New Years eve in Australia

Hi everyone,
I am writing this as our weather soars into the 39-41C degrees forecast for the next couple of days. Baxter the cat and I will be hibernating and sitting as close to the air-conditioning as possible and doing a lot of heavy sighing until this nightmare goes away. I do feel for the birds and insects that visit my garden. It must be very bad for the bees especially, I took this photo of my old birdbath this morning.

It has been like LA airport with the honey bees taking a drink and then flying off making room for more to take their place. The birds have had to fight their way through this morning so I have added another 2 bowls of water for them to drink and bathe in. You can see we have already lost the lawn (turf) from the garden its is just a weed encrusted dust bowl. Arrgh.... summer in the southern hemisphere.


Some good news. I have finished Emerald ahead of time. The colours are beautiful and it was fun to stitch. Will do more of Kathy's designs in the future. Here is the finished piece.

The photo is on a bit of an angle because it was taken indoors but it allowed me to show more of the rich colours. Next it is back to finishing Kurdy Biggs, Looking Glass when my brain has cooled enough to work properly again. LG is a thinking piece so not one you work on with brain meltdown but with a clear head and a good night's sleep. I did do a large piece of un-stitching recently. I found an old Told in a Garden cross stitch chart I had partly stitched and decided I would never finish it, so I started to unpick it to reuse the linen. Thought it wouldn't take long. Yeah, famous last words, 3 days later I still haven't completed the unpicking. 


To everyone of my friends and followers have a wonderful New Years eve and all the very best for 2012. Happy stitching.
Bye for now, Carol

Christmas Eve in Australia

Hi everyone,
Firstly I need to apologize for chopping off Santa' head in the last photo. So here is a full photo of his loveliness.

Isn't he cute. Well worth waiting to see.
Thursday night was a girls get-together night we have each year at a members home while the Guild is shut for the holiday break. Anne very graciously opens her home to all the girls to stitch, eat and chat till the small hours. The house always reminds me of the Santa grotto in one of the big department stores with elves,reindeer,snowmen, santas and assorted animals that sing, play musical instruments, light up and just plain sparkle. Here are some photos of the night and the beautiful tree with all the handmade ornaments collected over the years.

Anne's Christmas Tree 2011

The girls relaxing

Some stitching and intense concentration

Emerald is nearly finished only 2 small squares to finish, so it will be 2012 before a photo appears. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. Welcome to all my new followers and to all of you that have kept coming back to read my ramblings. You never know, this year I might even work out how the leave comments and such using Blogger on your blogs. In the meantime I will watch and read with delight all your interesting comments and stitching triumphs.

Bye for now, Carol

Flying needles required

Hi everyone,
My goodness it is nearly the 25th where did the rest of the month go. Last Thursday night was our Guild Thursday night Christmas party and ornament exchange. It was decided this year that we would divide into two groups, 1 group to bring savoury foods and the other to bring sweet foods to share. This worked out very well and there was a mixture of lovely yummy goodies to tempt even the most fussy of eaters.
After we ate it was time to draw numbers for the English exchange Christmas ornaments. As always each parcel was a lovely surprise with lots of wow's and ooo's being said. Here is a photo of "The Common Thread's" exchanges.

The Common Thread, 2011 Christmas exchange gifts

There are 3 gifts still to be opened due to some members having family commitments on the night. I will have my camera with me next Thursday night and will try to catch up with the missing ones then. The girls are sooooo clever and the ornaments are all treasured. What is really lovely is that each year there is a new ornament for your christmas tree to remind you how lovely it is to be a stitcher and have others out there just as passionate about stitching and sharing as you are.


Here are my gifts, the noel is Australian from Joan and the fob is from Dee is England, (do you recognise the pattern?)

I was overjoyed with both of my gifts and they hang from my little tree for everyone to enjoy.


On the stitching front I must admit it has been a bit slow. Lots of christmas gift stitching but not much else at the moment. Here is a little gift I just finished stitched from a pattern I have wanted to stitch for some time.

It is stitched on 36 count Permin "Lambswool" with 1 strand of Canna Lily Cottage Garden overdye cotton. Like many others I have become a collector of Quaker patterns so this will probably be the first of many to be added to the to-do list.


