Month: October 2007

Cross Stitch

Freebie alert – for autumn

Anne S

I just wanted to post a quick note before I forget … I just found the most gorgeous (in my eyes anyway) autumn freebie online – and thought I’d share.  It would look wonderful in overdyed threads, and reminds me a little bit of Lizzie*Kate’s style of stitching – I love it! 😀

Swirly Autumn by Cross Stitch Happy

No stitching has been done since finishing Katrina’s RR – my seahorse is unravelling quite a bit on the sides of the fabric, so I might put it away until later when I have access to a sewing machine and can overlock/zigzag the edges of the fabric (or even better add some calico strips so I can put it in the q-snaps).  That means I should be working on Sailor’s Valentine, but I’ve got a serious case of ‘avoidance’ from starting that one at the moment, and keep looking wistfully at Snappervile.  I think perhaps it’s just not as conducive as I thought having a mini rotation while I’m housesitting – perhaps I’ll be better off just focusing on a couple of projects and being a one-at-a-timer for a while … or perhaps it’s just my brain giving me an excuse to keep stitching on Snapperville, ‘cos I was loving stitching on it, and didn’t really want to put it down .  Oh well, by the time you see another progress piccie, you’ll find out what decision my addled brain came to! 😉

I just found an old draft in my dashboard from a day many many moons ago (about 12 months in fact) … I was obviously sat in a befuddled glaze while doing much more wasteful things than stitching – web surfing! This is what I had to say:

“Today’s little web sojourn has taken me on a trip to another Melbourne supplier … this time to VicSew (Victoria Sewing Supply Pty Ltd). Has anyone ever bought anything from them before??  In a quilting magazine I saw they had some wonderful quilt hangers (something I haven’t seen too much of in actual shops) … and I just adore the Christmas one (with Christmas trees and a reindeer) – it can be found here, towards the bottom of the page.  I think it would look really cute with ornies hanging from it 🙂  I also don’t mind the sunflower one, either, although it might look a bit more tacky in real life.  I’m now allowing myself to look at the price pages yet … but I am definitely going to bookmark this one for a future session 😀 ”

Anyway, the question is still a pertinent one … and I thought I’d still ask it.

Rightio, time to pop off and get dressed – I just have time to take the old fleabag out for a walk before heading off to work for the night.  Fingers crossed my threads will have arrived today from Dragonfly Dreams, ‘cos then my stitching dilemma will be even easier – I’ll be sat finishing It’s Halloween before all else!! 😀

Then only one more sleep before I find out whether to start flat hunting in Sydney or Melbourne …

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Round Robins

Happy Dancing early! (updated AGAIN)

Anne S

I shouldn’t actually be doing this little happy dance until about a month away, but I sneakily finished this early.  This is Katrina’s finished Friendship Quaker RR.  I told Becky it was OK to send it on to me early as she’d done her part of the stitching on it – and I thought it would be great to get my part finished early so it can be sent to Katrina with the next parcel containing Nicki’s RR, so it would also well and truly miss the Christmas mail.  I think it turned out beautifully, and I love the thread choice (well, duh, it’s blue! LOL).  I’m just sorry the photo doesn’t do it justice – I don’t know why but this camera just doesn’t seem to like taking photos of natural linens, and I have to tweak in Photoshop every time, which then means I mess around with the thread colours too, and nothing looks how it should hmmm. 

Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such

katrina's-finished-quaker-r

This has been a wonderful project with some of my closest online buddies – Nicki, Barbara, KarenV, BeckySC and Katrina.  I can’t wait to see all the finished products over the next 6-8 weeks 🙂

(Updated to add piccies of each round of this round robin to compare thread and fabric choices that everybody made)

Quaker Friendship Sampler Round Robin quaker rr becky's quaker-rr-karenv's Barbara's Quaker RR nicki's-quaker-rr-final Katrina's finished Quaker RR

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Updated (again!) to add … if anyone would like to receive this chart (Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such) please leave a comment (make sure you include your email contact) saying you’d like to have your name included in the draw, and I’ll draw a name out of the hat at the end of the month and post the chart out to the winner 🙂

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I’m on a later shift today so Muffy and I are going for a walk before I head into work.  I’ll be sad to say goodbye to Muffy (although I can’t wait to get away from the bl**dy fleas!!) – she’s such wonderful company.  She gets so excited to see you when you come home from work, and has such a wonderful personality – she curls up next to you on the sofa and stays there for ages.  Yep, definitely gonna miss her 🙂

Mind you the next place I’m going to has 2 dogs, 3 cats, some fish, and I think birds … so I’ll still be getting my animal fix over there … one reason I’m cramming as much stitching in as I can right now, as I don’t think I’m going to get much time when I’m at the next place! 😉

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

It’s all out of my hands now …

Anne S

What is, I hear you ask?  Either that or the voices in my head are getting louder than normal! LOL.  Today I flew up to Sydney for my job interview – I felt very special as I flew up in business class … but I didn’t expect to get home on time, as the flights were really full.  My boarding pass wouldn’t go through the scanner at the gate, so I half expected I’d been offloaded … but it turns out I’d been upgraded on the way home too … wow!! 😀

