Stash deprivation continuing

Progress to date on the stash deprivation project. I have been trying to get one parcel a week done and so far seem to be keeping to this. using all sorts of threads for this has meant a bit of unstitching as some choices were unsuitable. I also have managed to stitch one parcel completely the wrong way but you will only notice when it is placed next door to another completed one.

As well as this project I have done a little on my Thracian embroidery, started a piece for a present for christmas and done several ATC and prayer flags for swap-bot. I had also nearly finished the rug I was knitting but discovered about six dropped stitches so had to undo a lot and have not really picked it up again. It will come back into the handwork rotation soon I am sure.

Along with stitching over the past month I have read two new authors, JR Ward (Maree says it will rot my brain) and Darynda Jones - funniest books for a while. This past weekend I was able to read the latest Jack Reacher novel "Make Me" which I thought was quite a bit mellower than some of the novels but a good ending. At the beginning of August we had a chocoholic night at book club which was great fun and I came home with a bottle of wine so that was nice. Thanks marilyn for the chocolate fountain.

Only four more weeks and it is holiday time so getting prepared to take macrame lessons with the ladies from institute.

A busy month.

Life seems to have got very busy and I am not sure where the time has gone. March was a busy month with a weekend trip to Wellington with Stephanie encompassing a visit to the zoo with Loreece, dinner with Alice and seeing David's party flat. On the way home an overnight stop with Liz was a welcome break, before seeing Jennifer on the way home.


Christmas in the Heartland.



Night class has been busy with most of the class working on a linen piece. Below is my start on the piece "Christmas in the Heartland". I am working on Florence linen, using a Kathy McLauchlan red silk, Gloriana green silk and Kreinik copper blending filament with some #15 beads as well as Corticelli silk for the finer stitches. I am really enjoying this piece and looking forward to the end result. Sorry about the photo but it won't turn around.

Our embroidery guild have moved locations so it was nice to be in a smaller room that will be easier to heat. During the last month I also received this package of wonderful silk ribbons from Trish http://thistle-threads.com.mytempweb.com/blog which was a real surprise.

I am also doing a cyber class with SHEAR Creations and have stitched the first two samples so need to get on with the next ones so as not to be too far behind. It is called Pot Porroui and through the shining needle society which has lots of interesting classes. It is a study of 12 stitches using some interesting threads and I am stitching extra samples using the extra threads. It will look good with my thread notebook.

Ashley's quilt.



Our chicken dinner.



Christmas wreaths sent on swap-bot.



Easter has just been and I had a visit from Liz and family as Ashley wanted to make a quilt of her travels. It was fun to talk about places that she has seen and done with so much changed since I was in the same part of the world. She has been in some random places due to her time with the Royal Navy. Also this weekend I had dinner with Cheryl and Maree, with a lovely roast chicken dinner. Good night watching twilight movies, and did a bit of knitting. I am making a couple of entries for the Institute Arts Festival so need to get the knitting of dolls clothes, placemats and fabric brooch finished so I will have at least three entries. Also I have a picture of my Christmas wreath that I swapped with Swap-Bot. It was well received by Brenda so I was pleased.

Below is my latest christmas decoration design. This is for the ANZEG embroidery conference in 2014 so I am hoping it gets selected. Otherwise I will have a new decoration to teach next year and several other ideas for decorations to make.

My latest ball design.

Weekend Retreat and Stitching

Well the holiday break has come and gone and some stitching has happened. I spent one weekend in Auckland with Stephanie which was a nice break away. This weekend just gone was our annual embroidery retreat held in Opunake. For the first time the weather was shocking and it meant that we could not go for a walk.
Our project this year was another one from the Stitch Magazine (England). It is a number of years old and one that has been on the wishlist for a while. It involves spray paint, leaves, blackwork and being creative which was difficult for a couple of our members. Only six of us were staying and we had no visitors from the Opunake Guild (either the weather or project put them off)


My 15 sided biscornu nearly there.

