Author Archives: paulainauckland

April Smalls, Stitch from Stash Update & WIPocalypse

Posted in cross stitch, embroidery, freebies, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, WIPocalypse by

Smalls is hosted by the lovely Heather on her blog, click here for the rules:  http://stitchinglotus.ca/2017-sal/

WIPocalypse is hosted by Mel at her blog http://measi.net/measiblog/

And another month draws to a close and I got some stitching in! Mind you, it was a bit of a race for the last portions of beading on Mermaids but – I got a finish!!! My goal for the month was to finish all the stitching, but I could see the finish line and off I went.

April Goals:

  • FFO the How to Train Your Dragon pieces for the swap & post (bookmark, needle book and small hoop). COMPLETED – but I kept the small hoop
  • Finish all the stitching on MOTDB and get to the beading potion. SMASHED
  • Start Julie’s RR piece (as that has arrived to me super early). NOT STARTED
  • Plan what I will do for the #disneycraftswap (waiting for my partner to post her mosaic still). PLANS COMPLETE, STITCHING STARTED
  • 15th – Diamonds. Beading the clear beads on MOTDB. IGNORED
  • 22nd – Earth Day. Start the Mill Hill Seagull kit. COMPLETED

I also worked on a small Easter piece, the freebie Prairie Schooler chart that Kristine sent me. I chose black aida (stash!) and initially stitched it in similar colours to the original…I plan to repeat with different colours to make a basket of mini eggs.

So here’s my pieces for this month:

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Question of the Month – What projects are in your UFO pile? There’s not too much in my UFO pile, to be honest. Just the one piece that I have kept the pattern & half-completed project away. I am tempted to re-start it on evenweave as it is on aida & I had become a bit of a snob but maybe I should just pull it out. If I can’t get the threads to match it might be worth a restart…apart from this, I do have Tapestry Cat at 11 years of age but as I am still working on this, I don’t think I can call it a true UFO. Just a resting WIP. And I have a few of those!

  • Tapestry Cat, Dec 2006
  • Toy Story Birth Sampler, Oct 2013
  • Nora Corbett Arezzo, March 2014
  • Mirabilia Persephone, May 2015
  • Nora Corbett Reindeer, July 2015
  • Mirabilia Raven Queen, Jan 2016
  • Tamara blackwork, September 2016
  • Lavender & Lace Celtic Winter, Dec 2016

My May goals are fairly small. I’m not going to participate in StitchMAYnia, but there are some new starts:

  • Disney hoop & needlebook for new swap
  • Start Julie’s round robin (if I get a finish, I will start Andromeda!)
  • Finish Mill Hill Believe (about ½ done)

Lastly, I’m still in the black for Stitch From Stash. This is more good luck than management but I’ll take the win.

Apr-17
 Budget $25.00
Andromeda @ CountryStitch -41.40
Kreinik @ RR -27.90
HTTYD hoop FFO 10.00
PS Easter Folk Egg 5.00
MH Seagull 5.00
Mermaids of the Deep Blue 59.30
Rollover $2.92
Total Available Budget $37.92

WIP  (very late on) Wednesday 

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash by

And here I am, beading! I hit my goal to finish the stitching on Mermaids of the Deep Blue and pulled out the beads. 


Loving it! I wish you could see the gleam and glitter. And in true stitch from stash fashion, I’m subbing in the gold that I already have, and the big pony beads are also from my stash. 

Where I Am At Home

Posted in DIY home, family, grateful, me by

On her blog this week, Tsh Oxenreiter is celebrating the release of her new book, At Home in the World. I picked up (totally cover lust) Notes from a Blue Bike a while ago and liked it.

On her blog, Tsh is inviting people to write about three things:

  1. Share about a place where you feel at home in the world.
  2. Write about a city (of any size) you love. (there’s prompts for this submission)
  3. Tell me whyyou’ve chosen to stay wherever it is you call home…

 I’m picking number one. And for me, number one is Te Henga or Bethells Beach, Auckland.

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It’s a wild, windy West Coast beach with all that the geographical location implies. There’s no swimming here (except in the lagoon that is formed by Waitakere River) and the surf patrol is only during the high season. The coffee cart is in the clearing next to the main carpark – and often the eftpos is down, so make sure you take some cash & don’t expect to be able to use cell phone data or WiFi – and the public toilets are paved with the black sand from where people have showered or simply rinse their feet off before going home.

Walking down the sheltered entry you could be forgiven for thinking there’s nothing much going on here. The carpark may be full but it’s rare that you’ll encounter someone else, except when the tide is out and all the kids want to explore the cave. Dogs run freely down the south end of the beach, wheeling around like the gulls they chase, bouncing into the surf after tennis balls and driftwood. If you want to explore, head left at the heads and climb over towards Ihumoana Island (now fenced off due to rockfalls) and further north, past Kauwahia Island and surf at O’Neill Bay.

