Postcards from the Hedge SAL

Posted on February 8, 2026 by craftycreeky

Last time I posted about this project I thought I was going to have to take a break from it in order to do the birth sampler for my grandson, however I made such a good start on the Winnie the Pooh alphabet that I decided I could do both. I did need to get it finished though as I have another two projects waiting in the wings!!

Three weeks ago I had just stitched the thrush and the blackbird…

These designs are all from Featherstitch House, Rebecca, the designer, was doing a year long project of postcard sized embroideries releasing one design each week. I haven’t stitched many but they have all been a delight. One more on my to-do list was some forget-me-nots. This was stitched on a simple plain background. I enjoyed stitching this one, I used stem stitch, fishbone stitch for the leaves and another stitch for the petals which I can’t remember the name of but it was basically doing lots of straight stitches through the same holes but arranging them to each side. There’s a colonial knot in the middle of each one and I remembered too late that there’s meant to be a tiny black French knot in the middle of each colonial knot too! The buds are chunky French knots.

I decided that I had a good mix of designs with three birds, two insects, two flowers and one animal and although there was only eight, by the time they were backed, it would make a decent sized book.

My original plan was to have some writing opposite the picture but I couldn’t find poems or words for each one, I didn’t want to stitch the words either. I played with an alphabet stamp set without success, I even got a new ribbon for my daughter’s vintage typewriter. I tried typing on cotton paper from Sostrene Greene but it’s not quite A4 so it didn’t feed through easily. I also couldn’t master making a neat tear rather than cutting the paper.

In the end I abandoned that idea and decided to just choose a co-ordinating fabric. I’m pleased with that plan as it doesn’t distract from the stitching. I cut some pelmet vilene to size, pressed the back and front round it and slip-stitched them together. I’ve got a neat pile of pages finished…

The page on the top I stitched yesterday. I wanted a title page and couldn’t decide what to use. I then thought of a kit my friend gave me for my birthday. It had lots of strips of fabric and some calico with sky painted at the top with the idea that you made a landscape. I had a play with the strips, swopped some of my own in and then started stitching. I’ve kept it fairly simple with fly stitch, herringbone and feather-stitch mainly. I embroidered the title with a tiny chain stitch using one thread of DMC. I’m happy with it though I still can’t decide if it looks like a hedge bottom with the layers of flowers (which was my idea) or a hedge at the bottom of a field of flowers! Either way, I’m happy with it.

The last piece of stitching I needed was my initials and the date. I chose some oak-leaf fabric from my scrap box, I love this fabric, you know you get some fabrics which if you saw again, you’d buy lots, this is one of mine! I wrote my initials and the date with a Frixion pen, added two circles around it and chose a soft green thread for the letters and a variegated thread for the ring. I stitched the letters and numbers with chain-stitch again, I do like chain stitch for letters, it creates nice curves and you can do them surprisingly small. To give you an idea of size these are about 3/8th” tall and stitched with a single DMC thread. The outer circle is feather stitch, having a double ring drawn helped me keep it neat.

I’ve chosen my fabrics for the cover. I’m planning to do an exposed spine, maybe with some beads on. Come back in three weeks time to find out!

Please visit the other blogs that are also taking part in this SAL. There are so many different projects to enjoy. The participants live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences. We’re posting today at local time. Click the links to their blogs below and see what they’re up to.

Our next updates will be published on 1st March 2026.

Avis, Claire, Kathy, Margaret,

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Posted in embroidery, Postcards from the Hedge, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Winnie the Pooh Alphabet

Posted on February 1, 2026 by craftycreeky

I was going to keep this project for my SAL posts and pause the hedgerow postcards, but I’ve made such good progress I think I can manage both!

I promised I would make my youngest grandson a birth sampler for his first birthday in March. I made a Beatrix Potter one for Hugo and ideally would have stitched the other one in the set, but these went out of print about 30 years ago. I think I was lucky to find this pattern on Etsy.

I thought I’d found something suitable with the Beatrix Potter Storytime Sampler, but having bought the pattern on Etsy, I realised it was a lot bigger than I anticipated. It would be a lot of stitching but also big to frame and for the parents to find a home for it. I messaged mum with some other ideas from Etsy, she sent this Winnie the Pooh one and I think it’s delightful. I started it just before we went to Cyprus and I’m already half way through-ish

I had to make a bit of an alteration to the design. The letters are all in blue apart from my grandson’s initial. At the bottom it will then say ‘ …is for Frankie’. Of course the letter F was the smallest of the alphabet, with a big G next to it. I redrew the F and G and I think it works OK, the gap above the G will have some little star stitches as fillers so it won’t be left empty.

I’ve just started Winnie the Pooh at the bottom, he’s sitting with a jar of honey. Hopefully it won’t take me too long to finish.

