… but I finally managed to get 3 needlerolls in their finished stages – I started at just after 10pm tonight, and definitely need to get some sleep now! 🙂 One of these will be winging their way across the oceans tomorrow … a very VERY belated gift I had meant to send an entire month ago – geez, I’m just shocking at the moment with a head like a sieve!! My sincere apologies, mystery recipient, but I hope you still like it! 😀
Category: Finishes
Finished needlework
One commitment done
I can cross one “must do” off my list for the next week or so – I just put the finishing stitches into Vash’s RR … this is using the freebie “Birds & Butterflies” on the Vermillion website. The main challenge for me was stitching my XS’es in the opposite direction – I’ve never frogged so much in my entire life in such a small design … it’s just 2nd nature for me to cross my crosses my old way! I think it turned out OK, though, and it’ll be winging its way across the oceans to Canada some time over the next week.
We had a surprise phone call yesterday saying my lounge suite is ready for delivery, so we’ll be home tomorrow for that … unfortunately, though, we still have our old one here, so it’s gonna be pretty cramped until we can get rid of it. I’ve offered it to Fraze, as he and his girlfriend have just moved in together two weeks ago, and he’s accepted it … he just has to work out how to pick it up as he doesn’t have a car or trailer … if that falls down, then I’ll donate it to the Salvation Army.
Aside from that, my health has been so-so over the last day or so – after being so ‘cocky’ that I felt good the other day, we popped out for an hour or so to Ikea getting ideas for storage, and I ended up coming home with a splitting headache, and even more splitting tummy pains … no stitching for me that night, and I just spent the rest of the night curled up on the sofa feeling like death warmed up. My tummy was still gurgling last night, but thankfully no pains this time … time will tell over the next day or so, I guess, whether I’ve managed to get rid of whatever it was for good!
Now a quick question for Jess., if you’re reading – thanks for your comment about Stitchery Blue in Williamstown … I have to admit, I took a train trip out there once when I was here visiting – but I haven’t been back since I’ve moved here. My absolute favourite would probably be Lazy Daisy in Heidelberg – I also really like Bustle & Bows in Malvern (and to a certain extent the one in Surrey Hills), but I find their prices quite steep … also the last time I went in the new manager followed me around the shop like a shadow and I felt really uncomfortable – I haven’t been back since hmmm. I also like The Embroiderer in Brighton for threads, but they lack greatly in charts – they’re pretty helpful to order in items if you need them, though. You mentioned “Broderie” in Bentleigh – do you know where it is?? I haven’t heard of it before, and I’d love to track it down, especially as it’s in my neck of the woods, and I couldn’t find it in the Yellow Pages online … 😀
Well, that’ll do for today, I guess – it’s blowing a gale outside today, but it’s beautiful and sunny, and I feel like blowing the cobwebs out by going for a short walk … then we need to get furniture moved around ready for the delivery tomorrow – I can’t wait to see my new lounge suite in here yippee! 😀
Needleroll SAL weekend (updated)
I have to admit that I’ve only been stitching my chosen needleroll since about 10pm last night, but I’ve been stitching all day today, and managed to almost finish the entire thing … I’ve just hit the wall a bit now, so taking a break, and unsure whether I’ll get it finished tonight. I’m stitching Summer at the Ocean by Jeannette Douglas Designs – I’ve been itching to stitch this design ever since I first saw it about 12 months ago … and I can finally say I’ve reached that goal … well, “almost” reached that goal anyway! 😉 I just have to do the over-one words (my favourite … NOT!), the rest of the ‘ship’s wheels’ band, followed by all the beading. My favourite bands are the swirly ‘shells’ (3rd band down), and the pinwheels – it’s been fun stitching something that’s not XS for a change 🙂
Tomorrow I’ll make a start on the Lavender Rose Sewing Case, as well as doing some work on Vash’s RR … and I need to get to the Post Office, as I haven’t cleared my mail for nearly two weeks now (we went out there on Saturday morning, but it turns out they’re not open on Saturdays anymore, and I’d left my PO Box key at home … what a blonde!!). I have a couple of things to get in the post tomorrow, so that’ll be something else we can tick off the to-do list for the week 🙂
(Update …) I decided to go back to my needleroll after a short break, and managed to put the final stitches into it tonight. I might even get around to actually “finishing” some soon … maybe 😉 Anyway, here’s the final version of the stitching before being finished into an actual needleroll.
Summer at the Ocean
by Jeannette Douglas Designs
Stitched on 32ct Blue Ice hand-dyed linen by Country Stitch
Week of the Dragon! (2nd post)
Nope, I didn’t get that wrong in the title … it’s not the “Year of the Dragon” – for us it’s been the Week of the Dragon!
