I stitched….oh yes I did…

I had a lovely visit with Marg (who still doesn’t have a blog)  and Barb yesterday, nice bit of lunch, some drooling over stitching and lovely conversation!  There just aren’t two nicer people in the whole world! I’m so glad they visited.

All three of us have fallen in love with this little fella from The Workbasket!

I started him yesterday, Cobblestone 28 count jobelan ( I think as I bought this piece of fabric some years ago and there is no colour on the pack) and Kaalund natural silk that I picked up in an odds and ends basket one day and was wondering what I’d do with it.

 I think he looks a little like Hedwig 🙂 although I am making a great assumption that ‘he’ is actually a ‘he’.

The Workbasket - QUaker Owl on 28cnt Cobblestone Jobelan - Kaalund natural silk.

I think Barb was ‘scrounging for fabric” last night so she could start him too!

I’ve stumbled a bit with my stitching lately – just haven’t had the inclination but I was really enjoying this project last night – so much so I am going to go sit with him for abit longer today;)

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A finish and some progress.

I did manage to finish Victoria’s Quaker in January – the 31st to be exact 🙂

Terrible photo but I will take another when she is framed 😉

 

A Mon Amie Pierre – Victoria’s Quaker
Stitched on Brown Apple Bint 32 Count linen in Needlepoint Inc Silk conversion

Started on 22 August 07 – Finished 31 January 08

And my progress on A Quaker Study:

 

Thanks you so much to everyone for your messages after the passing our gorgeous Puku – the family really appreciates it.  I am so very sad.  We are going to plant a red rose in her honour by our front door.

But to bring a smile – here is Banjo relaxing in my hammock today 🙂

He laid there in my hammock in the sun for hours today – we had to put sunscreen on his ears 🙂

For February’s finish I hope it will be the needlepoint piece I started oh so long ago 🙂

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So close….

 I am so close to finishing Victoria’s Quaker now that I think I will make the best use of my three day weekend and work on it all day tomorrow with a chance of a happy dance…I hope Carol and Kaz don’t mind that it’s not Tuesday tomorrow (Carol is done, Kaz is very close too!)  I am enjoying this project so much – it has been a really relaxing stitch.

 

This is Carriage House Samplings – A Quaker Study, my ‘train’ piece which is also a very relaxing stitch.  I tend to agree with Carol – there is just something about the Quaker pieces which is rhythmic and soothing.  I am enjoying this one also.  I am also very happy with my fabric and thread choices on this one.

 

I’ve not stitched much on Paradigm Lost this week – only a very short session, but perhaps tomorrow night I will stitch a little.  Not much progress to show after last week – but there was a bit of frogging!

Thanks everyone so much for your comments on my ‘bad feeling’.  I rang the framer again on Friday morning and he didn’t respond to me until late Friday afternoon – it wasn’t completed yet and he promises me Tuesday.  He thanked me for the extra time.  I”m still feeling very uneasy.  I have 6 other pieces to frame and I think I will just try and work in a long round trip to my former framer (that sounds funny doesn’t it) with whom I feel VERY comfortable.  She understands me and the feelings of attachment I get to my pieces.

As for the stash diet, everyone who knows me is certain that I wont be able to do it – but I am a determined little git and I have wanted new sofas for a year now and we’ve been looking and found them – I don’t want them to get away 🙂  As I’ve mentioned I will be listing a heap of stuff for sale soon and perhaps we can work something out to make sure I don’t run out of stash….again anyone who knows me understands that the likelihood of me running out of stash is about the same as me winning a Grammy – NOT LIKELY!!!

Oh and did I mention I just ordered a new car also 🙂  A brand new Ford Territory!

And exciting Australian Open Tennis…the Frenchman (Tsonga) is doing really well….I am barracking loudly for him 🙂

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Stitching Update

  

Sorry for the lack of updates last week – I was stitching though and I am making great progress on “A Quaker Study”.  This is my train project and it’s  benefiting from long and arduous train journeys (they’re not really that bad but definitely made much better by being able to stitch!)

I am hoping for a January finish for Victoria’s Quaker.  There are three more Tuesdays left (the last one is the 29th) and if it looks like it’s close, I will keep going so I can finish in January.