Posted in cross-stitch, Serendipity, Sewing for Grandchildren | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Dormice Quilt Panel

Posted on January 30, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve been doing the Karen Brown Declutter Challenge again this year, it does get easier each time! This time a lot of things like books and threads were reasonably sorted after previous years. I did have a good sort out of my fabric though, I keep all my dress-making fabric in sealed storage bags in a cupboard but they had got a bit mixed up and it was bursting at the seams. I made lots of piles on my cutting table, now I have a bag of corduroy, a bag of linen etc. I even updated my Stash Hub app regarding which bag everything was in! It was scary to see the total though…271m!! I think I need to get sewing!

Part of Karen’s plan is using a sewing project as a reward for decluttering. Last year I made half a quilt panel. It’s a Raggedy Ruff design, I’ve made quite a few of hers over the years.

Unfortunately having made half the panel, that’s as far as I got, it’s been on my design wall ever since. I decided to make the second half this year.

Another decision I made over Christmas and the New Year was that I needed to join a few things so I would get out more. I love my sewing, but my stitching group only meet once a month and WI is also once a month. I joined U3A (University of the Third Age) the Ilkley U3A is one of the biggest in the country I think, they have classes on all sorts of things. Quite a few appealed but I’ve just joined one for now so I don’t over-commit myself. In Otley they have a patchwork and quilting group that meet twice a month, 1-5pm, perfect!

I took the other half of the panel to work on, it’s nice and portable. I managed to more or less finish the background…

I love the backgrounds of these quilts, they’re full of interest but not dominating. I had a great time at my first meeting, they’re a lovely friendly group of ladies. A few ladies looked at the 1″ squares with horror until I explained I only had seven of those, not the whole quilt!

Here’s the two sides together so you can see how they work…

I’ve traced the applique design onto the freezer paper, this side has a robin on it. I just need to crack on with it now and not leave it another year!

Posted in kits, Quilting, Raggedy Ruff Designs, Serendipity | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Stitching on the Go

Posted on January 24, 2026 by craftycreeky

After a few days away I’ve stitched a fair bit on my ‘stitching on the move’ project. We’ve been to Cyprus visiting family so we had two flights of nearly five hours and train journeys to get to the airport, so lots of stitching time. When I posted a few days ago we were just waiting for the flight home, of course it was delayed for an hour after we boarded. That’s more stitching time but it would be nice to have a flight run to time just once 🙂

I started this project about a month ago, but since retiring I don’t have quite as much regular stitching time when I’m out and about. I do find it’s a handy little project for coffee times though! It’s a biscornu design by Faby Reilly, I’ve done quite a few of her designs and they’re always beautiful. A biscornu is one of those funny shaped pin cushions made from two squares stitched point to middle of side. I’ve fancied these designs for a while but I really don’t need anymore pincushions. Then I had the idea to put them in a book. The plan at the moment is to stitch the front and back design into one page of a concertina book, maybe joining the pages with beads. It’s certainly going to have a crisper finish than my last concertina book, ‘Stitched with Love’

When I set off on holiday I think I had one iris pretty much finished, when I shared it the other day I had made good progress…

I always stitch on long journeys, usually cross-stitch. I put my threads on a DMC card holder, I’ve a tiny pair of scissors which Kate Chiconi kindly sent me and I always have a Clover thread cutter worn as a pendant. I’ve never had any problems with security with this set-up. This time we just had carry-on luggage so I risked a cheap pair of embroidery scissors in my suitcase. They didn’t question it, this was Jet2, I have had similar embroidery scissors confiscated by other airlines so I usually pack scissors I’m not precious about.

After two flights and two train journeys, I’m not far off finishing the cross-stitch, then I need to do the back-stitching and add the beads which is when Faby’s designs come alive.

I have to admit I knew very little about Cyprus beforehand, I think all I knew is that there was a Greek side and a Turkish side with a UN buffer zone in between. We stayed in Larnaca where it was a bit warmer than the UK. It’s a lovely city with an interesting old town, I visited the church of St Lazarus which was built in the 9th century. A highlight of the trip for me was when we walked to the salt lakes and saw flamingos. Apparently they over-winter there.

We were then staying for a couple of nights in Nicosia. We drove up via Lefkara which is a pretty, traditional village to wander round. The villagers specialise in traditional embroidery and lace. The village is full of lace shops. Whilst I was not convinced that the goods in the shops were all handmade and local, I did manage to find a shop where the lady obviously knew what she was talking about. The traditional embroidery is cut work, but whereas with hardanger the embroidery is done first and then the threads are cut, with this embroidery the threads are cut first – very brave I thought! I bought a pretty little lace doily which the lady had made. It looks a bit like tatting, but sounds like what I think is called needle lace. I’m planning a book of lace so it will be going in there.

