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Just a quick post

Anne S

I’m at an internet cafe in St Kilda at the moment, as the library doesn’t open until 2pm today, and I needed to do some bill paying.

The phone update is that if the phone technician has a job cancelled for tomorrow, he can fit me in tomorrow to install a ‘temporary line’ – if not, he’s then on holidays for 11 days and the real estate agent will have to try to find someone else to do it instead … I’m trying not to stress out about it, but if it keeps on for much longer I’ll give the Body Corporate/real estate agent a bill for my phone and internet connection for the month I haven’t been able to access it! hmmm …

The cracks in the walls are also now getting worse, and the building movement thanks to the drought has now changed the position of the windows at the front, and I can’t close them anymore. I also now have a crack appearing horizontally across the middle of one of the walls … not happy, Jan!

Which brings me to my next news … the girl I considered moving in with last year has handed her notice in at her flat, and is looking to move again – and we’ve agreed to move in together. That means flat-hunting again as we’ll need a 3-bedroom place this time … it also means extra outlay for the move, but a better financial position in the long run. I’m extremely sad about moving from my current area, but it’s a small sacrifice to make for a longer-term benefit, I guess. It just means I’ll be walking round the beach every day until I move now! In fact, I’m having brunch here in St Kilda to start the ball rolling. That also means not having internet access for a while after I move … although I’ll start checking out options for wireless internet in the meantime as well, as that might be a better option in case I end up moving again in a year or two – who knows what the future will bring?

Stitchingwise I can’t say I’ve done too much – I’ve almost finished the next band of Bordeaux, and I’ve finished one surface embroidery UFO, but that’s pretty much it … my time will now be spent househunting again, which doesn’t lend much time for stitching. Oh well …

Anyway, I’d better head off … not sure when I’ll be back online again. I miss you guys!!

Works in Progress

Back at the library again …

Anne S

Sorry about the rushed post last night – I visited Fraze last night and met his girlfriend Megan for the first time … pretty bad considering they’ve been going out together for about a year now! Anyway, it was a lovely time had by all – Megan cooked an awesome lasagne, and we chilled out with a glass of wine and good conversation … so good I didn’t end up leaving until 1am yikes! It was really nice to finally meet Megan after all this time. I’m usually really shy meeting new people, but I felt comfortable right from the start. I also intend catching up with “Bah Humbug” himself this week some time, aka Fraze’s Dad, but that’s another day and I have to psych myself up for it haha.

Still no word from the phone man – the real estate agent has left messages on his phone to call either her or me on my mobile to organise a date to come and fix the phone line. Considering the last time he came he stated if there were more problems they’d have to knock a hole in the wall and rewire the whole thing, it’s going to be a big job, me thinks. I’d actually bought a new cheap phone before Christmas, so that Mum could phone me (when I thought it was the phone that was dead) … and when I read the receipt last week I noticed they have a 14-day ‘cooling off period’ when you can return the goods for a refund … no questions asked, so I rushed in with the phone and I have the money back in my bank account again yippee! The great thing about the phone line issue is that the landlord pays for it, not me woohoo! 😀

Anyway, I popped into the library to check my emails, as I was expecting one, so I thought I’d make better use of the trip and upload some progress piccies as well. I’m not sure how often I’ll be popping to the library to check in, as their hours don’t really match up well with my shifts a lot of the time … by the time I get hooked up again, I may have set a new world record for unread feeds – I’d just started reading blogs again when my phone line crashed, and I’d managed to get it down to 690-ish … I’m aiming for the new record of four figures! LOL. By the time I get connected again I just may have to “mark all as read” and start from scratch, as I think it’s going to be way too much to try to catch up on.

Anyway, here’s the progress to date of my two WIP’s (I copied the piccies to disk) – I managed to finish off 4 hours on Flight of the Bumble Bees, and almost got the darning band completed … but seeing as I wasn’t really enjoying it, I decided to save the last bit until the next time I come to that rotation slot. Here is where I left them … (yet another crappy photo sorry)

Now I just have one hour left on Egyptian Garden, before I get back to work on an old UFO – it’s likely that with one rotation slot I’ll get that finished, but then again I’m not very productive when I’m on 6pm shifts as I’m usually way too tired, so time will tell. Here’s how I left EG at the end of the last 10 hours, and how it looks now … I’ve started the over-one area in the centre – seeing as I’d already unpicked this once on different fabric and started over again, I wasn’t in a hurry to start that part again, but I figure it has to be done at some stage, and if I just do 1-2 hours in every rotation slot, it will eventually all get filled in. My apologies, too – I’d meant to hunt down which fabric I’m using for this, as a couple of you have questioned it … I know it was a Silkweaver opalescent fabric, but I can’t remember which one – when I get up and running again at home, I’ll find out for you 🙂