While we were in Hong Kong I made Mum pose in front of the Nine Dragon Wall in the temple gardens, and laughed saying it was now a Ten Dragon Wall hahaha …
Dragon #1 (ie 10th Dragon)
Then tonight it was a true dragon-fest … I put the final backstitches into my dragon quilt square, while watching Dragonheart on TV, with my own mother dragon stitching away opposite me … an absolute plethora of Dragons!!! LOLOLOLOL.
Dragon #2
SBQ’s and small finishes
Between Blogger and my stupid modem, it took me almost 5 hours to load up the Hong Kong photos and blog post yesterday … hopefully this post will be a bit quicker!! (And as it turns out, Blogger won’t upload piccies today, so I’m having to use Photobucket mutter mutter mutter …)
Firstly, here’s the little ornament I stitched while I was away – it’s Teddy Bear Stocking by Lorri Birmingham … just for a change there were errors on the chart, which drives me crazy, so a bit more frogging than normal while trying to fix it hmmm – but all-in-all, I think it’s quite cute, and I enjoyed stitching it. Mum’s decided she loves it so much she wants to stitch one for herself as well … way to go, Mum, you’re almost more addicted to stitching than I am now! 😀
I also managed to finish one more ornament last night that I started while in HK … this is the first in the Beyond Cross Stitch series of Hardanger designs by The Victoria Sampler, “White Christmas” – the photo doesn’t do justice to all the sparkles of the metallic thread.
Now on to the backlog of SBQ’s …
20 July – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Cathy and is:
“When you get a project professionally framed do you get glass inserted into the frame? Why or why not?”
I’ve always had my framing done professionally, and with glass – but to be honest, I prefer the look of embroidery without the glass. I left the glass off my “Waiting for Ships” mermaid to do more justice to the metallics and beads, and I’ll probably do the same with future pieces as well. Seeing as I don’t smoke, and hate smoking in the home, it’s not as much of an issue to leave the glass off. It’s also then less of an issue when moving house so things don’t get broken … I learnt that by personal experience very recently when my Wessex Sampler was sitting in the aircraft hold with fragile stickers all over it, and well packaged up … hmmm.
26 July – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Von and is:
“Many of us have a few pairs of embroidery scissors and some even have a “collection”. How many pairs of scissors do you have? Feel free to share a photo of your favourite pair or pairs with us!”
I don’t really have many scissors anymore (two pairs have mysteriously disappeared!!) – one pair is really half-dead, and I just use them for my metallic threads now (and an odd embroidery thread when I’m desperate to find another pair). My absolute favourites were my Gingher’s, which I’d ordered from the USA about 7-8 years ago, but very stupidly left them in my carry-on bag last year when I flew home, and they got confiscated 😦 (I didn’t realise I’d packed 2 pairs – very conscientiously popped my crappy pair into the suitcase, and left my good ones that were in hiding at the back of the needlework case boohoo). I bought a new pair about 6 months ago, but when Mum started stitching in May I gave them to her to start up her stitching kit. When I come to think about it, I really really need to get some more, as I only have one good sharp pair anymore – which is the one I’ve taken a piccie of 😦 The only other pair I have are more for ornamental purposes – they’re too small for me to use comfortably, but I love the little hanging sheath for them – too cute! I keep thinking about ordering another pair of Gingher’s from Nordic Needle (plus I really want some of the coloured scissors too), but their postage scares me too much haha. One day I’ll get around to it again … anyone know a good source for them that has reasonable postage?? 😉
3 August – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:
“Do you have a favourite needlework tool that you like to work with? What is it and why do you like using it?”
Only one??? Hmmm, that’s a hard call … personally I’ll be hard pushed to decide between my floorstand and my Ott-lite – both of which are almost essential for me. I have difficulty holding a hoop/Q-snap in hand, and can’t stitch in hand, as I get cramps, so anything that holds my scrollbars or Q-snaps is the most essential item for me (come to think about it, you’d better include those scrollbars as my favourites too!!). Coming up next are my Do-lolly for feeding in those tiny threads on the back (great for boo-boos when you don’t have much thread left on the back to play with!), and
my Tacky Bob which is wonderful for beading (thanks to Carol, who sent it as a birthday gift – I love it!).
9 August – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Ami and is:
“For those of you who use hand or over-dyed floss, how do you store it?”
I use Floss-away bags for my over-dyeds, with each type of thread (eg GAST, WDW, NN etc) on their own small metallic ring – then all the small rings are put onto a large ring so all my over-dyeds are grouped together … I do that with all my types of threads, including metallics, rayons etc – then all the rings are stored together in plastic tubs.
Another rotation slot finished
I finally put the final stitches into my 10-hour slot for smalls/ornaments etc today, and had two small finishes. First of all I finished the stitching of my ‘draft version’ of my Melanie’s Exchange stitched in April – it was already half-stitched, so I just had to finish it off … I just have to do the actual finishing yet. Secondly, I finished off the Christmas ornie I started during the week – I think I actually liked this one better without the beads, but I couldn’t be bothered frogging them off again – this design is Christmas Tree by Elizabeth’s Designs, from the 2005 JCS ornie issue. I’ll have an ornamentifying session next month with Mum to get some of our ornies “finished”.
