Crafts – Needlework – Page 18

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:

When a chart’s instructions says count twice, stitch once, it really MEANS count twice, stitch once! Dyslexia in this case is not a good idea, or frogs will appear in multitude!
Telling whining co-workers to stop grumbling about every piece of work that touches their desk works miracles – when a co-worker begins to ignore you at work, it will feel like all your blessings have come at once, and leads to a much more harmonious, peaceful, and enjoyable workplace! Admittedly, those headaches I’ve been having the last couple of days are probably due to her sticking pins into her voodoo doll of me, and not due to work stress, so that’s all good 😛
When you’re tossing and turning at 1.30am with a million work issues running through your mind, putting the light on and writing them all down in your diary will actually free your mind … however, what it then does do is allow more thoughts of PERSONAL to-do lists to run through your mind instead – but then you realise it’s Friday and you only have one working day left to go before the weekend, so can manage on 2 1/2 hours sleep … which finally frees your mind to get another 3-4 hours sleep – and your diary is already partially planned for the day so, heh, it’s a win-win all round 😛
Avoiding social events where it is very easy to get suckered into having ‘bad’ foods may be anti-social short-term, but the feeling of getting on the scales and seeing a loss of 2.5kg over 1 1/2 weeks offsets it (I really do need the discipline at the moment, and would rather forego dinners and lunches and outings etc short-term to get my mind in a stronger place before adding that extra challenge). So far, so good, and still feeling very very virtuous 😀

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 😛

Canvaswork, Laura J Perin, Sapphire Star, Works in Progress

Insert expletive here!

26 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

‘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 😛

Angels, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Lavender & Lace, pinkeeps

A spot of finishing

26 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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.

Canvaswork, Cross Stitch, Laura J Perin, Sapphire Star, Works in Progress

Update to Sapphire Star

26 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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 😛

Canvaswork, Laura J Perin, Sapphire Star, supernatural, Works in Progress

Shhh, don’t tell anyone … New start

25 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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!!! 😛

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

New WIP

22 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

This new WIP will eventually be a gift for someone … and she reads my blog … and she’ll no doubt easily work out that it’s for her … but I still can’t resist sharing ‘cos otherwise I won’t have anything to show stitching-wise for a while! Here’s as much stitching as I’ve managed the whole last week (it’s a repeat of something I stitched last year or the year before, I can’t remember which now) – the new skein of thread I have is a bit paler than my original one, but I think it’ll still work out OK … I hope so anway!

On the home front, Katie and I have been very virtuous by eating healthily all week, slugging back zero alcohol and replacing it with water, and we’ve been going walking most nights this week (tonight was a write-off thanks to lightning strikes and impending rain). It was Katie’s boss’s wedding celebration today, and Katie baked an awesome white chocolate mud cake for her … we had the tiniest of slices to show our support but at the same time restraining that calorie intake … and we’re definitely feeling very very virtuous after all our efforts this week!! Of course that means there’s been less time for stitching, but it’s all for a very very good cause … ‘cos eventually when I shift some of this weight, I’ll have more energy to stitch, which will probably mean MORE stitching!! 🙂

The other news is that this week at work we were told of a team restructure, along with the results delivered as a fait accomplis … no input from those of us who have been impacted, which is really shitty quite frankly. I spoke up and said how I found the process itself extremely disappointing, and had to laugh to myself that we’re currently undergoing reviews of a staff engagement survey from last year and about to commence workshops on how to improve communication and engagement … well, duh, people … I wonder what will come us as a prime example of lack of communication and collaboration by people directly impacted!!! Anyway, all-in-all there are pros and cons of the changes, and at the moment the pros are probably outweighing the cons … I’m hoping it will be a good change in the fact that I will have more of an opportunity to grow and build new skills in the project management arena (I’ll be in the “project team”), and I no longer have to try to juggle lots of ‘operational’ work every day as well, but rather can focus on one type of role (albeit it by taking on more project work than I currently do) … time will tell how things will progress at work, but it sure as hell can’t be any worse than it currently is!!!

Anyhoo, tonight I’m about to catch up on a spot of blog reading … I still haven’t caught up since my Christmas trip, and I’d really love to get that blog feed back down to zero so I can keep on top of things weekly again … I’m tempted to hit the “mark all feeds as read”, but scared I’ll miss something exciting and important! 😛

In saying that, it’s time to head over to FeedDemon to see what lovely treats you have written and displayed photos of to tempt me … 😀

Bent Creek, Cross Stitch, Finishes, JBW Designs, Summer Snapperland, Works in Progress

First finish for 2010 & Snapperland

16 January, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Well, I have gone as far as I can with Summer Snapperland – the stitching was completed last night, and now I have to sit and wait for the buttons and snaps to arrive so it can be ‘finish-finished’ … then I will throw it place it gently into the framing pile for a few months time when I can hopefully afford to order some more frames and mattboards 🙂

After I finished the stitching of Summer Snapperland last night, I pulled out a Christmas ornie I started stitching in about November time, and did a couple of stitches in when I was in Auckland at Christmas … I figured enough was enough, time to get it finished, as it’s only a wee thing – and sure enough two episodes of Dawson’s Creek later and it was all finished … FINALLY an actual “finish” for the year 😛

“Tiny Motif Tree” from Christmas Keepsakes II by JBW Designs
Stitched 2 over 2 on 32ct natural Belfast linen
with WDW Garnet and GAST Dried Thyme
Stitch count 41W x 45H

Bent Creek, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Summer Snapperland, Works in Progress

Shock, horror, a stitching post!!

11 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I wish I could say that I was posting my first finish for 2010, but alas that appears to be a few days away yet … hopefully by the end of the week (or weekend at the latest) this one will be finished, stitching-wise anyway. I don’t own the buttons/accessory pack for the border, so I’m having to order those, and while I’m at it I’m ordering the same pack for the Winter Snapperland as I’d really like to stitch that in the upcoming year.

In the meantime, here’s my current progress on Bent Creek’s Summer Snapperland – I’ve finished the final block, and am now working on the outside border. I’m just marginally over half-way stitching the border, then it’s off to the waiting pile until the buttons etc arrive.

This last weekend Katie and I had a lovely weekend away – we drove over to Brenda and Nigel’s late Saturday afternoon (fantastic traffic – or rather lack of it – we were there in just marginally under an hour yippee!!), where we were greeted with an ice-cold Margarita on arrival. We had another friend of ours from work and her two teen sons come to join us, and we were treated to Nigel’s culinary treats of one of his famous BBQ’s. It was a really lovely night with good wine, good food, and really good company! We stayed overnight, then yesterday toodled off to Castle Towers to see Avatar 3D in Gold Class … WOW, what an incredibly awesome movie – I was seriously blown away by it!! One of the best movies of that genre I’ve ever seen, I’d have to say!

Eventually we headed back home again, after a detour via JB Hi-Fi for Katie to spend her Christmas prezzie vouchers, then we sat and watched Katie’s Dawson’s Creek DVD’s while I did a little bit of stitching. I have to admit the characters etc are growing on me, and I’m enjoying the lighthearted viewing for a change, but it’s probably not a series I’ll ever re-watch again … but if nothing else, it’s getting me to sit down at the end of the day and get a few stitches into fabric, so that’s all good 😀

Bent Creek, Cross Stitch, Summer Snapperland, Works in Progress

Summer Snapperland progress

4 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday my lack of sleep caught up on me, I think, and I didn’t do any stitching all day – but tonight I sat down for an hour or so after a healthy dinner (scotch fillet steak, mushrooms, fresh asparagus, carrots and baked potato wedges – yummo) to sit and watch a bit of TV with Katie … which means I got to put a few stitches into Summer Snapperland. I’ve now completed 3 of the 4 blocks, with just one block and the border left to go.

Unfortunately I only have one strand of Brethren Blue left, which won’t be enough to complete the border, so I’ll just replace it with the DMC equivalent in the chart … I also miscalculated quite badly the side margins of the fabric and there will be about 2 inches left on the left and right hand sides, yikes! To be honest, I think I may have made a judgement call when I originally chose that fabric from my stash, as I thought it would be perfect for it, and didn’t want to have to buy any more … and I figure I can add a strip of calico to each side to allow me room for lacing and a mattboard or two 🙂

The photos look really washed out as it’s taken under my daylight bulb which is quite close to the fabric – I’ll take another photo in daylight once it’s all finished, as the colour of the fabric is really pretty 🙂

Right now it’s time to hit the hay for the night for another day at the mill tomorrow – but gee it’s nice to see a photo of stitching for a change 😛

Bent Creek, Cross Stitch, Enchanted Mermaid, Mirabilia, Works in Progress

A bit of stitching

21 December, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

WOW, did you see the snow in Sydney yesterday? Yep, I caused so many miracles yesterday, I even made it snow! The first miracle was that I actually put needle to fabric and did a few stitches on Saturday … and in the end, more than a few, by the time last night came around!

Unfortunately my poor Mirabilia Mermaid has been neglected, and my stitching slump has seen my 10-hour rotation slot dragged out across two entire months … here’s the progress over the last two months – just pitiful! First up on the left is how she looked on 31 October – followed by how she looked a month later on 22 November:

And now, how I left her before I put her away on Saturday night – I figure I’ve pretty much completed my 10 hours stitching on her, and fingers crossed the next time I pick her up my stitching mojo will have returned a bit more and I’ll get a few more stitches done in my next 10 hours!

After I put her away, I managed to get a LOT more stitching done on Bent Creek’s Summer Snapperland – I’m really loving stitching on this one, although I’m not overly keen on the fabric, as it’s quite ‘stretchy’ on my scrollrods. I do, however, really love the colour (the 2nd photo is a lot nearer the actual colour as I took that this morning in semi-daylight), and think it’s a much better choice than the ugly one recommended in the chart. I can’t guarantee this one will be finished in 2009, as I’ll be pretty close to my 10 hours on it soon – I figure, though, that I’ll keep working on it a bit longer, as so far I’m really enjoying it … I’ll probably stop after completing both of the ‘boxes’ on the right … maybe 🙂

I haven’t quite met my stitching goals this year, in the fact that I have only stitched 10 out of planned 12 ornies … but who knows, maybe I can squeak in a couple of quick ones before the year’s end, heck I have a whole week left to do it in! LOL – yeah, sure … maybe not.

I think my goals this year were relatively realistic, and were as follows:

Complete at least 3 of my existing WIP/UFO projects (Works in Progress/UnFinished Objects) – DONE – Completed 5 projects 🙂
Complete at least 10 of my kitted up projects – DONE – Completed 11 projects 🙂
Complete at least 12 Christmas ornaments – FAILED – Completed 10 out of 12 as at 21Dec09 😦

Next year I think I’ll keep the same goals, as they seemed to give me the freedom to stitch what I wanted to stitch, with a mix of both new and old projects … and I probably would have met the final goal if I’d been stitching as ‘normal’ over the last two months.

It has to be said, though, that any amount of stitching that gets some actual stitches into fabric is a positive year, all-in-all, and I’ve had some pretty decent finishes over the course of the year, even if the last two months has seen a major decline in stitching action 😀