Feather Stitching

Sydney Stitchers Get-Together

5 June, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

We’ve been out of town for a few days, and I didn’t take the laptop with me, so I’m only now catching up on the last week’s events.

Last Sunday (1 June) I held a get-together at my place for 6 lovely Sydney stitchers (8 including Mum and myself) – even though my place is only small, it was a lovely day catching up with everyone and seeing their finished works and those that are in progress. Some even managed to do some stitching, but I certainly wasn’t one of them 😉

Here’s a photo I took on the day … apologies to those that aren’t 100% perfect in this photo but it was the best of a bad bunch! Working round the room from left to right are Robyn, Margaret, Mum (June aka the Dragon), June (Alison’s Mum), Alison, Amanda, and Karen.

I’ve also stolen Alison’s photo from her blog (hope you don’t mind Alison), as her photo is much better than mine and of course the giggler in the pink T-shirt is me (I know, ME in PINK!!! LOL) 😉

There was plenty of chatter and plenty of eating happening, and the time just flew by. Thanks again ladies for making it a really enjoyable day! Now I can’t wait for the next one to be held! 😀

One thing I did do on the day was to dismantle my scroll bars on Winter Queen so I could take a quick photo of her – not the best photo, but nice to see her in all her current glory, even if she does look washed out! I might try to take a better photo before I roll her back up again.

The rest of the week has been spent driving to Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, so I’ll document each day individually as there are quite a few piccies to share …

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Finishing, Stitching Smalls

Biscornu finish

31 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Did you hear a lot of muttering and cursing down under last night? If you did, it was likely to have been me!! I was all set to finish-finish my beautiful red tuffet/biscornu … and had the pieces freshly ironed ready to go, with the perle cotton and threads ready to start making wee tassels … Remember my joy in finally finishing this project??

Well, as soon as I started to thread needle through the backstitching on the sides, I thought to myself “hey, those fabrics feel totally different in hand” … and lo and behold on finer inspection and measuring they have been stitched on two different thread counts so the sides don’t match up!!! Lesson to self … do not take thread count on labels as gospel, always check before stitching!!! To say I was less than thrilled was a HUGE understatement last night – I was absolutely gutted … that means I have to either stitch the big piece again on the new fabric, which I have plenty of, or I have to try to find other fabric to match … considering I had such a bad run on stitching the main piece previously I have absolutely NO desire to stitch that again. Anyway, it’s been thrown in the corner to sit in disgrace until I decide I have the motivation to look at it again and decide what the heck to do … ho-hum 😦

Luckily I had another design ‘in reserve’ to finish as a biscornu for the Monthly Finishing Challenge that Becky has been organising … this one seemed to go relatively hitch-free, although I wish I’d left a bigger margin of “clear” fabric at the edge of the design before starting the backstitching for the whipstitch join, as it looks a little ‘busy/crowded’. Never mind, I still like it, nonetheless … So, here’s my attempt for this month, just in the nick of time! 😀

“Mystery Sampler” design by Debbie Draper
from Gift of Stitching Magazine (issues 6 and 7, 2006)
stitched with Carrie’s Creations threads
finished with seed beads from U Bead It (Sacramento, CA)

PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt – Self (yourself or part of you)

31 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is “Self (yourself or part of you) and I don’t have any recent photos of me personally, so I took one of my ‘wounded’ hand. See if you can pick which one of these pudgy fingers I tried to lop off with the meat cleaver a few weeks ago … ! I trimmed the nail back today as I’ve started catching it on things, and the nail is still a bit ‘sensitive’ for want of a better word. I was very very lucky, that’s for sure!!

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED

Happy mail day

30 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Just a quick post to thank Ally for her kindness in sending me this wonderful chart off my wishlist – I’ve drooled over it big time already, so it’s a good job it’s in a plastic covering! LOL. The design is Maidens of the Sea by With My Needle – which comes with some very very cute little fish thread holders.

