Author Archives: paulainauckland
WIP Wednesday #229 & September WIPocalypse
WIPocalypse is hosted by Mel at her blog http://measi.net/measiblog/ ; it’s my favourite SAL, mostly due to the host organisation (which is spot on), the range of topics & the wide variety of stitchers participating. There’s always something to oooh over! Click on the link to the right.
September Focus:
- Finish Persephone – YAY!
- Bead the top third of Fairy Idyll – done, despite somehow losing two packs of beads.
October Focus:
- Complete the wings, Rabbit’s Kreinik ball & face/neck/back over one stitching of FI’s skin – partially done as I completed the wings last night
- FO the two Mill Hill Peridot ornies – up to beading
- FO the Celebration Santa gift – found out I ripped the plastic canvas, so it may be a re-start.
SEPTEMBER QUESTION: How do you keep your stitching stash organised?
I have the Stash Cache app on my phone, so as long as I keep that updated, I’m sweet there. Most of my patterns are in clearbooks, except for my Mira & Nora stash – that’s in a basket I can pull out and play with (unless the chart is second hand & without the folder – those are in a clearbook to protect the chart). I have four thread boxes of purely DMC, with speciality threads in another; beads are in a Sistema plastic box. But my SIL found a replica stitching box that will soon become the home for everything! It needs to be pulled apart & re-painted, as that dark stain just won’t work for me, but it’s sturdy enough.
STITCH FROM STASH: This isn’t in as great shape as I had hoped, as twice someone’s pulled out from a purchase, and I still have a second Lady Mira + bead pack for sale. I also hit up every Op Shop between Palmerston North & New Plymouth last month & spent a bit (found an OOP Prairie Schooler that I am really pleased to have tho).
| $25.00 | |
| Fox Rapunzel, Aphrodite & Bellas | -29.43 |
| Spotlight 13 DMC | -21.97 |
| Op Shop Finds | -31.90 |
| SOLD Biancabella (Shayla) | 70.00 |
| Mira Mermaid (round robin) | 34.50 |
| Stitchers Notebook | 2.55 |
| Persephone (conversion) | 54.50 |
| Rollover + Budget | -$159.74 |
| Total Available Budget | -$81.49 |
WIP Wednesday #228
Hey everyone! After the interruption of #10ThingsToTellYou (which I think I will put in my personal Project Life album) we’re back to stitchy updates. And I have some finishes to share with you!
The first is just the little notebook kit that I picked up from an Op Shop sometime last month. There was no chart but it was easy enough to follow the cover photo. It’s FFO’d by craft gluing the first and last pages of the supplied notepaper insert to the back of the covers, and ready to add to someone’s Christmas stash.
And the second is Mirabilia’s Persephone! I am leery of sharing her conversion details as right now, it’s all mine. I am still seething that someone took my colourway AND my re-charting of Andromeda’s face and didn’t credit me, but is all over the FB groups gloating about their blue ribbon win. I have blocked this person from my IG & FB & blog – that’s how peeved I am – and while I am pleased for her that her stitching was up to the high standard it obvs was, it’s not nice to see her take full credit when she was one to message me and ask for more detail…anyway. Moving on.
This is on a very openweave 28ct milk chocolate linen, which thankfully had few slubs. It is mostly DMC, altho the Waterlillies in the background border are as charted. There is a mix of GAST and DMC in the hem, which was my biggest headache. If you are kitting her up, I recommend at least two skeins of blanc and the lightest two threads of the (originally) tealish green. While you could fudge a batch colour change, you wouldn’t really want to.
On my big frame right now is Fairy Idyll. The top third was stitched, and now I’m beading so that when I roll it up (protecting the beads with padding!) I know that section is done. There’s a mild colour conversion already as one of the greens was the colour of the fabric, and the pale pink/white blend was lost so my pinks are a bit more intense than charted, but otherwise so far the look and feel is as per the original. I don’t think I will change her gown either – that yellow looks like it might have been a flower before it became a dress – but never say never! This is on a pale green hand-dyed lugana from Countrystitch.
10 Things to Tell You – The End!
Thank you so much to those of you who reached out, either on the blog, twitter or in person, and commented on their #10thingstotellyou thoughts! I loved learning little things about you.
Today’s prompt is: what will you ask me in three months? And I have virtually nothing. I’m blank. I have no short term goals, I’m a little burnt out with activity & already feeling short tempered at the idea of all the holiday things coming up.
Ugh. I guess it’s time to go to Bethells.
10 Things to Tell You #9
This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.
#9 – MY MAGICAL RESET BUTTON IS… Bethells Beach, on the wild West Coast of Auckland. It’s the photo in my header, a 25 minute drive from home that winds from busy suburbia to rural farm to black sand beach. It’s feeling the wind in my hair, hearing the roar of the sea and tasting the salt on my tongue. It’s a feeling of freedom and letting go of burdens as I walk along, occasionally run, sometimes attempt cartwheels. I kick the ball back to the kids, hurl sticks or soggy tennis balls for other people’s dogs and feel God’s grace extend to every part of my body.
10 Things to Tell You #8
This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.
#8 – SOMETHING I’M STRUGGLING WITH RIGHT NOW IS…anxiety, abandonment and feeling that I’m just not good enough. Drama at work, drama at home and the recent death of my estranged step-father kicked off so many bad feelings. I am working thru these feelings in a far more constructive way than I did in 2007 so bonus points for learning something!
10 Things to Tell You #7
This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.
#7 – A RECENT DISCOVERY I CAN’T HELP TALKING ABOUT… we went on a wee getaway to New Plymouth on the weekend (but made it home in time to see B win an award at the referee’s dinner. I won that parenting time trial). The local i-site is at the museum, Puke Ariki, and they had a new exhibit due to open the following weekend.
But in typical ‘Naki fashion, they finished the job early so we got to see the National Geographic Top 50 Photographs. Walking down the stairs into the exhibition hall, the first thing I saw was a massive (I’m talking like 4 A0) copy of the Afghan girl. You know the one – the striking eyes.
There’s captions and a video to tell you more about each shot. I totally recommend this exhibit, so if it’s within a drive of your home, GO. We’re going again when it’s in Hamilton later this year – it’s moving back overseas in 2019.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/traveling-exhibitions/50-greatest-photographs/
10 Things to Tell You #6
This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.
#6 – A DEFINING MOMENT IN MY LIFE WAS WHEN…we moved to Auckland. My parents had separated by this stage and there were no adults around to share the load. I learnt to help my mother get my brothers off to school/day care, and by 14 I was pretty much fully in charge of their day-to-day life. No wonder 30 years on I’m getting tired of being responsible for others…
10 Things to Tell You #5
This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.
#5 – I HAVE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT…my biological family. I won’t go any deeper than that. I totally love and adore the family Si & I have created – we have some great friends who are our chosen family.
10 Things to Tell You #4
This is a mini-series hosted by @laura.tremaine on IG. I’ve chosen to post my responses here & I hope you’ll play along.
#4 – I AM STRANGELY GOOD AT…growing weeds, if you ask Si. Pulling random facts out at pub quiz, if you ask a friend. I am not very good at remembering jokes so I’ll always have a giggle, even if it’s fourth child pulling out the same knock, knock joke.
sewscrapmuse 