War, peace and the end of term.

So it was the end of another school year on Friday, and I managed to finish the necklace for Fred's teacher,hope she likes it!!!











I have finally decided what size my canvas work will be, so I have cut the canvas, and started to mount it on to the frame. When I first thought of this project I imagined using my tiny 12 inch slate frame.(as seen in my January 2011 post ) But the project has grown a little and I'm now using the 18 inch frame, slate frames are by far the best frame for any embroidery.






I made a start, but ran out of time to finish so will show that stage later in the week I hope! ;-0. Pin and sew from the centre.












You have to sew into different rows on the canvas to avoid it splitting when it's pulled tight.





Split pins in place, but not pulled tight at this stage.





Wrapper pinned in place to keep work clean. More later I hope.

It's been a fun week here, we live near The Hop Farm, where every year they have the worlds largest war and peace show, with people coming from all over the world, many with their military bikes, cars lorries and tanks. So we go from being a quite town to a hive of activity. They drive in to town, to shop, which means the high street looks like this,





And this is not an unusual sight at Waitrose. We love it, but it does get a little muddy.






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Having stood on a wet and windy field this morning watching sports day, it was great to get home and find this lovely little parcel on the doormat. I won this wonderful gift from LAMdesigns (link to the right) four sweet little buttons and needle case. Thank you Laura, they are beautiful.


Jenny
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Location:Treasure

A big week

At last I have finished the colour drawing of the iris, I had great fun completing this grown up colouring!!!!


Look all done.


So off I went to get some stranded cotton, I have stuck with Anchor, but only because that's what our local department store sells, so I can easily pop out and get some more, its hard to say how much I will use.


I will try out all the colours on the canvas later in the week, I hope. I have not worked out how many threads I will need to use yet, and will have great fun working out which colours will be mixed together :-)


I have only this week realised that the end of term is coming up, when did that happen? and no teachers gift even thought of, I have only had all year! So a quick think and a rummage around in the bead drawer and a necklace is in production.


We had a very special day on Tuesday when out littlest person had a birthday, her first year has gone so quickly, that I'm quite worried for the next 20 years!!! ;-}
Here she is helping with the picture of the Ripple blanket, which is so nearly finished, only 11 more colours to go, that's 22 more rows. But the thing is I have enjoyed this so much I think I'll miss it once it's finished!!



Jenny xx
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Getting things done

I say getting things done, but I have not done as much as I would have hoped. I lost two evenings trying to get my laptop and iPad to print wirelessly. This is easy on paper, but when the printer lives in the garden office, which is insinuated in a way which stops all wifi getting in, it's not easy. So a small box and some Ethernet cable later we are nearly there.


Having a break from that I took the hairy hound out the other night, we are lucky enough to have a footpath at the end of the road which leads to farm land, I love watching the crop grow as the seasons change.


Look at this little fellow, minding his own business.


Here's the hairy hound. He is called Muttley and is 7 years old, his favourite things are sitting next to the highchair and waiting for food, or waiting until no ones looking and taking what he can, baby loves him.


Just as we came round the field and where heading home the sun came out, look at the colour, beautiful.


Pretty, pretty daisy.


Last of all progress, as you see I have completed the black and white drawing, and just started the colour, what's interesting is in the photo I can now see where I need to go darker, this process is so helpful as you get a sense of where the shading is and the shapes. Can't wait to get started, just need to get cracking with the colouring.

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First Steps

Look what's arrived! Yes it's the canvas 22 count from http://www.willowfabrics.com. I had a little wobble after I ordered it, did I get the right size, Is it to fine, I should have got 18 count. But no, it's just perfect, and now it's here I'm very excited. By the way it came very quickly and is a very, very good price, half a metre of canvas and some tapestry needles all for under £7. ;-)


So I rushed out to the office, (in the garden) dragging 3 kids with me ( Fred's teacher was striking ) and printed out the flower picture, then enlarged it to try and get the size I want. I'm not to sure about size yet, I have to watch myself as I know that the larger I go the more detail I can get in, but I do want to finish it without bankrupting myself buying stranded cotton!!!


I've found my old Anchor shade chart and had a little look at colour.


Also had a look at the cottons I have already, just look at all the lovely colour, I ended up taking loads of pictures and had to be very disciplined with myself and not publish the lot, but you have to agree they are yummy.


Looks like there are some colours I can use, just have to make sure I have enough.


The next stage before the real fun starts is to do a black and White and coloured pencil drawing so I can work out on paper how all the shading and colours will work. I won't be able to get all the detail in, and will have to change some details a little so it works on canvas. I'm looking forward to starting that, love a bit of colouring in!!!


I have had to have a little rest with the crocheting over the last couple of days, as I seem to have a crochet related finger stain. What do we do instead, why we sand down and paint the picnic table of course. We where inspired by our trip to Chartwell, where they had lots of pale duck egg blue painted garden furniture, we have not gone quite as pale, but love the new look.


Next job in the garden at this time of year is the vine, the photo below is about a third of it, and it needs the be carefully cut back, having all but one grape bunch from each branch cut off, and each branch cut to one or two leaves beyond the bunch of grapes you keep.


Look little baby grapes, we took five buckets of grape off one year, even after it had been thinned.


One thing that always synonymous with good weather around these parts are hot air balloons, this one came over yesterday, and yes it really is that low.


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