SUNSHINE ,STITCHING & IHSW

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered

by imagination.

Voltaire



Yes I have been busy stitching and the disappointing thing is at this stage I cannot share any of it...... a gift for my secret friend who I hope will not guess who it is from all will be revealed in December.... ....a birthday gift that has yet to be finished and go in the post........ and my small entries for the Regional Embroiderers Exhibition... once the entries close I possible will share that one with you, so instead I am sharing with you the stitching spot I enjoy on sunny days. This lovely big window that catches the sun almost all day long is in the unit attached to the cottage I sit and stitch here on sunny days  enjoying the view at this time of the year of the Magnolia stellata which is in full bloom.

 

 

   the view of the magnolia from the garden.

 

 

 

 Another time I will show you my stitching corner in the ,living room where I stitch and enjoy the warmth of the fire.

 

 

 

 

This weekend is the next IHSW and I have signed up with the plans to work on My gift for Rachel's birthday at the end of October. I am stitching Strawberries So Faire by Ellen Chester of With my needle I have started and will be back after the weekend with my progress report.

 

 

 

 

Hope you have a happy weekend stitching.

 

MY PAGE FOR AUGUST.

Here is my page for August for Needlework masters Monthly stitch-a-long,  the panels in the fan are Wessex Stitchery, these were stitch as examples when I was teaching this technique. The little blue beetle was fun to stitch specially trying to make the two sides of him as close as possible.

 

For my second technique I have added a piece of surface stitchery ( bullion stitch roses) This is from last year's monthly project

 

 

 

A lovely surprise that arrived in the mail this week  was from Heather who made this delightful Kanzashi  flower. she saw them first on Lang's May page for Needlework Masters Monthly stitch a long and found the templates were available here in NZ  Thank you Heather, I will find somewhere special to hand the flower.

 

 

Now its back to the fireside and my stitching.

 

 

SPRING MORNING

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke

Good morning... the sun is shining... and there are lots of signs that spring is here in my garden... AND at the moment I can sit comfortably, and I truly give thanks.  It has been a long winter not being able to do much  and I thank all my blogging friends for you messages specially during that time, and how when I could spend a little time at the computer I have enjoyed reading your postings and news.  I have finally managed to get Birthday Bunny chart on its was, Vicki it should be with you before long. Bea I know you were interested in stitching it too but My email to you has been unanswered, if you read this and are still interested send me your postal address and I will forward it to Vicki.

 I managed to

complete Beauty and Grace  in time for Caitlin's birthday,  and here are some photos.

 

Beauty and Grace by Ellen Chester of with my needle stitched on Silver Springs linen from Colour Cascade Australia. Threads were just what I had to hand.

 

a little change in the wording to suit the occasion

 

 

 I am not working on my monthly page for Needlework Masters Monthly stitch a long hope to get it posted this week.

 Meanwhile thank you for visiting .................enjoy your day.

IHSW UPDATE

Just a quick report on my progress after the weekends stitching.

 

 

 as you can see I managed to complete the front panel and the spine I am now working on the back panel with the plans to hopefully do the construction this coming weekend, as Caitlin's birthday is later next week.

 

LYING LOW

Time flies, but the memories collected along the way can never be replaced.

Ashley Tisdale

It is  over a month since I last posted on my blog... oh where has the time gone and what have I been doing ???  Truth is I have been lying low ....... how true I have been flat on my back for most of the past month, I am now up and moving around if a bit slowly!! and as sitting is far from comfortable for my back hence little time has been spent at the computer. I am trying to catch up with mail bit by bit..

Firstly a welcome to new followers, I have noticed while I have been absent the numbers have grown. I have  tried to keep up with everyone's blogs thanks to my laptop which I could have on the bed beside me.

\

 

Now a little to share my July page for Needle Masters Monthly  Stitch a long This was ready but not mounted. I had the lovely red and black beetle so it was a case of deciding what to put with it as you can see the choice finally was Quaker work in black and a piece of Battenberg Lace stitch some years ago. 

