Category Archives: cross stitch

WIP Wednesday 

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, round robin by

It’s only Wednesday morning yet here I am. Truth is work is a bit slow, so I’m playing on my phone. 


Some progress this week on both my pieces. Still not liking the round robin, but got the over one stitches started. 

On the other hand, love the Mill Hill kit (Believe, #14-1304) to pieces. I leave it at work during the week so it can’t take over the robin spot at home. 

What are you up to?

WIP Wednesday 

Posted in cross stitch, round robin by

I’m plodding on thru. Looking at my diary, I’ve not stitched a lot in February so far; more days blank than not. 

However, I had a small finish for the #monthlymagazineSAL hosted by Heather. This is Emma Congdon’s Home Sweet Home as kitted by Cross Stitch Crazy. I’m keeping the chart as I haven’t decided if I’ll do this one again. 

My
My new work project is Mill Hill Believe, again stitching as charted. I got most of his sack done while waiting at Tag on Friyay.


And the at home project is still the Passione Ricamo round robin. The hair is done and I’m on skin. Those eyes are over one so waiting till I have quiet time. 

Another WIP Thursday 

Posted in cross stitch, round robin by

I haven’t spent much time stitching this last week and it shows. 

Home Sweet Home is nearly done tho, thanks to the drive to the Hux and back. Exactly 37 stitches to go! It should be complete and in a hoop today. 

The PR is down to one more colour in her hair, then I’ll be up to skin. I am debating rotating out to the Stitch MAYnia SAL “fandom” but I think it’s too hard to pick back up. So I should be posting another progress shot next week. 

The Hux or Why I’m Walking Funny…

Posted in cross stitch, goals, grateful, growing, me by

I blame Loren. She’s got me into this mess. But Hello, I am achieving things. I’m even starting a bucket list.

at the start
stairs, stairs & more stairs
love the quotes
looking east over Ngaruwhaia
Zac & Mase at a waterfall
we all made it to the top!

Remember how I am part of BBM, or Buttabean Motivation? On Sunday, a portion of us met at the Brownlee Ave carpark in Ngaruwhaia to encourage James, a Hamilton #BBM crew member, to tick off one of his goals – to climb the Hux. He’s the big guy in the white singlet in the photos.

The Hux, or Hakarimata Mountain, can be divided into two portions. There’s the relatively easy walk to the site of the 1922 dam (nice waterfall is just past this) or the more strenuous climb to the summit. No points for guessing what we did. 1K almost straight up, 1349 stairs. Kudos to the Department of Conservation team who maintain the track!

Being honest, I have to admit that by the halfway mark I was pretty much done psychologically. My calves HURT despite frequent stretches and I was sucking back water. Also, being girly, relying on my Evian facial mist to keep me cool. Si was carrying the backpack luckily so we weren’t really limited. It was at this point we kind-of ditched the main group. One of the wall quotes was the Henry Ford comment – Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right – and I took that on board. If I knew I could finish, I would.

Mase had run on ahead with Normo (a fellow westie) and Wayne, Zac following but I needed to pace myself. Si and I broke it down to 2-4 sets of steps, stretch, another 2-4 sets & encouraging each other along. Poor Si had run almost 25k the previous day, refereeing at the last day of the Tongan Tag tournament, so his legs were pretty tired anyway.

It took us the better part of 50 minutes to get to the summit; surprisingly the recommended time. I thought that I would have held us back. The view – stupendous. It was an almost perfect day (on a totally clear day you can see as far as Ruapehu, one of the Central Plateau volcanoes).

 

It took another 40 minutes for James to make it up. The majority of the group was with him, and we all gave him a round of applause and a high-five gauntlet as he came thru the last portion. You could see it meant a lot to him, to have achieved his goal, and that made it worthwhile in a lot of ways.

So next on my list? The Rangitoto climb. Pinnacles, Tongariro Crossing, the Auckland version of Coast-to-Coast. Round the Bays (at a walk). Waitakere’s Slip Track, and from Bethells up to Scenic Drive. I think that of those, probably RTB and Slip Track will be the easiest to implement.

January WIPocalypse

Posted in cross stitch, round robin, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, WIPocalypse by

The WIPocalypse SAL is hosted by Measi; 12 check ins with a monthly question and lots of WIPS.  Click on the button on the right; it will take you over to her blog and all of the links. We’re also on Facebook this year! 

The January question is: what SALs are you participating in?

I think I mostly answered this in my January first post, but things have changed. I’m not going to worry too much about The Never Ending Band Sampler; given that I am not able to stitch 3-4 nights a week means I’m not seeing as much progress as I want to, and this is the easiest to drop. 

