More snowflakes

February 12, 2012 stitchesoftime3 Comments

Well we have a few more real ones this week but I am very pleased to say that the Winter Exchange ornie that I stitched has made its way safely to the USA to Dawn.

This was a design that I have had for a few years and have stitched before, this time on my favourite sparkly evenweave with Silk Mill thread over one. This was a surprisingly quick one to stitch – must be getting better at the fine count work!

I have also finished a Spring ornie for me from one of my Quaker designs – no pics as yet as I have been not been in much when it has been light.

I have had a very busy week not only catching up from after our visit from Ofsted but also preparing for my trip to China! I will be leaving for that in 18 days but meanwhile I am off to Spain for a week of sun, sea, sand and biking! Can’t wait.

So have a lovely week and I will see you on my return. Thanks for visiting.

Winter Exchange

February 4, 2012 stitchesoftime3 Comments

Well how are you all and are you lovely people in the UK snowed in yet? We have had small flurries on the hills all week and today the promised snow arrived with us – very timely as this morning I had a lovely parcel all the way from Australia (where of course there will not be any snow!) containing this wonderful ornie from Lisa V.

Lisa must know my tastes very, very well as what she stitched is perfect for me and as you can see looks very good hanging next to the little stocking on the doors with the snowflake stickers.It is Heritage Stitches design and is stitched on hand dyed Silkweaver fabric.

The snow was just starting when I took the above pic put we are nice and white now – good job I am holed up indoors tomorrow!

My exchange piece was sent this week to the USA and as soon as I hear that it has been delivered I will post pics of it.

I decided that I would make a Spring ornie for me this week rather than a Winter one as it had got a bit milder outside (the bulbs are all coming through in the garden) so have finished all the stitching on one of the Quaker Tree ornies that I mentioned last post. Just got to add beads and turn it into a little pillow ornie.

I will leave you with the some recent pics of Ellie on her nights out with friends Hannah and Becky – she did mention that there have been no pics of her for a while so will have to rectify that! The theme for one of the fancy dress nights was ‘bugs’.

Hope you are all keeping warm (or cool!) depending where you are.

Take care and thanks for visiting.

Medieval Art

January 28, 2012January 28, 2012 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Well the very busy week at work did not go as planned as I have had an ear infection, not good for workload but this meant that there has much stitching been done and catching up on missed TV. One of the things I have been watching this week is a BBC series called Illuminations – The Private Lives of Medieval Kings which has had me drooling over the art.

You may remember that a while ago I shared with you my latest purchase from my very talented friend Pat of Buckles Medieval Art and I promised to take some more pics if I could. Today we have had really lovely sunshine (which is very good as there was snow last night!) so I have been able to take some nice pics of my other bits of her art.

My first piece from Pat is a triptych – a three section religious painting, in this case of St Andrew and his fisherman.

I also have this beautiful painting hanging above my bed of Archangel Michael. She has painted one of my favourite castles Castle Coch in South Wales in the background. Castle Coch was rebuilt in the 19th century by the Marquis of Bute (who also at one point owned Cardiff Castle) and both buildings have some wonderful recreations of medieval decoration.Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

I also have a facsimile of a medieval bible from the 15th century which I bought as a real bargain some time ago from the Museum Selection (one of my fave catalogues) , here is a peek at one of the wonderful page decorations.

This is one of my favorite books – again another real bargain from Waterstones one day when I was in Leeds. It is available cheaply on Amazon as well at the moment at only £13 which is really good as it is huge book.

It has copies of illustrations from so many wonderful manuscripts including one of my all time favourites the Bedford Hours which was featured in the second episode of the Illuminations series.

I love looking at medieval art, as well as being great for research on costume and artefacts I just marvel at the wonderful richness of it all. I have so many ideas for embroidery designs based on all my lovely books and museum and church visits. All I need now is a few more hours each day to get them all down on paper!

