kerrykatiecakes

I have picked up a few books lately and wanted to share some information about this one.  Basically, I love it! There is a large section on bead embroidery stitches, including 15 counted thread stitches as well as 11 bead embroidery stitches.  As you would expect from the Royal School of Needlework, the stitches are beautifully diagrammed and illustrated with clear photographs. There are 12 surface embroidery stitches which will be great for crazy quilt seam treatments and motifs. Also you will find a large section on edging and fringing stitches! There is some lovely eye candy within the book of examples of the various techniques - lots to inspire you! So, I am very happy I bought this one and give it five thumbs up!

I so often see items at the thrift store that I am so sad to see there.  This came in a bag of cross stitch fabric and threads.  Why didn't it get finished?  Why did it end up donated?  Hopefully, someone was just purging their UFOs but there was already so much work and love gone into this piece it just had to come home with me. The pattern is from the eighties as far as I can tell and the project looked to be the same age - the masking tape binding was so brittle it shattered to the touch.  But, I felt compelled to finish the stitching since everything was there. The picture as a whole didn't appeal to me but the individual cats did.  So, once it was finished I decided to cut it apart and made more ATCs to send away.  You can likely see my pencil marks Hopefully these kitties will be enjoyed in their new homes now! I'll keep you posted as I finish these as ATCs.

We,, it`s not stitching but nothing seems to be getting finished to show so here is some cooking so you know I am still alive.  VP, the Vegan Princess, has been home visiting for reading week and so I have been trying to feed her all kinds of goodies.  These vegan sushi rolls are today`s effort.  I am also waiting to open the oven in a hour and see if my rice pudding recipe works with a straight substitution of soy milk for cow milk.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  (and her, lol, she used to love rice pudding)

 I know I am supposed to be stash busting and not stash building but this is not my fault!  The lovely ladies at Crazy Quilting International gifted me with a gift certificate to Flights of Fancy.  What is a girl to do? Of course, once I got on the site and started looking around I found lots more that I wanted and had to throw a few dollars of my own in there.  But I ended up with a lovely box in the mail and can't wait to start using some of these beauties.  Thanks CQI!

 I received another fabric postcard in the mail yesterday.  This one is in the exchange I took part in - mine was the handpainted fabric with the blackwork tree.   The one I received here is from Nancy - thank you Nancy!  It is all beautifully stitched with satin stitch in the background and the trees are very free form and realistic.  I can't wait to take it to guild meeting tomorrow and show it off. I thought since I had been asked about them going through the mail that I would show you the back too.  As you can see, it arrived safely through the postal system unprotected with a stamp and a postmark.  It is a little nerve wracking sending it off "naked" but I think having that postcard on there is worth it!

I still need to do the finishing but the stitching is done on this Susan Portra ornament.  Now, take into account I am just starting to explore canvaswork so make allowances!  And the little cabachon things defeated me completely when it came to getting them lined up but I am hoping it won't be noticeable when the finishing work is done. The kit for this one was another thrift store find - couple bucks - gotta love it.  With my new stash busting regime if I buy it I have to do it so here it is. With my love of all things shiny I have to admit I was drawn to it. There were new stitches to try with this - some I loved, some not so much so. Now the thing is that there is a lot of threads left as well as lots of canvas... so I think I'll try to make another ornament, a variation on the theme, and then there will likely still be threads and canvas left so it will be ATCs from that! I'll keep you posted.

Look what arrived in my mailbox!  Isn't it great?  A friend sent it to me and I just love it.  I will be hanging this up at my desk to remind and inspire me.  These fabric postcards might turn out to be addicting...

I have NOT been a bad and negligent blogger this time around.  This time it was technical problems - I could not access my blog to post - and I had lots to say for a change!  Today's "to-do" list only had two things on it and the first one was to fix things so I could get back into my blog.  And I did it!  Thank you to blogger forum that had the answers I needed.  I'll be back nattering away now...

This is my postcard I have just sent off for the EAC Virtual Threads postcard challenge and exchange. Here is the picture  provided for inspiration in making the postcard  a lovely photo of trees in Alaska taken by Sue Thomas. I started with linen and painted it with watercolour pencils and paints.  I don't paint so I was pretty pleased with myself that it worked as well as it did. I added a blackwork tree as my focal point of the card, using a free pattern from Mary Corbett's Needle n' Threads blog . Lesson learned from this:  it is very difficult to count threads once you have filled up all the holes with paint!  All in all, I am happy with the way it all turned out and will take part in further postcard challenges if I get the chance.