Feather Stitching

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, recipes, Shepherd's Bush, Victoria Sampler, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 3

3 January, 201125 February, 2012 Anne S

I couldn’t resist putting a few more stitches into Shepherd’s Bush’s Baby Bug Ball this morning – I can’t believe how much I am in love with that design! It is soooo not my normal choice of stitching project, but I absolutely and totally adore it! I didn’t stitch the next few alphabet letters as it’s supposed to use a thread colour that is way too pale on the fabric – I thought I’d wait to see what colours were left over at the end, and I would replace that colour with one of the darker greens (but I don’t want to use it yet in case I run out!). After the 15 days are up, this is is going to be one of the first getting revisited, I think! 😀

I was good, however, and didn’t continue stitching on BBB, and continued to meet the challenge goals by putting a few stitches into Victoria Sampler’s Crimson Fire Sampler. This one is a major challenge for me, as it’s been forever since I stitched any hardanger or pulled/withdrawn thread stitches, so it will give the grey matter a run for its money this year! I wanted to get this stitched up, though, so I can pass the chart on to an online pal who showed interest in it a couple of years ago (assuming she still wants it, of course!).

Seeing as I’ve handled pretty much all I can cope with today with these specialty stitches (probably thanks to the 3am finish this morning), I thought I’d put it to one side and pick up something simple, and I’m hoping to get a few more stitches put into the Autumn freebie by the Stitcherhood that I started late last year 🙂

Over the last few days I’ve also been working on a couple of my listed items on my 1001 things in 101 days – including putting together a custom recipe book. I went with something simple, and just put together a ringbinder with plastic sleeves and subject dividers – that way when I find a scrummy recipe in one of my books I’ll re-type it up into a one-page format and will add it to my favourite recipes folder. Seeing as I’m also trying to cook something out of every cookbook I own, hopefully I’ll also find some new favourites to help fill out the sections. The great thing about this format is that I can take pages out individually to cook from, and the sleeves protect the recipe and can either be wiped down in case of spillage or just replaced with the recipe left intact 🙂

I think I may also try to make a quilted book-cover for this at some stage, but that may not be this year … the goal of putting the book together in the first place is good enough for me to tick this challenge off the list as “achieved”.

One of the latest recipes I added was some simple finger food sandwiches from the Aussie Women’s Weekly book “Finger Food” – these were wolfed down recently at our work’s shared morning tea … I thought I’d share the goodness with you here (AWW books are some of my absolute favourites on my bookshelf):

SMOKED SALMON, CAPER AND DILL TRIANGLES

Triangles can be made 2 hours ahead. Storage: Covered in refrigerator.

200g packaged cream cheese
2 t lemon juice
1 T fresh dill sprigs
¼ t drained capers
12 slices white bread
180g sliced smoked salmon

Blend or process cheese, juice, dill and capers until well combined. Spread 1 slice of bread with cheese mixture, top with a layer of salmon.

Spread a second slice of bread with cheese mixture, place cheese side down on salmon. Spread top with cheese mixture, top with a layer of salmon.

Spread a third slice of bread with cheese mixture, place cheese side down on salmon. Trim crusts from sandwich, cut into 8 triangles. Repeat with remaining bread, cheese mixture and salmon.

Makes 32

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Shepherd's Bush, Works in Progress

January Challenge – Day 2

3 January, 20116 April, 2014 Anne S

It took me longer than I expected to finish my little Baby Lorikeets, but I just couldn’t continue to start a new project until I had finished them off – and here they are in their finished form:

“Baby Lorikeets” by DMC
stitched on 32ct cream Belfast linen
(I replaced the revolting Aida that was in the kit!)
with kit threads (DMC)

I didn’t start today’s ‘real’ project until 8pm … and didn’t put the needle down until just before 3am – I’m LOVING stitching this one! I’ve never been a huge Shepherd’s Bush fan apart from their needlerolls and Halloween designs, but this one really called out my name and I’m glad I listened – the pastels of this one are really very pretty (unfortunately washed out in the photo thanks to the bright daylight bulb). I can’t wait for the 15 days to be up so I can c0me back and finish this one off, although I might just have to finish off this middle bug tomorrow, as I only have a couple of letters and the big central flower to complete before moving on to a different bug 😀

And on that note, I’d better get some sleep, so I’m fit to do a bit more stitching tomorrow (although I really do have to throw in some housework tomorrow, so not as much progress will be to show at the end of it all tomorrow!).

Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Challenge Day 1

2 January, 201125 February, 2012 Anne S

Before I started my Crazy January Challenge yesterday morning, I decided to locate some missing threads from previously kitted up projects, and making an inventory so I knew where they were when if I needed them again – this was in part due to the fact that I knew I had two skeins of NPI silk that were needed for The Goode Huswife chart in my challenge, and sure enough I found them hiding in the kit for Drawn Threads’ Three Friends design. I now have a lovely Excel spreadsheet showing where each thread is located. This has partly come about from when I was housesitting 3 years ago and had all my stash put into storage for 9 months – I kitted up many, many projects with the fabric already cut out and ready to go, and as many of the threads as possible, and they were placed in individual sealable plastic bags and then in boxes within easy reach of my storage unit … the idea was that all I had to do was put my hand into the box when I needed something to stitch, and just had to pull something out and start stitching!

Well, I’m ashamed to say that there are STILL 3 drawers full of those projects (plus the equivalent of another drawer that is out and about in my room awaiting stitching), not to mention all the new ones I’ve since kitted up since moving to Sydney (ahem) … I’m slowly starting to work my way through them, though, and intend to make a decent dent into the Christmas ornies that were kitted up ready with their working copies from previous JCS ornie magazines. (Previously there were 4 big file boxes so it has been condensed somewhat.) I was surprised how many needlerolls were in there ready for stitching, though – this stemmed from a SAL that Katrina was doing a while ago stitching a needleroll every month … maybe that will become my challenge for 2012 … 😛

Anyway, back to my 2011 challenge … I eventually picked up my first project for the challenge, DMC’s Rainbow Lorikeets. I decided that I refused to do housework all day, and intended staying in my jim-jams all day watching TV and stitching … which I did {{insert happy sigh here}}. Alas, I was so engrossed in watching TV it took me a while to realise that I had made a big blue with the kit threads – what I thought was Yellow Green Lt thread was in fact the Moss Green (although why the hell you would call something moss green that actually IS yellow-green is beyond me) … I didn’t realise until I had stitched a huge amount of the adjoining green, and then looked and thought “what the…?” – sure enough, a quick review of the chart piccie confirmed my worst suspicions …

Now I do hope the old wive’s tale isn’t true, that whatever you do on 1 January you will continue to do all year (which is partly why I chose to stitch all day in the first place) … ‘cos I really don’t fancy frog-stitching every single project I start this year! Oh well, I persevered and unpicked and restitched straight away while watching Dirty Dancing (sad I can even remember which movie sparked the frogging), and by the time I switched off at 1am this morning I’d made pretty good headway! Thankfully the thread I had misjudged and had to be frogged is a DMC thread, so I can replace from my stash, as I had used every strand up in the original stitching … phew! Ah, the joys of stitching from kits 😉

Of course now I’m champing at the bit to get it finished, because it’s so close to being finished I can taste it … so I think I’ll do that this morning, then I’ll start my next project immediately afterwards, which will probably be another small one – and tomorrow I’ll start one of the bigger designs.

Cross Stitch, Goals, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

January 1 and feeling good!

