Cross Stitch – Page 49 – Feather Stitching

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

Accident in the kitchen

4 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, the pumpkin soup is essentially finished, but not put through the blender yet … I ended up getting Lisa to heat up a can of soup for me to eat with some homemade damper fresh from the oven. It didn’t get finished because Lisa couldn’t stand the smell of the soup (it has a teaspoon of cumin in it, and she can’t bear the smell apparently!). Anyway, the reason I couldn’t get to finish it myself is because I had a small accident in the kitchen with the meat cleaver!

All limbs are still attached, but I did manage to slice right through the nail in the middle of my finger (the finger next to my little finger, thankfully on my left hand) … luckily my reflexes kicked in a bit so I managed to not take the top of my finger off! Needless to say there was a fair bit of blood, and I broke out in a nauseous sweat thinking I was going to pass out. But after I stopped the bleeding, I called out to Lisa to give me a hand with some Savlon and a large band-aid. She wanted to take me to see a doctor, but I figured the bleeding had stopped, and they could hardly stitch it, so there was no point. The nail itself seems to be sliced right through, but as long as I keep something covering it while it grows out, I figure it should be alright (although perhaps a tetanus shot may be worthwhile hmmm).

The pain was pretty intense for a while, but my nursemaid Lisa made me sit down and drink a soft drink to give me some sugar and fluids in my system (apparently I was as pale as a ghost). I then had something to eat and took a couple of Nurofen and eventually the pain eased off, and is so far OK as long as I don’t touch the nail with anything. I got stir-crazy and sat looking at my hand, and figured I just might be able to stitch (much to Lisa’s amazement as I’d been ordered to sit down and rest without doing anything … but I just couldn’t do it). Anyway, sure enough it was a bit uncomfortable at first getting used to holding the needle differently so I didn’t touch that finger, but I actually managed to get a fair bit stitched tonight! I think it helped to calm me and take my mind off my injury more than anything else!

Here’s the result of my stitching efforts tonight … I’m now hitting the hay after taking another couple of Nurofen to help me rest during the night. Fingers crossed tomorrow it will still be relatively painfree, otherwise I just might have to make a visit to the local medical centre …

French Monogram III by Twisted Oaks Designs
Tuffet – front
stitched in DMC 115, on 32ct cream Belfast linen
(as usual at 1.30am the colours are not true to life)

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Just Nan, Needlerolls

Attack of the Frogs

3 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I can’t believe how long it’s taken me to stitch up this little piece – mainly due to numerous attacks of the frogs! If it was my own piece I’d probably have left two of the errors in it, as the larger blue flowers were one stitch out in their placement (I was quite impressed I managed to do that same error in both of them!) … and the border was unpicked three times as I’d managed to get loops and knots in the pearl cotton and not realised … mutter mutter mutter.

Barnabee’s Bride by Just Nan (kit)
(once again apologies for the bad photo – I’ll take a better one
once it’s all finished into the needleroll)

Anyway the stitching is finally all done, and all I have to do now is the finishing, which I hope to attempt tomorrow. Then this will be driven back home to The Stitching Post where it will live happily with its owner (I’m stitching this as a model for Karen).

As for the rest of today, it will be spent making a beef stew in the crockpot, along with a big pan full of pumpkin soup ready for the freezer.

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Stitch-alongs

Bleary-eyed finish

1 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I’ve been stitching madly over the last two nights trying to meet the deadline for the monthly ornie challenge on XSers Yahoo Group – unfortunately I missed the deadline by 1 hour, but it still felt good to get another ornie finished. I’ve been stitching until 12.30pm and 1.00am respectively the last two nights – the amount of stitching in those one was quite deceiving, especially all the backstitching!

“Checking It Twice” by Dragon Dreams, Inc
from 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine
stitched on 28ct hand-dyed Dried Thyme Jobelan
using DMC only (substituted RG Fuzzy Stuff with white DMC)
(sorry for the poor photo, but it was taken at 1.00am – the
colours look so much richer in real life!)

Next month I think I’ll start my ornie stitching much earlier to save the sleepless nights! My May ornie choice is Spool Ornament by Sue Hillis Designs.

Cross Stitch, Perth

Home again, Home again, Jiggity-jig!

28 April, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Feeling most definitely worse for wear, after taking the overnight flight from Perth – we had an electrical fault so we were 1/2 an hour late leaving (originally due to leave 1/4 past midnight). The flight was 3 1/2 hours long (SUPER quick!) – as soon as I could I turned down the ‘evening’ meal and lay my seat down as far as it would go and tried to sleep … I gave up after a while feeling really fidgety, and thought unhappily to myself that I would just have to give up trying to sleep and watch a movie. When I checked my watch, though, I was shocked and amazed to see that I’d actually been zonked out totally for almost 3 full hours – woohoo!! I didn’t feel as though I’d slept at all, but I slept almost the entire flight 🙂

After arriving home I sat at the laptop and uploaded the few photos I had taken, then eventually climbed into bed again where I’ve had another 4 hours nap time and feel loads better.

Now it’s time to recant the week’s tales … starting with the CA Wells classes …

* * * * * * * * * *

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now may remember that last year I got horribly lost in the car when driving to the CA Wells class – Judy (our hostess) had decided she’d prefer me to stay closer to her home this time round, and I have to admit it was a wonderful idea!

I was picked up at the airport by the lady that I was going to be staying with, Nancy – and I hadn’t met her previously. We hit it off straightaway and she really is the most fascinating lady to talk to, exceptionally knowledgeable and a truly interesting life. After being picked up I was told the day was ‘her treat’ and she whisked me away to Guildford where we drove around looking at the beautiful old buildings before stopping for lunch at a cafe set in beautiful grounds on the banks of the river. Here we both had leek and potato soup followed by pumpkin quiche and salad – it was a lovely welcome to Perth!

Afterwards Nancy found out that I hadn’t seen any of Perth whatsoever, so we spent 6 whole hours driving around the various suburbs and landmarks with Nancy telling lots of stories about the various properties. We started off driving up The Esplanade, then ducked into the driveway of the University of Western Australia where my jaw hit the floor – the main building as you come onto the property took my breath away! There will be photos in the next post. After that we headed up into the expensive suburbs and then on over to Fremantle for more driving – we didn’t actually stop and this has now whetted my appetite to go back again and spend more time on foot exploring the place in detail. We eventually ended up at Cottesloe Beach where we had coffee and cake then drove back via Kings Park. The entire venture took my breath away – it was an awesome introduction to Perth and I’m extremely grateful to Nancy for that wee adventure! 🙂

The next day was the Sailor’s Valentine class – I was interested to note that I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t enjoyed stitching this one … but by the end of the class, the project has really grown on me, and it truly does look so much better all finished! Unfortunately I had forgotten to stitch the bands, which is the first thing we needed to work on, so I don’t have much stitching to show … but over the coming weeks I’ll endeavour to get both projects finished.

The great thing about this year’s class is that there were so many familiar faces from last year – I sat with Joanne and Lisa and had a really wonderful time … their company was great! CA was as charming and histerical as always, her stories had me in fits of giggles at times.

I was very privileged to find I’d been invited out to dinner with Nancy, along with CA, Michael and Judy, Val, and Lisa – it was a very memorable dinner at a local Chinese restaurant where the food, wine and company were sublime. It was an unexpected highlight of my visit 🙂

The next morning we were working on the Cottage Etui – I managed to get my scissor fob almost completed (I just want to add a bead to the bottom if I can find one suitable in my stash), and also managed to get my ‘trunk’ pincushion finished aside from tying the ribbon bows (I thought I’d wait until I got home so it wouldn’t get totally crushed inflight). Once again, I’ll make an effort over the coming weeks to get this one finished off. I’ll take photos later of the finished project.

Here is a photo, though, of the group hard at work finishing their Cottage Etuis (close to the camera are my stitching buddies for the weekend).

