Butterfly, butterfly fly away home

Hi everyone,

Not much progress on the stitching front. I have been a bit of a social butterfly. My aunt is visiting from Western Australia, so much lunching and wine sampling, then sushi-ing and tea drinking with my stitching friend and last but not least visiting the oh ohhh Chiropractor, but the postman has visited in between times so..................

The colour of the month threads have arrived. This month is copper/browns, so shiny and luscious.  This is the first time I have handled Baroque silk, oooooo this is yummy.

Here is a photo

I have also stumbled across an inexpensive Australian silk thread by Cascade House based in Victoria, Australia. They produce 6 strand silk, perle silk, mohair, ribbon and other goodies. The Stranded silk is packed on 7.5mtr cards (8.4yds) in 70 different colours, some of which are overdyes.

Here is a photo of the samples I bought.

It is another stunning day today, I just love spring. As I face the window while sitting at this computer the view of the Bottlebrush(Callistemon) trees in flower and the hundreds of buzzing bees visiting these flowers make me smile.

Isn’t it lovely?

Hope you are making stitching time, bye for now, Carol

Spoilt for choice

Hi everyone,

I have been zipping around the internet today, reading blogs and checking out class offerings for 2012. The class pictures for the 2012 ANG seminar are great with lots of choice for the dedicated counted canvas stitchers of the world. There are at least 5 which caught my eye, well I stopped at 5, by then I had brain overload. Thanks to all involved in putting these classes together, can’t wait till the catalogue comes in the post. Take a look on the ANG Yahoo group but be warned, start saving now because it will be hard to make only 1 choice.

On the stitching front.

Tahiti, Needle Delights Originals, is finished and here is the final photo. Thank you very much to Kathy Rees another delightful design which was a joy to stitch.

A little more to Looking Glass, Threedles has been added. I wish the yellow canvas would photograph a little better I have tweaked and fiddled with the camera and image settings but to no available, so just think butter yellow when you look at the photo and I will try to stop stressing about it. This piece requires lots of concentration and lots and lots of counting to get motifs into the right place. But it is so pretty and each stitch is an adventure.

Here she is so far.

Well the postman has just arrived with my copy of Needlepoint Now so I am off to digest every page.

Bye for now, Carol

Lady luck smiles on me

Hi everyone,
Tuesday this week was my time to meet with Nicki my friend’s daughter who is a chiropractor or as I call her “the miracle worker with magic hands”. She does her magic and 24 hours later the world is straight again and sore and stiff muscles decide to work properly. Now because this is in the afternoon what do stitching girls do with time on their hands? That’s a no-brainer question...lol....Shop for stitchy things right?  And of course throw in some “Yum cha” for sustenance.

So off we went to another shop that has moved recently called Country Bumpkin, this is the company that publishes “Inspirations” magazine. We spent about an hour wandering, picking up threads, hand lotions and flicking through books then suddenly the lady behind the counter says “everything is 30% off this week” Woo hoo, how was that for being in the right place at the right time.

While we were chatting at the counter I noticed a box with the word Lowery on the side. Now I have been asking on the ANG board and with friends about stands and trying to decide what to buy and this just dropped into my lap. It was a Lowery floor stand at a price which was really amazing and with 30% off made it very attractive indeed. My friend agreed this was meant to happen so I am now the owner of a Lowery stand which is portable enough to take to Guild nights and other stitching groups to stitch. Thank you to all of you who passed on information about stands and what you use at Seminar’s. I will be looking at the add on table clamp for this purpose.

On the stitching front, I am still working on Tahiti by Needle Delights very nearly finished and here it is so far.

Also here is a little more of Looking Glass by Threedles, these 2 designs are so different  it is fun to move from one to the other and also gives your hands a break by stitching at  different  angles.

................................

Bye for now, Carol

Tahiti sounds nice............

Hi everyone,

Firstly I would like to thank you for all your very kind comments on my work and the launch of my new design. I always enjoy reading and following along with other stitchers through their blogs  as they create their own special pieces and I get very excited for them when a design is finally finished and hanging on a wall in their home for everyone to enjoy.

The postman arrived a couple of days ago with a parcel from Needle Delights, sadly Kathy has decided to close her shop but will still design more beautiful charts. Currently she is having a sale and I couldn’t resist 2 designs she has on offer. One is “Tahiti” and the other “Emerald”, Tahiti is one of the brightest thread choices I have seen for a while and Emerald is several shades of green (love green). When I opened the package I just had to start Tahiti and because this design is on stretcher bars of 10” x 14” this one will not take too long to complete. Really loving the bright clear colours it seems to compliment the Australian sunshine and bright blue skies. (SSShhh not talking about the w-e-a-t-h-e-r, remember what happened last time).

