Category: Cross Stitch

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

Quick catch-up

Anne S

It was a busy weekend – started by Friday night’s shenanigans being dressed up as a nun for the Sound of Music Sing-a-long.  I only managed to get one paltry photo taken without the flash, while in the office, so it’s incredibly unflattering (like most photos of me) … anyway, it gives you an idea of how I wandered around Sydney train stations and streets for the evening.  We had a blast, and really enjoyed our meal at Retro Cafe next door to the theatre before the show.

Saturday I went with Katie to my hairdressers for a MUCH needed haircut!!  I had to cancel a couple of weeks ago due to my vertigo/virus.  I am now thrilled to be sporting a fringe once again, along with a couple of inches off the length … woohoo!!! 😀

While we were there we also decided to go the whole hog and had a beauty session while the other person was having a haircut.  I got my eyebrows shaped and had my … shock, horror … first EVER pedicure!!!  Oh boy, was it lovely – I enjoyed every minute of the pampering.  I’ve been a tad stressed at work fairly recently, so it was really good to chill out and do nothing for the morning.  Unfortunately, though, I was so exhausted afterwards (thanks to an early morning start) I ended up having a nana nap in the early evening … which didn’t help with the evening sleeping ritual … I ended up getting back up at 10pm and continued stitching my pin pillow exchange piece!

Sunday saw me getting up relatively late, but the entire day was spent in front of the gogglebox clearing up the hard-drive and watching Medium, Ghost Whisperer, Fringe and Good News Week episodes … but I DID manage to get the final stitches into my pin pillow exchange, and made it up in the little pillow … now it’s sitting in its padded envelope waiting for a visit to the Post Office during the week 😀

After finishing my exchange piece, I started a new Christmas ornament from an old JCS issue that I’d already got kitted up from a couple of years ago – I made an OK start into that one while watching TV last night … and I’ll put a few more stitches into it tonight.

Tomorrow I’m heading off to my GP to check a few things checked out – my lightheadedness continues, unfortunately, so I’m going to ask to get my blood pressure checked out.  I’ve also had really bad acid reflux over the last few months, so that’s also on the list … better to be safe than sorry, I guess!  And on that note, it’s time to go get some soup for dinner and settle in front of the TV for an hour or two 🙂

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

Nunning and … What, more stash????

Anne S

The parcels have been coming in thick and fast this week … from orders that were placed right after Christmas but finally arriving – these are all from big sales held from two separate stores … and I’m still awaiting for my recent order from SB&B with my missing thread so I can continue with Sapphire Star (gotta make the most of that postage – although I have already braced myself for a looooong wait!!!).  Let’s just say that these orders are what prompted me to declare I’m going on a stash diet … ‘cos when I have a splurge I don’t do it by halves (although I don’t have one that often these days, so perhaps it does me good to have a big blow-out once a year)!!!


Back row:  Heart in Hand-Snow; Imaginating-Seashell Silhouette; The Cat’s Whiskers-Queen Anne’s Lace; Laura J Perin-Halloween; M Designs-Miss Mary Mac’s Pins & Needles Pincushion
Centre row:  Heart in Hand-Wee Santa 2008; Erica Michaels-Random Thoughts of Spring; Cross-Stitch & Needlework Nov 07 & Jan 10; JABC button packs-Christmas wreath & lights, SB’s Be Attitudes, Bent Creek’s Autumn Snapperland
Bottom row:  Heart in Hand-Birds; LHN-Loving & Faithful; LHN-Gentle & Kind; LHN-Queen Bee; LHN-Pear Tree

Prairie Moon-Merry Xmas; Laura J Perin-Mallard Duck Collage; Shepherd’s Bush-Baby Bug Ball; Milady’s Needle-Peacocks Rule (and the ruler needed for it); GAST-Brethren Blue; JABC button pack-Waxing Moon’s Halloween Stack; WDW 30ct Guacamole linen; Shepherd’s Bush-Mummy button

The Prairie Moon design is for my friend/flatmate’s Christmas gift – she’s not quite a ‘goth’, but she loves Green Day and a LOT heavier music than I do, and she loves skulls and goth type stuff … and she joked that she really really wants to have a white Christmas tree with black ornaments on it, with a skull instead of a fairy/star on top of the tree … well, as soon as I saw the Merry Xmas chart, I just HAD to get it for her!!!  Hopefully she’ll like it 😀

One of the orders above, I placed it just so I could receive the Bent Creek snapperland border accessories (ie snaps and JABC buttons for both Summer and Winter Snapperlands) – these were ordered the same night I finished stitching Summer Snapperland … alas the order just arrived this week … withOUT the borders packs – they hadn’t been ordered right from the start, even though I’d sent clarifying emails with the product code etc … hmmm, oops 😦