I’m keeping up with Stitch From Stash.One more day (at least in the NZ month!) & I’ll check in there. I know it’s month one of six but it’s a good feeling to have this achieved. 

I completed a piece for the Magazine SAL so that’s one of twelve. I need to get over my nervousness in finishing so that I have more than simple plastic canvas ornaments on my tree! The bonus is that these also fit perfectly into Heather’s Smalls SAL. 

The biggest commitment is the round robin. Jacqui’s designer is Passione Ricamo; not at all on my list so I am finding it tough going. However I can see how amazing it will be and I will be pleased to have been a part of it. 

This is about six nights worth of work. I am stitching to lots of UK comedy. All I can say is that I’m glad I use a blunt needle and a working copy/highlighter!

January Smalls SAL check-in

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, goals, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash by

Yay! Another year of Stitch Porn kindly managed by Heather over at Stitching Lotus. To find out more about this low pressure, highly enabling SAL, click on the link button on the right. 

I have a few contributions this month. Partially as I wanted some earnings for Stitch From Stash but also from my choices for other SAL that occur in various groups. 

For the Stitch MAYnia 12 Days I choose to finish the first three of her Chalkboard Christmas ornaments. Be Jolly was finished in December so I haven’t shown it here, but it’s in previous posts. 

For the Magazine SAL that is hosted by Heather Stitches, I stitched a version of Country Cottage Needleworks Merry & Bright from JCS Christmas 2010 edition. 

And lastly, for both the Stitch MAYnia and SFS colour SAL, I stitched a variation of Jenny’s Flowering Poinsettia as sold in her etsy shop, home💙stitch💙ness.


I’m really happy with what I achieved! And happily, with two days to go, I’m still in the black for SFS!!

WIP Wednesday 

Posted in cross stitch, friends, grateful, round robin, Smalls SAL by

Look! Aren’t you proud of me? I am posting on the proper day! 😎

I have a couple of things on the go right now. This is Emma Congdon’s Home Sweet Home from an issue of Cross Stitch Crazy. I’m not in love with the colours yet but it’s a good project for work (I finished that Mill Hill fireflies & it’s ready to bead):

At home I am working on Jacqui’s round robin. She’s chosen Passione Ricamo for her designer, and I’ve chosen the least fussy chart from the selection. It’s Into the Darkness but maybe it won’t look so witchy as the original when I’m done. 

Andrea’s stitched the one on the right. I wish I could show you the sparkle; those roses are back stitched in Kreinik or a Rainbow Gallery.

I can’t wait tho to get back to something Mira.

Lastly, here’s some Stitch Porn. This is amazing. I want!

WIP should-do-this-on-Wednesdays

Posted in cross stitch, goals, round robin by

HI everyone! I’m so glad it’s Thursday. This has been a looooong week.

20170115_145556Friday – shite day at work then a hot walk to the Domain as that tag season has started. Moved Lou from one flat to the next while S+B ref’d there.

Sat & Sun – S+B had refereeing commitments, so it was just Z, Mase the Ace and myself at home. None of us felt very energetic so we lazed around. Slept. Hurting a wee bit after getting back into bootcamps. The Stitch Maynia and Stitch from Stash SAL both featured red, so I did a small part of home♥stitch♥ness  Flowering Poinsettia pattern. This is on a 26ct navy Elixar, as it was in my stash. Planning a small hoop finish for my tree. Check out her etsy shop (link on the name) for some more cuteness.

I also put the next round robin piece to work and started Passione Ricamo – it’s the head and shoulders of Into the Darkness. Not my cup of tea but Andie had already done Artemisia, so this one will face that. Not enough progress to show, as I only spent 30 min or so on her.

Discovered the rabbit warren that is Audible. This has been the high-light of my work week, altho I see it as potentially quite expensive! If you know of deal sites, please do let me know. I have worked out that it is often cheaper to buy the Kindle book and add on the Audible file…

 

Monday – work early (before 6!) to get the internal and vendor reporting done, before I went with Lou for her surgery appt. Letter said surgery at 11, under general, so we arrived at 9. Huh. Surgery at 2:30 – we left at 4. And they did it under a local block.

Tuesday – work then bootcamp. I did an extra set of the finisher and managed to bear crawl (fast!) up the hill. I cannot do it backwards. That is something to practice.

Wednesday – Watchman tag started again last night, so while S+B ref’d, Z & I went to an Ankor class at Waitakere. It’s a bit intimidating, TBH, to be doing that among the fit young rugby and netball peeps that are also training but once I had my glasses off, I pretended they couldn’t see me. Plus, I’m pairing up with Annike who I find motivates me. I hope I entertain and motivate her as much!

And now we’re back to Thursday. No stitching since Monday, when I did a little more on Fireflies. I am now into the navy, which is the last colour before the beads. Fingers crossed I get this done to bead this weekend, I’m tired of it already!

