… but I finally managed to get 3 needlerolls in their finished stages – I started at just after 10pm tonight, and definitely need to get some sleep now! 🙂 One of these will be winging their way across the oceans tomorrow … a very VERY belated gift I had meant to send an entire month ago – geez, I’m just shocking at the moment with a head like a sieve!! My sincere apologies, mystery recipient, but I hope you still like it! 😀
Category: Cross Stitch
SBQ and ‘stuff’
Just for a change, I thought I’d answer the SBQ as soon as I received it … I actually wrote this post, then saved it as a draft, and forgot all about it until now, two days later!
A busy couple of days, with not a stitch in sight – I did a whole pile of hemstitching on 5 different needlerolls on Wednesday night, as I couldn’t concentrate on much else, but I still have to get the sewing machine out to do the seams before stuffing … and there’s too much clutter around to do that at the moment hmmm …
On Thursday morning we were up with the larks, to let in the ‘odd job man’ who does the maintenance on my unit – I’ve been having problems with the front door lock for quite some time, and finally decided to mention it when I had my recent inspection … it turned out Paul had to go out and get a new lock to fit, so we had to spend a bit of time waiting around at home – but at the same time as Paul being here, the delivery van arrived with my new lounge suite. To be honest, I was really disappointed with it when it arrived, but it’s grown on me since then … I only saw the colour on a wee swatch, and it looked a lot darker when it arrived, and not quite as ‘blue’ as I thought. It’s got a bit of a violet tinge to it, in some lights … then looks ‘french’ blue in others (a bit more french blue than DMC 792). I have to say, though, it’s 100 times more comfy than my old one, that’s for sure! Here’s a piccie of the new suite … I’d take a piccie of the whole room to show it off better, but it’s a shambles at the moment (I’ll say why in a minute …) … I’ll take an ‘overall’ photo once the lounge is tidied up and finished. In fact the photo makes it look a lot bluer than it actually is – it has more of a ‘792’ tinge in real life …
Before:
After:
We’ve had a drama trying to work out what the hell to do with my old lounge suite. Fraze decided that he didn’t want it after all (I only found out the night before the new suite was delivered), and the Salvation Army won’t take it because it has a tear in one of the arms (that happened while it was in the old flat – I let them hang onto one of the chairs for a while after I moved out, as they only had a sofa … so now I’m stuck with this bloody thing). I found an online Yahoo group to give away ‘free stuff’ for the taking, and I posted a message earlier this afternoon for my old sofabed and chairs “free to a good home” – and within an hour I’d already got a response saying someone would like it, and will pick it up on Monday. At the moment it’s piled on top of each other between my lounge area and dining table (hence the difficulty in getting to the sewing machine at the moment, as it’s on the dining table) – with the size of my flat, that’s the last thing I need piled up in a ‘corner’! 😦
To top it off my mother has been a very very bad influence … she’s helped to drain my bank balance in its entirety (as at yesterday I have $20 to my name again!) – but it was for a good cause 🙂 We went to Ikea earlier in the week to check out some storage ideas for my future wishlist, and I found some bookcases etc that I love … well, after coming home to my lovely new lounge suite, we ended up going back to Ikea and picking up a few things … my last two days have been spent playing DIY Queen, and I’ve made up a bookcase with doors for a new china cabinet (so a lot of my glasses have been able to come out of storage yippee), plus a CD tower to match (I previously had 4 x mini CD towers that were a bit rickety in front of the lounge windows, but decided they had to go in readiness for cat-proofing my home), and a new coffee table to match as well. On top of that, we also got 4 sets of mini drawers for my flosses etc to go into, also freeing up some cupboard space. I spent last night and this morning staining them with wood stain – white for the outsides, and blue (surprise, surprise) for the drawers – and hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to fill the first lot (I’ve only painted two sets so far, ‘cos we didn’t have enough room to do the whole lot, as it’s covering the last remaining space in the lounge).
Today I’ve got Rogan Josh marinating in the fridge, so we can have an Indian curry for dinner tonight … unfortunately no stitching will be done again tonight, as I can’t get to everything in the shambles that is currently our lounge, and I managed to put my neck/shoulder out lifting the DIY stuff – I’m just a walking disaster area healthwise these days! hmmm …
Now onto the SBQ … Today’s SBQs were suggested by Ami and Anna and are:
“Do you have an organizational system for your fabric? If so, what is it? If not, what do you store your fabric in? How do people store their fabric, especially those small but potentially usable pieces? Do they sort by count? How do they label it or otherwise know what each piece is?”
Basically I just have all my fabrics in three separate plastic storage bins – one for 32ct, one for 28ct, and one for everything else … I just keep them in the original bags with the labels on them, and regardless of size it all just gets lumped in together – definitely not very flash! 😉
One commitment done
I can cross one “must do” off my list for the next week or so – I just put the finishing stitches into Vash’s RR … this is using the freebie “Birds & Butterflies” on the Vermillion website. The main challenge for me was stitching my XS’es in the opposite direction – I’ve never frogged so much in my entire life in such a small design … it’s just 2nd nature for me to cross my crosses my old way! I think it turned out OK, though, and it’ll be winging its way across the oceans to Canada some time over the next week.
We had a surprise phone call yesterday saying my lounge suite is ready for delivery, so we’ll be home tomorrow for that … unfortunately, though, we still have our old one here, so it’s gonna be pretty cramped until we can get rid of it. I’ve offered it to Fraze, as he and his girlfriend have just moved in together two weeks ago, and he’s accepted it … he just has to work out how to pick it up as he doesn’t have a car or trailer … if that falls down, then I’ll donate it to the Salvation Army.
Aside from that, my health has been so-so over the last day or so – after being so ‘cocky’ that I felt good the other day, we popped out for an hour or so to Ikea getting ideas for storage, and I ended up coming home with a splitting headache, and even more splitting tummy pains … no stitching for me that night, and I just spent the rest of the night curled up on the sofa feeling like death warmed up. My tummy was still gurgling last night, but thankfully no pains this time … time will tell over the next day or so, I guess, whether I’ve managed to get rid of whatever it was for good!
Now a quick question for Jess., if you’re reading – thanks for your comment about Stitchery Blue in Williamstown … I have to admit, I took a train trip out there once when I was here visiting – but I haven’t been back since I’ve moved here. My absolute favourite would probably be Lazy Daisy in Heidelberg – I also really like Bustle & Bows in Malvern (and to a certain extent the one in Surrey Hills), but I find their prices quite steep … also the last time I went in the new manager followed me around the shop like a shadow and I felt really uncomfortable – I haven’t been back since hmmm. I also like The Embroiderer in Brighton for threads, but they lack greatly in charts – they’re pretty helpful to order in items if you need them, though. You mentioned “Broderie” in Bentleigh – do you know where it is?? I haven’t heard of it before, and I’d love to track it down, especially as it’s in my neck of the woods, and I couldn’t find it in the Yellow Pages online … 😀
Well, that’ll do for today, I guess – it’s blowing a gale outside today, but it’s beautiful and sunny, and I feel like blowing the cobwebs out by going for a short walk … then we need to get furniture moved around ready for the delivery tomorrow – I can’t wait to see my new lounge suite in here yippee! 😀
Needleroll SAL weekend (updated)
I have to admit that I’ve only been stitching my chosen needleroll since about 10pm last night, but I’ve been stitching all day today, and managed to almost finish the entire thing … I’ve just hit the wall a bit now, so taking a break, and unsure whether I’ll get it finished tonight. I’m stitching Summer at the Ocean by Jeannette Douglas Designs – I’ve been itching to stitch this design ever since I first saw it about 12 months ago … and I can finally say I’ve reached that goal … well, “almost” reached that goal anyway! 😉 I just have to do the over-one words (my favourite … NOT!), the rest of the ‘ship’s wheels’ band, followed by all the beading. My favourite bands are the swirly ‘shells’ (3rd band down), and the pinwheels – it’s been fun stitching something that’s not XS for a change 🙂
Tomorrow I’ll make a start on the Lavender Rose Sewing Case, as well as doing some work on Vash’s RR … and I need to get to the Post Office, as I haven’t cleared my mail for nearly two weeks now (we went out there on Saturday morning, but it turns out they’re not open on Saturdays anymore, and I’d left my PO Box key at home … what a blonde!!). I have a couple of things to get in the post tomorrow, so that’ll be something else we can tick off the to-do list for the week 🙂
(Update …) I decided to go back to my needleroll after a short break, and managed to put the final stitches into it tonight. I might even get around to actually “finishing” some soon … maybe 😉 Anyway, here’s the final version of the stitching before being finished into an actual needleroll.
