William Morris Legacy At My House

So awesome, this week I got my William Morris inspired Morning Glory Quilt back from Jenny Allen who does my quilting for me and the quilting is fabulously busy. LOVE IT! Thanks so much for the fabulous design Michele Hill as without your obesssion with William Morris and your fantastic books none of this would have been possible for me.

Very busy busy certainly suits any quilt inspired by and appliqued from William Morris fabric as his designs were always very colourful and busy.

And to quote William himself.......Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful....

 

This week I have also made some good progress on Amy Mitten's Mermaid Treasures. I have completed the two pockets, the fish & their fins. It was my very first experience on the stumpwork fins for the fish doing detached buttonhole stitch. I can definetly improve but I am not too unhappy with my first attempts ever at this process. This will only get better (& quicker) with all the scales for the mermaid on the mirror comming up. I LOVE how the little mirror turned out with the cute as reflection on the first pocket and working with the pearl purl on the second pocket mermaid's waist makes me just want to use that stuff more & more as I suspected it would.

 

I also made a start on the mirror mermaid and have finished the cloud and now working on the water which is alternating diagonal satin stitch. I have quite a bit to do to catch up on this one and then what do you know, Amy posts another tutorial this week!!! Not to mention that I have not even opened the kit for the Needleworker's Pocketbook. But for me, good progress has been made this week so I am happy, happy, happy stitching inside while we have been in the middle of a cold and rainy low driven up from the Antarctic this week.

 

 

Only a week to go until another Thistle Threads Cabinet of Curiosities encore lesson is posted. Lesson #3. Been reading all the threads this week on the class social site from all the ladies in the first class and getting very jealous as they have all just received the second mailing with all the fabulous goodies. Can't wait for our first box of goodies but not until August apparently...aaaaaggghhhh The trinket box comming up for the first girls that Tricia has designed is amazing. I just want to make it now but it's over a year away!

 

We Have Scales & A Partial Fur Coat

My Mermaid Treasures scales are looking fabulous. Very happy with the result and loving that sparkly bijoux thread of Amy Mitten's. Just the right amount of bling. Backstitch though took me ages and needed my X3 magnifiers to see where is should go in the tent stitch.

 

I did a bit of the Essamplaire Casket Leopard fur earlier in the week but have been mainly spending my time on the Mermaids. Lucky I spent a bit of time yesterday afternoon on the Mermaids as we had a weather bomb hit us around 5pm and then no power until nearly 9.30pm so no light to stitch by. Very annoying on a Sunday night but apparently the lines were down as a pole support broke and fire engines were attending.

 

 

 

 

We Have Progress

I cannot believe how quickly a week flyes by. I started this blog wanting to contribute daily but now find I am hitting the week mark by the time I get to put fingers to keyboard. Mind you I mostly don't feel I make enough progress on my projects to put up pics daily so alls good.

Only two sleeps to go until my baby sister arrives back in NZ with her two girls. Six months of planning have just flown by but the house is all ready for them and they are excited despite the daunting task of relocating your whole life to the other side of the globe.

The day before they arrive, my parents are due back from their 3 week  river cruise in Europe. The trip has had more than the anticipated time staying in hotels as opposed to the river boat due to all the flooding. They have been unable to go up or down the river as the water has been too high to get under the bridges so they have been bused around. Austria and Hungry were two place on their itinerary and both have been badly affected looking at the news reports here.

In between sorting the house for the arrival of my sibling and the usual household hum drum I have been working on a couple of projects.

The Mermaid Treasures are moving along with the tent stitch completed on one mermaid and the other about half way there for the pockets. Really need my magnifiers for this fine fabric. Looking forward to doing the backstitch on them and the fish as the definition will start to really make them pop.

I have also managed to make a start on the Essamplaire casket. I have started to tackle the encroaching satin stitch on the leopard. This stitch is a newbie for me so have been taking it slowly. It's a bit scary when you have been used to counted. I think I might have my own mix of long & short in there as well but I am happy enough so far.

Struggling

I feel like I have been really struggling to make any headway in the needlework accomplishments in the last week. We have been busy here setting up a house for my sister and her family (two young girls) who arrive back here in NZ to live on 12th June after 13 years away. We are helping them out with somewhere to live while they get established as her husband does not arrive until end of July.

I have been doing some needlework but it is only basting prep work for Amy Mitten's Mermaid Treasures and so is not so exciting to photograph. I am nearly there with that though with only one section out of six to go.

Two exciting things did happen during the last week though........

The second lesson of the Thistle Threads Cabinet of Curiosities Encore was posted and I am getting ready to immerse myself in that awesome learning experience......and...

.....I received the kit for Amy Mitten's Needleworkers Pocketbook which includes the lovely book by Joanne Martin Lukacher entitled 'Imitation and Improvement The Norfolk Sampler Tradition. Looking forward to reading as looks really interesting.