Catching the comments.

Thank you for all the comments. I forget to read them but glad that people are seeing them. To answer a couple of questions the little faces are glass beads that I found in the bead shop in Queenstown, New Zealand (www.queenstown-nz.co.nz ) when I was there in August last year for a conference. Unfortunately I only bought 10 of them but I have an idea for a different face for the January piece so hoping that inspiration will come for another month.

I have had lots of fun doing the backgrounds that I think the beading is covering it but I am also learning how to put less into the background. I have found in my stash several other things that might get used for backgrounds so my idea of having 12 peices the same size is officially flown the coop. I like the way I have finished the november piece with the machine stitched edge and the fact it is not square I found hard to work with initally but put the scissors away (I kept trimming the edges) as the perfect, logical me was coming out and I was forgetting the creative part of the process. I am looking foarward to stitching on the february piece and have decided that my calendar is obviously from Mars or PERN (Practically Earth Resources Negligble - for Anne McCaffrey fans) as it is different ordered to the Gregorian Calendar in my day job.

backgrounds being done

I have been working on the backgrounds for several of the months and my trial for November - which ended up blue as I did not want black again was not at all what I wanted. Here are the two backgrounds - tried for a patchwork look but it was too busy so used a second piece with a large piece of blue and patched at the edges. I have finished it so it looks like an ATC. I am trying to make the man patched as well as my life in November was very much several patches; Prizegiving, school magazine, christmas functions, farewells and preparation for the 2009 school year.

The second backgrounds I have been doing are the january / february ones and here is the February composite - called "Invisible". The january background will also be white but looking at doing some printing of a photo from our holiday on it. It is possible that it may also have a cactus / mouse / skis as part of the printed background.
I realise that December month is missing but I have to print out the logo of the San Jose Sharks and use that colours for the inspiration along with 50 as it was my brothers birthday celebration and that was exciting. The turquoise beads might be a problem for me but I will have something in the stash to use I hope. I have done the sketches for january and february and hoping for stitching time this weekend.

Stitching projects

Punto Antico Mat - half completed

This week I have been stitching on a couple of counted thread projects. Our embroidery guild, Central Taranaki has a project using threads and fabric from a NZ supplier. This project is a square mat and I have completed one corner with faggot stitch and am on the second.

My other project is a "Punto Antico" project taught by a member of our Guild Lee. She is a wonderful guide in the many counted thread styles and although I have had this project on the go for nearly two years it has been enjoyable. I have completed half the mat and this week trying to get the third quarter done.