Author: Anne S

Brightening my life one stitch or one card at a time, and sharing my joy of needlework and card-making.
Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

A bit of a Rotation happening

Anne S

Today has been the perfect weather for being lazy and having a ‘crafty’ day – I spent a few hours making some more scissor fobs and working on my stitching rotation while watching Season 1 of Buffy (I’m new to Buffy – my flatmate left me the whole series to watch while she’s away, bless her).  The weather has been shocking all weekend, with wind and rain present for prety much the entire long weekend, but it brought out some lovely rainbows in the late afternoon today 🙂

Rainbow 2

Rainbow 1

Stitching-wise I finished my first rotation slot by completing 4 sections of Boo Club – these are sections 5-8 … unfortunately I still haven’t put my hands on my little camera that I use for all my macro/stitching work, so the photos are really bad (not to mention they’re taken at night) – the colours in these one are WAY different to the piece in real life.  With any luck I’ll find my camera before I finish it all … I’m really missing my little Lumix!!

Boo Club 5-8

After I put Boo Club away, I managed to put a few more stitches into my Acorn Needlebook by Periwinkle Promises, finishing the main piece of stitching.  This was put on hold originally because I ran out of the dark green silk in the kit.  I did find, however, that the new skein of silk that finally arrived is a totally different colour to that that was in the kit … the needlebook is for me, so I just stitched it in the ‘odd’ colour – I can tell the difference, but it’ll be fine.  I then stitched up the three pieces that will be the needle pages – I just have the pincushion left to be stitched, then it’s time to put it all together I guess (once again, sorry for the dreadful photos).

Acorn Needlebook

Acorn Needlebook pages

Not sure how much more stitching I’ll get done this week – I guess time will tell …

Beading, scissor fobs

Gift for Tessa

Anne S

Just a really quick post to show a scissor fob that I sent to Tessa last week – I’ve just heard that it’s been received in one piece, so I can show it now.  Tessa loves ladybirds, so when I saw these ladybird beads a while ago, I just had to get them – and then decided to make one into a fob for Tessa … I was lucky enough to find a ladybird charm to finish it all off 😀 

Glad you like it Tessa 😀

Scissor fob gift H

Uncategorized

Congrats to Giovanna

Anne S

Tonight we drew the name of the lucky winner of the Summer threads out of the proverbial hat (actually it was numbered tiddlywinks out of a little plastic container), and Giovanna’s number came up (number 5, ‘cos that’s the order the comments were received in) – Giovanna, if you let me know your mailing address, I’ll try to get them into the mail tomorrow for you – otherwise it’ll be next weekend when I get to the Post Office next 🙂

Tomorrow will be a very busy morning for me – time to swap my expired Victorian drivers licence for a brand spanking new New South Wales one … yippee!!  Then it’s off to pick up my sewing machine from the repair shop so I can get back to sewing some quilted wallhangings etc – the poor thing has not been a happy camper and hasn’t sewn in a forward straight line for some time – serves me right for not getting it serviced straightaway after being gifted it, but never mind, it’ll be as good as new when it gets back home tomorrow and I can start putting it to good use … double yippee!!

And a TRIPLE YIPPEE is due for it being a public holiday on Monday and having a long 3-day weekend … it’s been the week from hell at work (I’vwe been giggling all afternoon for the last couple of days due to over-stress), and quite frankly I don’t want to think about it again until Tuesday morning when I have to.  Of course, if things continue to not go well next week, there’s a slight possibility of me having to fly up to Brisbane for a day’s work, so in some ways that’d be good LOL 😀

I have to admit I’m having major misgivings about my job at the moment – the job itself is um, ho-hum, kinda – very stressful, and not particularly rewarding in itself … but the worst thing is that since a couple of new team members have started, I really really dislike our team of staff!  And we recently had to have a desk shuffle which put the two main characters that I dislike with a passion right in my aisle, with me sharing floor space with the one person that I really and truly struggle with.  Perhaps that’s impacting on my level of enjoyment the most at work, but I have to admit I’ve never ever looked forward to my weekends and home time like I do now … 5pm just can’t come quickly enough for me each day – BIG words from a workaholic like me!