I will, however, show you photos of next year’s projects! I’ve reserved my spot already, both with Nancy and CA … especially now I’m finding there are so many beautiful places to explore in Perth, this will turn out to be my huge personal treat each year. Next year CA is offering the Mermaid Bag and the Acorn Etui (it opens up, and is gorgeous! – I adore both items, so I’ll definitely be signing up for both! 😀

I’ll finish off this post with a photo of the ladies who really looked after me throughout those couple of days – from left to right we have Judy (the hostess with the mostess), CA, myself, and Nancy (accommodation and tourguide extraordinaire).

C A Wells, Cross Stitch, needlework TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Final post before I fly to Perth

21 April, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I haven’t decided whether or not to take my laptop with me to Perth … I guess it depends on how much other luggage I end up taking. Anyway, I’ve almost finished my CA Wells projects apart from the fusing of the interfacing and remaining eyelets and miniscule bits of stitching. I have to admit I’ve really detested stitching the Sailor’s Valentine piece and these last few days have been spent doing squillions of over-one stitching … even less enjoyable when it’s a project you’re not enjoying anyway! Every single stitch has been painful, and definitely NOT a labour of love!

Well, I’ve finally managed to finish them anyway … although I noticed I was two threads out on part of the ship panel – seeing as that panel has given me major grief over the last 2-3 days I was sure as heck not unpicking all that over-one stitching and re-doing it, so fingers crossed those two fabric threads on each won’t make any difference! It’s my own fault, I regraphed the whole panel onto my XS computer program and copied them into the wrong place! I must say, though, it was sooooo much easier stitching it from my own chart than from CA’s … much much easier in colour and nice and large on the screen 🙂

I think the thing I really hate about this piece is the dreadful pink thread … the photos don’t actually show the colours up truthfully – in real life it looks more brown and rusty looking – it just looks like ‘dead flowers’ to me, particularly on the Roses panel … oh well, c’est la vie – I’ll probably choose to put this panel on the back so I don’t have to look at it if I have a choice 😉

And don’t get me started on the thread colour for the ship! The model photo shows nice variegated browns and a hit of blue … not pink, green and gold!!! Unfortunately we were given the teeniest skimpiest strand of this silk so I couldn’t even cut it to a preferred blend of colours … by this stage I was so ‘over’ the whole design I couldn’t be bothered hunting through my thread stash for a replacement and just stitched it ‘as is’ … but it really is a bizarre colour choice 😦

Here are piccies of the finished sides (all apart from those final ‘fused’ bits of stitching) – I changed the longitude and latitude coordinates to be from the suburb where I’m now living. There are a couple of photos of the over-one stitching as well (those are clickable, not that you’d really want to see them any more ‘up close and personal’ than what they already are, but the others are non-clickable as a courtesy to the designer.

Tomorrow morning I will be sitting on a plane for 5 hours heading to Perth, then on Wed/Thu this week I will be in the classroom with CA Wells and other luvverly ladies (including one lady who is flying all the way from Japan to be there!). Hopefully the next time you see these projects they’ll be finished (well, the Sailor’s Valentine one anyway – I still have to stitch the rooftop of the cottage, so that one will take a bit longer!).

Now it’s time to start contemplating what I need to pack to take with me … something super simple to stitch on the plane, me thinks, and my iPod loaded up with a talking book – I can’t remember whether they show a movie on the flight or not, so I want to be prepared ‘just in case’ … actually I’d better pack a normal book just in case I’m now allowed to stitch! Rightio, time is a wastin’ … time to get my A into G!!

