Finishes – Page 24 – Feather Stitching

Another happy dance

29 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Yippee, I’m so happy to announce yet another happy dance – housesitting has been so good for getting some stitching done, it’s wonderful to get back into the swing of things again, even if it’s shortlived. I’ll be moving back into Brenda and Nigel’s again on 6 Jan for another three weeks, so it’ll be back into the “work-sleep-work” mode again … but after 24 Jan I’ll have a personal life back again during the week, and I can’t wait to make better use of my evening hours rather than spending it all travelling from work. Even if it takes me 1/2 an hour to drive to and from work, it will still give me back another 2 to 2 1/2 hours private home time, ah heaven!!

Next week I’ll finalise the removal truck details (which is costing between $1500-$2000 yikes!!!) , and I have to fly down to Melbourne for a few hours to tidy up the last bit of the storage unit into boxes (we just threw some things into it the last time we were there), then let the removalists into the unit. Then hopefully I can organise for them to arrive Fri 25 Jan, which will give me the whole weekend to unpack things and try to make everything fit. After that, the sofa bed is available for anyone who wants to pop over to visit 😀

Anyway, back to the important stuff … here is my happy dance for the weekend … although in fact it’s three separate happy dances – firstly, there are two happy dances for the two projects I’ve just finished – as well as getting the Necessities Sampler finished, I also sneaked in a new start/finish which is the Geranium House sampler.

Necessities Sampler by Little House Needleworks
Stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Merino linen by Country Stitch
with recommended threads

Geranium House by Country Cottage Needleworks
Stitched on 32ct Light Mocha linen
with recommended threads

The biggest happy dance, though, is that I have now – FINALLY – finished the 50 Project Challenge!! Yippee!!! I have to admit, I didn’t complete the challenge properly in that I did buy a few charts during the year, and I was originally going to stitch a new project for every new chart bought, but to be honest I’m a bit ‘over it’ and want to take the pressure off myself, so I’m not going to bother stitching to make up for the slight splurges. I really want to start off the New Year with no stitching commitments or pressures, aside from my CA Wells class pieces – after such a crappy year in 2007, I’m looking forward to smooth sailing in 2008. And after having precious stitching time over the last few months, I really want to enjoy my stitching again by stitching what I want when I want, and buying new charts on a whim whenever I feel like it as well 😀

One of the first things I’ll be doing in the New Year is fixing up my heap of crap car! I’m still having problems with it, and now it’s starting unlocking itself during the day – it’s like the damned thing is possessed!!! (Maybe I should start calling it “Christine”!) So my first job will be to take it to an auto electrician and have the entire car re-wired, I guess – which means my dashboard light will work again so I can see how fast I’m driving at night … my windows will all actually open again, not just the drivers side window, which is really helpful in this summer heat … my locks will actually stay locked when my back is turned … and the car will stop cutting out on me – then at the end of 2009 I’m hoping I’ll be in a better position to replace that heap of crap with something I actually enjoy driving … Mazda here I come !!!!!!!!

Rightio, enough prattling on … time to do get the housework done before Mark and Leisa return home tonight … then my job this week will be to catch up on a few blogs and outstanding emails, and finally finish the book I started a couple of weeks ago when I was catching the train!! Peace and quiet is shattered out here, as the neighbours are having a party it seems (this is such a noisy neighbourhood, I’m so glad I don’t live here permanently!).

Finishes

At last … a Happy Dance!!

24 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I can’t believe it’s taken me nearly two months just to stitch two whole blocks of Snapperville! I happened to spy a Spotlight sign on the way home from work today (they let us finish 2 hours early, yippee), so I ducked in and picked up a skein of DMC 434 so I could get Snapperville finished tonight. And here’s the finished product … sorry it’s a bad photo as it’s getting dark outside and I couldn’t get a decent crisp photo of it. I’m not bothering to put the little snaps around the border (mainly because I don’t have any) – I have to say I have really REALLY enjoyed stitching this project. Thanks so much Cathy for your generosity in sending me the charts and fabric, it’s been a real joy to stitch 😀

