Back and Forth

Posted on January 1, 2026 by craftycreeky

New Year to me is a time both to look back and look forward, I look back at what I’ve made, what’s worked and what hasn’t, things I’ve done and plans for things to make or do in the coming year. This time there’s a lot of change with retirement, finding a new routine and making sure I don’t fritter away this extra time. So, here’s my thoughts…

Quilts;

My biggest finish was my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt, fairly quick makes were a baby quilt for my new grandson and another for my friend’s grandson. A UFO from 2020 was finally finished with a little quilting on the Christmas runner, it looked very nice on the side in the dining room this year. I started the dormice wall hanging last January, it was my project to do whilst I did the declutter challenge, the other half of it is my project for this year’s Declutter Challenge!

Quilts I’m planning this year; first one has got to be a single bed quilt for my niece’s eldest, I’ve been promising him one for about three years now, but I now have lots of Spiderman fabric to make him a superhero quilt. I also want to make one from batiks in my stash, using a pattern I bought last year.

Embroidery

Most of my stitching last year was to go in fabric books, I made four last year. I’ve three in progress at the moment (Postcards from the Hedge, the bird alphabet and my little book of love.) I’ve lot’s of ideas for future books, a Christmas tree one, a waterfall style one, a book of trees, songs…

Other stitching included the butterfly alphabet which is now framed and hanging in my daughters bedroom, a golden coneflower for Skipton Stitchers 50th birthday and a Christmas humbug which is now hanging on my tree.

A priority this year is a birth sampler for my grandson – he’s one in March so I would like to get it done for then. I’ve two monthly SAL’s planned, one is for an embroidered book and the other is a phrenology wheel, I’ve been thinking of stitching one for a few years so I was delighted when Skipton Stitchers decided to do them as a group project.

Dress-making

I feel like I haven’t done much dress-making recently, but I have made three dresses below and I’ve actually made about three summer skirts which I made last minute for the holiday and didn’t have time to post.

I do need to start doing a lot more dress-making, firstly I need the clothes as my current wardrobe is well worn and many don’t fit since I lost weight. I also need to reduce my stash as it is getting somewhat large, my stash hub app reckons I have 248m in 114 lengths!!! I also want to start making underwear as I was remeasured last year and I’m a 30F! It’s very difficult to find pretty, affordable bras in that size, even if I go to the sister size of 32E, so I’ve bought all the fabrics, I just need to start sewing.

Last year I walked the Swale Way with my walking buddy, we’ve lots of plans for walks this year as she’s retiring too in March. We’ve also decided to do the 1000 mile challenge, aiming to walk 1000 miles over the year. I’ve a big holiday in May and June when I go interrailing round Europe with my daughter for six weeks, I’m so excited! We’ve still to finalise the route but we’re looking at visiting about ten countries!

So 2026 looks to be a busy year…how did I ever have time to work!

Happy New Year everyone.

Posted in Crafts, cross-stitch, Dressmaking, embroidery, Owl and Hare Hollow BOM, Serendipity, Textile Books, Yorkshire | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Bobbin Along

Posted on December 31, 2025 by craftycreeky

Last night I finished my Bobbin Along book, this is the one from the weekly word prompts from Anne Brooke of H-Anne-Made. Everything was meant to be on one 18″ hoop but I knew I had no where to put one so I made a book instead.

My fabric books tend to morph as they go along, I rarely set out with a firm idea of how I want to finish the book, however with this one I wanted from the start to do what I call a properly bound book.

With this in mind I stitched on lengths of linen which would make two double pages each with the idea that I could then fold them in half to make one ‘signature’, a double page spread. As it was, I realised fairly early on that I had stitched a design across two pages, twice, on the same length of fabric. So when I was organising the pages I cut this one in half so each double page spread could be in the centre fold. I decided to join the pages with a simple blanket stitch in a perle thread, it meant the pages stayed soft and somehow I felt it suited the designs.

I wanted to make a bound book, one that was stitched down the centre of the pages onto the spine. Having perused pinterest I also fancied more decorative stitching on the outside. I did briefly fancy an exposed spine through a window, but I wisely decided that was a bit too much!

