Category: Cross Stitch

Blogging Memes, Cross Stitch, Food, Works in Progress

Leporello update (updated)

Anne S

I managed to get a bit more stitching done last night, and finished my Smalls rotation slot with the Leporello. Now it’s back to Winter Queen, which I realised I haven’t touched since I started her back in November 2005 – yikes!! Anyway, I managed another hour on her as well, but I won’t bother posting any progress until I’m at least halfway through my rotation. Here’s the Leporello, though, before I put it aside.

Leporello 21Jan07

This week I’m on 3pm shifts all week, which is great if I can keep up the habit of getting up early, and going to bed as soon as I get home (which is a bit harder to manage), as it gives me the whole morning to get a few things done – I take a meal into work with me, and have a regular meal break, as technically lunch is at about 7-7.30pm, which is perfect!

BTW, I managed to change my internet settings to get rid of that annoying Blogger pop-up … I’ll also go back to my last post and remove the old piccie as it seems to be confusing and annoying a few people 😉 Oh boy, though, it’s good not getting those stupid prompts before and after commenting – makes the whole process so much more pleasant … and speedy! 😀

Rightio, time to go and do the week’s laundry (I forgot about it yesterday, oops), then I may bake a batch of biscuits again (the Honey Coconut ones – yummo). Then I want to make some banana muffins or banana cake with my manky bananas, but that may have to wait until tomorrow … how awful, I end up with yummy munchies to splurge on LOL 😉

Updated to add a biccie piccie 😛
Honey Coconut Biscuits

Also: Thutmosis, if you’re by any chance reading this – I can’t find the comments link on your blog for some reason, and can’t leave a comment … could just be me having a blonde moment, though!

Updated: Well, what do you know?? I guess some quizzes really ARE good 😉

You Should Paint Your Room Blue

Peaceful and soothing, blue rooms have been known to reduce blood pressure.
Your blue room will encourage deep rest and great sleep.
A blue room is the perfect oasis for a stressful life.
Blogging Memes, Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Annoying Blogger! (updated)

Anne S

I must say there is something about the new Blogger that annoys the hell out of me! I’m sick to death of getting the following prompt before and after trying to leave comments … does anyone out there know how to turn the stupid thing off? I don’t know whether it’s in my PC settings somewhere, but I do know “it has to go!”, as it’s driving me crazy!!! Angry emoticon [Updated to say I’ve managed to fix it – thanks for the help!!]

[Photo removed to save confusion and frustration 😉 ]

Not much to report today – I felt like death warmed up yesterday and just blobbed out – I can’t even tell you where the hours went yesterday … no stitching or TV watching, just vegetating and doing nothing … tidying up a few computer files and photos, and websurfing, and that’s about it! Mind you that seems to be pretty standard stuff after coming off 5am shifts, oh well … today’s another day!

Seeing as I didn’t get my full quota of Bordeaux stitching done last week, I’m going to sit for another hour or so today and finally put a few more stitches into it so I can show some progress. I’d love to be able to hit the true half-way mark by month’s end, but I might be pushing it hmmm. I’m going to sit and do that now, then it’s time to get motivated and get some housework done – I need to start allocating an hour every day to go through my things and see if I want to throw out any items to save lugging them around again in the next move, as well as starting to think about actually packing things away that I’m not currently using (ie kitchen things etc).

Updated to add my progress piccie after one more hour on Bordeaux – I’m happy now I’ve managed to complete two hours stitching on it, so it can wait until Thursday again for the next stitching session 🙂
Bordeaux Sampler at 21Jan07

Rightio, time to surgically remove myself from this computer chair and get moving! I’ll update with a piccie later when I have something to show 🙂 But here’s something else I just remembered I did yesterday … now I can close that screen down 😉 Perhaps this explains my affinity to ducks! LOL

Geb

Engaging personality, sensitive, modest, occasionally narcissistic, but can rise above vanity.
Colors: male: violet, female: rose
Compatible Signs:Set, Horus
Dates: Feb 12 – Feb 29, Aug 20 – Aug 31
Role: God of the earth
Appearance: Green-skinned man, with leaves all over his body and a goose on his head. Sometimes he was shown laying on his side under his wife, the sky goddess Nut.
Sacred animals: goose

What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign?
Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock’s Quizzles and Quandaries

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Rotation, Travel

New rotation plans hatched!