Happy stitching, bye for now, Carol

Saturday stitching with Lemon tartlets

Hi everyone,
Saturday was a great stitching day. I sat outside with friends, enjoying the good weather and the birds visiting the garden. There is something about stitching in the daylight outdoors that makes it a little magical. Good company, lemon tartlets and home made biscuits probably added to the magic quite a lot. If you are in a stitching slump may I suggest a day outdoors may just be the tonic needed. Though many of you in the Northern Hemisphere are in the middle of very icy weather I don't suggest you try it just yet. I will stitch a few stitches for you.


Here is a little more of Emerald, sorry I had the last photo round the wrong way, lets just call it a Seniors moment and move on.

Down to the last 2 rows now. The beautiful shades of green really do not show up in the photo as luscious as they actually are. There are some bigger squares so this should fill in the remainder quite quickly.


Saturday I also worked on some more linen pieces using 35/36 count linens.
Here's a photo of the workings so far.

Copyright, Carol J Young Designs

These were stitched with a variety of threads from my thread collection, all overdyes. Not sure how they will be finished yet. I just need to work out more details before I decide.


Happy stitching, bye for now, Carol

Happy dance, found a Michael Boren chart

Hi everyone,
Ever since not being able to attend and stitch Michael Boren's class at the 2011 ANG Seminar it has been a bit of an obsession for me to acquire at least one of his charts to stitch. Well the good news is I recently found some. This is the one I decided on its called "Scheheradaze" the design was issued in 2003 under his design name of Shenandoah Stitchery Designs. It has 8 colourways listed and is a small piece on 7" x 10" stretcher bars. I have chosen the original colourway on black 18 count canvas because the colours are so very rich.

This will be a good project to complete between some of the really large pieces waiting in the stash.


Yesterday I spent a day with friends stitching and chatting, but the weather was sooooo hot  32deg C it was more chatting than stitching so not a lot more completed on Emerald. The pincushion is finished so that is one more to cross off the list of to-do's.


Thought you may like to see 2 Colour of the Month threads that arrived lately.


Red....

And Blue

These are thanks to Theresa at Homestead Needlearts, Thereas always makes great choices when matching the colours.


Happy stitching, Bye for now, Carol

Heave ho Internet Explorer

Hi everyone,
Just when I thought everything was okay another gremlin appeared. It seems IE9  has a few little problems which they are working on. So to enable me to blog it got the old heave ho and Google Chrome has taken its place. Which means friends a whole new learning experience for the techno challenged. Oh well they tell me you have to keep the brain cells active as you get older. 


I have finished a little more of Emerald, the star with the green border is my favourite so far. The metallic highlight is Kreinik 12 #085 a really pretty thread which I am sure will be used for another project really soon.


Here is Emerald

Each Christmas at the Embroiderers Guild we have an end of year party and we exchange handmade gifts. This is my contribution which will be finished as a pincushion. The thread is Anchor multicolour cotton Number 1206 and the linen is 35count Natural by Permin. As usual I have left this till last minute. The party is on the 15 December, 2 weeks away and I am sure you would never do such a thing right? Lol...................


This is it so far.

Isnt it a pretty pattern, its from France and I love red just as much as green in equal amounts. Well I am off now to finish this now I have the backing I needed. Happy stitching, its great to be back.


Bye for now, Carol

The computer is now happy so, posting at last

Hi everyone,

It has been a while but I do have an excellent excuse. I downloaded some new software and it clashed with some of my other downloaded toolbars. The end result was not being able to use blogger. Thank goodness there is a wonderful man called Antony who arrived today and fixed it's little hissy fits. Luckily I have been able to read all my other friends blogs to keep up with what is going on out there in the rest of the world. You have all been very busy stitching your fingers to the bone.

Stitching has been happening here also, but I thought you might like to see the work of my stitching group friends from "The Common Stitch" in Surrey, England. They stitched my first small free chart using a range of different colours and threads. I am truly thrilled and excited by their results. As a designer I love to see others take my patterns and alter them to give the stitcher their unique end result. Please accept my sincere and warm thanks for your work, I hope you enjoyed a new experience. And special thank you to Dee for overseeing the group's stitching.

