Cross Stitch – Page 58 – Feather Stitching

Language slaughter and a rotation

23 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I was reminded at work today that the art of language has been well and truly slaughtered in this modern age … and I personally think Beverly Hills 90210 and shows of its ilk have a lot to answer for … I was reminded today by one of our younger staff members at work, of a discussion held between two girls on the train a couple of weeks ago – literally every 3rd word was “like”. I have never ever heard the word “like” so many times in one grammatical sentence … “… like, he went to, like, the doctors, and he, like, said he had to, like, have blood tests done … like, that’s so like scary ….” … like, OMG, I felt like slashing my wrists after like listening to like 5 minutes of that !!! ;P

OK, now it’s time to get back to stitching stuff … and back to the subject of my rotation … you see I do actually have a full rotation worked out, and it was in fact working pretty well until I started the CA Wells pieces – even though it’s quite a long list of project slots, I think I’m going to pick it back up again and continue where I left off … with a bit of minor tweaking. Originally I had a total of 17 rotation slots (yeah, I know, a bit crazy!), which included 3 separate ‘smalls’ slots (that I’m going to keep), but also 2 slots for UFO projects, and one for ‘kits/classes’. I’ve decided to put the Pyramid Etui into every Smalls/Ornaments slot for now, so it’s almost like having two focus pieces (the other one being EGM) – once my Pyramid is totally complete, then I’ll replace it with the Stitching Leporello and so on. With my new rotation it still means I’m working on my main WIP’s with some scope on my ‘free choice’ slots to stitch something small and fun inbetween times … As Andie pointed out, I think part of the problem is that the majority of my current projects are HUGE ones, and I can’t see the finishing line any time soon, so I’m getting the urge to stitch something that’s quicker to stitch. Obviously, though, unless I put some stitches into those huge BAP’s, they’re never going to get finished so I just need to keep plugging away at them.

As far as the actual ‘type’ of rotation goes, I’ve found that shift work isn’t conducive to having a daily or weekly rotation, as it depends on what shifts I’m working that week as to how much stitching gets done. I’ve found the 10-hour rotation works best for me … some weeks it’ll only take me two days to complete a 10-hour rotation slot, but some weeks it’ll take me a couple of weeks to reach that goal, but at least that way every project gets equal billing and a chance to get a few stitches into them. Of course I’m not necessarily that strict on myself too … if after 8 hours I’m absolutely hating the project, then I’ll put it to one side, likewise if I’m loving it at the end of 10 hours I’ll keep going for a while longer (say 1-3 hours more) until I’m ready to switch. All-in-all in the past it’s worked for me that way … and I think it’ll work again, I just need to pick up that first project in the list and get cracking and back into the rotation rhythm! 😀

So, to recap for my own purposes again, here is my updated current rotation (once again, I may tweak it slightly once I have chance to think about it a bit more, but I’ve already deleted a couple of the original slots out of it for the timebeing – and I’ve left out my two SAL projects seeing as they’re supposed to be worked on each week separately, namely Bordeaux Sampler and Macaw) –

Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
Smalls/ornaments – Pyramid Etui (then Stitching Leporello, then My Treasures Workstation)
Charity blocks/free choice (chance to stitch something smaller and ‘fun’!)
Canvaswork – Flight of the Bumblebees (then Sapphire Star, then Celtic Knot Quilt)
Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
UFO – either chosen or ‘lucky dip’ (currently Nature’s Resting Place)
Smalls/ornaments – Pyramid Etui, etc (as per above)
Mirabilia/L&L – Winter Queen (then Angel of Love)
Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
Band samplers/specialty stitches – Le Jardin Silk Sampler
Finishing items (may remove this and just use the FAL weekend on Focus on Finishing blog instead of doing both)
Smalls/ornaments – Pyramid Etui, etc (as per above)
Free choice (another chance for some ‘fun’ stitching)

The way I’ve been choosing my projects is that I’m working on those items where I’ve got everything fully kitted up, especially if I’ve bought beads/braids etc especially for it … no point paying all that money out and not actually stitching them! My little financial breakdown last year put me into that frame of mind, and I’m glad it’s still in my head as it certainly makes sense 🙂

