The Lady of Shallot....

Dad sent me a picture of the I am Half Sick of Shadows piece he is working on for me. I thought he wasn't working on it and was shocked at how much he has done! The detail is amazing!



I don't know if you are aware that this piece of art has its origins in the poem "The Lady of Shallot" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is rather a long poem which you can view here but I thought you might like a few of the verses that represent this scene:

Part 2
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving thro' a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot:
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad,
Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed:
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.

And here's something else... another ornie I can finally show. This was for Nancy fromt he FTT exchange. I decided to stitch her the Blackbird Designs Peace ornie from the Just Cross Stitch ornie mag this year:



I believe she likes it! I enjoyed stitching it for her.

Whilst I'm about it, here's an L Fairy update.



I am enjoying working on her. She is a dream to stitch using 18 count aida and dmc threads 2x2. Very blocky but with some confetti on her body and wings. Again I should apologise for the quality of the picture. I am going to have to wait till Christmas to get a new camera. I'd like to get this one finished for Christmas and Tracy and I are going to SAL together to get one of our wips finished. We did it in the past and it worked well. We just post each other pics of our wip of choice once a week until we get it finished.

Has anyone seen this gorgeous SAL that has just started:

Marquoir

Just click on Marquoir to the right hand side. The first two parts are up. I agonised for hours over a Threadworx conversion for the french threads but when I totted up the amount it was going to cost for the threads and fabric it came to about £40 which is a bit too much for me at the moment. So.... this one is going to have to wait a bit I think.

Enjoy your week everyone. I'm still trying to catch up on my last lot of comments and blogs. Will be visiting you soon. xxx

FTT ornie exchange

Look what beauty I got through the post yesterday. Isn't he adorable. I am thrilled to be the recipient of the Friends Through Threads ornament exchange of Carol. She has even personalised the back of it and has added a little hand made by silver charm. Just gorgeous. I have been doing Prairie Schooler ornies for my stitching tree this year and this will go perfectly. It is a PS design from the GOS mag Nov08. I had to pinch this picture from Carol as my camera has finally had it. One for the Christmas wish list I think.

Stitch It and Pass It On

Recently, my dear friend Tracy set up a blog group called "Stitch it and Pass it on" whereby one person stitched a chart and finished it and sent the finished piece and the chart onto the next person. They did the same and sent the chart and finished piece onto the next person in the group and so on until the chart and a finished piece finall ends up back at the start. Well, it was Cindy Mae's turn to stitch this chart and send it to me and this is what I got!! Isn't it stunning. I love the finish and the colour of the fabric she used for the cushion backing. Now it is my turn to stitch it and decide how to finish it before I pass it onto Elisa. This particular design is by Brightneedle and is called "Four Friends", which is lovely as there are four of us in this round. If anyone is interested in participating in a future round you should contact Tracy for more details. You can find out more on the blog here.









Here's a Christmas ornament I have made for Lily's teacher. Sorry the quality of the picture is so bad. It was hard to take a good close up of it as it is stitched over 1 on 32 count linen. It is such a tiny piece and I love it and don't really want to part with it as I know not many people these days appreciate hand made items. Here's hoping it will go to a good home. It is from this years Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine. There are plenty more ornie pics to come but some are for exchanges so will have to wait till they arrive at their destination.



Speaking of my dd, here is a pic of her with her most recent finish. I helped much less on this piece. I think she is beginning to get the hang of it! She has also been showing interest in having a penpal. I think she is still a little young as she is only just coming up to 7 and is learning to practice her handwriting and spelling. However, if you know another girl the same age who would perhaps be interested in exchanging a card or drawing with Lily then please let me know. I am sure Lily would be delighted. Preferably from further afield than in the UK.

Thank you all for stopping by. I read and appreciate every single one of your comments and try to return the visit as soon as I can. I'm often in need of new inspiration. Have a good stitching week. xx

BP Happy dance!

Finally finished Beatrix Potter quaker sampler by Needleprint. I stitched it on 32ct jobelan Sassy's Tan Marble and used Victorian Motto sampler threads in antique wine colours.

The initails stand for me, my dh, my dd and my ds. The white bits are really effective and I am glad I did them as I wasn't sure about them.









I loved working on this this year and enjoyed being part of the SAL. Next year I am goin gto concentrate on Mary Wigham and see if I can get that one done in a year too.

Stitching up lots of christmas ornies for exchanges at the moment so can't show you what I have stitched just yet but hopefully soon. Also been working madly on that crochet blanket. I have done seven and a half squares and just need to do nine and then stitch them together. Also done a little more on the "L" fairy but not taken pics yet so that will be for another post.

