Needlequest Update - 19 May 2014

OK, I'll be honest, I haven't done a stitch of blackwork in the last 10 or more days.  Well, I was ill in bed for at least five of them, so I have some excuse.  Also, I've learned how blackwork works and am ready to tackle a more meaningful pattern than just little practice samples.

In the meantime though, I got this book out of the library a fortnight ago.  Actually, I used to own this one and it wasn't really long before I remembered why I'd sold it on through the Amazon Marketplace arrangement.

It's an OK book for what it offers, but I don't really think it deserves the title of 'Beginner's Guide to' and I can't help feeling that most of the contents aren't really blackwork as I think of it.  The cover tells you most of what you need to know about the contents as the focus is on outline-type patterns and not really areas of a picture or pattern comprising different filling stitches.

To be fair there are four pages of sample filling stitches, (here is one of them), but there are far more pages of outlines, borders and so on.  In the instruction section, there's plenty of information on threads, needles and suitable fabrics, but the only actual stitching tutorial is for the three outline stitching methods that I posted about two weeks ago.  As the book focuses on those, I can see the reason for their inclusion, but there doesn't seem to be a word on how to work filling patterns.

Where I think the book does do well is that it gives you an idea of how to go about designing your own repeat patterns, which could be outlines or, preferably (IMHO) for fillings.  Here is that section, which I think could be quite useful and I may have a go at one day.

Anyway, I was glad I could borrow the book (and was even more glad that a couple of the Lonely Planet guides I wanted to look at more than you can in the book shop were also available!!!), but unless you're really interested in a sort of blackwork meets doodle stitching sort of style, it's probably not for you.

Next up for me is to make a start on Sir's anniversary card using some of the heart designs from this magazine article.

What about you?  Anything to report, Needlequesters?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Finally.....

....term is over and we're on the first full day of 8 days off school. Hurrah! However, you can tell it's our school hols as the rain is due to start tomorrow and last until we go back. Happens every time....Grrr!

....I got to go around the other large bookshops looking for 'Inspirations 66', but it seems not to have arrived in Taiwan at all, so I've given up on it.

....I got around to going to the 2nd nearest library and borrowed 3 books - 2 stories and 1 guidebook on Japan, where we go in just about 2 months.

....I've got around to starting revising and developing my Japanese language in earnest. I even bought the CDs for the course I've had hanging around for the past 6 months!

....I got on with the backstitching on the Field Mice, but I'm not showing that off until it's totally finished. I've done all the blackberries now and also about two thirds of the rose leaves.

....I bought two of the 'local' stitchcraft books. I put 'local' in inverted commas as they're not Taiwanese at all, but translated from Japanese books. There's an enormous collection of patchwork and quilting titles in several series', many of which are the muted 'country' style, which doesn't float my boat much, but seems rather big in Japan! Anyway, these are the two I bought, one on simple Japanese embroidery and designs and one on patchwork items decorated with embroidery and ribbon work.

Below are some spreads from the Japanese-style embroidery book, which I thought were rather nice, although I know they'll seem terribly over-simplified to those who've been taking the specialist JE courses!!=)

And here are some spreads from the patchwork/ribbonwork book. There are some really lovely things in this book and, despite the instructions all being in Chinese, the diagrams look pretty clear and I should be able to make good use of it - in good time!!

Aren't they all lovely?

Thoughts on studying embroidery

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been doing a lot of on-line research into formal embroidery studies, mostly with City & Guilds, but also with the RSN and even higher education level things. It seems that there are ample opportunities for City & Guilds study with plenty of in person classes running all over the UK and also a few decent distance learning opportunities. Sadly, WS-Touchbase is finishing City & Guilds at the end of this year and there are fears that that would see the end of the stumpwork programmes.=( However, as DH is wanting to move somewhere where I've found a recently opened studio offering Levels 2 and 3 Embroidery Certificates and also the Level 3 Diploma, I could also go to classes later on as well - when we get back home.

I was disappointed to find out just how much the RSN's courses were though. I knew they were expensive, but found out that they were 2 or 3 times as much as I'd thought! Each technique is £960, with 4 needed for the Certificate alone! On the good side, they don't charge more for paying in instalments and you can pay for one technique at a time without ending up, as with some on-line schools, paying almost twice as much as someone who can pay the full figure up front. I was rather shocked at how much the School of Stitched Textiles wanted for buying one module at a time for their Level 3 C&Gs. It was something over 210% of the up-front price! Anyway, maybe I can do the RSN Cert later on, fairly slowly, but I daresay the Diploma at nearly £8000 is going to be beyond me. We'll see.

