IHSW and ME

All the flowers of tomorrow are the seeds of today

Elizabeth Kendall

 

 

After finishing the Happy Hen Necessaire for Rachel the rest of my IHSW weekend's stitching was working on this small Assisi design.it is only 3 inches across.  I started Saturday night with a blank piece of linen and this was my progress by Sunday night. The linen is 35 count sandstone and I have outlined with DMC 801 and for this piece  keeping to one of the more traditional colours  I have chosen green and as a fine thread was needed to keep the work neat I have used YLI silk this is a Japanese silk and a much finer thread than DMC stranded.
 

 

 

I am reasonably  proud of the back, did you know that Assisi embroidery stitched correctly should have  rail roads-lines on the back? I have one piece of Assisi Embroidery that was bought in the town of Assisi.   My friend Sally and her husband visited there  in 1997, they set out to go down by train when the big earthquake hit and had to continue their journey the next day, I had asked Sally to  bring me back an embroidered piece  and the piece she brought me is definitely the highest possible standard of work.  Having being able to study this, I have learnt much from it including the invisible  starting and ending of threads something I have not managed to achieve hence the  brown bumps on the back of my piece.  Can you spot the beginning and ending of the threads here. It is so neat.

 

 

 Another feature of the mat she brought me is the rolled hem, this took a lot of practise to master, but has been well worth the effort and I have stitched it on several mats. The mat  has been stitched on 32 count linen,  the cross stitches are over 3 fabric threads ( not 2 as we so often do) and the thread used is DMC coton a broder 25.

 

 

Hopefully it will not be too long till I am able to show you my small piece of Assisi embroidery

 mounted on the March page in my journal.



IHSW and HAPPY HENS

 Happiness is............. all the little things that make life awesome

 seen on a blog 

This weekend is International Hermits Stitch Weekend I started stitching friday night and my first project was to finish constructing a stitchers necessaire for my oldest grand-daughter Rachel who is off to Waikato University tomorrow to study. She has a hussif that I made for her a few years ago but  I thought something more practical was needed this time.  I still had some fabric scraps from a previous gift including a small piece of the Happy Hen fabric I know she is fond of, here is the finished result.

It has the Happy Hen fabric on the front and the inside pocket, black with white spots on the back, white with red spots inside. I managed to scan a hen from the fabric and print it on cards for the thread holder and also a card with elastic on it. Rachel and I had a mornibng window shopping together recently she specially loved the little ribbon roses and not on my original plans I went back later and bought a packet. we looked together at embroidery scissors and found the one with a rooster, to her surprise it was in her necessaire. 

 

 

Last night I joined the family for dinner and gave Rachel her gift, today they have left to take her through to Waikato university to start her studies there. Later that evening I started on a new piece of embroidery  some more serious embroidery I wanted to start a piece for my next page  for my Needlework masters Monthly SAL. so at the end of the weekend I will post my progress on this piece.

 

Happy stitching specially to all taking part in the IHSW.

 

 

FEBRUARY'S PAGE

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
― St. Thomas Aquinas
 

 

 

I planned my page  for February with Valentines day in mind, adding two small hearts to help with the theme of my page, once again I have stitched a small beetle his background colour has not appeared the right shade in this photo possibly too much sunlight at the time was taken  it is more like the shade in the photo below.

 

 

 

 

 

The techniques I have put on this page are a piece of Embellished Canvas work from a workshop I did with Ann Brocus when she visited the Guild here. For contrast I have added a small piece of hardanger Embroidery stitched on 35 count linen. and for the beetle I have layered an organza fabric over gold tissue fabric. I am enjoying this SAL and already planning my next page.

 

 

 

 

A LOVELY SURPRISE

Would that the little flowers were born to live conscious
of the pleasure which they give.
Wordsworth
 

 

 This lovely surprise greeted me on the doorstep when I came home recently ,beautifully presented they had to be unwrapped to fully enjoy what a lovely selection, soft lemon Chrysanthemums, matching daisy Chrysanthemums. cream lisianthus and deep blue Japanese gentians. They are from Vicki my niece who has just moved to Paris and I am posting the photos so that she can see how lovely they are.

 

 

 

 Thank you Vicki, they are giving me much pleasure.