picture framing – Feather Stitching

Bent Creek, Country Cottage Needleworks, Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Little House Needleworks, picture framing, samplers, Stash, The Drawn Thread, With My Needle

Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone…

28 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

…but my trip off The Wagon seems to be continuing haha. We drove up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains today so I could pick up my finished stitching from The Stitching Post, and two designs from my wishlist fell into my shopping bag … oops! I’ve been drooling over Mrs Wadelow’s Hussif since I first saw it on Ellen’s blog, and as fate had it Karen had it in stock already … well, I figured it was right there on the counter, so it just HAD to come home with me! haha. The other design was LHN’s Fa La La from the latest ornament series. Going by what many others have said, these ornies are rather on the large side, so I think I’ll be stitching them with one thread on a 40ct fabric (as opposed to the other option of stitching them over-one on normal fabric … yucky!).

Anyway, aside from a number of designs on loan that Karen never got around to framing for display, I now have these four little beauties back at home again in their lovely framed state 🙂

It’s been a very tiring – although very awesome – weekend … Katie and I went to the movies yesterday and saw two movies back-to-back (Valentine’s Day and Wolfman) – then we finished off the evening with a trip to G.P.K. (Gourmet Pizza Kitchen) for pizza before heading home to retire in front of the TV for a couple of hours watching The Hangover. Of course then today we head over to the Blue Mountains for the day, so all-in-all I’m ready to curl up and not move for a couple of hours before we have to go to sleep before work tomorrow … ready for 5 days of work before we head out to the Sing-along Sound of Music on Friday 😛

And now I’m heading off to find some fabric to start my exchange stitching on, so we can blob out in front of the gogglebox with Jethro and the gang of NCIS 😀

Canvaswork, Cross Stitch, Finishing, Framing, picture framing

Back briefly

11 December, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

Sorry I have been AWOL for a while … all I can say is that I’ve been struggling emotionally, I guess, for a number of weeks now, and I’ve been in a bit of a ‘black fog’ for want of a better way to put it. Anyway, I have been planning a trip back down to Melbourne for about 2 months now, but it was then put on hold indefinitely after Erin passed away until I heard about when her service would be held in NZ – as that is now likely to be the middle of January, on Monday night it was all of a sudden ‘full steam ahead’ and Katie and I started making plans once again for the trip. It’s taken me probably until yesterday before I started feeling brighter and looking forward to the trip, but now I think it will do me the world of good … getting away from home and away from the stress and pressures of work will be great. Of course it just may make me more homesick for Melbourne and those friends I left behind …

When I get home I think I may need to take a quick visit to the GP as well … according to my hairdresser the itchy scalp I’ve been developing over the last few weeks is likely caused by stress and upheaval, as opposed to a reaction to my conditioner … I guess my body’s trying to tell me something! Oh well, only two weeks left and I’ll get some TLC at home when I fly over to Mum and Dad’s for Christmas – something else that I’m really looking forward to. Recent events brings it home even more that family is really important!

I haven’t picked up a needle for weeks now, so I guess that gives an idea of my mindset of late, as that’s super super unusual! I did force myself to do a bit of home DIY, though, as I had a gift I needed to get ready for my trip to Melbourne. Unfortunately other gifts still aren’t done, so I guess those’ll have to go in the post later.

Here’s the results of my labours that I finished last night (just have to have the hooks/hangers screwed into the back):

A framing job I did first, but in a ready-made mat and frame from Target:

The gift I needed to get finished for this weekend (as it would be too hard to post) – this is for my ex-flatmate and friend Lisa for her birthday:

Then this one is especially for me – LHN’s Hannah Purington, to match our lounge’s marine/blue theme):

The piece de resistance – Graeme Ross’ Tiger … I’ve been waiting many many years to see this one framed!

And, finally, the one frame that I cocked up a bit (this was my 2nd framing attempt) … the corner shifted slightly when I was tightening up the clamps and I didn’t notice – c’est la vie, I still love it 🙂

These are all photos taken prior to adding the glass – I can’t believe it only cost AU$29 for 5 pieces to be cut, and the canvaswork and tiger pieces are decent sizes! Anyway, I’m really quite proud of these for first attempts – it feels wonderful to be able to say “I did all that” … from the stitching to the mat cutting, frame making, and the actual framing itself. I think I’ll be doing more in the future to give myself some more practice, and get some items out of the finishing pile.

