Feather Stitching

Where does the time go???

12 July, 201421 July, 2014 Anne S

It seemed like only yesterday when I was publishing my last post, but it seems that was a whole 2 months ago! There has been so much happening over the last couple of months, to be honest blogging (and stitching) has been the last thing on my mind.

(UPDATED: To remove the information about my family member.)

Then not long after hearing the news about (my family member) my flatmate decided to move out, with hardly any notice, and in fact started moving out that same weekend. Considering I get paid monthly, and I had just had some higher than hormal expenses that month, that put me into another tailspin as I had to find the rest of the rent prior to payday. Since then I’ve basically had “zero” non-essential spending, and have been living out of my cupboard and freezer contents … which has actually been really awesome!! Not only have I not been wasting food like I normally end up doing, but I’ve also managed to lose some weight by not having the money to buy “crap” and put it in my mouth! In the last 2 months I’ve managed to lose 3.2kg (7lbs). It’s been an extremely stressful time, I have to admit, as I honestly thought I would have to move out of my home and/or sell items to find rent. I had adverts on 4 different websites, and it took 6 weeks before I finally found someone to move in. She’s only been here for 2 weeks so far, so I’m still not spending money properly until I know she’s going to stay around for a while longer … but it was a huge weight off my mind to know I had the rent covered for the next fortnight! She’s actually really lovely – she’s a nurse and only stays here when she’s doing night shifts at the nursing home she works at. I had to adjust the rent down to accommodate the fact that she’s not here all week, but I decided it was better to have slightly less rent coming in than no rent whatsoever and have to move out!

Work itself has been quite stressful too … but in a different way. While I was under so much stress at home it gave me time to really clear my mind and focus on what I wanted to do, and make plans to try to still retain my home etc. While doing that it also gave me the time to understand to a certain extent why I’ve been so unhappy at work lately, and was able to voice that to my boss – I don’t know whether things there will change quickly, if at all, but it was to outwardly voice my concerns and my boss is happy to work with me to ensure that the work I’m given is rewarding and meets my needs as well as providing a challenge … so I guess that’s all good! Plus I applied for a different role elsewhere for 12 months a few days before that discussion, so time will tell on that front too I guess …

Then I had my own personal health scare – I thought I was having heart problems when my left hand went numb out of nowhere followed by lightheadedness and chest pains. The next morning I whisked myself off to see a GP to make sure everything was OK. It turns out my blood pressure was fine, but the nurse was so lovely I ended up bursting into tears and being a blubbering mess – bless her she was so kind and compassionate. She does my B12 shots every 3 months so I’ve got to know her relatively well now, and she really was a blessing to me that morning! When I saw the GP (not my normal well as he wasn’t available), she re-ran a series of blood tests that my normal GP had run 2 years previously, plus added an Insulin test. When I got my tests results back last week it seems most results were OK but my Insulin test came back to show that I have insulin resistance and I have to really be careful now with my diet as I’m more at risk to cross the line into diabetes country. As it is my blood levels were right below the borderline for diabetes on it’s own, but this adds a whole new risk. So now I’ve been ordered to have no carbs at dinner, and I’m trying to have low GI foods on the whole, and little to no sugar whatsoever. Seeing as I’ve been so health-conscious due to money issues, it’s actually been really easy making the adjustment so far. I’ll still continue to eat the foods that I have in the pantry for now, rather than throwing it all out and buying from scratch, but I’m just being very very careful about what I eat! I’ve also been given Metformin tablets to take, but I haven’t started those yet … come this Monday, though, and I’ll start giving those a try, along with doing some exercise daily before work!

As for stitching, even though stitching is usually a great stress relief for me, for some reason this time it just hasn’t been giving me the sense of peace that it normally does. In fact most nights I’ve been coming home from work so tired I’ve just been laid in bed watching TV without my stitching … and I’ve always watched TV with my stitching in hand, so that’s really unusual for me!! I have tried to force myself to stitch, though, to try to get my mojo back again, and that’s worked for a short time, but as soon as the working week comes round again I’m back into the same routine of coming home, climbing into bed, and letting the world pass me by while I stare at the TV. On the weekends, though, I’ve gradually started doing more stitching over the last couple of weeks – and I’m slowly starting to feel at peace at home again which I haven’t felt for an awfully long time since Ian lived here. Maybe that’s why I’m not stitching as much, that I feel calm and at peace already? Who knows? Either way I’m not beating myself up for not stitching and just doing what I want to do every day 🙂

In saying that, though, I have managed to do a tiny spot of stitching since my last post … and in fact finally finished a very overdue travelling pattern today so it can get on it’s way to the next person on the list! I think, though, that I should start a new post, as this will also be part of my WIPocalypse update for the last 2 months … enough woe is me for this post … and if any of you got to the end of this one, then you well and truly deserve a medal!!!

