Cross Stitch – Page 52 – Feather Stitching

Christmas with a Bite!

23 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

My mail has finally started arriving in Sydney, after having a detour into Melbourne first – which means my Quaker Friendship Sampler has arrived home at last. I have to admit, I prefer other choices of colours after stitching on everyone else’s samplers, but I do still love this one … with its bright cheery colour! I’ll have to wait to post a piccie, because I’ve left it at Brenda & Nigel’s. Actually, I might pop over to the SAL blog and see if I can snaffle a piccie that Becky took of the finished sampler (cool, thanks Becky for post that piccie so I can borrow it!!):

Which also brings me to another job that is way, way overdue … believe it or not, I haven’t forgotten that I have promised to give away my original chart, and I made a quick list of all the people who originally put their hands up to go into the draw. Well I can finally advise that Judith is the lucky recipient of this chart, and in the New Year I’ll get it into the post for you (it’s currently packed up, so just as soon as I can get to it, it’ll be on its way to you).

Thanks for your patience everyone who put their hands up to go into the draw!

Which brings me to the next one … after finishing It’s Halloween by The Drawn Thread, I’m putting that chart up for grabs now as well. It has slight creases in the chart, but the chart is totally legible – it is just showing the strain of all that travelling between house sitting jobs in Melbourne!! Anyway, please leave a comment that you’d like to put your name in the draw, I’ll pull another name out of the hat (or via the list generator, anyway), in a couple of weeks time.

Yesterday I spent the entire day in my PJ’s and managed to get loads stitched on Snapperville … and I have to say it was the most amazing comforting feeling to be stitching again. I have really REALLY missed my stitching, and it helped to bring back a feeling of normality to my day. Uunfortunately I don’t have any Weeks Dye Works Hazelnut thread, or DMC 434, here with me, so I can’t put the finishing touches to this piece. Boohoo. I may have to take it with me on Christmas Day to Brenda and Nigel’s where one of my other kitted up projects is holding DMC 434 so I can get it finished. Right now, though, I just have the door left to be stitched in the final block, along with the final part of the border (a few swirls and one more tree). Fingers crossed this will get finished before the end of 2007!

Today no stitching was done, but instead we had a very social occasion out at Kerry’s place (Brenda’s best friend). Now, Mum, please do NOT read any more of this paragraph, as you’ll have nightmares for days!!! Nicely fed on a lovely BBQ, a couple of us were still sitting outside chatting about our previous European travels, while the rest of the group were inside the house … all of a sudden the guy opposite me says “oh my goodness, there’s a snake!” – I turned around in my chair, and sure enough there was a bloody great snake slithering over the porch, and it disappeared straight through the door into the kitchen! Thankfully no-one inside startled it, and no-one got hurt, but all of a sudden here was a mass exit of bodies coming back outside the doors carrying out all pets. Next thing Chris (the husband) put his steel-capped boots on and armed with a spade went back inside to keep an eye on it, along with Nigel who was armed with his camera to help keep guard (I’ll put some photos up just as soon as I can get hold of copies). A phone call was made for help, and eventually (about 3/4 hour later) the snake man arrived to remove the unwanted red-bellied black snake, who was about 5 feet long, and a very decent size in width. It’s the first snake I’ve seen in the ‘wild’ since moving to Australia, and hopefully the last one!!! It’s the first one Kerry’s ever seen, either, which makes me feel better that it’s not ‘normal’. Anyway, it was rather exciting and gave us something to chat about for ages afterwards … not to mention the humour when I nearly peed myself as Nigel dangled a rubber snake in front of my nose shortly after – payback is going to be a bitch for him one day!! 😉

Anyway, after seeing a bit too much of Sydney’s nature, it was time to head back home to chill out and relax … and in case I don’t get chance before the “big day”, I wanted to make a very quick post to say ………

ALL THE BEST TO ALL MY ONLINE FRIENDS, AND YOUR FAMILIES, FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON – MAY YOU ALL HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR, AND I WISH YOU EVERY HAPPINESS FOR 2008. IT’S BEEN A PLEASURE MEETING YOU ALL, AND I LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING OUR RELATIONSHIPS NEXT YEAR. WITH HUGE HUGS AND LOVE, xxx

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Works in Progress

Oh heck – I made a big boo-boo!!!