Here is a photo of Tahiti so far.

There has been a little more progress on Looking Glass but I will save a photo for when there is more to show in the next circle. The current stitches use 2 strands of Sparkly Braid by Rainbow Gallery, a thread I haven’t used before and I like the way it sits against the canvas giving a nice sparkle and a very fine twist, especially when creating a Jessica.

Today is Monday in Australia which is a Labour Day holiday so today is catch up  housework day a home and then a little more stitching.

Happy holiday to the Aussies and bye for now to everyone, Carol

Who moved that weather dial

Hi everyone,

Remind me never to talk about the weather again. Since posting about the beautiful sunny weather and abundance of nature the wheels have fell off. For the past 3 days the wind has been extremely gusty and the pollen count is off the Richter scale, woes betide folks with bad hay fever. In the midst of all this like the valiant troupers that we are my friend and I braved the elements and visited a “new” needlework shop. Well it was new to us it has been in business for years but moved to another location. I found some lovely twisted silk called High Twist by Kacoonda an Australian company.

Here is a little photo of the thread

On the stitching front Looking Glass has advanced a little more. Have made an error which I am going to leave because it is the Gloriana silk border and re using Gloriana is not a good idea, it tends to shed fibre if you rip it out and is then a bit thin when reused. If you notice I changed direction of the last leg of the Smyrna crosses. It would also be impossible to change now because all the motifs within this area are anchored into this border. So this piece is what I call “unique” because they’re won’t be another like it anywhere. Other stitchers are way too clever to make the same mistake, right?

Here is Looking Glass so far

And lastly, some exciting news. My second design “Nile Jewels” has been released for sale in the USA through our good friends at Scarlet Thread. If you would like to see the design, hop over to Its a Stitchy Thing from my blog list and take a peek or go to my post of 28 August. Hope you like it; I used some of my favourite colours for this one.

Bye for now, Carol

Looking Glass plus temptation

Hi everyone,

This weekend was a quiet and relaxing time. The weather is turning warmer and the garden and visiting birds are glorious. A great time to take the stitching frame out into the garden and enjoy nature while I stitch.

Looking Glass has had a little more attention with a few more colours added. Several of the smaller shapes I have left out, not sure if I will change them to something else but I can decide that at a later stage.

Here is a photo of the progress so far:

Here are 2 new small monthly items of counted canvaswork.

I received an email from Fireside Stitchery telling customers they are starting a monthly club of geometric small designs. You can sign up for them individually or for the whole club. It is great to see counted canvas stitchers able to join in on the clubs that are usually available for painted canvases.
Also Scarlet Thread is now stocking Needle Delights Originals, colour of the month kits/charts. These are small designs using a range of threads and a great way to try different fibres.

Hope you don’t blow your budget too much. It is difficult to pass up these little treasures, unless you are very strong willed.

Well I am off to play in the sun, happy stitching.

Bye for now, Carol

Stitching with friends

Hi everyone,

Mystique by Jean Hilton is finished. She was a genius, way ahead of her time. There were 2 backstitched rows around the creamy narrow border but I decided it was nicer without them. Here is the photo.

Stitched more on Looking Glass but this one will need pacing as the yellow canvas is very drawing to the eyes. Colours are great with lots of texture. The photo will come soon as more of the second circle is stitched.

Tonight is stitching night down at the EGSA so I will catch up on what everyone is working on. This is always fun, some evenings not much stitching happens as the ‘girls ‘ are in a  mischievous mood and we spend most of the evening swapping funny stories about DH antics or interesting titbits of life. The group’s ages range from 20 somethings to 80 somethings so there is always someone with a mild crisis that needs to be heard and solved. We all at some time have arrived in a mood of hair pulling only to leave with the weight of the world removed from our shoulders by this special group.  Friends make the world rock.

Remember those empty stretcher bars. Slap, slap the sound of one very naughty stitcher slapping the back of her hand. They are starting to fill up again. Decided last night that a smaller design was needed so I framed up an old Jean Hilton piece called Eureka which in on 14 x 14 bars. This one is much more manageable to take to stitching group. Will post photo when I have more than a couple of stitches done.

Bye for now, Carol

PS: Thank you for the kind words about Aquamarine and thanks for letting me off the hook with Santa Jane.