Category: Cross Stitch

Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Lizzie Kate, Plum Pudding NeedleArt

A little touch of Love

Anne S

I didn’t end up getting much stitching done yesterday, and still haven’t finished my little snowflake ornie … I forgot I still had my Love freebie sitting on my bedroom lapframe, so rather than removing it, I decided to put the final stitches into that one instead … and now the snowflake ornie is in its place ready for finishing off this week (in fact I may try and put a few stitches into it tonight). Apologies for the poor piccie, but I threw it on the scanner instead of trying to take a photo in grim evening light.

Plum Pudding Needleart-Love freebie
“Love” freebie by Plum Pudding NeedleArt
Stitched on 32ct cream Belfast linen (I think) with DMC

Yesterday I tried to take some photos of Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club all finished and in one piece … unfortunately I now notice that my “in one piece” photo is a bit blurry, so I’ve done a bit of a cut-and-paste job in three sections instead.  I didn’t have many of the recommended threads, as I don’t have a great stock of WDW or GAST threads to work from, and I wanted to stitch from my stash as much as possible, so I substituted quite a large number of threads in this piece.  The details are at the bottom of the photos.

LizzieKate-Boo Club
LizzieKate-Boo Club
LizzieKate-Boo Club
“Boo Club” by Lizzie*Kate
Stitched on 32ct Pipi hand-dyed linen by Countrystitch
Using a mix of recommended and substitute threads as follows:

Recommended ~ My Choice
WDW Mascara ~ WDW Mascara (but DMC 310 in the border)
WDW Whitewash ~ WDW Whitewash (but DMC white in the border)
WDW Taffeta ~ DMC 3740
WDW Guacamole ~ Crescent Colours Eve’s Leaves
WDW Purple Majesty ~ Needle Necessities 195 Coronation
WDW Carrot ~ DMC 3853
WDW Havana ~ WDW Havana
WDW Ocean ~ DMC 3809
GAST Tomato ~ GAST Burnt Orange
GAST Butternut Squash ~ Crescent Colours Finley’s Gold
GAST Ohio Lemon Pie ~ GAST Ohio Lemon Pie
GAST Forest Glade ~ GAST Forest Glade

The rest of the weekend has been spent helping Katie to set up our new flat electronics, and putting a Beef and Red Wine casserole into the slow cooker – I love winter for ‘slow cooker season’ 😀

And now I think I’ll sign off, and jump into my PJs ready for an early night – time to catch up on a few taped Cold Case shows, and perhaps a few more stitches into that little snowflake ornie (although it’s very hard to see the holes in the fabric this time of night).

Finishes, Halloween, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Happy Dance

Anne S

Yay, I finally have a happy dance with my finish of Just Nan’s Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls. It’s taken me a while to finish this one, but it was fun stitching – and I ADORE the little coffin charm that opens up to show a little skeleton inside … too COOL 😀

Just Nan-Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls
“Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls” by Just Nan
stitched on 28ct Cashel linen tea-dyed by myself
with DMC threads and Just Nan coffin embellishment

Just Nan-Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls

Seeing as we still had the double-banger finale of Dawson’s Creek to watch last night while I’d reached the happy dance part of my stitching, I ran into my room and grabbed a kitted up ornie that was within arm’s reach, so I made a small start into this one as well.  This is being stitched on a hand-dyed sparkly Lugana I got in a grab-bag from somewhere (had to be either Silkweaver or Countrystitch).  I may be anti-social in my bedroom today and catch up on a bit of ‘Anne TV’ (ie that Katie doesn’t watch), and get this one finished. Then I need to finish off my scissor pocket exchange ready for posting this week.

I need to remember to try and take some decent photos of Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club this weekend so I can roll it away until I turn it into a quilted wallhanging.  I don’t have any fabric that’s suitable (Halloween fabric over here is pretty impossible to find in good prints), so that might take a while.  I may end up just giving in and using some complementary plain fabrics, but there’s no hurry for this one to be finished for a while yet.

The rest of the weekend will be spent taking Katie shopping to buy a TV and TiVo for her room, and just generally being lazy.  Work is so exhausting during the week I almost need boring mindless weekends to keep my sanity in check!

