Two Steps Forward And One Step Back....Two Finishes And One Start....

Tee Hee

It certainly is never a step back no matter how many projects you purchase or transition to WIP's in the needlework world, just starts and finishes. Commencing a new project is just a pure joy and a delight....but one surely does feel like they have made a gain when a project is fully constructed and signed off as completed and this week I managed two.

I have to confess though that one of them has been sitting so very nearly completed since February as I needed to order some more gold couching thread to attach the finishing touch of the gilt 1 1/2 twist....but excuses aside that did arrive some time ago and it has taken all that time to get back into the rotation. 

But now that I have rekindled the love and finished the project I am thrilled and delighted with the result and can now look at this bright and shining elizabethan beauty in my curiosity cabinet and not sitting in a bag on the floor of my studio.

The Floral Glove is finished and ready for admiring glances....

The second project that made it onto the finished and completed tick list this week was the Sheperd's Bush Fold and it looks real pretty mounted into the lid of that beautiful plum coloured shaker box. Very happy with the result of this quick and enjoyable project. I think the second part in the series is going to show up at my door soon as I have been billed by Silver Needle. A quick little stitch for me as I do tend to take on long and complicated projects as the norm.

The project I started this week is a quilt but a quilt with stitchery. The stitchery is monotone and simple, although I might add another colour in, we'll see. I need something portable that I can take places like, kids swimming lessons, so I can stitch away without referring to a chart. I already had this project in my stash so decided to make a start....a very small start....and this will be a long project as I will only work on it while filling time and there are a total of nine stitchery blocks in the quilt. A simple mix of satin stitch, back stitch and chain stitch on the first block.

The design is a Rosalie Quinlan design called Simply Blessed and I chose the Japanese version of this BOM. There is another version with Nellie Hill brights but it's not so much me.  I decided to purchase the whole pattern set at once which includes the pre printed Japanese Hessian so no tracing required. That's why this sitchery made it into the WIP rotation as the other one's I have require tracing and I wasn't up to doing it the other day when I needed something for that afternoon.

Loving the muted Japanese tones....

Of course my accomplishments this week wouldn't have been possible without the aid of my feline assistant Louis....you would never know he lost his right hind leg a few weeks ago....love those gorgeous blue eyes....

Will post an update on Anne Lawle and the Mirror next week....until then....

.... enjoy the stitching....

You Gotta Know When To Fold Em....

I can taste a finish, a finish is near, not long to go now....

A finish on my Sherperd's Fold is nearly at hand. I have been diligently working away on this one each evening this week and it is close....

Isn't it just a darling sweet little pastoral and ever so peaceful scene....

I am a massive fan of bee skeps and I just love these ones up on posts....

The picket fence is in and the posts for the birdhouses, only the birdies and their cute little homes to do....

Except that I think I might fiddle around with those chimneys a bit, we'll see....

Fabulous and I just love those black faced sheep....

So I better start gathering my supplies so I can mount this little beauty into the lid of the gorgeous plum coloured shaker box that cost me an absolute fortune and then I can wait for part 2 to arrive, a scissor fob to go in the box....awgh....

Bye for now

Spiraling Stairs, Some Queens And Many, Many Knots

There's been some serious DIY going on at our house over the past couple of weeks. My hubby is a bit rough around the edges, a blokes bloke , but he sure can pretty much turn his hand to most practical and not so practical tasks. 

We've been living in our converted church for over three years now. It was de-consecrated and converted to a private dwelling in the 80's but not by us. We refurbished the lower level area when we first moved in. It was atrocious as this was the kitchen/living/office areas of the house and it just had to be done but then we moved onto other developments and work halted. Now hubby has a slot free in between projects and our house is starting to get some attention again.The bedrooms are upstairs along with an attic and they are all seriously stuck in the 80's time warp. As we have high pointed church windows on the bottom level the bedroom floors are built around these to allow the windows to be fully exposed at the lower level and not cut off partway up by the floor above as you often see in church conversions in the UK.  This does mean that the bedrooms upstairs as they are currently done don't function terribly well and the space is not well utilised. The Attic space, which kids love, until a few days ago was only accessible via pull down attic stairs in one of the bedrooms which get totally in the way. Hubby located a spiral staircase in need of some TLC and the ideas started to flourish and redecorating has begun again at our house....