2014 WIPocalypse, Beading, Canvaswork, Finishing, Flatfold, Framing, Halloween, Judi Utter, Laura J Perin, M Designs, Monsterbubbles, Ruth Schmuff, Stash, Valerie Pfeiffer, Wool embroidery

April & May WIPocalypse

19 May, 201422 May, 2014 Anne S

11402901674_5cd19d2dc5_o

Hmmm, it seems I’m more than a ‘bit’ forgetful these days … it seems even though I was posting to my blog during April I totally forgot all about the official WIPocalypse update post … doh!! April saw a wee bit of stitching, including the completion of Nora Corbett’s Miss Valentine fairy and Blue Bayou by Northern Pine Designs … it also saw a couple of small ornie finishes … so all-in-all probably a reasonable month of stitching. The ill-fated Flossy has found a happy home with my Mum (the Dragon) … we were going to offer it to a very close family friend, but Mum made me laugh when she said she has it propped up on her computer chair in her bedroom so she can see her all the time and she says goodnight to her every night as she goes to sleep … bless her. When I mentioned giving it to our dear friend, her response was “she can have it when I’m gone”! She’s even got plans for how to get her framed, so I’m pleased she loves her so much that at least she will be treasured. I do have to admit she does look very pretty, even though she is dressed head to toe in candyfloss pink! 😀

When it came to the end of April and then into May, my mojo kind of disappeared a wee bit when I came to the end of my canvaswork rotation and started my “finishing” rotation … for some reason I have to really be in the mood to sit down and do finishing work. I think part of the problem these days is that I don’t have a dedicated area that I can start items and then leave them to pick up and finish later … with my current flatmate I don’t feel comfortable doing my needlework or finishing in front of him (aside from the fact he comes and puts the TV on as soon as he walks in the room, irrespective of whether I was enjoying the peace and quiet or not in there myself), and I just don’t have the space in my bedroom with all the other junk that is piled up in there …

Last weekend, though, I decided “bugger the flatmate” and pulled a small fold-up table into the lounge, did a bit of finishing, then pulled the little table out of the way at the end of the weekend – it was also still there for this last weekend when I did a wee bit more finishing yesterday while he was out (mind you I only did that because I’d figured out he was going to be away for the rest of the weekend and out of my hair!!). So perhaps I have found a solution for when I come to my finishing rotation again – and in fact I could possibly pull it into my bedroom too on a temporary basis as long as I pull it back out again before sleeping … hmmmm, I like that plan! So, what did I manage to do with my finishing rotation over the last few weeks? I managed to finish off the following – which really didn’t need that much done to them for them to be 100% finished … First up 3 ornies – these just needed the felt backings and hangers for the Prairie Schooler ones, and the hanger and little snowflake buttons for the Just Nan one

Next up I stitched down the binding on my teeny Halloween quilt … I did a bit of a hash job on the corners, but it’ll have to do …

And then my final piece for that particular finishing session was to stitch the cord around the edge of this wee freebie:

This last weekend just gone I managed to finish off one of my favourite Halloween pieces into a flat-fold … I found a bright trim in my stash along with some bright ribbons, and pretty happy with the way it turned out 🙂

Then I finished off yesterday by trying to finish my Bunnies in the Garden needlework set that I stitched a few years ago … sadly it seems I don’t have the ribbon needed to completely finish it, so I’ve got as far as I can go without it … hopefully I’ll get chance next week to pop into Spotlight and find a silk ribbon that will work (assuming Spotlight still SELL silk ribbon, that is!). Here is how it stands so far:

The only stitching I’ve done since the last stitching update is to start a charity quilt block with the theme of butterflies. I bought about a metre of 14-ct white Aida a few years ago in readiness to do some charity stitching, but with my city commute I just never had the mental or physical energy to do it … now I’m working closer to home I figure it’s time I pull my finger out and get some finished. What also gave me the final kick in the pants was searching for an old XS kit in my wardrobe and finding a bunch that I’d bought especially to use for charity blocks … so out they came ready to start stitching! Here are the kits I have in the charity block armoury to work my way through:

And here is where I’m at currently for my first butterflies block … once I’ve finished this block it’s time to get back into my formal rotation once again.

