Works in Progress – Page 5 – Feather Stitching

January Challenge – Day 5

5 January, 201125 February, 2012 Anne S

I was very naughty today, as I was in the mood to stay home and do some chores … and lots more stitching … so when it was time to go into work I called the office and asked if I could have a last-minute RDO … no pressure, as I could just as easily jump in the car and come to work, but I’d really appreciate having the day off. It got approved (yippee!), and I’ve spent the day mostly stitching, but also catching up on some blog reading, helping my elderly neighbour move her paintings around on her lounge room walls (bless her), doing 3 loads of laundry, ironing all the linens for the rest of the January Challenge pieces, and attaching the canvas to the stretcher bars… and did I mention lots more stitching? … so, all-in-all a very productive day haha.

Seeing as the canvas was nicely tacked down today, I opted to spend a great deal of the day stitching on my canvaswork piece – and I’m amazed at just how fast it’s been stitching on this one, the piece grew at a most phenomenal rate!! It’s one of those designs that is pretty much entirely in satin stitch and in a consistent pattern, which means once you’ve got one set of stitches done you can pretty much continue the repeats without having to check the pattern … sheer bliss! So without any further ado, here is the MASSIVE progress on today’s challenge piece (designed by From Nancy’s Needle).

The blank spaces above are for a pearl cotton that I’m missing … but it’s on order so hopefully will be arriving over the next couple of weeks … hopefully …

I’m not sure which project will get started tomorrow … we’ll just have to see which fabric falls into my hands tomorrow night, but I’m out for dinner at a friend’s farewell party so don’t expect too much progress tomorrow, I’ll be lucky if I get a dozen stitches in for a change!

One other thing I did do today was to put Sapphire Star back onto the stretcher bars to tighten up the tension, so that’s not ready to be picked up once again after the 16th of January … 😀

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Little House Needleworks, Stash, Works in Progress

Crazy January Challenge – Day 4

4 January, 201125 February, 2012 Anne S

You can tell I’m back at work when I don’t get to sit down with my needle and thread until 9pm … on normal days I’d pass on the stitching, but seeing as I’m committed to doing this challenge, I forced myself to pick up LHN’s Ladybug Ladybug and managed to put in 2 3/4 hours into it 😀

I was also thrilled to see a recent purchase arrive in my PO Box this morning – the great thing about ordering locally, even though it’s more expensive, is that it doesn’t cost much more to pay for Express Post and even though last Friday was a Post Office holiday, and I didn’t order the items until last Thursday, even with yesterday being a nationwide public holiday they were still waiting for me! The service from Janine at Colours Down Under really rocks!!! While I still have one pair of Qsnaps and a couple of threads on back order (needed for the border of Winter Snapperland), I’m absolutely thrilled that I now have another couple of Qsnaps to use for my projects and not having to remove every project every night (especially those that won’t take long to finish) – oops a couple of charts jumped into my shopping basket as well … Scatter Christmas by Shepherd’s Bush and Simply Halloween by Waxing Moon Designs … gotta make the most of the postage right? LOL.

Rightio, on that note it’s time to call it a night and hit the hay … a bit later than expected, but that can be blamed on Season 2 of Fringe and the need to start today’s challenge piece (but more so on Fringe, as I wanted to see the last episode on the DVD, which means only one more DVD for Season 2 to go!) 😉

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, recipes, Shepherd's Bush, Victoria Sampler, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 3

3 January, 201125 February, 2012 Anne S

I couldn’t resist putting a few more stitches into Shepherd’s Bush’s Baby Bug Ball this morning – I can’t believe how much I am in love with that design! It is soooo not my normal choice of stitching project, but I absolutely and totally adore it! I didn’t stitch the next few alphabet letters as it’s supposed to use a thread colour that is way too pale on the fabric – I thought I’d wait to see what colours were left over at the end, and I would replace that colour with one of the darker greens (but I don’t want to use it yet in case I run out!). After the 15 days are up, this is is going to be one of the first getting revisited, I think! 😀

I was good, however, and didn’t continue stitching on BBB, and continued to meet the challenge goals by putting a few stitches into Victoria Sampler’s Crimson Fire Sampler. This one is a major challenge for me, as it’s been forever since I stitched any hardanger or pulled/withdrawn thread stitches, so it will give the grey matter a run for its money this year! I wanted to get this stitched up, though, so I can pass the chart on to an online pal who showed interest in it a couple of years ago (assuming she still wants it, of course!).

