Happy dance at my house today!

Last night I sat and stitched and glued (and watched Doc Martin) and completed two projects.   So it is the Happy Dance today at my place.
First up the Japanese Etui - a biscornu, a scissor keeper and a pinkeep.  All cute but on my "never-to-be-repeated" list as the instructions and chart are terrible.   I do like the little pins for the pinkeep though.  The little Japanese ladies dancing along the edge of the fan are really cute.

The bead slides up and the head rises to free the scissors from the body of the scissor keep.   Not immensely practical but they are to live in my curio cupboard so practicality isn't essential.

The front

And the back...

And the pinkeep...

See what I mean about the chart  -  don't you think that if you had designed it you'd have made it fit the fan shape better???   I'm not happy but I'm not repeating either.

Next up is the Stitching Toblerone -  I found this one on the internet a long time ago and it was to be my project for stitching at Embroiderers Guild meetings this year.   But it is already finished and has been on a visit to the Guild "new work" table so now I need to choose another project.  Tonight I will go through the box into which I put all my "want to do in 2012" pieces and choose the next project.

This toblerone was a fun stitch and easy to construct.   Despite the instructions being in French, the photographs were excellent and I am really pleased with the finished result.  

Inside I used fabric from my stash and was pleased it coordinated so well.  I stitched with my favourite DMC 115 and even found some red handled scissors to match.   The cord to hold the scissors is fastened with a small press stud and the button holding the flannel piece is a red bobbin shape.   Wasn't that a grand coincidence!

The front had the word Amitie and I changed that for what you see here.   I made a finger knotted cord for the ties and pilfered the gold end beads from a small bag in my drawer.

You can see why this was called a Stitchers Toblerone!   The back has lots of hearts - I think because originally this was a SAL with the theme of friendship.

Well that's all my report for today.   Hope you are having a great day and that your weekend weather is better than mine.

Update

Good afternoon,
How do you measure time?   Is it by the stitches crossed?  This morning while the HDHBEM had a skin cancer removed from her neck, I stitched this.   Others in the surgeons waiting room seemed distinctly amused but I was pleased with progress.  As usual this is my favourite DMC 115 and the linen is a scrap of 36 count cream Edinburgh linen.
The HDHBEM is resting up comfortably and soon I will make a tasty chicken dinner for her.   Then I can do the final two rows on this Christmas mitten and call it complete!

Les Petites Japonaises Etui is over one third done.   I have finished the biscornu and tonight hope to stitch together the pieces of the scissor keep.   Maybe by the weekend I will get the pinkeep done too.  I would certainly not recommend this chart -  the photo looks cute but the instructions and chart are poor and very difficult to follow so I am not at all satisfied with the result -  especially with the scissor keep.   Hopefully the photograph can be at favourable angle!

 Yesterday the Mazda car company sent me a magazine in which I found this article.   Can you imagine an organza so fine that one square metre weighs only 5 grams?   Amazing isn't it.   Probably not much use for embroidery but still amazing.

This afternoon I had a chest xray and then I made a quick stop at the dress shop to get some new jeans.   Over the last four months I have dropped three dress sizes so it was time for some new clothing.  The Chinese tailor in the local mall has altered my work clothes once and then twice so I decided that was uneconomic and this time bought new.   Hopefully the weight loss will stop soon as this is getting expensive!

Have a good evening everyone.

And now for the construction....

Well, what have I been up to this week.   Apart from a busy time at work I have had been
Reading.  

The chain reaction of seemingly random events might seem an unlikely basis for a book but I found this one to be so engaging I read it twice!   On the second reading I puncutated the pages with orange Post-It stickers of all the quotes I wanted to note down.   Charlotte's mugging is the start of the chain of events, and I found some of the comments about her relationship with her daughter and her frustration at the limitations of old age to be very close to home.   Besides which, Charlotte is an avid reader (woman after my own heart) and talks of her house having 'walls lined with language' -  I'd love a house like that.  Currently I have only two walls that could be described in such a manner!   Surely the author must have first hand experience to write from the daughters perspective "She felt these painful twinges of compunction where her mother was concerned.   Not just on account of the hip, but the whole business of age, of what has happened to her, what happens, the way in which a person is pushed into another incarnation, becomes a different version of themselves.   Her old mother was still herself but she was diminished in some way, had lost emphasis, was not the figure of Rose's childhood and youth and Rose felt in some irrational way, guilty."  
But enough about reading.  Next was
Cooking.

30th March is Red Dog Puppy Day and as part of the fund raising for these guide dog puppies, biscuit cutters have been made.   I attempted some dog biscuits using mine. 

They taste good but look a little insipid and I realise how much I lack in cake decorating skills!   Perhaps next time I will try and make a proper red coat or at least some chocolate chips in the mixture to give more colour.
And I did some stitching.

