Crafts – Needlework – Page 15

Cross Stitch, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls

18 May, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Without further ado, here’s the latest WIP photo of Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls – it’s also likely to be the final work in progress photo, as the next time you see it it will hopefully be an actual finished project – I reckon just one more night, maximum two nights, in front of the gogglebox will see this finished off – there are just 3 froggies, a bunch of eyes and pumpkin backstitching, and 2 teeny ghost heads at the bottom plus 2 over-one kitty cats, and 4 yucky spiders in the corners … yeah, 2 nights should do it, easy!

Of course now I’m fantasising about which project to pick up next – while I still have a huge pile of UFO’s to work through, and some other projects I’m in the middle of, the call of the “new start” is screaming very very loudly in my ear! I’m almost tempted to start stitching Just Nan’s “Witchy Way”, yet another Halloween project, because I’ve got a lot of the threads already out from GGG, but then again it’s perhaps time for a break from Halloween designs … I’m really not entirely sure where my stitching passion will lead me this time … there are so many wonderful projects in my stash, I’m truly spoilt for choice and right now nothing is screaming any louder than anything else! 😀

I do have to finish off my scissor pocket exchange ready for mailing this weekend, so I have some time available yet before I have to make the ultimate decision on what project to pick up next … and I still have Sapphire Star to finish yet as well – I kinda came unstuck a bit ‘cos I absolutely abhor one of the threads used in the final sections, and am thinking of replacing it with a standard pearl cotton instead … maybe …

Anyway, for now it’s time to hit the hay for the night – I’m off to read another few pages of JR Ward’s Dark Lover before I officially wilt … I managed a whole 10 pages last night before my eyelids were too heavy to keep open … at this rate I should be finished with the entire series in about 2018! 😛

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Just Nan, Lizzie Kate, Works in Progress

Where did the weekend go?

16 May, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Well, I guess I know where … I spent the entire day in my PJ’s on Saturday ‘cos I was just too tired to do anything else – I sat up in bed most of the day and watched DVDs while doing a teeny bit of stitching. After playing in my stash for a little while (dragging out all the kitted up projects in my drawers) I managed to start and finish this little project (but couldn’t face leaving the American spelling of “favorite” so I added a little “U” to Aussie-fy it):

“My Favorite Time” by Lizzie*Kate
stitched on 28ct mystery Cashel linen (probably Clay or something similar)
with recommended GAST threads except Oatmeal where I subbed with DMC B5200

Then I started on a freebie by Plum Pudding Needleart – which will only take one more bedroom stitching session to totally complete it. In fact, I reckon about 2 hours of stitching will likely see it completed … but seeing as it’s now my ‘bedroom project’, and I don’t often stitch in my room, this may not see the finishing pile until next weekend again.

This morning Katie and I wandered over to the restaurant on ‘our’ beach where we had a leisurely brunch – I had the Eggs Benedict with a side of mushrooms, pineapple juice, and two skim cappuccinos … we were in heaven for a wee while. On the way home we picked up a couple of bags each of groceries from the local supermarket, then came in to vege out in front of the gogglebox for a few hours watching Flash Forward and The Amazing Race while I did a bit of stitching. After that Katie deserted me to go to her bedroom to read a book, while I cleaned up another episode of Good News Week, Fringe and Medium.

Thanks to our TV viewing session, the result is that Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls now looks like this:

I have to say I think the colour choices in particular for the two small pumpkins seem rather “odd” … but they’ll be staying as they are …

And now I’m going to open up Audible Manager and pop on an audiobook for an hour or two while I do some tidying up in my room, which is currently like a pigsty! 🙂

Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Just Nan, Lizzie Kate, Works in Progress

The end of the week…

13 May, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

“TGIF” BIG time this week – Friday hasn’t come around quick enough, even though I’ve got massive amounts of work I haven’t managed to get through yet, I’m still grateful the weekend is looming closely ahead!

