Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Egyptian Garden Mandala, Works in Progress

Egyptian Garden Mandala

Anne S

The only stitching done this weekend was on EGM – I spent a reasonable amount of time on this one on Saturday, then had a break while I polished off book 4 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (Butch) … then managed a few more hours last night while Katie and I watched a few more episodes of Dark Angel.  TV viewing has been appalling just lately, with many of our favourite shows now off the air, so we’ve been working our way through our TV shows on DVD instead.  Initially we dedicated Friday night each week as our TV DVD night (and what felt like never-ending weeks of Dawson’s Creek initially) – but lately we’d rather watch our DVDs than anything on actual TV.

Tonight was no exception, and I managed to put another couple of hours into Egyptian Garden Mandala (“EGM”), bringing the latest stitching effort to look like this:

EGM 12Jul10

I can honestly and truthfully say that this is a true “labour” to stitch … not a labour of love, just a “labour”.  I truly detest the fabric I’m stitching this one on … I will never ever in all my days choose an opalescent fabric to stitch on again – and don’t get me started on trying to stitch little over-one fishes in metallic thread in the centre of this piece, ‘cos I’m seriously VERY close to ripping the whole lot out, filling in the centre with normal cross stitches, and stitching on some mother of pearl fish buttons or something similar!  I keep getting tempted to scrap the whole thing and start over again on a new piece of normal Belfast linen, but the fact is I’ve come so far with the stitching now, I don’t know if I’d ever bother picking it up again … so I continue to force myself to stitch, and hope like hell each time that I’m getting closer to the edge of the next section, as each section that gets completed takes me one step closer to ending this stitching journey (which will, alas, be quite some months in the future I fear!). 

No sign yet of my back-ordered threads arriving at the overseas store, much less leaving the US, so this one will continue for a while longer yet (even though I have to strain to see over the top of it a bit in my stitching chair) … unless the urge to throw it out the window grows so loud that I’m starting to take notice …

I guess the good news is that it’ll be like motherhood when it’s finished … all the pain of the actual childbirth will be forgotten, and the beautiful creation that remains completed at the end will wipe all the memories of pain and suffering away … and it’ll all be worth it in the end … especially once it gets is sparkly beads stitched on.  In fact, I tried adding some more of the shitty over-one fishies over the weekend, ‘cos once they’re stitched up I’m going to start adding the back-stitching and beads as I go … and I think once they start getting added it’ll add a bit more ‘spring to my needle’ 🙂

Chatelaine, Cross Stitch, Egyptian Garden Mandala, Quaker, Works in Progress

Egyptian Garden makes a come-back

Anne S

Back to work again for me today – still not 100% healthwise, but I managed to survive one day at work before the weekend is here again … the bad news is I’m so far behind in some work it means I’ll probably be going into the office over the weekend for a couple of hours to catch up, because deadlines are looming and I’m in meetings most of the day on Monday … c’est la vie 😦

Stitching-wise I managed to re-stitch my Quaker Huswif section while I was off work, and am moving on to the bottom section … which means it won’t be too long before I’m at the halfway mark on this project.  Unfortunately I took the photo this morning in dark light without much indoor lighting and the photo is dreadful … c’est la vie once again …  Once I’ve finished this project I’ll try to take some decent photos during daylight that will show off the colour of the thread and fabric nicely.

Quaker Huswif 8Jul10

Then tonight, also in poor lighting but this time only using my daylight bulb immediately over the fabric, I managed to take yet another appalling snap of my stitching update with Egyptian Garden Mandala (this time totally washed out!) … but I can’t be bothered waiting until daylight to take another one 🙂

Egyptian Garden 9Jul10

Each time I look at EGM I think the little border of birdies just isn’t ‘right’ – the blue/green birds blend in too much into the border background, so I think at the end I’ll backstitch the tops of all the birds to add a bit more emphasis to their shape.  I almost didn’t bother taking a progress piccie because I don’t feel as though I’ve made much progress, but when I look at the last progress piccie I guess you can see some headway made … just 😛

Egyptian Garden is such an unwieldy project on its huge Qsnaps that it’s a right royal pain to handle, so I’ve decided it will be sitting on my lounge stitching frame for a wee while longer … at least until my back-ordered threads arrive to complete Halloween Fairy anyway.  Quaker Huswif, as much as I don’t want to stop stitching on it, will continue to be my sitting in bed stitching project, so it may now take a lot longer to get much further along with it.

Anyway for now it’s time to stop gabbing and take my ringing ears and blocked sinuses off to bed … maybe time to read a chapter or two of Book 4 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (Butch) … depending on whether the tumbler of port and brandy that I consumed this evening will allow me or not (for medicinal purposes, you understand LOL).

