Archive for the ‘Janes Journal’ Category

Number of results found (168)

Wonderful trip to Italy- now back to work

Hi everyone,

I am at my desk ploughing through my post and thinking warm and fluffy thoughts about Italy…..I will load some pics tomorrow and am going to design my Italian Collection this week.

Back on Create and Craft TV on Saturday 29th October and it is all  on Freeview…….

Knitting and Stitching Show starts on Thursday

We are all ready ( Ho Hum!) What have I forgotten to pack this time……

I will be back  in the office on Monday and will not be allowed to move till we have caught up with your emails and letters.

Happy stitching….

Lovely old map sampler…….

I have been sooo good this week! not only am I sticking to a diet ( Grrrr) but I resisted the temptation to buy a map sampler at the Antique & Collectors Fair in Cirencester today! It was very nice and I thought long and hard but I did not do it…

As I mentioned a few days ago, I bought some embroideries ( 3) in Berlin and now I need to earn some money and stop spending it! ( Ho Hum! I wonder who said that!)

I am going to sit down tonight and ignore the packing for the Knitting and Stitching Show and draw the border from this old sampler from memory (or one a bit like it) and put something else inside it…. More of that anon.

Have a lovely weekend – we will talk soon

Washing Lines!

I hope you are all enjoying this lovely weather – I am sitting here in the Studio in a linen camisole with all the windows open and it is nearly October and I should be sorting and packing for the Knitting and Stitching Show, but keep making excuses to pop in to the garden and check the line of washing blowing in the warm breeze. We set up at Ali Pali next Wednesday and then the show is open to the public 6th-9th October – see you there? It is the best show of the year….

Now about washing lines…..

My friend of over twenty years, Barbara McNaught has combined forces with Janie Hextall  and produced this gorgeous little book Washing Lines, inspired by washing lines and all things laundry.  It includes sixty poems about washing, washing lines and more. It is also illustrated with sixteen exquisite black and white woodcuts that Barbara and Janie had collected over the past few years. The perfect gift!

Washing Lines

I have always loved the old fashioned washing line and even have an old clothes prop made for me by Clem Peyman over twenty years ago. I am not grown up enough for a rotary dryer. When our old dog Charlie was still alive, he used to jump up at white sheets blowing and I would have to rewash them!

Cross Stitch Forever

I thought I should remind you about this funny little project – Cross Stitch Forever has been around for such a long time but is still so popular. Both the book and the kit are available in the shop. Just click on the links to go straight there.

Issue 87 Stitch That and more

Front Cover of Issue 88 Stitch That

Issue 87 of Stitch That will be posted out to members on Tuesday next week so you should all have your copies by the weekend. This is our bumper issue with 48 pages including a festive motif library as well as lots of stitching.

Flowery Mead Trio

The Flowery Mead Band Sampler was illustrated in a previous Journal entry and I had such positive feedback that I went straight back to my desk and produced these three themed stitchers’ accessories. These are included in Stitch That this time with the charts and detailed instructions. There will be a materials pack available to members…..I will let you know as soon as they are ready….

Issue 88 is well underway including the first part of a two part project designed for us by Jane Napier who must stitch in her sleep! Inspired by the Goodhart Collection it is a simply divine band sampler and you will love it!

I think I am surfacing after a hectic fortnight and then Bill and I had a few days in Berlin. It was just what we needed – a few days away from our offices and time to think. As you may well imagine, I lasted only two days without hunting out any Berlin woolwork but then it had to be done! We found a street of antique shops and one of them had a wall of Berlin woolwork and counted beading…..Bill just looked on patiently and checked that they took credit cards and waited to see what I was planning. You will have to wait until Issue 88 of Stitch That! I am not going to show you my purchases yet!

I am now back at my desk finishing off all the words for Hardanger for the Horrified which should be published next month. Advance order forms will be included in your mailings…… I thought you would like to see some sneak previews from this amazing enhanced ebook

Wildflower Collection

Antique Flowers Project Pocket

This enhanced ebook is used on your computer and is just so clever. We have been able to include video footage of the way the stitches are worked and how to cut the fabric threads safely and create divine projects like the two in the photographs above. You can worked from the computer screen but you can print of the projects you are planning to stitch with all the relevant diagrams.

I will let you know that day my copies arrive from the publisher …….

Happy stitching…..