More stitching stuff

I've finished a few things over the past week, mostly due to going to Harrogate for the stitching show.
The show started on Thursday. It wasn't as busy at the show as previous years and there were definately less cross stitch/needlework exhibitors from previous years. There was much more wool and yarn stalls instead which was good for me as my interest in knitting has grown greatly over the pasy year or so.
One of the big appeals of Harrogate for me is the opportunity to take the short classes that are staged during the show. The classes are on a wide range of techniques and are mostly demos of a technique or a small project of that technique. The first one on Thursday was to make a wire work bracelet.

The idea behind is pretty simple and pretty effective. I've bought some more beads and wire to try and make another.

The second class was with a Royal school of needlework trained embroider called Tracey Franklin. who has written a book about goldwork and also teaches across the UK. Each year, she takes a short class which is a goldwork taster session. I've done quite few of these now but I haven't quite plucked up the courage to stitch a bigger piece yet.


I'm going to gather together the previous ones I've done and try and figure out a way of framing them together. Tracey is a very good and patient teacher and even remembered me from previous years.

On Friday I did 2 more classes. The first one was on making small concertina notebooks using pelmet vilene ( its like Skirtex for the US stitchers). I haven't quite finished mine yet but a picture will follow. The second class of the day was possibly my favourite. It was a class to learn how to make dry needle felt animals. The teacher was a lovely woman called Ewa Kuniczak who is so very enthusatic about the whole technique. My creature decided to be a dog.

The materials for the class are more than enough to make at least a couple more creatures. Ewa was felting a lovely dragon at the show which looked amazing.

After all this other stuff, I've also got a cross stitch HD to share. I finished the Mirabilia Christmas elf fairy kit last night. The kit picture looks so dull compared to the finished item. She's stitched on the recommended fabric.

Catching up again

I've been away for the past week on holiday where I just happened to spend 3 days at the Harrogate knitting and stitching show. Well it wasn't really a coincidence as you might have guessed.
On Saturday, I got to meet up with a few of the UK based stitchers - Karoline, Scully, Rach, Amanda, Kate and Pat plus Karoline's MIL and Amanda's DH and her two children. It was great to see everyone again. More show stuff to follow as I took a couple of classes and have some finished stuff to share.

When I got back, I had a package waiting for me from Jo with a lovely Christmas ornament from the Stitching Bloggers exchange.


She also sent some chocolate which I've been munching through this evening whilst uploading some photographs.

Redwork exchange

My redwork exchange piece has arrived all the way from Singapore. Its from Zohrah and I really like it.

Catching up

Since my last post here, I have mostly been stuck in the house with the cold from hell and I made it back to work for one whole day last weekend. The wedding fair went well and I now have a fairly good idea what sort of invitations my sister wants.

As I've been stuck in the house, I've been card making and I have made about 20 or so Christmas cards. I've also knitted 2 scarves for my mum and finished stitching a few things which I can't share just now as they are exchanges or gifts.
I can share some pictures of the scarves though




Last night was Guy Fawkes night in the UK which means lots of fireworks. I forgot that the local council uses the playing fields behind my building to have the council run display. The photographs show the view from the window on the landing on my floor of the building. All my windows face the other direction so I stood at the stair landing window to get a good view.




It was pretty close by so it was really noisy but some of the fireworks were very pretty.
Stitching wise, I have stitching quite a few Christmas ornaments. I've also started Chatelaine Japanese garden on black belfast linen. I'll post a progress picture once I've got a bit more to show.