Et voila!

Tonight the thimblepod is finished.   Complete, but totally useless as a container for a thimble.

I collected up all the thimbles we have in the house and yet there is room for more!
Left to right these are Royal Albert from Windsor(courtesy of Niece Number One), Sterling Silver Dorcas thimble (courtesy of Old Gran =  great grandmother), silver plate thimble from my LNS, two Indian brass thimbles (source unknown).  Five of them but they still rattle around in my thimblepod which if I had stitched over one as directed would have housed one only!
However, there is space in my cabinet for this and I am satisfied - so what,  if it is a mammoth thimblepod.   I should just rename it....but as what??

Beautiful

The HD3QBEM and I have both been to the podiatrist.   She goes every 6 weeks as she can't see her toes now and I'm not confident to cut those, although I do her fingernails.   I go only when painful corns make it absolutely necessary as,  not yet being an old age pensioner, there are no reduced rates for me.
But we both have beautiful feet tonight.   At least they feel beautiful although they don't look it!!

And the thimblepod is stitched together and now awaits the twisted cord for final completion.
Front

Back

And the bottom showing one three way corner.   These corners  were rather a mission to hold while stitching.

Well I'm off to twist threads!   Do you think this looks too large for a thimble?   I promise a comparative photo tomorrow:-)

The construction highway

Embroiderers Guild starts again this month and I really wanted my new workbasket to take,  so foot to the pedal and voila!

Although perhaps not completely to the designers instructions, I am still very satisfied with this and intend to use it.   However I am not going to stitch the scissor fob, needle book and pincushion to match.   Already I have enough of these, so will use what I have.

The Woodland Delights piece was made into a little zipped purse.   I am definitely not totally happy with that one and while I will be using it (container for my spectacle cleaner and cloth when I travel) I plan on stitching it again in two separate pieces and trying again.

Tonight I will stitch these three pieces together and construct the thimblepod.  Looks like I need to remove the tacking thread first?!
Then and only then, will I allow myself to start a new piece.  Noddy is to be my Guild project for the year which is a cunning way of allowing myself the pleasure of choosing another piece from my stash for my "at-home" stitching.   So the hardanger books are coming out of the cupboard -  oh yeah!

My new favourite tool....

Over the years since a friend gave me this little tool I have not actually used it much.   But, tonight it has been my new buddy:-)

My friend's husband was very keen on wood turning and he made these beautiful little wooden handles poked a tapestry needle into it (eye portion in the wood) and they are the most fantastic 'unpicking assistants'.   Yes!   I have been reverse stitching tonight so I am off to do the dinner dishes and hope to recover my stitching momentum during that break.   Wish me luck.   This is the base of the thimblepod.

Cross purposes

This morning I added Lemon Delicious Yogurt to the HD3QBEM's morning cereal.   She made no comment.   Later we went into the City.   Yes, she needed some more yarn;-).  Lunch was a sandwich and cake at the cafe, cake being a piece of passion-fruit cheesecake.   In the bus On the way home I asked, 'did you like the lemon yogurt this morning?'   Her reply?  'Yes, it was just like the cheesecake we used to make from that old cookbook'.   Cross purposes.  Her mind on passion fruit cheesecake and mine in lemon yogurt.  Just as well not all conversations are like this!
But there have been other purposeful crosses in my life and the second panel of the thimblepod is done and I have made a start on the third panel.

I am definitely a one at a time girl so Noddy is waiting in the wings for this to be completed.

And now we have two..

The blue birds of the giant thimblepod are finished and I am very pleased with them.  

Even the alphabet on this project is fun.   I've not seen this almost circular font before.  And I love the acorn - it's cute.
Tonight my stitching will no doubt suffer from the distraction that is the finale of Downton Abbey.   But the dishes and the evening's chores are all done so it is "hello Edith" for me.

Blue Birds of Happiness

There will be two blue birds but here is current progress on my oversized thimblepod.

Back in the day when I was on a much larger salary with greater disposable income, I splurged on Gloriana Silks for this project.   I remember ordering them on line from Australia and being super impressed when they arrived.   Soft as, well, silk and smooth as butter they are a delight to sew with. Can you tell I am enjoying this project so far?

Designed to be stitched over one on 32 count linen, I am instead stitching this over two threads of fabric.   Perhaps this will turn out big enough to hold treasures other than thimbles??

Out with the old and in with the new

Great ideas of starting the Noddy bag and choosing a hardanger piece all went out the window.
I couldn't read the Noddy chart well and will need to enlarge it on the photocopier at work tomorrow.

Then I picked up my basket of. "want to stitch" pieces and found this,

so tacked up the linen and put in a few crosses before going to bed.   Instead of stitching over one I am going to do this over two fabric threads and see what happens.

Today I went by bus into the city and failed massively to cross anything off the shopping list.  But I did find this beautiful ceiling in, of all places, the railway station.   A veritable kaleidoscope of colour but a bad photograph.
Off to make dinner now.