Last Posting of 2009

As you see from this photo, I chose to start on the cross stitch and I've also thought of someone to give it to. My local friend, Meishan, who's really helped and taken an interest in us since we've been here is moving next month, so I thought I'd give her this cute pic as a little something to put in her new room over in Ilan. I must try to find some sort of hanging mechanism here, like a bell-pull end or something so I can give here a complete piece ready to display. I know where I can get handbag handles and that sort of thing, so there may be what I need in that craft shop. Anyway, I've already applied a bit of unintentional artistic license to this piece - got the 2 pink shades in the rose bloom the wrong way around. Numpty! Anyway, I got quite a bit done owing to having taken last night and this morning off.

I forgot last time to thank everyone for the kind comments on the bee finish. He isn't really that realistic though as DH and I had a look at some real bees on-line and found that mine was really rather too fat and also the wings are incorrectly proportioned and placed. Still, it was only a simple kit and done mostly to get to grips with the technique. I've thought of someone to give that to as well - a local busy bee who always looks stressed out! Just need a small, round frame of some sort now.

I'm planning to take the hardanger away with me this weekend as it will be easier to work in transit being just 2 threads, ie none of the constant colour changes you get with cross stitch etc. Should have something to show there early next week, all being well.

I've never celebrated new year, never saw anything in it really, but I still wish everyone all the best for the future. Thanks a lot for all your interest in and support for my blog and stitching projects and may we all get lots of needlework done this coming year!=)

2009 Stitching Review and 2010 Plans

Many stitching bloggers do a review of their needlecraft year, so here's mine for this year about to end:

Finished projects can be seen in the sidebar on the left of my blog, under the Feedjit thingy. Altogether, there seem to have been 11, of which 4 were started the year before (2 C&G samples and 2 WIPs that took a bit of a long time!!) and 1 was stitched in early 2008, but just finished up into the casket this summer gone. So, there have been a grand total of 6 pure 2009 finishes. Not really a very productive year, but it's been a busy one with the international move and dealing with the boomerang 'flu in the spring and repeated viruses out here since October.

My goals set for this year at this time last year were:

* Finish all WIPs, including C&G stuff - I pretty much managed this as far as it went.
* Get my C&G work done in time, (mid-May for this year's work) - I didn't succeed here thanks to lousy health from January-May and then moving away. Might well come back to C&G in 2011.
* Do a hardanger cushion for my Taiwanese friend - yes, I did this, only I haven't given it to her yet!!
* Stitch something for my 2nd sister before she goes abroad for a year, preferably something with practical use. - I didn't get to this, I was just not up to it at the time, but she doesn't live too far from me at the mo and I have chance to do something special for her soon.
* Take several kits with me when we go back to Taiwan in late August/early September, should all go according to plan, that is!!! - Yes, all this went to plan and I've even worked one of the kits - the stumpwork bee and flowers from the last post.
* DH's 10th anniversary card - probably a CQ heart. - I did a strawberry heart in silks instead.
* Do some small pieces that I want to do. No more obligation stitching! - Ha! No, this didn't happen, I was just just busy or too unwell. Actually, I've decided that obligation stitching isn't such a bad thing after all. It gets stuff done and the 'need' for a gift gets my creative juices flowing, frankly, when I stitch something for the sake of it, I then have it hanging around whilst I think of something to do with it!

I also stitched 2 Lizzie*Kate seasonal thingies and that Anchor Creative Embroidery kit with the dragonfly and waterlily and was featured on Mary Corbet's listing in the summer, which caused an enormous increase in site traffic for 3 days!! Many thanks to Mary and to all the others who've listed me in one way or another over the past year. My blog made it onto Sharon B's 'S' list too, but that was in December 2008 and also created a fair amount of fresh traffic over a few days.

So much for 2009, what about next year? Well, mostly I'll be carrying on working through the kits and designs I've brought with me, but there are a couple of openings for some more design work. I have the Brazilian kit I posted about recently out to do soon, but I've realised that the fabric is really too yellow for my needs. It doesn't match the threads anything like as well as white will, so I need to organise another piece of fabric for that, (there are some pieces of silk in other kits I have with me that I don't think I'll want to do on silk, so one of those will probably do) and get the design re-traced. I also need to source some tracing paper.... There's also a goldwork string instrument kit out ready which also needs tracing and, as I neglected to bring the photo with me, an image sourcing as well!!

