January 2013

A rather belated Happy New Year to everyone !  I hope you all have a good, healthy and happy year, with plenty of stitching time.
I have been setting up some new things to stitch, and have made a little progress on older projects.  I received some lovely gifts from afar which I want to show, and my new project for the year is a large boutis of an original design which I commissioned.  I have finished tracing it and basted it yesterday, and I even enjoyed doing that because I looked at the design more closely.
Hiromi send me a lovely gift of a silver sewing set from Ireland, plus some Japanese fabrics and beautiful little pins.  She bought herself and Lou the same, as she says the 3 boutis sisters !  I love that since I don't have a sister ......
Lou sent me an antique handkerchief with an elaborately and finely stitched monogram.  It is amazingly fine, and I am in awe of the ladies who stitched these fine pieces in candlelight or daylight, without the benefit of the superfine needles we have today.

Looks like I will have to post the photos later, blogger won't let me access the photos on my computer .....Update:  I am still not getting the option to upload photos from my computer - Monika told me that others have had this problem.  How did you solve it ?  For now, I made a Picasa album and uploaded from there.