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Look what my friend, Katy, stitched for me:
Isn't he fantastic? It's Margaret Sherry's 'Cat-a-cello', (although I reckon it's more of a double bass....), and I think he's absolutely delightful and am thrilled to bits with him.=)Here's the latest on the dog too:
Hoping (probably against hope) to have him done in another 2 weeks. Might make it, might not, but as that will take me to the 10th and I need to have cards ready for 14th and 16th, I would like to be able to get one finished and then press on with the others. It's only 09:20, but I've already blitzed around doing the cleaning and am just about to get some work stuff prepared for class tomorrow, then it's on with the bow-wow's nose. I started it last night, but took it out again as I don't think it would have worked well that way. Need to finish the entire nose part and close up that whole gap by Friday in order to be done on time.
I went to the Kintting & Stitching Show in Harrogate yesterday. It was great as ever! I wanted to do a couple of the Learning Curve practical projects, but the two I was interested in were sold out by the time I got there. I was rather disappointed, but no matter, I had an extra £12 to spend instead! I managed to earwig the first section of the 'Crazy Patchwork Bag' session and wrote down a few notes (borrowed a book from the library on the same sort of thing on Thursday too), and I went along right at the end of the 'Japanese Embroidery' session to see what they had been doing. I was quite glad I'd missed that one as I'd hoped that it would be a small piece that I would have been able to mount in a card, but they were working the first stages of a larger piece and she collected them in afterwards, so there was nothing to take away. The bag, however, I would have liked and am keen to try CQ as soon as I can.
So, here's the stash I bought: 2 Pearsalls' silk embroidery kits, one flatwork 'Bluetit Family' and one 'Stumpwork Poppy'. The model for the latter was incredibly beautiful, but the photo on the front of the kit is dismal! They'd never have sold a thing without the model and really need to re-do the kit picture. You can get them better than this because I've seen them on raised embroidery sites and newsgroups, (might send them mine as a suggested replacement once I've worked it!!). There were 2 lots of the threads missing from my kit, so I e-mailed at once to get them sent to me. Will report back as to how well they do on this score. I also got a Brazillian embroidery kit from Ed-Mar, which looks lucious! I have 2 courting couples in my circle of friends right now and I'm sure at least one, if not both, of them will marry and this kit will make a delightful ring cushion that's sure to do for one of them. More to one girl's taste than the other though and she loves things South American, whereas the other has quite simple tastes. As well as the kits, I got one skein of Anchor Coton à Broder, one freebie skein of Pearsalls' silk and 4 packs of Mill Hill beads.I spoke to Tracey Franklin at her stand about the dog portrait. She stitched the model in the RSN's book and so I wanted to know if she found it challenging at all and she said some of it was rather hard, esp. as the stitches went in all different directions. So, I felt better for finding it hard if she had! She also kindly said that I must be quite good to attempt that, but I didn't like to say that it was the first piece of silk shading I'd ever done! I've done that lily since and the tiny strawberry flowers on 2 other things have used the same principles, but the dog is the ultimate and the first piece I tried. Talk about jumping in at the deep end! Well, I'll have to learn to take smalled steps in future. I did with other types of stitching, so why I'd to be so hard on myself with this one, I can't imagine! Twit!Speaking of twits, whilst I was at Miss Franklin's stand, the funniest little man was there too! He was trialling some stitches on her hoop etc and, as I got there, was just enthusing about her giving him the whole piece of fabric, (probably trying to get rid of him). Shortly afterwards, it was clear how he was trying all ends up to impress us both and was saying that I ought to encourage my hubby to start stitching as it goes down well with the ladies and so on!! Well, a happily married man would hardly expect to be told how to go about getting into other ladies' good graces, how to chat them up in nightclubs, and that by his own wife!!!! It was clear this chap was on the pull and fancied his chances of meeting a nice stitching lady he could charm as he was there in his suit and tie, but he was late middle-aged, hadn't much hair and even told us that he spoke Icelandic to try and get some admiring response! I couldn't resist telling him I spoke Mandarin Chinese, to which he started to say something I thought must be in Icelandic because I hadn't a clue what he was saying at all. When he repeated it and looked almost accusingly at me, I realised that he was attempting to say 'how are you?' in Mandarin, but honestly, the pronunciation was so poor (and even one of the words totally wrong) that I thought he was showing off his Nordic skills! I said that I was sure poor Miss Franklin had had enough by then and took my leave, but I bet he was at least thinking I couldn't really speak Mandarin as I couldn't make out his rotten attempt!! What a character! I shall turn and run off if I see him there next year!!!!!!
And it's Monday again! Good-oh! I'm not very well today, but it seems to be only a 24 hour thing and I should be OK for my new Chinese classes 2nd session tomorrow tea-time. I've got loads of fun activities planned, so I'm quite looking forward to it. I would never have thought it, but perhaps teaching is for me after all.=)
So, here's the long over-due kitchen update photo. It still needs a window dressing (and the glosswork will be re-done when it's all done over the winter hols) and I plan to stitch that lovely blue tit and bird table design to go just above the cooker too. So, things to look out for the in the first half of next year, all being well. Hope you like progress thus far - it's certainly a lot brighter and less bottom heavy than it was, now that it's painted a nice lemon colour and has 2 shelves to house all my machinery.
