Long time, no blog.

I have just been reading Jennifer Aikman-Smith's(Dragon Dreams) blog, and can sympathise with her statement...."When the going gets tough, sometimes I just get quiet".

Yes, well. I haven't added to my blog for a good half a year. But I have been stitching, and keeping up with other blogs and all online stitching news. Life has thrown a few challenges at me this year, and adding to the blog seemed a supreme effort. Ridiculous, I know! But as this is a stitching blog, and not a whingeing blog, I will get down to stitchy info.

I have had a couple of recent finishes.

Firstly, Just Nan's "September Song". Like other JN's I started and finished in a couple of weeks, without getting bored before the end. Maybe it's the right size combined with the different colours and stitches?Whatever the reason, it is good for the morale!

Secondly, Blackbird Designs "Their Song", one of the Loose Feathers designs. This was a delight. I had not used "Vintage" linen before, but I really enjoyed stitching on it(and I'm an evenweave girl) and I like the way it complements this design. I put the last stitches in at a GTG at Janine's. EVERYONE should GTG with a friend who owns a LNS! I can recommend it! I just popped into the Colours Downunder room for a skein of WDW that had run out, as you do, and was able to get it done. What a treat!

I have continued to make progress on Blackstone Fantasy Garden, Convent's Herbal Garden(yes, I have a thing about gardens and birds and seasons),Enchantment of Winter(Dimples), and Berry Patch Rabbit(Cedar Hill). I can feel a TW burst coming on. A nice bit of border...hmmmm.

I had a great time at the Craft fair in May- especially as I got to help out at Colours Downunder's stall. Janine's stall looked gorgeous- absolutely wonderful- a stitcher's dream, and it was such fun to spend time there. I did have a spend up on the last day, both at Colours Downunder and at a number of other stalls. I have 2 Japanese quilt kits- but no sewing machine- mustn't let little things like that stop us right?! I bought the Dragonfly Jewels Box from Cat's Whiskers. Janie Hubble was at Janine's stall for a day, and is a lovely lady. It's great to meet designers. I'm afraid I've also fallen for some of the quaker designs, and bought Wiehenburg's "Quaker Heart- Susan" (of course!) and the enormous "A Quaker Christmas" from Bygone Stitches. Janine helped convince me I could finish it in my lifetime- and I have on order the silk pack from Vikki Clayton.

In March I started "St Sylvestre"( Long Dog). I first saw this pattern on one of the Sydney GTG's. The lovely June had purchased it, and in no time had stitched it up using ordinary variegated DMC to great affect. In memory of June, who passed away at the end of February, and I know is still sorely missed by the shell shocked TWGTG group, I am stitching this on white linen in DMC. Simple but effective.

Enough said. I'll be off now, and hopefully get into the blogging habit. I love to read stitching blogs- Janine's, Cathy's, Alison's(especially for the Shepherd's Bush stuff- keep it coming Alison!), Gill's, Junette's. Others too.So inspirational.

'Til next blog,

Susan.

A Wonderful Day

Last Monday(Australia Day holiday) I went to Janine's for a stitching GTG.

Diane, Marilyn and Cathy were there, and also another Cathy, Margaret and Sue who I had not met before. When I arrived everyone was stitching. Usually at our small GTG's at Janine's we show and tell, and talk a GREAT deal and shop, but we don't stitch. This was a different format however, and although I didn't hold out much hope for myself, I actually did stitch and made some progress to boot!

Diane brought all her wonderful finishes for us to drool over again(the Minstrel, and her Mira Queens RR particularly). Janine's finished St Sophia is really beautiful. Cathy K almost finished a piece while she was there, and completed it that evening. I am always too distracted by what everyone else is doing to work that effectively. All the ladies were making lovely progress with their pieces.

I stitched on Bent Creek's "Brownbird Sampler". I have done the other 3 in the set, so when this is done I will be off to the framer.

Diane did not have any stitching with her to do, so I welcomed the opportunity to have her stitch on something of mine. Diane does beautiful stitching, and it is a treat to think she has contributed to one of my pieces- like an ultra-mini RR! She made great progress too- finished the line of shell stitches for me, and stitched all the green in the violet panel of DT's "Alpine Sampler".

Some charts I had ordered earlier had come in

and so I brought them home of course, plus 3 others which I came across in the process of looking through the new stock. The charts I ordered were La-D-Da's "Beauty Is", "The Blessing", and "Garden Angel". The 3 charts I also found were Plum Street Sampler's "Gather", "Give", and "Gobble". I'm a sucker for sets!