Anne S

While sitting in traffic yesterday afternoon I mulled over my current rotation, and I’ve decided to try cutting back a few slots and see if that works. This way I’ll get through my pieces more quickly, and hopefully have some quicker finishes, which means I can then add more new projects into the mix … rather than having so many projects on the go at once ‘cos I just wanna stitch everything NOW 😉 I’ve removed the “kits/classes” and extra “UFO” slot, plus one focus piece and smalls slot. I’ll finish my current rotation until the end of the list, then I’ll look at starting this new one up.

Anyway, this is what my half-asleep brain came up with while driving, I just have to think it through a bit more when I’m more awake to see if it will work (I’m still half asleep today too), but at the moment it’s incorporating all the WIP’s I’ve currently got ‘on-the-go’:

  1. Focus piece
  2. Smalls/ornaments/gifts etc
  3. UFO’s
  4. Canvaswork/Specialty stitches
  5. Focus piece
  6. Charity stitching
  7. Mirabilia/L&L
  8. Smalls/ornaments/gifts etc
  9. Focus piece
  10. Band samplers/Specialty stitches
  11. Quilting/Stumpwork
  12. Free choice
  13. Finishing session (just for 1 or 2 days, not 10 hours)

I’m still doing my SAL pieces separate to my 10-hour rotation slots, which will add more variety until they’re finished. At the moment that will mean focusing on the following projects in my rotation, with those in brackets are like to be the ‘next in line’, along with my SAL commitments:

  1. Egyptian Garden Mandala
  2. Stitching Leporello & gifts (then Lavender Rose Sewing Case)
  3. Nature’s Resting Place (then a ‘mystery’ UFO)
  4. Flight of the Bumblebees (then Sapphire Star)
  5. Egyptian Garden Mandala
  6. Charity stitching
  7. Winter Queen (Angel of Love)
  8. Strawberries So Faire & gifts (then My Treasures Workstation)
  9. Egyptian Garden Mandala
  10. Le Jardin Silk Sampler (then Golden Garden Sweet Bag)
  11. The Blue Collection quilt
  12. Free choice (undecided yet but probably a small Just Nan or Drawn Thread)

* SAL Wednesdays – Macaw with Carina
* SAL Thursdays – Bordeaux Sampler with Carol
* SAL monthly – Needleroll SAL
* SAL monthly – Christmas ornie SAL
* Round Robin – Quaker Friendship Sampler

And I’ll finish with another quote I really like:

“A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.” Hugh Downs

Staying with friends in Fiji taught me that material possessions etc do not maketh the man and make you happy – it is how you view life that makes you happy. They took me into their home when I had nowhere to go, and showed me a world of kindness and love rarely experienced by many. They accepted me into their family circle, and will always leave a mark in my mind and on my heart. I shared Christmas Day with them and experienced Fijian culture at its best, within the true family setting. I know I’ve talked of this before, but that quote brought thoughts of them back again. I managed to repay their kindness by paying for their food while I was there, and when one of the brothers lost his job during the ‘George Speight coup’, I paid for his daughter’s school books and stationery before I left so she could continue her education that year with a good start (even though I was a student then myself, with no income … thank goodness for Visa!). Here’s a photo of us on Christmas Day with an amazing feast of local delicacies (all the photos are clickable for bigger versions) 😀
Christmas Day in Suva
Also, sitting outside my temporary home having a kava party with the boys … the guitars were playing well into the early hours of the morning (I think I eventually slunk off at 3am and it was still going strong) – I don’t know how they can drink so much kava, it’s dreadful stuff! The only time I’ll drink a few is when they’ve thrown a party in my honour, and I’ll do it as a sign of respect to them, but it’s downright awful!
suva-1.jpg
Now here’s one of one of my favourite Fijian couples – Dokko and Ana … they call me “Ana” in Fijian, instead of Anne, so we say “Tai-Ana” to each other, ie “my namesake”. We always tried to make a special trip to see them as they’re out in the islands, and Ana’s face always lights up when she sees us, and cries when we leave – she has a big heart, and I always love to see her.
dokko-and-ana.jpg
And lastly one of Mum being treated like a Queen at a party they held for Mum and Dad, as they greatly cherish and respect their elders – something else we could all learn from them, as that seems to be disappearing in our modern society! Mum and Dad hadn’t met them before, so I promised to drive over from Nadi to Suva to introduce them, and they threw a party in their honour. Mum loved it all, but Dad was bored stiff, as for the first time they didn’t bring their guitars … poor Dad – but Mum and I adored it all and lapped it up!! The lei she’s wearing around her neck is called a “salusalu” and is traditional in the part of Fiji they come from, and they made it especially for Mum, as well as some exquisite woven bags … I should take photos of them next time I go home, they’re gorgeous!
suva-2.jpg
Sorry, didn’t mean for this post to be so looooooong! 😉