Before:

After:

And to finish off, here’s another quote for you … I just found this one on the ‘net, as I forgot to bring it with me, but it’s one of my all-time favourites … I chose this to add to my Wessex Sampler, as I had started to embrace learning new things where my embroidery was concerned, and taking risks in the new challenges that brought. I suppose it’s also partly responsible for why I’m here in Aussie now, as I ran with what life had to offer at the time … life is too short … 😀

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. – Mark Twain”

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Missing in Action

Anne S

Just a really really quick note as I’m out having dinner with Fraze and Megan, and hijacking their internet connection quickly … my phone line has totally died on me, and I haven’t had any phone or internet access for the last 48 hours. I probably won’t get to an internet cafe for a while now, so I’m going to be missing in action for a while. I’m still stitching, though, so I might have some progress piccies when I get back 😀

If you need to get hold of me regarding the RAK Registry etc, try contacting Nicki (Plush), Carol (Garden of Stitches) or Jenna (Tale of a Shooting Star) for my work email address (except I’m not back there until Saturday …).

See ya when I get back online … whenever that is …

Works in Progress

A New Year – A New Start

Anne S

OK, I fibbed … yesterday I decided seeing as it was the first day of a New Year, and I hadn’t finished my canvaswork rotation slot yet (I still had 4 hours of it left), I thought I’d drag out a new start … I’ve had this piece kitted up for many many years, and thought it would be good to finally get it stitched up. This is definitely a challenging piece for me, as it’s using stitches, materials and techniques never tried before. It’s called “Flight of the Bumble Bees” by Ruth Schmuff Designs. This is the finished product:

I’ve already had to frog-stitch part of it last night, and can’t say I’m particularly enjoying the darning of this band of bumble bees in Kreinik #8 braid … you should see the rat’s nest of threads hanging from the bottom of the canvas to be threaded back in afterwards hmmm. Sorry for the bad photo – I’ll take a better one after the next rotation round, as there won’t be much more progress on this one before I really DO get back to Egyptian Garden 🙂 I might just do the last hour on the bees before I switch over, though, as I think I still have an hour of that rotation left to go … I think I could manage another hour before I pull my hair out 😉

I just may be throwing a few quotes into my posts this year as well … I saved a heap of quotes that interested me or touched me in some way, that I thought may be useful one day … and I think I’ll share a few of them every now and then. Here’s the first one – and considering how I’ve been spending my days off so far, I think I can truthfully say I’m living! 😉

“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.” – Lin Yutang

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!

Works in Progress

Bordeaux Sampler

Anne S

Just a really really quick post, as I’m pretty shattered – just wanted to show Carol and Leslie that I haven’t forgotten about this SAL we’re doing … I just haven’t had much progress to show. Anyway, seeing as I’m supposed to post a piccie each Friday, I figure I might as well show where I’m up to so far – I think Carol might be catching me up quickly, and at the rate I’m going will be overtaking me very soon! 😉 I’m really not enjoying this band at all, so it’s slowed my enthusiasm and my stitching speed down – perhaps the sooner I finish it the better, so I can move on to a more fun band. (Sorry for the poor photo quality.)

We had a couple of people off sick at work today, so I ended up with 3 1/2 hours overtime which will be absolutely awesome in the pay packet (Mr Taxman may just see his money at the start of the year!) … but on day 6 of work, doing an 11 1/2 hour shift has wiped me out and I’m pretty exhausted … it’s my last day tomorrow, with another 6am start, so no more stitching for me, I don’t think!

I was also supposed to post a Photo Hunt piccie, but I’m too exhausted to go hunting … I had a quick look through my online piccies, but nothing jumped out at me, so I’m going to flag the exercise this week – instead I’m going to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet in the 1 1/2 hours I have between getting home and having to get to bed again 😉

Gifts TO BE FIXED

My mailbox runneth over!

