Strawberries - and summer temperatures

It's strawberry time in NZ.   Hot summer days and delicious strawberries.   Both in my dinner and in my needlework!   And just for the record I prefer the edible variety.   The sheer quantity of Queen Stitches in the stitching strawberries is a major test of patience.  Today has actually been rather too hot and humid and to cap it all we are promised a "tropical night"!!

Here is a more complete snapshot - in faith I have already stitched the date and I am on track to make this true.

Have a good night everyone.

An update on the Bargello Sewing Case

Good evening all.   Friday evening and I am exulting in having two days to myself!   Well apart from a long list of chores that is - but still I am glad to have the time to myself.

Progress has been slow on the second "page" of my sewing case but here's a shot of where I am up to.
You can see the panel left for the lettering and so my energies are expended on this next....

Yes, I have to chart my name and the date.   This chart was done in 1994 so basically I need to graph the whole line - Margaret S finished Dec. 2010   Perhaps my faith is too great but as the lettering is in petit point I won't be undoing it.

Well that's all for tonight folks.  Hope you have a great evening

And this time, an embroidery update

Since returning home to superior lighting and comfortable seating I have made good progress on the Bargello Sewing Case so here are a couple of snapshots showing progress.   This has enough variety of stitches to keep my interest and is small enough to enable relatively speedy stitching.   I am using 36 count edinburgh linen in an antique white shade with the DMC and Needle Necessities floss as charted (there is also some gold thread for which I substituted one I liked from my stash).

Anne in Scotland - you left a comment on the last post about this piece.   If you would email me (address in my profile) I will gladly give you the information you need.

Anyway, here's the progress photos.

Front Cover - complete

First panel of the Inside "Page"

Have a good evening everyone.

Honkey Dorey

A snapshot tonight of this cute little car, named Honkey Dorey by its owner - a really eccentric and loveable resident of Norfolk Island-who owns New Kids on the Block,  a small shop selling designer kids clothes to all the Granny and Grandad tourists.   Don't you think the wind up key and the eye lashes are cute!   What a fabulous sign post when parked outside the store.

I think the average age of the tourist who visits must be somewhere between 54 and 90 -  I lowered the average age of the island the minute I stepped off the plane!!

See you all tomorrow night - I need some sleep now :-)

I'm back!

Hello everyone.   I'm back home again after a week on Norfolk Island.   Only one night's rain and beautiful sunny days were a delight for tourists but not so welcome for the 1800 permanent Islanders who rely on rain for their water supply.

Electricity comes from a diesel generator and cost means that all electric light bulbs are around 60 watts and no conducive to stitching.   So the productivity result for a week was stitching zilch but book reading seven books (and one audio book off my iPod!)   All in all very refreshing and I feel great benefit from my week away.

This little Island has great history of descent from the mutineers of HMS Bounty and of convict penal settlements and provides a lot of interest for visitors.   Here's a few snapshots to show you some of what I saw.

Anson Bay on the North West coast

The foreman's house at the time of the penal settlement -  since restored of course

The famous Norfolk Pines that Captain Cook found had too many branches and knots to be used for ship masts for Her Majesty's Navy

The commemoration of where Captain Cook first landed in 1777

A view to the only accessible swimming beach on the south coast of the island

And I'll be back soon with some more snapshots and an update on the Bargello Sewing Case.

I'm off on holiday tomorrow morning !!!

Just before I turn off the computer and do my final packing here's a shot of the finished ornaments.


Stitched on Edinburgh Linen with my favourite red Threadworks floss 



One medallion from the Wiehenburg Christmas Quaker stitched on Edinburgh Linen in my favourite red threadworks floss



Stitched on Edinburgh linen in a Christmas Green Threadworks floss -  store bought tassels to finish

EDITED   Hazel to answer your question I used two threads of floss as I wanted good coverage
These three are all destined to become gifts for people who don't know my blog exists but they have certainly been a fun stitch and I am certainly thankful for the inspiration of Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issues.   While I never use the recipes I usually find some ornaments I like!
As you can see it's dark outdoors and I need to go "shut eye" in preparation for an early start tomorrow.   See you all in a week's time with a report and hopefully some snapshots of my week in Norfolk Island.
Goodbye


Post Anne Progress

Good evening all,
Since the Anne Book completion I have stitched three Christmas Ornaments and 'finished' them only to find that I have no narrow ribbon to go around so no photos yet!   I want to do a finish-finish before I take photographs.
Then it was a case of what next?   Out of the KITS box came an ancient purchase; it was checked over and is now in my suitcase.   More on that later.   But then the problem; out of all this stash what to do next.   When in doubt consult the Half Deaf Half Blind Elderly Mother and she said that this particular item from 1994 must surely be next.   And so it is.

This Bargello Sewing Case is proving interesting and quick and so by Christmas this should be finished - at least the stitching part although construction may have to wait.   My New Year resolution is to stitch the Historic Countries Sampler and nothing will thwart me from that goal.   So I'm speeding on with this one in order to keep my stitching schedule on course.

And why the suitcase?   Well as a reward to ourselves the HDHBEM and I are off to Norfolk Island for a weeks holiday.   Having been three times before we know what to expect and stitching (for me), knitting (for HDHBEM) and lots of reading are on the agenda.   Also lots of walking (for me), swimming (for both) and exploring the island.   Don't you wish you were coming too?   See you all when we get back