It was a lovely day. All the ladies are so nice. Thankyou Janine for having us all and feeding us too. When school is back I may be able to join the stitching ladies more often, which will be a real treat. The rest of this week and weekend will be taken up with the preparations for DH's 50th, so I don't think much stitching will be done. If I get into the stitching room though, I will try and finish off Brownbird Sampler. I would love to have those 4 Bent Creek's on my wall.

Happy stitching to all,

Susan.

Progress Report

The last week or so I have been concentrating on Convent's Herbal Garden(Chatelaine), and here is my progress.




I have finished the central motif minus the over one in the very centre. The colours are lovely, I have really enjoyed working with the Caron Waterlillies. Also since my last post I have put a few stitches into Bent Creek's "Brownbird Sampler" and also some lengths of thread into "Blackstone Fantasy Garden"( Ink Circles).

I have also acquired some stash, as a result of visiting Janine(Colours Downunder) last Friday. I needed to call in and pick up the required Waterlillies to finish the CHG section, and managed to see some of her new stock. I bought these four charts

They are from Victoria Sampler. I first saw the Bunny, but of course as there was a set, I had to get them all, and now I can't make up my mind which is my favourite.I also had to buy some of the WDW's and GAST's that are needed for them. It is so much fun looking through the rings of colours. I also have plans for some of the lovely opalescent fabric Janine has just got in. I know I have a smallish chart somewhere that I want to use opalescent for, and if I find it is o.k to stitch on, I will get some for TW's "Companions".

I did also enjoy catching up with Janine, and also Marilyn briefly(and her extremely cute granddaughter Patience). We hadn't seen each other since our GTG before Christmas. We will hopefully have another W.A. GTG in February. Janine is very busy with her ever expanding business. I saw some of the photos from her 50th birthday last September, and also laid eyes on the new gorgeous kitty, but Harry the Somali remains my favourite, which is quite a feat for him as I really am not into cats. But I would take him home.

I haven't seen any "must have" charts recently, although I do like the new L & L "Isabella's Garden". Blackbird Design's new Loose Feather is a bit hard to see in the online photo, so I will reserve my judgement on that one. I have seen the thread pack from Carrie's Threads for Ink Circles "Garden Stars". I bought that chart with the intention of using the motifs individually, but now I have seen the selection of threads in the pack, I think it would be gorgeous. The colours for BFG are also Carrie's Threads and they are lovely. Needless to say, Janine is going to get them in for me, and that will be yet ANOTHER large project on my top do list.

Now that Janine has helped me work out which colour goes where on the next part of CHG(she has a colour chart) I will probably continue with that. But I also feel a hankering to start one of my Blackbird Designs. I have " Live Each Season","Their Song" and "Wake the Dawning Day" to choose from. I have fabric picked out for two of them.

Thankyou for the lovely comments on my first blog entry. It took me a few days to realise that there were comments. I'm so new at this, and I still curse and swear during the whole process because I can't get the colour or font right, and I still can't put pics where I want them without help. I like to see progress pics though, so I guess I will persist.

Enjoy the rest of January. Happy stitching!

Susan.

First post!

Welcome to my blog. I have wanted to start a blog for a good while now, but not being computer savvy, I have procrastinated, as always. I need to thank my DD for helping me get started. Many of my stitching friends have blogs which are a delight to read, and I think it's wonderful to have a record of stitching progress, and to be able to share it. I keep a stitching journal, the old fashioned sort in a book, but I can't share any of that information, or add pictures, so this will be an extension of that.

I have started the New Year with a new start(of course!). As Janine was so kind to give me a piece of Antique White Jubilee as a Xmas gift, especially cut to size, I was able to start "Convent's Herbal Garden"(Chatelaine). I had been slowly building up the required stash- there are still a couple of silks to get, and the beads- and was itching to make a start, so this last week I have been enjoying the beautiful Waterlillies silks and watching the pattern grow.

Prior to that all my energy went into "Blackstone Fantasy Garden"(Ink Circles). The outlining of the knots in green and brown is nearly done. I have found the counting a bit challenging- lots of checking and re-checking and re-re-checking! Filling in the knots with the variegated thread will be a delight I think, and then the coloured blackwork is something I am looking forward to.

I have always worked on a kind of "screaming rotation". Whatever calls to me I stitch, whether it be an old WIP or a new start. However as my WIP's now number over 30, and some are big pieces, I would like to make an effort to finish some of them this year. The same DD who helped me set up this blog would like me to make a list of goals including rules about "no new starts" etc. I'm not sure I'm prepared to put any such thing in writing. I think I will just have a general aim to reduce my pile of WIP's. Motivation enough is that I want some of them on my wall. Perhaps in a later posting I will find the gumption to list my WIP's.