Yesterday I spent most of the day doing household chores and pottering around (in particular cleaning out accumulated bags of crap in my bedroom) – that meant no stitching done until about 9pm … I managed to put a couple of lengths of thread into Jardin Prive’s Christmas, but just realised I didn’t take a progress piccie … as I’m now running late for work, I guess it’ll just have to wait until tonight (when I think Bent Creek’s Winter Snapperland will be on the stitching menu) 😀
Tag: Cross Stitch
January Challenge – Day 10
Today saw me undertaking a number of housekeeping tasks, including packing away all the Christmas decorations, cleaning half of the bathroom, vacuuming and even a little bit of dusting (shock, horror, I hear Mum utter) – after the vacuuming I decided I’d had enough of the rivers of sweat pouring down my back and opted to sit for the rest of the afternoon in front of the electric fan and watching Criminal Minds on DVD – which also meant plenty of stitching time today for Day 10 of the Crazy January Challenge, and some brown blobs that will eventually look like little teddy bears once a bucket-load of backstitching is added.
I’m absolutely loving doing this challenge, and like a few other people I’ve seen, I could continue all month doing these new starts, it’s very invigorating.  I will, however, need to think of a potential substitute for Prairie Moon’s Christmas chart if my fabric doesn’t arrive over the next couple of days – oh such hardship, having to find another project to start!!  I’m thinking perhaps Jardin Prive’s Eiffel Quaker … or JBW Designs’ Christmas Pudding … or … or … or … well, a number of other projects waiting in the wings to be started really … 😉
After completing two bears, I decided enough was enough of the revolting Lugana I was stitching on, and I picked up my previously started Christmas ornie and finished it.  I stitched this one a few years ago when I didn’t have the recommended Blue Moon by Crescent Colours, and this time I used the correct blue seeing as I now have that thread in my stash (I did, however, still continue to substitute WDW Kudzu with NN Olive Grove).  This completes one ornie for my monthly goal – but I’d still really like to finish one more, which I have kitted up ready to go (along with two more kitted up ready for next month).  I love, love, love this ornie, and the colours are just stunning … this is possibly one of my favourite ornies EVER!  But that’s a no-brainer really, ‘cos it’s BLUE! 😀
“Winter’s Eve” by Country Cottage Needleworks
from 2006 JCS Christmas ornie magazine
stitched on 32ct natural Belfast linen
with mix of DMC, Needle Necessities and Crescent Colours threads
And on that note I’d better hit the hay, ‘cos it’s now 1am and I need to be up and at ’em early tomorrow to make the most of my final day off 🙂
January Challenge – Day 9 & shopping
Today I left a little later than I originally hoped, but I braved the rush and headed out to Ikea on the other side of Sydney … I love wandering around Ikea but absolutely detest the crowds that are inevitably present. Â I still managed to pick up a few things that I wanted, though, including the main item I went for, a small TV cabinet, and a tall foldable clothes airer. Â A new table lamp also jumped into the cart when I wasn’t looking! Â As well as surviving Ikea, I also picked up a couple of items from Howard’s Storage, including a contraption that sits over your doors and allows you to hang coats etc off it … well, I couldn’t resist it, and it’s now proudly holding two scarves that Mum knitted for me, along with my cross stitch WIPs that are no longer gracing my Qsnaps – at least this way they’ll stay nice and flat and won’t require multiple ironing jobs (although the one on the top escaped the iron the first time round!!) … I also picked up a steamed pudding tin and a drinking bottle for when I get my fat carcass back into the gym this week …
After cooking up a big batch of brown rice for dinner and the freezer, I sat down in front of the electric fan and did a bit of stitching on my Day 9 project. Â I had to laugh at one point, because my stitching reminded me of a stylized gherkin sitting on the fabric …
until I added a few more stitches and turned it into a stylized little hill 😉
It is, of course, the centre panel on the lady’s dress … but alas it will remain looking like a hill for quite some time …
January Challenge – Day 8
I had a really bad night’s sleep with my throbbing leg (compliments of my buggered back), and ended up sleeping in later than I expected to today, which means I didn’t bother braving the traffic to go to Ikea today – I absolutely detest trying to find a carpark at that shopping centre, so I’ll go if I can leave early and arrive around opening time. Â Seeing as I still felt a bit run over during the day, I spent the entire day sat up in bed in front of the electric fan with needle in hand with project #8 of the January challenge. Â This is probably the first one I’ve been quite happy to put down after a number of hours working on it – the fabric is a standard Dimensions kit cardboard Aida, and doesn’t make the stitching particularly pleasurable (I should’ve tried washing it first, but didn’t think about that until it was too late!). Â Anyway, here’s my progress from today:
After putting Tiger Reflections to one side, I started another new start, this one an old Christmas ornament by CCN called Winter’s Eve – hopefully I’ll get chance to finish this one over the next couple of days, as it’s relatively simple and easy stitching 🙂
And that’s it for me for the evening – time to get back into bed, although I can’t guarantee there’ll be much more stitching done this evening!
