Quarterly Update

 Its been a busy few months and I have taken to working with felt for some of the time. A friend made the most delightful bookmark with a ladybird for me so I have taken this to a whole new level and created several for sale. These are at Percy's Place in Stratford or Eltham Honey as well.

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These crosses were created for a friend who is visiting South Africa and wants small gifts to take with her. I am sure the recipients will be delighted and will use them every day.

Unicorn - created for a granddaughters birthday 

 Bumblebees - did you know they are in short supply and one of my best friends has a honey business "Eltham Honey". These are for her to sell or keep, whichever she wants.

Mickey Mouse, the Owl, Cup of tea and hearts have all been done as presents for friends and family so I have the patterns and can create more as I go.

I have found a new way of stitching on felt and it is really neat and makes a nice edge. I also put a stiff lining so they should keep their shape for a while.

Next finish after 18 months is the Laura Perin Christmas Wreath. This is stitched using my stash threads and it has been loads of fun. I am hoping to mount it in a circle as a wreath that I can bring out each year. Hoping to get it finished in time for the November Art Society exhibition.

Latest starts. We have collected a number of these small bags from Air New Zealand over the years and I have been using them as small project bags. I saw a bigger one decorated in the style of Sue Spargo, so thought I would have a go. Here is the first bird one with pieces stitched and pinned ready to go. I am now ready to finish this one and will post it when done.

Lots of happenings

Life has been consistently busy for the last two months.
In August I ran a 1 1/2 day class for beaded ball 'Ruby's Treasure" which was successful. Also I completed the first in the year long banner series (an applique set). Did more stitching on Odyssey and have nearly completed the outside stitching, started sewing on the black beads and purchased some suitable bronze beads.
September saw stitching on Odyssey (only have the bottom to finish now as well as the beads). Nearly completed a square on 'Walk on the wild side', and started to finish two needle books. One will be a gift for Christmas and one for Erin I hope.
This month has seen me start the next banner (snowman) in time for Christmas, make a spider ornament for swapping and commence my triffid for creative stitchers.
I have been busy with swap bot over the past couple of months mostly with postcard swaps but I have done a white Christmas decoration and a Halloween decoration. Next on the list is a prayer flag and some more Christmas decorations. I also have done a little bit of zentangle as well as won a prize on zentangle.com.

Creative Stitchers this month saw us printing fabric so hoping that I have some pieces that I can use. I have to make a prayer flag so that will be my starting point. Card making has continued with a night each month and making of several cards each time. I have been making a few more and now trying to use the Project life from Stamping Up. As I am a demonstrator I need to be familiar. If you want to see it go here. You can order it online by entering me as your demonstrator.

On the social front I have been to rugby with mum and dad several times and may go again this weekend as Taranaki have made the semi finals (top of the pile in ITM cup). I went to Wellington with Shellie to see WOW (World of Wearable Art) and Sole Mio. Both great events. Been to see lots of movies and really enjoyed 100 foot journey. Other things still happening are meetings, and more meetings, theatre trust, WI Conference, Durham WI and guild. Still it is good to be busy.

I have been doing a little bit of beading and made a decoration for the Hawera A&P show so now have to get on with the next items. Also Sonia has asked me to attend Eltham Ladies night with her in December so I will need to make some more snap trays and bags to sell. I will make six of each I think as if they don't sell I can give them away.

Odyssey commencement

This is the first finished corner of the outer stitching on odyssey. I purchased this pattern in1996 or 1997 in Oregon, and started later that year. I stitched for one weekend a year on it at our annual retreat for our embroidery guild but stopped when we changed venues and I started doing the project. This year I have decided that this is my winter piece and I am hoping to get most of the outside area done this term then to buy the beads for the finishing.this was about three hours work as all these threads need to be laid neatly and not twisted.

Well this is the start of the finishing process. Another week on and I have finished another side section here. 

Also this past week has been very exciting as we had a visit from Sarah. She decided that she needed a break for her university holiday, so she came to visit her grandparents and was in time for a big family weekend. David also arrived home from Germany, Alice came home from Masterton and lots of Terry's family were visiting. I had time at the weekend to make an iPad case, so thinking of making another one for my etsy shop. 

All posted

Over the past ten months mum and I have been stitching for ANY Auction. These are the pieces that have been sent back for this years auction in Chicago.

