Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Days 11 & 12

Anne S

I had a huge post underway as a vent about work due to some very hurtful things that were said to me today, but I have decided to leave it sitting in draft and just use it as an unpublished venting platform.  I am, however, in the process of removing pretty much all of my work colleagues from my FB friends list, with one particularly vindictive, childish, manipulative, power-hungry cow being the first one to be removed tonight … um, perhaps I should go back to the venting post, as there obviously appears to be more in here to unleash …

Anyway, after chatting to my flatmate and best mate here about everything for 4 hours, and mulling over how to handle the FB issue, I remembered that I was supposed to be stitching … so at 10.45pm I pulled one whole strand of thread out and put a few stitches into Bent Creek’s Winter Snapperland while K watched the final few overs of the cricket.

Plus I remembered to take a quick piccie of last night’s pitiful progress (although in hindsight nowhere near as pitiful as tonight’s haha).

And on that note I guess I really should hit the hay for the tonight – after I’ve culled a few more work colleagues from FB …

Cross Stitch

January Challenge – Day 11

Anne S

Yesterday I spent most of the day doing household chores and pottering around (in particular cleaning out accumulated bags of crap in my bedroom) – that meant no stitching done until about 9pm … I managed to put a couple of lengths of thread into Jardin Prive’s Christmas, but just realised I didn’t take a progress piccie … as I’m now running late for work, I guess it’ll just have to wait until tonight (when I think Bent Creek’s Winter Snapperland will be on the stitching menu) 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Country Cottage Needleworks, Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 10

Anne S

Today saw me undertaking a number of housekeeping tasks, including packing away all the Christmas decorations, cleaning half of the bathroom, vacuuming and even a little bit of dusting (shock, horror, I hear Mum utter) – after the vacuuming I decided I’d had enough of the rivers of sweat pouring down my back and opted to sit for the rest of the afternoon in front of the electric fan and watching Criminal Minds on DVD – which also meant plenty of stitching time today for Day 10 of the Crazy January Challenge, and some brown blobs that will eventually look like little teddy bears once a bucket-load of backstitching is added.

I’m absolutely loving doing this challenge, and like a few other people I’ve seen, I could continue all month doing these new starts, it’s very invigorating.  I will, however, need to think of a potential substitute for Prairie Moon’s Christmas chart if my fabric doesn’t arrive over the next couple of days – oh such hardship, having to find another project to start!!  I’m thinking perhaps Jardin Prive’s Eiffel Quaker … or JBW Designs’ Christmas Pudding … or … or … or … well, a number of other projects waiting in the wings to be started really … 😉

After completing two bears, I decided enough was enough of the revolting Lugana I was stitching on, and I picked up my previously started Christmas ornie and finished it.  I stitched this one a few years ago when I didn’t have the recommended Blue Moon by Crescent Colours, and this time I used the correct blue seeing as I now have that thread in my stash (I did, however, still continue to substitute WDW Kudzu with NN Olive Grove).  This completes one ornie for my monthly goal – but I’d still really like to finish one more, which I have kitted up ready to go (along with two more kitted up ready for next month).  I love, love, love this ornie, and the colours are just stunning … this is possibly one of my favourite ornies EVER!  But that’s a no-brainer really, ‘cos it’s BLUE! 😀

“Winter’s Eve” by Country Cottage Needleworks
from 2006 JCS Christmas ornie magazine
stitched on 32ct natural Belfast linen
with mix of DMC, Needle Necessities and Crescent Colours threads

And on that note I’d better hit the hay, ‘cos it’s now 1am and I need to be up and at ’em early tomorrow to make the most of my final day off 🙂

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 9 & shopping

Anne S

Today I left a little later than I originally hoped, but I braved the rush and headed out to Ikea on the other side of Sydney … I love wandering around Ikea but absolutely detest the crowds that are inevitably present.  I still managed to pick up a few things that I wanted, though, including the main item I went for, a small TV cabinet, and a tall foldable clothes airer.  A new table lamp also jumped into the cart when I wasn’t looking!  As well as surviving Ikea, I also picked up a couple of items from Howard’s Storage, including a contraption that sits over your doors and allows you to hang coats etc off it … well, I couldn’t resist it, and it’s now proudly holding two scarves that Mum knitted for me, along with my cross stitch WIPs that are no longer gracing my Qsnaps – at least this way they’ll stay nice and flat and won’t require multiple ironing jobs (although the one on the top escaped the iron the first time round!!) … I also picked up a steamed pudding tin and a drinking bottle for when I get my fat carcass back into the gym this week …

After cooking up a big batch of brown rice for dinner and the freezer, I sat down in front of the electric fan and did a bit of stitching on my Day 9 project.  I had to laugh at one point, because my stitching reminded me of a stylized gherkin sitting on the fabric …

until I added a few more stitches and turned it into a stylized little hill 😉

It is, of course, the centre panel on the lady’s dress … but alas it will remain looking like a hill for quite some time …

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 8

Anne S

I had a really bad night’s sleep with my throbbing leg (compliments of my buggered back), and ended up sleeping in later than I expected to today, which means I didn’t bother braving the traffic to go to Ikea today – I absolutely detest trying to find a carpark at that shopping centre, so I’ll go if I can leave early and arrive around opening time.  Seeing as I still felt a bit run over during the day, I spent the entire day sat up in bed in front of the electric fan with needle in hand with project #8 of the January challenge.  This is probably the first one I’ve been quite happy to put down after a number of hours working on it – the fabric is a standard Dimensions kit cardboard Aida, and doesn’t make the stitching particularly pleasurable (I should’ve tried washing it first, but didn’t think about that until it was too late!).  Anyway, here’s my progress from today:

After putting Tiger Reflections to one side, I started another new start, this one an old Christmas ornament by CCN called Winter’s Eve – hopefully I’ll get chance to finish this one over the next couple of days, as it’s relatively simple and easy stitching 🙂

And that’s it for me for the evening – time to get back into bed, although I can’t guarantee there’ll be much more stitching done this evening!