After my outburst on Monday things at work have felt a lot calmer, I guess. The air has been cleared between “the guy” and myself, and even though I felt really cautious on Tuesday morning, by mid afternoon Tuesday I felt a lot perkier and even managed a joke with the man. So all-in-all I guess it’s all good as far as we’re concerned … I’m sure we’ll never see eye to eye, but we’ll be more conscious of how the other is reacting I guess. The frustrating thing on my behalf is that 9 out of 10 times I’ve been proven right in my viewpoint, but he still loves to argue for the sake of it. Oh well, time to be more tolerant and not take things personally anymore 🙂

Unfortunately our team is made up of some VERY strong personalities and large egos – and there seem to be more clashes than enough … we’ve just had a new member join the team, and she’s already put people’s backs up in the sites and within our own team … oh joy of joys. I’m regularly getting phone calls from people in the sites asking for advice on my interpretation of issues because they’ve found offence in the way a colleague has spoken to them – some days I feel like Dear Abby. I guess I should see it as a real compliment that people feel comfortable and trust me enough to open enough, but truth is it can be really draining … give me a quiet job somewhere without any internal bickering and I’ll be blissfully happy!!!

Anyway, enough of this whining about my job … this is mainly a stitching blog not a moaning blog, and I finally have a Happy Dance to share! Tonight, while watching a mini NCIS marathon, I managed to put the absolute final stitches into Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club … woohoo!!! 😀 Here are the final couple of bands on show … I’ll wait until decent daylight to take a photo of the entire finished piece, then I’ll share my fabric and thread details at that time.

Then I picked up Just Nan’s Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls and started the tree branches over on the left of the chart … I think I’ll keep going with this one now until it’s finished … although I do still have to finish Laura J Perin’s Sapphire Star yet … hmmm … 🙂

Beading, Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Lizzie Kate, scissor fobs, Works in Progress

Sick flatmate

9 May, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Alas, since lunchtime I’d ‘had’ to keep my flatmate and best pal Katie company in the lounge while she’s been suffering from a dodgy tummy from Vanuatu – it was a major hardship having to sit in my stitching chair for 8 or so hours while we watched all the TV shows that have been taping in her absence … which means there’s finally a stitchy progress photo! Only one more week and this little puppy will be finito! As you can see from the bottom piccie, I’ve now turned the corner for the bottom band of the border 😀

On Saturday morning I managed to get a couple of items into the post – my first PIF on it’s way finally … and this little gift to someone else – fingers crossed the recipients like their gifts 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll find out whether I have got the new 12 month secondment position or not … after I drop off my 90+ year old neighbour off at the airport for her next Queensland holiday … that’ll keep me in the good books for a while longer LOL. And seeing as I need to leave home an hour earlier than normal to do that, I’d better get my A into G and get into bed!!! 😀

Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Lizzie Kate, Theme Thursday, Theme Thursday, Works in Progress

Theme Thursday – and a WIP

29 April, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I haven’t been following the Theme Thursday meme very long, but I decided to finally do one of them – as the theme doesn’t get published until the Sunday beforehand, by the time we get it ‘down under’ it’s already Monday – then I’m at work and leaving when it’s dark … it basically means I have to have a photo to do with the theme in my files already, which isn’t always the case … but this time I do, so I thought I would … join in, that is! 😀

This week’s “Theme Thursday” theme is “Bicycle”. Here’s an old penny farthing bike at Timbertown.

In other news, I picked up my needle as planned last night, while Katie and I caught up on a few of our favourite shows – I got burnt out early at work and decided to skive off 1/2 hour earlier than normal and managed to leave just as the sun was going down (geez it felt good leaving in semi-daylight!). Anyway the night was spent with Supernatural, Flash Forward, Bones, Castle, Greys Anatomy … phew! What a difference it makes to the length of a program when taking all the adverts out – love love LOVE my TiVo! 😀

I opted to pick up Boo Club again, and put the wee buttons on the first 6 blocks – managed to do a bit more of the border on each side, so it won’t be long now before I’m officially at the halfway mark (after the Creepy block) – I think I’ll keep doing this one now over the next few nights to try to get it finished (assuming I don’t get too bored and need a break from the border – although I agree that it does go pretty quickly in the scheme of things, and it’s pretty mindless to do in front of the gogglebox with no ‘real’ counting as such). Alas my WIP photos will be boring for a while though 😛

