Works in Progress – Page 10 – Feather Stitching

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Quick catch-up

8 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

It was a busy weekend – started by Friday night’s shenanigans being dressed up as a nun for the Sound of Music Sing-a-long. I only managed to get one paltry photo taken without the flash, while in the office, so it’s incredibly unflattering (like most photos of me) … anyway, it gives you an idea of how I wandered around Sydney train stations and streets for the evening. We had a blast, and really enjoyed our meal at Retro Cafe next door to the theatre before the show.

Saturday I went with Katie to my hairdressers for a MUCH needed haircut!! I had to cancel a couple of weeks ago due to my vertigo/virus. I am now thrilled to be sporting a fringe once again, along with a couple of inches off the length … woohoo!!! 😀

While we were there we also decided to go the whole hog and had a beauty session while the other person was having a haircut. I got my eyebrows shaped and had my … shock, horror … first EVER pedicure!!! Oh boy, was it lovely – I enjoyed every minute of the pampering. I’ve been a tad stressed at work fairly recently, so it was really good to chill out and do nothing for the morning. Unfortunately, though, I was so exhausted afterwards (thanks to an early morning start) I ended up having a nana nap in the early evening … which didn’t help with the evening sleeping ritual … I ended up getting back up at 10pm and continued stitching my pin pillow exchange piece!

Sunday saw me getting up relatively late, but the entire day was spent in front of the gogglebox clearing up the hard-drive and watching Medium, Ghost Whisperer, Fringe and Good News Week episodes … but I DID manage to get the final stitches into my pin pillow exchange, and made it up in the little pillow … now it’s sitting in its padded envelope waiting for a visit to the Post Office during the week 😀

After finishing my exchange piece, I started a new Christmas ornament from an old JCS issue that I’d already got kitted up from a couple of years ago – I made an OK start into that one while watching TV last night … and I’ll put a few more stitches into it tonight.

Tomorrow I’m heading off to my GP to check a few things checked out – my lightheadedness continues, unfortunately, so I’m going to ask to get my blood pressure checked out. I’ve also had really bad acid reflux over the last few months, so that’s also on the list … better to be safe than sorry, I guess! And on that note, it’s time to go get some soup for dinner and settle in front of the TV for an hour or two 🙂

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Stash, Works in Progress

Nunning and … What, more stash????

4 March, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

The parcels have been coming in thick and fast this week … from orders that were placed right after Christmas but finally arriving – these are all from big sales held from two separate stores … and I’m still awaiting for my recent order from SB&B with my missing thread so I can continue with Sapphire Star (gotta make the most of that postage – although I have already braced myself for a looooong wait!!!). Let’s just say that these orders are what prompted me to declare I’m going on a stash diet … ‘cos when I have a splurge I don’t do it by halves (although I don’t have one that often these days, so perhaps it does me good to have a big blow-out once a year)!!!

Back row: Heart in Hand-Snow; Imaginating-Seashell Silhouette; The Cat’s Whiskers-Queen Anne’s Lace; Laura J Perin-Halloween; M Designs-Miss Mary Mac’s Pins & Needles Pincushion
Centre row: Heart in Hand-Wee Santa 2008; Erica Michaels-Random Thoughts of Spring; Cross-Stitch & Needlework Nov 07 & Jan 10; JABC button packs-Christmas wreath & lights, SB’s Be Attitudes, Bent Creek’s Autumn Snapperland
Bottom row: Heart in Hand-Birds; LHN-Loving & Faithful; LHN-Gentle & Kind; LHN-Queen Bee; LHN-Pear Tree

Prairie Moon-Merry Xmas; Laura J Perin-Mallard Duck Collage; Shepherd’s Bush-Baby Bug Ball; Milady’s Needle-Peacocks Rule (and the ruler needed for it); GAST-Brethren Blue; JABC button pack-Waxing Moon’s Halloween Stack; WDW 30ct Guacamole linen; Shepherd’s Bush-Mummy button

The Prairie Moon design is for my friend/flatmate’s Christmas gift – she’s not quite a ‘goth’, but she loves Green Day and a LOT heavier music than I do, and she loves skulls and goth type stuff … and she joked that she really really wants to have a white Christmas tree with black ornaments on it, with a skull instead of a fairy/star on top of the tree … well, as soon as I saw the Merry Xmas chart, I just HAD to get it for her!!! Hopefully she’ll like it 😀