10 December, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Note to self – don’t post your new address on the blog until you’re 100% concentrating and awake!!! My address is NOT PO Box 1306, but rather PO Box 688!!! Sorry ’bout that – a seriously major blonde moment!! Now you know why I don’t blog at the moment – I’m usually too shattered to think about it … and that’s the result!! Doh!!!

Anyway, just a really quick post again, to post some stitching piccies while I get the chance – I finally managed to put the finishing touches to these FUFO’s a week ago:

That may end up being the only ornie finished by me this year … such is life I guess …

Also, here’s the latest two finished blocks of Snapperville, plus the teensy start on block #5 – you’d never believe it’s taken two weeks to stitch just this part, would you? Yep, smokin’ needles is definitely a thing of the past for me for the timebeing – the only stitching I’ve been getting is about 2 hours on Sunday night ho-hum 😦

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Travel

Katoomba & Blue Mountains

21 November, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

First of all, my apologies if this post is a bit ‘abrupt’, but I’m pretty shattered … I do want to put our ‘journey to bed’, though, so here goes …

The final expedition of Mum and I was last Tuesday – my final day of freedom before starting work on Wednesday … I was originally going to drive to Katoomba, but needed to drive to the train station to pick up a timetable and work out where I’ll need to park my car etc for the commute into the city. In the end we opted to take the train into Katoomba instead of driving – and I have to admit I do regret the decision! It would have taken us approx 1 to 1 1/2 hours to drive there, but instead we were on the train for almost 3 hours (there were some track works, it seems, which slowed things up a wee bit) – it was a lovely train trip, but very very loooooong. Coming home was a much shorter 2-hour trip!

I’m very glad we decided to head out there, though – I really wanted to take Mum to see Karen and the shop at Dragonfly Dreams (as well as being very keen myself to say “hi” in person). It was a very hot day, and Mum and I walked from the station to the shop … when we got there I was thrilled at what a wonderful haven Karen has put together – we loved every minute of being there! Karen was an exceptional hostess, and it is so easy to chatter away to her as if we’re long lost friends, instead of strangers … and every room we entered at Dragonfly Dreams I’d say “but wait, there’s more!!!” … every room hosted a treasure trove of goodies … sheer bliss to a stitcher’s soul! 😀

After spending a couple of hours with Karen, Mum and I headed off with goodies in hand to the end of the street where we were most impressed with the sight of the Three Sisters. Unfortunately by the time we got down there it was too late to do any of the tourist trips, but we enjoyed the scenery for a while before starting the arduous trek back to the train station again. Brenda has offered to go with me again one weekend to do the cable car trips with me … which is awesome!

Following are some photos of the Three Sisters – and the first one shows the cable that the cablecar travels over … with a glass bottom car!!! I might need a stiff drink to get into it, but it’s just gotta be done one day!! 😉

We got home around 8pm, and just had time to eat dinner before having to hit the hay for bed – and thus it has been ever since I’ve started work! On the previous weekend, though, I did actually have time to put a couple of stitches into fabric, and finally managed to finish off It’s Halloween by The Drawn Thread.

Here endeth the fun part of moving to Sydney … from now on the drudge begins … 😉

I’ll tell you about the arduous task of getting to and from work another day – ‘cos it’s now almost bedtime … already! 😦

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

There will be no hope for me in Sydney!

24 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Oops, I just realised I’d started this post days ago, and I haven’t finished it off!!! … So I’ll start off with my original post ..