Paradigm Lost is coming along nicely – I would have hoped to be able to say I’ve finished page 1 –  but as you read earlier the frog visited me and I had to restitch quite a large chunk.  Hopefully after tonight’s stitching effort I can put page 1 to bed.  The motifs on this design are lovely – quite different to others I’ve seen – I am really enjoying it.

Once VQ is done, I am going to replace her on Tuesdays with An Open Heart which has been languishing.  I want to be able to finish that During February so will give her a lot of attention during that month.  I hope to finish one UFO each month or two during 2008.

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VQ Progress and the new ‘train’ piece!

Here is my latest snapshot of my progress on Victoria’s Quaker by A Mon Amie Pierre.  Sorry the photo is a bit dark – but it’s way too hot to go outside or search out some natural light 🙂

Next is my one day’s worth of stitching progress on A Quaker Study by Carriage House Samplings.  I am using a gorgeous piece of Vintage look Cashel (I’m not sure of the provider as the shop had prepackaged it) and I am using Gloriana silk in Rosewood, Needlepoint Inc silk in Crimson Tide and Bordeaux as both of these colours feature in the Rosewood and I only had two skeins of the Gloriana!  I will try and get a better picture of the thread colours next time – but this photo shows the colour of the fabric quite well.

I must admit I like the feel of  these silks much more.

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Another scorcher!

Today is another scorcher, but the cooling is on, the cool change is on the way (it may drop to the high twenties later in the day) and it’s TUESDAY – Victoria’s Quaker day – so I am off to put some time in on that piece!

I’ve also been thinking about a ‘smallish’ piece to take on the train with me to start tomorrow. I am toying with Carriage House’s A Quaker Study which I will do using a NN variegated thread I suspect rather than two separate colours or perhaps a variegated and a plain colour to compliment.

I also have two of the Inigo Rose “aunts” which I just love but I think they may be a little tricky for train stitching (lots of specialty stitches); some blackwork designs, or even some hardanger.

Decisions, decisions.

VQ progress picture later today.

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Progress pics.

Even though I haven’t been posting – I HAVE been stitching.

I concentrated a little bit on Lettres a mon Chat (see earlier post) before Christmas so I could get it done as a gift – but I also made some progress on Victoria’s Quaker.   This picture shows the colour of the fabric quite well.  I am using Needlepoint Inc Silks and I really enjoy stitching with them.

 

I also started Paradigm Lost (Long Dog) as part of the Snowbirds SAL.  Funny thing is I’m not really a snowbird as it’s summer here in Aus – but I can dream.  I’ve never actually seen snow.  I’m using Cafe Au Lait 34 count Heritage Linen and Vicki Claytons’ OMG Red 1153 premium silk which was a lovely gift from my good friend Marg (who STILL doesn’t have a blog).  This is a wonderful design to stitch and VERY hard to put down when you start!  The linen is gorgeous in the hand too.  I’m not really sure about the VC silk though – I am finding it’s fluffing, knotting and tangling quite easily.  I am going to try slightly shorter lengths and see if that helps.

 

On the down side, I have to do quite a bit of frogging on The Workbasket’s Faith, Hope, Love.  I have to frog all the progress i had made on the “Love” section as I missed out an entire column!    Not to worry – I will get that done today and I hope to make this one my last finish for 2007. 

I am hoping that VQ follows in January!

I am really pleased with what I have accomplished this year craft wise.  I’ve made a lot of jewelry and other things for gifts and they’ve all been well received. 

It’s been a good stitching year!

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Can Somebody Please Tell Me Where November Went?

Last time I looked it was November.

Now I wake up and my birthday and Christmas have passed and we are heading fast into a new year!

Good news – I got a great new job and I start 2nd January.  It’s still in the city though so the train trips are not finished for the time being.  It’s a much better job, more responsibility, more opportunity for growth and just a better atmosphere.  I will miss some of the people at my old job – that is always the way, but I am sure I will settle quickly into my new role.

I am managing to stitch quite a bit on the train so that is a bonus.  I managed to complete Lettres a mon Chat in time for it to be a Christmas gift.  I really enjoyed stitching this and I will stitch it again for myself.  I used 32 count Bay Rum evenweave (Silkweaver I think), NN 153 Razzle Dazzle Red and Black DMC.

