Finito!

The strawberry bag is now finished.

I am pleased with this one and walked around the fabric shop trying unsuccessfully to get a green silk for the lining before coming home and delving back into stash.

This scarlet chinese silk is not an exact match but it looks OK and at least I could do the happy dance!   Now I am working on the red and green blackwork pinkeep.  There is a strawberry scissor fob and a needlebook too but once the pinkeep is done I will put this project on hold as there are two other items of higher priority on the "To Do List".
Yesterday I went to see Grant, my friendly optometrist.   Apparently my eyes are stable but he agreed that my embroidery spectacles could do with increased magnification.  Thankfully I had taken a piece of stitching with me, so I stitched a little while he measured and calculated and in a week or two I will have new lenses.  On that happy note I walked the length of the city's main shopping street and crossed off several items from my list before coming home to the usual weekend chores.
This afternoon I braved the rain to go to the library and now the latest Daniel Silva book is calling out to me.  However so are the dinner dishes and the preparation of this week's lunches, so duty needs to come before pleasure.

Strawberries grow well in the rain

Today it is really wet and windy.   I defied the weather to go out and cross off my list of chores -getting drenched in the process.  

However being confined indoors has done wonders for my stitching and the strawberries are growing. They look good don't you think?

I find it harder to do the cream flowers, aged eyesight etc but they do look effective.  There's a needlebook, pinkeep and scissor fob to complete this set.   In faith I dated this 2015!
My quilted placemats need the binding hand finished and I'll do that tonight.   I'm still dithering over the colour for lining my Sampler Casket so no progress there.   But I do have the buckram cut for my Advent Candles so will soon have those done.
And now my Date and Orange Loaf is out of the oven, the Miso Meat Balls are in baking, Chicken Soup is in the slow cooker and I have a book and a cup of tea.   See you later!

I will I will... I hope I will

Currently I have two WIPs that I am determined to finish which will give me time to decide on my next project.  My Sampler Casket needs to be finish-finished and there are also two pieces that need construction and some quilted placemats that need a binding.   Sounds like enough to keep me busy doesn't it?

However today the HD3QBEM had a list of chores that needed doing so we went off into the City and I parked her at the yarn shop while I trudged walked up and down Queen Street (the main shopping street) and crossed items off the list.   Profitable day?

Yes, at least for the HD3QBEM!   She came home with some more yarn and oodles of inspiration....and a heavy dose of impatience to complete the current project so she can start a new one.   Maybe my disease is genetic?

While on my walk up and down I stumbled across a new-to-me shop.   Well I thought it was a new one and in a friendly tone of voice said to the lady "I'm so pleased to find a new handwork shop" and her "somewhere from the North American continent" accent popped my balloon,  with a frigid "I've had this store since last November"!   Really?   Anyway it was interesting and I intend to go back and have a more thorough look around in a couple of weeks when I go into the City again.   Isn't it fortunate that my optometrist has his rooms so very near this delightful shop?

This morning was a white white frost here.   Fortunately Auckland is in the north of the country as the polar blast that swept up from the south deposited snow and lots of it but the tank had run dry when it reached our city so we only got the cold and frost.   But the days are fine and the sunrises are breathtaking so I try to make complaints few.   Frosty and fine is far better than rain in my book.
And now I am off to make dinner and settle down for the evening.

After a short break...

Winter is truly here.  The temperatures have dropped, snow is falling in the South and rain is falling in the North.   Great weather to sit inside with my stitching.   Even so, I haven't produced much.
Currently the little crosses of my stitching are producing Christmas goodies:

Advent Candles for a friend -  these have yet to be made into candles.  My original idea was to make four trapezoid shapes that when placed together on the Sundays of Advent would make a tree shaped decoration.   As usual desire outran performance and I couldn't summon sufficient energy for the mental gymnastics necessary for that one.   So with the aid of buckram, felt, dacron filling and a few other bits and pieces from stash these will become four stitched Advent Candles. The topmost star will become a round tree ornament and the band at the bottom a bookmark.
However I wanted an Advent tree for me so am stitching the same chart but in DMC115 monotone.

And in a lapse of my usual commonsense I started on this.

A finely woven warm scarf onto/into which I plan to stitch a drawn thread band.   The narrow band is the first of what will become more complex series of bands and proved to me that it will be possible.   Some years ago I stitched a similar scarf (Merino) for a friend with a broad 10cm band of Myreschka embroidery. It was successful and well received so that since then I have looked for a similar scarf to repeat the exercise however no such Merino scarves are now available and I settled for this winter warmth viscose one and it seems to be working.   I do need to visit the needlework store for some black DMC perle.   What are the odds that I come out having purchased more than just a ball of that thread??
Work is going well and I'm kept very busy.   Like funeral directors will always have clients, so too will Probation Services.   Next week we have the Minister of Corrections coming from Wellington to officially open our newly refurbished offices, so there has been a scurry of cleaning and tidying.   Apparently my desk is the tidiest in the office!   We have been practicing a Waiata (Maori song) - He Honore, which I am told, is often sung at official functions as part of the welcome to honoured guests. So I will don my uniform, a bright smile and hope to fade into the background on Tuesday when all the honourable big-wigs come to inspect our premises;-)
Six weeks ago I decided to change the supermarket I use and to change to doing a fortnightly shop and amazingly I have saved myself $30 a week!   Of course that cannot all be price and some of the savings are attributable to the logistics of bulk purchase and longer term menu planning.   However I am very pleased with myself:-)   And on the strength of such frugality have decided to book in for an embroidery class next March.   Do visit this link to see what I hope to stitch (scroll to the second to last) - the Alison Snepp Linen Stitch Hussif.
Well that's enough from me.   I'm off to bed with a hot water bottle.   Sleep well everyone.