Let's Create

Things to Create - Cross Stitch, Puzzles, Games plus

Cross-stitching can be a very rewarding & fun pastime.
It`s one of the few crafts one can enjoy & feel confident about the finished results.
Puzzles are both brain teasing & relaxing. We have both featuring the images of
Canadian Artist Shelley McVittie

Pottery Plus

the ADVENTURERS
Stitch Count = 155 W x 192 H
$12.00

AFTERNOON DELIGHT
Stitch Count = 155 W x 192 H
$12.00

SEWING LESSON
Stitch Count = 224 W x 285 H
$12.00

WILL YOU?
Stitch Count = 92 W x 170 H
$12.00

HIS STORY
Stitch Count = 112 W x 124 H
$12.00

the BOOKENDS
Stitch Count = 300 W x 140 H
$12.00

HER STORY
Stitch Count = 112 W x 124 H
$12.00

Shelley McVittie's Cross Stitch Charts $12.00 each

Take your needle my child,
and work at your pattern;
it will come out a rose by and by.

Life is like that - one stitch at a time
taken patiently and as in life,
all will come out all right,
just as your embroidery.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

LINE GALLERY
Stitch Count = 280 W x 154 H
$12.00

AND SEW ON
Stitch Count = 273 W x 120 H
$12.00

QUILTED DREAMS I
Stitch Count = 69 W x 95 H
$12.00

QUILTED DREAMS II
Stitch Count = 69 W x 95 H
$12.00

SLICKER PARADE
Stitch Count = 315 W x 119 H
$12.00

ALL THE WORLD SEEMED YOUNG
Stitch Count = 304 W x 118 H
$12.00

PICCADILLY LANE
Stitch Count = 280 W x 110 H
$12.00

TWAS TWILIGHT ON MAIN
Stitch Count = 262 W x 90 H
$12.00

the INSIDE STORY
Stitch Count = 262 W x 228 H
$12.00

HIS SWING
Stitch Count = 117 W x 161 H
$12.00

HER SWING
Stitch Count = 117 W x 161 H
$12.00

A collection of vintage style images grace the inner pages of this delightfully fun book of monthly projects
12 patterns to create
12 stitched cards or
12 linen napkins or
12 tea towels or
12 little pillows...
reach as far as your imagination.
$9.95

Jigsaw Puzzles & Puzzle Parlay

Both brain-teasing and curiously relaxing, a good jigsaw puzzle is still one of folk’s favorite ways to while away a rainy afternoon or a summer’s day in the park or cottage, or back yard.

How Puzzles Are Made Video

the Sewing Lesson
500 pc. Sunsout Puzzle
13" x 19"
$19.99

Please Mr. Postman
550 pc Sunsout Puzzle
15" x 24"
19.99

the Pine Pantry
1000 pc Cobble Hills Puzzle
19¼" x 26½"
$19.99

the Laundry Line
1000 pc Cobble Hills Puzzle
26½" x 19¼"
$19.99

With my re-found interest in puzzling again I became curious about it all ...so upon some research I found some quite interesting lore about jigsaw puzzles - some you will know but some I may surprise you.

.....wooden puzzles were sold for $1.00 and that was so much more than a card board one that sold for 25 cents.

.. ..puzzles have been around for over 250 years! John Spilsbury, an English Map Maker & Engraver made the first jigsaw puzzle in 1767 when he chopped up a wooden map of Britain and challenged the public to
re-assemble it.

......'Dissections' what they first were called however the introduction of the treadle saw in 1880 changed them to be referred to as Jigsaw puzzles ~ even though it really was not a jigsaw they were cut with - it was a fretsaw!

... while puzzles werer originally created for children, adult puzzles started to emerge by the 1900's and they were an extreme challenge as they had no picture on the box - so all remained a mystery till the puzzle was fully assembled.

....this meant the dozens of weekly series puzzles were going to be released today and folks would run out to buy them so they could be the first among their friends to solve them

MORE PUZZLE FACTS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

Tea Leaf Reading, known as the gentle art or practice of Tasseomancy or Tasseography, is a lovely social ritual.
As in order to read the tea leaves, one must be served tea and one cannot be rushed.
The tea is served steaming hot, as it is sipped, one tends to slow down and nicely relax.

For hundreds of years, tea leaf readings have been practiced in home parlours.
Yes, tea leaf reading is one of those pleasant pastimes that we are losing.
Some say it’s the invention of the commercial tea bag that sealed its fate.

This intriguing custom is great fun for your guests, leaving them to ponder the
patterns on the bottom of the cup and to relax and enjoy life..

the Gentle Art of Tasseorgraphy or
Reading Tea Leafs & Coffee Grounds
$11.95

Someone Bored?
20 games of Solitaire and more.
$11.95

Someone Bored? 20 Games of Solitaire!
Playing Cards may have been used in China as early as the 7th century and perhaps were known in India around this time as well.
By the 13th century, the entire continent enjoyed card-playing; the British card-makers petitioned for protection from imported cards, and German printers were block-printing rather than hand-painting cards by the late 1400's.
Dutch, French and British settlers in the New World brought the playing cards with them. Americans and others use the 52 card deck based on the French deck, and include the medieval motifs of the spade, club, diamond and heart.

For less than a price of a store bought card, send a fun game booklet. Add a deck of cards and these make wonderful gifts for someone in hospital, traveling or just for fun.

More Puzzle Parlay
...the world's largest jigsaw puzzle is 17 feet + made up of over 32,000 pieces + weighs over 40 lbs + and would take an average puzzler 400 hours to complete. oh and it only cost $300. The artist - Keith Haring The puzzle - "Double Retrospect"

the Golden Age!
....around the 1920's and 1930's proved to be the golden age for puzzling, thanks to the Great Depression! During this time, there were tons of bored, down-on-their-luck folks, looking for ways to pass the time.

....during the 30's - magazines were giving puzzles away every week. You could even RENT them for a few cents in restaurants and diners

....this was actually a wonderful time for puzzlers as the stores offered FREE puzzles with purchases of toothbrushes, shampoo or soap etc - the retailers by doing this were doing it as a form of advertising.