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!!!

'Winter’ finished

I’ve finished stitching the Lizzie*Kate ‘Winter’ button-up piece. Anyone familiar with the design will see that it’s been thoroughly de-Christmassed in that I’ve omitted the Christmas stocking and the star on the tree as well as not put the red beads on the tree, so it’s much more neutral now. DH is going to try and find some way of displaying it in a temporary mount on the wall, which will be nice.


I also did this pastel picture as a copy from a photograph. I couldn’t get to sleep one night and found I was thinking about art and getting on with some, so I got up and made a start on this one. We’re going to put a little mount around that too and pop it on the wall.


Haven’t made a lot of progress on the stumpwork, as you can see here. I think I’m preferring very easy things at the moment, like cross stitch, but that may have something to do with being so dratted tired and a bit sick of using my weary brain for school and just taking care of ordinary things which, as anyone whose lived abroad will know, can be a strain when you have to do it in another language! Anyway, I did some of it yesterday and hope to get a bit more done by and by.


I’ve been reading quite a bit again and finished ‘The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless’ by Eliza Haywood yesterday. It was the first 18th century novel I’d read for a long time after quite a number of Victorian sensation novels, so it seemed a bit slow at times, but it had its thrills. If what one reads there is anything to go by, adultery and all manner of clandestine encounters were very common amongst the middle and upper classes in those days! Seems the lower classes led the way in morality!! Of course, today, there's not much conception of morals at all and what's socially acceptable, or just what one can get away with, is often mistaken for what’s actually right......

L*K progress

My Lizzie*Kate cross stitch is coming on nicely, I've almost finished it! The walls in our new place are that painful white colour that's so start and cold that it looks grey, so I'm trying to get a few nice things done - stitching and artwork - to put on the walls to break up the monotony and make the place look more like a home and less like, well, I can't think what! A Taiwanese friend came to visit yesterday and as she walked in, she exclaimed, 'Oh, how pretty it is!' Well, it isn't (there's nothing completed yet), it's just clean, that's all!

Not done enough on the stumpwork to merit a photo yet. The last shot showed just over half of one leaf done and now there's just over two and half leaves done! Hope to have something to post on that one next week.

I don't have the internet at home now and we're not planning to get it installed (need to conserve funds, esp with the pound being so low against the Taiwan dollar), so please excuse my not having visited your blogs and commented etc. I just can't most of the time. I bring my laptop in to school to update stuff on Mondays and can use the free computer lab other days, but there I don't have access to my bookmarks, of course, so not so easy! Anyway, I'm grateful for folk still visiting me here.=)

Not managed to get a viola to play as yet, but hope to organise that very soon. Been reading a fair bit though (although I agree with Jane Bennet's comment in the latest 'Pride & Prejudice' adaptation, 'I wish I read more, but there always seems to be so many other things to do.'), and have read 'Uncle Silas', re-read 'Northanger Abbey' and am now on with 'The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless'.

Still alive!=)

Long time no post, huh? Sorry for the long silence on here, but I’ve had little or nothing to show stitching wise. I know some have been looking at my life in Taiwan blog, so they know I’m still alive, but judging by the drop in subscriptions on Google Reader, some have given up on me! Well, I’m still here and still stitching!


I’ve finally got the hardanger cushion cover done and am now just waiting to wash it out (there’s a light brown mark just outside the border on one edge) and then get it made up. I’m really cross that, no matter how I try, I just CANNOT get the colour to show up in the threads. It looks virtually white on white, but it’s actually a lovely baby pink and mid lilac shade of thread used. Complete washout when it comes to photography though! And no, you can’t see the shade on the enlargement either – not even a small fraction of it. Why it just won’t show up I can’t imagine! But anyway, the stitching is done and I just need some pins so I can get it all finished up and then sent on to my friend. Sadly, although I saw her the 2nd day I was over here, I can’t remember where I had her write her new address down for me, but I can send it c/o someone else, so all is not lost.=)

I started 2 new pieces, a Lizzie*Kate cross stitch, the Winter Button-Up design and a DMC stumpwork kit – a bee design. Haven’t done much of that as you can see and, anyone who knows the design will see that I’ve de-Christmassed the Winter design so far by omitting the stocking and the star on the evergreen. I won’t be putting the red French knot baubles on the tree either!!


