Category: Crafts – Needlework

Works in Progress

I’m still alive …

Anne S

Sorry if a couple of you have been worried that I haven’t been blogging, but I’m still around – this week’s shifts have taken its toll on me, and I haven’t had the time or energy to pick up a needle until briefly last night. I’m now off out to have brunch with a couple of girls from work, for one of their birthdays, then it’s an early night for me ready for my 6am shifts this week. Not sure how much time I’ll have for blogs or stitching this week, as Rox and her partner arrive from NZ on Tuesday for about 3 nights, and Fraze is here as well … I’m trying hard to catch up on blogs when I can – my apologies if it’s been a while since I’ve commented on your blogs, but I’m really behind since my last visitors were here, and I’m struggling to catch up again.

Anyway, I’ll sign off this brief post with my stitching progress from last night – I finally dragged out my Marine Elegance to work on. Unfortunately I got out of the rhythm of stitching this one while waiting for my PC#12 to arrive, and I’ve only just had the ‘head space’ for picking it up again. I only managed to get the four-sided stitches done between the sections, and just over a third of the buttonhole stitching on the edges … still have a long way to go yet to get this finished, but that’s my challenge before I touch anything else … the only exception to that is my charity quilt blocks which need to be done shortly. We’ll get there with this one, Cathy 🙂

Stash, Works in Progress

Good mail day!

Anne S

It was a semi-decent stitching day for me today – the temperature dropped to about 25C during the day and was fantastic for sleeping last night. I actually woke up feeling human today, and couldn’t wait to pick up a needle again! I managed to catch up with assignment 3 of the Apricot Elegance SAL from the Stitching Smalls Yahoo group … I was surprised, though, with the colour of the pearl cotton I’m using – on the skein it looks quite turquoisey, but when you stitch it up on that fabric the mint/pale green shows up more. I had my heart set on using a brightish turquoise for my filling stitches etc, but now I’m a bit stumped, as the colours just won’t go! Oh well, it means we’re off to the LNS tomorrow to try to find a colour that will substitute. Even though it wasn’t my ‘perfect’ choice of colour, I have to admit that I really like it … it now reminds me of Monet’s waterlily paintings, which I adore 🙂 It just means I might not be able to finish this week’s assignment yet, until I decide on colours.

Usually on my days off, I don’t go anywhere near my PO Box, as it’s a 1/2 hour drive away … but I knew I was expecting some parcels, so curiosity got the better of me today and we took a trip out for a couple of hours to grocery shop and collect mail. And what a wonderful lot of surprises were awaiting me! I had some fabric from Country Stitch from their sales, as Linda is selling off all her plain colour linens etc and will just be selling hand-dyeds from now on – the two stash expenses I haven’t given up yet have been my FOTM clubs with both Country Stitch and Silkweaver. Anyway, my last FOTM of plain linens arrived from Linda late last week, but my mail today was ‘extra’. I also received my December FOTM from Silkweaver last week, a lovely colour called “Desert Sky” – a very nice neutral colour 🙂

The other exciting mail was some fabric from Dawn, that she dyed herself – and it is the most scrummy colour turquoise … serious drool material! Thanks Dawn, for a fantastic trade – Dawn got a Mirabilia chart, and I got the fabric … me thinks I got the better deal! LOL. Thanks again Dawn! 😀 And then last, but certainly not least, I received a chart from Karen – Quaker Huswif by Sampler Cove, that was on my wishlist … Karen, you’re a sweetheart – thanks again so much! I won’t be starting this one for a while yet, so I have plenty of time to drool over it in the meantime – and there are week-by-week SAL instructions on the Legacy BB, which will come in mighty handy when I do start it 🙂