Anyway, enough whining about work … it’s time to hit the hay for the night … Katie and I just sat and watched a soppy chick flick which had us both in tears tonight (PS I Love You, which I’d never seen before … serious tissue supply required for that one!), followed by the latest episode of Supernatural, thanks to the magnificent world of downloading online due to the fact that Channel Ten can’t be bothered screening it until next year (insert as many expletives as you’d like in here, as they’ll be accurate) … after a great night in viewing and watching Katie dress up in her upcoming holiday gladrags, we polished off almost a big bottle of cider (Katie) and Chardonnay (me) and it’s time to get some shut eye before the alarm goes off at 0800 for me to put my ugly face on for my drivers licence photo 😀

I’ll just close with a further quick Congrats again to Giovanna! 😀

Cross Stitch, Stash, Wishlist

Gay Ann Rogers – upcoming class

Anne S

Enabling alert – This one is really really pretty … Check it out, if you dare! 😀

http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Pre-Week_2.html

But I think the cheaper price is this week only (it’s for an upcoming class).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I’ve also just been really bad and finally enabled myself, after seeing so many people stitching this first one … but I couldn’t buy one without the other, so these two have just taken a trip through PayPal and should be arriving via email shortly 🙂

Jardin Prive-My Lady's Quaker

Jardin Prive-Gentleman Quaker

You too can buy these from Jardin Privé 😀

This one I haven’t actually bought yet, but it most definitely HAS to go onto the wishlist – love love love this one, don’t know why I haven’t seen it before now!  And now I’m going to stop looking!!! … Back to cleaning out the bedroom 😛

Nora Corbett-Bluebell Pixie

Beading, Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, scissor fobs, threads

HUGE mail day coming up! and a Giveaway

Anne S

I don’t know what has been wrong with me this last year – I’ve been exceptionally terrible at fulfilling promises, and have a HUGE pile of items and gifts that need to be posted to people – I have a massive desire to get rid of the backlog, as it is cluttering my brain (not to mention my bedroom!), so I’ve been making a large effort today to get a few things parcelled up ready to go into the mail next weekend.

Along with that, I’ve realised that I will never stitch with the following threads – I apologise to the kind-hearted soul who sent me these as part of a “summer” theme exchange years ago, but I’m just not a pastels girl, and I just can’t see me using them.  To that end, I have a card already filled out, and the threads are sitting in an envelope, ready to join the rest of the pile to be posted out next Saturday morning (the only chance I can usually get to the Post Office) – and I’m offering a prize draw for these to go to a more fitting home.

Seaside Treasures threads up for grabs

Soooooo, if anyone would like these threads, please leave a comment on this post only stating that you would like to go into the draw (if there is more than one comment – if only one person enters then they get the threads automatically).  The closing date is this coming Thursday 1 October – that way I can draw the name out of the proverbial hat on Friday morning and it will give me chance to chase a mailing address on the Friday if I don’t already have it, so I can meet my mailing deadline.

As for the other parcels, there are a number of threads and scissor fobs heading around the world on Saturday … here is the only one I can show you so far, as I’m pretty sure Karen doesn’t read my blog.  I just had to choose a dragonfly charm for her fob in honour of her old shop name of Dragonfly Dreams – I made this one this morning just in time to get in the mail today, along with the Lizzie*Kate pinkeep from a few blog posts ago 😀

Scissor fob gift G
This one has gone to Karen at The Stitching Post

I’ll post piccies of the others that have been posted out once I hear that they’ve been received … I don’t want to spoil the surprise in the meantime.

Beading, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

First fob gift received

Anne S

I just heard word that Dawn received the fob I recently sent her – this is the first fob to be posted on to my blogging friends, and I’m so glad she likes it 🙂

Gift for Dawn 07Sep09

Apologies for the poor quality, but I’ve mislaid my digital camera, so it had to go on the scanner before it went into the post! 