Below is a pic of the finished Snow Poem piece, all I need now is a nice silver frame for it. It is very appropriate that I am able to post this today as Google informed me when I logged on that it was the 125th anniversary of the world’s largest snowflake today which was 15 inches across!

Now I am trying to decide on my next piece, maybe another snowflake or I might start one of the Spring Quaker ornies that I mentioned in the last post.

Hope you have all had a lovely week and have a nice week ahead of you. We have Ofsted coming to visit us at work, those of you who work in the education system may well know what that means! Suffice to say that there may be lots of need for stitching for sanity in the next few days!

Take care and see you all soon. Thanks for visiting.

Silk!

January 22, 2012January 22, 2012 stitchesoftime8 Comments

Hello there and I hope that you are all well and happy. I am in January mode at the minute which means lots and lots of work and marking but thankfully no snow (as yet!) to complicate matters. There is still time however 🙂

Work is very, very busy but enjoyable, the students are lovely and I am teaching an extra set of maths at the moment which I love doing! I only teach maths a bit now in between other subjects and general teaching skills but really enjoy it when I do.

I am making slow progress with the Snow Poem, I hope to be finished by the end of next week but have had little time to stitch so my textile related excitement this week has been the arrival of more silk from the wonderful Silk Mill. I had some money for Christmas so decided to treat myself so this is the fruit (and veg!) of my online shopping endeavours.

Not only are they fab colours but I love the names of each silk. The beetroot one looks especially yummy!

These are for stitching some more Spring and Summer house ornies for me. Below are the other ones I ordered in the last sale round which will also be fab for flower embroidery.

They are all still in their packets as I need another storage box and some little cards to wind them on to. That will be a fun job as not only do they look pretty they are so soft to touch!

I am planning to make myself versions of the ornies below which were exchange pieces from a while ago that I sent to the USA to go in my little ornie displays.These are both freebie designs from The Workbasket site and I love the fine detail of them.

There is nothing better for keeping out the cold than a nice bit of stitching in a warm house! Have a lovely week ahead and stay toasty!

Thanks for visiting.

Stitching for sanity

January 15, 2012 stitchesoftime4 Comments

Hello there

I hope you have all been having a lovely week. I am back into the swing of things at work and have had a very nice week, weather is pretty dreadful and have a slightly leaky conservatory roof and a very broken garden trellis to deal with but hey ho – such is Winter in Yorkshire!

I often joke to people that stitching and knitting is my therapy, the stuff that keeps me sane and I know that there are lots of others of you out there who feel the same. It doesn’t matter how bad the day has been, or what has been hurtful or difficult to deal with when I light my candles and get out my stitching, sitting on my sofa with a glass of wine I am the happiest bunny in the world. It is lovely as well to create something that also gives pleasure to other people when they receive so it is a double bonus.

Reading my free Metro newspaper on the bus to work today I came across an article about a prisoner of war who had stitched to save his sanity but also within his stitching had used hidden Morse code to include subversive messages. His name was Alexis Casdagli and his work, along with that of his son who he also taught to stitch, has been included in a recent exhibition at the V and A Museum.

There is a really good article about the piece at the following website and here is a pic of the piece from the Metro newspaper site held by his son Tony, there is a clearer view of the Morse code on the web site.

Prisoner of War stitching 2

I know there are many other examples of how people have used crafting to while away the hours. I have seen a cross stitch done entirely in human hair from a prison exhibition in Nottingham , a quilt made from uniform jackets by soldiers on campaign and last year at the Birmingham Quilt Show we were shown a wonderful whitework piece done by sailors during their long voyages.I love the fact that I am part of this long history of people who create as therapy – I think it is a wonderful way of calming the soul!

I do not have much to show you this week in the way of stitching progress. I have just completed the stitching on my Winter Exchange piece but cannot show you that yet, however since I had lots of stitching time in Spain I am also part way through a piece for me.