Seeing as I’ve handled pretty much all I can cope with today with these specialty stitches (probably thanks to the 3am finish this morning), I thought I’d put it to one side and pick up something simple, and I’m hoping to get a few more stitches put into the Autumn freebie by the Stitcherhood that I started late last year 🙂

Over the last few days I’ve also been working on a couple of my listed items on my 1001 things in 101 days – including putting together a custom recipe book. I went with something simple, and just put together a ringbinder with plastic sleeves and subject dividers – that way when I find a scrummy recipe in one of my books I’ll re-type it up into a one-page format and will add it to my favourite recipes folder. Seeing as I’m also trying to cook something out of every cookbook I own, hopefully I’ll also find some new favourites to help fill out the sections. The great thing about this format is that I can take pages out individually to cook from, and the sleeves protect the recipe and can either be wiped down in case of spillage or just replaced with the recipe left intact 🙂

I think I may also try to make a quilted book-cover for this at some stage, but that may not be this year … the goal of putting the book together in the first place is good enough for me to tick this challenge off the list as “achieved”.

One of the latest recipes I added was some simple finger food sandwiches from the Aussie Women’s Weekly book “Finger Food” – these were wolfed down recently at our work’s shared morning tea … I thought I’d share the goodness with you here (AWW books are some of my absolute favourites on my bookshelf):

SMOKED SALMON, CAPER AND DILL TRIANGLES

Triangles can be made 2 hours ahead. Storage: Covered in refrigerator.

200g packaged cream cheese
2 t lemon juice
1 T fresh dill sprigs
¼ t drained capers
12 slices white bread
180g sliced smoked salmon

Blend or process cheese, juice, dill and capers until well combined. Spread 1 slice of bread with cheese mixture, top with a layer of salmon.

Spread a second slice of bread with cheese mixture, place cheese side down on salmon. Spread top with cheese mixture, top with a layer of salmon.

Spread a third slice of bread with cheese mixture, place cheese side down on salmon. Trim crusts from sandwich, cut into 8 triangles. Repeat with remaining bread, cheese mixture and salmon.

Makes 32

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Shepherd's Bush, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 2

3 January, 20116 April, 2014 Anne S

It took me longer than I expected to finish my little Baby Lorikeets, but I just couldn’t continue to start a new project until I had finished them off – and here they are in their finished form:

“Baby Lorikeets” by DMC
stitched on 32ct cream Belfast linen
(I replaced the revolting Aida that was in the kit!)
with kit threads (DMC)

I didn’t start today’s ‘real’ project until 8pm … and didn’t put the needle down until just before 3am – I’m LOVING stitching this one! I’ve never been a huge Shepherd’s Bush fan apart from their needlerolls and Halloween designs, but this one really called out my name and I’m glad I listened – the pastels of this one are really very pretty (unfortunately washed out in the photo thanks to the bright daylight bulb). I can’t wait for the 15 days to be up so I can c0me back and finish this one off, although I might just have to finish off this middle bug tomorrow, as I only have a couple of letters and the big central flower to complete before moving on to a different bug 😀

And on that note, I’d better get some sleep, so I’m fit to do a bit more stitching tomorrow (although I really do have to throw in some housework tomorrow, so not as much progress will be to show at the end of it all tomorrow!).

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Challenge Day 1

2 January, 201125 February, 2012 Anne S

Before I started my Crazy January Challenge yesterday morning, I decided to locate some missing threads from previously kitted up projects, and making an inventory so I knew where they were when if I needed them again – this was in part due to the fact that I knew I had two skeins of NPI silk that were needed for The Goode Huswife chart in my challenge, and sure enough I found them hiding in the kit for Drawn Threads’ Three Friends design. I now have a lovely Excel spreadsheet showing where each thread is located. This has partly come about from when I was housesitting 3 years ago and had all my stash put into storage for 9 months – I kitted up many, many projects with the fabric already cut out and ready to go, and as many of the threads as possible, and they were placed in individual sealable plastic bags and then in boxes within easy reach of my storage unit … the idea was that all I had to do was put my hand into the box when I needed something to stitch, and just had to pull something out and start stitching!

