Long Weekend

It was a long weekend for me as yesterday (Monday for you Northern Hemisphere folks) I had a check up for my cardiac pacemaker at the local general hospital - long day but plenty of stitching time! Unfortunately most of it is PIFs and Exchanges so no pictures. But it was great to have a three day weekend and today at work I will have to catch up ;-(

I can however show you some more of Santa at the Beach! The stocking top and the Pohutukawa Tree are coming along - just the back stitch to do at the end. Next is Santa and his sack! I am enjoying stitching this - makes me think Christmas is just around the corner :-)

Still busy stitching

Although I haven't really got any interesting photos to show you I have been busy stitching on two PIFs and an exchange. My own stitching has had to take a back seat.

This photo is part of the NZ Christmas Stocking. So far only the sky and the seagulls but I will eventually have a "Down Under Santa " at the beach on a hot Antipodean Christmas Day!- and I promise to post a photo when he's finished. He is by a NZ designer Lynn Manning and is certainly far from traditional but is a fun stitch. I am having a lot of pleasure stitching him and thinking of the good home he will go to at Christmas.

Have a good day everyone.

A basket full of goodies

Nothing I can show you yet on the stitching front as it's all for others and I must not spoil the surprise. So instead here's the basket of goodies from my coffee table. It is amazing the comments it produces from guests. "Where did they come from?" and when I start off "Iceland, Ballarat, Oregon, Connecticut... I usually get stopped by the exclamation "How do you know these people?" So thank you to all of you who have become friends in the world of exchanges. I have had an amazingly interesting year so far with still more pleasures to come.

I'm currently working on a return exchange for Crazy Exchange group, a mattress pincushion for Hooked On Exchanging and two PIFs. Having previously been a one at a time person it is taking some will power to have so many projects on the go at once but it is more pleasurable than stressful which is good :-)

Have a good weekend. I have Embroiderer's Guild tomorrow so am looking forward to that.

Pohutukawa flowers

Our native tree the Pohutukawa is covered in bright red flowers and is the harbinger of Christmas and hot summers here in New Zealand. Well this week in the office building where I work a huge pohutukawa flower appeared. Grandma's tale of how once the Pohutukawa blooms there is six weeks till Christmas is patently untrue!! Well, this flower is actually the work of American born, New Zealand resident, sculptor Jim Wheeler. Isn't it magnificent?But the real thing is even more beautiful! One of the girls at work took this photo at a local beach last summer. I am still working on an exchange so can't show you any photos yet. I am stitching in the same colour thread as the pohutukawa flower (a Needle Necessities overdyed cotton) and am thoroughly enjoying it so you can look forward to a photo when it is all done.

Stash Enhancement

Friday's post brought my order from ABC Stitch Therapy so I must show you a photo - I ordered the Patchwork Garden Pincushion Ball and asked them to kit it all up for me. The Dinky Dye silks are amazing and I am itching to start this but it has been put away out of temptations sight until my current projects are completed.

And as if that wasn't enough extra stash I was in Christchurch for the day and went to Hands the craft shop there and added some extra to my bulging stash! The threads are hand dyed by a New Zealand textile artist and are Perle 8 and Perle 12 so will be great for hardanger. I snapped up the magazine because it has the Happy Home Sampler that I first saw on Becky's blog (and fell in love with there. With terrific self control I refrained from purchasing the threads and fabric at the same time and decided to check my stash at home first! There are a couple of other purchases including scissors that I couldn't take on the plane so got the shop to mail them to me and you shall see a photo when they come!

Yet another parcel

This time the mailman only left a card and I went to the Post Office before work to pick up the package. Guess what? It was from Sonda! She and I had a direct swap with each other for the HOE Summer Quaker Exchange so that was rather deliciously weird. Look at the summery flamingo pinkeep and all the goodies she sent me. Flamingo has already settled in well in the "Exchange Basket" on my coffee table and may even be able to be persuaded to pose for another photo with all his (her?) friends some time. Such is the generosity of you all that Flamingo has a great deal of company in the basket. Sonda, thank you so much. I just love the beaded fob and the little charm that says "Made with a smile". Despite the winter outside it is summery at my place thanks to you!

Oops this photo is alarmingly amateur. Still you can all see the goodies which is the main purpose.

I have also been named by Wendy Jo for a Kreativ Blogger award - I am such a novice at this that I think everyone else's blog is the best and I really don't think I can chose any one over against another. Congratulations to you all who are winners in my estimation and many thanks to Wendy Jo for her vote of confidence! Check out Wendy Jo's blog on the link and see what she has been up to. I am working on a ....... for her on the Crazy Exchange. But yesterday a Frog came to visit and my lunchtime's stitching had to be reversed out. Very demoralising. So it was an early start this morning to get back to where I was before. That sounds really confusing but I'm ready to continue on now with the very enjoyable ..... NO I can't tell you what it is yet! You'll have to wait. Wendy Jo shall be the first to know when I send it to her - hopefully within the deadline of a month.

Have a great day.

Exchange from Wendy Jo

Friday's mail brought a wonderful surprise. Wendy Jo had chosen my name for a Crazy Exchange and made me a Quaker Thread Keeper. Not only that she sent thread threads in my favourite blues. Thanks so much Wendy Jo - you certainly know my tastes well!

Also received another surprise from Elisabeth, a fellow member of Auckland Embroiderers' Guild. I had recently introduced her to pendibuiles and she has gone into mass production! One made its way to me and here's a photo. Isn't it great! I am impressed with the way she got the top to fold so neatly. I made some headway on the Wiehenburg Suzanne Sampler too - am on to the third page of eight now. Just where the thread stops there is a Germanic eagle on the right. He was a surprise as the chart was spread across two pages but he looks grand. He has a mate to come on the left hand side. The next photo will show his splendour. At about this point in the weekend I took sick with a 24 hour stomach bug which made stitching impossible. Wouldn't you know it - it's now Monday and I feel well enough for work but thoroughly washed out and 2 kilo lighter!! This is not a pleasant or permanent way to lose weight so I am both frustrated and unhappy. Here's hoping for a better week.