To Go Or Not To Go...

....that is the question. I am allowed to go as per the husbands permission but will I decide to go! Today the link came through from Thistle Threads East Coast Embroidered Casket Tour to those of us outside of the USA/Canada to enable us to book for this tour.

 

The tour involves four days of activities:

 

Day 1 - A visit to the Met Museum & shopping in NYC

Day 2 - A visit to the Cooper Hewitt Museum & travel to Boston

Day 3 - A visit to the MFA in Boston & shopping in downtown Boston

Day 4 - A visit to the Lexington Historical Society and a casket finishing course with Tricia from Thistle Threads followed by a reception at Tricia's house

 

All activities sound VERY appealing and the chance to get to view all that 17th century embroidery with expert knowledge supplied by the museum staff and Tricia would be awesome not to mention meeting the extremely talented Tricia and all the other lovely class members.....but

 

....for me living here in little old New Zealand in reality it means....

 

...40 hours plus of flying time with return flights, that's an entire working week spent in the air not to mention the time waiting at airports and all on my own

 

...I would be exhausted when I got there and so would need to arrive early just to sleep and all the travel time far outweighs the time allotted for the tour.

 

...and the big deciding factor for me is that for the cost of the tour/airfares & extra hotel stays not to mention spending while over there and adding to stash I would be able to purchase a double casket form along with the associated customs costs as well as get the new iMac I want and have enough left over to purchase a flattop double casket so....as much as I would like to join the tour it just doesn't stack up!

 

....so any USA ladies reading this blog who want to join the tour and are afraid of missing out due to numbers...there is a slot not taken...by me at least

 

Took me while to let it go though...that feeling of missing out but I will just have to celebrate my 50th with my goodies instead!

 

So ... enough mulling over that and onto the here and now

 

 

Time for a bit of chit chat about what's gone on this week

 

 

The Grow Your Blog party continues and I have spent a bit of time looking at some lovely blogs with many still to go on the list and thank you to all those lovely ladies who have posted your encouraging comments on my blog and become followers of my musings.

 

I still have my kids home on school holidays until 5th February and so have not achieved milestones but here are the results of my plugging away...

 

I have stitched the wings of the butterfly onto the background of the Essamplaire Casket

 

I have couched the old gold lace onto the outine of the Thistle Threads Floral Glove. Need to get a hurry on as The last lesson #6 comes out 1st February and I want to be up to date.

 

My main focus this week has been plugging away in the evenings on the Needleworker's Pocketbook and the pastoral scene is taking shape.

 

I have succeeded in catching up with the latest lesson #5 for the Thistle Threads May Your Hands and am waiting for #6 on 1st February. I can't believe I have done this as I was so late starting this and the saw tooth borders took me what seemed forever.

 

In the piccie from left to right and excluding the painted thread holders (painted by Betsy Krieg Salm) are the finished Thimble Nest, Scissor Keep, Pin Pad and Wax Holder.

 

The final lesson will contain the instructions to complete the other more involved pieces so a bit of work ahead of me. Oh, I also made up the strawberry emery but it is just out of the picture on the left. I will photo it again when the set is complete so you can see then.

 

Have a fun week fellow bloggers and look forward to meeting more GYB participants.

 

WIP It Good!

I started to WIP the May Your Hands project into a finished article this week. I started in order of instruction with the pin pad. I am happy thus far and the gathering around the sides looks nice by man does that satin fray something shocking. That's what all those threads are!!!

 

I picked up a rather forgotten WIP this week and it was WIPPING GOOD. The Needleworker's Pocket book is progressing again. Back to counted work for a while in the evenings I have decided. I want to finish this one and have confidently stitched 2014 into the completion date.

I also managed to WIP up the wings for the butterfly on the Essamplaire casket. They've been pinned on for a few days now...need to get to stitching them on but they do look oh so pretty with their little venetian picot wing tips. I did get much better at that stitch by the time I finished the 6th one...yes

 

 

Tricia from Thistle Threads in conjunction with Susan Albury has announced an East Coast Embroidered Casket Tour in October this year. How super exciting. It is a 21 to 30 hour journey time (one way) depending on flights and connections from here in NZ so a big excursion but I have talked to my hubby and hubby says yes I can go and he will look after the kids. What a wonderful 50th birthday present. Just need to control myself waiting for the 28th booking slot now. Woo Hoo.

Grow Your Blog

I'm joining the party. Thank you 2 bags full for the opportunity to meet other like minded crafters who have like minded blogs and want the number of followers to grow.

 

My name is Rae, I am turning the big 5 0 this year and finally have the time to do what I adore doing which is embroidery particularly and also to quilt. Historical embroidery has become my passion since discovering 17th century caskets and the Thistle Threads - Cabinet of Curiosities course and not to mention all those reproduction samplers out there from the likes of The Essamplaire and Scarlet Letter.

 

I started to blog when I found myself getting so darned excited about discovering the amazing resources and needlework networks there are online that I wanted to share my achievements. Even if no one was discovering my blog I find it a great tool to motivate me week to week and to see that you really do make progress on your projects even though it might not feel like it. It has become an online diary of sorts for me and rather than random musings of my life I do tend to focus on the craft.

 

I hope you enjoy my blog as I will reading others and thank you for the opportunity too join this network.

 

I am of course a relative newbie to blogging as only stated May 2013 and am still learning a lot.

 

 

Farewell and Moving On

A gentle kind soul was farewelled by those who loved him this week after illness took him. He is no longer suffering and for that we are grateful. He lived life with a generosity of spirit.

 

Leslie David Howan was my Father In Law, he was 85 years old and leaves behind a family who cared greatly for him.

 

Husband, Father, Father In Law, Grandfather and Great Grandfather.....we will remember

 

 

The flower my daughter is named after 'Tiger Lily', a granddaughter

 

 

But the living must go on and to that end the memories will endure.

 

 

I have made some progress on the Essamplaire casket. I am currently working on the butterfly wings. They are detached buttonhole with venetian picot on the wing tips. Edging closer to finishing this bit.

 

 

 

 

I have  completed the surface embroidery for the May Your Hands set and we are ready for construction. My goal is to construct all the smaller pieces and complete Lesson #5 before 1st February when the last lesson is posted for the final finishing. Can't believe I have caught up to this point as I was way late starting and finishing all of that sawtooth border...Yipee!!!

 

Apologies for the not so clear last  photo. I am trying to figure out how to resize in blogger and it's real random hit and miss for sizing the same within a post. aaarrrggghhh

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2013 Finishes - 8 Months in Review

I became a member of the blogisphere in May 2013. This is what I accomplished in 8 months and I am proud of myself.

 

I decided to do this post as I am learning to work with labels on my blog and to declutter before I get too much clutter!!!!



 

Butterfly Pinkeep - Thistle Threads - Cabinet of Curiosities Class Project

 

 

 

Rose Glove Scissor Keep - Thistle Threads - Cabinet of Curiosties Class Project

 

 

 

Mermaid Needlework Treasures - Amy Mitten

 

 

 

Mini Casket - Thistle Threads

 

Summer Daiz Quilt

 

 

 

Dollies Quilt

 

 

 

Morning Glory Quilt - Michele Hill

 

 

 

 

#2 Daughter & Birthday Girl with Claire & Bun Bun

Two Little Dickie Birds Sitting On A Casket Frieze AND In A Tree

Most of my stitching time this past week has been spent on two projects with a wee little progress on starting another.

 

My daytime stitching pleasure has been taken up with the two little birdies on the Essamplaire Burrell Casket Reproduction. I hadn't spent any time on this for a while and have been enjoying catching up with it. The lessons have also been posted for some time for the side of this casket and so I want to move on with this frieze portion of the lid. I also completed the branches for the fruit and have done the cordonnet for the leaves of both. Need to now start the detached buttonhole stitch then it is on to the detached butterfly wings and the flower petals before doing the grass and putting some little beads on the birdies for eyes once all the possibility of snagging threads is gone. I am beginning to understand just how much time these 17th century ladies spent on loads of closely packed stumpwork in a relatively small area but then this is a several years long project and one step at a time without looking ahead is working for me.

Getting Closer!

 

 

 

One Little Dickie Bird....just a bead to slip into where the slit is in the needle lace for an eye and he's all done. I love the feathers along his back.

 

 

 

Two Little Dickie Birds....just lovin those tail feathers... awgh I just love the way he turned out.

 

 

My night time stitching pleasure has been spending time with my May Your Hands. So so pretty and slowly very slowly progressing. Lots of reverse stitching with this free hand embroidery if the shapes don't turn out quite right.

 

 

Two Little Dickie Birds Sitting in a Tree.....maybe they are Peter and Paul.....I hope they don't fly away!

 

 

Two sets of leaves awaiting detached buttonhole.

 

I made the tiniest of starts on the Winter Casket Keepsakes. I need to do the running stitch around the edges.

 

Oops I got my feet in the piccie. Sorry abut that....jandals though....you can tell I am not living in the Northern Hemisphere...no polar vortex or storm flooding down here in the warm southern climes.

 

 

Happy New Year From the Southern Hemisphere

Well hello and welcome to my first post for 2014. It was a very quiet New Year's affair at our house as it has been for many  a year.....all in bed asleep well before midnight!

I made up my mind that I was NOT going to start Amy Mitten's Winter Casket Keepsakes until I did some more work on the Essamplaire Casket as I let this get way behind due to wanting the Mermaid's Treasures to be a 2013 finish. For now I will just have to keep myself happy watching Amy Wilson's Blog to get my fix of the Winter Casket Keepsakes progressing. She is a machine and gets so much done each day it is awesome.

I see on her blog that Amy finally after 6 months received her Home Sweet Home kit  from Stitching Shop in Colorado .This is for Carolyn Pearce's book of the same name. I had been looking at subscribing to this through Country Bumpkin over the 10 months but it works out more economical for me to purchase from the USA as only one lot of postage. I just love the network of needlework women on the web who willingly give up their sources to others. It is invaluable when you live way down here!

I also had a really lovely email from Lee over the holiday period. Thankyou again Lee for your kind words. It is really encouraging when someone finds your efforts inspiring. I too am constantly inspired by the achievements of others and it motivates the use of the needle 24/7...if only we didn't need to sleep every day how much more we would achieve!!!

I don't tend to do New Years resolutions but here is a visual update on my New Year's decision...

 

Since I have kick started this project again I have padded both birds, made the needlace for the right bird which is the best piece yet...practice makes perfect!, made the legs and stitched the tail feathers. Oh yeah...amazing what you can do in a few hours when your husband and kids go to see 'The Hobbit'....

 

Margriet from Essamplaire has posted the lessons for the Frog Purse and so far it doesn't look to onerous but I don't have the kit yet due to xmas mail so don't have to feel guilty about not starting that one yet!