Hestera Harmer

 My goodness it is a very long time since I posted.  But I have had a lot of things going on in my life.

I thought that you might like to see my progress on as I call her Cousin Hestera.  I think that I'm related to her.  Not 100% sure but I think so.  Like a lot of relatives Cousin Hestera and I have had a few issues that hopefully we have resolved.  I discovered that the beautiful rose on the left hand side was 2 threads out when I had nearly finished doing it and then had to frog it all out as it would have made a difference.  Then I kept getting lost in the basket that is in the large motif down the bottom.  A lot of mumbling and grumbling went on with that motif I can tell you.  I gave a huge sigh of relief when I finished doing that bit.

I just have to finish off the border which I always love (not), do the verse which is over one and then the mirror image of the other 4 motifs on the other side.  Hopefully it won't be long before Hestera is done and hanging on my walls.

Talking of samplers hanging on walls.  Just before Christmas 2 of my Sons painted my lounge/dining room etc. for me.  When they were done my DH thought that it would be nice if we hung some of my samplers in the lounge room.                                                                                                                                         

So on this wall we have Rebecca Cullin, The Tablet Sampler and Harriet Burry.  There is a bit of a gap between The Tablet and Harriet, but I intend to do Jane Ballard very soon.  Jane Ballard is very similar to Rebecca Cullin.  I think that they came from the same area in England.                                                     

Please excuse the TV.  Men and their TV's :).  Maria Foster now hangs on this wall along with Dutch Beauty and Margaret Gibson by Scarlet Letter.

The weather has been really lovely here in the Mountains.  We are very fortunate that because we are surrounded by a National Park that we always have the most beautiful collection of birds here.  Most of the time they are very shy and fly off as soon as you go out side.  But this morning I was able to take a couple of photos of a couple of the birds.  She is very hard to see, but if you look in the middle of the photo you can see the most beautiful orange colour.  This is one of the most beautiful birds and she is a King Parrot.  The males have the orange colour on their heads.  The females heads are green.

We have also been getting a lot of the as we call them The Hooligans of the Bird World.  I'm sure that most of you know these birds.  This is a Sulpher Crested Cockatoo.  So noisy lol.  Yesterday we have about 40 of them out the front at the same time.  When they take off the rooms becomes dark for a few seconds.

Thank you for dropping by and I will try not to leave it to long before I post again.

Rebecca and Maria are Framed

 

My goodness, it's ages since I have posted, but I have had a lot of things going on.

I thought that you might like to see Rebecca Cullin now that she is framed.  She looks quite amazing.

I also finished Maria Foster and I framed her yesterday.

This frame is a little bit different from what I usually pick and I'm really happy with the choice.

Here is a close up of the frame.

Rebecca Cullin is Finished

I finished Rebecca Cullin last night.  She is such a stunning sampler and she is one that I have wanted to do for a long long time.

She is stitched on 40ct antique white linen with DMC.  The stitches are mainly cross stitch, stem stitch, satin stitch, bullion stitch, french knots and algerian eyes.

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope that you have enjoyed looking at this stunning sampler.

Bit more of Rebecca

 Thought that you might like to see where I'm up to with Rebecca.

I enjoyed working on the fan Carnation.  It is such an import piece of this sampler.

This is where I'm currently working.  Most of what I'm doing at the moment is satin stitch.  There is some more Grub or Bullion Stitch where the berries are on the end section.  they are similar to the ones on the left.

I'm hoping to finish Rebecca very soon.  I just have to do the flowers that are on both sides of the plant in the middle.  I have been enjoying spending my time with Rebecca wondering what she was like and if she enjoyed working this stunning sampler as well.

Thank you for your good wishes towards my DH.  He is improving every day thank goodness.

My Beautiful Frame Has Arrived

 Remember last post, I told you that I had won the 50 pound gift certificate from Needle Needs on Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  I was so excited about winning this as it came at a time when I needed a huge pick me up.

Well, it arrived late on Thursday afternoon and I was so excited.  It is something that is simply superb.  The craftsmanship is unbelievable.  I have always had a "thing" for hand made things especially when made of wood.  I asked what the frames were made from and was told that they were made from sustainable English Beech.

The things that fascinated me with the frames was the screws.  I wondered if they were made from plastic, but they everything on the frame is wood.

I found that the frame was very easy to put together and the claims that you can get your work as tight as a drum are totally true.

The bars that I picked are 30 inch ones.