I forgot to mention that I also had a nice surprise at work about two weeks ago – one of the guys that I’ve only just recently started working with on the Hotline, was watching me XS at work on the late shifts a couple of times, and mentioned that his Mum had left some stitching ‘bits and pieces’ after she’d passed away, and he’d try and find them for me. So, a few days later he trotted into work and gave me a few packets of needles and DMC threads, plus a piece of natural linen, and some beige/tan aida and hardanger fabric. Also a magnetic chart holder, and two charts – one of them is a chart full of alphabets, which is going t0 be oh so useful – how wonderful! I have to admit that I probably won’t use the beige/tan aida as it is, but I’m thinking of practising my dyeing on it. I felt very very touched that he thought of me – as he said, he’d rather it went to someone who would appreciate it, than just throwing it out … thanks Craig! 🙂

Rightio, off to watch the some more of my mail … “The Notebook” on DVD from Homescreen – what a dreadful night we have instore for us again … a bottle of chilled Marsanne wine, stitching and DVD’s – just awful! 😀

Melbourne, Works in Progress

Still alive …

Anne S

… but not getting much stitching done! Been very very tired this week, and ended up with dizziness and throwing up compliments of a 24-hour virus (which also knocked Mum out yesterday too) – that meant a day off work yesterday, but back in again today. Sat here in a pool of sweat, with a temperature of 41C (if I’ve worked out the temperature correctly, that’s approx 109F!!) – seeing as we don’t have air conditioning in the flat, there will be no stitching done tonight/tomorrow!

I’ve been getting a lot behind with blogging yet again … having Mum here has upset my usual routine a bit (although I’m still loving having her here) – and she sees my time on the computer as being ‘time wasted’ … I may wait until she’s back home before I get back into the swing of things again with blogging …

One thing I’ve been loving over the last week or so, and that’s that the rainbow lorikeet population has been increasing in its fly-overs at the end of the day. There was one day during the week that there was a flock of what must have been at least 100 lorikeets – it was incredible! These are the most amazing birds to look at, although they fly over with the speed of a bullet, and an incredible squawking racket! They’re a really beautiful sight to behold 🙂 That’s one thing I love about being in Aussie – the amazing bird life. It amazed me to be driving down the road on the main roads, to see Gallah’s feeding on the median strips – and this morning we had a couple of sulphur-crested cockatoos squawking on the next door neighbour’s roof – just wonderful!

As far as my stitching’s been going, the only progress I’ve had is on my Le Jardin Silk Sampler – I just have 1 hour left before I finish my 10-hour slot in my rotation (I’m trying hard to get back into the rotation habit again!). Now I’m off work for a few days with Mum, so some more sightseeing is on the menu (although, we’re praying for an easing off in temperatures). We’re supposed to be going to Melbourne Zoo tomorrow during the day, followed by an open air jazz concert at the zoo in the evening … at an expected 42C again, though, we might only go to the zoo for a short time, and hide indoors for the rest of the day LOL.

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

There is an Angel out there …

Anne S

… and her name is Tobie!! I hope Tobie doesn’t mind, but I have to share something that happened to me today … Work today has been exceptionally difficult, in that I started at 4am – that means the alarm went off at 3am … and I’ve really really struggled to get through my day until 2pm this afternoon. They were needing people for overtime from 4am-7am to help with handling ex-London calls … deciding I really need the money for my birthday dinner, I put my hand up … never, ever again will I do that! My rostered 5am starts are bad enough, 4am is just WRONG! LOL.

So, today I left work like a rat up a drainpipe as soon as the clock hit 2pm … I felt like death warmed up, and probably looked it too! Anyway, my PO Box is a short 5 minute walk from work (I figured that was a more stable address than my home living situation when I first moved here, so that made more sense having one near work … but I digress …) – I made my daily pilgrimage to post my mail, and pick up the day’s bills … only to get the surprise of my life – sitting in that little PO Box was a parcel … thinking it was my Silkweaver FOTM finally arriving, I thought ‘that’s nice’ and wandered out the PO again. Then I started looking at the envelope thinking it was quite large for SW – then I looked more closely … it was NOT from SW – it was from an angel in the name of Tobie. Now I have to admit I knew a gift was coming from Tobie … which you can see from the following piccies:


Before (my current snippet ‘bag’)

