TIME TO CATCH UP

Its time to catch up on all that has been happening since my last post.   Towards the end of May I had a week away, I had been invited to Tokoroa to judge the  embroideries entered in both the Waikato / Bay of Plenty Regional Challenge and the South Waikato Guild challenge.   Paul and I had lived in Tokoroa for ten years from 1979-1989 and I was a foundation member of the Embroiderers guild that started there in 1982. There is no direct bus route from here in Stratford across to Tokoroa so the first full day of my trip was taken up with bus travel, I stayed with   Raewyn and John Alderton who I have known since we first went to live in Tokoroa and enjoy time both with them and meeting up again with old friends 

The Second day was judging all the entries had been set out at a studio giving me .......
The Regional Challenge title was  "In  the Forest' The entries were very varied and I have permission from the winner Tina Ward to share here on my blog her piece. Beautifully stitched it conveys that feeling  of being in the forest looking up through the tree ferns and trees.

The other challenge for me to judge was the Guild's President's challenge "Leaf" These pieces were small to be no bigger than A5 and here too I have permission to share the winning piece.  Noeline Becker was the embroiderer who created this beautifully present leaf.

I was asked for a the small display of my work at the exhibition. These are the few pieces I chose to represent my interest in embroidery. I had a chance to see the work set out for display before the exhibition opened,  and then over the next days spent quite a bit of time there.

and my stitching for the month -
  on the Etui for Eve I have stitched the first little mouse and have started his friend who is also flying a kite.

 and stitching for Finn, 

Barryn had suggested that a set of the characters from the Octonaut books( there is also a TV series based on the books) would be an ideal birthday gift for Finn. Once again this was a new series for me lots of research and I became quite familiar with the 8 characters that feature in the books,  I also found and ordered the one book in the set he did not have and more felt colours were needed from the Felt Factory, followed by lots of fun hours stitching and creating the characters ...all about three and a half inches tall

Quote- From their "Octopod" home base, a team of undersea explorers is always ready to dive into action to explore new underwater worlds, rescue amazing sea creatures and protect the ocean. The group is led by Captain Barnacles the bear, and also includes Kwazii the kitten, Peso the penguin,

I seem to be stitching lots of penguins this year and there are more planned for later.

Here is the full set....... The birthday parcel has gone and I am waiting to hear that it has arrived.

I have continued to stitch more Christmas decorations but need to take some more photos so will share them when I next blog.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE.....

In fact its been quite a long time, I wont go into excuses just to say I am keeping well, and life seems to keep me busy.

Among the little stitching I have done have been these penguin Christmas decorations, last year I enjoyed making the penguin set for Caitlin and that inspired these, Fiona and I had a trip to the felt factory, although I have the colour charts it is even better seeing all the lovely colours available in felt for ones self. I wanted to try the glitter felt and after looking at different colours settled on the white to use for the penguins. The photo does not show it up- it has a soft sparkle not too bright. I plan to repeat last years effort of a Christmas Decoration stall at the Church fair later in the year.

Caitlin, Fiona and myself have continued our monthly challenge on a small decoration of a woodland animal... we have added rabbits, squirrels and a fox, so far I have only mounted my rabbit. The others may be incorporated in a piece I am planning.  For this year's Regional Exhibition in November, I have decided to stitch a etui for Eve my littlest  Granddaughter . Yes she is very tiny at present only four months old but looking ahead, this Grandmother is aging and feel I need to stitch something and put away for her. Hopefully her big cousin Caitlin will some time in the future teach her to embroider and keep a family tradition going.

I am very proud of the fact we have had 5 generations of embroiderers in our family. The earliest I can trace back to is my grandmother,  I do not know if her mother stitch, certainly not after she came to NZ as old letters written in 1876 describe how an accident on the sailing ship coming out to New Zealand left her with little use in her right hand and photos confirm this. However Caroline my grandmother born in  Surrey, England in 1873 and came out to NZ  as a 2 year old learnt to stitch at school, it is known that she won a prize for her stitching when she was about 12 years old. the prize a lovely wooden sewing box is in my procession. No photos remain of her as a child, but I have several of her as an adult round the time of her marriage.However this is how I best remember her.

But I do remember her stitching in the evenings with her threads in a chocolate box beside her and one of my favourite pieces she stitch was inspiration for one of my pieces.

Mother also stitched and did some beautiful cut work before she was married and lots of smocking and bullion stitch roses when I was a child, following me Jan stitched quite a bit before life got busy and both her daughters stitched, Rachel's favourite technique is gold work , away at university now there is no time for stitching. but when home she is always interested to see the latest stitching here. While Caitlin now living at home having completed her degree, spends most Sunday afternoons with me and we stitch together. The latest project being the woodland animals.

here is my rabbit

And the etui for Eve. the material arrived last weekend I am using 40 count Permin and have tacking in so ready to start  at this stage does not look very exciting but I hope it will end up as like  my Robin etui of a few years back.

I promise a progress report from time to time.....

CONFESSION.......

and I start my day  plate of cereal in hand sitting at the computer catching up with what my blogging friends have been doing. Thank you all for sharing your news and stitching via your blogs. Sorry I must confess I don't manage to add comments the plate of cereal  is in the way!

 Fortunately I have not made any new year resolutions or it would be a fail already, my plans to post early in the year !!!!! well the year has taken to the wing and this month has flown by. We welcomed a new grand daughter Eve Esther into the family on January 5th a little sister for Finn, and knowing that new babies get lots of attention I had a few more of Peppa pig's friends ready to sent down to Finn. here is Emily Elephant and Danny Dog I hope to finish another two this weekend

I have been busy stitching Christmas decorations for this years fair. I know it is months away but while I am in the mood and new ideas are coming to hand, along with being very relaxing stitching.
Looking at last years sales, the hearts with buttons on them sold really well so while up in New Plymouth with Caitlin we went looking to see what we could find, did not find any of the ones we were looking for  so decided on this set of five teddy bear buttons and I am very pleased with how they made up.                                 

