Valentine Stitching

Happy Valentine's Day friends!

Sending you all love from my corner of the world.

The temperatures have dipped here again with the lows of -5 deg C.We have ice on the grass and cars though no snow in vicinity.

I wanted to share my latest finish , a valentine gift for hubby.

This pattern has been all over Instagram and is a generous freebie from Primrose Cottage Stitches.

I got inspired by the seasonal displays shared by stitchers over social media and arranged a small display of all heart and love inspired handmade gifts I have received and stitched.

The crochet hearts are gifts from my friends in Kuwait , we used to exchange during our meetups often.

The two small ornaments are freebies from Hands on Design .

You may remember the "Do everything in love" piece I finished in August last year, I had multiple ideas to finish it- a heart shaped frame, stick it on a heart shaped wooden piece or an ornament. I wasn't able to find a heart shaped frame , bought a pink frame but the display space was a bit too tight for the piece to fit. Then I bought a wooden blank heart to stick the piece on it , that didn't work out it either.

Finally finished it this way, always super happy to use laces I have gathered over years.

Hope you have a nice weekend and get some time to do what you love.

Let the People Choose-May Update

Hello Friends,
First Saturday of the month I join Jo for The People's Choice SAL . Jo takes a poll for people to choose a topic for the month and the participants then post about stitchy projects related to that topic.

This month's topic is Fire. Now this is a tricky one- I don't think I have stitched a piece with fire in it. No problem about that, we can interpret the topic of this SAL in our own way. I waited for few people to post about this topic and see what their interpretation is.

Fire is considered holy in Hinduism, religion I follow. Agni, and thus fire, is a symbol used in many Hindu ceremonies that form a rite of passage; births, marriages and funerals.Fire is a source of light and I can't imagine celebrating my favourite festival Diwali without light. Diwali is a festival of lights and we light earthen lamps, candles and these day electric lights to celebrate the festival.I stitched this piece in 2018 :

Free Pattern from Daily Cross Stitch

I have received many hand made Diwali gifts showing Diyas(earthen lamps) over the years.

Gift from Preeti

Gift from Zhraa

Gift from Zhraa

Gift from Tammy

Here are patterns on my wish list showing earthen lamps:

Now,I'm going to check what other have posted for this SAL.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL April 2019 update

Hello Friends,

It's that time of the month when we show what gifts we have been working on or/and what crafty gifts we have received. If you don't know what I'm talking about , check Jo's blog for more info. This is a easy SAL where you have choice to stitch any designer, color or pattern, just that it should be a gift for someone or gift from someone.

Warning :This is a picture heavy post.

If you read my second last post , you know that I'm moving out of Kuwait. I have been showered with gifts from friends here , specially my craft group. I think I have shared over the years that my craft group was a big part of my life here in Kuwait , infact for some years it was the only reason I used to get out of the house on weekends. So obviously , I'm going to miss my craft group the most .

Here are the crafty and handmade gifts I received last month.

Lovely Canadian Chaussette yarn handwoven by Mineville Wool. Gifted by Jody

This tote was gifted to me by friend Rene, who not only made the crochet mandala, painted the other side but also sewed the tote herself.Isn't she super talented? I have never seen such neat fabric painting .

Look at this super gorgeous shawl gifted to me for my birthday by my friend Z.

Am I lucky or what?

Another gift is  Free mag from World Craft Week, I know what you may be thinking, how do I manage to score all these free mags 😛

I haven't been crafting for obvious reasons , however I made some simple and quick gifts

A Rug and a Hug for a Mug ,pattern by Cathy Rubin
Made for Tammy

Simple Garter Coaster, pattern from Mr. Darcy Creations, made for Jeena

At last some cross stitch , I stitched this lovely pattern from Durene Jones for my crazy cat friend Rene. The pattern was so easy to follow , I enjoyed making it even though I haven't done many full coverage pieces.

Pattern by Durene Jones from The World of Cross Stitching Magazine, Feb 2016.

That's it my friends for today and may be for a few more weeks. On this day next week, I will be in a different country , standing in guest house surrounded by cartons.
Hope to settle down soon and come back to routine. Send me your good wishes virtually .

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL February 2019 update

Hello Friends,

It's that time of the month when we show what gifts we have been working on or/and what crafty gifts we have received. If you don't know what I'm talking about , check Jo's blog for more info. This is a easy SAL where you have choice to stitch any designer, color or pattern, just that it should be a gift for someone or gift from someone.

The gifts I worked on this month are these wedding cards for a snail mail friend and husband's cousin , both got married in December. The plan was to stitch these before the weddings but you know how some plans never get executed . Better late than never ..ha !

Both designs are from Cross stitch Crazy Magazine,Issue 202, patterns by Durene Jones.
Last month I forgot to show you what I got in my Instagram cross stitch swap with my one of snail mail buddy.She stitched a wee little penguin for me ..she knows me well.

A tiny crochet heart , a gift from my craft group friend Z for Valentine's day.

Thank you for the comments on the "Let People Choose SAL-Hearts" post. I asked you which one of my heart finishes is your favorite. Here are the results :

Roses in Heart -4

Gazette94 -5

Floral Sachet -2

Heart Biscornu -1

Knitted one -2

Now to a part which may interest you..a giveaway.As its my birthday month and month of love, I would like to thank you all my blog friends for their love by offering this pattern.This pattern is up for grabs ...the pattern was bought second hand but has never been used by me.

