Enjoying a sense of peace one stitch at a time
I managed to get part 8 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello finished today (the pincushion) – I’ve been a little hermit all weekend, and loved every minute of it. I’m all caught up with Supernatural season one, and now part-way through listening to The Kite Runner on audiobook … ah bliss 😉
I really should try to take a better photo in daylight as this one doesn’t show the colours very accurately at all …
It was a perfect Saturday – sitting up on my bed all day stitching my little heart out. I started stitching The Prairie Schooler’s “Duck” last night, and put the final stitches into it today – I just love this little fella!! It’s intended to turn him into a tin topper, but I think he’d look nice in so many different finishes I’m now undecided!
After my Duck finish, I also polished off part 3 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello – this was just a small design, but it still took me a wee while to stitch. Thank goodness for Season 1 of Supernatural to keep me company all day (thanks to Katie at work for loaning it to me). I must say I think the colour choices for this one are quite “strange” … hmmm.
I also put a couple of stitches into part 8 of the Leporello, which will eventually be the pincushion – I might even get that one finished tomorrow, as it’s quite a small piece to stitch.
Mum and I spent the day out yesterday enjoying the sights of Mittagong, Bowral and Berrima, and had a great day out! Unfortunately it’s getting down to the last couple of days of Mum’s visit … it’ll be really quiet round here after she’s gone!! I haven’t had time to sort out our photos from yesterday yet, and seeing as it’s now just after midnight here I might leave those until a later time … I will, however, share the photos of my latest stitching finish …
Here is part 2 of Chatelaine’s Stitching Leporello … I had a sneak look at the finishing instructions today and nearly had a heart attack … luckily I don’t have to think about it too much for a while yet as there is still loads of stitching to be done, and I only intend to stitch these inbetween other stitching such as Winter Queen. I must say, though, that I really love this block, and in particular those little flower urns! 😀
Here’s my latest ‘small finish’ that I put the final stitches into yesterday (this was my holiday stitching piece that had an attack of the frogs the first night):
“Christmas Tree” by Twisted Oaks Designs
from 2005 JCS Christmas Ornie magazine
Stitched on 28ct opalescent white Cashel linen
Some substituted threads – instead of NN Lemon Delight I used
Carrie’s Creation Gold Glow, and instead of DMC 349 for
the hearts I used Carrie’s Creation Scarlet
Also my progress from yesterday after finishing the ornament … I chose something already kitted up and ready to be picked up at a moment’s notice … this is the stitching of part 2 of the Stitching Leporello by Chatelaine … perhaps I will finish it today? Or perhaps not … 🙂 (sorry for the bad photo but I took it after midnight last night and can’t be bothered taking another one)
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 …
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)
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! 😀
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!!! 😀
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!!! 😀
That’s what my day has entailed today … not a single stitch has been done, although I managed to stitch about 2 more inches of Winter Queen’s “derriere” and white fur before I hit the hay last night. I won’t bother taking another WIP photo though, as you’re probably sick to death of seeing her by now 😉
Instead I’ve been doing a spot of housework, tidying up the lounge and my bookcase – plus unpacking one more box in my bedroom. This contained a multitude of items … including a little note I’d jotted down at some stage – that note was to add a couple of designs to my wishlist. I couldn’t remember what they looked like, so I did a quick search online, and I have to say they’re still on my wishlist … I absolutely adore the Starry Night one!! This is from one of my favourite paintings (I have the full chart by Fine Arts Heritage, I think, to stitch – it’s quite large, and unlikely to be stitched in my lifetime but I still had to own it!).
“Starry Night” by White Hart Designs
“True Blue” by White Hart Designs
Now it’s back to the box again – I’d really like to clean out this one before I got to bed tonight … that leaves just 15 boxes left to go!! 😛
Feather Stitching 