I’m really excited to see my Enchanted Garden earrings in the new issue 19 of Bead magazine! They’ve done a brilliant job of photographing them, I’m chuffed to bits : )
I meant to post this freebie some time ago but there’s still time to stitch this design for a special Christmas card. For best results stitch it on dark fabric like navy or black and it looks amazing if you add some crystal blending filament to the white! Hope you like it.
>>> Click here to download the chart <<<
Did you know that the Bumblebee Bat is the world’s smallest bat with a wingspan of only 6″, while the Flying Fox is the largest with up to a 6ft wingspan? The little beauties below are made from pewter and only have a 1″ wingspan! I wanted something between the bat and the earwire and after trying out various beads and colours I decided to go for some simple chain maille in Sterling Silver. Bat lovers can wear these all year round, they’re not just for Hallowe’en! They’ll be in my Etsy shop and on my website later on tonight : )
And talking of Hallowe’en, I’ve got a couple of freebie cross stitch designs to share with you today. One is a glowing pumpkin with bats and for those who love something a bit scarier there’s a design of the late great Brandon Lee as The Crow. This has to be stitched on black aida but the finished effect is amazing. I designed and stitched this for my sister several years ago and it still has pride of place on her wall!
>> Click here for the “Brandon Lee” chart <<
>> Click here for the “Happy Halloween” chart <<
Judy Patrick sent me a photo of this fab tote bag with my “A Cross Stitch” design stitched on it. Well done Judy, you’ve done a brilliant job! : )
I thought I would share the new project I’m working on….well actually it’s a very old project! I stitched this set of blackwork pictures many years ago (the patterns are from very early issues of New Stitches) with the intention of framing them. After finishing the 7th I realised I wasn’t going to have the space – or the cash – to frame them all so they just got stored away.
Flash forward to last week when I decided I was going to make a patchwork quilt. I’ve made three quilts in the past, the first about 20 years ago and they’re all still in use and going strong. On one of them I included small panels of cross-stitched flowers amongst the fabric squares and I got the idea that maybe I could do something along the same lines with these blackwork panels.
I was disappointed when I found them, some had gone yellow around the edges which I know would be really hard to remove by handwashing. So I took a deep breath and bunged them in the washing machine! I’ve always washed my cross stitching by hand so I was very nervous about doing this, but they came out fine and at least I now know they’ll survive the machine when the quilt needs a wash!
So now they’re all washed and pressed, step two is to decide on the size of my quilt and work out how much fabric and wadding I’m going to need. Step three is the best part – shopping! I’m going for a black & white colour scheme with maybe a little gold. Ok, enough with the gassing, here are the pictures…..
