Enjoying a sense of peace one stitch at a time
What a wonderful day yesterday was – and in not one but two different ways. The first one was due to the weather … I actually sat at the computer on Monday night/Tuesday morning in 3/4 pants and singlet top and felt a bit goosebumpy due to the cold draft from the windows … you have no idea just how amazing that felt after the oppressive heat we’ve been having! I absolutely refused to put more clothes on, and succumbed to the blissful chill … heavenly? You betcha it was! 😉 (and it’s OK, Bea, I really was joking about the snow LOL).
The drop in temperature made it a bit more conducive to stitching, and I finally pulled my needles out of storage and put them to good use – managed to get a start made into my very first charity quilt square for 
Emily … even though I haven’t heard back from the organisation yet, I’m still going ahead and starting it – if it doesn’t get used for Emily, it’ll be used for someone else 🙂 With Emily in mind I’ve changed the flower colours on this first one as she loves pinks/purples – I also figure if I’m going to stitch both flowers/butterflies for her quilt, at least changing the colours around will make them look quite different. Sorry for the appalling scan, but I can’t be bothered unrolling the scroll bars, and the fabric isn’t sitting flat on the scanner – I’ll post a piccie properly when it’s finished … you’ll just have a short wait before that happens LOL.
What was the other reason for a heavenly day, I hear you ask? Well, even if you’re not asking, I’m going to share it anyway 😉 Yesterday was the day I got to meet some fellow bloggers … in the flesh, so to speak! You have no idea how wonderful it was to meet two lovely ladies who share the same love of stitching and crafts! I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, blogging has been a real life line to me in a lot of ways – it’s helped make me more open to starting new friendships, and becoming passionate about my craft again. To say I’ve lived in Melbourne for 2 1/2 years now, this is the first time I’ve got to ‘know’ some fellow stitchers – and they couldn’t be nicer! So, I’d like to personally thank Sharon and Gina for being such wonderful company, and making it a day to treasure 🙂
Sharon very gracefully invited us to her home, where I immediately felt comfortable – we were then treated to a scrummy lunch, and wonderful conversation, and we got to play ‘show and tell’ a little bit with pieces both Sharon and Gina were working on (including the infamous CQ square from Sharon’s blog), which was a highlight for me, as I love to see other stitchers pieces (plus I took my wee basket of pincushions etc and a couple of other finished pieces to share). You never know when you ‘meet’ people on the internet, what they’re really like … and although the ladies probably wouldn’t have guessed, I’m really really shy so it takes a lot of plucking up courage to go out and meet people – but I felt at ease straight away, and I hope this will be the start of a regular catch up 🙂
Another highlight for me was poring through the wonderful Australian XS books they’d put to one side for me, knowing I’d been searching for Aussie animals for a charity quilt square I’d like to stitch – it was better than going to the local library … that was sheer joy in itself. Anyway, I want to say thanks ladies from the bottom of my heart – it was a wonderful day!! :))) I loved seeing your stitching, hearing your stories, and sharing a little bit of you both (as well as meeting DH and E).
I also got treated by Sharon to a wee birthday gift as well, but I’ve been very very good and haven’t opened it yet (although it smells scrummy!) … I told Mum she has to hide it in her bedroom until she flies home so it will remain a nice surprise on the day itself. At least there’s only two weeks left before I can rip it open :)) I think self-discipline must come with age, as it’s only now that I’m starting to be able to follow it haha (Mum wanted to give me my birthday $ last week, but I said I wanted it closer to my birthday so it has more meaning … crikey, I really MUST be getting old – when I was ‘young’ I would’ve had it spent in 5 minutes flat LOL).
The funny thing is that for 1 1/2 years Sharon and I lived in the same neighbourhood … in fact, within walking distance … and we didn’t know it! And it took a blog with some ‘local’ photos to strike a chord of familiarity, and the rest is history 🙂 And Gina is a member of the Embroiderers Guild, so hopefully we’ll be able to hook up for some guidance group meetings at the same time – it will be wonderful having a “friendly face” to help me meet my goal of attending some groups in 2006 :))
As for today, I had another 6am start, so a bit tired seeing as I got to bed a bit later than normal last night … so tonight, while it’s still nice and cool, I hope to get a bit more of the charity square stitched – then we have to get ready for Fraze’s visit and sleep over tomorrow night … along with another friend who’s popping by as well – what a wonderful social week this is turning out to be! 🙂
I’m starting to forget what a size 26 Piecemaker tapestry needle is – or in fact any needle! Yet another non-stitching day … although I did end up finishing up some more kitting up small projects for ‘down the track’. Hallelujah it’s my final 6am shift tomorrow, then two days off again so I can go to bed at a ‘normal’ time again yay.