Cross Stitch

WIP

Anne S

Um, I think I miscalculated … I’m so tired tonight, I only managed to stitch one big spider and 3/4 of a pumpkin face on GGG … unless I’m back in the saddle big time on Friday night watching Dawson’s Creek (oh so close to the end of the series … finally …), there won’t be no happy dancin’ until the weekend.

Cross Stitch, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls

Anne S

Without further ado, here’s the latest WIP photo of Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls – it’s also likely to be the final work in progress photo, as the next time you see it it will hopefully be an actual finished project – I reckon just one more night, maximum two nights, in front of the gogglebox will see this finished off – there are just 3 froggies, a bunch of eyes and pumpkin backstitching, and 2 teeny ghost heads at the bottom plus 2 over-one kitty cats, and 4 yucky spiders in the corners … yeah, 2 nights should do it, easy!

Of course now I’m fantasising about which project to pick up next – while I still have a huge pile of UFO’s to work through, and some other projects I’m in the middle of, the call of the “new start” is screaming very very loudly in my ear!  I’m almost tempted to start stitching Just Nan’s “Witchy Way”, yet another Halloween project, because I’ve got a lot of the threads already out from GGG, but then again it’s perhaps time for a break from Halloween designs … I’m really not entirely sure where my stitching passion will lead me this time … there are so many wonderful projects in my stash, I’m truly spoilt for choice and right now nothing is screaming any louder than anything else! 😀

I do have to finish off my scissor pocket exchange ready for mailing this weekend, so I have some time available yet before I have to make the ultimate decision on what project to pick up next … and I still have Sapphire Star to finish yet as well – I kinda came unstuck a bit ‘cos I absolutely abhor one of the threads used in the final sections, and am thinking of replacing it with a standard pearl cotton instead … maybe …

Anyway, for now it’s time to hit the hay for the night – I’m off to read another few pages of JR Ward’s Dark Lover before I officially wilt … I managed a whole 10 pages last night before my eyelids were too heavy to keep open … at this rate I should be finished with the entire series in about 2018! 😛

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Freebies, Just Nan, Lizzie Kate, Works in Progress

Where did the weekend go?

Anne S

Well, I guess I know where … I spent the entire day in my PJ’s on Saturday ‘cos I was just too tired to do anything else – I sat up in bed most of the day and watched DVDs while doing a teeny bit of stitching.  After playing in my stash for a little while (dragging out all the kitted up projects in my drawers) I managed to start and finish this little project (but couldn’t face leaving the American spelling of “favorite” so I added a little “U” to Aussie-fy it):

LizzieKate-My Favorite Time
“My Favorite Time” by Lizzie*Kate
stitched on 28ct mystery Cashel linen (probably Clay or something similar)
with recommended GAST threads except Oatmeal where I subbed with DMC B5200

Then I started on a freebie by Plum Pudding Needleart – which will only take one more bedroom stitching session to totally complete it.  In fact, I reckon about 2 hours of stitching will likely see it completed … but seeing as it’s now my ‘bedroom project’, and I don’t often stitch in my room, this may not see the finishing pile until next weekend again.

This morning Katie and I wandered over to the restaurant on ‘our’ beach where we had a leisurely brunch – I had the Eggs Benedict with a side of mushrooms, pineapple juice, and two skim cappuccinos … we were in heaven for a wee while.  On the way home we picked up a couple of bags each of groceries from the local supermarket, then came in to vege out in front of the gogglebox for a few hours watching Flash Forward and The Amazing Race while I did a bit of stitching.  After that Katie deserted me to go to her bedroom to read a book, while I cleaned up another episode of Good News Week, Fringe and Medium.

Thanks to our TV viewing session, the result is that Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls now looks like this:

I have to say I think the colour choices in particular for the two small pumpkins seem rather “odd” … but they’ll be staying as they are …

And now I’m going to open up Audible Manager and pop on an audiobook for an hour or two while I do some tidying up in my room, which is currently like a pigsty! 🙂

Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Just Nan, Lizzie Kate, Works in Progress

The end of the week…

Anne S

“TGIF” BIG time this week – Friday hasn’t come around quick enough, even though I’ve got massive amounts of work I haven’t managed to get through yet, I’m still grateful the weekend is looming closely ahead!

