SBEBB Christmas Ornament Exchange 2007

I received this beautiful ornament from Yuko in Japan. It's a design by Sharon Cohen of The Nostalgic Needle titled "Tudor Rose Ornament" from Just Cross Stitch 1999 Special Christmas Issue.

Yuko also sent me some fabrics, floss and a cute apple pin-cushion which are useful for me. Thanks Yuko for such a great exchange. I love them all. I am hanging this ornament at my work desk now.


Took a close up look of her ornament.The stitches and finishing of her ornament were superb. And see the cute apple. It even comes with a stalk.

SBEBB Stitcher's Christmas Ornament Exchange

This is what I stitched for Carol. It is a complimentary design by Jean Farish Heart And Home, titled '3D Holly Band Ornament'. This is my first attempt with a 3D project and I am happy with the end result. I sewn the pattern on a 28 ct Jobelan bone with DMC floss. I did not follow the finishing method as indicated but instead I used the pinkeep mattress style finishing technique. I then tied 8 different coloured bells onto DMC metallic red and green floss and sewn it to the bottom of the ornament.

SBEBB Stitcher's Pocket Exchange Sent

I received words from Marika that she has received my package. So I can now show you the pocket that I have made for her. Frankly.. I have never made a pocket before and out of a sudden impulse I joined the Stitcher's Pocket Exchange :p.... And when I received my partner's name, reality strikes home. Can I? Will I? Luckily with a pattern in mind and guidance from Cindy on the finishing technique, I managed to pull it through.

This is my 2nd project that uses one of the chart from this french book 'Petits points & Toile de lin' by Marjorie Massey. (The 1st project was a lovely butterfly pinkeep mattress I made for Vonne. ) I love most of her charts in this book. I slightly modified one of her chart and re-arranged the pattern/layout deemed suitable and pleasing for the eye. I used DMC 3041 and sewn it one-over-one onto a 28 count jobelan light-blue fabric. I also personalized the pocket with her initial 'M' at the centre. The pocket is secured by looping the pvc cord around it and ended at the big brown button.

SBEBB Stitcher's Pocket Exchange Received

I am thrilled to receive this beautiful English Garden Pocket and a purple fabric from Judith yesterday. I did not expect to receive the package so early. It's truly is a big surprise as I have just sent out mine on the very same day. My partner will probably receive the package within 5 days. I hope...:D (fingers crossed lol).

This is the first time I see different type of stitches sewn other than crosses. It even has small tiny beads on to it. And take a closer look at the pink and white flowers. (Click on the pic.) See how delicately she sewn it to perfection.

Thank you Judith. I will treasure it always. It makes me wanna find out more about this designer 'The Drawn Thread'. So it's google time ;D....

SBEBB Redwork Exchange 2007

For this redwork exchange, I selected one of the design from the Ronde des 4 saisons chart for my exchange partner Vicki. I stitched one-over-one on a 28 ct lugana fabric using DMC 815 and finished it into a pin mattress.

Vicki has a broken left wrist and with a cast on for quite sometime now. Hope my stitchwork did cheer her up some how.

Get well soon Vicki and take care. .... :-)

By the way,Cindy is having a give-away pouch for a lucky reader. Visit her blog to find out more.
Below shows the back and the side views of the pin mattress.

Novel Book Cover

It usually takes me about an hour to reach my office. So reading novel is one of my past-time when I am travelling in the train. This time round I attempted to finish a stitched piece into a novel book cover. I am quite please with the end result; however there are still rooms for improvement. For this finishing, I make use of sewing machine and some invisible threads for the side folds. The right fold of the book cover can be adjusted to fit the thickness of any novel book.

The blackwork pattern was from a japanese cross-stitch magazine I bought last year. I use DMC floss (black and brown) on a 28 ct cashel linen fabric.

SBEBB Redwork Exchange 2007 Received

I received this beautiful needlecase with my initial personalized from Hazel. She also includes some extra ribbons, buttons and fabric that I can use for my future exchange projects. Thank you Hazel for this lovely exchange.





I always wanted to make a needlecase for myself but at the end I always push-off the idea as I am a failure with sewing machine. My sewing machine has been giving me tension problems for the last one year. Adjusting the tension knobs could not help. So I have sent it to the serviceman 2 weeks back. And guess what...! He said the fault lies on me not the machine. It seems that I have not done a proper job with the threading. He demostrated to me the right way and ask me to repeat what he did. Oh gosh... all this while I have been doing it the wrong way and I even have to pay the serviceman for my mistake. {sob.. sob...} My next exchange is the stitcher pocket exchange. Hopefully I can do a good work out of it.
Ok more photos of Hazel's work ( back and with needlecase open) posted here. By the way, I just bought a new pair of scissor. The scissor fob arrived just in time :-) .....

Update: Wow.. Hazel told me the needle case is hand-sewn. No sewing machine is used at all. Great work Hazel.

Card holder

While browsing thru the Just CrossStitch 2007 Special Christmas issue which I borrowed from Cindy, I noticed a small envelope slotted within the pages. And written on it is my name. I opened up the seal and found out that Cindy has sewn me a cute card holder for my MRT card.

Yipeee... She has specially stitched this design for me as I am born in the year of rabbit. Oh how thoughtful of her :-)

A Special pin-mattress for a Stitcher Friend.