Snapperville by Bent Creek
Stitched on 32ct natural linen
with recommended threads except for DMC 434 instead of WDW Hazelnut

Next up should be my CA Wells project pieces, but instead I’m going to kit up a smallish LHN design to start stitching tomorrow at Nigel and Brenda’s place for Christmas Day. I can’t guarantee I’ll have another happy dance this side of 2008, but I’ll at least make a start on a new fun piece, and I still have one more selfish stitching day (Boxing Day) before my housesitting people return home and I’m back at work and no stitching again 🙂

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Travel

Katoomba & Blue Mountains

21 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

First of all, my apologies if this post is a bit ‘abrupt’, but I’m pretty shattered … I do want to put our ‘journey to bed’, though, so here goes …

The final expedition of Mum and I was last Tuesday – my final day of freedom before starting work on Wednesday … I was originally going to drive to Katoomba, but needed to drive to the train station to pick up a timetable and work out where I’ll need to park my car etc for the commute into the city. In the end we opted to take the train into Katoomba instead of driving – and I have to admit I do regret the decision! It would have taken us approx 1 to 1 1/2 hours to drive there, but instead we were on the train for almost 3 hours (there were some track works, it seems, which slowed things up a wee bit) – it was a lovely train trip, but very very loooooong. Coming home was a much shorter 2-hour trip!

I’m very glad we decided to head out there, though – I really wanted to take Mum to see Karen and the shop at Dragonfly Dreams (as well as being very keen myself to say “hi” in person). It was a very hot day, and Mum and I walked from the station to the shop … when we got there I was thrilled at what a wonderful haven Karen has put together – we loved every minute of being there! Karen was an exceptional hostess, and it is so easy to chatter away to her as if we’re long lost friends, instead of strangers … and every room we entered at Dragonfly Dreams I’d say “but wait, there’s more!!!” … every room hosted a treasure trove of goodies … sheer bliss to a stitcher’s soul! 😀

After spending a couple of hours with Karen, Mum and I headed off with goodies in hand to the end of the street where we were most impressed with the sight of the Three Sisters. Unfortunately by the time we got down there it was too late to do any of the tourist trips, but we enjoyed the scenery for a while before starting the arduous trek back to the train station again. Brenda has offered to go with me again one weekend to do the cable car trips with me … which is awesome!

Following are some photos of the Three Sisters – and the first one shows the cable that the cablecar travels over … with a glass bottom car!!! I might need a stiff drink to get into it, but it’s just gotta be done one day!! 😉

We got home around 8pm, and just had time to eat dinner before having to hit the hay for bed – and thus it has been ever since I’ve started work! On the previous weekend, though, I did actually have time to put a couple of stitches into fabric, and finally managed to finish off It’s Halloween by The Drawn Thread.

Here endeth the fun part of moving to Sydney … from now on the drudge begins … 😉

I’ll tell you about the arduous task of getting to and from work another day – ‘cos it’s now almost bedtime … already! 😦

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Round Robins

Happy Dancing early! (updated AGAIN)

15 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I shouldn’t actually be doing this little happy dance until about a month away, but I sneakily finished this early. This is Katrina’s finished Friendship Quaker RR. I told Becky it was OK to send it on to me early as she’d done her part of the stitching on it – and I thought it would be great to get my part finished early so it can be sent to Katrina with the next parcel containing Nicki’s RR, so it would also well and truly miss the Christmas mail. I think it turned out beautifully, and I love the thread choice (well, duh, it’s blue! LOL). I’m just sorry the photo doesn’t do it justice – I don’t know why but this camera just doesn’t seem to like taking photos of natural linens, and I have to tweak in Photoshop every time, which then means I mess around with the thread colours too, and nothing looks how it should hmmm.

Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such

katrina's-finished-quaker-r

This has been a wonderful project with some of my closest online buddies – Nicki, Barbara, KarenV, BeckySC and Katrina. I can’t wait to see all the finished products over the next 6-8 weeks 🙂

(Updated to add piccies of each round of this round robin to compare thread and fabric choices that everybody made)

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Updated (again!) to add … if anyone would like to receive this chart (Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such) please leave a comment (make sure you include your email contact) saying you’d like to have your name included in the draw, and I’ll draw a name out of the hat at the end of the month and post the chart out to the winner 🙂

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I’m on a later shift today so Muffy and I are going for a walk before I head into work. I’ll be sad to say goodbye to Muffy (although I can’t wait to get away from the bl**dy fleas!!) – she’s such wonderful company. She gets so excited to see you when you come home from work, and has such a wonderful personality – she curls up next to you on the sofa and stays there for ages. Yep, definitely gonna miss her 🙂

Mind you the next place I’m going to has 2 dogs, 3 cats, some fish, and I think birds … so I’ll still be getting my animal fix over there … one reason I’m cramming as much stitching in as I can right now, as I don’t think I’m going to get much time when I’m at the next place! 😉

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Round Robins

Such sweet, sweet stitching!

6 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Oh boy, it’s sooooo good to be stitching on linen again (insert heavy sigh of pleasure here!). Yesterday and today I spent my stitching time on Nicki’s Quaker RR piece – unfortunately it’s at night, and I haven’t been able to take a decent photo of it, but here’s a photo none-the-less – I’ll try and take another one later during day-time. This piece is much prettier in real life – the colours are softer and quite beautiful … lovely dusky pink and deep wine colours 🙂

(7 Oct – Updated to change the photo to a slightly clearer one.)

Last night I had a shocking night’s sleep … compliments of a hairy old pooch! It seems she doesn’t like stormy weather, and I got to bed at 9pm (which is bad in itself, and I usually need to be in bed by 7.30pm on 5am shifts), only to have her whining and scratching at the door at 9.30pm. Considering my alarm was going off at 3.45am, that didn’t bode well. I thought Muffy was pining for Jan and the family, and tried to coax her back to her bedroom, but then she bolted under the bed with her tail between her legs and wouldn’t come back out hmmm. I ended up leaving her there, but after an hour of listening to her tap-tapping on the floor and licking herself, I managed to talk her out from under the bed and back into her room (thankfully the thunder had stopped by then). But then I got yet another wake-up call at 1.05am, this time for a toilet walk outside ho-hum … to say I felt like death warmed up this morning would be a MAJOR underexaggeration 😦

The other disappointment today was that I was supposed to be driving a lady around who arrived from the USA today (she’s a member of the EGA), as soon as I finished work, but they had an unexpected meeting with their tour leader at 4pm, which put paid to our plans. Instead I just caught the train into the city and left my gifts at reception for them (2 stitchers, and 1 quilter) – I didn’t have time to stitch anything, so I put together gift bags of Tim-Tams, Cadbury chocolates, potato chips, little koalas and an Australia key-ring for each of them. I figured if I couldn’t give a gift of stitching, I’d go with the second stitcher’s passion … chocolate LOL.

Rightio, time to head off to bed for the night – fingers crossed I get more sleep tonight! Muffy has had a toilet stop already, and we went for a walk in the park earlier, so hopefully she’s been tuckered out enough to sleep heavily until the morning … well, I can hope, right? 😉

Katrina’s Quaker RR (the final part) is on its way in the mail to me, so I’ll start stitching that as soon as it arrives – but in the meantime the next project up for stitching is “Snapperville” by Bent Creek … I can’t wait!!! 😀

And I’m finally almost 100% caught up on Season 1 of NCIS … I can’t believe I haven’t seen any of these episodes before – I love it! 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes

An ear-shattering “Yippee”!!!

5 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

By the title of this super quick post, you might have guessed that I’ve finished that poxy, dratted aida bookmark … woohoo!!! Now I’m heading back to my stitching corner for another hour or two for some “fun” stitching – Nicki’s Quaker RR 😀

Tigger Bookmark (Disney’s Winnie the Pooh kit by Semco)

Cross Stitch, Finishes

One down, one to go!