Summer at the Ocean
by Jeannette Douglas Designs
Stitched on 32ct Blue Ice hand-dyed linen by Country Stitch
Week of the Dragon! (2nd post)
Nope, I didn’t get that wrong in the title … it’s not the “Year of the Dragon” – for us it’s been the Week of the Dragon!
While we were in Hong Kong I made Mum pose in front of the Nine Dragon Wall in the temple gardens, and laughed saying it was now a Ten Dragon Wall hahaha …
Dragon #1 (ie 10th Dragon)
Then tonight it was a true dragon-fest … I put the final backstitches into my dragon quilt square, while watching Dragonheart on TV, with my own mother dragon stitching away opposite me … an absolute plethora of Dragons!!! LOLOLOLOL.
Dragon #2
SBQ’s and small finishes
Between Blogger and my stupid modem, it took me almost 5 hours to load up the Hong Kong photos and blog post yesterday … hopefully this post will be a bit quicker!! (And as it turns out, Blogger won’t upload piccies today, so I’m having to use Photobucket mutter mutter mutter …)
Firstly, here’s the little ornament I stitched while I was away – it’s Teddy Bear Stocking by Lorri Birmingham … just for a change there were errors on the chart, which drives me crazy, so a bit more frogging than normal while trying to fix it hmmm – but all-in-all, I think it’s quite cute, and I enjoyed stitching it. Mum’s decided she loves it so much she wants to stitch one for herself as well … way to go, Mum, you’re almost more addicted to stitching than I am now! 😀
I also managed to finish one more ornament last night that I started while in HK … this is the first in the Beyond Cross Stitch series of Hardanger designs by The Victoria Sampler, “White Christmas” – the photo doesn’t do justice to all the sparkles of the metallic thread.
Now on to the backlog of SBQ’s …
20 July – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Cathy and is:
“When you get a project professionally framed do you get glass inserted into the frame? Why or why not?”
I’ve always had my framing done professionally, and with glass – but to be honest, I prefer the look of embroidery without the glass. I left the glass off my “Waiting for Ships” mermaid to do more justice to the metallics and beads, and I’ll probably do the same with future pieces as well. Seeing as I don’t smoke, and hate smoking in the home, it’s not as much of an issue to leave the glass off. It’s also then less of an issue when moving house so things don’t get broken … I learnt that by personal experience very recently when my Wessex Sampler was sitting in the aircraft hold with fragile stickers all over it, and well packaged up … hmmm.
26 July – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Von and is:
“Many of us have a few pairs of embroidery scissors and some even have a “collection”. How many pairs of scissors do you have? Feel free to share a photo of your favourite pair or pairs with us!”
