Lovely (handmade) gifts

Just at the end of 2014 I received a lovely package full of goodies, including this wonderful hand stitched brooch my friend Sami made for me! I'm wearing it today but thought this old book was a better backdrop for a photo than my wrinkled cardigan. It wasn't a swap technically as both me & Sami just (without knowing we were planning to) sent each other a few goodies around Christmas time. :)

I don't do many swaps anymore as they always stress me out a bit but I had much fun with the &Stitches Bloggers Secret Santa swap. Rebecca sent me an amazing package with a fabulous pouch (Polar Bear from Sophie's fab Stitch the Halls book!) and a very pretty pieced mug rug (a.k.a glass of white wine rug). Rebecca's package also included lots of different M & M varieties, which my daughters loved. Over here you can only buy the chocolate and peanut M & M s.... Rebecca has a post featuring the whole loot on her blog!

I sent a Moomin Snorkmaiden drawstring bag with goodies to Julie. I adapted one of the Sublime Stitching Moomin patterns to make it look more winter-y.

My bestie Caroline went to Japan and brought me heaps & heaps of fabric, including this super cute animal print. No idea what the owl is on about but I'm sure it's something nice. :)

My Trip to London

I had a great time in London last weekend! After dropping off my suitcase at the hotel Friday morning I headed to Earl's Court which was the Tube station nearest to my hotel. Since I read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere I can never view the London Underground in the same way again and many of the Tube Stations and the famous 'Mind the Gap' phrase have a special connotation to me now. If you like (urban) science fiction than you should definitely check it out, especially if you are traveling to London.

Anyway, I was meeting my friend Sami at Earl's Court and we went on a quest to find Shaukat Fabrics. A store that is supposed to be like an Aladdin's Cave of Liberty Fabrics, some even say bargains can be found there. Well there was a lot of Liberty Fabric there, that's for sure, a bit overwhelming actually! I was really excited when I found the stacks of remnant fabrics. Sami and I went through the stack where all pieces cost 1 pound each, and I dug up a really lovely fabric (the white with flowers). The 2 and 5 pound stack was more impressive and there's where I found the other fabrics. The larger pieces were about a quarter of a metre and cost 5 pound. Reasonably priced but not exactly super-bargains.

Later that day Sami and I met up with Sophie (of What Delilah Did) and we went to see an interesting exhibition called 'Making Colour' in the National Gallery. After that we sat in a park (not sure which one) and talked lots, because that's something you do in parks rather than museums. :) We also managed to squeeze in a quick visit to Liberty where I found this fabulous patchwork deer. Saturday I went to the &Stitches Picnic in Hyde Park and I wrote a little bit about that on the &Stitches blog yesterday. I had quite a lot of time for myself on Sunday and visited the Victoria & Albert Museum where I saw some beautiful embroidered garments and textiles. Especially the Chinese Silk Embroideries were very impressive. 

I received some fabulous gift over the weekend like these two pendants. The one on the left was made by Sami in her signature blackwork-on-Liberty- fabric-style. The one on the right was stitched by Sophie (from &Stitches) and the odd thing was that the motif almost exactly matched that of the dress I was wearing on the day she gave me the pendant! 

It was great to spend a few days in one of my favourite cities again and I felt very lucky to have such wonderful company during my time in London. Thanks friends!

p.s. I totally forgot to mention Pigeon Steve-with-the-Leaf who joined us at the &Stitches picnic. Definitely will write about him in the future as I'm planning to embroider a Steve the Pigeon Portrait :)

This week

For some reason a whole week went by without blogging. There were happy occasions at home (birthday parties!) to prepare and recover from. Sad happenings in the news to ponder about... So this is a bit of a hotch potch post about my small crafty news from this week.

I finally got round to updating my Princess and the Pea Sampler PDF pattern. The previous version dated from 2010 and since then I somewhat improved my PDF making and computer drawing skills.  Find the updated pattern here! I have a whole new pattern in the works by the way, it's one of my loveliest yet (at least I think so) and I hope to bring it to the shop before the end of this month.

I continued work on my Blackwork try out piece. After a shaky (and wonky) start I kind of got the hang of stitching that diamond shape. The whole composition is a bit static and not really refined like this impressive blackwork Whale's tail but you have to start somewhere, right? Also, I'm tempted to use other colours than black. Back in the 17th century it was not uncommon to use other colours than black either! This lovely piece by Sami Teasdale shows how you can get all creative (and colorful) with this traditional technique.

Kingfisher by Sami Teasdale

Find more fabulous pieces on Sami's blog Teasemade. I picked up some new blackwork tips from another recent addition to my Stitchy library called the Stitch Bible by Kate Haxell. I haven't properly read through the whole book yet (it also covers other techniques like Crewel and Hardanger) but found the instructions and diagrams in the blackwork section really useful. And soon I need to make room on the shelf because Sami is actually going to send me this book about Blackwork, as she had two copies. How sweet is that?

Ok that's all from me this week. Hope you all have a great weekend. :)