Lace and Christmas Petit Point

Today it was a public holiday here in South Africa (it is also the time when a lot of people take their annual leave in the midst of summer) and as usual there was an antique fair at historical Melrose House in the center of Pretoria. Today I was lucky enough to find some pieces of  lovely old lace, the top one is silk lace, not something you find often and the other two are cotton. The small one on the right will look stunning on a doll dress with some fine ribbon through the holes. The other two I think might work for a Victorian bed cover, if all works out i will be doing Bill Robertson's Brass Bed Class in Castine next year and I can just picture the bed with the lace and some petit point cushions.

Talking of petit point, here is a photo of my Christmas petit point, and yes it is a CAMEL.

It will have a nice big star, but no King (Wise Man) , I suspect he went into an inn on the way to get some food. Working on 75 count sure is a challenge, the embroidery measures 44mm (1 45/64") across and will be 56 mm (2 1/4") from top to bottom and has a total of 21 672 stitches. I won't have it finished for Christmas but hopefully for The Twelfth night of Christmas on 6 January.

Elga

Stokesay Ware!!!!!!!

I received my first ever order from Stokesay Ware today. WOW, what can I say, I am so impressed at the quality of their work, the porcelain is so fine and I can see no mold lines at all. I will definitely order from them again in the future, I would love to have one of their dinner and tea sets. The two vases will go in my dining room, but not in this corner. The shelf in this photo is an antique one that I bought at Lucy's Doll House in Camden on the way to Castine earlier this year, I also bought an antique frame there, once I have done the petit point for it, I will hang that above the shelf, the desk will be replaced with something else not sure what yet.

Here is a photo of the shelf and frame with a ghost lady in it, Brae, she would have looked great in your haunted house, only her face and arms still show, the clothes are long gone, I took it apart and there was just a lot of dust, the ladies face and arms are permanently fixed to the glass.

The vases will stand on these two shelves that I want to paint with liquid gold leaf, they are not quite deep enough, so I am thinking of adding wood to the backs. I want to hang the shelves on each side of the bay window where the Queen Anne chairs are standing (check my header photo). The plate will probably go into the parlor, hopefully with some plates and vases.

Elga

Chandelier

Last weekend I went into a bead shop and they had Swarovski crystals on a 50% sale, well I wasn't going to refuse this opportunity :-) They just screamed the word CHANDELIER, since I wanted it with a working light and felt a bit lazy, I went to my local dollhouse shop to see if there was any light fitting that I could maybe turn into a chandelier and I found this ceiling fitting.

I used bigger crystals in the center that had big enough holes for the wire to go through and glued the bottom crystal to the plastic cover that is on top of the light bulb. The brass part around the light has 20 openings, so I used every second one, I found a jewelry finding with 10 holes and used that for the top, I tried a few different combinations of crystals until I was happy and simply used invisible thread to string the beads. This photo was taken with a flash so that you can see the colors of the crystals.

I love how it looks in the house, my floor isn't made yet, so this is just a bit of a mock-up, I have been a bit sick since Wednesday and needed to do something that doesn't involve wood dust.

Elga

Giveaway winner!!!!!!!!

Thank you to all who entered my giveaway and all the lovely comments on my work. And now I guess you want to know who won............ My daughter drew the winner's name, and here she is............

Congratulations Ludmilla!!!!! I will make up the cat into a cushion over the weekend and send your parcel off on Monday, please send me your address.

Elga

Lots of Wood

I went to my local saw mill today to buy some African Blackwood that I want to use in turning knobs for the sewing table and for the chairs that I will start in the new year. It sure was my lucky day, the manager at the mill gave me a bag full of African Blackwood offcuts and one with the Mopane wood that I have been using for the sewing table. This mill specializes in supplying wood for the making of musical instruments so it is choice wood and well seasoned. The best thing is that the mill is only 10 minutes drive from my home and they asked that I give them photos once my tables are finished to put on their website.

Elga

New "Commissions and Order" Page

I have just added a new page to my blog, please have a look.

Elga

Giveaway for faithful followers!!!!!!!!!

I want to thank all my faithful followers for their support, encouragement and friendship since I started my blog just over a year ago. I wish I could give all of you a little something, but since that is going to be impossible, I am having a giveaway. This giveaway is only open to people who already follow me, new followers are always welcome, but this time round I want to thank the people that has been following me for a while.

Up for grabs is this little beaded purse that I made sometime ago and one of my very first petit point pieces, a cat, he was stitched on 40 count canvas with DMC, the winner can choose whether they want it framed or made up into a cushion.

So if you would like to own these two pieces, here is what you must do:
1: Already be a follower.
2: Tell me why you follow me and what you are going to do with the two items if you win.
You have until midnight (South African time) 30 November to leave your comments. I will draw the winner on  1 December, good luck to you all!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend.
Elga

Sewing Table Drawer

The first drawer of five is finished, the partitions are made of  0.6mm thick wood and they are joined with tongue and groove joints, what a fiddly job!!!! I cut the writing quill down from a feather with scissors, I plan on raiding a bead shop soon to see what I can find to make ink bottles. The scissors are from Cats Paw Miniatures and I found mine in the Miniseum in Denmark when I visited there earlier this year just after Guild School.

Elga

New Look

As you can see my blog has a new look, I am not sure if I am 100% happy with it, but I got sick and tired of the green. What do you think about how it looks now????? Any suggestions of where to look for backgrounds will be more than welcome!!!!

Elga

Can You Guess??????

I did some more stitching on the Christmas petit point and you can start to see the subject emerging. Anyone want to take a guess at what it is going to be???? PetitPointers you are not allowed to guess since you probably know already.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Elga