A PAGE FOR JANUARY

The eyes of violets are filled with dreams.

-Colette. 

 

 

 

I am home from my trip to stay with my sister and her husband in Napier, had some very relaxing days and of course I went to the interesting shops like Heirlooms, JJ's Crafts, Aaran's  Emphorium  and St Beads, in fact they were the only shops I went to. At Aaran's I was able to get the very heavy weight vilene it is stiff like cardboard and I wanted it to make the pages for my Needlework Masters SAL book. The book is to have one page each month showing two differnt techniques, I also plan to include a small beetle on each page carrying through from the cover. Here is my January page which has the theme of violets. 

 

 

 

 The main embroidery is cross stitch and the design is my own "Posy of Violets"with the quote........

.....tiny fragrant jewels... treasures from my garden

 

 

 The second embroidery is a blackwork butterfly stitched in purple tonings,I have the chart for this if anyone is interested some years ago I created this butterly after being inspired by a small sketch in an old magazine. The beetle is mounted on the same purple silk that I made the little violet flowers from, the beetle uses Colourstreams Sadi thread Check, this is a metal thread and my visit to J J's in Napier gave me the opportunity to stock up on these threads for the future.

 

 

Scrapbooking the page added to the presentation and made it more fun. I am now planning for next month.

 

 

IHSW and the Dolls House Carpet



“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely,

"and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

The doll's house carpet I am stitching is a Persian rug from the Hamadam area in Iran and found in this excellent book. To stitch it in the scale needed for the Doll's house of 1 inch=1foot I am using a 30 count linen with an open weave and stitching with two threads of DMC over 1 fabric thread.

I have made a little progress on the stripes down the right hand side, it is very slow stitching, five needles, five colours and change colour every 3 stitches, and I certain have still got a long way to go till I come to the end !.

 

While watching TV both Saturday ( Midsomer Murders) and Sunday night ( Downton Abbey 2012 Christmas Special) I changed and stitched on my Guild Challenge piece as it was more relaxing stitching. The guild here sets a Challenge each year and at the AGM in May the pieces are judged by popular vote. So I will not be showing that piece before then

 

Tomorrow I am going across to stay with my sister in Napier for a few days while I am there I look forward to visiting the two embroidery shops Heirlooms and JJ Crafts also to go shopping at St Beads for more beads and charms for pieces I have planned.

 

 Hope everyone had a good weekends stitching.

 

 

LITTLE PIECES STITCHED WITH LOVE

 

Little deeds of kindness, little words of love,help to make earth happy like heaven above.

JULIA CARNEY, Little Things

 

 

I was thrilled with the Guardians of the Sea, a freebie from  thelittlestitcher.blogspot

which I stitch in October, I stitched it on 40 count permin using what threads I had available that were as close as possible to the ones suggested on the chart, this piece I later made into a pin whimsey Using the design I decided to make a needle book that opened in the centre this time stitching on 35 count.

 

 

 

I completed it as a Christmas present for Jackie, who is not an embroiderer but every household needs needle and thread if only for sewing on a button!! The fabric I used was a Liberty and the colours were a perfect match. Another small gift was these pieces for Caitlin to add to her Needlework bag which has everything on the theme of mice. These two are both Margaret Sherry designs.

I am look forward to the weekend as it is IHSW   and I hope to get more done on my doll's house carpet.Here is what it looked like last time I stitched on it which was way back in November .Check back after the weekend to see how much progress I have managed.

 

 

NEW BEGININGS AS A NEW YEAR STARTS

 Each day is God's gift to you.

What you do with it is your gift to Him.”

T.D.Jakes

Well the new Year has started and for me there are new beginings as I start another stage in my life, being on my own without Paul, not much stitching has been done as I found it hard to settle in my chair and pick up the needle,  I needed something to get me going again and I found it in a posting for January 2nd  on Barbara's blog I am sure I read some time ago about the SAL that was being planned but I guess at that time I had other things on my mind. Reading it again I got sudden inspiration this could be fun, I could combined something I have already done ( plenty of teaching samples around) along with the challenge of something new... without being burdened down with a lot of stitching. It also looked like scrap booking ones embroidery, another thought that appealed to me. So I have joined the Needlework Masters Monthly Stitch A Long visit here if you want to see more of what other stitchers are doing.

 First part was to make a a book and then each month add embroidery pieces to it.

here is my book cover-

the fabric I have used is the  William Morris design "Daisy"

 I have matched it up with some light green silk and  added Gold work embroidery.
Since the photo was taken I have found some brass corners and now  need to work out
how to fit them on firmly as they look great

 

........this is the beetle on the front........

 

 

......and this little one is on the spine......

 

 

the back cover

 

I plan to make my pages using pelment vilene with a variety of fabrics mounted on them to show off the added embroideries

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 I have enjoyed visiting other blogs  and seeing what everyone has been stitching  I am trying

 to allow myself more time so that I can leave comments and let you know what I have enjoyed.

 Welcome to my newest followers hope you will find some inspiration when you visit.

 

Happy stitching everyone.