I still have a couple of gifts to complete, but I work better when I’m sticking to my rotation properly so they will just have to find a rotation slot to drop into and work together with my other pieces 🙂 I’ve probably dribbled on enough for now, but before I hit “publish” I’ll finish off with the two WIPocalypse questions for April and May:

April: How do you keep your stash organised?

Oh my goodness, I don’t know if I could truly say my stash is “organised” per se … although I guess to a certain extent it could be a lot worse! My problem is that it is scattered all over the place and not all together. I’m also a lazy git at heart, so often I can’t be bothered putting something away after stitching it (eg threads etc) and I end up with a dumping corner with threads and charts not put away … it’s no wonder I can often not find what I’m looking for when I just “know” I’ve got it “somewhere”!! On the whole, though, it is kinda organised in a disorganised way …

Threads: On the whole these are all stored in Flossaway baggies in numerical or alphanumeric order and on individual rings according to their brand. DMC floss is all stored in numerical order in two plastic tubs so they’re easily accessible as I generally use those the most. Overdyed threads etc are mostly stored alphanumerically by the colour name, but with the thread brands separated on different rings. For example, I have separate rings for WDW, GAST, Crescent Colours, Needle Necessities/Threadworx etc. All these threads are housed in a cardboard storage tub that sits in my Ikea ‘bookcase’. Silks are stored the same way, and pearl cottons and other specialty threads (pearl cottons etc) are stored in another plastic tub.
Fabrics: These are stored by thread count in two Ikea storage drawers – they used to be sorted in colour groups but I quickly gave up on that idea after I’d rummaged around a few times and disrupted it all! I also have a ‘tub’ of fabrics sitting on top of my DMC that I’ve obviously pulled out at some stage for a project and never been put back …
Charts: Generally these are stored by theme in ringbinders on bookshelves. Most of these are housed in the kitchenette on my main bookshelves, but most of my favourite designs/smalls charts are in my bedroom on a narrow bookcase. I have a couple of folders of “to be stitched ASAP”, but I’m trying to focus on those already partially kitted up first (see below).
Finishing fabrics/trims: Truthfully these are all over the place! Most of my quilting fabrics are in Ikea storage drawers in my wardrobe, with finishing trims etc in a little plastic storage system that has a few pullout drawers. Not ideal, but seems to work OK for now.

My projects themselves are in a whole world of their own where organisation is concerned! I’ll try to differentiate the different types:

WIPs: My current rotation projects are sitting in their own storage tub with the project on scrollbars/Qsnaps and sitting with their threads/charts etc in a plastic envelope. That way each project is ready to go immediately when I want to drag it out of the tub.
UFOs: Older WIPs that I haven’t touched for years are sitting in a cardboard storage tub in my Ikea bookcase in my bedroom – these are not stored on scrollbars etc and may/may not have threads with them … they just sit there forlornly at the very bottom of the bookcase feeling unloved …
Partial & full kits: When I was housesitting in Melbourne I went a bit crazy and cut up fabrics for a few tubs worth of projects and put the fabric with the chart … these are now housed in two separate areas – some of these are sitting along with other full kits in two storage drawers in my wardrobe, and the others have all been split into cardboard storage boxes according to their size that will fit with my rotation. I basically have one box each for “Large/BAPs”, “Medium” and “Small” projects. I’m trying to work through those items first before kitting up new designs, seeing as the fabric is already committed and cut up ready for stitching! That seems to work about 95% of the time, but ever now and then a new project seems to leap out of the chart pile demanding to be stitched first!! 😛
Canvaswork: My canvaswork projects are sitting to the left of my Ikea storage bookcase in a shopping bag – these are kitted (or semi-kitted as far as I can for now) with their canvas and threads/charts all ready for when my canvaswork rotation rolls around. This bag probably makes me drool more than the rest of my storage boxes, if the truth be known!

May: What designs or themes do you really wish you could find? What do you think is missing among stitching designs?