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Stitching Smalls

It’s Friday!!

Anne S

And you have no idea how wonderful it is that it IS Friday!  Day 7 today, with 5am starts, and it’s been a killer of a week with the heat etc.  I had a very stressful day at work from the minute I walked through the door at 4.55am – Heathrow airport had bad weather with planes diverted to Stanstead, and I was the contact to liaise the rebookings etc … got some very lovely praise in writing from both the Supervisor in our office and the main operational guy in Sydney for the job I did (geez, I’m gonna start getting a big head soon LOL), but it hit me like a ton of bricks once the day finished – I feel totally drained!

Then after work I had to make a side trip to Wonga Park to drop off a boot-load (trunk-load for those of you in the northern hemisphere) of pet food off to the Blue Cross – we had a charity collection at Christmas for this animal shelter, and I finally found the time to drop it off.  It took me in the opposite direction to home, and a 2-hour round trip, but at least it’s done.  I didn’t realise how close I was to Frazier’s folks, so I made a quick phone call to see if they were home so I could catch up … alas they weren’t, but we made up for it tonight and chatted for 1 1/2 hours on the phone – unusual for me!  It was actually lovely to catch up with them, as I haven’t seen them for close to a year, if not longer.  When I move back to my old area, I’ll have to pop out and visit them more regularly again.  I was very touched when they told me off for not asking them for help when I told them I was moving out due to financial difficulties, and said there’s always a room at their place if I ever need it, for as long as I want – that’s incredibly kind of them!

When I finally got home this afternoon I was so exhausted I actually felt really queasy, so I went straight from the front door to the bedroom, and flopped out to sleep for 2 hours – I’m still quite shattered, but at least the queasiness has eased off.  I don’t know if I’ll get much stitching done tonight, though, and only managed one strand of silk in Bordeaux last night.  I’ll post a piccie later if I get chance to do any more, as there’s not much to show right now.

Talking of stitching – for CathyMK, you’re right the Treasures Workstation is the one by Judy Odell.  I signed up for this months ago before going on the Wagon along with the first SAL Yahoo group, and never could decide on the threads to use.  After trying to find a blue thread to substitute for the CCN ornie last month, I came across a Stef Francis thread (Bluebell) that KarenV sent to me, and think that would look beautiful for the flowers – I just have to decide which green thread to use and whether to use a contrasting thread as well.  But I’m a lot closer to at least starting than I was a few months ago! LOL.  I want to make a concerted effort to get this stitched soon, as I have the finishing kit all ready to go, so there’s no excuse after paying all that money out for it … and it’s such a gorgeous project 😀

   

I also found out the fabric I used for Egyptian Garden for those who asked … I used “Midas Touch” 32ct Belfast opalescent by Silkweaver – I originally ordered the Lugana version of it, and found it was too tiny to stitch on for the over-one, as the threads were quite clumped together, and the Lugana colour was too pale and apricot-y for my liking too … the Belfast is much darker and better for the project I think.  Sorry for the delay in finding the answer for you!  I still have no idea what the heck I’m going to do with the original fabric, and think I may try to dye it a different colour … I’m really not sure!

