Wednesday, July 15, 2015

More Blooming



I have added more flowers and more leaves to my Winter Flower Sampler - I am still not sure about the new additions - however I will wait to see how it all comes together as it progresses...Once I have completed the leaves down the side I will move onto the 'T'... The tiny darker pink flowers are Smyrna stitch - sometimes called double cross stitch.


Take care now

Sharon

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

'Win'

Winter Flower Sampler - Elizabeth Designs
I have a 'Win'  and some more leaves and rambling flowers... I discovered that I have made a couple of mistakes but for the moment I have chosen to leave them -  life isn't perfect and so it seems - is my stitching.... Once I have finished this section I will move onto the 'ter' of Winter... I would like to think this will be finished by my birthday mid September... Despite some frustrations, mainly due to my inexperience I have really enjoyed stitching this one and I am hoping that my enthusiasm will last for the  Spring,Summer and Autumn samplers...

I can't believe what a difference adding those flowers has made...

Until next time, keep those needles moving...

Sharon

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Autumn Retreat Cross Stitch

Autumn Retreat - Adapted from the works of R.L. Anderson
Despite the promises I keep making (and obviously breaking!)  I have bought another stash acquisition ... Quite different from my usual  - but the colour palette of this one seduced me.. This photo doesn't do it justice...

I am quite keen to start it but there is a couple of projects already underway I want to finish first. What sold me on this one? As I said I loved the colour palette but the composition of  is also satisfying. I love the central position of the vase with its dropped blooms and its cascading flowers which fills the majority of the frame. Your eye then picks up the fallen books and the candlestick hiding just behind the vase and travels up past the patterned wall paper to the shelf above and the plates and mug resting on it.What makes it interesting is the doily underneath the vase - while the vase is central in the frame - it is set off to one side on the doily making it a beautifully balanced composition.
Beautiful colours
For you Daffy Cat

I thought I would show you my ort container. It all started many months ago when I started using a plastic screw top container as an ort container. When my grand daughter could hold it she would turn it around looking at the colours and  as she got older she would roll it across the floor. It is now ball shaped and quite soft to touch although it is quite dense as the threads have woven together. Now keep in mind this is the product of  quite a few months of stitching not a monthly collection as yours is...

My Ort 'jar'

Until later, keep your needles threaded

Sharon

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Opening the Door...

I have been missing in action for the last 19 months... How the time has flown since I last wrote the news of my grand daughters arrival. She is now a sturdy toddler who is constantly on the go and busy experiencing her expanding world...

The last year and a half has been hectic -  me, changing jobs within the same brand name but in a different location and cutting back my working life to a couple of days a week and let's not forget the house moving - all that sorting, packing and unpacking!!! And of course time spent interacting with "a little possum" on a regular basis and watching her grow...

I have come back here to the blog and wandered around in it from time to time. I felt like I was care taking an empty house as I checked that all was secure within its 'walls' and I have noticed that some of my 'neighbors' in my side bars have moved on leaving no forwarding address. As I went through and deleted them I couldn't help reflect on my blogging beginnings all those years ago - long before the - as we know it now - social media of Face Book, Twitter, Instagram and goodness knows what else.. How easy is it now to communicate about your life - a word or sentence, a photo and it is done!! As I write this I can see changes in the blogger platform making it far more user friendly from those first couple of years when just getting a post written up and a photo uploaded was very much trial and error - especially the latter. I can still remember people asking me what was a blog and was it safe??? How times have changed...

Have I come back to blog? Not really sure but my thoughts are that I would give it another chance. I have discovered you tube and within that - floss tube - a cross stitching community which I love connecting with. I doubt very much I will be come vblogger - not sure if that is the correct term - however I do enjoy watching these windows into everyone lives and of course their stitching. I am hard pressed to say which I enjoy the most - the stitching or the stitchers. People have fascinate me - so to have this opportunity to interact through this media is great. Although in saying that even through blogger and the old on line chat rooms/ forums I have met a great group of people over the years - including a few who I still stay in contact with both on-line and face to face.

Now down to business... What are you most likely to see if you visit here?? Again this will be a vehicle for my stitchy, crafty life and perhaps some reading and real life to keep it equally seasoned... This was the intended purpose for this blog way back from that very first entry all those many years ago - that and for my own record of what I was doing at that time. Nothing much has changed in that respect... I am going to give it a trial for a couple of months with a once or twice a week update. If by the end of that I feel it is redundant then I too will shut it down and call it an end of an era...

So what have I been doing??? I think that I have returned to my first love - cross stitch. For all the years I have been doing it I haven't got much to show as I was easily frustrated by it and would toss it aside the moment it became too difficult. Since finding floss tube, a group of people and more importantly someone reasonably local to share my love of stitching I have fallen in love with cross stitching all over again. Giddy in love and stash building like there was no tomorrow. I think too finishing a couple of long standing pieces gave me a  such a sense of satisfaction that I wanted to do more. Plus having a grand daughter has given me even a better excuse to stitch - my horizon is limitless... Whilst I may never be the greatest, fastest or complex pattern stitcher I enjoy it and it gives me both a sense of peace and accomplishment. Now I just have to live longer to stitch all that I have in my stash...

A stitching snapshot in random order... As I get more organised -  hopefully so will the photos...

Take care and keep stitching...











Saturday, July 4, 2015

Cooee...

Hello... Is there anyone out there????