Whilst waiting for those to get going, I've set up a hardanger needlecase, a green version of this one (scroll down past the chaffinches cross stitch), and a cross stitch which you can see the floss tosses for below as well as a small pic of what the XS will be - a couple of cute field mice with some blackberries.



The only question now is which to start on first?? We're away this weekend, so I want to take one of them to work on whilst we're sat on the coach for 5 hours.

Stumpwork Bee

I've finally completed the DMC stumpwork bee kit. Sadly, these kits (there were about 6 in the series) are no longer on the market, which I think is a shame given the helpfulness of kits when learning a new technique. You have all you need to complete the project as well as detailed instructions and diagrams that walk you through the process without the need to go and buy a number of specialist items.

Anyway, here's the creation of the bee itself in turkey stitch/ghiordes knots.

Here's the turkey stitch trimmed and combed out (with an old toothbrush)

Below I've added in the legs in DMC black metallic stranded thread and eyes using one black seed bead each:

One of the wings in progress (wire secured to a double thickness of calico, then wing worked in DMC white stranded metallic. Cut it free from calico pad by snipping between the calico layers.):

Wings attatched from various angles

And the completed piece in its entirety

© Elizabeth Braun 2009

Finished 'Spring'

Here it is, TA-DA->

I've given up on enlarging the photo via the 'Edit Html' tab as it always ends up blurred, no matter what I do, so I've done it right aligned so it can be clicked on for a larger size. Whenever I centre a photo, it can't be clicked on, although I've been able to click on centred photos on others' blogs. Pah! Anyway, good to have another WIP completed.=) I hope the bottom bit straightens up when framed, which won't be done until we go home, I shouldn't think. Hoping to get on with the bee next.

I've decided to get a rental viola very soon, probably early in the new year. I do rather miss playing and it would be a waste to have brought so much sheet music etc with me and not to use it. I plan to shop around for the best deal over the next couple of weeks and take up the most attractive one as and when. There are no public holidays here, (except 1 Jan, I think), so nothing to be interrupted by!!

Anyone whose been on blog 'for real' lately will have seen that I've added photos of all my pieces from this year down the sidebar under the Feedjit thingy, and also a nice, cheery 'welcome' in cross stitch at the top. So, lots of extra pictures on regular display now.

Hardanger finally finished up!

After three attempts at getting the zip in today, I eventually managed it this evening. The first time I had the edges too far apart, the second time too far over the actual fastening part and the third time I finally had the good sense to set it very carefully! Anyway, however and whatever, here it is with better photo quality today than originally posted, although the thread colours still don't show!=( I've realised that it's not the original photo that was the problem, it was using the HTML editor to enlarge it -it made it blurred! Odd as the original was easily big enough, but I guess it doesn't work well trying to do this with counted thread fabrics. Also, using the 'centre' justification for photos leaves them unclickable on to see the full size version, so a change of tack is needed for counted thread finishes, methinks!

I've done quite a bit more on 'Spring' and just have the flower pots and label to put on now. I thought that these L*K designs would be quick and fun to stitch, but I've found them to be quite long-winded and rather boring, if I'm honest. I will finish the series as I've had them for years and have gone to the trouble of doing almost two so far, and I do love 'four seasons' collections. I hope they can eventually go in Sir's new study when we go home. we may find a way of displaying them here in the meantime.

We bought a set of the most beautiful lilac rose bedding this week, (which I'd been hoping for for a few weeks!) and that made me really want to pretty up our bedroom. Once I get the rest of the housework up to date (ha-ha-ha!) then I want to make a start on getting things in there looking good. This is the fabric:

And this is a Brazilian embroidery kit that I want to work up to go on the wall. The actual thread colours match the bedding really well.

Not going to meet my target.....

...but I've been doing the best I can. I've been really quite low in strength with virus after virus after virus of late and have, basically, just lost most of the school holidays/vacation to being laid flat with another one. Anyway, I'm still alive and am determined to go to the doctor on Tuesday even if I feel pounds better (although it won't do much good, as I got no help from UK docs for essentially the same problem), and see if s/he has anything of actual use to suggest.