 

latvian work has nearly all the flowers stitched - outlines and boxes to come



inventive spray paint with leaves.

 I decided to do mine on a piece of linen that I had with me - I was intending to spend the weekend finishing projects. I will turn it either into a notebook holder or a pocket for my clamps. You can see it in the centre of the photo above.
It was a good weekend and I loved all the stitching so hopefully next weekend as a holiday weekend will provide some more opportunity to stitch.

Stitching news

Just a quick note to say that i have nearly finished all the bargello on canvas two of walk on the wild side - yeah.
started a 15 sided biscornu with my night class girls and it will be interesting. think mine might become a couple of cubes by the time i am finished as dont think i will get 15 sides done.
also onto christmas decoration number 6 and about 6 to go but need to find some more balls to use. It is a small pattern called sequin dainty that I have designed so quite excited about it and very simple. writing instructions next weekend and giving them to mum to trial.
been reading up on stuff for election and have training day on saturday so that will be fun. watched the DVD and it is great.
will publish pictures later this week.

Sudoku Finished

Yeah I have finished stitching Sudoku. Mum finished hers and the rest of the class have also finished this piece. I loved doing it. it is from the ANG magazine Needlepointers and designed by a lady we met last year at Columbus "Marilyn Owen". A great project. now to finish stitching on colorific and then onto walk on the wild side.

I will also have time to make up my book cover that I stitched very quickly using cornpad embroidery. I will also endeavour to get another ATC card done so I can send one off to Karen who I am sure is waiting for one to swap.
It is supposed to snow again this weekend although I don't think we will get any but you never know - weather forecast is snow to low levels on the eastern shores of new zealand and we are in the west but not much land between us and the Antarctic.
Diane

Holiday catch ups

Adding the beaded face.

It is time for the end of the school term and holiday time. I have six days off this time and busy completing my entry into the national exhibition. I am busy getting all the elements stitched and added onto the base goddess. Hopefully I will be completed by next thursday when I go back to work. Soduku has been getting a couple of squares stitched each day so I have finished 5 sets and onto the 6th set of nine stitches.

Also I have been completing a few other jobs over the past weeks. I made 4 baby bibs (with one to complete) so that is a job of the list. I have my notebook to make for our trip away - we have tickets to the ice hockey in New York but no trip up to the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
I have my cake mixer fixed (not doing to badly for something that is 30 years old) and purchased a pizza stone so that is the next cooking element. This afternoon I am going to try out the Tarte Tartin recipe from Masterchef as I have a suitable dish now.

On the book front I have been listening to the new audio books from the public library. They come on a little MP3 player and really great to use. Have another which is on CD's so that will take a couple of days to listen to but makes the beading and hand stitching go faster.

The bike riding has started and I am off this afternoon for a 20 minute ride around town while I get my confidence back. Hopefully I will be able to keep it up. Certainly I am more confident in changing gears and using the hand brakes. The weather is not very conducive to riding bikes but it will improve as we move nearer to spring and summer.

Latest stitching

I have had the weekend in bed with a dreadful cold. Started on Friday with a sore throat, saturday I had the rudolph nose and sunday the achy joints etc. Monday I spent most of in bed so not much stitching done.
Friday night I finished another part of Stephanie's birthday present and I will post the pictures next week after she recieves it at Easter.
Saturday was a busy day - I did a bit more on my Latvian mat as I had to spend 2 1/2 hours at the hairdressers on Saturday morning so I was pleased with that time being useful. Saturday afternoon I spent with Maree sorting out colours for Soduku and Crystal Waters.
Saturday night I was determined to sew up my biscornu and made great strides. Unfortunately sunday when I looked at it I did not have the pattern right and some of the squares would have matched. Backwards stitching and restitching later I am onto the last five squares and will be able to stuff it this week.
Sunday I also did some work on my colourific piece as well as starting to write my story about my goddess. I hope she turns out okay. I could not find the bead pieces that I have made but they will be somewhere and I do have more to make. I also completed the February BJP peice except for the hand stitching and applying the back (still undecided as I think I will put them into my book).
I also sent of three swaps for swap-bot - two tea swaps and one christmas decoration so I am excited to recieve parcels. I received one today from Europe and it is full of lovely teas that Suzie and I want to try.
Keep stitching everyone.

