Winter flowers

This is the last day of Winter here. I have a couple of May bush trees in the back garden which flowers during the colder months of the year. I love the delicate white flowers...


I haven't done any stitching this past week I'm afraid. I've been busy trying to work out what I'll need to take on my holiday in a couple of weeks. I think I'll need a holiday after I get everything organised.:) There's so much to get done!

The Tea Room ~ open for business!

Welcome to my Tea Room. Please come inside for a visit!

DESIGNER - Country Cottage Needleworks

PATTERN - The Tea Room

FABRIC - 32ct Natural Linen

THREADS - DMC

STARTED - 9 August 2008

FINISHED - 22 August 2008

A bare tree

The tree has no leaves, but it's Winter time here so I guess that's not surprising :)

CCN The Tea Room - 20 August 2008

Mum's on a roll

Mum's been stitching again and has a few finishes to show you. They're all Shepherd's Bush and come as complete kits.

Christmas Treat Bag, Americana Roll, Shepherd's Roll, and Violet Roll

These next photos feature Shepherd's Roll. She has also completed Shepherd's Purse which she did a number of years ago. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Just the tree to do

I worked some more last night on The Tea Room and I'm now down to the tree to finish it off. I think this one will go down as a favourite of mine. The fact that I've stitched on it most nights this past week means that I'm enjoying it so much. I just love the look, the colours, and the simplicity of it. It's been such a pleasure to do.


Again, I've taken these photos in the morning light. By the afternoon it's faded and starts to dull over with the Winter skies.

CCN - The Tea Room 16 August 2008

A few pictures

This morning while the light was good, I decided to take some photos of The Tea Room. No more progress on it since last night but I thought it would be nice to have some day time photos. Lately all I've been doing is taking scanned pitures of it. Here's a few I took and the rest are in my Tea Room album.

Stitching at night

Lately I've been doing a lot more needlework of a night time. This is not like me as I like to use the daylight to be able to see better. I find you can't beat the day time for stitching. Since I don't get many chances to stitch during the day, as I work full time, I've been taking the opportunity and getting a bit done at night. Having a bright light to work with helps too. Of course it all depends on what you're working on. Some patterns aren't as easy to see even with proper lighting, and if you're working on a 40ct fabric - well, just forget it! Day time for that one.

My progress on The Tea Room has been going well. Especially when I've only started this one last Saturday. It's such a sweet design - I'm loving it!

CCN The Tea Room - 15 August 2008

This is my latest scanned image of where I'm up to after working on it tonight. Other progress pics can be found in my WIPS album. Thanks for looking!

Stitching on a plane

I know a lot of people love to go on holidays, us stitchers included. The question's been raised by Alison as to whether I have decided what needlework to take with me for the plane trip when I go on my holiday to the Cook Islands next month.

To be honest, I have thought about it, but will probably not take anything with me. I know, shock, horror. I'm going with my sister (who doesn't stitch) and the plane trip will be in two (via Auckland NZ), roughly 3 1/2 to 4 hour sections. Not too much time to be on a plane. So as much as I would like to be stitching any opportunity I get, I think I'll have more than enough distractions to keep me occupied. Then when I get there I want to experience as many things I can. Activities I don't get the chance to do at home and also some relaxing by the beach.

I guess it depends what type of holiday you're going on, how long it takes to get there, and where you're going to as to whether a bit of needlework can be enjoyed as well.

Speaking of which... I've been getting into The Tea Room last night and tonight. It probably doesn't look like I've done that much, but it's more solid stitching than the border requires. I was a bit worried with the blue threads being very similar in shade, but once I worked a little more on the building I could see the difference in colour to the wording.

Quaker Garden is still one I want to complete, but it seems as soon as I start a CCN or LHN design I just can't put them down. They're such a joy to do. So I think I'll keep on The Tea Room until I finish it.

CCN The Tea Room - 13 August 2008

Look what I got done!