 I found though that because they were so long that I had a lot of trouble trying to work with them on my leather chair.  I ended up feeling like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Not good at my age.  I ended up with a pain in the neck and had a lot of trouble with my knees which aren't the best.

So after a day of serious thinking on what to do as I think because the bars are so long that a stand is definitely a must.  But at the moment, they aren't available because Needle Needs are awaiting parts.   So I'm waiting for one to come in.

So after a lot of thinking, I wondered if my Hoop Lap Frame would work.  Guess what, it does, yay.  I found that if I put my Lap Frame with the middle hoop on it as if I'm going to use it, but with the hoop down, that it will support my Millennium Frame, so that I can work on Rebecca using two hands.  I must say that I'm a very happy camper.  I have also come up with a way where I can use my Magnifying Glass that clipped onto my hoop before.  I have one of those LoRan metal magnetic boards that you can attach your charts to. I made a slip bag out of white felt and I can slip the board in and out with the Magnifying Glass attached to it and the metal isn't touching my sampler.

This is the current state of Rebecca.  My goodness, she is such a stunning girl.  I have some really stunning samplers in my collection, but this one is a real stunner.

I thought that you would like to see the berries.  I have finished the leaves by the way.  The berries are all filled in with grub stitch.  For some reason, I have always enjoyed doing this stitch lol.

This bit is waiting for the flowers to be done, but I thought that I would go a bit further up and do the section where the berries are.

This is where I'm currently working.  I just have to put the "wings" on the flower and then I can fill all of this section in with Satin Stitch.

Thank you for all your good wishes towards my DH.  He is getting better thank goodness, but he still has good days and bad days.  He still gets the occasional chest pain which is a worry, but they are still working out his medication.  My family and I are just thankful that this problem occurred when it did and not when things could be to late to do anything.

I just want to say a big Thank You for stopping by.  It is nice to know that I have friends interested in me and my love of samplers :).

The Angry Bird Isn't So Angry These Days

 Thought that I had better post a photo of my Angry Bird who isn't so much of an Angry Bird now but a beautiful handsome fellow.

It has been a while since I posted a photo of Rebecca, but I have had a lot of things going on in my life that have been quite worrying.  My DH has serious health problems.  But they have found out what is causing him to have a "Dickie Ticker" and hopefully he will be ok.

This is Rebecca in full.  I just have to finish off the bottom section, hopefully by the weekend, do the other tree that is on the right hand side and then do some more interesting sewing with the beautiful big carnations and the flowers.

Since I last posted I was the lucky winner of the 50 pound voucher to purchase one of the beautiful Millennium Frames.  I order the 30 inch frame and it is winging it's way Downunder.  When it arrives I shall take a photo of it to show you.  Hopefully it will be next week.  I would like to thank Nicola and also Needle Needs to donating this wonderful prize.  I must say that the night that I found out that I had won this wonderful prize I was so over joyed.  My life was slightly pear shaped at the time.

The Angry Bird

This week I have been working on my Rebecca Cullin Sampler for Nicola's SL Year.  I have always loved this sampler and thought that I would love to do it.   The only part though that had me rolling my eyes was the freehand stitching.

When I put Rebecca down I was working on the leaves on the tree on the left, but thought that I would be a bit adventurous and try and work out the tree with the bird in it.  This is a real eye roller lol.

I decided that I would start by working out the outline for the whole bit and I still have to finish off it's tail.  I asked my husband if the bird looked ok and he had a quick look as they usually do and told me that it looked like a Penguin.  Really.
  

Then I thought that I would ask my Sister if it looked ok and sent her a photo of it and I got the message back that it looked like one of the Angry Birds.  So may I present an Angry Bird.

As you know the last time I posted, I told you that my second Son was getting married and I thought that you would like to see a couple of photo's.  Only a couple though as we are all quite shy and hate having our photo's taken.

This is my second Son Adam and his wife Kimberley.  They are standing in front of the car that brought Adam and his Best Man to the Wedding.  It is a Shelby Mustang Eleanor and is very cool.

Hopefully you  can see her beautiful dress in this photo.  Her dress was truly beautiful.  It had a Peplum from the waist which made the dress simply beautiful.

This is the wedding party.  The wedding was held in a beautiful Chapel in Sydney.  My youngest Son was the third Groomsman from the left hand side or two down from the Groom.

This is my outfit.  I really hate having my photo taken so you don't get many of them lol.  It was a really beautiful wedding and the day was just perfect.  The happy couple are now on their Honeymoon on a Cruise around the Pacific.

Thank you for stopping by.