 These shapes are the start of something but at this point I have no idea what.
The shapes are Closed Herringbone Stitch outlined with Stem Stitch…I did the 2 that run along the seam because I didn’t want a buzy embroidery stitch butting onto the loop of ric rac and I had the intension of putting a fan or something between the 2 shapes but when I looked at it in relation to the block around it I realized that the space was to central to put a focal embellishment because it would be almost directly above the heads in the photo.
I then added the other 2 shapes to fill the seam and thought that I needed something else in the gap above the seam but looking at the photo now I am thinking that it actually does look ok as it is…I’ll sleep on it.
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Spent today comforting a friend and didn’t get any stitching done so I have a couple more of the photos that I took yesturday to show you.
A Black Swan guides her chicks to the shore.
Ducks taking to flight together…When I took the photo I didn’t see the boat and was amused that in the photo the ducks look as if they are running across the top of the water raceing the boat.
And a Pelican that was in a quite backwater, he was sitting still so I had time to zoom in and get a good shot…The waterlilys and reflections make a nice background for him.
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Today was a lovely Sunny Day and we went for our walk along the Shores of Lake Burley Griffin.
Looking West to where the walk started you can see on the left the Captain Cook Memorial Jet and On the right of the photo in the distance is Black Mountain Tower.
Looking East you can see The Carillion, A huge musical instrument which has bells at the top of the tower that are played with a keyboard that is pounded with the fists.
Blundell’s Cottage is an historic house museum.
The Museum was closed but even the outside of Blundell’s cottage is charming.
All around the cottage there are lovely gardens.
Out the back of the cottage is a Water Tank on a Stand.
Out the side is a lovely rustic piece of old farm machinery.
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When family and friends visit from out of town, showing them around and doing touristy things is like having a holiday at home.
Today, the first day of Summer, we planned on going for a walk along the shores of Lake Burley Griffin…Plans we changed when it started to rain as we drove into the carpark.
On the way to the Lake, before it rained, we had pulled into the Government House Lookout where I took this photo of Government House where the Governor General of Australia lives and is where our new Prime Minister will be sworn in on Monday.
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 I had a frustrating morning which had left me feeling drained and as glum as the overcast day…Then this afternoon I picked my neice up from school and on the way home we passed my favourite tree, it is bright yellow and always makes me smile, I remembered that I had my camera in my bag so we stopped to take a photo, the day was to overcast to get a good photo of the whole tree but you can see the colour in the close ups of the flowers and see why I would think of it as a bright spot in any day…I don’t know what species it is but it is a Grevillea which are native Australian plants.
Admin note: Thanks to comments I now know this to be Grevillea Robusta also know as Silky Oak.
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Across the bottom I did clusters of Silk Ribbon Roses.
I did give these clusters there own detail number but they could equally well be considered as an extention to the Ooh La La detail
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Across the top of the photo I have put three lace flowers, with bead centres and green lazy daisy leaves, in the left hand corner and then lightly sprinkled beads across the top of the photo and down the sides…I put tiny straight stitch leaves on the bead closest to the corner and after looking at the photo I will add tiny leaves to all the beads around the edge.
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Re the thin line I blogged lasty night Elizabeth commented Snip…And when I read what you said about the thin line something clicked in my mind. Not only because I remembered being so impressed with this as I saw some of your work on your mom’s memory quilt but also because that was a common element in the printing I was involved with at work. There they called it a thin key line…snip
A thin key line…So my thin line actually has a name…I love how so many things learnt from doing other things can then be incorperated into crazy quilting.
I have done no stitching tonight because I missed getting a phone call on Sat night so didn’t find out till late this afternoon that my brother would be arriveing tonight…he rang to tell me that he had been delayed and wouldn’t be here untill tomorrow morning, which is just as well because it at least gave me this evening to get a little housework done.
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When I put the gathered organza ribbon on the top and left edges I was still going to put lace flowers in the bottom right corner…but…
 
When I put some lace flowers along the bottom and right edges and stood back from it the flowers didn’t balance the ribbon…More gathered organza ribbon on the other edges…Still not sure it is working, while thinking about it I used a slightly darker green thread to do stem Stitch along the edge of the photo…Umm I am starting to like it, I find it quite amazeing that a thin line, that can barely be seen, can make a big visual difference to how a piece looks…
Know that I like what is happening around the photo I think that it will only need a few lace flowers and beads scattered around the edges to finish it.
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 When I prepared the photo to put on the block I put a layer of batting under the photo….Before stitching the photo on I took the batting out because it made the photo sit to high off the block.
Originally I was going to put the beaded braid along the left side and across the top, when I got the photo stitched on I didn’t like the way the braid looked and thought if I put the gathered organza ribbon under the braid it would blend the braid in….
When I got the organza ribbon stitched on I still didn’t like the way the braid looked and thought about what else I could do…I like the look of the green beads but don’t have enough green beads and opted for a line of green Stem Stitch
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