In other stitchy news, I started Paradigm Lost.  I am using VC premium Silk in OMG Red on 34 count  Heritage Linen in Cafe au Lait – I am happy with this choice.  I did make a bit of a boo boo though – I started the stitching in the top left corner, but I had my fabric around the wrong way – I counted and measured and re-counted and re-measured though and I will have enough fabric this way around too!  Phew!

Victoria’s Quaker got a little stitching on Christmas Night (it was after all Tuesday)  I was hoping to get this finished this year but now I am pushing for a January 2008 completion – my first perhaps!

I also made a heap of jewelry for Christmas gifts but forgot photos – I will have to get some and post at a later date 🙂

   

The Kitties had a great Christmas too!

Cara fell in love with the tyres on the Little Princesses’ new bike! She rubbed herself against the rubber for a good half an hour I think.  I think she just liked the roughness of it!  Was very funny to watch here – she was enraptured with it!

Banjo (remember he is a teenage boy!) decided it was fun to try and unwrap what took me hours to wrap and also thought that the glass of milk left for Santa was just too much temptation!

  

Both kitties were very well behaved around the tree and mostly spent a lot of time napping underneath it.  We didnt’ lose any ornaments at all. 

Puku also had a great Christmas and here is a pic of her enjoying one of her gifts 🙂   You can see that as it gets warmer down-under, she loses great chunks of the last of her winter fur.  We’re getting a large bag full of hair from her every couple of days when we brush her!  She doesn’t like it much!

Too everyone in blogland, I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Christmas day filled with love and laughter.  I also wish for everyone a tremendous 2008 that is filled with every joy you desire.

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A Long Overdue Update

I’ve been flat out, working, being mum, partner, manager, commuter, painter and decorator, cricket supporter, grocery shopper, chef, laundry maid, etc, etc, etc…

I have more than 300 unread posts in my blog reader and a host of unanswered emails for which I apologise profusely! 

Stash wise I’ve managed to find the last three issues of Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly that I needed to complete my set and that has made me one happy woman!  This magazine is one of the best – I just love every issue!

That said I’ve done a bit of stitching.  Victoria’s Quaker is coming along nicely although I’ve almost run out of the dark red (Needlepoint Inc Gothic Red – the darkest one).  I am almost down to the big motif that Carol says seemed to take a long time.  The top of that motif is around half way I think.  This is the only stitching that I am making a real effort to do during the week – tired or not I spend ‘some’ time with VQ each Tuesday!  That swan is a finished bird this week if nothing else!

I’ve done a little more on The Workbasket Faith Hope and Love – this is so much fun to stitch and I think it’s looking great in plain old black DMC.  Sometimes the simpler things….

My M Designs Initials are almost done – I need to frog a bit of a train-travelling-boo-boo but I should have those done this week and will wait to post a picture till then.

I’ve managed to complete a biscornu for an exchange so you can’t see that until it’s received by its recipient…perhaps next week.  I tried something different with this one and I’m not ‘quite’ sure if it was successful or not – I look forward to your comments on that one!

Rosemarkie has been given a little attention…but so I can get the M Designs piece finished quickly I’ve been taking that on the train this past week – Rosemarkie will be back traveling with me when that is done!

It’s a four day weekend here this weekend and while I’ve been busy the first two days, the next two are filled with stitching, stitching and more stitching – I am looking forward to it!

Oh and my knitting (shawl and Irish Hiking Scarf) are both coming along nicely – I did knit at cricket but then it started to rain and I had to stop!  Bugger!

Had a quick visit from Mel today with Niamh and Finn (gorgeous kiddies) and I was also lucky enough to see Anne before she toddles off to that place a little north of here (Sydney – ppppfffft!) and finally I got to meet Sharon 🙂  Always nice to meet in person!  I’ve not had a ‘bad’ meeting yet!