Spent the night in tears tonight … finally got around to watching The Notebook tonight (can’t remember what it was that stopped us watching it the other night) – oh crikey, what a chick flick that is! So I couldn’t help but shed a bit of wet stuff at the very end, even though I’d guessed what was going to happen … what a lovely movie – and makes a nice change from the psycho thrillers and action movies/comedies that I usually watch LOL.
Rightio, off to bed again – and only 2 more sleeps before I get to finally meet some fellow bloggers here in Melbourne … yippee 🙂
I just made an offer to Bine in Germany, if I pay for the courier cost, would she be willing to send me some snow? And I’m not joking … apparently the hottest January in Melbourne’s history, quite frankly I can’t wait until this heatwave is over!! Last night I got about 3 hours sleep compliments of the humidity and heat, and the heavy storms – it’s very draining on the energy levels, that’s for sure! Mind you, it gave me an excuse to sit for almost 7 hours on the computer yesterday, in front of the electric fan, catching up on all my blog feeds … always a silver lining somewhere 😉 Mum got a chicken breast out of the freezer and chucked it on the back of my neck on the way past … it was sheer heaven! I suggested turfing all the frozen food out on the floor so we could roll around on it to cool down, but she didn’t think it was a good idea LOLOL.
No stitching progress, as it’s been too hot, but I accidentally found out today that the girls at work are having a ‘whip-round’ (ie collection) between them for my birthday, seeing it’s a ‘big one’. Ali asked where you buy “that stuff that you do” (she’s miming a sewing motion with her hands as she’s asking haha) – I reply, it depends what you’re looking for. She repeated the same question – to which I once again reply, if you want just basic cheap stuff you can go to Spotlight, or if you want more specialised stuff you can go to a LNS … she then wanted to know which one I went to blah blah blah. Anyway, she finally blurted out why she was asking – then said if I prefer she can give me the money collected, rather than getting a gift voucher, so I can get what I want. I thought that was a wonderful idea, as I could do a splurge online at Stitching Bits & Bobs – I’m in heaven already, just thinking about it (especially when I assume there will be a 25% sale around Valentine’s Day or some time soon). And Mum wanted to give me my birthday money the other day too, when I was trying to find my pearl cotton for “Marine Elegance” (yes, Isabelle, you have started a trend, and blue/apricot elegance has now been officially renamed LOL). So I’ll be able to combine the two amounts and hopefully get some of my prized Gingher’s scissors again 🙂
As for my birthday ‘bash’, Dracula’s has been cancelled due to grape grazing being on the next day – and I’m not sure whether I’ll wait until closer to the other guy’s birthday date, and still have a dinner combined, or whether I’ll just organise a dinner closer to my date … I suppose I’d better hurry up and decide seeing as there are only a couple of weeks left – yikes!! LOL.
Well, off to contemplate picking a needle up, although it’s still stinking hot, so I doubt that’s going to happen. Over the last couple of days we kitted up some small projects from my stash, reading for taking to Embroiderers Guild meetings – that’s my only resolution for 2006, getting along to the meetings for stitching company and camaraderie 🙂 I can say, though, I managed to stay on top of all my blogs today and cleared all posts as soon as I walked in … woohoo!! 😉
Today was a very productive day in some ways – I had my hair cut over at my old neighbourhood, so it’s exciting that I can actually see again from behind my fringe! Then I made the effort to finally get my eyes tested, which was really worthwhile – I had PRK laser surgery on both eyes ab0ut 10 years ago (wouldn’t recommend it to anyone in many ways, but now it’s out-dated technology anyway), and it seems my shortsightedness is returning … I’ve been having difficulty seeing for night driving, and with my ‘odd’ shifts, this has probably been causing me some stress, and I wonder if it’s been contributing to all those headaches I have been plagued with before Christmas. Anyway, my ‘script is pretty mild – I think only .5 in my left eye, and .75 in my right, and I don’t have to have glasses, but boy oh boy what a difference it made to reading the charts back … so that 4 hours overtime I did yesterday will likely go towards buying some glasses for driving/long distance.