Check out what I’m going to have to contend with when I move … how am I going to keep myself amused? Check out all these lovely stores I’ll have on my doorstep in Sydney:

Tapestry Craft (this place looks massive!!!)
Dragonfly Dreams (I can see a weekend getaway to the Blue Mountains happening!!)
Crewel Gobelin (the only place I’ve been to so far)
Mosman Needlecraft
Craft Depot (for patchwork fabrics – they claim to have 8000 patchwork fabrics!!!)

And I already have a few offers of people that are going to come visit me while I’m up there – I’m really looking forward to having visits from my good pal Sharon, who was my first real stitching pal in Melbourne (I’m gonna miss you heaps!). Also one of the girls at work who is no longer talking to me ‘cos I’m leaving haha, is already planning a girls weekend away so we can see the sights during the day, go to the theatre, then party the weekend away – I’m excited already at all these upcoming social occasions, and I haven’t even moved yet! Of course, I’m sure I’ll be visiting Melbourne occasionally at the weekends as well … it’s only 11/2 hours by plane, which is great 🙂

Now I must say today I also spent more money that I shouldn’t be spending (yeah, so what’s new lately? haha) … and it’s all the fault of Rebecca (that friend from work who’s coming partying in Sydney) and Mel – I went on a buying spree to buy some Bud Ducks for them, as Highpoint Shopping Centre have an awesome selection … well, I walked in the door and found they’d just received shipment yesterday of some brand new designs … whaaaaa!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I have to admit, two of them came home with me … well, what’s a duck-mad girl to do??? The two that I bought for myself are these ones – International Duck and Angel Duck … how could I resist them?? The International “Mile High Duck” I just thought was so appropriate for me and my new job – travelling interstate, but also working in the travel industry … just wish my passport had all those visa stamps haha. And I also bought some teeny weeny little ones to come travelling with me – well, I gotta have at least ONE duck in my new room right? But then it’s not fair to let one duck make the journey all on it’s own, and it just HAD to have company! I really LOVE the blue Angel Duck – the colour is gorgeous. Check out these new little additions to my travelling kit:

And there are sooooooo many more that I really really want!! I guess you could call me the Imelda Marcos of ducks!!! 😀

As you can tell, there’s also no stitching happening at the moment … I just can’t stop yapping on here instead – plus spending 2 entire hours yapping to Mum on the phone today haha. Now I’m sat in front of the TV watching So You Think You Can Dance … perhaps I might find a needle to pick up … perhaps … 😉

Rightio, going by the TV reference to So You Think You Can Dance, I guess I started typing this on Thursday night last week … Now it’s time to update with the latest news!

As a matter of fact there has been a little bit of needlework happening out here in Pascoe Vale South – I’ve managed to finish off another block of Snapperville, and almost managed to complete the border around as well … a couple more hours and I’ll knock that off pretty easily. I must say after not having much stitching mojo for a while, I’m absolutely LOVING stitching Snapperville … I just don’t want to put it down! I think the Winter Snappers will be jumping on the Q-snaps quite quickly after I make the big move up north as well – I just love these little charts! 🙂

As for what else is news … I’ve spoken to someone from work who moved to Sydney a while ago, to see what his flatting arrangements are now (he used to flat with the girl whose job I’m taking over), and it seems he’s just bought an apartment and prefers to live on his own for now as his partner may be joining him in the future … but he’s said it’s OK if I get desperate that he’ll never see me go without a roof over my head and has offered ’emergency housing’ if I need to while I’m searching (Brenda has family coming over in the middle of December, so I have a maximum of 4 weeks to find somewhere).

