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.

ANZAC Day 2012

Today is the national day of remembrance and it was a lovely day. I watched the Gallipoli ceremony on TV this afternoon while mum and dad came for afternoon tea. Dad walked all the way which considering one week ago he was in hospital is amazing. Tomorrow they are off to get a heart monitor and then another week and a specialist appointment.

News also that Peter and Sue from Melbourne will be visiting next week so that will be nice as it is several years since I have seen them and even more since Marilyn has seen them.

School has started well with an increase in our roll again and it is unbelievable as we do not know where all the students are coming from. We have full classes and hope that these new students settle in well. With more students we have more staff and hopefully we will not need any more until next year.
Here are some photos from Hawaii.

The beach babes at Waikiki

All the girls at dinner

Peral harbour and Arizona Memorial

At the top of Diamond Head. Great effort everyone.

The buddhist temple was a pleasant stop for a walk around.

Hope you enjoy them all.
Stitching: i have made two mug rugs for embroidery guild but neither are beaded so the only beading has been beads for my march bracelet. three more beads to go before it is completed.
diane

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.

Colourific piece coming along

Just a quick catch up note. My colourific piece is coming along. I have added an extra bottom to make it more stable and then it should display better. I have stitched, stiffened and beaded more pieces and started sewing them onto the body. the face is attached and needs the icicle fringe now.
Still to decide on a final name but "Skadi" is looking like it at the moment.

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.

Busy working

Karen, Mum, Phil and dad outside the Whangamata residence.

It has been a busy couple of weeks once again. We went away for the long weekend and I did a bit of stitching on Sudoku so that was pleasing. Since then I have finished two of the 9 squares, most of the dividing lines and started on another set of nine squares.

Also been doing a bit more on my exhibition piece so that is pleasing to see. The class for the beaded decoration went well and I have seen a number of completed ones and they all look great. I have been looking at ideas for new ones and think I will have another go at working out the instructions when the holidays come along.

Been away to Wanganui to the sit and stitch day which was lots of fun and I was really good about not buying new silk threads. Off to the weekend workshop on Saturday for our guild – we are doing coloured corn pad embroidery. Then I am off to the beach with the institute ladies.

Went to see Thor at the movies in Stratford. Really enjoyed it and would definitely see it again. Hoping to go to a few more movies over the next month at the TET Kings Theatre.

Swap Bot has been fun and I have received a couple of lovely things, tea to try and christmas decorations. I sent the christmas wreath pictured above.

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.

A Busy day

I have had a really busy day today with starting to make icicles for my winter goddess, complete the background for an ATC and a beaded journal page. also I have spent 15 minutes at a time cleaning up my ipod and deleted over 500 duplicate songs and spent all day listening to the Kings of Leon. Think they will be my band of choice at the moment.
Also spent 15 minutes at a time cleaning up my desk area and have nearly taken every thing off it to dust off the dust bunnies (the power of 15 minutes at a time - http://www.flylady.net/)
Also I have spent time tidying up all my photos from seven years so they are all stored onto a remote hard disk and then hopefully I will be able to get my computer fixed or sorted as I am not able to do anything with adobe files, quicktime or flashplayer so I cannot download any e-books onto my e-reader.
two more days and work starts again so going to spend several hours beading and stitching now and then to bed. Shopping tomorrow for new clothes (since I have a stylist I have discovered a love of nice clothes) and then gardening and house cleaning weather permitting.
Enjoy the weekend.

Merry Christmas to all

Just a few days before Christmas and the weather has really deteriorated. It has been wet for several days so the farmers are celebrating as the drought season has been delayed for at least a while. It has been colder as well so time to catch up with all the watching on the tv and am nearly up to date with a number of programmes.

School has basically finished for me with just a few more things to do and then I am off until at least ten days before school starts. Hoping to get some time at the beach with mum and a few days away with Stephanie to Wellington. We are going to the European Masters exhibition at Te Papa so that will be neat. Not certain what else we shall do.

