Here is my choice for this week’s Scenic Sunday – one of my absolute favourites of Naxos, Greek Islands. Ah, just seeing it again makes me sigh with the feeling of peace and harmony…
Moving forward on Sapphire Star
Even though I’ve spent more time tonight frog-stitching (I swear, I think I’ve had to frog-stitch something in every single block of this chart – I’m so out of practice following canvaswork charts!!), I decided I was in the mood to stitch a bit more on it, and I’m pleased I did … I managed a reasonable bit of forward motion on it 🙂
I ADORE the colours in this piece – the blues, greens and purples are so lush! 😀
Frog stitching
Well, I finally bit the bullet last night and sat down in front of Dawson’s Creek (over halfway of the whole series now, thank goodness … the end seems so much closer now LOL), and mindlessly frog-stitched Sapphire Star. This is one of those cases when the “before” and “after” pics seem to be so, so wrong! 😛
BEFORE …………………………………………………… AFTER
Instead of starting my stitching on it again, though, I thought I’d wait until I had a day of concentration available so I didn’t cock it up again, and added just a couple of stitches into my other WIP. Unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy stitching this one the first time round, and I can’t say why but things haven’t changed much, so it’ll be a long-time WIP I think – even though there isn’t a great deal of stitching, I get fed up with it really quickly … even if I only get an hour’s stitching inbetween other WIPs I think I’ll be happy enough. I’m also disappointed that the purple thread isn’t as dark as my original one, so the bright turquoise seems to be more overpowering, rather than equal in colour intensity … but hopefully when more gets added it’ll be OK.
Ooh, before I forget though, I have to say I’ve just seen yet ANOTHER chart that has gone STRAIGHT to my wishlist … loving everything “Paris” this one just HAS to come to Mama at some stage:
In fact there have been a few designs over recent months that have appealed and probably need to go officially on my wishlist … I’m not sure if I’ve shared these already, but perhaps I will just to share the love and to spruce up this post? Here are many more designs that have tickled my fancy recently:
Blackbird Designs-Summer Iris; Cherished Stitches-Tulip Collection; Bent Creek-July Sings
Bent Creek-Joyous Noel; The Cat’s Whiskers-Noel Natural; JBW Designs-Tis the Season
Lizzie*Kate-3 Blox kit; Dessins DHC-White Christmas; Milady’s Needle-Christmas Elegance
Lizzie*Kate-Jolly Holiday; Rosewood Manor-Ring in Christmas; The Trilogy-Snow Treats!
The Victoria Sampler-Christmas Village; Stitching Treasures-Thistle Stitcher’s Purse Kit; Stitching Treasures-Antebellum Sewing Kit
Chatelaine-Peacock Mandala Mystery; Cross-Eyed Cricket-A Summer Place; Dessins DHC-Laura’s Embroidery
From Nancy’s Needle-Shades of Winter; It’s Fine-ally Finished-Percy kit; Needles Prayse-English Whitework Sampler
Primitive Needle-Witches Hollow; Rosewood Manor-Quaker Diamonds; Stitcher’s Hands-Funky Frank
Twisted Threads-Mini Gingham October Boo; The Trilogy-Halloween Spot; Shepherd’s Bush-We Will Go A-Haunting
Shepherd’s Bush-Spooky Halloween; Shepherd’s Bush-October; Glendon Place-Witching it was Halloween
Heart in Hand-Halloween Markings; Hinzeit-Charmed Peek-a-Boo
Glendon Place-Monster March; Cross Eyed Cricket-Skeleton Crew
Now after sharing a very eclectic mix of designs, I’m off into the HTML code of my blog to yet again fix up the silly sidebars that every so often (after no changes from me, mind you) expand themselves so they drop to the bottom of the page. I wonder if it’s when they do a new ‘refresh’ of WP? Anyway, perhaps this time I’ll learn and do a copy and paste into a Word document of my blog code so I can just copy and paste it back again later when it happens again … ‘cos it’s like the Pantene ad, it may not happen overnight but it WILL happen (again … and again … and again).
Photo Hunt – Spotted
PhotoHunt
Things I have learned this week & Thanks
First of all, thanks so much for all your feedback on my canvaswork piece. I have to agree with you on the frogging part, and I will be unpicking the blue centrepiece and moving it further down. Which is one of life’s lessons I have learned this week:
- When a chart’s instructions says count twice, stitch once, it really MEANS count twice, stitch once! Dyslexia in this case is not a good idea, or frogs will appear in multitude!