Been thinking a lot about next year's stitching as well and what project I have lined up. Ideas include: Mary Wigham, Just Nan Snowfire, another HAED?? A Quaker Christmas and lots of smalls. I need to really think about this as I still have projects that need finishing like my Patchwork and Circque des Circque.

Happy stitching!

Think Pink exchange received.

Debbie (no blog) received my Think Pink exchange on the Stitcher's Showcase. Here's what I made her:



The pattern was a freebie from Romy in Austria found here. I stitched it using Carrie's Baby Pink and some DMC and I added some pink Delica beads to it as well.

Thanks for looking. Having a tough week this week so has to be short and sweet.

Happy stitching. xxx

Hardanger rocks!!

What a week I had last week with the boy child constantly being sick. It seemed to go on forever and I appreciate all your lovely, caring comments, happy thoughts and prayers. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

It was touch and go on Friday as to whether I would get to go to my stitching weekend thingy as dh started getting very ill as well and I was all anxious about what to do. I felt bad about leaving him to it but in the end I went. Tracy arrived in good time at my house and we had a nice drive down to Nuneaton to the meet up with some girls from Jane's Attic. We got to the hotel which was lovely (and cheap!) and just decided to chill out there for the evening after having had such a long week. We stitched and chatted and ate cake yum!

The following day Lynn (organiser) and Vicky (India Grace Designs) taught me some hardanger. In particular, I wanted to learn woven bars and dove's eyes and finally after one or two mishaps I got the hang of it. I made this:



Which I then turned into this:

Front:


Back:


(and yes Chris - if you're reading - this is the fabric you gave me in my goody bag from the March meet up!)

I love it! I am so pleased to have this new stitch added to my bow strings. I have been getting excited looking at all the Victoria Sampler stuff that I might be able to do now and Loopy Lou stuff - I do have one ready to start.

Recently on the JA forum, there has been a lot of discussion about doing a Just Nan SAL. I have never done a JN design but was quite excited at the thought of doing one. Barb gifted me with Snowfire Christmas and even included the fabric and Perle thread! Here's what it looks like - so pretty. Can't wait to get started on it.

And while I have been about it, perusing all the JN band samplers, I came across this one. It's called "Nan's Garden".

I thought I'd stitch it for my mum whose name is Nan and who also has the most incredible garden.

So if anyone is interested in joining this SAL then pop over to Jane's Attic and put your name down!

Just Nan SAL

Oh and I nearly forgot, look at what Tracy brought with her when she came to mine:





I was her Think Pink partner on the Stitcher's Showcase! Isn't it wonderful! The finishing is so neat. Perfect and all by hand too. My exchange is parcelled and ready to send out tomorrow hopefully.

And last but not least, and just to show that I too can knit, a bit, and actually finish things, here's my lovely dd modelling the headband hat and scarf I made her. She is suppposed to wear her hair outside it but she prefers it in. The wool is Softie by Sirdar and the headband hat is a freebie from Ravelry and can be found here.





So that's it from me. I really need to get cracking on some exchanges and get BP finished before the end of the year. Not to mention all the Christmas ornies I wanna make. The new Just Cross Stitch ornie mag is wonderful! Have a lovely, crisp, autumn week! xx

A UFO Finish!!!

Just to show you that it is possible to finish those UFOs!!! Last year, early last year, I went to a Drawn Thread workshop with Lynda Bodkin of Loopy Lou designs where we learnt the basics of Drawn Thread work. A few of us went from the JA forum. I did the drawn thread bit and a bit of the spider web roses that day then promptly put it in it's bag and never took it out again. However, I was feeling rather inclined recently to get it out again and get it finished and it didn't take long either. I am so ashamed of myself for leaving this beauty for so long untouched but finally here it is in all its glory! It uses beads and metallics and treasures which are hard to see but it really is very pretty. The design is called Ruby and here are some pics. My basketweave leaves a lot to be desired :S









I have been busy on BP this month and I also have an exchange to send out so can't show those pics yet.

Had a terrible weekend of sickness bug with my baby son. He can't seem to keep anything down. Everytime I think he is better, he throws up again. We have ran out of towels and sheets so I have been busy washing like mad. Have phoned the doctor and they have said to just try and get liquids down him so we tried that but then he pukes all that up. Hmmm. Hopefully he'll be better by tomorrow.

Hope everyone else has had a better weekend than mine. I am going on a weekend stitching meetup next weekend and I am so badly in need of a break.

xx