And I absolutely ADORE the Paris postcards – I’ve decided to put a couple of them up at my desk at work to give me a smile every day … Paris remains my favourite city in the world to date, so looking at those postcards will always evoke wonderful memories of my visits there. Thanks again Ally for your generous gift! 😀

Christmas Ornaments, Finishes

May’s Christmas Ornie

29 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Yesterday I started and finished my Christmas ornament for the monthly challenge on XSers Yahoo group. Unfortunately I chose to stitch on 32ct instead of 28ct, which means my teeny buttons look overpowering on it, so I’m not bothering to put them on … I may still add larger red ones to the corners when it’s eventually made up into an ornie though – in fact, I think I’m due to have a large ornie-finishing session soon! 🙂

“Spool Ornament” by Sue Hillis Design
from 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine
Stitched on 32ct white Belfast linen with DMC

Stash, Works in Progress

Bit of Stash and Progress

28 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Not much has been happening over the last 24 hours – Mum and I spent the entire day at home stitching our little hearts out (I didn’t even get out of my PJ’s until we went out to buy petrol at 7.30pm!!!). I managed to quite a fair bit of stitching done on Mirabilia’s Winter Queen, which seems to be all I’ve been stitching on this month. It would be lovely to actually get her finished, but I think once I’m back to work again that goal will still be quite some time away. I’m probably just short of halfway through the stitching (you can see the full piccie in my sidebar). In the meantime you’ll just have to get bored seeing her skirt in various stages of completion! Although I may soon unroll her and take a full photo … even I haven’t seen her in all her total glory as yet! 😉

I’ve decided to take her off the floor stand for a few days, though, so I can work on a couple of smaller items for a short while – including finishing my biscornu, my monthly Christmas ornie, and something I want to stitch as a model for Karen.

Today we’re doing a bit of housework – the washing is in the machine, and the dishes are done, now we’re about to strip my bed and put freshly ironed sheets on … while it’s a pain in a patootie to iron those darned things, it’ll be sheer bliss to slip between them tonight!! They’re pure Egyptian cotton with a very heavy thread count, and unfortunately no polyester so they crease like hell in the washing machine.

Anyway, rather than bore you stupid with our mundane tasks for the day, I’ll leave you with a photo of our spoils from The Stitching Post on Monday … the only things not in the photo are the DMC skeins that Mum bought. I don’t tend to buy too much these days – although in saying that there are some items on order from Karen that haven’t arrived yet … can’t wait for them to arrive!! 😀

Cross Stitch, Sydney

Just a quick post with a few piccies

26 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

We just walked in the door after being out all day yet again … we were originally going to drive up the coast tomorrow, but we’ve opted to put that off for a few days, and have a day or two relaxing at home instead. Today we called in to pick up some drying racks for my washing to go on the balcony, then headed out to the Blue Mountains for the day.

We started off my stopping at Leura, where we spent plenty of time drooling in the imported lolly shop – I’ve never seen so many lollies in one place in my life!!! We were very good and only bought a couple of items (some Walkers treacle toffee, Barratt’s nougat, and lemon bon-bons), then sat and had a lovely lunch (albeit damned pricey!) at a local cafe. Mum had pumpkin soup while I had a sandwich with smoked salmon, capers and lettuce etc.

Only one side of the Leura lolly shop – there is another wall on the other side and in the middle!

After our stop at Leura we drove over to Katoomba and took a short bush walk to the Cliff Top viewing platform to watch the Katoomba SkyRail head across the ‘canyon’ – and I then tried to kill myself off by taking another very short bush walk to see the Katoomba Cascades (although this one was a steep walk, hence the knackered state I arrived in back up top!).

Walkway from the carpark to Cliff Viewpoint

Katoomba SkyRail car on its way back from the viewpoint station

View of the Blue Mountains from Cliff viewpoint

Our final stop today was to visit Karen at The Stitching Post – here Mum bought a Just Nan chart, some DMC and Aida fabric, while I bought some Dinky Dyes and Gloriana silks, GAST and Crescent Colours threads I needed, plus a holiday treat from my wishlist, The Drawn Thread’s Spot of Winter.