I’m soon about to have another different problem as well … I’ve found a friendly quilter at work … and she’s been bringing her latest quilts in to show me … I fear it’s going to be harder and harder to stave off the quilting bug … it’s compounded even more by seeing wonderful blogs like those of Nicole and Judith as well as numerous others where the most wonderful quilting projects are being showcased – I don’t think I can resist much longer … especially since I have my quilt design all created, I just need to get the fabrics … once I get that bank account stocked up again, I think I’llhave no option but to go shopping and feed this new urge!! I also have a great fabric shop to check out in Melbourne … according to Lena, it’s a must-see for quilters – it’s called GJ’s Fabrics, and the address is 443 Lygon Street, Brunswick East VIC 3057. I can’t vouch for it personally, and have no affiliation, except I hear it’s the ‘bees knees’ with patchwork fabrics from $8 a metre ………. Oh boy, I fear soon there will be no hope for me!!! ;P

One urge I did feed last night, though, was that I started the finishing of the And Many More needlecase … I actually got as far as ironing the interfacing onto both the stitched piece and the lining fabric, and basted around the edge of the stitching, plus stitched the Skirtex in place … while I didn’t complete it, I did make a dent in the start of it, and if I don’t do it before, I’ll finish the rest on the next FAL weekend on the Focus on Finishing blog 😀

Rightio, now I’m off to see what I can rustle up for dinner … I was super-dopey this morning and left my half-pan of beef stew sitting on the stove (I was supposed to be freezing it then got sidetracked and ran out of time … I’m on 5am shifts this week …) – it’s been happily sitting in the sunshine all day so I’ll have to tip it out for health and safety … I’m kicking myself ‘cos it’s such a waste of food, but also now I have to think about dinner again, b*gger … oh well, there’s always beans on toast LOL! 😉

Cross Stitch, Rotation, Uncategorized

Pondering my rotation …

22 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I have a problem … quite a serious problem, in fact … I have fallen off the rotation wagon, and can’t get back up! After doing all the stitching on the CA Wells’ projects, every other piece of stitching got put to one side, and I’m finding it really difficult to pick them back up again.

To compound things I’ve got a serious urge to do “finishing” … I even got the interfacing cut out this afternoon to start putting together Just Nan’s And Many More needlecase that I stitched last January (I unpicked the letter J and replaced it with a letter A a couple of days ago … long story … but fortunately sense got the better of me, and everything is still sitting since untouched on the ironing board haha) … now that in itself is probably not a bad thing to get an urge to do, and in fact it is quite possibly an extremely GOOD thing … BUT … I also have a major desire to start something new – and not just one thing, about half a dozen things are screaming at me to be started … now THAT’s not such a good thing 😉

You see, I have all these wonderful projects that are already started, and I know if I just pick them back up again and put a few stitches into them, I’ll probably have difficulty putting them back down again … I wish those other ‘new’ projects would just calm down and wait patiently in the background until it’s ‘their time’ LOL. I’m wondering if I cut down my rotation to perhaps just 4-5 projects it might mean me finishing a few pieces more quickly, so I can introduce some new projects a bit faster … but then I’d have to make a decision on which ones to include … ah, the trials and tribulations of a stitcher … so many projects, so little time!

So, please indulge me while I list all my current WIP’s in one place, so I can think about whittling them down … if I manage to get the list down to 8 projects, I think I’ll be doing quite well haha. Right, here goes:

Egyptian Garden Mandala – Chatelaine

Stitching Leporello – Chatelaine

Flight of the Bumblebees – Ruth Schmuff Designs

Le Jardin Silk Sampler – Just Cross Stitch

Pyramid Etui – CA Wells

UFO’s – multiple projects

Winter Queen – Mirabilia

Macaw – Ross Originals (current weekly SAL)

Bordeaux Sampler – Sampler Cove (current weekly SAL)

Quaker Friendship Sampler – Samplers & Such (RR every 6 weeks)

Hmmm, that didn’t quite work out as planned … aside from the SAL pieces, which are kinda separate to my actual rotation in that they butt in every week and push everything else aside, there are only 7 actual project slots … there’s really no reason why that shouldn’t be manageable right?