The last photo above is my thread drawer! I brought my complete set of Anchor stranded cottons, some pearl cottons I needed for certain designs I brought (one I thought I’d brought then realised I hadn’t – after specially buying fabric for it too! So, I got another copy on E-bay last week!) and a couple of bags of selected metallics and beads. I’m missing my workboxes though and have wanted my Marlitt (rayons) once or twice. Still, I’ve found a couple of stitching shops – here’s the one nearest to my school, and they seem to do DMC Satin, which I want to collect along with their linen threads, so I might console myself with those!


More soon – it won’t be another month before I post – promise!

First Post from Taiwan

Hi everyone!

If you've been clicking through to my actual blog, you'll have seen that I deleted the countdown widget and changed the location bit a week ago, and some of you have found your way across to my new blog about what we're up to here (link on left with the others). I created that blog as a way for home friends to keep up to date with us without my having to write the same thing to dozens of people over and over again or send group e-mails (which often get left unread!!), but readers here are welcome to click over there too. Thanks for taking an interest.=) This site will stay on its usual topic for the most part.

Our boxes haven't yet been delivered as we've had some trouble negotiating customs duties, but they should be with us soon and we should also be able to get some cash again tomorrow, so I hope to get some watercolour paper soon.

I did get my current WIP out and pressed today so I could work on it again. It felt good to be doing some needlework, (esp after that 'Stitching as Healing' article in the latest issue of 'Inspirations'), and here's the photo I took just before starting stitching today, focusing on the centre elements which are almost complete now. I managed to get my underskirts completed in good time too and wore one for the first time the other day.=)

I've been to one music shop and tried a viola there out for size, but I felt it didn't qualify for the description of 'dirt cheap' that I was given by someone whose lived here a while. So, I'll be shopping around.

10 days to go....

And I am now the proud owner of 2 homemade underskirts that still need elastic putting in them!! You can hardly get underskirts in the UK, certainly not decent, cool ones - just nylon stuff and totally the wrong shape and length, so I've had to fish out my old Vogue pattern and run up 3 new, lightweight cotton ones.=) I got them all cut out and then managed to lose the instruction sheet! Thankfully, I'd done it before and had read the instructions through a night or so before I was ready to start the sewing, so I managed to do everything OK - I think! As I mentioned, just need to put the elastic in, but that's a do-by-hand job, so I've been able to put the machine way for the time being. I hope to get time to make myself a little camera bag with some of the lovely fabric I got in Taiwan last spring and have already cut the main pieces out and found a design I can adapt in one of my books. Hope I get chance now....

Hardanger still coming on slowly. This is how far I've got - done all the surface work and removed the threads. Don't suppose I'll have chance to finish this one before we go which is rather a let-down as it's for someone I hope to see the first weekend we're over there and I didn't really want to take the larger R&R frames I'd need to work it in. Anyway, can't be helped and they are nice and light when all's said and done. The colour in the thread seems to have come out a bit better with the flash, but it's still a far cry from the actual thing.=(

No Wanda, I don't think you'd be flipping. I think you'd do the same as we've done - plan well in advance and then just get on with things as their time arrives. For us, now the time has arrived for packing up our belongings and moving them into storage. There are 13 boxes in the storage room already - mostly books and another 2 here waiting to be filled as you can see here:

These are the bags waiting to go to the charity shop/thrift store:

This is my favourite. As the car boot/trunk needs to be clear for taking boxes to and fro, we've had to take the usual motoring supplies out and, frankly, the only place I could find space for them where they wouldn't be in the way and need constant moving was in the bathroom!!