As you know I love snowflakes (but not too much real snow!) and came across this poem a while ago and have finally got around to stitching it so thought I would show you my progress. It is called Snow Poem by Erynne Chard from Red House Crafts. I have just checked on the web site and can’t find it so it must have been an old design.

It is stitched on sparkly Aida (to give my poor old eyes a rest from the small count evenweave I have been using for the exchange piece!) and done with my favourite Silk Mill thread again.

The Silk Mill are having another sale giving 30% off so I have treated myself to a set of green silks this time which will arrive soon! The sale is still on so if you fancy stocking up head on over there. I do love a bargain. Wendy who runs the Silk Mill very kindly sent me a little note on my last order saying she liked the blog and I was really touched – thanks Wendy, I really love your silks!

I have a number of different themed seasonal stitched ornies thanks to my exchanges but am very short on Winter ones so am going to spend a couple of months stitching just stuff for me on a Winter theme so that I can have another lovely seasonal display.

I do hope that you have had time for some therapy this week and thank you very much for visiting.Stay warm!

A happy coincidence

November 1, 2011 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

As regular readers will know I am involved in some cross stitch exchanges – one that I really enjoy is the Seasonal Exchange, I got my gift from Conny some time ago and I posted a pic here a few weeks ago of the beautiful pillow she sent.

What I could not reveal until my partner Kathy had got her piece from me was that this was what I stitched for her.

Yes that is exactly the same design – JBW Designs French Country 4 – how weird is that!! Don’t know if it has ever happened in the history of the blog exchanges that someone has stitched the same pattern that they have then got.

In reality it is not such a weird happening – when we get give our partner’s name we always go and look at their blogs to see what they like and if Conny did that she would have known I love JBW designs. But to choose the very same one is a very lovely coincidence as I always pick designs I would love to have myself and now I do. So thank you again Conny – I could not say too much when you first sent me the piece or Kathy would have known what she was getting!

I have had a lovely week in Spain and have done some more trips which I will post pics of later in the week. The blue wristwarmers are finished and another little JBW stocking ornie has been stitched but not yet backed. I have cast on for a second version of the wristwarmers and started another stocking (I am a little bit addicted to these – well Xmas ornies in general at the moment!).

Hope that you are all having a lovely week and will catch up with you again at the weekend.

Thanks for visting.

Lovely Stitching

October 16, 2011 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there and hope you are all well and happy.

I have had a lovely parcel in the post – my Autumn exchange piece for the Seasonal Exchange blog which has come from Conny at Creative Basket.It is from my favourite designer JBW and is called French Country Pumpkin 4. I love it – especially the finishing with the two different pumpkin fabrics and the very clever outlining.

I have just finished stitching my piece for the exchange and will be posting it tomorrow. Can’t show any pics till it arrives at its destination which should take a week or so.

I have also just finished another Xmas ornie – I did post the WIP for this a couple of weeks ago when I had nearly completed the stitching. This design is from the Christmas edition of Cross Stitcher magazine and I really liked the Scandinavian style, especially the backstitching. I decided to do a slightly different finish with the ornie to fit in with the shape of the stitching. It was a bit tricky to fit the pieces round the design but it looks ok at the end (if a little asymmetrical but never mind!) I have used the Makower Joyful fabric for both front and back.Not that long now till we can get the tree out and display all the lovely new ornies!

It has been a lovely sunny weekend – I have had another busy week so I have had a very nice relaxing weekend with mainly cooking and stitching. I also made it to my monthly knitting group this week so the wristwarmers are nearly finished.I am really looking forward to next weekend as I have a week off work and I am off to Spain again – lucky me! I have not got many plans as just really want a relax but Mum and I are planning a couple of trips out to see some more history so I will take some nice pics for you all.

Thank you very much for visiting and see you all again soon.

It’s a miracle!

October 2, 2011 stitchesoftime2 Comments

Do you see the above picture my dear readers, that was taken in my garden yesterday Saturday October 1st and we were having a BBQ! In Yorkshire, in October!

