Feather Stitching

Cut up fabrics galore…

7 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

I now have two piles of new projects that have their fabrics all cut out ready for stitching … I have to admit I really enjoyed the process of getting all the fabrics out of the drawers, picking out a ‘few’ charts, and attacking everything with the scissors. Of course it’ll take me forever to stitch everything, and I already have a few drawers of projects semi-kitted up from when my stash was all in storage … but now there are even more yummy projects to choose from, including some sweet little freebies.

The projects that have now joined the semi-kitted pile are:

Anita Diamond (GoS) – Quaker Flowers Strawberry Emery
Blackbird Designs – Strawberry Garden
Cherished Stitches – A January Box
Cindy Valentine – Arabesque needleroll
Cmon Monde – Ma Boîte à Trésors
Cmon Monde – Trousse aux Fleurs Bleues
Country Cottage Needleworks – Cherry Hill
Country Cottage Needleworks – Little Ballerinas
Elizabeth’s Designs – Hummingbird
Erica Michaels – Random Hearts
Handblessings Patterns – Christmas Tree Quilt Ornament
Heart in Hand – Christmas Bird
Heart in Hand – Valentine’s Bird
Indigo Rose – Four Little Strawberries
JBW Designs – English Plum Pudding
Just Nan – Dragonfly Scissor Purse
Just Nan – Ladybug Santa
Just Nan – Pretty Wicked!
Just Nan – Scream Girls
Little House Needleworks – Acorn Hill
Little House Needleworks – Blossoms & Blackbirds
Little House Needleworks – Gourmet Garden
Little House Needleworks – Moon and Stars
Lizzie*Kate – Christmas Flip-It
Lizzie*Kate – Fall Crazy
Lizzie*Kate – My Favourite Time
Northern Pine Designs – Blue Bayou (canvaswork – although missing one thread again!)
Serendipity Designs – Beaded Easter Egg
Shepherd’s Bush – Christmas Treat Bag
The Cat’s Whiskers – Happy Holidays
The Drawn Thread – Joyous Christmas
The Prairie Schooler – Autumn Leaves
The Prairie Schooler – Boo To You
The Prairie Schooler – Christmas Eve
The Prairie Schooler – Fall Fields (just the Duck one)
The Prairie Schooler – When Witches Go Riding
The Sweetheart Tree – Blackberry Fob
The Sweetheart Tree – Butterfly Scissor Fob
With My Needle – Maidens of the Sea
With My Needle – Quaker Samplings I

Plus a few online freebies and one chart for a gift 🙂

Of course I haven’t put a single stitch into fabric all weekend, but I had an absolute ball, and it was just what the doctor ordered 🙂

One other thing I managed this afternoon was to set up my old TV in my bedroom with a DVR – my old DVR in the lounge died about 6 months ago, and I replaced it a few months ago … the only problem is that it’s the same brand as my DVD player in the lounge and every time we switch on the DVD player the DVR switches on as well, and when we pause a DVD it switches to the other player and it takes forever to go back again … I’ve been wanting something in my room to record those shows that Katie doesn’t watch, so I can watch while I’m stitching in bed, and now it’s all set up and a few shows are ready for taping … The Mentalist, Cold Case, Medium, House, and So You Think You Can Dance – I’ve missed loads of The Mentalist since we didn’t have enough recording options when my last DVR died (and I had no TV in my room), so now I can start watching those old favourites again – yippee!! 😀

And now I’m off into the kitchen to sew on a couple of muslin strips to my little bits of fabric, then dig out the necessary threads, and then I’m ready to start stitching a couple of seasonal pieces of my new semi-kitted stash 😀

Cross Stitch, Exchanges

Exchanges are back in fashion

7 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

It’s been a while since I participated in any Exchanges, but I decided to join Becky and her group of followers in a Pin Pillow exchange, mailing date 1 April. I just received my recipient’s name this morning, and the first thing I did was to check out her blog to see what sort of designs she likes and if I could find her favourite colour – anything to help me choose something that he/she is more likely to appreciate.

