Category: Finishes

Well, I did it!! I’m no longer a Guild Guidance Group Virgin!!! Yup, I bit the bullet and dragged myself along today to the Blackwork/Counted Thread group, and I’m very glad that I did. As well as other reasons, one of the ladies brought in her finished Mermaid Treasure Box (Chatelaine design) – wow, what a stunning piece, and incredible to see it in person!! There were about two ladies there similar to my own age, with the others a lot older, which is pretty standard for most Guild groups, I know – and I love listening to the older ladies discussing embroidery, as they have so much experience to share 🙂 Anyway, I was made extremely welcome, and actually managed to get some stitching done … managed to do a LOT of frog-stitching on my Marine Elegance piece – so I gave that up as a bad job, and put it away again.

Luckily I also took some other pieces along to stitch ‘just in case’, and popped across the road to Spotlight at lunchtime for some ribbon that looks OK, so I could finish my pinkeep – I just ADORE the colours of this pinkeep, and now I’m thinking of using the same design to make a needlebook or a pincushion to go with it. It’s an online freebie chart by Indigo Rose that I downloaded ages ago, with some modifications of my own … and I’m pretty pleased with it – especially since this is the first pinkeep I’ve ever tried to make. It’s stitched with Jewel of the Nile Needle Necessities thread, which is so so scrummy 🙂 I wasn’t sure how to finish the top of the pinkeep off, so I may end up changing it a bit, but that’s all I could think of while I was out …

Aside from that, I also managed to get a bit more stitching done on my Christmas ornament RR piece – I figured I might as well try and get some more of my ‘commitment’ stitching pieces done so I can tick one more thing off my list for this month, and this one was nice and portable. Only one more project to go after this one, and I get to receive my leftover threads etc … which is great, because I need the red Kreinik braid for another ornie. For once I haven’t got my Christmas ornie stitched for the FGBB … I have everything more or less kitted up ready to go, just haven’t gotten around to stitching it – I think the exchange pieces have taken up every priority at the moment.

Anyway, I’m now going to sit down and do a few more stitches while I’m in the mood – I might try and get the Christmas ornie finished, so I can get back to starting my next exchange piece 🙂 I just couldn’t wait until tomorrow to post my piccies ;P

Crikey, I’m surprising myself with my stitching marathon this weekend – in answer to your question, Jenna, I’m not joining in with the Stitch-a-Thon this weekend, as today (Sat) it’s the last day of my visitors being here, and we’re supposed to be meeting up with another friend who’s down visiting from Brisbane some time during the day, then out for dinner tonight with Fraze and Hayley … and I’m working 4 hours overtime tomorrow … so I didn’t think it left me with much stitching time. Now, if I’d classed my Stitch-a-Thon for 24 hours from Thursday night, I’d be laughing!! 😀

Anyway, last night I still couldn’t stop stitching – I was laying in bed, with my ornie magazines next to me and the fabric and threads for another very small project, and watching Medium on TV … well, let’s just say the temptation got too much for me, and at 10.30pm I picked up the needle again for a while. I got half of it stitched last night, then woke up early and finished the other half this morning while my houseguests are still sleeping their heads off. Don’t know what time they came home, but it was at least after 2am – goodness knows when they’ll eventually surface … probably just in time to have a quick coffee with Tom. Anyway, here is my last finish for the weekend … yeah, I know, I said that yesterday … haha. It’s the Peace*Joy*Love ornament by Lizzie*Kate from the 2002 JCS ornie issue – and I stitched this to complete a challenge on the Friends Gather BB to “broaden your horizons”. A different theme is set each month, and this month’s was L*K/Mosey ‘n Me style.

OK, off to do some quiet housecleaning and some computer software upgrades while my guests sleep everything off ;P

Yes, that’s right, yet another project has hit the finishing pile today – the latest one is Bilberry by Shepherd’s Bush … this has been a UFO for a while, as I couldn’t work out how to do the hemstitching bands. After completing my Love needleroll at the start of this year, and using a different instruction book I have, I decided it would be a quick project to finish off, seeing as I’ve now tried and succeeded in hemstitching, and I wasn’t in the mood to tackle my Marine Elegance today as my concentration wasn’t quite ‘up to it’. I can thank KarenV partly for this – after seeing her latest Shepherd’s Bush finishes, it reminded me I had this in my UFO pile, and it wasn’t too far off finishing, so I thought it was time it saw daylight again. I put a sheet of coloured paper behind the fabric while I was scanning it, so the fabric looks off-white, but it showed up the hemstitching etc better that way.

Phew, three finishes in 24 hours … don’t expect to see any more for a while! LOL.