I had two shades of felt in my stash which went nicely with the colour scheme of the book. Unfortunately neither was quite big enough to do the whole book cover in one piece! I also felt it might be easier to do my first binding without the covers getting in the way. I cut a strip for the spine in a dark green felt for the outside, I used a light grey for the inside, mainly because I didn’t have enough light green felt, but this was also easier for me to mark where the binding would go. I thought the felt would need some support so I put a piece of iron-on buckram in between, just the width that I wanted the spine.

I did some careful measurements and drew my plan out on paper before transferring the dots to the felt. I knew some of my pages were fairly bulky so I did my lines 1/4″ apart. The buckram is fairly tough so I made holes with an awl first both for neatness and to save my fingers.

I used a thicker perle thread as it seems fairly strong, I threaded a needle on each end and worked on two sets of pages at once. I worked a cross-stitch, then went through the pages, then back for another cross-stitch. I tied the two ends with a knot at the bottom. It actually wasn’t as fiddly as I thought it might be.

I then had to make the front and back cover. I used two rectangles of felt, blanket-stitched together with some pellon in between to give it a bit of body. My original plan was to stitch both layers of the spine to the outside of the book, but I wasn’t convinced I could get a neat finish and I also thought it could be very fiddly trying to stitch the inside edge down. So I tucked the cover in between the two spine felts and blanket stitched each side.

I stitched the label using chain-stitch, the cover ring was left over from the SAL and I found a button in my stash for the other O. I do like how it has turned out.

I felt the light grey felt stood out too much on the inside cover so I added two strips of lace which just helps to break it up.

I’ve made a video of my book and put it on Youtube, hope it works…here’s the link, hope you enjoy it. If you’ve any questions on how I put the book together, feel free to ask.

Posted in Anne Brooke SAL, embroidery, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

It’s Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2025 by craftycreeky

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope we all have a happy New Year with lots of time for stitching and creating!

Faby Reilly Christie SAL
Christie SAL Faby Reilly
Holly Humbug gorgeous cross-stitch decoration
Mistletoe Humbug, gorgeous cross-stitch Christmas decoration.
Posted in Serendipity | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Little Book of Love

Posted on December 24, 2025 by craftycreeky

Over the last few days I’ve started a new embroidery project, clearly three projects with another two due to start isn’t quite enough!! In my defence, this should be a relatively quick stitch and my Bobbin Along book is in the last stages.

This is going to be a concertina book, it’s a slow-stitch kit I bought a few years ago from Helen Bellingham of Untangled Threads. I think it was called Made with Love, the kit included the base calico, some threads and fabric pieces to add to the calico. It’s then really up to the maker to create whatever they want.

The calico strip is the width of fabric, so about 160cm. It’s turned under at one edge and then the other three edges are stitched together and then the piece turned, leaving a double sided strip which can be stitched before or after. I’m stitching it before as I think that’ll be much easier. It folds into six pages, so twelve sides to be decorated.

I gathered some pretty cotton pieces from my scrap box and started laying them on the strip. I’ve decided to use some cross-stitch and embroidery pieces I’ve done over the years, some have gone onto cards, others made into mini cushions. I played about for a while with the fabric and the embroideries, in the end I’ve one side more muted than the other, one will have more pink, softer embroideries, the other will have the red hearts and darker pieces. Some fabrics I’ve used twice as they were too strong for the muted side but I realised the wrong side was still pretty, so some are upside down.

I’ve used raw edges most of the time to soften the look. I then stitched them all down just using rows of running stitch, I used about five muted shades of DMC thread, usually stitching three to five rows either vertical or horizontal . I stitched over onto the calico too to help blend the background fabrics. I’m pretty pleased with the effect so far, its taken about three evenings to stitch as obviously it’s quite long!

I’m really pleased how the stitching has worked out, it’s very simple but it does give the fabric a love soft feel, a bit like the difference between a hand-quilted quilt and one quilted on the machine.

