Some Stitching

Hello dear stitching friends!  Well, Winter has truly set in here in Cape Town, but we are fortunate to have a bright, sunshine day today and it is wonderful outside.

Here are some updates on my stitching of the past few months:

I have made some progress on the Reticella lace course that I am doing with Lee Albrecht.  I just love all the delicate patterns and the variety in the lacy designs.

Here is a little Christmas ornament that I stitched a few months ago.  I still need to do the finishing and might go with a flat finish, using the fabric pictured for the backing.

It is stitched in Madeira silks on 28 count self dyed fabric.  It was such a treat to work with silk for a change!  I also love the slightly more antique tones - especially the 'Old Gold' colour.

And now - a little bit of stash!  I came across these lovely ribbons at an outdoor craft market a few months ago.  They were sold by weight - what a great find!

Here is a better look - I have so many ideas of how to use them for finishing :)

Here is a picture of my 'baby'.  Lexi, our Bullmastiff puppy turned one year old in April!  I must say, I can see that she has grown a bit since then :)  She is so extremely spoiled and such a loving young lady (and sometimes very naughty!)

That's it for now - I will share some more stitching progress in my next post - I have been spending a lot of time on my Heaven and Earth Designs stitching, but at the moment I'm working on a few smalls.

Until next time - Happy Stitching!

Michelle

My Internet lives again!

Hello Blogging friends!  Oh my, I have been longing to do a post, but we have had such trouble with our internet connection, but it all seems to be sorted out for now.

I have been doing a lot of stitching and will show progress pics over the next few weeks, but firstly I want to show you the wonderful prize I received.  I won Lee Albrecht's Christmas draw at the end of last year and a few months ago the package arrived.  It was so much fun to receive a brown paper package!

Here is a look at the goodies inside.  A lovely magazine containing some Reticella work, postcards, Perle cotton, a Brazilian pin and some wonderfull organic soap!

Here is a close up of the small kits, they are so sweet and I absolutely love the Matrioska thread keep!

The main prize was this wonderful Hardanger Christmas Stocking kit - it is so beautiful!  Lee also included a calender, containing beautiful pictures of her work and kits.

The students from Lee's embroidery school also wanted to get involved in sending some gifts and I was lucky enough to receive this lovely package from Larissa.  She included a card, stunning dog print fabrics, sweet treats and some other goodies.

Look at this cute fabric - I love it!

This piece of fabric is also great and I love those buttons - she must know how much I love dogs!

Thank you so much to Lee and Larissa!  I appreciate these beautiful, thoughtful gifts so very much!

I have a lot of catching up to do on blogs and will also post some of my stitching updates soon.

Happy Stitching!

Michelle