Category Archives: cross stitch

WIP (somewhere it’s still) Wednesday…

Posted in conversion details, cross stitch, freebies, grateful, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, work by

I just found this in the drafts – whoops!!

I had a full-on day yesterday, so apologies for not writing. Hubs packed/left for a work trip (solo parenting, oh yay); I had work, I left work early to look after sick MIL & sick child, worked at home, did three loads of washing (did I mention sick child?! I meant, SICK child), stitched a little, forgot to eat lunch, found warm clothes, left Screaming Teen in charge and went to the British & Irish Lions game at Eden Park (thank you adidas crew). If you want a match report, go HERE

As you can see, primo seats, right on the 22 and UNDER COVER. The only wet was from beer spillage when the people in front of me cheered. Unexpectedly, the Auckland Blues won 22-16. Personally, used to rugby league referees, I thought this one sucked when it came to positioning. He appeared to be in the way multiple times so kudos to the players, having to add “don’t pass to the dude in white” to their thoughts every time they passed from the base of the scrum or a ruck.

Stitching-wise, I am nearly completed all the DMC in Andromeda’s rock. I have decided to change out the charted green to a Kreinik to give gloss, like you could expect from wet seaweed/mussels, and eagle-eyed punters will see that I have frogged the lilac in the waves on the left & worked out that I will replace this with 3752, which is in the same depth group.

The image on the right is very true to the colours of the fabric, which is Country Stitch Antarctic Storm on 28ct lugana. Catherine likens it to DMC 800 and that’s pretty much what it is, just slightly darker as I specifically requested.

http://www.countrystitch.com/Handdyed-Fabric/Handdyed-Fabric-Antarctic-Ice

 

WIP Wednesday

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

With Mase being ill, and not being able to go to boot camp, I got heaps of stitching completed last night:

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Really pleased that you can’t tell where I couched the Kreinik bowstrings!

If I finish today, I’ll end up $5.76 in credit for the SFS (assuming that my purchase of Villa Mirabilia arrives – cause if it doesn’t, I’m asking for a refund). If I don’t finish, and VM doesn’t arrive, I’ll still be well in the black at $34.72. If I don’t finish, and VM does arrive, I’ll be in the red by $5.28.

I don’t think I’ll finish…

May WIPocalypse & Smalls

Posted in cross stitch, embroidery, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, round robin by

Hi everyone!

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I can’t believe we’re at the month end already. Winter is playing with the senses; the leaves on the trees are hanging on just that little bit longer than last year, and on my drive home they fill up a portion of my emotional bank. I like autumn; I hate winter rain.

Let’s re-visit May’s goals:

  • Disney hoop & needle book for new swap – COMPLETED but modified; I ended up making four little people as plastic canvas magnets for my partner’s fridge. She’s also getting a fox-applique zip wallet pattern & a few other goodies. These are my SMALLS choices this month.
  • Start Julie’s round robin (if I get a finish, I will start Andromeda!) – STARTED but I also started Andromeda. She’s my travel piece as I didn’t feel I could take Julie’s huge piece of fabric around in the car.
  • Finish Mill Hill Believe (about ½ done) – FAILED it’s still in the basket at home. No urge to even do a thread’s worth.

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June’s Goals:

  • Finish Emi, my portion of Julie’s round robin (Stitch From Stash “Finish it Up” SAL) – should be easy, I’ve only got the black DMC and the Kreinik bow body to do
  • Finish Andromeda – or at least get the conversion nutted out & rock completed
  • Work at least one day on MH Believe (Stitch Maynia Whine & WIPs SAL)

CHAT-071-MM-i-Castle-1-white.jpgQuestion of the Month – Which designer’s projects do you absolutely love, but are too intimidated to try?

I’d vote for Chatelaines https://chatelaine.de/  by Martina Rosenberg. I’m thinking I might start with one of her Mini Mystery castles – but the pattern alone is nearly $40 NZD plus then I’d have to buy silks or convert. And the specialty stitches!!! I’d be living at Liz’s and I don’t know if she’d like me anymore after that 🙂  They are a huge investment in time and money & the perfectionist in me has trouble with that right now, especially with three kids still at home.

Perhaps I should just finish those TWs I have instead!

WIP Wednesday 

Posted in books, cross stitch, embroidery, grateful, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, round robin by

It’s been a big, big day. I’ve had some problems with one eye and today was the retinal exam. Anaesthetic drops and dilation drops later, & I looked like a Snapchat filter. 

You’re not getting that photo. No. 

Eventually I got home (cloudy day & I looked like a wanker wearing shades on the train). I couldn’t read or do anything for about 3 hours, but eventually I could cope with the light and started to be able to focus.  Big print on the kindle, but a win. 

I also remembered a wonderful opportunity I had in 2011. Sir Roger Moore had just released his autobiography (read it, you’ll howl with laughter) & I was working for Whitcoulls. We hosted him and after Shanee & I got an autograph & a photo op. I gave him a copy of Hairy Mclary to read to his grandchildren. RIP, Mr Bond. ❤

This afternoon I’ve managed to get some stitching done. This is Emi, a Nora Corbett bewitching pixie. No conversions, as its part of Julie’s RR. Sorry, I don’t know the fabric details!

WIP Wednesday

Posted in conversion details, cross stitch, embroidery, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, round robin by

I *should* be working on Emi. I started…

But didn’t want to take someone else’s piece away in the car. So I picked up Andromeda…

28ct Antarctic Storm lugana from Countrystitch, DMC over 2. I’m going to convert the lilac robes. I’m running all the thread thru Thread Heaven and it’s making a huge difference. I’ll have to clean/ scrape off the black thread residue before I carry on with the waves but so worth it. 

Day 5: 

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, family, friends, goals, grateful, me, Nora Corbett, photos, round robin, sport by

Hello you lovely people! How have you been? I’ve had a pretty busy week, all in all.

  • Watched the first rugby game of the season (Waitakere beat Avondale college, hooray!)
  • Picked up my new toy, a Galaxy S8+. The camera is amazeballs. The moon shot was on auto; imagine if I had taken the time to not have post bootcamp wobbles and had changed to the proper setting!
  • Ordered MIL her Pressie Box, which should be ordered today. http://www.thepressiebox.co.nz for some beautiful things and great customer service.
  • Watched the first hockey game of the season (I fail, I keep calling the ball a “puck”. And Icing is of course not a thing).
  • Survived both Normo’s birthday set (49!) and my own (shared with Lavinia, we had 10 minutes of EMOMs). Not surprisingly, didn’t go to the small session last night!
  • Started my portion of Julie’s round robin. Si liked the colours in Emi, so that is the Nora Corbett pixie that I started.
  • Made another flosstube video. Mase made a cameo appearance. Look for Paula SewScrapMuse on youtube. Yes, my accent is “cute”. Huh.
  • And 3 year anniversary with WordPress. I don’t miss Blogger at all!

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