Blacksheep's having a giveaway.

I totally forgot to mention that Edgar is having a 4th Blogaversary giveaway.

If you don't already read his blog, pop over and have a look, always an enjoyable and informative read.

If you do read it - go back and put your name down, someone will be very lucky.

Here is his web site.
http://blacksheepsite.blogspot.com/

Good luck
Irene xxx

Betsy Morgan 'Tiny Treasures'

Oh my, how wonderful this would be if it was my finished project.

I would smile, graciously acknowledge the plaudits of my adoring audience, and retire, maybe to teach a selected few my acquired knowledge and skills.

But sadly it isn't.

I have taken this picture from the Inspirations magazine which carried the chart and instructions for this lovely Betsy Morgan Tiny Treasures Etui. (Issue 65)

However I did pick it up again a couple of weeks ago and actually finished the stitching, which is shown above, and chose to finish the easy bit first. The little tuffet.

It is little too. (Tiny Treasures is a bit of a clue, maybe) and I have shown it here next to a thimble to give an idea of size. It just needs a little bead attaching to make the central dimple and then on to the rest. The 'rest' is all lined with silk and stitched together with ladder stitch - guess why I chose to finish the tuffet first?

Can you believe how long it takes to find the right size, right colour, right style bead??

Yeh - you know - you do it too.

Two postings this week. Phew - I'm exhausted!

Irene xxx

Something to share - at last

I thought I would share this picture with you - it all looks a bit of a muddle .....but let me explain.

In my hallway I have a little ornament hanger tree-thingy on which I hang my little tree ornament thingies. Sounds logical eh? Well, it being Easter and all, I decided to use the tree instead to hang some little eggs and tiny wooden chickens and birds and other seasonal bits and bibs.

So without ceremony I gathered up all the afore-mentioned stitched things and dumped them on this little chest where there was already some other bigger pieces of work and I was astonished at how many there were. They are not artistically arranged to their best advantage - just sort of spaced out - but not bad eh?

And I have been adding to the pile during my long absence from this blog. My son was away working in Spain for a week and so my dog Meghan and I just did our own thing - for a whole week. I will hopefully make a couple of brief postings this week to show the latest additions.

This is the first - a patriotic heart.

 I know, it should really be a Union Jack heart, especially with the growing frenzy here of Royal Weddings, but I liked the Quaker look of this freebie by Aury. I am sorry, but I checked the site to give you a link, but the chart is no longer available.

It does have a soft creamy white thread contrast but it hasn't shown very well in the pic. The backing material is laid alongside. I finished it with a continuous border of red and white Delica beads.

So hopefully - another posting soon to show you a couple of my other finished projects, but now - I must away to finish my exchange piece for the BBD exchange.

Maybe I'll stitch whilst watching yet another Wedding related TV programme. We've had ' Royal Weddings' in general ' Royal Wedding Dresses', Royal Wedding Cakes', the Kate and Wills story, the 'Kate' story, the 'Wills' story, the 'Middletons' story, we've even had the stories of people who are related to Kate through common ancestors in 1700 and whom she would never recognise if she passed them in the street.

Good Grief - they will be knocking on my door next. I once visited Westminster Abbey so maybe I can contribute too!!

Thank you so much for checking back and for all your lovely comments. I really, really appreciate them.

Irene xxx

Mary Garry ornament and computer problems!!

So.... I decided to switch my television, telephone and Internet service to a new provider in the the middle of February - I know - ages ago.

All went well - my TV service and phone were installed ahead of schedule leaving only the final internet connection. On March 18th, on the button, the previous provider turned off my access to the internet and I waited for the new connection to activate. I waited and waited, did a bit of stitching, read a few books, walked the dog - oh - bought a new car (!!!) and still no access.

I phoned my new provider who told me at first that I hadn't ordered the service - as if - and then decided on 'system error'. I had, as you can imagine a long conversation with this young man who finally said "Give me your e-mail address and I'll let you know what's happening with this" ........... mmmmm 'there's a hole in my bucket dear Henry, dear Henry!! So for 10 whole long days I could not use my computer.

At first I was really irritated, then sort of relieved, then just cross. But I'm back now and frantically trying to catch up on all the lovely blogs I read daily.