Nicosia is an interesting city, it’s one of the few remaining divided cities in the world. The UN buffer zone goes right through the capital city. We crossed the buffer zone to the Turkish side a couple of times through the only ‘on foot’ checkpoint, it’s quite eerie to see as everything is derelict in between the lines. We wandered round the markets on the Turkish side and saw lots of beautiful buildings.

One day we travelled up through the mountains to a monastery, it was freezing up there, literally! We hit the snow line, I didn’t think Cyprus would have a ski resort but it does! The villages cling to the sides of the mountain and the roads just zig-zagged up the mountain. I found it interesting as here in the UK rural villages tend to be at the valley bottom and roads just go over passes, the lowest point that will get you to the other side.

Anyway, I’m on a bit of a roll now with this cross-stitch, so hopefully it won’t be that long before it’s finished.

Posted in cross-stitch, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Stitching on the go

Posted on January 21, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’m sitting at Paphos airport in Cyprus waiting to board our plane home, stitching a Faby Reilly design. With four hours on the plane I’ll hopefully make good progress.

Posted in cross-stitch | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Postcard from the Hedge SAL

Posted on January 18, 2026 by craftycreeky

It’s six weeks since I posted about my progress with the Postcards from the Hedge, so I’ve managed a fair bit of stitching since then. It was early December and I had just finished the foxglove postcard…

I decided to do the thrush next. We quite often see them in our garden and frequently hear their beautiful song on the back lane. First task was to make the background. This is done by weaving strips of cotton and then doing some slow stitching on it. I did a mixture of stitches, feather, fly, herringbone, cross and running stitch. With hindsight it would have been better a little less busy but I was thinking of blossom trees! Doing all the stitching does make it feel like one piece of fabric rather than a weaving.

To give the speckled breast feathers, Rebecca (from Featherstone House) recommended wax crayons, in particular a box of skin tone ones from crayola. I managed to get a box, Basically, fine shavings off the crayons were sprinkled onto cotton, this was covered with brown paper and then ironed. The wax is absorbed by the brown paper, leaving the pigment. It’s one of those techniques where you don’t really know how it’s going to come out, some splodges seem bigger than anticipated! I used a patterned brown cotton for the rest with a few wisps of grey fely to help merge the colours a bit.

The thrush is cut out using bondaweb and then embroidered fairly simply with mainly straight stitches and a few fly stitches. I do like the finished result.

Next to be stitched was a blackbird. The pattern had the blackbird sitting on a branch, I often hear the blackbirds down the back lane as they’re rustling through the fallen leaves. I happened to have a fabric that looked like frosty leaves, so I did a little slow-stitching with a variegated DMC thread just based around a wavy line.

The blackbird is also attached using bondaweb. What isn’t clear from the photo is the lace overlay used for the wing and the tail, it does give a nice bit of texture. Again the stitching is kept fairly simple with mainly straight stitches using a mixture of very dark grey, black and a dark variegated thread which has greens and purples in. I love him!

Next I’m going to do some flowers. I think I’ll just do two or three more embroideries and then work out how to put them in a book. Here’s the other ones I’ve already done..

Please visit the other blogs that are also taking part in this SAL. There are so many different projects to enjoy. The participants live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences. We’re posting today at local time. Click the links to their blogs below and see what they’re up to.

Avis, Claire, Kathy,  Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Posted in embroidery, Postcards from the Hedge, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Stitched with Love

Posted on January 16, 2026 by craftycreeky

This week I finished my concertina book. Last time I posted about it I had finished the strip of pages, I just had to work out how to do a cover…

These strips can be left to have the front and back pages as the cover, but I wanted a cover to protect it and keep it neat. I’d left one end of the strip open so I could easily stitch it into a cover. I folded the book and measured it, adding a quarter inch to the edges for a slight overhang.

I had a darker floral quilting cotton which actually went pretty well with the strip and also went well with the cross-stitch I wanted to put on the front. This little piece was one I made for my mum years ago, as I had one myself too I decided this one could adorn the front of the book. I used pellon to stiffen the cover, I’ve used pellon a few times as its reasonably stiff, it has some body to it and it creases OK for the spine. The main disadvantage is that it’s a so and so to hand-stitch! I stitched the cross-stitch onto some red felt, drew round the square onto the background with a frixion pen and then used my sewing machine to stitch close to the linen. I use a frixion pen to mark the edge rather than pinning it as I find they tend to move with just pins and for a front cover I need it as straight as possible.

The strip was going to be stitched to the cover just in front of the spine. I used a dress-making cotton for the lining which ideally could have done with being a bit heavier but it went really well and I’d used it a few times on the strip. I cut one piece long enough to generously cover the back and spine and another for the front. I machine stitched the outer edges and then slip-stitched the upper and lower edges of the back. I positioned the strip inside and machine-stitched down the fold of the front fold of the spine.

With the pages in place I could then stitch down the front lining, covering the machine stitching with the folded edge of the lining. The basic cover was complete.

