Summer travels, Flowers and Stitching

This has been a very busy summer. In the space of six weeks I have been to Asheville North Carolina in the east, and have driven  up to Kalispell, Montana and down to Mesa, Arizona. We got caught in a six hour traffic jam around Las Vegas, Nevada. By the time all of it was over I was ready for a rest and some stitching time. We figured that we have driven enough distance that would have taken us from Los Angeles to New York
I took some pictures that I was going to post of flowers around the yard during the year. So now fall is upon us, I am going to post them so I can look forward to seeing them again next year.

Spring started with the Japanese Iris

  Then came the hibiscus in the summer

Finally the colors of fall

During the summer my ground cover strawberries bloomed. The blossoms are a deep pink but the fruit is tiny and mostly seeds. Just seeing them makes me smile

Although this is not a flower from my garden - oh, how I wish we could grow them here. Janie, the daughter of my niece picked them for me, the fragrance of the plumeria was fabulous.

More about stitching later of current pieces but I thought that I would post my most recent progress on the forever project - Faith Hope and Charity.

Finishing - of several sorts

Since I last posted we have been busy finishing a few things. We have painted rooms and chairs, made valances, and worked on finishing some of the pieces from embroidery classes that I have taken.
I had fun painting a chair. It is an antique that I picked up somewhere. It has always been in rather bad shape and so it was perfect for painting in fun colors to match the room it is in.



Here is the unfinished chair








And here is the finished chair. I love the way that it turned out.

This is TEN from Amy Mitten. She does mystery stories that are explained in her embroidered sampler.

Nan Tyson Euler has always been one of my favorite friends and embroidery teachers.This is the last piece that I took from her. It is named Katherine for Katherine Swynford.  Nan always tells the story about the life of the woman that the sampler is named for. Katherine (born in 1350, died 1403) was a larger than life historical character who was first the mistress and finally the wife of John of Gaunt. Her descendants were  players on both sides of the War of the Roses and all modern British Royalty is related to her.
I did change the bird near the top but it was adapted from an illuminated letter from the same historical period.

This is a small snippet of the next one of the American Coverlet series of cross stitch patterns that are retail patterns released through Kelmscott Designs. It is called Flowers and Trees. I have one more designed that should be out in the fall.

Also here is a long overdue update on Faith, Hope and Charity. I picked it up and am nearly finished with the bottom row of pages. I have a plan for consistently working on it.   I hope to work a page a month. Here's hoping that I can hold that that plan.

Elizabethan Casket Etui

Although this etui is not part of the Cabinet of Curosities, it fits in with the general theme of the school girl embroideries.
It was designed by Betsy Morgan as modern etui that uses the form of the original caskets. It is of course much smaller but delightful none the less.
Betsy used techniques from many different eras and types of samplers to create her box with its toys. I loved the concept and most of the pieces but after having taken the Cabinet of Curiosites class from Tricia, part of the designs didn't fit my idea of how it should look, so I changed them.
The bottom part of the box used the original design but I changed all of the designs for the lid of the box. I borrowed from several different samplers and adapted the designs to fit the area to be stitched. The top features two stumpwork flowers, I love daffodils so played until I got one that I like and then I couldn't resist a pink Mariposa lily. They come in a few colors and live in the arid desert west in the wild.

Betsy added some toys to her etui that I stitched as designed except for adding a second design to the scissors sheath. They are a pin cube, a bag for buttons or other small stuff, a needle book with an Aztec stitch side and a scissors fob and sheath.

I just couldn't resist adding a few more toys to my box. I did a flame stitch holder for a stiletto, a Lacis lace piece for the thimble bag and an emery with a gold work band. I dyed ribbon for the tape measure that features a blackwork design  and some semi-precious stone beads.
It was a fun piece to stitch and adds one more thing to get me ready to stitch my big casket.

Tape Measure Toy for my needlework casket

When Tricia from Thistle Threads announced a contest to create a toy for our Cabinet of Curiosities, I just had to play. She encouraged us to use some of our threads from the Frosting Club box in the toy. I love tape measures (among the other sewing things that I enjoy) and I loved one of the examples that she posted so I decided to see if I could recreate it as much as possible..I named it the partridge in a pear tree.  I tried to use historical techniques as far as I could puzzle them out.  One of the fun parts is the fact that many parts of it move as it turns to unroll and re-roll the tape measure. I marked the tape in nails which is  an older form of measuring length.  I added all sorts of hanging treasures that I thought a young girl might want to do.
I have downloaded a video of the tape being pulled out and rolled back in so you can see the fun way that it moves.
It's hard to see the detail in the video so I have also posted a few pictures that show things better.

 I love the silk covered walnut that holds the tape. The writing on the tape is a quote from John Taylor the Water Poet written in 1631. It is called The Praise of the Needle and I only used this part of it
Flowers, Plants, and Fishes, Beasts, Birds, Flyes, & Bees, 
Hils, Dales, Plaines, Pastures, Skies, Seas, Rivers, Trees: 
There’s nothing neere at hand, or farthest sought, 
But with the Needle, may be shap’d and wrought .