This a tiny piece stitched over one on 30 count by Mary Garry. This photo shows the piece unfinished with my choice of opaque blue beads - and a small check cotton backing. I was at this stage when the above problems arose, but in the meantime, went on to finish it as below.

It's alright, but I think I wasn't really in the mood for finishing so it is by no means perfect.

                                                                                

This is another crochet blanket, this time for my sister. She bought three enormous cones of wool a while ago at a tiny cost and there is more than enough to finish this blanket. It is lovely to do at the end of the day, the growing blanket keeping my knees warm as I work.

If you hung around waiting for me to write something - thank you so much. I am sorry you had to wait so long,

Love Irene xxx

Blackbirds and blankets and things beginning with 's'

Blackbirds - instantly recognisable as BBD's Their Song. This was a really enjoyable, but slow ( and I'll explain why just now) stitch.
It is stitched on a cream 28 count linen, over one with a whole mixture of threads. I rarely have every thread a design calls for, unless its DMC (I have all of those) so I spend ages with a colour chart and a variety of 'maybe' threads until I find a set to complete the project. This has WDW, Gentle Arts, Gloriana, HDF and DMC.
I artistically placed a pair of scissors on the work to show the scale, but then cropped them off!!



This is the reason why Their Song was so slow.
I rediscovered crochet! Yay!
I found a lovely blog which showed lots of crochet blankets including this ripple design. I knew I had once been able to crochet so I found some wool and had a go. I crocheted the recommended practice 17 chains and did a few rows, pulled it out, cast on 3 million chains and started the blanket. My colour palette was someone limited to what I could find around the house and any half finished knitted sweaters I could pull out, but then I bought a few extra balls and carried on til it was done.

It looks a bit pale here, because I needed to use the flash, but in real life it is quite vibrant.
It goes with absolutely nothing in my house, but I am going to make another one - just because I can.

OK - I bet some of you recognise this? Well, maybe not recognise it, it is Victorian, but I bet you know what it's for?
You are right - it's to hang your office stamps on, showing the date, or maybe your company logo, or maybe 'PAID' or even 'FINAL REQUEST'

I used to work in a company library, many many years ago, and I had to date and file articles, so every morning I had to twizzle the little rubber numbers and letters around on the wooden stamp to show the new date. I didn't have a fancy holder like this, but it was the most boring job a restless teenager could do. No wonder I decided to teach!

The firm has long since gone - but I'm still here. Zippity do dah!!

This is why I bought it. I can keep my scissors on it. Nice eh?

If you twiddle the brass knob on the top, it swings around to make scissor selection less hassle.

Hassle when choosing my scissors is one thing I can live without.

So...blackbirds, blankets, stripes, stamps and scissors.

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my last post. Val was a special person.

Love
Irene xxx

A Quaker needle case.

Sometimes it is just a quirk of fate that brings you a new friend. Sometimes at the very moment you need them.

So it was with my friend Margaret. We actually had a mutual friend, Val who became, accidentally, the connecting thread. Those are all our initials on the back of the needle case.

Val lived originally in England, where in 1963, we became friends, then in Canada where she became friends with Margaret. She eventually moved to North Carolina when her husband's job demanded it and then they retired to Florida. Through all of this, and even when I lived for a while in South Africa, we stayed friends and communicated often.

Then one fateful day I got an e-mail headed ' a drama, but maybe not a crisis'.

Val had discovered a lump in her breast, but at that time the prognosis was excellent. So still only a drama. Then it became clear that this was actually a secondary cancer. Val had major surgery, was even then on the mend when she caught a hospital infection, which meant the remaining cancer was able to spread untreated and she died aged only 62 years. So in June 2007, the drama finally became a crisis.

I can't begin to tell you how much I miss her.

At some point during all this, an e-mail was forwarded to me by mistake and it was from Margaret in Canada. It was full of the anxiety and concern and worried questions that I was expressing myself, so I wrote to her. We sustained each other through the following weeks and have stayed in contact. If you would like to hear a little more of Val's story and meet Margaret, a very special friend, visit her blog http://allthingsmaggieo.blogspot.com

So as a tribute to Val, I made the needle case again for Margaret. It is stitched over one with Kaalund thread, is backed with silk, edged with tiny beads and tied with a matching silk ribbon.

