Beautiful Needlework

I dont know about you but i have always loved and appreciated beautiful needlework items and have also used them liberally around my home over the years. Being a crafter myself i know how much time and effort goes into creating a piece of work.

Over the years i have gathered quite a few kits and charts together which so far have not been touched.  Some lovely kits which i hope if not this year i will get to next.  I have a host of ufos to do in the meantime and i may be just a bit optimistic on timescales. But hey thats me all over and they do get completed eventually.

I do every so often go onto ebay looking for unfinished work at reasonable prices and i also have these to do.  Needlepoint kits tend to attract quite a high premium but I was lucky recently in acquiring a Primavera kit called Indian Poppies. It has no wools so i am going to have to try and obtain a list of the colours used to complete it.  Why did i buy a part finished kit. I loved the Primavera kits when they first came out but was unable to afford them at the time. I am hoping to get a sister for it in due course.

I always have mixed feelings for pieces like this.  Sadness for the soul who has worked tirelessly at the piece but has not been able to see it to completion but i am happy to finish it and see it to completion and then use it and treasure it.

 I have pine furniture in my dining room and also the Alfred Meaking poppies dinner and tea sets as well as some of the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady dinner service. So i have a poppy theme in mind. Recently also i bought two Tiffany style table lamps and the shades are decorated in poppies also. So eventually the room will come together and be completed.  However my real love is collecting it all together the mixing and matching of said items and integrating them into my home.  I seem to have a good eye for lovely pieces or so i am often told and also a good eye for colour.  But whether i have received as a present made it from scratch or part worked it myself or recycled pieces into something else each will be much loved and treasured like the pieces i have inherited over the years from other family members. I hsve a very ecclectic mix of items acquired over the years or made.

I have also been collecting embroidered tray cloths often damaged and the embroidery is intact but there might be a small hole in the cloth.  I still have a way to go and the theme i have chosen is flowers as eventually i want to turn it into a crazy patchwork style bedcover for my bed but i still have a way to go.  I shall have to pay a visit to the antiques emporium i used to frequent when mum was with us to see if i can locate some more bits and pieces so that they can be reworked and reloved all over again.  Its a good feeling to make something reworkable again. I originally got the idea from a Cath Kidston book but have seen many lovely original creations scattered all over the internet and many of them for sale.

I love creating and fiddling about with things i just have to be doing something. Everything i buy make refurb or do is all linked to each other and is like a big jigsaw puzzle all connected all different shapes and sizes but its lovely when a piece slips or clunks into place.  I just love pretty gorgeous things at the end of the day i just cannot help myself.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan xx