But even after listing all those scrumptious projects, the voices are still screaming loudly in my head … the biggest voices are coming from Bent Creek’s original Snapperland, Victoria Sampler’s Fire sampler, L&L’s Angel of Love, Judy Odell’s My Treasures Workstation … but they’re closely being caught up by a myriad of other designs. Geez, it’s no wonder I’ve been struggling to get to sleep … it’s been because of all these voices in my head, nothing to do with other circumstances! 😉

How will I master the situation? Who knows … there are worse voices I could imagine … but it’s getting harder and harder to ignore them … In the meantime, it just feels good to feel obsessed with stitching again – perhaps my mojo is returning full force after it’s holiday 😀

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Time to be a ‘wino’ with some Bordeaux

22 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

After being very unproductive on the stitching scene the last few weeks, I packed a punch with my needle yesterday … after completing the LHN freebie, I put a few more stitches into what will eventually become a biscornu that I started on the airplane a week last Friday on the way to Perth. The colours are pretty ‘out there’, but I absolutely LOVE it 😀 The design is from the July and August issues of Gift of Stitching, by Debbie Draper Designs – and when I received some Carrie’s Threads last year and saw the bright turquoise and purple I’ve been itching to use them together in a design ever since … this is the end result. It will take a while before I complete it, as I have a few other commitments to get done first, but I thought I’d show a WIP photo of how it stands to date … I think it’s scrummy and it actually looks a wee bit brighter in real life 🙂

After my biscornu stitching I thought I really must put a few stitches into my Bordeaux Sampler, seeing as I didn’t do my normal stitching on it during the week (I was just too tired to concentrate on it) – and no, I still haven’t done those pesky over-one grapes in the previous band yet … do you sense a feeling of reluctance about those? Yep … I’ll say no more about it LOL. This week I move from 6am shifts to 5am shifts, so my concentration will no doubt be even less this week – depending whether I can get a quality sleep during the night or not, so there may be little progress this next week, but I’m pretty pleased with how it’s looking so far – hopefully I’ll get this whole band finished within another two weeks of stitching 🙂 I sneaked a look at the next band, as it looked to be very basic and simple … my heart sank when I saw squillions of over-one grapes aaaarghhhhh! Thankfully, though, they’re all in bunches, and not little individual ones like the previous band … phew! 😉

I have to say my 4 hours overtime were interesting today – they left me on ‘supervisor’ calls today as they were short-staffed, and it was quite draining emotionally as I dealt with an escalated call for about 1 1/2 hours about a custody case issue with an abusive spouse in the US … without going into details, all I can say is sometimes things like that make you realise that your life is pretty mundane in the scheme of things, and to continue to be grateful for the smaller trials and tribulations of your daily life. While I’m having personal issues of my own at the moment, I’m not a mother worrying every day that her daughter isn’t going to return home, or if she does it’ll be in a body bag … awful stuff! Sometimes it’s good to get a reminder to be grateful for the ‘small stuff’ …

And on that note I’ll sign off 😀

(Updated to add …)

If you like monochrome designs, you might like these freebies by Debbie Draper Designs … check them out – A Bouquet for Cheryl, and Hearts Desire.

Cross Stitch, Finishes

Two Sheep grazing

21 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

A tiny stitching triumph today – I put the final stitches into Two Sheep, a freebie by LHN … I really like how this one turned out, but I’m amazed how long it took me to stitch it! Usually I have turbo needles, but it’s taken me almost an entire week just for one wee freebie! 😉

(Updated to add this was a printed freebie I received from Stitching Bits & Bobs with my monthly ‘bits’ – I don’t think it’s available as a download anywhere, at least not on their website anyway.)