This is how Dee finished her design. The group will get together in January 2012 and finish off their pieces.

Dont they look great.

 May I also thank you for your kind comments on Emerald and the biscornu.  I have been asked to teach the biscornu in 2012 at a retail store in Australia and several other pieces throughout the coming year. It is starting to look like a busy year which is a very good thing. So I hope you dont mind if a little linen work pops onto the screen from time to time.

Bye for now, Carol

Who is that man in red?............

Hi everyone,
Today, Saturday 12^th November is The Christmas Pageant (Parade) in Adelaide, South Australia. All the children, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas line the city streets to greet lots of colourful floats, marching girls, pipe bands, the king and queen of the pageant, clowns and of course Santa. It is a warm day this year it is above 30deg C so by the end of the day there are lots of very tired parents and little people who have had a very full day. The pageant is usually the sign that it is time for decorating the house with the tree and all the trimmings. So if this is your Saturday, I hope you have had a lots of fun.

Welcome Santa.

On to stitching. Here is a little more of Emerald, Needle Delights.

And below is one the pieces I have recently been working on that is holding up my progress on my counted canvaswork. This is one of my new linen chart pieces.

Eucalypt biscornu.

Copyright. Carol J Young Designs

 Bye for now, Happy stitching, Carol

35 count linen to 18 count canvas holes

Hi everyone,

Although I have been very quiet on the blog there has been lots of stitching going on. Most of it not counted canvas. Now the projects I have been working on are designed and stitched it’s time to get back to Looking Glass. The fourth section is started and I would have had more done if I hadn’t had to unstitch and move 2 of the motifs. Oh well if you stitch you had better get used to unstitching very quickly; it is usually the first lesson you learn. But I am still smiling because the end result is lovely.

Here is the woeful completed section, either side of the dagger Amadeus as of today.

Last week was the Quilt and Craft Fair in Adelaide, South Australia, so the girls got together to do some retail therapy. Although this is mainly quilting supplies usually we find something interesting and new. Not much in the way of threads but I did find that Cottage Garden Threads, Australia are now dyeing Perle 8 & 12 to match the stranded cotton colours. Picked up some lovely quilt fabrics for lining linen projects and some sparkly-arkaly braid for edging. We chatted with old friends, made new friends and generally had a great time.

Here is the stash.

For anyone who would like to learn more counted canvaswork, especially my fellow Australian stitchers take a look at two projects.  The first is “From Molehill to Mountain”, through Scarlet Thread and the second” Kimono revisited”, through the Shining Needle both of these are cyberclasses and are great value for money. They are large projects but you will learn soooo.... much they are well worth the time they take to complete.

Happy stitching, bye for now, Carol

Hi everyone,

The hardware store is no longer the domain of the home handy man, move over boys the stitching girls have claimed them as stitching accessory havens.

It all started with a set of clamps for attaching stretcher bars to a table top and has grown from there. Many of the stitchers at the Guild have clamps, pliers, baby hammers, staple guns, storage boxes, trolleys with wheels and fastening nic nacs of all shapes and sizes. So now when DH says he is off to the hardware store I chime in “Okay when are we going”. This is usually followed by a very heavy sigh... his domain has been infiltrated.

 Hardware store shopping was always been for me, up until now, 5 minutes shopping and 25 minutes waiting in the car for DH but now it is a contest of who will leave the shop first. Every aisle has something interesting. Why was this not known earlier? Were the handy men of the world conspiring to keep these places a secret? We will never know. But next time you run out of stitching shops to visit and want something different try your local hardware store, you’re mind with be whirling with ideas of what the object in aisle 3 (insert any aisle number here) could be used for in the stitchy sense.

On the stitching front, not much on Looking Glass.
 I have been asked about this design and how difficult it is to stitch. I will admit this one is not a design for your first counted canvas piece. It is an Intermediate project which requires a lot of counting and checking. Having said that it is a great learning piece which by the end you will have increased your knowlege of many of Jean Hilton's stitches. My advice is not to rush this project and do practice stitching of the motifs on a scrap of spare canvas first  before stitching onto the main project and you will be pleased with the results. As with most projects if there is a stitch you do not like doing just remove it and replace it with one you do like. Hope this helps.

