Thursday 27th May, 2010

More forgotten treasures.....

Peter and I were trying to reduce the mess in the house yesterday - we had so much that had been brought in from the storage container and it couldn't be put away until the curtain brackets in the workroom were up!   I spoke about it a couple of days ago: the shelving units had to be moved to put the curtain brackets up.  So nothing could go on the shelving units etc.  Well, thank goodness yesterday it all happened - the brackets are up, the shelving units are back in place.  No the wall plate is not fitted - apparently that will be quite a job, Peter is willing to pull the shelving out later on to do that.  Or so he says at this stage......So I was able to put a certain amount back on the shelves, put containers into the workroom.  It was raining steadily all day so Peter wouldn't bring the new shelves for the other side of the room out of the car, and he certainly couldn't use the router to finish off the edges so there are still lots of things that can't go on the shelves even unpainted.

I was even able to clear off my desk and have a clear work area.

That made quite a difference to the lounge room and the workroom.  So we tackled other bits that we could now get to.  And then it was time to tackle our clothes .........

But among the things I was unpacking in the workroom I came across five more Counted Cross Stitch pieces.  None of these have ever been framed, and I had forgotten all about one of them.  So I laundered all of them and took photos, including the one I found the other day.  And here they are.

This 'House Rules' is a lot of fun.  I am going to frame it and put it in the kitchen.  Normally I don't put glass over cross-stitch, I am of the school that likes to see the texture of the crosses and the linen or the cloth.  But considering that our kitchen is so small and I don't want to have it ruined by grease etc, I will make an exception for this one.  And I hope it will serve as a gentle and humourous reminder to the menfolk in my household that this family does not come with a maid!    Sorry about the appearance of it having an odd shape - unlike my petitpoint, my cross stitch does not distort at all.  It is purely a result of the angle at which I took the photograph.

I love irises, and this piece appealed to me.  I can't remember the designer but I have several of her charts.  This is a little piece, only about 8" x 6" on 32ct linen.  I am looking forward to having it framed.  It is delicate and pretty.  Flowers are my favourite things to cross stitch apart from fun teddy bears and the Lanarte (I'm sure that spelling isn't correct!) pieces I have done which are all of girls: one which I haven't finished of a girl on a bike; and  one of two girls painting on a beach; one of two girls sitting on a grassy verge.

This long one is called 'Christmas Teddies' I think.  Again, it has never been framed.  I had forgotten that I had stitched it.  There are stars here and there, done in gold thread and it hasn't tarnished or anything - hope that's not because it's been packed away.  I think this is another one of the projects I did in 1993.  And again it reflects my love of teddy bears.  I know that it's companion piece 'Teddies on the line' is still in the storage container but I can't get to it at the moment.

This one is the picture form of the Christmas stocking that I did for our youngest daughter Kirsten.  I have mentioned that I did it while staying at the hospital with our son Nathan, over the Christmas-new year of 95-96.  It was about a 6  week stay and we had lots of anxious moments during this time so this was one of the projects I did while watching at his bedside.  When I stayed with him when he was young I didn't go home (except during school terms, when Peter would stay during the day and I would go to work, then I would come back after school and stay overnight then leave for school the next day).  But this of course was over the Christmas holidays (our long summer holidays) and I realised when I walked outside to say goodbye to one of our visitors near the end of the stay that I actually hadn't left the building for over 5 weeks vbg! 

This next one is again a reflection of my love of teddy bears.  I think the date on this one is 1993 as well.  It was a big year for cross stitch!  I also collect teddies and have lots of them.  At some stage I want to have them properly displayed, along with all my cross stitch teddies.  I had hoped to have room in my workroom for it but now that everything is combined in one room it won't be - yet!  The piece is called 'Cross Stitching Teddies' I think.  Again, I  can't check because my charts haven't surfaced yet.  Yes, I keep all my charts, they are filed in a folder along with everything that came with the kit.

This last one, which I found the other day, does have a frame.  It has been hanging in our hallway but came out of the frame and was packed away separately from its frame.  Now I can't get to the frame and the mount to re-do it.  I could at first and thought it was among the things I had retrieved from the container, but when I went to get it yesterday all the boxes have of course been re-arranged after our efforts at getting the clothes boxes out the other day.  So who knows where it is now!  It's such a pretty design, done on 32 ct ecru linen, and I really enjoyed every stitch of it.  I changed the colours in the vase - don't remember why now, of course.  Maybe because at that time we had a blue colour scheme.  When I find the chart I might even consider changing the colour back to the original but I don't think so - I really like the colour that it is.

So there we are - I actually have several more that I hung straight up again in the hallway.  I am going to take them all down again and re-mount them, so photos of them will follow at a later date.  Now if daughter #1 would only send me the promised photo of her Christmas stocking and daughter #2 the promised photo of her 'Dreams' wallhanging!  Of course, I have no record of the rest that I have given away over the years.  And more will emerge as I continue to unpack and sort....