BUT, I just had a phone message out of the blue today from someone else who worked with me 3 years ago – he’d just had lunch with a friend from my office who told him my news, and apparently he’s moving to Sydney as well and wanted to know what my planned living arrangements were going to be … I’ll have a chat to him over the next few days about it, as that could be another option – but that would probably mean having to freight my belongings up north … probably … Herc should also find out about his interview results by the end of tomorrow as well, which might be another living option (probably my preferred one overall, as Matt is quite young and a bit of a party animal, and I’m that much older and just looking for a simple quiet life) – anyway, time will tell, and at least there are a few more friendly faces in Sydney that I know from work … yippee!! 🙂

As for work itself, they haven’t approved my leave that I wanted, because it’s Melbourne Cup week and they can’t afford more people off the phones. They’ve given me Fri 9 Nov only, which is cr*p … let’s just say I’m a bit disappointed to say the least – it just depends who you are, I think, whether they want to make an effort to help out or not … and all I’ll say is that “I’m not Greek” … one of the Managers has a bad reputation for that – she’s Greek, and has a few family and friends that work there, and let’s just say they can get away with murder … that’s one thing I’m not going to miss – the office politics! I don’t usually let it get to me and turn a blind eye, but everyone thinks their decision is appalling due to the circumstances, especially after doing so much for the company during my time there – but there’s no point getting cranky about it, it just gives you ulcers and doesn’t change anything. Anyway, I’ve sent an email to the “big boss” in our office stating that if I can’t be given the extra two days leave, could I please use my 8 Luv Ya Work Awards in one day (the maximum is supposed to be 4, ie 2 hours off work) … that would let me leave 2 hours early which means on a 6am shift I could be hitting the road at midday. Now all we have to do is work out if it’s still worthwhile having Mum fly over and driving up the coast, seeing as we’re two travelling days short. Oh decisions, decisions …

As for Muffy here, I have to admit over the last few days she hasn’t exactly been endearing herself, and while I think she’s a beautiful dog on the whole, I have had the urge to turn her into a winter coat a few times … usually at 1am and 3am when I’m answering her pleas to be let outside. The occasional night isn’t too bad, but I had a moment there when it was 4 nights in a row, and I was feeling severely deathly because of it. Luckily the late night shifts have been perfect, because she goes outside as soon as I get home, and today I even got a sleep-in until just after 8am … 6 1/2 hours straight sleep … sheer bliss!! The fleas still seem to be a problem, but not quite as bad … I have managed to track down and drown 3 of the little b*ggers over the last couple of days though hmmm. Mind you, today she woke me up again at 7am, after 5 hours sleep, and I feel dreadful … I started losing my voice at work last night and getting bunged up, so I fear I have picked up a head cold … Muffy just decided it was time I should be up, and didn’t want to go outside at all … I nearly strung her up from the nearest fence!

I went to meet the menagerie of pets at the next housesitting job on Sunday night, and it’s going to be ‘interesting’ to say the least haha. Two dogs, two cats, two birds, and an aquarium of fish, all of which have various eating routines etc – but afterwards I can relax in the spa with a glass of wine, and watch Foxtel movies … I’ve told them I may change the locks and never leave! LOL.

Anyway, I’ll finish with a photo of a gift I received at work yesterday from groups organiser (this was for customer service over and above the call of duty for some VIP customers returning home … you can make up your own mind as to who) – I laughed at the card that came with it … that I’m allowed to hide it away when the Bledisloe Cup is on … but personally I think I’m going to pop an All Blacks beanie and scarf on old Wally and sit him on my desk – a perfect blending of my ‘two down under cultures’ 😛

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

The countdown is on …

20 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

All going well, and I get some annual leave approved by work (assuming I can get 3 shifts swapped from 6am starts to 9am or 10am ones, that is), I’ll be hitting the road to Sydney two weeks on Wednesday (straight after Melbourne Cup day). That is also assuming that Gail is still OK to come home and relieve me from housesitting duties early as well, of course …

I’m really struggling to find the time to catch up with everyone that I know in Melbourne in the short time I have left – even though I know only a handful of people, I only have a handful of days where I’m not working 4pm or 3pm shifts, meaning only a few days left to catch up. If I had my own home, I’d offer an ‘open day’ at home for a day where anyone can come visit, but the only weekend I have free is when I’m moving between housesitting jobs, and it’s just not an option – so instead I’ll be driving to and fro to the opposite ends of the city on a regular basis until I leave.