Egg stitched by me.

Xmas Deco beaded and stitched by Mum

 

Christmas deco stitched by Mum

Elf boot stitched by me.

The other piece that we have finished was on my last blog post. It is a cone which was loads of fun to stitch and showed me how much the choice of stitch affects the finished look.

I am hoping that they will be made up beautifully and sell for good prices at the auction. It has been fun stitching and I now have brought one of my canvases out with some inspiration for stitching.

The next project that we are making for our night class is going to be some of the projects from the Needlepoint Now magazine.


This picture below shows the display table from our recent embroidery guild meeting. We also had all the pieces for our guild challenge finished and on display. It will be exciting to see it made up by Lee for the conference in New Plymouth in July. Notice under the display my table runner that Marilyn helped me make. It is the french braid pattern and now lives on the TV cabinet in my lounge. The small rooster piece was another piece stitched by Liz Bartley and I have made into a snappy bag.

May 2014 Guild Display of finished pieces.

Another finish

I was so excited last night that I stayed up to put the last beads in. This piece has history. It was started by a member of our embroidery guild (Central Taranaki) who died at the start of 2010. Last year her husband gifted me with her stitch bags and supplies and this was in it. My night class had been stitching Laura Perins Floral Ribbons and Victorian Ribbons and I was about to start one of them. I decided that I would finish this piece and make it up.

At the weekend we had our regional embroidery retreat and I decided that I would take this piece and stitch everything that needed to be done except the beads. That would be my stitching for Monday night class and this piece would be done. It worked but after a lengthy discussion on the colour of the beads, opal disappeared, the greens were wrong, the pink was too wishy washy, we decided on silver pearl and raspberry. I did most of it during the class time but after all left I sat on the couch, watched my favourite programme “Person of Interest” and sewed on the final beads. It was 10.45 pm when I took out the pins holding it on and took the photo.

My decision now is what type of bag. I have been making snappy bags and don’t really need any more for myself so think I would like to make this into a pocket for a bigger bag that will hold a 14 inch frame. This may be the go but now to find material (is there any in the stash) and a pattern (I have a book).

The next exciting thing that has happened is my dad had his birthday yesterday and the birthday surprise was my brother arriving home at 9pm last night. Very exciting.

Finished Amazing Grays

Woo hoo! I have put the last stitch in Amazing Grays. I thought I had finished with the beads but as I put the last beads in I found a stitch that I had missed. This has been a lovely piece to do and I thank nancy for designing it. 

My next challenge will be to get it framed before the start of June. Mum is finished the construction of her box which is looking good. 

My other projects to complete are various snap trays and bags for sale on etsy. Also needing to get the last canvas done on walk on the wild side so hoping the next few weekends will be fruitful.

Stitching finishing

It's been a busy month with bits of stitching nearly completed as well as a new little project started. I made a number of snap trays so that was a bonus and hope to sell them. It started with making one to match the snappy bag I made for Maree. She really liked it so that was cool and I am hoping to make a couple of kiwi ones to take to Los Angeles in August.

Card demonstration at Sarah's and the wonderful items they made. All different but from the same starting point.

Finished pieces from night class project.

Night class have finished with our Christmas tree project. It has been a really stunning project to stitch and I have enjoyed mine on the 45 count Florence and single strand of silk as well as the 100 count silk for the hardanger sections. You can see the difference in the fabric count quite markedly as mine is half the size of the other pieces.

May also saw the cold weather return with a vengeance and we had snow settle on the ground on the 22nd May.

Tulip flower for Mary V.

This is the latest piece that I have done for the Creative Stitchers 12x12 challenge. I have been doing beadwork on each of these and also using these as part of my beaded journal project items for this year. I made the decision that I would bead something each month and so this is the piece I have finished for May. I am not certain if I have a copy of Aprils face but I will be able to take a photo at another stage.
For March I completed a snowflake on Rosalind's piece and for this month I have a pear to complete.

Still Stitching.