I don’t really have many scissors anymore (two pairs have mysteriously disappeared!!) – one pair is really half-dead, and I just use them for my metallic threads now (and an odd embroidery thread when I’m desperate to find another pair). My absolute favourites were my Gingher’s, which I’d ordered from the USA about 7-8 years ago, but very stupidly left them in my carry-on bag last year when I flew home, and they got confiscated 😦 (I didn’t realise I’d packed 2 pairs – very conscientiously popped my crappy pair into the suitcase, and left my good ones that were in hiding at the back of the needlework case boohoo). I bought a new pair about 6 months ago, but when Mum started stitching in May I gave them to her to start up her stitching kit. When I come to think about it, I really really need to get some more, as I only have one good sharp pair anymore – which is the one I’ve taken a piccie of 😦 The only other pair I have are more for ornamental purposes – they’re too small for me to use comfortably, but I love the little hanging sheath for them – too cute! I keep thinking about ordering another pair of Gingher’s from Nordic Needle (plus I really want some of the coloured scissors too), but their postage scares me too much haha. One day I’ll get around to it again … anyone know a good source for them that has reasonable postage?? 😉
3 August – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Carol and is:
“Do you have a favourite needlework tool that you like to work with? What is it and why do you like using it?”
Only one??? Hmmm, that’s a hard call … personally I’ll be hard pushed to decide between my floorstand and my Ott-lite – both of which are almost essential for me. I have difficulty holding a hoop/Q-snap in hand, and can’t stitch in hand, as I get cramps, so anything that holds my scrollbars or Q-snaps is the most essential item for me (come to think about it, you’d better include those scrollbars as my favourites too!!). Coming up next are my Do-lolly for feeding in those tiny threads on the back (great for boo-boos when you don’t have much thread left on the back to play with!), and
my Tacky Bob which is wonderful for beading (thanks to Carol, who sent it as a birthday gift – I love it!).
9 August – Today’s SBQ was suggested by Ami and is:
“For those of you who use hand or over-dyed floss, how do you store it?”
I use Floss-away bags for my over-dyeds, with each type of thread (eg GAST, WDW, NN etc) on their own small metallic ring – then all the small rings are put onto a large ring so all my over-dyeds are grouped together … I do that with all my types of threads, including metallics, rayons etc – then all the rings are stored together in plastic tubs.
Another rotation slot finished
I finally put the final stitches into my 10-hour slot for smalls/ornaments etc today, and had two small finishes. First of all I finished the stitching of my ‘draft version’ of my Melanie’s Exchange stitched in April – it was already half-stitched, so I just had to finish it off … I just have to do the actual finishing yet. Secondly, I finished off the Christmas ornie I started during the week – I think I actually liked this one better without the beads, but I couldn’t be bothered frogging them off again – this design is Christmas Tree by Elizabeth’s Designs, from the 2005 JCS ornie issue. I’ll have an ornamentifying session next month with Mum to get some of our ornies “finished”.
Aside from that it was an uneventful day – I was very keen and made a big pan of pumpkin and potato soup, as well as a tuna pasta bake for dinner … finished by a total disaster – let’s just say it’s been such a loooooong time since I cracked open my breadmaker to make fresh bread, that I didn’t think to check the yeast expiry date etc … yep, you guessed it – my bread turned out to be a solid mass in the bottom of the breadmaker, and didn’t make my little flat too aromatic this afternoon haha. Oh well, I have to do a big lot of shopping this week, so I’ll have to pick up some more flour and yeast and try it again … oops.
Probably won’t get much chance for stitching this week, with Jenny arriving from NZ on Tuesday night for two nights visiting, then only a couple more nights before Mum arrives again on Saturday – yippee 😀
Bordeaux Sampler
I’m supposed to post my update piccie on Fridays, along with Carol, but I’ve decided to cheat and put it up a day early, as I may be busy tomorrow. I managed to get a good night’s stitching (4 whole hours) into this last night, and I just have the over-one lettering and bottom band plus the rhodes grapes in the side borders to do, then part one is all finished yippee! 😀 I’m soooooo tempted to sit and do some more tonight, which would probably see part one finished, but I’m going to resist the temptation. For our SAL I said I’d stitch for one day/night or a total of 3 hours each week, depending what my shifts were like, so I guess I’ve already stitched my quota on it for this week … I have to admit, though, I really enjoyed stitching on it and I’m looking forward to finishing part one next week some time 😀 (mind you, I’m not a huge fan of over-one stitching, so that lettering band might be slow going).