After (my new, beautiful snippet bag!)
However, that envelope seemed awfully large for a little snippet bag (and if you haven’t seen these on Tobie’s blog beforehand, you’re really missing out!) … Sure enough, Tobie didn’t stop there – inside that envelope/parcel was a little stitcher’s treasure trove, and my jaw hasn’t been removed from the floor ever since I opened it! Inside was the snippet bag (in a beautiful blue, of course!), along with a kit of the Thistle Bag from M Designs (which was on my wishlist) – not only that, but also the fabric that is suggested on the chart (a lovely Lakeside linen) … but she didn’t even stop there – tucked inside the snippet bag was the most adorable hand-dyed threads by an Oklahoma designer called Windy Hill Designs … WOW!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t know what I did to deserve all that spoiling, but I feel very very blessed. Thanks again, Tobie, from the bottom of my heart! You’re a real sweetheart!! {{hugs}}


I did manage to pick my jaw up for 1 1/2 hours tonight, though, to take me 1/4 of the way through my 10 hour rotation slot for a new piece – Le Jardin Silk Sampler from some 1998 JCS magazines … just to prove it, here’s the progress piccie – not too much to show for it though – I think I was so boggle-eyed with tiredness tonight, I was stitching at about half speed haha. And I’m an hour late getting to bed, so I’ll be moaning again tomorrow when the alarm goes off at 4am … {groan}

Works in Progress

‘Blue Elegance’ update

Anne S


I finally managed to finish this week’s stitching assignment for my Blue Elegance piece (officially “Apricot Elegance” by Cindy Valentine) – I’m using Blueberry Watercolors thread on 28ct Cashel linen in an unknown blue colour from my stash … I thought it was quite ‘chunky’ on the 28ct linen, but I’ll keep persevering with it as I think the colour really blends well with just a bit of subtle shading. I’ve really enjoyed stitching this piece so far – it’s a nice change to stitch with some chunky threads and having something that grows so quickly!

The rest of the week has gone in a bit of a blur really … I finished my night shifts at 5am Monday morning, but only managed to get 4-5 hours sleep again … and was back at work again for 11am Wednesday – feeling very tired and very cranky! LOL. The only way I can explain it is that it’s like going from Australia to London (totally opposite time zones) to work for 3 days, then flying home to Australia again and going straight to work off the plane! Usually we get 4 days off after the night shifts to recover, but because I was covering the Hotline for two separate staff members, I ended up with split shifts and only 1 1/2 days off to recover … never ever again! I’ve felt like death all week – then Fraze came to stay on Thursday night (which was lovely to have his company as usual) so I didn’t get quality sleep again – now it’s my weekend and I feel like a train wreck 😦

Mum made me laugh last night – she knows I hadn’t been feeling great, so I walked in the door to the following greetings – first of all a bourbon and L&P all ready to add ice (sheer nectar!) … and the 2nd thing is she’d lined up my ‘lounge ducks’ in a row on the floor along with Bukta in front of the TV, saying they’d been having a lovely time watching cricket with her as a family night in – she’s a crack up! I swear she’s going through her second childhood! LOL. Poor Bukta (on the left) belongs to Fraze … it’s his childhood toy that we’ve tormented dreadfully since I moved to Aussie. It’s a long story how it all happened (and it was initiated by his best friend Scott), but we decided Bukta was a closet transvestite and dressed him in a dress, made him boobs, and a wig and he feels so much happier … you had to be there at the time, but it was hysterical to see Fraze’s face when he saw him (we attacked Bukta while he was at work). When I moved out I told Fraze I’d really miss Bukta in his little pink outfit (it never got removed, ‘cos it made us laugh) … so Mum and I hijacked him to play a joke on Fraze – we took him for a walk up to the beach here and I made him a little hammock out of chopsticks and a handkerchief … then we took a photo of him and sent it to Fraze from Bukta saying he was having a lovely time on holiday at the beach with Auntie Anne … we howled ourselves silly! And to this day Bukta still resides happily here – I keep telling Fraze to take him home, but he says he likes it here! So he sits permanently on top of my computer desk keeping my printer company 😉Can you tell I haven’t done much stitching this week? Not much to show at all, really – hence the other pictures haha. I don’t have much energy today, so stitching will be the best thing for me to chill out, I think (actually, I was told by Mum that’s my best relief, so I have to put a DVD in and get stitching – gee, I’m gonna miss her when she goes back home!). Am trying to talk Mum into staying an extra couple of weeks to the middle of February so she will be here for my birthday. I wasn’t going to do anything this year, but seeing as it’s a “decade” birthday, we’re going to go out to Dracula’s for dinner – it a theatre restaurant, and is fantastically funny! It’s not cheap, but it’ll be a good way to say goodbye to the dirty-30’s and hello to the naughty-40’s 🙂 The food is usually pretty good, and the show is absolutely side-splitting … then there is a big group going “grape grazing” the next day, which is a wine tasting tour on buses – they’re trying to talk me into going to that as well, so it will be a very unforgettable weekend all round if that’s the case! haha. Anyway, enough driveling on about nothing – off to wake up and try stitching again …