Head right, and stretch your legs down towards the old wharf and the caves. You can keep going, moving down the Hillary Trail for hours or days. Your head will clear of anything and you’ll come away reinvigorated. It’s a great place to walk & talk to God, to your significant other, to your kids.

Resources: http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/cnlser/pbr/plans/pdf/tehenga/rmptehenga_pg9to20.pdf

 

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitching patterns by

(In my best Winnie the Pooh voice) Helloooo out there!

I hope you are well & dry. Dry is important. Tropical Cyclone Debbie has just departed, and we are forecast to be hit by TC Cook today and tomorrow. Just in time for school holidays and Easter! I am again grateful that our house is sturdy and built on a (mostly) concrete base at the top of a hill…

right now…
where I ended the last rotation

I got my stitchy bug back! I have finished a number of things (which I won’t show now, as that will mean I’d be repeating things when we post our Smalls at the end of the month) and got some decent progress on Mermaids of the Deep Blue. I can see the stitching end in sight! Then of course, comes the 9 or so packs of beads…

I picked up two framed finishes which I am keeping all for myself. Both are older finishes; my first Nora (her sleigh) is now on the office wall at work so I can see it most days, and Stargazer is going up in the lounge at home.

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My work piece is the Mill Hill Seagull. Short & easy, I plan to finish & bead this on Earth Day…and Andromeda supplies arrived. I am so tempted to wag work right now!

Take care everyone. Have a wonderful Easter.

Friyay!

Posted in cross stitch, embroidery, me, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, WIPocalypse, work by

Oh, thank goodness it’s Friday. This week has been full-on, with the middle three days devoted to the work conference. I am pleased to report that I didn’t embarrass myself (or my boss) and didn’t call anyone by the wrong name. Not even once. Admittedly this was helped by being in a group with one other with the same name, 3 other support office people, someone I clicked with right away, and another I thought was OK and not a plonker.

And speaking of the plonk, it was pretty low on the scale, so that was only the half glass with dinner. Just enough to pretend that I am an adult.

And my team won the challenge. We rock.

Stitching-wise, nothing but FFO so far. So at least I ticked off some monthly goal between WIPocalypse updates. Toothless in all the variations is going off to Europe in the post today. Hope my partner enjoys!

Zac was involved in the term art exhibition at Waitakere yesterday. It’s cool to see where his talents are evolving to. This is my super sporty, super geeky kid who is exploring his boundaries and taking every opportunity. Love that.

Have a good weekend, everyone! Don’t forget to get some exercise in! (that’s me in the blue – lots and lots of bear crawls make for a really solid sleep!)

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March WIPocalypse & Smalls Check In

Posted in cross stitch, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, WIPocalypse by

I feel like a bit of a fraud really. Checking in, when I’ve only touched stitching 15 actual days in March? And not actually finished anything? However – I am still in the black for Stitch From Stash!

Mar-17
Budget $25.00
Clouds Factory HTTYD -8.00
DMC @ Geoff’s -40.00
DMC @ Spotlight -3.38
HTTYD bookmark 5.00
HTTYD needlebook 10.00
Rollover $35.50
Total Available Budget $24.12

This month my intended focus points were:

  • Back stitch & fill in the gaps on the top row of Tapestry Cat – maybe 2/3 done?
  • Stitch pieces for the #dreamworkscraftswap2017 on Instagram – again, maybe 2/3 done.

Ugh. I have not stitched on anything from a magazine (sorry Heather) nor any of the colour SALs that I made intentions to participate in. I did get out to a stitching meet-up on one night (and had a blast, AND they invited me back J) and I think my bug just got up and left. I have gone to bootcamp & been so ill I was on antibiotics for a week and right now, lack enthusiasm big-time. To get myself back on the horse (so to speak) I’ve set goals a la Rahenna for April:

  • FFO the How To Train Your Dragon pieces for the swap & post (bookmark, needle book and small hoop).
  • Finish all the stitching on MOTDB and get to the beading potion.
  • Start Julie’s RR piece (as that has arrived to me super early).
  • Plan what I will do for the #disneycraftswap (waiting for my partner to post her mosaic still).

Stitch MAYnia SALs that I intend to participate in are

  • 15th – Diamonds. Beading the clear beads on MOTDB.
  • 22nd – Earth Day. Start the Mill Hill Seagull kit.

Question of the month: What stitchy blogs, groups, or flosstubes do you follow and why?

All the blogs I follow can be found in the sidebar. I have to say that the majority of bloggers are migrating, which is a bit of a shame, but I’m guilty here too. Instagram is my stich p*rn; there are so many that I follow over there that I am thinking that I need to cut it back, so that my feed does show who I want to see.

Groups – well, I’m now in a physical group but on FB I’m part of Stitch MAYnia; Mira Mira on the Wall; Mirabilia Nora Corbett Conversions; Upcycle Cross Stitch NZ (admin here); Round Robin Stitchers (& a couple of private groups from that); Stitch From Stash 2017a; Countrystitch Fabrics and a couple of others.

Flosstube – Oh dear, Now we get into the rabbit hole! I stitch and watch around a couple of hours a week normally & prefer to watch/listen to flosstube rather than TV right now. In no particular order I recommend (non-exhaustive list!!)

  • Lindystitches
  • Stitching Donna
  • CoffeeStitcher (Garrett is one of the Stitch MAYnia admins)
  • The Crafty Curator
  • The Simple Stitcher
  • Ms OhSewCrafty (Stephanie is the admin for Stitch From Stash 2017a)
  • The Queen of Starts
  • Emily C (the BEST vids)
  • Aussie Stitcher
  • Ginger Gerald Stitcher
  • A Stitch Too Far (love her)
  • KiwiFlowa (fellow Westie, TW and Nora fan & has adorable cats!)
  • The Stash Queen (Katy is the other Stitch MAYnia admin & has a totally ridiculous WIP number, and is unashamed of that. I admire that even as I can’t get above 12!)

Sorry that I haven’t linked to any of these – but if you look in my follow list you can also subscribe to those channels and more – and mine too! Look for “Paula SewScrapMuse” – I possibly hold the record for shortest flosstube ever!

Back to your regularly scheduled programme…

Posted in books, cross stitch, family, freebies, friends, me, Teresa Wentzler by

Important bit – none of the links below are affiliate. Deerskin is actually to a review, not the purchase.

It feels so good to be back writing, and reading, and stitching, and (dare I say it) work! I spent a good portion of the last fortnight ill, five work days away from my desk, and it’s only yesterday that the sleep-deprived me felt kind-of-normal.

SO about the above..

  • I started & finished Deerskin, by Robin McKinley. I’d not read any of her novels but I got hooked in by the cover. And the price (it was free that day). Now I’m adding Sunshine to the Kindle, as @aragonsgirl72 recommended her on my IG post.
  • For those of you that liked my version of Not All Those Who Wander, Emma Congdon has now uploaded this to her etsy site.
  • I brought myself the Palace Cinema from Lego. Loving it. Construction kept my mind tired and from being overwhelmed with solo parenting & worry. I finished it and brought the Bank set. I might have started a new obsession…
  • Mase “helped” with the construction. Cars are still a little boy favourite. Look how long his fingers are now! I miss the true little boy chubbiness.
  • And last night was my first night at a stitch group in far too long. I laughed and really enjoyed myself. It was in Grey Lynn, an older established and PRETTY suburb of Auckland. Love the way the trees grew to form a canopy.

And stitch-wise, I am well into March’s Stitch MAYnia designer SAL, which was Teresa Wentzler. My goal was to back stitch and fill in a lot of the gaps in the top floral border of Tapestry Cat. I’m really happy with the progress.

And as for the other, that’s for an Instagram swap. My partner loves How to Train Your Dragon, so as one of the pieces I am making her a needlebook with the two main characters front and back. Cloudsfactory make such easy, cute designs for this sort of thing.

What have you been up to?

 

WIP Wednesday or Thursday but hey! It’s nearly Friday!

Posted in cross stitch, goals, Teresa Wentzler by

This month my focus piece is Teresa Wentzler’s Tapestry Cat. I brought the kit waaaaay back in 2005…one lesson I’ve learnt since is to back stitch her pieces as I go!

The goal for this month is to back stitch and fill in the gaps on the top border. I’m getting there despite not stitching on the nights I go to boot camp. I’ll have to sort that somehow.

He is so stinking gorgeous. 

WIP Wednesday 

Posted in cross stitch, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, round robin, stitch from stash, Teresa Wentzler by

It’s March first here in NZ so it’s also time to check in for Stitch From Stash. Let’s do that first because I AM STILL IN THE BLACK! & yeah, quite chuffed with that. 

This may not last into April, with Andromeda to come hopefully this month. I’m splitting the cost with hubs tho. That will help. 

Last week I put in a few days on Mermaids of the Deep Blue as my #focusonafinish piece. I’d love to have this up on the walls by next summer. A lot would depend on the next few round robin pieces. That PR took ages!

This month’s theme for Stitch MAYnia is Teresa Wentzler  (how handy is it tho that for Stitch From Stash it’s M for Mirabilia?) so I pulled out my eldest resting WIP, Tapestry Cat. Since this photo I’ve put in a couple more threads. My goal is to get that top row back stitched and any gaps filled in. 

Hope you have a gorgeous stitchy week!