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Sorry, I tried to insert my photos like usual in the right places among my text … but for some reason Blogger is sooooo sloooooow tonight, and it won’t upload photos correctly … in the end I gave up and used Picasa to upload them instead. I added text comments so that they’ll at least relate to the script below it … Now I’ve wasted most of the night trying to upload these darned things, I don’t have time to stitch hmmm. Oh well, I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow night instead.

This is my choice for the Christmas SAL about to start with StitchNZ yahoo group. 

This is the tuffet made by the Gift Workshop group of the Embroiderers Guild of Victoria 

I don’t what it is about today, but I felt really positive driving to work – I took time to notice the blossoms sprouting in the trees, and yet again thought to myself what a beautiful city Melbourne is. Those irrational complainers at work have also taken the hint, and eased off, and the world is good today!

I forgot to post that I purchased a small tuffet and matching scissor fob from the Guild exhibit the other day – I’m really keen to make one myself, and thought this would be a great example for me to follow, as well as providing an extra couple of dollars for the Guild’s pockets. It’s now resting comfortably in my cane basket, along with my other pincushions. I still have about 6 ready to be ‘stuffed’, so I look forward to filling that basket up even more when I start my Friday finishing nights.

I had to complete a dreadful task today … I’d been putting it off until it was absolutely necessary, but today I could put it off no longer. I went along to my local needlework store (since I’ve just moved suburbs, I have a new ‘local’) to buy some floba fabric that I needed for my soon-to-start Christmas SAL. I’m going to be stitching the stand-up Christmas tree in Mill Hill Treasured Christmas Trees chart:

The reason I’d been putting it off going to my LNS? … ‘cos I knew darned well that I wouldn’t be able to resist coming out with nothing else but what I went in for LOL. Yup, sure enough, a chart hopped into my hands without warning. Actually, my restraint was pretty good, as I really really wanted to buy one of the Mill Hill beaded tassel ornament kits too, but I held back. Instead I bought a chart called “A Cotton Case” by Patrick’s Woods. It’s not my usual style, but I’m going through a phase where I’m fascinated by the ‘smalls’ for stitching – especially pincushions, needlerolls etc. This one is unlikely to be stitched by me in its current colours, as I’m thinking of changing them to vibrant colours … not sure, though, as it might detract from the design. I also want to change the cotton pockets to something else – again, not sure what I’ll replace it with yet, but perhaps pockets for packets of needles or something. Anyway, it’ll be sitting in my stash for a rainy day when I feel like tackling it … I really must get some of my existing UFO’s finished first though!

Glad to say only 3 more working days to go for my working week, until next weekend … I don’t know what it is about this last week, but customers are totally irrational, irritable and downright loopy! Boy, oh boy, I can’t wait until this current cycle of crankiness is over and done with!! Full moon usually makes a difference, but this is crazy. Yet again, a good excuse to come home and stitch a bit more – any excuse is a good one haha.

I had a thought late last night regarding my ‘oldest’ UFO I stitched on yesterday … there is quite a bit of yellowish staining on the fabric and stitching on this piece. Unfortunately it’s discolouring the stitching on the top 1/4, along with fabric that won’t be entirely covered with stitching – I’ve decided to put a small halt on the stitching front where this is concerned. I’ve opted instead to chuck it in the Orvus, and give its face a bit of a wash, to see of the stains are moveable – I figure if they’re permanent, there’s no point continuing and it’ll either be trimmed down as an ornament or something (‘cos the deer is still quite cute), or just go straight in the bin. Anyway, fingers crossed it will come out in the wash, but if not that means I’ll have a free space in my rotation – I’m sure I’ll be able to find something to fill its place hahaha.

Mum has managed to find my old JCS Ornament issues (VERY old 1997 and 1998 issues), so she’s going to post one of them over to me to try stitching at least one ornament this year. Still waiting for the 2005 one to hit the newsagents here, as I haven’t seen it in the shops in Melbourne yet … either that, or they’ve sold out already!! Yikes, I hope not!!!

