My first biscornu was practice for a Halloween Biscornu exchange I had signed up to on the Cross Stitch forums. Once I had that under my belt, I figured it would be a breeze to do the Halloween one… guess again! The stitching went fine, I picked a freebie design by Barbara Ana Designs called (imaginatively) ‘Halloween Biscornu.’ Enjoyed stitching this design so much, I will be stitching it for myself one day soon. Alas, when it came to stitching it up into a biscornu, I got cold feet. Thankfully, my luffly friend Laura came along to hand hold me while I did the biscornu up, and as you...

When biscornus first came into the scene, I kinda thought “Eh, cute but not for me.” Part of the problem was that there weren’t many designs available, and I wasn’t too excited by the ones that were. Over the years they’ve really grown in popularity, and they grew on me. So much so, I did try making one, and failed, miserably. When I came across the Cross Stitch forum and saw that they were taking sign ups for a Halloween biscornu exchange, I decided I had to give it another go. I love halloween, and the thought of a biscornu in a halloween theme had me tickled pink! Of...

Guess what I did today? I created something all by myself *beams* I’ve always admired designers who are able to create beautiful one of a kind cross stitch patterns, so when I decided to sign up to a band sampler stitch along on a forum I’d recently joined, I thought I’d give it a go. The other ladies & gents in the group had already started sharing their own designs, and wanting to contribute, I came up with the following, which I boringly call the ‘Floral Band.’ My influences were definitely Indian/Pakistany in origin. I wanted to create something that reflected my...

I’ve been a cross stitcher for a very long time, but I’ve always been interested in other forms of needlecraft. So when my local needlework store mentioned they were attending the Association of New Zealand Embroiderers’ Guild Inc (ANZEG) 2010 conference, I wanted to check it out and my lovely friend Laura agreed to come along too. We met up at her place in the wee morning hours yesterday. It was chilly chilly chilly… the frost was so thick and mist so heavy the route down to Hamilton was spectacular, and for once I wasn’t driving so could enjoy the gorgeous views. Once we...

Depression and life problems meant that it had been a while since I picked up the needle and stitched. To try get back my stitching mojo, I signed up to a local craft exchange. After several mis-starts… where I started on a design but it just wasn’t “doing” it for me, I settled on stitching the pink lotus mandala from the larger sampler design by Joan Elliott called ‘Eastern Promise’ (found in her book ‘Cross Stitch Wit & Wisdom.’) I had originally planned to stitch this up as a needlebook, but of course, as is the case with me, I managed to stuff...