Tag: Cross Stitch

Cross Stitch, Home & Family TO BE FIXED

Best laid plans gone awry

Anne S

Today I finished work at 1pm (yep, the one great thing about starting work at 5am is the finish time!), and I drove straight over to David Jones at Chadstone shopping centre, to suss out and likely purchase one of these little suckers …

 Blue Nano  Silver Nano  Pink Nano

So, what happened?  Well, I know you’ll be really surprised to hear that I was going to buy the beautiful turquoise one, but I’m also quite taken by the simplicity of the plain silver one … oh decisions, decisions!  What made it easier to decide today was that there was only colour to choose from, and one colour only … yep, you guessed it, bright fuschia pink!  What do you think I did?  Those of you who guessed I bought one anyway don’t know me very well … I tucked my tail between my legs and moseyed on home again, after asking the sales guy to call me when they got more in 😉  I’ve decided I was already happy to spend an extra $50 myself towards my voucher, so with the money from Mum, Dad, and the ‘Smithies’ added in I’m thinking of still chipping in and getting the 4GB option instead of the 2GB one.  At least them not having one in stock means it gives me more time to get the money together 😀

In stitching news, nothing to report today except after seeing Carol’s progress on Bordeaux, I realised I’d totally screwed up band 3 by using the wrong thread for the leaves … which makes sense when I think about it – which means I have to do some frogging … bugger! 😦  It’s also a stinker of a hot night in this little flat, so I can’t see me doing much stitching again tonight – I’ll try for at least an hour, then I’ll do a bit more tomorrow night as well to make up for it before I take another progress piccie.

I’ve been craving red meat all week this week, and I have to say since my freezer got emptied I haven’t bought any red meat into the flat … while I was at ‘Chaddy’ though, I picked up one whole marinated lamb steak to try, and two lamb shanks to cook up on Sunday afternoon – I’m drooling just thinking about it.  I used to be disgusted at home when we had our cat Rio – because I was the only one in the family who really loved lamb, I rarely got lamb as a food choice, while the precious cat got lamb every week, the little sod … not to mention the fresh whitebait and prawns, he got better fed than we did!! LOL.  Here he is hogging the chocolates one Christmas haha.

Rio with the choccies

Anyway, talking about steaks, I’d better get mine cooking so I can still sit down and have an hour’s stitching before bed!!

Before I forget though, the decision was taken out of my hands by SB&B about continuing my monthly Mystery Bits wishlist … you can’t have a wishlist anymore, and can only choose up to 3 threads you’d like to collect, so I’ve cancelled it.  I’ve been a bit annoyed the last two months, as three months ago I asked if it was possible to focus on sending all the overdyed threads on my list instead of other items, which was OK for one month, then the last two months I’ve received a mix of allsorts again, and not the threads I really wanted.  In some ways I’m glad the decision has been made – now I’ll just buy them as I need them, and forget about SB&B 😀

Cross Stitch, Rotation, Stitch-alongs, Works in Progress

SAL revisited (updated)

Anne S

My apologies to Carina, but my SAL plans for last night were thwarted somewhat … thanks to the bushfires still raging in rural Victoria, it attacked transmission lines to the national power grid in NSW, causing massive power failures throughout the state of Victoria.  We lost our power at work just before 4pm yesterday, killing our lights and air conditioning … with a temperature sitting at 39C, that wasn’t much fun (but luckily I only had to survive 1/2 of that).  Then driving home all the traffic lights were out as well, causing a delay in travelling anywhere.  When I finally got home I had power on for one hour before losing that … I figured even though I had to have an early night due moving back to a 5am start today, I’d still get an hour’s stitching on my Macaw … then the power died while I was checking emails, and put paid to all those plans – it was way too hot to stitch without an electric fan on, and too dark in my stitching area without my ott-lite … so no stitching done at all for the night.