I picked the second of these orders up a couple of days ago, and haven’t managed to get back to the PO Box since … I’ll now have to wait until Monday before I can go back there again, as Katie and I are taking a cab into work tomorrow … ‘cos it’s Sound of Music night tomorrow night!!! … and I’ll be dressing up as a Nun and getting a little bit tipsy (I wonder if I could hide a hipflask under those voluminous skirts?? LOL).  I’ll get Katie to take a photo tomorrow so I can share it with you all.  Alas Katie didn’t want to come to the store to try on the outfits tonight so I had to try it on and send her photos via the mobile camera – unfortunately she tried hers on tonight when we got home and she hates it, so she’s a bit unhappy about it.  I feel bad that she’s lost her $50 hire fee for nothing … but I’m really happy with my nun’s outfit (I had my heart set on going this year dressed as a nun, even if it meant getting dressed up on my own), and I’m looking forward to the night out 😀

We’ve been really tired this week, so haven’t really been online much at all – sorry Mum, I haven’t obviously uploaded the photo memes this week either – maybe over the next week I’ll load up a few advance ones so I won’t have to keep missing out 🙂

I have managed to get 2/3 of my exchange stitching completed this week, though, and hopefully should see the rest finished by the end of the weekend.  Alas I can’t share until it’s finished and the recipient receives it – fingers crossed she likes it … here’s a teeny tiny sneak peak … really teeny tiny! LOL 😉

And on that note, it’s time to hit the mattress, as my alarm will now be going off earlier than normal and it’s gonna be a really busy day  …

Bent Creek, Country Cottage Needleworks, Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Little House Needleworks, picture framing, samplers, Stash, The Drawn Thread, With My Needle

Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone…

Anne S

…but my trip off The Wagon seems to be continuing haha.  We drove up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains today so I could pick up my finished stitching from The Stitching Post, and two designs from my wishlist fell into my shopping bag … oops!  I’ve been drooling over Mrs Wadelow’s Hussif since I first saw it on Ellen’s blog, and as fate had it Karen had it in stock already … well, I figured it was right there on the counter, so it just HAD to come home with me! haha.  The other design was LHN’s Fa La La from the latest ornament series.  Going by what many others have said, these ornies are rather on the large side, so I think I’ll be stitching them with one thread on a 40ct fabric (as opposed to the other option of stitching them over-one on normal fabric … yucky!).

 

Anyway, aside from a number of designs on loan that Karen never got around to framing for display, I now have these four little beauties back at home again in their lovely framed state 🙂

Framed Samplers

It’s been a very tiring – although very awesome – weekend … Katie and I went to the movies yesterday and saw two movies back-to-back (Valentine’s Day and Wolfman) – then we finished off the evening with a trip to G.P.K. (Gourmet Pizza Kitchen) for pizza before heading home to retire in front of the TV for a couple of hours watching The Hangover.  Of course then today we head over to the Blue Mountains for the day, so all-in-all I’m ready to curl up and not move for a couple of hours before we have to go to sleep before work tomorrow … ready for 5 days of work before we head out to the Sing-along Sound of Music on Friday 😛

And now I’m heading off to find some fabric to start my exchange stitching on, so we can blob out in front of the gogglebox with Jethro and the gang of NCIS 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishing

A spot of Christmas ornie finishing

Anne S

At least I managed to stitch up 7 ornie sides before my sewing machine packed up … here are 6 I managed to fully complete last night – the last remaining one is for my tutorial, and I prefer to wait until the weekend when I’ll have better daylight for the photos … now I’m off to sit in front of the goggle box for an hour or two to chill out – TGIF tomorrow! 😀

PS: I should add that this isn’t all my handiwork – only the top left and top right ornaments were stitched by my own fair hand … the other four beauties were stitched by my Mum 😀

Elizabeth's Designs, Finishing, Needlebook, Stash

Needlebook finish … finally!

Anne S

This has been sitting around since 2007 for it to be turned into a needlebook – how do I know? ‘cos I dated the back!!  I was panicking about doing the finishing, and as you can see from the below photos attaching the lining is FAR from perfect, and well it just doesn’t sit as nicely as I had hoped … but it’s done now, which feels awesome!  I haven’t touched much of my finishing pile since everything got put into storage 2 1/2 years ago, but eventually now I’d like to start building up my finishing confidence once again and get back into the saddle …

Needlebook front

Needlebook inside pages

Needlebook inside lining

I also started doing a quick cushion finish of a few Christmas ornies yesterday, and have been using one of them for a tutorial – that should be completed over the next few days, depending on what time I get home from work this week!

I also started doing a quilted wallhanging of Mum’s Prairie Schooler Santas, but a spool of thread I’d had sitting on the machine fell into the bobbin spooler while I was loading up a new bobbin on the top of the machine, and all of a sudden it started jamming and the entire bobbin spooler popper up … now my machine is just jamming all the time, which is a real bugger … so off to the repair shop it goes, and my quilted wallhanging and all those other finishing jobs that need the machine are once again put on hold, ho-hum.