Cross Stitch, Quaker, Works in Progress

Quaker Huswif update

Anne S

I’ve been sick all weekend, so my usual stitching time didn’t happen over the weekend, but I did manage to get a bit done last night while watching DVDs (Hostage with Bruce Willis, great movie) – after going to the GP today I’ve been given another 2 days at home while my infected sinuses and fluid-blocked ears are recovering, so today I’ve been making the most of it and putting my needle to fabric.  This is how it looked last night before I rolled up the scrollbars (love, love, love this project, and the photo in no way does it justice!):

Quaker Huswif 6Jul10

Then, this is how it looked at lunchtime today after a few hours decent stitching time:

Quaker Huswif 7Jul10 before

And this is how it looks now after I unpicked all this morning’s stitching thanks to having a blonde moment and starting the entire section in the wrong place … ho-hum …

Quaker Huswif 7Jul10 after

Now it’s a case of putting all those stitches back in again – I was originally hoping that I could finish off this entire block by tonight, but having to restitch everything again is putting that a little bit in jeopardy … oh well, tomorrow is another day … 🙂

And hopefully tomorrow there will be none of these … ‘cos I’ve done enough frogging for the week!

Quilting

Quilting help needed, please!

Anne S

I want to start a quilt (I’ve only ever made one cot quilt before, so this is a major achievement in itself wanting to make a big queen-sized quilt) that I’ve been wanting to do for a few years, but when I look at how it’s made up, I wonder to myself why it’s done that way.  You see the individual block looks like this:

And when you start putting them all together it puts a seam smack-bang in the middle of the cream blocks:

Which then made me think, why don’t they stitch the blocks then piece together on the diagonal, either in large blocks with connecting smaller strips, or just big long strips – I’ve tried to make a picture that will explain what I mean:

If anyone could offer advice I’d really appreciate it before I start cutting up my fabric.  While I can understand the simplicity of putting everything together when it’s all symmetrical blocks, it seems an awful lot of seamwork where there doesn’t need to be any … but it could just be me trying to make things awfully difficult for myself for my very first big quilt! 😛

Basically I need to know if I should just suck it up and continue doing the quilt as it was designed in the magazine and make things easy in myself or whether doing it one of the other ways will give a more pleasing result, even with the extra brainwork involved …

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Oops … I forgot …

Anne S

I’ve had a couple of questions about my old UFO in my recent post, wondering what the project is.  This is what it will grow up to become (apologies for the piccie, I just ‘stole’ it from an overseas Ebay site, ‘cos I can’t be bothered finding my original copy and scanning it!):

This is “Le Jardin Silk Sampler” from really old issues of JCS magazine (it was originally printed in two parts) – the designer is Sandy Orton.

As you can see, I’m a looooong way from a finish on this one – from memory I completed one 10-hour rotation on it, then my rotation went out the window when I packed everything up to go into storage, and I haven’t picked it up since (not to mention I’m absolutely detesting one of the Kreinik silks, which also put me off stitching it).  Time to “suck it up, Princess” and get on with making some headway with it … it’s got plenty of specialty stitches thrown in with the XS to give some challenges along the way (not to mention that grotty revolting silk thread which provides a challenge on by itself!).

Cross Stitch, Food, Works in Progress

Last day of the weekend

Anne S

Darnit, I’m sure someone stole some hours from this weekend, ‘cos even with an extra day it’s absolutely flown past!  Mind you, at least I have something to show for it … a freezer full of the following:

Banana and Date Muffins
P1030764

Spicy Apple Muffins
P1030763

Blueberry Muffins
P1030765

Plus I have 3 servings of Spaghetti Bolognese in the freezer now ready for upcoming dinners, and 2 servings of Rice Pudding in the fridge (of which 1 is about to be consumed, leaving 1 more for tomorrow night – yummo).

While I’ve been busy in the kitchen, I’ve been listening to another book – Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  It’s very slow starting, but starting to get a bit more interesting, I guess.  I’m almost halfway through the book now – I’ve really enjoyed having the book nattering away in the background while I’ve been busy.

Last night I put a few teeny tiny stitches into my Quaker Huswif, but not much more to show for it – this will be a loooong project, as I don’t often have time to stitch in bed on an evening, but I want to leave it here in my bedroom as my ‘bed project’.

P1030767

Tomorrow it’s back to work again … {{sigh}} 😛

Cross Stitch, Food, Mirabilia, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Works in Progress

Photo Hunt & Halloween Fairy WIP

Anne S

I flew down to Melbourne with work on Wednesday, which meant a 4.30am wake-up call and being on the road at 5.00am … getting home a 7.30pm … yikes.  Being absolutely shattered, and on the first day of my ‘cycle’, I thought it would be best for all concerned at work if I took yesterday off as an RDO as my mood would be FAR from perky yesterday morning 😛

Anyway, on Thursday I came home from work and was in bed by 6.30pm as Katie flew home that night … and I curled up with book 2 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series (Lover Eternal – Rhage’s story).  I didn’t put the book down again until I’d consumed the very last sentence – I’m now starting book 3 (Lover Awakened – Zsadist’s story), which I’ve been told is possibly the best book of the series to date. 