Here are the rules:

1. Be a follower. I'm pretty confused how the following things works but I can only see people who follow me thru Dashboard or google accounts.

2. Don't become a follower just to win this pattern and disappear on me (I have had this happened to me in past)

3. Let me know in comments if you are interested.

4.Winner will be randomly picked on my birthday,27th February.

5. I would appreciate if you would share this on your blog.

6. The pattern will be sent to you thru registered mail but still it can take minimum of 40-50 days to reach depending on where you are.

7. Send me your address thru email by clicking info in side bar, I will not follow up with you to ask for your address.

This weekend is IHSW and I will try to get some stitching done. Join me and other stitchers virtually for hermitting and stitching .

Have a good weekend everyone.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL November Update

Hello Friends,

It's that time of the month when we show what gifts we have been working on or/and what crafty gifts we have received. If you don't know what I'm talking about , check Jo's blog for more info. This is a easy SAL where you have choice to stitch any designer, color or pattern, just that it should be a gift for someone or gift from someone.

Sorry , I have been missing from blog land. I have been busy with work, festivals, holiday planning and musical events.

I missed posting for last month GG as I have not been cross stitching. 

Kuwait has been hit by rains since last week. Though the intensity of rain is nothing compared to what I'm used to in India, it has created quite a havoc. The country is not designed for rains, with an  absent drainage system. 
Government declared holidays on 6th Nov, yesterday and today as a precautionary measure. Personally, I haven't experienced any loss but water has been leaking thru cracks in my house. Last Friday evening it got scary when I saw cars being carried away by water .

Anyways, the unexpected holidays have given me time to pick up my needle. I finished a project last night at 1 am which was supposed to be used for decoration last week.

This project has a lot of firsts: First time stitching a Daily CrossStitch pattern though I have dozens saved in my computer, first time stitching a holiday pattern for my home, first time stitching a pattern celebrating Hindu festival. I added the text in Hindi to complete the design.

The pattern was stitched on gifted fabric and the floss was gifted too.The frame was bought in one of the store closing down sales and I think its perfect.

In case , you are wondering why I picked up a Diwali pattern to stitch. We (and millions of Hindus across the world) celebrated the festival of Lights during 5th - 9th November this year.

Diwali is my favorite festival and decorating the house after a deep cleaning operation is what I enjoy most. I made few savory snacks and traditional sweets this year, decorated the house with flowers, rangoli and diyas.

Sharing some pics :

Most of the items you see in the pictures above are handmade by my craft friends and gifted for the occasion over the years.

I had a very fulfilling experience this year during Diwali, I did what I enjoy most:cooking and decorating.

As its a long weekend here this time, I started crafting for IHSW today and made christmas cards thi morning.

That's it my friends for today, I hope you are safe in your corner of the world.

Gifted Gorgeousness mixed with Diwali celebrations

Hello Friends,

Hope you are enjoying fall or onset of winter in your part of the world.

Sorry I have been missing in action, not much crafting happening here. I think I’m sad from the fact that the year is coming to an end and I don’t have a proper crafty finish except the small projects I stitched for swaps.

Anyways, I’m here to show you the gifts I have been showered upon since my last post.

Remember the owl card for a cross stitch card swap I showed in my last post, my partner stitched this cute Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery design for me, changing the hair color to match mine. Also this was her first attempt at linen, so well done my friend.

  

   

I framed the card using an IKEA frame I had at home. What do you think of it?

We celebrated the Festival of Lights from Oct 17-Oct 21. It’s my favourite Indian Hindu festival and this year I made some extra efforts at decoration which I will show later in this post. I invited my craft friends for evening snacks and we had a good time.

My friend Tammy made this Diwali cross stitch along with lovely crochet doilies.

  

Diwali gifts from Tammy

My friend Z is an amazing crocheter and can make anything using crochet. Look at these beautiful Diya (earthen lamp) holders she made.

  

Diwali Gifts from Z

I finished the sweets they brought before I could click a picture.

I’m so lucky to have friends who take out time to make handmade gifts for festivals they don’t celebrate and know much about. But their inquisitiveness to learn about new culture and traditions inspires me and I hope we have more such acceptive people in this world.

As I told I have been crafting much but I tried FFOing this Friday, a cross stitch I received from Shami in beginning of this year. Then I bought a basket to display all the cross stitch I have received in swaps and as gifts and made a small cross stitch corner in my house.

 

Gift from Shami, now FFOed

  

Small cross stitch corner in the house

Diwali Décor:

Apart from the traditional décor of Rangoli and decoration with flowers and earthen lamps, I set up two small corners in the living room for Diwali this time. 

 

Rangoli

 

Corner 1 by the day

 

Corner 1 by the night, pic courtesy hubby dear

I had some sequins given to me by mom years ago and some beads which are a bit too big to use for projects, they were used for the décor.

Corner 2 by the day

Corner 2 by the night

The décor in the upper pic of corner 2 shows crochet diya gifted on last Diwali by Z, a crocheted tea light and coasters by Tammy, cross stitch words by Shami and coaster by Jo.

  

Crochet Diya, gift from Preeti

We hung two Kandeel (lantern with a wooden framework and covered in coloured matte or glossy papers) in two corners of the house. It is a practice to buy new stuff during Diwali like jewellery, clothes etc. We bought new curtains for the living room in my favorite floral print.  

No pics of the food table as it was same as last year.

I hope you like the pics of Diwali celebration at my home.