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.

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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.

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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

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