Next up is some time to be spent on Bordeaux, seeing as I’m really late stitching on this with Carol and Leslie this week, thanks to a zero desire to stitch. Anyway, hopefully I can make a small dent in it today 🙂 I’m a very bad SAL partner just lately!

Cross Stitch

Starting to feel a bit brighter

21 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

It seems I may have picked up a bit of a bug after Perth, which helps to explain why I’ve been feeling so blue … I’ve struggled with exhaustion this week, and finally succumbed to it yesterday and lay dozing on the couch for two hours – I woke up just before 5pm with chronic stomach pains, very reminiscent of my gallstone days, which didn’t ease off until about 9.30pm … after that I got a new lease on life and even picked up my stitching for 2 hours before hitting the hay at 11.30pm and getting almost a full 8 hours sleep, only waking up once during the night. I feel so much brighter today … and seeing as today is my only ‘free day’ during the weekend, I’m about to go pick up my needle again and finish a small freebie I started during the week … the reason I only have a one-day weekend? I have 4 hours overtime tomorrow – yippee!! Fingers crossed I’ll also get a couple of hours during the next week. While I’m not particularly keen to do the extra hours, the cash will come in very handy so it’s a small sacrifice to be made for the better good 🙂

While I felt miserable last night I ploughed my way through about 600+ unread feeds in my newsreader … I haven’t been leaving comments, even when I really wanted to, just so I can get through them all and not miss out on anything exciting, and I have to admit it felt good to do it that way rather than marking all as read. Once I get back to ‘zero’ I’ll get back to commenting and blogging like the good ol’ days again 🙂

In the meantime, though, shame on you out there for enabling … I’ve also found some new designs that of course I’ve fallen in love with … so what to do when you’re still on the 50 Project Challenge? Why, keep adding to your wishlist, of course! 😉

Here are the latest additions … I think these are all just wonderful!

AMAP’s Victoria’s Quaker
(I just adore the colours in this one!)

LHN’s Cherry Tree Inn

LHN’s Ladybug, Ladybug

LHN’s The Sampler Lady
(not my usual style, so I suprised myself by liking this one)

Plus of course the latest two collaboration thread packs in the fruit series by CC/LHN, Strawberries and Plums:

As for my stitching, I hope to have a small finish I can share soon, as I’m off to pick up a needle and hope to have a small happy dance in a couple of hours when I get this freebie finished 😀

Finishes, Stitching Smalls

The Weekend from Hell (part 2)

16 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

On Saturday morning I was up bright and early, showered and ready to hit the road just before 7.45am. On the previous night I’d shown Peter the driving instructions I’d printed off from www.nowwhereroute.com … and we decided the best one to follow. Well, let me just say to you that that website has now been deleted from my favourites … and you’re about to find out why …

I have to say my sense of direction is usually pretty good, and something my Mum has often commented on, but I must have left that sense back in Melbourne. The drive from Merriwa (which I now know is pretty much “out bush”) to Glen Forrest should normally take approx 1 hour with no traffic hold-ups … I finally arrived in a very emotional and frazzled state at just before 11am!!! The stupid instructions had me driving through so many different little suburbs (and at one point through a street so small it had small roundabouts to cut down traffic speed) and essentially had a couple of flaws in the driving instructions. At one point I was told to turn left into some street starting with H … there was actually a signpost showing the street name pointing left, but there was basically a paddock sitting there, and sure as heck no road to drive into … thankfully I had a full Perth street map so I managed to eventually locate where I was on the map (and confirmed that the road I was supposed to drive left into was a future planned road and not actually built yet) and managed to find a way back to the next set of instructions, but each of these diversions took some time to work out the new driving strategy. At another point I was told to continue straight along Altone Road and it continues as the Reid Highway … well, in fact, no it doesn’t – you actually have to turn OFF Altone Road to get to the Reid Highway – of course I only find that out when I’ve been driving for ages and thinking “this isn’t right” – I then doubleback again to find the Reid Highway, and turn the wrong way onto it, and end up coming back towards the way I’d already come. I started recognising some road signs I’d already been driving up, albeit it a suburb or two away in the back streets, so I pulled off the highway into an industrial street and phone Judy at the class to say just start without me and I’d get there when I could. I do have to admit I was getting quite emotionally frazzled at this point, which probably had a lot to do with everything else that had gone wrong that week, plus the lack of quality sleep. Anyway, Judy was so lovely and kind on the phone, I started getting a bit ‘choked up’ – when she asked where I was I had to answer I have no idea! Anyway, she gave me instructions once I’d got back onto the Reid Highway how to get there, and her instructions were impeccable and easy to follow … but not before I had a slight detour … yet again!

