Mmmmmmmmm, nice day at home.

=)

Oh, how nice it is just to have a day at home! Got the place cleaned, did the washing, made out a proper shopping list (instead of a quick brainstorm on the hoof), read for a while, had a nice lunch as well as a homemade carrot, apple and lime juice this morning and did some needlework this afternoon whilst listening to parts of 'Wives and Daughters' and 'Anne of Green Gables' on tape. Lovely! A clean home, no dirty dishes, no ironing (I did it last Friday) and some stitching done. Some might say that I'm wasting myself, someone with an education like mine just being a stay at home, but, sorry, I'm quite content! There'll be more going on later on when I get a bit stronger, but I intend to enjoy the 'taking it easy' phase and, when I have to go and lay down, I'll be doing lots of reading I wouldn't normally have that much chance for. Looking forward to that too! That's the one thing I hold against stitching, I can't read at the same time!!! Glad we have so many classic novels on tape and CD.=)

First I took the dark red fabric off the 'Child of Spring' piece that I'd sewn on (badly) in Hamburg back in October. I didn't feel that the dark shade went well enough with the design anyway and I'd put one of the pieces on wonky. Don't seem to have enough bright red to do for the whole job now, so must wait to get some until Wednesday. I was rather pleased about that as I didn't fancy that job this afternoon! Will post a pic of that another time as it was badly creased and light's fading now.

Over the last couple of days I've been doing some more on the half stitching on the bluetits piece. Seems mad to be getting on with the background, but the third and largest bird of the three in this pic isn't joined to any of the other cross stitching, so I needed to put some background in so that I didn't put him in the wrong place! It's too easy to get the count wrong at the best of times and with the easiest of fabrics, (ie. Aida), but this is 28ct Jobelan, so I could even get him half a block out!! You can even see a little of the outline of where he will be at the bottom right of the block I've done.

<-Here's how they're looking just now.

Back from Scotland with some stitching progress - WOW!

We got home last night at 10:30 after deciding not to travel back today and lose most of the day on the road. Felt nice to be home, although we had a nice time with friends who looked after us very well.=) (Hi Pauline!!!) Back to the regular run of things now though, but at least work finishes for me on 6 Dec until late January and even then some things will be done by someone else - HURRAH!

Did some cross stitching whilst I was away and
<- here are the results so far. Finished the bottom bird and started putting in some of the background half-stitching. There's still one more bird to go in the big gap on the right hand side, but it's not joined to anything other than the background stuff, so I thought it was better to put some of that in (contrary to the normal procedure, huh?) so that I get the last main element in the right place!! I hope to get that done over the next couple of weeks. I want to get both that and the 'Branches' card done before the end of this calendar year and to take both the 3rd birds trio picture and some small, fun kits away with me when we have our hols in early January. We've settled on a cottage not too far from home rather than going abroad. Less fuss, expense and more relaxing. Less fuss about food too!

Have a look at this....

Remember two posts ago with the dining table looking like an office? Well, no need for that anymore! I finally had the good sense to realise what a profoundly negative impact my job was having on me, that I hated both teaching and lesson planning/materials creation and that I'd only done it as others had wanted me to, and resigned on Wednesday. Above is the dining table as it should look!

Not had chance to do much on the bluetits, but <- here's the current status. Pretty awful, over-red photo, but I need more time on Photoshop before I get this right!!!

More stitching soon.....=) Oh how nice it is to feel that I have my life back!

Bedding Bale!

Here it is at last, the bale of bedding for the now 5 weeks overdue wedding present.

We'll be giving it to the couple this afternoon, all being well and that'll be one more job off my mind!! I just love the ribbon it's tied up with - it's got cut-out hearts on it. I daresay the bride, who likes to make her own cards, will put that to good use later on.=)


Here too are the final parts of the stitching, the simple bits in the middle of the top edge of the sheet (above) and the 2 C monograms which are one at each corner.

I've actually been doing some cross stitching the last couple of evenings. I picked up the bluetits picture that I hadn't touched since July, last photo on this post. I'd done a tiny bit more since then, but have now almost finished the lower two leaves and hope to do the second bird over the next week or so, but that depends on how other stuff goes.

More leaves

<- Here's the current status on the bluetit picture. There are some advatages to being ill after all! It may not look like much progress from the day before, but, as most cross stitchers will know, these outlines can take time. Also, it's worked in one strand of regular DMC and one of stranded metallic. I think this one is meant to be the wintry one of the suite. The chaffinches was distinctly late spring/early summery with it's lovely pink blossoms.