I was hoping to catch Tannia singing last night, but ended up chatting on the phone for ages to Brenda in Sydney – but the great thing is that Brenda and Nigel are happy to put me up for a couple of weeks while I’m looking for new, and more permanent, lodgings. There’s probably not much point organising anything else before I arrive – although I’ll be scouring the local papers for flats in the Mascot area pretty quickly on arrival 🙂

My threads finally arrived today from Dragonfly Dreams, although they were sent some time ago – Australia Post can be quite spectacularly slow for local deliveries, which is annoying. Anyway, it means I can now probably finish off It’s Halloween this week – yay! Yesterday, during the day, I started – and finished – one more block of Snapperville, and started another block. I guess that means I’m approximately half-way through the stitching of that one now … double yay!! 😀

This coming week is probably the last chance I’ll get to put some stitches in before hitting the road … it’ll be interesting to see how regular working hours will affect my stitching time – the good thing about shift work sometimes is the plentitude of peace and quiet for stitching … hmmm.

Anyway, no piccies tonight ‘cos I’m too lazy to take one of Snapperville – and I’m supposed to be heading out to a ‘wedding reception’ party of one of our gay guys at work. Kevin and Peter got married in Vancouver a few months ago, but only a few people were able to attend the ceremony, so they’ve organised a local shin-dig for us all tonight instead … to be absolutely honest I’d rather be curling up in bed early thanks to the Muffster giving me wake-up calls every night for the last 4 nights (twice in one night!) – thanks to having very broken sleep … it’s soooo hard to get back to sleep properly after being woken up at 1am or 3am! … I’m pretty shattered and so “not” in party mode. Anyway, I’m going to jump in the shower and see if I can wake myself up a bit – it’s also awkward using public transport out in this part of town, as I don’t really know where I am, but I suppose I should at least make an effort … after all, this is probably the final shin-dig with work colleagues in Melbourne! …

I’ll close by saying it was fun seeing my Photo Hunt today … I loaded all those posts up so long ago now, even I get a surprise each week with the choices LOL 😉

Cross Stitch

Freebie alert – for autumn

16 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I just wanted to post a quick note before I forget … I just found the most gorgeous (in my eyes anyway) autumn freebie online – and thought I’d share. It would look wonderful in overdyed threads, and reminds me a little bit of Lizzie*Kate’s style of stitching – I love it! 😀

Swirly Autumn by Cross Stitch Happy

No stitching has been done since finishing Katrina’s RR – my seahorse is unravelling quite a bit on the sides of the fabric, so I might put it away until later when I have access to a sewing machine and can overlock/zigzag the edges of the fabric (or even better add some calico strips so I can put it in the q-snaps). That means I should be working on Sailor’s Valentine, but I’ve got a serious case of ‘avoidance’ from starting that one at the moment, and keep looking wistfully at Snappervile. I think perhaps it’s just not as conducive as I thought having a mini rotation while I’m housesitting – perhaps I’ll be better off just focusing on a couple of projects and being a one-at-a-timer for a while … or perhaps it’s just my brain giving me an excuse to keep stitching on Snapperville, ‘cos I was loving stitching on it, and didn’t really want to put it down . Oh well, by the time you see another progress piccie, you’ll find out what decision my addled brain came to! 😉

I just found an old draft in my dashboard from a day many many moons ago (about 12 months in fact) … I was obviously sat in a befuddled glaze while doing much more wasteful things than stitching – web surfing! This is what I had to say:

“Today’s little web sojourn has taken me on a trip to another Melbourne supplier … this time to VicSew (Victoria Sewing Supply Pty Ltd). Has anyone ever bought anything from them before?? In a quilting magazine I saw they had some wonderful quilt hangers (something I haven’t seen too much of in actual shops) … and I just adore the Christmas one (with Christmas trees and a reindeer) – it can be found here, towards the bottom of the page. I think it would look really cute with ornies hanging from it 🙂 I also don’t mind the sunflower one, either, although it might look a bit more tacky in real life. I’m now allowing myself to look at the price pages yet … but I am definitely going to bookmark this one for a future session 😀 ”

Anyway, the question is still a pertinent one … and I thought I’d still ask it.