Now I know what to expect of a C&G course, I feel in a better position to plan and prepare for taking one - hopefully more than one. I also know what sort of workload and time frame is expected and have a much clearer idea of where I fit into that pattern. A very important aspect I've got from it is that Level 3 courses, despite claims to the contrary by several course providers, are NOT suitable for beginners in embroidery, (unless one is very experienced in art/design and sewing). I wasn't a beginner when I started, but I would have been paralysed by the level of work expected if I had been. Basically, C&G, esp Level 3 C&G, will not really teach one embroidery as a skill. Ideally, it teaches someone who already has a decent grounding in embroidery, design skills and practice, along with introducing some of the more contemporary textile techniques. In order to succeed without a large amount of stress, I wouldn't recommend anyone, other than someone of extraordinary confidence and huge amounts of time, to start that level of course without having a good bit of experience of working others' designs and also of a bit of basic sewing and machine usage. Working the assessment pieces requires that you have to make those embroidered pieces up into things like bags, hangings and so on which you're to have designed and prototyped yourself, and, if you've next to no experience of construction techniques, then this part is only going to add to the stress.

So, my plan is to consolidate my own stitching skills by working as many of the kits and designs that I've brought with me as I can, to have a go at making up some little bags etc (I've brought a book with me and the stuff needed for my camera case), and to work on my drawing and painting skills as well as collecting plenty of design source photos etc. In addition, were I to do the Level 3 Diploma, there's a lot of more academic work to be done in creating the History of English Embroidery project as well as the embroidery traditions of 3 countries, so I can also make a start on collecting info etc for that. There's a fair amount of 'folder work' to do in terms of design, ie colour theory stuff, line and mark making and all manner of things too that I can begin to get done working from the syllabuses. Having said that, I plan to start with a Level 1 or, max, Level 2 anyway!

Higher education level courses, by and large, don't really appeal to me as they're very much contemporary styling and there's only the RSN's FDA (foundation degree) in Hand Embroidery that looks up my street. The location is in London at Hampton Court Palace, it would be horribly pricey and I'll have to shelve that sort of idea until they've got the course well established (it started new this year) and offer it in more formats and locations. Again, we'll see, but no holding breath on this one, which is a real shame as they specialise in what I like best! I did read Tanja Berlin's account of her time at the RSN on their former apprentice programme and it was fearfully intense, so that's another downside. 9-5 daily with up to 5 hours expected per evening. Basically, you'd sleep and stitch. No time for anything else! Still, there are plenty of good books around, even though I was only able to bring what you can see above with me. Oh, how I miss my books and the rest of my stash! Sigh! Still, looks like we may well be home by the end of this year, so I reckon I can make do until then and I can get 'Inspirations', 'Classic Stitches', 'Stitch with the Embroiderer's Guild', the Italian mag 'Rakam' and several cross stitch mags out here, so that's a big comfort.

The photo at the top of this post is the back of the needlecase, which I got completed yesterday. I hope to have the full thing stitched before the end of the month and then hope I brought the doctor's flannel needed to put the 'pages' in. Last night I also added in a side bar feature of my 2008 stitched pieces, so more eye candy on permanent display, but you need to visit the blog 'for real' to see them as, of course, reader software won't show them up, even Bloglines. Does anyone know why Bloglines displays your header photos in reverse order??

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!!!

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'.

Current Sample Progress

Well, it's not strictly speaking the current sample, rather one that should have been done last November and that's when I did the artwork for it, but I'll show that when the piece is finished and I do my usual display of all pix from design inspiration to finished sample.

It's sample #9 and is not yet finished. In fact, you can't even see all of it here, just the part I've been working on - the leaves on the tree, autumnal to match the season as it was started. The background is painted with ordinary fabric paint, as is the main part of the tree, which I then brought forward by stitching in both dark and light bits. Although it's part of the colour module, (thus the painting and also the use of WDW and GAST threads), this is meant to be one of the manipulated fabric technique samples. You can't see any of that so far, but there is a bird table to be added as a hard slip and I decided to do some of the piles of leaves on the ground as small soft slips as the stones I painted to add on would really look out of place, (although I might prepare one or two to see if they could fit at all).

As mentioned above, this is sample #9 and this week will be #24, so you get some idea of how far behind I am! Having said that, #10 & #11 are done and #12 is in progress and there's artwork done for #13, #17 and #20.

