Next small project.

The Queensland floods and cyclone, followed by the New Zealand earthquakes, have galvanised the craft community into action. As with past global catastrophes, quilters and stitchers immediately get busy making things to send to people who have suffered such terrible losses. Helen over at Hugs From Helen has asked her readers to stitch blocks for the Aussie spirits quilts that she has designed, and when the blocks all come back to her, they will be made up into quilts to be raffled to raise funds for Queenslanders. She sends the volunteer stitchers the fabric with the design already printed on it, plus a length of floss which she has selected. So all the blocks are of the same fabric, and using the same coloured thread. Clever and well organised lady! I offered to stitch a block, and Helen sent me this one - NSW with the waratah emblem. I'm anticipating that most of this will be stitched while Ken is in and out of hospital appointments in the coming weeks!

Valentine Biscornu finished.

Worked my little fingers off this weekend to complete the biscornu, and I'm quite satisfied with the result. I was going to add beads, but after going through my stash and laying various beads on the stitching, I just couldn't find anything to suit, so I just put the heart shaped button on the front, and an ordinary little red button on the back. Hope Kim likes it!

My current stitching project...

...is the Valentine biscornu for Kim in the USA. Today I finished the backstitch border around the second piece, so all I have to do now is sew the two pieces together, stuff them, and post the result to Kim. It is easier to photograph a 3-dimensional obect before it becomes 3 dimensional. And I just remembered that I'd promised myself I would add some beads to it. So it will be a few days yet.

Not my work, but well worth seeing!

I was visiting my friend Val last week, and her MIL (who is living there) showed me some of the tapestry she worked many years ago. It is actually petit point, and is so beautifully done that I asked if I could photograph it for my blog. I don't think she understood what a blog was, but when I said it would be on the Internet, along with her photo, I think she will get a kick out that! Val wouldn't let me take HER photo, but I've got other pics of her, so I let her get away with it this time! The framing sets both of these off perfectly, don't you agree?
This is Mrs Paulette Forbes, the lady who stitched these pictures.

Works in Progress.

I vowed I was not going to do this again (work on more than one project at a time), but I can't help myself. I committed myself to an exchange on Stitchin Fingers, which was silly of me, but as I initiated the exchange, I felt obliged to be in it. I'm swapping biscornus with Kim in the USA, and this is where I'm up to so far. I'm stitching on 28ct linen for a change. Pam K. sent me a heap of hand dyed linens ages ago, and I chose a pink piece for this project.
This is as far as I've got with one of my UFOs on this year's list. I've only been stitching it when I am in a waiting room somewhere, because it is portable, and I don't have to refer to a pattern. I've finished the two matching doilies, but won't show them here until I've finished this centrepiece.
I saw this design on another Stitching forum I belong to, and purchased three copies, as it is a fund raiser for Qld. flood and cyclone victims. It is so cute, and only $5, and I was so distressed by the catastrophe in Qld, I felt impelled to start work on it straight away. If anyone wants to buy one, you can contact the designer Carrol Nielsen at her website www.carrolsx-stitch.com