Anyway, this got me thinking about anyone who doesn’t know me who has my name in an exchange – it would be difficult for them to find the same information in my blog … especially as these days that I’m not stitching as prolifically. So, I decided to uplift some of the information from my RAK Registry post, and tweak it a bit, and have now added that as an extra page here – my “Likes” page. Hopefully this will help any future exchange partners to find the information they need! 🙂

And now I’m off to continue cutting up some more fabrics for the two dozen or so new projects that I dragged out of the stash pile last night … I won’t kit them up with their DMC etc yet, or I might find myself in trouble, but at least the fabric will be cut up ready, as that’s my usual drawback when I’m starting something new … of course it will take me the entire year and beyond to stitch them all, but at the moment for me the fun is in the planning 😉

Canvaswork, Laura J Perin, Sapphire Star, Works in Progress

Sapphire Star Update

6 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

Alas, I probably won’t get too much further once I finish the outside border until my missing thread is ordered and arrives. The only other blocks I can probably complete at this stage are ones that have long-ish satin stitches, and I’d rather leave those until the very last to make sure I don’t snag them. In the meantime, though, I still have a wee bit of border left to go yet, so that’s OK. Here’s the progress as I left it last night:

I must say, though, I have got a SERIOUS case of startitis … I have a major urge to start many different designs at the moment, all relatively small ones though – I’m quite honestly thinking of giving myself the rest of the month to just pick and choose and start what the heck I like … I’ve opted to have a low-key birthday this year and not celebrate (to be honest, my mind is more on the sadness of the memorial service and not my birthday beforehand) … so perhaps this can be my birthday treat to myself – and on that note, I just may spend the rest of the weekend throwing fabric and threads together and kitting a few things up 😀

In the meantime, though, I have to now hit the road and drive my elderly neighbour to a travel agent … long story, but this is certainly the better option than the alternative 😉

I also haven’t decided yet whether to bother doing the Photo Hunt today … the theme of “average” leaves me feeling … well … “Average” 😛

Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Stitching? What’s this thing called stitching?

5 February, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

It’s been a very stressful week at work this week … management have decided to add a new element to ‘my’ current big project two weeks prior to launch date – and the department that are requesting all the changes decided they shouldn’t have to write the specs for the technical build team, so that all ended up on my desk, which has taken me 4 days to complete around other tasks … gotta love being able to plan your time prior to launch! mutter mutter mutter. So, it’s been a few 10-12 hour days again this week, which means no real stitching done …

I did, however, sit down last night for an hour or two and dragged out my Sapphire Star again … all excited, I thought I’d fill in some of the inside blocks to give me a change of pace … only to find that I’m missing one thread type … and of course is HAS to be a Rainbow Gallery thread that is like bl**dy hens teeth to find this side of the pond … which means I’ll have to order it from the US … which also means I can’t justify the postage for one card of thread … which means I now have to break my resolution not to spend on stash (charts anyway) for this year. Not to mention I have a tight couple of months financially … but I just can’t not finish my Sapphire Star, ‘cos I’m really loving working on it … oh, pooh, bum 😦

Part of the financial deal is to buy a plane ticket home – I’m off back across the ditch again next week, this time not for pleasure. It’s finally time for Erin’s memorial service and we have to say goodbye for ‘real’. While I’ll love seeing everyone again, I just know it’s going to be really emotional and I’m dreading that part … but at least we get to honour her memory, which is great 🙂

And on that note I’d better run away and get to work, ‘cos I’ve just seen the time … yikes!!! 😮

Naxos, Scenic Sunday, Travel, Travel - Greece

Scenic Sunday – Naxos, Greece

31 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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…

Canvaswork, Laura J Perin, Sapphire Star, Works in Progress

Moving forward on Sapphire Star

31 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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! 😀

Canvaswork, Cross Stitch, Wishlist, Works in Progress

Frog stitching

30 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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, PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt – Spotted

30 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is ”Spotted” – here are some spotted wings that were spotted at the butterfly farm near Auckland Airport.

Home & Family TO BE FIXED, Works in Progress

Things I have learned this week & Thanks

29 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

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 😛

Canvaswork, Laura J Perin, Sapphire Star, Works in Progress

Insert expletive here!

26 January, 201025 February, 2012 Anne S

‘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 😛