I had so much fun stitching Little Ballerinas by CCN and this one's going to be no exception. I managed to get more done than I thought I would yesterday. As mentioned, the weather was ugly so it made for a great stitching day!

The border wasn't boring at all. It's such an easy design, and since the size isn't too large, you can get it done in no time. I find their borders quite enjoyable to do. I did the inner border, vine, and wording yesterday. I could have kept going into the night but decided to relax and watch some more of the Olympics on TV.

CCN The Tea Room - 10 August 2008

Thanks again everyone for your lovely comments. I love reading them.

A start on The Tea Room

Last night while watching the Olympics on TV, I thought I would make a start on The Tea Room. I just know I'm going to love working on this one. It has such lovely colours, a simple design, and won't take months to complete. I love CCN patterns!

It's such a cold, wet Winter's day here (hence the poor lighting in my photos - sorry) that I think I'll stitch a little more today. These type of days are only good for staying home and working on your needlework.

Last night I made a start on the border.

CCN - The Tea Room

Started 9 August 2008

Fabric - 32ct Natural Linen

Threads - DMC

I love this design!

This one I came across on Loreta's blog. She's stitching it herself and I think it looks angelic and very pretty. I've really fallen in love with it and I will definitely have to get it on a future stash order. It's a Mirabilia design called Ring Around The Rose Tree. It was released in 2004, so it's not a new one. I love the colours and the happiness it brings.

Mirabilia - Ring Around The Rose Tree

I usually shy away from designs with a lot of shading in them. I haven't attempted to do another one since I stitched a Stoney Creek design called Sally's Friend back in my early days of stitching. This one took me years to complete! Some of the colour differences are so slight that you end up going crossed-eyed trying to tell them apart.

This one, like most of Mirabilia's patterns, has shading which makes me hesitant. I have two of their charts in my stash (Garden Verses and Rose Celebration) and as yet haven't attempted to do them for this very reason. This one though I would like to stitch in the future.

This is Mum's too

Here's another of Mum's finishes. She did this a while ago and has chosen her own thread colours. It's a Prairie Moon design called Gardenin' Angel.

Prairie Moon - Gardenin' Angel

Fabric - 32ct Creek Bed Brown

Threads - own choice

Framed by Dad

Stitched by Mum

Dad has handmade the frame while Mum did the stretching.

This pattern I have in my stash, which comes with the tin pieces. I have been wanting to do this for ages but cannot decide on the threads to use. Some of the colours it calls for don't appeal to me, so I want to change to something else. I love the threads Mum has chosen, but she can't remember which ones she used. Oh well, I'll get round to doing this some day.

Another finish for Mum!

I dropped into Mum's and Dad's yesterday since I haven't visited them for a few weeks. Mum and I caught up on what we've been stitching lately. I showed her Little Ballerinas, which I've done for my niece, and she loved it.

She had been working on and has now finished Lizzie Kate's Double Flip series Living With Charm. She's stitched all words together in the one piece going downwards. The fabric she used is from the Stitches And Spice range. It's a hand dyed evenweave called Celtic which is the palest pink tone with metallic speckles going through it. She asked me my opinion on how to finish it off. I suggested turning it into a bell pull. I think it would really suit this design. It becomes so costly to frame everything, so it's good to alternate a few options. Here's her finished piece, but you'll have to excuse the creases as it hasn't been ironed.

LIZZIE KATE - Living With Charm

Stitched by Mum and finished July 2008

I've slowed down

Small progress is being made with Quaker Garden. I did a little more last night. I'm in no hurry to finish this one. I'm just enjoying each small step I make.

I have decided to stitch other pieces while still working on this. I started with Little Ballerinas and next is The Tea Room. I'm thinking that if I work on a larger piece (like this one), I'll stitch smaller ones along side. That way I won't get bogged down with the bigger one and have it end up being a chore to finish.

Quaker Garden - 1 August 2008

I'm hoping to start on my little project piece for Nicole tomorrow, if I get time. Unfortunately there won't be any progress pics for this one as it's a surprise. It shouldn't take too long to complete though.