On the home straight!

This Christmas Prism has been a long time in the making.   Too long really.   So this weekend I made a determined effort and cut the four equilateral triangles for the outer in a strong cardboard; then the four slightly smaller ones for the inner from a very stiff vilene.   Next step to lace all the pieces on to both outer and inner.  

Right that's enough -  a  break is called for.   So I finished off page one of the needlebook.   This is my "guild day" piece but I was dissatisfied with progress and wanted some visible evidence of time spent.   So one late night (in company with Hercule Poirot) and one early morning (quietly so as not to wake the HDHBEM) and page one is complete.  

Page two has the frame done and I can now stitch happily on the alphabet for this page at Embroiderers Guild this coming Saturday.   But my conscience keeps nagging 'prism prism' so back I go again.

All the inners are now stitched to the outers.   This leaves only the base to join together.   Then comes the making of yards of twisted cord to edge each prism face.   Oh dear.   Maybe next weekend for that one??  I am particularly pleased with the red silk lining.  I bought this in Japan years ago and have always enjoyed the subtle "print" of chrysanthemum, storks and other very Japanese symbols. 
The Christmas Prism is from Un Natale da Ricamore 2008  but I used DMC threads and Lugana fabric from my stash.   Note to self -  Lugana fabric is too thick and cumbersome to manipulate for 3D projects.   Do what the designer says!!
The Needlebook is an SAL I stumbled across on the internet.   You can go here for a look.   I am stitching in one thread of DMC 115 over one thread of 28 count cream Cashel Linen.  
Yesterday the HDHBEM and I went to a local shopping mall and I finally got my birthday gift -  a beautiful blue tourmaline ring.   Worth waiting for wasn't it!   I'm afraid that a morning at the mall exhausted her strength so the afternoon was spent quietly by her and in the garden by me.  All in all a relaxing weekend and I should be revived and refreshed for work tomorrow morning!!
Have a good evening everyone and remember only six weeks until Christmas!

Belated Birthday Lunch

Yesterday we finally got to go for the Birthday Lunch - after the catastrophe on the actual day!
The HDHBEM and I went across to the north side of the harbour to a "new-for-us" Japanese restaurant.
Very nice too!
Here are snaps to prove it so.

And inside

The small chap was so cute but he went home not long after so the floor show disappeared!

Miso soup and green tea.   Somehow a paper cup wasn't quite what I expected - and a tea bag??!!  But the meal tasted wonderful and was really filling.

The HDHBEM had Prawn Tempura Lunch Box and pronounced herself totally satisfied!   I had Teriyaki Chicken Lunch Box which was delicious.
After lunch we went shopping and the HDHBEM bought herself a new jacket which she wore to church this morning. 

Nice colour -  the label says Cranberry - and I am happy it is not "old lady pink".   "When she starts choosing that pale faded old lady pink then I start looking at Residential Aged Care facilities", I tell her hoping she will understand that to be a joke but with hidden intent.   I hate pale faded old lady pink!!!!
It is now wet and raining and time to start cooking dinner.   Talk to you again soon.   Have a good evening.

Mass Production

Same chart, same stitcher but how different.   These tassells haven't been shown off yet and since I don't have any other stitching to show you or news to tell this is it folks!

The pink rose one which is Alternative B and is rarely done as that one on one stitching in numerous shades is reserved only for special occasions!!

And the satin stitch tone on tone one which is Alternative A and features on the top of my "most stitched chart" list.

These all have skinny tassells but depending on how late at night I am finishing these they can have fat tassells too!   This one got the royal treatment with a detached buttonhole net covering!

These tassells were designed by an elderly embroiderer in the Waikato Embroiderers Guild -  just south of where I live.   This is a teaching piece for which she has never published the chart.   As I have stitched at least 30 of these for gifts (and one for myself) she probably should have charged royalties!   These are a delight to stitch and I love it that they can only ever be gifts as Majorie no longer tutors for classes.

Spring weather is as fickle as..... and today is windy and cold and our South Island has had big snow!   Only two days ago it was sunny and a warm 21 degrees celsius.   I'm off outside to wash the car and then it is dinner and an evening with Poirot.   Good night all.

And the birthday evening was spent at .......

Yesterday was a really exciting day.   I got to ride in a thoroughly modern ambulance and spend my evening sitting in the emergency department of the hospital.   Yes!!   The HDHBEM got sicker and sicker so we pushed the Lifeline alarm and - I wish I could say tout-de-suite but in reality it was lots longer than that - Nick and Matt the ambulance men came and carted us both off to ED.   Of course I went!   Sans stitching, sans book, sans camera, sans everything except the taxi fare home, my mobile phone and the front door key.
So when I got home at 1:30am I had to wash the dinner dishes (I had eaten my solitary meal many hours before), wash my tired white face and only then could I go to bed but not to sleep well.
This morning at 7:30 the hospital phoned to say come and collect your HDHBEM (well it wasn't exactly a request, more like an order to get there quickly) so I obediently went off and did so.  She is now resting in her comfy chair, dozing on and off and at this precise moment in time attempting a Sudoku!  The very firm doctor who discharged her told her to drink 12 glasses of water a day!   Seemed to me to be rather a lot of work for her solitary kidney but I will make sure she keeps the fluids up -  I don't want another scare like that again!
However, at the very firm instructions of the HDHBEM  I made a quick sortie to the LNS and spent the vouchers.   The birthday gift shopping date has been postponed -  not cancelled!   More on that later but here's a quick snapshot of todays loot.   I wanted to replenish my basics of Cashel and Belfast linen,  the four brown flosses are for a project currently underway but alas, not yet photographed for the blog, and the other two are, well impulse buys added extras.  