Well, I’m ashamed to say that there are STILL 3 drawers full of those projects (plus the equivalent of another drawer that is out and about in my room awaiting stitching), not to mention all the new ones I’ve since kitted up since moving to Sydney (ahem) … I’m slowly starting to work my way through them, though, and intend to make a decent dent into the Christmas ornies that were kitted up ready with their working copies from previous JCS ornie magazines. (Previously there were 4 big file boxes so it has been condensed somewhat.) I was surprised how many needlerolls were in there ready for stitching, though – this stemmed from a SAL that Katrina was doing a while ago stitching a needleroll every month … maybe that will become my challenge for 2012 … 😛

Anyway, back to my 2011 challenge … I eventually picked up my first project for the challenge, DMC’s Rainbow Lorikeets. I decided that I refused to do housework all day, and intended staying in my jim-jams all day watching TV and stitching … which I did {{insert happy sigh here}}. Alas, I was so engrossed in watching TV it took me a while to realise that I had made a big blue with the kit threads – what I thought was Yellow Green Lt thread was in fact the Moss Green (although why the hell you would call something moss green that actually IS yellow-green is beyond me) … I didn’t realise until I had stitched a huge amount of the adjoining green, and then looked and thought “what the…?” – sure enough, a quick review of the chart piccie confirmed my worst suspicions …

Now I do hope the old wive’s tale isn’t true, that whatever you do on 1 January you will continue to do all year (which is partly why I chose to stitch all day in the first place) … ‘cos I really don’t fancy frog-stitching every single project I start this year! Oh well, I persevered and unpicked and restitched straight away while watching Dirty Dancing (sad I can even remember which movie sparked the frogging), and by the time I switched off at 1am this morning I’d made pretty good headway! Thankfully the thread I had misjudged and had to be frogged is a DMC thread, so I can replace from my stash, as I had used every strand up in the original stitching … phew! Ah, the joys of stitching from kits 😉

Of course now I’m champing at the bit to get it finished, because it’s so close to being finished I can taste it … so I think I’ll do that this morning, then I’ll start my next project immediately afterwards, which will probably be another small one – and tomorrow I’ll start one of the bigger designs.

Blue Ribbon Designs, Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Halloween, Heart in Hand Needleart, valentines, Works in Progress

Christmas finishes & Crazy January Challenge

28 December, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

As mentioned in my previous post, thanks to season 1 of Fringe and a very lazy day yesterday where I didn’t even get dressed, I managed to finish both of my WIPs from Christmas:

“Valentine Bird” by Heart in Hand Needleart
stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen by Wichelt
with recommended threads except subbed DMC 926 for GAST Straw Bonnet
added a gold heart charm as I didn’t have a suitable heart button

“Perched on a Pumpkin” by Blue Ribbon Designs
from JCS Halloween issue 2010
stitched on 32ct Willow Green Belfast linen
with recommended WDW threads but subbed DMC 310 for Mascara

I also had time to start one more that I’m about 2/3 through (Autumn freebie by The Stitcherhood) – another few episodes of Fringe and I’ll see this one finished as well:

Then it’ll be time to pick up Bittersweet Seasons once again – although I now realise that I don’t have the Mill Hill beads for this one (I really am useless!!!!!), which means I guess it won’t be a 2010 finish like I’d hoped.

I’ve also been updating my stitching list for the Crazy January Challenge 2011 – I’ve decided I might stitch Jardin Prive’s Christmas chart for Brenda and Nigel one Christmas, so I opted not to start it on Christmas Day (which was my original stitching plan), and have added it to my January stitching list as well. I’ve also added Katie’s Christmas gift (Prairie Moon’s Christmas) and a teddy bear group that I want to stitch for Brenda’s birthday this year … not entirely sure I’ll get all these done this year, but it’ll be fun trying! I think the hardest thing for me will be to not start any other medium/large designs until I’ve finished these ones – there are still a good dozen or so that are screaming to be started on top of this 15 (not to mention the minimum of 12 ornies I want to stitch next year!!) 😉

1. Waxing Moon Designs – Halloween Short Stack
2. The Goode Huswife – With My Needle (modified, without the wording)
3. From Nancy’s Needle – Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt (canvaswork)
4. The Victoria Sampler – Crimson Fire Sampler
5. Bent Creek – Winter Snapperland
6. Dimensions kit – Tiger Reflections
7. Judy Odell – My Treasures Workstation
8. Little House Needleworks – Ladybug, Ladybug
9. Jardin Privé – Christmas
10. DMC – Baby Lorikeets
11. Prairie Moon – Christmas
12. JBW Designs – Autumn Harvest
13. Shepherd’s Bush – Baby Bug Ball
14. Leisure Arts – Teddy Bear Reunion
15. Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches – Raphael’s Raspberries

And on that note, I’d better get my A into G and get my first load of laundry into the washing machine (as it’s washing day for me today), and pick up a few groceries, as it’s back to work for me tomorrow (no rest for the wicked) … then I think I’ll just have to finish off season 1 of Fringe and finish off that Autumn freebie 🙂

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

Christmas festivities

28 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day in whatever way you chose to celebrate the day – and for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a good holiday day.

