Enjoying a sense of peace one stitch at a time
This week’s theme is “Wild” and there are so many interpretations for this theme I thought I’d choose a couple of different ones.
First up is an aboriginal man who reminds me of an indigenous version of the “Wild Man” of Borneo 😉
Then we have a “wild-eyed” crazy man in the band at The Cuckoo in Melbourne.
And lucky last, we have a “wild ride” Egypt-style … trekking into the Valley of the Kings.
Yippee, I can finally post a “finished” piccie of this piece. This time the photos are crappy because they’re taken at night instead of early morning haha. I still remain very disappointed in the finished result purely because of the colours involved – I love some of the bands, but it just doesn’t “do it” for me.
“Evening Star” by Just Nan (class project)
Stitched on 32ct white Belfast linen
with recommended threads and beads (embellishment kit)
Going by some of the comments I’ve received during the stitching progress it appears there are a few people out there that do seem to like it, so I am pleased to finally be able make the “big announcement”…
This finished project is “free to a good home” – if anyone would like to go into a prize draw for this piece, please leave a comment stating this clearly, and at the end of September I will draw one name out of the hat to send this piece to.
I will finish it as a quilted wallhanging so it’s ready to hang in it’s new home (you will just need to provide the hanger itself). While it is quite lovely, I guess, I just don’t feel compelled to display it on my walls, and probably never will, so I’d rather it went to someone who would appreciate it 🙂
Now I guess it’s time to work out what to stitch next … I’m seriously considering going back to a mini-rotation, as I have some BAP’s that need to be worked on, so I’ll have to put some serious thought into that soon … for right now, I have no idea what I feel like stitching on next. Might have to sleep on it and see what the new day brings … 🙂
It seems I may be put out of my misery very soon – my boss replied to yesterday’s email asking me to give her a few days before she responds, but she should have an answer for me next week. At least then I will know what to plan for … and if necessary I can start putting job applications out if I need to 🙂
It will just be nice to know what I need to start planning for … and whether I need to give my old boss in Melbourne a courtesy call to let him know my intentions of not returning … but hey, a week more of not knowing I can handle … as long as it doesn’t keep getting extended …
I think a lot of the positive vibes in Sydney come from where I’m living, more so than the job itself, and my life outside work … I have a much more balanced life here than I did in Melbourne. A lot of that is probably due to working ‘normal hours’ instead of 24/7 shift work … but the proximity to work and being so close to the beach (and away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney itself) is just wonderful. Lisa is a pretty good flatmate and very laid back, and life is just very relaxed here. Perhaps that is a lot of it too – in Melbourne I had such a hard time for a while, that has perhaps coloured my view a little bit … here everything is, well, “positive” 😀
Anyway, enough of the reminiscing, off to bed I go … 7.30pm, but I’m off to bed already … not to sleep, but to stitch – I HAVE to stitch so I can make my announcement tomorrow, ‘cos I’m just about bursting at the seams wanting to blurt it out already! 😉
I was wandering through the lounge last night undoing my ‘chart holder’ of my floorstand to see if the screw would fit my lapstand, when I looked over to the clamp part … well, duh!!! The clamp part is identical to that of my lapframe, right down to the knob … do you think I could’ve perhaps worked that out on Monday night and not 4 nights later?? What a blonde!!!!
However, that means I did finally put needle to fabric last night after two weeks of doing nothing … and in the hour and a bit I stitched last night I managed to finish the beading of two more bands of Just Nan’s Evening Star. That means only one more band left and it’s all finished woohoo! Then it’s going to be finished into a quilted wallhanging. Here’s the bit I finished last night (sorry for the lousy photo but it’s taken in the wee small hours of the morning):
Once the finished piccie is up, there will be an announcement some of you might be interested in … 😉
Thanks so much to Alison, who kindly sent photos over to me last night – I’ve updated the previous post with some fun photos from Sunday. 🙂
Thanks again ladies for an awesome day out 😀
I sat down in bed for an hour’s stitching on Monday to commence a new routine for me … putting at least one strand of thread into my stitching on a daily basis … only to find my ‘knob’ dropped to bits on me! I am loving sitting up in bed and watching TV and stitching away to my heart’s content instead of sitting up in the freezing cold in the lounge, and was mortified to find my lapframe in pieces in front of my very eyes. Unfortunately the wooden part has come away from the screw part, but this part of the screw is actually the ‘top’ and doesn’t have a normal thread to it so I can’t just get away with whacking a lugnut or anything on the end. This is NOT what the knob should look like!!!
