We have crossed the Rubicon

Today has been momentous for two reasons.
1.  The HD3QBEM told me she can no longer see well enough to read large print books and so life for her is now circumscribed by talking books supplied by the Foundation for the Blind.   I, who read voraciously, cannot imagine what it must be like to live in such a limited fashion.   Life will become more oral in our house from now on.   Her left ear still has good hearing and we are glad of that. Like Pollyanna, we will go forward finding things to be glad about and generally be cheerful.
2. I built me a house.   All the talk here is about affordable homes.  It is election year and all political parties have policies and views as to how every New Zealander can have a home of their own.   I too have an idea.... build a C A Well's Cottage.

Isn't this so cute?   From either front or back, this house is picture book material and I am more than satisfied.  The road to completion seemed long and at times was fraught with difficulty but I am so pleased with the result.

Here then, is my Cottage Etui.   I still need to get three pearl buttons and make the twisted cord fastenings but getting this far has allowed me to feel that I can cross this one off The List.
Tonight I shall stitch another page of Ring O Roses and watch Midsomer Murders, full of self satisfaction.  Ahhh.

Half a roof, half a cottage and a whole fairy.

This week has been full of interruptions and plans gone awry.  At least the HD3QBEM is feeling better and now able to wash and dry the breakfast dishes so I am not late for work of a morning!

The Needlebook is finished and I even fond a tiny pair of scissors to put into it.
My Cottage has half a roof.  I used my new Clover Awl to make a hole for the eyelet and was so happy when it worked well.   Scrabbling through my fabric stash I found some gorgeous cream silk duponi which will make an excellent lining for this cottage.   My that does sound luxurious -  stitched in silk and lined in silk!  Hopefully over the weekend I am going to get the Cottage itself constructed and then I can check the fit of the roof.

Christmas is coming so I took time to iron on Giggle Cloth to these printed squares.   I have plans for these and if all the ingredients are ready then construction will be simple....I hope.   Note, these are not technically a new start just a preparation.

Some time ago, Kris sent me a stitched Fairy.   Last night I finished her into a small Christmas Tree ornament.   She is cute and will look good on the top of my tree.   Thank you once again.

Next is the Naxos for which I have all the ingredients.

So busy week it may have been but some small progress has been made.

Why do hours in the day run out before the list is complete?

Full of good intentions I made a list on Friday of the weekend's chores and errands.   An excellent list it was, not too long and not too short.  But the hours of the weekend are almost gone and the list is not all ticked complete.   Oh dear.
However I have made some good progress on construction of the current stitching projects so here is the "show and tell"

First up the almost completed needlebook.   The empty space on the top right will have a mattress pincushion - yet to be constructed.   And I need to decide how I am going to stitch down the spine - shall I make the stitching show on the outside or the inside?   Ah...decisions decisions!   This needlebook is on Antique White Cashel linen and an assortment of floss to tone with the lining fabric (kindly sent to me by Ann of Beadlework).

The pincushion and the scissors fob to go inside the Cottage Etui are all complete.   Here's a montage of these two pieces.   The ends of the pincushion are indentical to the scissor fob.   I have given myself this week to finish the needlebook and the roof of the Cottage and hopefully next weekend to build the actual cottage.   Perhaps I am over optimistic- we shall see.
Anyway it is time to cook dinner now so I had better close this.
 

Entwined initials???

When the artistic genes were being handed out I must have been absent for the day!   It seemed simple, in a logical kind of way, to graph out two letters of the alphabet, overlaid so that they would appear entwined.   That's just a simple mathematical exercise n'est-ce pas?  Well.... the end result is precisely the sum of the parts but is definitely on the 'dis' end of the satisfaction scale. 

However I am not undoing this.   I am declaring the stitching for the Cottage complete and I have moved on to the Needlebook.

Here I have hundreds of nun stitches ahead of me as I outline the needle pages.   Hundreds and hundreds of them.   I will not count, just doggedly stitch.   Being of the mind that a trimmed four sided stitch is not structurally stable, I opted for nun stitch as the page edges.   Each page has the name of the needle and a small floss bobbin.

And...when the stitching on the needlebook is finished I am going to have a marathon construction time.   The Cottage, the Needlebook and the Naxos Necessaire all need construction and I vowed, hand on heart, to the HD3QBEM that I wouldn't return to either The Mermaid's Chest or Ring O Roses until all three WIPS have been finally completed.   Five projects on the go (and that's not counting my EPP Hexagons) is just too much to cope with.
This Saturday I am going to the National Agricultural Field Days with Little Brother.  Unfortunately the weatherman is not cooperating and I think I will need my waterproof anorak and knee high gumboots.   Last weekend I had a dress rehearsal.   Do you like the look?