Just started volume 2 of 'The Doctor's Wife' and, yes, I urgently want to slap that idiot girl!! Anyone who's read it, (or 'Madame Bovary') will understand why!

Update on the Band Sampler

Here's the weekend's progress on the band sampler. For information, this is 'Silver Frost' by Patricia Ann's Designs. I like many of her sampler designs and own at least another 2 to do later on. Some of the parts (those with lots of backstitch) are a bit of a pain, but, in the main, it's very pleasant and easy to work. It'll be made up as a bell-pull and given as a very belated 20th wedding anniversary gift to friends who have now been married 21½ years!! Not as bad as the dog, which was meant to be a ruby wedding gift and made it to it's final desitination a couple of months short of the couple's (my aunt and uncle) 44th wedding anniversary!!! So, at this rate, there's hope that something might be ready on time yet!

I hope to get on with some of my colour module work today as my teacher, Diane, suggested that it would be good to get that finished and signed off as soon as possible and that that completion would spur me on for the rest of the stuff and I think she's right. I'm even looking forward to the work I need to do. I have to do the actual stitching on 2 samples and a few pieces of art work for the resolved design piece. Please don't ask me what a 'resolved piece' is as none of us really understand it - including those who did it all in previous years!

I'm reading Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 'The Doctor's Wife' at the moment, but not finding that I'm getting into it as much as I have the others I've read by her. Perhaps that's partly because I kind of know the story - it's meant to be her version of Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary', and partly because it's rather a slow starter. Doubt I'll be finished it in time to take back to the library on Weds, (only a 7 day loan), but at least you can renew them these days. You didn't use to be able to renew 7 day loan items. I plan to get quite a few more out then too, both from the 7 day and main collections (which, as an academic member of staff, I can keep for up to 6 months per loan!), including the 'Ever After' book, some of Wilde's plays and so forth.

Post Zusammenfassung in Deutsch:

Mein Sampler geht jetzt weiter und gibt's nur 8 Teilen übrig. Leider bin ich immer noch krank, aber heute hab' ich ein bißchen Berufschulestickerei gestickt und hoffentlich kommt bald einige Fotos.

Ich hab' kurzlich viel gelesen, viele gute Romans vom 19-Jahrhundert, von Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Gaskell und Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Krankheit gibt mir die Möglichkeit zu lesen.

Am Freitag fliegen wir nach Frankfurt, bis um Montag. Ich hoffe, dass wir die Zeit haben dort etwas interesantes sehen werden. Ich war nur 2 oder 3 Stunden in Frankfurt und würde gern mehr sehen.

A Novel Life

I did a bit of stitching on Tuesday evening and <- this is what I was working on. If you remember the last update on this one, you'll know that I've only done a bit more on the bottom row, but it's a much nicer and truer photo than the last one I posted, so it's nice to get that aspect of it, if nothing else.

I've been doing rather a lot of reading lately. I read Trollope's 'Framley Parsonage' which I'd started just before falling ill, then went on to finish Ann Radcliffe's 'The Italian', an 18th century gothic novel I'd not touched for 4 years!! I've also read Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 'Aurora Floyd', which pleasantly surprised me. I'd really enjoyed 'Lady Audley's Secret' last month, but I was afraid AF was going to be just a re-hash of LAS. It wasn't though, the heroine is basically innocent, just a bit dim at times!! I'm now on to the last 2 tales in the World's Classics collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's shorter works called 'The Moorland Cottage and Other Stories' and have also borrowed MEB's 'The Doctor's Wife' from the Uni. I decided to read as many books as I could from the Uni library's great literatre collection as it saves lots of money buying them and means that I can 'save' my own resources for taing away when we go to Taiwan and I want something to read. I have lots of late 16th-early 20th fiction that I haven't read yet, but there are an awful lot of titles that I don't have, but want to read. Another perk of working at the Uni, (where, yes, I've decided to stay doing what I do now and anymore casual bits and bobs that seem decent, esp as the pay for even those is really good and I can use the libraries etc.)

My College teacher 'phoned the other night and I talked about catching up with her, so that felt a bit better and I feel more motivated. She gave me some good suggestions and now I feel that I can move forward again. Uni term finishes for a month this coming Weds, so I can work more or less full-time on my C&G over the 4-5 week period. That should see me well caught up and even on with my folder etc. I've decided that it's workday time only though and that evenings and weekends will be spent on personal projects, unless, of course, I'm enjoying a piece greatly and want to carry on with it.=) So, there should be more personal stitching coming up, including finishing this band sampler and a hardanger cushion with pink/purple hand-dyed Caron threads on white Oslo fabric. Looking forward to that as it works up lovely and fast. May do some more cross stitch after that too. Stay tuned, progress and photos coming up!