One of the orders above, I placed it just so I could receive the Bent Creek snapperland border accessories (ie snaps and JABC buttons for both Summer and Winter Snapperlands) – these were ordered the same night I finished stitching Summer Snapperland … alas the order just arrived this week … withOUT the borders packs – they hadn’t been ordered right from the start, even though I’d sent clarifying emails with the product code etc … hmmm, oops 😦

I picked the second of these orders up a couple of days ago, and haven’t managed to get back to the PO Box since … I’ll now have to wait until Monday before I can go back there again, as Katie and I are taking a cab into work tomorrow … ‘cos it’s Sound of Music night tomorrow night!!! … and I’ll be dressing up as a Nun and getting a little bit tipsy (I wonder if I could hide a hipflask under those voluminous skirts?? LOL). I’ll get Katie to take a photo tomorrow so I can share it with you all. Alas Katie didn’t want to come to the store to try on the outfits tonight so I had to try it on and send her photos via the mobile camera – unfortunately she tried hers on tonight when we got home and she hates it, so she’s a bit unhappy about it. I feel bad that she’s lost her $50 hire fee for nothing … but I’m really happy with my nun’s outfit (I had my heart set on going this year dressed as a nun, even if it meant getting dressed up on my own), and I’m looking forward to the night out 😀

We’ve been really tired this week, so haven’t really been online much at all – sorry Mum, I haven’t obviously uploaded the photo memes this week either – maybe over the next week I’ll load up a few advance ones so I won’t have to keep missing out 🙂

I have managed to get 2/3 of my exchange stitching completed this week, though, and hopefully should see the rest finished by the end of the weekend. Alas I can’t share until it’s finished and the recipient receives it – fingers crossed she likes it … here’s a teeny tiny sneak peak … really teeny tiny! LOL 😉

And on that note, it’s time to hit the mattress, as my alarm will now be going off earlier than normal and it’s gonna be a really busy day …

Cross Stitch, Periwinkle Promises, Works in Progress

Pinkeep received and latest WIP

22 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Sharon let me know that my angel pinkeep reached its destination safely – and that she likes it, yay 😀 Sharon has a wee angel collection as she loves angels, and as soon as I found that out years ago that little angel ornament became Sharon’s in my heart … it’s just taken me a few years to finally stitch up the personalisation on the back and decide to finish it into a pinkeep. Sharon re-wrote in her blog post about how we first came to meet – that story always makes me smile! 😀

As for me, I only did a teeny bit of stitching while I was in NZ – I didn’t take my lapframe with me, so had to hold my Qsnap in hand, which apart from slowing my stitching down, it also makes my left hand cramp up. Mum had a good suggestion to buy another one and leave one there, so that she can use it day-to-day, and I can borrow it when I come over to visit … great thinking, Mum!! I now have until October to get cracking and get one ordered from Artisan Design (the Elan lapframe).

At least I managed to put a couple of small bands into the piece, though, and last night I finished the stitching on the zig-zag band of Mosaic stitch. Now I just have a row of snowmen to stitch on the bottom, and two more rows of long-armed cross stitch, then it’s ready for finish-finishing into a wee pillow. Sorry for the crappy photo – I’ll take a better one with close-ups of the stitches once it’s all finished … in the meantime this’ll make do 😉

“January Sampler Accent” by Periwinkle Promises (kit)

The kit came with two pieces of linen – one plain one for the back. As I have a few more of these charts on loan from a friend that aren’t obviously kits, I’m tossing up whether to save the backing linen for those designs instead, and just using the sewing machine to sew a fabric backing on – while it won’t be finished as ‘neatly’ as hand-sewing using a whipstitched back stitch, it might make better use of the fabric???

Today I have a HUGE list of things that need to be done, so I’d better get off the computer and start making headway through it. First things first, stripping my bed and getting my washing started, then I can come back upstairs and start finishing a couple of items off ready to be parcelled up and posted. Although I’m also tempted to sit and finish this project first so I can finish that on the machine as well … oh, so many things to do, so little time … LOL. Perhaps I should just content myself with my gift finishing first, and then do the Periwinkle Promises piece tonight in front of the gogglebox … but then again, I’m very bad at doing things I ‘should’ be doing LOL.