Several pieces of stitching have been done since the opunake retreat. I nearly finished all the flowers on my latvian piece and only have the borders to do. managed to get the finishing instructions for our linen biscornu and have the night class group onto that over the next weeks.
I have started one of the ANG auction pieces which is fun and mum has also started a piece as well.
Made several patchwork things for the guild christmas party and nearly have my door prize sorted. Next thing to do is my gift as well as secret santa gift for school. My institute box is nearly finished so only needs wrapping and labelling (tonights job which is running late).
I am hoping to put the pictures of the night class ornaments that have been stitched and one was finised with a lovely tassel and candycane cord by Fiona who has not done any of these things. I am so proud of her.

Scissor keeps made in class.

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Things are Finished

I forgot to post the picture of the Xmas decoration that I swapped last month. The person I swapped with was Ina from the Netherlands and she did not have any preference for colour or design so I was free to play with my stitching. I really enjoyed this little decoration and think I will make a few more for Christmas presents.

Decoration sent to Ina for Swap=Bot

This photo is the coathanger and dishcloth that I made/ finished for the recent Arts Festival for Woman's Instittute. I got a first for my coathanger but nothting for the dishcloth which I am currently using.

My next finish and Beaded Journal Project finish is my bracelet from a kit by Carol Wilcox Wells entitled whirling pinwheels. It was my challenge to finish it in april before we went to Hawaii but I have now finished it in time for San Francisco. This is My March piece for 2012 so I am only two months behind but keeping stitching and beading on lots of other things.


The finished bracelet.



detail of the pinwheels which i loved doing.

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.

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.

3 sleeps but who's counting

3 sleeps but who is counting. have got everything into the bag and sorted out the purchasing for friends and family so things are tracking well. done all the christmas shopping and have only one present left to finish plus make a couple of extra things if I have time.
another busy day at school tomorrow with all the jobs to be done but I managed to get my 2012 diary done tonight so I feel prepared for the first week back.
decided at the last minute to buy a new handbag but can't find one I like so taking my current bag and will keep an eye out for a new one. This could be my christmas present. I am very picky with a handbag.
new phone is going okay and downloading songs onto ipod so have about 1500 so far done 50% of library.

New Christmas Tree

Mum and I took delivery of these new christmas trees last weekend. They are really neat and a great way to display all the decorations. no leaf drop either.

I had my class make the sequinned dainty ball which was really fun. Another lady came along, Naomi and she really enjoyed it so we have another person to come to beading classes next year. 

Tony and Dot outside my house with the mountain in the background on Tuesday night.

Dot (spare sister from Melbourne) gave us short notice that they were coming to stay. We had a great couple of days with them (Dot, Tony, Geoff and Pauline) all mixing in with the Stratford families. They managed to get to see the mountain, the only overseas visitors this year that have had the privilege so that was good.

Busy Finishing

The election day went really well and I drove into the garage at 8.59pm so I was really thrilled. a low turnout which was a shame but we had a reasonably busy day so that was okay.

I have been busy finishing gifts for the trip overseas and also deciding on whether I will pariticipate in the BJP 2012. I am debating this and think that if I do it will be a series of small icons, gods and goddesses.
I have done four coathangers, coffee cup holders and half done a runner for a friend. I was going to go to Marilyns tonight to get the binding put on but i have done some christmas bookings instead. the train to my cousin's is booked and that is another thing off the list. I have also made ten christmas decorations, sat at the Percy Thompson gallery for the art society and started two more decorations for the class on monday night.

Work has been crazy and I have had two hours out today with Ultranet training and all day tomorrow with the practical session so I will be at school early to get things done before the class starts. I have to get the newsletter printed and the office staff will have to fold the senior reports into the envelopes ready for handing out. We have the last day on friday with the junior students prizegiving so that is it and then next week it is activities week and posting out of reports and other things.

busy holidays

Well another holiday break has nearly finished and I have had a busy time, catching up with friends, rugby world cup is nearly over and some of the planned projects are done. The holidays started with a trip to Wanganui to take a canvas class in making a needle book or book cover which was loads of fun and inspiring as well.

Members enjoying a break at wonderful Payne's Palace Beach Retreat.

Last weekend was the annual Central Taranaki Embroidery Guild retreat to Opunake where we had ten people undertake a project from Stitch magazine - a winter sky. It was loads of fun and I have mostly completed mine as well as completed most of the bargello section from canvas two on Walk on the Wild Side. Nothing further has been done on this canvas this week but I expect to get some done when watching the rugby final tomorrow night.

Ten of the stitched projects from the weekend. My piece is the bottom right sunset piece.

