Op-Shop Finds. A $2 Score.

I love the fact that you never

know what you will find at the Op-Shop/charity Shop.

For $2.

A piece of open grid fabric that is glittery gold.

(Darn the camera didnt pick that up)

A jar of black buttons.

A dibble. (Maybe use as a tassell head)

And long strings of black and silvery seed beads.

Loveit, Love it.

More loot. :)

Happy Stash building

Phillipa

Flowers on Headbands and A Hat

I made these textured flowers a wee while ago and heres

a use for a couple of them.

Onto a stretchy Headband

Then on a store bought hat that already

had a beaded bow on it.

Happy Stitching

Phillipa

Clutch Purse with Flowers

Bright n Sassy,

Another Over the Top Purse.

My handmade background cloth, velvet ribbons and wooden beads,

all topped off with shiny flowers.

All of these are upcycled except the lining fabric.

Texture, texture, texture.

Happy Stitching

Phillipa

More Felt Flowers.

You know me. Why make one, when you

can make a bunch.

Enjoy.

Happy Stitching

Phillipa

Patterns for your little Pirate or Spaceman

Dear Stitchers,

2 more patterns for you to stitch up for the littlees.

Pirate

And a cute Spaceship.

Scoot on over to my Etsy.

Happy Stitching

Phillipa

Silk Ribbons

There are some items I can't upcycle for my stitching and thats

silk ribbon.

So when I spotted these silks at a local craft show, I just had to indulge.

The lovely ladies from Ginnys Bunka had a huge part of the range of

River Silks there. I WANTED them all..lol

Arn't these yummy.You will see them used very soon in my

new shabby collage project/tutorial.

Coveting the whole Range.

Happy Stitching

Phillipa



Pattern in Progress for your Little Pirates.

Ahoy me hearties

Happy Stitching

Phillipa

Splitting the Thread

Tip:

When you need to split a thread from 6 strands to 3.

Start in the middle.

I find this is the easiest way.

I cut my threads about 18" long, then gently tease apart the threads at about the middle and slowly pull apart.

It will twist and turn as you go. If it stops parting then hold the closest end with your teeth to put some tension on and continue to pull apart.

Then hold each section up by one end and it will untwist as you run your fingers down the thread.

This is the method I use. Hope this little tip is helpful

Happy Splitting and Untwisting

Phillipa

A Stroll at The Groynes In Christchurch

Was a lovely spring-like weekend, so off to visit another park in the city. This time  The Groynes.

So now you get to see me ;).

Time for a haircut me thinks.

And I get him ;)lol

We will go back as we only got halfway round, with all the stops we both did for photos. He, flora and fauna and me with macro of logs n bark etc.

Happy Stitching

Phillipa



Flowers No. 3 is up on Etsy

Over on Etsy is a new pattern of mine full of dainty flowers.

Check it out here.

Now these flowers are perfect for doing patches for a crazy quilt.

So what Ive done is transfer them all to a piece of vintage linen I had.

I'm stitching in a random assortment of Spring colours.

Finally we are starting to see some bulbs and new growth for the onset of spring.

When Ive finished the stitching, these will be randomly cut apart and will go into a new idea (for me), that I hope will inspire you to do your own.

I will keep you guessing for awhile ;)

Happy Stitching

Roll on Spring

Phillipa

Shabby Collage with Puppies. Bookwrap

I'm moving my Shabby Collage and other works over to my Etsy site.

Including my latest Shabby Book Wrap that features the cutest little puppies.

I found this fabric awhile ago at a quilting shop and couldnt resist it.

They are just perfect to be peeking out of a lacey background.

Happy Inspiration.

Phillipa



WOW Winners are online.

The fabulous designs are all up on the website.

You must check them out.

I love them all. Glad I'm not a judge, because how on earth could you pick a Supreme from all this wonderful creativity.

Happy Creativity.

Phillipa



Watch the Birdie

He's flitted into here.

Slowly Stitching.

Phillipa



Evy is Amazing

You must, must must check out the work by Evy.

She may write in french but the photos are awe-inspiring.

Go check the site out here :)

I'm soooooooooo in love..lol

Happy Stitching

Phillipa

Welcome aboard

Hello and welcome to all my followers and my new followers.