The Japanese Etui stitching is complete and now I need to begin the construction.  Tonight while watching Midsomer Murders I will do the back stitching and plan to cut the card shapes tomorrow.  And now looking at the photo I see I need stamens on the cherry blossoms.   Oh dear.   The designer was obviously intending a Japanese Maiko (trainee geisha) hence the bouffant hair style

but this is a very poor chart -  the photo showed a cherry blossom in the hair but it was not charted and the codes for the colours require a high degree of detective skills and much reverse stitching in order to get the correct combination.  I do not recommend this chart and just hope that the finished product looks satisfying as well as satisfactory.
Hope you all have a good evening.   Tonight's menu is homemade pizza so I am required in the kitchen.  Good bye for now.

A visit to Kelly and a stitching update

This afternoon I went to visit Kelly.   She's now three months old, full of smiles and gurgles of happiness.   At the point where she became 'smelly' I handed her back to her father!

Les Petite Japnaises is coming along.   I have finished the stitching for the pin holder and biscornu as well as the base of the netsuke scissor holder.

The netsuke scissor holder has the 'head' separate from the 'body'.   I foresee a degree of adventure in the construction phase!  

Currently I am working on the head -  but oh the amount of DMC 310 in that black hair of which I have only a partial outline done at present.   Still the end is in sight and I admit I am thoroughly enjoying this piece.  It is simple but effective and I hope I can do due justice to the construction.

Today we have had a sunny day - not too warm, but sunny.   Our summer has not been highly successful this year and already there is a touch of autumn in the air.   The mornings are darker and we have a month until daylight saving ends and that will officially signal the end summer.   Oh dear oh dear.  

It's a positive symphony!

After a dramatic thunderstorm with accompanying lightning and heavy rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday have been bright sunny and hot.   So hot in fact that zillions of cicadas are now singing their non-melodious symphonies.   Life is noisy in my normally quiet household.
Not only has the weather been dramatic.   The HDHBEM had a dramatic reaction to her antibiotic medication and after a visit to her GP was told that the hospital had prescribed 1500mg daily when it should have been a 500mg daily dose.   Now she is on medication to cure the side effects of the other medication - a veritable cocktail of drugs -  and she has another antibiotic to add to her list of "prohibited items".    Her residual infection from the pneumonia is not yet clear either and as the experts say 'we are monitoring the situation'.   So the HDHBEM has been confined to quarters.
But amidst the noise and drama I have had a busy weekend.   It was Embroiderer's Guild on Saturday and a great chance to catch up with others and see what they have all produced over the summer break.  As usual I forgot to take my camera so there are no snapshots of that - I promise to do better next time.
I have cooked a banana and walnut loaf, caramel pistachio slice (this should have been caramel peanut slice but there were no peanuts in the pantry) and a fish pie.   The various weekend chores all got done.   The HDHBEM was allowed out on Saturday when I took her for a drive along the waterfront and around various city parks.
Last night we both stayed up to watch Midsomer Murders and the HDHBEM made excellent progress on her knitting while I managed to get enough done to make a photo worthwhile.   This Japanese etui is fun to stitch.  Currently I am doing the little ladies on the biscornu.   That needle is a John James tapestry #28 which gives you some idea of size.

According to the chart they are not filled in but I have toning shades of overdyed floss so am thinking of giving their kimono a more solid look in tent stitch over one.    

The front of the fan shaped pin keep is all stitched.   I am delighted with that and look forward to the construction day.   First I need to finish the biscornu and then there is a scissor keeper in the style of a netsuke.  Hopefully I will get to that this week.

This is all stitched on 30 count linen with DMC threads as charted by "Les Petites Japonaises" by Dessins DHC which I purchased through The Silver Needle.   Having lived in Japan for a number of years I am enjoying this greatly but being originally a French design there is a lot that is lost in translation and I don't rank this chart very highly on my scale of "good charts".  

Barb wrote to say that the Blogaversary gift had arrived and that she had enjoyed the chocolate and had made the Angel so here's a shot of what I sent.

Linen and matching thread - by a New Zealander textile artist, a beaded Angel, a souvenir teaspoon of Auckland and some New Zealand chocolate.   Thanks for letting me know you received this safely Barb.
Have a good week everyone.

A little stitching update

Good afternoon to you all.   It is a wet day here but very humid.
Last night I completed the back of this fan pinkeep.   There are a biscornu, scissor keep and pin holder in the set and I intend to make a drawstring bag to hold them all.    The whole thing is stitched on 30 count antique white linen with DMC threads  -  sorry for the dull photos: it's a dull day here!

                                    

Which of the two Japanese decorations do you think would look best at the base of the fan?   I can't decide.
The front of this fan has a stylised cherry blossom pattern which should be fun to stitch.   I can't remember the name of the designer at the moment but I know I bought it from The Silver Needle.
Have a good day everyone.