Rightio, time to pop off and get dressed – I just have time to take the old fleabag out for a walk before heading off to work for the night. Fingers crossed my threads will have arrived today from Dragonfly Dreams, ‘cos then my stitching dilemma will be even easier – I’ll be sat finishing It’s Halloween before all else!! 😀

Then only one more sleep before I find out whether to start flat hunting in Sydney or Melbourne …

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Round Robins

Happy Dancing early! (updated AGAIN)

15 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I shouldn’t actually be doing this little happy dance until about a month away, but I sneakily finished this early. This is Katrina’s finished Friendship Quaker RR. I told Becky it was OK to send it on to me early as she’d done her part of the stitching on it – and I thought it would be great to get my part finished early so it can be sent to Katrina with the next parcel containing Nicki’s RR, so it would also well and truly miss the Christmas mail. I think it turned out beautifully, and I love the thread choice (well, duh, it’s blue! LOL). I’m just sorry the photo doesn’t do it justice – I don’t know why but this camera just doesn’t seem to like taking photos of natural linens, and I have to tweak in Photoshop every time, which then means I mess around with the thread colours too, and nothing looks how it should hmmm.

Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such

katrina's-finished-quaker-r

This has been a wonderful project with some of my closest online buddies – Nicki, Barbara, KarenV, BeckySC and Katrina. I can’t wait to see all the finished products over the next 6-8 weeks 🙂

(Updated to add piccies of each round of this round robin to compare thread and fabric choices that everybody made)

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Updated (again!) to add … if anyone would like to receive this chart (Quaker Style Friendship Sampler by Samplers and Such) please leave a comment (make sure you include your email contact) saying you’d like to have your name included in the draw, and I’ll draw a name out of the hat at the end of the month and post the chart out to the winner 🙂

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I’m on a later shift today so Muffy and I are going for a walk before I head into work. I’ll be sad to say goodbye to Muffy (although I can’t wait to get away from the bl**dy fleas!!) – she’s such wonderful company. She gets so excited to see you when you come home from work, and has such a wonderful personality – she curls up next to you on the sofa and stays there for ages. Yep, definitely gonna miss her 🙂

Mind you the next place I’m going to has 2 dogs, 3 cats, some fish, and I think birds … so I’ll still be getting my animal fix over there … one reason I’m cramming as much stitching in as I can right now, as I don’t think I’m going to get much time when I’m at the next place! 😉

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

It’s all out of my hands now …

12 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

What is, I hear you ask? Either that or the voices in my head are getting louder than normal! LOL. Today I flew up to Sydney for my job interview – I felt very special as I flew up in business class … but I didn’t expect to get home on time, as the flights were really full. My boarding pass wouldn’t go through the scanner at the gate, so I half expected I’d been offloaded … but it turns out I’d been upgraded on the way home too … wow!! 😀

The interview went by in a bit of blur, to be honest – I can’t say I blitzed it, as there were some questions in there I wasn’t expecting … but I did my best, and time will tell if it was good enough or not. They’re calling one of my referees either later today or on Monday, and they’re hoping to let us all know by Wednesday next week at the latest. At least I’ll know whether I need to start looking for a new flat in Melbourne or Sydney … and I’m working the next 5 days straight, so that’ll keep my mind off things 🙂

Last night I started putting a couple of stitches into the first Lanarte Sea Life piece while watching So You Think You Can Dance (I really enjoy that show) – I managed to start the seahorse, although I didn’t get too much done. Today I’m pretty shattered as nerves got the better of me during my sleep last night (makes a change to Muffy and the fleas keeping me awake!! haha), so I think it’ll be an early night for me and Muffy tonight. Here’s a picture of the four pieces that I want to stitch eventually, plus the tiny progress from last night.