Truthfully I can’t say I really have had problems finding a specific type of design … I have, however, had problems finding a specific design that has since gone OOP and hard to locate unless you spend a fortune. Those are the designs I wish would be more readily available, especially now that PDF downloads are widely available and don’t require a full print-run by a designer. The other thing I find frustrating is the number of designs only available as kits and not charts, and how many are only available with Aida cloth as the fabric – the fact that I inevitably substitute the fabric in all my kits is not a cost-effective way for me to stitch a design … I really wish that all designs had the option of either having linen in the kit or to just have the chart made available (although I know this would diminish some of the designer’s/distributors’ profits to a certain degree).

The only other thing that has been happening over the last few weeks is something that I can’t talk about yet on my blog, but it threw me for a loop temporarily and my mind has been very very distracted over recent weeks, and I’ve been even more forgetful than ever, if that was even possible! Hopefully there will be further news sooner rather than later and I can talk about it openly … for now it’s just a case of “wait and see” 🙂

Canvaswork, Finishes, Northern Pine Designs

Blue Bayou finished … and I’m in love with it!!

29 April, 201429 April, 2014 Anne S

The title says it all … a few days ago I put the final stitches into Blue Bayou, and oh my goodness I am so in love with it, it’s just not funny!! I ended up substituting DMC 991 pearl cotton for the charted Anchor pearl cotton, as I just couldn’t find it quickly locally, and I was impatient to get it finished!

“Blue Bayou” by Northern Pine Designs
with recommended canvas and threads
Exception: Substituted Anchor pearl cotton with DMC 991 pearl cotton

I still had 1 1/2 hours left of my canvaswork rotation slot, so I immediately put another Northern Pine Designs project on the stretcher bars and made a start on Surf and Sand … much more subtle colours on this one, and a little too much pink for my liking so far, but I’m hoping once the light turquoise blue gets added it’ll balance the colours out a bit more … it’s very pretty so far, though, even with the pink! 😛 I’ve actually stitched half of the next bargello band as well since this photo was taken, but will show more photos later! Surf and Sand

As for the rest of the week, I’m finally starting to feel a bit more ‘normal’ after recuperating at home and being a hermit for a few days. Today has been spent in the kitchen all day, which means I have a brown rice slice/pie (technically called “Ham Cheese and Leek Pie”) for the freezer for lunches, and a Red Wine, Beef and Mushroom Stew bubbling away in the crockpot for dinners this week … I still have a Pasta, Beef and Mushrooms dish to whip up for the freezer but my feet are killing me thanks to my stupid plantar fasciitis, so I think I’ll call it a day cooking-wise and finish the rest up tomorrow 🙂

And that means for the rest of the day I’m going to settle in and catch up on some more recorded TV in the lounge (thanks to the flatmate being at work), while starting on my next rotation slot … “Finishing”. Hopefully by the end of the next 5 or 10 hour rotation (whenever I get fed up with it), I’ll have a few more finished items under my belt and out of the finishing pile, even if they’re just ornaments 😀 I also have some comments to respond too as well, which I’ll do shortly 🙂

Canvaswork, Christmas Ornaments, Finishes, Little House Needleworks, Northern Pine Designs, Shepherd's Bush, Works in Progress

Stitching Hermit

26 April, 2014 Anne S

The title says it all really … in the last 2-3 days since being home I’ve locked myself away from the world and just stitched my little heart out. It has really done me the world of good and today I feel a lot more relaxed and back to ‘normal’ again (what ‘normal’ actually is!).

I’ve tried to get back into my rotation slot once again, and it’s done me the world of good to have some sort of discipline again with my stitching – it really helps me to ‘focus’ and I get so much more one than I would normally. The first rotation slot consisted of Christmas ornaments/freebies, and in my 10 hours I managed to finish 2 ornaments, and almost finish another one (I just had to put it to one side because I can’t find one DMC thread I need to finish it … yep, story of my life!!). The two that I finished are as follows (I won’t show the other one until I’ve actually finished it!):

“The Merry Skater” by Little House Needleworks
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch ~ colour Haystack
with recommended threads, except substituting DMC 712 with 3865
Started 21 Apr 2014 ~ Finished 24 Apr 2014

“Joyful Night” by Shepherd’s Bush
from the 1998 JCS Christmas Ornament issue
stitched on 32ct Lambswool Wichelt linen
with recommended threads, except substituting DMC Ecru with 3865
Note: the chart called for pink DMC for the sheep swirl, which seemed to be an error,
so I replaced with DMC 3865
Started 24 Apr 2014 ~ Finished 25 Apr 2014