I also have more stash to report – this is yet again from an order that was made a number of weeks ago, in a 30-75% off sale from Margaret Lee’s website … I never had confirmation of the final cost, or that the order was complete, so I totally forgot all about it … I was surprised to come home to a LARGE box with a postage cost of US$29 (ahem!!), just for a few charts, fabric and two pairs of scrollbar side frames – there was a long piece of ‘plastic bag’ stuff filled with air to fill out the box … would it not have been better to just parcel the damn stuff into a flatter box to save postage? It’s not as if a couple of charts etc are breakable! Oh well, the main reason I placed an order was because they had selected aida fabric on sale at 50-75% off, and I wanted to order some for Mum’s stitching stash, seeing as she’s still on a mad Christmas ornie stitching spree (go Mum!!). Still, that extra US$20 spent on postage costs has really marred the savings on the other items … oh well, c’est la vie! At least you have some more fabric, Mum 🙂
The charts in this haul were The Gathering Room by Little House Needleworks (not in the photo); Those Darn Accessories by Hillside Samplings; A Little Blackwork by Drawn Thread; Sitting Pretty by Valerie Pfeiffer; Birdie Holiday by Lizzie*Kate; Stitching Friends by Lizzie*Kate; Honey Bee by Elizabeth’s Designs; Life’s a Stitch by Lizzie*Kate; Bluebells and Violets by Shepherd’s Bush; and Teenie Hardanger III by The Sweetheart Tree.
For Mum … I also got the following aida for you – 14ct lambswool, 16ct antique ivory, and 16ct navy. This lot was all pre-Wagon spending 😉
Now it’s time to get the washing out of the machine and hang it out before settling down for the night – it’s day 6 of work today, and I feel pretty wrecked (especially as I was stitching until midnight last night oops haha), so I thought I’d give myself a good start to the weekend, by getting some housework out of the way quickly … now I’m going to be self-indulgent while watching Big Brother (sad, but true, I do enjoy it!), followed by Medium and Lost … ah, bliss! 😀
Peace …
The title doesn’t mean anything profound … just that I’ve finished the Peace ornament from the 2004 JCS ornie magazine – finally one finished in line with our designer SAL on the Friends Gather BB … this month was Jeannette Douglas Designs 🙂 A HUGE thanks to Jenna for sending me the Needle Necessities overdyed braid I needed to finish this one – muchly appreciated! 😀
I’m now halfway through my smalls/ornaments/SAL rotation slot … just have to decide what to stitch in those last 5 hours – perhaps another small ornament … I’ll have to decide later, ‘cos it’s time to run off to work. Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend 🙂
(Sorry, but the scan doesn’t show up the lovely stitches very well – I might try and take a digital photo later some time.)
DMC on sale for Aussies
Just a quick public announcement in case you’re interested (for my fellow Aussies) … I happened by chance to pop into my local “Riot” art & craft store near work while I killed time in my lunch break, and found they had DMC on sale until the end of July for 59c each – time to drag out the floss bags and see what I’m running short of 🙂
The other news is that as of 10 minutes ago, my latest charity quilt block was finished … I really didn’t enjoy the deadline for this one (my own fault, though) so I’ve decided once the next block is finished (which is due 15 August) I’m not signing up for any more deadlines months in advance. I’ve got a charity block rotation slot, and the week that I come to it, I’ll check the website to see what blocks are required, then I’ll sit and stitch it straightaway … that way I’m not governed by timeframes too much, but I still continue to contribute to the quilts. I’ve decided deadlines just don’t suit me. I may also pull out of the SBEBB for the same reason – I love the whole idea of exchanges etc, but I’ve found the deadlines too stressful … perhaps because I had so many things on the go at the same time. I’ll see how I feel after the redwork exchange is completed …
So, with no further do, here is my racing car block ready to jump in the mail.
Feather Stitching 