Last week we had to climb up into the attic using these pull down attic stairs....

Now we get to walk up this cool spiral staircase....

Starting at the second level ....

 And going up to the 'Gods'.... otherwise known as the Attic

Hubby painted the staircase black with a gold handrail at my behest and replaced the horrid treads with some beautiful Kauri. Our house was built out of kauri in 1881. Kauri is a NZ native tree that is very slow growing and is now under dire threat from Kauri Die Back Disease caused by an introduced fungus.

He also extended the Attic landing to meet the staircase and so we have a much better space up there.

Our littlest one loves the new access to the Attic and is up and down there like a rabbit....

While hubby has been renovating I have been stitching when I can....

My biggest achievement this week was to get most of the hillock's stitched on my mirror. I have started the last one which should work up quite quick as it is stitched in up and down buttonhole needle lace and then it is on to the long and short on the leaves in the canopy.

This mirror is being used as a teaching piece for technique in the Thistle Threads Stumpwork Course and so I am sticking with the course content and treating this as a learning piece. It's turning out pretty neat so far.

Queen stitches were the order of the day for the Queen's right hillock....my first attempts ever at this stitch and I am not unhappy with the result....this is stitched using one strand of Soie de Paris....

Then is was on to stitching up a storm of french Knots on the left hillock....this result was achieved by using three strands of Soie de Paris and blending the threads....love the dimension....

The opposing hillock on the King's right side is a mass of bullion knots forced into a brick pattern by adjusting size with the number of wraps....again three strands of Soie de Paris in the needle....I love the way the shape looks like a stockinged foot....

....then the last hillock is commenced but still a WIP at this point. It  is stitched using one strand of Soie Perlee in alternating up and down buttonhole stitch.

I love looking at this piece when I walk into my studio each morning and thinking....I really am doing this and it is soooooo cool!!!! Those 17th century girls sure knew how to 'rock the needlework' like no other era before or since. Divine!!!

The Civil War Bride block #2 managed to make it to my sewing machine and is now all machine appliqued. I don't have time to hand applique all my projects so this one's getting 'Pfaffed'....

I wasn't happy with the way the sleeves joined the dress as the fusing had slipped during ironing and so rather than peel it off which causes fraying, I attached a lace collar....I am pleased with that result....it looks period...yeah

I decided to put my Ann Lawle aside until I finish the stitching on the Shepard's Bush 'FOLD' as I am rather enjoying it and want to make up the shaker box it goes into. I am close but I have run out of the variegated thread that makes up the grass on the left hillock...gggrrrhhh....so annoying.....nearly every kit one does seems to run out of something....is it always my fault....I don't know about that!!!!! The local (40 minute drive) needlework shop has this brand of thread so I need to go match as best I can....

Love the smyrna crosses on those sheep....it makes them look 'woolly'....

and the eyelets on those flowers make them look 'real pretty'....

Until Next Time - Au Revoir

Mother's Day & Transformation

It's Mother's Day here in New Zealand today. My two sweet darling, 'little' and 'not so little nearly a teenager', girls, came into my bedroom this morning to give me a hug and to share their creativity. 

The 'not so little' one wrote me a cool letter and the 'little' one painted my portrait...don't I look grand....

The weather is fabulous and the husband has taken the two of them into town to get some new sneakers and goggles and to fetch lunch. Three jobs I am freed up from doing so far today. I am planning on not making dinner and 'doing' some stitching. What more could I want, nothing, it's a perfect Mother's Day for a Mum who loves to stitch even if it is a sunny Autumn day outside. I am happiest at home pottering!

The gilt flower outlines on the Mirror project have finished transforming this week from this....

....to this, the final flower....

....to this....the completed couching of the gold twist....

I started sewing the seed for the lawn....the hillock to the right of the Queen is in varying shades of Soie de Paris done in....you guessed it....Queen stitch. Now this is a stitch I have pretty much not done before and so the start is a bit of a learning curve but I did manage to get into the swing of it after changing to the third colour. I like the effect.

