Last One Finished=)

Here's the last of the three hardanger bookmarks.

Now I have no more stitching excuses and have to get on with the dog. Oh, goody! (Not!) Well, the sooner I start, the sooner I finish and the sooner I get to move on to something else.

Well, they're now all in the hands of their new owners, who waxed lyrical about them. I wasn't sure the purple one wasn't a bit lurid. I thought she'd either love it or hate it. Thankfully, she loved it. Whew!

Good luck with the dog? I'll need it.....

(Up-dated 7.30pm)

Next One Done....

Here's the second bookmark backed. It doesn't show up too well, but the backing is dusky pink, so not as dark as it seems on the photo here.

Glad I was able to help with the ring cushion ideas, Lili. I have a lovely hardanger pattern by Anchor which would be great. Really simple, but hardanger always looks impressive!!=) My dh intends to frame the cards he's been given by me too. There are 3 so far, and I'll do him another 2 this year for our 7th wedding anniversary and for his MA graduation too. Should make a nice display, although I dread to think where he's going to hang them - next to no wall space left in here.....

Should have number three bookmark done over the w/e, but I have to do repairs on it first as I accidentally snipped one of the edging stitches whilst cutting it out of the fabric piece and so I need to re-do that. I have a scrap piece to practice on, but I'm told it is possible to replace edging stitches like this, although tricky!

First of the Hardanger Bookmarks Backed

Here's the first of the three hardanger bookmarks complete with the backing felt. It's the right way around this time (!!!) and you can see a nice bit of pink through the cutwork. So, the back is now secure from accident and picking fingers, (you know how some can't resist....)!! The other two are yet to be done, but I might get the purple one done this evening. I hope so, so that they can both go to their new owners on Sunday afternoon.=) Oh, got a 'phone call from one of the recipients of the card below and she was thrilled with it and said she was going to keep it forever! Isn't it lovely when you get such enthusiastic feedback from your handmade gifts!?=)

Got a nice package of stitching goodies from New Stitches' Stitch Direct this morning. A back issue of NS plus a materials pack for 2 hardanger cards, a pack of bell-pull ends, a pattern for another hardanger hanging and a stitcher's notebook, which looks interesting! I'll enjoy filling that in.

Finally managed to work out how to get proper titles here on Blogger, but sad to say, you can't have them in any other colour than grey.=( Shame about that, but maybe they'll improve on that at some point. I like to have my title and text co-ordinating!!!

The Latest Work of Art

I say that very much in inverted commas as I made a total pig's breakfast of mounting the stitching in the card and I'm afraid this picture makes it look even worse than the real thing is! Or maybe I was looking at it with a self-flattering eye!!!!?? Mmm, not sure about the 'talent' bit, Lelia, (although sweet of you to say so). I only seem to have a talent for gaffing it up at the last minute as far as stitching goes at times. Kinda disappointing, but I know no-one notices it half as much as I do!

Anyway, it's a 20th wedding anniversary card, which a fair few of us signed. I'm glad I got it signed before it was finished and mounted or I might have been embarrassed showing it around......!!!!!

Ooodles of thanks to all who posted nice comments on the last entry. It was especially scrummy to hear from personal friends there too.=)

The Wedding!

Managed to get the 'wedding' bellpull done in time, (finished putting it on the hanger in the car on the way to the ceremony!!!), and ,<-here it is.

And this is me with the happy couple receiving their new gift. Just wish I'd got my glasses off fast enough - vanity!






Here's me having the long awaited 'Victory Dance' with my friend, Caleb. About 18 months ago in one of his e-mails he told me he'd been to an Irish barn dance the night before. I replied that, if I ever got better, (I had ME/CFS for 3-4 years), I would dance a set with him and here we jolly well are! One of my other friends told me she didn't expect to see me the next day as she thought I'd be wrecked for ages. Well, this time last year, I would have been virtually crippled for a week or more after just one dance, but after 4 barn dance sets, plus some other stuff, I was perfectly OK. No pay-back fatigue or malaise whatsoever. Yippee!=) So, if you have ME, CFS or FMS and are considering trying Mickel or Reverse Therapy, let me encourage you: Ignore the popular skepticism and misinformation and give it a try. It's hard going, but IT WORKS!

Almost Complete!

The VS design is almost done now - just the ribbon and beadwork to go now.=) Here's progress so far. I like this type of design a lot as there are lots of new things to try and they don't take vry long to do. Also, good instructions to follow, instead of DIY-ing it like the last wedding gift. Panic stations!!

Nothing more to report on the stitching front, except that there's another card coming up soon as some friends have their 20th wedding very soon and I think that deserves a nice card. Then there's a 10th in May...

Miraculous!

I can see the floor in my bedroom! Look at these before and after shots. This first one is from late last year before I started the clear-out, and the second I just took a few minutes ago.

It took a long time and a lot of work sorting out all this junk and putting it, not just in another temporary parking spot, but actually dealing with it once and for all. YIPPEE!

Now then, on the stitching front: I haven't backed the bookmarks yet, but I am going to as it protects the embroidery from picking fingers, accidents and other such horrors as well as giving a nice bit of colour through the cutwork and just finishing the whole thing off neatly. Also, I noticed that I actually snipped one of the edging stitches on the white one, (which is for DH, who collects bookmarks), and so need to repair that. Someone on a hardanger newsgroup assured me that it can be done and so I've fished out a piece of scrap fabric to practice on first.

Made a start on Hongda and Ke's 'wedding' gift and here it is so far:

It's adapted slightly from the chatelaine design on the Victoria Sampler 'Thoughts of You' pattern, which definitely came from you, Petra!! You're the only one whose ever bought me VS designs and I know I haven't bought any myself - yet! More on that one soon, no doubt.

Unbacked, but stitching complete.

Here are the bookmarks in their present condition. They're not backed as yet, I intend to sew a co-ordinating piece of felt to the back of each one so as to protect (and hide!!!) the back of the work as well as to make a nice show through the cutwork bits.=)

OK, someone asked about the pattern. They're from a Donna M Olsen 'Satin Stitches' collection pattern, that I got in an exchange. Was it from you, Petra?? They're just bare charts with next to no instructions, so I wouldn't recommend them for beginners, or near beginners, in hardanger. The patterns are lovely and I have another called '3 Small Doilies' that also was part of an exchange, but as there are next to no working instructions and even the charting for the filling stitches is not clear, (I had to look one up in the 'Anchor Book of Hardanger' - the fancy filling stitch on the white/blue/silver one), only go for these if you're more experienced and confident with this type of work. To start out with, I recommend Mary Hickmott's 'Easing Into Hardanger' and 'Moving on in Hardanger'.

Many thanks again for all the encouraging comments. As Lili rightly says on her blog, that's what makes it worthwhile! You can have the world's most spectactular blog, but if you don't know that people are looking at and enjoying it, what's the point?=)

Hope to get a re-start back on the dog and get going on the 'wedding' present over the next few days, but first - housework, then, with that out of the way, I can relax and stitch with a good conscience! So no, work first, then pleasure afterwards without a nagging feeling that I should be doing.....

Added in later: NOOOOOOO! Just realised that the two coloured bookmarks were photographed upside down! So, what you are seeing here is the back of them! Well, no time to re-do it just now, but you'll get the front when I have them backed etc and re-photograph them. LOL!!!=)

Here it is:

The completed 'Welcome' which went down very well with the bride and groom when I gave it to them just a short while ago.=) Looks much better complete than it did in progress and, it's true that you're often your own worst critic, so..... Still wish the lettering had been more even, but you can't have it all ways. They liked it and that's the main thing, right?

Here's the latest status on the bookmarks: