New project almost ready to start

Here's the floss toss for 'Silver Frost'. You might be able to see from the photo that I've changed the blues from the more purply, cool blues, to more greenish, warm shades. It all started as I was looking out the necessary beads and decided I really wanted to use these pale aqua ones in something - like NOW! So, I got other thread shades out instead of the stated ones (converted from DMC to Anchor as is often the case with me). Not sure when I'll be able to make a start on it, but I hope I can over the weekend. The fabric needs pressing first.

Petra kindly made a comment on how clear my WIP photos look. I daresay she's come up against the same troubles I've had in the past with evenweave fabrics looking 'liney' and odd on digital photos. After much trial and error, I've found that there are ways to avoid this, which mostly centre on not reducing the image size yourself. I either take the photo from far enough away so that I don't need to reduce it, just crop to size, or leave it fairly large and let Blogger re-size it. Both of these methods seem to work nicely and produce a good, clear image with the evenweave.

A bit on the goldfinches

Not a lot, admittedly, but it's something. I finished the second seedhead, then started on the next bird's head. Did this on Friday evening and hoped to have some more to show by now, but I just didn't get chance to do any more over the weekend proper. Ooof! And here's me about to apply for a half-time job this week too. Dread to think how much (little!) time I'll have to stitch then.....

An Awarding Post!!

Well, here I am again. Without stitching to display as the project I want and need to get on with is being held up completely by the on-line store I ordered the stuff from not getting it to me. It's been almost 2 months now and I have had answers to only 1 of my 3 e-mails. I'm going to try and 'phone them again today. Even if there's nothing to tell me, I think they should at least answer, I'm really dissatisfied with their level of customer communication! I shall tell them so too and think twice about shopping there again. I'm really very cross about it. Grrrr!

Here's something I have on my list for the next couple of months (photo pinched from the SewandSo site). This will be made into a wide format bell-pull as I don't want a repeat performance of the CoS fiasco making up a cushion cover with a rectangular piece. It's also not very good giving an unfinished up gift, so I'll make it a bell-pull. I have a set of ends that are wide enough, although I'll only put one at the top. That way, you make one set last for two pieces!!!

I've been getting awards over the last couple of days, although seeing how much stitching I haven't got done over the last months really makes me wonder why!! Firstly, Veronica gave me this one, which appears to have originated in the German speaking world:

Then this morning came this one, (seems Italian to me, can anyone say for certain?) from Von:

Thank you both very much for your nominations. I'm supposed to pass the Kreativ one onto 5 people and the Brilliante to 7, but I have a nasty headache etc at the mo and just don't feel like it. To be honest, it usually means that almost everyone gets the award in the end and often several times too. Not that I don't appreciate the thought though, 'cos I do!=)

Home again and the 'Pool' finish

Well, here I am, back from doing about 3500km across Central Europe. I was going to post a picture from each country we went to in this post, but that would take a lot longer than it sounds going through all the photos and choosing one etc!! So, I'll be uploading them to my new Webshots travel album soon and will post the link when it's done. We went to France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria though, which was all great, although I was disappointed that we couldn't drive the way the SatNav first suggested from Germany to the Austrian Tyrol - through Switzerland and Leichtenstein, but there are tolls to pay on many European motorways, so we tried to avoid those as the budget was a bit tight.

Here's the completed Ornamental Pool embroidery. MIL said she would rather have it as a framed picture than as a cushion which might get damaged with all the kids she has charging around her living room. She was toying with the idea of a rectangular frame with glass and put glass over it to see how it looked, but we persuaded her to a square frame with a light mount, wooden frame and no glass as the glass really dulled the sheen on the rayon and metallic threads. So has this photo actually. DH took it in strong light and I'm a bit disappointed with it as the shiny bits have all but vanished from sight and the right hand leaf is so affected by the light that you can't see the stitches anymore, (well, you can now somewhat, after auto focusing several times with Photoshop, but it's not as I'd have liked it). So, don't try taking embroidery photos in too strong a light or you'll miss a lot of the textural effects. Won't be able to get a photo of the framed piece until we next visit there and I don't know when that will be.

One of the things I got in the post when I got back was a flyer for the 2008 Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch show, which will be the first weekend in October up at the Great Yorkshire Showground. They advertised this year's Madeira Embroidery competition, theme being 'Glimpses of China'. Well, I wish I'd known about it before, as now there are only about 6 weeks to get the pieces worked and entered and I'm not sure I'll have the time and umph for it. I haven't finally decided againsgt it, I want to look through all my Taiwan photos etc first to see if there's something that might make a winner, but as I'm not that fussed for the prizes, if I'm honest, I wouldn't hold my breath. I think I'd be most interested in the prestige of winning than the goods!!!! We'll see about that one anyway.

Thinking about developing my language learning through blogging, I'm seriously considering opening parallel stitching blogs in Chinese, German and also one in romance languages - basically Spanish with some parts also 'duplicated' in any or all of Italian, French and Portuguese. Spanish and Portuguese speakers, how can I roughly translate Sew in Love so that it will work in both languages? 'Bordar/labores de amor'?? Any ideas from anyone??

Back in Two Weeks!

Tomorrow morning, about 8.30am, we set off for Germany, so this will probably be my last post for a fortnight. I can't really see myself blogging from the Youth Hostels around Europe!!

Haven't got any more photos to share as I haven't been able to do any more on the Pool, but dh is convinced that his mum will love to see it develop whilst we're staying with her and I know she doesn't like to wait for surprises, so I think he could well be right!! I've also put the Goldfinches in my hobby/art bag so that I can stitch something for us whilst we're away as well. If I'm stitching at MIL's, then it also gives us something to talk about and I may learn a few more stitching words and expressions in German too.=)

Sandy in TX asked how I finish rayons. Well, this is one thread where you can't afford to do it the traditional way and you have to knot to start and finish. It's the only way really.

Veronica, thanks for your compliments on the 'even' stitching. I put that in inverted commas as I think it's really rough along the edges and just hope that it will improve as I do more. I daresay even Helen M Stevens didn't produce a very even edge when she was a relatively new embroideress.

I did almost all the ironing - plus 2 more washing loads of it. All done except the bedding. I didn't want to come back to a huge pile like I did after Taiwan, and that on top of the stuff I had to was and press after the trip! So, it's done and it felt good. Get someone else to do it? I'd like to see that! DH wouldn't dream of it and as for paying someone, there isn't the cash to spare, I'm afraid! DIY is the order of the day in this household.

OK, see y'all about 20 July! I'm off to France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria.=)

'Ornamental Pool' - the Great Leap Forward

Well, it feels like a great leap to me and it's a fitting expression for a stitching sinologist to use, isn't it? (If you don't get this one, do a web search for 'great leap forward' and you should soon see what I mean!!) Anyway, the rayons and metallics are now done and the rest is mostly good old stranded cotton and relatively simple embroidery instead of all this couching and messing with tricky threads. It feels good to be getting on with it though and I must say that my music lesson on Tuesady afternoon did me the world of good. Just doing something purely for me for an hour just scratched the self-nuture itch and I felt much more like doing stuff straight afterwards. So, the appearance of a picture of my viola at the top of my 'bits and bobs' sidebar is in grateful recognition of her contribution to keeping me the right side of insanity boundary!!!

Back to the 'Pool', I'm hoping I haven't made a goof in choosing to use rayons for the coloured sections of these elements as the contrast between their sheen and the ordinary cotton is quite stark. Still, they go well with the metallics, which may have looked out of place with cottons, had I used those instead. I wanted the fish etc to stand out, but I may have overdone it. We shall see when it's complete. Here are close-ups of the two recently completed bits. I just need to get the embroidery done by Saturday, I've decided, as it doesn't take too long to finish it up (less complec than COS was!) and I can even do that en route to Germany. Wouldn't be the first time as I distinctly remember finishing up a wedding bell-pull in the car on the way to the ceremony!!!