January Challenge – Day 7
Alas, I didn’t get to sit down properly tonight until 10.30pm, after catching up some FB gameplay and cooking a big pot of “Dragon Curry” (not actually made of Dragons, but my Mum’s curry recipe). Â The outcome is not much stitching done yet again tonight – and now it’s half past midnight so not much energy to post an update … alas this will therefore be another “fly-by” posting … and here’s tonight’s paltry progress:
I’m now on a 4-day break after requesting 2 RDOs next week, so I should get a bit more substantial stitching done during the next 4 days – although I have some other plans as well, including heading out to battle Ikea crowds on the other side of Sydney, starting going back to the gym on Monday to start some exercise therapy for my buggered back, and taking down the Christmas decorations.  All-in-all I’m looking forward to it! 😀
Challenge Day 6 update
Well, I did manage to get a whole 1 1/2 lengths of floss into this one before I fell into a fitful sleep for the night … but at least I met the challenge … and now I’m running late to leave for work, so I’d better just shut up and post the piccie 😉
January Challenge – Day 6
Um, stitching didn’t appear to have been on the cards today thanks to a farewell dinner that I only just got home from (it’s now 11pm) … I guess I can fall into bed and grab my Qsnaps and really quickly put a couple of stitches into JBW Designs Autumn Harvest, and that’ll quality as a start right? Â Hmmm, my eyeballs are just about falling out of my head, so I can’t guarantee I won’t have to frog-stitch again tomorrow, but here goes nothing …
Tonight we are saying goodbye to one of our favourite Indian colleagues, who has an awesome sense of humour, and has one of the gentlest and respectful personalities you could ever meet. Â He’s coming up to marrying age in the next couple of years – which lucky girl wins his heart will have a treasure for life … I miss having him around already …
Um, maybe don’t expect a progress piccie on this one tonight 😛 LOL
Crazy January Challenge – Day 4
You can tell I’m back at work when I don’t get to sit down with my needle and thread until 9pm … on normal days I’d pass on the stitching, but seeing as I’m committed to doing this challenge, I forced myself to pick up LHN’s Ladybug Ladybug and managed to put in 2 3/4 hours into it 😀
I was also thrilled to see a recent purchase arrive in my PO Box this morning – the great thing about ordering locally, even though it’s more expensive, is that it doesn’t cost much more to pay for Express Post and even though last Friday was a Post Office holiday, and I didn’t order the items until last Thursday, even with yesterday being a nationwide public holiday they were still waiting for me! Â The service from Janine at Colours Down Under really rocks!!! Â While I still have one pair of Qsnaps and a couple of threads on back order (needed for the border of Winter Snapperland), I’m absolutely thrilled that I now have another couple of Qsnaps to use for my projects and not having to remove every project every night (especially those that won’t take long to finish) – oops a couple of charts jumped into my shopping basket as well … Scatter Christmas by Shepherd’s Bush and Simply Halloween by Waxing Moon Designs … gotta make the most of the postage right? LOL.
Rightio, on that note it’s time to call it a night and hit the hay … a bit later than expected, but that can be blamed on Season 2 of Fringe and the need to start today’s challenge piece (but more so on Fringe, as I wanted to see the last episode on the DVD, which means only one more DVD for Season 2 to go!) 😉
January Challenge – Day 3
I couldn’t resist putting a few more stitches into Shepherd’s Bush’s Baby Bug Ball this morning – I can’t believe how much I am in love with that design!  It is soooo not my normal choice of stitching project, but I absolutely and totally adore it!  I didn’t stitch the next few alphabet letters as it’s supposed to use a thread colour that is way too pale on the fabric – I thought I’d wait to see what colours were left over at the end, and I would replace that colour with one of the darker greens (but I don’t want to use it yet in case I run out!).  After the 15 days are up, this is is going to be one of the first getting revisited, I think! 😀
I was good, however, and didn’t continue stitching on BBB, and continued to meet the challenge goals by putting a few stitches into Victoria Sampler’s Crimson Fire Sampler. Â This one is a major challenge for me, as it’s been forever since I stitched any hardanger or pulled/withdrawn thread stitches, so it will give the grey matter a run for its money this year! Â I wanted to get this stitched up, though, so I can pass the chart on to an online pal who showed interest in it a couple of years ago (assuming she still wants it, of course!).
Seeing as I’ve handled pretty much all I can cope with today with these specialty stitches (probably thanks to the 3am finish this morning), I thought I’d put it to one side and pick up something simple, and I’m hoping to get a few more stitches put into the Autumn freebie by the Stitcherhood that I started late last year 🙂
Over the last few days I’ve also been working on a couple of my listed items on my 1001 things in 101 days – including putting together a custom recipe book.  I went with something simple, and just put together a ringbinder with plastic sleeves and subject dividers – that way when I find a scrummy recipe in one of my books I’ll re-type it up into a one-page format and will add it to my favourite recipes folder.  Seeing as I’m also trying to cook something out of every cookbook I own, hopefully I’ll also find some new favourites to help fill out the sections.  The great thing about this format is that I can take pages out individually to cook from, and the sleeves protect the recipe and can either be wiped down in case of spillage or just replaced with the recipe left intact 🙂
I think I may also try to make a quilted book-cover for this at some stage, but that may not be this year … the goal of putting the book together in the first place is good enough for me to tick this challenge off the list as “achieved”.
One of the latest recipes I added was some simple finger food sandwiches from the Aussie Women’s Weekly book “Finger Food” – these were wolfed down recently at our work’s shared morning tea … I thought I’d share the goodness with you here (AWW books are some of my absolute favourites on my bookshelf):
SMOKED SALMON, CAPER AND DILL TRIANGLES
Triangles can be made 2 hours ahead. Storage: Covered in refrigerator.
200g packaged cream cheese
2 t lemon juice
1 T fresh dill sprigs
¼ t drained capers
12 slices white bread
180g sliced smoked salmon
Blend or process cheese, juice, dill and capers until well combined. Spread 1 slice of bread with cheese mixture, top with a layer of salmon.
Spread a second slice of bread with cheese mixture, place cheese side down on salmon. Spread top with cheese mixture, top with a layer of salmon.
Spread a third slice of bread with cheese mixture, place cheese side down on salmon. Trim crusts from sandwich, cut into 8 triangles. Repeat with remaining bread, cheese mixture and salmon.
Makes 32
January Challenge – Day 2
It took me longer than I expected to finish my little Baby Lorikeets, but I just couldn’t continue to start a new project until I had finished them off – and here they are in their finished form:
“Baby Lorikeets” by DMC
stitched on 32ct cream Belfast linen
(I replaced the revolting Aida that was in the kit!)
with kit threads (DMC)
I didn’t start today’s ‘real’ project until 8pm … and didn’t put the needle down until just before 3am – I’m LOVING stitching this one!  I’ve never been a huge Shepherd’s Bush fan apart from their needlerolls and Halloween designs, but this one really called out my name and I’m glad I listened – the pastels of this one are really very pretty (unfortunately washed out in the photo thanks to the bright daylight bulb).  I can’t wait for the 15 days to be up so I can c0me back and finish this one off, although I might just have to finish off this middle bug tomorrow, as I only have a couple of letters and the big central flower to complete before moving on to a different bug 😀
And on that note, I’d better get some sleep, Â so I’m fit to do a bit more stitching tomorrow (although I really do have to throw in some housework tomorrow, so not as much progress will be to show at the end of it all tomorrow!).
Feather Stitching 