A couple more motifs on Mary Thompson

I’ve been stitching away on an exchange gift this last week or so and unfortunately that means there has been a distinct lack of blog fodder. Lucky for me, I had been obsessively stitching on Mary Thompson before the exchange stitching began and so I present for your inspection yet again, Mary Thompson!

I’ve added the brown-y and pink leaf and the yellow and blue half medalions at the bottom of this scan.  I think the T is new too.

I went over to my friend Janine’s today to catch up with some very dear stitching friends.  As always the opportunity to spend money on stash was not ignored and I bought:

• Cupid and Vixen (Christmas Eve Couriers) - Nora Corbett (Mirabilia)
• Rose Garden Etui - Cherished Stitches
• Rose Garden Tin Topper - Cherished Stitches
• A Virtuous Huswif - Cherished Stitches
• Harvey scissor fob and sheath - The Heart’s Content
• Squirrel Scissor fob - The Heart’s Content
• Cabbage Rose Scissor Fob - The Heart’s Content
• 7 skeins of DMC (and I’ve come home to discover I need one more - poot!!)

Some truely yummy stash there.  It was great to catch up with everyone and hear all their news.

Till next time,  Fare thee well.

Feathered friends around the world…

Well folks, today’s my wedding anniversary. Another year has passed! It’s been four years since we tied the knot and we’re still very happy. If you want to see a pic from our big day here’s a link to last year’s post reflecting on our anniversary.

And to top off a lovely morning (Joel and I had a sleep in and traveled to work on the bus together) this wonderful package arrived from Joan, just as we were leaving the house. It’s a Feathered Friends Exchange package. Thank you Joan! Joan stitched this lovely pincushion from Blackbird Designs’ With needle and thread book. It’s just beautiful. Joan also sent along one of her gorgeous project bags, a fantastic needlecase painted by her daughter in law, a fabulous chicken pincushion (love it!!) some DMC from my wishlist, some yummy mints, some needles (in the needlecase), handmade thread-drops (love these too, I was just about to place an order for more of these) and some handcream. I feel so spoiled! Thank you so much Joan.

Here’s a picture of the pincushion front.

And one of the back.
Simone has received the package I sent to her too. It took less than a week to make it from Western Australia to The Netherlands!! I forgot to take photos of this package so please visit her blog to take a gander of what I sent. I stitched a couple of designs from Prairie Birds by The Prairie Schooler and finished them into a fob and a pinkeep.

I’ve been unwell with a cold this week so I had a couple of days at home to recover and managed to stitch a little - here’s my latest finish… Sweet Heart by Shepherd’s Bush. Sorry, not the greatest photo but it is very cute in real life.

I’m now waiting for Joel to come home, we haven’t quite decided if we want to go out for dinner tonight or have our current favourite from our Weight watcher’s cookbooks - Cumin Chicken and Carrot Couscous (really very yummy). We’ll have a marvelous time what ever we’ll do.

The return of Mary Thompson

Well, Mary Thompson leapt out of my WIP basket again this weekend and demanded some attention. I had a lovely time working on her. This time around I worked on the yellow wreath (inside the wreath are the initials MT to FT and the date: 1805). I also stitched the flower basket below the wreath and the letters N, E, D and P. Below is a picture of the whole thing so far…


Here’s a little information about Mary from the chart (which is inside the Jacket of the book, Quaker Schoolgirl Samplers from Ackworth by Carol Humphrey)…

Mary Thompson stitched this sampler in 1805, the year she left Ackworth School. She was at Ackworth for just two years and this is the only sampler by her in the school’s collection.
Mary was, relatively speaking, a local girl. She is recorded as coming from Ferrybridge which is close to Pontefract. Ferrybridge is in the heart of old coal mining territory and so the stay in Ackworth would have been a temporary respite from the smog, coal-grimed faces and the hard, yet closely knit life, of a colliery community.

It’s been an interesting experience working on a reproduction of her sampler.

Goodness, she’s updated the blog!

Here’s my progress on Heaven and Earth Designs’ Qs Tuxedo Cat Eyes (art by Carrie Hawks). It was the HAED SAL weekend on the HAED BB last weekend so I pulled it out and managed to spend a little time with it

I’ve also had a little new start, one of the The Prairie Schooler Christmas Strawberries. Stitched on White Belfast with one strand of HDF Old maid of the forest (the green) and Old maid of the heart (the red).

I’ve been a bit busy at work. I had to make a 15 minute presentation this week which was a bit stressful but thankfully that was yesterday and now life can now resume it’s normal relaxed pace (oh, by the way it went reasonably well). Funnily enough, I just don’t stitch when I am feeling pressured, I don’t seem to have the attention span for it. Fortunately Joel bought us a new toy on Friday night - a Wii Fit board, which is tons of fun and a good distraction. We also bought some new reading material at Borders - I bought Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home, which is pretty good, except the Autumn chapter which has a lot of images of hunting and dead game which was a bit of a surprise given the focus on growing vegetables throughout the rest of the book (and yes, I do know where my meat comes from).
To finish on a completely different note, I managed to post off my “Feathered Friends” exchange package this afternoon.

Finish - Shepherds Bush’s Hunt

We had a wonderful time down in Mt Barker last weekend. Joel’s parents are just delightful to stay with - good company, yummy food and time to relax - ahhh! While we were away I stitched and finished part of my “Feathered Friends” Exchange. I’m still working on the second part but I am close to a finish. I should have it all ready to send well before the 15th, which is our mailing date.