High School Art

Not been up to much worth reporting of late. I have been shopping a lot though, so here are some of the things I've been treating myself to.

First off, 3 vegan cookery books. I want to get started on making some of the goodies from the small baking one at the front and will have to get a couple of specialist ingredients from shops in town later on today first. Yesterday's Tesco trip was mostly for baking goodies!! There are 2 excuses to bake as well (normally I can't much as Sir is weight conscious and I tend to get blebbier than I'd like too.....), so I'm looking forward to trying out the coconut lime cakes and the chocolate mint ones as well as some strawberry and/or mandarin orange tarts. Yum!

Been getting art things too. Here are the colour swatches from the pastel/drawing paper pads I've been coveting for a while!! I got the cool shades (blues) a little while ago, before Taiwan, and managed to get the warms and neutrals over the last few days on E-bay. A £5 voucher from E-bay Extra helped get one!=) I've also bought some new paints, but I'll show those off when the last lot arrive.

I got this landscapes book out of the library and loved it, so spent part of a 25% off at Borders voucher on that, (and the vegan cupcake book). The flowers one is a library book, but I know I want that one too. I love her style and the fact that she uses the same media and brands as me, so here are some tips etc on using all those fab pencils I got a few months ago, esp the Inktense and Graphitints, which are relatively new on the art scene and so material on using them is quite scarce.

Looking through old art pads I found some art from high school. Here are the Garfield characters, which I copied from a Garfield book, but didn't trace:

This is a cartoon collection of some of my high school chums:

And this is an old pencil case that I drew. I love this 'flash of colour' idea and the 'Landscapes' book has a couple of pieces in the same style. I'll be having more of a go at that soon. You can see my old name here in the signature and the date - 1987!! More than 20 years ago - eeek!

Here are some sketches that I did in the Department of East Asian studies 3 years ago - you might be able to make out the date there too. I did the pen sketch first and that seemed to work well for me as my pencil sketches are often very hesitant indeed, but with pen you have to 'commit' to your mark-making and that seemed to do me good as I did a decent pencil drawing immediately afterwards!

So, what does this tell me? That I probably can do well with art if I only get on with it. When I was 16, I'd been doing art classes at least once a week since I'd been about 5, so I was in better practise. I think, somewhere in my mum's attic, I may have my display pieces from my GCSE, the art exam I did when I was 16. If I find them when we clear her attic out for her this summer, then I'll showcase a few pieces and start to make a scrapbook out of them. And the post's just arrived with more stuff in: A rotary cutter for when I can start the C&G level 1 Patchwork and Quilting course and some watercolour paints. Will post pics tomorrow or so, this is enough for now!!!

Another Post-it Tuesday!

Hmm, seems that I like to post on Tuesdays, huh? Well, here I am again. The other day I put an 'About the author' page up, which some of you have seen already, (link on the left, above the Webshots one). As Blogger doesn't allow separate pages like Wordpress does etc, I had to create a whole new blog, but no probs as the end result is the same and I'm not up for moving blog providers. Too much fuss!

Borders sent me a '40% of one book' voucher last week, so I got this one to help me make up the small bags and purses I'm interested in once my box of stuff comes from Taiwan. The patchwork bags book is excellent too, but this copy is borrowed from the library pending the next Borders offer voucher!!

This is the current status on the bluetits and is all the stitching I've done in the last week. Here you can see the half stitch background is complete and I've done both the top-stitching on the birds and made a brief start with the silver seedheads, (at the bottom, just next to the bottom bird). I've just had so much to do over the last week, esp obscene amounts of laundry and ironing, plus getting over jet-lag etc, that I just haven't got to my stitching. I really need to get on though as there are a lot of gifts needed for between early July and late September and I want to get at least the bluetits and the Child of Spring cushion finished before starting the first hardanger/counted thread cushion/pillow design.

Been thinking about other stuff to do over the next few years too and have decided that, now the shock of the teaching disaster has more or less worn off and my health has improved a lot already, I'm feeling bored and ready for some more intellectually challenging stuff. So, first up for consideration is actually (and finally) finishing that MA programme I was doing several years ago when I became ill with CFS/ME. See what comes after that when the time comes, but I have some ideas - most of which are probably stupid!!!!=)

DH has put all the Taiwan photos on a CD-Rom, so I'll have a look through those later on (on the 12th of Never, no doubt!!) and add them to the new Webshots album I've created for our travel pix. Will post the link as and when, but it's not on my regular album - it's a totally new user name.