Christmas wishes to all friends that read this blog. I have had a wonderful 2010 although not all things have been completed. Heart of the cabin has stalled due to our travel to san Francisco and attendance at seminar. I have completed one piece from seminar and have most of my pages ready for my notebook but nothing to put it into yet. Linda’s piece walk on the wild side is still just sitting and am hoping to do some over the holidays to get at least the first canvas finished.

Beaded journal project was not a big success this year as I only completed three months with another three designed and not stitched. On the beading plus side I did complete three of Laura McCabe’s kits that I bought. I also designed three new decorations (Neptune’s series) and taught them. This last three months I have done another Christmas ball which my group of ladies did one night. This last weekend I have borrowed a couple from a friend of mum’s and am hoping to make them and then also make the patterns for them. I have made 12 of these decorations for gifts so that was a busy time. See them in previous posts.
This year I made my first ATC and did a swap. It was fun. As well I swapped a biscornu on the swap-bot network as well as a couple of other swaps.
A challenge has been presented to me for next year with the invitation to enter an ANZEG exhibition in October. I have a number of thoughts and this holidays will find me starting on at least one of them.
So to all friends I hope that you all have a wonderful season and that the weather good and bad does not deter your festive times.
Diane

Another Square done

What a great weekend. Saturday was wet and horrible so a perfect day to stitch on Heart of a Cabin. Finished two logs so really pleased and also started on the third of my beaded journal pieces for this year. Here is the finished square for HOTC and the sixth one I have done. Had a letter from L Reinmiller to say that we should get our canvas this week so this will be all that will be done on this piece for the next few months as I need the stretcher bars.

The third BJP for me this year is my friend Kim from Melbourne, Australia. She introduced me to a wonderful piece of music in about 1992 – a musical written by Jon English called Paris. It is the story of Greeks and Trojans with the horse and Helen playing wonderful roles. I have not seen it performed but have seen several clips on YouTube of the various performances in Australia. The music is wonderful and this piece symbolises the longevity of the story – I have tried to get a stone like look in the letters but the warmth of the wooden horse. I have taken a small snap of the semi stitched piece so you can see it.

Sunday was also spent stitching with friends from the embroidery guild on our christmas raffle. We are stitching an advent calendar so it was making the 24 toys to hang on the calendar then our next meeting will have some of the last bits to do and Maree will have all the putting together. It will look fabulous I am sure and I will be making a couple of new toys to hang on my advent calendar. Currently I have a selection of about 30 to choose from so that is really neat.

latest work

Decided that I needed to complete another square for Heart of the Cabin. Here it is nearly finished so that is a great event. 5/16 ths of this piece done. I really struggled with the shading as I found that six strands were too many so had to use four so the shading is a bit shorter.

This weekend has been busy with fighting off a cold and having too much to do at school to have the time off. After Tuesday I can relax a little bit when things will settle down.

Friday night Marilyn asked me to bake for a cake stall to assist Nathan – pharmacist at her work who will be attending the paraplegic world cycling champs in September. I made my best cakes and they were a failure so Saturday morning I made two others. The new recipe this month is butterfly cakes from Healthy Food Guide and also remade the mocha nut butterball cookies. I found this on the internet and they are great. Both worked well so that is two more recipes for my challenge. A recipe a month this year.

Here are the two pieces that I did finish over the holidays. They are from conference 2008 - Allie Snow class of textile art. Really enjoyed this and think this is what encouraged me to start with the BJP. These are my first two flower princesses. I have one more started and would like to perhaps make more for display in the next Art Society Exhibition.

Another Kit done

I see that I have this picture on twice but I am very excited by it. Now what to do with it - it is very heavy - too heavy for scissors and not certain how to attach it to my new bag for school but i will think on it.
looking forward to starting the next laura kit - think I will do the scissor case

Holidays are busy!

We are in the midst of our winter holiday so the weather started off not great but for the last week it has been fine days and minus temperatures overnight. Still a good excuse to sit in the conservatory and stitch.

