Queenie’s lesson comes from the  Totsuka Embroidery Stitch Book 3 Arrangement.    Easy to do but mine is a bit wobbly.

I played with the stitch  in a ‘pile-em-on’ fashion with 3 French Knots included.

Short class today.

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An even longer post today.  You may need tea or coffee.  My apologies for the way WordPress insists on doing their own thing in placing photos and text.  In the draft it’s perfect but not always when published.

No.22 Vault stitch
23. Whipped Running…2 rows
24 X ray stitch
25. Y stitch
26. Zig-zag stitch

 

 

 

 

27.Buttonholed Buttonhole
28 and 29 are back to front.
29. is Madame Totsuka’s Loop stitch and
28. Half Bullion Chain stitch
30. Holbein
31.  was to be Braid stitch.  I followed Queenie’s lesson, Mary Corbett’s video both of which were well explained but  even so, I could not make the thread stay in a decent arrangement.  Scratched from my ‘to do’ list forever.
32. Chinese Cross
33. Chinese Knot
34. Japanese stitch
35. Outline stitch
36. Roumanian stitch

37. Hungarian stitch … 2 rows
38. Bosnian stitch

I later removed a row of stitches which belonged to a different sampler
39. Granitos stitch
40. Du Vos stitch..2 rows
41. Thorn stitch
42. Rambling Rose

 

 

 

 

No. 43 Moss stich
44. Mille Fleur
45. Leaf stitch
46. Corded Coral stitch.. 2 rows
47. Two Sided Insertion stitch…small area at left is how the reverse side of the work looks.
48. Detached Up and Down Buttonhole
49. Colonial Knot
50. Bayeux
51. Tent stitch
52. Underside Couching stitch

 

 

53. Sword Edging
54. Tramming stitch
55. Tailors Buttonhole -versions
a-Blanket stitch
b-Mary Thomas Dictionary of Embroidered Stitches
c- Embroidery Stitch Bible
d-Readers Digest Book of Embroidery
e-Japanese called Shishu (hardest for me)
f-Japanese Kiso-no-stechi (best of all)
56. Twisted Chain-Detached version

and a few examples of the last stitch.  I used green and variegated Perle 8, a brownish heavy rayon, green fine rayon and chenille.

Hooray! I’m up to date at last.

 

I have been absent from School but have finally caught up with my homework.  I will add group photos
from the First Day of school, which should be easier to follow.
Stitches numbered from 1 to 21.  I’ll add more tomorrow

1. Anundsjo stitch
2. Back stitch
3. Cross stitch
4. Danish Knot
5. Ermine stitch
6. Four sided stitch
7. Gate stitch
8. Heavy chain
Nos 9. and 10. are back to front…
9. is Japanese stitch (pink and purple threads)and
10. is Interlaced Running
11. Knotted Satin stitch
12.  I failed Lace stitch though I tried many times.
13. Mountmellick
14. Norwich stitch
15. Open Chain
16. Punchetto Valsesiano
17. Q stitch
18. Renaissance stitch
19. Satin stitch Outline
20. Tete de Boeuf
21. Upright cross.

 

I discovered I made an error regarding stitch 12-Lace stitch.  I had done it, separately, later but not posted it.

White on white is difficult to see well, so I enlarged it.

 

 

I’ve been practising tonal values over the weekend and I’m happier with this result.  It’s handy having offspring who can draw and give their mum some tips.  Being black and white I can’t tell if they are Egrets or Herons
Of course, I used a picture for the study.

I used Faber Castell pencils HB and 4B and a rubbing stick, which I’d never used before…well I have used a cotton bud but the fine tip on the stick reaches into narrow areas and still keeps the line pretty straight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m really pleased to say the fruiting season is over for 2018. At the top are the last picked nectarines and below this are some of the fruits preserved.
The dark fruit on the left had been made into chutney, the center, right to the back, shows stewed nectarines and on the right side are the yellow clingstone peaches

These are only 2  of the very many bags of frozen nectarines.  I have boxes and lots more bags in the freezer.  Not much room for anything else.
I’m so glad I found the tip for slicing and open freezing before placing the fruit into bags and back into the freezer until needed.  I’ve run out of containers so this method suited me.

 

 

and the very last tree to be stripped was the apple.  Over 60 – that is a wide/deep bowl.  Most are small this year but taste sooo good.  They last well too.  I made one pie so far- maybe more (if I can  make room in that freezer).

All our trees were grown by my DH, from seed, so I don’t know what type the apple is.

 

 

 

 

For the exercise I sketched the page of heads in Understanding Anatomy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sure it would have looked neater had I used the Micron fine liner pen but being unsure, I stuck with the 2B pencil.
Using a sheet of paper under my hand did lessen the smudging, so I will make that a habit.

 

 

 

 

 

These are a small part of a laden clingstone peach tree.  I forgot exactly how much they weighed but it was either just under or just over 25kg.  Over half of the fruit here weighed 260g each .  I bottled about 14 jars of fruit.

I found a great tip on preparing fruit, which is to slice and lay on trays in the freezer to really chill.  The sections can then be placed into plastic bags and stored until needed through the year.   I’ve made and frozen pies as well.

This lot were shared with DD2 and her friends.  DD1 took home another load yesterday of nectarines.

 

 

 

The parrots are still trying hard to get to the fruit, hence the netting.  This freestone peach has only large fruit this year and is only a small tree.  The stake is 3 ft tall so the top leaves are about 4ft high. We’ve picked, shared and eaten about 12 and there are 15 left.

 

 

 

This is the nectarine tree, about 7/8 foot tall and as you can see, also loaded.  No matter which way you look through the tree it looks the same, so I’ll only use one photo.  We may have to strip the tree by next weekend.

 

 

 

and our lovely kookaburra, relative of the Kingfisher, sitting on the clothesline.  So tame it didn’t mind me standing under it taking lots of photos.  It seems to have found some small lizards in the garden lately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and here’s one nearby…

 

 

 

 

 

the body is about 4/5 inches long from nose tip to leg hip…but look at that tail..  These dainty Water-dragons are very swift at darting under the house very close to it.

You could be forgiven for thinking this was a study at night.  It was Not.  I have discovered why my pencil drawings always have dark backgrounds, sometimes looking blue.
My youngest daughter who can draw, clued me in by letting me know when I work with pencils, to have a paper under my hand so I don’t smear the graphite across the white page.

What I’ve also learned from her is getting better contrast by rubbing in with a cotton bud so the shading is smoother.  Graphite pencils 2B and 6B used.  I’ve yet to try this tip.

This deer is created with dots, called pointillism art -I couldn’t resist using the picture to try it myself.

For this I used a Micron .05 pen.

 

Such a slow start to 2018- I haven’t had time to draw often through January but hope that will change.

I found I’d slipped back a bit and have been doodling more. I’m trying to achieve a better contrast for these sketches.
I used a 2B pencil mostly with a 6B for more depth.

 

I admit in the last few months I’ve not sketched at all and my sleeping pattern returned to dismal.

I’ve managed some doodling but not worthy of posting.  In the last few days I found a bit of time for myself and here are the results.

Hummingbird and hibiscus were formed(copied) with a 2b pencil and overdrawn with a Micron 0.1 pen.
I used the same pen for the flowers and coloured with Faber Castel pencils.

I can now say I’ve had a couple of great night sleeps.