A Christmas Door Blind

This was a Christmas wall hanging I did some years ago and always hung on

the half-way stair landing in our old house. This year I decided ( at the last moment as usual!) to adapt it to use as a blind on our glass front door panel. It was done so long ago I cannot remember just where I got the pattern! To make it fit I have had to add the "Greetings" panel at the bottom. Click on the picture and I think you can just make out the letters!

Christmas preparations go on apace and I think I am up to schedule.

Wishing everyone the compliments of whatever season you celebrate and hoping that 2009 is a better year for everyone in spite of world economics.

At last a finished box!

Here are the detached petals being worked the wire couched down, the wire with the buttonhole stitch, and finally a petal with the long and short stitch worked

All the detached petals ready to be cut away from the base fabric

The "detached" elements now attached.

The final box! I somehow think I should "frame" the water lily somehow. The lid is padded and I am contemplating some gold foiling around it---------does anyone else have a opinion?

Christmas preparations go on apace and we now have some decorations up, the Tree will go up on Friday. We watched Nigella's Christmas Kitchen last evening-------how she stays so un flappable is beyond me but it makes great entertainment!

A box and stumpwork lid

These photos are entirely in the wrong order! I still have not got to grips with adding photos in the correct order in Blogging! If any of my dear readers ( if there are any!!) can point me in the right direction with this problem I will be eternally grateful.

Above is the "flat" bit of embroidery for the box lid. This is a design from the wonderful book
A-Z of Stumpwork , the original is a design by Alison Cole which I am adapting slightly. It is a water lily in case anyone asks :-) The gold petals are in gold kid leather.

This is the raised waterlily leaf complete ready to add to the main piece

This is the leaf with the outline buttonholed over the couched wire, with a line of split stem stitch around the inside of the buttonhole

Here is the leaf with the wire couched down-----now do you see it is in the wrong order :-)

This is the box carcase. The next task will be to do six detached petals for the water lily which I will tackle this week.

On the quilting front I will be doing the extra bag fior the BQL Bag challenge having finished December's one in record time, I might gather all the bags together for a photo to add the the blog!

Off for a walk around the loch before the daylight fades,

Winter by the Loch

We are having a spell of really cold weather just now with heavy frosts and occasional fog. Sunday was such a day and on our walk I took some photos of our village in winter.
this is from the lochside path with the village looming through the fog with winter sunshine, the church spire appears somewhat ghostly!

We have a ruined castle-------Barr Castle, lots of history attahced to it. This is owned by the McDowall family whose history goes back to the 17th century and before, the present owner lives in Canada. They were one of the two big families in the area the other being the Semples after which our loch is named, We really have three lochs in a row here---Loch Semple, Barr Loch, and Kilbirnie Loch and from up the hill you can see them strung out like a necklace---very pretty!

One of the National cycle paths runs through the village and this is part of it on Sunday with the sun streaming through the hoar-frost covered trees. It originally was a railway line which was closed by Dr Beeching in the '60s. We really are blessed here with numerous wonderful walks and great scenery!

As to the stitching scene, I am in the middle of another fabric covered box with a stumpwork lid of which I will post later in the week and am also auditioning fabric for the BQL December bag. Hey-ho --------life goes on in spite of our central heating boiler going on the blink this morning, the engineer should come this afternoon --------I hope!