So, a very quiet night at home tonight – will try to get about an hour’s stitching done, but need a very early night. Unfortunately the after parties from the AFL grand final last night kept me from having a sound sleep, and feeling a bit under-par tonight. Oh well, I should get at least one threads worth of stitching done, if nothing else – it’s one step closer to something getting finished 🙂

Of all the things I choose to stitch tonight, I had to choose a project that became my first ever UFO. This project was started approx 1992 – called Nature’s Resting Place by Stoney Creek Designs. This was the first attempt I ever made at stitching on an evenweave fabric (I’d only stitched on aida before that) – and this project was in fact one of the first I’d ever stitched at all! It’s funny as I look at it now, that I realise how inexperienced I was at the time I started stitching it. There are shocking hoop marks and stains on the fabric, along with a couple of rust marks where previous needles had been left in place – and I’d started stitching by the wrong thread (although at the time, I didn’t realise there was any difference). At least all the stitches are going in the right direction!
The reason this became a UFO was that I only realised 2/3 into the stitching that the entire top 1/4-1/3 was supposed to be stitched with only 1 thread – whereas I had stitched the entire lot of XS with 2 strands … I felt so disheartened, I packed it away and didn’t touch it again … until now …

I’ve since decided that I need to put this piece to rest – it’s not something that will ever grace my walls, and I really don’t know what I’ll do with it afterwards, but I just want to get it finished. I think I’ll have to redesign my rotation to fit this into the list. My new thoughts are to have my rotation for October as follows:

• Week 1 – Christmas SAL (StitchNZ)
• Week 2 – Stoney Creek UFO
• Week 3 – Mirabilia SAL (StitchNZ – Winter Queen)
• Week 4 – Dolphins XS

I also think I’ll have Friday nights as ‘Friday Finishing’ night – where I put together those pincushions that are ready for stuffing, and the needlebooks that are ready to be put together, as well as the needleroll that just needs to be stitched together and stuffed. My goal is to have all of my pincushions at least completed by Christmas – the cords are all made, they just have to be hand-stitched together.

How do people cope with day-to-day stresses if they don’t stitch? It makes me wonder – isn’t it lucky stitchers have such a fantastic outlet that is not just creative, but a fantastic stress relief and calming solution.

Today I couldn’t wait to get home and stitch – it’s been an awful day at work – stitching is the only solution I can think of. What is it that makes people so feral sometimes? I relieve on the ‘supervisor hotline’ at work in our call centre – today an escalated call came through from a VIP member … he started by just ripping into the previous staff member extremely rudely, then said “and what are you going to do about it?”. I responded that I wasn’t sure what the issues were, and could we discuss what the problems were in more detail … the response was that I was an “unhelpful b*tch” and further angry yelling that continued on regardless of what I said. I won’t into more details, but basically I’m losing my job because I didn’t answer the phone quick enough, didn’t apologise in exactly the right place, and “have no pride in my work”. I managed to hold my tongue pretty well, but there’s no need for such abuse to be given the minute I picked the phone up. I’m usually pretty good, and can diffuse most complaint situations, but this man was out of control and totally irrational … I could have read the McDonald’s menu to him and he would have exploded – totally irrational, phew!! So, because of this man, I am now forced into having to spend the evening stitching ;-P

So, again, I say “thank goodness for stitching” – you are our saviour!!!

I forgot to post earlier that I also treated myself today – to a new Canon bubblejet printer. And the first thing I did was to print off the album pages for my last 4 small finishes to add to my printed stitching album. On each page I include a photo of the finished piece, plus information on the design/designer, dates started and finished, any specialty threads/stitches, the size of the piece (either cm or stitches), and any comments I want to make. It’s really nice to flip through the pages every now and then to remember what achievements I’ve actually made.

To top the day off, I just played on the computer – no stitching done today, which is a bit bad, but I did something else instead … I scanned photos of pages in my stitching magazines that I’d like to stitch. So often I’d have to flick through magazine after magazine that I own, just looking for ‘something’ – now I’ve scanned a photo of the project itself, and posted into a Word document, along with the issue and page number, so now I’m super organised haha. Oh well, even if I never use it, I had fun!!