The Stitching Post, Katoomba

I also managed to take a couple of really crappy photos of the first three of the pieces that Karen has framed for me – they look great in real life! 🙂

“For the Birds” by The Drawn Thread

“Geranium House” by Country Cottage Needleworks

“Necessities Sampler” by Little House Needleworks

Now we’re blobbing out at home, about to put the TV on and put needle in hand, once we’ve had our turkish bread and dips for dinner … washed down by my new favourite Chardonnay … “Stonier” Chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula – ooh, yummy!!! 😀

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

Wonderful day …

26 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, the Dragon definitely celebrated her birthday in style this year! I’ve provided a small sample of snapshots from each part of the day …

We started off by popping into Spotlight to stock up on DMC that Mum needed, along with some fabric to make me some cheap pyjama bottoms … then we parked the car and hopped on the train into the city. We headed straight to Darling Harbour, starting with the Chinese Garden of Friendship, which Mum really wanted to see during this visit. They were really lovely to walk around, and we were lucky with the weather, as it had been raining earlier in the day. It was a very pleasant way to spend an hour or so.

Next up was back over to Cockle Bay Wharf (still at Darling Harbour) where we headed to the Lindt Cafe to stock up on naughty goodies (I’ve fallen in love with Lindt’s Delices … oh my goodness, they’re divine!!!). Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them before they were demolished, but another blog has a photo here.

Then we popped next door to Nick’s 103 Cafe where Mum had a lovely prawn and avocado salad for lunch. Here’s a photo of Mum tucking into her lunch, with her Lindt goodie bag sitting under her guard and watchful eye … and even though she doesn’t look it, she’s really enjoying her day out! 😉

Afterwards we had to hustle a bit to wander over to the Star City Casino and Lyric Threatre, where we saw the Phantom of the Opera. What a wonderful show – the stage settings, costumes and music were all truly haunting and magical, and Mum really loved every single minute of it, or so she told me afterwards. I’ve seen it before, but still really loved it myself … and a couple of the songs never fail to take my breath away! As photography is banned in the theatre, I’ve borrowed these files shots from a Phantom of the Opera website …

After the show we took a slow walk around Darling Harbour and over to the QVB Building to catch the train home while we reminisced about the day and the show. When we got home we finished the day off with a bit of stitching (on my part anyway), a glass of wine for me and a botte of Corona for Mum, and a couple of episodes of NCIS while munching away on our Lindt delicacies …

Here’s a quick shot of Cockle Bay Wharf at night:

And to finish off, here’s my latest photo of my progress on Mirabilia’s Winter Queen (geez, I’m soooo loving that white and Wisper thread … not!). Sorry she’s now headless, but I can never be bothered unrolling the towel and taking a full photo of her!

Ah, such a blissful day … those are the things that dreams are made of!!! 😀

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Happy Birthday to The Dragon!!!

25 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

It’s my Mum’s birthday today, so we’re off to do some shopping at Spotlight on the way to the train station, then into the city to spend the rest of the morning at Darling Harbour. The highlight of the day will be tickets to Phantom of the Opera, which was my birthday present to Mum. (That photo was taken a few years ago – there have been a few additional wrinkles since then haha.)

We had a great day yesterday – the day included a massage, a walk along the beach, and a few hours at the Cronulla wine and food festival called “Jazz and Shiraz” … I’ll do a full write-up when I get a chance. Right now I’ve gotta run and get changed so we can “hit the road Jack!”

PhotoHunt

Photo Hunt – Shoes

24 May, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is “Shoes” and Imelda Markos I ain’t, so here’s a pair of my smelly old running shoes … fresh after doing a 6000 step walk around the beach front with Mum this morning. I tried adding a bit of sepia toning to add some interest to a boring photo 😉

ph shoes 2 copy