It is an absolute miracle and I am stunned. We have had an enormous heatwave here in the UK – it has been so so warm so Jake and I decided to make the most of it and BBQ for tea. And afterwards I sat out watching the embers glow, drinking a little red wine with no coat on till 8pm. Oh if only Autumn could always be like this!

I hope you have also noticed the beautifully restored decking – isn’t it nice the way it matches the chairs so well. It had got very scruffy so I found a very nice gardener man to come and pressure wash, sand a re-stain it for me so it is all looking lovely.

I have spent a few hours today tidying up (what would normally be the putting the garden to bed for the Winter tidy up but who nows it might be the start of the Spring growth season!) It is possible the world has flipped over and we are now having New Zealand’s climate which would be fab (can we flip back before we are officially supposed to have Spring please?)

Jake and I had a very lovely visit yesterday to Stafford for the University Open Day there. We were very impressed, it is a pretty town with a park and canal and a very lovely campus. The course and lecturers were also very good and there was a great welcome from everyone we met. He has to fill in his choices form soon and then fingers crossed he will be offered some places!

I have had a ridiculously busy week again, we had another Marsden Jazz Festival meeting (things are hotting up as the festival is next weekend!), went out for a meal with work friends which was very nice and had the girls round for the evening. And there was work which was very busy but very nice – I am having a lovely time with my new group.

All this of course means very little craft time so apologies for only WIP pictures again. I have finished one of the Little Cotton Rabbits wristwarmers and cast on for the other one last night and am nearly finished with my latest Xmas ornie. I was stitching this on our train journey to and from Stafford which was a very pleasant way to spend a few hours.

This is a pattern from the Christmas 2011 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine, I have stopped buying cross stitch mags generally as I have a few (ahem!) patterns still to do but was very taken by the prospect of more ornies and they had some lovely Scandinavian style ones (and a free ornie kit which I have sent to Ellie).

I am stitching this on very fine count sparkly evenweave (think it is about 28 count) with only one strand of Silk Mill thread and all the backstitching and contrast rows are being done in a dark red sewing cotton it is that small-scale! I am very pleased with it, will change the bottom of the design I think and put another heart in and then make it up as a hanging ornie for the tree.

The images below from the Cross Stitcher web site show the original design made up as a picture and also some very cute little bird ornies which I will also make for my tree.

Well I hope that you all have a lovely week ahead – I am spending the whole of next weekend in Marsden for the Jazz Festival (yippee!!) where I will be running the box office. Hopefully we shall have some lovely weather so if you are in the area do come along, lots of wonderful music and a great time guaranteed!

Thanks very much for visiting.

The end of a busy week….and then there was embroidery!

September 18, 2011 stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Hello everyone , hope you are all well and happy. I am currently feeling tired but happy after a very busy first week of term, I must be getting old as I was very glad to see Friday :-). I have had a lovely time with my new group of students, they are very lively and I’m sure we will have a great year ahead.

I had a nice relaxing weekend planned and I have been enjoying myself – once again surrounded by textiles. My local branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild were having their biennial exhibition on Saturday so after meeting at Lydia’s lovely yarn shop Spun for a couple of hours of the WI monthly craft session where I cast on for a new pair of wristwarmers I wended my way to that.( I love that word ‘wended’ don’t you – always sounds like something out of a fairytale!)

I have not been able to attend a meeting this year due to work pressures but it was very lovely to see everyone, eat nice cake and marvel at all the wonderful talent that is in the group. The slideshow below shows just a small selection of the fabulous work there was on display.

Free picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

I also bought a couple of books on historical textiles (bargain at £1 each) and added this little piece of needleace to my collection of textile creations.

Today we had the first full planning meeting for our new re-enactment group Swords of Mercia held at the Hardwick Inn, this is a lovely old pub – see pics below, in the grounds of the fantastic Hardwick Hall – once home to my heroine Bess.

