Tip for the day

To remove stubborn creases in fabric caused by the fabric being folded and packaged, sometimes ironing alone isn't enough. Gently hand wash the finished stitching, then place on a folded thick towel and then with a cool iron, iron until dry. Ironing on the back of the fabric will make the stitches raised, and you might be surprised at the results.
Avoid using detergents with lemon scent or fragrance as these will discolour some threads (especially metallic ones).

Tip for the day

To help prevent knots appearing in the thread as you are stitching, let the needle dangle down (whilst still threaded). The needle will spin and untangle, pick up the needle and continue stitching. The amount of times you have to do this will vary from person to person, you will soon learn to judge when to do this by looking at the threads themselves. If knots do occur see the previous blog on how to remove them.

Tip for the day

Sometimes knots can form in the thread when stitching. To remove the knot simply place the needle into the loop formed and pull upwards (you do not need to un-thread the needle to do this). This loosens the knot then remove the needle from the loop and pull upwards and the loop will disappear.

Tip for the day

When using stranded cotton, pull the thread from the skein at the end where the thread number is. If it has a 'tab' on the other label at the other end of the skein (as D.M.C does) pull this tab off but leave the label on. The thread will easily unravel whilst staying neatly on the skein.

Re-occurring Dream

I have a re-occurring dream, where I am in a massive shop full of craft goodies, and I am doing a supermarket sweep (it's a big trolley) I wake up so happy, until I realise it's just been a dream.
I am fortunate to have freebies sent to me from time to time (but not that fortunate).
Here is a pic of my latest bag of goodies......yes I do have all that stitching to do :( and the pile is abut 8 inches high!!!!! Thanks Cara.

3 wishes

While making my layout, I saw the 'wish list', I immediately thought of all the wonderful craft items I would love. 'If you had 3 wishes what would you ask for?' I asked Jeremy, he thought for a moment and replied 'I would have your hearing restored' (I had become deaf due to an illness several years ago now), how sweet I thought (well he is sweet really) 'What would you ask for?' he asked. I thought for a second 'mm.... can I ask for more wishes?', 'no not allowed' he said
1) That everyone would love each other at least half as much as they love themselves, then there wouldn't be any crime.
2) That all the illness/disease in the world could be cured and due to this and number one I think all the worlds problems would be solved.
Not wanting to sound like a contestant on Miss World, I deliberately didn't ask for world peace, note.
'Would you ask for anything for yourself?' he asked. I thought about all the lovely craft things I wanted, and a nice big room to put them in.
'o.k can I win the lottery and buy a big house for all my craft stash and spend all my time shopping for new ones'
Well I had solved the world's problems with the other two wishes. So if there are any genies out there.....

My New Website

Having never made a blog before and not sure if this will work ??!!!! fingers crossed. Everyone has been asking me 'when are you going to make a website?' So after taking the plunge (and never doing anything like this before) here it is, although I still have stuff to add, but there are a couple of freebie cross stitch charts and more to come. http://www.joannesanderson.com/