IVÉ GOT A LITTLE LIST

"Ive got a little list. Ive got a little list" says the Lord High Executioner in the Mikado, and that list is possible a worry for some of the characters. in the opera..........................
 I have been executing (stitching)  my little list and  that is what has kept me busy for the last few weeks.   Yesterday two birthday gifts left in the post and then last night I finished stitching  a piece for an exchange, it is now ready for mounting.    Today I started on another birthday gift and there still remains two more items on my list to be completed by the end of the month.  I will share them with you as soon as they reach their destinations.
Meanwhile tomorrow is my blog anniversary... two years... and what a lot of friends I have made. I will have a special posting to mark the occassion ... meanwhile its back to the stitching.

ROLL OVER AND....

'Roll over little one and go to sleep, winter is coming'

Dianne has just sent me this photo of my piece as it was displayed at the Guild Challenge last night.

The background pattern was printed with the computer onto calico and one leaf was stitched to highlight it. The acorns were recycled  from a piece call necklace for Nutkin that my cat pulled apart  a few years ago.

NEEDLE PAINTING.

 A week ago, I attended a two day workshop on Silk Shading, this is my second attempt to learn this type of embroidery work. In 1998 I also attended a Silk Shading Workshop, however I was carried away with my subject and the result was really needle painting . That piece was "Little Bunnies" This was followed by another needle painting, of little goslings, both these were taken from Marjolein Bastin paintings.  Having found how enjoyable this type of stitching was I did several more pieces all, these were all birds,( see my album.)

Over the years I have done a little sketching and dabbled in watercolours and needle paint seemed to follow quite naturally. I enjoyed the small animals and birds, fur and feathers seem to lie easily in the stitching.  Silk Shading calls for more discipline ! After 10 hours stitching I have only one petal and one leaf of my poppy done I will show this when there is a little more stitching done.

Meanwhile this week I have been back to the needle painting stitching a piece for our Guild Challenge for tonight. The challenge asks for a piece, postcard size - 15 x 10cm and any form of stitching. The design to be formed from 2 lines in any direction,  superimposed with 7cm circle. and wotked in any technique we like.I have finished but yet to take a photo of the piece, it is a very dull day here and I dont like photographing embroidery using a flash, so I will post a photo of it later, meanwhile here is what I did for my 7cm circle, this I copied in the scanner. The background has the minimum amount of stitching, as you will see later

STASH OR STACKS

I look when other people show their stash-  me I have STACKS, stacks of paper, research notes, sketches, drafts for class notes,  design drawings and more and more, need I go on you can imagine the paper pile and its not just one pile but several.

Now I am not teaching I am slowly working my way through and deleting as much as possible !

I did find this little drawing I had made of a rabbit, he was on a Christmas card that came from England some years ago, I had sketched him onto graph paper no doubt the intention was some time to chart him.
He was really calling out to be stitched and that was much more interesting than sorting papers, they have waited this long, a bit longer won't make much difference.
Here he is, I have stitched him from the drawing. and then I charted what I had stitched. The chart is here too in case anyone would like to stitch him.

And here is WIP I am stitching the background  with a Sampler Thread from The Gentle Art Co. called Gold leaf. While I was stitching I remembered how to stitch a shaded background if you want it to go from dark to light.  Divide the background into 5 sections cross wise. Chose three shades of one colour and stitch using 2 threads. the bottom section is stitched in the darkest shade, then next section is stitched  use one strand of the dark shade and one of the medium together. part three is just the medium shade, then for the fourth section one strand of medium and one of the light, finally the top is two strands of the lightest shade. This makes a lovely soft shading.

Not quite finished.... next I will need to find something to back him with... finished item will appear at a later date.

RECYCLING PROJECT

Earlier in the year I listed a few items I really wanted to stitch included was an embroided cover for my bible.

In truth the cover on my bible was not going to hold together much longer and needed some very strong and somewhat ugly tape to give it support. I had drawn up a design I thought I would like to stitch but thats as far as I got.... then the cord holding up my "Love is" piece broke and the embroidered picture came tumbling down.

I have always liked this piece- the design came from an old Christmas card that I found some time in the 70's and would you believe it I kept it for 20 years, This was stitched in 1997 and had great support from Jack my picture framer who cut the mat while I was stitching it and was able to check as I went along that everything was placed correctly. Now all these years later sadly the mat was looking faded and I had the inspiration to take the embroidery out of the frame and recycle it.