It’s now time to turn in for the night, after a most relaxing and rewarding day. At least tomorrow and the next week I’m on reasonable shifts, and just working 8am to 4pm … it will be bliss going to work and coming home both in daylight! And it means my sleeping patterns should be a bit better this week … which bodes well for stitching 🙂

OK, in fact it’s only Thursday morning (very very early) – you see, as a shift worker there is no such thing as a weekend for me anymore … whatever day comes up before my days off, that’s then Friday for me. Well, last night was Friday, so I’m now free to do what I please for two days – which after my shifts this week might just end up being sleeping haha.

In actual fact, I plan in attending the exhibit at my local Embroiderers Guild, of which I’m a non-attending member at the moment. I started going to the new members meetings last year/early this year, but then I started full-time shift work, and it’s been difficult fitting anything in since then. Oh well, I’ll still keep trying. It will be nice to go and see the exhibit, as I always get great pleasure in sharing other people’s stitching triumphs – and going to these exhibits always stirs up the creative side in me again, and makes me want to hurry home and get back to my own stitching.

So that’s my entire plan for my two days off – going to the exhibit, and perhaps getting my hair cut, followed by my work chores etc … not very exciting … but then I intend sitting myself down in my stitching recliner tomorrow night (sorry, I guess that’s now tonight!) and having an hour or three relaxing and stitching. At least I’m on reasonable shifts next week – 8am-4pm – so I can get back into the swing of stitching a fair bit again.

My well thought out rotation has gone out the window before it’s even begun … I’m now committing myself to a new SAL with the StitchNZ yahoo group, on the 1st week of each month. This will only be taking place on the run up to Christmas, as we’re all going to be working on a Christmas project, whether it be a large XS piece or Christmas ornaments. My choice is a Mill Hill chart called Treasured Christmas Trees, and fits in well with my “only stitch from stash” plans – I start buying the required MH charms and treasures years ago when I first bought the chart, so it’s about time I stitched this up and put them to good use. It looks like it could be a relatively quick stitch (albeit relatively boring, as it’s just green thread as the tree background, decorated with beads and charms etc), so I should be able to get the stitching completed before Christmas – and possibly add a Christmas ornament into the mix as well, as I’ve never stitched one before, and figure it will be a new challenge for me …

Well, better hit the hay again – I’ve finished my wind-down post-work, and eyelids are getting heavy … and I need to be up relatively early for the exhibit to make sure I don’t run out of time for drooling 🙂 Hopefully next time I post I’ll be able to post some sort of progress photo of my stitching – as I’ve been very slack at that this week, and haven’t picked up a needle. Plus I really want to build this blog site up a bit more, and need to work out the technology of adding photos to the sidebars etc … that’ll keep me out of mischief for a week, though, not 2 days!!!!

Crikey, the last couple of days I’ve been stitching up a storm – I’ve been exceptionally lazy today, as I had the day off work … I’ve just been sat in my recliner, watching old DVD’s (or rather, listening to old DVD’s), while stitching my heart out on Vicki & John’s dolphins XS. Made a pretty hefty dent in it, but ready for a break now. I thought I’d keep stitching right up to the time I go to bed tonight, then would have a break and work on something new tomorrow – but I ran out of DMC 318, which is the next colour I wanted to stitch with … I figure that was a sign to call it a day. Here’s a piccie of progress to date:
So, now the decision is on for what to start next – my Mirabilia SAL starts next week, so I should probably wait before starting that one … I can either start something new that will be quick and easy to finish, or try and complete one of my nearly-finished old UFO’s, or complete the finishing of one of my pincushions that just has to have the cording added … ooh, decisions, decisions haha. I know I ‘should’ be doing one of the latter, but my greed and selfishness in starting something quick might just win out haha. Anyway, tomorrow is a new day, and I’ll see what direction it takes me when I get out of bed …