In the meantime, I have finished this little Shepherds Bush Easter kit - Hunt. This was a fun little stitch. I’ve been feeling a bit bogged down with my larger works in progress so I picked up this kit from my little stash of SB kits and really enjoyed working on it.

Today I caught up with a couple of my stitching friends and as it was at Janine’s (Colours Down Under) I came home with a bit of stash - here’s a little list:

• 6 skeins of DMC
• Just Nan - Over the Top: Hop
• Just Nan - In the Tin: Hop
• Little House Needleworks - My Needle’s Work
• With my needle - Quaker Turtles
• Sisters and Best Friends - Birth Sampler: Bless
• Homespun Elegance - A Quaker Year: Merry Winter
• Stacy Nash Primatives - Fancy Peacock Hanking Pinkeep.
• Kelmscott Designs - Large thread hoops, Bluebell hread rings and Heart thread rings.

I promised them I would share this link for stitching alphabets. What is neat about this page is that you can type in the text you want to use and it centers it up for you (Christy, the alphabet I used was Madrid) I just used it for finishing an exchange piece and it is very handy for personalisation.

I can smell our dinner is nearly ready, so I am going to sign off. We’re having Beef and Guinness stew tonight - yum!

More Mary Thompson

Ah, Mary Thompson, I wonder if you thought I had let her fall by the wayside (with all my other forgotten beauties). No, I have a bit of catching up to do to keep up with my SAL group (who I haven’t heard from for a while, my fault - I really do need to email people more). I made a commitment to stitch a motif a week since the beginning of January, so according to my diary I should have 17 motifs completed by the end of the week - I have 14 now (not counting the alphabet letters), so three more to do before I am caught up. Do click on the picture to get the full view (I’ve lost my touch with the clickable thumbnails all of a sudden). She is over two on 36ct with the charted AVAS (and un-ironed!!). The off white thread does rather blend with the white Edinburgh linen but I am over worrying about that now.

I’m planning to work on Exchange Stitching this weekend while Joel and I are off visiting with his parents (it will be the Anzac Day long weekend here). I’ve got two pieces due in May/June - My for the birds Exchange (pattern selected, just need to kit up and stitch) and a Springtime piece for Goldie, my seasonal exchange partner (just need to find where I stashed the thread for this). I’m looking forward to having some solid stitching time and catching up with the parents.

Until my next update (probably in a weeks time), wishing you all many happy stitches

QS tuxedo cat eyes

Well, it was the HAED SAL this weekend so I picked up QS Tuxedo Cat Eyes again and got to work (Chart by Heaven and Earth Designs, art by Carrie Hawks). I did pretty well considering I had an unusually social weekend with engagements on both days. I really like the one eye I have already stitched - it’s just mesmerizing!

I see my brother in law has taken some more pictures of our dear Cate. They can all be seen here. There’s even one of the proud daddy. I’m loving being a new aunt again - thank you all for the congratulations!

Edited to add, hey have you seen the new Bent Creek, Change of Seasons Row?  Love it!  Also I am really liking how the Big Zipper is turning out. I may have to make an investment there (Changing out the fabby - I don’t think I would like stitching on 18 count linen).

It’s a girl!!

I’ve just heard from my sister Lucy, she’s had a baby girl and her name is Cate!

No further details yet. Will update with picture and more info as they come to hand.

This is her second child, her first, Niall (a boy, for new readers) is nearly 3 years old. I’m so Excited! I’m going to the hospital tonight to see her - I can’t wait

5pm Update: her name is Cate Alexandra and she was 7lb 5oz. I’ve linked to Anthony’s photographs of Lucy and Cate if you click on her Cate’s name in the first paragraph. My Dad says she looks just like Lucy and I did when we were first born (he’s still in Adelaide, he’s just seen the pix). I’ve also added a link to Niall’s album - he’s still my favorite boy! I’m waiting for Joel to get home so we can go catch up with them all.

Last update tonight… here’s a picture of the beautiful girl with her slightly run over by a bus-ish looking Aunty Cathy. Hey, Lucy told me that she is named for me - how lovely is that!

Prairie Schooler Fob Exchange arrives safely…

Oh happy day! I’ve heard from Stacy my PS fob exchange partner that her fob arrived safely in the US. Stacy requested a house or Christmas-y design, no flowers - so after pouring over my PS charts for a week or so, this one was selected. This is from “A Christmas visit” stitched over one on a piece of scrap linen (DMC fibres).

Being the total goober that I can be sometimes, I wasn’t sure if I was pleased with the resulting fob and took it around to my stitching friend’s place for their comments (we had a get together on the Easter weekend). And when they all tried to steal it, I felt I was on a winner after all and purchased the cute santa scissors to match.

Want to see what Stacy sent to me? Here’s a link to my blog entry with the picture. This exchange was run in the Prairie Schooler fans Yahoo group - come on and join in if you are a fan of PS designs.

Two posts in two days - goodness! I’d just like to say thank you all for the lovely comments regarding Beneath the Sunlit Sky - I loved reading them.

Beneath the Sunlit Sky - Finished!

Beneath the Sunlit Sky - Blackbird Designs

28ct Sea Fog R&R linen / recommended fibres (WDW and GAST)

Well, it is all done! I had such fun working this sampler and it is just beautiful in real life. Alma Adams (the designer) wrote in the booklet that she designed this to commemorate 25 years of marriage to her hubby, David. Joel and I have only been married 4 years (in May) but we felt that was definitely worth celebrating.