Here’s my latest small finish … which has taken me the last two weeks to stitch …
“Let It Snow” by Country Cottage Needleworks
Stitched on 32ct Natural Belfast Linen
with DMC and Kreinik #4 metallic braid
(from 2008 JCS Christmas Ornie magazine)
Tag: Cross Stitch
Stash arriving any day now …
I received my receipt in the mail today from Needlecraft Corner, which means my parcel should be arriving any day now! Sorry Mum it was too late to add some Floss-away bags for you 😦
Here’s the list of goodies coming to Australia very very soon from my personal birthday splurge (from left to right, top to bottom):
- January Box & finishing Kit – Cherished Stitches
- Cirque des Carreaux – Ink Circles
- Scissors By Any Other Name – The Cat’s Whiskers
- Victorian Memories Chaise Lounge – The Cat’s Whiskers
- Rhapsody in Red part 3 – Sampler Cove
- Rhapsody in Red part 4 – Sampler Cove
- Rhapsody in Red part 2 – Sampler Cove
- Quaker Motif Sewing Kit – Fancy Work
Along with the charts, I also have the following on their way:
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1 skein of Gloriana silk (Grannie Smith Green)
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1 spool of Kreinik #4 Braid (684)
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8 packets of Mill Hill beads
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3 packets of Mill Hill treasures
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Juniper WDW Felt (for WMN’s Quaker Turtles)
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1 skein of WDW #5 perle cotton
Phew!! 😀
Of course there’s still plenty more still on the wishlist – and just to prove a stitcher can never truly have enough stash, I’ve recently added the following beauties to the list. Thank goodness there wasn’t too much to tempt me at Nashville this year!! And those things that did tempt me are already on their way here (The Cat’s Whiskers and Cherished Stitches pieces above) … although I wish I’d known about the latest two LHN designs below when I’d placed my order, or they would have been smack bang on the order list too! … oh well, the year is young ;P
Once again from left to right, top to bottom, the details are:
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Travelling Stitcher – LHN
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Sunflower Inn – LHN (I ADORE this one!)
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It’s Cold Outside – Blue Ribbon Designs
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She Sells Seashells – CCN
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Lavender Blossoms Biscornu – Sweetheart Tree
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Lavender Blossoms Fob – Sweetheart Tree
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Cupcakes Glorious Cupcakes – The Cat’s Whiskers
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Simply Christmas Tree – Whispered by the Wind
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Beach Cottage – CCN
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Bayside Bungalows – CCN
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Fruits of the Harvest – The Cat’s Whiskers
Yep, there’s no hope for me!! 😛
And seeing as I have no new stitching to show off yet (although I’m about halfway through my March ornie for the Xmas ornie challenge), I thought you might enjoy the eye candy as much as I did 😀
Back briefly
Just a quick note before I hit the hay for the night … I’ve obviously been ‘AWOL’ for a while, thanks to an extremely demanding and exhausting (and not much fun, quite frankly) job … and I owe a ton of emails to some wonderfully kind and generous ladies for some exquisite birthday gifts from last month – once I send emails of thank you I’ll post some piccies of their incredible generosity.
I have been AWOL not just from blogging, but from emails as well – I have a new record of 1900+ unread blog feeds and 522 unread emails … don’t think I’ll be getting through the backlog in a great hurry!! Anyway, I have stitched in little spurts now and then just to keep my sanity – usually when I’ve fallen in a heap after a week of 12 hour shifts, and working weekends … and Katie and I have popped in our Supernatural DVD’s for the ultimate in chick relaxation … along with a bottle of something alcoholic. I swear before this year’s out, I’ll be signing up for AA meetings!!!
Following are the results of my stitching over the last month – not a great deal to show for it, but then again I’ve hardly been home long enough to put needle to fabric … and this last weekend is the first one in well over a month that I haven’t worked, and spent it all recovering from an exceptional hangover! We cut loose in a BIG way on Thursday night, and suffered well for it afterwards, but it was a great way to let off steam after being so exceptionally stressed all these weeks.
Anyway, on to the sparse stitching – then in the morning I’ll get those thank you emails shipped off, and I can do a longer post, perhaps (I have taken tomorrow off – in lieu of all the extra unpaid hours I’ve done).
First of all here’s the latest update photo of Mirabilia’s Winter Queen … starting with the last progress photo taken:
And what she looks like now (I took a full length photo as I needed to roll up the scroll bars for the, hopefully, final stitching at the bottom). I have to admit I’ve made some good headway with her, more from some serious stitching on Sunday afternoons than anything else – just to force myself to relax and chill out.
Then I had two Christmas ornie finishes last month, just in the nick of time (with 30 minutes to spare) for last month’s Christmas ornie challenge on a Yahoo group. The photos are terrible as I took them just before midnight!
Followed by Part 1 of my Quaker Friendship Round Robin that I’m stitching with a group of some of my closest online pals. Unfortunately I didn’t get Part 2 finished in time for mailing, but as I’ve stitched mine on individual pieces of fabric it doesn’t really matter.
And on that note I’ll sign off as my eyes feel like sandpaper – I’ll try to pop online again in the morning to catch up on my personal emails, and thank yous … I can’t guarantee I’ll be blogging regularly again for a while, though, as work is still feral for a while longer … plus I’ve decided to go home for 2 weeks with the family again – just what I need when I’m fed up at work 🙂
Bad update photo of Winter Queen
Seeing as I’m not sure if I’ll get anymore stitching done until the weekend, I thought I’d quickly jump on and upload my latest WIP piccie of Winter Queen … for once you can see some substantial improvements in the last piccie! Can’t wait to get her finished so I can unroll her from the scroll bars and see her in all her glory … also so I can move on to something else 😉
As previously done, here’s the before and after pics:
Before (closer to the actual colours of the threads!)
After (dunno what happened to the colours in his one!!)
I think the next “major” BAP I’ll focus on after Winter Queen is finished is Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello … so much for my rotation this year, I just want to keep stitching on WQ until she’s done … of course I’m female, and therefore reserve the right to change my mind on a whim! ;P
Winter Queen update
After getting my hair done on Saturday I sat and stitched for a few hours on Winter Queen. Sunday was spent at work the whole day, and yesterday was spent in agony hobbling around at work with an agonising back. Thankfully I had a chiro appointment last night, so I was sent home with instructions to put an ice pack on my lower back followed by some Anti-Flamme ointment, and today thankfully it is quite a bit better. I was so chirpy last week ‘cos I’ve had more energy than I’ve had for at least 6 months … but apparently this is to be expected in the initial stages of the therapy. Still, I feel so much better within myself, the $1000 is worth every cent so far! 🙂
As for Winter Queen, she’s grown a wee bit since the last photo, and I put a teeny bit more into her again last night too as Katie and I sat and watched another 2 episodes of Supernatural Seas0n 1 … just can’t get enough of that show! Anyway, just before I jump in the shower, here’s a quick update piccie – sorry but these update piccies are quite boring, as you can hardly see that much improvement thanks to the lovely blocks of white … can’t wait to get to a nice blue to stitch with 😉
Now for my own benefit, to make me feel like I’ve actually made some progress, I’ve included the before and after shots again… starting with the “after”:
Before
Quick Drive-By
Life is downright hectic at the moment – the weekend was taken up with moving and cleaning, and yesterday I did a 14 hour day at work … and no sign of that letting up for a while. We’re down to two staff members in our team (with one new start, but she’s not trained up yet), with our Supervisor now on annual leave for two weeks – we’re so flat out with our day-to-day work and operational actions that our project work is struggling to get completed (hence the late hours) … even my poor stitching has been suffering, although I have managed to get a couple of stitches in over the weekend … (so much for my New Year’s goals though hmmm)
On Saturday night Katie and I sat in front of the TV in the lounge and watched a few episodes of Supernatural (we’re both massive fans), while I sat and stitched in my recliner. I’ve been stitching while sitting up in bed over the last few months, so it was really nice to get my stitching station set up again in the lounge. The night I managed to get the last stitches put into Cottage Garden, so I have one more finish under my belt. (Sorry about the dark photo.)
“Cottage Garden” by Country Cottage Needleworks
stitched on 32ct cream linen
with recommended threads
Then on Monday night I picked up Winter Queen again and put her back on the floor stand – if you can work out the differences between the last time I left her in May 2008 and now, with the minimal amount of stitches I managed on Monday night, you’re doing fantastic … ‘cos there’s very little to show for my efforts haha. But every stitch is better than none, right? (And if you give up, they’re on the left hand side LOL) 🙂
Before:
After:
Anyway, time to jump in the shower and head off to work – I’m having a slightly later start today ‘cos of my late finish (we’ve been leaving home just after 7am this week) … Roll on 5pm is all I can say, ‘cos I’m off to the Chiropractor and I can’t stay late (yippee!!).
Cottage Garden WIP
Just thought I’d add a quick updated piccie of my latest WIP, as it’s unlikely I’ll get any stitching done tonight. I have another chiro appointment after work, followed by their ‘new members’ meeting which gives you more information about what the chiropractor does and how to help manage you health outside the chiropractors rooms. Anyway, with any luck I’ll get this finished by this weekend … worst case scenario it’ll be finished some time during the weekend anyway, as the border will likely take me a while to complete. The colours aren’t particularly true to this piece, as the fabric is a rich creamy coloured linen. Maybe I’ll try to get a piccie in daylight when it’s all finished 🙂
New WIP
There are some good things about feeling unwell – a few more hours in the day for stitching for one! … I went into the GP today to pick up some antibiotics and tomorrow I go in for blood tests … and I’m soon off to the chiro for my next first appointment of three this week. In the meantime, though, inbetween doing work from home I’ve managed to put a few stitches into my next WIP – Cottage Garden by Country Cottage Needleworks (Just Cross Stitch magazine). I thought a nice quick project was just the trick to keep the spirits up 🙂
Quaker Swan Case
Staying home bundled up today has been great for the stitching progress. I managed to put the final stitches into my Swan, so now it’s being placed into the ‘finishing pile’ for one day when I feel up to the challenge (and once I have some decent cardstock to use). The top photo is the closest to the actual fabric colour.
“Quaker Swan Case” by Fancy Work
Stitched on 32ct Blue Spruce Belfast linen
with recommended GAST threads
I actually finished the beading of my In The Dark Needleroll last weekend, but won’t bother showing a photo until the actual finishing is completed. I guess that means the Quaker Swan Case is actually finish #3 for 2009 🙂
First finish for 2009
I now have huge bags under my eyes and bed sores after stitching my little heart out for the entire weekend, and I enjoyed every little minute of it. I watched so many movies I lost count LOL. Anyway, I managed to put the finishing stitches into a Prairie Schooler sampler I started on Christmas Day – I’d managed to stitch about half of the bottom village scene while I was away over Christmas, then stitched the rest of it over the weekend … a bit mental, but it feels like a great accomplishment. Of course now there won’t be much stitching done tonight, ‘cos I’ll have to be in bed by 8pm to catch up on sleep haha. The photos were taken at midnight last night, so not quite as rich in colour as it is in daylight.
“Good Saint Nick” by Prairie Schooler
stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen by Wichelt
with recommended DMC threads
As you can see from the bottom photo, I was going to post this part finished on Saturday, but decided to just keep on stitching … Next up is probably finishing off a Christmas ornament that just needs a few beads to be added, and my In the Dark needleroll which also just has the beading to be done before it’s finished, then it’s back into the rotation properly again.
Feather Stitching 