But a quick reply for Cathy … yup, I really do work for an airline, and yup you guessed the airline correctly! 🙂 We’re apparently the ony airline worldwide that has a call centre open 24 hours a day/7 days a week – aren’t we lucky? LOL. I worked for them in Auckland for 3 years, then moved to the ‘mother country’ where I’ve continued to work with them for another 2 1/2 years so far … and most of the time love it! I’m an international consultant there, but also do relief cover on the Supervisor (staff assist) Hotline, where we help consultants out finding information when they get stuck, taking escalated calls (not my fave part of the job), and trouble shooting … it can be very interesting, to say the least! 🙂

Works in Progress

Come in ‘Dratteds’ – your time is up!

Anne S


What can I say? I don’t think I feel well at all … over the last two days I’ve been counting down the hours of my current rotation on Winter Queen, as I can’t wait for my next rotation slot – which is for those Dratted Dolphins! What the …??!!! That’s a first – me actually looking forward to stitching them … maybe that last migraine unsettled me more than I thought! 😉 Anyway, today I put the final stitches of my 10 hour rotation for WQ, and she’s about to be taken off the floor stand, to be replaced with the Dratteds for another 10 hours – I’m sure after 10 hours the novelty and joy of stitching them will have worn off LOL. Actually, I think I just really really want to get them finished so I can replace them with another piece on my rotation … and there are so MANY screaming to take their place (high up on the list is Angel of Love by L&L).

Sorry I’ve been a bit slack commenting on everyones blogs – I’ve been avoiding the computer a bit since Sunday, other than just checking emails every day, to try and make sure I helped to keep the migraines away. Hopefully now I’m all up to date with everyone again, and regular programming can be resumed!

I’ve also chased up some outstanding mail orders from months ago, when I had my huge stash-fest … there are still 3 orders yet to arrive 😦 It looks like my order from Wyndham Needleworks was mailed on 16 Nov, so hopefully it won’t be too far away from arriving. I’m still waiting for some needles to arrive for my Nordic Needle order, and a back-ordered chart and Gloriana silk from Stitching Bits & Bobs – I’ve asked them both if they could send what they have already and send the other items afterwards … I’m getting worried that closer to Christmas they’ll get lost in the postal system, and it’s too precious a cargo to go missing! Maybe I should just shove the parcels unopened under the Christmas tree this year for gifts to myself – what a treat … anybody want to take bets as to whether I’ll be able to keep from opening them? Nah, it’d never happen!! LOL.

And I can’t believe that Christmas is so close around the corner – this year for me will be an extra special one – my Mum is flying over to spend Christmas with me, for a 6-week holiday. It’ll be the first time since I moved here 2 1/2 years ago that I’ve had a family member to spend Christmas with, and I’m actually rostered off on Christmas Day too, for an even better bonus!! Mum gets to have a holiday here, and I get to have one too … Mum will not sit down for the life of her – or if she does, she’s usually doing something like knitting or mending something! She has the housework all done while I’m at work, so I don’t have to do anything when I come home … she’s the best! I wish sometimes she’d take the time to rest herself, but she’s happiest when she’s doing things for other people … she’s one of the most kind hearted and generous people I know!! And she’ll be here in only 3 weeks time – yippee!! I always joke I’ve saved a pile of ironing for her for when she comes, ‘cos I detest ironing with a passion – and she loves it! LOL.