More Books and Background Stitching

Got another nice package from Amazon UK this morning.=) It was really hard to make myself finish what I was doing before I let myself have a good look through these, esp this one.->
Yes, we're going to Taiwan from 23 March to 14 April. I should still be able to post from there, (esp. some photos of Chinesey things etc!), but won't have as free access to a PC etc as I do at home, so if I can do one post per week, I'll be content with that. Looking forward to lots of good food, great shopping, seeing friends again after 10 years and lots of language practice as well! The only regret I have is that I can't take my viola!=( Might be able to hire one locally, or someone may have a violin I could use, so I'll put my shoulder rest etc in just in case. Speaking of 'case', we went to Matalan yesterday and bought 2 new suitcases and some clothes for the trip. I'll be at Primark tomorrow morning seeing what else I can grab and no doubt Clarks soon too to get some shoes that are fit to be seen, (a constant problem for me with my wide toes.....)

Also got <- this book, which is a fantastic combination of goldwork and stumpwork. Again, I've snapped a few of the projects (not all of them) so that anyone interested can get a look at more of what's inside than the cover gives away. Often those 'Search Inside!' features at Amazon aren't that much use either as it only shows the intro chapter and you rarely get to look at the projects!



What else have I been doing? Well, not as much stitching as I would have liked, but I have at least almost finished the half stitching for the bluetits background. I want to get this totally done before we fly off and take the goldfinches (which I intend to start on the main flight!!) with me. I also want to get that cushion finally sewn up and there are 3 more cards needed - 2 ribbon and 1 hardanger, so nothing too long-winded. I also want to get the whole flat (apartment, for those who don't speak British!!) thoroughly cleaned out and all my errands and mail caught up on, so lots to do over the next 12 days......


We went to a games etc party on Saturday evening, which was one of those 'bring a dish' arrangements (as they usually are with our bunch), and this was my contribution. I don't usually take photos of food, but I was so pleased with how this worked out, I couldn't resist!

Thanks for the nice comments on my failing to get through to the voting round in the Hobbycraft competition, BTW! I confess, I've almost forgotten all about it now!!! Maybe I'll do a spectacular bit of stumpwork or something for next year's comp!!!

Watch the birdie!

Got the final bird done on the bluetits and more of the background. It's boring me a little less these days and it shouldn't be too far off completion.

Thanks for the thoughts on the red cushion. The red looked 'worse' than it will be when finished as it was standing a bit proud of the stitched piece and was also quite a bit bigger than the finished item will be, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'm considering moving the side pieces out a bit before sewing them on though. Haven't done any more on it yet.

Got an Amazon order through today with these two books:

As I know some are interested in this kind of embroidery, here are the other 3 projects inside the 'Beginners' Guide to Silk Shading':

And here's a photo of the page showing all the main projects in the larger book:

There are also 3 smaller flowers and 4 beginners things to do. She does most of her work with only one strand of cotton, (which looks a lot finer and better than with two), so I must give that a go.

NB: These are all photos from the book, not my own work! I've put them up here so those who might be interested in these books can have a closer look than on-line bookstores allow!=)

More pencils, stitching mags and viola-versary

Ooof, yes, I've been buying again. I seriously suspect myself of engaging in retail therapy.... Here's the latest addition to the pencils collection, Derwent's Inktense the full range. You use them like a pencil, then you can go over the marks with water and it turns into an ink-like quality. If you use the colour lightly to start with, it looks more like watercolour. They're really good, it's just a shame I'm not brill at drawing yet!! Here's what I did last night to experiment with them. It's just a copy of this photo and far from marvellous, but it was late and I'm no great shakes at paper based art. This sort of thing takes a lot of patience and practise and I think that could well be why I tend towards needlework where you can get it right first time!!!















I've also been hoarding more stitching mags. Went to WHSmiths and found the latest issue of 'Inspirations' there, much to my surprise! I didn't think it would arrive for another week or ten days, but here it is along with the current 'Stitch'. I also got a copy of this book from the Country Bumpkin designer series. Don't know that I'll ever make it up as is, but it's a very interesting book and a brilliant design. Got the weekly CB webletter this morning, which was full of all the new books they're planning to release this year. There's to be a 'Needlebook Cottage' in this designers series and an 'A-Z of Goldwork and Silkwork', which I am going to be totally unable to resist buying. BAD Country Bumpkin!!!













