stitched saturday

due to my hiatus from blogging, it seems I have an awful lot of projects to share with you!

a little Margaret sherry rabbit from cross stitch crazy...

madeleine Floyd seashore sampler from world of cross stitching...

bustle and sew curiouser and curiouser hoop...

bustle and sew our home hoop for my mum...

mollie makes deer hoop...

 bee happy hoop from cross stitch crazy...

follow the white bunny sleeping fox and some woodland inspired hexagons, not yet finished...

virgo constellation hoop for my sweet sister's 16th...and last but not least, my hoop art gallery wall coming along nicely! have a lovely weekend all :)

mum's birthday

today is my mum's birthday, since I couldn't get home to her (just yet-one week on Tuesday and I'll be home with her, Row and Joe!) I stitched and made this card for her.
The motif is from Susan Bates' gorgeous book; Hearts, Birds and Flowers (http://www.susanbates.co.uk/hearts-birds-flowers/4585360972) She is one of my favourite cross stitch designers and my mum loves her work too, so I thought this little bouquet would make a lovely birthday card. I changed a few colours and added the backstitch wording.
Mum loved her card and I can't wait to give her her presents on Tuesday-most of which are handmade so I will be posting photos here very soon.

little fox embroidery

this is my very latest Bustle and Sew finish; a little leaping fox surrounded by a flower wreath. the fox himself is appliqued and the rest is embroidered onto cream cotton then framed in a 6 inch wooden embroidery hoop. the first photo shows it in progress, the second shows it completed and framed.

I do like framing my pieces in hoops, I find I do this more and more as they are easy to move about and rearrange. what's your favourite way to display your stitching?

I loved making this piece, although I had a few issues with the colours I had chosen; colour isn't my strong point. Clothing wise I tend to stick to classic, natural colours like white, cream, green, brown and grey. It's not that I don't like colour (I love it!) I'm just not very good at deciding which colours go well together. For this one, I decided on pastel shades with the two bright flowers on either side.

To help with my colour choices, I've been pinning all sorts of lovely palettes onto my pinterest board;  https://www.pinterest.com/hollyannlouise/quelle-colour/

I absolutely love pinterest; please do give me a follow and let me know your pinterest accounts so I can have a look-see :)

https://www.pinterest.com/hollyannlouise/

hello hydrangea

my mum bought me this beautiful potted hydrangea when she came to stay in May, but I'm sorry to say it's looking a little worse for wear, probably because it hasn't been in the sun enough. so with the drooping flower heads I couldn't resist 'faffing' around with them!

hydrangeas are a flower I used to hate as child; I thought they were so old fashioned and boring; now of course I see that they have a simple, innocent beauty.

I hope my little plant recovers-it'll be so lovely to be able to take it to me and bill's new home later this year.

any advice on how to keep it going strong?