What a weekend!

Last weekend was one of those you prefer to forget. My sister and brother-in-law had come for the weekend so that we could get on with the costumes and that was where the trouble started. We were working on the girl's dress and it would not go right. It was frogged so many times we just could not believe it. We pressed it, we tacked it, we unpicked it and still it would not lie properly. At half past four on the Friday we discovered the router had called it a day. Husband and brother-in-law dashed into town and bought a new one. My sister carried on sewing and I fiddled with the new router with help from everyone to get it going. At half past seven my sister called it a day, the skirt was still not right but with the help of AOL my router was working. Hurray!
On Saturday morning I found that I could not get onto the internet on my tower so another call to AOL and the problem was quickly sorted. After that the day went well. We tried a different approach with the skirt and we were able to finish the costume. We finished the boy's on Sunday.
When you look at the photos you will see that the boy's has skirts too, this is because boys were dressed in skirts until they were 6,7 or maybe 8 years old. Today's children find that very amusing.


The girl's costume.



The boy's costume.


Sunday began well and we were sewing quite happily on the two smaller outfits. My brother-in-law had gone playing golf and my husband was off for the day doing his volunteering.
As lunchtime approached I put my top oven on to do a pizza for my sister and me. What I had not realised was that my husband had put my plastic chopping board in there. Have you ever cooked a chopping board?

I opened the door to put in the pizza and was faced with something out of Doctor Who, a heaving bubbling mess of melting plastic. Some time later and after a great deal of help from my brother-in-law, who had returned from golf, it was all cleaned away.

Enough of all that and back to the sewing. I collected mt "Four Elements" pictures from the framer's today and I am really pleased with them.














Apologies for the reflections.
Here is the photo of my latest update for Yoyo's Christmas SAL. I am on target for this at the moment.



This is my latest photo of the Peacock Tapestry which is my UFO on the I've started so I'll finish blog




This tapestry is taking up most of my sewing time at the moment but I hope to do one of my JABC teapots this weekend. Happy stitching everyone and thanks for visiting.

Some progress at last

I have now finished the Four Elements but forgot to take photographs of the last two before they went to the framer, sorry about that. I will post them when I get them back.
I have been working on the Peacock Tapestry, or as it is known in our house "The Perishing Peacock". I did manage to finish all the stitching and backstitching on the chart to the right of the peacock and my next target is to complete and backstitch the leaves on the two sheets to the left of the peacock. This is easier said than done because I have made a start with the backstitching and already found stitches I have missed in four different blends. I have a little more of the border to do and then I will be able to wind the fabric down. I will really feel to have made progress then.




I have also done some more work on my santa ornaments for the Christmas SAL but I am leaving posting those until the end of the month.

My ort jar is in the garden again, this time with his, or is it her?, Valentine's Day hat on. My thanks to Silver Needle who sent my latest order wrapped in heart tissue paper and it seemed a pity to throw it away. I had to go on the internet to find how to make a paper hat, I had done made these as a child but I had completely lost the skill.



This for Yoyo's fun TUSAL.


I have added to my stash by buying the JABC set of buttons and free charts for the monthly teapots. I thought they would be fun and fairly quick to do. I have still to collect all the threads but will post as soon as I have one finished.
Happy stitching everyone. Thank you for calling in and welcome to new followers.

Four Elements "The Green Earth"

I haven't managed to finish "The Green Earth" because I have been trying hard to get on with the Peacock Tapestry see http://ufotofinish.blogspot.com/. I am enjoying stitching the Four Elements very much because there is such a variety of stitches and threads.

My sister came for the weekend and we indulged (although I am not sure that is the right word considering the problems we had) in our other hobby, making historical costumes for children.




We are making four costumes, two large and two smaller, which are roughly replicas of the clothes worn by two children on two seventeenth century dummy bosrds. These costumes will be worn by children on an educational visit, because the costumes have to be put on and taken off easily they open completely down the back. A problem is that they are often put on over bulky clothing in the winter, school sweatshirts for example.

We don't have any patterns but cut out of old newspapers the pieces we want, ordinary patterns, if there were any, won't do because the armhole has to be large to accommodate their own sleeve and one size must fit all! We had completed the collars on an earlier visit and were now starting on the main parts. They are black, which has not photographed very well in artificial light, with different coloured sleeves. We have photographs which we work from and enlarge on the computer to try to see more detail. We found by doing this that the boy's costume has double skirtings which you may just be able to make out on the photograph. The fabric we have used is a linen cotton mix with silk taffeta for the sleeves. The little white loop that you can see will hold a lace edged linen handkerchief. The girl's costume has the skirt attached but no sleeves added yet. This costume has rounded tabs on the shoulders and waist. I hope to add a photo later when the light is better. The costumes will have to wait for a month before more work on them because my 45 year old Bernina sewing machine is a little reluctant to go through many thicknesses of fabric these days. My sister's Janome has no problem but then it is many years younger.
Happy stitching of whatever kind to anyone reading this blog.

Four Elements Fire

I have enjoyed the second of the elements designs very much and finished it in under a week. I am now going to start the fourth in the series "Earth". I am a colour short for "Water". I probably have it with another piece of sewing somewhere but can't locate it at the moment. For the rest of the time I have been working on the "Peacock Tapestry". I have bought myself a "carrot", not the edible kind, but Shepherd's Bush "Wool Gatherer" which I have determined not to start until the peacock is finished. If this does not spur me on nothing will.

Rosewood Manor Inspirations

As requested here is the photo of my completed "Inspirations". I really enjoyed doing this. After making several mistakes with the counting of the vines I found that the best way was to complete the solid areas and then add the backstitched vines.
I think I found a couple of mistakes in the chart but then I am obsessed with symmetry. Please email me if you want more details. Now back to the peacock.

A New Finish.

Before I show my latest finish here is a photo of the Frosty Nights bellpull which is now totally finished.
The bellpull comes from Framecraft.




My latest finish is Crystal Waters from Victoria Sampler. I really enjoyed doing this and as you can see there is hardly any cross stitch in it. The wispy bits of thread at the side are from where the threads have been pulled out and then rethreaded for the handkerchief hemming. I had one or two problems with that but got there in the end.
I also didn't always find the right place to start a band and occasionally was a thread out so frogging took place. I think I've cracked this one though start from the middle and work to the sides.
The piece is on 28 count white quaker cloth and stitched with a variety of threads as you can see.
I have just started the next of the four designs "Crimson Fire". I hope I enjoy this one as much.



Yesterday we went to the garden centre and while my husband went to look at the tropical fish I browsed a bit amongst the cards and books. I could hear the most wonderful birdsong. When I found my husband I suggested we went to look for the gadget that was making this wonderful sound. I thought it was one of these things triggered by someone walking past. We walked to the area where the sound was coming from and looked around, sitting on top of a trellis and quite happy inside the building was a robin. He was singing his heart out. We often hear a robin in the garden but here in the garden centre and no more than 5 feet away the sound was quite magical.
I almost forgot welcome to the blog Barbi. I have been so busy stitching I haven't had time to visit other blogs. I hope to play catch-up within the next few days.

TUSAL for January 2010

Here is the first photograph of my ort jar for this year for the TUSAL. It isn't very interesting, only a coffee jar. I decided that each month the jar will be photographed at roughly the same place in the garden so that I will be able to see the changes in the garden and the jar in the coming year. As you can see it was rather cold and my jar really needed its stocking hat! I have put on two photographs one more of a close up of the jar. Happy stitching weekend everyone.