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.

Fruit Of The Vine And My 50th Post

 

 My day with a designer in the Hawkes Bay was a fabulous time. The weather was brilliant, the flight down was smooth and the view out the plane window awesome. Hawkes Bay was warm and welcoming. The event was hosted at the Mission Estate Winery which is a beautiful old and elegant building set in amongst the grape vines. Perfect for a project named 'Fruit of the Vine'. The class was small and intimate and mostly not from the Hawkes Bay. Ellen Chester's energy for the project was motivating. Ellen is lovely and I am pleased I had the chance to meet her. Of course it also turns out that she is in Tricia's Cabinet of Curiosities course so we had loads to talk about! We learnt loads of specialty stitches and Ellen gave detailed instructions about stitching and completing the project which was super helpful. It will be a while before I get this one done though. Seeing the pieces stitched was a treat as you just don't get a sense of the dimension in the stitches unless you see them for real.

 

We were very well fed and watered during our day at the winery. Lunch was on the patio with beautiful platters of antipasto, salad and fresh fruit. No wine though or we never would have been able to concentrate in the afternoon ;D

 

 

 

Me & Ellen

 

Our class kit for Fruit of the Vine

 

I have to say that the day was splendid and the only thing that bugged me was totally out of Ellen's control. She wasn't allowed to bring in the beautiful scrimshaw pieces as they are prohibited In New Zealand.....darn!!!! I like them!

 

Thank you Ellen for sharing your time with us all the way down under and thank  you also to Sherelyn from Timeless Treasures for hosting Ellen.

 

I finished block #2 for the Civil War Bride quilt. Gosh there were a lot of stems in that second block and it took a little while to place all the pieces but I am pleased with the result.

 

 

Block #1

 

Block #2

 

The Needleworker's Pocketbook is trucking along. I just finished the thread holder portion last night and am now up to the flowers on the ruler. After that the project will be ready for finishing. The end is nigh!

 

This is the thread holder portion a couple of days ago.

 

 

I have also done a little more towards completing the first block of Di Ford's 'Mountmellick'. This is such a pretty quilt and I am loving the fact that I am getting to do this quilt in the same colours Di chose. She is just unsurpassed at fabric selection for shabby quilts and the brilliant use of fussy cut fabrics.

 

 

English paper pieced corner hexies coming together

 

This is where they will go but they are not stitched yet.

 

Issue #100 of Quiltmania arrived on my doorstep last week with the second instalment of the quilt. This time it is the first border. This second lot of fabrics are just as gorgeous as the first. Bestill my beating heart...

 

Amy Mitten has released the first lessons for the Spring Equinox Casket Keepsakes. and the kit arrived. But of course it is the Autumn Equinox for us here in Nez Zealand. Not sure when I will be able to start this one. The Winter Casket Keepsakes (Summer here) are still sitting very partially completed close to my workspace on my desk but not on it!!!! Quilting has side tracked my time of late.

 

They are sooooo pretty

 

I really really really need to spend some time doing what we needleworker's tend to consider the least fun part......the finishing. It can make or break a project that has taken hours of time stitching.

 

Not only am I nearly there with the Needleworker's Pocketbook but the May Your Hands and Floral Glove are still awaiting completion. The Tire Gold Silk I was waiting on arrived last week so no excuses for finishing the tiny bit on the glove I need to do that I had put aside due to running out of thread for couching the Elizabethan twist.

 

Take a look at these gorgeous wire metallic threads that I received from Tricia at Thistle Threads during the week. I won these in the contest to guess the dimensions of the winning beaded 17th century basket created by the amazingly talented Rachael Kinneson. So pleased I entered as the threads are fabulous.

 

 

 

Hope you all have a fabulous week filled with creativity!!!