Then Mum and I spent three hours combing the streets and shopping malls of Melbourne for electric fans! You’d think we’d been trying to find gold bullion!!! With this intense heatwave, all 
the shops have sold out, literally, not even an empty box anywhere to be had! We finally took a punt, and went to The Warehouse (which is huge in NZ, but not so well-known in Australia) at Moorabbin, and found a huge display area for fans … with only about 6 small ones left for sale, and about the same number of stand-up ones … as Steve Irwin would say – “Crikey!!”. There actually weren’t any left on display when we first walked in, but we saw a staff member carrying one and asked if it was already taken … I could have screamed with delight when he answered no! Then as we were walking back to the till we noticed he’d brought another 1/2 dozen out, so we snapped another one up too. So, we’re totally over the whole shopping experience today – but very VERY happy that we managed to get not one but two desktop fans, one for each bedroom.
The heat has been so bad there have been bush fires here in Victoria, not too far away, with 1500 fire fighters apparently on duty fighting fires last night. And with temperatures set to soar again by the end of this week, the worst may not be over yet … yikes! I’d better hurry up and get some stitching done tonight while I can!!
I haven’t been blogging for a few days – to be honest, I haven’t been in the mood … just been chatting to Mum after work, and getting a bit of stitching time in. I’ve managed to get over halfway on the And Many More needlecase by Just Nan. I’m loving stitching this one, but Mum reckons it should be her initial in the centre of the circle instead of mine … hmmm looks like I might have lost my new needlecase already! The only thing that really annoyed me when I bought this kit, is that there are no finishing instructions whatsoever in it … mutter mutter mutter. You have to buy the instructions and finishing kit from another source – considering I don’t want to have prissy pink flowers on the inside of my needlecase (you may get the impression that I’m not overly keen on pink, and you’d be right LOL), I don’t want to go to the expense of getting the kit just to find out how to finish it. I’m not worried about finishing the needlepages like the petals of a flower, so I’m hoping I’ve got it worked out OK – if anyone can make a better suggestion for finishing, I’d really love to hear your suggestions! I figure I’ll finish it something like a bellpull, in that I’ll place the lining fabric on it (right sides facing), stitch around the outsides up both long sides and around the ‘point’, and leave the bottom short edge partly open – then I’ll turn it back the right way, finish off the bottom edge, then stitch oblong needle pages (made from wool flannel) along the edge where it will be folded … does that make sense? That’s my first attempt at working out how to do it.
I also forgot to post a piccie of another Lorri Birmingham needleroll I started in the last few days of December – I didn’t get very far, but it’ll go into the pile for finishing in 2006 (hopefully sooner rather than later!)
I also finally decided on my fabric and threads (well, most of them anyway) for my Apricot Elegance SAL on the StitchingSmalls Yahoo group – just for a change, I’m stitching mine in blues … still have to do a test stitch to see which will work out better on the fabric for the main satin motifs, either the Caron Collection Watercolours (my preference) or Wildflowers, both in Blueberry. The contrast is an overdyed perle cotton #8 by The Dyepot in NZ – I’ll either order a #12 skein from them for the weaving, or find a ‘normal’ thread in a turquoise to match (can’t find a PC anywhere that is just a nice turquoise colour boohoo). You probably can’t tell from the photo, but the perle cotton has a lovely mix of mauve, purple, turquoise etc – it’s really pretty. Just have to do the gridline basting this week, before the stitching begins next week – looking forward to seeing this one stitched up 🙂
Am on the ‘doggo’ shifts after tomorrow so my routine will be out the window again – just love those shifts from 9pm-5am … not. Oh well, if nothing else, it means I have a full day to myself on Friday to stitch my little heart out. Hopefully after this weekend I can get back to my blogging habits too 🙂
Happy New Year everyone!! Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful 2006 – hope your dreams are fulfilled, your stitching stash runs to overflowing, and your floss never tangles! Hope you enjoy/enjoyed your celebrations for New Year, in whatever way you chose to celebrate 🙂
We had a quiet New Year with just Mum and I – I’m not really into celebrating at New Year, so it was nice to kick back and just do some stitching while watching DVD’s … although with our temperatures hitting 42 deg C it was a bit sticky to be stitching – but then again that’s what a wet facecloth and electric fan are for … essential summer stitching accessories LOL.
