Favourite Things Giveaway Winner!

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Heather

I got up bright and early this morning (actually, the little man woke me up at 6-o’yawn in the morning) in order to draw the winner. But first I would like to thank everyone who entered, and everyone who visited my blog this past week. I appreciate all your comments, and I really enjoyed reading about all your favourite things and visiting some new-to-me blogs.

Some of my favourite things

Thanks to the help of Random.org, the winner of all the lovely things you see in the photo above is marlajap!

Thank you again for entering, and I do hope you will continue to visit.

2 Comments | Posted in Site News |

My New Friend

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Heather

I’m not much of a sewist (sewer?), but it is something I’ve been really wanting to work on. However, I’ve often found that I’m lacking the tools that will allow me to do what I want to do. So, over the past year or so I’ve accumulated some fancy feet for my sewing machine (a trusty but simple Kenmore) including a very handy walking foot. But I felt I still needed one toy tool to be able to finish things nicely and to do some complicated things really easily.

So, after some planning, some sacrifices, and maybe a little bit of whinging, here’s what I bought on Friday:

Janome Four-DLG

Isn’t she pretty? Now I can nicely finish seams, do rolled hems, make a ruffle and attach it all in one step, and even nicely finish the edge of my cross stitch fabric (super important). I’d like to get one more foot for it shortly, to make it even more useful. And then, I think, I’m pretty much set for quite a while…

…that is, until  I want a fancier sewing machine… and a cover stitch machine… and one of those $6000 embroidery machines. Yeah, I live in a dream world.

Don’t forget: today at noon Eastern entries for my Favourite Things giveway ends. Head over here to enter.

1 Comment | Posted in Sewing |

Bread?

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Heather

Just to show that I’m not a one-trick pony (or is that four, what with sewing, needlework, knitting and crochet?), I thought I would share with you my latest attempt at baking.

Funny looking bread

Hmmm… well, it sort of looks like bread. It smells like bread, too. And I’ve tasted it, and it’s pretty good. It’s a wee bit dense, but I should be able to adjust the recipe in the future to make lighter… I hope.

The recipe is from [amazon_link id=”0312362919″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day[/amazon_link], and believe me, the bread in the book looks much nicer. I just seem to have trouble baking.  Oh, most of what I make tastes great (I make the world’s best sugar cookies, seriously), but it usually ends up looking weird. For example, it doesn’t rise quite right, or it spreads too much, or ends up lopsided. Thankfully, I’m a pretty good cook, which helps to make up for my deficiencies in the baking department. Sort of…

Don’t forget: tomorrow is the last day to enter my Favourite Things giveaway. Head over here for all the details.

3 Comments | Posted in Crafts |

Giveways – Mine and Other’s

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Heather

Wow, the week sure is speeding by. I’m very nearly done yet another pair of socks (again, not for me), and I’ve even manged to fit in some stitching time, even though I’ve been dealing with a three-year old with a very bad cold.

Don’t forget to head over here and enter my Favourite Things Giveaway. Even if you are a follower of my blog, you still need to leave a comment to let me know you want to be entered into the draw.

Ruth of Ruth’s Running Stitch is also hosting a giveaway. Head over to her blog for a chance to win some great charts, pretty buttons, and some other great things.

And, don’t forget that the Online Needlework Show is running again. There doesn’t seem to be as many doorprize offers or free charts are previous years, but there are some great new designs to look at and add to your wish list. Have you seen the new rose design from Cross Eyed Kat? Fabulous! And the dragon sampler is pretty cool too.

Comments Off on Giveways – Mine and Other’s | Posted in Cross Stitch, Site News |

Size Does Matter

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Heather

I really enjoy crocheting toys. But, since I am a still a fairly new at it, I still run into a lot of problems. One of my biggest issues is keeping track of rows. So, I try to remember to use a marker to mark the first stitch of my round or row.

Crochet with marker

This is an example of one of the projects I’m working on right now, with a marker in the first stitch. When I remember that marker, I’m much more easily able to keep track of where I am.