I had a lovely visit with Marg yesterday and saw her completed French Alphabet Sampler – absolutely stunning!  Marg is the queen of BAPs and her next is Long Dog’s Moulin Rouge in black silk – lovingly referred to as Moulin Noir 🙂

The carpet is not in yet so no piccies of the almost finished living area yet!  We did however take delivery of the BEST red rug ever – it’s a lovely long shag-pile rug in a dark red colour and it’s wonderful under foot!  Banjo has taken ownership and is guarding it like nothing else! 

Thanks for all the nice compliments on our choice of colour scheme – I can say that Mother of Mine (MoM) isn’t quite as complimentary!  Hmmmmm.

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Back to work…

Yesterday I returned to work after my prolonged sick leave!  After the hour-thirty on the train and the tram ride up St Kilda Road, I was exhausted by the time I got there!!! I stayed until 3.00 pm or so then left for the long trip home again. 

I did knit a little on the way to work – another 3 pattern repeats on my Irish Hiking Scarf but the train was too crowded to do anything on the way home…schoolkids!

Rosemarkie got a little attention on the way to work this morning and I think I can stitch on the way to work and knit on the way home – this should work!  Here is the small amount I have achieved since last time I posted a picture.  It should grow a bit faster now I am back to work!

Next is Saturday’s progress on Faith Hope Love!  This is moving along quite quickly!  I am really enjoying this one and it’s such a relaxing project to stitch in front of the telly or when the kids are around!

Unfortunately I didn’t stitch last night on the red piece – I was just too tired.   I was tucked up in my little bed very early last night!

Tonight is “Victoria’s Quaker” night and I am feeling not quite as tired as yesterday so I will be able to achieve a little this evening – this is an enjoyable project too 🙂

As an aside, I am slowly building my set of Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly – another two ebay issues arrived today and I think that I only have about 7 issues to go now to have the complete set. 

One of the issues I received today has the first part of a sampler I dearly want to do!  It’s Sharon Cohen’s Millenium cutwork sampler!  If you’re perhaps interested in doing a very leisurely stitch along on this project – leave me a comment!  I wont be able to start till the new year perhaps so you have a while to think about it.  I thought abotu writing to Sharon to see if she could provide a chart for the number 7 or 8 or 9 (depending on when I finish it LOL)..I’ll let you know how it goes!

Now, it’s off to spend some time with Victoria!

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Good morning…

It’s been a glorious weekend but very busy.  I am back to work tomorrow after quite a long time off and I am both dreading and looking forward to it.  However, I have so much to do to be ready to get my 6.55 train in the morning!  Ugh!  I’ve decided my train piece will be Rosemarkie on the way to work and I will knit on the way home 🙂  I’ve almost finished my Irish Hiking scarf!

Last night LHM had a couple of mates over and they stayed up very late watching Japan being trounced by Australia at the world cup…who knows what time they went to sleep!  They were really good – not noisy at all.

I made excellent progress on Faith, Hope, Love and will post piccies later.

Wednesday’s An Open Heart progress was very minor – lots of frogs,  Those woven cross type motifs are very tricky – but I think I’ve finally got them!  Also there were frogs on Thursday when I realised that I had stitched the outside border of the needlepoint piece in the wrong place and had to tear it out and start it again…I’m almost done with that again now though.

Friday I started a gift.

Progress pics in one batch a little later 🙂  Sorry

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Saturday’s Faith, Hope, Love

Faith, Hope, Love by The Workbasket after Saturday’s stitching 🙂  This is a fun one to stitch!  The photo doesn’t really show the colour of the fabric really well.

Yesterday I had a lovely day meeting up with some fellow stitchers at the home of Bernadette in ,e almost rural/suburban Melbourne!  For once, I actually did some stitching 🙂  This is a very unusual occurrence!  Also there were Pat, Marg, Carol, Golda,  Joanne and Marita 🙂 We drooled over each other’s projects and stash, chatted, laughed, ate and drank coffee and thoroughly enjoyed our day.

Oh and just so you don’t think I have reneged on my rotation in week 1 – here is Desert Star with a ‘little’ more progress.  I might actually pick this up again today (my day off).  It’s so close to being done.  I can smell a finish 🙂

 

Desert Star – Nancy’s Needle

Later in the day Junette came by to visit and brought with her a HUGE stack of finishes for me to go ga-ga over.  WOW!  What an incredible box of goodies!  Junette is a fan of Jeanette Douglas and until now I can’t say I’ve ever noticed many of her designs, but the large number that Junette has completed are absolutely beautiful.  Hmmmmm I can see my wishlist growing!  Junette was also knitting some pretty socks! 