I wish I could have made one for Val too.

Man - she would be so cross to think we were wallowing in this gloom! Sorry Val.

Love Irene xxx

PS Sorry the photos did not load in my last post. Apparently my server did not know where to look for them. I mean - what else has it got to do all day???

A happy happenstance

Most Saturdays my family (sister and Mum and me) go out for the day.
We meet up, choose whose car we will use, pile in and speed off for our weekly adventure.
We might go to an antique fair or to a local small town or village and have a mooch around, eat lunch, examine and ooh aah over our purchases and set off for home again.

So this Saturday was much the same and we chose to go to Helmsley, a small market town in North Yorkshire, only about an hour away, that has some interesting shops and good places to eat.
The journey there involves a drive through beautiful countryside, all hills and dales and exceedingly pretty.
And it was here that our happy little happenstance began.

Because... I found a dog. Well I didn't actually find it, but it was running loose along the side of the lane, and was heading for a motoring catastrophe at any second. We saw it and drove past before realising what it was. So...obviously I made my sister who was driving, stop, do a perilous turn on the bendy road and go back for it. It was friendly and tail-waggy, and although it looked like a Labrador puppy from the car, it was actually a Labrador/ terrier cross of, maybe, a year old and it was covered in mud and a little smelly. Happily, I don't mind wet doggy smells, or mud really, so we tied a scarf through his collar and took him back to the car where he sat happily on my knee looking out of the window. We were in the middle of the countryside and although we tried to call the number on Smudge's collar (she was called Smudge - aw!)we had no signal. We drove on until we came to a farm track, and turned in hoping the dog might live there.

My sister went up to the farmhouse ( we always send my sister, just in case there is danger) and the farmer's wife made a land line call to the number and we waited for the owner to turn up. Mum and I and Smudge in the car, my sister braving possible perils outside the car. Then her and an older man wandered past and into the large stone building on our right. They were missing for ages and Mum and I speculated on how he might be murdering her whilst we sat idly by speculating on the manner of her death.
Mum felt safe because she was in the back of the 2-door car and we have to shoe horn her in and out anyway, so she thought she would just wedge herself further in if danger threatened. My sister, looking remarkably relaxed, and the strange man came out and walked past us again to the back of the building.

We felt a little relieved, and continued to speculate on what was going in. As we did so, the owner of Smudge turned up in a new sparkling white Mercedes car and claimed the little dog back. I sort of felt that she didn't deserve such a characterful dog if she was letting it roam around with impunity, but that may have been a little jealousy, as both the car and the dog were very nice.
Away she went, leaving me only with the muddy footprint remains of my encounter and an all pervading smell of dog in the car.

My sister gestured to us to get out of the car and we discovered what she and mystery man had been looking at. Inside the stone building was an 12 century water mill and it was glorious. Lots of wooden wheels and cogs with wooden teeth and enormous oak beams carrying the actual wheel.

The mill steam was thundering through underneath. The man who looked 60 (honestly) but was actually 81, was so enthusiastic and talked so knowledgeably but simply about how it all worked that it was a pleasure to listen to him. We walked to the back of the building to see the wheel and paddles and he opened a sluice gate so that we could more fully experience the force of the water emptying back into the stream that fed the mill race. He said that they had documentary proof of the mill working in the 14th century - just imagine that - but believed that it was operated by monks in the 1100's. They had had carbon dating done on some of the wood, but evidentially that only proved that the wood was there in the 12 century, not that the mill was.

So finding the little dog led to us seeing that water mill inside a building that we have driven past a million times without ever knowing it's secret. Good eh? A happy happenstance.

The pictures are of Helmsley, our destination on Saturday. We visit here often and forget just how pretty and very English it is. Hope you enjoy them. Sadly none of us had a camera with us on Saturday so no photos of the mill, but perhaps another time.

Thank you for visiting, a rare post without stitching this time, but things are progressing.