Caitlin has decided to stitch one small cross stitch decoration a month , this is to be a woodland theme and stitched in a few hours the first one she decided to stitch was this Margaret Sherry design of a little hedgehog, I decided to join  her and then we talked Fiona into joining us, hopefully in future  at the end of each month I will be able to share the work of all three of us. 

Yes I do have a new name banner at the bottom of my blog, thought it was time I used a New Zealand bird and this is the South Island Tomtit. I am currently working on some NZ bird designs and hope to share them when I next pots/

FOR CAITLIN

I really enjoyed stitching these five little penguins, they were part of Caitlin's Christmas present and were one of two felt board sets I made for her. Along with these I had collected several rhymes which I printed onto card and laminated.

Caitlin has completed her degree in Early Childhood Education hence Grandma making teaching aids for her these in the form of felt board sets. We have collected plenty of ideas for the future too.

The other set I made for her was Five little Ducks went out to play.

Here we are at the end of the month, so this is my last post for the year, looking to the new year I wish everyone best wishes and blessings for 2019.

Post script for Maree here is the latest addition to the Peppa pig set , Candy Cat went in the post today.

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

It is Christmas morning here, and I wish all my blogging friends very best wishes for a day full of blessings.

I WAS INTRODUCED TO PEPPA PIG

Barryn came up and spent a few days with me after I came out of hospital, and I was able to learn more about what Finn now two and a half enjoyed in books and his favourite tv programme, hence I learnt about Peppa pig. He also recalled the felt board activities he had as a child and thought something like that would be an ideal Christmas gift for Finn.
Peppa pig was easily researched and although I do not think she is the most attractive character, I had no problems creating her and her family.

I was told there must be the red car and yes you can fit all the family in it.

The house I made with pockets so each of the pig family can go inside.

Peppa has lots of animal friends and I plan to make them and post them down, one or two at a time to add to the story. Instead of a felt board I made a fabric roll lined with felt and Jan when shopping bought some backing material for me and chose the Very Hungry caterpillar fabric.

Now there is a story that inspires me, and I just had to create the caterpillar.

and all that food of course results in a very fat caterpillar which I made with the cocoon on the reverse.

and finally the butterfly

Caitlin who has just completed her degree in Early Childhood Education has requested the hungry caterpillar set to add to her teaching aids, she will be staying with me after Christmas so together we will be creating her set. There is nineteen years between Caitlin and Finn yet at present  I can make the same things for both as what what is teaching aids for one is toys for the other.   When I next post I will share what I have made Caitlin  for Christmas,. We now have a new shop up the road in Inglewood, The Felt Factory, who has a wonderful stock of different coloured felt and an excellent service, I order on line and its in my mail box the next day.

 Thank you to all who left messages on my last posting, it was nice to be welcomed back.

BACK AT LAST.

I never got to share all the stitching I did for the Christmas tree stall at the church fair. In fact I did not even get to the church fair. Unfortunately health problems put me in hospital for a few days then it was home resting  and recovering slowly. I am glad to be able to report I am back to normal again now, its been a long couple of months.

I had set up the tree ready for the stall, which was a big help as two friend came in and took everything down to the church, set it up and them did the sales on the morning of the fair, They raised $250.00 which was great. I had put the decoration in three price groups $3.  $5.  $7 so nothing was too expensive for hand made items.

Hearts designs  were very popular  and I will be making more like these in future. Here are some of the hearts I made.

I am now busy stitching Christmas gifts so hope to get some photos and share with you the fun pieces I am making for Finn and for Caitlin

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CAITLIN’S GIFT

Caitlin has just turned 21 and following the tradition of what I did for her mother  and sister  I have made a box for her, I have used very dark purple silk which my sister bought specially on one of her oversea trips.  On the top of the box stitched a gold work beetle,

open the lid and the tray underneath has her 21st birthday key, for Caitlin I stitched this in black work which is her favourite embroidery technique, which she has stitched several pieces in.
 

 and inside the box were  a piece of jewellery, something handed on from the past generations, for her I had chosen a pendant that had belonged to her great grandmother Westfield, its very dainty I hope she will love it and wear it.

As with her sister I wanted to share a small item that Paul had given me so that although her Grandfather is no longer with us there was something to remember him by, I decided on a small hand carved wooden squirrel that has sat on the top of my computer desk (she was thrilled to have the squirrel am so pleased I made the right choice). and there was a bag of 21 coins one for each of her years.

The gift all wrapped up  and topped with purple violets, purple being the favourite colour.

Now on to the next birthday gift this time for a dear friend was will be 80 this month , we don't see one another very often now but its been a friendship started in  our teen years

Problem solved

A big thanks to Heather and others who contacted me about the take over of my blog... yes I really thought I had lost it and had started preparing a post on my other little used blog   "the other side of the mountain"    Following some advise found on line I hope I have finally chased the takeover away.

 The last month found me busy stitching Finn's book which has now gone south and in return I watched a delightful video of the parcel being opened. The only photo I Have of the finished front cover all bound is one that refuses to  upload so here is the page before it was finished the idea came from Pinterest and yes that smiling face is Finn himself. I have loaded all the photos of the pages onto my other blog if anyone is interested. here is the link if anyone would like to see them

Along with the computer problems the battery in my iPad died, must admit Apple service was great but still trying to upload everything again I have more photos to add but think that will be next time so I leave you for now with just this one photo.