Anne S

Imagine my surprise when I went to my PO Box to clear my mail yesterday morning before work, and the mailman came out with a HUGE box of goodies for me – he even laughed at the look on my face, bless him! Cindy went crazy and put together the most incredible selection of stitching goodies for me … I’m still in awe of everything, and feel like one of those plastic dogs that sits in the back of the car with it’s head shaking with every bump, except mine’s just shaking in the sheer amazement at Cindy’s generosity. Thank you again, Cindy, I’m still totally blown away and don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it! I love it all … and you may have noticed the Kahlua choccies didn’t even survive 24 hours – I was kind and shared them at work yesterday with my closest colleagues, and they were totally delicious! And the notebook is already in use for some stitching lists I’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks now, and the page sizes and lines are just perfect for it. I’m always running out of Floss-away bags, and all the charts are awesome, and the fabric, and the threads, and oh my my head is spinning again! 😀 Thanks so much for making my day! 😀


On a down note I finally cracked it with a certain ONS (SB&B to be exact) … after waiting since August (!) for some backordered items for Mum and me, I finally got the advice they were ready to ship … I quickly sent off an email asking if they could add two skeins of WDW for Katrina to save postage, plus 2 Kreinik braids, and no answer … when I went to the library to check emails (my phone line was down at this stage), I’d received a refund notice from PayPal – not even SB&B themselves – for an amount for the Aida Mum had had on backorder … no explanation or anything, and no answers to the previous emails I’d sent re the extra threads. I finally sent an email from work cracking it about their lack of communication and demanding they tell me what the hell was going on … a very quick response then, stating they’d apparently sent me emails etc, but then just shipped the parcel “as is”. I wouldn’t mind, but we’ve been waiting 4 months for the fabric, that was then refunded (and for a totally different amount that I’d been invoiced for too!) … 4 months for Floss-away bags and WDW threads for Needle Nick (which of course is now too late to stitch for this Christmas anyway). It’s amazing how invoices have no problem reaching my email addy, but answers to queries have a major issue … sorry about the vent, but it makes my blood boil! I don’t usually like to bad-mouth a specific company on here, and the last time I vented I didn’t name names, but this time I’ve reached my limits … mutter mutter mutter. I’ve been signed up for the Monthly Bits for a while now, but I’m starting to reconsider that option as well.

In this instance Karen at Dragonfly Dreams came to the rescue, as I’ve ordered the other threads through Karen now – from one extreme to the other, the service is exceptionally quick and communication first rate … it’s a shame we have to pay so much more ‘down under’, but I’m starting to think it’s perhaps a better option when taking service levels into consideration. Food for thought for me for the New Year … not that I’ll be buying much for a while yet anyway, as my finances are still in tight check for a while longer hmmm.

Rightio, that’s my venting out of my system … phew! Now I’m off to think about what to stitch next – I think perhaps it’s time to start on a birthday gift I want to stitch … either that or maybe start that canvaswork pincushion from the Inspirations magazine and try to knock off another goal before year end haha. I’m actually quite excited, as I only have 2 more working days left (from a total of 7), then I’m on a 5-day break yippee … gee whiz, I wonder what I’ll be doing next week?? LOL … although it’ll take me 1-2 days just to catch up on blogs from the last couple of weeks!

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2006 Finishes & 2007 Goals

Anne S

Yes, it’s that time of the year again when we look back and see what we accomplished during the past year, and set our goals for the next one. I have to admit, I had a fantastic year for stitching finishes, even though most of them were ‘small’ projects. Here’s the entire list:

1. Love needleroll ornament (Jeannette Douglas Designs)
2. Spring needleroll kit (Lorri Birmingham)
3. And Many More needlecase (Just Nan)
4. Merry Yule ornament (Erica Michaels Designs)
5. Becky’s Bees mirror
6. Oriental flowers 1 – charity quilt block (design by Sue Page)
7. Oriental flowers 2 – charity quilt block (design by Sue Page)
8. Thistle Treasure Bag (M Designs)
9. Shooting star scissors fob for Jenna (DMC freebie with modifications)
10. Home for Christmas ornament (Brightneedle)
11. World Trade Center charity quilt square
12. Star of Wonder ornament (With My Needle)
13. Herald Angels ornament (The Prairie Schooler)
14. Peace*Joy*Love ornament (Lizzie*Kate)
15. Echidna charity quilt block
16. Golden Garland ornament (Paw Printings)
17. Pinkeep (Indigo Rose freebie with modifications)
18. Melanie’s Exchange needleroll (mix of many designs – SBEBB)
19. Batman logo charity quilt block
20. Biscornu Exchange (Indigo Rose freebie with modifications – SBEBB)
21. Strawberry needleroll (The Sweetheart Tree)
22. Santa’s Stash ornament (Full Circle Designs)
23. Scissor fob exchange (Hardanger – StitchNZ group)
24. Redheads ducks square for round robin (Wings of the Wild Afghan, Stoney Creek)
25. Racing Cars charity quilt block (internet freebie)
26. Peace needleroll ornament (Jeannette Douglas Designs)
27. Blue needleroll for Isabelle (own mix of many designs)
28. Christmas Tree ornament (Elizabeth’s Designs)
29. Teddy Bear Santa Stocking (Lorri Birmingham)
30. White Christmas ornament – Beyond XS kit (The Victoria Sampler)
31. Fire Breathing Dragon charity quilt square (Pegasus Publications)
32. Summer at the Ocean needleroll (Jeannette Douglas Designs)
33. Parula Warbler for Vash’s RR (Vermillion Designs freebie)
34. Needleroll in redwork for Nicki (own design mix – Robin’s Nest BB)
35. Redwork exchange for Nancy (online freebie with changes – SBEBB)
36. Thisbe’s Needleroll (Shepherd’s Bush)
37. A Stitcher’s Needleroll (Lorri Birmingham)
38. Mail Art for Zohrah
39. Bumble the Bee: Waxer Pocket (Moss Creek Designs)
40. Cherry Blossoms Fob for Katrina (The Sweetheart Tree)
41. Winter Sampler Snippet for Lynn’s RR (Lizzie*Kate)
42. Dolphins Domain for Vicki & John (Cross My Heart)
43. Scented Keepsake lavender sachet for Jenna (Classic Stitches freebie)
44. Just Jack freebie (Just Nan)
45. Silken Roses Fob for Su (Sweetheart Tree – Robin’s Nest BB)
46. Winter (Country Seasons) by Prairie Schooler (Lynn’s RR)
47. Starry Starry Night ornament (JBW Designs)
48. Summer Solstice needleroll by Eventide Designs
49. Coffee Menu by Little House Needleworks
50. Winter’s Eve ornament by Country Cottage Needleworks
51. Christmas Tree ornament by Elizabeth’s Designs
52. Merry Yule ornament by Erica Michaels Designs
53. Pacific Pohutukawa by Jen’s Jems
54. Christmas Eve ornie by Elizabeth’s Designs
55. Bunnies in my Garden by With My Needle
56. Snow Fall needleroll by Shepherd’s Bush

My 2006 goals didn’t seem too bad at the time, but life got in the way and my accomplishments were quite poor. Here’s how I went:

Completed:
▪ Dolphins Domain UFO (yes – completed)
▪ One more UFO (yes – completed)
▪ Participate in 2 exchanges on SBEBB (yes – completed 3)
▪ Christmas Ornie exchange RR (yes – completed)
▪ Learn to make flat-fold (yes – completed)
▪ Learn to make a biscornu (yes – completed)
▪ Stitch a needleroll (yes – a couple completed)
▪ Stitch a scissors fob (yes – completed)
▪ Summer Into Autumn by Drawn Thread (yes – completed)
▪ Bunnies in my Garden SAL by With My Needle (yes – stitching completed)

Started but not finished:
▪ Apricot Elegance SAL by Cindy Valentine … started, but not finished
▪ Nature’s Rest UFO … did a few hours, but not completed
▪ Continue with my rotation … um sort of, off and on
▪ Continue stitching from my stash … again sort of, off and on

Not touched:
▪ Secret Garden SAL by FMNIS … still waiting for the SAL to start
▪ Folding Cross Needlbook SAL by Indigo Rose … um, no
▪ Lavender Thistle Collection SAL by Twisted Oaks … um, no
▪ Strawberries So Faire SAL by With My Needle … SAL didn’t happen, unless I missed it!
▪ A December Box SAL by Cherished Stitches … um, no
▪ Stitch a pincushion … um, no but still hopeful!
▪ Start Angel of Love by L&L … there are still a couple of days left yet!
▪ One project from Inspirations magazines … um, no but still hopeful! (a canvaswork pincushion is kitted up to kill 2 birds with 1 stone!)

Seeing as I did so badly with my 2006 goals, my goals for 2007 are quite simple –

▪ Participate in Needleroll SAL weekends
▪ Participate in Christmas Ornament SAL weekends
▪ Participate in Quaker Friendship RR
▪ Complete my 50 Project Challenge
▪ Build my confidence by actually ‘finish-finishing’ a few things (eg And Many More needlecase, Bumble the Bee Waxer Pocket)
▪ Enjoy my stitching and not set too many goals!

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: