THE ROBINS HAVE ARRIVED

An email message this morning from Smily let me know that the robins had finally arrived after much delay on my part.  I am glad that they have safely arrived  and she has several photos up on her blog.  here is a link to her blog  

 My bus leaves this afternoon taking me to Wellington to meet with my sister and her husband then we fly to Australia   will post again on my return.

AN UPDATE.........

all good intentions to post in November flew away about as fast as the month did for me...so before December does the same here is all my news.

 Firstly thank you to Cindy who despite all that the year has thrown at her came through with the planned Christmas exchange... it arrived very early accompanied  with some treats for my birthday.    I have hung it by my computer  so I can enjoy it, the big tree is not going up this year for reasons that will be shared later.

for my Christmas Decoration I sent to Cindy I did a cube, this was a very enjoyable piece to stitch.

 

I also received my exchange piece from Stitching friends challenge a scissor fob, truly this piece stitched by Heather is far to lovely to be on a pair of scissors and I have put it on one of my sewing bags where I can enjoy it without  it being handled as much as when attached to scissors. The tiny fob on the bottom is less than an inch across, such perfect tiny stitches. 

and there is more........ Annette from California Stitcher sent me  this lovely needle
book..the design is Ann Hathaway's cottage. It's too lovely to use and don't you love all the silk ribbons so in keeping with the age in time that it represents and what a lot of stitching I am in awe. Thank you Annette for for all the work and love that went into stitching this for me.

 

 

Ann came down from Whitianga for my birthday weekend and we went to the Embroidery Exhibition caught up with several of old friends there and on the Saturday when other friends dropped in to say Hi, .............. had a picnic  by the lake ..........went to the Christmas shop ...........visited Maree and heard all about her trip she went on the Casket tour in Scotland and England...........and of course we talked and stitched together.  And this month it will be my turn to go away overseas.
With my sister and her husband we fly out to Queensland Australia next Wednesday for a short trip specially to celebrate with our brother his 70th birthday,it is close to twenty five years since I last saw Donald so it will be some reunion.   Will return just before Christmas, and hopefully a December posting will follow to share the latest news.....................

.....................meanwhile happy Stitching  everyone.

BOXES

There is real pleasure and enjoyment  in stitching that special gift.... I share with you two birthday gifts stitched recently.

 

This is my birthday gift to Annette of California Stitcher and as she has received it and shown it on her blog I can now share the photos. We have a new bead shop here in Stratford and it was so nice to take my work in progress up there and match colours and  be able to select just what was needed to add to what I had in hand. I describe this as encrusted surface work  and I look forward to using this idea further.

 My second box is now on its way north and by the time you read this will have been received......

it is for my eldest granddaughter Rachel's 21st birthday gift, about 20 years ago I stitched a box for daughter Jan's 21st  to hold her birthday gift  and inside was also a stitched gold work key.. I have the box at the moment looking quite faded deep blue silk is bad for that! and missing the key.

At Jan's suggestion I made a box for Rachel, this time using silver embroidery as her preference is silver rather than gold, on the top of her box I stitched one of my beetles,
 

 and yes again a stitched key inside to represent the 21st birthday,

  lift it off and in the box I had tucked some special treasures, 

   the first was a silver locket that had belonged to her great, great grandmother and had been passed down through the generations. ( I dated the hallmark Birmingham 1902) 

  A little Owl, one of my treasures that Paul had bought for me some years ago and till now sat beside the clock by my computer, I wanted her to have something to remember her grandfather. 

and in a little fabric bag 21 coins to represent her 21 years.

My sister bought the lovely dark blue silk for me when she was overseas this year, and at the same time bought a beautiful deep purple silk ready for me to make Caitlin's box in the future.

Next up will be some Christmas stitching, thank to all who have visited my blog and left comments, I try to reply but as the computer now sends all messages to one file I keep getting lost to which ones I have replied to and which I still need to. Just know I love hearing from you and appreciated the time taken to send a message.

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FROM MY WINDOW

This lovely clematis with its delicate green flowers has been flowering by the window nearest to my chair and while I do not see all the flowers from inside I do enjoy seeing the visitors that come.            The small wax eye birds are not at all put off by the closeness to the window and are frequently there enjoying the flowers.