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Peeps have arrived in Oz! (plus a bit of stitching)

16 April, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

… or at least they DID arrive, but alas they had to be destroyed due to possible cross-breeding with the local bunnies. The destruction was quick and painless, as I chomped them to death throughout the day at work! 😉

Thanks so much to Monique for this little act of kindness – I’d mentioned to Monique on her blog that I’d never seen what a peep looked like, so it was great to see her photo of them after hearing so much about them for years … Monique took pity on me and sent me this wonderful sample! People must have thought I was bonkers leaving the Post Office, as I changed from being very perplexed at a strange parcel arriving, to cackling like a banshee with a huge grin on my face after opening it up and seeing the contents. Thanks again Monique for making my week! 😀

As for my stitching, I’ve done really well over the weekend and the last couple of nights – I have finished all my Cottage Etui pieces, except for the rooftop, and except for tiny bits of stitching that are done after the interfacing is fused on (eyelets and satin stitches). Now I’ve moved on to the Sailor’s Valentine, and I’ve managed to complete one more side (once again, except for the backstitching of the word “Love” once the interfacing is fused on) – now I’m concentrating on the smallest side of the lot (not much stitching, although a bit of over one) which has a whale’s tail on it and compass markings. That then just leaves me with the boat side to be done (oodles of over-one so it will take me forever!) and the ribbon bands, plus the personalisation (again over-one) on the Roses side … then I can attempt to get the Cottage rooftop started.

Here’s just a wee taste of the “Love” side (CA isn’t keen on full-screen progress photos online as far as I understand it, so I’m trying to be considerate but still share a little bit!):

I’m really looking forward to heading over to Perth again next week for the class – I’m staying with one of the organiser’s lady friends for the two nights of the class, then I’m off to spend 3 nights with Hayley, a good friend of mine. Apparently we’re getting up on Thursday for the dawn service on ANZAC Day, then we have 3 full days to potter around and actually see a bit of Perth this time – it’s going to be great to have some quality time with Hayles and Pete, as they have a long weekend off work yay!

Of GREAT note is the fact that as of late last night we have ADSL BROADBAND AT HOME!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I AM screaming … with sheer joy!!!!! We’ve managed to get my modem set up with Lisa’s wireless router, and we can both connect – in a couple of weeks time you actually might get to see me more online again (and maybe even answering emails, unlike having a humungous backlog like I do now)!! 😀

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

Market garden kitchen and etui update

12 April, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, true to form, I’ve been lounging around in my PJ equivalent all day – trackpants and PJ top … and I’ve been stitching merrily away on my Cottage Etui. Here’s a sneak preview of how far along I am so far … I’m pretty confident that I’ll get all the pieces finished by the end of tomorrow that I want to (I’m not bothering about getting the rooftop stitched yet – but if I get time before I fly out, I’ll try to start).

While stitching the Etui, it also reminded me that I haven’t shown you my latest stash purchases yet either – as soon as I took them out of the envelope, my Cottage Etui threads went straight onto one of them. Monique makes the most gorgeous threadholders, and I truly adore them! Small enough to be super portable, and no thread snags … plus they look so darned cute!!! 😀 What’s betting a certain senior citizen who will be visiting in May will try to snaffle one of them for herself??? haha.

I also forgot to show your healthy spoils from a morning trip to Paddy’s Market in Flemington last weekend (before my friends arrived). Lisa has bought a juicer and we’ve been having fresh fruit and vege juices every morning this last week … this is just a small sample of what is residing in our kitchen right now … boxes and boxes and lovely fruit and vege (some will be juiced and frozen).

Lovely peaches, with a tray of nectarines hiding underneath … plus boxes of pears, apples and oranges.

There is also a box full of Tahitian limes (just perfect for the bottles of Corona in the fridge), and melons galore, not to mention the pile of pumpkins and butternuts hiding underneath!

And this one is for Mum … a box of Australian feijoas (which I’m sorry to say are really tiny and picked well before they are ripe, so they’re a bit disappointing … I really miss our feijoa tree from home – poor Mum has so many she doesn’t know what to do with them, and she keeps making me jealous talking about them!).

Rightio, my dinner has finished nuking in the microwave, so it’s time to head back to my stitching position for the evening stitch-a-thon 🙂

Cross Stitch, Finishes

Tiny bit of stitching

11 April, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I’ve been really tired in the evenings this week, so haven’t been game to tackle my CA Wells project … instead it’s taken me three whole nights to finish off The Sampler Lady by LHN. Now the cooler weather has started to arrive, she’s been well overdue have her blouse put on. At one stage, though, she looked like the Venus de Milo in reverse, with only half a sleeve done. (Sorry for the bad photos – I might try to take better ones at the weekend, as I’ve taken these without much natural light coming in!)

