Saturday, July 21, 2012

This and That----

I received these lovely crochet drink coasters as a belated gift from Mary Anne this week and they really cheered me up -thank you MA for your kind thought.




I also thought that I would add a photo of Ebony to show you just how much she is growing up.
As I have said before "where has that little girl gone to?"


Friday, July 20, 2012

It's Done

Well I have finally finished something---yippee.
I have used Stem stitch-Running stitch-Back stitch-French Knots-Straight stitch and I have also added some Whip stitch as well.
It has been very hard to photograph the face outline because I was only allowed to use blue-yellow and white thread-so the face had to be done in the white thread and it is done in Whipped Back stitch to make it stand out more.
I added a Whipped Stem stitch necklace around her neck in gold metallic thread for a bit of bling.


On the hat I stitched the flower in Whipped Running stitch with French Knots in the centre and the feathers (yes they are feathers not stalks of wheat) are done in Straight stitch.
You can get a better idea of the face in this photo.


This photo is a detail of the lace collar that I embroidered with French Knots and Lazy Daisy flowers.
You can also see the face a bit better here as well.



It is now damp stretching and then I have to frame it.
BUT I have to use a frame in either blue-yellow (or gold) or white--them's the rules.
Off to the garage now to see what I have stored out there.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

That's what I get-------

-----for not posting as often as I should have.
When I signed in to post today I was greeted by a whole heap of gobble-de-gook.
It has taken me ages to figure out what I had to do.
Anyway I have worked my way through the changes and I am now back at square one.
Finally I have started stitching again...
"At last" I hear you say.
But let me tell you that it has been a long process to get this far.
I have had a lot of things going on which seem to have been overwhelming me to a point that I have done nothing.
Thanks to my very smart daughter who sat me down and had a good talk with me and made me realise that I don't have to be the best at everything that I do -I just have to try my best at what I do.
And I have to learn to say no to the things that I don't want to do.
So what have I been doing?
Well back here  in March I started doing what was going to be this years piece for the Guild exhibition challenge.
It was to be a large button that I was stitching in the Yin-Yang design in colours of blue-yellow and white.
Last week I still hadn't done any more to it and I came  to the decision that it was not to be.
Recently when I was sorting through my "stuff" I discovered several black and white drawings that I had done at least 10  years ago and have decided to use one of them instead.

I traced the design onto some white fabric and have started the stitching -well I have almost finished it.
I must admit that it took me 3 attempts to get what I wanted in the end (and no I didn't finish each one as I knew after a few stitches that it wasn't what I wanted).
Hopefully I will finish it today and I will show you what it is like then.
Must go now while the mood is still with me

Sunday, July 1, 2012

No I haven't fallen off the twig-----

I have my face in the naughty corner--truely--I have been absent for three weeks mainly because I have had nothing to show you or tell you either.
After the excitement of our anniversary celebrations I was left feeling flat and nothing that I did could change the feeling.
My crafting room was like a black hole that enveloped me--no matter what I tried to do there was nothing.
Last week I realised that this cluttered mess which is where I am supposed to be creative was the reason for how I was feeling.
How can one have a creative mind when one is surrounded by all this STUFF.
I have heard it said before that a cluttered room leads to a cluttered mind and I believe that now.
I have spent all week sorting out and boxing up all this stuff.
I have 12 archival boxes of stuff (what a great word) which I have taken out to the garage and I will go through them and sort out what I will keep and what I will get rid of.
Some things I have brought and never used--make that lots of things-and I will never use them because I no longer am interested in what I got them for in the first place.
I have to make the decision as to what I want to do in the future--I know that hand embroidery is one of them and also felting as well.
I am not doing free machine embroidery anymore so I don't need all those hundreds of machine embroidery threads--just some of them will do.
I am not using my stamping gear anymore because the cards that I make are mainly fabric collaged ones-so a lot of stamps are out.
I have enough books to fill a library-some of them I haven't even read-they must be sorted out as well.
So to cut a long story short I am feeling a lot better about everything and that black cloud of discontent is slowly lifting and I am sure that I will be back stitching and creating very soon.
Thanks to everyone for caring and I will try to be a better blogger ----soon.