All I have to do now is arrange the rest of the decoration and stitch them accordingly.

Posted in embroidery, kits, Serendipity, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bird Alphabet

Posted on December 19, 2025 by craftycreeky

These cross-stitch birds are a delight to stitch, they don’t take too long either. Last time I posted about them I had stitched A B and C on holiday and I’d just started D.

Having finished my slot and tab book I’ve concentrated more on these birds. Over the last couple of weeks I finished C, which I think is a goldcrest. I’ve seen them very occasionally in the garden but I hear them a lot on the back lane behind us. They have a very high-pitched whistle. They are Britain’s smallest bird, so they’re not easy to spot.

I’ve also stitched the letter E which has a gorgeous swallow sitting on the letter. Seeing the first swallow of the year is a good sign that summer is well on the way. Many swallows migrate all the way the South Africa for the winter.

I’ve just started the letter F which has a chaffinch on it. The birds are all going in another book, I need to work out the final size of the pages of this book as I’m planning to make it by whip stitching the pages together so I need to do a back-stitch square round each letter. Obviously I don’t want to find I have 26 squares to do at the end!

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

Christmas Cards

Posted on December 18, 2025 by craftycreeky

At the December meeting of Skipton Stitchers we have a lovely tradition of making a hand-made Christmas card to swop. Anyone who wishes to take part just makes a card, writes a Christmas greeting from them inside, adds it to the pile at the meeting and takes one out.

It does mean I have to think of a quick card to make each December as invariably I leave it until the day before!!

This year I decided to do some teabag embroidery. We had a workshop on it earlier in the year, it’s basically stitching on a used, dried teabag. I had previously collected some teabags, dried them out, made a little snip in the back to empty the tea out and pressed them. All that I needed to do was add some iron-on interfacing to the back to give a bit of strength… and think of something to stitch.

I had a little perusal on Pinterest and spotted a few to give me ideas. The good thing about stitching on teabags is that they’re only small, so it doesn’t take much to cover it. I had a look in my ort jar and found a few scraps of lace.

I arranged them so they looked like a snowy hill. I think this bit took the longest as I kept trying different pieces of lace and different positions. I was particularly pleased with the top piece as it looks like trees on the top of the hill. I stitched them on with some basic sewing thread. I cut a triangle out of some Christmas fabric, fussy cutting it over a tree so I already had a basic pattern on it. I stitched the tree on with fly stitch, a few straight stitches made the trunk. All that was left to stitch was a tiny gold sequin on the top.

I mounted it on some cotton paper and stuck that to a red card. My card was ready. It didn’t take long at all and I’m pretty pleased with it,

Posted in Christmas, Crafts, embroidery, Serendipity | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Still Bobbin Along

Posted on December 17, 2025 by craftycreeky

I think we’ve only one more word prompt to go with this stitch-a-long with Anne Brooke then I can decide how I’m going to put this book together, I have a few ideas, we shall see. I posted half the pages a few days ago, here’s the other half…

I rather like this first page, the background fabric of eucalyptus leaves is what gave me the colour scheme initially. Words on this page include trapped (the shell circle) running, petal, which was made with circles gathered up together, lumpy (a pile of French knots), cup (a domed piece of stitching of which I can’t remember the stitch name!) and the most recent one which was stuffed.

I really wasn’t sure when I saw the video for stuffed as Anne’s were quite bulky to give some 3D texture to her piece, but mine are going into a book so I don’t want anything too bulky. Anne made hers round a cotton ball, I remembered a little packet of mini cotton-wool balls and I actually managed to find them. They were red but that didn’t matter too much. I used a length of sari silk as it was nice and fine, I made five in a row and stitched them near the petals.

The other side of the eucalyptus fabric could possibly do with a little more adding. This was one of the earlier pages I started. Words on these pages include hidden (a ring of felt under a circle), spike (a woven stitch) meander (a couched thread) and jump (some short lengths of beads jumping over the meander), rib (straight stitches close together) parallel (bugle beads), tassel and encrusted which is the circle of beads.

