November WIPocalypse

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, goals, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, WIPocalypse by paulainauckland

Hello everyone! I hope you’re well. WIPocalypse is the monthly check-in SAL hosted by Measi on her blog, and via the Facebook group – we welcome all enablers! Click on the icon to the right to learn more.

November Goals:

Keep up with weekly #magicalstitches homework
Finish some CF or Mill Hill pieces

I managed to keep up with both of the above – 4 Mill Hill finishes (two each of the Celestial Sleigh and Pumpkin Carriage) and four Cloudsfactory items for Aurora’s parcel – Prince Eric, Oliver, Rapunzel & Ursula. All the weekly homework was done, some to the bare minimum, and I got one Extra Credit in. I’ve completely slowed down with regards to stitching.

December Goals:

Keep up with weekly #magicalstitches homework
Plan January WIPs
No Spend!

November Question: What new stitches or techniques did you learn this year? The short answer is – nothing. I didn’t take any class or attempt embroidery or anything else. A crochet class or at least the embroidery refresher at Liz’s is on my wish list for 2020, but I wasn’t in the headspace to try anything new this year.

Stitch From Stash: I am so far in the red I won’t be climbing out this year. Even with a gift from Mum specifically for my stash budget, I have overspent on Miras and fabric that I may not even touch next year, & I’m a little horrified at myself. I have seven FO’s, but they are all relatively small. At least it’s only stash I have spent my feelings on this year, and not all the other things like previous years. Overall, fiscally I’m in better shape than previous.

5Nov2019

October 2019 WIPocalypse

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, embroidery, family, goals, lavender & lace, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, WIPocalypse by paulainauckland

I didn’t set any real goals for October – just to keep up with the weekly prompts in #magicalstitches and try to stay sane. Achieved the first, will debate on the second!

I managed an increase in stitching with 7841 stitches overall. 1520 in Fairy Tales, 1242 in Fairy Idyll and an FO in the Marauder’s Map (985 to finish) which is now framed and ready to go in Baby Bailey’s nursery. Three of my Saturday’s were spent with Mum, as she can’t be left alone, and as she naps more and more there’s more time to kill.

SFS – despite having four FO’s I spent well more than I earned, and I’m now $76.72 in the red. If I get a couple of finishes in – or maybe 6 of the Clouds Factory people I’m doing for Aurora – I’ll finish the year in the black, even if I don’t finish the six months. I look at 2017 & 2018 and I can see the same pattern. I think as home and work pressures build, I go off and spend, altho this year I’ve been a lot cleaner than others. Or I was tighter earlier in the year, or Nora didn’t release Mira’s that I really liked earlier in the year. It’s probably a combination of all those things.

November Goals:

Keep up with weekly #magicalstitches homework
Finish some CF or Mill Hill pieces

October Question – Do you prefer to stitch on a rotation or one project at a time? Well, until this year and #magicalstitches I thought I was more a one project girl. But I quite like the rotation thing, so while I’m not going to re-join the group for 2020, I thought I would do a slower rotation (weekly rather than almost daily) and get some FO’s done. I am still toying with Stuart’s clever CYOA version of the Harry Potter books and might also start that.

23Oct2019

WIP Wednesday #260

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, family, goals, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by paulainauckland

Hello everyone! This last week has been a bit quieter; the work fiscal month cycles down a notch (plus my boss is away, so there’s less interruption or change to my day). At home Mum has also cycled down a notch, and is now pretty much confined to the hospital bed or the electric Laz-y-boy I brought her last year. I am hoping we will be able to celebrate Christmas together, but expecting that we won’t. Mase decided not to play cricket this summer, and we were too late for summer soccer registration, so he’s doing golf lessons. So cute to watch him carefully line himself up!

Last week’s #magicalstitches homework was a bit savage – ended up being 1400 stitches required, which is a huge leap from month 1 (which was only 300 stitches in some weeks). I am evaluating what I want to do next year, and as I don’t particularly like the books this group is moving onto, I think I will mute for 2020 and do my own thing, getting my WIP count down to something manageable. I set up a project table, thinking that week one of every month would be a Mira, week two a small, week three a Teresa Wentzler and week four/five free choice. I have 26 WIPs right now. Some are terribly small, like a plastic canvas Clouds Factory Rapunzel (15*24 stitches) and some are massive, like Fairy Idyll (247*309 stitches). 26! Huge shock.

Anyways. Each of the prompts related to the Pensive and memories, and required 200 stitches. There was a bonus for a photo relating to prompt 5, collections. Mine of course was my Mira wall that hubs is carefully curating.