Tonight, however, I’ve also decided to change my mind yet again – and I’m going to unpick what I’ve done and do everything over-one … yeah, I know, I must be stark raving bonkers, considering I hate over-one stitching normally!  I’d opted to stitch over-two because there is one blended thread in the chart, but I’ve decided to just choose one of the colours used and stitch that part in just one colour … fingers crossed it’ll still look alright hmmm.  So, tonight I’m going to spend at least one hour getting a couple of stitches put into my Macaw to make up for last night … I just have to work out which fabric to use now …

Then tomorrow night I need to decide whether I continue a bit more with the Leporello, or whether it’s back to the Bordeaux Sampler for this week’s stitching session ready for a progress piccie on Friday/Saturday.  It probably all depends on how shattered I am this time tomorrow, I guess …  I have to admit I had a dreadful night’s sleep last night thanks to the shocking heat, and no power (it came back on during the night, but I was too dopey to get up and switch the fan on, just kept waking up every 1/2 hour and going back to sleep again) – it also appears my neighbours downstairs have had their baby, as the last two nights have also been spent listening to it screaming its lungs out while I’ve been trying to sleep … to say I’m little Miss Cranky Pants today is probably an understatement LOL.  One of the benefits of living on my own that I’m soon going to miss … not having to smile and be friendly when you come home feeling like death warmed up – there’s no-one to think about and impress, and my ducks don’t care if I look at them with baggy eyes and scowling frowns 😛

Actually, talking of the Leporello, I can probably show a progress piccie from the other night – I got very little done on it, but it’s a bit more than before so any progress is good progress 🙂  I’ll continue with this one now until I’ve completed 10 hours, then the next rotation slot is Mirabilia/L&L so I’ll put some more stitches into Winter Queen (which hasn’t been touched in an entire year … very very bad!).

My current rotation is as follows:

  1. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  2. Smalls/ornaments – Stitching Leporello
  3. Charity blocks/Free choice
  4. Canvaswork/Hardanger – Flight of the Bumblebees
  5. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  6.  UFO (Mystery – ie randomly picked by drawing a number out of a hat!)
  7. Smalls/ornaments/gifts – Strawberries So Faire (but doing Leporello instead this time)
  8. Mirabilia/L&L – Winter Queen
  9. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  10. Band Samplers/Specialty Stitches – Le Jardin Silk Sampler
  11. Finishing items
  12. Smalls/ornaments – My Treasures Workstation or Lavender Rose Sewing Case
  13. Focus piece – Egyptian Garden Mandala
  14. Kits & Classes – probably Ete en Grece (French kit of Greece)
  15. UFO (Chosen) – Nature’s Resting Place
  16. Quilting/Stumpwork – GCC Gracie stumpwork or The Blue Collection quilt
  17. Free choice – (not decided yet – whatever screams loudest at the time)

Crikey, I have a lot of projects in there – hence the reason I’m thinking of reworking my rotation, as it takes too long to get to some projects.  Maybe I’ll just work my way through it in its entirety once or twice then decide … I’m almost keen to become a one-at-a-time at the moment to get a few projects finished, but then again with a rotation I don’t get bored on the whole.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the latest unimpressive update of the Leporello … now I’ve got to get that fan on and find some fabric to restart my Macaw!

Last week’s blob has been replaced by an even smaller blob – I decided to just stitch the Macaw on some 28ct white Lugana.  It’s pretty slow going, but I’ve managed 2 hours stitching on it tonight anyway … and now I’m off to bed.  I thought I might as well show a piccie of the blob, otherwise it’ll be another couple of weeks before it resembles anything, and Carina will wonder if I’m actually stitching along with her! 😉

Macaw at 17Jan07

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

“It’s good to be back …”

Anne S

A HUGE “g’day” from Elwood!!! Yep, this is actually me sitting in front of my very own PC in my very own little flat – no, Houston, we no longer have a problem – we have a phone line!!! 😀 The phone technician called this morning to see if I was home, and if he could come round … his job today still went ahead, but he finished it sooner than expected, and was able to fit me in woohoo!!! 😀 Unfortunately the phone jack is now right in front of the front window where the Christmas tree usually sits, so I’ve had to spend just under $40 for a 12 metre extension cable and double adaptor, seeing as my computer is miles away, and the double adaptor I had already got was for the geriatric phone connection originally in place – now we have a snazzy new one.

I’ve already made one call home on it, and exercised the phone line for almost 2 hours chatting to Mum … and here are some photos expressly for her – the latest on my wall cracks. The first one also includes a great shot of the newly finished phone connection (I still have to vacuum up the mess and move the furniture back), as well as the lovely new crack I have along the middle of the wall, just nicely in line with the height of the sofa.

Next up is the top corner of the same wall – the window is now so out of plumb I can’t actually close it at all, and the phone technician reckons the floor in the corner is actually on a bit of a slope now hmmm.

Next is the corner behind my bookcase which divides the lounge and dining rooms.

And lucky last is above the balcony door frame. Some of them actually look worse in real life than they do in the photo … yep, definitely a good time to be looking for somewhere new, before I end up making an unexpected visit to the downstairs neighbours by landing on their heads!!

As for stitching, not as much to report as expected … here’s the latest progress photo of Bordeaux Sampler – I stayed up last night to finish of the over-one parts, and it’s been put away again until next week. You can see by the groups of grapes down the left hand side of the border where the halfway mark is, so I’m now very very close to it 🙂 Don’t worry Carol about not being in the same place – I know you’ve been very busy doing gift stitching … it’s still nice knowing you and Leslie are stitching it as well, even though we don’t have a designated night for it 🙂

Lastly I can show the latest UFO I’ve finished – this Cream Button Bag by Shelley Warner was from a Guild weekend Retreat in Auckland … it just has to be made into a bag now, but that will happen on one of my ‘finishing’ slots in my rotation. It’s pitiful how long this has been sitting around, as it only had four leaves left to be completed and the buttons added – it only took about 1-1/2 hours to finish!

This week I also started a SAL with Carina on the Ross Originals Macaw – it’s hardly worth showing a progress piccie, as there’s only a few stitches to show for it … but by next Wednesday there should be something worth showing, as that’s our new SAL night 🙂

Rightio, now it’s time to get the icing ready for a chocolate cake I made this morning … I’m not a baker by any stretch of the imagination, but I figure my skills will never improve if I don’t give it a go, so I’m stretching myself a bit. And the guys from work are going to be my guinea pigs to help save my waistline 🙂

I also made Honey Coconut Biscuits which are quite yummy … and a case of 2nd time lucky! I was making them on Wednesday morning to take into work, but the final ingredient was self raising flour, and when I was sifting it I found a big clump of insect eggs … everything ended up in the bin. Then I finally made them again last night, and managed to have an accident with the oven tray – while taking it out of the oven the heat started coming through my right hand, so I tried to jiggle it a bit in my hand, only to have the whole thing start slipping … I automatically grabbed it with my left hand, only to remember I didn’t have an oven mitt on it – let’s say I remembered bloody quickly!! Luckily I have a heap of ice cubes ready made in the freezer, and I ran a 1/4 sink of cold water and dumped every single cube into it – the throbbing pain was insane, and it’s no wonder people sometimes don’t survive major burns due to the shock from the pain! Anyway, it seems the ice bath really helped, as today it’s only slightly tender and the blistering is thankfully in places that is letting me have full use of my hand … phew!! I even managed a bit more stitching on Bordeaux after the accident, I think more to take my mind off it than anything else 😉

I still can’t switch to (non)Beta Blogger, and I’m getting sick to death of clicking on the “we are ready for you, switch now” blurbs … this kept happening for a while before losing my phone access, and it’s still happening. It’s getting a bit annoying, but perhaps I should just ignore the prompts until it changes into something nasty, like a final demand letter 😉 Either that, or start looking at alternatives, as I understand a few people haven’t been able to comment on my blog for quite some time 😦

Well, no more chatting for me – time to get moving, as I have an early shift at work tomorrow (a mix of 8am and 5am shifts for 7 days), and I still have some housework to finish … as well as organising some rental alerts on a few suburbs, and to get that icing done.

Oh boy, it’s good to have the ‘net at home again!!! 😀 Mind you, with 1160 unread feeds, I’m sorry but I really do have to mark all as read and start from scratch – it’s just too much to handle. I hope I won’t miss too much by doing that 😦 Hope to catch up with you all again soon 😀

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Finishes

Scissor Fob Exchange

Anne S

Phew, Su has received her scissor fob exchange from me, so I can post a piccie. For a beautiful close-up of the stitching you’ll have to pop over to Su’s blog, as mine is just done on the scanner and much less artistic 😉 I was majorly stressed over this exchange, as Su’s stitching and finishing is so awesome, and I had the huge delays with SB&B with the ‘extra goodies’ arriving. Anyway, it’s finally reached it’s destination safe and sound, and I’m very happy! This is my last exchange for a little while, though – and putting the stress factor aside LOL, I’ve enjoyed each and every one 😀



Silken Roses Scissor Fob by The Sweetheart Tree
stitched on 32ct Lavender Mist Belfast linen
with the recommended threads
but omitting the eyelets on the back and personalising
with our initials and the year

Rightio, time to have brekkie then it’s back to my stitching corner … I’ve decided to stitch Summer Solstice by Eventide Designs for my needleroll SAL, and if I have time I’ll also try and finish my Snow Fall needleroll from last month too … oh dear, I guess that means no housework again today, that’s too bad hahahaha 😀

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Round Robins

RR and Turbo Needles

Anne S

It’s been a very busy day in my household … for my needles! Absolutely nothing else has been done, but my needles have been flying since 8am until 10pm and I totally finished Wendy’s RR piece woohoo!! 😀 It means I should be able to get it in the post next week, well and truly before the Christmas rush. Here’s a scan of my winter block, as well as a very poor photo of the whole thing finished 🙂


I should have been stitching a needleroll for this weekend’s SAL, but I just couldn’t put the RR down until I’d got it all finished. Now I have to decide which needleroll to stitch tomorrow … it’s a choice between Summer Solstice by Eventide Designs, or a freebie on Classic Stitches website – ooh, decisions decisions.

Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Round Robins

RR & Exchanges … and stuff

Anne S

Thanks for all your comments and emails of support – I’m still feeling a bit ‘blue’ (which I would normally be happy about haha), but I’m getting there slowly. Anyway, I won’t dwell on my current issues now, as I’m trying hard to keep them from my mind and not brood on things. I just wanted to post a few piccies of the fantastic exchange I just received today.

I received my scissor fob exchange from Cari, and I’m seriously blown away by her generosity … not only did I receive the most exquisite fob in my fave colours, but also a pair of “Julia” Gingher’s scissors, no less, and a VC silk in the most glorious blue … I’ve been shaking my head like a stunned mullet (there’s an Aussie saying for you) ever since I opened the envelope at lunchtime – and 6 hours later still feel gobsmacked by it all. The fob is absolutely gorgeous, and Cari’s stitching and finishing is awesome … I definitely don’t feel worthy … I just LOVE everything, and it will all be treasured for years to come – thanks again so much Cari!! 😀 I’ve taken piccies of the whole kit and caboodle, as well as trying to take a close-up shot of the front and back of the fob, so here goes:


On top of that I remembered to take a photo of the recent RR’s I’ve been participating in … this one is Lynn’s RR so far, with just one more stitcher left to go (I stitched the Winter square earlier – sorry for the out of focus photo).

And this one is the latest RR I’ve received – this is Wendy’s … and I just have to stitch the Winter square on this one before it gets returned home to Canada. I’m hoping to get some quality stitching time over the next weekend, so I’ll concentrate on getting some of this stitched up then (as well as finishing a gift piece now my missing Kreinik braid has arrived). Anyway, I thought Wendy might like to see how it’s looking so far – hopefully I can whip through the stitching quickly so it can be posted back before hitting the pre-Christmas rush.

Tomorrow is a public holiday here in Melbourne – the only city I know where the entire city has a holiday for a horse race! I loved the description I just found on this website (actually the rest of the page is quite a fun read – and some of the Aussie slang is great):

“Melbourne is famous for Australia’s premier horse race “The Melbourne Cup” held the first Tuesday in November at approximately 3pm at Flemington Racecourse. It is a public holiday in Melbourne, and in the rest of Australia and now in many parts of the world people stop work just to listen to this race. Horses from all over the world come here to participate.
The Queen entered a horse in this race a few years ago – it did not win. Generally it will be won by a horse that has been bred in New Zealand.”

Personally I won’t be having the day off, as I’m working (and I’ll be very grateful for it when payday comes, as it’s a double-time day which will be exceptionally handy this coming payday!!). I do have to admit to spending $2 on a non-essential item yesterday, which in 7 days isn’t bad going 🙂 It’s pretty compulsory that you get involved with this infamous horserace and I joined the throng for the work sweepstake … very high roller this betting chick 😉 Apparently the horse that got put against my name is a relatively good one, not that that will make much difference – but it’s all a bit of fun and the entire office gets behind it. My horse is called “Efficient”.

Anyway, that’s all from me tonight – just wanted to post those couple of piccies … and say thanks for all the support – it has really helped to keep my spirits up 🙂 {{hugs}}

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Gifts TO BE FIXED

Gift stitching … piccies

Anne S

That’s the only thing I hate about secret stitching … I can’t share piccies until after it’s been received, darn it! Seeing as it won’t give the game away, I’ve decided to show you a sneak preview of my current gift stitching, though. It’s about 2/3 finished now, but I can’t complete it until I get a spool of Kreinik braid … fingers crossed that’ll be in my first parcel from SB&B that’s on its way and should be here within a week’s time … if not, that’s the time to start panicking 😉

Actually, I just heard from Jenna that her birthday gifts have arrived safely, so I can also add an extra piccie to this post … I didn’t take photos of the extra goodies I sent, but I did take one of the lavender sachet I stitched. I haven’t done any hardanger really since I took a beginner’s class about 5-6 years ago, and haven’t tried wrapped bars before (ie just wrapping all 4 threads together), but it worked out OK – it was strange using such large count fabric and pearl cotton (#3 and #5), but the finished product is really pretty. I chose it because lavender is a natural therapy for headaches, and poor Jenna is regularly plagued with them – thankfully USA Customs restrictions aren’t as strict as here, and you can send lavender into the country, yay. The design is a freebie from the Classic Stitches website. I’m so happy it arrived safe and sound, and that Jenna likes her goodies 😀

Other than that, not much has been happening in this neck of the woods – after my appalling night’s sleep yesterday, I managed to get tuckered out and went back to bed at midday for another 3 hours – I felt much more human after that … but at least it got my kitted up projects entered into a spreadsheet, which has proved helpful already as I searched for a DMC thread for my gift stitching yesterday – I had a quick look at the spreadsheet then went straight to the right project to grab the skein out … awesome!

Tonight it’s back to early nights for sleeping, I need to be in bed by 7.30pm to try and get 8 hours before being up at 4am for work … 4 days of 5am’s this week, finished with one 9am shift at the end – only 5 days straight again, oh boy am I loving that!!

Thanks to a conversation Isabelle and I have been having, I’ve been contemplating making a patchwork quilt next year … I’ve been dreaming about it for a number of years now, but never started one for myself, and I’m thinking 2007 might be the year to try it out. I’ve been looking through my quilting books and choosing some possible designs … once I’ve narrowed my choices down I’ll share some piccies.

Rightio, back to listening to the last part of Jeffrey Deaver’s Cold Moon novel (I’m really enjoying this one) and Bordeaux Sampler (I’m giving it some well-deserved stitching time, seeing as it’s been neglected for a few weeks) … it’s OK, though, Carol, I’m not motoring too far along with it today, just enough to show some difference 😉

Cross Stitch, Finishes, Round Robins

A small finish

Anne S

By the following piccie you can no doubt guess what I did today on my first day off … stitched my little heart out! In fact, I stayed in my PJ’s all day too … such decadence! 😉 But it means Lynn’s RR block is all finished except for the one little Mill Hill bead that I can’t find right now (and after my last experience, I’m not in a major hurry to rush out just to buy one little packet LOL), and my name – other than that it’s all finished yippee 🙂 I’m not sure whether this counts towards my 50 Projects Challenge, as this wasn’t technically from my stash (apart from the DMC) …

Now I’m off to do a tiny bit of stitching on the Dratteds while watching Two Weeks Notice on TV, before heading off to bed for the night.

Cross Stitch, Gifts TO BE FIXED, Stitching Smalls

#3 of 50 and a Special Visit

Anne S

Two reasons to celebrate today (3 if you include the fact I only have one more 5am shift left this week woohoo) … I can cross off project #3 from my 50 Projects Challenge – and the final product (with those very very expensive beads LOL) went to the lovely Katrina today 😀 Yes, it’s true, we got to meet each other face to face today, and she’s even lovelier in person than on her blog, if that’s possible! 😀 It was awesome that we got to meet up and spend some time together before she flies home – and she says a big “hi” to everyone!! She sneaked in a quick blog reading session while visiting family at the weekend, but no doubt will be catching up properly when she gets home again 🙂

I had originally planned to stitch Katrina a self-designed needleroll, but my creative juices just didn’t come together in the end with my health issues etc, and the final design still needs a bit of tweaking … a quick glance over Katrina’s wishlist and I found the Cherry Blossoms Fob by The Sweetheart Tree hiding in there, which I had in my stash all kitted up for myself … it became the perfect solution. I’m still disappointed my needleroll didn’t come to fruition, but I liked how the little fob turned out, and will definitely stitch it again for myself (even with the pinks LOL).
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Unfortunately dopey me forgot to pack my camera to take with me today (my brain doesn’t really function at 4am – it’s even slower than it normally is, and that’s saying something), so I couldn’t take a photo myself, but Katrina had hers, as did her Mum, so you can look forward to one down the track when Katrina gets home hopefully 🙂

I couldn’t bring a photo home with me, but I did get spoilt rotten and given a beautiful gift from Katrina too … this is a design I’ve been ogling for a while now, but haven’t gotten around to stitching it for myself yet, and now I don’t need to – I now have a gorgeous pinkeep to have on display, and it will always remind me of our first meeting, so it will always be treasured … I just love it!! But that’s not all, I also got a needleroll chart by Forever In My Heart, who I’d never heard of before … this chart is so versatile as you could use just about any colour combination, and I’ll definitely be stitching one of these soon (in fact my mind was ticking over with the thread possibilities as soon as I had it in my grubby little hands). I just love everything, thank you so much, my friend – and it was such a wonderful treat to meet you! {{hugs}}
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Unfortunately it’s now onto very mundane stuff, after all that excitement, as I have to get all the housework done tonight ready for a workmate arriving tomorrow evening, then tomorrow a lot of the prep needs to be done ready for Saturday night’s dinner banquet here … can’t say I’ll be even looking at a needle, never mind using one, before Sunday (if that). When I do, though, I’m thinking of throwing my rotation out the window until I get the Dratteds done completely … I would dearly love to get the Dolphins stitched by year end, and my new idea is to stitch 10 hours on them, then stitch a Christmas ornie or needleroll (just something small and quick) or do a spot of finishing, then back to 10 hours of the Dratteds and so on, until they’re finished. If I do that, I’m hoping to have them finished by the end of October, especially if I can really put some serious work into them on my days off … well, that’s the plan anyway … but you know what they say about the plans of mice and men … 😉 LOL.

So in the words of Looney Tunes’ Porky Pig … for now, “th-th-th-th-th-th-that’s all folks!” 😉

Cross Stitch, Exchanges

Mail Art Exchange

Anne S

I know Zohrah hasn’t received this yet, seeing as it only got sent out last week, but as far as I know she doesn’t read my blog, and I’ve decided to post a piccie of it anyway while I’m waiting for my dinner to reheat. Here was my 2nd attempt at the same design thanks to Mr Postman … I made a pretty crappy attempt at the buttonhole closures, and definitely need a lot more practice, but it looks OK, I think. The buttons were bought in Auckland while I was visiting in May … funnily enough, I bought 4 of them at the time … perhaps I knew something way back then!!! The names have been taken out for privacy reasons. The design was from one of the XS magazines that I can’t put my hands on right at this minute (mainly ‘cos I can’t be bothered to go looking – if anyone is desperate to know leave me a comment and I’ll track it down for you later).

(the front)

(the back)