Half way through the year!!

 Goodness, more than a month has passed and I’ve not updated my blog.  

A visit from my niece and her two energetic small children brought delight, weariness and a bad head cold, thus preventing me from attending the family Christmas in July party.  Fortunately there are several family birthdays early in August and I intend to be present and enjoy the noise and the catching up.   My brother and sister-in-law and their children are so very kind to include me and I share in the day to day lives of the little ones.

On the home front:  the biennial Embroiderers Conference was held at the boys high school just down the road from where I live.   A friend came and stayed as she took part in one of the many classes offered.   I merely assisted her and visited the merchants mall where I was delighted to obtain the linen for two planned projects.   In the same venue as the merchants mall there was a display of stitching from each of the various guilds that form the association.  All of these were fascinating in their own way but some had truly captured the essence of their region/town.

Napier is a city known as the Art Deco Capital because of the large numbers of buildings of that period built after the devastating earthquake of 1931.   The ladies in that guild reproduced a poster used for the annual Art Deco Festival - isn’t it wonderful?

Palmerston North has claim to fame as being one of the first towns in which state financed social housing was built in the reforms of 1938 so our guild reproduced a painting by a local artist depicting State Street.

Wellington guild has celebrated its 60th anniversary and they portrayed this in a medley of sixties icons.

Besides these treasures there was a judged exhibition held in a local art centre which attracted many visitors from the local region too.   I spent a happy morning there last week sitting stitching and answering various questions from meandering members of the public.

My hardanger needlecase (second attempt) is now complete.   I made a fatal error on the lacy edge of the first attempt and had to discard it completely and try again.   So it became a labour and not of love!

I have now completed three little pencil cases which will make their way to various homes at Christmas time - fortunately the recipients don’t read this blog :)

And a stitched Treasure Box for Great Niece Number Five is in the process of being completed.   The chart was in an old copy of Piecework Magazine but the supplies are not readily obtainable here so I’ve had to improvise.   So far so good and I’m working slowly as I want this particular piece to be durable.  The date is the year of her birth - I’ve not been working on it that long!

And I’ve started on the finishing of another piece from my friends’s collection of Unfinished Objects.   I’m hoping to have this done over the weekend when it will have its 21st birthday - at least anniversary of commencement :)

And so until next time!