Purple – I had nothing to hand, so I started two CF plastic ornaments for the gift box I plan to give Aurora – Rapunzel and Ursula
My Best piece – Shakespeare’s Fairies
A project with a house – new start again, the original Home of a Needleworker.
A project with some food item I could give – this one could be controversial – I chose Prancer!
Something I collect – Shakespeare’s Fairies again
Something cursed – I chose Fairy Idyll, as that over one skin has been awful!
Something I don’t want to end – Shakespeare’s Fairies. I love this design.

Anyway, take care & have a lovely week.

2Oct2019

August & September WIPocalypse

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stash cache app, stitch from stash, Teresa Wentzler, WIPocalypse by paulainauckland

August Goals:

Complete the Year 5 Extra Credit homework (4/11 to go) LEFT ONE TASK INCOMPLETE
Complete Mermaid of Atlantis stitching (seriously possible if the weekly homework goes my way) NOT QUITE – BUT USED WHERE POSSIBLE
No Spend! NOPE – SPENT $10.40

September Goals:

Complete four EC NOPE, just two
Complete Mermaid of Atlantis (lined up for a few of the monthly Extra Credit) NOPE
Bead & FFO some Mill Hill ornies NOPE

All up, in August I didn’t stitch as much as in July. We finished the car & I spent a lot of time walking & listening to audio books rather than on my butt. Still happy with what I got done tho.

Fairy Idyll 231
Mermaid of Atlantis 435
Shakespeare’s Fairies 1957
Tapestry Cat 202
Stitchrovia Austen Quote 404
Coffee Quaker 1024
Jeanette Douglas 2012 Peace 417
Four Seasons in NZ 247
The Guardian 565
Erica Tui (new start) 506
MH Santa’s Sleighs 500
Un Ricarmo Per Rinascere 509
Reindeer Parade 213

That’s over 7410 stitches for the month.

In September I slowed right down (lots of reading & more time with Mum) and got in just over 6000 stitches.

Fairy Idyll 1353
Mermaid of Atlantis 868 (just beading to go now)
Fairy Tales, a new start 3141
Un Ricarmo Per Rinascere 321
Sampler House, a new start from Blackbird Designs 607

SFS: In August, I didn’t manage a no spend month (again) but it was just a few DMC & two charts at the Hospice shop. Turned out the person I picked them up for already had them, so if you’re into Paula Vaughan they are up on my @pauladestash IG account. I have ordered the new Mirabilia, Garden Prelude, but the bill hasn’t arrived yet so I can’t count it. With the ornie finish, I’m 30.85 in the black.

And then September turned to custard! I was given some money so went wild – $110.10 in 20 minutes at Ribbon Rose. Oops. Luckily I also sold Lady of the Flag for a reasonable (not eBay enormous) amount to a fellow stitcher, so that kept me in the black, at 26.92.

August Question: What do you have on your stitching bucket list? (for example, specific projects, designers, fibers, etc) I have two Chatelaine designs in my stash – but with a few large Mira’s on my WIP list either is a way away from starting.

September Question: What finishing style have you never tried but would love to do? More hand-finishing – Mase wants this Blackbird Designs stocking ASAP – so that’s on the list to knock off. Plus I’d like to take a framing course next year.

See you next week (hopefully!) or at the least, for the October WIPoclaypse.

11Sep2019

WIP Wednesday #258

Posted in cross stitch, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, Teresa Wentzler by paulainauckland

Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting last week – Wednesday got away from me.

The last calendar week of August had two sets of Magical Stitches homework – 6 days completed Year Five, and we’ve started Year Six, the Half Blood Prince. There were three potential parts of Y5W9 – we had to post 5 WIPs before the Sunday; then from the Monday stitch 500 on whichever was picked (for Gryffindor it was WIP 4, which for me was Un Ricarmo per Rinascere). The last part was bonus; do 200 on each of the other four WIPs to get a total of 13 points. I managed them all – chose all Nora/Mirabilia so that I’d be fully engaged.

Y6 day1 was simple – 100 stitches for 1 point on our latest start. Unfortunately I didn’t pick up a needle during that 24 hour period (it has to start at midnight CST time, which is 5pm my time). Too much going on getting the house ready for the week ahead.

Y6W1 had three parts: 400 stitches in something we’ve made a Vow or promise about (for me, this was Mermaid of Atlantis as I wanted to finish her this year); 300 stitches in a design that starts with a letter in DURSLEY (I did 321 stitches in Un Ricarmo Per Rinascere) & lastly 300 stitches in something that gives us FOMO (the fear of missing out) to note Professor Slughorn’s return to teaching (I did 310 stitches in Fairy Idyll, a design I was so determined to have).

I’m now at the bead stage with MoA!