The interview went by in a bit of  blur, to be honest – I can’t say I blitzed it, as there were some questions in there I wasn’t expecting … but I did my best, and time will tell if it was good enough or not.  They’re calling one of my referees either later today or on Monday, and they’re hoping to let us all know by Wednesday next week at the latest.  At least I’ll know whether I need to start looking for a new flat in Melbourne or Sydney … and I’m working the next 5 days straight, so that’ll keep my mind off things 🙂

Last night I started putting a couple of stitches into the first Lanarte Sea Life piece while watching So You Think You Can Dance (I really enjoy that show) – I managed to start the seahorse, although I didn’t get too much done.  Today I’m pretty shattered as nerves got the better of me during my sleep last night (makes a change to Muffy and the fleas keeping me awake!! haha), so I think it’ll be an early night for me and Muffy tonight.  Here’s a picture of the four pieces that I want to stitch eventually, plus the tiny progress from last night.

sea-life-by-lanarte


seahorse-wip-1

I was supposed to start the Sailor’s Valentine by CA Wells next on my rotation list, but my concentration wasn’t quite ‘all there’ last night, so I daren’t start it … I thought it was better to stick to something simple instead.

Rightio, dinner has reheated, so it’s time to go and eat … plus Muffy is ready for round two of her dinner too (she’s being spoilt tonight, seeing as I had to leave her outside all day in the dreadful weather) 😀

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Itchy and Scratchy

Anne S

Yep, this household definitely fits the bill of those two characters from The Simpsons … I’m Itchy, and Muffy is Scratchy.  I doped up the base of Muffy’s neck yesterday, although the scratching is still happening today.  Apparently it can take 3 days to show the effects, so fingers crossed by the weekend she’ll be scratching less … which hopefully means that I will be too!  Yet another broken night’s sleep last night thanks to flea bites and Muffy’s evening bladder … ho-hum 😦

I decided not to bother going driving to pick up my GAST threads today, but decided instead to send away and spend my $10 gift voucher from a previous order with Dragonfly Dreams to get Karen to send a skein of the threads I need.  I figure by the time I spent the petrol on a 1-1/2 hour round trip driving session, plus the e-tag toll price, it just wasn’t worth it … so I’ve stitched as far as I can go without the gold Kreinik and two GAST threads I’m missing, and tomorrow night I’ll start my next project.  The photo is really terrible, but you can get an idea of it anyway – at least when the threads arrive it’ll only take one night to finish the whole thing off 😀

it's-halloween-wip-2

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

WIP photos

Anne S

It seems I’ve thwarted my new mini rotation almost immediately … while stitching the first two blocks of Snapperville, I decided it would make sense to stitch the border parts surrounding them at the same time, instead of leaving all the border until the end.  Aside from not getting bored with it at the end, that means I don’t have to keep moving the Q-snaps.  Anyway, I’ve managed to complete blocks 1 and 2 before putting it away again yesterday.

Snapperville by Bent Creek
snapperville-wip-1

Then I picked up and started It’s Halloween – I was doing pretty well, too, until I realised I hadn’t packed my GAST threads that I needed … so it looks like I’m either going to have to drive out to a LNS to buy two more skeins, or make a trip to my storage unit on the other side of town (a 1-1/2 to 2 hour round trip hmmm).  What a pain in the proverbial!  I really wanted to get this one finished by the end of tomorrow boohoo.  Anyway, here’s the progress from yesterday …

It’s Halloween by The Drawn Thread
it's-halloween-wip-1

This was done while watching Season 2 of NCIS … love that show!  I was also watching Spanglish, but the DVD won’t play the last couple of scenes, so I’ll have to hire it from somewhere so I can see the ending (and also the DVD player here played it in black and white ho-hum … I’ve been playing everything on my laptop ever since).

Another semi lazy day here today – the laundry is getting done, then Muffy and I will head out for a walk before I settle down for a bit more stitching while I get the chance 🙂

(Updated to add …)

I keep forgetting to post this piccie for Mum – this is the latest Christmas fabric I’ve got for us (from a couple of weeks ago) … plus this is probably the fabric I’m going to use for the Plateau de la Brodeuse design.  It’s still a bit pink for my tastes, and I’m not entirely ‘sure’ about it, but so far it’s my current choice – I’ll keep checking out a few more patchwork stores first, though, before I pull the threads out and start stitching …

xmas-fabrics-for-mum

Also, to answer the question a couple of you have asked … the threads Nicki has chosen for her RR piece are:  Silk n Colors Cerise Noir, Dinky Dyes Jarrah, and Hand Dyed Fibers Chocolate.

 Now I’m off shopping for flea treatment and antihistamine cream … I’m covered in itchy bites compliments of that big ol’ flea bag Muffy … drove me mad trying to sleep last night … mutter mutter mutter … I have to say, though, that I’m loving having Muffy’s company.  She’s a lovely dog, and I’m even more of a dog person than a cat person (I was never allowed one as a child, but that was the ultimate pet I always wanted) – it’s lovely having her cuddled up on the sofa next to me while we watch DVD’s … until the scratching begins LOL 😉

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Round Robins

Such sweet, sweet stitching!