I left home on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day with my closest friends here in Sydney, Brenda and Nigel, and we had a wonderful time. We didn’t over-eat as much as previous years, which was great. Nigel spoiled us, as he always does, by cooking us Eggs Benedict for a late breakfast (which Brenda and I washed down with a mini bottle of bubbly each). We then skipped lunch and saved ourselves for our Christmas feast of baked ham, boiled baby potatoes, sliced beans fresh from the garden, peas, and the most succulent turkey I’ve ever had – topped off with Nigel’s famous pavlova for dessert. My contribution was at Brenda’s request – I brought all the ingredients to make Sangria and Brenda and I polished off two jugfuls of it throughout Christmas Day (Nigel doesn’t drink, which always means more for us!). We both adored the recipe I chose, which can be found on the Taste.com.au website.

It was a very hot and humid day here in Sydney, so we ate our evening meal outside (along with their favourite next door neighbours who joined us for dinner) – I enjoyed it immensely until Nigel spied a huge spider … and I mean HUGE!!! … sitting on the fence by the table. I only needed to look once at its massive long legs hanging over the top of the fence and I was outta my chair quicker than a speeding bullet. Even Nigel said it was probably the biggest spider he’s ever seen, and when he tried to get closer to it it tried to bite him with its big fangs … I finally decided I couldn’t handle it any longer even hiding behind Brenda’s chair, and I cleared the table and did the dishes – then ate my dessert inside on my own! That’s one bit of company I did NOT want to share my time with on Christmas Day (or any day for that matter) – thankfully Brenda and Nigel know what I’m like so they weren’t offended in the slightest, and it got most of the dishes done early LOL.

After the neighbours left for the night we settled in for a bit more TV and DVD viewing – that’s all we did the entire two days I was there … it was sheer bliss!! A highlight was watching the New Zealand movie “Boy” – we really loved it. We also watched a Billy T James DVD that my best friend Vicki had sent over for my birthday from last year – we really did have a kiwi-fied Christmas with all our viewing choices! I even managed to get some stitching done – I worked on my Valentine Bird then realised I’d left one thread colour at home, so then I picked up a Halloween ornie to start, and yesterday I managed to finish them both off while sat in front of the gogglebox at home watching season 1 of Fringe. I’ll add a separate post shortly with the stitching finishes, but this is the progress I made on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Brenda brought tears to my eyes when I opened my Christmas gift from them – she had hand-painted a ceramic plate especially for me, and engraved it on the back with our names and date. I am incredibly touched by this gift by the simple fact that I know she doesn’t do these types of gifts for people often these days and the amount of effort that goes into each and every piece. This is one gift I will treasure always, I truly adore it! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, hand made gifts are the BEST! 😀

I forgot to mention that I drove over to Brenda and Nigel’s on Christmas Eve, and at about 9pm we went out driving to see the lights and nativity at the ‘local’ Mormon church – it was really lovely wandering around the lit up gardens, and while I’m not religious it was really nice to see the life-size nativity scene created for those who celebrate.

We then finished off by driving round the local neighbourhood to visit a couple of Christmas displays that people have put up – there were very few houses decorated with lights this year compared to past years, I think the steep jump in electricity costs has taken a toll (I know ours jumped up $100 from one bill to the next from $157 to $257, and that was before “electric fan season” had started!).

The highlight for me, though, was a home where the occupants section off parts of their home just for Christmas to have window displays for visitors to look at – how awesome is this? They’re a lovely retired couple who stand outside every night throughout December to welcome visitors and have a chat … just wonderful, and really brought the warm fuzzies of Christmas cheer into my heart that evening 🙂

Christmas, Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Quilting, Works in Progress

Christmas decorations

19 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Before I show piccies of the decorations, I want to say a heartfelt “thanks” to one of my closest stitching pals Katrina who has been spoiling me for a number of years now with a handmade ornie – each one I treasure dearly, and this latest one is absolutely no exception! (Excuse the silver lametta sitting on the top!)

Don’t you think this is just so “ME”? 😀 Unfortunately I forgot to bring the other part of the gift home with me, and it’s still sitting on my computer at work … it’s the cutest little yellow rubber ducky with little santa hat and scarf on … too, too cute! He was keeping a smile on my face all day at work on Friday. Thanks again Katrina, you have once again spoilt me rotten, and I totally adore it! I feel very blessed that the internet has enabled such a lovely friendship to blossom 🙂

Unfortunately I haven’t been in the brightest of stitching moods throughout the year, to be honest, and my own ornie plans pretty much went out the window – instead I’ve been focused on stitching whatever I’ve felt like just to keep my momentum up as much as possible and keeping the feeling of being ‘overwhelmed’ at bay. I think I’m finally coming out of that blue phase, so fingers crossed in the new year I’ll get a few more ornies stitched up and sent to some of my best online pals, as well as fulfilling some outstanding stitching commitments!