When I’d got my bearings, I drove back the way I’d came, so I could turn back onto the Highway at the traffic lights … which was good in theory, except there were no right turns permitted – I had no option but to drive straight ahead … which just so happened to be the on-ramp to the Mitchell Freeway. At this point I was ready to throw my hands in the air and give up (this was now after 9.30am and the class was already started). Anyway, eventually I came to an off-ramp and drove around to a side street and worked out where I was, but it took a while before I managed to get back to the Reid Highway again (do you see now why I would have loved that GPS gizmo for the day?).

Well, eventually I managed to arrive at Judy’s home … at about 10.45am … and Judy met me at the door. She was so kind and sweet I just lost it – I started getting quite teary-eyed. We went for a short walk inside the main house to give me chance to calm down before joining the group. I felt really embarrassed, really disappointed, and really frustrated at the whole week really, and this event was just the last straw in a ridiculous chain of events (I think it was also worse because I’m so shy around new people, it’s a big deal for me to walk into a group of ladies I don’t know, so that probably helped to heighten the emotions of the day). BUT, here it gets better … and here is where I can justify my feelings of “no regrets” …

Everyone was incredibly welcoming and sympathetic, and I was immediately plied with fresh coffee (great timing arriving at morning tea time) and something sweet to settle my nerves (although a few thought a brandy wouldn’t have gone amiss LOL), and I was introduced to many of the ladies there. It was a relief to finally be there, and start to join in. I’d missed the Sam and Bertha instructions that happened earlier that morning, but CA was awesome and took me aside to catch me up with what I’d missed. I have to admit the first part of the day I felt quite overwhelmed with everything as it seemed quite fast-paced to me (probably just because I’d missed so much), but after Sunday’s session I feel comfortable to tackle the Etui project now on my own … I think.

I can honestly and truthfully say this was just about the best bunch of ladies I’ve sat and stitched with at a class – it was especially wonderful to be sat with Janie (of Cat’s Whiskers fame) and Ros, who kept me highly amused with their tales throughout the first day of class – and I think I did more laughing than stitching. I took a vow of silence, though, and what goes on tour stays on tour hahaha. Day one was spent working on the Pyramid Etui – I got 1/2 way to getting the baby pyramid finished, and just took a few notes for the rest of the class. A few people weren’t returning for the Sunday class, so I bid farewell to Janie and Ros and vowed to return again for another stitching session. CA seemed to approve of my chosen colour scheme, and in fact a few other people commented how lovely it was – which made me feel good, after having such dramas trying to find the right blues etc 🙂

Before I left for the trip home on Saturday I dragged out the road map and was shown a much simpler route for driving! When I showed them where the instructions had taken me, they couldn’t believe it … and let’s just say the drive home was exceptionally easy 🙂 I joked that I’d probably be the first one to arrive on the Sunday to make up for things … and I was, after a sum total of 55 minutes driving! LOL.

Saturday night I arrived home to my friend Hayley who was already in the kitchen … I told her I’d got some homework to do, as I wanted to finish my baby pyramid before I went to bed … but she promptly brought out a platter of crackers and dips, cheese and tapenade, and we sat outside chatting for a while over a glass of wine … which turned into a second glass of wine … and well, you can probably tell the ending to this tale! LOL. Let’s just say the nibbles turned into dinner when Pete came home and we were still sitting outside drinking more wine … my poor little pyramid never saw the light of day! As CA said, though, I think you needed it after the day you’d had! LOL.