Managed to put the final stitches into my Spring 
needleroll by Lorri Birmingham – not too happy with the chart, as there are a couple of errors in it … as I was only stitching this at work inbetween calls, my concentration wasn’t there enough to pick it up while I was stitching. But if anyone else is thinking of stitching this, make sure you check the chart first – the two errors I had on my chart were that the border of leaves around the word “Spring” had a slight error on the left hand side (didn’t pick this up until I had almost finished the back stitching … and I don’t love this piece enough to go back and unpick it all hmmm) – the second one is that the arrow that shows the centre is in the wrong place … I stitched assuming the placement was correct, but when I stitched the borders, I noticed the top border is a lot lower than the bottom one, so I ended up adding an extra row of pink XS’s to even it out … which also means the row for my ribbon will now be quite close to the edging, so it won’t look as nice finished – oh well, c’est la vie. It still needs the little bee charms adding, but that was my final ‘finish’ for the year 2005, and I’ll be finishing it into a needleroll next weekend as part of the ‘finishing weekend’ on the Welcome Friends Bulletin Board.
Then last night I was still itching to stitch something else – I’d started the 
smaller canvaswork piece by Jen’s Jems a couple of nights ago, but realised that I’m missing a couple of the DMC metallic threads I needed almost immediately, so it got put to one side again … so last night I started stitching “And Many More” needlecase by Just Nan – and I’m going to continue with that today while I’m washing my linen ready to start stitching “Le Jardin Silk Sampler” from the JCS 1998 magazines. I bought all the silks I needed for this years ago, but pilfered one of the greens for another project, so that’s the only thing I’m missing to make a start … trust me to choose yet another BAP to start stitching, as if I don’t have enough on the go already! 😉
So, I guess it is time to ‘officially’ look back at what I’ve achieved in 2005 – it was the best year in ages for my stitching, and I was pleasantly surprised when I looked back at all the finishes and happy dances … there were also a few ‘firsts’ for me too, which is wonderful – learning new techniques and stitches keeps stitching new and vibrant for me 🙂 I also started my blog in 2005, which has opened up new doors in many different ways – especially in making new valued friendships online and sharing in others trials, tribulations and celebrations, and sharing our passion in stitching 🙂 My official stitching list is: (I’ve put links to the photos in my Webshots album if you want to see the actual finished piece itself)
Stitching finishes:
Finishing finishes:
Other stitching/non-stitching events:
All-in-all a good year overall – now I’m looking forward to whatever 2006 will bring.
Well, life is resuming its normality after the Christmas festivities – thanks for all your comments over the last few days 🙂 Poor Len cops it from me every year with the “bah, humbug” stuff … last year I wore my Christmas tree outfit round there for Christmas Day which was a hoot – and this year he actually liked his little ornament (which was more for Carole’s sake though). Before I gave it to them I told him he’s not allowed to throw it out, stamp on it, set fire to it, or curse it … he guessed it had something to do with humbugs, and got a laugh out of it haha. Now I have to make one for me too, as I ordered enough of the little lightbulb buttons to make two ornaments.
Christmas Day was relatively quiet for us, especially due to the fact I had just finished 7 days straight of 5am starts, and it had taken it out of me – Mum and I had our own little Christmas dinner with turkey breast and ham on the bone with a nice salad, followed by champers and panettone – it was lovely. We popped round to Fraze’s parents for about an hour in the early evening just to say hi and drop presents off, then gave Fraze a lift home. They’ve been really good to me when I moved here on my own, and have semi-adopted me into their family … Len says I’m the daughter that Carole never had 🙂
As for Christmas prezzies, due to finances this year my gifts were a lot more meagre than they’ve been in the past, but I’ve always said the thought behind the gift means more than the gift itself … I just had to keep reminding myself of that as I felt a bit awful not being able to be as open with my gift-giving as normal. I gave Mum a Christmas stocking full of choccies and sweets that I know she loves – as well as a can of Guinness LOL (the other 3 were hiding in the fridge). Growing up my absolute favourite thing at Christmas was my stocking – it never had expensive things in it, just a few nuts in their shells, an orange, a little bottle of Babycham, and some little gifts like a pair of earrings/junk jewellery etc … I moaned my head off the first year I didn’t get one ‘cos I was getting too old for it … and to this day I still miss it … mutter mutter mutter LOL. It’s still my favourite Christmas memory/tradition – and the last two years it’s been me giving the stockings instead to try and keep a bit of tradition in my Christmas Day. I also got Mum the latest Diana Gabaldon book (as we both adore that series), and gave her the needlebook I’d stitched for her. We both received a knitted scarf from my cousin’s new girlfriend posted from my aunt in England (she lives in Thailand), which was very thoughtful. I got a DVD from Fraze, and something else is still to come but it’d sold out in the shops, a latch-hook Santa kit, and some hand-towels with ducks printed on the band (love them!!) with a small coffee plunger – all very useful gifts 🙂 As for the Christmas money, I’ve made a dent in it already with a mix of items – a pair of Klasse scissors, Thread Heaven, plus 2 packets of MH beads and 2 skeins of thread from Dragonfly Dreams; a packet of undies; a 1/2 Christmas tree (for my hand-made ornies next year) and a stand-up Santa in the post-Christmas sales ; and the rest is being used to pay for my Embroiderers Guild membership, and a new iron – there you go, a happy mix of ‘needed’, ‘stash’ and ‘frivolity’ 🙂
I was back at work on Boxing Day, the joy of a 24-hour call centre, but took
a small stitching project in with me so I could at least get a few stitches done inbetween calls – I’m on 3-11pm this week, and the evenings have been a bit quieter. I haven’t made great inroads into any stitching at all, but I’ve started two needlerolls – Spring needleroll by Lorri Birmingham and Love needleroll ornament by Jeannette Douglas Designs in the 2005 JCS ornie mag. Just waiting for the Holo Fyre Werks thread and MH beads to arrive before I can finish the Love one, and the Spring one is being stitched on in the evening 
hours at work this week. Only managed to get another 5 hours into the Dratted Dolphins, but at least I got to roll up the scrollbars and I can get cracking on the final half – yippee!
My next rotation segment was for Egyptian Garden, but I’m replacing that for the time being with something else until Carol and I do a SAL for EG later in the year – only problem is I can’t decide which to start first … Le Jardin Silk Sampler from a 1998 issue of JCS magazine (which I’m definitely starting in January), or one of the bright canvaswork pieces by Jen’s Jems now I have my black canvas here … hmmm, I think the canvaswork piece might win out – it’s a quicker finish … and there’s still plenty of January left to start the other one LOL.
Hope you all have a wonderful time over Christmas and New Year, even if you don’t celebrate it as a religion 🙂 May 2006 find you all having lots of happy dances, with no frogs a-visiting, and UFO’s disappearing … many best wishes to yourselves and your families – have a safe and joyous time!!
Lots of love,
Anne
Photo taken at work today – at least this year I wasn’t the only idiot dressing up 😉
Nope, it’s not another episode of Poltergeist … but yup, those Dratted Dolphins are back again – managed to get 5 hours stitched into them so far, with beautiful turquoise yay 🙂 The only improvement you’ll see is the big turquoise blob on the bottom right of the picture 😉 At the end of this rotation (5 hours left to go) I should be able to roll up the scroll bars and work on the bottom half … I can’t wait!! Lana, there is my answer for you … nope, they’re still not finished – but one heck of a lot closer than they were a few months ago when I first started blogging! Boy, oh boy, a rotation really works!!!
Thanks everyone for your kind comments about my Christmas tree outfit – it was originally made for a Christmas party at work in Auckland for my old job … a group of us ladies dressed up in Christmas outfits, and that was mine. Then I wore it for a Christmas walk for charity – and managed to win a watch for my troubles! Ever since then I’ve worn it for a laugh every now and then at work … as you say, it really does do wonders for morale. Last year, though, because I had a carpark loaned to me for the day in our office building, I forgot to take a change of clothes (don’t ask how I got into the car!!) … and also forgot to take any lunch, plus needed to buy some flowers for someone – I had to stroll out in the middle of the day down the middle of Camberwell to the markets, much to the delight of kids in the street as well as a few adults … I didn’t know where to look! haha. This year I’ll wear it on my final working day before Christmas, this Friday (23rd).
Anyway, I’d better sign off, as it’s time for my hot chocolate (Milo) before bedtime … yup, it’s 7.10pm LOL. Fraze was wanting to come and stay tomorrow night, but we decided it wasn’t a great idea as he finishes work at 6.30pm, and I need to be getting into bed at 7.30pm – doesn’t give us much time to catch up … it’s been nice seeing him again more regularly after not seeing him for months – his company has been missed 🙂
I’m almost caught on everyones blogs now too – just a few more to go. It’s been nice catching up on what you’ve all been doing while my back was turned :)) And thanks to the ‘new’ guys commenting on my blog … I’ll be popping over shortly to check out your blogs too :))
Feather Stitching 