Here is a new start which I am stitching between working on 35count linen (new chart project).

Emerald, by Needle Delights Originals

This is the original colours, all greens and a just adore green so I didn’t change any of the colours. This stitches up quickly and I can stitch on this one at night it is a nice change from the fine linen which is best stitched in daylight.

I see that a lot of snow has already fallen in many parts of the USA. Keep safe and warm and I wish you don’t have too many power outages.

Happy stitching, bye for now, Carol

Which way to turn?

Hi everyone,

This week has been a bit of a dilemma. Because I stitch and teach more than counted canvaswork it has been a “which way do I go” kind of week. So flitting from one technique to another has been the dilemma. Just at the moment I need to split into 2 to achieve everything. Although I am not sure the world would be ready for two of me.

There has been a little more stitching on Looking Glass, some construction of some stitching accessories, finishing of a sample class project and working on the next canvas design to be released.

Here is the latest on Looking Glass, doesn’t look like a lot more but the outline took quite some time to complete. Now it is down to the interesting stitches. Yeah......................

Hope you enjoyed the free Christmas Star project from my last post and may I add a big thank you to Janet Perry over at Nuts about Needlepoint (in my blog list) for mentioning it in her postings.

Bye for now, Carol
PS: Hope to catch up with some of you through the “From Molehill to Mountain” cyberclass at Scarlet Thread. I am off to sign up.

Free Christmas chart

Hi everyone,
 Talking about Christmas projects in my last post prompted me to design and offer you this little free Christmas Star chart. Because the design is only 1.5” x 1.5”(4x4cms) it makes a nice sized scissor fob or an insert for a Christmas card. Hope it helps with your Christmas stitching. Enjoy.

Christmas Red Star

Christmas Blue Star

The specialty stitches I have charted in the above diagrams. The outer border is gobelin stitch over 2 (remember to change direction). Followed by a single row of tent stitches. The corners are small alternating scotch stitches. The border around the star are smyrna crosses.

Colours used in the above samples.
Red: Needle Necessities Kris Kringle 1531 or T/Works 1090, N/N Green with Envy 1320 or T/Works 1047, T/Works #8 overdye braid 71089
Blue: N/N 1830 Jewels of the Nile or T/W 1138, Gumnuts Yarns Buds 589, Green, Metallic, I used a scrap of mulitcolour thread, please use any mulitcolour you would like.
Use 3 strands of overdye cotton, 1 strand Metallic and Buds.

Not much more stitching on Looking Glass I will have more to show by next post.

Bye for now, Carol

October, it can't be October....

Hi everyone,

This week there is a little more of Looking Glass completed. A lot of the minor motifs that are between the larger ones I have not added yet. I think I will wait until the beads and crystals are added in each area and decide whether it needs the extras or not. I like the large yellow canvas spaces showing through it seems to lighten the browns and oranges of the threads.

Here she is so far.

Looking at the calendar is scary; it is a little over 2 months before Christmas and as usual I haven’t started any of my hand stitched Christmas cards. Every year I promise myself I will start in January and have them finished in advance so that the mad rush at the end of the year doesn’t happen. Well ha ha as if that was ever going to happen. As usual it will take a few late nights of mad flying needles to make the 2011 cards a reality. Why do we do this to ourselves? I kid myself I work better under pressure, but if I think about it that is just an excuse that doesn’t cut the mustard. Let’s face it, it boils down to the “we will do it tomorrow” philosophy and we all know about that. Right? So if you have Christmas stitching to complete here is a friendly reminder to START NOW and maybe December 2011 won’t be as hectic (in the stitching area) as usual.

Happy stitching with no reverse stitching (we just haven’t got the time),

Bye for now, Carol

Butterfly, butterfly fly away home

Hi everyone,

Not much progress on the stitching front. I have been a bit of a social butterfly. My aunt is visiting from Western Australia, so much lunching and wine sampling, then sushi-ing and tea drinking with my stitching friend and last but not least visiting the oh ohhh Chiropractor, but the postman has visited in between times so..................

The colour of the month threads have arrived. This month is copper/browns, so shiny and luscious.  This is the first time I have handled Baroque silk, oooooo this is yummy.