Rightio, time to go settle down for the night – I think I’ll crack open a bottle of Chardonnay to help with the chilling out process … that’ll be one less bottle to pack later teehee.  Talking of which, Sheree is calling a real estate agent today about a property that sounds really nice in Blackburn South which comes free next week … we’ll have to see what comes of it, but it’s closer to my old neck of the woods and looks quite modern – she specifically wants somewhere with two bathrooms, and we both want three bedrooms, which makes it harder to find somewhere, but this one seems to fit the bill … fingers crossed …  It’ll be so nice to be closer to my buddy, Sharon 😀

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Best laid plans gone awry

Anne S

Today I finished work at 1pm (yep, the one great thing about starting work at 5am is the finish time!), and I drove straight over to David Jones at Chadstone shopping centre, to suss out and likely purchase one of these little suckers …

 Blue Nano  Silver Nano  Pink Nano

So, what happened?  Well, I know you’ll be really surprised to hear that I was going to buy the beautiful turquoise one, but I’m also quite taken by the simplicity of the plain silver one … oh decisions, decisions!  What made it easier to decide today was that there was only colour to choose from, and one colour only … yep, you guessed it, bright fuschia pink!  What do you think I did?  Those of you who guessed I bought one anyway don’t know me very well … I tucked my tail between my legs and moseyed on home again, after asking the sales guy to call me when they got more in 😉  I’ve decided I was already happy to spend an extra $50 myself towards my voucher, so with the money from Mum, Dad, and the ‘Smithies’ added in I’m thinking of still chipping in and getting the 4GB option instead of the 2GB one.  At least them not having one in stock means it gives me more time to get the money together 😀

In stitching news, nothing to report today except after seeing Carol’s progress on Bordeaux, I realised I’d totally screwed up band 3 by using the wrong thread for the leaves … which makes sense when I think about it – which means I have to do some frogging … bugger! 😦  It’s also a stinker of a hot night in this little flat, so I can’t see me doing much stitching again tonight – I’ll try for at least an hour, then I’ll do a bit more tomorrow night as well to make up for it before I take another progress piccie.

I’ve been craving red meat all week this week, and I have to say since my freezer got emptied I haven’t bought any red meat into the flat … while I was at ‘Chaddy’ though, I picked up one whole marinated lamb steak to try, and two lamb shanks to cook up on Sunday afternoon – I’m drooling just thinking about it.  I used to be disgusted at home when we had our cat Rio – because I was the only one in the family who really loved lamb, I rarely got lamb as a food choice, while the precious cat got lamb every week, the little sod … not to mention the fresh whitebait and prawns, he got better fed than we did!! LOL.  Here he is hogging the chocolates one Christmas haha.

Rio with the choccies

Anyway, talking about steaks, I’d better get mine cooking so I can still sit down and have an hour’s stitching before bed!!

Before I forget though, the decision was taken out of my hands by SB&B about continuing my monthly Mystery Bits wishlist … you can’t have a wishlist anymore, and can only choose up to 3 threads you’d like to collect, so I’ve cancelled it.  I’ve been a bit annoyed the last two months, as three months ago I asked if it was possible to focus on sending all the overdyed threads on my list instead of other items, which was OK for one month, then the last two months I’ve received a mix of allsorts again, and not the threads I really wanted.  In some ways I’m glad the decision has been made – now I’ll just buy them as I need them, and forget about SB&B 😀

Cross Stitch, Rotation, Stitch-alongs, Works in Progress

SAL revisited (updated)

Anne S

My apologies to Carina, but my SAL plans for last night were thwarted somewhat … thanks to the bushfires still raging in rural Victoria, it attacked transmission lines to the national power grid in NSW, causing massive power failures throughout the state of Victoria.  We lost our power at work just before 4pm yesterday, killing our lights and air conditioning … with a temperature sitting at 39C, that wasn’t much fun (but luckily I only had to survive 1/2 of that).  Then driving home all the traffic lights were out as well, causing a delay in travelling anywhere.  When I finally got home I had power on for one hour before losing that … I figured even though I had to have an early night due moving back to a 5am start today, I’d still get an hour’s stitching on my Macaw … then the power died while I was checking emails, and put paid to all those plans – it was way too hot to stitch without an electric fan on, and too dark in my stitching area without my ott-lite … so no stitching done at all for the night.

Tonight, however, I’ve also decided to change my mind yet again – and I’m going to unpick what I’ve done and do everything over-one … yeah, I know, I must be stark raving bonkers, considering I hate over-one stitching normally!  I’d opted to stitch over-two because there is one blended thread in the chart, but I’ve decided to just choose one of the colours used and stitch that part in just one colour … fingers crossed it’ll still look alright hmmm.  So, tonight I’m going to spend at least one hour getting a couple of stitches put into my Macaw to make up for last night … I just have to work out which fabric to use now …

Then tomorrow night I need to decide whether I continue a bit more with the Leporello, or whether it’s back to the Bordeaux Sampler for this week’s stitching session ready for a progress piccie on Friday/Saturday.  It probably all depends on how shattered I am this time tomorrow, I guess …  I have to admit I had a dreadful night’s sleep last night thanks to the shocking heat, and no power (it came back on during the night, but I was too dopey to get up and switch the fan on, just kept waking up every 1/2 hour and going back to sleep again) – it also appears my neighbours downstairs have had their baby, as the last two nights have also been spent listening to it screaming its lungs out while I’ve been trying to sleep … to say I’m little Miss Cranky Pants today is probably an understatement LOL.  One of the benefits of living on my own that I’m soon going to miss … not having to smile and be friendly when you come home feeling like death warmed up – there’s no-one to think about and impress, and my ducks don’t care if I look at them with baggy eyes and scowling frowns 😛

Actually, talking of the Leporello, I can probably show a progress piccie from the other night – I got very little done on it, but it’s a bit more than before so any progress is good progress 🙂  I’ll continue with this one now until I’ve completed 10 hours, then the next rotation slot is Mirabilia/L&L so I’ll put some more stitches into Winter Queen (which hasn’t been touched in an entire year … very very bad!).

My current rotation is as follows:

  1. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  2. Smalls/ornaments – Stitching Leporello
  3. Charity blocks/Free choice
  4. Canvaswork/Hardanger – Flight of the Bumblebees
  5. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  6.  UFO (Mystery – ie randomly picked by drawing a number out of a hat!)
  7. Smalls/ornaments/gifts – Strawberries So Faire (but doing Leporello instead this time)
  8. Mirabilia/L&L – Winter Queen
  9. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  10. Band Samplers/Specialty Stitches – Le Jardin Silk Sampler
  11. Finishing items
  12. Smalls/ornaments – My Treasures Workstation or Lavender Rose Sewing Case
  13. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  14. Kits & Classes – probably Ete en Grece (French kit of Greece)
  15. UFO (Chosen) – Nature’s Resting Place
  16. Quilting/Stumpwork – GCC Gracie stumpwork or The Blue Collection quilt
  17. Free choice – (not decided yet – whatever screams loudest at the time)

Crikey, I have a lot of projects in there – hence the reason I’m thinking of reworking my rotation, as it takes too long to get to some projects.  Maybe I’ll just work my way through it in its entirety once or twice then decide … I’m almost keen to become a one-at-a-time at the moment to get a few projects finished, but then again with a rotation I don’t get bored on the whole.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the latest unimpressive update of the Leporello … now I’ve got to get that fan on and find some fabric to restart my Macaw!

Last week’s blob has been replaced by an even smaller blob – I decided to just stitch the Macaw on some 28ct white Lugana.  It’s pretty slow going, but I’ve managed 2 hours stitching on it tonight anyway … and now I’m off to bed.  I thought I might as well show a piccie of the blob, otherwise it’ll be another couple of weeks before it resembles anything, and Carina will wonder if I’m actually stitching along with her! 😉

Macaw at 17Jan07

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

“It’s good to be back …”

Anne S

A HUGE “g’day” from Elwood!!! Yep, this is actually me sitting in front of my very own PC in my very own little flat – no, Houston, we no longer have a problem – we have a phone line!!! 😀 The phone technician called this morning to see if I was home, and if he could come round … his job today still went ahead, but he finished it sooner than expected, and was able to fit me in woohoo!!! 😀 Unfortunately the phone jack is now right in front of the front window where the Christmas tree usually sits, so I’ve had to spend just under $40 for a 12 metre extension cable and double adaptor, seeing as my computer is miles away, and the double adaptor I had already got was for the geriatric phone connection originally in place – now we have a snazzy new one.

I’ve already made one call home on it, and exercised the phone line for almost 2 hours chatting to Mum … and here are some photos expressly for her – the latest on my wall cracks. The first one also includes a great shot of the newly finished phone connection (I still have to vacuum up the mess and move the furniture back), as well as the lovely new crack I have along the middle of the wall, just nicely in line with the height of the sofa.

Next up is the top corner of the same wall – the window is now so out of plumb I can’t actually close it at all, and the phone technician reckons the floor in the corner is actually on a bit of a slope now hmmm.

Next is the corner behind my bookcase which divides the lounge and dining rooms.

And lucky last is above the balcony door frame. Some of them actually look worse in real life than they do in the photo … yep, definitely a good time to be looking for somewhere new, before I end up making an unexpected visit to the downstairs neighbours by landing on their heads!!

As for stitching, not as much to report as expected … here’s the latest progress photo of Bordeaux Sampler – I stayed up last night to finish of the over-one parts, and it’s been put away again until next week. You can see by the groups of grapes down the left hand side of the border where the halfway mark is, so I’m now very very close to it 🙂 Don’t worry Carol about not being in the same place – I know you’ve been very busy doing gift stitching … it’s still nice knowing you and Leslie are stitching it as well, even though we don’t have a designated night for it 🙂

Lastly I can show the latest UFO I’ve finished – this Cream Button Bag by Shelley Warner was from a Guild weekend Retreat in Auckland … it just has to be made into a bag now, but that will happen on one of my ‘finishing’ slots in my rotation. It’s pitiful how long this has been sitting around, as it only had four leaves left to be completed and the buttons added – it only took about 1-1/2 hours to finish!

This week I also started a SAL with Carina on the Ross Originals Macaw – it’s hardly worth showing a progress piccie, as there’s only a few stitches to show for it … but by next Wednesday there should be something worth showing, as that’s our new SAL night 🙂

Rightio, now it’s time to get the icing ready for a chocolate cake I made this morning … I’m not a baker by any stretch of the imagination, but I figure my skills will never improve if I don’t give it a go, so I’m stretching myself a bit. And the guys from work are going to be my guinea pigs to help save my waistline 🙂

I also made Honey Coconut Biscuits which are quite yummy … and a case of 2nd time lucky! I was making them on Wednesday morning to take into work, but the final ingredient was self raising flour, and when I was sifting it I found a big clump of insect eggs … everything ended up in the bin. Then I finally made them again last night, and managed to have an accident with the oven tray – while taking it out of the oven the heat started coming through my right hand, so I tried to jiggle it a bit in my hand, only to have the whole thing start slipping … I automatically grabbed it with my left hand, only to remember I didn’t have an oven mitt on it – let’s say I remembered bloody quickly!! Luckily I have a heap of ice cubes ready made in the freezer, and I ran a 1/4 sink of cold water and dumped every single cube into it – the throbbing pain was insane, and it’s no wonder people sometimes don’t survive major burns due to the shock from the pain! Anyway, it seems the ice bath really helped, as today it’s only slightly tender and the blistering is thankfully in places that is letting me have full use of my hand … phew!! I even managed a bit more stitching on Bordeaux after the accident, I think more to take my mind off it than anything else 😉

I still can’t switch to (non)Beta Blogger, and I’m getting sick to death of clicking on the “we are ready for you, switch now” blurbs … this kept happening for a while before losing my phone access, and it’s still happening. It’s getting a bit annoying, but perhaps I should just ignore the prompts until it changes into something nasty, like a final demand letter 😉 Either that, or start looking at alternatives, as I understand a few people haven’t been able to comment on my blog for quite some time 😦

Well, no more chatting for me – time to get moving, as I have an early shift at work tomorrow (a mix of 8am and 5am shifts for 7 days), and I still have some housework to finish … as well as organising some rental alerts on a few suburbs, and to get that icing done.

Oh boy, it’s good to have the ‘net at home again!!! 😀 Mind you, with 1160 unread feeds, I’m sorry but I really do have to mark all as read and start from scratch – it’s just too much to handle. I hope I won’t miss too much by doing that 😦 Hope to catch up with you all again soon 😀

Finishes

First finish for 2007!

Anne S

Here goes my first finish for 2007 … this is “Spring Basket” by Beverley McNully from an Inspirations magazine. I started it last night, but didn’t get very far before I hit the hay for the night. To say I detest doing French knots is an understatement, but they were pretty simple this time using perle cotton on canvas. It just has to be turned into a pincushion during a future ‘finishing session’. Seeing as I don’t have any 18″ stretcher bars yet, I can’t start my Laura J Perin canvaswork design, so this fit in nicely into the canvaswork slot in my rotation in the meantime 😀

Now I’m off to put a few more stitches into my focus piece, Egyptian Garden. I had a shock earlier, though, when my phone line died again … this time it was just offline for about an hour, but if I go missing all of a sudden, that’s why!

SBQ, Stitching Smalls

SBQ – Finishing Links

Anne S

(Edited to add a few more links I tracked down, as the original pages had been moved…)

Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:

“Do you have any good internet links to tutorials for your favorite finishing techniques that you would like to share?”

Funnily enough, I’ve been thinking for a while now to have a page set up on my blog dedicated to my finishing links! Here goes my list of finishing links and tutorials – there are loads here that others have no doubt already listed, but there may be some other unknown ones (I thought I had some others too, but I can’t find them at the moment):

Different Techniques:

Biscornu/Pincushions/Pinkeeps:

Needleroll instructions:

Wallhangings/Bellpulls:

Needlebook/Needlecase:

Scissor case:

Scissor fobs:

Pillows:

Bookmarks:

Fabric Book Covers:

Flat-fold/Cube-it:

Sachets/Bags:

Ornaments:

Nametag:

Cording, Tassels, & Miscellaneous:

Blogging Memes, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Stash

Christmas Gifties

Anne S

As promised, here are piccies of the beautiful gifts received from my stitching pals – I apologise for the poor quality of the photos, as the light is almost as bad this morning as it was last night … and I ended up taking them on top of my clothes that are drying (or in this case a bedsheet … guess who will be ironing again soon? LOL). Piccies are not in any particular order 🙂

First up is a beautiful biscornu from Jenna – I have to admit, I knew what this one was, but it was still a wonderful surprise to see it first-hand and hold it 🙂 And Jenna’s stitching and finishing is perfection in itself – I just love it! 😀 It’s going straight on display in my basket!

Next up is my gift from Katrina – how cool is this?? I adore the frangipani memo board, and it’s really going to brighten up my fridge … it’s just perfect! And that would have been plenty enough, but I also received a gorgeous needlework roll … funnily enough I have the chart bought all ready to make one for myself, but I just haven’t pulled my finger out to give it a try yet … and now there’s no hurry! I just adore it!! And how perfect is it going to be for all my unfinished ornies to keep them in one place before they get finished? Thanks Katrina – I love everything! 😀

Next up is a beautiful wallhanging from Sylvie – how did you ladies know I love blue so much? LOLOL. How gorgeous is this? I’ve never had a wallhanging before, and it’s taking pride of place hanging up on the side of my computer desk so I can admire it every day – I just love it! Thank you so much Sylie, I adore it! 😀

And last, but not least, here’s another stunner – this time from Nicki. What a stunning ornie, and not one I’d attempt myself (mainly due to the finishing) – once again perfect finishing and stitching, and the colours are just beautiful. I’ve got two photos this time so you can see more of the stitching. Thanks Nicki, I truly love it!

And finally my gift to myself – bought just before my finances went bust … I can finally drool all over my Gingher’s Alyssa scissors – they’re just so beautiful! Thanks to Jenna’s ingenuity, I had to wait until now before I could see my little purchase … and they were definitely worth waiting for!

Thanks again ladies for making my Christmas Day so special – I love all my gifts, and I’ll treasure everything always {{hugs}}.

Ooh, I almost forgot … this gave me a giggle … how appropriate!! I obviously love the tree so much I turn myself into one!!! LOLOLOL.

You Are a Tree
You love every part of the holidays, down to the candy canes and stockings. And you’re goofy enough to put a Christmas tree ornament on your tree!

WhatChristmas Ornament Are You?

Now it’s off to work again – it’s freezing outside (I’m sat here in my winter PJ’s and dressing gown, go figure!), so I’ll be bundling up in my jeans and polar fleece for the day … what happened to those 43C days? LOL.

Have a wonderful day everyone! 😀