Oh what a fortnight

Our house has certainly not been the place to be over the last couple of weeks.  First Daniel brings home a sickness bug that takes a week to go through the family, and about the same time to recover from, then I go and immediately catch a stinking cold.  I've spent two days in bed in just over a week which is unheard off, I'm usually the one up at five and getting things done early.  As you can imagine, it's been a frustrating fortnight.  Hopefully, this week will see the germs finding a new home.

 In between the coughs and stops for blowing the nose, I did manage to get the next four crochet blocks done.  These took slightly longer than normal to do, apart from feeling sluggish, all but one had embroidery to do.

I feel sure the next installment can't be far away, so I'm glad to have caught up with these.  Now, I'm hoping to get caught up with other things too.  It seems too long since I've been organised and in a routine.

Buttons and More 2011

I couldn't resist doing another of Karen's classes, so I signed up for Buttons and More 2011.    This time, I treated myself to some silk.  Due to illness here last week, finishing my cloth, and waiting for supplies, my start was delayed.  This weekend was all about catching up.

These are all now being damp stretched.  This one has needleweaving, blanket stitch lace, web stitch and lots of french knots

 Noughts and crosses

 this one includes my first ever bullion stitches, web stitches, and french knots

And this is the first completed button, with padded embellishment and buttons.  These buttons have been sat in my button box for years.  It's the same button box that belonged to my mum, and her grandmother, with various additions over the years.

The top three will be ready for making up, but, as I'm out today and tomorrow, they may have to wait a couple of days. 

Prairie Points and Rouleau Loops

After having done task two for the Embroidery, Embellish,Create course, I went back to do task one.  The first part was to make prairie points.

 The first ones I make, were the larger plain ones on the bottom, then I thought I would like some smaller ones.  The second batch were used making the pattern fabric.  These will appear somewhere in the embroidered cloth, probably as an edging or for one of the seams.  I am sure there will be some more of these made.

Once these were done, I sat down to do the rouleau loops.  I did have a fleeting thought go through my brain wondering why I didn't do the hardest bit first.  However, this was so much easier than I had expected.  The tubes turned out perfectly, and so easily after following Karen's clear instructions.

 I'll have two different sizes.  The small ones were the first, and I thought they would probably look better bigger, so cut some more.  They will sit under some seams somewhere along the way, but in the meantime, I can admire the neat tubes.

I shall definitely be making more of these now the fear has gone.

A Bunch of Cherries

As I'm not buying any new fabric for a while to finish quilts, I've been looking through some of the patterns I've saved on my computer.  One of them was this applique bunch of cherries.

It's come from the DMC threads blog.  I did try to do it by machine, but the hand applique block definitely came out better.

The leaves and cherries are appliqued, but the stems are embroidered using stem stitch.  I'm not exactly sure what I will do with this, though I do have a couple of ideas floating around.  Whatever I do will have to wait until after my fabric diet ends.

Exquisite Post

Don't you just love getting beautiful things in the post?  Just imagine how delighted I was to open the envelope to find this little beauty.

It came from Karen, and it was a piece of embroidery I'd won on her blog.  She always does such beautiful embroidery, and it is an honour and pleasure to own one of her pieces.  She has lots more beautiful pieces available in her shop and I quite often go and have a look and dream of what I'd buy when the boys stop growing out of their clothes.  Go and have a look for yourselves, I am sure Karen would enjoy your visit.