Two Cross-Stitch Kits Finished This Week

I'm continuing my lucky-dip challenge to get through may huge stack of Discovering NeedleCraft series, it actually looks like I have close to 100 issues, so that is nearly 100 kits to do.

The first this week is from Issue 2, the Baby's Wall Hanging.  It uses 18 count aida fabric.
I had to cover some rust marks from the needle which was in the kit and added a few of my own touches.
I will have to put a backing on it and actually make it into a 'hanging' soon.

I don't have any babies in my life, so I made it for Salem as I had never made him one when he was a baby.
He had to wait 13 years!!!!!

The next one I did was from Issue 86, a gorgeous Woodland Fox.
It is on 14 count cream aida fabric and was nice and quick to do.
I have to find a nice frame for it.

The colours are lovely and the black outline really makes this little fox come to life.
It says in the magazine that this is part of a set which includes a badger, a squirrel and a fawn.

I will have to wait to see if those ones come up soon in my lucky-dip.
I have now started on a Robin Pincushion.

Beautiful Blackberries

My finished x-stitch blackberries

I was a very lucky gal and was given at least 75 issues of the Discovering NeedleCraft magazine series from 1993
....... for free!!!!!!!
Each issue has a kit to do so I have decided I am going to do every single one, and so the other day I had a lucky dip and pulled out issue 4.

The pattern

The kit was for a cross-stitch jam pot cover with wild blackberries on 27-count evenweave fabric.
It took me an evening to do and looks very lovely but I didn't have a jam jar wide enough for it to go on.
I'll have to look for a jar wide enough at the supermarket with something yummy in it.

The kit came from this magazine.

So I have started on my next kit which is from issue 2, which is a baby's wall hanging.
I'm doing each kit regardless of what it is.

Since the kits are so old, some of the needles have gone rusty which isn't very nice when the needles are kept in the fabric.  I like it when the needles are in their own wrapper.
But never mind, I can live with a rust mark .....especially when these are free.

Cross-Stitch, Chickens, Carrots and Ballet

Colonial Cottage, Wellington

 My latest cross-stitch project is of one of my favorite places to visit.  The Colonial Cottage in Nairn St in Wellington City. We go there even when the house itself is not open for tours as we just like to spend time sitting in the garden, chatting to the three chickens and Salem loves climbing the big old tree out the back.  It's just like stepping back in time.

My cross stitch version of  Colonial Cottage so far

Tree climbing at the Colonial Cottage

Saying hello to the Chickens

All three chickens came to see us

The latest offering from our garden is this unusal shaped carrot, it looks like some sort of creature as it has two 'eyes'.  Our garden isn't very productive at the moment but we are still getting the occassional strawberry and there are plenty of mandarins, apples, lemons and rhubarb.
Winter is just about here and it is really getting cold and we had frosts two days in a row this week.  Our whole property was white.

Our weird and wonderful carrot

We have had some wonderful news this week..... I applied for a scholarship for Salem for his dancing in March and received a letter on Wednesday saying that Salem has been awarded a Gold Heart Scholarship from Variety - The Children's Charity.  We were over the moon with this news.  The lovely people at Variety will be helping with Salem's dancing expenses.  Thank you Variety and a big thank you to everyone who wrote lovely letters of support for our scholarship application.

Ballet practice

Pantries Update

This is my Pantries sampler, I've still got a bit of work to do on it.

I put it down a while ago as I have had alot of other projects to complete for our market stalls and for selling on-line.  I must get working on it over the holidays.

Autumn and Winter Pantries

I'm very pleased with my progress on my autumn, and now winter pantries.
I still have a little bit to do on the autumn, I have to go through my stash and find the right colours.
The winter pantry is nearly finished.  I love the cat in it.
Then next is Spring.

It is officially Autumn and nearly the end of daylight savings time.  Yay....now I can get the boys to bed at a decent hour as it will be dark nice and early.

Autumn Pantry

Autumn Pantry

This is my latest cross stitch project, the Autumn Pantry, another lovely design by Brooke Nolan from "Brookes Bookes". 
This is one of a series of four, which inclues a pantry for all of the seasons.  I will be doing all four designs on the one project.  Very cool!!!!
Autumn is taking hold over here in New Zealand,  is getting dark earlier and lighter later, cooler at night making it easier for the kids to sleep and not so hot during the day.
I love autumn!!!!!!
When I lived in Wellington city before having my boys, I used to run to work through the Botanical Gardens early in the morning, and in autumn there would be masses of leaves all over the pathways and I just loved running through them.  Leaves would go everywhere and I loved the "crunchy" sound they would make under foot.  Magical!!!!!

