WIP Wednesday

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

Woo hoo! I actually have some WIP progress to share with y’all. It’s taken four days but I have nearly finished beading the wallpaper and hair portion of Persephone. I am not used to back-stitching a Mira’s skin with two strands, but it was definitely right to do:

she looks so pretty!

she looks so pretty!

The only thing I am not happy about is that the Mill Hill beads 82023 (the long brown tubes) take up FIVE spaces not the four as charted. You can clearly see the issue in this shot where the one on the right leans, because the end is on a stitch, & the light bounces off it differently:

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I don’t know what to do about it; I may not notice in a year or so & I can adjust my stitching for the bodice etc where these bugle beads will next appear. I don’t really want to re-stitch but given that I am now determined to frog those hands on Stargazer that annoy me, it means that I probably will notice! What do you think?

High 5 for Friday!

My High 5’s are very short & sweet this week.

  • I enhanced my stash
  • Managed to give away two as RAKs which makes me feel oh-so-good

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  • I have to do some work each day of the weekend but I negotiated time off work to go to the Stitch Drop In at The Ribbon Rose in Mt Wellington, only brought 3 things of Mill Hill beads so wallet safe.
  • Sunday breakfast is with friends as we watch the All Blacks play Seeth Afreeeca
  • It’s a 3 day weekend!!!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

WIP Wednesday

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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Hi Five for Friday!

Because it’s October, I’m in my Grateful series.

  1. The leaves are starting to appear on my dwarf apple tree. And there are buds on my climbing rose, which I still need to plant in situ. I forgot to take photos, sorry.
  2. ROPI had so many choices about what to start on my next stitching piece which will be (tah dah!) Roses of Provence. I’ve just snuck off my beads & Kreinik order to Elizabeth (stitchnz.co.nz for Kiwi followers. Her service is AWESOME!). Unfortunately the Summer Queen didn’t arrive in the post, but the seller gave me a refund.
  3. I’m recovering from the flu so my energy levels, while still all over the place, are coming back.
  4. 240_galleryBran has agreed to join Swim Club at the base. He was reluctant as it’s a step up, more time and he will have to wear “budgie smugglers” but he’ll get over it when he realises all the other boys are too. I’m glad because otherwise we would have run out of class options at the end of this term & swimming is such good therapy for head injuries as well as a de-stressing tool. I’m tempted to get him these ones (available at budgysmugglers.com.au) but I think I’d best go with plain black speedos.
  5. My eye test this year only showed a slight deterioration in one eye, not enough to warrant changing my prescription. I am ordering prescription sunnies tho and I expect that in a couple of weeks I’ll be asking myself why I didn’t do this earlier. I drive into the sun in the morning and then again in the evening which we agreed is stressing & adding to the headaches I can get. But there is no disease apparent or retinal detachment. Yay!

And she’s done!

Yay for Saturday mornings with no sport.

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And a close up:

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I did change out some beads, more because I had them to hand but they fit so well on this fabric. Everything is still Mill Hill.
16603 became 03016.
18828 became 00143 (happily the packet I didn’t use for Stargazer).
In the bubble trails from her fins, I used 00150 instead of silver and 00161 instead of 02010.

I do feel a little stupid in that she’s been sitting in a bag for a year, and it was only a week to get a finish!

EXTRA! Check these pretties out!

I had to do a chocolate run (yes, I know!) and came across these in Countdown

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Ten bucks with the downside being only 80c goes to the charity (I would like it to be more along the lines of a couple of bucks) but it’s a beautiful, solid little box. Magnetic front closure too.
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I brought the Tui one. He’s printed on there in a heavy, glossy ink with texture, and the inside is perfect for my plans to store my Mill Hill bead packs. With a slight design amendment by Bran 🙂 he needs these projects for his NCEA paper!

I’m such a good mum!

EDIT: this is kind of what I wanted. For now I am using the flimsy plastic that the biscuits were in and that will do nicely.
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