24 September, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I’m referring to my revolting commitment stitching … yes, that does indeed mean that poxy plastic canvas piece is finished, done and dusted, and out of my hair forever – woohoo!!! I’ve decided that Lisa can make it up herself into the little hanger, I’ve done the stitching on it and that will suffice … if you want to see what it will look like when finished, I’ve taken a photo of the kit cover for you. The only scissors I have on me are my Gingher’s and they sure as heck aren’t going to be used to cut plastic canvas!

Wire Welcome by Dimensions

I finished it quite late last night, and didn’t have the energy to start stitching the Winnie the Pooh bookmark straightaway – instead I figured if I’m already stitching projects I hate, I might as well keep the ball rolling … and put the final touches into a wee kit project that I started when I went into hospital to have my gallbladder removed two years ago. I only managed to stitch just under 1/2 of it at the hospital, and I finished it off in a couple of hours last night while sat up watching The Incredibles and Wallace & Gromit movies on DVD. The colours on this are quite odd, and I’m sure they put the wrong dark blue in the kit – which is one reason it’s taken so long for me to finish this … the blended stitches are really ‘obvious’. Goodness knows what I’ll do with it … make it into a pinkeep maybe?

Morning Glory – Carolyn’s Garden, by Serendipity Designs

Today I picked up the final piece of revolting commitment stitching, and have stitched about 1/4 of the Winnie the Pooh bookmark – the shifts I’m working this week won’t give me much free time so I won’t have chance to get it stitched before I leave here in a couple of days, but at least it will go nicely into an envelope so it can be posted to Lisa down the track if necessary … no piccies of that one until it’s all finished.

Then I can move onto some “fun” commitment stitching – next up is Nicki’s Quaker Friendship RR piece … plus I’m going to start a new project to cheer me up after doing a few projects that certainly were not fun … the only question is “which one will it be??” 😉

And that’s pretty much all I have for you tonight – only two more nights left before I lose my internet access again … I still have over 600 unread feeds to plough through, but unfortunately that won’t be happening either – every time I catch up on some reading, another 50+ feeds update again 😉

Hopefully I’ll get chance for one final post before I head off into the wide blue yonder … although I’ll have to do all the housework over the next two nights quite late, as I have overtime both days for 2 hours.

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Stitching Smalls

Two more small “finishes”

30 August, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I managed to get a couple more small finishes done last night – as well as taking a better photo of my finished needleroll today (so I’ll replace the photo in yesterday’s post). I’m finally trying to make up a close pal’s gift that is months overdue, so I did this as a trial run first – definitely not my finest finishing ever done, but it’ll do …

Then I sat and finished off my Pansy Magnet Pillow into a finished pillow. I just adore this piece – it’s a shame to see it go into storage now it’s finished, as I just want to sit and admire it … I just love looking and playing with all the beads in the fringe! 🙂

Lucky last, I used the sewing machine to stitch the binding on my oldest quilting UFO, and it’s all pinned ready to do the hand-stitching on the back of the binding – I’m coming up to almost 4 weeks of late shifts, so I thought it could be the perfect project for the office on the overnight shift. Mind you, one week will be spent training a new person on the Hotline, so I might not get quite as much done as expected hmmm. No piccies yet until the whole thing is finished anyway … I have no idea what I’ll do with it when it’s finished!

Rightio, back to packing up … so far I’ve cleaned out my car boot ready for loading everything into it again – done the laundry washing for the week, all apart from my bedding which I’ll probably do next week in Seaford, and most of my stitching is put away again. My sewing machine will be packed away tonight, in readiness to going back into storage again either tomorrow or Saturday before work. Only two more sleeps left before I head back to Seaford again for another week, then off to Edithvale for 3 weeks.