 
I have not a lot of stitching to share at the moment  but hopefully after the pieces arrive at their destinations I will be able to bring photos to you, meanwhile here are the pieces stitched for Stitching Friend's  challenge ... a scissor fob. and yes they have both arrived.

 Caitlin spent two days with me this week and we had a lot of fun creating Halloween decorations for Jan's dowel tree I will post pictures of them shortly on my other blog ... other side of the mountain here is the link   

These were a real fun project.

Still being bugged with computer problems however slowly I am learning to do more and more on the i pad and  hopefully  it will not be so long between postings again .

 

ROBINS

               There is nothing in the world quite as adorably lovely    

        as a Robin when he shows  off

and I am showing off my finished Robin piece, now that the exhibition has opened I can share with you the photos, it was a very enjoyable piece to stitch and I loved every moment of it, the outside fabric was just perfect small leaves and red berries, thank you, Annette from California Stitcher it was a piece you sent me some time ago. The braid was bought on a trip to Napier, bought just because it appealed to me at that time not with any project in mind but it added the finish.

MORE FLOWERS

Ye Cowslips, delicately pale, upraised your loaded stem, 

unfold your cup in splendor speak

John Clare

I am posting this from my iPad which is quite a challenge, as yet I have not managed to sort out how to organise the lay out

These are the latest flowers I have added, the cowslips are from a Danish book, in fact they are in several books I have. Not sure yet but I may add some back stitching to highlight them. . My computer is having problems hence this effort! Hope to be back on line properly soon

I HAVE ADDED DAISIES

Daisies, Ye flowers of lowly birth embroiderers of the carpet earth.

John Clare

Yes I am very late with this posting. The weather has been very cold and fireside has been the best place unfortunately the computer is in the other room, now after a couple efforts am managing to do the post on my I pad.  I have added daisies to the Hussif piece along with some extra ones to be used on smaller parts. This daisy design origins are unknown looking through photos and also some stitched pieces I first stitched daisies from the Danish books, and about 1994 this version of an English daisy appears in my stitch pieces, like the violets I am able to vary the placement of the flower and buds, the stem is whipped back stitch, which I like because it is not as thick as doing it in cross stitch. I am now stitching the next Flower and hopefully will be back before the end of the week to share with you all.

The Book mark shown above is from a very early posting and with it is part of John Clare's poem that refers to the flowers Cowslips, violets and daisies.
I have often used this quote by John Clare, (English Poet 1793-1864) with my embroideries when  it it is part of a long poem, "Songs of Praise Imitations of the 148 Psalm"  the verse on the daisies was preceded by two others mentioning flowers, first cowslips then violets and below is one of my earlier designs for a pin cushion using daisies  with the same quote.

SMALL TREASURES AND A- GIVE- AWAY

Small treasures that bring great pleasures

Do you know the winter iris - Iris stylosa ? This year my two clumps have produced a mass of blooms and I have been able to beat the snails for they delight in nibbling them. From these rather untidy plants I have been picking the buds and enjoying watching the petals unfold and for more than a month now have been able to have a vase of them in my Kitchen.

The other small treasures are ones I have been stitching, quite some time ago I started stitching a Husif for Jan, next march will be her 50th birthday and I wanted something very special for the occasion, so I feel the Husif she requested , stitched with the little flowers I have used on so many pieces, including my work box.(see it  in this post ) would be the perfect thing to stitch for her. This piece like other pieces when the eyes became a problem the stitching was put aside, now having started again on it I have decided each Monday to do an update of my progress, my aim is to add one flower type per week, hopefully by planning to keep adding a small amount of stitching I will manage to achieve this each week and to make sure I  do I am committed to showing the progress on my blog. This is what I had stitched before-

and now this week I have added a few violets,there is no chart for my design I am just adding the flowers stitching some by memory and others are a piece taken from another design.
The winter aconite is from February design in the cross stitch book, A Country Diary Collection 2 Over the years I have enjoy again and again looking at the Edith Holden's book The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady and the cross stitch book is some of her paintings charted for cross stitch.
The Crocus is a Danish Cross Stitch design and I have mislaid the book so cannot tell you which one.
Violets these I have stitched so often that I now stitch them from memory and there will be more violets added to the design as I go on.