“The Sampler Lady” by Little House Needleworks
Stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen
using recommended threads (Crescent Colours and DMC)
but I changed the thread spools by using a satin stitch
for the cotton instead of cross stitch to make it more realistic

I haven’t been online at all really this week – wish I could say I’ve been stitching my little heart out instead, but life has just gotten in the way (mainly work life). Mind you, it was really good to spend a couple of hours last night getting The Sampler Lady finished – it was the perfect end to a long and rigorous day spent writing up training procedures for a new product being launched.

Before I started stitching, however, I spent an hour on the phone to iinet to finally get a home ADSL broadband account set up and active … no longer will I have to rely on my little mobile internet connection (I’ve been having a few dramas with the providers of late ho-hum), but once we actually get the router connected, we can have wireless internet around the flat woohoo!!! 😀

Anyway, time to head to work, so I’d better run!! I may not get online again this weekend, as I’m earmarked the entire weekend for sitting in my stitching chair, and catching up on taped TV programmes, while stitching my heart out on CA Wells’ Cottage Etui … less than 2 weeks left to go for the class now and barely started! Oops …

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

Busy Little Beaver!

30 March, 20089 August, 2024 Anne S

I can’t believe how much I managed to cram into one day yesterday … it’s most unlike me, as I’m the Queen of time wasting at the weekends!! First up I decided to get the garage tidied up and out of the way, and I was surprised I managed to complete the entire thing in less than 2 hours woohoo (well, apart from Lisa’s futon mattress that I can’t move on my own)! That means we can finally park one of the cars in there, and we won’t get told off for hogging more than one carspace!

Next up, my downstairs neighbour (70 yr old Barbara) hollered out that she had finished with the laundry, so I could get my washing done early yay – once I’d filled the machine to capacity and set it going, I came back upstairs and spoke to Mum on the phone for 2 hours … minus 15 minutes when I ran back downstairs to put the washing out on the line and put the last few towels in to wash.

After chatting to Mum I cooked up a pot of Hearty Minestrone Soup from a recent Weight Watchers cookbook ready for lunches, followed by the making of a low-calorie orange and mango jelly, and a vanilla blancmange … just that word “blancmange” makes me go weak at the knees and start salivating!! You can tell I’m actually a Brit by birth, as you can’t buy blancmange over here (although come to think of it, you can probably get it in the UK import shops, I’ll have to check it out!) … this batch is from a previous donation from my Aunt in the UK, and I’ve never got around to making it. Well, yesterday I made my very first blancmange, and couldn’t wait to sink my spoon into it after it set … yummo! The great thing about WW is that I can still eat these things in moderation if I get the urge, and just work it into the daily points total … although that’s also one reason for making the soup, ‘cos it’s very very low in points but very filling – blancmange and soup, the perfect balance! As of yesterday it’s ‘that time of the month’ when I get some serious sweet cravings, so I also figure eating blancmange is better than eating a big block of chocolate or packet of Tim Tams!! 😉

Here’s a photo of the soup simmering (dunno why I took a photo really) – but no photo of the blancmange, as it didn’t sit still long enough in one piece to get one haha.

I can’t believe what a fantastic day I had yesterday – I’m LOVING this weekend, and LOVING having energy again after feeling so crappy for so long … I feel as though I had a new lease of life yesterday 🙂

The next job I tackled was to glue together 5 Christmas ornies just sitting ready to be finished (they were already laced onto the mattboard etc) – they’re currently sitting under a pile of books after drying overnight and just have to have cording added (which might be a while yet before I do that). Then I cut up strips of calico and neatened the edges with the overlocker, ready to stitch onto the edges of my CA Wells project (there is only about 1-2 cm space at each edge, and I can’t stitch in hand), plus I made quite a few more strips ready for other kitted up projects that I can’t wait to start.

