Waitangi Day 2013

Today is a public holiday held annually to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.   With that document New Zealanders, both Maori and Pakeha (the non- Maori) became a part of the British Empire and we have lived with the consequences of that ever since.   Be that as it may, today was a gloriously warm blue-sky day and I, for one, appreciated a day off work.
The HD3QBEM and I went for a drive to a small town about an hour's drive south and had lunch at a quaint cafe called The Copper Kettle. We have had so little rain for weeks now that the usually verdant farms are all a dry brown dust bowl and we wondered how the poor animals are surviving.

On the way back we stopped at a tiny craft shop and watched two women creating beautiful ceramics.   I was particularly taken with this grey hippo planter but unfortunately he didn't come home with me.

While I did the ironing this morning I remembered to iron the Confetti of Hardanger piece so I could show it sans wrinkles!  

This HAL is great and Abi Gurden publishes excellent instructions.  

The curved fan was the homework for this issue.   I see that despite counting the wraps my tension has not been even and one "spoke" looks fatter than the others.   Only the centre motif and the edging to go.   I wonder what will come for the centre?
Last night I made a re-start on my self-designed blackwork etui and hopefully by the weekend there will be progress to report.  My original plans for this came to nothing except and unplanned mattress pincushion so I have started again.  The tin, the linen and the picture in my head remain the same. I plan to have this completed for our Embroiderers' Guild exhibition in August and as I have only just started the lid and there is still a scissor fob, needle book, pincushion and thimble holder to go I need to plod along.
Hope you have all had a great day too.
  

Sweet Peas and progress

Today I picked a large bunch of sweet peas from the vines.  These are the HD3QEM's favourite flowers and our lounge is filled with their sweet scent.

At New Year a friend is coming from Japan to stay for a week so this afternoon I planted flower plants and did a general tidy up in the garden.   Now the weather forecast is for rain and wind tomorrow.   Oh well....
I managed to complete the next step of A Confetti of Hardanger HAL.  This week was picots and I am never very confident with those.   I followed the instructions very carefully and completed the small motif, all the while telling myself that practice makes perfect!

Now, after a busy day I am ready for bed so good night all.

Under the weather

For the past two days it has been very silent at our house.   My voice has vanished and left in its place a hoarse croak and a pitifully non-productive but extremely irritating cough.   I dragged through a busy day at work on Friday sustained only by the thought that in the weekend I would have time to recuperate and to indulge.   Well....

Today the HD3QEM and I travelled to the south of the city to visit the exhibition put on by a neighbouring embroiderers guild.   Inclement weather, and her loving daughter's  ill health couldn't dissuade the HD3QEM from this adventure as she had deduced, with rare enthusiasm, that on our return journey we would pass by Daruma Sushi once again.   We both enjoy sushi and chawan mushi so it was a shared pleasure.

The exhibition was wonderful.   This particular guild always have a strong bias to traditional stitching and I enjoy the inspiration and stimulus I receive in seeing all the beautiful work.   My camera battery was dead so I took these using my iPod. Can you guess which section of the exhibition was my favourite -  yes yes yes!  The counted traditional work.   These are some examples of Hardanger, Punto Antico, Schwalm, Reticella and Ruskin Lace. I did take my Moleskine and despite being artistically challenged sketched one or two ideas that some time in the future I may try to imitate.

 

 

I have completed the one medallion on Part 7 of A Confetti of Hardanger.   This is needle woven bars and I am desperately hoping that the next medallion will be slightly more complex and give a greater degree of satisfaction.

The front and back of Shelleys Jewellery Box are now completed and have been put into hibernation to allow me to complete some of my other projects.   I really like the centre panel of this one.   Here's
a close up of that part -  the colour is not correct.

Currently I am working on a "tone on tone" counted thread hussif.   This is chewing through the thread and I had to call in to my LNS and stock up on some more floss.   Originally I had planned to use linen and floss from my stash but didn't count on this using quite so much floss.   Hopefully the finished product will justify the outlay. The linen is a pretty lavender 28 count cashel linen and the thread is GAST Lavender Pot Pourri.

 Well, I'm off to make dinner now and settle down for a stitching evening.