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OK, in fact it’s only Thursday morning (very very early) – you see, as a shift worker there is no such thing as a weekend for me anymore … whatever day comes up before my days off, that’s then Friday for me. Well, last night was Friday, so I’m now free to do what I please for two days – which after my shifts this week might just end up being sleeping haha.

In actual fact, I plan in attending the exhibit at my local Embroiderers Guild, of which I’m a non-attending member at the moment. I started going to the new members meetings last year/early this year, but then I started full-time shift work, and it’s been difficult fitting anything in since then. Oh well, I’ll still keep trying. It will be nice to go and see the exhibit, as I always get great pleasure in sharing other people’s stitching triumphs – and going to these exhibits always stirs up the creative side in me again, and makes me want to hurry home and get back to my own stitching.

So that’s my entire plan for my two days off – going to the exhibit, and perhaps getting my hair cut, followed by my work chores etc … not very exciting … but then I intend sitting myself down in my stitching recliner tomorrow night (sorry, I guess that’s now tonight!) and having an hour or three relaxing and stitching. At least I’m on reasonable shifts next week – 8am-4pm – so I can get back into the swing of stitching a fair bit again.

My well thought out rotation has gone out the window before it’s even begun … I’m now committing myself to a new SAL with the StitchNZ yahoo group, on the 1st week of each month. This will only be taking place on the run up to Christmas, as we’re all going to be working on a Christmas project, whether it be a large XS piece or Christmas ornaments. My choice is a Mill Hill chart called Treasured Christmas Trees, and fits in well with my “only stitch from stash” plans – I start buying the required MH charms and treasures years ago when I first bought the chart, so it’s about time I stitched this up and put them to good use. It looks like it could be a relatively quick stitch (albeit relatively boring, as it’s just green thread as the tree background, decorated with beads and charms etc), so I should be able to get the stitching completed before Christmas – and possibly add a Christmas ornament into the mix as well, as I’ve never stitched one before, and figure it will be a new challenge for me …

Well, better hit the hay again – I’ve finished my wind-down post-work, and eyelids are getting heavy … and I need to be up relatively early for the exhibit to make sure I don’t run out of time for drooling 🙂 Hopefully next time I post I’ll be able to post some sort of progress photo of my stitching – as I’ve been very slack at that this week, and haven’t picked up a needle. Plus I really want to build this blog site up a bit more, and need to work out the technology of adding photos to the sidebars etc … that’ll keep me out of mischief for a week, though, not 2 days!!!!

Crikey, the last couple of days I’ve been stitching up a storm – I’ve been exceptionally lazy today, as I had the day off work … I’ve just been sat in my recliner, watching old DVD’s (or rather, listening to old DVD’s), while stitching my heart out on Vicki & John’s dolphins XS. Made a pretty hefty dent in it, but ready for a break now. I thought I’d keep stitching right up to the time I go to bed tonight, then would have a break and work on something new tomorrow – but I ran out of DMC 318, which is the next colour I wanted to stitch with … I figure that was a sign to call it a day. Here’s a piccie of progress to date:
So, now the decision is on for what to start next – my Mirabilia SAL starts next week, so I should probably wait before starting that one … I can either start something new that will be quick and easy to finish, or try and complete one of my nearly-finished old UFO’s, or complete the finishing of one of my pincushions that just has to have the cording added … ooh, decisions, decisions haha. I know I ‘should’ be doing one of the latter, but my greed and selfishness in starting something quick might just win out haha. Anyway, tomorrow is a new day, and I’ll see what direction it takes me when I get out of bed …

Today was an uneventful day at work – the phones were flat out, which made the day go a lot faster, and a good group of people at work today. Last night we had a dreadful thunder and lightning storm, which kept a few of us awake during the night – not helpful when you’re starting work at 5 or 6am!! It was quite spectacular driving to work at 5.30am today, though – the lightning was still lighting up the sky in the distance, and was interesting to watch. It’s now almost 4pm, and back at home again just in time before a torrential downpour is about to hit … the thunder and lightning has commenced again, and the last two claps of thunder feel as though they’re right over the top of my building!

Two days ago, I received an envelope from Strand NZ with some more wool, so I finally managed to put the remaining few stitches in my canvaswork piece today while I was on hold at work. On a 6am start, sometimes the first hour or so is quieter than later in the day, so I packed a couple of small items of stitching ‘just in case’ – I’m glad I did, although very little stitching time was to be had. Anyway, here is the finished product – it just needs to be stretched, which I haven’t tried before.

