Author: Anne S

Brightening my life one stitch or one card at a time, and sharing my joy of needlework and card-making.
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Short post before I head to work

Anne S

I just want to post a public thank you to the stitcher who left the original “Pickaninny” link – we have had a few email exchanges and my mind has been put to rest that there was no malicious intent, and the emails have been very very much appreciated.

Since my ranting post it appears to have blown up bigger than Ben Hur … and I was in a bit of an emotional state yesterday when I read it on arriving home.  I’ve been working exceptionally long hours (15 hours some of the days), and I am mentally and physically dog-tired and exhausted – because of that I’ve been very over-sensitive to these issues that have arisen and they have affected me a lot.  Normally I’d have the strength to think “whatever” and ignore the original link, instead of letting it get to me emotionally.  Last night I was at such a low ebb, aftering reading the latest round of comments (one particularly) I was very tempted to shut off the comment option or walk away from blogging altogether … once again, just an over-reaction due to my emotional state right now.  I do want to thank those of you who have offered support in your comments, though, it is appreciated.

I have, however, decided to take a break from writing or reading blogs for a week or so – until I’m not so manic and stressed at work, and life and my emotions have returned to an even keel.  I’m dealing with so much at work right now, I don’t need to add to the emotional stress when I get home as well.  There will still be a Photo Hunt post regardless, as I’ve post-dated about 2 months worth of photos … as for the rest, I’ll be back when I’m ready I guess, then I can put all this stuff behind me and move on.

Right now, it’s time to get dressed and get back into the office for the rest of the day – at least I should be able to achieve a few things today without distractions or interruptions … I’ll return again soon.

Birdhouses, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt – Bright

Anne S

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
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This week’s theme is “Bright” and I’ve chosen a photo of bright orange carp at the Chinese Friendship Garden, Darling Harbour, Sydney.  It was difficult to get a good photo because the sun was glaring in the wrong direction, plus they were swimming along moving all the time! But they are definitely “bright” orange!

Carp, SYD Chinese Friendship Gardens

And a bright coloured birdhouse at the Enchanted Maze Gardens, VIC Australia.

Bright 1

 

Christmas Ornaments, Country Cottage Needleworks, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Friends & Family, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Travel - Fiji

A bit of a rant!

Anne S

After posting a piccie of my stitching finish “Picanini Can Can”, someone ‘kindly’ left a link to Wikipedia in my comments area which essentially states the term “Pickaninny” is offensive and racist.  Am I to interpret that link to insinuate either my stitching or myself is offensive and racist??  Who knows, as the person who left the link has not responded to my personal email to her.  All I can say is, seriously, GET A GRIP!!!!!

Quite frankly it’s picking on one of the least racist ‘white chicks’ you can meet – I used to tell Fraze off all the time for his racist comments and actions against Asian races … and I have always had friends ‘of colour’ – Asian, Indian, Maori and Fijian … not to mention I was apparently the only kid in the street growing up in England who used to play with the ‘coloured children’ (the term I was taught to use growing up) – as far as I was concerned there was no colour difference … as someone once said, “we are the same people in different packaging – we all bleed the same blood”.

I’ll end with a photo of the last relationship I was in … racist?  I think not! (by the way, it’s the guy on the right) 

Akuila and Joe

Mutter mutter mutter … 😦

I can only say one thing, in the form of my latest stitching finish – my Christmas ornie for June … “PEACE”!!! 🙂

CCN-Peace

“Peace” ornament by Country Cottage Needleworks
from 2007 JCS Christmas Ornament magazine
Stitched on 28ct Water Lily Jobelan
with recommended DMC (except substitute plain white for DMC 3865 which was AWOL)

Yet another crappy photo that doesn’t show the colours up too well – the fabric is a lovely soft green!  Like others before me, I think this is way too big to be an ornie, so I’m keen to finish it as a flanged pillow … with a pastel pink fabric for the flange … yeah, I know, ME … PINK!!!!! 😛

PEACE !!!

