.

First up,

A purple linen Dumpling pouch (free pattern available here) I love making these pouches and thought that the fabric pattern was almost thistle-like so fitted the Scottish theme of the book. That may just be me invoking artistic licence though :)

My second project definitely adheres to the Scottish theme, what could be more Scottish than kilt pins and tartan ?? You can no doubt see why I was drawn to this swap :)

The main male character in the book is, Jamie Fraser, so when I found Fraser tartan ribbon at EllieMagpie I knew that I needed to buy some! Naturally, being mostly set in the Highlands of Scotland in 1743, nearly all of the main characters sport kilts, so the kilt pin was a no-brainer too:) I am willing to admit to a bit of bias here, but I think a man in a kilt is a hard sight to beat! Sorry, I digress!!

I had seen something similar to the book page charm in a jewellery magazine a couple of years ago and had always wanted to give it a go. Not wanting to rip up my own well-thumbed copies of the Outlander books, I was delighted when I came across a copy of one of the books in the series in a secondhand book shop in France recently, which I had no compunction about tearing apart.


Some appropriate charms from my favourite charm seller on Etsy, Nicole de Bruin and I was all set.

I am delighted with how the brooch turned out and hope that my swap partner is delighted too, although she has been worryingly quiet throughout the swap, so perhaps she is not quite as pleased as I am!

One more project to go and my swap package should be ready to send out.

Linking up to  Crazy Mom Quilts