Then I moved on to my Canvaswork rotation slot … the last time I started this one (Blue Bayou by Northern Pine Designs) I found the WDW pearl cotton that was supposed to be PC#8 was actually PC#5 (it was mislabelled), and it really showed up with my stitching … so my first job yesterday was to unpick the original pearl cotton stitching … which ended up being a challenge in itself! Because the waffle stitch has so few threads on the back to weave into, I’d managed to thread through a few stitches adjoining it, and it ended up being such a tangled mess trying to unpick I just ended up frogging those as well … which left me with 3 very small bands of metallic threads left. Once I started stitching, though, I set the stopwatch going and really got into the rhythm of this one. It’s one of those projects when you wake up in the morning and turn over to see your stitching on your stitching stand and it makes your spirits soar straightaway!

Unfortunately, though, I hadn’t realised I didn’t have one of the pearl cottons for this design, so I’m a bit stalled now … I originally hadn’t worried too much knowing that I should be able to get pearl cottons locally, until I realised last night that it’s actually an Anchor pearl cotton that I need. I’ve decided, though, to just try and get a DMC equivalent as I really don’t think it’ll make that much of a difference. Today I’m going to head out to my local Spotlight to see if they have what I need (although truthfully don’t hold out much hope!!). If not, I’ll just start up a different canvaswork piece to start work on for the remaining 3 hours of my rotation instead. Here is how Blue Bayou looks right now, along with some close-ups of those amazing stitches in it so far:

793857_10152061870498148_4708685548147934195_o

10259281_10152061860233148_3177921765632503592_o 857525_10152061861018148_8082385855990300010_o 10271293_10152061859123148_4914348800036493040_o

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Mirabilia

Flossy is finally finished!!!

21 April, 201421 April, 2014 Anne S

I haven’t been doing much of anything at all while staying with my parents, as I just don’t have the mental energy to “get up and go” … so the last few days I’ve been glued to the TV re-watching The Tudors DVDs while doing a tiny spot of stitching. The weather has been abysmal over here, so it hasn’t been the weather to get outdoors (even the waterfront was flooded last week thanks to the tail end of a cyclone), and we’ve all been stuck in front of the TV in various rooms. My Dad watches his TV at number 63 on the volume, whereas I usually have it between 10-15, so I often run away to the bedroom to avoid a migraine and frayed nerves … which also means not spending time with my folks as there isn’t enough comfy room for both Mum and I in the bedroom … not the best use of an airfare really, but I suppose if nothing else I’ve had a very lazy relaxed time I guess …

In saying that, though, I did spend a couple of days being a ‘techno geek’ for Dad and writing up a 28-page user guide for his mobile phone. It’s a real ‘mobile for dummies’ with lots of screenshots and captions and step-by-step instructions for how to use his phone. I guess if nothing else at least I’ve managed to do that for him this trip, so it wasn’t all wasted time 🙂

I also made a batch of my favourite Red Velvet Cupcakes for a treat, but I was really disappointed with them – not sure if it was the batch of flour Mum had, or the fact they don’t have digital scales making it hard to measure the 10g of cocoa properly, or the fact that the Organic Buttermilk here is quite ‘clumpy’ and a totally different texture to the buttermilk we have in Aussie … but whatever it was that was different, they were quite heavy compared to how I make them at home, so not a great treat really

The GREAT part of the trip so far, though, has been having a ‘stitching day’ with some Kiwi stitching pals … while not much stitching actually happened, it was lovely to have show and tell of people’s stitching finishes, and just having a general fun chat. If I move back to Auckland again, I know this is one group of ladies I’ll definitely be spending more time with, they’re great fun! Thanks again to Zeb, Jennie and Paula for a really fun day … and to Zeb for some really scrummy Trifle 😀

While I’ve had minimal stitching time I have managed to “almost” finish Fern Pixie by Nora Corbett. I’ve managed to finished all the actual stitching, but I hadn’t realised there was one whole green bead on one of her shoes, and I didn’t bring those with me to NZ, so she won’t be 100% finished until I get back home again …

But one piece I DID manage to finish was the stitching of Nora Corbett’s Valentine Fairy – I finally frogged the different dyelot in her legs and restitched, then did the remaining metallics and beading … and now she’s 100% finito!! I still don’t particularly love her, as she’s WAY too pink for my tastes, but I haven’t decided yet whether to throw her on Ebay or not. Mum’s actually said that she likes her, so it’s quite possible that she’ll end up staying here in NZ and living the rest of her days in Mum’s bedroom … maybe 😉

“Miss Valentine Fairy” by Nora Corbett (Mirabilia)
Started 6 Nov 2013 – Finished 20 Apr 2014
Stitched on 28ct Lavender Bliss Cashel linen
with Crescent Colours kit threads
(exception: replaced the Crescent Colours thread for the skin with DMC)

Cross Stitch

Unexpected visit home again & WANTED!

