Month: April 2006

It was nice to pick up a needle again yesterday, and see some progress at the end of it … I managed to get amost halfway through my charity quilt block for Dylan H with Quilts4Kids. His theme is Australian animals and sites, and thanks to Sharon and Gina I had a few to choose from after sharing their Aussie stitching books with me – I opted to stitch an Echidna from “Sourcebook for Australian Cross-Stitch” by Vivienne Garforth. I hope to get it finished today, and I’m ignoring the much-needed housework today in order to get it done … and Fraze’s staying for a few nights this week again, so he says, so it’ll only need doing again afterwards, so probably better to leave the vacuuming etc until later … see, I can find a good excuse for anything! LOL.

I’d like to keep doing charity stitching when I can – and I’ve included a spot in my new rotation for just that … it might be only every couple of months I get to that rotation slot, but I figure every little bit helps – and there’s nothing stopping me adding another one in every now and then, as the rotation police won’t call around and arrest me for breach of rotation 😉 Unfortunately a lot of my charts that are perfect for this sort of stitching are still back home in NZ … so Mum had a phone call from me on Friday asking her to flick through my chart folders to see if there are any charts in there suitable for the latest group of quilt themes, and I’ll pay for the postage for them to be sent to me. You have no idea how much I miss being able to flick through my old folders! It’s not that I don’t have enough here to keep me in stitching projects for years to come, just that I love to flick through them for inspiration – and for ‘quick stitches’ like these charity blocks. One day I’m going pay for the whole lot, along with my Inspirations magazines etc, to be shipped over by freight … one day … 🙂

Carina, I’ll send you an email shortly – it would be great to see you in August 🙂 I wondered how you went about getting your ticket changed – at least when I get to my ‘proper’ shifts on the new job, I can tell months in advance what days I’m actually working, so we can slot something in. I’m not sure about Luna Park – I know there’s one in Sydney, so perhaps it is just owned by the same people? Not aware of any others in Aussie, but then again I’m not an Aussie, so nothing would surprise me! haha.

OK, back to my stitching again … it’s a grey overcast day, and a bit chilly, so a perfect day for sitting inside stitching! 😀

Silkweaver are very kindly completing a small order of plain fabrics that I’d been wanting for some upcoming ornies – I approached them, thinking there would be fat chance of it happening, but I’d already had a partial list ready for ordering, just never got around to it thinking there was ‘plenty of time yet’. Looks like my backorder from the middle of January is finally on its way too … so my first birthday stash from Jenna’s certificate will be on its way soon, along with my backorder – as soon as I know what the final cost is, I’ll make up the balance on some hand-dyed fabric 🙂 What I’ve ordered so far:

• 40ct meadow rue Lakeside Linens (13″ x 18″)
• 32ct opalescent raw Belfast linen (fat 1/4)
• 36ct sand Edinborough linen (approx 12″ x 15″)
• 40ct summer khaki Newcastle linen (9″ x 13″)

I was also very very bad last week … I shouldn’t be spending any money at all with the new job starting in a week and a half (well, actually I’m already doing the job, but I don’t move to day shift until then) … but I slipped up! I have a NZ Amex that I’ve been trying not to use, so I can get it paid off – but I put something on it to celebrate my promotion … I was going to buy flowers, but Mum agreed they would just die quickly in our heat … then we thought about a plant, but I’m not really very good at keeping them alive! … then Katrina mentioned the Chatelaine Stitching Leporello on her blog … well, I’ve been drooling over this ever since I first saw it when Mum was here – and I’ve signed up for it! I just thought it was the perfect design to commemorate this occasion for me … mind you, I want to stitch it using the silks, and I won’t go that mad just yet and get them … I’ll get the kit later on when I’m back on shift work again, and the credit card is looking a bit healthier. The first instalment arrived in the email inbox today and it’s just gorgeous!! It would be lovely to be able to stitch it each month, but it’s not going to kill me ;P And I’ll just content myself with seeing every else’s progress 😀