Greetings Peeps :-) first up is my second finish this year, finished within a month, i can't believe that i finished something so quickly, but here's the proof.
You may recall that i wasn't too sure of the thread colour, it has grown on me and i had several comments saying that you liked it so it stayed. As i put the last stitch in yesterday evening i spread it out on the table to admire (and pick faults with, as you do!). I can't say that i immediately loved it but then i had an idea, now I'm not good with original ideas and i don't mind saying that i nicked this one!! i had read on Siobhan's blog that she had aged her her stitching of 'semi naked' people by rubbing with wet coffee grounds. We only have instant coffee in this house I'm afraid, but off i went and make a strong cup of coffee and a cup of tea and mixed the two together, squeezed out the tea bag and dunked it in the cocktail, squeezed again took a deep breath and rubbed it on my stitching - this is a closer look at the effect.
What do ya think? I'm loving it!! I just went to have another peek at it when i came in and i defiantly think it's improved the piece, so i want to say a big "Thank You" to Siobhan for her post which gave me the courage to try my own ageing process!
It'll be the weekend before i can get it to the framers now and I'll share another piccy with you when i get it back.
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Four of us girls at work have got together to participate in a healthy eating/fitness plan and today was our second weigh in, two girls stayed the same, one lost 2lb but i am so pleased to say that i have lost 5lb. Remember i said it was one of my goals to loose some weight this year? this weight loss is just the result of me not eating crap, no chocolate, no cake, (tell a lie, I've had one egg custard!) and the one that i think has helped most I've started to eat breakfast as soon as i get to work at 8.30 (can't face anything any earlier) and I'm sure it has curbed my hunger. I'll let you know if there is less of me here again towards the end of February.
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I've put a reading / read list in my side bar now as i discovered a 'new to me' author just before Christmas - Philippa Gregory, I'm so enjoying reading these historical novels of hers that i ordered all of them off Amazon, I'm finding she really brings the characters such as Anne Boleyn (what a naughty girl she was!!) her sister Mary Boleyn (what a tart!!!, lol) and Katherine of Aragon to life. If you've read any of her other novels I'd love to know if you enjoyed them.
I've put a reading / read list in my side bar now as i discovered a 'new to me' author just before Christmas - Philippa Gregory, I'm so enjoying reading these historical novels of hers that i ordered all of them off Amazon, I'm finding she really brings the characters such as Anne Boleyn (what a naughty girl she was!!) her sister Mary Boleyn (what a tart!!!, lol) and Katherine of Aragon to life. If you've read any of her other novels I'd love to know if you enjoyed them.
And finally, i have a blogging question, I've tried to add more blogs to the ones i read but blogger won't put them on my list, anyone know why? is there a limit to the number you can put on i wonder?
Thank you for all the lovely comments you take the time to leave, they are wonderful and very much appreciated x..till next time xx
Maggie, what a lovely finish and I love your coffee/tea stains - it adds wonderful character to your piece.
ReplyDeleteHow odd that you cannot add blogs - I had this issue on one occassion but I realized I was not signed in.
Have you decided on what you rnext start will be?
Enjoy your day.
Congratulations on your finish! The sampler really is pretty, and I love the effect your dying process gave to it. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteI have stitched two samplers this month too. What do you think might be wrong with us, or should I say right!
Lovely finish, and what a different the staining makes. You're so brave to have tried that!! Well done on the weight loss. We're doing much the same at work, I've started having porridge for breakfast there and it really does fill me up until lunch. If you like Phillipa Gregory have a look in Asda, I picked up three of her books there yesterday for £1 each.
ReplyDeleteLots of congratulations are going to be going on Maggie. First off, congratulations on a wonderful finish. The little 'extra' of doing the coffee ageing looks wonderful and I very much admire your courage, especially doing it after your piece was finished! Congratulations on having two finishes so soon into 2010 and congratulations on a fabulous start with your weight loss!
ReplyDeleteHope you get an answer to your blogging question. As yet I've been able to add without any problems.
love what u did to the fabric
ReplyDeleteHi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your beautiful finish! It is lovely! And I think the "aging process" you used really adds to the piece. :)
Also congratulations on your weight loss. That is wonderful! Keep up the good work.
I love Philippa Gregory's books. I have read almost all of her historical fiction about the Tudors and a couple of her others. The Tudors series is my favorite of her works. I read the Wideacre trilogy, but thought they were a bit bizarre for my taste. Somewhere online there is a list of how to read her books if you want to read them in chronological order rather than in the order she published them. I started reading her books early in her career so I did not read them in chronological order, but would have liked to. This is one of my favorite time periods/people to read about. Enjoy!!
As for blogger, sometimes I copy and paste the address directly into Google Reader. If I have added a lot of blogs by "following" them, I find that is sometimes helps if I go to my dashboard in blogger, and connect to Google Reader that way. It picks up the new ones from there. Does that make sense? I don't feel like I am explaining that very well.
Have a good rest of the week!
Congarts on a beautiful finish as well as on the weight loss.
ReplyDeleteoh, I just love your dying method! It looks wonderful. You may have just given me the courage to try it too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Cari said. This happened to me once and I also realized that I had to "sign in", under the follow this blog link.
ReplyDeleteYour quaker is beautiful. I would never dare do what you did and it turned out amazing.
Happy Stitching,
Hillery
North Country Samplings
Hi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteGood news!!! Some of those pounds
that you lost finally arrived here
this week. At weigh in yesterday
I was up 1.4 pounds. I am one
pound away from being within two
pounds of my goal weight, and
becoming a lifetime member at
Weight Watchers!!! Next week I
plan to wear my jeans (extra
weight) and I won't take my
sweater off so that should add
a pound and end this period of
maintenance.