Here is a photo

I have also stumbled across an inexpensive Australian silk thread by Cascade House based in Victoria, Australia. They produce 6 strand silk, perle silk, mohair, ribbon and other goodies. The Stranded silk is packed on 7.5mtr cards (8.4yds) in 70 different colours, some of which are overdyes.

Here is a photo of the samples I bought.

It is another stunning day today, I just love spring. As I face the window while sitting at this computer the view of the Bottlebrush(Callistemon) trees in flower and the hundreds of buzzing bees visiting these flowers make me smile.

Isn’t it lovely?

Hope you are making stitching time, bye for now, Carol

Spoilt for choice

Hi everyone,

I have been zipping around the internet today, reading blogs and checking out class offerings for 2012. The class pictures for the 2012 ANG seminar are great with lots of choice for the dedicated counted canvas stitchers of the world. There are at least 5 which caught my eye, well I stopped at 5, by then I had brain overload. Thanks to all involved in putting these classes together, can’t wait till the catalogue comes in the post. Take a look on the ANG Yahoo group but be warned, start saving now because it will be hard to make only 1 choice.

On the stitching front.

Tahiti, Needle Delights Originals, is finished and here is the final photo. Thank you very much to Kathy Rees another delightful design which was a joy to stitch.

A little more to Looking Glass, Threedles has been added. I wish the yellow canvas would photograph a little better I have tweaked and fiddled with the camera and image settings but to no available, so just think butter yellow when you look at the photo and I will try to stop stressing about it. This piece requires lots of concentration and lots and lots of counting to get motifs into the right place. But it is so pretty and each stitch is an adventure.

Here she is so far.

Well the postman has just arrived with my copy of Needlepoint Now so I am off to digest every page.

Bye for now, Carol

Lady luck smiles on me

Hi everyone,
Tuesday this week was my time to meet with Nicki my friend’s daughter who is a chiropractor or as I call her “the miracle worker with magic hands”. She does her magic and 24 hours later the world is straight again and sore and stiff muscles decide to work properly. Now because this is in the afternoon what do stitching girls do with time on their hands? That’s a no-brainer question...lol....Shop for stitchy things right?  And of course throw in some “Yum cha” for sustenance.

So off we went to another shop that has moved recently called Country Bumpkin, this is the company that publishes “Inspirations” magazine. We spent about an hour wandering, picking up threads, hand lotions and flicking through books then suddenly the lady behind the counter says “everything is 30% off this week” Woo hoo, how was that for being in the right place at the right time.

While we were chatting at the counter I noticed a box with the word Lowery on the side. Now I have been asking on the ANG board and with friends about stands and trying to decide what to buy and this just dropped into my lap. It was a Lowery floor stand at a price which was really amazing and with 30% off made it very attractive indeed. My friend agreed this was meant to happen so I am now the owner of a Lowery stand which is portable enough to take to Guild nights and other stitching groups to stitch. Thank you to all of you who passed on information about stands and what you use at Seminar’s. I will be looking at the add on table clamp for this purpose.

On the stitching front, I am still working on Tahiti by Needle Delights very nearly finished and here it is so far.

Also here is a little more of Looking Glass by Threedles, these 2 designs are so different  it is fun to move from one to the other and also gives your hands a break by stitching at  different  angles.

................................

Bye for now, Carol

Tahiti sounds nice............

Hi everyone,

Firstly I would like to thank you for all your very kind comments on my work and the launch of my new design. I always enjoy reading and following along with other stitchers through their blogs  as they create their own special pieces and I get very excited for them when a design is finally finished and hanging on a wall in their home for everyone to enjoy.

The postman arrived a couple of days ago with a parcel from Needle Delights, sadly Kathy has decided to close her shop but will still design more beautiful charts. Currently she is having a sale and I couldn’t resist 2 designs she has on offer. One is “Tahiti” and the other “Emerald”, Tahiti is one of the brightest thread choices I have seen for a while and Emerald is several shades of green (love green). When I opened the package I just had to start Tahiti and because this design is on stretcher bars of 10” x 14” this one will not take too long to complete. Really loving the bright clear colours it seems to compliment the Australian sunshine and bright blue skies. (SSShhh not talking about the w-e-a-t-h-e-r, remember what happened last time).