I have mounted it onto deep blue velvet, the velvet was some scarps I had from when the Elders chairs at St Andrew's Church Coromandel where re-covered, and added to making my new book cover special. I'm not sure if the threads had faded slightly, but it was hard to find something to match to make a cord  I finally found a Pearsalls 'Filo-Floss' Stranded silk. Here is the finished cover.

MAY 1st

Its May 1st and I said I would announce today who had won my Easter give away. Thank you all who left a comment the numbers were quite overwhelming.
 Caitlin was with me last week while we planned her next piece of embroidery and we discussed how I would do the draw. I decided to make it her age- she is 13 years old and counting down to the 13th comment left on the Easter Giveaway posting I am happy to tell Pam she is the winner.

 Pam please send me an email with your postal address so I can get the parcel away to you

this week

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EASTER GIVEAWAY

I have made another pomegranate scissor fob, this time in dark claret silk, looking for something to stitch to go with it I made a floss ring tag to match and added a couple of the fabric squares I bought on our travels in the South Island and a lovey rich autumn shaded hand dyed tencil thread, it was not till I was setting these all out for a photo that it dawn on me I had stitched the same design as I did for my last giveaway. However I hope someone might like it.

To be in the draw for this little gift collection, be a follower of my blog and leave a message before May 1st when I  do a draw and announce the winner, and who know I might have added something else to the parcel by then.

Easter weekend here has begun with a mild and fine winter day, this afternoon stitching by the fire, I started on another pomegranate to match a piece I had stitched earlier, hopefully on Sunday I will announce my Easter give away,  If you are travelling to family and friends over the holiday break I wish you safe travel.

To all I send best wishes and blessing for Easter

THE NUMBER GROWS

What a surprise this morning to open up my blog and see not one new follower but several, welcome to you all and that includes others who have joined over the last few weeks. Last July at my blogs first Anniversary I had 19 followers, this number has already doubled and a year has not gone by, this is very encouraging thank you all.   I hope you will find something you enjoy seeing here and do leave a comment from time to time to let me know you have called in.

Pam of confessions of a southern stitcher blog- felt her numbers had stalled at 18 do call at her blog and give her some encouragement here is the link.
http://confessionsofasouthernstitcher.blogspot.com/

Autumn has left us, fresh snow has fallen on the mountain and the weather today although fine and sunny was definitely quite cool, I can look forward to time by the fire stitching, specially over the holiday weekend ahead.

 Back soon with more stitching news of my WIP

IT'S BEEN A WONDERFUL WEEK

Not only did the sun shine, the painters finish on time and my house is back together again......my good stitching friend, Ann has been here for the past week. Ann was here to teach two classes in Latvian Embroidery for our guild.  I attended one, its such a long time since I have done a class, but it was great and my piece is progressing slowly.

But what was so special was the time we had together, sharing ideas and things we had found during the past few months, with discussions going late into the evenings and always when we get together we stitch a small project last time it was the pincushions with the bullion stitch roses.

This time we stitched scissor fobs, my latest design was a pomegranate, this was created for a challenge for our Stitching Friends Group.... the challenge asked for a scissor fob with at least 25 french knots.

My first one was stitched with pink silk, french knots? sometimes I think I stitch colonial knots! and beads. and has gone to one of the group.

For the ones we stitched this week, Ann chose a deep wine silk and I made mine in soft apricot.

Here are close up views of our fobs. There is also plans to stitch these at guild next week. I have written basic instructions for making them and if anyone is interested making one email me and I am happy to share.



FINISHED POCKET

Here is the finished Pocket for a wood nymph it  was a really  fun piece to stitch. The finished size is 12 x 16 cm.and stitched on 35 count permin lambswool linen. I have been asked about the acorns, these are pony beads wrapped with thread a small bead on the top and a metal cap used in bead work.

 Later in the week I will add an album to the blog  with the four pockets I have made.

WORK IN PROGRESS

I had thought I would have been able to show the finished piece, however it is still work in progress. For the past two weeks we have had the painters here first painting the lounge which ment a big upheaval with the furniture being moved to other parts of the house, piles of books in the hall, china stored elsewhere and in the mist of all this little stitching was done !! It was not much better when they moved outside to do the house. Still the finished result has been worth it and we have finally put everything bag in its correct place,

The piece I have been working on is another of my small pockets (bags) last year I showed on the blog three I had done and it is my intention this year to add to more. This one is a pocket for a wood nymyh, I had collected quite a few bits in green tonings but when put together they really did not match so it has gone to autumn tones.

I hope to be able to post the finished pocket in a few days time.