I’ve tried to ignore the new book calling to me, though, and yesterday spent the entire day in my PJs sat in my stitching chair watching DVDs (Hart’s War with Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell, and disc 3 of season one of The Unit) and clearing the DVR of TV shows that Katie doesn’t watch.  That meant a relatively big chunk of stitching time on Halloween Fairy – I’m almost at the point where I can’t stitch anymore until my two missing metallic threads turn up (they’re on back order), and I need to run to Spotlight to pick up one pack of Mill Hill beads that I apparently don’t have in my stash.  Here is the updated piccie in the meantime – I probably won’t take another piccie until I receive my threads and beads and manage to finish her off.  Oops, just noticed the photo isn’t quite in focus … I took it in the not-too-well-lit lounge with no lights on  … ah well, you can kind of see the fabric better this way, though – it’s being stitched on 28ct Desert Sky hand-dyed linen by Silkweaver.  I was originally a bit worried it would be a bit pale for the stitching, but actually I really like it!

Mirabilia-Halloween Fairy 25Jun10

Today I’ve been relatively busy after having a lazy day yesterday – the morning has been spent attacking the bathroom tiles with Exit Mould and scrubbing the grouting with a toothbrush.  Then I popped a load of washing into the machine before heading across the road to grab a bit of grocery shopping so I can bake some muffins – and picked up a large skim cappuccino as an afternoon treat.  Now I’m awaiting the next load of laundry to finish it’s cycle so I can throw the final one in for the night.  Then I’m thinking of dragging an old UFO out of the ‘bin’ to work on in the lounge while I’m waiting for my Halloween Fairy supplies to turn up … I woke up thinking about this piece, so perhaps it’s only right that I finish it off.

Le Jardin Silk Sampler 21Jan05

Then I need to kit up my final two PIFs, along with two exchanges that need to be stitched over the next couple of weeks – that could keep me out of trouble for a while!  Plus I have a couple of picture frames that I still haven’t put together, although I may save those until next weekend.

I’ll finish off my saga for the day by doing this week’s Photo Hunt …

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
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This week’s theme is ”Purple” – and this week I’ve chosen a spot of purple from Robyn Drayton’s winery in the Hunter Valley, NSW.

Robyn Drayton

Cross Stitch, Stash, Works in Progress

Sydney Craft Show

Anne S

On Saturday I spent most of the day with some of my stitching buddies – Alison, Amanda, Rowena and Karen … and as per usual it was a day filled with good times and laughter, and a teeny bit of stash enhancement.  I actually felt like I was buying things left, right and centre, but when I got home I was sadly mistaken … but the wallet was much, much thinner, so I think I did alright! 

I actually didn’t buy too much – in fact, this is a photo of my entire spoils from the day:  Some acid-free double-sided tape, 11″ Q-snaps and extender kit, Yazzi bag (the colour sucked me in and I couldn’t resist!!), Issue 61 Inspirations magazine, pair of turquoise scissors, 1m of large black ric-a-rac, a packet of Bohin quilting pins, some Christmas glass beads for fobs or something, a ‘tombie’ thread winder from The Gift of Stitching, a piece of 36ct hand-dyed linen from Stitches & Spice, and a scrummy heart pendant made of Apatite.

 

 

The only thing I wanted but couldn’t find was a nice thread substitute for the Rainbow Gallery nightmare thread to finish off Sapphire Star … but I did get two things in particular that I really wanted to buy … some more Q-snaps and some 36ct hand-dyed linen for Sampler Cove’s Quaker Huswif (a chart that KarenV gifted me with quite some time ago).  I’ve been hankering to make a start on this one for a while and some weeks ago made a start on 32ct natural linen but didn’t like the thread coverage, then tried again on 36ct hand-dyed Pipi linen from Countrystitch but didn’t like the colour … now it’s like Goldilocks, this new linen is “just right”.  There was another fabric that was probably slightly better, but it was a mix of blues and pinks, and it was just a tad too pink for me, so I went in a different direction. 

The one I ended up choosing is a dove grey colour from Stitches & Spice (thanks to the girls for helping me decide), and it suits the thread colour just beautifully (I’m using a premium silk floss by Hand-Dyed Fibers in the colour of “Midnight”).  I couldn’t wait to try it out, so late last night I put a few stitches into the fabric to start it off again, and went to sleep with a smile on my face 😛

Tonight I stitched more of the pumpkins on Halloween Fairy, and I’ve completed all the DMC stitches and now have to stitch the metallics … I can’t say that’s being my favourite part of the stitching really – I’m looking forward to having all the metallics stitched so I can get on and do the beading, which in my eyes is much more fun!  Seeing as there isn’t a great deal of progress, I’ll hold off taking a progress piccie for another day or two 🙂