The other day I ran into a problem I’ve never had before. I’m in the middle of making a bunch of toy sushi pieces for the little man,  from the book [amazon_link id=”0740792601″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Yummi ‘Gurumi[/amazon_link] by Christen Haden and Mariarosa Sala. I’m making eight rice bases for the sushi using Mary Maxim Starlette yarn in colour 106 Natural. But, take a look at these guys:

Uh-oh, those aren't the same size

It seems, somehow, I got my hooks mixed up and did two using a 3.75mm hook and six using a 3.5mm hook. Argh. Crocheting eight of the same thing, in white, is boring enough, but have to do two more because I wasn’t paying attention is just so sad. 🙁

So, lesson learned: don’t leave all my hooks for amigurumi laying around in the bottom of my project bag. It’s just too easy to grab the wrong one. I totally need to make myself one of these.

Don’t forget to enter my Favourite Things Giveaway. Head over here for all the details.

Comments Off on Size Does Matter | Posted in Crochet |

April 2011 Ornament of the Month – Picking Silks

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Heather

Sometimes I feel so spoiled by my stash. I know it isn’t the biggest in the world, but I have grown it with love and attention to what I enjoy working with. Until recently, my stash was seriously lacking in silks, but the addition of some silks from Vicki Clayton (Thanks, Erica!), along with some of her discard packs and some Oops! packs from Dinky Dyes, has given me a rather nice collection of unlabelled silks to pick from.

A pile of silk threads

This is what I have been drawing on for some of my ornaments. It is freeing not to have colour names and numbers to worry about. I’m just picking what is speaking too me, with an eye to things that at least sort of go together. And, if I can’t find the right colour, than I dip into my “good” Dinky Dyes and other silks.

This month’s ornament is Britty Christmas Kitty from Britty Kitty (from the 2005 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue). It calls for Week’s Dye Works and, of course,  I only had one of the colours. So I dug out that mass of silk and poked through it, looking for a gold, a red, two greens and a gray or black. Here’s what I came up with:

Silks for Britty Christmas Kitty

All of them, except the Dinky Dye’s Black Coral, are from that pile of silk.

I love my stash, but I especially love my stash of unlabelled, uncomplicated silks. If I ever had the chance, I would pick a whole pile more!

Do you like silk threads too? Why not enter my Favourite Things Giveaway? Part of the prize is a brand new skein of Dinky Dyes silk in colour Fantasy Blues. Head over here for details.

Comments Off on April 2011 Ornament of the Month – Picking Silks | Posted in Cross Stitch | Tagged ,

Favourite Things Giveaway!

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Heather

Back in December I posted about some of my favourite things. I mean, if a blog isn’t for talking about things you love, than what is it for? And, when you can give away some of those things, isn’t that even better? So, today I am hosting a giveaway for just a few of my favourite things.

Some of my favourite things

The prize package includes a set of four individually wrapped thank you cards from Annabelle’s Art, a detail stuffing tool from PlanetJune (in case you think it is only good for stuffing crocheted and knitting toys, let me assure you that it is fabulous for stuffing biscornus, fobs and ornaments too!), a skein of Fantasy Blues Dinky Dyes silk, a Minor Minion knit by me and designed by Heather Sebastian of Joey’s House (the yarn is Mary Maxim Soft Stripes, a bamboo and nylon blend), and a needle minder made by me using Missy Ann’s tutorial.

To enter:

  1. For one entry, leave a comment below letting me know you’d like to enter and telling me about one of your favourite things. (Maybe your favourite author or book, favourite cross stitch or knitting design, favourite etsy shop, or favourite thing to eat. Just tell me about something you really love and that you would like other people to know about.)
  2. For another entry, become/be a follower (look for the Google Connect widget in the right-side column), and then leave me another comment letting me know you are a follower.
  3. Post about my giveaway on your blog/Facebook/Twitter and then come back and leave another comment for a third entry (and fourth and fifth if you post in more places). Feel free to use my picture. And to make things super easy, you can use the share buttons just below this post to spread the word.

The giveaway will close to entries at noon Eastern time on Sunday, April 17th. I will announce the winner next Monday, April 18th.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you are excited about having a chance to win some of my favourite things.

 

Comments are now closed. I will announce the winner the morning of Monday, April 18th.

36 Comments | Posted in Crafts, Site News | Tagged