Well it seems blogger has changed its interface !! Guess it will take me ages to sort it out now !!

text ????

Just wondered what happened to the  text background on the last post ????   Can't seem to change it !!

An addition to our family ....

No, not another baby, but a little pup ... it is such a long time , almost 6 years now, since we lost our last dog and she was 13 years old ...  we have had dogs all our married lives (46 years and counting !) .. so it is a long time since we had a puppy ....  we had talked about it for some time as I said last time that there would be no more ... neither of us can walk far and it wouldn't be fair ...  however after a while you really miss a dog around the house. We looked for some time and decided we would have another staffie as these are lovely dogs and we had them the last few times ...  not the dangerous dogs some folks would have you believe and very good with children which is good as we have our Joseph who is seven and he will love her ... after looking at two or three, which just weren't right for us, we decided on a seven week old brindle bitch pup ... well not quite 7 weeks ! .... she is a little sweetie and we have named her Lucy with Joseph's help !

Summer update

Well we haven't really had a summer here in the UK this year and now we are going into Autumn !
Still having probs with with shoulder/arm, but have had a couple of x-rays, a CT scan and an ultra sound and will get final results next Monday .....  but I have managed to do a little bit more stitching on one of my Chatelaine designs - Herbularius .... and in the next week I will start putting some of the beads in ...

Herbularius update

Well as I write this, the rain seems to have left us for a few days and we have had some nice sunshine ... still not hot enough for summer however ..........
Today it is sunny but blowing a gale and I just hope I can keep all the baby apples on the two small trees...
Still having probs with my shoulder/arm but saw a specialist at the small private hospital near us - as an NHS patient - and he arranged a CT scan the same week ... had that last Thursday and now have to wait three weeks for the appointment back with the specialist to see what the problem/problems are ... so still having to limit the typing time as well as the stitching time ...

But this is the update on Herbularius .... coming along nicely albeit slower than I wanted...

This is the top section and once it is complete I will add the beads and put it onto a roller frame and onto my Lowery stand making it easier on my shoulder, and then work my way down ...

June update

Well not much to add really ... just a progress pic of Herbularius .... this is the upper archways and garden and I will continue with the upper side of the design before moving on and stitching the left, right and bottom sides ...

We have had such a lot of rain here in my part of the North East UK ... really getting fed up with it now - we are supposed to be in the middle of summer !!!!!!  The plants don't know what is happening and nothing is ripening in my garden or greenhouse .... I have lots of strawberries on my two plants but all green and no sun to ripen them  :(  ................  the tomato plants in the greenhouse are barely four inches high! But we have had some help in the garden .... my little grandson Joseph helped his grandad cut the grass when we had a break in the weather ... hope this video uploads otherwise you won't see it 

Latest update on Herbularius

I have now almost completed the top  'garden'  just have to do the right hand side bit, then I will turn the fabric around and stitch the bottom gardens, before moving onto the left and right gardens which need to be stitched on the side ...
This morning has dawned quite bright and sunny and even a little bit warm ! Sorry picture is a bit fuzzy ...

Herbie progress

Finally got through parts 1 and 2 of Chatelaine design  'Herbularius'  ... this is a lovely design and I am enjoying stitching it  .......... now ready to progress with part 3 ...

Autumn finished and framed ...

Got my CelticAutumn back from the framers and we set to putting it alongside the other ones I have completed, until disaster struck ....   it dropped off the hanger straight onto the stairs !!  On picking it up, no broken glass amazingly, but the bottom part of the frame was off with the corners broken ... My DH put it back as best he could and it is now in the process of going back onto the hanger .... not easy to take a picture of it without the glass shining, but here it is ....

as for the weather here in my part of the North East UK ...  rain, rain and more rain ! A shame for folks who have a street party arranged to celebrate the Queen's 60 years ...  and also for folks who might have had family bar-b-q's arranged ....

Anyone got a chart ????

I have been looking for the chart only, for Just Nan's  Queens Bluebird box   .... I don't want the full kit, but apparantly this was the only way it was sold ...I have soooo many silks and threads plus beads etc, I would prefer the chart .... so am hoping someone will have stitched this box and no longer wants the chart and would be willing to sell it to me  .... this is the box, although I do not want the actual bird ...

Another finish and update ...

I recently stitched a birth sampler for my little grand-daughter Jorgie born a few weeks ago .... got it back from the framer, who recognised the design, and hasn't he done a good job - cost £20 which I think is excellent especially as he stretches and laces them !

and this is the latest photo of little Jorgie  (with her mummy) ... who is now 8 weeks old, gurgles and talks away to herself in the cot and smiles when you say  'hello'  ....

Also current update on Chatelaine Designs  'Herbularius' ....

I am loving this design and this is half of parts 1 and 2 ... part 2 not beaded yet ... wish I could stitch for longer each day but still having huge big probs with shoulder injury ..  :(

From mothers to daughters ....

In 2001, for my daughter Julie's  birthday, I decided to do a special photo album tracing our female line ... the earliest photo I had was one of my great grand-mother Elizabeth Riches .... who was born in 1837 ...  then I had a photo of her daughter (my grand-mother) Alice .... and so on from the mother to the daughter ... the last photo is of me and Julie at my mother's funeral ....  I bought an album and cross stitched a design on the front and back covers of the album  .....

