arthur atticus was born at 9:20am on friday the 20th of january, 2012.
he is utterly perfect in every way, and we are delighted with him.

i haven’t been sleeping much lately. being 38 weeks pregnant makes that a little hard! but i have been dreaming of a good night’s sleep, so this treasury was born…

click on the image to be taken to the treasury and see individual items.

’scuse me. i’m off for a nap…

essie xoxox

the last handmade christmas present i have to show you is this wedding sampler that i made for my other brother and sister in law.

they had a beautiful wedding last year, and i wanted to make them something to commemorate the event.

i actually designed this one myself, and my favourite thing about it is the colours. it reminds me of delftware, which is the look i was going for.

i may release it as a pattern in the shop, though i haven’t decided yet… we’ll see!

essie xoxox

you can put this one down to general cluckiness, and the fact that our long-awaited son is due to be born in nine days!

click on the image to be taken to the treasury and see individual items.

can you blame me for being a wee bit excited?

essie xoxox

p.s. if you’re interested in reading about the pregnancy, the baby, and other family-related musings, i blog that stuff here.

here’s another one of my christmas present projects. this one was for my parents-in-law.

the pattern is called “family record samplers”, and it’s by ellen chester of “with my needle“.

the pattern contains three variations of the design, so it can be adjusted for different numbers of children (up to about seven). being a meddler and never quite satisfied, i rearranged things and did my own version, modifying the motifs of the original pattern.

overall i enjoyed stitching this, but the pattern was a little confusing to follow. the number of variations available meant that there were lots of pages that were easily muddled up (especially for someone as scatterbrained as me!).
the pattern is also designed to be stitched on belfast linen, with some stitches over two linen threads, and others over one. the blank areas of the pattern, where you could write in your own family details, were all two-thread sized, and much of the lettering was one-thread sized, so it was quite tricky to plan out.
this is definitely a pattern for more confident and experienced embroiderers!

i chose to stitch this one on antique-look linen, and i really like the way it turned out. it looks tea-stained and old, which i think really suits the design.

most importantly, it was very well received by the very dear and loving people i made it for.

essie xoxox

i’m currently working on a project that is all trees, animals, and birds. my floss ends are appropriately woodsy-coloured.

sometimes the offcuts and leftovers are as interesting as the project.

essie xoxoxo

it may have looked like i’ve been on a bit of a crafty hiatus for the last couple of months, but i haven’t! i’ve just been working on handmade christmas presents, which needed to be kept under wraps until after the gift-giving season was over. over the next few days, i’ll show you what i’ve been up to, and you definitely won’t think my needle has been set aside!

the first thing i want to show you is this:

i made it for my brother and sister in law who welcomed their first son in november. it’s called ‘the birth band’, and it’s from ‘the drawn thread’ (you may remember that i also stitched a pattern called ‘the marriage of the minds’ from their collection recently).
i used different colours to those suggested in the pattern, but apart from that didn’t modify anything. i adore the pattern, and found it very easy to follow. there were clear diagrams for all the stitches, and useful instructions for all aspects of the pattern. it stitched up relatively quickly as well.

i didn’t get to give it to the recipients in person, but i think they liked it.
i’ll be back with more to show you soon!
essie xoxox

we are having a wonderful christmas by the beach.

we’ve been eating mangoes in the pool, and watching summer storms break over the bay.

being 35 weeks pregnant in this humid weather has meant that my feet have been swelling up to alarming proportions, so i am spending a lot of time with my feet up (my mother and mother in law are enforcing this quite vigilantly!).

i hope you and those you love are having a safe and happy time,
essie xoxox

part of being a crafter is loving your materials. it’s about being obsessed with fabric, adoring your boxes full of coloured embroidery floss, and just wanting to bury your face in your yarn stash.

few things give me such simple, uncomplicated pleasure as my floss collection. it is substantial, and continually growing. and there is one subsection of it in which i take particular delight - my collection of cottage garden threads.

i love their botanical names (hyssop, maple, flax, cornflower). i love their rich and subtle variations in colour. i love the way they look all neatly packed in their box, and they way they stitch up so beautifully. i love the fact that they are hand-dyed in australia by a passionate artisan who loves what she creates.

they’re just wonderful. if you can get your hands on some, you definitely should.
essie xxx

i have not been sponsored for this post, i’m just letting you know what i think

just popping in quickly to show you some of the lovely things that have grown in our garden this spring…

life has been very busy and stressful lately, but i’m hoping to have more crafty things to show you soon.

essie x