Last weekend mum and I travelled to Hamilton to see the exhibitions for the ANZEG biannual conference. I was slightly disappointed in the number of entries particularly in the miniatures and members and hoped that many entries were not judged out of the competition. The variety of work in the junior members exhibition was phenomenal and I was really excited by our junior tutors news that next year our group may be moving into town and that will give me an opportunity once a month to share with them.

I purchased a couple of books – one on inchies and making backgrounds so I am inspired to rejoin swap-bot and see what’s going on. The other was the new one from Effie Mitrofanis, an Australian embroiderer, who I think has a wonderful way of combining colour, techniques and textiles to produce some exciting work.

I have also finished another cell phone dangle for my sister for Christmas and this made me finish the cube that I had nearly done. This was another kit by Laura McCabe and I have to say that they are the most delightful kits with plenty of seed beads so you can be a bit picky with them if you want.

the laura mccabe cube that i have finished. as usual I had to change something - the crystals in the corner - i did not like the colour of the ones provided so I used some of my own and will use the others in another piece.

March month is coming along for beaded journal project so this year has not been so successful with completing pieces but I have April’s mapped out in my book so that is good and I have mounted one piece already although I have to put a few more beads on the January piece to make it fit into the page opening.

School has been busy with things going on and I think there will be job changes for all in the offices at the moment so that will be an exciting time ahead. I have also been doing the advert so hopefully tomorrow I will have the last advertiser on board and that will be a great thing. This will be the first year that the cost to the school is less than half so that is good news. Jessica from our local paper is lovely to work with and she has lots of great ideas for layouts, etc which are exciting.

another square half done

Heart of the cabin
another sqaure is done and block 6 is half done. I have completed the fourth log this week and with easter on the horizon am hoping to complete the block and also block 3 this weekend.



here is the half of block 6. the rust colours look really great so I am pleased and we are using threads as we go as do not have all the recommended threads. Some are difficult to get here so we are substituting mostly for silks etc.



I went to our regional embroidery retreat last weekend and this was a piece of completed work that caught my eye. i love the free ness of it and also the colours. perhaps i can complete it in beads. the big circle in the centre is a covered marmite lid so about 2 1/2 inchies across. quite a large piece

these are the cards we made at the weekend. Mine is not that flash but this one i really loved for its simplicity.

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

signed up and ready

I have signed up ready for the 2010 BJP. Yeah me making a committment early.
Had a great week - we had snow again on the hill (Mount Egmont) and it has been bitterly cold as well.
Mum and I have started the Heart of the Cabin project for ANG and it will take a while to stitch but I have a month for the first two blocks so that should be okay. last night I took my piece of the really big stretcher bars and put it on the 18inch ones so it is slightly easier to handle.

Nearly finished the August piece for BJP and will post the picture of the little red man tonight. Tried last night but no internet.

Halfway through the making of my Autumn goddess for the regional exhibition which starts in three weeks so need to get the skates on. The leaves are all lined up on the floor and I want her out of the way before night class starts again on 19 October.

It has been a busy holidays with two trips to auckland and one to wellington with a funeral, World of Waerable Art show, El Divo concert and catching up with cousins and friends also.
diane

just two months to do

I have finished april but forgot to take a photo last night so that will be tonight's job. only two months to go - June and august. june is practically sorted in my head but august i am not sure off.
will have to put my thinking cap on and see what happens.
beautiful weekend here with fathers day on sunday and we had lunch at my sisters then spent the first part of the afternoon stitching a christmas stocking. it was great.
I have completed the stitching for my book cover so started on the journey to make it on sunday morning but decided i did not like the stitching so an undo is coming up this afternoon after work.
also started the christmas ornament in bead and button and it is fabulous. I need to order more beads for everyone so will do that i the holidays.

Creative canvas comes alive

embellished canvas class at the weekend was great. This is my book cover half done so I am getting excited about it. I have four more nights that I can stitch on it before I have to put it aside for another piece - Pukeko Patch. It has been fun using stitches in a more random way than I traditionally do.


Inchies number 2. This is the set that I have sent to Cheryl in USA. I hope she likes the beaded stars done with #15 beads. I love these stars and have made lots using plastic beads for christmas trees.