Black Tie Boogie - Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Blog Hop, and Happy Thanksgiving if you are reading this in the US.

If you are new here welcome, take your time and have a look around I am delighted to have you visit my little corner of blogland.

As ever, thanks to Madame Samm, the Blog Hop supremo and Vickie, our very patient cheerleader, we would have been lost without you!

Here are the other creative Blog Hoppers sharing their projects today. 

November 28

Celtic Thistle Stitches (you are here!)

Crafting 365 Days

Hill Valley Quilter

Thimblemouse & Spouse

When Madame Samm announced that the subject of this Blog Hop was Roosters, well I was hooked! It was only when I started planning my project for this Blog Hop that I realised just quite how many Roosters I have around the house :)


There are cross-stitched Roosters,

stuffed and painted Roosters

more painted Roosters and a quilted Rooster!

The quilted Rooster cushion was my first ever attempt at hand-quilting and was completed as part of an evening class in Patchwork and Quilting that I went to about 7 years ago. I am delighted to see that my tentative hand quilting has stood the test of time (so far, anyway!).

After tossing ideas back and forth, always the hardest bit of the Blog Hop as far as I am concerned. I eventually decided to make another Rooster cushion. This time, however, I wanted to try something a bit different.

And here he is, my latest Rooster cushion!

The main cushion fabric is called Postcard and was another fabric from the lovely people at Terry's Fabrics

I downloaded the Rooster image from the Graphics Fairy website. If you haven't come across the website it is definitely worth a look, there are over 4,000 free vintage images available for download, as well as lots of hints and tips on how to use the images in crafting. It is a real treasure trove.

The original image was a bit too colourful for the background fabric, and for the effect I wanted to achieve,  so I toned down the colours before reversing the image and printing it out on Transfer Artist Paper. The printed image transferred perfectly to the Postcard fabric, and produced exactly the effect that I had hoped for, which definitely makes a pleasant change :)

For the back I found a card of black embossed buttons bought at the haberdashery stall in a French market this summer. Some black and cream checkerboard fabric piping was the finishing touch.
 
I have enough of the background fabric left to make another cushion, so I might just be on the lookout for a hen image to give my Rooster some female company :)

Thanks for dropping by today it has been nice to "meet" you.

Making Christmas - Week 7

Aren't the weeks flying past at the minute, or is that just me? Anyhow it is about time that I had a look to see how much, if any, progress I have made on my Christmas list.

Sadly not very much progress has been made, although thanks to a fortuitous win and some happy mail, there is potential for more progress soon!

I was lucky enough to win a $50 gift voucher from the Sew Sisters fabric shop in the OctoberQuest2 prize draw. It may be down to the fact that they are based in Canada, but they had the perfect fabric for the pyjama trousers that I am planning to make for my youngest son.

He has a moose sticker on the back of his car, which makes it very easy to find in the car park, and loves everything moose-related so it must have taken me all of 5 minutes to spend the voucher. I have no idea how the Wishes charm pack managed to "fall" into the basket too :)

Said son will be away this weekend, so I am planning on tackling the pyjamas whilst he is gone. Having never sewn clothes before, I am keeping everything crossed that it all works out as planned!

I have also pulled the fabric for the BBQ apron and oven mitt, so will, hopefully, get started on these soon too.

These need to be posted for Christmas, so I really would like to get them done and dusted and in the post before the Christmas rush. One memorable year our parcel to them didn't arrive until January, and even then had completely different presents inside, so I have been very wary of sending parcels late in December ever since!
 

So here is how my list is looking now

• A Christmas Table Runner for our new dining table MADE
• Two Pleated Pouches to fill with make-up/nail polishes for my daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be
• Two One Liberty and linen jewellery roll for my sister-in-law
• One Triple Zip pouch for my sister-in-law MADE
• A Knotwork Christmas cushion - for me!
• A Fairytale Cushion for my grandniece using one of Quiet Play's Happily Ever After paper-pieced patterns
• Homemade chutney for my brother and son MADE
• Homemade relish for my brother MADE
• More dishwasher vodka!
• Biscuits for cheese for my brother 
• Meat rub, BBQ apron and oven glove for my b-in-law - fabric pulled!
• Pyjama trousers for my youngest son - fabric received!

I hope you have been making more progress than I have, and if you are stuck for a quick gift check out Nat's great tutorial on turning a knitted jumper into a cross-stitch cushion, it is genius :)


Link up your Making Christmas progress this week and check out everyone else's progress (or lack of!) with Nat at Made in Home 

The link up for November's New to Me is open until November 30th, so if you have tried something new this month link it up here


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Happy Mail

There has been some decidely happy mail heading my way recently.

First up was this lovely block from Nicky, for the Star of Africa Bee.

I asked my Bee Mates to make a block on the theme of houses, and Nicky came up with this wonderful representation of Eilean Donan Castle for me. Didn't she do a fantastic job on this block? The Castle sits at a point in Scotland where three sea lochs meet, and I think Nicky has captured the iconic image so well. The Celtic Knotwork pincushion was an added treat! Thanks Nicky.

I have at least one more block to make for the Star of Africa Bee and this has spurred me on to knuckle down and get the block done, hopefully, before the year ends.

Another happy parcel arrived this morning and unlike the Bee block, this one was a complete surprise!

Now isn't that a nice package to receive out of the blue!

Ages ago I posted about this seagull cushion that I had made for a Blog Hop.

In the comments, Pam at Threading My Way mentioned that her relative would love a cushion like this, so when I discovered that I had accidentally bought the cushion pattern twice, well it made perfect sense to send the spare copy to Pam.

I thought no more about it, until the package arrived this morning with a note from Pam telling me that she hoped to have finished her cushion by the time the package arrived!

Thanks Pam, the Australian soap smells gorgeous and the sewing-themed fabric will be perfect for a project for my (almost) revamped sewing room :)

I have also had some happy e-mail too, when I was the lucky winner of the Giant Chevron quilt pattern by the Elven Garden, in Jen's recent giveaway. Jen made a wonderful red, white and blue solid version of the Giant Chevron quilt, and Jess has some beautiful versions of her pattern on her blog here This is, apparently, Jess's first pattern release and if this is anything to go by she is definitely one to watch :)

Hope you are getting more than just bills through the post too!


If you are looking for the November New to Me link up you will find it here

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