WIP eh..Thursday. Yay, it’s Thursday!

Posted in Christmas, conversion details, cross stitch, family, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett by

So far, so good. I am swimming along at work (have counted to 10 a few times, but yesterday didn’t hit my self-imposed swear limit, so getting better) and at home. Great amusement is had by the adults of the house, removing critical pieces of the children’s equipment like laptops they try to hide at night…I am also upping the “mean mum” stakes in expecting the boys to monitor their own cell data useage – they do not have the password to the WiFi! Oh, this is fun!

On the stitching side, I am hitting my goals and then some. For the first week of the year, the StitchMaynia 12 Days of Christmas SAL continued, so I worked on the Hands On Design chalkboard Christmas, completing the first trilogy with Be Merry & Believe:

This week is my Magazine SAL week, as hosted by Heather Stitches on Facebook (that link is to her blog, BTW). Because the 12 Days SAL finished on the sixth, I started this piece a bit early, but I have a finish. This is Country Cottage Needlework‘s  Merry & Bright from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament 2010 issue (as I brought myself the DVD via 123 Stitch in December, I’m planning an ornie for each of this SAL’s entries). I’m planning on a cube finish with present buttons added:

img_20170109_055847_880

I did not use the threads recommended (Stitch From Stash, people!). If you want to copy, I did this 2 over 1 on 25ct ivory Lugana with the following DMC changes:

  • the circle is 3364
  • @ is 347
  • the square is 434
  • the dot is Kreinik 032
  • and the half circle is 895

And as that took me only 3 days, I pulled out one of my existing WIPS, Arezzo. All that 1 over 1! Add on Nora’s doctor’s scrawl of a chart, and it can be heavy going. I find it takes me a few moments to adjust even tho I have blown the chart up and use a high-lighter. I have frogged the error that caused me to put her away and made a lot of progress over about 4 hours. I don’t know the original stitcher of this version but she did a beautiful job. Me? I’m plodding along:

And at work, my focus is to finish the stitching part of the second variation of Mill Hill Fireflies. I’ve sorted out the blue thread, and expect to have this ready to bead for Saturday:

20170111_080415

 

WIPocalypse begins!

Posted in cross stitch, goals, lavender & lace, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, round robin, Smalls SAL, Teresa Wentzler, WIPocalypse by

lk-hnyHAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 

WIPocalypse is hosted by Mel at her blog http://measi.net/measiblog/ 2016 was the sixth year of the SAL, and my second year participating; let’s go for a trilogy.

 

January first is all about setting goals for the year, so that in early December I can go “oh crap!” LOL This year I intend to be multi-platform again, with the daily focus being on Instagram but at least the WIP Wednesday, Smalls and WIPocalypse posts here on the blog, and a monthly Flosstube. I have weekly rotation plans written in my diary to take me thru to the end of March & I will review then.

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The rotation plans are loosely worked around the following:

  • StitchMaynia’s monthly SAL e.g. Feb is “fandom” (I am thinking Cloudsfactory Labyrinth), March is Teresa Wentzler (Tapestry Cat). December/January has the 12 Days of Christmas, starting on Christmas day and finishing on the 6th – I will be taking my Hands On Design Christmas Chalk away with me. Mostly because I paid for the fabric (32ct!!) and I need to use it, so if it’s all I have with me I should see some progress.
  • StitchMaynia’s colour SAL (this is only on the 15th of each month).
  • The Never Ending Band Sampler (as my learning piece of the month).
  • The Magazine SAL (as hosted by Heather; click the image to the right for more info). This piece will double as my Smalls (click on that image for more info) post as I intend to use the JCS Christmas magazines all year, especially now that I have the CD with the past issues!
  • The Round Robin piece, whatever it is and whenever it arrives.
  • Focus on a Finish – whatever needs completing from the above or a current WIP that is nearly there. Mermaids of the Deep will be high on that list.

I am not going to start a New Year New Mira – mostly because I am away from home and I really do have enough started. Going into 2017, I have the following starts (listed in age!!):

  • TW Tapestry Cat (Dec 2006!)
  • Semco Toy Story Sampler (October 2013)
  • Nora Corbett Arezzo (March 2014)
  • Mirabilia Persephone (May 2015)
  • Nora Corbett Blitzen (as part of my reindeer parade, Rudolph started in July 2015)
  • Mirabilia Mermaids of the Deep Blue (December 2015)
  • Mirabilia Raven Queen (January 2016)
  • Tamara Blackwork (September 2016)
  • Never Ending Band Sampler
  • Lavender & Lace Celtic Winter (December 2016)

Ten’s not so bad, really!