Shepherds Bush Stockings

When packing away our Christmas decorations, I thought I should get some pics of the stockings I stitched for our girls some years back. I love Shepherds Bush designs and their stockings are some of my favourites. These are Mary's Stocking on the left and Elisabeth's Stocking on the right.

Mary's Stocking

Shepherds Bush

Stitched on 18ct Floba fabric with Perle 5 DMC and Weeks Dye Works thread

Elisabeth's Stocking

Shepherds Bush

Stitched on 18ct Floba fabric with Perle 5 DMC and Weeks Dye Works thread

The bead/charm packs that you can get for these patterns are so sweet, with lots of cute charms and buttons to bring the stitching to life. These were lots of fun to stitch and one day I would like to make one each for my husband and myself. I finished these up myself, lots of trial and error, it's not something I have ever tried before. That is something I hope to improve at - I really enjoy stitching, but am not at all competent at actually finishing the stitching into 'something'. Lucky there is so much fabulous inspiration out there in blogland!

We are enjoying some sunny, warm weather here at the moment, though it is long overdue, up till the last week or so, this would be the worst summer we have had for a very long time. We have had almost continual rain in December and most of January, so we are quite behind with a lot of our tractor work, these last few days have seen lots of action around the farm. Hopefully there will still be some time for a little stitching........

Taken the Plunge

Well, finally I have taken the plunge, so to speak, and started a blog. Over the last few years I have taken a lot of stitching inspiration from many of the beautiful blogs out there. There are so many talented stitchers out there who are kind enough to share their stitching and creativity with everyone. At the moment I keep a written journal of my work, but thought that a blog might be a fun way to keep a better photographic record of everything as well.

Anyway - a little about me - I am 33 years old, married with 2 lovely daughters. We have a sheep and beef farm in Southland, New Zealand, where we run about 2900 ewes, and 70 cattle. This keeps us pretty busy, and I also work part time in an administration position in our nearest small town.

I have enjoyed stitching since I was around eight years old, when an aunt gave me a cross stitch kit of a little Amish girl as a gift, and I have been hooked ever since. Another aunt is a wonderful patchworker, and so I have also developed a bit of a passion for quilting as well! One of my favourite designers is Leanne Beasley of Leanne's House. I just love her combination of quilting with stitchery. I have completed about half of her Leanne's House Block of the Month Quilt, and am collecting fabrics for Butterfly Garden, which I absolutely can't wait to get started on.

Through the internet I have discovered so many wonderful Cross Stitch designers, among my favourites are Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage Needleworks, and Lizzie Kate. Shepherds Bush patterns were some of my early favourites, and I have managed to gather a lot of these over the last fifteen years or so(though I think I have more than I could actually stitch in about three lifetimes!) In my spare time I love to be with my family, reading, gardening, am also a keen sports fan, but don't play as much as I used to.

I've got a long way to go to becoming a good photographer, but hopefully i will pick up a few tips along the way from others. Here is a photo of a little Country Cottage Needleworks ornament I started this week - Winters Eve, from 2006 JCS Christmas Ornament Issue. I hope to have the stitching finished soon, and maybe have it "finished" for the tree by next Christmas??

Will be back again soon.