I am soooo chuffed that you find my work to be of enough interest to follow.:)

The number of creative blogs on the internet

is mind-boggling and HOORAY, you've found me.

(Does a little dance)

I'm interested in anything to do with stitching, in all its forms.

I never work on one project at a time,

even tho I am trying to make it fairly coherent on here.

So bear with me, follow along, tell all your friends, pretty please,

and see what I come up with next.

I hope to start doing a few more tutorials of projects.

There I've publicly said it. That should keep me on track.

While adding to my patterns that I hope to sell heaps of, so I

can keep up my op-shopping for treasures and Live in the lifestyle I'd love to be accustomed to..lol.

So

Welcome Aboard

from the Always Stitching

Phillipa



Unorganised Thread Piece. Long term project

I always have a small piece beside my chair that gets stitched with the lengths of thread that you always end up with when stitching an organised piece.

Even if its only long enough for a couple of stitches, it gets used.

nothing gets wasted.

Normally I make up a hotch-potch fabric collage then just stitch. No planning, no end result in mind, just to see what happens.

Weeell, this one is 3 flowers from my stash and, I never noticed till I photographed it that, Theres a little doggy shape there.

Can you see that sad little face?

Will this influence my stitching? It probably will, shape wise I'm sure.





These odd pieces take ages to do so I will just have to see how it evolves.



Happy Scrappy stitching.

Phillipa

Coffee Dying for my Stash

Things on the go all the time.

Coffee dying.

Half a bucket of Hotwater.

About 6 tablespoons af that really cheap coffee.

Dunk n swirl for 24 hours.

Then a very quick rinse. drip dry. then hot iron to set.

If you dont mind the coffee smell you can skip the rinse part and get a darker colour.

Happy Dunking n swirling

Phillipa

I Spoke too Soon. We have MORE Snow!!

Ok, I spoke too soon about us not getting snow That often here.

Yesterday morning .

This arrived between Midnight and 7am. Its still a

novelty for us. :)

Phillipa

Felt Rose

As if I dont need any more little projects. :)

How about a Felt Rose.

I have this gorgeous reddy pink felt and its a perfect colour for a rose.

I cut 2 circles of felt.The backing one is green.

Approx 2.5" diameter (7cms-ish)

A couple of leaf shapes as well.

Then I just back-stitched a spiral, starting from the centre.

Make a sandwich with the leaves in between.

Pin to hold and then a running stitch around the outside.

And Voila!!

Do I NEED a reason to make these little projects.??

Of course not. hehe.

I can imagine these on all sorts of things.

A bunch on a tote, or a single on a hairband or clip.

As a brooch.

Perfect for that little gift or stocking stuffer.Even as an embellishment on a gift.

If you make some I'd love to see your versions.

Happy happy stitching.

Phillipa

PS. OOhhh noo. Different colours of felt are demanding to be made into other flowers. Will keep you posted ;)

Wrapping your hoops.

Nooo. I havnt lost my mind. well not all of it anyway.

Just a tip for the beginner embroiderers.

I wrap the inside ring of all my embroidery hoops, as this helps to give better grip and less marking of your fabric.

Hoops can be used au-natural but I would recommend wrapping after  you've made sure that the hoops are lovely and smooth.If you feel any rough areas, a light sand with sandpaper (fine Grade) or even an emery board will do the trick.

Wrap with a bias cut tape and stitch the end  to keep it tidy.

Each of the above hoops has been wrapped with different tapes as Ive bought them at different times.

The brown is bias binding. The white is a cotton tape and the black is a tape for hat making.

Hope this helps

for Happy stitching

Phillipa

Woohoo!! My first sale on Etsy

My Hearts and Flowers Pattern sold on Etsy.

I'm sooooo thrilled that I'm on the right track in designing patterns.

Tell all your friends ;)

Happy Happy Stitching

Phillipa

 Christchurch doesnt get snow very often,but last week we got heaps.

Here is my rusting area slowly reappearing.

 

 

The thaw took ages as the driveway doesnt get any sun.

The ice was very tricky to navigate. :)

 

Rusting always.

 

Phillipa