These were the very first pages I stitched, with layers of fabric and loops with loopy French knots and the thistle head which has cut loops. Although there’s only two words on this page I think there’s probably enough. The page on the left has hummock, slit and dotty, I feel it needs a bit more around the slit, maybe a bigger circle, perhaps in cross-stitch.

This is the last page to show you, with cross, silky, rolls, fringe, holey, wrinkle and furrow. I think there’s probably enough going on on this page even though there are a few spaces.

So I’ve a little stitching to do to finally finish this stitch-a-long, but not much. I’ve a bit of a deadline for finishing the book as I’m doing a workshop with Anne in March and I did tell her I would take it along. I’ve enjoyed this SAL with the word prompts but I’m ready for a change now, once a week for a year is a long time!!

Posted in Anne Brooke SAL, embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Beautiful Bella

Posted on December 12, 2025 by craftycreeky

It’s two years since Bella came to live with us and she has come on leaps and bounds so I thought it was time to do an update. Here’s my first post about when we first brought Bella home. I remember reading a post about a rescue breeders dog that sounded just like Bella and the owner said it took about two years for his dog to finally come out of her shell and I think that’s about right.

When she came to us she wouldn’t come in the main house (we had to take her round the house on a lead wherever we went for a couple of weeks ) she only ate when we were in bed and didn’t ‘do’ treats at all. She didn’t like doorways or gateways or walking close to us if our legs were crossed. She had never been lead walked or come across traffic. She shrank back with any sudden movement and certainly wouldn’t approach for a fuss. So yes officially she was a rehome, but in reality she was a rescue!

This was Bella in November 2023…

She is still timid and can startle herself very easily, but she has so much more confidence than when she arrived. She will eat when we’re around now but still backs off if we approach her. She is much happier and more confident outside such as on walks, she loves what we call her freedom runs and zoomies. Yesterday she was very happy as her favourite puddle finally returned to the old cricket pitch. She spent five minutes having zoomies into the water!

Inside our home she has her safe spots, the sofa in the conservatory is hers, but she also has a corner in my sewing room, another in my OH’s office. She still needs encouragement to join us on an evening in the lounge.

When she first arrived I said we would have cracked it with her when she lay on her back and wriggled. This summer she finally did just that on the lawn in the garden, even allowing us to do belly rubs. She still wouldn’t do it in the home but that’s huge progress.

In the last couple of months she has finally started taking treats from our hands, she’s better at this outside on walks, needing a lot of encouragement at home and even then she sometimes just won’t take it.

She is greatwalking both on and off the lead when I hold the lead up she sits and waits for me to walk up and put it on. She seems to understand when I put the lead on due to a potentially unfriendly dog as she sits for it to be removed as soon as we pass them! She doesn’t pull on the lead any more, or at least she doesn’t with me, she seems to understand that with me (due to balance issues) she mustn’t pull.

She is a gorgeous dog with a very gentle personality, we are hoping to get a puppy in the summer as we think that having a friend will bring her out of her shell even more.

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Bobbin Along

Posted on December 11, 2025 by craftycreeky

I keep playing catch up with this stitch-a-long and then forget to post about it! This is the weekly word prompt for a piece of textile art, Anne Brooke is running it, I saw her finished hoop at the knit and stitch show last month and it looked amazing, full of texture and interest. The project is designed to be stitched on an 18″ hoop, I’ve no where to hang an 18″ hoop so I’m making mine into a book, so I have had to adapt things occasionally.

Last week the word was ‘attached’, so Anne added buttons, stitching them on in a variety of ways. I stitched some buttons on as they did help fill a few emptier spaces. I also stitched on a brooch my mum made years ago when she went to jewellery class.

Other words on these two pages are ‘limpet’ which are Suffolk puffs, ‘wriggly’ which is twisted thread couched down, ‘wall; which was meant to be a wall of crochet, but I couldn’t get it thin enough to work so I used detached blanket stitch instead. The two holes are ‘edge’, Anne had then overlaid with a piece of backing fabric behind, I thought it would be quite nice to have a window through to the next page. The tassel is meant to be ‘teasel’ but I think it looks more like a thistlehead, I still haven’t worked out what word to put next to this one, shaggy, flowing…I’ll wait to see what the last few words of the year are.

