Category Archives: round robin

WIP Wednesday

Posted in Christmas, cross stitch, Mirabilia, round robin, Uncategorized by

Hump day again! Well, technically, I reached the hump when I left yesterday, as I have Friday off to spend with Mase on his school trip to Bethells Lagoon. Can’t wait!

Last night I finished a small ornie for my twitter-based NZ Secret Santa. She doesn’t follow me here or on Twitter so it’s safe to share:

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Very simple finish, blanket stitched felt on the back, used some sparklie thread to create the loop and added the star button to hide the threads.

I’m also working on Lenna’s mermaid tail still: Laguna will have a change in the flowers, so they match the ones used by Lenna in the centre of the whole piece. I’m on the third colour thread, and it’s working up reasonably quickly.

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I do like her fabric choice! It works with a wide range of tail colours.

November WIPocalypse

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, Nora Corbett, round robin, stitching patterns, Teresa Wentzler, WIPocalypse by

November 25 – Topic:  Which designer has inspired you to stitch the greatest number of designs and why do you think that is? (via Hazel, who I follow on Instagram!)

There’s a few designers that I collect/hoard/stash. I have a lot of Theresa Wentzler’s, altho I only have two finishes and two WIPs & one more kitted up; I went thru an Alma Lynne phase and I have one finish but another 10-15 charts; obviously a Winnie-the-Pooh phase when Lou was younger (those three finishes are currently hanging in Mase’s bedroom, and will likely move along to first grandchild). I have probably 20 BHG Christmas magazines that I pick stuff out of, & some Ink Circles gifted to me by Lynne, and 8 Lavender & Lace (MLI was Nora’s mum) but in the last year my stitching revival is mostly Nora Corbett. I would have 40+ charts stashed away and four current WIPs:

  • Persephone
  • Arezzo (over one)
  • Roses of Provence (I’m re-thinking my decision to frog the current fabric, it might be easier now I have a portable stand)
  • Reindeer Parade (my mish-mash with Rudolph complete except for beads, and Blitzen partially done)

I have quite a few finishes for only 20 months too:

  • Stargazer
  • Mediterranean Mermaid
  • Santa’s Sleigh
  • Shimmering Mermaid’s compass (I don’t like this mermaid, but I had to do the compass)
  • Audubon St Yellow Figbird
  • Audubon St Scarlet Tanager
  • Audubon St Blue Monarch Flycatcher
  • Fairy Letter L (click on the Conversion tab for deets)
  • Fairy Letter C (again, click on Conversion for details)

And I’ve stitched on 5 of the seven Mira Round Robins too  which has been fun!

I’m trying not to hoard too much. I have far more than I will ever stitch in my lifetime and while Z and M have fleeting phases of wanting to stitch it isn’t the norm by any means! However I think I will encourage it over the heat of the summer months. With seven weeks away from school there is only so much TV and Wii a boy can deal with!

Here’s last night’s bit of stitching. I played with the stand & while Lenna’s Mermaid Tails RR is far too big to fit on any scroll, my little bookmark fitted perfectly on the smallest set:

Isn’t he cute? I re-worked the CloudsFactory design as I wanted a slightly round but not as round as their characters Poirot. This morning I sat down for 30 mins and I have the beginnings of Mr Darcy (Jenna’s bookmark). He should work up nice and fast!

WIP Wednesday

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

I’ve managed to complete a little more of Persephone. Much of it while Z was surfing sport channels; it was too hot much of the weekend to spend time outside from 11-3 & I’d rather they didn’t risk sunburn so it’s easy to say yes to TV, board games and so on. I’ve gotten up and worked on her a little each morning (around 20-25 min) and I’m up to the second “jellyfish” as Mase calls them.

She’s going to come off the stand for a few weeks as Lenna’s piece arrived yesterday. She’s big and beautiful! I need to take a decent photo. My options are Siren’s Song, Undine or Moonlight Laguna. I’m not sure which one I’ll choose!

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, round robin by

First – please don’t forget to enter my blog giveaway! Check it out HERE and make a comment – entries are open until next WIPocalypse – only one more week! 🙂

20151015_170443We’ve gone from the League merry-go-round to the swim merry-go-round. This one involves a lot of early starts/early finishes at work, driving then sitting around. I spent about 4 hours there last week. This is my usual view now.