Congratulations to you for doing
so well with your new healthy
regime. Loosing five pounds is
awesome and doesn't it make you
feel good to have such success?
I don't think that I could skip
breakfast, ever. We get up at
5:30 on weekdays and so I'm
eating breakfast at 6:15, and
it's always a substantial one.
But that gets me through the
morning until my lunch break at
11:30.
Philippa Gregory is a favorite
author of mine as well. I've
been collecting her books for
years but it's just been in the
past five years or so that she's
been concentrating on writing
about the Tudors and gained an
even bigger readership then
before.
Another writer who is truly
amazing is Anne Easter Smith.
She's written three books and
I've read two of them so far,
and have the third ready to
pick up soon. She writes
about the time of Edward IV,
and Richard the III.
And if you like Egyptian history
may I recommend the books of
either Michelle Moran or Pauline
Gedge. Michelle Moran is a new
author on the historical fiction
scene with three books to her
credit. Pauline Gedge is a
Canadian author with many books
that have been very successful.
Child of the Morning is one of
her best.
Quaker Row turned out fabulous
and your tea/coffee staining
has made it even better. It
suits the fabric and thread
colors very well. I told
Siobhan that she was very brave
to do this to her stitching,
and I say the same to you. I'm
glad that it worked so well.
Cheers!!
Gorgeous finish! I love the aged look. And congrats on the weight loss! That always feels so good :)
ReplyDeleteFabulous!!!
ReplyDeleteYour finish looks great like this, congratulations!
ReplyDeleteBye! Carolien
What a fabulous finish. I want to get back to mine now when I see yours done but I would love to finish my BRD saying first. Playing around with aging is so much fun, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI forgot to tell you before but I adore your banner. What a warm welcome for those who come visit you. Did you put the mosiac together yourself?
Hugs ~
Heidi
Great idea on the fabric, makes it look even lovelier! I am a Phillipa Gregory fan too, I have recently read The Queen's Fool - which I really enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteMaggie, Love, love, love your finish! You ar sooo brave to dye it but it turned out stunning. I just may have to try that.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the 5 pounds! Keep up the good work.
Dunno what's up with Blogger. Sometimes it gets cranky. You shouldn't have a limit on adding blogs.
I love how your quaker sampler turned out, Maggie and I LOVe the aging you did on it! Fantastic. Good luck with the weight loss - it's hard but once you get going, it's not so bad. 5 pounds in a week is awesome! Not sure what's going on with your blog list. I haven't had a problem..... yet!
ReplyDeleteHi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteyou asked me on my blog how did I do that my photos are big. I link them, not upload when writing a post...
I have edited my HTML to make my center column bigger, than I tried more times what size is okay for me. That"s all :)
Regards,
Nina
Woohoo!! I love your Quaker Row. Good for you for taking the plunge & ageing your fabric. It's easier than it sounds, isn't it? I love the result, and the red is a gorgeous color. I've also just plonked a tea bag on my stitching and rolled it around a bit.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the weight loss. You go girl! :)
I LOVE Philippa Gregory's books! I buy them as soon as a new one comes out. I think I preferred her first two books in the Tudor series the best--The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool, but they were all good. It was neat, I read The Boleyn Inheritance which had Lady Rochford in it (think that's the right name...) and then she was mentioned in CJ Sansom's Sovereign, which I read right afterwards. Neat cross over, even though as a historical figure I suppose that isn't something too surprising when reading historical fiction. I liked the latest book by Boleyn, the one about one of the queens from the War of the Roses. Apparently it's the start of a new series. It was enjoyable but not as great as the first two in the Tudor series. I've not read the Wideacre series, but I have read one or two of her non-historical fiction. Pretty raunchy stuff! I think I prefer the historical stuff. LOL
Maggie,
ReplyDeleteYour Quaker sampler is BEAUTIFUL! I love the variegated look. I am almost finished with "The last wife of Henry VIII". It's kind of funny how we are reading books from the same era... :)
Happy Stitching/Reading!
Your stitching looks great. So brave with the tea and coffee, ive never tried that before.
ReplyDeleteHave only read "The other Boleyn Girl," which i really enjoyed, but have a few of her books here
I so admire your aging your finished stitching, I have done it before I have stitched but not after!! You were so brave...
ReplyDeleteLovely stitching too.
Chris x
you are so brave doing that with your stitching but what a result! It looks so "old".
ReplyDeleteI like Phillipa Gregory as well i've read The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool and also A Respectable Trade which is set in 18the century Bristol about the slave trade - this was very good. I'm a big fan of historical fiction, another auther worth checking out is Sharon Penman who writes more about the middle ages.
Beautiful finish on you sampler! My daughter always waits until after she has finished stitching to "age" her fabrics..I never had the guts, so I make her do it if I want it. lol.
ReplyDeleteYour finish is wonderful! I really like the color.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the weight loss! I need to lose some after the holidays. Boy, how I hate winter!
Take Care.
Sure is one gorgeous finish - love the thread colour & how you've aged the fabric (must try that!). WTG on the weight loss too - you go, girl! :0)
ReplyDeleteI'm a Phillipa Gregory fan too & don't think I've ever disliked any of her books. Enjoy! :0)
Hi Maggie, popping to thank you for visiting my blog, nice to meet you. I am in New York State about 8 hours west of NYC. This Quaker is stunning!
ReplyDeleteOff to have a look at your blog now:)
Sweet Stitchin....
I am happy you've been able to stitch. I am sad about those car events. I hope this winter is easier on you.
ReplyDelete