Not going to meet my target.....

...but I've been doing the best I can. I've been really quite low in strength with virus after virus after virus of late and have, basically, just lost most of the school holidays/vacation to being laid flat with another one. Anyway, I'm still alive and am determined to go to the doctor on Tuesday even if I feel pounds better (although it won't do much good, as I got no help from UK docs for essentially the same problem), and see if s/he has anything of actual use to suggest.

I've done some of the cross stitch as you can see here:

And here is the first of the 4 wired bee's wings for the stumpwork, shown rather larger than life:

I've also cut the backing fabric to size for the hardanger cushion/pillow and pressed all that ready to be tacked and sewn together and we went to Costco for the first time on Monday night where I got some watercolour pencils. They're only the kids' version, but it's a good brand nonetheless and will do to get going with the medium - if I can ever sit up long enough to draw!!!! It's a good thing I'm not the moaning, whining type, I'll tell you!


So, I think there's no danger of my having even one of these pieces finished by the time we get back to language classes on Wednesday, but I will at least have made some progress. Oh, and I'm reading Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Sylvia's Lovers', which I'm not finding myself getting on with so far. I've only read the first 5 chapters, but I find the regional dialects hard going and the subject hasn't hit the spot yet. Early days yet though.

Change of look

So, I've just given my blog a bit of a new look in terms of a new colour scheme in aqua blues and 4 new header photos, mostly of my work from the last year, (the fish is from summer '08). Those following along on reader software will need to click through to have a look, if you so desire! Some of the older posts won't look so good anymore as I chose the text colours on each post to co-ordinate with both the photos and the blog colour scheme. I think I'll now just use the default text colour that I've created for the blog for most postings.

Went to the fabric market today, but didn't get anything as, although there were lots of terrific things, I wasn't really in a buying mood and what's there is stuff I would need a sewing machine to put to good use, so not much point in going mad there just yet. I will at some point though, I feel certain of that!

Flatwork complete on stumpwork piece

Sometimes I hate Blogger! I just typed up this whole post, then highlighted it to change the colour - then it kindly deleted the whole thing. NEVER try to highlight the whole passage using Crtl+Shft+Home/End to change the colour. This has happened to me just tooooo often now and, of course, this time, it autosaved just after the deletion, so I've had to start again. Grrrrrr!!

Anyway....

As you can see from this photo I've just taken, I'm making some really discernible progress on the DMC stumpwork bee design. Whilst watching a DVD another British friend who lives here now lent us, I got all the padded satin stitch done, plus the flower centres and have only the bee itself to do - the real raised part. I plan to have all my WIPs completed before we go back to classes on 2 December (a week on Wednesday), so you should soon be able to see, not only this piece finished, but also the L*K Spring cross stitch, the hardanger finished up into the cushion/pillow proper and, all being well, my camera bag should get made up too. I also have a dress to finish altering, although the weather is hardly fit for a sleeveless dress right now. It's unseasonably cold at the mo and has been for most of the time since late September. I am so SICK of rain!

I've been stash building again and got these 10 DMC linen threads from the shop I posted the photo of a few weeks ago. They're the only place so far that I've found who do anything more than just plain DMC stranded cotton. I use Anchor and have brought them all with me anyway, so no use to me just now! I'll keep on looking though and it feels good to be hoarding again!!! Going to a special fabric market tomorrow (where I got these last spring), so will have some gorgeous stuff to showcase, no doubt!


Right, now DON'T get deleted again, PLEASE!!? (It didn't - I used the mouse buttons instead....)

PS: Thanks to Susan for the tips on how to get decent sized photos!

A little more on the stumpwork piece

But not much! I made a start on the larger flowers which are worked in padded satin stitch. The padding is really quick to work as it doesn't have to be so flat and even, or even fit into the shape and cover the awful, thick pattern lines so well. The lines on this thing are, as is usual with many kits, far too thick! It doesn't matter so much with large blocks to be worked, but when it's a line to be covered with thin backstitch or stemstitch, it's really bad! I expect many of us embroiderers have had the same problem at some time. Anyway, the point of this photo is to show how the padding is done with this stitch.

Not done enough on the XS to warrant another photo, but school breaks up for nearly 2 weeks next Friday, so I hope to get some art, stitching and tourism in!!

Thanks everyone for keeping on visiting here.=) I've noticed a couple of the blogs I used to visit have gone 'private' of late, namely 'Stitchologist' whose animal cross stitches I rather enjoyed, and Pierrette's 'Love to Stitch 99'. I wondered why Pierrette hadn't been stitching, and now I know she probably has, I just haven't been added as an invited reader - or the invitiation got lost in the e-mail address change. So, if you ladies are tuned in, get in touch via Blogger if you don't mind my reading your blog so I can get access.=)

New L*K and stumpwork progress

I've got the 'Spring' button up sampler well and truly in progress now:

And I've also been working some more on the stumpwork piece:

As you can see, I haven't finished the flatwork yet, but the next thing to do is some padded satin stitch, thus starting the raised sort of elements. After that is the bee...

I've finished re-reading 'North and South' and yesterday was lent the DVD of the BBC version of it, so I'm looking forward to watching that. It'd been long enough since I read the book the first time for it to be almost fresh reading, so remember that and don't throw out your good novels - come back to them in 5+ years' time!!!=) Marked to read next is 'Queen Victoria - A Personal History', which I'm hoping will be light enough reading to pass for a novel. I'm also reading 'Anne of Green Gables' in Chinese!!!