Christmas in July

Did you know that LEON Day (Noel spelt backwards) falls on 25th July - and marks the halfway point to Christmas? For some crafters it's time to start thinking about what hand-made stuff they want to make / sell for Christmas. So I decided to do some pre-Christmas planning and reviewing. As a multi-crafter I usually have a few projects on the go and mid-summer is the right time for me to think and plan what I would like to create for Christmas. Lots of projects like cross stitch or knitting stretch over time and require some planning and systematic work so I will have to keep up a good crafting to complete them by December.

This year my Christmas crafting will mean finishing some old projects and trying a couple of new ones. Perhaps you remember me knitting all 55 Scandinavian Christmas balls by Arne and Carlos. Well, this year I would like to knit some more and they are going to make an Advent calendar. There are 24 balls to knit. I'm going to embellish them with some ribbons, little bells and hand-stitched cross stitch tags with numbers so they look like a calendar. I've already knitted two advent calendar balls that need stuffing. 22 to go :)

Next on the agenda is this beautiful festive sampler I started last year. There's still much stitching to go ahead and I'm looking forward to finishing it. It's going to look splendid with all that sparkly silver thread. Stitching it on a dark background slows it a bit though but it's worth in the end.

And finally the 3rd project to finish off is "Nordic Holiday" from The Prairie Schooler. 4 tiles stitched,  another 5 to go :) I'm really loving these primitive folk motifs The Prairie Schooler treats us to every year. 

So much for the UFO's (reads: UnFinished Objects). Now onto the shopping bit :) As a part of preparation of Christmas crafting, I've treated myself to some new cross stitch patterns I spotted online. Looks like JBW Designs released some new Scandi-style patterns. I'm hoping to lay my hand on them too!

Oh, and of course I still have the two sets of cross stitch cards from the previous year to make. That's my Christmas cards 2015 sorted :)

And here are my new Prairie Schooler charts I've bought this month. They came all the way from the USA. I've fancied these charts for a while and I'm dying to start them. The Reindeer Roundup and the Sleepy Christmas Village will have to wait for their turn though...

... because I'm so in love with this pattern - Evergreen. This is the newest release from The Prairie Schooler. I loved it this instant and I rushed to the shops to get my own copy. I also managed to buy a nice piece of sage-coloured linen in preparation for the project. Really looking forward to starting this one! Excited! :D

Evergreen is a beautiful collection of 9 festive tiles, each different, yet all coordinated in style and colours. You also get two extra tiles to stitch separately as add-ons. The genius of The Prairie Schooler designs is that details are achieved just by simple cross stitches, minimal backstitch and with only few colours of stranded cotton. Perfect for me! :) Roll on Christmas!

If you also like to think about Christmas in the middle of a hot summer, do tell me about. I'd love to hear about you future festive plans and preparations. 

Cheerio x

Martha

Spring Sampler (4) Almost there!

Hi all. I haven't blogged here for a while. Sorry for being silent and not visiting your blogs, I'll be trying to catch up with you over the next days. Too many things have been occupying my mind recently that my focus of attention has shifted away from blogging towards priorities. But now it's summer! It's holiday! It's time to craft and enjoy the sunny days of freedom and this is exactly what I am doing right now. It's my second day of holiday as the Welsh schools broke up for summer on the 18th July. So let's enjoy!

Currently I am still working on my Spring sampler (the design from the Riverdrift House company) and I am trying to finish it off as soon as I can as we are already in summer! 

This is what it looked like a few days back with still a "small" quarter to go. 

Today I worked hard to finish off this sampler as I've got a new summery one waiting in queue to be stitched :) So today my working station looked like this: plenty of charts, needles, threads and cold drinks on the side...

Almost there! The spring sampler is virtually finished. In the meantime this is happening :) 

Excited!!! Love the new hot summery colours! More photos tomorrow :) Will keep on posting! 

Cheerio! x 

iStitch2 - cross stitch design software

Inspired by the samplers and the sampler cards by the Riverdrift House company I bought sometime ago and the works of my favourite cross stitch designer Karen Brittan (known for her Nordic designs and often featured in Cross Stitch Gold magazine) I thought I should try my hand at designing my own cross stitch patterns for cards and samplers. For that reason after some thinking and searching on the internet, I treated myself to a professional licensed cross stitch design software - iStitch2 - authored by the embroidery guru Jane Greenoff. It's the newest version of iStitch, released in November 2013 and it's full of features. 

The packet with the software arrived at my place last Monday. I found it on the stairs after coming back from work and I got really excited so I had to try out straight away :) I have no designing experience whatsoever and this is my first cross stitch design software so I will be building up my designing skills from scratch. There's plenty to discover and learn about this cross stitch program.

These are the features iStitch 2 offers:

It has also got all shade cards from all the leading stranded cotton producers to meet your stitching preferences. For the past few days I've been clicking and unclicking to make my first small designs :) It's great fun!

My first random cross stitch doodles look like this: just a collection of odd mini cross stitch designs. I have had a go at making tiny beach huts and attempted to create a folky reindeer that could be stitched on a Christmas card as a central motif.