16 April, 2014 Anne S

So much for enjoying my 3-week break at home and de-stressing from work and everything else that has been getting me down. Sadly my Auntie Betty passed away last week, and I had to break the news to Mum over the phone. As we were chatting I was telling Mum of my upcoming break that I couldn’t wait for and had so many plans of what to do on my days off, only to have Mum ask me to come over home and she’d pay for the airline ticket … not just once did she mention it, but about 5 times in total. I figured she obviously needed me at home, so I’ve sucked it up and put my own needs to one side and have flown home to spend time with the family again.

As much as I love my family, and on the whole enjoy being able to do things for them when I can when I come home, I don’t know whether it’s just that I wasn’t mentally ready for this trip or what, but their arguments and moaning are really getting to me. It usually takes a lot longer for it to wear me down, but this trip is a real struggle for me, and I find I just don’t have any energy to do things like I normally would. Then of course I feel guilty when I get those “I wish I was at home” moments, which of course doesn’t help my motivation levels. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still having some nice moments and even just doing ‘nothing’ can often be nice at home … I just felt like having a whinge, I guess, as another day is passing me by without making the most of being here. I can’t even be bothered cooking or shopping, which is usually my first chore when I come home … and certainly can’t be bothered stitching … although perhaps if I forced myself to do something it may kick me back into gear again. I really don’t know why I feel so down over here this time round, but I do know I need to kick myself in the backside and get over it! I do know, however, that I’m going to make sure I get a full week at home before heading back to work, to get some small smattering of ‘peace’ into my days before getting back into the grind! Thanks for letting me vent for a while … 🙂

The other thing I’ve been doing, though, while I’ve been here is building up my wishlist … and trying to track down a kit that I fell in love with years ago but have finally decided I really really need to find it. I’ve been trying to locate an email address for the suppliers, but having no luck so far. I have managed to find a ‘dodgy’ version on a Russian website, and found a blogger that has stitched it, but no luck in tracking down a real kit or used chart. Anyway, I’ll keep looking, but if anyone has a copy laying around somewhere unloved, I’d be interested in buying or trading for it … 🙂 The designer is Elizabeth de Lisle and the design is called Blue Rhapsody (with Anchor threads in the kit).

333346-de2fb-66029655-m750x740-uf820d

Mirabilia, Works in Progress

Enjoying two days off work

6 April, 2014 Anne S

Oh boy it’s been mental at work lately … the bosses asked if we could bring the deadline forward by a day for a project that was already pushing everyone to their limits to get it completed by the original deadline … which ended up seeing a small handful of us working through the night (literally) for a couple of days beforehand. I think my worst day was finishing at 3.30am the night before launch, and being back in the office at 7.00am again the next day (launch day). It seemed OK at the time, but by the following Monday I felt like death warmed up and couldn’t concentrate at work. I ended up waving the white flag on Tuesday and asked the big boss for 1-2 days off as days in lieu for all the extra hours … and he gave me 2 days, which I’ve just taken.

You would think that with a 4-day weekend I’d be stitching up a storm, but alas not a needle has been seen for the last 4 days … instead I’ve been superglued to my home computer 12 hours a day, uploading a lot of my old stitching finishes into Flickr, and adding copyright symbols onto every photo. I haven’t bothered doing anything with my old photos since losing them all when Webshots closed down … but even though it’s taken a heck of a lot of effort (and I’m still not finished), it’s felt very rewarding.

Have you ever taken the time to go back through your old stitching photos and amazed yourself at just how much you’ve achieved during your stitching lifetime? Well that’s been me the last few days! It’s also been interesting seeing stitching trends over each year – for example 2010 for me seemed to be the “Year of Just Nan” … and also the year of the Great Pumpkin Challenge that I enjoyed so much. I’d also forgotten how much detailed and varied work I did in the earlier years, and it’s given me the urge to revisit those days by choosing some challenging pieces for upcoming projects. All-in-all it’s been such a wonderful trip down memory lane for me!!

