Final posting for the year

I have been indulging in some knitting for myself the last few weeks.  A shawl from the booklet Artwork by Classic Elite Yarn the pattern is called Painterly and is knitted in two parts with a centre pattern and then an added border.  I am still working on the centre.

This morning I have also been working on my Sue Spargo promegranite runner.  I finished another leafe using some couching, french knots to highlight the fabric and then a chain stitch using an overdye with a touch of blue to bring in some more of the Tucson colours that I love.

Also started on the leaf above using a combo stitch of a fly and lazy daisy.  This I found from a fellow stitcher on the spargo2011bom yahoo group by Carol.

Heres wishing you all a wonderful New Year with plenty of time to do a bit of what you love.

Amanda's Stocking

Just a quick picture of the finished piece, although I may add a white cording around the edge after Christmas.

Finished bar the finishing.

One stocking semi finished.  Over the last few weeks I've put in an average of 3 to 4 hours a day on this.  Now it is just a matter of passing it on to the finisher, oh yes that would be myself!

The snowman is done in a stitch called sound wave which is appropriate for her as she rarely stops talking. 

Now back to  knitting little red riding hood capes for 3 bitty babies and 1 American girl (this one without a hood).  These will be stocking fillers for my girls and 2 of their friends.

Catch Up

I am very pleased with myself this year as I have kept up with both my embellished BOM and the ANG stitch of the month, still have to do December but not sure if I wish to use the final month or do something different.

Christmas is coming and my house is still like a building site as my DH has now tiled our fireplace and hearth.  This weekend when he is back from a business trip we will start on hardwood floors in the family room.  Hopefully this will be done before Christmas so I can tidy up a bit.

Penguin to finish and then the name band and ye Amanda will get her secret stocking this year.

It is a good thing I used to be a needlepoint finisher otherwise that would be it for this year.

ANG stitch of the month done thru Nov, I have ended up taking out the outline threads.

Now how to finish this up as I'm not liking the final month.

 Festival of flowers the final block.  Tried a new to me stitch around the leaves called a scroll stitch.



The pistal stitches are because Fiona thought it needed a little something.

All this means that my next post should have a few finished projects.  Wouldn't that be nice?

Sue Spargo Class 2011

This is my fourth attempt to upload my pictures for last weekend.

As usual I enjoyed my time with Sue and the other Spargoians.  I have introduced some new Spargoian terms.

The first is her basement/office is now Spargoian Head Quarters and the part of the second is shown below and is termed Temptation Alley.

This was just a very small part of the goodies on sale not to mention the actual Smith Owen store itself.

One of the wonderful things about this class was the chance to meet with some of the members of the Yahoo groups I'm in. 



I love absorbing my fellow classmates ideas and enthusiam.

There follows a lot of photos so you have been warned!!!! 

Crimson Tide which I believe was the 2010 BOM.  The french knots on the snowflakes are the perfect touch.

 The lady in the middle is working of these blocks from this years BOM.

Love this piece the lady got so much texture into to it.

Some leaves from one of Sue's samplers

To me this is just like a mini flower bed.

Would love to know what stitch this is down the middle as it works so well with the french knots.

Some examples of the work being done by my classmates.

Pistal stitches

Mini drizzle stitches.

This and the following picture do not show how beatiful the colour choices are the flower and promegranate base are purple with a deep chocolate brown velvet.  Breath taking and a colour combo I will have to try.

On Sunday I finally managed to master two stitches that in the past have been little so and so's.

Step 1 Palestrina

Step 2 Palestrina

Step 3 Palestrina

Step 1 Pekanese

Step 2 Pekanese

Step 3 Pekanese


On the Sunday my eldest Fiona joined for her first ever Sue Spargo class.  She made me so proud and only last night whilst waiting for her self defense class to start she was talking about bullions. 

This is the circle of life as my first class with Sue was when I have within days of giving birth to this beatiful and amazing child.

Peppermint hot chocolate and stitching.  Can it get better?

Group picture from Sunday.

Here are some pictures of my work since then.  I finished the needlecase we started on Sunday and I'm trying very hard not to work on the table runner as I must work on Amanda's Christmas stocking.

Loved how this turned out.  I used two different overdyed perles which just seemed to echo the center fabric perfectly.

My first attempts at drizzle stitches and large woven picots.

I did add an extra set of pages to the case.

Thats all for now folks.