Oh well, to brighten the day I did unpack my teeny tiny stash splurge from The Ribbon Rose – as you can see I didn’t buy much, just a couple of ribbons, some beads, some size 22 needles (for my canvaswork) and some red fabric for my finishing of Random Hearts into a little cushion – and some hand-dyed pearl cotton for hardanger class I’d like to start this year (for a cushion).  Next time I go I’ll be armed with my wishlist 😉

Ribbon Rose stash 18Feb10

Cross Stitch, Periwinkle Promises, Works in Progress

Pinkeep received and latest WIP

Anne S

Sharon let me know that my angel pinkeep reached its destination safely – and that she likes it, yay 😀  Sharon has a wee angel collection as she loves angels, and as soon as I found that out years ago that little angel ornament became Sharon’s in my heart … it’s just taken me a few years to finally stitch up the personalisation on the back and decide to finish it into a pinkeep.  Sharon re-wrote in her blog post about how we first came to meet – that story always makes me smile! 😀

As for me, I only did a teeny bit of stitching while I was in NZ – I didn’t take my lapframe with me, so had to hold my Qsnap in hand, which apart from slowing my stitching down, it also makes my left hand cramp up.  Mum had a good suggestion to buy another one and leave one there, so that she can use it day-to-day, and I can borrow it when I come over to visit … great thinking, Mum!!  I now have until October to get cracking and get one ordered from Artisan Design (the Elan lapframe).

At least I managed to put a couple of small bands into the piece, though, and last night I finished the stitching on the zig-zag band of Mosaic stitch.  Now I just have a row of snowmen to stitch on the bottom, and two more rows of long-armed cross stitch, then it’s ready for finish-finishing into a wee pillow.  Sorry for the crappy photo – I’ll take a better one with close-ups of the stitches once it’s all finished … in the meantime this’ll make do 😉

“January Sampler Accent” by Periwinkle Promises (kit)

The kit came with two pieces of linen – one plain one for the back.  As I have a few more of these charts on loan from a friend that aren’t obviously kits, I’m tossing up whether to save the backing linen for those designs instead, and just using the sewing machine to sew a fabric backing on – while it won’t be finished as ‘neatly’ as hand-sewing using a whipstitched back stitch, it might make better use of the fabric???

Today I have a HUGE list of things that need to be done, so I’d better get off the computer and start making headway through it.  First things first, stripping my bed and getting my washing started, then I can come back upstairs and start finishing a couple of items off ready to be parcelled up and posted.  Although I’m also tempted to sit and finish this project first so I can finish that on the machine as well … oh, so many things to do, so little time … LOL.  Perhaps I should just content myself with my gift finishing first, and then do the Periwinkle Promises piece tonight in front of the gogglebox … but then again, I’m very bad at doing things I ‘should’ be doing LOL.

Beading, Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Trip to The Ribbon Rose

Anne S

This visit home was quite rushed, so Mum and I only had chance to visit one shop while I was there, and that was on the afternoon immediately after I arrived (after getting to bed at 2.30am yikes) – we went to The Ribbon Rose in Ellerslie, and I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see it was now twice the size it used to be, and has the best range of threads I’ve seen in New Zealand!  I was originally going to do a quick drive-by on the way to The Embroiderer in Birkenhead, but we ended up spending all our time in just the one shop checking out every room, and every nook and cranny – and we ran out of time to head over the bridge to go to Birkenhead. 

I asked if I could take a few photos of the various rooms at The Ribbon Rose, so I could show you what a little treasure it is now – I did forget to take a photo of the fabric and quilting rooms, though!  The great thing about the line of threads that they carry is that they carry the ENTIRE range of colours – most shops over here carry the odd colour or five of most lines, but you VERY rarely find one that has the whole range (I remember years ago having a disagreement with another shop owner in Auckland that, yes, there were more Mill Hill bead colours – just because that’s all you stock doesn’t mean that’s all that exists – and because you won’t order the stock in, ‘cos it’s apparently non-existent, I’ll find another supplier … ah, memories! – The scary thing about the internet is that often you can be more knowledgeable than some shop owners – it’s nice to find a shop that’s as up to date as you are!).  Anyway, if you’re ever in the Ellerslie area in Auckland, I definitely suggest you take a trip out there, it’s worth it!