Cross Stitch, Finishes

Stitching and Frogging

Anne S

I don’t have too much stitching left on my June Christmas ornie now … I would have finished it by now, but I’ve had to frog stitch almost all of the border, followed by now having to frog almost half of the plant leaves due to being one stitch out on both … ho-hum.  Hopefully there will be a finish piccie by the end of the week anyway (although work this week is going to be hell, so may not …).

Another stitching stuff-up on my part saw me almost run out of fabric on the following wee piece that I stitched up last night and this morning … when I was kitting all of my stitching up before putting everything into storage last year, it seems I misjudged the fabric size and basically cut it to the stitching size plus about one inch on the left and right margins … that was compounded when I managed to also start the stitching off-centre as well last night, leaving me with a scant 1 1/2 cm border on the left hand side.  Thankfully I’m thinking of finishing this as a small pillow, so I just have enough margin to attach the quilting fabric.  Anyway, here’s the finished piccie – once again a very poor photo as my battery still wasn’t charged up when I took it this morning, and my SLR doesn’t get the nice crisp details that my point and shoot Lumix does …

Not my ‘normal stitching style’, but I had fun stitching this one – I especially love the beads and little pigtails on the girls:

Picanini Can Can 1
“Picanini Can Can” by Pauline’s Needlecraft, NZ
Stitched on 28ct white Cashel linen
with DMC threads & Mill Hill beads

Unfortunately I believe Pauline’s (a LNS in Auckland, NZ) has now closed down, so the design is probably no longer available – it is just printed on blue paper, but if anyone would like it, I’m happy to send the chart off to a new home … just leave me a comment here for it.  If more than one person is interested in it, I’ll have a draw to pick a winner at the end of the month.  (Updated to advise this chart now has a new home, thanks for the interest – those who went into the draw have been advised separately by email)

As for me, it’s now time to hit the hay and hopefully not dream all night about frogs!

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Gift of Stitching

Finally a stitching post …

Anne S

I’ve been stitching all day but have very litte to show for it … first up is a wee freebie finish:

Amitie
Freebie by www.romyeale.blogspot.com
Stitched on 28ct antique white Lugana
with Caron Collection Waterlilies in Pine Forest

Here is the wee beastie that has taken most of the day to stitch … I had to change almost all of the colours as I didn’t have the recommended threads in my stash, but I think it turned out OK – not perfect, but I still like it.  It was quite fun doing some different stitches for a change, especially doing the whipped backstitch.  The sand is a mix of cross stitch and Smyrna crosses, but you can’t see that in this photo.  This will eventually be a tin topper … after trying to find another design in the Gift of Stitching magazines, I came across this one and remembered I fell in love with it when I first received the issue.  Well I then made up my mind to stitch a new piece rather than turn my Prairie Schooler Duck into a tin just yet.  Fingers crossed the finishing will go OK for my first tin attempt! Apologies for the poor photo, but my battery just died so I can’t take another clearer one just yet …

Waves 1
“Waves” by Melissa Dunajski
from Gift of Stitching Magazine, Issue 17 June 2007
Stitched on 32ct Ice Blue hand-dyed Belfast by Countrystitch
using the following substitution threads:
GAST Flax = used recommended thread GAST Flax
WDW Angel Hair = substituted DMC 677
WDW Aqua = substituted DMC Variations 4020
GAST Cornflower = substituted DMC Variations 4230
GAST Oatmeal = used GAST Oatmeal
NN Bali Hai = substituted Carrie’s Threads Dillon’s Sea

Not entirely sure what to stitch next … although I guess I “should” stitch my Christmas ornie for June as I’m nearly running out of time (just for a change!) – but I really want to start something new, something like Drawn Thread’s Autumn Arbor or Sunflower Sampler … oh decisions, decisions … Or perhaps I should just put the needles away for a day and concentrate on doing some finishing … hmmmm … 😉

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Just popping in briefly

Anne S

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has left such kind and generous comments on my Photo Hunt posts – it’s something I’m still enjoying doing each week on the whole, and at least it means some form of photo is present every week even if it’s not stitching ones! 😉

