When in doubt read the instructions

This week I pulled out of the basket the Quaker Friendship Book and made great headway on the construction.   All the necessary squares of cardboard were cut.   All the squares of pellon were cut.  All the squares of stitching were laced to pellon covered card.   A trip to the fabric shop was made and silk was purchased for the hinges and lining.
Wait!  What lining?  And at this point I read the instructions.

Oh dear.   The stitched squares were to be laced over heavy skirtex (=pelmet vilene in NZ).   All that hard work will need to be undone.   I'm not in the mood for that at the moment so back into the basket they go and I'm going to start something else.

Meanwhile I am stitching up some of the DBEM's knitting and sewing buttons on those.   Surely I can't go wrong there?

Proof

The DBEM and I went to a city park today which is actually a working farm and 

Lambs + Daffodils = Spring.  QED

Another Christmas Gift

I made a start tonight on another Christmas gift.   So far so good.

This will not be monochrome and nor will it be traditional Christmas colours.

And now I'm off to bed.   It has been a long and tiring day and all my own fault.   This morning I looked at my clock, jumped out of bed and had my porridge in the microwave before looking at the clock again.   Oh no, it wasn't 6am it was 5am.  Duh!!   Not worth going back to bed so I enjoyed an extra hour of my book but have yawned my way through the rest of the day and expect to sleep soundly tonight.

And more Christmas

Both of these stitched up quickly and turned out a "good size" (according to the DBEM!)
I was pleased to find the bobble edging at a local shop and can now consider this project complete too.

One job this week is to cut the card squares needed to complete construction of the Quaker Friendship book.   But I have been easily distracted over the weekend with a Laurie R King book.   I love some of her writing - "the cat poured itself onto the floor and departed".
In my sentences cats leap or jump or are pushed but they don't pour.   However Laurie R King's phrasing is more picture than prose I think and for that reason has transferred itself to my notebook of memorable quotes. 

Mini macro lens

On a recent visit to the Auckland Art Gallery shop I found a teeny tiny clip on macro lens for my iPhone.  And even more importantly I finally figured out how to use it!
Ta dah!!
I give you "Textures"

Amazing how my favourite stitched pieces are all very traditional counted work.

Christmas preparations almost complete

What does one do when there is no more DMC 221 left in the stash and one is part way through a cute ornament?

Today the DBEM and I went out to stock up on floss.   Well actually we went to a shopping mall and the DBEM went for a long walk.   She is on a "strength and balance" exercise programme and this was part of that. 
Since then I have done the household chores, been for a long brisk walk myself and completed two ornaments.
Voila!

Now it's time for beauty sleep.