Today is my viola-versary. I am officially now a second year viola student. Given how little ground I've managed to cover, part of me finds that a bit disappointing, esp. as someone I 'met' on the ABRSM forums started violin a month before me, got a distinction in her Grade 1 exam last June and is already preparing for her Grade 3 in March! However, then I remembered the kind of year I've just had - about 3 months lost to illness, if not more when all added together, narrowly avoiding a nervous breakdown owing to an ill-suited (to me) job and various other hassles. Put in that light, I'm doing OK and, yes, I'm quite reconciled to the fact that I'm going to learn slowly. As DH rightly says, it's the fact that I enjoy it that matters, not the race to get to Grade 8 standard!!! Funny thing is that I've been unable to practise the last week and had to cancel my lesson on Tuesday thanks to having hurt my neck! It happens from time to time and is on the mend now, so onwards and upwards!

The weather is odd at the mo, JK. The forecast promised snow, but it's lovely and sunny right now with only light clouds. We've had stormlike winds, fit almost to take you off your feet, (I nearly did take off last Friday!!!), but at least not too much rain. Hmm, actually, I prefer rain to wind and I really get fed up with both at the same time!!!

Heidi asked what my plans were. Well, I've nothing set in concrete just yet, but lots of ideas and so forth. First and foremost, (as without it I can't really do anything else), is to get my strength back. Whilst that's in progress, I intend to build slowly up on other things, esp the Bible teaching work I do. When I was language teaching and it was stealing all my time and strength, it just became so hard to remember my real priorities in life. Felt like I was living in two conflicting worlds and I was beginning to feel more at home in (and spending vast amounts more time on) the one I didn't belong to! Most uncomfortable! So, now that's getting back to normal again, I can get on with what matters most. Doubt I'll get another job, but I might help DH with some of his admin work as he's very busy and earns more than enough to keep us both. I want to make some progress with my musical studies, pick my languages back up (nothing killed my Chinese ability as stone dead as teaching it for a year!!!), maybe even work through some of the Open University science courses I have copies of and, of course, stitch! We're going to Taiwan for 3 weeks in March/April and, after that, I'll be making moves on starting some needlecraft studies. Problem with most of the stuff on offer is that it's so contemporary and, frankly, I don't like that kind of style. I prefer traditional, detailed work, so I daresay a lot of the City & Guilds programmes on offer aren't going to work for me. The stumpwork ones look good though, so we'll see. Will let you know when I do, basically!! One thing's for sure, I'm not going to suffer boredom or lack of challenge and purpose!=)

New design as promised

Remembered to get a photo of it today! It's the initial plan, complete with notes, for a leaving card for our team's manager who's also legging it soon to a very fancy sounding job up in Durham. The above is called 'Branches of Your Life' and, although a lot of it isn't quite clear here, it's going to have characters from the various languages we teach interlinked and hanging from some branches. The others have stuff on that remind us of him - mostly sporty things, the fact that he's known for losing stuff left, right and centre, (even managed to lose his bike once, although I dread to think how he managed that!), and some 'roots' things - i.e. the Cornish bird and crown for where he was born and the Leeds Uni logo and Yorkshire Rose for where he's been for the last 8 or so years. I ordered the necessary jumbo sized card blank from Impressive Crafts, who make the most expensive, but nicest card blanks. We're going for the sky blue one. I'm hoping to make a start on the Uni logo and the octagonal door plate soon as they need to be worked separately, then attached. It's going to be a challenging (although not too badly), but enjoyable project.=)

Moira, you asked where I got my Elizabethan Embroidery books. The first two I got from the Viking Loom stand at the October stitching show I went to, but this link takes you (hopefully!) to their on-line catalogue. The other two I ordered from the New Stitches Stitch Direct site. Each book is £12.95. Don't look on Amazon as the sellers there are asking STUPID prices. I even e-mailed one and asked him if he was serious in wanting £200+ for a £13 book!! The thing is though, that I understand they've recently been re-printed, so they're not as hard to get hold of now. At stitch shows, many of the specialist book sellers who have stands there sell them too. I bought mine on the strength of the stitched models that Viking Loom (a fascinating stitchery shop in York) had on display. If you drooled over the photos, you would be positively swooning over the 'real things'! I'll be asking them for some thread suggestions for the thicker metallics when I'm at the Harrogate Halls show next Thursday.