You Have To Let Them Fly The Nest!

A momentous day today.  Velma and her chicks have finally been let out of their run, into the the BIG WIDE world that is THE ORCHARD!

There was a little bit of fisty cuffs from a couple of the others.  Poor things, they have such sort memories, that they can't remember, that before her maternity leave, Velma was one of them.  It all seems to have settled down now Velma is teaching her young ones how to scratch in the leaves.

Jack Sparrow the proud father....
has been over to check all is well, but, being a man I have a sneaky feeling that he really has one thing on this mind!

I am like an old mother hen myself, and keep running out to check that they are all ok.   Not much work is going to get done here today, so am tempted to take a cup of tea, and some sewing and go and sit in the Orchard, but that would just be toooooo sad.

Let go Michele, you have to let them go!

Much love from a very overcast Dorset   xx

Well Here Goes

Well Here Goes.....

....and it has been a bit like that.  I never thought about setting up a blog of my own, until some prompting by my new stitching friend, Nicola, from http://stitchingbyacornishseashore.blogspot.co.uk  Then, what to call myself?  Well, the three things in my life, outside husband and family, are my stitching, my cats and my chickens.  I like the play on words, which conjurers up visions of the hens sitting on the roost, their needles flying....and the stitching part covers most of my life.

During the day, I run my own soft-furnishing business,  which involves A LOT of sewing by hand and then I also enjoy patchwork and embroidery.  The latter I think I inherit from my maternal grandmother, as she was a big embroiderer, the patchwork, is completely down to me.  I just LOVE fabric and was totally inspired, when on our honeymoon, we went to Intercourse in Lancaster County and I saw the beautiful Amish quilts.

So I flit between the two.  At the moment I am on a big sampler crusade.

I have just finished the Blue Ribbon Sampler, by Olwyn Horwood.  A giant sampler, which finishes at about 1m square.  Mainly, cross stitch with some double running and two amazing drawn thread panels.  A perfect way to become familiar with drawn threadwork.

This is not the best of pictures, but I have yet to get over to the framers.

At the moment I am working on the Victoria Sampler Alphabet series,  24 small samplers stitched as one giant wall hanging.  It is a fantastic project for trying out loads of different stitches.  I have just started letter "I" so nearly half-way there.

Watch this space for some pictures.

I do tend to do big projects.  Not really a small project kind of a girl.  So was delighted to be asked by
 Nicola, (http://stitchingbyacornishseashore.blogspot.co.uk) to join her on a SAL.  We now have in total a possible five participants.  So exciting.  The the sampler we are going to stitch is SDW from The Scarlett Letter. This is an early beautiful German band sampler, quirky and big enough to appeal.   Just kitted out and ready to go.

I try, as a rule, not to have more than one project on the go but this was too good an offer to miss.  I have decided to stitch in Au Ver a Soie, which is such lovely silk.  I figure that if you are going to give your time to something, then you should buy the best materials possible.  Can't wait to start.

Oh and the cat part....well I named my business after my two tabby cats  sadly now departed and catching mice in a better place, but they were such an important part of my life, that I include them whenever I can.