Apart from a very nice lunch and a catch up we also organised lots of things about how the group will be run , I am to be secretary, booking us into events and also help with costume making and advice. We have until next year probably before we do our first show but I already have some fettling to do to make new hangings for the display tent we will use for talks.

I have finished the stitching on my Autumn exchange pice (no pics allowed as it is not be posted till 1st Nov) so as well as the wristwarmers I have started on another Xmas stitch – this is a Nordic inspired tree design from the Cross Stitcher mag I treated myself to yesterday.No pics yet as not much stitched.

So a busy week but a very nice one, have had great fun once again and am very much looking forward to the year ahead – both personally and professionally.

Hope that you all have a nice week ahead and see you soon. Thanks for visiting.

It’s official

September 9, 2011 stitchesoftime3 Comments

I have tonight lit the candles in the lounge for the first time since about May and started stitching for this year’s Autumn exchange piece so I am now declaring Autumn officially here. Along with the excessive rain that we have had this week (not that in Yorkshire that distinguishes Autumn from Spring, Summer or Winter :-)) Is there an official start to Autumn ? It seems to have come pretty early this year or maybe I have been too busy waiting for Summer to arrive properly and in my confusion lost track of time.

Not that I mind Autumn at all – it is in fact one of my favourite seasons, I love snuggling up at home after being away lots in Summer, and watching my candles flicker, preparing for Christmas (mind you I have been making ornies all year!) and meeting all my new students for the year (the first lot arrive on Monday!).

But I do like Winter as well (except when the snow is really bad though I am better with my snow paranoia now that I realise that the children are grown up and we can all get supplies in and we are not going to get cut off!) And I love Spring because that is when the teaching winds down and my garden looks lovely and I can start having BBQs again. And I love Summer when we can go camping and do re-enactment events.

I just love all the seasons for different things and am very happy to be able to enjoy so much. I am feeling very, very happy at the moment, not for any particular reason but just very relaxed after a busy year so far, I have been doing lots of work on the house which is nearly at an end, we have been here nearly 6 years now so lots of things needed freshening up. There have been lots of changes at work – higher education is in a bit of an upheaval at the moment to say the least but we are looking forward to a great year ahead.

I am very lucky, I have a job I really enjoy, two wonderful kids, lots of friends and a really nice life and I am very thankful every day to be here and having such a lovely time – even if I have got quite wet this week!

I have finished two more Xmas ornies this week , one of these has been on the go since my last trip to Spain and the other I completed most of on my train trips down to Worcester and back last week.

The one is another version of the JBW Christmas Motif Sampler tree – did not realise I had already stitched this one until I checked my blog posts under the ‘Xmas ornies’ tag to see how many I had done but you can never have too many ornies can you? For this I used some variegated thread that I bought at the Malvern Quilt Show – only one strand was needed as it was quite thick and it stitched up really fast. I am not certain what the backing fabric is – I have had this in my stash for quite a while.

The other pattern is an old one from the Gift of Stitch magazine called Red Berries by Rosewood Manor , I made this for my Mum some years ago and always wanted one for me. I finished this as a little pillow and I am really pleased with the way the fabric complements the stitching – this is some of the fabric I got at Malvern and I think it looks fab. The fabric is called Joyful 2 by Makower and you can get it online from The Cotton Patch It may be a bit big to hang on the tree but I can find somewhere for it.

I also had my delivery from The Silk Mill – look at all these lovely Xmas colours!

I love using silk thread for my stitching as it is so nice to work with and has such a beautiful sheen. It does cost about twice as much as stranded cotton but I usually buy the Silk Mill sets which are good value and am building up my stock of colours gradually.

I do need to get a serious move on with the rest of my Xmas ornie making as the WI are having a stall at a local Xmas craft fair which I have volunteered to do as well as the Oakwell Hall one I had planned and both of those are on the same weekend. I would like to do another local school one but don’t know if I will have enough time to make stock for 3. It’s the little matter of the day job taking up so much time!

Here’s hoping for a little respite in the rain this weekend so that I can do my gardening!