Its been a while

I am not certain where the time is going but the projects are not moving much on the stitching front but I have done quite a bit of card making and stampin up work. At the moment I am going to be looking at all my stamp sets to see which ones I need to get rid of and then also the stamp pads as my tower is full and I don't need that many more.

Here are some photos of the boxes we covered to hold your cards and the start of the one sheet wonder class. We did four of the eleven cards that could be made. I am hoping to run another one of these classes in June as it was loads of fun using up all sorts from a base. The next one will be done using one of the new DSP and card sets. What fun.

On the stitching front my ladies have finished our pendant – Archipelago. It was a great class and all the colour choices were wonderful. We purchased these kits from Melanie Potter and there were plenty of beads so the occasional flying bead was not missed. Our next beading class will be in ten days and we are going to be continuing the bezeling of items. I will have a selection of things that the ladies can bezel as well as one new student who wants to make beaded balls so I am currently getting her a kit of beads and accessories together.

 I have been very busy over the past month making perpetual poppies and selling a number through the Percy Thompson Gallery here in Stratford. It was fun and here is the latest in my brooches made from a fabric flower. A friend challenged me to do something and I had initially forgotten. This is what I came up with during the week. Our next little challenge is to do something with three yo yo flowers. Reveal day is the Wanganui sit n stitch in June. 

My brooch

 Our three entries.

Last photo for today is my latest swap bot ornament which is winging its way to the USA. I will repeat this one for the next swap. 

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.

Latest beadwork

2012 Christmas decoration

My decorations this year have been based on this one that mum did from a pattern given to her by a friend.I have ended up making at least eight of these balls over the past three months for my beaded journal project work. I decided this year that my aim was to do some beadwork of any kind every month so these and the variations have been done since october with at least three a month. I finished off with doing a simple netted ball with star intersections for my friends mum for christmas. After completing the last ball yesterday (Boxing Day) I have realised that I do not have one of this design for myself. Mum got the pattern from a friend and I have adapted it to fit various sized balls. So only two more to make (one for me and one for Erin to take home).

On the christmas front it has been a busy few days since I finished work and I ended up with all the family (there are only 7 of us) here for breakfast and lunch as mum had no water. It was a lovely day and most of the family napped the afternoon away. I visited Stephanie and parents in the afternoon. Boxing Day was a visit to family friends and a leftover lunch - yummy as lots of different dishes from our lunch.
Today I caught up with another friend Sonia and I made her a ball for christmas in June similar to my Febraury BJP piece. She loved it and it was blue so that was great.

Off to Auckland for the weekend to collect my niece, Erin from the plane, then Mary Poppins in the afternoon and a catchup with my cousin sometime saturday night or sunday lunch. A trip up the Sky Tower is also on the agenda.
Happy New year to all and I hope to be a better blogger next year.
Diane

Two more beaded objects

I have not been well this week so have been home for a couple of days and finished two beaded decorations. The first is from a class I took last year helping people read a pattern from bead and button. The second is from a class that I have taken just recently. This is the third one of these I have made this year - called Tania's Feathers. It was a really fun class and the ladies enjoyed it. Hopefully they will all go on and do some of their own variations.
Also nearly finished the cover of my album from conference. I will post photos of that piece later in the week.

Tania's Feathers red with silver.

B&B Pattern completed from 2011.