I’ve been very very lazy in that I’ve been sat up in bed all day stitching my little heart out, while clearing my taped TV programmes … thanks to House, Desperate Housewives, Lost, The Amazing Race and NCIS, I have managed to complete not one, but two ornaments over the last 24 hours – yippee! I put the final stitches into Star of Wonder before I went to sleep last night, from the 2002 JCS ornie issue – this is a design by Ellen Chester, of With My Needle, and I really love it … a bit challenging to stitch, with the over-one sections, but a fun stitch 🙂

The second ornament is Herald Angels from the 2003 JCS ornie issue – designed by Pamela Byrd Smith of The Prairie Schooler, Inc. This was part of the Christmas Ornament challenge on the Friends Gather BB, as there is a chosen designer each month, and we choose any design we want to stitch by that designer – and I chose the Herald Angels. I have to admit, I was very worried about it while I was stitching it, as it was so so dark – but as soon as the metallics were added it really lifted it, and I like it again. Perhaps in hindsight I might have used a navy blue instead of the black, though, to lighten it a bit more. Anyway, off they go to my finishing pile for later in the year …

My next challenge is to stitch my Marine Elegance piece – followed by my charity pieces, then back to my rotation again … as well as the Bunnies in my Garden SAL that’s starting with the StitchingSmalls Yahoo group next month … so much stitching, so little time LOL.

Today’s SBQ is:

Hmmm, I have a love/hate relationship with over-one stitching. I really don’t enjoy the stitching part, but I love to see the finished product. That being said, I really want to stitch Graham Ross’ Macaw and Rainbow Lorikeets over-one, as well as a green tree frog I’ve already stitched over-two. The best tip I learned from a class with Jodi Merusi – and that was to stitch it like a tent stitch, except you come back across the row with the top stitch (which I also use a tent stitch for) … it saves the floss threads slipping under the fabric threads, and gives you more space to slip your needle under when anchoring ends on the back. You can’t do this with overdyed threads, though, as each stitch has to be done individually, darnit!

Unfortunately, it means I’m going to bed a bit later than planned for my 6am start at work tomorrow, but I just couldn’t put my quilt panel to one side until I’d finished every name … I was just too close to finishing. So, now I can get it in the post either tomorrow or Tuesday to the organisers – woohoo, another lot of commitment stitching out the way! 🙂
In answer to Tobie’s question … “what next?” … I’m not exactly 100% sure yet, but I probably should get my Marine Elegance piece up-to-date for my SAL first, seeing as I have another SAL starting in April – then I still have another two charity quilt squares to stitch (the Batman logo, and an Echidna) … these aren’t due until May, so I have some time up my sleeve for them yet. So, I guess I should start committing myself to restarting my rotation again, seeing as I haven’t touched it since the end of 2005 (gee, that seems so far away LOL). That being said, the following is my hastily hatched stitching plan (but I reserve the right to change it on a whim haha):

• Marine Elegance SAL (Cindy Valentine)
• Echidna quilt square
• Dolphins Domain
• Smalls/Ornaments
• Batman quilt square
• Jen’s Jems canvaswork
• UFO – Bil Berry by Shepherd’s Bush
• Dolphins Domain
• Smalls/Ornaments
• Winter Queen (Mirabilia)
• Le Jardin Silk Sampler
• Dolphins Domain
• Finishing items
• UFO – Nature’s Resting Place
• Free choice

As for the Adam Sandler movie, it was “Punch-Drunk Love” … if you get the urge to watch it, please try to control that urge and save yourselves the trouble!

OK, off to bed now for my first of 6 x 6am starts …

Just in the nick of time (ie before midnight) I managed to put the final stitches into my 2nd stitching goal for the day … and it took me all that time to actually finish it. I’m sorry to say that I really didn’t enjoy stitching this one at all, which is probably why I was so slow at stitching it. I found the colours really drab, and I really detest stitching over-one with variegated thread because I have to stitch each stitch individually – all-in-all this is not a project I would ever have chosen myself … however, there is a good piece of news in all this – as this is one of the ornaments Mum liked in the 2005 JCS ornie issue, this will be finding its way to her tree at the end of the year … at least it will be going someone who will love it 🙂 If anyone is wondering what the design is, it’s “Home for Christmas” by Brightneedle.

Still haven’t decided what to stitch tomorrow yet … will see what I feel like when I get up. I also need to make an eating and exercise plan from tomorrow night onwards … you see, tomorrow is D-Day (Diet-Day) – our company is subsidising 50% off 3 months of Weight Watchers for those of us wishing to lose weight, and I put my name down for it a few weeks ago – tomorrow is our first night/sign up. Another sign that I’m feeling good about myself, I guess – I’m actually wanting to make an improvement to my body, as well as my mind. 🙂 It couldn’t have come at a (possible) worse time with my finances in trying to cut back, but I’m already committed to it, and it’s something I think I really need to do as I have put a considerable amount of weight on over the last year or so, and I’m starting to feel really unhealthy. They say life begins at 40, perhaps it’s true … 😉

Thankfully the full-on migraine only lasted 24 hours … I picked up my needle at about 9.30pm last night, and stitched my little heart out for a few hours, finally putting everything down at 1am – just stitching for a short while helped me feel a bit more relaxed. And today I put the last stitches into my Thistle Treasure Bag by M Designs – not very often I get to finish an entire design in 24 hours, but the last few days has seen two done! My thistle just has to have it’s little bee charm attached to the top right of the thistle head, and then made up into a bag … but I think I’ll leave that until a bit later 🙂 Thanks Tobie for a project that was real fun to stitch! 😀

I’m finding that even just a short time spent on the computer today is straining my head a bit, so I’m keeping my PC time very very short to try and keep the migraine at bay a bit longer. Not sure what I’ll attack next …