Socks will be next on my knitting list I think! 

 

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Rotation Day 3 – Victoria’s Quaker

I started this yesterday as part of a SAL with Carol and Karen and other than the fact that I forgot “G” comes after “F” (can we all spell “FROG”?) I did ok.  I’m a little behind, but I will try and catch up by stitching for a little longer next Tuesday as I will need to relax a ‘bit’ before I go to hospital on Wednesday.

I am using Needlepoint Inc silks (except for the black which is Madeira) and the colours are very much darker than Carol’s or Karen’s.  However, I like the look of it on the R&R Reproductions 32 count linen – Apple Brown. It looks very aged.

I love Madeira silks, they have very dense coverage, but if you’re not used to using them – be warned they are only 4 ply, and 5m in each pack – so you will need to make sure you get enough. 

Today is An Open Heart day.  Funny – I am kinda looking forward to it…weird isn’t it.

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Faith, Hope, Love – The Workbasket – day 1 progress

Day 1 of my ‘rotation’ seemed to go ok.  I am going to try to live up to Carol‘s impressive blogging standard and blog my progress after each session…Carol always blogs so regularly and I LOVE visiting her blog each day, so perhaps I can give you all something to look at as well.  It only takes 30 days to form a new habit they say…

Here is my progress on Faith, Hope, Love by The Workbasket.  I am using 32 count linen in ‘Bay Rum’ and plain old black DMC (2 strands over 2).  I love the look of it – it reminds me of those velvety flocked wallpapers often seen in stately homes and castles!  Sorry for the crooked and washed out photo which doesn’t show the colour of the fabric nicely at all!

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The promised pictures…

 This is the beginnings of the Candle Flame Shawl in 50% wool 37% mohair and some other stuff thrown in for good measure.  I am enjoying it – it’s quite a simple knit and the pattern is easy to remember 🙂

Just for good measure – here is a detail of the pattern for your viewing pleasure!

 

The Mead Scarf – same yarn as the shawl – different colour of course 🙂

 The Irish Hiking Scarf well over halfway 🙂

And just to prove that I do stitch still….if you look really closely you can see some progress on the last initial 🙂  I picked this up tonight as I’d like to finish something and this will probably stitch up in a few days 🙂

I got a parcel from Dragonflydreams today – it contained Victoria’s Quaker from AMAP (and the needlepoint silks to complete it), Faith, Hope, Love from The Workbasket and the latest issue of Sampler and Anqtique Needlework Quarterly, which I will save for my hospital trip on the 29th August (finally!)  I have decided to start both of these.  I have a lovely piece of R&R Reproductions in Apple Brown Bindy the perfect size for Victoria’s Quaker, and some Jobelan in Caramel for Faith Hope and Love.  I think I will just stitch this in plain black.

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Another Quaker Critter

Isn’t this just the cutest ?  I saw Anne’s and I just had to stitch him too 🙂  He’s a Workbasket freebie – the same designer who is responsible for my Quaker Kitty!  Herbie is stitched over one on a scrap of fabric left over from said kitty (28 count Murano Tea) in Weeks Dye Works – Chrysanthemum.

A nice relaxing way to spend my afternoon while the boys went surfing at the beach pictured in my banner image 🙂  That’s Kilcunda Beach 🙂

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Quaker, Shaker and all that….

Elisabeth asked a good question in a recent comment on my Quaker kitty…what does it mean when we use the terms, “Quaker” and Shaker” in relation to our handcrafts?

A little bit of research, both in my personal library and via our good friend “Google”, has kept me busy today trying to come up with a reasonably simple answer.

Shaker relates to a religious group that had particular ‘laws’ governing the creation of architecture, furniture and handcrafts. You can see some examples and learn a little bit more of the history here and here.

Simply, the term shaker can be applied to items manufactured by members of the “Shaker movement” which exhibit clean lines and are items which are devoid of any unnecessary ornament. “Shakers” manufactured all their own furniture. Beds for example were made with short posts as long posts would be an unnecessary waste of timber.

