WELCOME FRIENDS

Life's completeness and riches depend on the things we share with our loved ones and friends.

Helen Steiner Rice.

Welcome to new followers I notice there are several more since I celebrated 150 followers, welcome, I hope you find something in what I share on my blog to enjoy and use.

 I did not get to post for IHSW as there was almost a week with Internet problems, it was worse than snails pace and kept cutting out. I did manage a little stitching on the guild challenge this is to be ready by May so sorry there will be a wait till I can show this piece to you and in between times I have been stitching more little bunnies and also this little squirrel. I have put him on the front of a covered retractable tape measure.

Yesterdays stitching was a small piece of Deerfield embroidery, for  the next page of my journal. Some years ago I did research into this type of embroider.  This is truly an  American Embroidery, 

 

The early  British Colonists to Colonial America took with them their knowledge of Jacobean embroidery ( crewel work) Faced with a shortage of coloured threads one group in New England  adapted their work to stitch in 3 shades of blue. Blue was an easily attainable   using indigo dye. Depending on the number of repeated dips  would be how deep the colour would be. Later other colours were added. A revival of interest in the 1890’s saw this Blue and White  Embroidery  become better known and it is now stitched world wide. The story of this embroidery, of the dying of thread  and how long lost patterns were found is well worth reading and if you get the chance to read this book I highly recommend it.

Here is my small piece of  Deerfield embroidery, the stitches used were stem stitch,  herringbone stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch  Spike stitch (buttonhole Edge) and New England laid stitch. new England laid stitch ( also called Deerfield stitch) is a form of Romanian stitch and is one of the characteristics of Deerfield embroidery where the thrifty New England ladies devised a method of stitching Romanian stitch that was more economical in the use of their very precious threads.

Today is a new day and I will need to find a new project to stitch

Happy stitching everyone..

ONE MORE RABBIT

 

.......I wanted a rabbit,

A liitle brown Rabbit,

And I looked for a rabbit

'most everywhere.

A.A.Milne

 

with apologies to A.A. Milne

 

I wanted a rabbit, a little brown rabbit, even a grey one would do !

I wanted to stitch my rabbit for Easter ( my rabbit needed to be a cross stitch one and quite small about 25x25 stitches.)

 

 I looked for my rabbit 'most everywhere. I went to the library what a lot of books there,

I looked for a cross stitch rabbit  but they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

 

I went to my computor and google for rabbits, they had lots of rabbits but not a little one for me was there.

 

I went back to my computor and googled for Bunnies and I saw little rabbits 'most everywhere there, and I found myself the perfect little Rabbit and he is just what I wanted for some Easter stitching and if you would like to stitch him too, he is  found here.

 

 Happy stitching

 



RABBITS

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you make look back and realize they were the big things.”

~Robert Brault -

 

 

Here is my page for March, as it is Easter later in the month I thought Bunnies  fitted well although I have always wondered how the Easter Bunny got into the Easter scene. Now I have caught up with my journal, I intend as first planned to use something out of my  collection of items stitched at workshops or something stitched as a teaching aid along with something that is new stitching.

 



 

The little rabbits at the top are needle painting, I enjoy this form of stitching working with a single thread and carefully blending lots of shades. This piece was stitched many years ago ( 1988 and was my first ever piece of needle painting.) It was looking a little sad in it's frame I have not dare wash it, as the background silk was dyed with coffee and even after all this time could not risk it tinting the stitching which in their selves self had darkened a little with age, so as you can see..... it has now been recycle for this page.

 

 

The inspiration came from this illustration from a Marjolein Bastin Journal

 

 

 

The new stitching for the page is some Assisi embroidery The traditional design which I showed in my last posting is from the book  ASSISI EMBROIDERY by Eva Maria Leszner, and this old design is in fact Hares not Rabbits. The contempory piece is one of my own designs and I have used a soft shade for the background both are stitched on 35 count linen. And yes I have added another beetle unfortunatly the camera has picked up the light reflection on the metal threads and the gold looks brighter than it is.

 



Today I had a visit from four ladies from New Plymouth who use to come down to master classes with me before Paul took ill, there was a lovely sharing of what we had all been stitch and  and lots of embroidery talk, a very enjoyable time, and I will share again shortly with all my blogging friends the other pieces I have been stitching.

 Happy stitching to you all

 

 

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.

 

 

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

.

 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.