Spring is truly arrived in Melbourne – our temperatures have been very moderate, and in fact quite warm at times, causing a couple of sleepless nights in the heat. My flat is two stories up, on the top floor of the building, and my front window looks out into the street. What I see, though, instead of street frontage because I’m raised up, is the branches and foliage of the large trees that line both sides of my street. It’s been fascinating to watch closely the transformation of those branches as the days have gone by – in just a few days there have been blossoms forming and new leaves have sprouted from what seems like nowhere! I can’t wait until autumn, when I get to watch the large leaves turn their golden colours before they fall – it’s one of my favourite times of year, and something I didn’t usually get to enjoy in my old hometown of Auckland, as autumn/fall colours weren’t common.

Today, however, nature is venting its fury at something, and it’s a nice excuse to curl up with my embroidery and do a few stitches before I turn in for an early night, and my final 6am shift for the week.

I’ve decided it’s time for me to start a rotation, so I can spend some decent time stitching on some larger projects. Hopefully this will help stop boredom setting in for those I don’t enjoy stitching, and any boredom that does still creep in will be balanced by those projects that I get great joy from. I’m going to try stitching each project for one week at at time – depending what shifts I’m on at work, this might mean one project gets more stitching time than others, but it will no doubt all balance out in the end.

I started thinking of doing a rotation after agreeing to participate in a Mirabilia SAL, which is taking place the 3rd week of every month – I figured why not dedicate the same period of time to other projects too, hence my current rotation idea. My rotation pieces are planned to be as follows:

• Days 1-7 – Dolphins XS
• Days 8-14 – Chatelaine’s Egyptian Garden
• Days 15-21 – Mirabilia’s Winter Queen
• Days 22-29 – TW’s Noah’s Ark

Tuesday night is my UFO night, where I have to choose one of my other UFO projects and put a few stitches into it, regardless of how much time I have to spend stitching … I figure even 1/2 dozen stitches is a bit closer to finishing than it was previously, and eventually those 1/2 dozen stitches add up! I’m also thinking that I may allow one of my days off each week to be ‘free day’, where I can stitch anything I feel like – the same goes with the last day or two of the month, eg day 30/31, these will be free days too.

Hopefully this will be a good way to focus on some of my bigger projects – and also a way to get some projects finished over the next 12 months or so. I guess only time will tell … !!

The last two days I’ve dragged out an old UFO from the box, and managed to put a few stitches into it. Now I remember why this particular project became a UFO (UnFinished Object) in the first place!! It is the most dreadfully boring piece to stitch – mainly greys and drab blues, it really doesn’t inspire me to pick up the needle. But pick up the needle, I must …

I am giving this piece to my lifelong best friend Vicki, and her husband John, as their wedding present. I originally joked for them not to expect it until their 10th wedding anniversary … I didn’t think it would be a serious statement at the time, but as time is marching merrily along, it’s getting closer and closer every year. Well, I decided it was high time that I put some serious effort into this piece. I’m sure the finished project will be nice to see, but boy oh boy it’s hard going to find the enthusiasm I need to stitch this!

I’m about to start a Mirabilia SAL (stitch-along), which takes place the 3rd week of every month, so that should give me enough of a break from this project. Not sure if I’ll keep going until it’s actually finished, but every stitch put into it is a stitch closer to the final product, and I’ll keep going until I’m ready to slit my wrists from boredom ;-P

… I’m having a real spate of bad luck stitching-wise this week.  I moved house about 4 weeks ago, and just getting things in order in the new place … my real joy was finally getting my stitching station together, and curling up with some quick stitching projects that could be started and finished quickly to give me a sense of achievement after moving.
 
Well, that was the plan – and it was going pretty smoothly … I almost finished a Strand NZ little canvaswork kit, Bone Carving on Woven Flax (it always reminds me of home) – when I say “almost” finished, the only thing that stopped me is that I ran out of the background thread, hmmm.  Anyway, a quick email to Strand NZ and apparently a strand of wool is being sent over … oh well, I’ll just have to start something else quick, me thinks …
 
So the last couple of nights I’ve been stitching a Mill Hill chart called “Beading in Needlework – Basics and Beyond” – basically a stitching and beading sampler.  I was going great guns, before realising my 40123 beads didn’t feel like showing their face in the new flat, and have gone into hiding.  Seeing I’ve had the day off work today (due to shift work roster), I drove 1/2 hour out to the local Spotlight and picked up a packet … came home and yet again have got within a hair’s breadth of finishing … only problem is that I’m just short of 8 whole petite beads to finish it!!  Aaaarghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I don’t usually need any help from outside influences to keep a huge pile of UFO’s sitting there, but conspiracy theory is starting to spring to my mind … mutter mutter mutter.  Oh well, back to Spotlight in a few days, I guess, so I can finish it finally … I suppose in the meantime I’ll just have to start something else LOLOL.

Well, it seems I finally can go no further until I buy some more Mill Hill beads, then I can get my bead sampler finished. Hopefully I will see the finishing point by the end of today – if not, I’m sure tomorrow night will see the final stitches being put into place.

It’s a pleasant day in Melbourne today – very overcast, but not cold … all-in-all a perfect day for stitching. I was hoping to get the final stitches put into my sampler before heading off to the bay for a walk, but those darned beads have foiled my plans! I’ve hunted high and low for my own stash of 40123, but they’re alluding me hmmm. The joys of moving house, I guess …

I managed to get a small amount of stitching completed tonight, much to my surprise. I started the Mill Hill chart “Beading for Needlework – Basics and Beyond” 3 nights ago, on 1 September. So far I’m going pretty well, although I’ve misplaced my MH 40123 beads for the short term – no doubt they’ll turn up when I least expect them, but in the interim I may just have to fork out for 1 more packet to enable some more stitching to take place (and obviously I can’t finish the sampler until I get those dratted beads!). Anyway, here’s a photo of my progress thus far.

Today I don’t really have anything stitching-related to write about – but instead I wanted to mention something that happened on another Yahoo group I belong to. Like everyone else, I’ve been watching with horror and despair the devastation left by hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast of USA. Today a posting was made by a group member that read:

“Hi all – I have been watching the news and am surprised at the depth of my feelings for those living along the gulf coast. I did something today that I didn’t think I’d ever do. I don’t have much money but wanted to donate to the cause. I was widowed many years ago and have kept (and still wear on occasion) the diamond ring my husband gave me for our engagement. I sold my ring yesterday and today I gave the $900 I received from it’s sale to a local television station that was collecting. I’m a bit sad that I no longer have the ring, but I’m very glad that I was able to donate such a sum to the relief effort.”

Wow, that just gives me goosebumps and a tear in my eye when I read that – it’s amazing to me to read a story of such great compassion. When I despair sometimes that the world is ‘going to the dogs’, I will always remember this selfless act!

Well, this is my first attempt at joining the ‘blogging’ community – it looks like a great way to share thoughts and ideas, and share in others’ stitching achievements. I’ve thought about setting up an online journal a number of times just for my own satisfaction, but never got around to it – but not all the tools are at our fingertips to just jump straight in.

I’ve been stitching since about 1991, and started with cross-stitching, which is still my favourite relaxation therapy – I can stitch XS and just let the world pass me by, or take the time to destress. About 6 years ago I started branching out with my stitching, and have attended a number of classes at my LNS, as well as correspondence courses, to try different techniques out – these have included hardanger, stumpwork, blackwork, and silk ribbon embroidery. I’ve also just started attempting some small canvaswork pieces to try the technique out.

Born in the UK originally, we moved as a family when I was 6 years old to Auckland, New Zealand, so I class myself as a Kiwi. I moved to Melbourne, Australia 2 years ago on my own, where I shared a flat with different people, including a close male friend. The time came eventually, though, that I needed to find some space of my own, so almost a few weeks ago I packed up and moved to a new flat on my own – I will miss the camaraderie with my buddy Fraze, but will enjoy not having to cook and clean for anyone else but me … as well as not feeling guilty when all I want to do is come home and stitch!!

I work as a reservations consultant for an international airline, and work full-time shift work which means some horrendous shift times, but more free time to myself (that should hopefully equate to more stitching time…).

My stitching plan currently is to finish off some of those old UFO’s that have been cluttering up space for years – as well as stitching new projects purely from my stash … like the majority of stitchers, I have hordes of fabrics, threads, and charts – and now I’m living on my own my living expenses have tripled … see, Mum, I KNEW there was a reason I had amassed such huge piles – it was in preparation for the day when I couldn’t afford to buy any more! haha.

Since moving it’s been difficult to get some ‘spare time’ as time has been spent unpacking – but last weekend I refused to unpack anymore, but opted for some quality time for myself … and stitched a small canvaswork kit called “Bone Carving on Woven Flax” (by Strand NZ). I almost managed to get it finished last night, but ran out of the background thread right at the last part, so I have to wait for the manufacturer to post me one strand more of the wool before I can put the last stitches in 😦 Oh well, it was still nice to pick a needle up again, as I haven’t touched one in approx 2 months!

Anyway, tonight my stitching plan is to start a small project that will be finished quickly – an “Ever So Little” design of a giraffe. Once finished I’ll send the chart to an online member of EGA who loves giraffes, just in case she doesn’t have it already. With any luck I’ll be able to post a completed piccie of it in a day or two 🙂

Rightio, that’ll do for now – I look forward to posting on a regular basis, and joining this fun online community.