And this last shot is what you do when you have surplus flour, sugar, oil and cocoa and friends are throwing a little leaving do for you:

Still alive!

And even still stitching from time to time, but those times are a little rare at the moment.=( Here's the band sampler finally made up into a bell-pull, so I have been doing something I can show off.

The hardanger is still in progress and I hope I can get it done before we go! Only 2 more weeks and we move out of our home, then we fly out 2 days later. LOTS to do and I'll be amazed (and delighted) if I actually get all I need to do done in time, given that we're away the last weekend and have what seems like copious farewell dinners etc to go to. So much sewing etc to do as well as packing up.

Managed to sell rather a lot on E-bay and got shut of more or less everything I listed on there, except the stitching mags. I only listed a dozen or so to test the water, but it was stone cold, so I dropped that whole idea. The last 5 listings end tomorrow night (including the pattern for the band sampler, if you want to have a go at it!) and that will, hopefully, be it for my and E-bay sales for now. I've made about £300, which is great, considering that DH thought I might make £50 if I was lucky, and have cleared out all the threads I know I'll never use as well as several other stitching things and about half of my make-up. It's amazed me what people are willing to buy and how much, in some cases, they're willing to pay for it! I sold 2 Victoria Sampler designs with their relevant accessory packs and one went for about £15!

We've begun to pack some things up already and should be starting to move the boxes into the storage room at the weekend. Some local friends are borrowing certain things and I did a good bit of giving away this evening as well. Next up is sorting through the clothes into 3 piles: Take with me, save for later and give to charity. Ooof! Is it any wonder I've had no time to post or stitch? What does amaze me is that, during this last silent month, I've gained about half a dozen new followers!!

Other than the above, we've got our visas sorted now and have been offered one place to live with the option of another as well, so we won't be homeless when we get over there. Friends here are housing us for the last 2 days before we go, helping us with last minute linens and taking us to the airport as well. Banks are all sorted for international use and accounts being closed left, right and centre here. It's all happening, is very late at night and I should be in bed!

GOODNIGHT!=)

Too busy for much stitching

So, I haven't got too much further on the hardanger cushion cover as yet as I've just been too busy of late with being more or less away all weekend and also dealing with all the E-bay auction stuff. I've just listed a few more cosmetic items and the first of a whole load of stitching magazines, the rest of which will go up on Thursday, all being well. Link to the listings is here. There have also been quite a number of threads re-listed, including a few dozen Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, so if you're building up your collection, please do buy some from me! I sold 79 items recently and have been dealing with sending those out today, but still have a lot more to go, so I hope......

Anyway, still haven't got the band sampler finished up as, there I was, happily stitching away on the edging and then realised that I'd got the whole thing the wrong way around and will need to unpick it and start again. No, it can't be avoided.=( I also still can't get the colours to show well on the hardanger piece. Last time they showed a little on the full sized photo, as Wanda found out, but not true to the real thing at all! The photo showed them much more peach than they really are and a good deal paler. DH knows a lot about photography, so I'll ask his help in taking the final shot, but I got a bit more to show by taking it at this odd angle!!

Wanda mentioned about our prep for the move etc and that we must be doing more than I'm letting on here. Well, DH is working hard to get enough money in to last us at least a year (maybe a good bit longer, we'll see), the flights, storage room and trip to London to get the visas are booked and paid for. We're also in the process of getting any medical stuff that needs doing taken care of, ie dental work and I must get my eyes tested etc too. Other than that and trying to sell stuff, there's not much more we can do at this point. Most things are just enquiries and research ie what flats/apartments are like and how much they are, how we can send some of our stuff on by carrier etc.

Hope I'll have time for more soon, but I can't think when....