Given heavy rain for the past three days, I can guarantee that the boots at least will have changed to mud colour by Saturday evening!   But I will be gloriously tired, happy and able to cross two items off my 60 Things To Do list (new gumboots and Field Days).
Right.   I'm off to more nun stitches now.

And the Cottage has a front door and a window.

Tonight I managed to stitch the eyelets for the lace window curtains and it only took three attempts.   I have to say that the chart for this C A Wells Cottage Etui almost needs a doctorate to decipher it.   Eventually I used the HD3QBEM's hand magnifer (recommended by the Foundation of the Blind no less) and consulted the coloured photograph.   Better luck that way and the front porch is now finished.  

Hopefully tomorrow I will graph out and entwined M and S for the base and the cottage will be considered finished but not completed.

Why not you ask?   Well I want to use the remainder of the linen and have made a start on the Needlebook which, with its accessories, will be stitched in the spaces.   I am using odd floss from stash and attempting to blend with the fabric I have chosen for the lining.   Not a 100% success but neither is it an epic fail :-)   I like this -  the cover is a sampler of stitches.   So far, Palestrina knots, Rice Stitch, Montenegrin stitch, Smyrna Crosses, Satin Stitch and the promise of more to come.   Great fun to have the variety.   I didn't like the long and short stitch for the floss bobbins so changed that to satin stitch on top of cross stitch which gave a far better coverage.

Now I am off to bed.  

I've been building a cottage

Tonight I've been building a cottage -  well three walls and a base.   Oops it's up side down!   I'm not sure that I like the Est. 2014 but I wasn't brave enough to attempt to change that completely.  The front door, window and trailing roses on the front side are more complicated and will need to wait until tomorrow.   The base has to have initials and I really want an entwined M and S but can't find any in my alphabet books so will have to get out the graph paper and a pencil and chart my own.   That's another job for tomorrow night.

And in the interests of frugality and because linen is very expensive at $140 a metre I have filled all available space on this piece and tacked out the pieces for another project.   This probably means I will need to stitch that project before I can cut out and construct the cottage ??? Oh well, so be it.   I will do that one next so watch this space.
Now another week starts.   Tomorrow is pay day at work so I will have to do the wages first thing.   Everybody loves me on wages day :-)

No eyes!

Life has been very quiet at our house this week.   The HD3QBEM has had a nasty head cold but seems to be on the mend now -  at least she is back to being able to dry the evening dinner dishes:-)
However she managed to complete what we both call the bumblebee sweater and has added it to the pile of knitting which will eventually go to the Hospice Shop.  There are now five garments towards the total for next year.   39 is the number to beat and she seems on track to win.

While she has been busy, I have completed the roof of the Cottage Etui.   Well, almost.   That gaping gap in the middle is an eyelet but needs to be done after the interfacing is attached.   Apparently I drill a hole with my awl and make the eyelet then... we shall see how that works out.

Unfortunately dreams of constructing the pincushion and scissor fob came to naught but I have the ingredients ready and there is always next week.   Doesn't the Colourstreams Silk Ribbon match well?

I did manage to pick up my knitting needles and make a start on a pair of socks.   Before the HD3QBEM's sight completely gives out, I want to be guided through the intricacies of a turned heel and to cross off another item on my 'before 60' list.   During the winter I always wear hand knitted woolly socks inside knee high boots and the winter temperatures are here now and these socks need to be off the needles and on the feet.   So my needles this week have had no eyes :-)

Coincidentally Little Sis and Little Brother are both in town this weekend so the HD3QBEM will have company while I spend a day in the city centre.
I plan on a ferry trip across the harbour to the delightful second hand book store on Devonport Wharf, a saunter up the street to Cushla's Quilt Shop (she may have the paper hexie templates I am searching for) and in the afternoon attending several lectures at the Auckland Writers Festival.   I booked in to hear Alexander McCall Smith and Camilla Lackberg - one because I love all things Scottish, in particular Edinburgh, and I want to see in person the creator of Mma Ramotswe,  and the other because I enjoy the occasional foray into Scandanavian Noir.   I am looking forward to the lectures very much.  Listed like that the day sounds positively indulgent!
We had performance reviews at work this week -  mine on Thursday morning so I had most of the week to build up a solid knot of nervousness in the stomach region.   All went well and was amazingly positive so tomorrow I plan to spend a small portion of my bonus (reward) on a  tripod for my camera and thereby hopefully, be able to produce better selfies than the current versions which rely on my dim memories of physics for mirror reflection angles. And a tripod is another item on my 'before 60' list.
So that's the news from my house this week.