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Gift of Stitching, Pay It Forward, pillows, pincushions, Stitching Smalls, tin topper, Works in Progress

Final day of finishing

26 April, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Wow, what a spectacular weekend I’ve had finishing-wise – I’ve really enjoyed sitting around in my PJ’s and scruffy clothes on my own all weekend and concentrating on my finishing efforts. As the hours went on, I felt more confident again in doing finishing – and I’m thinking perhaps I should assign one weekend a month to doing the same thing …

Here are the final efforts from today’s finishing session – there is still one pincushion left to show, but I still have to stitch on the cord edging before I can claim it as being finish-finished 🙂

1 more Christmas ornament
(excuse the greenish tinge, it’s actually white fabric!)

1 tie-on Easter pillow (certainly not my best ever finishing!)

My first Pay It Forward completed (with my tea-dyed lace)
(name removed so the recipient can be surprised)

1 Tin Topper – LOVE this one –
I’ve been meaning to turn this into a tin topper for EVER!
(now I just need to find some magnet strips for the lid –
I’m sure I have some hiding away somewhere)

And I also ‘forced’ myself to sit and watch a bit of vintage TV tonight while I sat and stitched for about 2 hours … I’ve been working my way through The Professionals on DVD – from waaaaay back in the 70’s, this used to be one of my absolute favourite shows in my youth. I had the biggest crush on Bodie (Lewis Collins) at the time … and now just giggle a bit at the outlandish clothes and tight pants 😛

At least that vintage TV session gave me chance to put a few more stitches into Just Nan’s Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls – I managed to complete one side of the garden fencing, and planted a tree (well, OK, maybe HALF a tree!) 😀

And do you remember I said I’d mislaid my teeny white buttons for Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club? Hmmm, I guess I was a bit smarter than I thought – I found them hiding where they actually should be … in my embellishments box … hmmm. Anyway, I’ve now thrown in my little black buttons with them too, so during my next stitching session I’ll be tossing up between Sapphire Star, Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls and Boo Club – oh, decisions, decisions 😛

Tomorrow it’s time to back to work again – where I will be putting my hand up for another 12 month secondment (that is of course if I actually get offered it) … it’s basically doing the same job that I’m doing now, and working within the same team, but being paid for by another department and working purely on their projects for 12 months – which means additional exposure to a different side of the business and chance to become more focused (plus it’s a side of the business I’m the most knowledgeable about). It’s going to be a massive 12 months, going by what I’ve heard about so far, but at least it’ll be a subject I enjoy … I guess I can only stick my hand up and say I’m interested and then see what happens … 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishing, Flatfold, Just Nan, Prairie Schooler, Works in Progress

Flat-fold finish

26 April, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, if I thought my hand cramps during the hemstitching of my needlerolls was annoying, the cramps from the ladder stitching of the sides of my flat-fold were downright tortuous … it took me hours just to complete one little flat-fold, and that turned out to be my only finishing completed yesterday. Now I just need to buy some nice trim for the edges of the front piece and add a nice rich red bow or something on the top. I’ll take another piccie later when I eventually get around to going shopping.

During my finishing session I watched another couple of movies – the highlight for me was Charlie & Boots, it was a nice lighthearted Aussie movie that I could easily watch again. On the other end of the scale I watched District 9 … or should I say “started to watch” … that has got to be the biggest waste of celluloid I’ve seen for quite some time! Thankfully not long afterwards I managed to finish my flat-fold and then sat and finished watching the last half of the Taking of Pelham 123 while I stitched for a short while. I have to agree with Gina’s comment in my last post that I really enjoyed this one … not enough to stop me from stitching, but then again there isn’t much movie-wise that can manage to do that – it’s one of the reasons I can generally sit and watch movies over and over while I’m stitching 🙂

