Haunted Houses for Hallowe'en

 I've been doing a bit of Hallowe'en cross stitch - haunted houses!

The first one was from a Waxing Moon Designs pattern - Haunted House Trio.  I just wanted a small one to turn into a little ornament for Hallowe'en.  I missed out the border and word which were in the pattern and just stitched the house.

I also thought it would be good to get a new project bag to keep my Hallowe'en stitching projects in, so I ordered this gorgeous bag from Val at Patchwork Pawprint on Etsy, and it arrived just in time!  I've got some other bags from there and you can see them here.  (I also got a beautiful vintage Christmas bag, but I'll show you that once I start my Christmas stitching.)

I also started this pattern Haunted House Sampler by Twin Peak Primitives (pattern can be bought and downloaded from their website here).  I'm not stitching the border or alphabet - just the spooky house and plants.  This has been a bit of a challenge, but I'm sticking with it and although I don't have it finished for this year, I should be able to put it out on display next year.

I hope you have a spooky Hallowe'en!

Love, Liz

Vintage Robert Burns

It has been a long time since I've been rummaging in charity shops but I found this little dish recently and it just had to come home with me.  It has a cute little picture of Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) on it.  It's by Crown Devon, Fieldings, Stoke on Trent, England.  Isn't it gorgeous!

It also has a quote from one of Burns' more famous poems To A Mouse - "The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley" (go wrong).  So true!

I've put the little dish together with a little cross stitch pillow I stitched last year and a very old book of Burns' poems which belonged to my Granny.  (Find out more about the book here.)The colours just all go together beautifully.

This little dish was certainly worth waiting for!  

Don't forget that Shortbread & Ginger is on Instagram as Scottish Stitcher.

Love, Liz

Beautiful Autumn Colours

I absolutely love the colours of Autumn.  I like to put out some seasonal decor to brighten up my home.

This autumn garland is just perfect for sidplaying around my lovely glass mosaic jar which has some cute fairy lights inside.  Around the base I've added some pine cones to add to the effect.

I also changed my cross stitch spring house in the shadow box to a gorgeous Autumn house.  Love these colours.

The pattern is a freebie from Pinker n Punkin Quilting & Stitching and is called Crow Creek Saltbox. - thanks Melisa!  I love it!  I attached it to the fabric backing of the box frame with two flower pins and then displayed it with a small pumpkin and glass jar.

Enjoy Autumn!

Love, Liz