I was supposed to start the Sailor’s Valentine by CA Wells next on my rotation list, but my concentration wasn’t quite ‘all there’ last night, so I daren’t start it … I thought it was better to stick to something simple instead.

Rightio, dinner has reheated, so it’s time to go and eat … plus Muffy is ready for round two of her dinner too (she’s being spoilt tonight, seeing as I had to leave her outside all day in the dreadful weather) 😀

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Itchy and Scratchy

11 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Yep, this household definitely fits the bill of those two characters from The Simpsons … I’m Itchy, and Muffy is Scratchy. I doped up the base of Muffy’s neck yesterday, although the scratching is still happening today. Apparently it can take 3 days to show the effects, so fingers crossed by the weekend she’ll be scratching less … which hopefully means that I will be too! Yet another broken night’s sleep last night thanks to flea bites and Muffy’s evening bladder … ho-hum 😦

I decided not to bother going driving to pick up my GAST threads today, but decided instead to send away and spend my $10 gift voucher from a previous order with Dragonfly Dreams to get Karen to send a skein of the threads I need. I figure by the time I spent the petrol on a 1-1/2 hour round trip driving session, plus the e-tag toll price, it just wasn’t worth it … so I’ve stitched as far as I can go without the gold Kreinik and two GAST threads I’m missing, and tomorrow night I’ll start my next project. The photo is really terrible, but you can get an idea of it anyway – at least when the threads arrive it’ll only take one night to finish the whole thing off 😀

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

WIP photos

10 October, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

It seems I’ve thwarted my new mini rotation almost immediately … while stitching the first two blocks of Snapperville, I decided it would make sense to stitch the border parts surrounding them at the same time, instead of leaving all the border until the end. Aside from not getting bored with it at the end, that means I don’t have to keep moving the Q-snaps. Anyway, I’ve managed to complete blocks 1 and 2 before putting it away again yesterday.

Snapperville by Bent Creek

Then I picked up and started It’s Halloween – I was doing pretty well, too, until I realised I hadn’t packed my GAST threads that I needed … so it looks like I’m either going to have to drive out to a LNS to buy two more skeins, or make a trip to my storage unit on the other side of town (a 1-1/2 to 2 hour round trip hmmm). What a pain in the proverbial! I really wanted to get this one finished by the end of tomorrow boohoo. Anyway, here’s the progress from yesterday …

It’s Halloween by The Drawn Thread

This was done while watching Season 2 of NCIS … love that show! I was also watching Spanglish, but the DVD won’t play the last couple of scenes, so I’ll have to hire it from somewhere so I can see the ending (and also the DVD player here played it in black and white ho-hum … I’ve been playing everything on my laptop ever since).

Another semi lazy day here today – the laundry is getting done, then Muffy and I will head out for a walk before I settle down for a bit more stitching while I get the chance 🙂

(Updated to add …)

I keep forgetting to post this piccie for Mum – this is the latest Christmas fabric I’ve got for us (from a couple of weeks ago) … plus this is probably the fabric I’m going to use for the Plateau de la Brodeuse design. It’s still a bit pink for my tastes, and I’m not entirely ‘sure’ about it, but so far it’s my current choice – I’ll keep checking out a few more patchwork stores first, though, before I pull the threads out and start stitching …

Also, to answer the question a couple of you have asked … the threads Nicki has chosen for her RR piece are: Silk n Colors Cerise Noir, Dinky Dyes Jarrah, and Hand Dyed Fibers Chocolate.

Now I’m off shopping for flea treatment and antihistamine cream … I’m covered in itchy bites compliments of that big ol’ flea bag Muffy … drove me mad trying to sleep last night … mutter mutter mutter … I have to say, though, that I’m loving having Muffy’s company. She’s a lovely dog, and I’m even more of a dog person than a cat person (I was never allowed one as a child, but that was the ultimate pet I always wanted) – it’s lovely having her cuddled up on the sofa next to me while we watch DVD’s … until the scratching begins LOL 😉