Next week it’ll be time to start putting my little Christmas tree up – in our last flat I made sure we had a tree and trimmings up to make it feel like Christmas … Mum always had the best tree in the world (boy, I miss that tree!!!), and she’s instilled in me a love for Christmas with all its trimmings etc. It will be nice to share that joy with her again this year – and she’ll also be here in time to see the Christmas displays in the shops … she’ll be in her element!

Anyway, time to get ready for work, I guess – need to head off early to take library books (on tape) back … then only 3 days of work left (including today) before my next 2 days off. Really looking forward to 2 Dec, when I get 5 days off in a row … ah, heaven!!!

For those of you in the US … Happy Thanksgiving! :))

Finishes, Works in Progress

Winter Queen finally started…

Anne S

I’ve been trying to start this project as a SAL with the StitchNZ yahoo group for a while now, but kept putting it off for different reasons – firstly I thought I wanted to use a hand-dyed fabric instead, but then opted for the plain white again, then I pulled the floss together to start kitting up, and realised I didn’t have enough skeins of some of the colours, or 3 colours of the MH beads. Well, I finally popped into Spotlight yesterday and picked up the skeins and beads I needed, and made a small inroad into starting her last night. She was just what I needed yesterday, but there’s not much progress to show just yet …

Sunday started off well, and saw me reorganising my threads while trying to work out what to use for my Apricot Elegance SAL in January – I had a slight headache, but nothing more … by the afternoon it had developed into a full-blown migraine that was so bad I ended up throwing up with it, and sleeping for about 14 hours all-up yuk!! I know what triggered this one – the messy shifts, jumping from one timeframe to another, and not getting a proper 8 hours sleep on any of them … Anyway, by late yesterday afternoon I finally started feeling a bit more ‘human’ – I wandered around the shopping mall for a couple of hours, getting a few things I needed (like painkiller tablets!), and it was really nice to just ‘potter’ with no timeframe or deadlines. By 7pm I was ready to start thinking of getting a bit of stitching done. And last night I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had all week – I feel so much better today. Luckily this week’s shifts are all relatively similar, with only 1 x 3pm-11pm today, followed by 4 x 1pm-9pm … hallelujah!!!

While I was out shopping yesterday I also finally picked up some scrapbooking paper to make an album page in honour of my best friend’s Mum who’s turning 70 in January. She lost her husband, Ross, just over a year ago, and it’s hit her hard, and she’s starting to lose her confidence and been starting to ask questions like “was I a good mother?” etc … anyway Vicki thought it would be lovely to put an album together with everyone donating one page of ‘memories’ – things about Doreen that you love and happy occasions with her etc … I think it’s the most wonderful idea! So, never having scrapbooked in my life, I’m going to put a page together – with possibly another one for my Mum, as she has some memories of her own to include – in fact, I’d better get cracking, as they need to be posted at the start of December. It’s a bit hard in that almost all my photos are back in NZ, but I think I’ve managed to find a couple that I can use, as well as some stickers etc. Hopefully it will cheer Doreen up, and help to give her a sense of purpose again 🙂 She’s been like my adopted second Mum, and the whole family has had such a huge influence in my life – part of who I am today is in direct tribute to Doreen and her family … love you Doreen, you’ve impacted on my life more than you could ever know! :))

And seeing as I didn’t get my finishing done on my pansy pin pillow, I thought I’d better post a piccie now – I certainly wasn’t in the mood to finish it this weekend, so I’ll put it to one side until my ‘finishing’ spot in my rotation, which isn’t too far away …

Also thanks for all your kind comments about the new look blog, everyone – your comments are always greatly appreciated 🙂