We’re now in Y6W2, and have to choose which path we will take – Light or Dark? We have to write an explanation, do 600 stitches in our chosen path and 400 in the other. There’s a bonus of 200 stitches in our most blingiest project (which for me would be Mermaid of Atlantis, with her Kreinik & beads) but as we are travelling this weekend, I’m going to use my new start & focus on the week tasks and some monthly EC tasks.

28Aug2019

WIP Wednesday #257

Posted in cross stitch, family, friends, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by paulainauckland

Hello everyone! We had a full on end of week, with time playing at the museum (find me a little boy who doesn’t like dinosaurs), at the beach and game day on Saturday. The Massey team Mase played in won comfortably, but Sho won opposition player of the day with his beautiful tackles. Great day in our household! Sunday was very odd once we got home from the airport and had an emptier house.

The #magicalstitches homework was in three parts, to celebrate the restoration of Dumbledore to Headmaster of the school. Part one was 300 stitches on the 11^th WIP in my list, as 11 Death Eaters were captured…WIP 11 was finished, so I rolled over into WIP 12, The Guardian. Part two was 300 in any colour but pink to celebrate Umbridge leaving the school. I skipped the bonus task to focus on a monthly task and knocked off 500 stitches and beads in my Christmas sleighs.

Have a good week everyone – let me know a little something you’re grateful for. Gratitude shared increases happiness all round J

21Aug2019

WIP Wednesday #256

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stash cache app, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by paulainauckland

Hello everyone! Apologies for not posting last week – we had a lot going on at home. By the time I remembered about the WIP it was Friday… this week we have a Japanese billet with us for the week so it’s been an adventure! Sho is lovely, coming out of his shell & has a good sense of humour. We will miss him on Sunday when we put him on the plane home to his family.

Week 6 involved Professor Umbridge coming into power and we had to stitch on something that we really wanted to quit, like the students wanted to quit Hogwarts. I wanted to quit Coffee Quaker, as I simply got tired of the over-one. In the end, taking it everywhere, I managed 1024 stitches. I didn’t stitch on anything else this week tho.

Week 7 was O.W.L.S exam week – ick! We had a choice of going for E (exceeds expectations) with 100 stitched on each of the 7 Core/3 Elective subjects for 2pts, or O (outstanding) with 200 stitches giving 5pts. I went overboard again, ignoring the monthly tasks that I hadn’t completed, and worked on getting all O levels. Luckily we had done some “subject” things earlier in the year, so it wasn’t so hard to match up WIPs and subjects.

I picked a Jeannette Douglas design to cover both Astronomy (the quaker star) and History of Magic (words) and got a start & finish with Peace. This is in the 2012 JCS Christmas edition (available on the CD at 123Stitch & other retailers).

Using the Emma Congdon Austen quote, I covered Herbology (growing Hellebore roses) and Potions (Hellebore is an ingredient in several potions) – not a finish, but over halfway now.

I used Mirabillia Shakespeare’s Fairies for two other Core subjects – Charms (they summoned fireflies to light their way), & Defence Against the Dark Arts (one wears a diadem, like what Voldemort used as a horcrux).

The last Core was transfiguration, and as Professor McGonnigal is shown in both her forms in the first chapter of book one, the obvious choice was Tapestry Cat.

Electives – I ignored Arithmancy (would have had to use Coffee Quaker) and Divination (I’m with Hermione, that subject sucks) and chose Ancient Runes (completed all the lettering in Home*Stitch*Ness Four Seasons), Care of Magical Creatures (Mirabilia Mermaid of Atlantis) and Muggle Studies (I stitched the Mary Rose, the Tudor ship that’s in Mermaid of Atlantis as I’d been watching a doco about it while stitching Care).

Hope you all have a lovely week – I’ll be back for next week then it’s WIPoclaypse.

7Aug2019

WIP Wednesday #255

Posted in cross stitch, DIY home, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, stitch from stash, stitching patterns by paulainauckland

Hello! It’s early evening for me, & I’m snuggled up, watching TV & stitching on this week’s #magicalstitches homework. The challenge is around Professor Umbridge becoming headmaster of Hogwarts, so we have to stitch on something we wanted to quit. Ouch.

Last week I chose the penalty challenge. We had to link our piece to how we would divert Umbridge & her squad from finding the Room of Requirement and the students who were studying in Hermione’s illegal Defense Against the Dark Arts club, or Dumbledore’s Army, as they became known.

I chose Shakespeare’s Fairies, making up how they were flitting around the castle, winding up Filch, Mrs Norris & encouraging Peeves to add to the chaos. I’ve just been marked so that story worked!