                                     
                                          The stitched front cover

                                    
                                                 Inside front covers

 The first photo is of my great grand-mother Elizabeth Rachel Riches

The last photo is of myself and daughter Julie on the day of my mother's funeral in 1997

                                            ............................. and this is the back cover

Chatelaine progress

Well despite having shoulder and arm problems which have restricted my stitching time, I have still managed some progress on my Chatelaine design  'Herbularius' ...  the fabric is by Polstitches and is a hand dyed mix of greens, yellows and light blues  though they don't show up too well here ... most of the threads used for this are DMC with a few nice silks added

Autumn Celtic finish

I have finallly finished Celtic Autumn  by Lavender and Lace .... this completes four of them and not sure if I will do the other .... this has taken longer than usual as I have had to keep putting it away because other things cropped up .... 

Part 1 Herbie beaded

Had a busy weekend beading part one of the Chatelaine  'Herbularius'  ... actually I found it quite relaxing just sitting putting all those beads on ....  lots of beads on this design, so I decided to bead as I do each part rather than facing hundreds of beads at the end ! When I bead, I use a thread which matches as close as possible to the fabric I am using , so that lets me bead whatever colour beads need putting on without having to stop and change colour threads each time ... unfortunately the beads don't show up well on the photo - but there are lots of them including some gold ones and in all they really shine out in the flesh so to speak ...   :)
Herbie has now been put away for a while as I have one project to finish off before carrying on ...

Chatelaine update

This past week I have been working on the Chatelaine - Herbularius ...  so far I have now almost finished the first section - section 1 of 12 ! This centre section measures approx 6 x 6 inches and is a nice design in itself .... could be used as a box top, biscorno etc .... however I will carry on and stitch the whole design ...  it has been lovely to work on so far and I think I will bead this section before moving on to the next ... it is being stitched on a lovely hand dyed fabric from polstitches which comes in shades of greens, blues etc ...



Woodhorn Mining Museum - needlework exhibition

I have finally started one of the Chatelaine designs I bought recently .... this one is Herbularius and this is as far as I have got so far:

Me and a friend had a ride out today to the Woodhorn mining museum near Ashington, North East UK ... we knew there was going to be an exhibition of needlework related to the mining industry so thought it would make for a nice day out ....
To be completely honest, we were a little disappointed .... the museum itself isn't very big and only one room for the needlework ... the needlework itself was absolutely lovely and there were some stunning pieces on display  ... but the lighting in that room was not too good - shame really .... I have taken some photos and will upload them underneath this but many are a bit too dark - however - all credit to the actual stitchers who have done some beautiful work and I believe I spotted some stitched by Sheila Craig ...    was that you Sheila  !!!!   lol    ....   lovely work x
Sorry a couple of photos are sideways on - blogger won't let me turn them !

Baby Jorgie here at last !!

Our beautiful little grand-daughter Jorgie, was born in the early hours of Thursday morning, 22nd of March. With so many family members having birthdays in March she was sure to arrive on one of them - and she did so on cousin Andy's !!
Mum and baby are both doing well and are now home .... she is a beautiful little girl and her big brother Joseph loves her to bits already ... here are a few pics:

Jorgie Grace Blench - a few hours old

Why does blogger do this !! the pic is the wrong way round and no option to rotate !!

Same problem with this pic ... but this is Jorgie with her dad ...

Ready to go home at last

Smiles all round ! with aunty Julie and big brother Joseph

                                                        With aunty Julie

At last an update!

Been a while since I updated stuff .... so just a quick update for now ...
Anyday now we expect a new granchild - this time a little girl ... this will be a second child for son David .... so hope it won't be long ....

I have started to stitch a Vervaco design of a little baby sucking his/her thumb in sepia colours .... this has been stitched on a cream evenweave and I have some nice fabric so will make this one into a baby pillow ....   then I can start on the birth sampler which is Baby Basket from TIAG ....

I have also stitched another of the Fabby Reilly biscornos - this time it is the buttercup one which will match up to the corn-flower and the poppy ones I did earlier ...

I have also been looking at some Chatelaine designs - which are really beautiful - so had to go and buy a couple didn't I ??  Don't know when I will have time to finish these, but I will have a go and get started on them .... the first is 'The Herbularius' - a medieval herb garden, which  comes in 12 parts but has been running since last August and finishes this July so I am a bit behind !
The second is the anniversary design Martina has designed and will be starting on the first April, again in 12 parts , and is called  'The Fairytale Castle' ...
I will have to take out a mortgage to afford all the special silks and beads for these designs, so have decided that some will have to be swapped for ordinary DMC - but not all ......  :)

Herbularium

 Fairytale Castle

I have also been sorting out some of my jewellery and still have some for sale - so if anyone is interested then please get in touch......

All my jewellery is handmade by myself and uses genuine gemstones and sterling silver ear-wires and clasps ... I have more sets and they can be seen on my webshots page:

 below are just a couple of examples , but more can be seen in my webshots albums here:  

http://community.webshots.com/user/auntyzelda

Just a couple of examples

and now for a couple of pictures I took this morning at the local garden-centre where a friend and I go for coffee and cake every Thursday - this car was covered in imitation grass !!