I still hadn’t stitched a title or my details in the book. I decided to call it Stitched with Love as there’s a mixture of cross-stitches made for wedding anniversaries, mothers day etc. I stitched it on a piece of linen and I added my initials and the date. I could then just stitch it to the inside cover with a running stitch.

I often have a ribbon round my fabric books, partly because I think it looks nice. With this book I also wanted a ribbon to keep it all neatly folded inside. I usually put a button on the front to wrap the ribbon round, but with the front cross-stitch going below the centre line, it didn’t look right. Whilst tidying my ribbons drawer as part of the 2026 Declutter Challenge, I found a length of narrow pink organza ribbon. It was inobtrusive enough to sit at the bottom of the cross-stitch. I decided to just tie it round with a pretty bow.

I’m pleased with this book, it’s actually a pretty quick make for me too! It feels nice with all the stitching on it and I like that you can either open it out into a strip to look at it as a whole, or leaf through the folded pages one by one. It’s given me ideas for another strip book I want to stitch during a BIG trip in May too.

Posted in embroidery, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bird Alphabet

Posted on January 13, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished another letter of my alphabet of birds. This one I think is a female blackcap – the male has the black cap, females have a brown one.

These are delightful to stitch and don’t really take long to do. However I’m going to have to have a bit of a break as I’ve just started another alphabet – a birth sampler, which is going to be part of my grandson’s first birthday present in March. It’s a very sweet design with Winnie the Pooh sat in the corner. I’m having a few days away in Cyprus this week so I think this will be my stitching project.

Posted in cross-stitch, embroidery, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Love is…

Posted on January 7, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve almost finished my little book of love. This is a concertina style book so it opens out into a long strip. The original strip of calico and the basic instructions and inspiration came from a kit I’ve had in my stash for years.

The strip of calico is the width of the fabric so it’s about 150cm, it’s then folded in half so the book has two sides to decorate, I did this book in sort of layers of stitch…

The first layer I showed you a couple of weeks ago, layering pieces of fabric on and doing lots of running stitch both to hold them in place and for embellishment. It does give a lovely feel to the piece as well.

This side is more pastel coloured, the other side has more red on it. The next phase was to arrange various small pieces of embroidery and cross-stitch. Some of these I’d made into Valentine cards, some were cross-stitch smalls and some, like the embroidered heart, I wasn’t completely happy with it when I made it so it sat in a box. At the same time I cut out some large and small hearts from different fabrics such as taffeta, silk and lace from my wedding dress.

Once they were stitched on I wanted to add some words. My original plan was to type some poems or quotes onto cotton paper but the vintage type-writer I’ve borrowed from my daughter needed a new ink reel and of course I couldn’t wait for it to arrive! Instead I decided to stitch the words from the poem ‘Love is patient, love is kind’, there’s about four lines in the middle that I missed out as I didn’t have enough pages (and they were quite long lines!) I wrote the words on the fabric with a frixion pen and then embroidered them with a single strand of DMC in chain stitch. I did ponder for a while what colour to use, having decided on green I realised whatever I chose wasn’t going to go with all the greens on the fabrics, so I picked on shade and went for it. With hindsight I might have been better with a nice brown, but I didn’t think of that.

Having stitched the letters I then went along and embroidered lines of different stitches were I felt they were needed, using feather stitch, cross-stitch etc. I added ric-rac and a few pieces of lace too. Once I was reasonably happy, I stitched the seam along the bottom and one end.

Before I stitched the top seam, I put a few more stitches in, fixing down fabric where I thought it was needed, sometimes with a decorative stitch, sometimes a tiny running stitch so it wasn’t to obvious. I also added the buttons at this point, stitching round the large heart button to fill the space. Three little buttons are actually upside-down, they were fairly boring cream button, but the back for some reason has tiny flecks of pink and green, which went beautifully with the fabrics.

Once I was happy, I slip-stitched the top edges together and pressed it well, especially the folds where I want it to make the pages.

All I have to do now is make a cover for it. It is designed to have the front and back cover as part of the concertina, but I prefer to have it tucked in a cover…I have a plan!

Posted in cross-stitch, embroidery, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Bird Alphabet

Posted on January 6, 2026 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished another of the letters for the bird alphabet book. The letter F has a very sweet little chaffinch.

Now I’ve completed A to F, I’m nearly a quarter of the way through the alphabet. I’ve started G which has what I think is a female black cap. I’m still trying to work out what size to finish the pages as I could do with starting to back-stitch round the edge as I go, rather than leaving them all to the end, I could even start to stitch the pages together. Although the letters are around the same size, the foliage around them does make some wider, I think I need to have a play with the letter’s I’ve done and make a decision.

Here’s the first six letters of the bird alphabet…

Posted in cross-stitch, embroidery, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments