Mini Cross Stitch

I love cross stitch but so far I have found that I don't have the patience for the bigger pieces so stick to small patterns that are fairly easy to complete.

I have a friend who is completely crazy about birds, she loves them and anything to do with them so when I saw a cross stitch of a little chick with a worm in my local craft shop a few weeks ago I bought it straight away.

I managed to complete the whole cross stitch in about 4 hours which I don't think is too bad for a beginner. I haven't decided what I am going to do with the cross stitch yet I want to make it into either a cool pressie or card for my bird crazy friend. I will have to get my thinking cap on.

Sewing Box

I have been working on a little needlecraft project, I am only part way finished so going to do a separate post on it in the next few days, keep your eyes peeled.

So today's post is just a a quick one showing off my fab sewing box. It was a present for xmas and its great all my sewing stuff is super organized in it and its really pretty.

The first section of the box is filled with tools, needles, a few buttons and sewing machine accessories. The second layer as you can see is a bit of an Aladdin's cave filled with cross stitch kits, embroidery thread, basic thread, wool, knitting needles a bit of everything really.

Although I am not the neatest needleworker I really enjoy making different sewing projects and trying to master different things. I prefer to sew on my sewing machine then hand sew but I think some of the effects you can get with hand sewing are definitely worth the extra effort. So keep your eyes peeled for my exciting new needlework project that should be finished in the next couple of days.

First foray into card making

As I said in my about me section I am new to this whole craft thing. I decided to get started by trying to make my own Christmas cards. It is something I have always considered doing because I think people can really appreciate the effort that goes into making a card rather then buying one.

I decided to make my first card by cross stitching one of the small christmas kits that are available from Hobby craft for about £1.50. The cross stitching was fairly simple, I did a GCSE in textiles and it all seemed to come back to me. The cross stitching took me about a week on and off between work and was an excellent diversion on the train to work, although I think my fellow passengers thought I was a bit odd - but oh well.

Once I had finished the cross stitching I wasn't really sure about how to make it into a card so decided to go with something simple and cut an aperture out of some colored card, glued the cross stitch in and added a sticker sentiment to the front. It looked a bit plain after this so I decided to add a pipe cleaner round the edge of the aperture. Not entirely happy with the design think it looks a bit too handmade but for a first attempt I suppose it's not bad.