WEEKEND'S EFFORTS

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

Napoleon Hill

I have had a very successful  Hermits Weekend, I hope everyone else taking part last weekend had a good weekend too. Here is my lavender cushion finished. It is stuffed with lavender, not the type of lavender shown in the photo but English lavender which has by the far the loveliest scent and retains it when its has been dried.

 

It is backed with a piece of Liberty fabric, chosen because it is a fine soft fabric  and is nice to handle. My sister takes a small lavender pillow with her when travelling and this new one will be waiting for her to collect when she visits me next month.

 

 

Today was good light for photographing and at last I took some photos of my October page for my Journal, yes I am running late with this. For this one I have a Pulled thread embroidery piece and the beetle has been appliqued

 

 

I am very pleased with my weekends stitching, two other small  items finished cannot be shown at this time however I will share them later. The first goes out in the post this week.

 

 It is now time for me to make a new list of Things to stitch.

 

 

IT'S HERMIT WEEKAND AGAIN

 

 Here we are the third weekend in November which makes it hermit and stitch  time again. I know I can stitch anytime but the extra incentive it there when its a IHSW days. My plans for this weekend is to completed  the small Lavender pillow I am making for my sister Joan. She has chosen one of the box panels from Ellen Chester's Miss Trenner's Needlework Academy. I am stitching it on 35 count Charles craft linen which is softer than the permin linen I mostly use and have a piece of Liberty fabric for the backing. Here is the stage I am at now.-

 

 

 See you after the weekend hopefully all the stitching completed and made up.

 Happy stitching to all other hermits for this weekend.

 

 

FRIENDSHIP

"I cannot count the number of times I have been strengthened by another woman's heartfelt hug, appreciative note, surprise gift or caring questions....my friends are an oasis with me encouraging me to go on. they are essential to my well being."  Dee Brestin.

 

 I give thanks for all the support I have had during this past year, thank you blogging friends for never giving up on me when I have not always managed to answer your comments I do appreciate your messages. And thanks too, to Heather who reads my blog and sends me email messages that always seem to arrive just when I need an uplift.

 My very dear friend Ann came down from Whitianga to teach a workshop in New Plymouth and managed to fit in a few days with me we fitted as much as possible in to the time we had together. lots of talking and sharing of ideas... stitching ones of course. She was here for my birthday and we went out for the day firstly to see the Embroidery Exhibition then to lunch a visit to a garden centre how I have missed  going to my favourite garden centre during the past  year but then for part of that time I was not very mobile. And we called too at the Christmas Shop, that was wonderland so much to see and enjoy, I continued my tradition of adding a bird to my collection  don't you love this little ball of fluff.

 

Another day we went to see the Floral art display at Holy Trinity Church here in Stratford the theme was the 23rd Psalm  I did not think to take a camera, the arrangements were superb. However my camera has bee busy and I have plenty to share.

 From another very special friend Annette of California Stitcher  came this delightful package and yes I managed to keep it tempting as it was and open it on my birthday.

 

 

 

The Parcel was in two parts, Annette had stitched for me Blackbird Designs Pumpkin Blossoms needlecase all beautifully finished with matching fabric and some very exciting threads inside the pocket. the second parcel was something for me to stitch. Shepherd's Bush Kit "My Mom's Garden"

 

 

 

I have just finished stitching "Strawberries so faire", I stitched it on 40 count permin  raw linen, which was a mistake as the fabric was to fine to work the closed herringbone stitch on the strawberries , they looked like a tangle of knotted threads, so I ended up stitching them in cross stitch,  another adjustment for the fine linen making the roll a smaller size I just made a felt roll at the end for a pincushion, with spider web ends.  Finishing touches of the ladybugs is something I always add to things for Rachel, this time I only had white ones but the looked good and she was delighted with it.

 

 

My other finish was the Stitching friends Challenge a petite Christmas stocking but I will have to wait a while to show this to you. I now have one more stitching project then I will need to turn my thoughts to Christmas gifts I know I should have been started on them before this.. Are you better organised than I am ?