Category Archives: Counted Stitchwork

Warning: Border Ahead

Posted on February 25, 2006 | 5 comments

Yesterday I finished a ten hour slot on Patricia Allison’s Spring Dragon. I took a ‘before’ shot, since the last one you saw wasn’t completely up to date.

SD-02
SD-03

You can see I spent most of the ten hours on border leaves and backstitching. If you will excuse my language, this border is a bitch! (And if you don’t excuse the language, it still is :giggle: ). I also stitched on a negligible amount of gold treasure, and would have done more if I hadn’t suddenly found myself without 032BF… how can that be possible?! Stash gremlins are at work in my house again, I swear – I’ve also ‘misplaced’ a few of the threads I need for Mermaids of the Deep Blue, which I had intended to start next, and some red crystals I recently traded for (but can’t even remember what they’re for)!

The colour of the fabric, by the way, is woefully inaccurate in these photos. Imagine a lighter colour with a more greenish cast to it, and you’re about there. It’s Rue Green Quaker cloth, for those that need to know 🙂

I went cross-country today to visit a not-so-LNS to pick up some more 032BF, plus supplies for my exchange partner, and fibers for the quilt square I’m stitching in memory of Laura. I do love this particular shop, but I really, really, loathe paying Australian prices for anything. Support local business, sure, but there is a limit – effectively, I couldn’t afford this hobby if I had to rely on getting everything locally 🙁

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, In Progress

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Blah

Posted on February 20, 2006 | 2 comments

Yep, that’s about it. Blah.

I had a very Not Fun blood-taking experience today. The vein in question has apparently decided to bleed under my skin, thus I have a gory looking inner elbow right now. Ewww :yuk:

Oh… in case you’re wondering (and I’m sure you were on the edge of your seats!) a long-neglected WIP won the screaming contest – I dragged out Spring Dragon, and have so far spent 3 hours of a planned 10 working on it. On the never ending border. Achieving apparently nothing. Grrr. Then today I spent almost that length of time again re-kitting it, because I decided I hate working from DMC flossbows for large projects, and have (gasp!) returned to bobbining. I swore I would never bobbin again, but here we are :bored:

Blah.

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, In Progress

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Hot Off the Q-Snaps

Posted on February 18, 2006 | 5 comments

celticx
May I present Elizabeth’s Designs’ Celtic Cross, aka “My first finish of 2006, and about darned time” :giggle: I started this Monday night – a new start to celebrate finishing, of course, and finished it just now. I had to really buckle down at the end, I was seriously over that border. I didn’t time this, but I’d estimate there’s about 12-15 hours stitching in it.

Not sure exactly what I’ll stitch on next – I’m planning on joining in the Monday TW SALs, first off by stitching a fob for an exchange in the Aussie GTG group, and thereafter by starting the 12 Days ornaments. But I’m going to restrict those to Mondays, so I may very well treat myself to another new start tomorrow. Or even (shock!) pull out a long-ignored WIP.

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished

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Petal At 20 Hours

Posted on January 24, 2006 | 4 comments

mdpetal20

I finished up another ten hour slot on Petal Fairy last night. (Plus about 30 minutes to finish the brown I had started in her hair). If you need to remind yourself of what she looked like before, check here.

I’m enjoying doing this in 10 hour slots. So far she’s the only WIP I’ve started timing, but it’s working well for me. It’s probably the most structured my stitching will ever get though.

Thus far, this is the only stitching I’ve done for 2006, which is somewhat disappointing. (Summer + Studying != Lots of Stitching Time 🙁 *) Not sure what’s up next. I have numerous deadlines to meet in the coming 3 weeks :yuk:

In more chocolate-egg related news, Mum found me peppermint eggs today, whoohoo! Not Cadbury though. A slightly inferior brand, who I won’t embarrass by naming. Still good, but not as good, so I’m still pouty. I was slightly cheered when I Googled ‘Cadbury Peppermint Eggs’ and Million Stitches popped up #3 in the results :giggle: For the time being I am transferring my loyalties to Turkish Delight eggs. Mmmmmmm.

* For the programmatically challenged, ‘!=’ is ‘not equals’ 😉

4 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, In Progress

Tagged , ,

Burn, Wagon, Burn!

Posted on January 21, 2006 | 2 comments

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
You know, what sustained me while I was ‘abstinent’, was photographs like these on other people’s blogs. I’m such a voyeur! Now I get to show off my own :giggle:

Stash1Stash2Stash3

The fabric beneath the goodies in the first picture is 28-count ‘Babbling Brook’ hand-dyed Jobelan from Witchelt. It was a spur of the moment purchase because it was so inexpensive. I didn’t know how it would be, but was sure I could find a use for it. It turns out to be quite lovely for Mermaids of the Deep Blue (top-right in the same picture). The beads and Kreiniks in that pic are for kitting up that chart. The floss is courtesy of a lovely Floss Fairy in the States – Jane went shopping for me and bought these at 8/US$1 😆

The metal finishing form is just because I’ve been wanting to try these for a while. The zip-up mesh bag is for storing WIPs in – I love these! And all of the charts had been on my wishlist. Actually, one of the things I really liked about being on the wagon was that I had time to decide whether I really liked a chart once it went on my list. I was continually refining the list, and even when I went to order, I asked myself which charts I really wanted the most.

And yes, I did have a huge splurge to end my stay on the wagon (what with fabrics from Country Stitch and Silkweaver still to arrive). But I don’t intend to continue spending at that rate, that’s for sure. I have signed up for a monthly club (fibers and beads) from SB&B, which will help me to slowly kit up various projects which are waiting in the wings, but which is a relatively small amount of money each month. For the rest, I intend to give myself goal-based rewards – meaning specifically I’m going to try not to buy charts or fabric until such time as I actually finish something! Preferably a medium to large something (which doesn’t happen all that often, as we all know). That’s going to exclude fabric for dyeing though – I’m itching to get dyeing again, both clothing and fabric, as soon as I finish off this final unit at school.

That’s all folks. As I head off to try and catch some sleep, at 10.ish pm, it is still about 30 degrees (86F) here. Tomorrow is supposed to be 43 in the city – it’s generally a degree or two higher where we are, so don’t expect big things from me. Maybe I’ll have a half-arsed attempt at that meme Laura tagged me for?

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork

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Stitchy Eye Candy

Posted on December 27, 2005 | 2 comments

Hope you all had a wonderful time doing whatever it is that you do at this time of year:smile:. We spent the last three days traversing Victoria like mad things, and are now trying to sleep it all off. Here’s a bit of an update on things stitchy in my life lately. Clickety-click on the images for more, of course 😉

mdwfsfrm

Item 1: The promised picture of my simply (but expensively) framed Waiting For Ships. She’s currently adorning the floor, while we contemplate potential paint colours and the state of our finances.

ED-LittleLeaf
Item 2: Probably my last finish of 2005 – Lily Pond, by Elizabeth’s Designs. I craved another finish a) before the end of the year, and b) before I go back to finish uni (on Jan 4). Thank goodness for these gorgeous Little Leaf designs, which are always handy for instant gratification! There’s more to this when you click through – the thumbnail is just of the centre of the design.

Chatelaine-Xmas

Item 3: What else I’ve been stitching – Christmas Mandala Garden, by Chatelaine. I started this one in January with last Christmas fresh in my mind. I dragged it out again after I put Petal Fairy away. Truthfully, it probably won’t see the light of day again until next Christmas. Maybe I’ll finish it then!

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Finished, In Progress

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SBQ x 2

Posted on December 14, 2005 | Comments Off on SBQ x 2

Two-by-two is the way I seem to be answering these lately 🙂 Here’s the latest:

Do you have rules in the way you stitch? (i.e., Do you start in the middle? Do you determine which blocks to stitch first? Do you always start from the top or the bottom? Do you have special paths to prevent wasting thread?)

I always like the ‘rules of cross stitch’ I read on some BB somewhere a while ago. Rule 1: Thread goes in needle. Rule 2: Needle goes in fabric. Everything else is negotiable! That pretty much sums up the way I stitch, though my stitching has changed slightly over time – I used to care about using the least amount of floss and having neat backs. So I would take a path to accomplish those goals. Now I care much more about neat, well-formed ‘x’s, so I don’t worry so much about the backs. As to where I start, I usually start somewhere interesting :giggle: Gridding allows me to start wherever I like, but lately I’ve been a bit lazy about gridding, and have only done a few lines. I started Petal Fairy in the middle because of that. See… no rules! Just whatever suits me at the time.

Have you done any charity stitching, been in one, or would like to organize one?

Nope.

(That one was easy!)

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Memes

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Guilt Free Me

Posted on December 6, 2005 | 5 comments

mdpetal10

I know there’s a bunch of stitchers out there who partake of ‘Guilt Free January’ – in which new starts are permitted without any feelings of guilt about the numbers of WIPs they may be neglecting. I think this is a fabulous idea. So much so, in fact, that I am going to be partaking of guilt free stitching from – oh, now, until whenever I so choose :giggle: Basically, my stitching time is going to be seriously curtailed for the next goodness-knows-how-long, as I slog through (a) this pregnancy, (b) the final unit in my Masters course, and then (c) sleep deprivation and all things newbabyish. So with that in mind, I’m going to enjoy what stitching I do get time for. And there is nothing I enjoy more than new starts! Not saying that’s all I’m going to do, of course. It would be lovely to even finish something once in a while. But given what I just spent on the framing of 2 pieces at the weekend (I’ve been too busy/ exhausted to do it myself), I can’t afford to finish too much anyway :giggle: So in honour of Guilt Free Me, please welcome the newest WIP to my portfolio – Mirabilia’s Petal Fairy. This is the first 10 hours of stitching – and the first time I’ve ever counted time (wonder how long that will last?!). She’s fun, and I will probably do some more on her over Christmas, I think.

5 Comments

Posted in Counted Stitchwork, In Progress

Tagged , , ,

Alien Child

Posted on December 1, 2005 | 4 comments

I was planning to show you our first pic of BabeMkII. But decided I shouldn’t, because frankly, I wouldn’t want to scare you. You might think I was planning to give birth to Alien Child!

Seriously. We got a tragic picture of Finn at the first scan, too. Why are the ultrasound techs (or in this case, the doctor) so uninterested in getting us a good picture? Sigh.

But. We saw fingers (5, on at least the hand we saw. Good sign, right?!), and a heartbeat, and what little else you can see at 11 weeks. It was all rather cute. Apart from the Alien-Child-ness of it all :giggle:

BBJam
So, instead of showing you a work in progress, let me present a HD instead. Ta Da! Blackberry Jam is done, done, done. It was a lot of fun… mostly. Perhaps with the exception of all that backstitching. Which made me stall for a while, but yesterday I finally decided to buckle down and finish. So click through for the whole kaboodle, and enjoy!

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork, Family, Finished, Pregnancy

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Exchanges, Part Deux

Posted on November 29, 2005 | 2 comments

SBEBB_RedR1

I came home yesterday to a package from Terri. Yay! Here is the lovely little drawstring bag and red scissors she sent me as part of the Redwork exchange. Yes, it’s true… I am no longer a sole-pair-of-scissors stitcher :giggle: On the opposite side she’s stitched a monogram for me. You can see that here. Thanks Terri for such a lovely gift, I really appreciate it 🙂

SBEBB_XmasR2

Also as promised, here’s a pic of the ornament Annette stitched for me – also red! And if you look here, you can see the whole bunch o’stuff! The little reindeer fellow is for Finn, who adores all things stuffed and furry, and also adores Annette, who spoils him 🙂

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Posted in Counted Stitchwork

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