Notes from under the Mountain
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Some finishes
Monday, January 22, 2024
Yes I'm Still Here
the gnome tree. |
A last minute addition to the birthday gift I made her a rainbow dress for her Barbie doll, here modeled by the barbie I use to fit dresses on, madly sewed a sequin and bead into the centre of every flower but one little girl' s delight in the dress made it all worth while. There is enough of the same material to make Poppy a dress too, that's when I can face stitching all the sequins on.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Small gifts
The biggest change in my life at present has been giving up driving the car (this is on medical reasons) I stopped in October and yes the car has been sold, I am grateful to some friends who now provide transport for me, Mary takes me to guild and it is not putting here out of her way as she has to pass my door, my good friend Fiona comes to stitch with me every Wednesday and now after our time together takes me to get small items I need. Helen takes me up to Church office on Thursday when she goes out to volunteer with a group and again takes me to church on Sunday, Jan is there for other times but as her school is out in the country it’s been a help to have friends there for me. I have stitched small thank you gifts for Christmas this year and will have fun planning and stitching something larger for each of them next year when there is more time. I have stitched small notebook covers and have a nice pen to go with the book.
I am still finishing the third one.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Photo fun
The Facebook group Blythe doll Australia are having a photo a day for December. Some of the subjects set are proving to be quite challenging here’s some of mine.
Day 8 this makes me merry ….. Rosie helping with the gnomes.
Day 9 Christmas tree ……
Day 10 Something red.
Not sure how many more I will get done…..
Friday, December 1, 2023
Christmas Gnomes
Jan has decided this year to have one of her Christmas trees with a gnome theme, I have had lots of fun this week creating a collection of gnomes for her in a variety of colours. These little Folk had minds of their own when I tried to get a group photo.....
Have two to finish to send to Finn and Eve in Wellington for their Christmas tree, then I can get back to stitching my embroidery pieces.
Saturday, November 25, 2023
The Mary Stuart Hussif
I have stitched yet another Mary Stuart Hussif for a gift, I think it’s possibly the seventh one I have made over the years. Way back in the 198’s a visitor to the guild in Tokoroa brought one to show us, then I found the instructions and history in a ANZEG Threads Magazine. It’s history in New Zealand dates back to early 1960s before the Association of guilds ere formed in New Zealand. Lone packets were sent out from England for embroiderers to mull over. A packet featuring blackwork contained a small hussif and later Mary Sturt president at the time of the south Otago Guild set it as a small project for a year, with the result in the south it became known as the Mary Stuart Hussif. And it was introduced to us as the Mary Stuart Hussif and I still refer to it as that today, this one was stitched for my Christmas gift for the Guild Christmas party exchange of gifts this week. For this one I used 40 count permin linen and stitched harebells in cross stitch, the lining is a liberty fabric.
Saturday, November 18, 2023
A little stitching
The small notebook cover has a Christmas gnome holding a gingerbread man, I would love to stitch more of these gnome designs but the list to do for Christmas keeps growing so I must move on. Jan has requested Christmas gnomes for a tree she plans on that theme , these I am making on polystyrene balls in different colours, the fun part for me will be creating the hats, these are well on the way and hopefully will be shown in my next post.
Two other projects under way both quite different for Ronan’s Christmas gift I am making a board game using the Paw Patrol as the theme, Jan has put together ideas for the game that will help develop Ronan’s skills and so the game can have different parts added later. The fun part of creating the game is mine.
For herself for Christmas Jan has requested a felt board set of the Hungry Caterpillar, I made this for Finn in 2019 and had kept most of my patterns what a hungry chap that caterpillar was he ate his way through 15 pieces of food. I like to make all the pieces double felt and buttonhole stitch the edges to make them last longer, specially in this case where it will be a class room set and get a lot of handling.
My computer is telling me to back up and replace the hard drive, so find myself doing more on the iPad and this time have had success in putting together this posting now to hit the publish button before I lose it all.
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Happy Halloween
Ready to go out to Trick or treat………both loving their new hats.
This is the last in the Coll of Halloween photos I took have now completed the story and this years book for Eve. Embroidery has taken over but no doubt I will find another project for the dolls to add more outfits for. Am now stitchings all gifts.
Monday, September 11, 2023
Hat no 5
Hat no 5 did not get posted before I showed the hat shop so here is the hat now so you can see the details.
Monday, September 4, 2023
The Witches Hat Shop.
Poppy is thinking about Halloween, she is making plans early what she wants is a witches hat like Rosie had last year so she went off to visit the Witches hat shop to see if she can find one she likes.
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Hat No.4
This time it’s a hat for a very modern witch, Poppy was happy to find a matching dress so she could model it for me . the last one is started and will also be a step away from the traditional black witches hat, all going well will have it ready to post next week