Friday 23 December 2011

A Cheeky Christmas

Elvys Christmas Scarf


Here's a little Christmas gift for your eyes. I stitched his scarf for my friend Elvy Rose with patterns from Sublime Stitching and French Knot.

Elvys Christmas Scarf_detail 1

I'd wanted to use that dancer for a while! I think it came out pretty well and she loved it.


Elvys Christmas Scarf_detail 2


Happy Holidays everyone!

Thursday 15 December 2011

Introducing Frankie!

Frankie 2


One of our Guest Entertainers is a good friend of mine and bought me an early Christmas present. We were walking around Walmart and saw in the toy department a set of fashion dolls based on movie monsters. When I wasn't looking she went through them and found me the perfect one....

Frankie 1


Please meet Frankie Stein!

Not only is she based on Frankenstein's monster (ie awesome) but she takes Home Ick class at Monster High! How funny is that?! She has scissor earrings and came with a tiny reel of cotton and a needle - she's a mini me! We have decided that Frankie is now coming everywhere with us - she even has her own Facebook page with photos of her travels.

Frankie 3


In my free time I'm making her some new outfits and already she has admirers following her around! It doesn't matter how old you are, toys are still fun to play with!!

Frankie 4

More adventures with Frankie to come!!

Friday 9 December 2011

Elephants on Parade

Elephant 1


While my ship was out of Copenhagen this summer I was lucky enough to see a couple of outdoor art exhibitions dotted around the city. Elephant Parade was an open air art exhibit in which proceeds from the sales of the pieces were donated to charity in aid of the Asian elephant. The painted elephants flaunted many different styles and colours and were certainly eye catching. They were not around for long but I managed to get a fair few on camera to share with you here...

Elephant 3

Elephant 4

Elephant 7

Elephant 8

Elephant 9

Elephant 10

Elephant 11

Elephant 12

Elephant 13

Elephant 15

Aren't they beautiful? I hope they all went to great homes and lots of money was raised for the cause.

Thursday 1 December 2011

This one is for the ladies....

tribute 1


Over the summer I purchased a needle felting attachment for my beloved Bernina. I also found out about the
Capture Cure charity auction which was accepting donated works of art to auction off in aid of breast cancer. My mother and best friend from high school are both recovering from breast cancer so this was a cause near to my heart.

tribute 2


I created a needle felted and embellished wall hanging that is a tribute to the strength of women. It uses skills taught to me by the women in my family and the new techniques I have learned after being inspired by them. Only 40 pieces were accepted into the auction, mine being one of them. I am fiercely proud of this and hope it went to a good home.

tribute 3


I am also about to start a little cross stitch I downloaded, designed by Emily Peacock. It is a pink breast cancer ribbon which I am going to make for myself and my mother. I haven't followed a cross stitch pattern in a while so it will be interesting to try that out again! I encourage you to go and get the pattern yourself and donate to breast cancer research in the process.
Check out the Mr X Stitch post about it here

emily peacock cross stitch

Friday 18 November 2011

They took lots of honey, and plenty of money...

Lear tie 2

Next week two of my friends have their birthday on the same day. It's going to be lots of fun, especially as we are in St Thomas that day and there's a crew party! For each person I have crafted a very personal present based on who they are and what they like/do. This is the first, for my friend Jonny Danger (yep, that's his real name) who we all call Tuxedo... he works with the kids, ok!

Lear tie 3


Tux is a poetry major and particularly likes Edward Lear so I stitched him a tie to go with one of his suits. He better like it, is all I can say because I had to use metallic thread. And we all know how difficult that is :-)

Lear tie 1


Thank the Goddess for thread heaven!

I'll post the other present for my friend Karlene next....

Tuesday 8 November 2011

No Food For You!

cocoaeyes 1


It's here! It's here! My swap piece from Cocoaeyes is finally here!! I got Cocoaeyes as my swap partner for the Phat Quarter Food Swap and my piece from her arrived this weekend. It was a total surprise - I thought it was a box of t-shirts and then I dipped my hand in to find a lovely stitchery!!!