So for now, there is no stitching … zip … nada … I get cramp in my hand when I hold a Q-snap etc for more than a few minutes at a time hmmm. But the good news is that I contacted Artisan Designs straightaway, and it’s only going to cost me US$5 plus postage (I think), and they take PayPal, so hopefully it will only be a few weeks before I get a replacement in my hot little hands (once they finally give me a payment amount and place the order!).
Even though I have no stitching to share, I DID have some stitchy-related fun … on Sunday Alison kindly picked me up in her car along with her daughter, and chauffeured me to Amanda’s place where we had a hoot of a day drooling and fondling charts, kits, and threads … and “literally” rolling around in her stash of fabrics! I have never seen such a fabric collection in all my born days – she should charge admission fees to come and visit it 😉
Anyway, Alison kindly took a whole host of photos from the day, so I hope to be able to share with you the great time we had after pilfering some photos. Updated: Here are a couple of my favourites (thanks for the copies, Alison!!):
You have to imagine the Gollum voice impression, while playing in the “precious” – see what I mean about that fabric stash? LOL – You’re the QUEEN, Amanda, I tell ya! 😉
Probably my favourite photo of all – the looks on our faces just sums up the day – hilarious fun!
From left to right: Alison, Amanda, Anne (AAA packed full of fun)
And finally a “nice” shot of the three of us! Apart from the fact my Weight Watchers obviously isn’t working ‘cos I can’t fit in the photo haha
I haven’t laughed that much in ages … those two are the BEST company and an absolute riot! I’m looking forward to the next catch-up already, and we haven’t even planned anything yet! In fact after the weekend visit Amanda finally got coerced into starting her own blog (Confessions of a Fabric Floosy), so make sure you go pay her a visit … she does some beautiful stitching (as do both these two ladies)!
On the work front, today we had a ‘burning issues’ meeting, which is basically a get-together of the “team” without the boss being present … and we got to chatting about the secondments coming up to finishing deadline etc. It turns out that one of the ladies is thinking of giving up the whole job at the end of her secondment in January, which means it’s likely they’ll have to readvertise again later … but one of the reasons this lady put her had up to the boss officially today to tell her is so that it might make a difference to them extending the secondment for me (and Lisa if she’s interested). I only have about 8 weeks left to go but still have had no indication whether they will allow me to stay longer or whether I have to start thinking of uprooting myself again to go back to Melbourne … which is a bit stressful in the back of my mind all the time (especially after the debacle of moving up here with Dodgy Brothers R Us etc – I really don’t want to have to go through all that again). So if you can all stitch with your fingers crossed over the next couple of weeks, that’d be great! I’m hoping now that this lady has raised the issue with management they might finally start to discuss their options in earnest, and fingers crossed it goes in my favour (although there are never any guarantees!).
Rightio, time to go hit the hay and forget about work for the night … and pout at my Evening Star project … hmmm, maybe I should drag in my floorstand from the the lounge for tomorrow night … LOL. If not, I guess you won’t see any stitching again until after the weekend has been and gone, ‘cos I don’t want to sit out in the lounge all on my own in the cold … I must prefer my cozy beautiful bed! 😉
This week’s theme is “String(s)” and even though the photography isn’t great on this one, I thought this photo fitted the theme well. This is a scan of an old photo I took years ago on a visit to Paris on a point and shoot – I love all the ‘strings’ (wires) hanging in symmetry in this shot. I’d love to be able to take this photo again with a better camera and a different angle to crop out the background trees … maybe if I get keen I’ll attack it in Photostop Elements one day 😉
Joanne in Perth, if you’re reading this by any chance, I just realised yesterday that I had an email saved as a draft for you with the Sajou links – I tried sending to you, but may have written your email address down wrong! Here’s another link in case anyone else is interested and hasn’t seen them before!