I've done some of the cross stitch as you can see here:

And here is the first of the 4 wired bee's wings for the stumpwork, shown rather larger than life:

I've also cut the backing fabric to size for the hardanger cushion/pillow and pressed all that ready to be tacked and sewn together and we went to Costco for the first time on Monday night where I got some watercolour pencils. They're only the kids' version, but it's a good brand nonetheless and will do to get going with the medium - if I can ever sit up long enough to draw!!!! It's a good thing I'm not the moaning, whining type, I'll tell you!


So, I think there's no danger of my having even one of these pieces finished by the time we get back to language classes on Wednesday, but I will at least have made some progress. Oh, and I'm reading Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Sylvia's Lovers', which I'm not finding myself getting on with so far. I've only read the first 5 chapters, but I find the regional dialects hard going and the subject hasn't hit the spot yet. Early days yet though.

Change of look

So, I've just given my blog a bit of a new look in terms of a new colour scheme in aqua blues and 4 new header photos, mostly of my work from the last year, (the fish is from summer '08). Those following along on reader software will need to click through to have a look, if you so desire! Some of the older posts won't look so good anymore as I chose the text colours on each post to co-ordinate with both the photos and the blog colour scheme. I think I'll now just use the default text colour that I've created for the blog for most postings.

Went to the fabric market today, but didn't get anything as, although there were lots of terrific things, I wasn't really in a buying mood and what's there is stuff I would need a sewing machine to put to good use, so not much point in going mad there just yet. I will at some point though, I feel certain of that!

Flatwork complete on stumpwork piece

Sometimes I hate Blogger! I just typed up this whole post, then highlighted it to change the colour - then it kindly deleted the whole thing. NEVER try to highlight the whole passage using Crtl+Shft+Home/End to change the colour. This has happened to me just tooooo often now and, of course, this time, it autosaved just after the deletion, so I've had to start again. Grrrrrr!!

Anyway....

As you can see from this photo I've just taken, I'm making some really discernible progress on the DMC stumpwork bee design. Whilst watching a DVD another British friend who lives here now lent us, I got all the padded satin stitch done, plus the flower centres and have only the bee itself to do - the real raised part. I plan to have all my WIPs completed before we go back to classes on 2 December (a week on Wednesday), so you should soon be able to see, not only this piece finished, but also the L*K Spring cross stitch, the hardanger finished up into the cushion/pillow proper and, all being well, my camera bag should get made up too. I also have a dress to finish altering, although the weather is hardly fit for a sleeveless dress right now. It's unseasonably cold at the mo and has been for most of the time since late September. I am so SICK of rain!

I've been stash building again and got these 10 DMC linen threads from the shop I posted the photo of a few weeks ago. They're the only place so far that I've found who do anything more than just plain DMC stranded cotton. I use Anchor and have brought them all with me anyway, so no use to me just now! I'll keep on looking though and it feels good to be hoarding again!!! Going to a special fabric market tomorrow (where I got these last spring), so will have some gorgeous stuff to showcase, no doubt!


Right, now DON'T get deleted again, PLEASE!!? (It didn't - I used the mouse buttons instead....)

PS: Thanks to Susan for the tips on how to get decent sized photos!

A little more on the stumpwork piece

But not much! I made a start on the larger flowers which are worked in padded satin stitch. The padding is really quick to work as it doesn't have to be so flat and even, or even fit into the shape and cover the awful, thick pattern lines so well. The lines on this thing are, as is usual with many kits, far too thick! It doesn't matter so much with large blocks to be worked, but when it's a line to be covered with thin backstitch or stemstitch, it's really bad! I expect many of us embroiderers have had the same problem at some time. Anyway, the point of this photo is to show how the padding is done with this stitch.

Not done enough on the XS to warrant another photo, but school breaks up for nearly 2 weeks next Friday, so I hope to get some art, stitching and tourism in!!