I’m now up to the wings & skin of the last fairy, and into the second page. Hooray!

And on a super cool note, Donovan is SOLD. One more bout of cleaning, lawn & garden maintenance and Si & I are done.

31Jul2019

WIP Wednesday #254 & June WIPocalypse

Posted in cross stitch, goals, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stash cache app, stitch from stash, Teresa Wentzler, WIPocalypse by paulainauckland

I’m a bit time poor this week so it’s WIP Wednesday as well. Last week I was in Detention so it was 1000 stitches in either blue ink or on words. I chose to make a start on the Emma Congdon/Stitchrovia quotes that match one of my already FFO pieces & knocked that out fairly easily, especially as we had a whole work day waiting on the systems to get back online. It was a loooong day. This current week is in the “too hard” basket for me, so I’m doing penalty stitches on Shakespeare’s Fairies.

In July, I’ve tried hard to complete each of the weekly #magicalstitches homework tasks, and knocked out several of the monthly EC as well as two Ultimate on Mermaid of Atlantis:

Fairy Idyll 2049
Mermaid of Atlantis 4692
Shakespeare’s Fairies 744
Tapestry Cat 1049
Pumpkin Carriages 758
Stitchrovia There’s Always Time for Tea 230
Stitchrovia Shakespeare Quote 1479
Stitchrovia Austen Quote 320

That’s over 10K stitches for the month!

I also have two FO – I just kept working on the Stitchrovia Tea piece until I finished it. I am not sure how I will FFO it yet. I didn’t count the remaining stitches as they didn’t fit a homework theme at the time I completed them. I did count the ones for Shakespeare Quote, as they worked into one & a bit of the extra credit tasks. That one will be a hoop finish to match the Tolkien quote that is already on my wall.

Both of these are available in Emma’s Etsy shop.

July Goals:

WIPocalypse One-A-Day with a twist – just stitch every day SWEET AS
Hello May HECK NO
Don’t spend! DEFINTIELY NO

August Goals:

Complete the Year 5 Extra Credit homework (4/11 to go)
Complete Mermaid of Atlantis stitching (seriously possible if the weekly homework goes my way)
No Spend!

Question of the Month: How do you get yourself out of a stitching drought?

I’ve previously gone with finding a new start, just picking one WIP, ignoring stitching entirely & finding some SAL to check into. It is odd for me to go more than a few days without stitching now but last year there was a couple of sparse months. Right now I’m in a scrap drought that I can’t shake but it will pass.

SFS: even tho I didn’t manage a no-spend month (needing both DMC & Kreinik for MOA) I had those two Stitchrovia finishes and I’m in the black.

24Jul2019

WIP Wednesday #253

Posted in cross stitch, goals, me, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, Smalls SAL, stitch from stash, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler by paulainauckland

Hey everyone! Hope you’ve had a good week.

Last week’s #magicalstitches revolved around Professor Umbridge. If you could match the options, it was 1000 stitches total or if you chose penalty stitches, 2000. Eep. But 200 stitches a night is usually achievable for me so I tried to match.

The colour Pink – Fairy Idyll’s bedlinens
Tea or Teacups – I found an Emma Congdon/Stitchrovia series of smalls. Originally in Cross Stitch Crazy, they’re now available on her Etsy store.
Kittens – which had to be domestic cats, so Tapestry Cat came back into play.
A pattern name that starts with one of the letters R.U.L.E.S – I chose Shakespeare’s Fairies
A designers’ name that starts with one of the letters S.T.R.I.C.T – here I had a couple of options with Teresa Wentztler (TC or Guardian) or one of the Sandra Cozzolino designed Mill Hill Santas.

Halfway thru the week, it was confirmed that you could use the designer name or the company it was released with, and it suddenly dawned on me that hello, it’s Nora CORBETT and C is in strict. Insert facepalm mode. So as Fairy Idyll was in front of me at the time, I knocked out another block there.

Family wise it’s a bit odd. Out of mum’s day-to-day loop, so it was a shock to find out she’d been so ill she’d been prescribed antibiotics. We had the same conversation three times on Monday night when I took up her morphine allocation. Plus with the SIL constantly going on about money. Its super hard not to bite back, but that would achieve nothing. Our focus has always been to give Mum a good life, to show our gratitude physically as well as verbally e.g. the ramps we built so she could ignore steps & use her Zimmer, altering the height of her ensuite basin so she didn’t have to bend, organise car servicing etc…I couldn’t tell you how much money or time we’ve spent, but hello, it’s Mum.

Sorry for the downer end.

sewscrapmuse

irregular updates on family life, books & cross stitch. Lots & lots of cross stitch.

Category Archives: Nora Corbett