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Roses of Provence as at 18/10

I am up to a lot more data entry at work, up from roughly 600 delivery issues in July to 1100 last month. My right wrist is really, really sore and stitching has slowed down. I’m sure this is also due to stitching on 32ct linen as I’m finding I’m very annoyed with the unevenness of the weave. I got past that on Stargazer but I’m not sure I will on Provence – this is after about 8 hours. The leaves have been converted to more even greens; the charted were too lime for the dye of the fabric. I may frog and sell this fabric, and start again on Belfast. I am also plodding along with Christmas Elegance – found one mistake & frogged a little. I think I’ll wag work for a few hours Friday and go to the stitching drop in. I miss the community that arises around stitching or craft groups. I can also grab a pack of Mill Hill to bead around her cape. I had thought of using the Abalone in my stash but it’s not quite right.

Christmas Elegance as at 21/10

Christmas Elegance as at 21/10 – backstitching makes all the difference!

I also got some stash. I wanted Ashley’s Roses and this came as a set. So now I have two copies of Rose of Sharon and Sleeping Beauty. I’m more than happy to swap so drop me a line.

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The seller also had the seasonal angels from Lavender & Lace so I tripled my L&L stash with this bunch of 8 J no, I have no idea when I will get around to stitching everything in my folder, but who cares?

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High 5 4 Friday!

Posted in cross stitch, family, friends, grateful, High Five For Friday, Mirabilia, round robin by

As it’s Thanksgiving period for my State-side friends, I thought this month’s High 5’s would be things I’m grateful for.

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Cross stitch can be so so satisfying. I finished the V (another goal crossed off!) and rocked straight into the international Mira RR piece. This is two days of Christmas Elegance.
Daylight savings means more play time. Z at Browns Bay.
Flu mess keep the crap at bay. But they do stop me from hitting post on the last entry!

But the most important thing this week is Baby M. He belongs to M, and is an absolute sign of faith and prayer. Born in early September at 30 weeks, he’s a fighter. He’s inspiring a group of us to praise God & keep praying for his family and the hospital staff. Please join us in prayer. Seeing faith in action is amazing.

WIP Wednesday

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

I’m full of flu but celebrating some highs, especially when I look at my October goals.
I finished Keely’s Angels, & that piece is already with the next (final) stitcher.
Yesterday I finished Lisa’s piece which had the Tattie Teddie theme. There’s a full day worth of backstitching there! Mine is the one on the right, with the pink sunflower.

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And I’m down to the last two threads on Kathryn’s piece. I really like the idea of this one, as a cushion perhaps? CrossStitcher magazine from Jan 2011, designed by Jacqui Pearce.

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I’m expecting to finish this one today, then I’ll be selecting the piece for the Mira RR. Yay! Love crossing off those goals.

WIP Wednesday & a Smalls Update

Posted in cross stitch, round robin by

Regular people will know that I picked up another set of RR this month, so it’s all about the Smalls.

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House

There’s Andie’s piece, a Shannon Wasilieff Gingerbread House (Andie is beading later on) then progress on Keely’s Christmas Angels.

Keely's piece is nearly done!

Keely’s piece is nearly done!

I had a goal last night to get as much of the actual stitching done as possible, so that I could be back stitching by the weekend and look! I’ll be starting on that tonight. I watched From the Rough, which was a based-on-a-true-story-sporting-chaff-becomes-winners movie but it was perfectly done, much like Remember the Titans. And it had Michael Clarke Duncan in it! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1704586/ And I do like Taraji Henson too. She plays Joss Carter in Person of Interest, another smart show.

WIPocalypse, October Goals & Contest Reminder

Posted in cross stitch, round robin, WIPocalypse by

Crap – this is a lot for one post!

20150928_205449This full moon is beautiful! Not a “blood moon” here in the Southern Hemisphere, but as Auckland skies were clearing, I got some good shots even with my Galaxy S3 phone.

With personal things there was no real WIPocalypse check-in last month, so here’s a couple of updates.

August 29 – Topic:  Pick one of the WIP pieces you’ve stitched on this month, and tell us about your stitching journey with the piece.

IMG_20150929_080302I’ve stitched on quite a few things this past month. I finished Mediterranean Mermaid, and worked on two round robins from a crashed & burned RR – Andrea’s gingerbread house and Keely’s Christmas angel. Andie in turn fixed my boo-boo in the Toy Story birth sampler! I have three more to work on this month as well as finishing Keely’s piece, which I hope to do this week, as I have Thursday/Friday off. Daylight savings has also kicked in which means more light at night and BBQs – Simon is cooking more which takes a load off.

20150928_215907Of my own pieces, I worked on Persephone. With the frustrations involved in the RR I needed to do something that was MINE, and I’ve gone past where I wanted to get too – the back wall paper is completed, and last night her pomegranate/leaves/stem was done. I did make a small mistake in one leaf, and decided to work around it. I don’t think anyone else will be able to tell where I went wrong. She’s looking as rustic as I wanted to, with the slightly coarse fabric – I don’t think it’s what it was labelled as! – and will be a good piece to take into the next year.