The reason no stitching this week is a new toy - I am the proud owner of an IPOD Touch and it has been loads of fun loading stuff onto it (took me four hours last night to get my music from one ipod to the other) and I have nearly got all the music ready to go plus some new stuff to listen to tomorrow.

Erin's roll

One project I have finished this holidays is the needleroll or lavender roll for my neice Erin. hopefully my brother will get it and be able to take it home with him on monday. I started this as my plane piece on our trip to USA last year and finished it this year with Erin's name on it.

Projects started (and hopefully finished) is the porject bag using my sudoku piece. I went to Maree's today and she stitched (I was gofer) and it was halfway there. Then late afternoon I went to marilyns and we started on a table runner for a christmas gift for our cousin. I have quilted half of it so can complete it tomorrow night when I go to feed the cat and then start one for my friend for christmas. Tomorrow morning I am going to start Marilyn's knitting bag and if it is fine weed some more of the garden.
I have finally got the stones ordered for the pebble garden and I was hoping that they would arrive before the weekend it is fine that they will be here next week and I can get to it each night.
I will report on more of my holiday break in the next post (possilby with more pictures of completed works)
Diane

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

Biscornu Finished; BJP 2011

Had an interesting week and finished another item. So pleased with myself as this is a 2011 guild project – started and finished in the one year. It is a 15 sided biscornu from the Stitch magazine from the Embroiderer’s Guild of England. I used a rainbow gallery encore thread in the greens and added a green marlitt, bright yellow perle 5 with a second variegated perle 5 in pale yellow plus the lime green thread was a rayon from Jane Van Keulen (a thread dyer form New Zealand). - Photo will come next time.

February 2011 BJP

February 2011 BJG - Red Eyes

Another ATC finished for the 2011 BJP so this is continuing the theme of eyes - “Red Eyes”. The word added to this one is precious. Lots of thoughts went through my head about this one and how precious our eyes are. Along with the thinking that eyes are precious the title of this piece was “Red Eyes”. Red eyes are eyes that are sore and inflamed hence the very redness of this piece. Precious comes from the fact that eyes that are often inflamed, sore and diseased may lead to blindness and the world of darkness, hence the precious sight is gone. A little bit of darkness in the centre of one eye shows that blindness is creeping.

Red eye also the late night flight into this modern age, a movie from 2005, the effect in photographs when using a flash and lots of eye disease.

Other finished items:

Also finished this month is Stephanie's birthday present - the three knitted coathangers. Lots of fun to knit and gives me something to do at morning tea time. I enjoyed these as all three are different.

The next thing to show are the two birds I sent for my swap with Carol in Tasmania. I am hoping that she should have received them by now so here they are. One of her favourite colours is purple so I did a purple one for her and realised (a week later) after I had sent them that I did not date and initial them. My apologies Carol for this oversight.

Birds sent to Carol in Tassie for the Swap - Bird for my christmas tree.

Also just done today is the most gorgeous phone charm from Maree for my birthday. A little lion face peers out from my phone now.

More balls made this week.

This is the collection of balls that I have made for christmas gifts this year. It is a netted pattern with a loop fringe using some glass chips on the loops. Really fun to make.

These two I have completed this week. the silver and blue ball uses a variation of my neptunes wave ball that I taught and designed earlier this year. It was fun adapting it to a smaller ball and using the loop fringe.

School is over and all the students have left. Only the tidying up to do and cleaning out my office ready to start next year again. Training tomorrow on the new absence programme and then some work to do on documentation for next year so that the week before school starts won't be so pressured. Then off to the beach, christmas at mums and trip to wellington with best friend Stephanie.

March is finished.

PARIS - the most wonderful musical with great tunes. By an amazing Australian artist - Jon English.

I am really pleased that I have finished this piece. It was a real struggle trying to interpret my vision for the music into beads and stitch. The background is coloured with watercolour pencils and ironed to fix. I then applied a piece of chiffon which I then ruched onto the background fabric. Because I tried to leave the stitching area not ruched it was not even but it does show the movement I wanted as like marble.

I used a different bead for each section of the letter to symbolise the various parts of the Paris story. I was pleased that the coin worked well and looks vaguely like a roman helmet which was my aim.

now onto the next one - Maree - very alternative and wonderful music tastes so this next piece should be fun.