Then I abandoned my doodling and started creating all sorts of borders and patterns for samplers. Lots of them to include the Scandinavian features. Cute, little and simple to stitch - this is my guideline.
The first half of the sampler strip looks like this:
(All the motifs below are 100% mine without any sort of influence.)

The second part of the design looks like this:
The ladybirds and the flowers right above them have been borrowed from the iStitch 2 motif library :) On the  right side you can see my "doodle" before I put a design into a sampler line :)

I'm really enjoying creating my own designs and altering those from the stitch library. I'm planning a set of my own sampler cards for Christmas! Fingers crossed there will be enough time not only to design but also to stitch them! 

Hope all of you are enjoying this nice long bank holiday weekend. Over here in North Wales the weather has been spoiling us today! I'm on my half term break so also hoping for some craftiness! 

Spring Sampler (3) and some cross stitch goodies :)

Monday 5th of May - bank holiday here, in the UK. Aaaah! So nice to have one extra day off which I'm going to spend mostly tiding up but hopefully will find some time in the evening to do some crafting. Currently I'm working on my Spring Sampler from Riverdrift House. I haven't shown my progress on this piece of cross stitch for a while so here it is! Half way done. I think the colours are emerging very nicely on the fabric. Now I can see that aida is getting a bit grubby now and it looks like a gentle wash will be needed when all has been stitched. The cotton thread inlcuded in this kit is Anchor. I never use Anchor threads, so I hope the colours won't run in the wash. Does anybody use Anchor threads and has ever had any problems of this sort? Please let me know. 

I just love stitching samplers - they are always a nice collection of various little "characters", motifs and decorative frames so you just don't get bored stitching them. I am much better with small cross stitch projects rather than the big ones - I get bored quickly and lose my will to keep on stitching. I need frequent changes and vibrant colours to keep me going. I tend to put a project away and then it is very likely to turn into a so-called long-term UFO - an UnFinished Object. I usually come back to it after a while :)

This design comes from Riverdrift House - a UK-based company that designs many other lovely samplers. Amanda, the owner of Riverdrift House promised me (and others too, I suppose) to design the remaining three seasons in a similar style - SUMMER, SPRING and WINTER. I did ask her to include some nice wording in them. I'm really looking forward to seeing them. Actually the Summer Sampler is on sale now and I shall be buying it soon! :))) Check her blog and the Facebook page for more sampler updates and you can post a photo of your progress too! 

Speaking of the Riverdrift House designs, I have done quite a big crafty shopping recently so have a peek at what treasures I've got! :)))) They arrived very quickly just before Easter. Blissss! I purchased 4 card making sets and a set with a frame. All cross stitch motifs. I really love those mini-samplers for cards. Perfect for me!

Here are the sets I ordered:

The royal themed card set. Full of regal symbols, red, white, blue and gold for splendor. Perfect for the British people who are royalists or for someone who is fascinated by the Britishness and the Royals :)

The Love set: this one is super sweet. I love the wording, I love the font and I love the choice of colours. The cards can be given both as Valentines or as birthday ones. Really looking forward to stitching those!

The Christmas kit no.1 I love this combination of white, red and blue with some beige. The motifs have some sort of a folky twist to them, which is what I just love. Another one to look forward to!

Christmas card kit no.2 - this one is my favourite in the entire collection. My regular blog readers will know that I love all things Scandinavian and anything with Norwegian stars, reindeer, Nordic folky hearts, christmas trees and snowflakes captures my heart straight away. I can't wait to lay my hands on this set! :)

The last set of cards to stitch is the Spring / Easter set: fresh, cheery, full of daffodils, hyacinths, bunnies, and spring branches. Easter may be over now but still there are some spring cards to be stitched :) I think I'll start with this kit first very soon. I live in North Wales where a daffodil is a national symbol so this card kit just blends nicely with the overall Welsh theme :)

And the last but not least is this gorgeous white Scandi-looking heart frame with a Home Sweet Home design in it. So pretty! So keen on this one. Not sure when I'm gonna stitch this one as with such a choice I really find it difficult to decide myself! 

Well, anyway with some new cross stitch kits in my cupboard, I'd better get a move on with my Spring sampler. I've already been looking on the web to find a nice frame for it. What colour would you suggest? I have had a white one on my mind.

Linking up to Hand-made Monday tonight - the blog hop no.166! Do join in :) There is also a newly created facebook group under the same name as the blog: Handmade Harbour where you can meet other crafters and chat about your blog and crafts. Check us out too!

Spring Sampler (2) Yarn shopping.

Hi all. Spring is coming on nicely... well at least on my cross stitching frame :) Here's is my progress. I'd say it's about 1/3 done by now. I'm going to stitch the upper part now and then finish with the bottom of the project. I'm really enjoying stitching this sampler and I'm lovin' how the font came out too. 