After my outburst on Monday things at work have felt a lot calmer, I guess.  The air has been cleared between “the guy” and myself, and even though I felt really cautious on Tuesday morning, by mid afternoon Tuesday I felt a lot perkier and even managed a joke with the man.  So all-in-all I guess it’s all good as far as we’re concerned … I’m sure we’ll never see eye to eye, but we’ll be more conscious of how the other is reacting I guess.  The frustrating thing on my behalf is that 9 out of 10 times I’ve been proven right in my viewpoint, but he still loves to argue for the sake of it.  Oh well, time to be more tolerant and not take things personally anymore 🙂

Unfortunately our team is made up of some VERY strong personalities and large egos – and there seem to be more clashes than enough … we’ve just had a new member join the team, and she’s already put people’s backs up in the sites and within our own team … oh joy of joys.  I’m regularly getting phone calls from people in the sites asking for advice on my interpretation of issues because they’ve found offence in the way a colleague has spoken to them – some days I feel like Dear Abby.  I guess I should see it as a real compliment that people feel comfortable and trust me enough to open enough, but truth is it can be really draining … give me a quiet job somewhere without any internal bickering and I’ll be blissfully happy!!!

Anyway, enough of this whining about my job … this is mainly a stitching blog not a moaning blog, and I finally have a Happy Dance to share!  Tonight, while watching a mini NCIS marathon, I managed to put the absolute final stitches into Lizzie*Kate’s Boo Club … woohoo!!! 😀  Here are the final couple of bands on show … I’ll wait until decent daylight to take a photo of the entire finished piece, then I’ll share my fabric and thread details at that time.

Then I picked up Just Nan’s Ghastly Ghostly Ghouls and started the tree branches over on the left of the chart … I think I’ll keep going with this one now until it’s finished … although I do still have to finish Laura J Perin’s Sapphire Star yet … hmmm … 🙂

Beading, Boo Club, Cross Stitch, Lizzie Kate, scissor fobs, Works in Progress

Sick flatmate

Anne S

Alas, since lunchtime I’d ‘had’ to keep my flatmate and best pal Katie company in the lounge while she’s been suffering from a dodgy tummy from Vanuatu – it was a major hardship having to sit in my stitching chair for 8 or so hours while we watched all the TV shows that have been taping in her absence … which means there’s finally a stitchy progress photo!  Only one more week and this little puppy will be finito!  As you can see from the bottom piccie, I’ve now turned the corner for the bottom band of the border 😀

On Saturday morning I managed to get a couple of items into the post – my first PIF on it’s way finally … and this little gift to someone else – fingers crossed the recipients like their gifts 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll find out whether I have got the new 12 month secondment position or not … after I drop off my 90+ year old neighbour off at the airport for her next Queensland holiday … that’ll keep me in the good books for a while longer LOL.  And seeing as I need to leave home an hour earlier than normal to do that, I’d better get my A into G and get into bed!!! 😀

Cross Stitch

Bad bad clicky finger…

Anne S

After drooling over Elizabethan Treasures for the last two days, I jumped online to check out prices of the Soie Cristale … turns out SB&B has a Mother’s Day sale at the moment, and the price is over AU$10 cheaper to buy it from there including the US$13 in postage costs!  Let’s just say that I was very very naughty and now have 5 skeins of Soie Cristale on its way, along with a couple of Crescent Colours, GAST and WDW I needed … so much for going on the Wagon!  Ahem …  Although, in my defence I’m not actually buying charts! 😛

And one of the other ways to fulfil my current desire to branch out beyond cross stitch again is to drag out my EGA correspondence course books … and I’m going to attempt to start the beginners Hardanger course … such a shame I have to go back to work, I’m soooo in the mood to start some serious stitching, and when I get home from work I’m so knackered I have no energy … oh well, that’s what the weekends are for, huh? 🙂

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Stashing not stitching

Anne S

I’ve had the BEST time over the last couple of days cleaning out my stitching stash – while it’s not over yet, I’ve found a bunch of designs that I really want to stitch soon!  And funnily enough many of the designs are non-XS … I have a major urge to start picking up some different techniques once again – some counted thread, some not so counted.  For instance, I’m starting to get the urge to finish off some old stumpwork UFOs (dunno how long that will last, though LOL) … and I really, really want to stitch this one – unfortunately, though, I don’t have the Soie Cristale thread or it would have been kitted up last night (and it needs 4 whole skeins)!!! 😀  This is “Elizabethan Treasures” by Linda Barry.