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Works in Progress

Small Finish and a Birthday

16 February, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

Thank you to those of you who have left birthday wishes on Facebook this morning – that’s the only thing that has reminded me it’s the ‘big day’ today. Unfortunately, due to being unwell the last three days (and I have to say I’m still not 100% today), my full weekend of ‘big plans’ didn’t eventuate, which also included not baking myself a birthday cake to take in to work 😦

I am up and showered, though, and ready to try tackling work today – not entirely sure whether I’ll last the whole day or not, but we’ll just have to wait and see. I definitely can say, though, that we won’t be going to the movies tonight, which was going to be my birthday treat. That doesn’t really matter, though … I just hope I’m OK to be flying tomorrow night 🙂

In between sleeping over the last few days I did manage to get a little bit of stitching in – this is something I’d started earlier, and managed to finish … one pair of initials has been removed, however, as this is winging its way eventually to someone who reads my blog, so it will remain anonymous until they receive it.

“Pins & Needles Tokens & Trifles” by Blackbird Designs
Stitched on 32ct Lugana hand-dyed sample by Countrystitch
with recommended Crescent Colours threads

Then late last night I started a new project – one of Periwinkle Promises Sampler Accent kits that has been sitting around waiting to be started for what seems like forever. This one might just end up being taken to NZ as my stitching companion. I’m only there for a couple of nights for Erin’s service, so no need to take anything bigger, I think – and with all the specialty stitches it’s a lot slower to stitch than with just plain ol’ XS.

Other than that, I’ve got my Pin Pillow Exchange piece finally chosen, and the thread all worked out – now I just have to sort out the fabric then I can start on that as soon as I get home again. I was struggling to decide between two different ideas for finishing – and still may change my mind closer to the time – so I may end up doing both ideas and then deciding once they’re finished 🙂

And on that note, I guess I really should finish getting ready to get into that car … and make a new hair appointment … and arrange another day to go pick up my stitching from the Stitching Post (aka Dragonfly Dreams) … and more importantly think about packing! … Just as soon as I get through today, that is! Fingers crossed food doesn’t continue to rocket straight through my system as it has been … a birthday lunch would still be quite nice today if I can manage it! 🙂

Beading, Cross Stitch, Erica Michaels, scissor fobs, Works in Progress

Final fobs, Thanks, and a New Start

11 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

A quick note to thank everyone that bought fobs from my original request to donate the proceeds of sales to wee baby Timothy – I managed to send almost US$90 over to Coral towards his medical costs, so I thank you for enabling me to do that for them 🙂

And the final group of fobs today are brought to you by the colours Brown, Wine and Purple (unfortunately these ones didn’t photograph as true to the colours, so I think I’ll have to re-do them before I upload to ArtFire).

And to finish off the post for tonight, here’s my new start for the evening while Katie and I caught up on a tiny bit of TV with Criminal Minds, Biggest Loser and Bones … alas I had a frog attack on the left hand side group of hearts and bottom border, but I quickly frogged the stitches and redid them, and I’m back on track once again. If I don’t manage to get this piece finished tomorrow night, I should definitely see another wee finish on Saturday morning 🙂

“Random Hearts” by Erica Michaels
being stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen in
Carrie’s Creations thread “Scarlet”

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

Sapphire Star Update

6 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Alas, I probably won’t get too much further once I finish the outside border until my missing thread is ordered and arrives. The only other blocks I can probably complete at this stage are ones that have long-ish satin stitches, and I’d rather leave those until the very last to make sure I don’t snag them. In the meantime, though, I still have a wee bit of border left to go yet, so that’s OK. Here’s the progress as I left it last night:

I must say, though, I have got a SERIOUS case of startitis … I have a major urge to start many different designs at the moment, all relatively small ones though – I’m quite honestly thinking of giving myself the rest of the month to just pick and choose and start what the heck I like … I’ve opted to have a low-key birthday this year and not celebrate (to be honest, my mind is more on the sadness of the memorial service and not my birthday beforehand) … so perhaps this can be my birthday treat to myself – and on that note, I just may spend the rest of the weekend throwing fabric and threads together and kitting a few things up 😀

