More Cross Stitch

I just thought I would give you a little update on my cross stitching seeing as I haven’t done so for a little while.

The first bit of news is that I can now reveal what the secret project was that I mentioned back in April.

I seem to have become part of a stitching circle (if you can call three of us a circle) with my good friends Sharon and Nicki. We all met on the forum at Crafts By Carolyn and have become the best of friend, so much so that I’m going out to Switzerland to visit Nicki at the start of August, but I digress.

Hazel, the person who our surprise was for was also a member of the forum and I have to say, she is one of the loveliest people I have ever met.
Earlier in the year I was reading her blog and read that her husband’s guide dog Josey had to be returned to the association because John had been quite ill and was no longer using her enough to warrant still having her. Although she was a working dog she was still a pet to them and part of their family so how Hazel and John coped with handing her back I will never know.
It made me feel so sad to read about it all that I decided that I wanted to do something to cheer the two of them up a bit, so I spoke to Sharon and Nicki they both agreed it would be wonderful to make something for them.

We had loads of discussions on the designs for the panels as well as the verses we were going to put on each cushion and then we finally got down to some stitching, Sharon doing the panel for John and myself doing Hazels.

John's (Stitched by Sharon)
Hazel's (Stitched by me)
When we had finished the stitching the panels were sent out to Nicki and she made them up for us. She thinks of everything does Nicki, even down to how John will be able to tell which cushion is his even though he's unable to see them. She came up with the great solution of adding buttons and fringing to John’s cushion and on Hazels it was little flowers and piping.

Cushions (made by Nicki)



So that was them finished.
The first that Hazel knew about any of this was when she received an email from me telling her that there was a surprise on it’s way. In a day or two she would receive a card from me but under no circumstance was she to open it until the parcel arrived as well.
Our intention was that she should read my card which explained why we had made them and then in the parcel with the cushions Nicki had made another card to explain the differences in the cushions.

So there you have it….. three ladies who enjoyed every minute spent on this little project and hopefully Hazel and John resting comfy on their new cushions, which incidentally match their room perfectly……how lucky was that!

Another thing I’ve been working on is a Birthstone Fairy for SOLAK

She’s part of a stitch-a-long, that’s were twelve people all work on a set of charts and stitch on the same material. Then when all twelve squares are finished they are made up into a quilt which is auctioned to raise money for the charity.
For some reason this little fairy had been missed and a message was put up on the board asking for a volunteer who didn’t mind stitching on evenweave fabric so I gave a shout and before I knew it the material and chart were on their way to me. The other reason I offered to stitch her was because she is the Sapphire Fairy which just happens to me my birthstone!
Here she is…….isn’t she cute!

Last but not least is another charity project that Nicki asked if I would like to be involved with. It’s all to do with children this time and the charity Kids Company, who help kids with all sorts of problems.

Nicki has started to make cushions for some of the kid who have nothing to call their own so when she asked if I would like to help out I jumped at the chance.
I’m working on my first panel at the moment so it’s still a work in progress.