Here is a photo of Tahiti so far.

There has been a little more progress on Looking Glass but I will save a photo for when there is more to show in the next circle. The current stitches use 2 strands of Sparkly Braid by Rainbow Gallery, a thread I haven’t used before and I like the way it sits against the canvas giving a nice sparkle and a very fine twist, especially when creating a Jessica.

Today is Monday in Australia which is a Labour Day holiday so today is catch up  housework day a home and then a little more stitching.

Happy holiday to the Aussies and bye for now to everyone, Carol

Who moved that weather dial

Hi everyone,

Remind me never to talk about the weather again. Since posting about the beautiful sunny weather and abundance of nature the wheels have fell off. For the past 3 days the wind has been extremely gusty and the pollen count is off the Richter scale, woes betide folks with bad hay fever. In the midst of all this like the valiant troupers that we are my friend and I braved the elements and visited a “new” needlework shop. Well it was new to us it has been in business for years but moved to another location. I found some lovely twisted silk called High Twist by Kacoonda an Australian company.

Here is a little photo of the thread

On the stitching front Looking Glass has advanced a little more. Have made an error which I am going to leave because it is the Gloriana silk border and re using Gloriana is not a good idea, it tends to shed fibre if you rip it out and is then a bit thin when reused. If you notice I changed direction of the last leg of the Smyrna crosses. It would also be impossible to change now because all the motifs within this area are anchored into this border. So this piece is what I call “unique” because they’re won’t be another like it anywhere. Other stitchers are way too clever to make the same mistake, right?

Here is Looking Glass so far

And lastly, some exciting news. My second design “Nile Jewels” has been released for sale in the USA through our good friends at Scarlet Thread. If you would like to see the design, hop over to Its a Stitchy Thing from my blog list and take a peek or go to my post of 28 August. Hope you like it; I used some of my favourite colours for this one.

Bye for now, Carol

Looking Glass plus temptation

Hi everyone,

This weekend was a quiet and relaxing time. The weather is turning warmer and the garden and visiting birds are glorious. A great time to take the stitching frame out into the garden and enjoy nature while I stitch.

Looking Glass has had a little more attention with a few more colours added. Several of the smaller shapes I have left out, not sure if I will change them to something else but I can decide that at a later stage.

Here is a photo of the progress so far:

Here are 2 new small monthly items of counted canvaswork.

I received an email from Fireside Stitchery telling customers they are starting a monthly club of geometric small designs. You can sign up for them individually or for the whole club. It is great to see counted canvas stitchers able to join in on the clubs that are usually available for painted canvases.
Also Scarlet Thread is now stocking Needle Delights Originals, colour of the month kits/charts. These are small designs using a range of threads and a great way to try different fibres.

Hope you don’t blow your budget too much. It is difficult to pass up these little treasures, unless you are very strong willed.

Well I am off to play in the sun, happy stitching.

Bye for now, Carol

Stitching with friends

Hi everyone,

Mystique by Jean Hilton is finished. She was a genius, way ahead of her time. There were 2 backstitched rows around the creamy narrow border but I decided it was nicer without them. Here is the photo.

Stitched more on Looking Glass but this one will need pacing as the yellow canvas is very drawing to the eyes. Colours are great with lots of texture. The photo will come soon as more of the second circle is stitched.

Tonight is stitching night down at the EGSA so I will catch up on what everyone is working on. This is always fun, some evenings not much stitching happens as the ‘girls ‘ are in a  mischievous mood and we spend most of the evening swapping funny stories about DH antics or interesting titbits of life. The group’s ages range from 20 somethings to 80 somethings so there is always someone with a mild crisis that needs to be heard and solved. We all at some time have arrived in a mood of hair pulling only to leave with the weight of the world removed from our shoulders by this special group.  Friends make the world rock.

Remember those empty stretcher bars. Slap, slap the sound of one very naughty stitcher slapping the back of her hand. They are starting to fill up again. Decided last night that a smaller design was needed so I framed up an old Jean Hilton piece called Eureka which in on 14 x 14 bars. This one is much more manageable to take to stitching group. Will post photo when I have more than a couple of stitches done.

