Great Canadian Winter !

Snow Day!

Welcome to Northern Ontario. 20-30 cm of snow, high winds, temp dropping. At 9am temp was around -16, wind N 43km/hr, windchill -29.............and still dropping!

A few brave souls out clearing driveways. My husband, dressed so handsomly, and our neighbour, equally outfitted!!

Oh course, where am I? Inside with my cup of tea, stitching and computing, listening to Mussorgsky "Pictures at an Exhibition" (rather dramatic but seemed to suit the weather).

The Miner

This is for my husband. It's by Heritage Stitchcraft - "Early Shift". I am doing it on 14 count Aida because I thought I'd pick something quick and easy. Now that I've started, I think I should have done this on Linen. It will be nice nonetheless.

I bought it last fall - my husband was working for the mine, underground. He's since come to work on surface. And now has been advised (along with 686 others) that he is laid off. (our town is hit pretty hard with this and other lay offs). My first thought with regards to this chart was, glad I didn't do it. However, hubby now wants to go back to school for mining tech. So back to the stash I went and am doing this to encourage him. It will be a hard grind over the next two years... but well worth the effort.

Have a good rest of the week!
Nina

Quick Update

I am working! Have completed the eyelets on the hardanger and have done all the cutting. Am proud to say 'no cutting mistakes!' - even after years of hardanging, still want to be carefull with the cutting.

Check out these spiders! They are from a kit from Lewiscraft bought a few years ago. Aren't they creepy?! I have them crawling all over my craft room.

Happy Crafting!

Thanks!

Thank you for the comments. This is very encouraging!

I've completed all the eyelets on the hardanger piece and I think I'm now ready to cut. Not sure if I'll get to it today.....otherwise next weekend (no cutting in the evening....have to be fully alert!).

I have some brass templates for paper cutting and stitching. Am working on a hardanger one at the moment. However am using sewing thread and should have either doubled it, or used mabey size 12 perle cotton. At any rate, will finish as is and carry on to the next. Here is a picture of the piece and the template.

If anyone sees this and is interested in purchasing, Nordic Needle carries these. I think also Ecstasy Crafts in Shannonville Ontario carries these.

And one more picture.....my craft table while working. I always enjoy seeing other crafters and stitchers work spaces, whether a room, a table, or a favourite chair. So thought I should include one of my own!

Thanks!

Here goes.....

Ok. I've thought if over much too quickly and have decided (probably against my better judgement) to go public with the blog. Worse case is I mess up, quit and that's that.

Now for all you (one or two?) out there who may actually read this and want to post a comment, I don't know how to add an icon to post a comment. If anyone out there finds the icon, or knows how to add it please let me know. And anything else would be helpful!

Today I will post a picture of a pergamano (parchment craft) star I made for Christmas. It was a freebie pattern from the internet -

http://www.jmparchmentcraft.co.uk/index.htm

Thanks all (you one or two readers!). Happy Valentines!

Day 2

Got my hair cut, really short. No stitching or crafting.

This weekend is a long weekend, so will try to work on my red hardanger piece and post a few pics......boy, it just hit me, that red piece has hearts in it....it's valentines day......how come I didn't think of this before.....should have worked on it harder to have it done for this weekend! For pete's sake!!

Ok....here's my very first blog promise. I will work on the red hardanger with the hearts this weekend and post a couple of pics.

Oh man.....I really should go public with this blog....mabey someone out there could help by pointing out things like this!

However, for now will post another pic of a completed piece. And it just occured to me too......boy this blogging is going to help with the old memory banks.......I really should post where the pieces come from.

Yesterday's piece is from Tomorrow's Heirlooms in Hardanger Embroidery by Earlene Dobberpuhl, published 1991 by Nordic Needle. Fabric is hardanger but unfortunately I can't remember the colours used but will try for newer pieces (like the red one!). This is the second time I did this one, the first time in greens (and was that nice and if I had posted the colours at that time I'd have been a real smart cookie because I really liked it!).

OH....I should also mention that a friend at work has caught the hardanger bug (from me...hee hee) and is stitching merrily along! She is also making this very same one. Can't wait to see it DJ!!

(and just to clarify....when I first taught 'DJ' and 'R' I used a freebie bookmark from the internet and my own material, but made it very clear that should either catch the bug....it is a must to purchase her own patterns etc. The only concession I made was that if the pattern was out of print I would then allow a copy....I hope that was ok.....anyone reading this who is in the know please advise. I am a strong believer in copyright and want to stay good by it).

Now 'R' has not finished her bookmark....chop chop my good friend!! (you do know you'll always be my good friend 'R', hardanger or not!!!)

So, on to he next. Above is a scissor pocked I made for my mother. It's a kit from Mill Hill - Scissor Pocket Treasured Stitching Band Kit. Again, and I have to sincerely apologize, I did not keep the instructions so can't tell exactly which one. I can tell you that it is NOT MHSP5 Champagne Floral Sampler because I still have this kit and will be making it for myself....someday....
Lots of teeny tiny beads. Be careful in sorting. I thought I had the colours right but after starting to stitch switched the colour labels around, had about 4 wrong.

Boy would it ever be nice to have stiching and crafting time/energy!! I work full time, leaving the house at 6:15 am and getting home at 5:30pm. I find it hard to find the energy by evening to stitch. Really just want to vegitate for a while!
Whoaa...once again, this blogging thing......it just occured to me that probably most of the issue is habit. Mabey if I try to make it a habit to stitch (like brushing and flossing) in the evening I may find it not too bad energy wise. Ok will try.

Let's start!

Hello out there! Just trying this out to see how it looks. Don't yet have the courage to actually post this in the real internet world.......

Have been lurking on so many wonderful blogs and am totally awed by the work people do. Both the stitching and paper crafts. My pupose in starting this blog is to mabey give myself a kick in the pants to do more finishes (and in turn more starts!).

So, the start is private, for my eyes only. But will pretend I am doing this in the real world so that when I do finally have the courage to go public, you can see the behind the scenes building of my confidence.

Also, I'm very new to blogging and will make tons of mistakes I'm sure. Have patience (said to myself now but for the future readers too).

Now I need to practice posting a photo. First the one at the top is our backyard in January. We got tons of snow and I find it absolutely beautiful. I love the birdhouses on the fence. Not sure if they belong to our neighbour or if the prior owner of our house put them there.....love them either way! I will post it below as well, just in case I change the photo at the top.

Ooops.....not sure how to get it to move below this paragraph. Oh well.

One more try.....here's a photo of a finished hardanger piece made not too long ago.

Yipee.....I figured out that I can move it!! Just previewed. Every time I come back to edit it adds spaces between paragraphes. Also font too big.