Thanks everyone for keeping on visiting here.=) I've noticed a couple of the blogs I used to visit have gone 'private' of late, namely 'Stitchologist' whose animal cross stitches I rather enjoyed, and Pierrette's 'Love to Stitch 99'. I wondered why Pierrette hadn't been stitching, and now I know she probably has, I just haven't been added as an invited reader - or the invitiation got lost in the e-mail address change. So, if you ladies are tuned in, get in touch via Blogger if you don't mind my reading your blog so I can get access.=)

New L*K and stumpwork progress

I've got the 'Spring' button up sampler well and truly in progress now:

And I've also been working some more on the stumpwork piece:

As you can see, I haven't finished the flatwork yet, but the next thing to do is some padded satin stitch, thus starting the raised sort of elements. After that is the bee...

I've finished re-reading 'North and South' and yesterday was lent the DVD of the BBC version of it, so I'm looking forward to watching that. It'd been long enough since I read the book the first time for it to be almost fresh reading, so remember that and don't throw out your good novels - come back to them in 5+ years' time!!!=) Marked to read next is 'Queen Victoria - A Personal History', which I'm hoping will be light enough reading to pass for a novel. I'm also reading 'Anne of Green Gables' in Chinese!!!

'Winter’ finished

I’ve finished stitching the Lizzie*Kate ‘Winter’ button-up piece. Anyone familiar with the design will see that it’s been thoroughly de-Christmassed in that I’ve omitted the Christmas stocking and the star on the tree as well as not put the red beads on the tree, so it’s much more neutral now. DH is going to try and find some way of displaying it in a temporary mount on the wall, which will be nice.


I also did this pastel picture as a copy from a photograph. I couldn’t get to sleep one night and found I was thinking about art and getting on with some, so I got up and made a start on this one. We’re going to put a little mount around that too and pop it on the wall.


Haven’t made a lot of progress on the stumpwork, as you can see here. I think I’m preferring very easy things at the moment, like cross stitch, but that may have something to do with being so dratted tired and a bit sick of using my weary brain for school and just taking care of ordinary things which, as anyone whose lived abroad will know, can be a strain when you have to do it in another language! Anyway, I did some of it yesterday and hope to get a bit more done by and by.


I’ve been reading quite a bit again and finished ‘The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless’ by Eliza Haywood yesterday. It was the first 18th century novel I’d read for a long time after quite a number of Victorian sensation novels, so it seemed a bit slow at times, but it had its thrills. If what one reads there is anything to go by, adultery and all manner of clandestine encounters were very common amongst the middle and upper classes in those days! Seems the lower classes led the way in morality!! Of course, today, there's not much conception of morals at all and what's socially acceptable, or just what one can get away with, is often mistaken for what’s actually right......

L*K progress

My Lizzie*Kate cross stitch is coming on nicely, I've almost finished it! The walls in our new place are that painful white colour that's so start and cold that it looks grey, so I'm trying to get a few nice things done - stitching and artwork - to put on the walls to break up the monotony and make the place look more like a home and less like, well, I can't think what! A Taiwanese friend came to visit yesterday and as she walked in, she exclaimed, 'Oh, how pretty it is!' Well, it isn't (there's nothing completed yet), it's just clean, that's all!

Not done enough on the stumpwork to merit a photo yet. The last shot showed just over half of one leaf done and now there's just over two and half leaves done! Hope to have something to post on that one next week.

I don't have the internet at home now and we're not planning to get it installed (need to conserve funds, esp with the pound being so low against the Taiwan dollar), so please excuse my not having visited your blogs and commented etc. I just can't most of the time. I bring my laptop in to school to update stuff on Mondays and can use the free computer lab other days, but there I don't have access to my bookmarks, of course, so not so easy! Anyway, I'm grateful for folk still visiting me here.=)

Not managed to get a viola to play as yet, but hope to organise that very soon. Been reading a fair bit though (although I agree with Jane Bennet's comment in the latest 'Pride & Prejudice' adaptation, 'I wish I read more, but there always seems to be so many other things to do.'), and have read 'Uncle Silas', re-read 'Northanger Abbey' and am now on with 'The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless'.

