Cross Stitch – Page 28 – Feather Stitching

25 Project Challenge, Cross Stitch, Wishlist

Still no stitching to show …

4 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Well, I could show you some, but it’s a bit pitiful … so there’s no point, you see?

So what have I been doing instead of stitching? Catching up on a few blogs, building up my wishlist (even though I’ve only just whittled it down a bit hmmm), and just generally being lazy and unmotivated 😉

Just to spice up this post with some piccies, here are the latest designs I’m drooling over on my wishlist:

Indigo Rose – Beads Buttons and Bows; and Just Nan – Pretty Wicked (I’m on a HUGE Halloween kick right now and can’t wait to stitch something up in those scrummy bright colours)

JBW Designs: English Plum Pudding, and Tis the Season

Lizzie*Kate: Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle, and Tiny Tidings XIII

Romy – Austrian Spot Sampler; and GPA – Santa’s Ride

Charland Designs – Beach Needle House; and C Mon Monde – Trosse Fleurs Bleues

Blue Ribbon Designs – Creepy Crawly Set; and Pelin Tezer – Bird Sampler (sorry, don’t know what happened to that picture!!)

Sampler Cove: Part 3 and Part 4 of the Rhapsody in Red stitching smalls series (you’ll have to check out Deb’s blog for the Part 4 photos!)

And to add insult to injury, after drooling over all these luvverly designs, I’m tossing up whether to go back on my 50 Project Challenge (but reducing it down a step to the 25 Project Challenge) … hmmm, decisions decisions … I’m still waiting for an order to be filled locally that I placed a few months ago, so technically that was all ordered before the challenge would be starting … and I have an order in place from SB&B for Mum, so I just HAD to chuck in a couple of extra things to make the most of the postage … so I still have plenty of stash to come … (that was ordered a month ago, but hopefully it will arrive this side of Christmas!!)

Rightio, that’s it … my decision is made!! I am now officially on the 25 Project Challenge – no more stashing for me until I have completed 25 projects!!! I’m pretty motivated already to stitch through my stash (in fact “obsessed” is perhaps more the word to use!), so it should be pretty easy, truth be told … it’s not as if I don’t have hundreds and hundreds of scrummy designs already calling my name to be stitched – in fact the hardest part will be choosing which ones first!! 😀

That means I can buy no new charts from now on (excluding those already on back order) until I have stitched 25 projects. Once I get my stitching mojo back again, that shouldn’t be too difficult … maybe … 😉 I also need to stitch as much as possible from my existing stash for threads etc – but will not limit myself to buy threads if needed to complete a design. My main exception is for a FOTM I still have with Countrystitch (although I’ve been seriously considering cancelling anyway), and a Monthly Bits order from SB&B for Crescent Colours threads (I’ve had some colours on back order for months and months, and finally decided to just get the whole set and be done with it so no more waiting until I need more than one skein!).

Not much chance for stitching this long weekend – we’re off to a party tonight at which I intend to have a few bevvies … which means I probably won’t get much stitching one tomorrow LOL, then on Monday I’m heading out to the other side of the world to visit with Brenda and Nigel as a belated get-together for Nigel’s birthday, which will be lovely, but which means no stitching again! Surely I must get some chance of getting this dratted sampler finished this weekend???? 😉

Ooh, I just realised I received some stash this week that I haven’t mentioned yet … see, I soooo need to do this project challenge!! As this is such a lengthy waffly post, I’ll leave the piccies until another day, but I’ll run over and take on now 🙂

Cross Stitch, Just Nan

Just Nan’s Evening Star

2 October, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

You may remember earlier in the month I offered up a prize draw for my finished Just Nan’s Evening Star … well, this morning I pulled out the name from the proverbial hat (actually my Dolce Vita perfume bottle box!) … and the winner is ……………

Karoline!!!

I just need to check your mailing address, and also whether you would prefer me to leave it unfinished so you can frame it, or whether you would like me to turn it into a fabric-edged/quilted wallhanging (and if so whether you have a preference for the border fabric colour). I thought I’d wait to give you the choice 🙂

Thanks again for your interest in this piece – I haven’t forgotten that there are a few people interested in the chart itself, but will work on that later, ‘cos now I need to quickly jump in the shower and get to work 🙂

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Almost at the finishing line

28 September, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Thanks for all the support while I’m stitching this ‘dratted design’ – especially to sweet Tannia who has offered to finish stitching this for me. As it’s meant to be a gift for someone, I thought I’d best just knuckle down and get it done … then I can move on to something more fun 🙂

Unfortunately there was a lot of frogging tonight – I changed the honeysuckle flower colour to show up more on the fabric, but then decided I didn’t like it, so I’ve unpicked and restitched it in the original colour.

I’ve since finished one more green narrow band since taking this photo, which means there is just one more band of wording, one more green narrow band, and one more floral band, so hopefully by next weekend a finish will be in sight 🙂

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Garden Recipe update

21 September, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I sat superglued to my stitching all day yesterday (plus Friday night), inbetween doing a couple of loads of washing – I was sorely tempted to pick up a more ‘fun’ piece of stitching after a few hours yesterday, but have a feeling if I put this one down I just won’t ever get around to finishing it. So, perseverance is the name of the game right now – once this one is finally finished, I can choose something more “me”.

In the meantime, though, here’s the current progress … which is substantially different to the last progress piccie! 😀

Thankfully that means I’m now halfway through this piece … fingers crossed one more week of stitching plus a session next weekend, I will see this one finished 🙂

Cross Stitch

DMC on sale!

14 September, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Just in case any of my fellow Aussies are interested, Riot Art & Craft have DMC on sale this month – normally 99c a skein, it’s down to 69c a skein … stock up while you can!!! Here’s a link to the online ad.

Mum – let me know your list if you want me to pick some up for you 😀

And after that public service announcement, and staring at the computer screen for the entire day, I’m off to bed! 🙂

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Just Nan

Just Nan’s “Evening Star”

12 September, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Yippee, I can finally post a “finished” piccie of this piece. This time the photos are crappy because they’re taken at night instead of early morning haha. I still remain very disappointed in the finished result purely because of the colours involved – I love some of the bands, but it just doesn’t “do it” for me.

“Evening Star” by Just Nan (class project)
Stitched on 32ct white Belfast linen
with recommended threads and beads (embellishment kit)

Going by some of the comments I’ve received during the stitching progress it appears there are a few people out there that do seem to like it, so I am pleased to finally be able make the “big announcement”…

This finished project is “free to a good home” – if anyone would like to go into a prize draw for this piece, please leave a comment stating this clearly, and at the end of September I will draw one name out of the hat to send this piece to.

I will finish it as a quilted wallhanging so it’s ready to hang in it’s new home (you will just need to provide the hanger itself). While it is quite lovely, I guess, I just don’t feel compelled to display it on my walls, and probably never will, so I’d rather it went to someone who would appreciate it 🙂

Now I guess it’s time to work out what to stitch next … I’m seriously considering going back to a mini-rotation, as I have some BAP’s that need to be worked on, so I’ll have to put some serious thought into that soon … for right now, I have no idea what I feel like stitching on next. Might have to sleep on it and see what the new day brings … 🙂

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Slap me on the forehead now!!!

12 September, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

I was wandering through the lounge last night undoing my ‘chart holder’ of my floorstand to see if the screw would fit my lapstand, when I looked over to the clamp part … well, duh!!! The clamp part is identical to that of my lapframe, right down to the knob … do you think I could’ve perhaps worked that out on Monday night and not 4 nights later?? What a blonde!!!!

However, that means I did finally put needle to fabric last night after two weeks of doing nothing … and in the hour and a bit I stitched last night I managed to finish the beading of two more bands of Just Nan’s Evening Star. That means only one more band left and it’s all finished woohoo! Then it’s going to be finished into a quilted wallhanging. Here’s the bit I finished last night (sorry for the lousy photo but it’s taken in the wee small hours of the morning):

Once the finished piccie is up, there will be an announcement some of you might be interested in … 😉

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Photos added

11 September, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Thanks so much to Alison, who kindly sent photos over to me last night – I’ve updated the previous post with some fun photos from Sunday. 🙂

Thanks again ladies for an awesome day out 😀

Cross Stitch, Get-Togethers, Home & Family TO BE FIXED, stitching pals

No stitching … again (updated with photos)

10 September, 200830 June, 2018 Anne S

I sat down in bed for an hour’s stitching on Monday to commence a new routine for me … putting at least one strand of thread into my stitching on a daily basis … only to find my ‘knob’ dropped to bits on me! I am loving sitting up in bed and watching TV and stitching away to my heart’s content instead of sitting up in the freezing cold in the lounge, and was mortified to find my lapframe in pieces in front of my very eyes. Unfortunately the wooden part has come away from the screw part, but this part of the screw is actually the ‘top’ and doesn’t have a normal thread to it so I can’t just get away with whacking a lugnut or anything on the end. This is NOT what the knob should look like!!!

So for now, there is no stitching … zip … nada … I get cramp in my hand when I hold a Q-snap etc for more than a few minutes at a time hmmm. But the good news is that I contacted Artisan Designs straightaway, and it’s only going to cost me US$5 plus postage (I think), and they take PayPal, so hopefully it will only be a few weeks before I get a replacement in my hot little hands (once they finally give me a payment amount and place the order!).

Even though I have no stitching to share, I DID have some stitchy-related fun … on Sunday Alison kindly picked me up in her car along with her daughter, and chauffeured me to Amanda’s place where we had a hoot of a day drooling and fondling charts, kits, and threads … and “literally” rolling around in her stash of fabrics! I have never seen such a fabric collection in all my born days – she should charge admission fees to come and visit it 😉

Anyway, Alison kindly took a whole host of photos from the day, so I hope to be able to share with you the great time we had after pilfering some photos. Updated: Here are a couple of my favourites (thanks for the copies, Alison!!):

You have to imagine the Gollum voice impression, while playing in the “precious” – see what I mean about that fabric stash? LOL – You’re the QUEEN, Amanda, I tell ya! 😉

Probably my favourite photo of all – the looks on our faces just sums up the day – hilarious fun!
From left to right: Alison, Amanda, Anne (AAA packed full of fun)

And finally a “nice” shot of the three of us! Apart from the fact my Weight Watchers obviously isn’t working ‘cos I can’t fit in the photo haha

I haven’t laughed that much in ages … those two are the BEST company and an absolute riot! I’m looking forward to the next catch-up already, and we haven’t even planned anything yet! In fact after the weekend visit Amanda finally got coerced into starting her own blog (Confessions of a Fabric Floosy), so make sure you go pay her a visit … she does some beautiful stitching (as do both these two ladies)!

On the work front, today we had a ‘burning issues’ meeting, which is basically a get-together of the “team” without the boss being present … and we got to chatting about the secondments coming up to finishing deadline etc. It turns out that one of the ladies is thinking of giving up the whole job at the end of her secondment in January, which means it’s likely they’ll have to readvertise again later … but one of the reasons this lady put her had up to the boss officially today to tell her is so that it might make a difference to them extending the secondment for me (and Lisa if she’s interested). I only have about 8 weeks left to go but still have had no indication whether they will allow me to stay longer or whether I have to start thinking of uprooting myself again to go back to Melbourne … which is a bit stressful in the back of my mind all the time (especially after the debacle of moving up here with Dodgy Brothers R Us etc – I really don’t want to have to go through all that again). So if you can all stitch with your fingers crossed over the next couple of weeks, that’d be great! I’m hoping now that this lady has raised the issue with management they might finally start to discuss their options in earnest, and fingers crossed it goes in my favour (although there are never any guarantees!).

Rightio, time to go hit the hay and forget about work for the night … and pout at my Evening Star project … hmmm, maybe I should drag in my floorstand from the the lounge for tomorrow night … LOL. If not, I guess you won’t see any stitching again until after the weekend has been and gone, ‘cos I don’t want to sit out in the lounge all on my own in the cold … I must prefer my cozy beautiful bed! 😉

Cross Stitch, Works in Progress

Old French Alphabets

5 September, 200825 February, 2012 Anne S

Joanne in Perth, if you’re reading this by any chance, I just realised yesterday that I had an email saved as a draft for you with the Sajou links – I tried sending to you, but may have written your email address down wrong! Here’s another link in case anyone else is interested and hasn’t seen them before!

French alphabets (Sajou)

Then there is the complete list of old needlework books re-published on the ‘net you might find of interest.

And there endeth my foray into ancient designs today …

Now I’m back to play with my scanner, scanning in photos for the upcoming photo hunts – Mum very kindly brought a box full of my old printed photos with her on the last visit, and there are some really good choices for upcoming themes that I can use … I still have a ‘lump in my throat’ today after spending a lot of the night with my head over the toilet bowl, so I’m having an easy day at home today blobbing out. I can only put it down to a dodgy Turkish meal we had for lunch yesterday, either that or it’s just another symptom of these stupid viral bugs that are all the rage at the moment!

In fact, I might as well also show you a sneak preview of my Just Nan piece, seeing as I still haven’t touched a needle in the last few days (oh mojo, wherefore art though?) … I’ll take a decent daylight photo if I can when it’s all finished – so far this is the bottom 2/3 of the design … I thought I’d leave the top 1/3 off the unveiling until it’s totally finished 🙂

I have to admit I was really disappointed when I started stitching this one – the cover photo looks very blue and purple … whereas in real life there is no blue at all, just purples and greens, so not what I was expecting. Thankfully it’s started to grow on me, and the colour scheme, while not “me”, is quite complimentary I guess if you like purples and greens 😉