December 26, 2016

Just a few days left

I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas. We enjoyed having five of our grandchildren (including spouses) plus our son with us - a lovely family time.

Now there are just a few days left of 2016. That means you have a very short time to download all the blocks from the free Block of the Month design, You Are Blessed. The patterns will be removed when I get up on the 1st January. (I'm an early riser and we're talking Australian time, so don't miss out!)

Of course, I have another free Block of the Month quilt for you for 2017. It is coming together beautifully and I am nearly ready to start quilting it. Look out for the first pattern mid January.

Meanwhile, if you like cute stitcheries, The Mouse House, is now available in my pattern store.


One of my clever grandsons drew up the design for me.



Mr & Mrs Mouse are all set up in their sweet toadstool house.


Happy stitching!
Val


December 11, 2016

Christmas Tree Ornament - free pattern

I have the last of my 2016 free Christmas ornaments for you today - a simple Christmas tree:

I decided to stick to a monochromatic colour scheme so there's plenty of green!


The garlands are in fly-stitch alternating with beads, but of course you could use whatever stitch you wish. You might like to stitch the garlands in red then add red ricrac around the edge, which would look great.



 Whatever way you like to stitch it, I hope you enjoy making it ... and I would love to see a photo of your end product.

The free pattern is in my Craftsy Store here:

While you are in my store, you might like to look at this lovely Christmas cushion. 



The pattern is now available here.

I am well on the way with the 
free Block of the Month pattern 
that I have designed for 2017. I joined my husband in the lounge room for a few hours while the One Day cricket games were on and managed to get two or three of the embroidered panels stitched. 



The bonus was that Australia won all three games over New Zealand!

I thought you would like to hear my story about this Clivea:


Nearly 30 years ago when we were living in a College Community, a friend from Queensland came to one of our Summer Schools. She was an avid gardener and asked could she have a piece of one of the Cliveas that were in the spacious grounds, We gave her permission and didn't think about it ever again! Fast forward to a couple of years ago. We moved to Queensland and our friend came to visit us in our new home, present in hand. The gift was a Clivea plant from that original one we had given her 30 years ago! ... and here it is now flowering in our courtyard! It brings back happy memories of many lovely years in a beautiful location.

Happy stitching!
Val