Met my new viola teacher this morning and she's great! You can tell she was a young person in the sixties as there's something quite 'of that era' about her, but I liked her a lot and I know I can really work with her. She'd already prepared so much material for her teaching, esp. for violin. Why do I find that impressive? Well, she's a violist herself and has put that extra time into the more unfamiliar instrument and clef unlike my last teacher who didn't even sit down and look through my book properly. First proper lesson is next Tuesday (hurrah!) and she's given me some bow hand exercises to correct some slight problems there to be getting started with. We played a short piece together from one of the tutor books. I was only doing open strings, but it was great. SO much fun to play even something so simple with someone else.=)

Good progress on the birdies

As I've been ill either in bed or on the sofa since last Weds night, I've been able to really get on with my latest birds design.=) Here they are ->

The Stitchologist asked where the dog would end up hanging. Well, not at our place, sadly! He was meant to be for my Aunt and Uncle's ruby wedding gift, but I hang my head in shame to say, that was back on March '04! Still, better late than never and promises must be kept, so he'll soon get a new home on my dog loving aunt's wall. I'm sure she'll love him and I will quite miss him myself, although I cursed myself 40 times over for ever having started him. I characteristically bit off more than I could chew at that early stage in my embroidery career!!!

Can't wait to meet my new music teacher tomorrow, hurrah! We're having a new carpet put down in the hall at the same time, so that will be great too. Home is almost finished!=)

Started a new cross stitch

Made a start on the second birds picture for our bedroom back wall, which is totally blank - even the bed has no head!! Have just got a leaf done so far, but it promises to be an interesting/fiddly (!!) stitch with so many of the shades being blended. Also, this leaf is mostly stitching in 1 strand to give it that delicate look that many autumnal leaves have. The outer row is one strand of white and one of silver! So, this will go with the Chaffinches and Blossom design I completed way back in September, then I'll do the Goldfinches and Thistles to complete the trio. Will get a start on the wedding gifts once I have the bedding needed for one and the confirmation that, yes, they would like a ring cushion from the other! The bedding I'll buy on Tues, but the other I think I shall have to chase up as time is ticking away.

I also just took a shot of the framed dog portrait, which I collected on Tuesday. It's not the best photo, but it's hard to take pix of framed work unless it's small enough to go on the scanner. This one certainly isn't! I'll see if DH can get a better shot for me when he has time, but that's a rarity for him, poor man!=(

I'm meeting a new viola teacher on Monday - someone who is a viola specialist instead of a violinist who will teach viola on the side. The last one moved away and I don't think she'll be sorry to be shut of me!! This new one has LRAM in viola teaching and knows all the relevant repertoire. She also has a definite idea of what she wants to teach and using which books. Last time I had to pick my own and, well, I'd never expect my students to go and select their own Chinese learning materials! I prepare long and hard before my classes and I expect my teachers to do the same! So, I'm really looking forward to meeting this friendly Scots lady and getting re-started within the next couple of weeks, given that we're off to Happy Hamburg on Thursday.

I SewandSo-ed

Stash, stash, lovely stash! Got a great haul in from SewandSo this morning:


This is the most recent release in their lovely British Birds collection. I've already done the Chaffinches and bought the Bluetits and Seedheads one a while back too. They're to be done in co-ordinating frames and hung in the bedroom along that big, blank back wall. I also got 9 skeins of Marlitt rayon thread, (only a few left to collect now...), 2 of Lamé, a bright white stranded cotton, which I ran out of after Cataflute and a ball of #8 pearl cotton in cream for use on 28ct cream quaker cloth sampler type thingies.

Two Finishes!

Yippee! Finally got the birds and the needlecase finished.=) The stitching show motivated me to get on with my WIPs (and at least one of the 2 chums I went with to get on with hers too....), and here are the results.

Here are the birdies: It's not at all a good photo as you can't really see the beading in the flowers at all. There are actually beads and long-stitches in there, which look fab in real life, but don't show well on here.=(

And here are the front and the back of the completed needlecase. I'm quite proud of it as the sewing is quite neat for a change and I managed to get the stitches that hold the 'leaf' in to be virtually invisible along the outer edge.=)

Stitched in 'Cotton Candy' Caron Watercolors and Wildflowers threads on pink Oslo fabric.

Nope, I'm not dead...=)

I'm still here, somewhere!!! Haven't been doing any stitching to speak of lately, so there wasn't anything to post here. Sorry to be so dull.

