Happy updates :D

Wow - finishes - yes, multiple. I forgot to take photos of the teacher bookmarks (did I say that already? I can't remember when I last posted) so no photos of them, but they were appreciated.

Then more Sue Hawkins stuff - a scissor fob and matching bookmarker for a friend.

If you like her stuff her website is http://suehawkins.com/ - and I can highly recommend her kits - generous amounts of materials, great instructions, and apart from stuffing usually everything you need to finish the item is included.

Then there is my fathers piece - I finished that last night and I'm really pleased with how it turned out:

And a progress pic that I never did get around to posting earlier:

Next up for attention - my brothers wedding sampler - hopefully finishing in three weeks for when we see them (sorry no pic, but it's not far different to the last one I posted of it).

And I finished my 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle:

Since last time I posted we also took a road trip to Nashville, and stopped at Graceland on the way up where we saw these wonderful peacock stained glass windows:

Then on the way home we stopped at the Barber Motorsports Museum. If you have any interest at all in motorcycles you need to go there - it was amazing (they even had a Britten bike) - five floors of motorbikes, and some cars, and interesting displays, and overlooking the race track.

And in food news I found Oca (NZ yams) in a local(ish) supermarket today - I've been stalking an online grocery store for them, but they haven't shown up yet, so I was doubly pleased to see them. I'm hoping to save a few to plant - although with my gardening skills I'm not holding out much hope of succeeding, but I'm going to give it a good shot. Now to just find some NZ Marmite (yes, this is different (nicer) to UK Marmite that you can get at World Market) and my pantry will be set :) I have found somewhere not to far away that sells it but they are still out of stock from the lack over the last couple of years due to the earthquake damage at the Christchurch factory.

Bits and Pieces

I think I've missed recording some finishes here. I think (hope) I got photos of everything - I think I at least have everything I remember.

First there were the two biscornus for a seminar opportunity basket - I stitched these using the pattern from Kathrin of Gittas blog:

Before putting them together:

Then there are two beaded bracelets - the first I did earlier this year at our EGA beading satellite - the pattern is from the February issue of Bead and Button magazine. I did the first one with the dark purple crystals for my daughter. Then I thought about the fact she had a birthday coming up and her best friend has a birthday the day after and perhaps it would be nice to give each of them matching bracelets. Only I did want to be able to tell whose was whose - so I chose fuchsia for second lot of crystals:

I'm not sure if you can tell in the photos, but on the purple one I followed the instructions for the beginning of the row adding the crystals and they wanted extra silver beads added at each end - I found this was pushing the main part out of the way and I think it looks messy so on the fuchsia one I didn't add the extra beads and instead wove through the beads already there to the exit point - I think it lays much nicer.

This is a picture of a key fob in process - this was another EGA project and I have a second kit in a different colour way as well.

Next up I have to do some more teacher bookmarks before school runs out in 8 (school) days. Both the main teachers are retiring this year so I'm going to do a Sue Hawkins bookmarker for them, and the flat ones for other teachers - I think I have enough of these done already, do need to check that though.

Then comes my fathers 60th birthday. I'm designing a canvas for him that says 'Shalom' in English and Hebrew - I'm hoping I got the Hebrew right - I spent a while trying to figure out what makes a letter a letter - ie, how do you know the difference between a, u, d, o etc - what is it that makes that basic shape different? Only I was doing it for the Hebrew letters so that hopefully when I drew them out in my script style I didn't suddenly make a different letter and change the word. (If you know Hebrew please let me know if I've got it wrong). I'm planning on having the Hebrew smaller and lighter than the English to keep the English as the focal point.