Now it looks like there is a quiet afternoon ahead so perhaps the roses will get finished, the pulled thread completed and, oh yes, the ironing may get done too!
Have a happy weekend everyone.

57 years ago today....

57 years ago today, the HDHBEM brought me into the world and has loved me to bits ever since.   This morning she presented me with a beautiful card and vouchers to the LNS and tomorrow she is taking me to buy me a birthday present.   She insists that I choose it myself so a-shopping we will go.

HDHBEM isn't well tonight so we will leave the birthday meal until tomorrow when we plan to go to a Japanese restaurant across the harbour.   That is after we have been to the LNS and birthday-gift shopping.

I started this last weekend and was really up to speed last night until I found that in all my mountain of stash there was no DMC 225.   Near my work there is a small sewing machine repair shop which has a few DMC threads and fortunately the one I needed, so tonight I will complete this.  Only another two roses to go.   Why oh why, do roses have to have so many shades of colour??  

My mental list of "want to stitch" grows ever longer but I have three must-be-finished pieces.   Two of those are for Christmas gifts so I have an immovable deadline which is probably a good thing.   Although I may be distracted by these....

My requests at the Library came in this week.   I'm looking forward to seeing whether Jeffery Deaver's James Bond is as fulfilling as Ian Fleming's were.   Sebastian Faulk's 2008 Bond novel failed to meet my expectations and became, for me, merely one crossed off the list.

Hopefully back with some more progress and photos tomorrow.   Have a great night everyone.

Labour Weekend

Today, the fourth Monday in October is Labour Day in New Zealand and therefore a public holiday.   So it has been a long holiday weekend.
On Saturday I drew up a list of everything I needed to get done and the order in which I would do it so as to be home before the roads closed at the Eden Park Rugby Stadium.   Then I started this .....

Once the tacking was completed I searched my Perle Threads for a suitable match and no luck.   Oh dear oh dear.   Quickly, before Hercule Poirot came on the television I started this....   

No tacking needed and necessary Perle Thread in stash.   Dear old Hercule accompanied me to this point and at 11pm I went off for some beauty sleep.

Sunday I did some more of this......  Not far to go now and I intend to make this into a cushion for which I have purchased the backing fabric.   That was a marathon shopping effort -  I looked at pink.   No this is definitely not pink.   Try apricot.    No definitely not apricot.   Try a print - too large; then too small.   Run out of patience and declare "I must go home" and lo and behold the exact toned print material appears before my eyes.   Whoopee.

Then in order to ensure I can legitimately call myself a New Zealander I prepared for a rugby watching session on the television.   Having got through this Rugby World Cup without watching one match I felt compelled to see this final one through.   My brothers are to blame for my singular lack of knowledge of our national sport.   They didn't play rugby so I have no idea of the rules or the tactics but I do know how to score and to yell speak loudly at the television offering advice to "my" side and telling the French where to go and when to stop and what to do!
"Just hold on to the ball", she shouted.   "There's only a minute and a half to go"!!  
Now, I know I live very close to the stadium but this was really a little over the top!   Anyway with my expert coaching and sideline encouragement the All Blacks WON!!   My whole city, indeed my whole country is happy and very tired.
And since you ask, yes the HDHBEM did sit up and watch.   She's far more enthusiastic than I, but today she is not only half deaf half blind, she is also half awake and her heart has gone into atrial fibrillation.   So she's medicated and in bed!   How silly of us both to suffer so for a sport we don't even enjoy.   But then, we do enjoy basking in the glory and gloating over our win.
This morning in honour of our win I stitched myself a black pencil skirt for work.  Nothing major but a good fit and tonight I will put up the hem.   How suitable, I thought to myself, a black skirt to commemorate an All Black win.   I don't even need to go into The City to join the victory parade.   I can have my little celebration right here at home!

This afternoon I drove out to Muriwai Beach;  without my camera so these shots were taken on my cheap mobile telphone.   It was a glorious day and there were several intrepid men gliding off the cliffs in these fragile looking paragliders.   Good on them.   For me this is definitely a specatator sport.
Well I have had a lovely weekend and I'm off now to grill chicken for dinner and then it will be an early night as I have work tomorrow.   What a shame!

Drum roll please - the winner is.....

Good evening all,  Madame Muriel Flat Flossie here for a very important announcement.
My stay in New Zealand with my hostess and her HDHBEM has come to a close.   My hostess has prepared my travel capsule and tonight the HDHBEM took out her special bowl for the grand drawing.

Apparently there were 7 people who wanted me to come for a visit.   How great is that!    I feel very very popular and honoured that my fame has travelled so far around the Globe.   Why, there were offers from Canada, America, Germany and the United Kingdom.   I checked to make sure that all entries were in the bowl.

Anyway, let me just tell you how honoured I was that this bowl was used.   The HDHBEM received this bowl as part of a tea set 60 years ago when she got married.  How amazing!   It's still in one piece because my hostess doesn't use it except on very special occasions.  

So I watched closely while the HDHBEM drew a paper.   I will really miss the HDHBEM -  she might be really ancient but she is so kind and her hands are sooo soft.   Must be all that knitting she does.
Anyway the result of the drawing is that I am going to visit Jo

Jo says she lives in East Anglia and my hostess got out her Road Map of Great Britain to show me.  
Can you email your postal address to my hostess please Jo, and she will ensure that I get on the correct aeroplane.    I look forward to meeting you and the boys very soon.

Many thanks to all of you who extended an invitation.   Please don't give up -  I will come to you soon

Farewell New Zealand.    Rule Britannia!!