French Knots

O.K. Maybe now I'm over it. In all fairness it was a lot of small knots. How much prettier is it in a large scale. Plus the framing was cheap.

TAST

TAST

French knotted bear. The pattern is from a magazine I have used it as a sampler for tast.

TAST

TAST

French Knots

Photo Fun

So here's how my seahorse would look in a museum.

Photo fun

Helen Suzanne alexander of http://hebartjournal.blogspot.com/ has a neat link that lets you try your photo's on a gallery wall.
Here's the link. http://www.dumpr.net/

Funny picture of a plumber's truck

I saw this picture in an optical illusions site and it was quite funny so I've put it here to share. Just click to view. This site was so much fun to look through. Funny picture of a plumber's truck

Jetboat Ride

Last Christmas we couldn't decide what to get the boys for Christmas. I came up with a jet boat ride, well the oldest two were keen but the yongest didn't think it was his style. We purchased two tickets and the boys used their ticket last Sunday. Well we've had nothing but rain in Adelaide, but on Sunday the sun popped out and let us have a great family day out. Samantha my eldest's son's girlfriend decided to join them in the fun. Off they headed, from the shore it looked pretty awesome with the boat spinning and bouncing around out there. We go some good shot's and a good video clip but they were out a bit too far to get much.

Well the 20 minute ride ended and in they came. The eldest with a bag looking a little worse for wear, perhaps partying the night before wasn't a good idea. When his stomach settled and he felt better we went for a stroll in the sunshine. The vote was pizza for lunch at Mamma Carmellas, yum!!!

The boys and Sam decided to do some window shopping down the Mall at the Bay, so my husband and I ventured into the pokies. We put ten dollars in, got a free spin and won enough to cover what we spent on lunch, with enough over for a ice cream cone each.

Well we had a great family day together, with something for everyone. Who could ask for anything more. Merry Christmas boys.

Tast Wheat ear stitch

Tast Wheat Ear Stitch

Yesterday while at the hospital waiting for my son to have a MRI (dislocated his knee at football last week) a dear sweet old lady came to see what I was stitching. She told me if I drew lightly on my material that I might be able to get my stitches even and straight (LOL) she also said it might be a good idea to practice on evenweave until I got the hang of it. God bless her. Practice makes perfect so she told me.

Here's a link for wheatear stitch http://primrosedesign.blogspot.com/2007/01/stitch-school-wheatear.html

Butterfly Challenge

Butterfly Challenge Hand Embroidery Group

This is the butterfly I received from Marian who lives in South Africa as part of a swap. This is my first ever swap so I was so excited to receive a parcel in the mail, it came with a postcard from Canada. Marian is presently on holidays visiting London, New York, Smoky Mountain National Par, Calgary and leaving for London again soon before she returns to South Africa. She stitched this for me on her journey, so it really has been flying around. Thankyou Marian.

Satin stitch

Decided to have a go at a crewel sampler, for some reason it seems to be easier to do satin stitch in thicker threads, I was quite happy with this sampler the rounded edges finished quite neatly with a lot less effort and time than the previous sampler I posted with the shed and bushes. Stitch direction could do with a little more attention.

Tast Satin Stitch

Satin Stitch

I decided to try putting satin stitch into a design this week to see how it would work. As you can see in the first sampler the shed was horrific ,the bushes looked like it would work, and the grass was working. Tried again with sheer determination as satin stitch is one of the hardest stitches for me to get to lay straight especially on the edges. I tried some voiding in the trees to get a background look.
I don't know that I'll use sating stitch for the shed I think I can get a better look with split stitch for shading, we'll see where the design goes.

I have found a good tutorial for satin stitch at http://www.heritageshoppe.com/heritage/stitches/satinstitch2.html

Tast Crossed Buttonhole Stitch

Tast Crossed Buttonhole Stitch
Not my best week, a bit down in the dumps.
I can always add some more when I feel more inspired.