Home of a Needleworker

I really loved stitching this piece.  I stitched it on 16 count ivory Aida using DMC threads.

Home of a Needleworker by Little House Needleworks.  I got the pattern in the UK from The Patchwork Rabbit.

There was just something very satisfying about this pattern.  Even the borders weren't as bad as I thought they would be, in fact they stitched up pretty quickly.

Now I just have to find a nice way of displaying it - my usual problem!

Love, Liz

My vintage linen stash

I didn't realise I had so much vintage linen!

I was clearing out my fabric stash so that I knew exactly what I had which would be useful for finishing off my cross stitch projects when I came across all my vintage linen mixed amongst it!

Over the years I just picked up pretty little bits and pieces as I came across them.  It is a bit of a shock to see them all together.

I picked out some of the prettiest to show you today.  Many of these will have been hand embroidered.

I love them all and it is actually quite nice to see them all piled up together.

Happy Friday.

Love, Liz

Autumn already?

Of course it's not autumn (unless of course you are in Australia) - "Autumn in the Village" is the name of my latest cross stitch finish.  The pattern is by Vinniey P S Tan for Cottage Garden Samplings.

I love stitching houses, so this was perfect for me.

I used DMC threads but changed the colour in the numbers down the side, thought the beige would look to insipid on the fabric I had chosen (18 count rustico aida in oatmeal).  Think I did the right thing.

Love it!  Now just have to decide how to frame it ... hmmmm!

Best bit about finishing a project is that I can now decide which of my other lovely new patterns I can make a start on!!!!!  Yeah!!!!

Had any new starts or finishes this week?

Love, Liz

Castle on the coast

Had a wonderful day out on Thursday.  We went down the coast to Ayr, but stopped off at Portencross, a place I had never been before.  It is only a small hamlet, but has a beautiful little castle perched right on the shores of the Firth of Clyde.

It was the perfect day for a visit.  The sun was shining and the waters of the tiny harbour were calm and clear.

Portencross Castle was closed when we visited, (check out Portencross Castle website for opening times), but just wandering around outside was very atmospheric. 

The red sandstone looks fantastic in this light.  You can see the weathering caused by the salt air and sea spray.

The Friends of Portencross Castle have a fabulous website where you can find out all about the history of the castle and the ongoing work to keep it accessible to the public.  What a great job groups of people like this do for their local history and environment.  They have lots of photographs of the interior of the castle too.

You can read the fascinating history of the castle here.  It really was a very romantic spot ... in the sunshine!  Although if the weather was different, I can imagine the atmosphere would be a whole lot different!

We then travelled on to Ayr and wandered around the shops and had a lovely meal out before returning home.  A great day out.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Love, Liz

Those were the days my friend

I was rummaging through my old FAB 208 Annual from 1971 for a nostalgia hit!  Oh boy - isn't it amazing to look back - seems like a whole different world.

Love these photographs of Tony Blackburn "at home".  Look at that living room unit - my Mum had one of those.  In fact we had one when we were first married - I thought I was so trendy!

The kitchen - wow to the floral canisters! 

Another page features some of those who were famous at the time.  Doesn't Sandie Shaw look gorgeous in that photo!

Ah well, that was a fun break, but now - back to the cross stitch!

Love, Liz

Tidying up - a little!

I've been looking for something to keep all my cross stitch patterns and bits and pieces in and I found this gorgeous thing!  It looks a bit like one of those old fashioned contraptions which you put on the back of your front door to stop letters falling on the floor.  It is ideal for my purposes.

It also fits in with the decor in my living room, so I can have it on display.  All the stuff that's in it was previously in a pile - very messy looking!  With this I can find what I'm looking for easily.

So, it keeps my Cross Country Stitching magazines from the 90s, my "thread that I'm not using at the moment" box and my shiny new patterns.  Had to add a little ceramic heart to brighten it (and me) up a little!

I got it at Dunelm Mill, they had a letter rack to go with it - tempted, but this is enough for now.

Hope you are having a great Friday.  I plan to get some stitching done this afternoon - all being well.

Love, Liz

Welcome home

Another final cross stitch finish over the weekend - Welcome Home by Country Cottage Needleworks.  Stitched on 16 count aida fabric on my frozen raspberry dyed fabric.

Not sure if that was the right fabric to use.  Think it would have been better on pure white.  Anyway it is done now so I'll just have to live with it!  My red dotty vintage teacup matches well.

I loved stitching the little red house - so cute!   Don't know why I like stitching houses so much, perhaps because they are so straight and the stitches are easy to count.  I've just started a new stitching - this time on 18 count aida.  Oh my gosh! It's been a while since I stitched on that and I struggled at first - it was tiny!  My eyesight aint what it used to be!

Hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend.  Back to reality now!

Love, Liz

Cross stitch cushion

After probably 20 years of good intentions, I've finally finished off this cross stitch! 

All that had to be done was the back-stitching - oh my goodness, it took me about 8 hours!  But I was determined to get it done so that I could use the frame it had been on for the last 20 years.

I even blogged about finishing it in January 2016!  Thought that might have spurred me on - oh no! 

So once I had finished the awful back-stitching, I decided that I had to do something with the piece.  Since it was quite large, I decided to make it into a cushion.  That's been my project for the last three days.  Vowed I would not start a new cross stitch until I had completed this one!  So, a final finish - at long last!   (Yippee - I can start a new cross stitch!)

Is it just me, or have you got a project that you've put off finishing?

Love, Liz

God Speed Greenock

I think of all my recent cross stitch work, this is the one I am most proud of.  The minute I saw this pattern - The Shores of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings, I knew I wanted to stitch the sailing ship in the middle portion of the pattern. 

The ship reminded me of old pictures of my home town when it was not only full of sailing ships loading and unloading cargoes from all over the world, but also of the fact that wooden sailing ships were actually built here in Greenock.

I added Greenock's old motto - "God Speed Greenock".  There's a stained glass window in our municipal buildings in Greenock which depicts the motto under a wonderful sailing ship.  Hope I've done Greenock justice with my effort.  (You can read a bit more about Greenock's motto here on my other blog.)

I found it a great piece to cross stitch and really enjoyed working on it.  I outlined the sails on each mast and then it was just a case of  mindlessly filling in the unpatterned ones - I didn't have to think too much about that part of it.  The patterned sails were a bit more complicated.

I have another reason for wanting to stitch this.  My great grandfather was a sailmaker back in late 19th century.  He sailed all over the world and died in a terrible storm at sea.  You can read his story here.  I thought of him a lot as I was stitching.

So, I decided to just simply frame this piece, I thought it looked like an old stitched sampler.  I tea dyed the fabric myself and I think it adds to the look of the picture. 
Yes, I'm definitely proud of this one!

Love, Liz

Vintage Greenock knitting patterns

I absolutely love vintage knitting patterns and have lots which belonged to my Mum who was an avid knitter.  I don't think I had a shop-bought jumper until I was a teenager!

These patterns are extra special because they call for Greenock wool.  My hometown once had woollen mills thus the reason for the name.

The expressions on some of the models faces is just fabulous, I often wonder what they were thinking as they posed in their lovely woollies!

This picture really made me smile!  I just wonder what the older boy told the younger one!!!!!

Perhaps I should have a caption contest!

I have another post about vintage patterns here.

Love, Liz