Actually, that reminds me of a wee gift they bought for my arrival … sitting between the pillows on my bed was this huge 2L bottle of L&P – those of you who’ve been reading my blog for a while may remember this is a soft drink only made in New Zealand, and my absolutely favourite tipple is Jim Beam bourbon and L&P (ie Lemon & Paeroa) … I can’t buy it any more in Melbourne, so that was like a gold nugget nestled between the pillows – yummo 😀 OK, now back on to the tale …

Sunday, of course, had a much brighter start to the day – I was sitting with a different group of ladies this time, and once again had lovely company for the day. It was great to get to spend some more time with Georgie on the Sunday, as my fellow Victorian – and of course it was through Georgie that I learned about the class in the first place. The day just flew by, it was a great day. And almost all of us even managed to get our Peacock Needle/Scissorcases finished! I have to admit I was one of the later finishers, but got the final stitches into it just before I had to pack up for my trip to the airport.

I took a couple of photos of people etc from the weekend, but I don’t like to post their piccies without prior consent, so I’ll just have to show you my finished piece instead 😀 Sorry about the wee piccies, but I’ve heard CA isn’t keen on photos due to copyright, so to be considerate of this I’ve left the piccies small enough that they’d be difficult to copy … but big enough to see the finished project.

After saying our goodbyes we braved the torrential downpour that was happening outside, and Michael (Judy’s husband) ferried us to our cars to save us getting drowned on the way up the driveway – driving to the airport was very simple, and I arrived in good time. Unfortunately though there was a mechanical problem with the plane and we ended up leaving almost 1 1/2 hours late … but I was just grateful to get on the flight. It was touch and go whether I’d get on (I was on a standby ticket), but eventually they allowed me a boarding pass yippee. When we arrived at Melbourne we found the city SkyBus only leaves hourly at that time (it was now 1/2 past midnight), so I ended up sharing a cab with two other ladies into the city, then got a cab the final part home … it felt soooo good to be in my own bed, but I have to admit I felt very contented as well due to the wonderful classes I’d been to.

In finishing I just have to say CA is the most wonderful teacher – if you get chance to attend a class, I’d definitely recommend it. She has some of the most exquisite class projects and I’ve already been enticed by the classes planned for next year … Judy asked me whether I will be returning next year – my answer “if I’m allowed to come back, you can definitely count me in!!” I have to say I am now a fully-fledged member of the CA Wells fan club … while I didn’t achieve much on the Saturday stitching-wise, the Sunday class has given me extra confidence in finishing items such as these – and after all, that’s what I originally signed up for … little did I know at the time that it would turn into something that I could become addicted to – and I can’t wait for next year to roll around (of course next year I’ll be doing a few things differently – probably staying with one of the generous ladies, Judy, instead of hiking out from Merriwa, and taking some time out for R&R to see some more of Perth … that didn’t quite happen as planned this year). I have to compliment Judy and Michael, our hosts, as well – they do an incredible job of organising these classes, and it was a sheer joy to spend time in their home in their company.

So, all-in-all an incredible weekend was had – memories that will last a lifetime, some new stitching friendships made, new stitching opportunities offered, and even a project finished … who can ask for more? 😀

Finishes, Stitching Smalls

A belated FAL item

11 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

What do you do when you want to take your mind off things? Why, you hunt around until you finally find what you were looking for almost 5 days ago, and get it finished! I had a bit of a disaster with my FAL weekend … the best laid plans of mice and men went awry – first of all I had planned to finish my cream button bag, but then realised the cream sewing machine cotton was the one that Mum had used up and white cotton would look stupid for the topstitching … so plan B was to stitch a tie-on pillow from KarenV’s wonderful tutorial – I had the stitched piece and the fabric all worked out, but alas no ribbon wide enough to be suitable … and no car to pick up either cream cotton or blue ribbon … so, on to plan C … to finish off my Bumble the Bee Waxer Pocket by Moss Creek Designs … except it had disappeared off the face of the earth since Mum’s visit. After that I just gave up on the weekend as a bad joke, and figured I’d pick up some cotton during the week.