1 January, 201125 February, 2012 Anne S

I feel really good that I stuck to my guns and didn’t go out last night among the thousands of people celebrating New Year’s in Sydney – I woke up this morning at 6am and feel fantastic! Those who know me well know that that’s a minor miracle in itself, as I don’t “do” 6am’s or any early mornings particularly well … but today I just feel, well, kinda “good” about the world and everything in it 🙂

My only resolution this year is to get my health on track – I signed up for Weight Watchers (again) a couple of weeks ago just so I would have the tools to start properly again, and have been improving my diet since my return to work last Wednesday. I’m constantly amazed at how quickly you can put a healthy meal together during the week with the help of quickly steamed veges done in the microwave with a piece of fish, chicken or steak. My dinner last night, for example, was just a bed of mixed lettuce leaves, sliced capsicum and mini roma tomatoes, with some steamed snow peas, fresh asparagus and lightly sautéed mushrooms, topped with half a dozen sautéed scallops and a balsamic dressing … perfect and light and beautifully healthy. I felt very virtuous just tucking my fork into it’s richly nutrient and healthy goodness! 🙂

The other good thing is that I finally have a diagnosis I can work with that is causing my leg and back pains – I am showing some degeneration and arthrosis in my lower back (I’m obviously going to look forward to some decent arthritis there in my upcoming years darn it) … that’s causing inflammation, which is causing swelling to constrict the nerves, and causing my problems elsewhere. And because of the pains I haven’t been walking regularly etc, which means the muscle has weakened badly, so it’s a catch 22. It means that I now need to build up the strength in my lower back and get more exercise to loosen up the discs – I have some physio sessions to book in for to help with the loosening up, then I need to get back into the gym for some gentle sessions on the bike for a while (and my return was always in the cards for early this year). With any luck getting rid of the constant pain and stiffness will really help with my overall demeanour – but at the moment it just feels good knowing what I’m dealing with 🙂

Which brings me on to the fun part of the year … on 1-1-11 (love that date!) I guess I should be setting stitching/crafty goals for the year, so here goes … I hereby declare I will complete the following by the end of the year … hopefully … 😉

Complete the Crazy January 2011 Challenge (15 new starts and finishes) – the list is up in my sidebar, along with progress bars
Complete at least 24 Christmas ornaments (this might be a challenge, seeing as I didn’t even get 12 finished last year LOL)
Complete another 5 projects over and above those completed in the Crazy January Challenge (can be WIPs from 2010 or new starts)
Make a full-sized quilt for my bed (yikes, that will be a challenge in itself!!)
Complete at least one of my UFOs
Complete a non-cross stitch project (eg stumpwork, hardanger, schwalmwork)
Finish-finish a minimum of 12 items (including framing, but excluding Christmas ornaments)

And that’s pretty much it for the year – it’ll be interesting to see how much got completed when I look back on 31 Dec 2011! 😀

And on that note, I think it’s time to crack open the Crazy January project bag, and pull the first project out for stitching. I’m thinking of starting one of the smaller ones first, so that I can have an early finish … also the great thing about starting the challenge on a long weekend means I have 3 days of perfect stitching time to make a decent dent into 3 of the projects … all I have to do is work out which ones to start first!

Actually, I forgot I do have one other thing to share, which is for my Mum … here’s a comparison of my frangipani plants sitting on the balcony – please excuse the dead plants and empty pots in the bottom photo! haha. Believe it or not these were bought at about the same time, from the same shop, and both get fed and watered at the same time … what a huge difference between the two! I think the larger plant is getting more sun hours during the late afternoon, and seems to be thriving on it! I do absolutely ADORE frangipani flowers, and have my fingers crossed the bigger plant will provide a few more this year (I got one whole flower last year) – I also really adore my geranium there, that was a recent addition to my plant family 🙂

Now, where’s Season 2 of Fringe to keep me entertained while I’m stitching??? 😀

Cross Stitch, Goals, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, New Year

Happy New Year everyone!!!

31 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

My eyelids are drooping, so I’ll be seeing the New Year in by looking at the back of my eyelids very soon – but I wanted to quickly jump on and wish everyone a very happy New Year. Thanks for your friendship and support throughout 2010 – here’s hoping 2011 is the year where all your hopes and dreams come true (all those that are legal, anyway!). I look forward to spending 2011 with you once again 😀

As for stitching, I don’t think I got anywhere near reaching my 2010 stitching goals, and haven’t even thought about 2011 goals yet – there’s plenty of time for that tomorrow. Here’s how I went with my 2010 goals:

Complete at least 3 of my existing WIP/UFO projects (Works in Progress/UnFinished Objects) (4 WIPs and 0 UFOs completed – technically I met this goal, but really wanted to include at least 1 UFO in there)
Complete at least 10 projects in the kits/charts stash pile (21 completed)
Complete at least 12 Christmas ornaments (minor fail with only 11 completed)
Complete the finishing of at least 12 items – either framing or actual finishing (excludes Christmas ornaments) (12 completed from my ‘old’ finishing pile, plus 4 pillows with new Halloween/pumpkin finishes)
Start at least one EGA correspondence class project (please note I didn’t say “finish” here LOL) (started “Gracie” stumpwork GCC)

In hindsight, I actually did well with my goals, and met all of them except for the Christmas ornaments. And to finish off the year, here’s a pictorial sampling of all those 2010 finishes 😀

Blue Ribbon Designs, Crazy January 2011 Challenge, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Halloween, Heart in Hand Needleart, valentines, Works in Progress

Christmas finishes & Crazy January Challenge

28 December, 20106 April, 2014 Anne S

As mentioned in my previous post, thanks to season 1 of Fringe and a very lazy day yesterday where I didn’t even get dressed, I managed to finish both of my WIPs from Christmas:

“Valentine Bird” by Heart in Hand Needleart
stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen by Wichelt
with recommended threads except subbed DMC 926 for GAST Straw Bonnet
added a gold heart charm as I didn’t have a suitable heart button

“Perched on a Pumpkin” by Blue Ribbon Designs
from JCS Halloween issue 2010
stitched on 32ct Willow Green Belfast linen
with recommended WDW threads but subbed DMC 310 for Mascara

I also had time to start one more that I’m about 2/3 through (Autumn freebie by The Stitcherhood) – another few episodes of Fringe and I’ll see this one finished as well:

Then it’ll be time to pick up Bittersweet Seasons once again – although I now realise that I don’t have the Mill Hill beads for this one (I really am useless!!!!!), which means I guess it won’t be a 2010 finish like I’d hoped.

I’ve also been updating my stitching list for the Crazy January Challenge 2011 – I’ve decided I might stitch Jardin Prive’s Christmas chart for Brenda and Nigel one Christmas, so I opted not to start it on Christmas Day (which was my original stitching plan), and have added it to my January stitching list as well. I’ve also added Katie’s Christmas gift (Prairie Moon’s Christmas) and a teddy bear group that I want to stitch for Brenda’s birthday this year … not entirely sure I’ll get all these done this year, but it’ll be fun trying! I think the hardest thing for me will be to not start any other medium/large designs until I’ve finished these ones – there are still a good dozen or so that are screaming to be started on top of this 15 (not to mention the minimum of 12 ornies I want to stitch next year!!) 😉

1. Waxing Moon Designs – Halloween Short Stack
2. The Goode Huswife – With My Needle (modified, without the wording)
3. From Nancy’s Needle – Lavender Blue Celtic Knot Quilt (canvaswork)
4. The Victoria Sampler – Crimson Fire Sampler
5. Bent Creek – Winter Snapperland
6. Dimensions kit – Tiger Reflections
7. Judy Odell – My Treasures Workstation
8. Little House Needleworks – Ladybug, Ladybug
9. Jardin Privé – Christmas
10. DMC – Baby Lorikeets
11. Prairie Moon – Christmas
12. JBW Designs – Autumn Harvest
13. Shepherd’s Bush – Baby Bug Ball
14. Leisure Arts – Teddy Bear Reunion
15. Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches – Raphael’s Raspberries

And on that note, I’d better get my A into G and get my first load of laundry into the washing machine (as it’s washing day for me today), and pick up a few groceries, as it’s back to work for me tomorrow (no rest for the wicked) … then I think I’ll just have to finish off season 1 of Fringe and finish off that Autumn freebie 🙂

Christmas, Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Christmas festivities

28 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day in whatever way you chose to celebrate the day – and for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a good holiday day.