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 7

Anne S

Alas, I didn’t get to sit down properly tonight until 10.30pm, after catching up some FB gameplay and cooking a big pot of “Dragon Curry” (not actually made of Dragons, but my Mum’s curry recipe).  The outcome is not much stitching done yet again tonight – and now it’s half past midnight so not much energy to post an update … alas this will therefore be another “fly-by” posting … and here’s tonight’s paltry progress:

I’m now on a 4-day break after requesting 2 RDOs next week, so I should get a bit more substantial stitching done during the next 4 days – although I have some other plans as well, including heading out to battle Ikea crowds on the other side of Sydney, starting going back to the gym on Monday to start some exercise therapy for my buggered back, and taking down the Christmas decorations.  All-in-all I’m looking forward to it! 😀

Cross Stitch

January Challenge – Day 6

Anne S

Um, stitching didn’t appear to have been on the cards today thanks to a farewell dinner that I only just got home from (it’s now 11pm) … I guess I can fall into bed and grab my Qsnaps and really quickly put a couple of stitches into JBW Designs Autumn Harvest, and that’ll quality as a start right?  Hmmm, my eyeballs are just about falling out of my head, so I can’t guarantee I won’t have to frog-stitch again tomorrow, but here goes nothing …

Tonight we are saying goodbye to one of our favourite Indian colleagues, who has an awesome sense of humour, and has one of the gentlest and respectful personalities you could ever meet.  He’s coming up to marrying age in the next couple of years – which lucky girl wins his heart will have a treasure for life … I miss having him around already …

Um, maybe don’t expect a progress piccie on this one tonight 😛 LOL

Canvaswork, Crazy January 2011 Challenge, From Nancy's Needle, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 5

Anne S

I was very naughty today, as I was in the mood to stay home and do some chores … and lots more stitching … so when it was time to go into work I called the office and asked if I could have a last-minute RDO … no pressure, as I could just as easily jump in the car and come to work, but I’d really appreciate having the day off.  It got approved (yippee!), and I’ve spent the day mostly stitching, but also catching up on some blog reading, helping my elderly neighbour move her paintings around on her lounge room walls (bless her), doing 3 loads of laundry, ironing all the linens for the rest of the January Challenge pieces, and attaching the canvas to the stretcher bars… and did I mention lots more stitching?  … so, all-in-all a very productive day haha.

Seeing as the canvas was nicely tacked down today, I opted to spend a great deal of the day stitching on my canvaswork piece – and I’m amazed at just how fast it’s been stitching on this one, the piece grew at a most phenomenal rate!!  It’s one of those designs that is pretty much entirely in satin stitch and in a consistent pattern, which means once you’ve got one set of stitches done you can pretty much continue the repeats without having to check the pattern … sheer bliss!  So without any further ado, here is the MASSIVE progress on today’s challenge piece (designed by From Nancy’s Needle).

The blank spaces above are for a pearl cotton that I’m missing … but it’s on order so hopefully will be arriving over the next couple of weeks … hopefully …

I’m not sure which project will get started tomorrow … we’ll just have to see which fabric falls into my hands tomorrow night, but I’m out for dinner at a friend’s farewell party so don’t expect too much progress tomorrow, I’ll be lucky if I get a dozen stitches in for a change!

One other thing I did do today was to put Sapphire Star back onto the stretcher bars to tighten up the tension, so that’s not ready to be picked up once again after the 16th of January … 😀

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Little House Needleworks, Stash, Works in Progress

Crazy January Challenge – Day 4

Anne S

You can tell I’m back at work when I don’t get to sit down with my needle and thread until 9pm … on normal days I’d pass on the stitching, but seeing as I’m committed to doing this challenge, I forced myself to pick up LHN’s Ladybug Ladybug and managed to put in 2 3/4 hours into it 😀

I was also thrilled to see a recent purchase arrive in my PO Box this morning – the great thing about ordering locally, even though it’s more expensive, is that it doesn’t cost much more to pay for Express Post and even though last Friday was a Post Office holiday, and I didn’t order the items until last Thursday, even with yesterday being a nationwide public holiday they were still waiting for me!  The service from Janine at Colours Down Under really rocks!!!  While I still have one pair of Qsnaps and a couple of threads on back order (needed for the border of Winter Snapperland), I’m absolutely thrilled that I now have another couple of Qsnaps to use for my projects and not having to remove every project every night (especially those that won’t take long to finish) – oops a couple of charts jumped into my shopping basket as well … Scatter Christmas by Shepherd’s Bush and Simply Halloween by Waxing Moon Designs … gotta make the most of the postage right? LOL.

Rightio, on that note it’s time to call it a night and hit the hay … a bit later than expected, but that can be blamed on Season 2 of Fringe and the need to start today’s challenge piece (but more so on Fringe, as I wanted to see the last episode on the DVD, which means only one more DVD for Season 2 to go!) 😉