I've finished my Winter House!!!!!



The Winter House

 Yay, I've finished my Winter House and am very pleased with it.  It is such a lovely design.
I cross stitched a snowflake in pearl white and then beaded it but it doesn't show up in the photo.  It's in where the poem is.  Looks good in 'real' life.

The poem is from.......

The Garden in Winter

Frosty-white and cold it lies

Underneath the fretful skies;

Snowflakes flutter where the red

Banners of the poppies spread,

And the drifts are wide and deep

Where the lilies fell asleep.

But the sunsets o'er it throw

Flame-like splendor, lucent glow,

And the moonshine makes it gleam

Like a wonderland of dream,

And the sharp winds all the day

Pipe and whistle shrilly gay.

Safe beneath the snowdrifts lie

Rainbow buds of by-and-by;

In the long, sweet days of spring

Music of bluebells shall ring,

And its faintly golden cup

Many a primrose will hold up.

Though the winds are keen and chill

Roses' hearts are beating still,

And the garden tranquilly

Dreams of happy hours to be­

In the summer days of blue

All its dreamings will come true.

By Lucy Maud Montgomery

Tea Shops and Winter Houses

The Winter House so far.

Last night I finished The Winter House and am now working on the border and then can add the poem.  It has been a fun project to work on, can't wait to see the finished result.

Some of our yummy treats

On Saturday it was pouring down with rain (so much for summer) so we decided to go to the local tea shop for a change.  We hadn't been there before.
It is the Cafe and Tea Shop on Rossetta Road in Raumati Beach.

Rossetta Rd Cafe and Tea Shop

It had lovely food, good tea and the staff were really nice.  I don't think it has been open long as different cafe had been there previously.  Salem and I decided it needed more clutter for decoration as it didn't have the homely feel like Martha's Pantry has.  Martha's of course is our all-time favourite.
We had a very nice lunch there.

Winter House progress

The Winter House so far.

I haven't done too badly, making a lot of progress.
I'm really enjoying doing it and am getting impatient as usuall to see the finished product.

Salem is off to Craft Camp tomorrow so I will be sitting over at Martha's Pantry with a pot of tea and a lovely cupcake stitching away.
I must remember to take my scissors as I always keep forgeting them.

Summer House

Summer House

I have just finished stitching this lovely cross stitch design by Brooke Nolan from Brooke's Books.  I've added a border and four lines of a poem which I think goes quite well with this.
I'm quite pleased with the results and will be starting the Winter House in the morning.
I just love Brooke's designs!!!!!!!!

Here is the poem I found to go with the house...........

     Our House

It should be yours, if I could build

The quaint old dwelling I desire,

With books and pictures bravely filled

And chairs beside an open fire,

White-panelled rooms with candles lit--

I lie awake to think of it!

 

A dial for the sunny hours,

A garden of old-fashioned flowers--

Say marigolds and lavender

And mignonette and fever-few,

And Judas-tree and maidenhair

And candytuft and thyme and rue--

All these for you to wander in.

 

A Chinese carp (called Mandarin)

Waving a sluggish silver fin

Deep in the moat: so tame he comes

To lip your fingers offering crumbs.

Tall chimneys, like long listening ears,

White shutters, ivy green and thick,

And walls of ruddy Tudor brick

Grown mellow with the passing years.

 

And windows with small leaded panes,

Broad window-seats for when it rains;

A big blue bowl of pot pourri

And--yes, a Spanish chestnut tree

To coin the autumn's minted gold.

A summer house for drinking tea--

All these (just think!) for you and me.

 

A staircase of the old black wood

Cut in the days of Robin Hood,

And banisters worn smooth as glass

Down which your hand will lightly pass;

A piano with pale yellow keys

For wistful twilight melodies,

And dusty bottles in a bin--

All these for you to revel in!

 

But when? Ah well, until that time

We'll habit in this house of rhyme.

 

1912

Christopher Morley

Cross Stitch from last year.

War!!!!!?????

Tea Time

Going home to Island Bay

These are three of my cross stich projects from last year.  Three of many.........

The first I did for my teenaged son's birthday.  Being a typical teenager, he's into war etc, but this has an Anzac connection eg. the New Zealand flag and the old style Poppy Day poppies.

The second started from a free pattern from the sampler girl which I carried on with to add my own design inspired by our favourite tearoom, Martha's Pantry in Upper Cuba Street in Wellington City.  We go there a lot!!!!!

The third is inspired by where I grew up, Island Bay and the great beach, I spent alot of my childhood there.  I take my own children there now and hope to move back there by the end of this year.  It will be "going home".