And last, but certainly far from least (!), a HUGE thanks go to Jenna, the computer guru herself, for creating my progress bars so you can actually see them again … your blood is worth bottling, and while I may not be able to name my first-born after you, I’m extremely grateful to you {{hugs}} :)))

Works in Progress

Progress bars

Anne S

Andie, and anyone else who’s interested, I got the progress bar .gif’s from another blog site called Million Stitchers. I’ve hyperlinked it with the correct page in her archives for you 🙂

Haven’t done any stitching for a couple of days – been busy playing in my template here, doing housework (yuk), and writing the 2005 family Christmas newsletter in Publisher. At least my draft copy will be winging its way across the ocean today to Mum and Dad to see if they want anything adding … then it’s time to start writing Christmas cards ready to post them off overseas hmmm. I get the feeling the next month’s stitching time will be curtailed somewhat …

Anyway, I’ve only managed to get 5 hours stitching into my Egyptian Garden rotation piece – I’m leaving the dratted over-one fishies in the centre until a bit later … I didn’t enjoy them the first time round (hated the fabric), so thought I’d get a few more stitches into it before trying again.

Works in Progress

What is a Huswif/Hussif?

Anne S

As I commented on Nicole’s blog, I have a huswif (my first attempt) which has been sitting as a UFO ever since I finished the class … it is oh-so-close to being finished, and it really is a lovely piece that I’m relatively proud of. I mentioned earlier when discussing my change of blog name, that feather stitching isn’t my ‘forte’ … well, that’s why this UFO became a UFO. I’m sure when I get back into the swing of it, and force myself to pick it back up again, it’ll be fine – I did a reasonably good job of the initial feather stitching, but for some reason I’m a bit nervous of doing it round the outside edges, to hold everything together. Bit daft, really … I think 2006 is the year where this thing finally gets finished and used!! (but don’t hold me to that hahaha). So, here’s the piccie of my UFO huswife to date:

This one is designed by Monica Hunt, and the instructions were printed in the publication called Anne’s Glory Box, Book Nine. A photo of the completed piece in the book is here. As you can see from the example, I’m more into the bright colours, so I chose pretty different fabrics and Monica said it’s the first time she’d seen one stitched on black and that it might be a bit difficult … oh well, always one to accept a challenge haha.

Nicole, there are loads of styles of huswifs – the only thing I can think of that is common is that there are basically different pockets on the inside of them to hold a stitcher’s tools of trade, and they all seem to roll up for storage etc. I’ve just ordered the Flame Stitch huswif by Sampler Cove (haven’t tried that sort of stitching before, so I thought it would be fun to try something different), and another one called Strawberries So Faire by With My Needle that I’m really keen to try too – another Yahoo group I belong to is thinking of maybe having a SAL for Strawberries So Faire, so it would be a good time to stitch it, I think 🙂

No current stitching updates to post – I’ve finished the last big border on my canvaswork Dena, and just in the middle of finishing the final satin stitch border in the Rainbow Gallery Patina thread (aaaaarghhhhh, is all I have to say about that thread!!!) – then it’s just a case of adding the beads in the corners, and I’ll be happy dancing yippee. I figure there’s no point posting a piccie until it’s finished, seeing as it’s now so close. Didn’t get much done yesterday, other than having a kip in the afternoon – swapped with someone at work and did the “doggo” shift (9pm-5am), so didn’t get to bed until almost 7am this morning. It was amazing driving home – now we’re heading into summer, the days are getting longer, and it was like driving home at about 8am … it shocked me a bit when I was leaving work, as it was so light outside. I almost went for a walk on the beach when I got home, but thought better of it, as it was only 5.40am – even though it was light, I figured it was probably not the safest thing for a single female to be doing! Today I’m just popping out to do some errands – then going into work early, as there is a ‘parcel’ waiting for me my PO Box … fingers crossed it’s the JCS 2004 ornie issue I’ve been expecting from my Ebay trader – that would be just wonderful! Tonight I’m back to my final 6pm-2am shift, then I have the weekend off … yippee :-)))