I must say, though, I was thrilled to see the little ghostie showing up nice and clearly against the slightly darker tea-dyed fabric – definitely worth doing it! I did start visualising this little piece as a little flat-fold though, so at that point I decided I was getting delirious and had to take myself off to bed … at least it won’t be ready for finishing for a while, so I’m not quite a sucker for punishment just yet 😛

Unfortunately I was woken up at 4.30am to the sound of glass smashing, so I was as nervous as heck sleeping (even though I’m on the 3rd floor of our apartment block!), and I had a very broken sleep – not entirely sure what I’ll finish off today, but it probably won’t be half as productive as Saturday as today is also housekeeping day when I have to tidy everything up as well as doing all the housework in readiness for the working week beginning.

Cross Stitch, Finishing, Needlerolls, Shepherd's Bush, Works in Progress

Needleroll mania

25 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

As mentioned in my previous post, I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday finish-finishing 4 Shepherd’s Bush needlerolls. Following are the fruits of my labour (including improved photos of my latest two needleroll finishes, as previously I could only scan them and the quality was dreadful).

Folk Heart Needleroll

Millennium Roll

Halloween Roll

Pine Needle Roll

During my needleroll ‘frenzy’ yesterday I decided to sit down in front of the TV and downloaded a couple of free TV episodes on TiVo, and watched Episode 1 of Season 1 of The Tudors and the same of The Guardian. After my finishing session I also decided to blob out in front of the gogglebox and did a teeny tiny bit of stitching on a new start … I’m thinking of starting a bit of a mini-rotation of all the projects that I currently have kitted up with DMC, as I’m constantly having to keep raiding them for new projects (although I’ve made it easier now by having all my kitted up projects with all their contents on a spreadsheet, so at least I know which project has which DMC now!). This was the result of my bit of TV viewing – while watching The Ugly Truth (a truly stupid movie I have to say!) and half of the Taking of Pelham 123. As you can see, I did a LOT! haha. (Sorry for the crappy photo!)

This will eventually be Just Nan’s Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls. I’ve been meaning to start this one for weeks, but I needed to tea-dye the fabric to give it a slightly darker look and it’s taken me this long to finally drag the tea bags out of the cupboard! The last time I stitched ghosts on Lambswool linen they disappeared into the background, so fingers crossed this time the slightly darker colouration will see them showing up more (I’ll find out soon enough, as they’re getting stitched next).

While I was tea-dyeing, I also threw in a piece of cotton lace that I needed to dye so I can complete my first PIF ready to be sent off to its new home. I’ve still dickering over what to stitch for my next two ‘victims’, but I do have some ideas brewing in my little mind and have some designs pulled out into a separate pile ready to start work. I also need to decide on which design to use for my Scissor Pocket exchange, as I need to start working on that very very soon.

As for the rest of my finishing weekend, the question I’m asking myself is “what now?” – I still have a large pile of finishing to do, I just have to decide what to concentrate on first. I have the following to choose from:

Christmas flat-fold
Tie-on pillow for (next) Easter
Bunnies in my Garden set
Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello
3 x Scissor fobs
Hocus Pocus pinkeep
2 x picture frames – then the mats cut and projects laced
Hardanger needlebook
Numerous Christmas ornies
Lavender bag (Victoria Sampler)
2 more needlerolls
2 x bellpulls
Santa quilted wallhanging (halfway through when sewing machine broke down last time)
Canvaswork pincushion
Quilt for my best friend’s first born (who’s now at school, and she’s since had two more kids!! ahem …)
Quilting bag – pretty much stitched, but needs to be put together
and a whole heap more that I can’t remember right now!

