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.