I have a bunch of older charts that I might end up putting up on Ebay – I haven’t sold anything on there yet, so I’m a bit nervous about setting up the sale pages and working out postage details in particular, but it has to be done sooner or later I guess – anything that doesn’t sell over the next couple of months (either via trade/sale on my blog or via Ebay) will probably get ditched.  Unfortunately the joys of living in an apartment means clutter is much more noticeable and it really is time I culled back on things that I’m just not going to stitch, as much as I still love looking at the charts.  The only designs that have been safe from culling have been my Mirabilia and Teresa Wentzler designs – I have almost all of the TW designs, and even though I’ll never stitch them I do like to flick through every now and then 🙂

Since I’ve been getting all enthused about different stitching techniques, I’ve been thinking that  many of the new techniques that I want to try are very do-able as pincushions, and I’ve found many projects within the Embroidery & Cross Stitch and Inspirations magazines that will fulfil that urge nicely.  I thought I’d share some of the little projects that made me smile and that I’d love to attempt … and believe me, this is just teensy weensy sampling – there are many, many, many more … these are predominantly from Embroidery & XS and Inspirations magazines in my stash.

For now, I’m off to finish off Katie’s birthday cake – she’s due home tonight, and I’ve decided last minute to bake a chocolate cake for her … I must like her a LOT, ‘cos I don’t bake for anyone normally! 😉  Unfortunately, though, I didn’t check the pantry before I went shopping this morning, and I’ve run out of icing sugar … guess that means yet another trip over to the shops – luckily it’s only a 5 minute walk away 😀

And seeing as we’ll hopefully be spending most of the day watching TV tomorrow, I might even have a stitching update by the end of the weekend … maybe … 😀

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Movies

Weeks Dye Works – retired threads

Anne S

A recent blog post referred to the fact that WDW were discontinuing one of their threads used in a particular design, and that we should look at stocking up now while it’s still available … I couldn’t access the link that was provided as it was to the retailer’s page, so I wrote an email to WDW asking how to obtain the information.  Just to put everyone’s minds at rest, the following is the response I received from Cathy at WDW this morning:

“Good afternoon Anne – we have never discontinued colors but we do retire colors. This means that we just simply take the color out of the main collection of floss. The retired colors WILL ALWAYS be available, they just simply appear on the “retired list.” We are striving to keep the order form at 1 page and in order to add new colors, we need to retire the ones that don’t sell as many as the rest.

I do apologize for any confusion. On our web site under FORMS, there are pages titled “retired colors 6-strand floss” and “retired pearls.”

Please let me know if I can further assist you. But please, do not panic as we have never discontinued any colors in our line that go away forever. Have a great week!”

Yippee, that’s great news I think – nice to know their threads only go into ‘semi-retirement’ 😀

As for my own stitching, there’s not much to show really – I managed to complete a tiny bit more of the Boo Club border last night, and another hour will see me able to roll up the scrollbars to a new section … I’ll hold off taking another progress piccie until I’ve done that and more critters have their little buttons sewn on 🙂  I’m going to continue with this one tonight, and in fact may continue until it’s finished … but who knows, tomorrow is another day 😛

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with an extremely hunky young man (very sexy, but very gay LOL), and we went to get a Robert Downey Jnr fix at IMAX in Darling Harbour – Iron Man 2.  Loved, loved, LOVED it!!!  OK, admittedly part of the fact is that I’ve always been a huge fan of Mr Downey, ever since seeing him blitz the screen in Charlie Chaplin … but I seriously do love these movies.  A blend of humour, great characters, special effects, a fun storyline, and a lot of JDJ – what more could a girl want?  This is another one to add to the DVD collection when it is eventually released – an awesome way to spend the afternoon on your day off! 😀