Yes, I’m thinking of 2016 already! I joined the FB “16 in 16” group, which is not about new starts but about finishing the WIPs that I do have. Currently this is very small – my over-one Arezzo, Persephone, a freebie Angel, the Toy Story piece that is with Andie, the TW Tapestry Cat and TW Noah’s Ark.

I think I’ve just given myself grace to make a few new starts 🙂

September 28 – Topic:  Where do you buy most of your stitching supplies?

I get most of mine through either Ribbon Rose in Ellerslie (the other side of Auckland, so a minimum 40 min travel time one way), through Elizabeth at http://www.stitchnz.co.nz, running to the DMC stand at the local Spotlight and I have tried Amanda’s Stitching Menagerie. I’m reasonably loyal & go where the service is. I did buy some kitted up stash recently so don’t really have a need to shop right now. Don’t worry, I’m perfectly well and I’m sure I’ll invent something!

So while I “adult” for a little bit, the October goals are:

  • Print out the last 10 days before Christmas & journal to complete my December Daily for 2014
  • Complete my portion on Keely’s RR (Christmas Angels) – this is the one that Z didn’t even open L
  • Complete my portion on Lisa’s RR (Tattie Teddy)
  • Complete my portion on April’s RR (Mira – my pick of one that speaks to me, & I’m thinking a reverse Provence Roses will fit well)
  • Complete my portion on Kathryn’s RR (flower LOVE letters)
  • And if all that’s done, make a start to Raven Queen

Also please don’t forget to enter my blog giveaway!  Check it out HERE and make a comment – entries are open until next WIPocalypse!

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, family, grateful, me, Mirabilia, round robin by

Today’s WIP are brought to you with a bit of bitterness on my tongue. I won’t go into this too much, as I am not out here for sympathy, but I am choosing to walk away (click away?) from a FB group. I will miss some aspects of the community but it’s healthier for me (& less drama for others) if I just leave. So that’s what I’ve done. This way I can forgive & then forget without the constant reminder that someone let me down then broke my trust in them.

Keely's choice; Angels from XS Crazy 2012

Keely’s choice; Angels from XS Crazy 2012

Anyways, let’s get onto the good stuff. This is where I left Keely’s piece at last week. Since then I have completed most of the Angel’s skirt, her wings (blah to DMC metallic) and some of the presents that are on the bottom left. I forgot to take a more up-to-date shot (even on Instagram) so next week’s will look much more complete. I won’t be posting it this week tho, which gives Kathryn a bit more breathing space.

I’m waiting on the international Mira RR to get to me still but I had to get back into something that was my own for a little bit.

progress as at 9th Sept

progress as at 9th Sept

The rugby world cup has started and so I pulled out Persephone while the AB’s played Argentina (very) early Monday morning. I got two cranes done then, and a half plus the ribbon done while supervising homework later than day. I love working with the silks of the Waterlillies – this is the first piece I’ve used them in, as they are quite expensive down here and previously I’ve always subbed them with the DMC. I’ve now got the frame around the top done so it will be all about filling in this last section of “wallpaper” this week. I can’t wait to start back-stitching to define her face but that beading should wait until the end. It’s heavy already given that I stitch “in hand” & I don’t think I should add to that weight yet!

Let’s see if that thought lasts until Christmas, hmm?!

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progress as at 22nd Sept

WIP Wednesday

Posted in cross stitch, Mirabilia, round robin, steptember 2015 by

Well for today I don’t have much to show at all. I managed a few days on the wallpaper of Persephone (while bingeing on SOA). The left top corner now only needs the beads, which I will do much, much later. It’s a carrot to keep stitching along, especially as I wasn’t sure about doing the background initially.

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Then one of the NZ round robins I am organising went to custard. I have picked up the two pieces that were at one person’s house and now have THREE robins I’m stitching in. Luckily I don’t have the latest Mira one yet (probably next week) but the person hadn’t stitched much on the other pieces – one is due to be posted next Friday (not even opened!) and the other was a couple of weeks ago. Part of the issue was out of her control but I’m still disappointed.

I’ve decided to work on Andi’s piece this week (in between work, rep footy and walking) – it’s a Shannon Wasilieff piece called Gingerbread Houses. It’s available in her etsy store. I found this image on Google from another blog (mylifeisinstitches.blogspot.com which now looks like it’s been abandoned).

gingerbread SAL

I’m going to start the top left house & I’ll probably ignore the border – but the goal is to get a house done quick smart and off to Kathryn as soon as I can!