Still no stitching done here, so no stitchy updates to offer you – at the moment I’m spending all my spare time trying to set up a new computer (HP Desktop), and it’s driving me totally NUTS!!!  Fun things like CD programs that no longer want to upload, including Microsoft Office 2007 (after I found the ever-elusive disks!!) … and of course then there’s the fun part of downloading other files and copying existing files from the laptop and hard drive … I think it’s going to be a long, long road … but then again, it’s a great journey and the end destination is going to be awesome!! 😀

Cross Stitch, Rotation

Rotation Alert

Anne S

Thanks to a Yahoo group I belong to, and a great discussion thread, I’ve become very very keen to get my rotation back underway again – I tried to do this earlier in the year and continued illness kept putting things on the backburner … now I’m all fired up to start it up once again, and have worked out the following rotation for now.  The first project in the list is the current project to be worked on, with the following couple of projects next in line to be stitched (subject to changing my mind on a whim…):

  1. Focus Piece
    – Boo Club by Lizzie*Kate
    – Egyptian Garden Mandala by Chatelaine
    – English Garden Sampler by Teresa Wentzler
  2. Medium to Large
    – Acorn Needlebook by Periwinkle Promises
    – Summer Snapperland by Bent Creek
    – Halloween Fairy by Mirabilia
  3. WIPs & UFOs
    – Love & Affection by JBW Designs
    – Wildflowers Needleroll by The Sweetheart Tree
    – Cottage Etui by CA Wells
  4. Focus Piece – Boo Club
  5. Small to Medium
    – Boo! Scissors Keeper & Purse by The Drawn Thread
    – Winter in the Square by Just Nan
    – Mermaid Heart by Just Nan
  6. Large & BAPs
    – Enchanted Mermaid by Mirabilia
    – Golden Garden Sweet Bag by Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches
    – Bluebeard’s Princess by Mirabilia
  7. Focus Piece – Boo Club
  8. Christmas Ornaments & Freebies
  9. Finishing – Trying to whittle down a pile of finished-unfinished objects … will be great to see them made into their final shapes!
  10. Free Choice – whatever takes the urge at the time, but at this stage the following are screaming the loudest:
    – Ladybug Ladybug by LHN
    – Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls by Just Nan
    – Dragonfly Scissor Purse by Just Nan
    – Is it Too Late? by Lizzie*Kate
    – Quaker Flowers emery by Anita

Rightio, now I’m off to find all the charts, threads and fabrics, and make sure I have enough scrollbars etc for them all, then they can get organised in my stitching tub ready to start that rotation!  I’m just waiting until the end of this week so I can get my Quaker Round Robin out of the way (should be arriving any day now, hopefully), then it’s full steam ahead!  I want to get the Quaker finished as soon as it arrives, so it can be shipped straight off home to it’s Mum without waiting for the official posting date 😀

Oh shoot, I just remembered I have a couple of pieces that I “need” to finish first … hmmm, me thinks I might just have to start my rotation with the “Free Choice” slot and add those into the mix first …! 😛

Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Stitching Leporello

Happy Dance

Anne S

Yippee, I just put the final stitches into Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello!!  (Sorry, the colours are dreadful in this photo!)

Stitching Leporello-Final piece

I shouldn’t get too cocky yet, though, as I still have the actual “finishing” to go yet! 😉

The only thing I did change in the above piece is the style of alphabet used for my initials above – unfortunately Martina’s chosen alphabet just didn’t appeal to me, so I found something a lot simpler to use instead – and I opted not to do the initials over-one, mainly because I’m not a huge fan of over-one stitching with variegated thread … but I think it worked out OK anyway 😀

Here are all the pieces together in one place (sorry, some pieces are a bit ‘cut-off’ due to the shape):

Stitching Leporello 1

Stitching Leporello 2

Stitching Leporello 3