Hardanger WIP

Here's the latest WIP, another hardanger cushion cover. I'm really disappointed with the photo as I had to increase the contrast as far as I could without making the picture quality keel over and die, but the colour in the thread still hardly shows! I remember trying to take a photo of the threads themselves and having the same problem, but what you see a very poor representation of here is Caron's Watercolors in 'Iced Lavendar' which I chose to replace the suggested 'Dawn' shade in the pattern (which is Mary Hickmott's 'Soft as Snow' from 'New Stitches' issue 55.) I was also really very disappointed with the photos in the last posting as every one, although I used 'medium' and this normally only happens with the 'large' sized ones, did not click through to the full sized pic. Some of them really lent themselves well to larger images and so that was a shame! Anyway, larger sizes are available on my Webshots as always.

I've begun to list an enormous quantity of stuff on E-bay. So far there are 117 listings - 2 of which have bids thus far, so I will at least sell something!! What I've got up so far are most of the threads I'm selling - lots of WDW and GAST in 'sets' of two for a starting price of 99p for the set. Actually, pretty much everything is 99p, including the sets of 7 Six Strand Sweets and so on and some patterns that I'll either never stitch or already have, (the 'Oriental Dress', 'Chinese Junk', 'Bluetits', 'Goldfinches' and the last hardanger cushion are up for grabs - all for 99p!), so please take a look and, preferably buy something - or several somethings!! I'm not sure if the listings show up as available outside of the UK, but I am willing to ship anywhere in the world for the extra postage costs, so please take some of these things off my hands, no matter where you're based! There'll be books, ladies' clothes and more stitching things to come (XS mags mostly as well as some more threads etc), so do keep checking back. I'll include the link in every post until it's all gone so that those reading on reader software can click through and visit.=)

I've also cut all the posts (not many) from my other language blogs and inserted those sections on here. I wasn't using them much and I realised that it was just taking up room on Picassa, which would, in time, mean that I had much less lifespan for this blog etc than I might want, esp with so many travels coming up. So, from time to time, when I'm feeling diligent, I'll post a summary in German and/or Chinese and any other language that takes my fancy - I'm using the Japanese freebie at Rocket at the mo and DH is enjoying taking his first steps in Spanish with the on-line course I bought him as part of his anniverary gift!

Some Finishes!

I may not have posted over the last fortnight, but I have been busy with the needles, so have some things to show you now!

First up is the completed goldleaf dragonfly design. I did get this finished a couple of weeks ago, but what with one technical problem or another (camera was taking really dark photos, Photoshop Elements stopped saving on the PC and so I couldn't edit anything to any good purpose etc), I haven't been able to get it to you until now. Here's both the full thing and a close-up of the flower centre etc, which was worked with bright check purl (aka chips) in both gold and silver as well as French knots in one strand each of pink Reflecta and gold Ophir.

And here's the initial response to it!!

This is DH's 10th anniversary card which I adapted from a strawberry circlet design in an iron-on transfer booklet and worked in Pipers silks on a piece of blue-grey Mulberry Silks silk fabric.

Last February I stitched a simple goldwork dragonfly on the most amazing piece of royal blue silk. One of my friends, Abi, admired it on my Webshots and since then I'd been looking for a suitable 'format' to give it to her in, but it was too big for a card etc etc. Well, she recently got engaged and so I used the pattern in the latest issue of 'Stitch' to turn it into a casket:

And filled it with chocolates:

Not very practical, but well receieved nonetheless!!=)

DH bought me a super-duper new digital camera for part of my anniversary present (the other part was some good quality watercolours, which I haven't tried out yet), and we also got me a new laptop (not an anniversary gift), so I'm back in business technology-wise and, yes, Photoshop is working just fine on here. Phew!

Over the next week I'm hoping to get the band sampler finished up as a bellpull and the Chinese dress design made up into a small cushion/pillow. I've also started another hardanger cushion/pillow cover on white Oslo fabric with Caron Iced Lavendar threads - pale pink and lilacs.