Still alive!=)

Long time no post, huh? Sorry for the long silence on here, but I’ve had little or nothing to show stitching wise. I know some have been looking at my life in Taiwan blog, so they know I’m still alive, but judging by the drop in subscriptions on Google Reader, some have given up on me! Well, I’m still here and still stitching!


I’ve finally got the hardanger cushion cover done and am now just waiting to wash it out (there’s a light brown mark just outside the border on one edge) and then get it made up. I’m really cross that, no matter how I try, I just CANNOT get the colour to show up in the threads. It looks virtually white on white, but it’s actually a lovely baby pink and mid lilac shade of thread used. Complete washout when it comes to photography though! And no, you can’t see the shade on the enlargement either – not even a small fraction of it. Why it just won’t show up I can’t imagine! But anyway, the stitching is done and I just need some pins so I can get it all finished up and then sent on to my friend. Sadly, although I saw her the 2nd day I was over here, I can’t remember where I had her write her new address down for me, but I can send it c/o someone else, so all is not lost.=)

I started 2 new pieces, a Lizzie*Kate cross stitch, the Winter Button-Up design and a DMC stumpwork kit – a bee design. Haven’t done much of that as you can see and, anyone who knows the design will see that I’ve de-Christmassed the Winter design so far by omitting the stocking and the star on the evergreen. I won’t be putting the red French knot baubles on the tree either!!


The last photo above is my thread drawer! I brought my complete set of Anchor stranded cottons, some pearl cottons I needed for certain designs I brought (one I thought I’d brought then realised I hadn’t – after specially buying fabric for it too! So, I got another copy on E-bay last week!) and a couple of bags of selected metallics and beads. I’m missing my workboxes though and have wanted my Marlitt (rayons) once or twice. Still, I’ve found a couple of stitching shops – here’s the one nearest to my school, and they seem to do DMC Satin, which I want to collect along with their linen threads, so I might console myself with those!


More soon – it won’t be another month before I post – promise!

First Post from Taiwan

Hi everyone!

If you've been clicking through to my actual blog, you'll have seen that I deleted the countdown widget and changed the location bit a week ago, and some of you have found your way across to my new blog about what we're up to here (link on left with the others). I created that blog as a way for home friends to keep up to date with us without my having to write the same thing to dozens of people over and over again or send group e-mails (which often get left unread!!), but readers here are welcome to click over there too. Thanks for taking an interest.=) This site will stay on its usual topic for the most part.

Our boxes haven't yet been delivered as we've had some trouble negotiating customs duties, but they should be with us soon and we should also be able to get some cash again tomorrow, so I hope to get some watercolour paper soon.

I did get my current WIP out and pressed today so I could work on it again. It felt good to be doing some needlework, (esp after that 'Stitching as Healing' article in the latest issue of 'Inspirations'), and here's the photo I took just before starting stitching today, focusing on the centre elements which are almost complete now. I managed to get my underskirts completed in good time too and wore one for the first time the other day.=)

I've been to one music shop and tried a viola there out for size, but I felt it didn't qualify for the description of 'dirt cheap' that I was given by someone whose lived here a while. So, I'll be shopping around.

10 days to go....

And I am now the proud owner of 2 homemade underskirts that still need elastic putting in them!! You can hardly get underskirts in the UK, certainly not decent, cool ones - just nylon stuff and totally the wrong shape and length, so I've had to fish out my old Vogue pattern and run up 3 new, lightweight cotton ones.=) I got them all cut out and then managed to lose the instruction sheet! Thankfully, I'd done it before and had read the instructions through a night or so before I was ready to start the sewing, so I managed to do everything OK - I think! As I mentioned, just need to put the elastic in, but that's a do-by-hand job, so I've been able to put the machine way for the time being. I hope to get time to make myself a little camera bag with some of the lovely fabric I got in Taiwan last spring and have already cut the main pieces out and found a design I can adapt in one of my books. Hope I get chance now....