It's been some time since I last post any updates on my stitchwork as I was busy with wedding plannings and creating wedding montage for a relative. Now that the wedding event is over, I can now get to continue with my KIV stitch work.


This special pin mattress is specially make for Cindy, a good friend and a zealous stitcher. I chose a light blue lugana fabric and DMC 930 floss for this one-over-one stitchwork.

The front design is a freebie chart from a french website. It's a design of an angel holding a basket of flowers. You can find a vast collection of free and beautiful charts from this site ECHEVETTE.









For the back, I chose a portion of the chart of a small needlebook from Accessoires Quaker AMAP. The full design can be viewed at A Mon Ami Pierre. A long and thin white ribbon with blue spots was then sewn and wrapped around the sides of the mattress. I used a long ribbon so that the pin mattress can be hang for display. Round blue pins are then placed around the sides of the mattress. And I finished it off with a sheer golden ribbon at the top of the pin mattress.

A big thank you to Cindy for these photos. :-)

SBEBB - ABC EXCHANGE 2007 Received

I received this beautiful pinkeep ornament from Paula. The design she selected is by Carriage House Samplings published in Just Cross Stitch magazine June 2005 issue.

The finishing of the pinkeep ornament is exquisite and the design has a very 'spring' look. Paula also included some fabric and alphabet beads for me. Currently I have hang this beautiful piece in my workplace. Thank you Paula, you make my day. ;-p

SBEBB - ABC EXCHANGE 2007 SENT

For this ABC Exchange, we are free to use any fabric and floss. However we have to include alphabet inside the design.

As I received a beautiful pin cushion from Cari for the Winter Quaker Exchange, I decided to make my first pin cushion for my exchange partner Vonne too.

I chose this beautiful design by Majorie Massey from the book "Petits Points & Toile Delin". It's a french cross-stitch book with many wonderful designs. I used DMC 815 and sewn it one-over-one onto a 28 count jubilee light-blue fabric.

And this is the back design with her name sewn and three flowers on top of the letter V which like a vase :-). The width of the pin cushion is about 1 cm . The three pieces are then joined together and then stuffed with 6 layers of quilt cotton battings.

I am pretty amazed that I have did such a beautiful piece of work. Thanks to those kind stitchers out there who provide us the wonderful tutorials.

Amazon France

Ordering these great french cross-stitch books from Amazon France is a breeze. There is a 'Help In English' at the left hand column when you click on AIDE at the top of the first page. From there you will get to know how to order your stuff and what are the shipping costs and payment type etc... However you need to have a Amazon account first before you can order any books. So go to Amazon.com to create a new account if you have none. Once it is created, logon with your new account. Click on 'Your Account' at the top of the page. Set 1-CLICK Ordering settings to ON. This will allow you to place orders in Amazon.Fr site. Close the window session and proceed to Amazon.Fr and order your books. You will then received a confirmation order via email.... but then it is in french. Just cut and paste some of the words and use a language tranlator such as Babel Fish Translator to translate it from french to english. Ta-da .... you are done. Well.... hope the above information helps you in your quest to acquire your favourite french books...lol

Do drop over at Cindy's blog to have a look at her short reviews of these 3 books.

Happy Shopping at Violarium

Hurray!! My package from Violarium has arrived last night. I was very surprised as I had just placed the order on the 28th Feb and did not expect to receive them so early. I immediately called up Cindy about the good news. Cindy has also placed an order for the same french cross-stitch magazine "De Fil En Aiguille " thru my account. She was thrilled about it too. After the call, she sent me this sms message "Great. Can't wait to see them. Wish I could fly to your place now and take a look. LOL...." What a fun and jovial friend to have... :-)

Lately I have been crazy about redwork and quaker designs. As Violarium was having a one-day special - 20% discount on all orders + free shipping anywhere in the world.. for her 1st anniverary on the 28th Feb, I took the golden opportunity to ordered two of Isabella Vautier's charts ["All I Need Is Love Quaker" and "Dans La Jungle" ] and the french cross-stitch magazine titled " De Fil En Aiguille Special Issues - Samplers". Even though both of us don't speak or understand french, the diagrams of the magazine are clearly charted. We loved most of the designs from this special issue. There are a total of 17 designs (big and small samplers) within the 60 over pages. Leena who is the shop owner of Volarium and a SBEBB member ; even enclosed a 2-page French -> English cross-stitch dictionary and 2 free charts for us. We can't wait for the special issue "Tout Rouge" to be in-stock at Violarium .

SBEBB- Winter Quaker Exchange 2006 Received

I received this package from Cari USA. The pinkeep is stitched one over one and personalized with our initials at the back. Cari also sent me a chart kit "Country Day" designed by Nan Tyson Euler and some stickers. Thanks Cari for this wonderful exchange.

SBEBB - Winter Quaker Exchange 2006 Sent

The quaker's exchange theme is WINTER for this go round and we will be using a combination of Blue and White for our designs. The Quaker design doesn't have to relate to Winter, but we must use the Winter colors of Blue and White.

The design I stitched is a small portion taken from Danielle Gouriou Curie design titled 'THE TREE WITH THE BIRDS'. It is stitched one over one on a jobelan 28 count denium blue fabric. I personalized this pinkeep by sewing Renee's initial and the year she received this pinkeep. Multiple coloured pins are used as I am not able to find blue ones.
As usual I forgotten to snap a photo of it before I sent it out. Renee is so kind to send me her photo shot when I asked her for one ;-P.