Show and tell . (Lots)

Well ,after not much at all to blog about , I now have lots to catch up on ,lol .
 First off, I received a lovely e-mail from Marilyn , to let me know that she had received her giveaway package , and she likes it , thankfully . Then , Sharon posted on her blog that she had received hers , so just waiting for Lynns' to arrive and we're all sorted.
 This is what I sent to Marilyn :

 And this one was for Sharon .

I had to order the charts and wait for them to arrive , so it took a wee while .
 I will show what I sent to Lynn  when she has received it.

 Secondly , it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago , and the lovely Bekca of the Stitching Lion had chosen me to receive her birthday RAK for September . Look at the lovely goodies she sent me .

 There were also a couple of packets of sweets. but they disappeared with my Daughter ,lol .
I also got a new kit for my birthday from my lovely hubby .

 It is much prettier than this photo shows, I can't seem to get the colours right at the moment. I mostly got money for my birthday , hence the debate on the lap stand. I'm still undecided ,lol .

 And , this is what I was up to most of yesterday .
 My Daughters' friend asked me ages ago to stitch her a Pokemon , and this is the one she chose. I finally got round to making it into a little pillow for her ,and as it was her birthday yesterday, wrapped it up and gave it to her .

 I'm quite pleased with it , and my hidden closing seams are getting better .

  Also made up the cushion covers for my two . They chose the fabrics themselves , but didn't know I was doing them yesterday , so got a nice surprise this morning . It took me ages last night to sew on the closing snaps.

Almost lastly, progress on Calm Seas .

 I have almost finished this cliff , only two more and the beach to go ,lol .

 Notice my needle minder in the top right corner ? I was browsing around wilkos and spotted these .
 I wouldn't use them for bookmarks , but they are perfect for needle minders .

They hold the needle really well ,

and are strong enough to hold scissors too.

 I like them so much , I went back and bought some more to share , so I'm going to have a little competition .

 If you would like the chance to win some of these fab little magnets, leave me a comment on this post only, telling me how many projects you have on the go right now. I mean projects that you are actually working on , not just things lying around .
 This is open to followers only ,though new ones are welcome to join in too . I'll leave it open until the end of the month , so feel free to comment until the 31st October , and I'll let you know who wins sometime after that .
 If you are still reading , thank you , it's a very long post ,lol .

 Thanks for dropping by ,
 Cath

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Hope everyone has a wonderful year filled with love , fun and stitches .

First , I'd like to thank everyone for the lovely comments on my Dads' sampler . I am looking forward to stitching it , but have decided not to rush into it . I want to get Dandy Dreams finished first , I think . I don't like having too many things on the go at once , and already have WIPs ,but I'll go into that later.

I am not doing the Crazy challenge or anything like that , it would totally do my head in to have new starts every day for 15 days , even if they were small . To all those who are doing it though , I really admire you .

A quick re-cap on 2010 .

I finished 97 stitched pieces , 65 of which were squares for charity and 32 my own . Of my own projects , there was one big (Chicken Run) , 7 small-medium (the main one being Moon Struck) and the rest were all smalls.

I also stitched and stuffed a few teddies and had a go at crochet .

And , I read 89 books .

My last three stitches of the year are :

My last three Digimon characters . I have really enjoyed stitching these , but glad to have a break for a while. Thanks again Dawn for the charts .

Actually ,the last one was finished this morning , but I'm counting it as a 2010 finish so I can start with a clean slate.

I don't do resolutions , but I have a few aims and wishes for this year .

My aims are to stitch my Dads' sampler and complete my WIPs ,

Dandy Dreams

Christmas Recipe , started 2009 but I stopped stitching when my cousin was killed and didn't get back into it . I think I may fit his initials in somewhere discreet . And Three Little Maids , never been shown on this blog before . Started either early 2009 or late 2008 . Will be finished 2011 . Also, just realised I never showed my other stitch from the JCS mag

I made it into a little cushion, but I'm not totally happy with it , so may stitch it again , we'll see .

My wishes are to stitch

Bent Creeks' Hen and at least one of the Rows ,

LK ABC lessons

McDonald's Maple Leaf

Flamingos

And to at least start one of my L&L charts. There are lots more , but I'm trying not to be too optimistic , lol , and of course , some of these may not happen .

I'm also hoping to do more stitched cards and ornies and maybe some more individual exchanges with different people , so if anyone is interested in exchanging with me , please let me know .

Thanks for dropping by ,

Cath