In 3 days Welsh schools break up for a weekly half-term break. This means the whole week and actually 9 consecutive days of crafting bliss :) I'm soooo looking forward to this free time and I'm hoping to make even more progress with my sampler. In the meantime I ordered another Riverdrift House sampler to stitch. I've kept my eye on this Easter sampler for a while now. I've missed stitching with some pastel colours. 

With the Valentine's Day last Friday and all things nice to celebrate, last Saturday I treated myself to a big crafty shopping :-)))) Finally this gorgeous set of circus font stamps is mine, mine, mine!!! :D

This set can be teamed with a complementary set of cutting dies, which arrived at my place today! :D I can't wait to lay my hands on this set. Naturally, I couldn't miss the shelves with yarn:

Some mercerized cotton in energizing colours: Wendy Supreme:

Sirdar Simply Recycled yarn

 more of Freedom Sincere organic cotton:

Some Sublime Egyptian cotton - never had one so wanted to have a go at this type of yarn:

and all the yarn "loot" together :)

in Lidl, again, I found the remaining orange cotton yarn and a set of dpn:

All these vibrant spring colours inspire me to try some projects for home like coasters, mug hugs, mats, Easter chicks, floral garlands etc. Hopefully I'll find some time to have a go at them. 

Now a good news for all nutty knitters who love all sorts of fonts and words: This gorgeous new book Knit the Alphabet by Claire Garland is hitting the shops at the end of March. I've already pre-ordered my copy on Amazon and I'm awaiting it impatiently :) I have a feeling it will be a big hit in the world of crafty books, just like Knit 55 Christmas Balls by Arne & Carlos.

And to finish off, a few photos of my little furry not-so-patient model - Cookie. I was trying to photograph him on the windowsill but he kept catching the strap of my camera and chewing on it. His attitude towards the cat modelling didn't help at all! Just see for yourselves :)

He can be naughty but he's a totally sweet and adorable little bugger <3

Spring Sampler (1)

Hi. Hope you all had a good weekend. It was quiet and quite cosy here. The dreariness and the coldness of the February days have made me long for something warmer, cheery, full of life. Now that Christmas season is gone, I am looking forward to spring. So alongside with my crochet, I've started cross stitching a spring sampler from Riverdrift House.

What I like about this kit is the compilation of various springy elements in cheery colours, the stitches are only full and there's no backstitch so the sampler should be pretty quick to stitch. 

A close-up of how it should turn out.

With a glass of wine next to me, I was stitching all Saturday and Sunday evening and this is what it looks like right now:

I love working on the fonts in this sampler and stitching every little character featured in the sampler is a single little joy too :) The finished piece should measure about 25 cm x 25 cm.

The rainy Saturday was all about being cosy and warm. We had a long lie-in in bed and my little furry buddy, Cookie, was enjoying that lazy morning with me :))) He's such a lovely fella (Oh, by the way, have I mentioned that initially SHE turned out eventually to be HE? A real tomcat boy! The name - Cookie -  remained.)

"He is soooo your cat", my bf often says. He hangs around me most of the time. He always seeks for me to play with him, he waits for me on the stairs when I get back in from work and he is my personal morning wake-up call assistant hovering over me when it's time to get up for work. He talks to me, he meows back and absolutely adores being in the centre of attention. He is always full of beans.

So we both enjoyed that morning together. Purring kitty on your lap is such a calming moment of the day. I always treasure it.

Currently on my reading shelf is this novel: Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell. I just started reading it and already I'm finding it whimsical, even sensuous as the author is good at creating moods through the description of the simple everyday things. There's some sort of illusive peace and serenity in this book alongside with a scorching heatwave that makes people behave a little bit strangely...

I don't know how the book will develop. I'm dying to find out soon! :) Now back to my cross stitch sampler.

Joining up Hand-made Monday no.154 tonight. Do join in!

Woohoo!

Last week the Amazon shop made my day - they had emailed me about the new book of Arne and Carlos being on pre-order and released sooner than I expected. I was delighted at the opportunity of not having to wait until February 2013 for the English version of "the Easter project book". A few days later this fabulous book arrived at my doorstep! Woohooo! So long and impatiently awaited and finally mine! 

Voile! Easter Knits. Eggs, Bunnies and Chicks - with a fabulous twist by Arne & Carlos - famous Scandinavian knitwear designers and authors of knitted balls. 

 

And this is what you can find inside the book - knitted Easter balls, eggs, bunnies, cosies and chicks. All fresh, vibrant with colours and bringing freshness and joy to your spring house. I shall surely be knitting those Easter balls and eggs away as soon as the Christmas season is over :))) Can't wait!!!

Oh! I can't wait to knit those eggs!

Isn't that tree with Easter balls and eggs great? :)

On the Christmas frontline - I'm obviously working on my next few Christmas balls and the Nordic stocking sampler. A new line of cross stitch has been added - the line with the birds ...

... and I started to stitch the new line of Christmas trees.

Now, the bottom part of the stocking is starting to emerge.. Still plenty to go!

Back to my knitting. Hope your weekend is going well. x x x

ps. Welcome my new likers :)