I am just loving this project and learning heaps along the way.

Ann Lawle now has two complete bands. Number two went swimmingly once I got into the swing of it. It is real pretty and I like the contrast between the two bands of the white and off white on the 35ct hand dyed linen supplied in the kit from Scarlet Letter

The lace effect of the design is most pleasing to the eye don't you think?

Once I had finished band two on Ann I decided to have a wee breather before starting band three and put a few cross stitches into the 'Fold'....some grass, a sheep, a strawberry and a heart emerge....

Only the tiniest of quilting got done this week. I fused the shapes to the background for the third block of the Civil War Bride....I still have to start the applique though....getting distracted by that mirror....

Happy Mother's Day & Happy Stitching to all the like minded Mum's out there....

Autumnal Progression

I just LoVe the change of the seasons. There is just something so comforting after the dreamy summer weather of heading into the cooler autumnal times of the year. 

The beginning of a time of year where one can more than ever indulge the desire to stitch and create. A time of hunkering down and being all warm and snug inside away from the elements. A time where one can while away the many hours creating something BeaUtiFuLLwith your own hands. AweSomE.

But before I can fully embrace my favourite time of the year, a time of beauty in the garden with all things showing a burst of colour before they begin their hibernation.....

I must do something about this.....there and nearly more apples on the tree than there are leaves.....some stewing is required.....

.....and I seriously need to do something about these and all their other friends that have popped up all over the garden with all the rain we have had of late. There is an old wool bail bag with their name on it just waiting for them to be gathered together and dispatched.....

....my theory is that by leaving this round up until a bit later the plummeting temperatures will mean very low maintenance until spring arrives again....I hope my theory holds out as I would much rather be spending my time doing this....

.....and having spent some time this week stitching, here are my achievements for your viewing pleasure.....

I am over half way around with couching the gold on my Mirror with Doors. Three flowers out of ten to go and then I can move onto the uber exciting stumpwork bit of this piece but I have found even the couching of the gold twist FuN, FuN, FuN. Tricia from Thistle Threads released the third part of CoC II this week and it involves the draping of the curtains on the doors above the king and queen. The needle lace is just to die for but first some grass and leaves will need to be attended to on their hilly mounds. Can't wait.

I got further on stitching the mirror this week than I did with any quilting. This is where I ended up yesterday with my Civil War Bride quilt.

I am machine appliquing this one with Michele Hill's technique of 1.5 x 1.5 tiny blanket stitches. All the pieces are fused for block two and the cutting has begun.

Don't you just love these neat sandpaper boards you can get from Sue Daley and have etched with your own name. So cool, had to have one of course and it stops all those pieces slip sliding away.

I finished the cutwork band on Ann Lawle. I must say that I really enjoyed this bit and the result is just fabulous. Look forward in the future to doing some of the more complex samplers I have with this technique. It was a good one to begin with in learning this technique, for me anyway.

I made a start on band two which is a combination of back stitch, counted satin stitch and double running stitch. It's actually quite taxing setting the first one up and getting all the counting sorted. I decided I would get just one quadrant sorted before I put in all the back stitching for the diamond outlines just to make sure that all my ducks were in a row and not scattered all over the pond. Duck shooting season started here today in NZ and so didn't want them to get all out of kilter and fly away, too risky!!! 

I think I got it right but it is not easy to tell. There is no close up photo with the pattern and the pattern is hand drawn lines on a graph. It still looks good so I will go with it.

After the challenge of setting the second band up on Ann I needed something a little simpler for my evening stitching for a bit so I started the  Shepherd's Bush - FOLD. It's a darling and planned to fit into the lid of the plum coloured shaker box that it was designed for and that I purchased.

Here's my progress on it so far.....isn't the little house a darling.....

..... I shortened the chimney stacks a bit as they seemed real long. It's simple cross stitch for the most part but there are some specialty stitches throughout the piece.

Tha...tha...tha...that's all for now folKs. Hope you have a fun filled and creative weekend wherever you are located on the globe.