Well, it's mid-year and time for a stitching review. Actually, I really haven't accomplished much at all, but here's what there is:

*Finally got 'Child of Spring' finished up into a scatter cushion.

*Finished Derwentwater's 'Bluetits and Seedheads' cross stitch, which was started last July.

*Started and worked about 40-50% of Derwentwater's 'Goldfinches and Thistles' cross stitch, but that's now on hold whilst I get all the obligation stitching done, (so much for my 'learning year' without multiple events to stitch for!).

*Worked one small ribbon piece, 'Rose Arch' and mounted it in a card.

*Worked one small gold- and rayonwork dragonfly, but haven't used it for anything yet.

*Worked the 'Branches of Your Life' as a leaving card for my old boss.

So, not really that much in total. Come to think of it, there wasn't much movement in the six month period before that either, with 'bluetits' being started, some bedding made for one wedding and the waterlily and dragonfly pic being done for another, and that was it!

I finally delved into the murky depths of the laundry basket and dealt with all the 'special treatment' stuff in there - hand-washing and bleaching, so that's something, but all that ironing, yack!

Getting nowhere fast....

....well, it feels like it anyway! Not my fault really though as I've been unwell with women's troubles, then a bug, which I still have, but have been able to do a little bit on the Pool the last day or so. Apart from the usual, incessant health issues, I'm finding this one difficult and unwieldy. It's hard to do freestyle in such a large frame (14"), although I didn't have that problem with the dog when I was doing that in a 12" hoop. Add to that that it has to be done and finished up by close of play on Saturday and you can see why this one is turning out somewhat of a thorn in the rear quarters! I can't believe this is all I've got done over the last week and now I'm having trouble with the rayon thread I've started doing the dragonfly with. That stuff looks great in the skein and even in any project you have the patience and endurance to manage to stitch with, but it's a nightmare to work with! I used to think metallics were a bit challenging, but even silk is well behaved compared to rayon.... Grrrr!

The threads and fabric for the next 2 projects have still not arrived either, which is really annoying. I e-mailed the on-line store (who usually despatch within a day or two) and she said she is waiting for the threads to finally come to colour match with the fabric, but as I then told her, some of the threads are not to go with that fabric, but still nothing has come. I really wanted to be able to take a certain project with me when we go away on Monday, but it looks like it's going to have to be the one I planned on doing after these two! Oh well, at least that will make September more relaxed, but the next one is needed for mid-August, then the third for mid-Spetember! Then there's a wedding in November to do something for. Honestly, my hobby is becoming a task, not a thing I do for fun.=( Ugh! I need our forthcoming holiday!

I've finally added my donation to the campaign I've got the widget for. I don't think that charity work is the real solution to the mental/emotional health problem (although it if manages to save one person from killing themselves, it's worth it), as they are deep symptoms of a sick society and it will take God himself to sort that out. However, I wanted to help those ladies reach their goal as I know how important it is to feel that you're doing something for the person who's died, especially as, with suicide, you always feel you've in some way failed them and need to compensate for it.

The new counter part way down my bits and bobs bar is progress on the using up of things I've had hanging around the place for years! I counted up the personal care products that needed using up, some of which I've had for more than a decade already, and they came to about 100! Some are just sample sachets, travel sizes and hotel shampoo thingies that DH has brought back from business trips, but they need using up out of the way. Saves money in the short term too as I won't need to buy soap, shower gel, bath 'additives' and so on for many months to come!! DH is helping by using up the shampoos and sharing the soaps and I hope to get the total to at least 20 by the time we go away for a fortnight on Monday and to deal with another 5 or more whilst we're away. We're probably going to be moving, likely internationally, in early 2010, so the fewer things we need to pack and move then, the better! The next thing will be to go through the cleaning cupboard and see what needs using up from there.