Anyway, I’d better go get my packing done … it’s 8pm and I still haven’t even started yet! Maybe there’s still a bit of reluctance hanging around under that black cloud, but I’m sure that’ll be shaken off by the morning 🙂

Enchanted Mermaid, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Mirabilia, picture framing, Works in Progress

Mixed bag of allsorts

4 November, 200925 February, 2012 Anne S

It’s been an interesting weekend and start to the week so far … this week I’ve been totally addicted to Ghost Trappers on Facebook – I’ve been having a blast! I actually found the game’s Wiki and have been learning more about playing, and it’s all making a heckuva lot more sense! And I’ve been glued to the chat room and internet radio for giveaway prizes, and been exceptionally lucky to win 3 or 4 prizes … now all I need to do is transfer that luck to the Lotto draws, and I’ll be happy LOL 😉

I haven’t been stitching much at all – on Sunday (or Saturday night, I can’t remember now!) I managed to get the following paltry start into Mirabilia’s Enchanted Mermaid … quite pitiful, really!

What I did do, though, is to go online and order my first picture frames to give it a shot with framing myself. This is how I’ve chosen to frame five of my stitches pieces – the biggest piece size-wise is probably Graeme Ross’ Tiger, and I’ve chosen a total of three mats for that one. Fingers crossed the frames/mats all look OK when they arrive, and that I manage to actually put them all together!

And on that note, I’d better hit the hay – I’ve been up until 1am every night this week playing and hunting ghosties on Ghost Trappers and think it’s time I hit the sheets before the haunting hour!!

I also just remembered that I need to draw the names of the scissor fob winners, so I’ll rope my friend and flatmate Katie into giving me an impartial hand in drawing names out of the proverbial hat over the next couple of days 🙂

Christmas Ornaments, Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, picture framing

A short post for a change!

20 December, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

After catching up on all the holiday news, it’s time to settle back into Aussie life once again. This morning will be spent getting my hair cut, then writing some Christmas cards (‘cos I forgot all about them before heading on holiday, which means everyone in the world will be receiving them late – I’m totally useless this year … even worse than last year, and I didn’t think that was possible!!!) … then this afternoon will be spent quickly throwing some clothes and bedding into the washer if I get chance before heading out to Carols in the Domain Aussie-style 😀

To quickly answer Andrea’s question, unfortunately no, the Santas won’t be adorning my tree this year – I have a little half tree that hangs on the wall for my hand-made and special ornies, but it appears that is now pretty full this year, and my actual Christmas tree is too small to really handle a lot of ornies either. My wish for next year is a decent Christmas tree so I can have a mix of glass ornies and stitched ornies together. In the meantime, I have a medium-sized swag that will be hanging from my curtain rail above the lounge window, and I’m going to hang Mum’s Santas from there this year. Here’s a photo of my ornie tree that I took before I went on holiday – this is where I hang my gifts from friends plus a couple of ornies I’ve made myself over the last two years … as you can see, it won’t handle much more! 😉

Talking of gifts, I remembered to take a photo of Karen’s incredible gift – you may remember she handed me her old Janome sewing machine … here it is in all its glory. I brought home with me my old sewing machine feet and various attachments (walking foot, 1/4″ seam foot etc) from Mum’s, as I’d given them all to her when my old Janome died. I’m looking forward to trialling this little beauty out after Christmas 😀

I also forgot to post a photo of my Snapperville piece all framed and on display in Karen’s shop – didn’t the framer do a wonderful job of it? I’m really pleased with the framing of this one, it’s just lovely … he usually tends to favour dark mats, which I think sometimes overpowers the piece, but this one suits it well 😀

Now, I guess I should quickly do a spot of unpacking so I can get a photo of Katrina’s beautiful ornie, then it’s time to start on those other chores for the day …