I did want to finish off a scissor fob tutorial with one of my pieces, so perhaps I’ll throw that into the mix this weekend, plus finishing off my Christmas ornie tutorial which is almost finished. If nothing else, I’m certainly not short of finishing items to be done!! Of course the sooner I get off this PC the quicker I’ll get to make a start as well … so perhaps I’d better leave it at that and go make a start! 😉

Boo Club, Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Little House Needleworks, Lizzie Kate, pinkeeps, Prairie Schooler, Stitching Smalls, Works in Progress

A very productive start to the weekend

25 April, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

During the week I managed a little more stitching on Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club – I’m definitely much happier with the project with the border on it. I’ve now halted progression as I can’t find (so what’s new these days???) the little while buttons I bought weeks ago for it. As soon as I find the little buttons I’ll pick it up again. I’m being difficult to myself and wanting to finish-finish each section as I roll it up the scrollbars … yes, I can be quirky and pedantic when I have my heart set on something! So this has been deleted to the corner basket while I continue my search for the little white buttons 😉

This weekend is a long weekend for us in Sydney (and most of Australia) – and with Katie gone all weekend, I’ve had my heart set on doing some finishing this weekend while I’m free to make as much mess as I want and be able to concentrate on what I’m doing, and so far those plans have come to fruition.

On Friday night I managed to finally finish 10 Christmas ornies that Mum had stitched for me – these have been in various states of finishing for the last few weeks, and it’s really lovely to see them finally finished 😀

I also managed to finally finish-finish my Blueberries by LHN into a pinkeep – this has actually been finished for a couple of months now, but I was never happy with the trim I used – finally I decided to rip it apart and used a plain ribbon that matched the thread colours instead … while it’s a lot plainer than the fancy trim I originally used, I’m much happier with it now 🙂

Yesterday pretty much my entire day was spent doing this …

… doing hemstitching on 4 x Shepherd’s Bush needlerolls (and the rest of the finishing). I really hate doing hemstitching because my left hand cramps up when I’m holding onto the fabric – I enjoy doing the stitching itself, though, as you get into quite a good rhythm once you’ve done the first few stitches … I just hate having to hold it in hand and having to de-cramp my hand every 10 stitches! Anyway, at least I have another 4 items out of the finishing box. I’ll add the photos to a separate post as this one is quite picture-heavy already!

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Finishes, Lizzie Kate, Victoria Sampler, Works in Progress

A project returns as a WIP

20 April, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Last year I finished all of the stitching on Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club, but I was given the used charts on loan and had to find my own buttons – I’ve eventually narrowed the search down and found suitable substitutes, and thought I’d start stitching them on tonight instead of doing some actual stitching … I’d just finished attaching ribbon hangers onto about 10 Prairie Schooler ornies that Mum gave me to be finished, and couldn’t find my felt for the backings, but wasn’t really in the mood to ‘stitch’ …

Well, I was never entirely sure whether to stitch the border on this piece and instead thought I’d use a ribbon stitched down … tonight I decided it really would look much nicer with the border stitched in place, so back it went onto some scrollbars and I’ve decided to stitching the border at the same time as adding the buttons … what was originally going to be about an hour’s worth of ‘finishing’ to complete this piece has now turned into a week (or more) worth of stitching. I think I’ll be much happier with it now, though 😀

As you can see from the photo, I didn’t get too far with the border stitching tonight, although not too bad considering … and 2 buttons down, 22 left to go …

I managed to snap a better photo yesterday of the Pin Pillow Exchange that I received (a HUGE yay for finding my little elusive Lumix), so I could finally do justice to the beautiful stitching and finishing.

I hadn’t noticed before how perfectly DMC 927 matches my bedroom duvet cover … I’m thinking a lovely sampler in this colour (along with the beige) just might look ever so lovely in my bedroom and now my mind is starting to work overtime and think of potential candidates! I’m thinking perhaps a nice Quaker design maybe … hmmmm …

While I had the camera out I also managed to take a better close-up shot of my finished heart from the Beyond Cross Stitch series by The Victoria Sampler – here is a nicer photo of my finish, and the beautiful specialty stitches on this piece. Sorry scanner, but your scans just can’t compare to the clarity of my little Lumix, even in crappy lighting!

Thank you to everyone who has voted to date for whether or not I should continue to combine both my loves of stitching and photography in this blog – it seems the majority agree with my gut feeling, which is to leave things as they are … apologies to those of you who prefer to see stitching only, but I’ve decided to leave things “as is” for the time being. I really appreciate you all taking the time to complete the poll, though!

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone 😀