Well, I turned the place upside down tonight, and finally found my waxer pocket … and I forced myself to get it finished. I’ve never tried finishing anything like this before, but I think it worked out OK – I wasn’t entirely sure how to follow some of the instructions, but made a couple of things up as I went. Anyway, here are the results of my efforts … very belatedly for the Finish-a-Long weekend. Sorry for the bad photos but it’s late at night, and the lighting in here is shocking … but if nothing else it kept my mind occupied for a couple of hours!

Cross Stitch

Test post for piccie purposes

11 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

I’ve recently been playing with my Webshots albums and using their links for posting piccies in this blog … I have to say I’ve been really impressed with them, in that it’s really quite quick to upload the piccies to the album, and resizing the piccie is an absolute breeze! I’m thinking of using them instead of Photobucket (which I originally created solely for the purposes of blog posting). It makes so much more sense to have everything in one place, especially as I pay for my annual Webshots membership so I can keep scores of piccies online. Anyway, I just want to test how to post a clickable piccie using Webshots, to see if it works … here goes … (unfortunately the largest size is nowhere as big as Photobucket, but for everyday stitching piccies, I think it’s probably OK).

OK, that worked pretty well considering … hmmm …

The thing that takes so much time in Photobucket is that I’ve been uploading the piccies twice, once at each size required, and the upload takes forever … with Webshots you just upload the photo once (which is heaps quicker in comparison anyway), and select which size photo you’d like the URL for, then you can just reselect another size and within a second the new URL is right in front of you … I love it! 😀 This is going to save sooooo much time online when uploading WIP and finish piccies yippee 😀

Blogroll, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, SBQ

SBQ & blogging in general

11 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Still no news on my car – I spoke to the mechanic while I was sitting at the train station on the way to work yesterday, and they’re still waiting on the new clutch pedal to arrive. Apparently there was a cock-up at wherever they get their parts from … so still no idea when it will be fixed. I still don’t have my airline tickets booked for Perth yet until I at least know what the bill is going to be. By hook or by crook I’ll get myself to Perth for the class, as otherwise it’ll be such a waste of time and money, but I guess there’s only so much money in the bank, and if it reaches my limits then I’ll have no choice … at this stage, though, I’m still being hopeful.

One of the problems in Perth, though, is that the friend I’m staying with has now moved, and lives out in Merriwa near South Geraldton, and the public transport options for getting to where the class is being held is appalling. On Saturday alone the trip will take me (according to the Transperth trip planner) 2.51 hours … departing at 5.55am I would arrive at 8.46am, and the journey will have taken me on two trains, two buses, and included a walking distance of approx 2034 metres … bloody hell, I’m exhausted even just thinking about it! And I daren’t even look at the Sunday schedules, as they’re usually worse. So I’ve opted to hire a car instead, as even driving it will take me 1 1/4 hours according to the driving maps (and seeing as I’ll be on my own trying to follow the map, I’d better add on an extra 1/2 hour just in case) … of course that means an extra $120 expense without petrol costs, so one of the reasons I’m being cautious about booking my airline ticket yet until I know what money I’ve got leftover to play with. Oh well, I’ve still got about 70 hours before the class starts … no need to panic! 😉

Anyway, on to the latest SBQ … Today’s SBQ was suggested by Heather and is:

“How do you decide which stitching blogs are worth repeat and/or regular viewings? Are there certain things you look for in particular? Are there things you wish there were more of? Less of? Is your blog a good example of what you like to read?”

As for deciding which blogs are worth repeat/regular viewing – piccies for me are probably first and foremost … I love to see stitching WIP’s and finishes, and piccies of stash bought – it’s definitely true to say a visually appealing blog makes me more likely to come back for more. Then of course there has to be a good writing style to accompany the piccies – I like to read a mix of stitching stuff, with enough personal info that lets you get a glimpse into the blogger’s personal life and a feel for who you are as a person. First and foremost it is the stitching content, though, that will grab me. I suppose my own blog is a sort of example – I usually have a mix, although there hasn’t been too much in the way of stitching of late hmmm.