Anyway, back to the decorations, it was receiving Katrina’s ornie on Friday that made me start thinking of bringing up my ‘little’ Christmas tree from the garage instead of the huge 6ft one and having only my stitched ornies on display. Even Katie gave it the thumbs-up when I’d finished and said she really likes it, so I guess it gets the official seal of approval 🙂

Rightio, enough of the waffling, here are this year’s lounge decorations in all their glory (I personally think the tree’s a bit crowded, but I didn’t want to leave any ornies out! – I think maybe next year I need to buy a tree that’s just a little bit taller and fuller, and it’ll be a perfect size):

And this little tree (which stays up all year as a backdrop to my ornie finishes) is look a wee bit bare as it’s waiting for Mum’s 12 Days of Christmas set to be finished and added … not entirely sure that’ll be completed before Christmas, but it definitely will happen before I have to put them all away again! 🙂

The next year I also want to make a table runner for the lounge and/or the table under the tree – I bought this fabric a few months ago in readiness for when the urge of quilting creativity struck (which will hopefully be some times prior to December 2011!) – this is from the 12 Days of Christmas fabric range by Moda:

And on that note, I’m off to sip on my iced Paull’s Egg Nog (that’s the brand on sale in supermarkets over here) and perhaps do a bit of stitching … perhaps … unfortunately Bittersweet Season will continue looking like this for a while longer, as the threads I need are still lost in transit, but I do now have the threads to finish “Valentine Bird”, so perhaps that will suffice for now and may even get some of that stitching mojo back … ?

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Works in Progress

Christmas Treat Bag

5 December, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

As you can obviously tell, I’ve been busy this morning, going by all the separate posts. I finally finished off two pin pillow tutorials that have been languishing since last weekend, and I’ve been listening to my flatmate clean up the flat in readiness for her mother arriving this afternoon. It seems she’s worked out how to use both the mop and vacuum cleaner, all that is needed now is to work out how to take the recycling down to the rubbish bins, and it’ll be a perfect day from my perspective! 😛

This afternoon I’ll be hibernating in my room all afternoon catching up on some of my own housework while I finish off the last DVD of Criminal Minds Season 1 – then I can take it back to its owner and trade it in for Season 2. There may not be any more stitching done this weekend, but yesterday I did manage to finish up a little cutie – as per normal I’ve managed to misplace my bags of charms that I know I had in my hot little hands last weekend, so hence the tidy-up in my room that is well and truly needed.

“Christmas Treat Bag” by Shepherd’s Bush
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch
~ in colour “Little Boy Blue” (Kiwi Illusions)
with recommended DMC and Mill Hill beads

Then yesterday I started another Christmas ornie that was already kitted up and ready to go … but I looked at the fabric already cut out and thought ‘what a waste’ – after a quick measuring up with a ruler, I decided if I was frugal enough I could just get two ornies out of it, so lo and behold my stitching session is now seeing two ornies grow side by side instead of the one! It’s a bit slow going on the stitching front, but at least it’s a start! And as I’ve already stitched this one before for myself, these are eventually going to reside with family or friends some time next year.

I seem to have forgotten all about Christmas ornies this year, so doubt there’ll be any to be sent out this year. Last year I didn’t even manage to post out Christmas cards, so at least I’m ahead of the game this time, and have a pile ready to be posted out over the next week or two.

And on that note, I’d better haul it and get my A into G! 😀

Cross Stitch, Heart in Hand Needleart, Works in Progress

Murphy’s Law appears yet again

23 November, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I decided to have a break from Halloween stitching this afternoon and picked up a half-kitted-up project … I thought I had all the threads for this one, but as luck would have it (Murphy, seriously, you’re a pain in the neck!!) my skein of WDW Cocoa has gone walkabouts and I didn’t have enough of the WDW Lancaster Red so I ran out halfway through. Pfffft 😦

The good news, though, is that the missing threads are really common which means I’ve been able to order them from a local source – and Janine at Colours Down Under is usually really quick with shipping, so hopefully they’ll be in my hot little hands in a week or so, then I can finish this project off 😀

In the meantime, though, I now have to decide what to stitch on next … I’m thinking perhaps a bit of Sapphire Star is in order – it would be nice to get this one finished by year’s end, so I really should pull my finger out now I’ve decided on which substitute threads to use 🙂