 

 

My only stitching for the past month has been this small hornbook for my Stitching Friends Challenge A Mon Ami Pierre design-  this is a design I have stitched before and is a favourite of mine, stitched this time on 40 count Permin linen with deep blue madeira Silk thread and sent to Ann, who has not let me know of its safe arrival

 

 

 

 

 
However I am hopeful of getting some stitching done this weekend at it is IHSW and I am planning to work on With my needle design "Beauty and Grace" this is what Caitlin has asked for her birthday I am stitching it on a piece of hand died linen from Colour Cascade Fabrics this one is called Silver Springs. As you can see I have only just started... back after the weekend to show my progress.

 

 

I'm now off back to enjoy the fireside and Tabitha's company

 

“Time spent with a cat is never wasted.”
― Colette

MEET TABITHA TWITCHETT

 

“How do you spell 'love'?" - Piglet

"You don't spell it...you feel it." - Pooh”

― A.A. Milne

 

Meet Tabitha Twitchett, she is a stray that has lived in our yard sleeping under the house or under the old church next door, I remember her being there when we still had our cat Tippy ( who died 4 years ago) Tabitha is a very timid cat who would take off and hide as soon as she saw you...... this photo was taken with the zoom on my camera so she did not know I was near. I stopped feeding the sparrows when I realized I had a hunter on the property and as we have had no mice around the place I give her the credit.

 Tabitha's story takes a change this year, December was very dry and by late January we had drought conditions, I was very surprised when gardening that Tabitha came quite close to me crying and I realized  as I had not been able to water the garden there were no puddles anywhere for her to drink. We have always not feed stray cats leaving them to live off the land but as you can guess a few days after putting a water bowl out for her I weakened and left a little food, for this I was rewarded with her company when ever I worked in the garden close, but not too close.

To jump my story forward, Tabitha is now living with me, slowly she has let herself become friendly, she must at sometime been someones pet as she is  clean and house trained  and a very loving cat. She knew what the cat door was... tapping on it to have it unlocked when she was brave enough to venture in. Now she is here all the time never far away from me, although still very timid with visitors....... and my camera.    The lovely photo below was taken as you see when she was asleep on the chair by the fire.  And I am enjoying having her company in the house.

More embroidery news next time.

 Happy Independence day to all my American blogging friends.

IHSW UPDATE

 

 

 

Here is the result of my weekend's stitching. I hope all other Hermits had a good weekends stitching too

IHSW

I have a special project to stitch this weekend. I am designing a small mat for Caitlin to stitch. she is currently working on a piece for next years Embroiderers Guilds  National Exhibition, National exhibitions are held every two years and on the in between years we have a Regional one. Caitlin first exhibited nationally at the age of 6 years, (she is now 15) and has had something in every exhibition since. quite a record I think.

 We have a stitching session together most Friday afternoons after school and she planned and started her next major piece early as she was aware there would be more time needed for study this year with major exams looming and possibly less time for stitching hence her planned early start. Now that her big piece is underway she is hoping to manage a small piece for the regional exhibition later this year. the theme for this exhibition is Colour of the Seasons. Having discussed what she wanted to stitch it is now over to me to come up with a design something achievable in the time given and still leave plenty of time for her major work.

 so I started the weekend with a blank piece of fabric. and my progress so far is

 

I am stitching it on 32 count Belfast linen and just in one colour , Caitlin will choose her own linen and colours to stitch  her piece so the final result will look quite different

 

I will log in at the end of the weekend.

 happy stitching to all hermits.

 

MY PAGE FOR JUNE

The colour of springtime is in the flowers

the colour of winter is in the imagination.

 

The fire is burning brightly and the room is warm so it does not matter what the weather is outside, shortly I will go and enjoy the fire and sit and stitch, but first I want to share with you my journal  page for June I used a piece of Turkish embroidery, which had been my planning piece for a piece I stitched later for an exhibition..............

