MORE MICE

I have been stitching a really enjoyable project, having decided that part of Caitlin's birthday present would be a container for storing beads for her embroidery, I just had to stitch a panel for the top, and settled on the little mice collecting blackberries from the booklet "Harvest mice" by Christine Sewell.
These delightful mice designs were adapted from an original painting by Cecilia Rowan, and I have adapted the cross stitch charts to suit my need. I have stitched some of these mice some years ago but had forgotten what a delightful stitching project they were. Here is Caitlin's bead container, the fabric behind is what I plan to use for a hussif for Caitlin at a much later date.

And a close up of one of the mice.

Its her birthday today and the parcel went round all wrapped in pink tissue with silver ribbon and two little stuck on butterflies, opening it was very slow as she wanted to keep all the trimings and the present well received. Having really enjoyed stitching the mice so much I have started another project with them stitched on it which I will show you when its finished, meanwhile this is one of the little mice stitched for the second piece..

LOOKING BACK AT CONFERENCE WORKSHOP

I think we all complain we don't take good photos ! This one was taken of Aida and myself at the workshop at conference. I have received a collection of photos taken in the class by Sheryl  and thought I would share some of them         These show every ones work at the end of the third day of stitching................................

.................and show too the lovely colours of the hand dyed linen of the Jane Van Keulen kits that were used. For my part as tutor it was very pleasing to see how much everyone achieved in the three days, I have since heard of one finished mat and look forward to seeing photos of some of them when completed.

For new visitors to my blog, here is the mat everyone was stitching.

As this was my last workshop I would be teaching I had some little extras for everyone.  These include cardboard needle tweets to hold the needles given out with the kits, Paul cut floss ring tags and cards for their threads, these they got on the first day of the workshop. Next day after a remind of the story of the Tailor of Gloucester  and advise not too go home and stitch late into the night there was a tiny mouse for everyone. And at the end of the workshop a reward .... flower with a chocolate kiss in the centre. 

Don't you love little mouse, he is just one and a quarter inches tall.

YELLOW DAPHNE

Its not truly a yellow daphne, although that is one of the common names given to the lovely shrub, Edgeworthia  papyrifera, it is also known as Chinese Paper Bush. This year the weather has been kind to our bush and it is making a lovely display by the letterbox. So often when it flowers the weather is wet and it destroys these lovely blooms.

My thoughts are running to design and I would like to stitch something using these flowers as my design, the hardest part will possibly be finding the right colours in threads, nature has her own colour pallet and DMC does not always provide a match. I have gotten as far as tea dying a piece of linen for the background. It might take a while but I promise to show the result when it is finished.

Here is the close up I will use for my design, taken inside the colour are not quite as deep as they should be the outdoor shots are better colourwise..

WESSEX STITCHERY BY MY FRIENDS

I am very excited at being able to share some Wessex Stitchery done by several of my friends

Firstly a tiny piece from one of the Junior Embroiderers in the group that meet each week,
the four older girls working with Maree have all completed a a small block with "Steepholm stitch " and are now working on a second piece. They are really enjoying this type of stitching and having a
wider variety of threads to work with.
The four younger girls are working on canvas work with me and one  lass keeps refering to her thread
as String!




Joycelyn from Christchurch in the South Island attended the very first class I taught on Wessex Stitchery (1997) and who has had a love affair with Wessex ever since, sent me some photos a while back but as the piece I really loved was part of a set she had sent to the National exhibition I have had to wait untill now to show it to you, and of course I saw it in the exhibition. Part of a set of pin cushions all stitched in Wessex Stitchery  her 15 sided biscornu is a really lovely piece.

Joycelyn was also in my last class at conference and she shared with me her album ... Her Wessex Journey a record of all the pieces she had stitched. Truly the pupil has surpassed the teacher.

At conference my very good friend Ann taught a workshop  " Wessex Draw String Workbag"  her first bag that she had taught several time (I have shared photos of it a while ago on my blog) was very popular and she designed a new one for this workshop. The colours are really lovely in this piece however in the workshop everyone was able to make their own colour choice..

And from Mary Joan in Sheffield England comes some pieces that show how lovely varigated threads looks in this work. Mary Joan's Wessex stitchery was featured in " New Stitches" magazine in March of this year.

Now across the seas in a different direction from Hilton in South Africa, Rhoda has sent some of her Wessex

work  Rhoda hasbeen stitching Wessex since 2002 and recently taught it at her Embroiderers Guild. 

There has been some much lovely work shared with me, that it has been very hard to keep it to only two photos from each person.  I hope seeing all this might inspire someone else to try this work too.

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