Cocoaeyes is obsessed with hazard signs so stitched me one up as you can see above. Girl, you would be so inspired by my ship - there are warning signs and mandatory signs and hazard signs EVERYWHERE!! Here's a shot of it on my cabin wall next to our no smoking in bed hazard sign, just for fun!!

cocoaeyes 2


She also sent me a lovely card full of compliments which was very much appreciated - you rock Olisa!!

Check out Cocoaeyes' blog here at
Stitch, Stab & Scrawl, I highly recommend it :-)

Saturday 5 November 2011

Work In Progress

Everything is a little hectic around here at the moment, but I thought I'd show you what I'm working on right now. Here's a sneak peek at my Sketchbook Project 2012 - enjoy!

Sketchbook Project WIP1

Friday 28 October 2011

Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie! Some Sweden!!

.... did you see what I did there?! I used a Abba song while talking about Sweden..... no? Just me then? ok.....

Anyway! I only got to go to Sweden once while we were there, but we made our way to Stockholm and saw, as always, awesomeness on the streets there. Take a gander!

Sweden 1
Fun shaped buildings in interesting colours

Sweden 2
I love the spikey-ness of this statue

sweden 3
And here it is on fabric... stitching idea maybe?

sweden 4
Swedish fountain gargoyle!

sweden 5
I loved this embroidery store window display, unfortunately it was Sunday so it was closed :-(

sweden 6
Interesting shutters

sweden 7
I loved the tapestry in the back of this store that was based on carnivorous plants

sweden 8
Just really interesting window displays in Sweden!

Love it!

Monday 17 October 2011

Phat Quarter Swap! Food

Nacho 1


Ok, let's share some stitchery! I made this piece for the August Phat Quarter swap.... I know it's a bit late but I've been busy :-) Finally, I have a decent internet connection where I can upload the photos - yay!! The theme was food so stitched a design based around one of my fave David and Goliath t-shirts...

nacho 3
The cheese is not the mother of the sad little nachos.... in case you didn't get it!

Nacho 2
yes, that is a french knot pepper border!

nacho 4
I felt brave and used an orange background.

Personally I think this is super cute!! And I know Disobedient Child, who was my swap partner loved it!! Yay stitching! My Sketchbook Project is taking a long time to finish, hence why there is a lack of stitchery on the blog right now. But soon, my pretties - I promise!

Thursday 13 October 2011

Medieval Tallinn

Visting Tallinn, Estonia made me want to sew. The medieval town had such gorgeous colour combinations and styles that I just want to depict it in stitch. Estonia has a love of wool, so while there I bought some hand dyed wool which will undoubtedly make its way into my pieces. Here are some of my favourite sights...

Tallin 9

Tallin 3
Winding streets passed castles and inns

Tallin 4
A page showing the way

Tallin 5
The handmade guild - I saw some gorgeous stuff in here

Tallin 6
Random graffiti

Tallin 7
A shadowy figure creeping down the street

Tallin 8
Such gorgeous colours!!

Only a few more places to report on in my Europe round-up, then we'll get back to some sewing - promise!!

Sunday 9 October 2011

Ra Ra Rasputin!

Wow - that was a long break! Sorry about that! I had the cast change over from hell on my boat and just when we thought we were done a new show was introduced so I have to fit and alter 25 costumes in 24 hours.... got it done in 17 because I'm a rock star though! Anyway, here's the post about Russia I promised so long ago and hopefully posts will be more regular from now on *blush*

I think I've taken the most photos in St. Petersburg. There are so many beautiful buildings to see. The whole place is full of palaces, more than you can see in just one trip. When I was at school I remember doing a history project about Rasputin and his strange involvement with the last Tsar family and his even stranger death. I was lucky enough to go to an exhibit about this event and learn more whilst in Russia. If you don't know the story of Rasputin, look it up - it's a really weird tale!

Russia 1
The Winter Palace, now the Hermitage Museum

Russia 5
The Summer Palace

Russia 4
St. Isaac's Cathedral - that's real gold up there!

Russia 2
Random painting hanging in the street that's been... um.... added to...

Russia 8
Outside the Church of the Spilled Blood

Russia 9
Inside, the Church is decorated entirely with glass mosaics

Russia 10
Inside one of the coppolas

I feel some art coming on.... :-)