It also means that eventually over time I’ll be updating a lot of the photos on this blog too, as most of the piccies disappeared when Webshots shut down. I’m slowly working my way through 2011 and 2010 at the moment, and just focusing on the stitching finishes … I’m not sure if I’ll bother updating with the WIP piccies, but “never say never” I guess 😉

In the meantime, though, I can show the latest progress on Fern pixie at the end of last week’s stitching efforts from 30 March:

2014 WIPocalypse, Mirabilia, Works in Progress

Still around … but without my mojo (& March WIPocalypse)

22 March, 20146 April, 2014 Anne S

Well, it seems my mojo has totally deserted me over the last month or so – I haven’t touched a needle, literally, in over a month! Work stresses and personal stresses have just seen my head too cluttered to stitch … while normally stitching would bring me relief at times like this, it had reached the stage where the thought of stitching just felt overwhelming for some daft reason. Instead I’ve been spending lots of time on my laptop checking out stitching websites and just being generally lazy and doing ‘nothing’.

As for work, I still have a job but there are lots of people who have been in the company for many years that I worked with really closely that have now left, and they still haven’t worked through all the levels of the company yet, so many more heads yet to roll. Even though I know my job is safe, it’s still very disconcerting and upsetting while other colleagues and friends still wait for the decision affecting them. They haven’t given me much time to ponder it, though, as I was given a new ‘project’ to work on with an exceptionally tight deadline, so it’s been back to working 14-hour days again over the last couple of weeks, and next week will be “the week from hell” where I’ll be planning to pretty much sleep there for the week!! At least now we’re back working closer to home I know I can be home in 20 minutes at the end of the day, so that’s a blessing if nothing else.

And as for today … well, would you believe it, today I’m going to FINALLY break that mojo curse, and I’m going to pick up my needle and do some stitching to try and get back into my stitching routine. I have a huge list of TV shows I need to watch on my DVRs (so much that one has stopped recording because the memory is full!!), seeing as I haven’t been keeping up-to-date with it much, so that’s a perfect excuse to chill out at home with the TV on and my stitching on my lap 🙂 It will be interesting to see how much I can get done this weekend after not doing anything for so long!! Here is my skimpy progress on Fern since my last WIPocalypse post, which was done a month ago now in the last week of February …

One good thing, though, is that I’m being forced to take annual leave and long service leave before the end of June … as I can’t afford to go anywhere, that means having 3 1/2 weeks of leave between now and then … I think I just may enjoy a couple of 2-week leave blocks around the home lazing around stitching – there’ll be no excuses not to get my mojo back then, that’s for sure!!! 😀

UPDATED TO ADD: Oops, I forgot that the question for the March WIPocalypse was where our favourite stitching spots were … I have to admit since my new flatmate moved in he’s pretty much taken over the lounge and my favourite stitching spot in there is no longer my favourite unless he’s gone out for the weekend … instead you will now only ever see me sat up in bed doing my stitching, so this is now my favourite (actually I’ve always enjoyed sitting up in bed stitching, anyway, so it’s no hardship!).

Works in Progress

My stitching mojo is AWOL

22 February, 201422 February, 2014 Anne S

The last couple of weeks have been quite stressful … while there have been highlights that have been really positive, there is the underlying stress at work as the company I work for makes some big decisions on reshaping the business drastically. This of course means a lot of jobs are about to get axed or restructured, and we’ve already been given the hard line to expect that our team is going to be hit badly along with everyone else. While everyone is still continuing along with their day-to-day business, and taking on new work etc, there is still that underlying ‘tension’ that is ever-present as people leave and positions are not filled, and you witness numerous meetings being held with the most serious faces you can imagine. This is the 3rd time I’ve experienced this since moving to Sydney, and this is perhaps the biggest one we’ve faced yet … and quite frankly it is a bit emotionally draining continuing to witness the events and still keep working hard and trying to ignore the atmosphere … I keep trying to tell myself not to think about it, as the outcome will be out of our hands either way – and stressing over it isn’t going to change the outcome. I guess either way, we’ll all find out over the next week or two whether we still have a job (albeit a very different one, no doubt) or whether the grim reaper has arrived at your desk and has come to help you pack up your belongings. In no way do I feel badly towards my employers though, it’s something that they really do have to do, and probably should have been done a long time ago … and I’ll continue to feel proud to work for them and support them in whatever decisions are made … but from a personal perspective, it’s obviously unsettling for now …

