Tag: Cross Stitch

Cross Stitch, Halloween, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, The Trilogy, Works in Progress

Dreaded lurgy

Anne S

I was feeling off-colour most of the day yesterday, and even ended up having a 3-hour nanna nap in the afternoon because I felt so exhausted – when I woke up I had a raging sore throat, and sure enough today it has hung around and I managed to add super-sensitive hearing to the mix.  After croaking my way through a one-hour meeting at work, my boss has sent me home with my tail between my legs to rest up for the afternoon … and truth be told it didn’t take much convincing, ‘cos I’m feeling ‘not too flash’ on the whole.  Everyone at work was driving me crazy noise-wise, so I think it’s very clever that I not stay around any longer or my patience threshold may not survive … yikes!

Last night, though, even though I was feeling crappy I did manage to get a few stitches into a new start – I have about 6-8 Halloween/Autumn projects that I kitted up with the fabrics all cut up, and the threads pulled, so I’ve decided I should continue working my way through those until they’re finished before I move on to something more challenging (and then I can put the threads away again!).  Last night I started The Trilogy’s “October Boo” from their Mini Gingham series – I don’t think it’ll take too long to finish this one off, and it was a really nice change from Just Nan and her squillions of colour changes in one small space!  This one is designed to be stitched over-one, but I cut my fabric larger and I’m stitching it over-two instead.

I’ve been tossing up whether to join a new challenge in 2011, where you pull 15 new-start projects and stitch on a new one every day for the first 15 days of January, then aim to have them all completed by the year’s end.  I love this idea (hey, who wouldn’t love all those new starts? haha), but because I use Q-snaps etc I don’t think this would work for me, because it’d be a right royal pain pulling them apart every night after just doing a few stitches.  Instead, I’m thinking of just pulling 15 new-start projects and kitting them up, then sitting them in a separate bag/basket and making them my challenge to be completed during the year … it’s food for thought anyway!

I have to admit I find it so much better when I have projects fully kitted and ready to be picked up – I’m a real procrastinator when it comes to new starts, and I can go for days on end without starting anything just because I hate cutting up the fabrics and pulling all the threads out … having a basket of ‘ready-to-stitch’ projects means I don’t have to think about it, I can just put my hand into the basket, pull out a new project, and just pretty much start stitching straightaway!  Of course, I do have to get motivated on at least one day to get the projects kitted up in the first place, but I truly do think it’s doable … in fact, I think I may even start working through my list of projects and find at least 15 projects that I really really want to stitch, and find out if I have all the threads (I’m always getting caught out by starting projects and finding out a thread is missing pffft).  In fact, I think that’s a perfect job for this afternoon when I’m vegetating out at home feeling sorry for myself … although just thinking about it has worn me out … so perhaps I should leave the decisions for another day LOL.

Bent Creek, Cross Stitch, Finishes, Summer Snapperland

Summer Snapperland – finally finito!

Anne S

After waiting for 9 months to finally receive the little buttons needed to finish off Bent Creek’s Summer Snapperland, I then kept forgetting to blow off the dust and put the finishing touches into this little beauty.  I finally pulled my finger out today and stitched on the 4 little sand-dollar and seashell buttons and this piece is now finish-finished.  I’m totally thrilled with this piece – I adore the fabric I chose (a hand-dyed lugana), and the colours of the project itself … it won’t be long before I get this one framed, I think, after Christmas 😀

Bent Creek-Summer Snapperland

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Great Pumpkin Challenge 2010, Halloween, Just Nan

More Just Nan finishes

Anne S

I managed to get a whole heap of stitching done yesterday – I put the finishing touches into Scream Girls, then started and finished Pretty Wicked, also by Just Nan.

Just Nan-Scream Girls
“Scream Girls” by Just Nan
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch – Kiwi Illusions colour ‘Pipi’
with recommended DMC threads

Just Nan-Pretty Wicked
“Pretty Wicked!” by Just Nan
stitched on 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch – Kiwi Illusions colour ‘Butterfly Dance’
stitched with recommended DMC threads

This afternoon I intend having another lazy afternoon stitching, as I’m still trying to catch up on a month’s TV viewing from when I was on holidays – hopefully by the end of today I’ll be relatively caught up!

And while I’m catching up, I just may pick up one of my old WIPs to try and get one finished (only only has buttons left to be sewn onto it!)

Cross Stitch, Heartstrings, Just Nan, Works in Progress

As slow as a wet week …

Anne S

That’s how my stitching has been going this week … very VERY slowly.  Last weekend I only had a couple of hours stitching left on Scream Girls, and it STILL isn’t finished an entire working week later … pffft!  Oh well, it’s the weekend, and I just cashed in some “time off work” certificates so I could leave an hour earlier than usual, so it’s time for some self-indulgent time spent in the lounge with stitching in one hand, and a glass of sparkling Shiraz in the other, and some not-necessarily-quality TV on the gogglebox 😛

The piece being worked on tonight, though, won’t be Scream Girls just yet, as I’m still working on Bittersweet Season as my lounge stitching project … by the time I finish this pumpkin my threads just may have arrived hahaha 😛  (Sorry about the fuzziness of the photo, in particular with the bottom section … and that’s even BEFORE the sparkling Shiraz!!)

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Needlerolls, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Travel - New Zealand

Photo Hunt – Stripes (9 October)

Anne S

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The theme on 9 October was ”Stripes” and here are some stripes on the skirts of a Maori cultural group in Rotorua, New Zealand.  The Maori name for the skirt is “piupiu”, and it is a traditional item of clothing made from flax leaves.  I love the swishing sound it makes when it swirls and the dried flax hit each other.  If you want to see some traditional piupiu, you can find some here on the Te Papa Museum website.

ROT-Maori Cultural group_0002

And in keeping with trying to find stitching/needlework examples of the weekly themes, here is the unmade needleroll that I stitched for an exchange years ago – it was a self-made design by using some elements from other designs and making some parts up … I was quite pleased with the end result.

Melanies Exchange for Paula

Cross Stitch, Entertainment & Activities, Mirabilia, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Winter Queen

Photo Hunt – Sparkle(s) (5 June)

Anne S

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On 5 June the theme was ”Sparkle(s)” and this ‘lady’ sure was covered in them!!  He/she was part of the evening’s entertainment at a work Christmas party that had a “Carnival” theme.

AKL-Carnival party_0005_edited-1

Then of course there is always those lovely stitching projects that have lots of sparkly beads and metallic braids offering extra sparkle 🙂

2009 04 28_3292

Cross Stitch, Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches, Photo Hunt, PhotoHunt, Uncategorized

Photo Hunt – Miniature (16 October)

Anne S

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The theme for 16 October was ”Miniature” and here’s one of the smallest pieces of stitching I’ve completed – and most definitely the smallest I’ve ever had framed (and the smallest the framer had ever completed, they found it quite a challenge!). The stitching is just over an inch tall and just under 2 inches wide 🙂  (The bottom photo is the closest to the actual colour of the fabric etc.)

P1040349

P1040350

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Great Pumpkin Challenge 2010, Halloween, Just Nan

More pumpkins

Anne S

Yesterday I had a productive day that started off with planting up some parsley, thyme and chives into pots, along with a stunning velvety red pelargonium, followed by 3 loads of laundry, and finishing with a few hours of quality stitching time while sitting in front of the goggle-box clearing out some taped movies and TV shows. This is the end result of my stitching efforts last night (plus the final 15 minutes of backstitching this morning):

Just Nan-Horrified
“Horrified!” by Just Nan
Stitched on 32ct Pipi hand-dyed Belfast linen by Countrystitch
with recommended DMC threads
(but used B5200 instead of Blanc)

Then this morning I started another Just Nan ornament, which I forgot to take a photo of … it will probably only take me a couple more hours to finish it off, so I might as well wait until it’s finished now before taking piccies.  That one is called “Scream Girls” – just perfect for my Sunday Halloween SAL with Shelleen 🙂

And on that note, I’m heading off to put the electric fan on, and put my feet up in bed and stitch for a couple more hours 🙂

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Halloween, Stash, Stitching Smalls, The Drawn Thread

Awesome squishy mail day!!

Anne S

Today I braved the surface flash flooding and pelting rain of a late afternoon storm and cleared out the PO Box, and was thrilled to see a little card in the box – ‘cos that means there’s squishy mail waiting for me inside the building.  Sure enough, I was absolutely THRILLED to open the parcel sent from Marnie, as it contained my prize winnings from her recent prize draw.  Unfortunately the photos don’t do this little beauty justice – this little vampire stitching case is seriously awesome!  The finishing is absolutely stunning, and there is even the most perfect little pincushion and scissor fob tassel inside!  All I need to do now is decide on the perfect pair of scissors to live in this beauty permanently, and it’s going to be on display all year round … I mean, seriously, could you put this away until next Halloween?  I definitely can’t! 😀

Not only did Marnie provide the stitching case itself, but she also added a little vampire Pez dispenser (so I am no longer a “Pez virgin”) – alas, the pieces inside the dispenser didn’t survive the drive home, which was a marathon due to the surface flooding, as I scoffed the lot during the drive!  Also in the parcel was a few really cool Halloween freebies, that I can’t wait to stitch up.  I’ll be cutting up fabrics for them this weekend, and adding them to my Halloween “to-do-pile” for the coming weeks.  Thanks again Marnie for an AWESOME parcel of treats – I love, love, LOVE everything! 😀


The other mail was compliments of Ann in Scotland having a stash sale – I’m now the proud owner of 4 Drawn Thread charts (Toccata 1, 2, 3, and Chatelaine and Scissors Keeper), along with some of the threads needed (plus the chatelaine fabric).  I’m looking forward to starting at least one of these soon, once I’ve procured the remaining threads.  They look like they’ll be really fun stitching a motif or two each night/weekend 🙂

And on that note it’s time to switch off the “fun” side of the computer, and switch on to the “work mode” side … things are beyond hectic at work thanks to someone’s oversight in another department at the 11th hour, and having an unstable test system … I’m days behind in my own work, so I’ve brought it all home with me tonight to try and get at least 1-2 hours done at home.  I just have to force myself to keep away from the fun stuff on here, which is really really hard … 😛

Cross Stitch, Heartstrings, Just Nan, Works in Progress

Stitching update

Anne S

So much for my fantastic stitching day yesterday – after pottering around and wasting most of the morning and early afternoon, I gave in to my body’s whims and ended up having a 3-hour nanna nap … which felt great at the time, as I obviously really needed it, but it wasn’t exactly conducive to sleeping when it was eventually bedtime!  So, at 10pm I pulled over the stitching frame and started a new little Halloween piece.  I didn’t get too far along with it, but at least it’s a start – even if it currently looks like a funky bright flower, not the four pumpkins that it will eventually be 🙂

Shelleen invited me to join her for a Halloween SAL on Sundays, and I have so many Halloween projects that I’d like to stitch, so it’s likely that most Sundays I’ll do just that.  So this is my Sunday Halloween SAL progress for the first week (although I don’t know how I’m going to stop myself from not stitching on them again until next Sunday – I’m kinda getting used to being a ‘one project stitcher’ … kinda … LOL).

I’m still stitching occasionally on my Heartstrings project in the lounge, with the odd row stitched here and there during the week.  I’m looking forward to getting the missing threads, though, so I can get further along with the embellishments on each row.  It’s an interesting stitch, this one, and it’s nice to be able to complete one little section of rows each stitching session.