The Ribbon Rose entrance and counter 18Feb10

The Ribbon Rose leading to the kits room 18Feb10

The Ribbon Rose main threads room 18Feb10

The Ribbon Rose threads galore 18Feb10

The Ribbon Rose tapestry and kits room 18Feb10

The Ribbon Rose ribbons room 18Feb10

The Ribbon Rose beading room 18Feb10

The Ribbon Rose beads galore 18Feb10

The next time I fly over in October, I’m going to find out what classes are on – there are some beading classes on regularly, and some of the projects are seriously drool-worthy!!! 😀

I ended up flying home earlier than expected today thanks to high loadings on the flights – because I have to travel on standby, it was safer to take an earlier flight that still had seats showing available than getting stuck and not being able to get home (tomorrow’s flights look dreadful too, and that was my back-up travel day) … but at least I have chance now to have a good sleep and catch up on missing zzzzzzz’s, and I then have the day off tomorrow (instead of travelling) to do my washing for the week, yippee … that also means I just might have time to fit in a spot of stitching as well, although I may just do that this afternoon to keep me awake until a reasonable hour to fall over into a deep slumber!

Last but not least, I was asked by Mum why I haven’t been uploading my Scenic Sunday, Blue Monday and Ruby Tuesday p0sts, as she’s missing them.  So, to please The Dragon, I’ll try to remember to keep up-t0-date with them again from now on … starting with a Scenic Sunday post shortly 😀

But before I find a Scenic Sunday post, here are a couple of photos of Mum and Dad’s fruit trees (Feijoas, Plums and Lemons) that I really miss having in my backyard (especially having a lemon tree right near your back door) – alas, it was too soon for the Feijoa season … these are only little baby fruit 😦

P1030339

P1030335

P1030336

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Works in Progress

Small Finish and a Birthday

Anne S

Thank you to those of you who have left birthday wishes on Facebook this morning – that’s the only thing that has reminded me it’s the ‘big day’ today.  Unfortunately, due to being unwell the last three days (and I have to say I’m still not 100% today), my full weekend of ‘big plans’ didn’t eventuate, which also included not baking myself a birthday cake to take in to work 😦

I am up and showered, though, and ready to try tackling work today – not entirely sure whether I’ll last the whole day or not, but we’ll just have to wait and see.  I definitely can say, though, that we won’t be going to the movies tonight, which was going to be my birthday treat.  That doesn’t really matter, though … I just hope I’m OK to be flying tomorrow night 🙂

In between sleeping over the last few days I did manage to get a little bit of stitching in – this is something I’d started earlier, and managed to finish … one pair of initials has been removed, however, as this is winging its way eventually to someone who reads my blog, so it will remain anonymous until they receive it.

Blackbird Designs-Small Token Tokens & Trifles

“Pins & Needles Tokens & Trifles” by Blackbird Designs
Stitched on 32ct Lugana hand-dyed sample by Countrystitch
with recommended Crescent Colours threads

Then late last night I started a new project – one of Periwinkle Promises Sampler Accent kits that has been sitting around waiting to be started for what seems like forever.  This one might just end up being taken to NZ as my stitching companion.  I’m only there for a couple of nights for Erin’s service, so no need to take anything bigger, I think – and with all the specialty stitches it’s a lot slower to stitch than with just plain ol’ XS.

Other than that, I’ve got my Pin Pillow Exchange piece finally chosen, and the thread all worked out – now I just have to sort out the fabric then I can start on that as soon as I get home again.  I was struggling to decide between two different ideas for finishing – and still may change my mind closer to the time – so I may end up doing both ideas and then deciding once they’re finished 🙂

And on that note, I guess I really should finish getting ready to get into that car … and make a new hair appointment … and arrange another day to go pick up my stitching from the Stitching Post (aka Dragonfly Dreams) … and more importantly think about packing! … Just as soon as I get through today, that is!  Fingers crossed food doesn’t continue to rocket straight through my system as it has been … a birthday lunch would still be quite nice today if I can manage it! 🙂

Cross Stitch, Erica Michaels, Finishes

Just in time for Valentine’s Day

Anne S

I managed to put the final stitches into Random Hearts just before midnight last night – the only thing I changed is to replace one tiny heart with one little red heart button.  I have to say I really enjoyed stitching this one, and absolutely love it now it’s finished! 😀

Erica Michaels-Random Hearts
“Random Hearts” by Erica Michaels
stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen
with Carrie’s Creations thread “Scarlet”

Unfortunately overnight I got attacked by a virus that left me with a touch of vertigo this morning, so I’ve been laid up in bed ever since – while I’m not quite 100% at the moment, I’m OK enough to sit up so I thought I’d jump online for a few minutes while I can.  Not entirely sure if I’ll risk doing any stitching … I’ll probably just put the goggle box on with a DVD and jump back into bed again – so much for those wonderful finishing plans I had for the day (plus I had to cancel my haircut this morning which is reaaaaaallllllly overdue – I was going nowhere near a car in that state earlier).  Fingers crossed it’s a short-term bug, ‘cos I need to be right by Wednesday night to get on a plane for Erin’s service!!

Rightio, time to go find a DVD that’s really long and means I don’t have to keep getting up …