What a surprise!

 Last night was our final meeting of the year at Embroiderers Guild and we all presented our finished articles for The President's Challenge.   This year the topic set was "Inspired By a Book" and as I have posted on this blog before I stitched a tin topper and an inside lining.   If it had not been for the encouragement of a friend from Guild I may have conveniently "forgotten" to take my piece.   However,  unwillingly,  I took it along and placed it quietly on the table and learned that the winner would be decided by viewers choice.   So satisfied that I wouldn't be called to account for what I feel is a poor piece,  I enjoyed the company of the others and admired their work and caught up with their current projects.

After a delicious pot luck dinner and a successful AGM the president announced the winner and guess what.... my poor effort had won!   My jaw dropped open and I was speechless.    So thank you Sophie, my friend for your encouragement to enter.   A splendidly successful way to end my first year at this new guild.

The prize was this little kit which I shall stitch over the summer holiday so that I have something for the Show and Tell table at our first meeting next year.

Today I have been putting the buttons on several dozen Gingerbread Men, ready for the boxes of baked goodies I will deliver to the neighbours in the small cul-de-sac where I live.   Also the DBEM has needed my help in finishing off her current knitting project.  And I have had the latest Jeffrey Archer book on loan from the library.   So on a windy wet day it has been good to stay inside and be happily occupied.   But I'd love the weather to clear up as my garden desperately needs some tender loving care after the gales of the last couple of days.

President's Challenge

 Each year the Embroiderer's Guild has a challenge, issued by the president, and displayed at the AGM at the beginning of December.   My current Guild in The New City has only around 30 members so an absence of participation would be noted.   But I am not a creative type of person to design my own piece of work; nor did I want to spend a lot of time on something I didn't really want.

The challenge was "Inspired by a Book" so after a lot of thought and the production of several new grey hairs I settled on this after having read the book The Chocolate Tin by Fiona McIntosh.

And inside the tin I will have a stitched explanation.  This is currently straining my eyes and my patience as I stitch all the lettering over one on 32 count fabric.   Hopefully this week I will finish this and put it in a bag to await the great unveiling at Guild meeting on 7 December.   You will probably hear my cries of anguish in the Northern Hemisphere if Covid lockdowns mean that meeting has to be cancelled.   Currently we are at the quasi-normality of Alert Level 1 and long may it continue.

But on the good news front the temperatures are slowly rising and we have had seven days in a row where green has been the colour of choice for my Temperature Chart.   It is good to get out in the garden and feel the warmth of the sun.   My seeds are germinating and I do daily checks to ensure that marauding snails and slugs do not get to them!

Next Project

After the millions of crosses in The Birds I needed a palate cleanser of speciality stitches and what better than this Shepherds Bush kit.   If my memory serves me correctly this was a gift from an overseas stitcher but it has languished in my stash for several years.   However the combination of linen fabric and silk floss is irresistible and I am enjoying this.   The bands of specialty stitches give interest although I have reservations about the rose pink angel wings.   There are a multiplicity of beads and sequins to sew on at the end and the sparkle may well dilute the heaviness.

I have a couple of Christmas Ornaments on the hoops at the moment too as they are a good size to take to Guild and to Stitch Group.  A further three ornaments are needed to meet family 'obligations' and then I want to make four initialed notebook covers for friends at my KYB group. 

And as a reminder myself I will document here the current state of my 2020 Presidents Challenge.   Explanation to follow when I have more to show.    This is my first time to stitch on "wash away" over top of the final fabric.   I will eventually make the piece into a top for .... a chocolate tin (and perhaps stitch some imitation chocolates for the inside) but learnings so far from this - I can follow instructions well; I can do near faultless counted work BUT I cannot design or create free embroidery/creative pieces :(    The oval cameo, currently loose, will be appliqued on after the lettering and cording are done.   But I needed to stitch that first to get the size and relativity.     By the way I'd recommend the book which was the inspiration.