Giveaways on blogs

Linda Kittmer has the most wonderful blog of beads, fabric and art journalling. she is offering this dvd as a blog giveaway if you post  a comment on her blog. go and have a look.
http://lindakittmer.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/great-beading-dvd-give-away.html

Just been to embroidery guild meeting and the pulled thread cushion decoration that members are making is fabulous. I would love to be doing it but I will post a picture of someone's when finished. I have finished the first panel of my four sided bag so here is a snap shot. It needs a little paint in the hair styles and to do the eyes but I did not have any black thread at the meeting.

My geisha (little fat ladies) first side of the bag.

I will be doing some blog hopping this week as part of swap-bot so I will post some exciting links I hope. It makes it fun to explore new and different blogs. Something I found today was eyelash beading. google it and see what happens.
have fun this week in beads,
Diane

Busy weeks

Life has been exceptionally busy for the past couple of weeks but I have been inspired to take part in a couple of swap-bot exchanges. Lots of fun I did a tea-bag swap, fabric swap and am currently doing a blog and christmas decoration swap. It is loads of fun to get envelopes in the mail and new tea to try. I find that this time of the year is best for me to swap but I want to try and do at least one every month this year. I have my christmas decoration to make this weekend and I am looking forward to cutting out all the leaves for the christmas wreath.
my two ideas for my christmas decoration.

 

I am busy stitching on thefelt  wall hanging for Neil and Cathy but do not think I will finish it before we go to Hawaii. only three weeks to go and six days on the beach. Stitching is continuing on my 15 sided biscornu for night class and I am managing to keep up while trying to learn the new stitch programme that I purchased for my computer. This weekend I would love to complete the instructions for "D's the Letter" but I will be at embroidery weekend for saturday then as part of the Relay 4 Life team for our school from 5pm on Saturday to Sunday afternoon.

I will post a picture of D's the letter when i get home as i do not have a copy at school.

More finishes

Finished my cushion. This is made from a silk material from J R Fitzgerald and Co, San Francisco and is a fully lined cover. It took me a number of goes to get it to work but only the inner seam to hand stitch. I was impressed with myself and unfortunately could not get the beaded fringe sewn on with the machine so hand stitched it later. I am really pleased with the use of the fabric and it looks quite neat.

Been stitching on my 15 sided biscornu so I have two squares completely finished and about 7 partly done which leaves 6 to go. Also have to get stitching on pieces for the Arts Festival and will have a little corn sack to make this week for the mice to come out of. I have also been writing my story about the village store so I hope it will be all right to put into the competition.

Went for a bike ride this morning and got nearly all the way to the school but ran out of puff. On the way home I pedalled more of the distance rather than letting the gradient and bike do the work so I was happy with that. Went out for a nice lunch and catch-up with friend Shellie and had the most delicious lemon slice at the Shakee Pear at the Stratford Pioneer Village. A great cafe and really busy today for sunday lunch.
Diane

May 2011 BJP done

 May 2011 BJP piece completed. This project had stalled after april's but inpiration was gained from our recent creative stitchers meeting where we talked about the theme "Power and Protection". We then constructed a felt image of the protecting eye used in many belief systems. My next piece will be the :Power piece and then comes the evil eye.

Below are the five months of this project done so far starting with egyptian eye (january), precious eyes (February 2011), jealous eyes (March 2011), red eye (April 2011) and Protection (May 2011).

Five months completed.

I feel strange that i am still naming these as the months but that helps me keep the project in line. My book is filling with all the thoughts that revolve around each so i am hoping it will be a nice table cetnre piece at the end. These pieces will go to Christchurch in July for the Extensions exhibition at the ANZEG conference.

February finishes

2011 Guild Retreat project finished.

Our embroidery guild have a retreat every year at Opunake and we usually do a project for the weekend. Last year's project was taken from the Stitch magazine and we used the transfer paints on chiffon. This was really fun to stitch and most have finished it with one person doing two - a dawn and a dusk picture. I painted my canvas black to make the dawn setting pop of the screen.

2011- Lee's pomegranate scissor keeper.

My other finish this week is a pomegranate scissor keeper from one of our guild meetings. Lee designed this delightful keeper and I finally managed to put it together. I was not happy with the way the beads sat in the centre so added more. I have put it on a thread cutter for my travels. These are handy for the plane journeys planned this year.
I have also finished the sample ball for the Tania's Feathers class and will take a photo soon. Still doing ATC's for the BJP 2011 and have another three planned out ready to bead.

Two months done



Janaury BJP for 2012

 I have decided that for 2012 BJP I will make a beaded item each month. Every year I spend the first 4 to 4 months making christmas balls for presents and classes. The january ball was made at Oakura beach from my own design and using quite a lot of reverse stitching (it now needs a name and I won't be teaching this pattern at all but may do a simpler one).

Febraury Ball for BJP - Tania's feathers

February's ball is a combination of patterns and I have called it Tania's feathers as it is a variation on the Tania pattern that I have. You can see the Honeycomb pattern with the feathers trim in the background. I am currently making another one as this will be a class so that I can teach my pupils the ribbed stitch which is lovely.

Home a week

Well I have been home a whole week and it feels as if it was a lifetime ago. School is back in earnest with full days and lunch at school (I have a new lunch bag courtesy of Macy's) so that was fun.
This weekend Dad and I went to the beach to see mum who has been there for the week. It was nice weather and I took some stitching but ended up making a ball for my sister in law Cathy and trying out a new pattern today. Not certain if I will make another one or even teach it but it was fun using some different colours. have to think about how the bottom will be finished.

Purl Soho - nice shop lower manhattan

Just thought I would put a couple of pictures from new york on here for all to see. We went to the 9/11 memorial site - very security conscious and long way to walk but it will be incredible when all the new buildings are finished.



Stephanie with new World Trade Centre Tower 1 being built.

From the Empire state down to WTC Plaza

Empire State, WTC from Rockefeller Centre.