A quick catch-up

Only a  little progress to report this week.

This week I finished my target on Ring O Roses so she has been put to bed for a while and I have been stitching on my C A Wells Cottage Etui.   A little adapting here and there and I am happy enough with the finished result pale and delicate though it may be.

Actually the colour is not as pale and insipid as my photography.   The shades of the English Meadow floss are really quite pleasing.  The stitching is now done so that I can complete the scissor fob and the pin cushion - perhaps next week I will have the completed items to show as I need to get ribbon and wadding for the pincushion.  I did want to have a 'double monogram' with both M and S but couldn't find any alphabet like that in any of my books so gave up and settled for my usual M.   What difference will it make anyway as this piece will probably be discarded along with other pieces when my long suffering nephew sorts out my belongings one day.  Oh dear, how melancholy is that?   Fear not.   I am not depressed with dark thoughts-  merely telling myself not to get hung up on small details :-)
The plan for next week is to complete the other side of the roof - i.e.. the remainder of the alphabet and then the numbers.   After that it will be a temporary sayonara to the Cottage Etui and  hopefully on to construction of the Naxos Necessaire.   It was June 2013 when I went to the class for that Necessaire so I have promised myself it must be complete before 12 months are up but as they say "if wishes were horses,  beggars would ride."   There are too many variables in my life and indeed, too many other temptations also.

My diary - at least for the weekends -  is really full for the next six weeks but I was delighted to find that the Embroiderers Guilds Regional Day falls on the one free Saturday I have so I swiftly filled in that gap on the page.   I am looking forward to that immensely as it is always so inspiring to see what others are doing and to browse the merchants mall.

Little Brother is coming up to stay next weekend and both of us are looking forward to that.  Little Sister will be here the same weekend but she isn't staying.  There is only a certain amount of expansion room in a two bedroom apartment!   Perhaps I should invite Older Brother and we could have a family reunion?!   The HD3QBEM is full of anticipation and hoping that her health will cooperate.

Well that's all from me.  I have baked a Ginger Crunch Slice, some Chocolate Chip biscuits and a fruit loaf.   My busy schedule this weekend requires tight timetabling starting this evening.   Now it is time for my book -  I am hooked on a Katherine Neville book and lunch and tea breaks have been too short this week.   I shall read till I finish it tonight.

Night night everyone.

What a weekend!

Easter - eggs, a holiday away and bad bad weather.
This year I received one egg only and I generously gave the calories to the HD3QBEM!   This small egg cup is a remnant of my childhood -  cute isn't it but eggs must have been bigger in those far off days!

We traveled down to Lake Taupo, through torrential rain and gale force winds and were most thankful to arrive safely.  

Our hotel was near the first geothermal power station in New Zealand.   We drove past the warning signs

and up to the look out.

The water needs to be cooled before it can be released back into the Waikato River and so a Prawn Park was established to use the water at one point in the cooling process.   They produce prawns of amazing sweetness and size and have a thriving restaurant and fishing establishment which appears to be on the must-do list for every tourist!   

I indulged in a Mud Wrap Thermal Spa and massage.   It was a wonderfully relaxing two hours and my skin feels super smooth still.

Good Friday we drove through to Rotorua, another city describing itself as a thermal wonderland.   In wet wet weather it merely smells of sulphur!   We did find this yarn bombed tree though.

And in between showers and excursions I found time to finish tacking up all the hexagon templates I have - 150 of them.   This isn't enough to complete the runner I want to make but as I only need another 50 or so I have decided I will start sewing these together and free up some templates to re-use.

Then I made a start on C A Wells Cottage Etui.   This is pretty and enjoyable but will now get put aside while I finish off my other projects.

I have stitched the pincushion/pinroll with its appropriate ends, the scissor fob and the lid of the cottage.   The satin stitch saw tooth border was easy compared to the cross stitch over one.   My aged eyes don't really like that too much but I am determined to persist.
Here's a closer shot.

And then on the way home my car mileage turned over to 100,000 kilometres.   Probably significant only to me but I wanted to record the event.   Unfortunately it all happened in a place where I couldn't stop and take a photo!
All in all we had a happy time away and both feel quite relaxed after the break.