Before I started my stitching for the night, though, I finally did the finishing of two needlerolls that were just waiting to be ribboned and stuffed … and they are now sitting here in all their finished glory 🙂

“Summer Solstice Needleroll” by Eventide Designs
Stitched on 28ct hand-dyed Dried Thyme Jobelan with recommended threads
but changed the months to be Dec-Jan-Feb to be in line with the southern hemisphere seasons

“Snow Fall Roll” by Shepherd’s Bush (kit)

Feeling the best I’ve felt in months, I also brought out a teeny tiny pinkeep (about 2″ in width) that I meant to finish for Becky last year (!!), and finally did the finishing … originally this was designed to be a scissor fob, but then I changed my mind once I read Becky adores pinkeeps. Even if I say so myself, it looks really cute! I still have a needlebook to finish yet to go with it, so it won’t be posted for a while yet … but at least I can see it happening this year!! 😉

After all that activity, I finally sat down in my stitching chair, switched off the goggle box, and cranked open a talking book for a couple of hours (The Twelfth Card by Jeffery Deaver – love his books!) … and FINALLY put the first stitches into my Cottage Etui piece for the CA Wells class. OK, I have to admit, it’s not much so far, but at least I’ll have one thing that can be finish-finished in class if nothing else haha. This will eventually either be a scissor fob, or if I manage to get some more stitching done, it will be the pincushion/thimble pip ends. I must say I really do like the choice of Gloriana silk for this pice – very rich and scrummy colours in there, with even a hint of yummy blues 😉

And that concludes my wonderful day yesterday – today I’ve woken up quite tired, but still positive, and I’ve decided to sit and stitch a short while this morning on some more CA Wells before tackling any housework … on the first day of my cycle I always feel ‘blah’ so that seems like a perfect day to me yet again!

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Ever-growing wishlist!

28 March, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, in fact I can’t say my wishlist is growing much longer, as it’s rare that I find an “absolutely must have” design to add to my wishlist these days (probably more to do with the fact I’m not out looking anymore, rather than not actually liking many haha), but I have to say Sampler Cove have been tempting me more and more these days … I finally succumbed and added the following two goodies to my wishlist – aren’t they great? And the Rhapsody in Red designs still have a couple more goodies yet to come to make up a gorgeous set of stitching accessories (including a bag to carry them in) … cool, or what? And the design Spanish Bleu is just scrummy (perhaps more ‘cos it’s blue!!).

Of course I absolutely ADORE the new threadpack design “My Needle’s Work” from LHN that is an absolute MUST have

Not to mention the recent tea/coffee designs (already on the wishlist, but I felt like sharing)

Not to mention the new designs from With My Needle as well …

Plus I love this older design – which has been tentatively suggested for a friendship round robin at some stage

And talking of older designs, here are a couple more by With My Needle that I really like:

Hmmm, perhaps there is just no hope for me! 😉

* * * * * * * * * *

As for the non-stitching side of me, my latest challenge is to get fitter and lose weight, and 4 weeks ago I joined Weight Watchers again. The diet has been a bit tough while being so sick of late, but I had my weigh-in yesterday and over the last month I’ve lost a total of 2.4kg, so I’m pretty thrilled with that.

I’ve been getting up early every morning this week and walking on the beachfront for 30-40 minutes each day – this morning I reached the beach and the heavens started to open … my thought process was: hmmm, I have a couple of choices – 1) go home and pick up my raincoat, but then I know I’ll never leave home again, and by the time I get home I’ll be a drowned rat anyway … or 2) just keep on walking, come home like a drowned rat, but at least a drowned rat who’s had a good exercise session! Well, I chose the latter, and I have to admit I think I was a bit mental!!! haha. Drowned rat is a total understatement – I popped into Coles on the way home for some grocery items and left little puddles everywhere … I don’t remember ever being that drenched … but I have to admit I felt really good for doing it!! 😀

And on that note, it’s time to hit the hay as I have a big weekend on this weekend … housework and clearing out the garage so we can get the car in, plus starting my CA Wells pieces – not necessarily in that order! 😉