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Needlerolls

A tiny spot of finishing

29 August, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Today I started putting together a needleroll tutorial for use later next year on the Focus on Finishing blog – and managed to get the following needleroll completely finished (excuse the very poor photo, it was getting dark and I couldn’t get a decent shot without flooding the whole stitching with the flash), plus one more to the stage where I just need to add the ribbon and stuff it (this was actually my subject for the photos, but I realised when I got to the ribbon stage that all my ribbons are in the storage unit, except for the one I kept out for the Planted Hearts one ho-hum). Anyway, it means this one is finally completed and can be sent on its way to a new home somewhere 😀

While I was at it, I also decided to keep going with the hemstitching, and finally put together my Thistle Bag that Tobie kindly sent me the kit for ages ago. It’s about time I pulled my finger out and got this bag made up – and once I put my mind to it, it didn’t take too long whatsoever! 😀

That means I can finally say I’ve contributed to the monthly Finish-a-Long on the Focus on Finishing blog, instead of just being on the sidelines cheering everyone else along 😀

I may try and squeak in one more quick ‘finish’ tonight … something that will be super quick to finish off and won’t take up much room in storage (that’s something I started taking into consideration today – I was going to make a tie-on pillow using KarenV’s tutorial, but I decided I’m probably better off leaving everything ‘flat’ rather than stuffed, as I just don’t have space for it at the moment).

Lastly here is my latest stitching finish – I completed this yesterday afternoon … and I just love the colours and shimmering gold metallic thread – the photo doesn’t do it justice whatsoever. The red is deeper and richer, and the metallic just glistens and twinkles 🙂

Christmas Heart by Birds of a Feather
Stitched on 32ct white Lugana
with WDW and RG gold Petite Treasure Braid
(instead of Kreinik #4 gold braid)

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Small finish and lovely visit

27 August, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Just a really quick post to show my latest small finish – I’m thinking of picking up a bigger project next, so it may be a while before there’s another finish … as well as the fact that I’ll be losing my internet connection again in a few days time. I’ve just spent a couple of hours uploading piccies for the next couple of months for the Photo Hunts, for that exact reason – I’m not sure when I’ll be up and running for the internet again, and uploading and downloading is a tad harder at an internet cafe than it is at home … anyway, if you don’t see me online for a while soon, you’ll at least see one post a week, as I’ve uploaded posts for the Photo Hunt right up until 3 November – I know I’ve said it before, but I seriously LOVE that functionality of WordPress!!

Anyway, onto the piccie – here is my latest finish:

Miniature Bellpull Ornament by The Drawn Thread
from 1999 JCS Christmas ornie magazine or 10th Anniversary issue (which is where I got mine from – the 1999 JCS ornie mag is the only one I don’t own … {pout})
Stitched on 36ct summer khaki Edinborough linen
using DMC and Needle Necessities threads as recommended

In other news – my foot is perfectly fine … I had a lot of stiffness and pain in it on Saturday, and went to see a GP as I felt quite worried about it – but she said I hadn’t done any major damage and I still had relatively good mobility, so just to keep applying the ice packs. Well, you’d never believe it, I woke up on Sunday and hardly had a twinge!! It feels fantastic! 😀

The other great news from Sunday is that I caught up with Tannia and had a lovely relaxing stitching day (hence the reason my Drawn Thread ornie got finished – I just did a couple more hours when I got home and finished it up). As always, Tannia is wonderful company, and it was great to just kick back and relax with needle in hand, and old movies on TV, without a care in the world. There’s also a treat in store for you, Mum, next time you come over – Tannia has very kindly given me some Christmas ornie magazines for you 😀

Not much else to report apart from that … I’m now off to the lounge room to watch a couple more episodes of series 3 of Moonlighting while I put a few more stitches into another ornie, then tomorrow is “clean up” day when I start packing my things away again in preparation of moving out. I have another week out in Seaford, then I’m looking after a place in Edithvale for 3 weeks with an elderly (and apparently well behaved – that’ll be a nice change) kitty.

Rightio, time to get cracking again …

(Updated to add:) Forgot to say, I finished reading Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows yesterday morning – couldn’t put it down in the end! Even though I haven’t read any of the others yet, I have no regrets whatsoever for reading it. It’s unlikely I’ll sit down and read the other books yet, and I wanted to read it before I knew what the ending was. I’ve seen all the movies to date, so at least I knew all the characters and the terminology … although after seeing the movies, I have to say all the characters in the book were now ingrained in my head as the actors who played them … much less imagination needed haha. Anyway, I have to say I loved it! 😀