I left home on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day with my closest friends here in Sydney, Brenda and Nigel, and we had a wonderful time. We didn’t over-eat as much as previous years, which was great. Nigel spoiled us, as he always does, by cooking us Eggs Benedict for a late breakfast (which Brenda and I washed down with a mini bottle of bubbly each). We then skipped lunch and saved ourselves for our Christmas feast of baked ham, boiled baby potatoes, sliced beans fresh from the garden, peas, and the most succulent turkey I’ve ever had – topped off with Nigel’s famous pavlova for dessert. My contribution was at Brenda’s request – I brought all the ingredients to make Sangria and Brenda and I polished off two jugfuls of it throughout Christmas Day (Nigel doesn’t drink, which always means more for us!). We both adored the recipe I chose, which can be found on the Taste.com.au website.

It was a very hot and humid day here in Sydney, so we ate our evening meal outside (along with their favourite next door neighbours who joined us for dinner) – I enjoyed it immensely until Nigel spied a huge spider … and I mean HUGE!!! … sitting on the fence by the table. I only needed to look once at its massive long legs hanging over the top of the fence and I was outta my chair quicker than a speeding bullet. Even Nigel said it was probably the biggest spider he’s ever seen, and when he tried to get closer to it it tried to bite him with its big fangs … I finally decided I couldn’t handle it any longer even hiding behind Brenda’s chair, and I cleared the table and did the dishes – then ate my dessert inside on my own! That’s one bit of company I did NOT want to share my time with on Christmas Day (or any day for that matter) – thankfully Brenda and Nigel know what I’m like so they weren’t offended in the slightest, and it got most of the dishes done early LOL.

After the neighbours left for the night we settled in for a bit more TV and DVD viewing – that’s all we did the entire two days I was there … it was sheer bliss!! A highlight was watching the New Zealand movie “Boy” – we really loved it. We also watched a Billy T James DVD that my best friend Vicki had sent over for my birthday from last year – we really did have a kiwi-fied Christmas with all our viewing choices! I even managed to get some stitching done – I worked on my Valentine Bird then realised I’d left one thread colour at home, so then I picked up a Halloween ornie to start, and yesterday I managed to finish them both off while sat in front of the gogglebox at home watching season 1 of Fringe. I’ll add a separate post shortly with the stitching finishes, but this is the progress I made on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Brenda brought tears to my eyes when I opened my Christmas gift from them – she had hand-painted a ceramic plate especially for me, and engraved it on the back with our names and date. I am incredibly touched by this gift by the simple fact that I know she doesn’t do these types of gifts for people often these days and the amount of effort that goes into each and every piece. This is one gift I will treasure always, I truly adore it! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, hand made gifts are the BEST! 😀

I forgot to mention that I drove over to Brenda and Nigel’s on Christmas Eve, and at about 9pm we went out driving to see the lights and nativity at the ‘local’ Mormon church – it was really lovely wandering around the lit up gardens, and while I’m not religious it was really nice to see the life-size nativity scene created for those who celebrate.

We then finished off by driving round the local neighbourhood to visit a couple of Christmas displays that people have put up – there were very few houses decorated with lights this year compared to past years, I think the steep jump in electricity costs has taken a toll (I know ours jumped up $100 from one bill to the next from $157 to $257, and that was before “electric fan season” had started!).

The highlight for me, though, was a home where the occupants section off parts of their home just for Christmas to have window displays for visitors to look at – how awesome is this? They’re a lovely retired couple who stand outside every night throughout December to welcome visitors and have a chat … just wonderful, and really brought the warm fuzzies of Christmas cheer into my heart that evening 🙂

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Merry Christmas everyone!

24 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Just dropping by quickly to wish everyone a very merry and bright Christmas and a wonderful New Year – I hope all your hopes and dreams come true in 2011!

Thanks for sticking around this year when I haven’t been my brightest little self – your comments have all helped to brighten my days, even though I haven’t been commenting on your own blogs much this year in return.

