Biscornu and Booties

This is my very first biscornu although making one has been on my to-do list for a while. The chart is available free at Lenkas designs here. I love the way it has turned out and am sure it won't be my last.

Also a pair of baby booties I recently crocheted for a competition. I was lucky enough to win first prize. The pattern was in Let's Get Crafting: Crochet Special 2009 and I added some vintage buttons and spotted ribbons.

Stitcher's Showcase Spring Exchange

Here are the goodies I received in the post yesterday from Elisa as part of the Stitcher's Showcase Spring Exchange. I love the design, it is so cute. Thank you so much Elisa and for enclosing the fabric and scissors too.

The Greek Islands

My favourite holiday destination is the Greek Islands and to remind me of my visits I have stitched these designs.

The two postcard designs were published in a back issue of The World of Cross Stitching magazine and the larger was a kit from Heritage Stitchcraft.

I also have friends who live in Crete and I made this scrapbook page of their gorgeous dogs for my dogs album. Now, when it is cold and snowy here I can look at these and imagine I am back there.

Stitcher's Showcase SAL 2010

I have been making good progress on my 2010 SAL on Stitcher's Showcase. I couldn't decide which colours to use, had thought perhaps burgundy on pink but as I am dedicating 2010 to destashing, eventually opted for Wildflowers thread in Night Sky on 32 count pale blue linen which I already had in my stash.

Happy Valentine's Day

With all my crafty hobbies I hardly ever have time for rubber stamping even though I enjoy it. When one of my local shops were selling all their rubber stamps for 99p I couldn't help picking up a few. This is the card I made using two of them, they are both from the docrafts range.

Goldwork Box

As part of the year long embroidery course I attended, one assignment was to design a goldwork piece and make up into a box. This is my finished project. The course was held at a local college near my home and covered lots of embroidery techniques including stumpwork, blackwork, hardanger, dying fabric and threads and designing your own projects. It was great fun and I learnt a lot.

Pirate Dog

With all my crafty hobbies I hardly ever have time for scrapbooking, I really must do more this year. This is the last scrapbook page I created and it shows one of my Airdale Terriers, Wilberforce, at a doggy fun day last summer. I made the pirate outfit he is wearing for the fancy dress competition. He came second which was o.k. as my other dog, Archie, came first.

Crochet Projects

I have always loved crochet and learnt when I was about 10 years old - I didn't learn to knit until I was 18. Here are two of my recent projects. The bag pattern is from the book Vintage Crochet by Susan Cropper who owns the wonderful Loop Woolshop in London.

The second project, Beehive Pincushion is from the Crochet Pattern a Day Calendar 2009. I have had the calendars as Christmas presents for the last few years but this is the first time I have ever made anything from them. These can also count as destashing projects as all the materials, including the bag lining and handles, came from my stash.

The Lion and the Unicorn

Finished my Lion and Unicorn design I started in January. The kit was from Wessex Designs and while it was quick and easy to stitch they were very mean with the threads. I run out of one colour before the end and had to find a substitute which wasn't a perfect match and there was very little of the other colours left when I finished. I had this kit in my stash for a long time (over 10 years) and while I like it a lot I would be reluctant to purchase another of their kits because I'd worry about running out of threads again.
Think I will probably make this into a cushion but as I have some other designs I want to make into cushions it may take me a while to get around to it.