FINALLY ARRIVED

It was a big dissappointment to find the Christmas Exchange Ornament I posted last October to America never made its destination, however the good news is, that the replacement one has arrived safely. These delightful bears were published in Cross Stitch and Country Crafts Nov/Dec 1985 and is a design by Donna Vermillion Giampa of Vermillion Stitchery. I stitched it on 40 count permin linen using 1 strand of DMC and loved stitching it, so not a hardship to stitch it twice.

 Yesterday, the post brough me an exchange gift from Arlette in France, a 3D decoration  and some postcards with quotes. I am a great collector of quotes and I specially like the one " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin"  (William Shakespeare)

TUSSIE MUSSIE MORNING.

I have had a delightful morning making Tussie mussie, it is always a suprise how much I can find  in the garden to put into these tiny posies. After deciding on which flowers to put in the centre I wander round the garden tucking things in as I find them.

Cecil Brunner Roses centre this one with Lavender 'Seal', tiny heartsease violas,Pink Campian flowers,  bright pink Irish heath ( Daboecia cantabrica) edged with small pink Hebe.

Blue cornflower with Cecil Bruner roses, Lavender,Irish heath, tiny pink violas and Harebells for this posy which is edged with the leaves of apple geranium, the scent of these leaves is divine.

My next project will be some new cross stitch designs and as usual they will be of the small flowers in my garden

BRIDE'S TREE SAL

This year I have registered to take part in the Bride's Tree SAL, this is based on a German tradition that a couple's Christmas tree needs 12 specific ornaments for Happiness in their lifes journey together, even though I have been married many years, the idea of this  set of ornaments appeals to me.
There are  one a month, so thats not too much extra stitching to fit in. Each one has its own theme and there are no set patterns, just stitch what you would like as long as it is keeping to the theme.

The first for January is a House- (Shelter and or protection.)

I have chosen to stitch Groatieburn Cottage where I live.and have stitched it on 40 count Permin Linen using a variety of Embroidery stitches.  Design size-6 x 4.5 cm
I will wait till I have done several before I decide how I will finish them off, however they will all be mounted on the same size circles of cardboard.

THE NEW YEAR

To all who visit my blog.

 Best Wishes for the New Year,

 may 2010 be a rewarding

and relaxing year.

and do remember to

 " take time to smell the daisies."

SISTER'S SHARE......

We are home again after a wonderful 11day holiday at Napier with my sister, Joan and Denis her husband. It was great sharing all that time with them, and being very spoilt, relaxing and all meals prepared for us along with good weather and I even managed to do some stitching.

I took over Joan's birthday sampler and as it is now hanging on her wall I can share it with everyone. . Stitched on 40 count permin linen, mainly with Maderia Silk threads and some DMC stranded, it is the largest sampler I have done.

The pattern at the top and the bottom of the sampler are original, designed specially for the sampler and

I stitches bands from some of my favourite designs and embroidery techniques making it a one only sampler

Sister's share childhood memories and grown up dreams

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

The lights have been found and we redid the tree today,  also our plans for Christmas have changed and we will be going away earlier. Hopefully I might be able to add a posting while at Napier, meanwhile to all my friends ........May you have a wonderful Christmas, and my very best Wishes to you all.

THE TREE IS UP AT THE LITTLE HOUSE

Our tree is decorated here at Groatieburn Cottage with white, cranberry,gold and silver decorations, no lights this year they have been packed away at daughter's house and not found this year!. The living room at the cottage is in pink tonings hence the colour choice for the decorations.
This afternoon I put the tree up in the little house. "Summerlee" is the lovely doll's house we built, and completed 11 years ago.

 We designed it to look like one of the old homes in Hawkes Bay NZ and have furnished it as at the 1890's

Here is the resident dolls, Henry and Sarah Barker view the christmas tree this afternoon. The children Emma , Caroline and baby John are still upstairs with Nanny. I will add their photos later.

ANOTHER WESSEX STITCH

Here is another   Wessex Stitchery  stitch., again from an old embroidery magazine and simply described as fly and detached chain. Note the fly stitches have quite small tails while the chain stitches have long ones.

Ann has allowed me to  copy her Wessex pin Cushion Chart that is based on this stitch.
The original was stitched on 32 count Belfast material so if you use a different fabric you will need to adjust the fabric size.

Fabric 18cm square Belfast Linen.

4 Colours of no 8 Perle thread. 1 dark, 1 med, 1 gold, 1 green.

Each square of the graph represents one fabric thread.

Stitch 1 Dark colour - 4 fly stitches

         2. med colour - 4 fly stitches

         3. gold centre  - cross stitch

         4. green          - 4 detached chain stitches.

repeat to make a square 5x5, joining the design at the straight stitches.

Finish by using one of the border patterns supplied or make up your own.

 Adjust corners as required.

 Thank you Ann, I hope someone might enjoy stitching this.

       

SAMPLER EXCHANGE

This is the piece I stitched for a Sampler Exchange, the challenge was to stitch a sampler that included the alphabet and at least 5 specialty stitches, and was between 4-6 inches in size.
I stitch this on 40 count permin linen, and used Jane Van Kuelin's wonderful hand dyed threads.
To finish, I mounted at on the front cover of a needlebook, using cotton print of William Morris' Honeysuckle design as the background fabric.
It went to The Netherlands and I have just learnt of its safe arrival.
Unfortunatly my earlier exchange of a Christmas ornament has been 5 weeks in the mail, so it looks like I will need to stitch another one.

STITCHING WESSEX

I will add some Wessex patterns with charts over the next week as I have friends in England keen to see these and I hope others might enjoy stitching this work too
These are the samples from a Wessex Mystery sampler I designs about 10 years . Mrs Foster who created Wessex Stitchery used a variety of threads and colours in her stitching.

This pattern is taken from one of Mrs Foster's samplers that is shown in the book "Making Samplers" pg 113 If you are able to study the book you will see although she has stitched it in blue, more than one shade of the colour has been used as have different thicknesses of threads. I am sure she would have enjoyed all the varigated threads we have today.

Mrs Foster named this stitch Steepholm and the illustration above comes from an old Embroidery magazine. It is a favoutite stitch of mine.

Stitch it in stages, Lay and couch the outline threads first,

then Rice Stitch with additional straight stitches

lastly lay threads across and couch with up right cross stitches and an eyelet in the centre.

MORE WESSEX STITCHERY

Every now and then as an embroidery tutor one has that special student that is not only a pleasure to teach but whose work stands out head and shoulders above the rest.

Today's such student was an 8 year old, The project was using star stitch to create a Christmas tree and  in a group of 5 children her work stood out above the rest for her neat stitching and the amount she completed in the hours class.

I mention this because I want to share with you some work by another embroiderer. Jocelyn was in my first Wessex Stitchery class in the mid 1990's, she has gone on to create many, many pieces in Wessex stitchery but also to share this embroidery with many others throught her classes. This week when I received an email from England for more information on Wessex Stitchery I contact Jocelyn and she was happy to share some of her work with you.

Her Hussif shows many of the different stitch patterns that form Wessex Stitchery I will try and add "How to" for some of the patterns in the next few days.

CHRISTMAS STITCHING.

Having spent the morning in the garden mostly dealing with storm damage, we have had both heavy rain and strong winds. I am now sorting out designs I would like to stitch for my christmas gifts.

This little design of Campanula Pulla has previously been stitched on a gift bag but this time I will use it for a Floss Ring Tag. I hope someone else might enjoy this design too. the design is 30h x 15w. 
Colours used are DMC
3807 Blue Mauve
3345 Dark Green
3346 Mid green
3347 Light Yellow Green