Bye for now, Carol

PS: Thank you for the kind words about Aquamarine and thanks for letting me off the hook with Santa Jane.

But santa I promise to be good

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your comments about Galaxy. I really enjoyed you following along until the end.

I decided before continuing on with Looking Glass a bit of stitching tidy up needed to take place. So out of the cupboard and various other hiding spots came the unfinished projects. Over the weekend several pieces we have talked about earlier have been completely finished and put to bed in the stitching vault. So Galaxy has friends to keep her company. Dowagiac, Aquamarine, Camelot and Silken Sonata have all come off the stretcher bars which mean new ones can now take their place. Thump, thump, the sound of one happy stitcher patting herself on the back for being a very good girl and not buying more stretcher bars instead.

Mystique is the next piece to be finished soon. Only the corners and a small border are needed to be stitched for it to be completed. There will be a photo soon.

 In the meantime here is the completed Aquamarine by Needle Delights, stitched in my Deep Ocean greens/blues with a few minor design changes. Thanks to Coni over at Spinster Stitcher for introducing me to this design. This one stitched up very quickly and was stitched on 12 x 12 stretcher bars which was a nice change from the larger projects.

Here is a list of the threads used from my blue/green stash:

Vineyard Silks: c078 Seafoam, c214 Naples Blue, c203 North Sea Green, c206 Seaport, c079 Reef Waters, c133 Iceberg. Needle Neccessities: Overdyed Perle 5, 5138, 5136.Watercolours: 197 Monsoon, 067 Celadon, 229 Oasis, 068 Mediterranean. Renaissance Designs Sprinkles 36, 06. J L Walsh silk/wool ovedye 1420. Madeira floss 1106 0518. DMC floss 597. Plus 2 threads from my hand-dyed collection, dyed when I was in my inventive phase, one is very very light pale green and the other olive green and grey overdye Perle 5.

Bye for now, Carol

Ps. Jane at Chilly Hollow is off the hook, the challenge is revoked, she told me how many counted pieces she has yet to finish. I am very impressed.

A drum roll please.............

Hi everyone,

Galaxy is finished. Here she is in all her glory. Photography still not the best but I hope you enjoy. This is now the correct orientation of the design, but I quite like it longways with the stripey star at the top. What do you think?

Spent yesterday taking a look at the Nuido exhibition and then spending the rest of the evening with friends at our Thursday night group at the Embroiderers' Guild of South Australia. Some were stitching canvas pieces. Anne has been stitching David McCaskill's cyberclass " Journey"recently but was taking a break last night and working on a christmas sampler which will be over 1 metre long when finished. (A present from me, mean aren't I). I think Jane over at Chilly Hollow probably agrees LOL............ Yolanda was stitching a Lois Caron piece, Stained Glass Window, really pretty in yellows and blues and me I was finishing off a small Needle Delights design called Aquamarine, stitched with my colours choices of green/blue deep ocean shades. No more on Looking Glass yet, but it will happen soon.
Bye for now, Carol

Basketweave ughhh..........

Hi everyone,
I am a little late in posting but I have been trying to finish Galaxy, it is taking a little longer than I thought. The last star has a lot of basketweave to stitch and this is not my favourite stitch (I just need lots more practice). So to encourage me to keep going I have started my next project “Looking Glass” by Threedles in between this last piece of the design.

Here is the centre of Looking Glass. Already I have changed the thread and moved about the pattern a little just to make me happy. Just beware if you stitch this piece that the stitch diagram for the centre border and the master pattern do not match. A little whoops that does happen from time to time even with all the checking and double checking they still slip through as I have found from bitter experience when creating my own charts.

The colourway is the set using Buttercream yellow canvas and Gloriana, Apricot Grove silk for the main colour, real autumn (Fall) colours. Haven’t seen this buttercream canvas colour before and it is looking good with these shades. Have added into the photo a few of the other colours in the design. The colour in this photo is quite brown but the canvas in a bright yellow.