Anyway, I went to the Stitch and Creative Crafts Show in Manchester yesterday afternoon with a couple of girlie friends and got 5 pieces of fabby organza (2 whites, 2 greens and 1 aqua blue), great for leaves and insect wings in the stumpwork pieces I'll get around to one day. I also got Helen M Stevens' 'World of Embroidery' for half price and thus completed my collection of her books.

The show kinda spurred me on to do some stitching, so I almost completed the background on the chaffinches and will finish that off, plus the top-stitching on the birds today. That will just leave adding the beads and long-stitching on the flowers and it'll be done. Also want to finally get that needlecase sewn up. I did prepare a piece of bright pink fabric as a backing for it - spent hours hemming it up to size by hand, then realised that I just didn't like it as a backing and wanted white instead. I'm just going to use felt as it doesn't need edging up and will then sew the flannel leaf in, (which also needs some sort of trimming.....), and that's another project done. Planning for some progress this week.

Then it's back to the dog and the cushion cover. I will feel a LOT freer with my stitching once those are done, esp. That pesky mutt! (But I will, of course, be immensely proud of him when he's done.....)

New Chaffinches Shot

I haven't done any on this, or any other stitching project, for about a week now, so not much progress. Just a little half stitching in the background there.

Photo taken from far away this time....

Here's the current progress report on the Chaffinches and Blossom design. I put the frame on the floor then took the photo from standing, which is probably too far away, but at least it's a lot less liney that the last shot was. Still not stitched up the needlecase yet, so nothing to show on that one, nor have I done anything on the other 2 WIPs. No-one will die of suspense though, I guess!!

Progress on the Works in Progress

Here are the chaffinches as of 2am today! (I couldn't sleep!!!)

And here's the completed stitching on the hardanger needlecase. I just need to get some fabric to finish it up now (make the backing and the leaves to hold the needles) and then it can be sent over to my Mother-in-Law.



Still don't seem to be able to get rid of the lines on the photos and make the fabric look like it should. Anyone got any ideas?

Watch the Birdie!

Here's how the chaffinch XS piece is looking right now. Coming on beautifully, I think. I won't be doing any more on it for a little while though, as I want to take it to Germany when we go on Monday so I can work on it there. My other 2 WIPs are either too large or too 'delicate' to take, so I'll work on those over the next 50 hours and post updates over the w/e.

I decided to do the hardanger needlecase for myself whilst on the long car journey from Deilingen to Leipzig.=)

Also, just seen the preview .pdf of the next issue of 'Inspirations' and there's one of those glorious Elizabethan sweetbag designs in there called 'Flowers for Elizabeth', so I think that must go on my 'stuff to stitch for self' list!!!

WIP Update as of 12 July

Good morning! Glad some of you are planning on trying hardanger. Something else I should have mentioned last posting is that hardanger embroidery works up quickly. So, if you're used to, and fed up of, the sheer amounts of time needed for cross stitch, then you'll enjoy the relative speed of hardanger.

Now, speaking of which, I actually did some on the cushion last night and here's progress so far. I counted every single element meticulously as I don't want a repeat performance of my first attempt with this piece, where getting one row of things one row of holes out caused me to have to take about 70% of the stitching I'd done out again! You can even see the old holes if you look closely at the pic (click on it for a full sized version).

This is the current status on the chaffinch piece. I'll probably be taking this one to Germany with me next week to work on/finish off there and the other day I ordered its companion 'Blue Tits and Seedheads' design. Hope that will come soon too.

Haven't done much on the dog beyond taking out the few remaining stitches from my first attempt at the eyes, (I made them too round), and re-drawing in the eye area on the fabric. Might just brave that later on this morning, but knowing me, I'll bottle out!!!!! I'm still getting zero done on old overdue work and not feeling any more comfy with it, so I'm just going to have to take myself in hand. I thought of bribing myself. Any other ideas?

My Current WIPs (in 3 Volumes) #1 Chaffinches and Blossom

Good morning! Well, a semi good morning as my throat has swollen up again and I fear a batch of tonsillitis..... Oh well, I wasn't going to do much today anyway as I got loads of work done yesterday, so apart from cancelling the shoe buying trip (which I hate anyway - I have awkward sized feet) I'm just going to slob out and stitch. So, maybe tomorrow I'll be OK.=)

This is the picture I've started for the bedroom. I'll be doing the 'blue tits and seedheads' design from the same series too for one either side of the bed. I love the colours in this one and the changes are very subtle with a lot of blending of colours together, (one strand each of two shades instead of the usual two of the same). Problem with both this photo and the next is that evenweave fabrics don't reproduce well on certain scales of photo, so both of these pix look 'liney' and the hardanger one looks loose!!!!!