Anne S

Oh boy, it’s sooooo good to be stitching on linen again (insert heavy sigh of pleasure here!).  Yesterday and today I spent my stitching time on Nicki’s Quaker RR piece – unfortunately it’s at night, and I haven’t been able to take a decent photo of it, but here’s a photo none-the-less – I’ll try and take another one later during day-time.  This piece is much prettier in real life – the colours are softer and quite beautiful … lovely dusky pink and deep wine colours 🙂

(7 Oct – Updated to change the photo to a slightly clearer one.)

nicki's-quaker-rr-final

Last night I had a shocking night’s sleep … compliments of a hairy old pooch!  It seems she doesn’t like stormy weather, and I got to bed at 9pm (which is bad in itself, and I usually need to be in bed by 7.30pm on 5am shifts), only to have her whining and scratching at the door at 9.30pm.  Considering my alarm was going off at 3.45am, that didn’t bode well.  I thought Muffy was pining for Jan and the family, and tried to coax her back to her bedroom, but then she bolted under the bed with her tail between her legs and wouldn’t come back out hmmm.  I ended up leaving her there, but after an hour of listening to her tap-tapping on the floor and licking herself, I managed to talk her out from under the bed and back into her room (thankfully the thunder had stopped by then).  But then I got yet another wake-up call at 1.05am, this time for a toilet walk outside ho-hum … to say I felt like death warmed up this morning would be a MAJOR underexaggeration 😦

The other disappointment today was that I was supposed to be driving a lady around who arrived from the USA today (she’s a member of the EGA), as soon as I finished work, but they had an unexpected meeting with their tour leader at 4pm, which put paid to our plans.  Instead I just caught the train into the city and left my gifts at reception for them (2 stitchers, and 1 quilter) – I didn’t have time to stitch anything, so I put together gift bags of Tim-Tams, Cadbury chocolates, potato chips, little koalas and an Australia key-ring for each of them.  I figured if I couldn’t give a gift of stitching, I’d go with the second stitcher’s passion … chocolate LOL.

Rightio, time to head off to bed for the night – fingers crossed I get more sleep tonight!  Muffy has had a toilet stop already, and we went for a walk in the park earlier, so hopefully she’s been tuckered out enough to sleep heavily until the morning … well, I can hope, right? 😉

Katrina’s Quaker RR (the final part) is on its way in the mail to me, so I’ll start stitching that as soon as it arrives – but in the meantime the next project up for stitching is “Snapperville” by Bent Creek … I can’t wait!!! 😀

And I’m finally almost 100% caught up on Season 1 of NCIS … I can’t believe I haven’t seen any of these episodes before – I love it! 😀

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

KarenV and an interview

Anne S

Just a quick note to say “I have an interview next Friday” … yikes!!  I’m actually on days off Tue-Thu, but they said to me not to do it on my days off, they would pay for my airline ticket to fly up to Sydney on Friday and back again straight afterwards.  I think there are only two other candidates, but I could be wrong … anyway I have a week to have a nervous breakdown before the big day – because I’m TRULY dreadful at interviews (dunno why, but my brain just goes dead the minute I walk though the door to the interview room hmmm) 😉

The other thing I wanted to mention very briefly, is the situation with my good friend KarenV.  Some of you have noticed recently that Karen has removed her blog – I just wanted to put peoples minds at rest, and stop anyone worrying, as I’ve been chatting to Karen and she’s doing just fine, but is taking a sabbatical from blogging for a wee while.

As for my stitching … this may actually become a stitching blog again soon over the next few days haha … I have a day off work tomorrow, and I thought I’d settle in for the day with Season 1 of NCIS on DVD and the dratted Winnie the Pooh bookmark and get it finished … with any luck I’ll also have a “good” stitching day, which will mean getting a start on Nicki’s Quaker RR piece, so I can get it sent off to Katrina on mailing day.

Then on Saturday I’m starting 5am shifts for 3 days (yucky!) – but I’m playing chauffeur to a couple of ladies on Saturday straight after work.  I read on the EGA chat list that they wanted info on Melbourne stitching hot spots to see in one day, and I’ve offered to pick them up to drive them between venues so they can cram as much in as possible.  Hopefully all works out OK and we can do a spot of stash enhancement for them 😉

Rightio, time to head off and heat something up for dinner – I’ve arrived at my new housesitting job tonight, and Jan and family have just left for the airport … I don’t know what to do with myself, being home in ‘normal’ hours and being able to watch prime time TV – I haven’t been able to do that for over a month, it’s sheer bliss!!!  I got given a crash course in using the flash coffee machine, so I might have to go and christen it soon haha.  I’ve also been told I have to live out of Jan’s cupboards instead of buying food … and Jan is an exceptional gourmet, I may never leave!! haha.  Talking of which, I’d better go heat something up and bring my stitching in out of the boot so I can kick back and relax for the rest of the night 🙂

Hopefully tomorrow there will be a stitching piccie of some sort …