Then there is the complete list of old needlework books re-published on the ‘net you might find of interest.
And there endeth my foray into ancient designs today …
Now I’m back to play with my scanner, scanning in photos for the upcoming photo hunts – Mum very kindly brought a box full of my old printed photos with her on the last visit, and there are some really good choices for upcoming themes that I can use … I still have a ‘lump in my throat’ today after spending a lot of the night with my head over the toilet bowl, so I’m having an easy day at home today blobbing out. I can only put it down to a dodgy Turkish meal we had for lunch yesterday, either that or it’s just another symptom of these stupid viral bugs that are all the rage at the moment!
In fact, I might as well also show you a sneak preview of my Just Nan piece, seeing as I still haven’t touched a needle in the last few days (oh mojo, wherefore art though?) … I’ll take a decent daylight photo if I can when it’s all finished – so far this is the bottom 2/3 of the design … I thought I’d leave the top 1/3 off the unveiling until it’s totally finished 🙂
I have to admit I was really disappointed when I started stitching this one – the cover photo looks very blue and purple … whereas in real life there is no blue at all, just purples and greens, so not what I was expecting. Thankfully it’s started to grow on me, and the colour scheme, while not “me”, is quite complimentary I guess if you like purples and greens 😉
What an incredible feeling it was on 1 September to realise that winter is over (not that it’s been really bad, it’s actually been relatively mild compared to what I’m used to in Melbourne!) … what I’m excited about is that the days are getting longer again and daylight is returning to my mornings (and my evenings too now that I’m leaving work at ‘normal’ hours). The above photo was taken in Melbourne about this time last year.
With that comes the idea of spring cleaning … well, those that know me well will know that any form of cleaning is a “dirty word” (no pun intended), but I have made a realisation today that I need to ‘let go of baggage’ and start afresh with a few things. With that in mind, I’ve also come to realise that every time I open up my newsfeed reader to catch up on blogs I feel incredibly depressed and overwhelmed. This feeling builds up more every time I see this pop up on my screen:
This is after I’d managed to clean out 700+ unread feeds over the last two weeks, but I’m so so far behind and there are still over 1000 left to read … I don’t want to do it, but I think for my sanity’s sake I’m going to have to mark all as read and start again afresh. At least that way part of the blogging pressure is removed and I can hopefully keep on top of new posts on a more regular basis again.
Still no stitching to share yet … I almost completed Just Nan’s Evening Star on Saturday, and decided not to bother with a WIP piccie seeing as it’s so close to completion … um, 5 days on and it’s still no further on … perhaps this weekend I’ll see it finished, then I’m going to pull my finger out and probably try to get my In the Dark Needleroll finished off … and get some gifts made up that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. Although I’m heading down to Woollongong for a SAL with friends on Sunday, so perhaps it won’t be as productive as I hope haha.
In fact, I’m home early tonight, so maybe I should pull my finger out earlier and drag out the needle and thread tonight instead of sitting staring at the screen playing computer games for the evening (such as I have done for the last 3 nights running). Maybe a happy dance will follow before the weekend … maybe 😉
This week’s theme is “Beautiful” and I had loads of choices of photos this week – the word “beautiful” evokes so many feelings …
After debating between many floral and scenic photos, I decided on my very favourite subject, and a photo I haven’t published before. Of course this beautiful creature is my favourite on earth, and one reason for my blog name … this little duck was taken on the shores of Lake Emerald, Melbourne. In fact, I may just have to crop him and use him for my blog header at some stage hmmm … 🙂
PhotoHunt
Feather Stitching 