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Tuesday 16 August 2011

A Christmas Ornament & a Summer Flower

I bought some flowers last Friday, i thought they were never going to open but then this is what greeted me when i walked in after work at lunch time

Such a beautiful colour, so intense




I stitched this free design a while ago but only got round to putting it together at the weekend, and yes, I'm blatantly exploiting the beautiful flower to show my stitching!



Summer, and Winter in harmony ;-)

 Finished with a beaded edging



~~~~~~~~~~
Last time i mentioned a new stitching group i was trying to get going.  I left flyer's in all the local libraries, Sharon at Betty's put one up in her shop and took names of anyone interested and finally we have around 11 people who have shown an interest.  I've been in touch with a local community centre and there is a room free on Wednesday evenings, so it's looks like it is going to happen at last!
So my question is, do you have a regular stitchy/craft group that you go to, or organise?  What sort of things do you do, (apart from the obvious stitching that is), do you have raffles, birthday lists?  I just need to pinch some ideas if i can. 


Thankfully all the pointless rioting has stopped, but not before countless £'s of damage was done and well over a thousand arrests.  I saw on the news tonight that for those that are not given a prison sentence there may be community service, lets hope they follow through with that, it might do them good to put right some of the damage they caused.  DD is still on working 12 hours shifts and will have worked 15 days / nights without a rest day, but she has stayed safe, which is the main thing.  Thank you to those of you who left messages wishing her well.

Until next time..x

18 comments:

Catherine said...

So glad to hear that your daughter stayed safe! Your flower is so beautiful. A beautiful background god a beautiful finish! Love the beaded edge!!

Roberta said...

Hi Maggie, love your photos of the lily. The ornament is real cute. The patio is lovely also.

Melanie said...

Lovely little finish and flowers!!
I wish I had stitchy *or* knitting friends around here. There's not much in the way of anything in my area though. Pretty rural. It's worth not having street lights, telephone wires or any traffic though. lol

Gillie said...

Flowers are there to be shown off and exploited, lol! Very pretty ornament, love the beads. So glad dd is safe. Well done too on getting the group moving, wish I lived nearer, I'd be joining in a flash, well, if you asked me, lol!

Monica said...

Iam a new follower,congrats for your stichs!!

Gabi said...

What a beautiful flower. Suits your darling finish perfectly. Love both

Sharon said...

Beautiful ornament and flowers.

Brigitte said...

Those lilies are gorgeous, aren't they. Last weekend my son and daughter-in-law gave me a bunch of these as well and since then they are blooking in my living room.
Great little ornament.
Good to read that your daughter stayed safe during the riots.
I wish you luck with your stitching group.

Sally said...

Good luck with your stitching group Maggie. I really wish there was one here. I do go to one but they're all knitters about from two of us.

Your ornament is lovely and so are your lilies.

Katherine said...

Maggie: Glad to hear things are settling down. LOVE your pictures - as usual they are stunning. I have a little stitchy group here. We meet in the middle of the day. One of our members says it's difficult for her to get by when we miss a week. One thing I did that was good AND bad. Many months ago I organized our first "road trip". It included going to a needlework show, having a nice luncheon, going to a needlework shop (many of ours here have closed due to the recession) and a stop at an antiques mall (we all like to collect antique stitching items). I planned it, mapped it all out and did all the driving. I paid for gas and they paid for lunch. They (we) had a fabulous time! And ever since then they have been (harping) encouraging - me to plan more monthly trips. It takes a lot of time to plan and it can be expensive. But, if you have the things to do, it could be a quarterly treat or something like that. Have fun whatever you do!

The Inspired Stitcher said...

Hi Maggie,

Our guild does this thing called "Secret Stitcher."

In December we fill out a question sheet with your likes and any special things about you. It's a get to know you kind of thing. Then one person collects them and matches people up.

Then throughout the coming year you anonymously send your person little surprise gifts. It can be as much or as little as you like. We try to send things at least once every other month or so.

You reveal who you are at the Christmas party in December by stitching your person an ornament.

We place the ornaments on a special tree. The person in charge of the tree then takes the ornaments off one by one and asks "who made this?" You go up and take the ornament and give it to your person. That's how they find out it was you sending gifts all year long!

I usually make a "thank you" ornament for the person who was sending to me as well as the one that gets placed on the tree!

If you'd like to see the question sheet, just send me an email.

Jeanne said...

Lovely ornament and flowers too! I had those rubrum lilies in my wedding bouquet many years ago :). I don't have a stitching group but I do have a group of quilting friends. We exchange Christmas gifts but don't do birthdays, we found we were all too busy to keep up.

Siobhán said...

I'm so glad to hear that your daughter has stayed safe!! I hope that the people who contributed to the problems & rioting will be punished severely.

Your ornament is adorable! Great job. Love the flower, too!

Good luck with the stitching group! I have been a member of a stitching group, a quilt guild, and a scrapbooking group where we had monthly or weekly meetings. I miss that so much! I liked it best when things were kept informal. With the stitching group that was organized by my LNS, they would collect a small fee which went to pay for the delivery of pizza while we were there. The quilt guild was big so they did raffles, had speakers come in, challenges, quilt alongs, etc. The scrapbooking group was the best fit for me because it was informal. Each time we got together, one person would bring a salty snack (tortilla chips & salsa) and another person would bring a sweet snack (brownies, cake, etc.). We would bring our own drinks or buy them beforehand. Best of luck!

Anna van Schurman said...

I stitch at the library with my old ladies. Every "holiday"--valentine's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July etc-- we have a little party with everyone bringing a little something to share (we meet 10-12, so we do lunch). We also have a Christmas swap. Too much more may put people off.

Heidi said...

I love your ornaments Maggie! You finished it to perfection. The design is adorable and I have never seen it. Who is it by?

The lily is so pretty. I can no longer have them in the house since I had my treatments. I cannot take the smell but they are so cheap to buy them. I sometimes buy them and put them on my table in the garden. Do you cut out the anthers? I do to make sure I do not get any stains if the pollen comes off them.

Hugs from Holland ~
Heidi

Lucy said...

Beautiful ornament finish!

Jenny said...

Oh your photos are gorgeous! What a cute pillow - l0oos great with the orchids, such a great idea!

How wonderful that you are pulling together a stitch-group! I belong to a guild and to an "unofficial" group.
I would say that you could try to meet for a few times and get to know each other before planning other cool things.
The unofficial group has done some simple classes (a class on how to do a box finish), some ornament exchanges, a couple of weekend retreats, but for the most we just meet once a month and talk, laugh, and stitch together - it is so much fun. So much, that I drive for 1.5 hrs to get there.
Great job and initiative - you will have so much fun!!!!

MysteryKnitter said...

How pretty lily you have there