Busy Stitching week

Busy ten days.
We have had our Latvian class with 21 attending the two classes and lots of progress made by various stitchers. Lots of colour choices as well with some changing colours halfway through (Lee). I have only stitched in class and pleased with my progress and colours chosen by Maree as an accident selection.
          I have all but finished the stitching on my canvas biscornu and will sew it up over the weekend. I am very pleased with it despite having problems following the pattern and colours. Should have had four threads and I used five or six. Should have had five patterns with three of each stitched the same to make the 15 sides but I managed to only do two the same of each pattern and then add in my own stitches. I think this comes from having too many favourite stitches. Ann (tutor from weekend) showed us her little blackwork biscornu with 15 different patterns stitched on it. I may have to do something like that with my Florence fabric and a silk thread.
          I have started doing a couple of swaps with swap-BoT.com and sent my postcard off on Monday. This week I have two more to send off – need to put eyes on a Christmas decoration before I can put it in the post on Friday so that is tonight’s task. After that it will be to start the decoration for next months swap. Think I will be in advance of this one as I have my idea and want to get it made.
          The holidays are looking to be busier than ever and hoping to have a few days at the beach with mum at some stage so that will be lots of stitching time on walk on the wild side.


Ann showing the weekday class some of her finishing and other designs.



My colours.  I have nearly completed one half of the holbein stitching.

          As far as beading goes I have completed febraury BJP (no photo taken yet) and it seems like the ATC size is the go for this year. I am trying to complete a couple of some of them so I can send them to Karen Cohen for the ATC swap so holidays will mean that another couple will be completed and can be posted off to her. I have the May page for 2010 to do and I am thinking about whether to continue with that series as I enjoyed the process from each person but it was really hard to get inside their heads.

Nearly finished

top corner of the front of the needlebook. This piece of lace was my colour inspiration along with the picture.

The back - colours are not as purple but more brownish. I really loved working with the different stitches.

I am very excited as I have nearly finished Stephanie's needlebook. I have loved doing this piece and hope that she gets many years of use from it. The inside pages are a fawn woollen material that I have buttonhole stitched and also used for the lining.

Month 2 of the 2010BJP will also be posted at the weekend after I photograph it and then onto month 3.

another square completed

This week has been a very busy week with my goddaughters 21st birthday last weekend and a public holiday. On tuesday we had the announcement of our new principal, http://www.shsinfo-centa.blogspot.com/ so that was very exciting and took up a lot of my time.

I have completed another square on heart of the cabin. That makes three complete and two started. only 13 to go. I am really pleased with this one as it has been a real struggle to get the right kind of threads - we have made lots of substitutions but that is okay we are still getting the colour values right. Mum has completed nearly four squares so she is ahead of me.

I have half done the first month for BJP and will take a picture to post later. It looks good but very simple.

Life has been really busy with most of this weekend I was at WOMAD and it was great fun, i have 3 great cd's of music to listen to now - jazz, irish and arabic. wonderful mix of things although I only went to two of the three days as I have too much to do at home.
diane

Punto Mat Finished

I have finished my punto antico mat and I am very excited. It has been a two year project with stitching on it once a month until the last six months when I tried to do more.
This weekend I have been at an embroidery retreat for our area and it was loads of fun. lots of sharing ideas and seeing wonderful things that others do as well as a couple of projects to make.
We made wonderful encrusted tassels, using beads and rajmahal threads and also a origami box.
We also received some coloured pellon so that has given me inspiration for one of my men.

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.