Have a wonderful time over Christmas – I’ll be offline for a couple of days while spending Christmas Day with friends on the other side of the city. I look forward to seeing all your news and updates on my return 😀

Cross Stitch, Stash

Feeling brighter overnight

23 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Sorry for the grumbly post yesterday – I think my broken sleeps etc are turning me into a cranky old bat this week … and things I can normally tune out have been getting to me {{sigh}}. Never mind – my ultrasound came back clear, and now I’m just waiting for the results of the CT scan I had yesterday … fingers crossed they can actually find something, which means they can start treating something, which means I can start feeling normal again 🙂

I just managed to take a quick piccie of my stash arrival yesterday, so seeing that again this morning cheers me up no end, and it means I now have some new possibilities of chart starts, so I think I may have to review that list of 15 new starts for January haha. Anyway, here’s the stash I thought had gone AWOL (and all this is purely down to the fact that no-one locally seemed to have Kreinik #4 braid in colour 027 in stock, so I ended up going offshore … and of course I had to make the most of the postage) 😛

LHN – Sandollar Cottage (Chart 5 from Summer Seascape Series)
LHN – Joy to the World ornie
Blue Ribbon Designs – Blessed Beyond Measure (stitch start ruler with sleeve designs)
Just Nan – Hagatha’s Purple Hat
Just Nan – Screamy Mimi Tricky Tweets
Kreinik #4 Braids, GAST Forest Glade, Belle Soie silks and NPI silks

I’ve decided to only stitch 4 charts out of the Summer Seascape series by LHN, as the little couple with balloons just does nothing for me, which means I now have the whole series available for stitching and I just need to get some fabric together. I think this is going to become one of my 15 projects, and I think it will be pretty quick to stitch. I also think I need to add Katie’s Christmas gift to that list, assuming the fabric turns up in time by 15 January to join the list … hmmm, maybe by 31 December I will have made up my mind 100% … but maybe not! 😛

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Stash

‘Tis the season to be jolly

22 December, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I am trying really hard to remind myself this week of the positive things in life this week … in particular I’m trying hard not to focus on:

the fact that other team members are allowed to go on holiday while I am working through Christmas and the New Year and having to cover their work instead of catching up on my own backlog over Christmas – bah humbug to the lot of you, if I’d known I wouldn’t be working on my own work I’d be taking the time off too and making you stay do your own damned work, just like I’ve had to do for 2 out of 3 years!;
the pile of laundry still sitting on the lounge floor from my flatmate’s Mum visiting two weeks ago – and the fact that my flatmate has now gone on two week’s leave and left it sitting there for the laundry fairies to do in her absence;
ditto the cup cake container sitting on the bench, complete with leftover cupcakes, ready for me to have to wash up and dispose of the leftover foodstuffs because otherwise the Sydney cockroaches would be having a field day;
the recycling bags overflowing with recyclable bottles and cans that are always without fail left for me to carry down to the rubbish bins (I have actually been told she does this), not to mention to empty glass bottles and jars that are just left laying around the kitchen bench … perhaps I should leave a map on the bench, because obviously the overflowing pile in the corner isn’t standing out enough to be obvious!

Ah, venting over … I don’t often get grumpy with these things, as I’m often really messy with my stitching stuff laying around etc, but I really do get peeved when food etc is left around. I’ve just got used to the fact that I will always be the one emptying trash cans and washing the shower curtain and bathmats, along with the kitchen towels and tea-towels … that’s just my lot in life … pfffft. Anyway, seriously moving on now I’ve had my rant for the evening!!!

The GREAT news that really does offset all that grumpiness is that the parcel that had gone AWOL has actually turned up in my PO Box! I just assumed that it was the latest parcel that had turned up, but then I saw the date stamp of 15 November on the parcel and I almost hyperventilated!! I am seriously excited and thrilled, as now I have my missing threads and can complete my Bittersweet Seasons WIP – perhaps I’ll take that along to finish on Christmas Day instead of the Christmas chart … hmmm …

Anyway, I’ve only just walked in the door from work and feeling totally wrecked, so I think I’ll sign off now and go and fondle my stash, as I haven’t had chance to look at it properly yet!

PS: Did I tell you, I’m excited??? 😛