Irene xxx

Hearts and Flowers

So, the little emergency alphabet hanger I made for my nephew's girlfriend was apparently very well received. She loved it and could only bemoan the fact that she didn't have a house grand enough to display it properly! She is so sweet.

It is lovely isn't it, when something is so appreciated. So, obviously, the only thing to do was to make her another one. And this is it. A little branch with hanging hearts. It is the first time I have stitched anything from this Italian designer, but the design is so - well - clean cut - with beautiful true colours that it certainly won't be the last. The design is called Amore Amour by the Italian designer Renato Parolin.

I began to stitch with the recommended DMC colours and then decided to kit it again with variegated silks, but - you know - it just didn't need it. The variegation just fussied up the design so I carried on with DMC over one on 30 count linen and I really like the result. It is backed with red silk and finished with beads and a little ribbon bow hanger.

As it happens, it is my nephew's birthday on Valentine's Day, so I will give him this early to give to Victoria as extra surprise.

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

This is quote from a poem by Shelley which I have just checked out. It has something like 25 verses and this is the only bit I know, the last two lines.

Anyway, you didn't come here for a Literacy lesson, but perhaps it serves as a gentle reminder that in spite of the harsh and unremitting bad weather some people have experienced this year, nature is already girding its loins to blossom forth in a few short months.

To prove that, here are a few sprigs of Pussy Willow collected yesterday when walking with Meghan. They are in a little silver topped antique vase my mum bought me for Christmas, standing on the shelf in front of the range oven, lovingly black-leaded. also by my mum. It is part of a cooking range in my dining room and has an open fire in the middle and a large water boiler to the right. I do light the fire occasionally in the winter when we have a family celebration, but the oven is too unpredictable to use for cooking. Nice to have though!

Well that's all for today folks, thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Love
Irene xxx

Two ornaments finished - finally

I started both of these ornaments well before Christmas and saw myself presenting them with a flourish (of course) to grateful friends.
Well, yesterday I finished them.

It is in fact so long since I stitched this first little bird heart, that I can't even remember where the chart came from, which is very remiss of me. I will search it out - eventually - and give due credit to the designer because I think it is rather sweet. It is stitched with Vikki Clayton's threads, over one, I think on maybe a 30 count cream even weave linen, so it is quite small, and I finished it using bronze beads, as an edging, little tassels and a hanger.

This second one I can give credit for but there is a tale. I stitched it as far down as the last border and then misplaced the chart - for weeks. I knew it was a freebie, but couldn't remember who by ( is there a theme developing here?). Happily Anne (she who gives wonderful presents) found it as she searched through her own stack of freebies.
So happy thanks go to http://123citrouille.canalblog.com/. She has quite a few sweet little charts like this and a lovely blog, so go visit her. Again this is over one with a Vikki Clayton premium floss on a 32 linen. I used a double silk ribbon held by larger red beads.

So all ready for my tree then - in 11 months time???

I have also stitched a gift for someone which is pretty, but I'll show you that when it reaches its destination.

Thank you for calling by, I love your comments and always pop over to read your blog too.

Love
Irene xxx

BBD Snow Garden

Oooh - this was so nice to stitch. It is, of course, Blackbird Designs Snow Garden, stitched on a 28 count linen called Mushroom with the recommended threads. I needed to buy in most of the threads for this one and as soon as they arrived - I thought 'yummy'. They are such subtle variegated colours.

Alright - I know already - I desperately need lessons in photography. I took several pictures of this, is different places, trying to catch a bit of light, but it is so gloomy here in England at the moment that none of them gave a true representation of the colours.

This is a gift for my sister. It was originally meant for her for Christmas, but I just didn't find the time. When she visited recently she saw Mocking Bird and really liked it, so I gave her the choice of that one or this - as you can see from the initials KHH - she chose this one!

There is a tiny, tiny variation from the original - have you spotted it?

I stitched an upstairs window with a yellow thread, so that a light could be on and the house would look occupied - I'm in that room stitching away! I was amazed at the difference - nine little stitches and suddenly a welcome light shining through the snow.

Well, that's all for today. I have to take my car in for a service. It's really not very well - apparently you have to put oil and water in them now and then. Who ever heard of such a thing???

Thanks for stopping by

Irene xxx