A Little Bit More

Well, as you can see, Elizabeth is growing. I am getting such an expert on doing stem stitch and French knots. I must say though that I don't mind doing either. I just sit down and off I go. It is such a pain sometimes when I get into full gear and I have to stop. Elizabeth is one of those pieces that you can see straight away your progress. Those shapes down the bottom of the sampler are flowers that are all filled in with French knots.

I must admit though that for a sampler that I thought would be quite taxing it is really quite easy. A piece of cake in fact. After I finish the fore ground I have to go back and fill in the sky. I found that it was easier to do the background in the gardens in the stem stitch before I had to fill in the flowers.

I don't know if you can see these 2 beautiful parrots that often pay a visit to my garden. I have a vine that has grown up among the gum tree called a "Banana Passion fruit". That is what the pink flowers are. The birds like to get among the branches and have a feed on the fruit.

Thank you for all the well wishes regarding my DH's recent illness. He is a lot better now and has gone back to work. Last week though I felt really sorry for him. We had a bush fire that started from a hazard reduction that the National Parks had started to clear the undergrowth. Unfortunately during the afternoon there was a very strong wind that pushed the fire towards a lot of houses in Leura and they had to call the Rural Firefighters from nearly all the stations in the mountains and also the NSW Fire Brigade to protect these houses. My DH came home early when he heard about the fires and after a train trip of an hour and a half he ended up patrolling this fire till about 10p.m. During the night another fire had started on the opposite side so there was another call out. My DH couldn't go to that call out as he had a lot of work that had to be done. When he came home on Wednesday evening he went out again at 6p.m. and came home 6a.m. Thursday, had a shower and something to eat and off to work again. Boy did he sleep well on Thursday evening. Thankfully we had some rain and that fire is now out. Scary things these fires. Especially when they get out of hand.

Well, as you can see, I have been awarded the Kreativ Blogger award from Margaret at Days of a Sampler Lover

Because I am so slow posting these lovely awards most of the lovely ladies who I would love to give this award to have already received this award. So I would like to dedicate this lovely award to all the lovely people who drop by by blog and leave lovely comments.

Since Autumn has come, I can really feel the difference. Most days though have been lovely, but the early mornings are getting cool along with the evenings.

By the way, I have been doing some research on my Grandmothers birth certificate as as you know I want to put her name which is similiar to Elizabeth Cox on my sampler. My Grandmother was born in Norwood, Kent, England. Could anybody point me in the right direction to where Norwood is in Kent. My Great Grandmother (her mother) was born in Hortsted Keynes in Sussex, so I am thinking maybe Norwood could be near the Sussex border.

Well, I hope you all have a lovely week.

An Elizabeth Update

As you can see I have been flying along with Elizabeth. I have nearly finished the farm house and then besides the farm house there are 3 big bushes which are all French knots. Actually over the last couple of days I have done a lot of French knots. The big tree in the house is full of them as is the single tree beside the gazebo and so are the bushy trees above the big house etc. I find I am becoming an expert at them along with stem stitch lol.

Yesterday I picked up my copy of The Sampler and Antique Needlework magazine and saw an ad for their Just Cross Stitch magazine. Apparently this sampler was in it recently. I did this one about 25 years ago. It is really beautiful but I was a bit disappointed when it came back from being framed as the framer had put non reflecting glass on it and I found that all the beautiful blues etc. couldn't be seen to their best advantage.

I also noticed at the back of the magazine that The Scarlet Letter is featuring Elizabeth Cox Sampler in their new ad.

I haven't posted much over the last couple of weeks as my DH has been ill with a serious flu bug which affected him in the throat. He ended up sounding like The Godfather. Also we have still been having trouble with the computer that I normally use freezing all the time. It ended that it had to be sent away. Hopefully it will be back soon.

Well, I can feel the weather changing. It is amazing as soon as Autumn kicks in I can start to feel the change. Must be getting old lol.

I hope you all have a lovely week and wherever you are the weather is kind to you.

Ah Some Cross Stitch At Last

Well as you can see Elizabeth is s l o w l y growing into something that I think will be spectacular. In case you are wondering what those 2 pointy things are they are hay stacks. They took quite a while to fill in with stem stitch. I like the way that when you do stem stitch row upon row it ends up looking as if it is knitted.

The little house besides the hay stacks is in cross stitch. Yipee, finally I get to do some and then the tree (yes it is a tree) is filled in with French knots. Also a good hour of so to do. The next building besides the hay stacks will be done in satin stitch and yes, yes, yes more cross stitch with 2 trees that are done in it.

I have taken a photo of a photo of the sampler all ready finished so that you can see what it will end up looking like. I am sorry about the surrounds of the photo. I had a little trouble with the paint program on the computer. Everytime I tried to cut it out the whole thing moved so I thought :stuff it" the whole thing can go in.

I am lucky with this sampler because when I was young I used to do a lot of embroidery on tablecloths etc. It is all coming in hand.

For all my friends that I have made in Victoria, I hope you are safe today. In case you didn't know the bush fires are still burning hot and strong down there. Today has been classified as an extreme fire day and a lot of townships are in a lot of danger today due to very strong winds fanning the fires towards them this afternoon and this evening. Yesterday, people in Victoria received a text from the Government to prepare to evacuate.

In case you were wondering about my Son who plays bowls. He played in 2 big games over the weekend. His team won the Pennants game on Saturday. He was made Man of the Match which made him happy. On Sunday he had the big game from the week before. It was the State President's Fours Championship in their Zone. He and his 3 partners ended up playing in the Finals where the ended up being the Runners Up. The winning team was also from his Club. It was a team which contained Australian Champions and World Champions. So he did good. We are all very proud of him.

Now I have received 2 lovely awards. It is always nice to be appreciated. The first one is from Suzanne from Squazi and The Chickens.

This award is for Friendship. I met Suzanne a few years ago via blogging. Suzanne lives at the bottom of the mountain where I live. I have never had the pleasure so far of actually meeting her and her beautiful daughters, but we have a common link which is The Stitching Post our local Needlework store. Apparently we have had many close encounters but as yet haven't actually met. Maybe one day.

I am supposed to hand this award on to 5 other ladies who I have made friends with via blog land, but I notice that they have all received this award. But I will tell you the names of a few lovely ladies who I have become really good friends with.

The first one is Judy of Crazy4books Joanie of Joanie's World, Deb of Lavender Rose Ramblings, Kathy of Kathy's Sit and Stitch and finally my friend Robyn who doesn't blog that often. Her blog is called is called Rambling Rose Stitchery.

Then Judy from Crazy 4 books also nominated me for another award which is Best Blogging Comments Award. Seeing that I am starting to have a lot of trouble doing all these award things I think I had better stop while I am ahead. I also had 2 little logos for the above Awards and they seems to have disappeared. I would like to nominate all of you lovely ladies who are so gracious and leave lovely comments on my blog regarding my work.

It is always lovely to be appreciated for what you enjoy doing. I always regard my samplers like my children. I usually spend such a long time with one and as with our children it is always lovely have them praised.