Decorating in the shaker style is clean and unfussy and very orderly – so NOT my style at all, but still, very beautiful. Take a look at the Hancock Shaker Village Website.

“Quakers”, are officially known as “The Religious Society of Friends”. I recall the “Friends” school which was quite near my high school, it’s uniforms were drab grey and the girls and boys both wore hats and gloves and the girls very long dresses (compared to our much shorter uniforms). Again it is a religious based organisation with particular beliefs that I wont go into here, but their embroidery is characterised with the motifs that you see on the various samplers and especially the samplers of the Ackworth School.

I was recently lucky to acquire Carol Humphrey’s book “Quaker Schoolgirl Samplers from Ackworth” and it is a wonderful source of information about the students of Ackworth and the items of needlework produced. Samplers were stitched by many of the girls to refine their technique and items of sewing were sold by the school as fundraising.

The earliest sampler in this style (so far) is dated 1790 and was stitched by Mary Wigham (according to the above reference) who was a student at Ackworth from 1788 – 1791. The sampler was radically different to the earlier samplers in the previous period, which were “sober, educative and mainly monochrome”.

My Quaker Cat has a central motif indicative of the style of the medallions found on many of the Ackworth samplers.

I hope you delve a little bit more into what those terms mean. I’m a sampler lover and particularly the samplers of England/Scotland, etc and European samplers of the 17th and 18th Centuries. I am collecting quite a library of books on samplers and embroidery and I love to read about them and the women who stitched them.

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A Gorgeous Quaker Kitty!

Here he is…finished at last 🙂 I’m not sure how I am going to ‘finish’ him yet but I’m leaning towards a stand up type ornament? I’m really not sure. Another idea was to frame him, stitch the mouse over one and make it into a little pillow to hang from the frame. *sigh* so many decisions….

Quaker Cat, stitched on 28 count Murano “Tea” in Needle Necessities 128.

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Finally…a pic!

Here is the Barrick Samplers “Acorns and Threads” piece I recently finished.  I am still not happy with the colour of the acorns so may frog them again – we will see!

I’ve also been busy making some little gifts to take with me on my trip to Sydney for the get together next weekend.  I’ll post piccies of those later!

This get together is with some stitching friends who have previously gotten together but I was unable to make it last time.  I’ve met some of the ladies here in Melbourne on one occasion and I’ve e-mailed many times with others so it will be lovely to actually meet some new people face to face 🙂  I’m very excited to be able to go.  I’m only going up overnight unfortunately, but I’ve made my shopping list and I am so looking forward to stashing up at Dragonflydreams while I am in Sydney!

I’ve a really big week ahead of me!  I am going to ‘try’ to go back to work tomorrow.  I will see how I go – am still feeling VERY uncomfortable, however I see the surgeon on Thursday so hopefully he will give me some indication on when I might be able to plan for my surgery which will make me feel a whole lot better!

Once the surgery is done, I’ll have a few more weeks off to recover I suspect and that means more stitching time!

I went to the Spotlight sale today and picked up some wool for beanies and a few other things, I also picked up a French knitting reel and used it to ‘french knit’ some silver wire to make a chain for a pendant.  I’ve not taken a photo of that yet but I will do soon!  That was a nifty idea I saw in a beading magazine and I liked it a lot.

I’ve a few more things to finish up to take with me so I had better be off to do those!

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Another finish!

Because my blog has been devoid of pictures this week, I promise to pop back a little later with a picture of a little finish.  It’s Barrick Samplers “Acorns and Threads” with modifications of course.  I left off the title section and the alphabet on the little sampler doesn’t have W, X, Y or Z!  It’s stitched on a random piece of natural linen in Caron Wildflowers “Bark” with a little bit of DMC for good measure :).  I’ll just wander off and press it and post a picture later.

 I have to whip up a few gifts this week to take with me to Sydney, and stitch up a little hardangery thing so Janine can practice cutting  (on the bus on the way to Dragonflydreams!!!)  I’m so excited to be visiting Karen again AND Meeting up with some old friends and making some new ones too 🙂

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