 

.............a small example of Punto Antico Embroidery ( Italian) This is taken from one of  Bruna Gubbini's  books on Antico Punto  but I cannot remember which one. and this time a bronze beetle.

 

 And as the month is going by quite quickly I am off to plan my next page.

Happy stitching everyone.

BEETLEMANIA, BIRTHDAY BUNNY and other BITS

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth,

for the touch of a friendly hand

and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”
― Edith Sitwell

 

And I add- stitching by the fire.

Firstly thank you all for your comments on the beetles I wish I had made more... next time I stitch some I will remember some of those who missed out this time.

Here are the lucky draws for each beetle

1. is going to Annette of California Stitcher  next up

2 is Cucki of Cucki Stitching Cove.

3. Anne of Doll's Musings

 and 4 to Donna of Brynwood Needleworks.

Birthday Bunny chart came to me from Gracie a while back, with a lovely surprise parcel that I lost the photo of. just found filed by the Camera under Jan 2010!!!  but for some reason the computer will not up load it. very frustrating and a lot of time wasted trying. I have stitched the bunny and it is yet to be mounted but will go on a tape measure To make him fit I left off the balloon and will stitch a tiny dragonfly charm above his nose.

 Would anyone else like to stitch  this cute bunny .. please let me know as I am happy to send him on to be enjoyed.

 

Our Guild has a yearly challenge and this year it was to stitch this design in any technique you wished. It was judged by popular vote at the meeting at the end of May. Here are Caitlin and my entries she chose to do blackwork her favourite technique at present in shades of purple, and I did my piece in pulled thread work. we both used DMC memory thread for outlining. I had not seen it before till Annette of California Stitcher sent me some and to Caitlin's delight  there was a lovely lavender one that matched her chosen threads. And it matches to DMC floss for couching.

Tthe big thrill was that Caitlin won,  not bad at 15 beating your Grandmother!!! And because she won she gets to set the next years challenge. Now that could be fun I will let you know what she sets up as the challenge.
 And this is the lovely piece I received from Heather in the latest Stitching Friends challenge a perfectly stitch small white work cushion.

 

My plan for this month is to sort through all the embroidery books and charts collected over the years and list them so my family in the future will know what is here and what is a must to be kept for the younger generation on stitchers. There will however be a few charts to go so watch this space.

 

 

WHERE DID THE TIME GO ?

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.
Thomas Aquinas

 So much to catch up on, its almost a month since my last post. With the cooler days I must admit to spending more time by the fire than here at the computer, and that has meant more stitching!

 Ann and Colleen two very good friends, made the long trek down to here and spent four days with me, the weather was wet and cold but who cares when you can sit and chat and stitch with friends. Ann and I worked on a special project still in the designing stages... little mouse travels. and as Ann had been the tutor for a Latvian workshop I had attended two years ago and my piece was still unfinished I asked her for a refresher course and here is the results I stitch this small coaster as a practise piece. 

 

 I have used it on my May Journal page for the Needlework Masters Monthly challenge. On each page I am trying to use a piece from the past, a newly stitch piece and of course another beetle, this time my piece from the past, is the mushroom was from a workshop many years ago and for my beetle I have used cord not metal threads.

 

 Next finished piece has been  a small white work cushion filled with Lavender for Stitching friends Challenge, this design was copies from an old piece of Italian Embroidery, a set of table mats the original was stitched in blue.

 

 

 Lastly IHSW has just been and yes I have been stitching firstly finishing my challenge piece for tonight's Guild challenge not photographed yet so will have to share that later, and more beetles, these are fun to stitch and I thought it could be fun to share some too. One is earmarked for a friend but the rest are give a ways, so please comment on which one you like best you never know it might just find its way to your home.

 

need a closer look ???

 

 

Look forward to reading your comments.