Aside from that it was an uneventful day – I was very keen and made a big pan of pumpkin and potato soup, as well as a tuna pasta bake for dinner … finished by a total disaster – let’s just say it’s been such a loooooong time since I cracked open my breadmaker to make fresh bread, that I didn’t think to check the yeast expiry date etc … yep, you guessed it – my bread turned out to be a solid mass in the bottom of the breadmaker, and didn’t make my little flat too aromatic this afternoon haha. Oh well, I have to do a big lot of shopping this week, so I’ll have to pick up some more flour and yeast and try it again … oops.
Probably won’t get much chance for stitching this week, with Jenny arriving from NZ on Tuesday night for two nights visiting, then only a couple more nights before Mum arrives again on Saturday – yippee 😀
Peace …
The title doesn’t mean anything profound … just that I’ve finished the Peace ornament from the 2004 JCS ornie magazine – finally one finished in line with our designer SAL on the Friends Gather BB … this month was Jeannette Douglas Designs 🙂 A HUGE thanks to Jenna for sending me the Needle Necessities overdyed braid I needed to finish this one – muchly appreciated! 😀
I’m now halfway through my smalls/ornaments/SAL rotation slot … just have to decide what to stitch in those last 5 hours – perhaps another small ornament … I’ll have to decide later, ‘cos it’s time to run off to work. Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend 🙂
(Sorry, but the scan doesn’t show up the lovely stitches very well – I might try and take a digital photo later some time.)
DMC on sale for Aussies
Just a quick public announcement in case you’re interested (for my fellow Aussies) … I happened by chance to pop into my local “Riot” art & craft store near work while I killed time in my lunch break, and found they had DMC on sale until the end of July for 59c each – time to drag out the floss bags and see what I’m running short of 🙂
The other news is that as of 10 minutes ago, my latest charity quilt block was finished … I really didn’t enjoy the deadline for this one (my own fault, though) so I’ve decided once the next block is finished (which is due 15 August) I’m not signing up for any more deadlines months in advance. I’ve got a charity block rotation slot, and the week that I come to it, I’ll check the website to see what blocks are required, then I’ll sit and stitch it straightaway … that way I’m not governed by timeframes too much, but I still continue to contribute to the quilts. I’ve decided deadlines just don’t suit me. I may also pull out of the SBEBB for the same reason – I love the whole idea of exchanges etc, but I’ve found the deadlines too stressful … perhaps because I had so many things on the go at the same time. I’ll see how I feel after the redwork exchange is completed …
So, with no further do, here is my racing car block ready to jump in the mail.
Happy Dance
Yippee, I managed to get my ducks square complete for my round robin – they’re just gorgeous, if I say so myself … of course I have to say that, though, as they’re ducks!! (These ones are called Redheads) 😀 It’s stitched on 32ct ivory Lugana, and the way I envisage it all is framed, with the four squares with a darkish green matt so each individual square will be surrounded in the matt – does that make sense? The whole thing is square in size, with two ducks on the top, and two on the bottom. Unfortunately I didn’t have a piece of fabric the ideal size, so I’ve had to scrimp on the side edges of this – but I’m going to attach a strip of fabric to each side to allow the framing when it arrives home again. I hope everyone enjoys stitching on it as much as I have (but of course I’m biased, ‘cos I’m duck-mad!).
Aside from that, nothing to post about really … I’m a bit braindead today, after not getting much sleep last night. Fraze came over and I took him out for a belated birthday dinner, then we had a few drinks at home before hitting the hay at about 1am – I was awake at 5am, and took forever to get back to sleep again, then the alarm went off at 7am for Fraze to go to work. If nothing else, it’ll get me back into early bed mode tonight ready for my early start at work myself tomorrow 🙂
The next slot on my rotation is smalls/ornaments, so I think I’ll try to get an ornament stitched up, seeing as I haven’t met my monthly commitments yet with that. I was hoping to stitch the Quaker Christmas Bulb from a JCS ornie issue, but my three WDW threads still haven’t arrived in the mail (I still have a backorder from SB&B waiting for a French chart to arrive, along with some threads I’m desperate for), so that’s a no-go yet … I still have one ornament to stitch from my Ornament Round Robin group, so that’ll probably be what I’ll end up stitching next …
Thanks again for all your supportive comments about my privacy intrusion – I’ve managed to get over it, and don’t intend changing at all. I’m hoping it was just a once-off, and life will be back to its scheduled programming with no changes … after all, this is who I am and this is my private space 😀
SBQ’s and a very quick update
And still no stash photos – just haven’t had time … have hardly spent any time at my PC all week, but have been working hard to get my exchanges finished instead, as well as trying to unpack after my holiday, and tidy up a bit (my little flat looks like a bomb has exploded in it).