The other side of this strip with the other hole has a few more buttons and a spare Suffolk puff. Mend was an early word, you can just see behind the three circles is a raw edge. two pieces of linen weren’t quite big enough so I stitched the circles over the raw edges to join them together. Thr three circles on the right were for ‘ripple’, that’s wool that’s couched over. Twisted is a stitch which I can’t remember the name of but you basically do a line of stitches slipped on a needle before pulling it through to make a sticking up stitch!

The page on the left still needs a bit of filling to one side I think, even if it’s just some running stitch circles.

Another recent word was twist, this is a macrame knot used to make a twisted length, I struggled to think where to place it in my book of circles, in the end I added it to the page opposite the dangle bits.

The pretty pieces for ‘woven are made on a cogged wheel, they’re called Yorkshire buttons, if you want to make a button you carry on weaving thread round the circle and then gather it round some stuffing. I’ve added a few on other pages too as they fill up space nicely without dominating a page.

The ‘wrapped’ is done with buttonhole stitch over a washer, some of it is perle thread, other times it’s 4 ply wool.

The other end of this linen strip has a few more Yorkshire buttons but this time they come under the word ‘love’, or to give it’s full title, do what you love.. ‘Yummy’ was just a piece of something you really liked, for me it was this piece of batik. Fly stitch is used for ‘buzzy’.

On the left there is ‘gills’, using pistil stitch to represent the gills of a mushroom. Coils are just a heap of bullion knots.

With just three weeks to go I’ll be glad when this SAL has finished, I’ve enjoyed doing it and Anne always makes me think out of the box a bit, trying new things, but once a week for a year takes some keeping up with!

Once I’ve done the three remaining weeks I’ll have a look at my pages and see which areas need a little more stitching, it might just be a circle of running stitch, or herringbone. or I might repeat one of the techniques from earlier in the year.

I’ll post the other two sets of pages in a couple of days time 🙂

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Postcards from the Hedge SAL

Posted on December 7, 2025 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished another postcard, these are designs by Rebecca of Featherstitch House, they’re lovely designs with a video suggesting stitches and threads. Three weeks ago I had just arranged the base fabrics of the foxglove postcard, using bondaweb to keep everything in place whilst I stitched it…

The following day I had my Skipton Stitchers meeting so I took it along to work on.

The background has rows of running stitch to add some texture, I’m always a bit hesitant about doing this kind of stitching as it’s random, I don’t find random easy! I used a fine variegated green perle which I bought in Singapore last month, mixed with a DMC variegated which has the pink and green tones. I’m amazed how well it’s come out, I really like it.

The petals are stitched with straight stitches which are woven together to give a bit of shading. For the leaves I used fly stitches to make the veins. By the time I came home my foxgloves looked like this…

The foxgloves then sat in my workbox for two weeks, partly because the design called for some lettering, Rebecca had used some of those mini printing sets, I looked for some at the knit and stitch show without success, my local Hobbycraft only sold the large alphabet set so I started to think of alternatives.

I wondered about embroidering straight onto the green background but decided it would probably be lost amongst the running stitches, I could do hand written labels on cotton, embroider them…but I decided eventually to use evenweave linen with simple back-stitch lettering using the variegated DMC thread. I stitched them on with back-stitch, they are straighter than they look in the photo!

I can’t take credit for choosing the apt quote, that was Rebecca. Digitalis is the Latin name for foxgloves and digoxin is a heart drug made from foxgloves. It is used to slow the heart rate down.

The foxglove flowers were finished with chain stitch along the front of the ‘frill’ and blanket stitch along the inside edge. I started doing the lines and spots inside the trumpet with pistil stitch, but in the end I found separate French knots and straight stitches worked better.

I’m really pleased with this postcard and thoroughly enjoying stitching them all. This afternoon I think I’ll prepare another one as I’ve got another Skipton Stitchers meeting tomorrow.

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, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments