Enjoying a sense of peace one stitch at a time
Even though I’ve spent more time tonight frog-stitching (I swear, I think I’ve had to frog-stitch something in every single block of this chart – I’m so out of practice following canvaswork charts!!), I decided I was in the mood to stitch a bit more on it, and I’m pleased I did … I managed a reasonable bit of forward motion on it 🙂
I ADORE the colours in this piece – the blues, greens and purples are so lush! 😀
Well, I finally bit the bullet last night and sat down in front of Dawson’s Creek (over halfway of the whole series now, thank goodness … the end seems so much closer now LOL), and mindlessly frog-stitched Sapphire Star. This is one of those cases when the “before” and “after” pics seem to be so, so wrong! 😛
BEFORE …………………………………………………… AFTER
Instead of starting my stitching on it again, though, I thought I’d wait until I had a day of concentration available so I didn’t cock it up again, and added just a couple of stitches into my other WIP. Unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy stitching this one the first time round, and I can’t say why but things haven’t changed much, so it’ll be a long-time WIP I think – even though there isn’t a great deal of stitching, I get fed up with it really quickly … even if I only get an hour’s stitching inbetween other WIPs I think I’ll be happy enough. I’m also disappointed that the purple thread isn’t as dark as my original one, so the bright turquoise seems to be more overpowering, rather than equal in colour intensity … but hopefully when more gets added it’ll be OK.
Ooh, before I forget though, I have to say I’ve just seen yet ANOTHER chart that has gone STRAIGHT to my wishlist … loving everything “Paris” this one just HAS to come to Mama at some stage:
In fact there have been a few designs over recent months that have appealed and probably need to go officially on my wishlist … I’m not sure if I’ve shared these already, but perhaps I will just to share the love and to spruce up this post? Here are many more designs that have tickled my fancy recently:
Blackbird Designs-Summer Iris; Cherished Stitches-Tulip Collection; Bent Creek-July Sings
Bent Creek-Joyous Noel; The Cat’s Whiskers-Noel Natural; JBW Designs-Tis the Season
Lizzie*Kate-3 Blox kit; Dessins DHC-White Christmas; Milady’s Needle-Christmas Elegance
Lizzie*Kate-Jolly Holiday; Rosewood Manor-Ring in Christmas; The Trilogy-Snow Treats!
The Victoria Sampler-Christmas Village; Stitching Treasures-Thistle Stitcher’s Purse Kit; Stitching Treasures-Antebellum Sewing Kit
Chatelaine-Peacock Mandala Mystery; Cross-Eyed Cricket-A Summer Place; Dessins DHC-Laura’s Embroidery
From Nancy’s Needle-Shades of Winter; It’s Fine-ally Finished-Percy kit; Needles Prayse-English Whitework Sampler
Primitive Needle-Witches Hollow; Rosewood Manor-Quaker Diamonds; Stitcher’s Hands-Funky Frank
Twisted Threads-Mini Gingham October Boo; The Trilogy-Halloween Spot; Shepherd’s Bush-We Will Go A-Haunting
Shepherd’s Bush-Spooky Halloween; Shepherd’s Bush-October; Glendon Place-Witching it was Halloween
Heart in Hand-Halloween Markings; Hinzeit-Charmed Peek-a-Boo
Glendon Place-Monster March; Cross Eyed Cricket-Skeleton Crew
Now after sharing a very eclectic mix of designs, I’m off into the HTML code of my blog to yet again fix up the silly sidebars that every so often (after no changes from me, mind you) expand themselves so they drop to the bottom of the page. I wonder if it’s when they do a new ‘refresh’ of WP? Anyway, perhaps this time I’ll learn and do a copy and paste into a Word document of my blog code so I can just copy and paste it back again later when it happens again … ‘cos it’s like the Pantene ad, it may not happen overnight but it WILL happen (again … and again … and again).
First of all, thanks so much for all your feedback on my canvaswork piece. I have to agree with you on the frogging part, and I will be unpicking the blue centrepiece and moving it further down. Which is one of life’s lessons I have learned this week:
I still haven’t frogged my needlework yet, but instead over the last two nights I’ve spent a short time cutting out mattboard and attaching batting, and matching backing fabrics, to start finishing off Christmas ornies – these are mainly ones stitched by my Mum, which haven’t been finish-finished yet (it’s OK Mum, I’m not nagging you again haha). I figure it’ll be a nice change to sit and lace a few ornies on an evening instead of stitching in front of the gogglebox – here’s what our lounge looks like right now 😛
And on that note, I’m about to leave the lounge room in its untidy state, and carry my Sapphire Star into the lounge to do the frog-stitch … rippit, rippit, rippit … so some time next week I’ll be ready to start getting ‘back in the saddle’ again 😀
And on another note, we’ve just decided to head over and see Sherlock Holmes this weekend … it doesn’t get much better than this 😛
‘Cos it’s not appropriate that I print what I just uttered when I found out I’d miscounted in yesterday’s stitching session on Sapphire Star … and of course I had to find out after I’d almost filled in the top sections – only to find that I started the blocks about 7-8 rows too low. Here’s how it looks right at the point that I found the mistake:
So that means I either have to fudge it by missing out the dark diamond above the main blue one (in the centre – not stitched yet), or I have to unpick the bottom block lines, along with the entire big centre blue block and move it down those 7-8 lines … oh crap 😦
Funnily enough my stitching urge just went out the window … I think I might read a book tomorrow instead 😛
This has been sitting in my finishing for a couple of years – awaiting the back to be personalised … I managed to finally do the personalisation before Christmas when I was housesitting across the other side of Sydney, but I then misplaced the backing board which was already cut out with batting attached. Finally today all the pieces came together … literally … and I put the finishing touches to my pinkeep for a stitching pal that I haven’t seen for quite some time. The name has been removed to keep the surprise, but hopefully it will be in the mail some time soon 🙂
This is a freebie angel by Lavender and Lace, stitched on 32ct Waterlily linen by Wichelt.
Thanks to Annette, for reminding me of my favourite Australian poem, in honour of Australia Day:
Here is my choice for this week’s Ruby Tuesday – fresh chillies at a local supermarket (well, it was local at the time I took the photo!).
I have to admit to growing a little tired of Dawson’s tonight – the endless squabbles and melodramas of a group of teenagers is finally wearing on my nerves … BUT I swore I’d sit and watch the entire collection of DVD’s and I will continue to do so even if it kills me or drives me to the booze cabinet! The GREAT thing, though, is that it’s good to stitch by, ‘cos you don’t really have to look up all that often and can just listen to them all drivel on amongst themselves on the TV screen 😀
Which means, therefore, there’s some reasonable stitching progress from tonight … the close-up shows the colours relatively well, considering it was taken in a darkened room, directly under my Ott-Lite … unfortunately the ‘whole’ photo looks exceptionally washed out thanks to the Ott-Lite 😦
Tomorrow is a public holiday for Australia Day (well, I guess technically that is now “today”, so happy Australia Day to all my Aussie friends!!) … I said I would join the throng of hooligans at The Rocks for a free music concert, but truth is I really just want to sit around all afternoon in front of the goggle box with my honking great tapestry needle in hand, working away on getting some more colour into my Sapphire Star … sounds like a blissful plan … all I need now is some really bad weather to force me indoors 😛
I don’t usually take part in “guilt-free January”, but this weekend I just couldn’t resist starting something new – I’ve had a hankering to start a canvaswork piece for weeks now, and I finally succumbed to the temptation late yesterday. The photo is dreadful and blurred, but you can at least guess from the colour of the stitches of this one that I’m in love already!!! 😛
This is Laura J Perin’s Sapphire Star (or at least it will be once I get cracking a bit more on it – I’ll take a better photo, ie non-blurry, when I’ve stitched a bit more on it) … I’m about to head off into the lounge to watch Dawson’s Creek (yet again) with Katie … I’m starting to think it’s the TV show that never ends, but we’re over halfway through the seasons now, and once we finish it means we can move on to something else – namely Season 1 of Fringe. I’ve seen most of the first season before it got pulled from TV, but Katie hasn’t seen any. (Of course, now thanks to Channel 9, it is finally back on TV again – thanks Go! channel.)
Talking of TV shows being pulled, I’m seriously p*ssed at Channel Ten if the information has Katie has just told me is correct – that they won’t be renewing the Supernatural series. As per normal they think it’s just fine and dandy to show about 1/3 of the ‘final’ season of a show only to axe it … and they wonder why people resort to downloading TV shows. Of course ratings are going to be low when you move to late night slots, and of course ratings will be super low when you play in during Christmas week – where did you get your business degrees from??? My thoughts about Channel Ten management are seriously not printable … there are plenty of words rattling around in my head that would make my mother’s hair stand on end! Bah humbug you Channel Ten morons!!! And talking of which, where’s the final bloody episodes of ER???? mutter mutter mutter bloody mutter … 😦
OK, time to head back into the lounge for some calming TV … on DVD, Channel Ten, so you can’t stuff that up!!! 😛
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Feather Stitching 