Hardanger still coming on slowly. This is how far I've got - done all the surface work and removed the threads. Don't suppose I'll have chance to finish this one before we go which is rather a let-down as it's for someone I hope to see the first weekend we're over there and I didn't really want to take the larger R&R frames I'd need to work it in. Anyway, can't be helped and they are nice and light when all's said and done. The colour in the thread seems to have come out a bit better with the flash, but it's still a far cry from the actual thing.=(

No Wanda, I don't think you'd be flipping. I think you'd do the same as we've done - plan well in advance and then just get on with things as their time arrives. For us, now the time has arrived for packing up our belongings and moving them into storage. There are 13 boxes in the storage room already - mostly books and another 2 here waiting to be filled as you can see here:

These are the bags waiting to go to the charity shop/thrift store:

This is my favourite. As the car boot/trunk needs to be clear for taking boxes to and fro, we've had to take the usual motoring supplies out and, frankly, the only place I could find space for them where they wouldn't be in the way and need constant moving was in the bathroom!!

And this last shot is what you do when you have surplus flour, sugar, oil and cocoa and friends are throwing a little leaving do for you:

Still alive!

And even still stitching from time to time, but those times are a little rare at the moment.=( Here's the band sampler finally made up into a bell-pull, so I have been doing something I can show off.

The hardanger is still in progress and I hope I can get it done before we go! Only 2 more weeks and we move out of our home, then we fly out 2 days later. LOTS to do and I'll be amazed (and delighted) if I actually get all I need to do done in time, given that we're away the last weekend and have what seems like copious farewell dinners etc to go to. So much sewing etc to do as well as packing up.

Managed to sell rather a lot on E-bay and got shut of more or less everything I listed on there, except the stitching mags. I only listed a dozen or so to test the water, but it was stone cold, so I dropped that whole idea. The last 5 listings end tomorrow night (including the pattern for the band sampler, if you want to have a go at it!) and that will, hopefully, be it for my and E-bay sales for now. I've made about £300, which is great, considering that DH thought I might make £50 if I was lucky, and have cleared out all the threads I know I'll never use as well as several other stitching things and about half of my make-up. It's amazed me what people are willing to buy and how much, in some cases, they're willing to pay for it! I sold 2 Victoria Sampler designs with their relevant accessory packs and one went for about £15!

We've begun to pack some things up already and should be starting to move the boxes into the storage room at the weekend. Some local friends are borrowing certain things and I did a good bit of giving away this evening as well. Next up is sorting through the clothes into 3 piles: Take with me, save for later and give to charity. Ooof! Is it any wonder I've had no time to post or stitch? What does amaze me is that, during this last silent month, I've gained about half a dozen new followers!!

Other than the above, we've got our visas sorted now and have been offered one place to live with the option of another as well, so we won't be homeless when we get over there. Friends here are housing us for the last 2 days before we go, helping us with last minute linens and taking us to the airport as well. Banks are all sorted for international use and accounts being closed left, right and centre here. It's all happening, is very late at night and I should be in bed!

GOODNIGHT!=)

Too busy for much stitching

So, I haven't got too much further on the hardanger cushion cover as yet as I've just been too busy of late with being more or less away all weekend and also dealing with all the E-bay auction stuff. I've just listed a few more cosmetic items and the first of a whole load of stitching magazines, the rest of which will go up on Thursday, all being well. Link to the listings is here. There have also been quite a number of threads re-listed, including a few dozen Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, so if you're building up your collection, please do buy some from me! I sold 79 items recently and have been dealing with sending those out today, but still have a lot more to go, so I hope......

Anyway, still haven't got the band sampler finished up as, there I was, happily stitching away on the edging and then realised that I'd got the whole thing the wrong way around and will need to unpick it and start again. No, it can't be avoided.=( I also still can't get the colours to show well on the hardanger piece. Last time they showed a little on the full sized photo, as Wanda found out, but not true to the real thing at all! The photo showed them much more peach than they really are and a good deal paler. DH knows a lot about photography, so I'll ask his help in taking the final shot, but I got a bit more to show by taking it at this odd angle!!

Wanda mentioned about our prep for the move etc and that we must be doing more than I'm letting on here. Well, DH is working hard to get enough money in to last us at least a year (maybe a good bit longer, we'll see), the flights, storage room and trip to London to get the visas are booked and paid for. We're also in the process of getting any medical stuff that needs doing taken care of, ie dental work and I must get my eyes tested etc too. Other than that and trying to sell stuff, there's not much more we can do at this point. Most things are just enquiries and research ie what flats/apartments are like and how much they are, how we can send some of our stuff on by carrier etc.