I’ve taken two photography courses in the past, but both were purely about working in the darkroom, which taught me absolutely nothing about what I wanted to learn (ie composition, exposure, lighting etc) – so if the photos come out well, it’s probably pure luck and perhaps a reasonable eye when it comes to cropping in the editing program 😛

It’s been a long time since I’ve been madly taking photos of my surroundings – when I went travelling years ago with my “film” camera (before I learned about the joy of digital) I’d come from with bags brimming full of film reels for processing because I’ve always been snap happy.  Only in recent months have I started getting the joy of photography back again and started taking a few more photos.  One day I may look at taking another class again (but for digital, not film, so there’s no chance of just ending up in the darkroom!), or perhaps I’ll just get a tutorial book for digital cameras … one day …

Today, however, I’m about to head off back to my bed and catch up on some TV viewing from the last few weeks while stitching up a wee freebie or two – I also have to get my Christmas ornie finished for June … I feel another lazy weekend coming on! 😀

Thanks once again for all the lovely comments on my photos – and also on my stitching, it’s greatly appreciated that you’ve taken the time to do so.  On the reading front I’m almost halfway through catching up on my backlog so you’ll see me leaving more comments on your own blogs once again – it’ll be nice to get into that daily blog reading routine that I used to have before moving to Sydney 🙂

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Wishlist

No stitching to show

Anne S

And it might be a few days or so before there’s another update after my stitching weekend marathon 🙂

Instead, today I finally contacted the NSW Embroiderers Guild to talk about signing up for membership.  The headquarters is in Concord West, so it’s a wee drive away from here, but they have stitching groups that meet one Saturday or one Sunday a month, which could be nice to join up with.  Even though I’m not currently doing any stitching other than XS, it’s nice to see other techniques being done – and might even spur me back into action to work on some of the EGA class projects I haven’t even started yet!

I’ve also been increasing my wishlist (yet again!!) – here are the latest ones that have taken my fancy (thank goodness I don’t often search for new designs so I only find a few at a time haha)

Here’s My Stitching Treasures Accessories by Jeannette Douglas (I also now might have to add the original My Stitching Treasures to the list too LOL):

Jeannette Douglas-My Stitching Treasures Accessories

New 2008 double flip-its from Lizzie*Kate – I LOVE these big time!!!  I have a funny feeling my Mum might love these too … I don’t normally ‘go for’ Lizzie’s flip-its, but these ones are a given 😉

Lizzie Kate-Christmas flip its

Talking about Lizzie*Kate, this one I have definitely got a soft spot for after seeing it on Dawn’s blog – gotta love those sentiments haha:

lizzie kate-s81-housework never killed anyone

And I’ll finish off with Mirabilia’s Letters from Nora – the letter A is just perfection in itself for moi … what more could I want than a beautiful pretty blue angel? OK, so she doesn’t have a duck by her side, but it’s close enough to perfection for me 😉

Mirabilia-Letters from Nora A

The only thing I had to add is that I finally have a better typing set-up at home for my laptop … just before Mum left I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse, and I just LOVE it – especially the mouse! It’s amazing how much more quickly I’m getting things done on the computer.

I’m also starting to plough through my 3 months backlog of blog reading as from today – I’d love to get to the stage again when I just have ‘new’ feeds to check each day instead of the 1300+ I currently have to wade through! I’m tempted to ‘mark as read’ … sorely tempted … but I know I’ll regret missing out on news and stitching finishes, so I’ll keep going for a few days and see how I go 🙂

Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Stitching Leporello, Works in Progress

Stitching Leporello … part 8

Anne S

I managed to get part 8 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello finished today (the pincushion) – I’ve been a little hermit all weekend, and loved every minute of it.  I’m all caught up with Supernatural season one, and now part-way through listening to The Kite Runner on audiobook … ah bliss 😉

I really should try to take a better photo in daylight as this one doesn’t show the colours very accurately at all …

 

Stitching Leporello 8 2