A little while ago we talked about From Molehill to Mountain a design by Pam Gardner. As promised Sara (Scarlet Thread) has posted the progress the chapter group members are making on this design. Many thanks Sara. If you like this design and would like to take part in a cyber-class of this design, hop over to” A Stitchy Thing” blog(listed in my blog list to right) and vote for the cyber-class to go ahead. Looks like a very good idea and lots of fun. The colours the chapter members have chosen are lovely and are great inspiration. I think we should throw out a challenge to Jane at Chilly Hollow to stitch at least one square, we know you are very busy but how could you refuse a stitching challenge. What do you say Jane? LOL....................

Lastly, I had a lovely email from a friend in England showing photos of her interpretation of my free design posted earlier. Her stitching group are going to stitch the piece as a project in September and I am very excited to see the outcome shortly. Will post photos soon.

Bye for now, Carol

PS: To answer a question from a friend in Italy. The watercolours used in Galaxy are 060 Slate and 050 Eggplant.

Colour of the Month plus Galaxy

Hi everyone,

The postman arrived yesterday with my Colour of the Month threads from Theresa at Homestead Needlearts in Michigan. This month’s colour is Orange or as my friend would call it Calendula (botanical name for marigolds, because she doesn’t  like orange). In the package were threads I have not seen before so it was a lovely surprise. Looking forward to trying these soon.

Here is a photo

Threads left to right, top row: Gloriana Princess Perle 090, City Needlework Silk 108, Kreinik 12 5510, Kreinik 1/16 Ribbon holographic 027L, Kreinik Japan thread #7.
Bottom row: Splendor  S1099, Shaded Very Velvet V816 and Silk Lame Braid 18, SL30.

Have stitched more of Galaxy and there is only 2 medium sized stars to complete before it is finished. Here is it as at 7 September.

Which means I now will start trying to decide the next project, this is always fun and I am spoiled for choice but it is difficult decision. Think it may be Kurdy Biggs Looking Glass, itching to see it stitched and with all the crystals and beads it is going to be a fun piece to stitch.

Bye for now, Carol

More Galaxy and beautiful silk embroidery

Hi everyone,

Currently in Adelaide, South Australia is hosting the OZAsia Festival which runs from 2-17 September, 2011.

The showcase country this year is Japan and as part of the festival the Adelaide Festival Centre is exhibiting the NUIDO World Embroidery Exhibition, 31 August to 16 October 2011. This means we get to see some of the most exquisite and beautiful Japanese kimono’s, obi’s and stitched Japanese embroidery pieces.

I was very honoured to be able to attend the opening of the exhibition as well as the celebration dinner which afforded me the opportunity to meet Staff and members of Kurenai-Kai, Japan and the Japanese Embroidery Centre, Atlanta, USA.  12 Ladies from Kurenai-Kai were there dressed in their hand stitched kimono’s and obi’s.

You may wonder why I am talking about Japanese embroidery when my stitching world is canvas.  This exhibition is just ‘eye candy’ in the extreme, I may never stitch this technique but I do have at least 3 friends who are at Phase Level 10 and above and I enjoy watching their stitching triumphs and it was wonderful to see their stitching and Japanese beading on display to the public.

If you love looking at beautiful embroidery here is a link to a very talented embroiderer and teacher living in South Australia, Margaret Lee 

Now to Galaxy. I am down to the last few squares with 2 medium squares and about 4 smaller ones to complete.

Here is the latest photo.

Happy holiday on Monday for all in the USA, bye for now, Carol

Next installment of Galaxy

Hi everyone,

Galaxy is now past the halfway mark and it has changed again. More shades have been added and the mixing of the colours have altered the overall design.

The postman arrives soon with my next "colour of the month" club threads. I find this is good way to increase my collection of threads to play with. A few stores in USA and Australia offer this service. USA: Stitchers Workshop, Needle Delights Originals, Homestead Needlearts, Fireside Stitchery.  For a reasonable cost you can receive a selection of threads suitable for canvaswork/needlepoint each month based around a particular colour. It is always a lovely surprise and because you don't know what is being sent you will receive threads and colours you may never choose yourself (you can exclude colours you can't live with if you choose) and this extends and pushes you to try other colour schemes and different stitches using different textured threads. It is like having a birthday present every month. I will post photos when the next package arrives.

Here is Galaxy as at 1st September

Happy stitching, bye for now,Carol