Beaucoup de livres français

Once I got into Amazon France, to buy the Miniatures book I mentioned before, I found lots of books that I liked and these are two of them! The grey book in the pic is called ( as you can see!) Anges, meaning angels, and has lots of charts for cherubs and angels in cross stitch along with some small outline motifs for embroidery. It is by Agnes Delage-Calvet and Anne Sohier-Fournel. The two skeins you can see on the front are not photos, but actual skeins of white and grey thread with a needle and a piece of linen - so all ready to go. Underneath is a really-not-good photo of an angel blowing dandelion parachutes which I completed on dark ecru ( told you...baaad picture!) in white thread. It is unfinished right now whilst I think about what to do with it.

The second book is 'Country au Point de Croix' by Helen Wind. Again this is in French but the charts are very American so perhaps Helen is Canadian - follow the logic there?? The book is divided into chapters according to season. I haven't tried anything from here yet, but I will.

Second post today - I was feeling good after meeting my friend Carol for lunch.

Thanks for stopping by
Au revoir
Irene

Chitter chatter

I haven't posted for a while as I have been so busy, although sadly not with my sewing.

Have you had times when there seems to be something scheduled each day? Well, I have had two weeks like that. I don't mind, and some of the stuff is really enjoyable, but it does mean I don't sew much or update my blog.

I have, in particular, been helping my Mum and my sister move house. Oh boy, you forget how hard this is when you haven't done it in a while. In the end I just couldn't do any more - my body drained of energy and for some reason, my hands stopped working. I dragged a last box halfway across the hall and just abandoned it there. I couldn't move it another inch. How my mother (84!) and sister went on working after I left is a mystery to me.

When I came home, I looked around my own home and thought 'Well that settles it. I will have to live here until I die because there are not enough boxes in the world to crate up all this rubbish - sorry - I mean treasures, collectables, objets d'art, must-haves, can't-live-withouts, er antiques??'

Today I cleared my calendar and set up some new books and tiny bit of stitching to photograph.
Camera poised, battery empty!!

I have been using my son's camera for some time as I had lost the battery charger for my own yummy camera. Yesterday I resolved to deal with this problem, so rang the dealer for a replacement. The cost? £71! The reply 'No thanks'

My camera is insured, but the battery charger is apparently classed as an 'accessory' so is not included. How it can be an accessory when the camera won't work without it is yet another of life's little mysteries.

OK I've stopped wittering.

My son's battery is on charge and I am off to get ready for lunch with a friend.

Hopefully will post later with more interesting stuff!

Irene

No.6 Christmas Ornament!!

I know, all very nice, but this is not getting Village done is it?

This is the second ornament from the 'Miniatures au point de croix' book by Francoise Prax that I mentioned yesterday

This one is stitched on 28 count white linen with DMC 316 - the recommended thread.
The front is as charted, but the back is snippets from another chart in the book. I decided to go with the French wording, how cosmopolitan am I?

I originally finished 3 of the 4 sides using a dark green bead with a red lining which looked fine when laid on top of the piece, but then the red lining disappeared when attached which didn't look so good. I removed those and chose instead these dark red iridescent beads which are very pretty, though not really visible on the photo.

I promised to help my son tidy the garden this morning and went out with him to clear away the debris of leaves left after Winter. He got out the boy's toy - a garden hoover thing - to suck up the leaves and was totally absorbed which meant I could sneak a photograph of the ornament and write this blog. He has just come in a high indignation demanding to know where I had got to!!

Sometimes boy's toys are worth their weight in gold!

Bye for today
Irene

No. 5. Christmas ornament

This pretty little ornament was inspired by the French language book shown here - Miniatures au point de croix by Francoise Prax which I first saw on Carol R's 'Stitchaholic blog'. (http://istitchaholic.blogspot.com) It was Carol who organised and is running the 2009 Christmas Ornament Challenge.

Although this lovely and inspiring book is written in French, you don't need to know any (really - none!) to stitch the tiny samplers shown there. The charts in the book are stitched in a variety of red threads and my first one was also red - it is waiting to be finished - but this one is in Vikki Clayton's variegated thread 'Magpie Twitters' on a 28 count white linen. The finished ornament measures only about 1" x 3". I just want to go now and try lots of the other titchy samplers, I am thinking a neutral cream on ecru might be effective, maybe on a higher count linen too?

I have done more work on Village, and I will show that soon and I received a lovely stash of charts from Needlecraft Corner including the new Blackbird Designs Stockings which I am desperate to try.

Oh my, no housework again for a while then!

Thanks for stopping by

Irene

No 4. I am soooo ahead of myself!

This is my fourth ornament for the 2009 Christmas challenge. I am already a month ahead of myself, but I must admit to a little cheat!! This was not going to be a Christmas ornament, just a 'small' to try out Vikki Clayton's Zumaque silk. Then having completed the front, I did a sneaky 'Noel' on the back and finished it as an ornament!

It was stitched on 28 ct lugana, one over one, using Zumaque silk. The chart is a freebie pattern from http://aurytm.com/. The freebies are listed in the Contents of this lovely site and this is actually called 'Valentine's freebie'. I finished it with bronze beads and a long ribbon.

I am a member of The Sampler Guild and a couple of inspired members suggested we try a stitch-a-long this year. It will be the SAlexandre project from the Tempus Fugit blog (http://tempusfugit.over-blog.com/) It is a lovely stitching wallet with several embroidered 'pages'. We are all hoping to start at the beginning of April, so having ordered the linen, I am trying out variegated silks, hence the above heart. I really like Zumaque, but I will probably not use it as it a perhaps just a little dark, it has quite a lot of brown and I think I would prefer something a little lighter. The search goes on.

Thanks for looking and for your comments.

Irene

A most 'Welcome' wall hanging

So.. this was my amazing birthday gift from my friend Trish. She secretly stitched away at it for ages, and even though I knew my gift was going to be sewn, I had no idea that it was going to be this beautiful 'Welcome' banner which I had been promising myself I would stitch for quite a long time. It is stitched in cream on a natural woollen even weave fabric with little pearl beads and mother of pearl buttons added. It was always destined for my entrance hall way and here it hangs! Believe me, the poor photography does not do it any kind of justice. It is really really pretty.

The chart came surprisingly from an English Cross stitch magazine - surprisingly because I hardly ever see something I want to work in the English magazines. This excellent design was by Helen Phipps and for those who might be tempted to make one - and why wouldn't you be - the magazine is Cross Stitcher, Issue 204 October 2008.

Thank you Trish - it took my breath away.

Irene