Hope I'll have time for more soon, but I can't think when....

Hardanger WIP

Here's the latest WIP, another hardanger cushion cover. I'm really disappointed with the photo as I had to increase the contrast as far as I could without making the picture quality keel over and die, but the colour in the thread still hardly shows! I remember trying to take a photo of the threads themselves and having the same problem, but what you see a very poor representation of here is Caron's Watercolors in 'Iced Lavendar' which I chose to replace the suggested 'Dawn' shade in the pattern (which is Mary Hickmott's 'Soft as Snow' from 'New Stitches' issue 55.) I was also really very disappointed with the photos in the last posting as every one, although I used 'medium' and this normally only happens with the 'large' sized ones, did not click through to the full sized pic. Some of them really lent themselves well to larger images and so that was a shame! Anyway, larger sizes are available on my Webshots as always.

I've begun to list an enormous quantity of stuff on E-bay. So far there are 117 listings - 2 of which have bids thus far, so I will at least sell something!! What I've got up so far are most of the threads I'm selling - lots of WDW and GAST in 'sets' of two for a starting price of 99p for the set. Actually, pretty much everything is 99p, including the sets of 7 Six Strand Sweets and so on and some patterns that I'll either never stitch or already have, (the 'Oriental Dress', 'Chinese Junk', 'Bluetits', 'Goldfinches' and the last hardanger cushion are up for grabs - all for 99p!), so please take a look and, preferably buy something - or several somethings!! I'm not sure if the listings show up as available outside of the UK, but I am willing to ship anywhere in the world for the extra postage costs, so please take some of these things off my hands, no matter where you're based! There'll be books, ladies' clothes and more stitching things to come (XS mags mostly as well as some more threads etc), so do keep checking back. I'll include the link in every post until it's all gone so that those reading on reader software can click through and visit.=)

I've also cut all the posts (not many) from my other language blogs and inserted those sections on here. I wasn't using them much and I realised that it was just taking up room on Picassa, which would, in time, mean that I had much less lifespan for this blog etc than I might want, esp with so many travels coming up. So, from time to time, when I'm feeling diligent, I'll post a summary in German and/or Chinese and any other language that takes my fancy - I'm using the Japanese freebie at Rocket at the mo and DH is enjoying taking his first steps in Spanish with the on-line course I bought him as part of his anniverary gift!

Some Finishes!

I may not have posted over the last fortnight, but I have been busy with the needles, so have some things to show you now!

First up is the completed goldleaf dragonfly design. I did get this finished a couple of weeks ago, but what with one technical problem or another (camera was taking really dark photos, Photoshop Elements stopped saving on the PC and so I couldn't edit anything to any good purpose etc), I haven't been able to get it to you until now. Here's both the full thing and a close-up of the flower centre etc, which was worked with bright check purl (aka chips) in both gold and silver as well as French knots in one strand each of pink Reflecta and gold Ophir.

And here's the initial response to it!!

This is DH's 10th anniversary card which I adapted from a strawberry circlet design in an iron-on transfer booklet and worked in Pipers silks on a piece of blue-grey Mulberry Silks silk fabric.

Last February I stitched a simple goldwork dragonfly on the most amazing piece of royal blue silk. One of my friends, Abi, admired it on my Webshots and since then I'd been looking for a suitable 'format' to give it to her in, but it was too big for a card etc etc. Well, she recently got engaged and so I used the pattern in the latest issue of 'Stitch' to turn it into a casket:

And filled it with chocolates:

Not very practical, but well receieved nonetheless!!=)

DH bought me a super-duper new digital camera for part of my anniversary present (the other part was some good quality watercolours, which I haven't tried out yet), and we also got me a new laptop (not an anniversary gift), so I'm back in business technology-wise and, yes, Photoshop is working just fine on here. Phew!

Over the next week I'm hoping to get the band sampler finished up as a bellpull and the Chinese dress design made up into a small cushion/pillow. I've also started another hardanger cushion/pillow cover on white Oslo fabric with Caron Iced Lavendar threads - pale pink and lilacs.