Anyway, just quickly I’ve managed to get my scissors fob exchange into the mail to Nicola (I’m safe to post piccies, because she doesn’t read my blog) – the stitching was all finished before I flew to NZ, I just had to whipstitch it, make the tassel and cording, and put it together … then while I was in NZ I just never got around to getting it done, and ended up bringing it back home with me (geez, I’m useless!!). Anyway, it’s finally in its little envelope and on its way back to NZ again phew!! And just for a change, blogger is having a hissy fit about posting photos, so I’m giving up … here are photos uploaded from Photobucket – and if you want to see a close-up of the front click here, and the back is here.
My mail art is all finished with the stitching – I hope the recipient likes it, but I have to admit to being a bit worried about it … I think I struggled as I couldn’t work out the recipient’s preferences, as there is no online album that I could find, or wishlist, so I feel like I’ve been stitching ‘blind’. Today I have the job of putting it all together into it’s envelope shape etc – I was going to do it yesterday, but it was day 7 of work, after doing the last 3 days with 5am shifts, and I was worried with my tiredness I’d stuff it up … best to leave it until today … although I still feel half asleep, so I don’t know … haha.
This weekend is our needleroll SAL, but I don’t know whether I’m going to manage to get one stitched, as I really do need to get that mail art 100% finished – maybe I’ll get some time tomorrow to put a few stitches in. If I do, I think I’ll be working on my half-finished ‘sample’ one I was making for the Melanie’s Exchange, and try to get a little bit more stitched on it.
Rightio, lastly on to the SBQ’s before I sign off … I now have 4 SBQ’s to catch up on, so I thought I’d bite the bullet and get them all out of the way today, ‘cos before I know it there’ll be another one being posted 😛 I’ve decided to just answer the first 3 initially, as the other one needs photos, and I’m not yet organised for that one.
17 May – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Jenna and is:
“Lately, it seems that many stitching bloggers have experienced a loss of their stitching mojo. Have you ever lost your stitching mojo? If so, how did you get it back and how long did it take?”
I lost my mojo when I first moved to Melbourne, due to appalling living conditions that just weren’t conducive to stitching – but as soon as I moved out with Fraze and we got our own place I bought a cheap recliner, set up my stitching station, and never looked back … in fact I’ve stitched more in the last 24 months than I’ve ever stitched, I think 🙂 I did get a bit overwhelmed with my commitment stitching etc over the last couple of months, which has been detrimental to my overall stitching … I think sometimes it’s a bit of a carry-over from when I had concussion years ago – even now if I get over-tired, I struggle to ‘focus’ on things – I find I have to make lists etc to keep on track, but when I get overwhelmed with ‘stuff’ my head almost gets too cluttered and I lose track. I can sit in a chair, knowing I have lots of things I must get done, but half an hour later I’m still sat there, and don’t know where the time has gone hmmm. Now I’m realising that I need to be more realistic with my stitching time, especially as sometimes I get really tired with my shift work, so I can be more in control.
24 May – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Nancy and is:
“What is your favorite specialty stitch? Which one is your least favorite? Why?”
I don’t know what my favourite stitch is at the moment – I enjoy doing Rhodes stitches in whatever shape or form (which is probably a good thing, seeing as there are so many in the Bordeaux Mystery Sampler!), and I really enjoyed doing the Waffle stitch for my Melanie’s Exchange needleroll – I just enjoy the variety of loads of different stitches. Probably my least favourite would have to be bullion knots and french knots … definitely a lot easier to answer! haha.
31 May – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:
“Do you collect charts by one particular designer, yet have never stitched anything by that designer? If so, which designer and why do you collect the charts but have not yet stitched any of them?”
Perhaps the designs that come to mind here are Teresa Wentzler … I went through a phase where I had to buy every single design that TW had put out, and continued to do so for quite some time, including trading and tracking down copies all over the world (prior to knowing about Ebay!). I’ve never actually stitched any of them in their entirety, although I do have two of them that are currently UFO’s, so I do expect to eventually finish them both. I doubt I’ll stitch much of my collection, but it’s the only one I’ll be hard pushed to part with. Even if I never stitch them, I love flicking through the charts in my folder like a book of fine art – it’s uplifting for the soul to just feast your eyes on such beauty 🙂
I also started doing the same with Mirabilia charts, and used to received her new charts automatically – but the designs changed and I no longer loved them as I used to, so I stopped … I’ll still buy one if I fall in love with it, but it’s more rare these days, and I’ve even been putting a few up for trade that I know I’ll never stitch in a month of Sundays. They’re probably the main two designers I’m guilty of collecting.
Feather Stitching 