Here's the doggie at present as well. I'm kinda enjoying doing him, but will be very pleased when he's done and I can get on with other things. Might do something on his this afternoon actually as I have an unexpected free afti owing to it being a good idea to rest up as much as poss. That's certainly true as I'm going to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate on Friday and it would be an awful shame to mess that up, no?Streuth! The new beta Blogger version might be quicker etc, but it adds in even more blank lines with photos than the old one did! Heavy use of 'preview' function recommended, and it's about time that was adapted to actually reflect what will appear too!
Good morning one and each!!!
Here we are home again. We came home about 18 hours earlier than planned, but we were both ready for home and would have just stayed one more night for the sake of it, so I'm glad we went with our feelings and drove home yesterday tea time instead of this morning. Slept better and more comfortably in my own bed anyway.=)Had a nice trip though. We saw some lovely scenery and met some nice people too. I also got quite a bit of my dog portrait done and here's the latest update shot of him:
Click on it to get a full sized version, which looks a bit better than always this shrunk photo. You can see the stitches much better etc, (if it works, of course, which it didn't for me when I tried it, grrrrr). Anyway, I got quite into it and found it much easier going when I was enjoying it more. I'd hoped to have the 2nd cheek completed by the time we got home, but as I didn't stitch any of it for the last 2 days and we're home early anyway, I'm not slapping myself about it. Good news is that I should indeed be able to have it completed this month and that feels GOOD!=)
Here's the card I made for my little friend who lost her daddy this week. All our congregation are going to sign it as they met her just last week. I know she'll like to hear from them a lot too, although it's hardly a real consolation for losing Daddy.=( Hope everyone likes it. It's a Mary Hickmott design from her 'Moving on in Hardanger' booklet. I just changed it in that I put a spider's web right in the middle instead of square filet in the 4 squares around it and used silvery threads for much of the stitching to make it a bit more special.I'm not very well at the moment - got a dreadful throat and so on. DH has had a bit of cold too, so I guess this is how it's coming out in me. Nothing sinister though and we're looking forward to our holidays from next Saturday.Not much done on the dog as yet - just one more section last w/e, but I have today and tomorrow pretty much free as I can't really go out and about infecting people left, right and centre, so I hope to press on with the Woofer a bit. Oh joy!
So, here's what the rebel blue tit looks like at the mo. I haven't had time to do any of it today and it was taken in non-natural light and adjusted this evening, (in case it looks a bit odd in any way, i.e. rather yellow).
Today I was given a great illustration to think seriously about when it comes to stuff like getting that pesky mutt (the dog portrait) finished. I was told it was like 'sitting on a pin'. Suppose that just before you sat down, someone put a drawing pin on the chair and you sat right on it. You have 2 choices, you can either get up, remove the pin and sit back down in relative comfort, (supposing you haven't damaged your behind too grievously, that is!!!!), or you can stay on it, pretending the discomfort isn't there, you're not really squirming away from the pin and so on. When we put things off, knowing that they're bugging us, but we just won't get on with them anyway, it's like sitting on this pin and staying there. We know what to do to remove the discomfort, but we choose to say 'I don't mind' and keep on letting it jab at us. I suppose that we can get kinda used to the pricking sensation and even grow a bit numb to it over time.
So, I must get on with that dog, even if a little at a time and then I might actually begin to feel the tension I suffer from release a bit. Seems a bit too simple to be the root of the tension, but it's worth a try and, if it doesn't actually work to get rid of all of it, then it will at least be one irritation out of the way. I'll feel able to get on with other projects that I'm looking forward to without feeling that I shouldn't do them as I haven't finished the dog yet, and that's just got to be great. Von, what you said about taking care of one's sanity is just too true. It was pointed out to me that I needed to get this project that was bugging my big style off my mind and thus free up my hobby for genuine relaxation. This is what doggy looks like just now:
Here's the progress on my bluetit so far. I have loads of bluetit designs, kits and so forth in both XS and freestyle and have been wondering what to do with them all. Today the idea came to me - make them into a quilt/throw to put around me when it's cool in the evenings and I don't want to put the heating on with electicity prices being stratospheric these days..... I'll put plain panels in between the stitched ones and fill it with some lightweight batting. Sounds good!
I've been having a very slobby day stitching today, but I think I'd better get on with something productive now. Sigh, how dull!!!
Isn't he fantastic? It's Margaret Sherry's 'Cat-a-cello', (although I reckon it's more of a double bass....), and I think he's absolutely delightful and am thrilled to bits with him.=)
Hoping (probably against hope) to have him done in another 2 weeks. Might make it, might not, but as that will take me to the 10th and I need to have cards ready for 14th and 16th, I would like to be able to get one finished and then press on with the others. 