- Telling whining co-workers to stop grumbling about every piece of work that touches their desk works miracles – when a co-worker begins to ignore you at work, it will feel like all your blessings have come at once, and leads to a much more harmonious, peaceful, and enjoyable workplace! Admittedly, those headaches I’ve been having the last couple of days are probably due to her sticking pins into her voodoo doll of me, and not due to work stress, so that’s all good 😛
- When you’re tossing and turning at 1.30am with a million work issues running through your mind, putting the light on and writing them all down in your diary will actually free your mind … however, what it then does do is allow more thoughts of PERSONAL to-do lists to run through your mind instead – but then you realise it’s Friday and you only have one working day left to go before the weekend, so can manage on 2 1/2 hours sleep … which finally frees your mind to get another 3-4 hours sleep – and your diary is already partially planned for the day so, heh, it’s a win-win all round 😛
- Avoiding social events where it is very easy to get suckered into having ‘bad’ foods may be anti-social short-term, but the feeling of getting on the scales and seeing a loss of 2.5kg over 1 1/2 weeks offsets it (I really do need the discipline at the moment, and would rather forego dinners and lunches and outings etc short-term to get my mind in a stronger place before adding that extra challenge). So far, so good, and still feeling very very virtuous 😀
I still haven’t frogged my needlework yet, but instead over the last two nights I’ve spent a short time cutting out mattboard and attaching batting, and matching backing fabrics, to start finishing off Christmas ornies – these are mainly ones stitched by my Mum, which haven’t been finish-finished yet (it’s OK Mum, I’m not nagging you again haha). I figure it’ll be a nice change to sit and lace a few ornies on an evening instead of stitching in front of the gogglebox – here’s what our lounge looks like right now 😛
And on that note, I’m about to leave the lounge room in its untidy state, and carry my Sapphire Star into the lounge to do the frog-stitch … rippit, rippit, rippit … so some time next week I’ll be ready to start getting ‘back in the saddle’ again 😀
And on another note, we’ve just decided to head over and see Sherlock Holmes this weekend … it doesn’t get much better than this 😛
Insert expletive here!
‘Cos it’s not appropriate that I print what I just uttered when I found out I’d miscounted in yesterday’s stitching session on Sapphire Star … and of course I had to find out after I’d almost filled in the top sections – only to find that I started the blocks about 7-8 rows too low. Here’s how it looks right at the point that I found the mistake:
So that means I either have to fudge it by missing out the dark diamond above the main blue one (in the centre – not stitched yet), or I have to unpick the bottom block lines, along with the entire big centre blue block and move it down those 7-8 lines … oh crap 😦
Funnily enough my stitching urge just went out the window … I think I might read a book tomorrow instead 😛
A spot of finishing
This has been sitting in my finishing for a couple of years – awaiting the back to be personalised … I managed to finally do the personalisation before Christmas when I was housesitting across the other side of Sydney, but I then misplaced the backing board which was already cut out with batting attached. Finally today all the pieces came together … literally … and I put the finishing touches to my pinkeep for a stitching pal that I haven’t seen for quite some time. The name has been removed to keep the surprise, but hopefully it will be in the mail some time soon 🙂
This is a freebie angel by Lavender and Lace, stitched on 32ct Waterlily linen by Wichelt.
My Country … for Australia Day
Thanks to Annette, for reminding me of my favourite Australian poem, in honour of Australia Day:
My Country
by Dorothea Mackellar
- The love of field and coppice
- Of green and shaded lanes,
- Of ordered woods and gardens
- Is running in your veins.
- Strong love of grey-blue distance,
- Brown streams and soft, dim skies
- I know, but cannot share it,
- My love is otherwise.
-
- I love a sunburnt country,
- A land of sweeping plains,
- Of ragged mountain ranges,
- Of drought and flooding rains.
- I love her far horizons,
- I love her jewel-sea,
- Her beauty and her terror
- The wide brown land for me!
- The stark white ring-barked forests,
- All tragic to the moon,
- The sapphire-misted mountains,
- The hot gold hush of noon,
- Green tangle of the brushes
- Where lithe lianas coil,
- And orchids deck the tree-tops,
- And ferns the warm dark soil.
-
- Core of my heart, my country!
- Her pitiless blue sky,
- When, sick at heart, around us
- We see the cattle die
- But then the grey clouds gather,
- And we can bless again
- The drumming of an army,
- The steady soaking rain.
- Core of my heart, my country!
- Land of the rainbow gold,
- For flood and fire and famine
- She pays us back threefold.
- Over the thirsty paddocks,
- Watch, after many days,
- The filmy veil of greenness
- That thickens as we gaze…
-
- An opal-hearted country,
- A wilful, lavish land
- All you who have not loved her,
- You will not understand
- though Earth holds many splendours,
- Wherever I may die,
- I know to what brown country
- My homing thoughts will fly.
Ruby Tuesday – Chillies
Here is my choice for this week’s Ruby Tuesday – fresh chillies at a local supermarket (well, it was local at the time I took the photo!).
Update to Sapphire Star
I have to admit to growing a little tired of Dawson’s tonight – the endless squabbles and melodramas of a group of teenagers is finally wearing on my nerves … BUT I swore I’d sit and watch the entire collection of DVD’s and I will continue to do so even if it kills me or drives me to the booze cabinet! The GREAT thing, though, is that it’s good to stitch by, ‘cos you don’t really have to look up all that often and can just listen to them all drivel on amongst themselves on the TV screen 😀
Which means, therefore, there’s some reasonable stitching progress from tonight … the close-up shows the colours relatively well, considering it was taken in a darkened room, directly under my Ott-Lite … unfortunately the ‘whole’ photo looks exceptionally washed out thanks to the Ott-Lite 😦
Tomorrow is a public holiday for Australia Day (well, I guess technically that is now “today”, so happy Australia Day to all my Aussie friends!!) … I said I would join the throng of hooligans at The Rocks for a free music concert, but truth is I really just want to sit around all afternoon in front of the goggle box with my honking great tapestry needle in hand, working away on getting some more colour into my Sapphire Star … sounds like a blissful plan … all I need now is some really bad weather to force me indoors 😛
Feather Stitching 