Add to that I’ve been just generally feeling really run-down thanks to my B12 deficiency, it’s lead to a very ineffective week’s worth of stitching – I’ve just not been in the mood to stitch whatsoever over the last week or two. That mojo that was going great guns has just dwindled down to nothing … which is not good, seeing as I have my pixie that I wanted to give as a gift to my penpal in the first week of March … have a strange feeling that’s not going to happen, especially as I’m missing 2 skeins of Kreinik #4 braid and 2 packets of Mill Hill Magnifica beads! I still have a couple of canvaswork threads that need to be posted by Nordic Needle (they were on backorder since before Christmas), so I’m going to ask for those to be added to my order seeing as I’m already paying an exorbitant price for shipping from them! Then it really is a case of being really frugal with money for the rest of the year where stash is concerned … plus I’m going to go through and try and sell off a lot of my stash that I know I won’t stitch – I’ve already managed to offload some charts for a song through an Aussie Facebook group, but there is still lots left that I need to get rid of, so I guess I should finally learn how to sell on Ebay and get rid of them!

Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom … here is the progress so far on Fern by Nora Corbett … pretty sad really! Here is the before photo from my WIPocalypse post, and how she sits now …

On a more positive note, however, I put my hand up to volunteer at a recent CEO Cookoff charity event – it was an amazing night and I really enjoyed the opportunity to help out and see the joy on the faces of the guests and feel like you were making a difference to their lives, albeit it for such a short time. There were about 900 guests who are predominantly from homeless shelters etc, and some well-known local chefs donated their time to cook for the guests, along with some high profile CEOs (including our own) cooking as well and who raised funds through sponsorship for the event. It was incredibly hard work, but incredibly and exceptionally rewarding – and I’d do it again in a heartbeat!! I’d be happy to wear my red “Community Champion” shirt again with pride!!

2014 WIPocalypse, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Rotation, Stitch-alongs, Works in Progress

February WIPocalypse

15 February, 201415 February, 2014 Anne S

It’s been a reasonable month for both stitching and blog posts … probably the most regular I’ve been in quite a few years! Who knows how long it will last for, but I’m enjoying it so far that’s for sure!

As for my stitching progress, here are the progress piccies from the last month’s efforts, and comparing how they looked last time vs this month:

First up is a new start, which is a gift for someone if I can get it stitched up quickly enough! Unfortunately, though, I just noticed a mark on the fabric so it’s off to spend some time in a tub and hopefully it will come out … if not, I guess I’ll be ironing up some new fabric and starting again …

And my other WIPs/new starts were:

Crimson Fire Sampler

“Thistle Needleroll (pale colourway)” by M Designs Started 26 Jan 2014

And then there were a couple of new starts that were also finishes:

Beyond XS 5-3 Christmas Heart by The Victoria Sampler

All-in-all it was a pretty amazing month of stitching … my work department moving closer to home again is doing wonders for my productivity, that’s for sure!!

And now this month’s topic: “Topic: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time? Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!”

I have to admit the high number of UFOs I have has started to bother me in recent years, so I’ve been making an effort to slowly work through them. I’m starting to become more of a one-at-a-timer, but then when I get bored with a project I tend to just stop stitching, or I put it down and never come back to it again because I feel burnt out with that particular project. This year I’ve tried to be more disciplined and have gone back to a formal rotation once again, and it’s really working on the whole. I have 10-11 project slots, with a Focus Piece slot every 3-4 slots so that I can focus on one project to get stitched up more quickly (generally assigned to one of my BAPs or SAL commitments). I’ve managed to stick to my rotation really well so far, although I’ve just decided to start a new gift for someone that needs to be stitched up really quickly before we meet up in early March, so my rotation has been temporarily put on hold. It’s funny, though, I already miss my rotation and the discipline I’d built up, and I’m almost ‘resenting’ this project because of it … isn’t it funny how our minds work? So far I’ve managed to finish up one old UFO this year thanks to my rotation slot and being disciplined … I’d like to see another 1-2 of my UFO list joining the finishing pile this year, but either way I’m just doing to enjoy working through my stash pile on a regular basis! 😀

As a matter of interest, here is my “rotation tub” … all of my projects are on their own scrollbars or Qsnaps, and sit in order of being stitched, along with their chart/threads in a plastic envelope or mesh project bag … this really helps me to keep organised during the rotation and I’m not running around each 10 hours trying to find the next project kit …