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