And for my 6th Anniversary Give away Draw.

I wish I could have sent something to everyone but sadly time would only allow me to have one

 name drawn  and here it is

CONGRATULATIONS to Smily in Hungary. 

I went over to her blog and would you believe her latest posting was about the colour for June being RED, well little red robins will certainly fit the red theme. I am stitching the last piece now so hopefully the parcel will be away in the post at the end of the week , so please Smily send me your postal address, and  although I have sent  embroideries to many countries this is a first time I have sent some of my work to Hungary so I am excited. 

WEEKEND PAST

 Yes last weekend was IHSW and because of weather conditions interfering with phone, WiFi and computer I did not get to post pre- weekend my plans. Weather wise we were not hit as badly by the storm and heavy rain as other parts of the country.

It was certainly the weekend for sitting by the fire and stitching  and what I did achieve during the weekend was Saturday I worked on one of the pieces for my anniversary give-away, not a robin at this stage but the quote about the robin from the Secret Garden  as seen here-

 
 Then I picked up again a long neglected piece its my Shepherd's Bush wool gatherer and when I checked back on my blog I found I had to troll all the way back to April last year to find when I stitched it last!! here it is as seen then.

And my progress when  I finished stitching yesterday plan to make a major effort on for the rest of the years IHSW and hopefully finish it by December.

 There is still time to enter my Blog Anniversary give away I will draw it at the end of the month, and now it is back to the fireside and my stitching

IN FOCUS AND ITS MY ANNIVERSARY

It's Sharing the small things in life that make the biggest memories.

Austin Bieda

I'm sure you will all understand my pleasure at being able to see to thread a needle and stitch again !
 I am back working on my Robin's piece this has been a very enjoyable piece to design,  finding all the charts that would bring my idea together, here are a few of them these cute little robins are from a Cross Stitch Crazy magazine's Robin ABC

The quote is from the book The Secret garden and is the inspiration for the piece and I plan to stitch more of these Robins!

BLOG ANNIVERSARY GIVE AWAY

 It is six years since I entered the world of blogging and during those six years I have enjoyed sharing my embroidery with everyone, I have made many new friends and enjoyed the blog writings of  so many talented and wonderful people. Thank you all.   As much as I would love to send something to you all, I must settle for just one gift to go in a draw. I have decided to stitch a few more of the robins and make a collection of  embroidery smalls,( needlework accessories)  six pieces for six years.           If you would like to be in the draw leave a comment on this posting, you must be a follower of my blog to be in the draw.  I will draw the lucky person on June 30th, giving me time to have everything stitched and ready for posting by then.
 For now I am back to the fireside and my stitch.

COUNTING THE DAYS....

 Yes I am counting down the days till  my new glasses come and I can happily stitch again.  It has been a long six weeks, for once I cannot comment how quickly time has gone by for me it has been snail pace.

 Stitching friends challenge was a biscornu, here is the lovely one I received from Lyn.  Don't you just love the beautiful hardanger edge and she has made it very personal with the message on the back cleverly stitched on the diagonal. Thank you Lyn it is such a treasure.

The one below is the one I stitched and sent to Ann, it is an Atalie design, have wanted to stitch it for ages and the challenge was the perfect opportunity, I had all the counted work done before my eye op and have managed to finish it in the last few days as the eyes adjust, however I did struggle with the roses... next time it will be bullion stitch ones that  I can do much better.

A recent email brought surprising news, Thoeria emailed me to thank me for the ornament and commented she loved owls. It took a moment or two to  to work out what owls she was referring to .... and it certainly turned back the clock, at the beginning of December last year I had a give-a-way, and  this was the ornament she was referring to -

posted to her in Johannesburg, South Africa the first week of December last it had finally arrived... 5 months later, I'm sure she felt I had forgotten to post it

 Next week will be my blog anniversary, it will mark six years of blogging do check back to see what I come up with to celebrate.

Good to be back in focus and blogging again