I have to say that it’s quite funny to have this question now, as it’s something I’ve been pondering myself over the last few weeks. To be brutally honest I’m finding blogging to be a bit of a chore at the moment … I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m finding it difficult to both write my own blog and read other blogs at the moment, and wondering whether I need to take a small mini-break for a while. One of the problems is that I have so many blogs on my reading list if I don’t check them daily the unread feeds just snowball out of control – even though I’ve been trying to read a few over the last week since my return from Sydney (and since Mum’s gone home), I still have over 500 unread feeds, and that starts to weigh on me a little bit, and makes it feel like a chore. But then again I don’t want to “mark all feeds as read” as I don’t like missing out on anything … it’s a catch-22 haha. But the SBQ has made me consolidate my thoughts a wee bit, and I know a couple of blogging friends have been doing the same thing, in that I think I need to cull my reading list slightly. There are some blogs I’ve been reading for a while that no longer, or rarely, have stitching content so I don’t get as much enjoyment from them as I used to. It’s a difficult decision to make, as I don’t want to hurt any feelings in removing blogs from my blogroll, but I have to be aware there are only so many hours in a day, and there’s no point doing things out of a sense of duty if you no longer derive pleasure from the task. What I’ll likely do instead is retain a list of all these blogs and make a once-a-month visit instead of trying to keep up-to-date with everyone together.

On that same theme, I’m also in the middle of rearranging my blogroll into folders – allocated as “daily”, then Monday to Sunday … we all have our favourite blogs (for whatever reason, be it that we’ve been reading them the longest, have made closer friendships with the blogger, or just that they’re so incredibly inspirational), so I thought of putting those top 10-15 blogs in my ‘daily’ folder … then I’ll divide the remaining blogs into days of the week, at least that way I can catch up on blogs once a week when I’m having a busy week, rather than having hundreds and hundreds to plough through – if I’m having a good week, I can read two days worth together. I’ve been pondering this for quite a while now … and it’s harder and harder finding the time to keep on top of things as more new and wonderful blogs become known to me. It also means I’m finding it more and more difficult to find time to comment on blogs, and that disappoints me because that’s the greatest part of blogging – giving and receiving support.

Anyway, I want to apologise in advance for anyone who gets removed from my blogroll when I start whittling it down – it’s certainly nothing personal, I just have to rationalise my online blogging time and try to make this enjoyable again. Phew, that’s almost a relief saying it out loud and committing myself to actually doing something about it …

Actually, another thing I was thinking about the other day as well has just popped into my head … and while I’m on the theme of ‘blogs’ it’s probably a good time to bring up the question …

I use Newsgator for my blog reading, and just go into the blog itself when I want to make a comment. A few of you have your blog settings to just show ‘partial’ feeds, so in my news reader I only get to see the first three lines of text, then I have to click on each post heading to read the full post … this really slows down proceedings as well, and I have to admit when I’m trying to catch up, I’ll leave those blogs until last because it’s so much slower to read – I was just wondering why some of you have your settings like that? Anyway, that was just something that was running through my head … I have to admit I hadn’t even thought about my own settings, except I put my own blog into my feeds to see how it looks.

And I’ll leave it there for the day … there’s way too much thinking going on by this blog reader at the moment, and it’s hurting my brain 😉

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Peacock needlecase happy dance

9 April, 200725 February, 2012 Anne S

Aside from the satin/buttonhole stitches for the scissor sheath (which gets done last after the stiffening is ironed on), the stitching for the Peacock Needlecase for the CA Wells class is all done – yippee! 😀

I had a slight distraction by a phone call this arvo, which took me a while to get back into stitching mode afterwards, but I managed to squeak in with the stitching just before midnight 😀

Sorry about the poor photography, but I can’t be bothered playing with my editing software much more tonight. At least now I have enough stitched of both projects to at least get some of the finishing done during the class next weekend).