In the meantime, though, I have to now hit the road and drive my elderly neighbour to a travel agent … long story, but this is certainly the better option than the alternative 😉

I also haven’t decided yet whether to bother doing the Photo Hunt today … the theme of “average” leaves me feeling … well … “Average” 😛

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

Moving forward on Sapphire Star

31 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Even though I’ve spent more time tonight frog-stitching (I swear, I think I’ve had to frog-stitch something in every single block of this chart – I’m so out of practice following canvaswork charts!!), I decided I was in the mood to stitch a bit more on it, and I’m pleased I did … I managed a reasonable bit of forward motion on it 🙂

I ADORE the colours in this piece – the blues, greens and purples are so lush! 😀

Canvaswork, Cross Stitch, Wishlist, Works in Progress

Frog stitching

30 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, I finally bit the bullet last night and sat down in front of Dawson’s Creek (over halfway of the whole series now, thank goodness … the end seems so much closer now LOL), and mindlessly frog-stitched Sapphire Star. This is one of those cases when the “before” and “after” pics seem to be so, so wrong! 😛

BEFORE …………………………………………………… AFTER

Instead of starting my stitching on it again, though, I thought I’d wait until I had a day of concentration available so I didn’t cock it up again, and added just a couple of stitches into my other WIP. Unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy stitching this one the first time round, and I can’t say why but things haven’t changed much, so it’ll be a long-time WIP I think – even though there isn’t a great deal of stitching, I get fed up with it really quickly … even if I only get an hour’s stitching inbetween other WIPs I think I’ll be happy enough. I’m also disappointed that the purple thread isn’t as dark as my original one, so the bright turquoise seems to be more overpowering, rather than equal in colour intensity … but hopefully when more gets added it’ll be OK.

Ooh, before I forget though, I have to say I’ve just seen yet ANOTHER chart that has gone STRAIGHT to my wishlist … loving everything “Paris” this one just HAS to come to Mama at some stage:

In fact there have been a few designs over recent months that have appealed and probably need to go officially on my wishlist … I’m not sure if I’ve shared these already, but perhaps I will just to share the love and to spruce up this post? Here are many more designs that have tickled my fancy recently:

Blackbird Designs-Summer Iris; Cherished Stitches-Tulip Collection; Bent Creek-July Sings

Bent Creek-Joyous Noel; The Cat’s Whiskers-Noel Natural; JBW Designs-Tis the Season

Lizzie*Kate-3 Blox kit; Dessins DHC-White Christmas; Milady’s Needle-Christmas Elegance

Lizzie*Kate-Jolly Holiday; Rosewood Manor-Ring in Christmas; The Trilogy-Snow Treats!

The Victoria Sampler-Christmas Village; Stitching Treasures-Thistle Stitcher’s Purse Kit; Stitching Treasures-Antebellum Sewing Kit

Chatelaine-Peacock Mandala Mystery; Cross-Eyed Cricket-A Summer Place; Dessins DHC-Laura’s Embroidery

From Nancy’s Needle-Shades of Winter; It’s Fine-ally Finished-Percy kit; Needles Prayse-English Whitework Sampler

Primitive Needle-Witches Hollow; Rosewood Manor-Quaker Diamonds; Stitcher’s Hands-Funky Frank

Twisted Threads-Mini Gingham October Boo; The Trilogy-Halloween Spot; Shepherd’s Bush-We Will Go A-Haunting

Shepherd’s Bush-Spooky Halloween; Shepherd’s Bush-October; Glendon Place-Witching it was Halloween

Heart in Hand-Halloween Markings; Hinzeit-Charmed Peek-a-Boo

Glendon Place-Monster March; Cross Eyed Cricket-Skeleton Crew

Now after sharing a very eclectic mix of designs, I’m off into the HTML code of my blog to yet again fix up the silly sidebars that every so often (after no changes from me, mind you) expand themselves so they drop to the bottom of the page. I wonder if it’s when they do a new ‘refresh’ of WP? Anyway, perhaps this time I’ll learn and do a copy and paste into a Word document of my blog code so I can just copy and paste it back again later when it happens again … ‘cos it’s like the Pantene ad, it may not happen overnight but it WILL happen (again … and again … and again).

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Things I have learned this week & Thanks

29 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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 😛