October Ornament

Snowflake 2007 by Heritage Series
Just Cross Stitch 2007 Ornament Issue Magazine

Stitched on a grab-bag piece of CountryStitch hand-dyed evenweave with Petite Treasure Braid PB10 and white Mill Hill beads. Finished as a frayed edge pillow (a finishing technique I borrowed from Ruth - thanks, Ruth!

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on my Jingle Sparkle Joy finish - ever so much appreciated :)

Jingle Sparkle Joy Ornament

I made this up into an ornament last night but realised this morning that I forgot to put a hanger on it - D'oh! Anyway, during my Pilates class this morning I had a sudden flash of inspiration and when I came home I made the idea a reality :)

I'm happy with how it turned out and I hope my exchange partner is too. I don't think she reads my blog but just in case I whited out her initials :)

Another finish ...

I finished stitching this in the wee hours of this morning (about 1am I think). It is a freebie from Midsummer Night Designs and can be found here. I stitched it on white 32 count opalescent lugana with the suggested DMC threads. Just before 2am I was dunking the finished piece in coffee - the white was just too stark and I wanted to tone it down :)

This is for an exchange so after I post this I will go and finish-finish it and get it packaged up and ready to send off to it's new home next week.

Thank you one and all for your lovely comments on Happy Haunting. I think I will set Tuesday aside this week to finish it off into a flatfold - should be interesting!!

Also, thank you Alison for the link to your new blog - I shall be over shortly to check it out and say hello :)

A finish and a few starts :)

Happy Haunting by Lizzie*Kate

I finished this around 11.30pm on Wednesday night - tried to post yesterday but Blogger wouldn't let me for some reason.

I stitched this up on a 30 count hand-dyed linen remnant I came across in my fabric stash with DMC threads. I can't find the tag now but I think the linen colour is called "Iced Cappucino" - no idea on the company though.

I am thinking of making my first flatfold with this finish for the Monthly Finishing Challenge. I'm limited with backing fabric choice but I thought the one in the pic might work - what do you think?

After the Lizzie*Kate finish I started another Halloween design - Just Nan's Ghoulies & Ghosties. Should have gone to bed but it wasn't yet midnight and I had everything ready to go. Managed a few stitches before nodding off :)



I stitched some more on it this morning. This is my progress so far :) I'm using CountryStitch's 28 count "Cappucino" lugana and DMC threads for this one. Mmmm, seems to be a bit of a theme happening with my fabric choices there - lol!

I've put the JN aside for now though as I need to make a start on an exchange piece plus my October ornament and I also want to get a BCA piece finished before the end of October!





The BCA piece is a free design from Romy in Austria's blog. I'm afraid the camera flash has washed out the colours but the lighter pink is Dinky Dyes "Linda's Roses" (Limited Edition silk) and the darker pink is HDF's Rose Quartz 1369. The fabric is black 28 count Monaco.

I sat stitching at my dining table yesterday as the natural light coming in through the windows was wonderful and I could spread out more than I can in my usual stitching spot in the lounge. There is stuff everywhere although not as bad as my finishing frenzy day :) I really need my own stitching room!

Now on to something totally unrelated to stitching. DH and I don't go out a lot but last night we were to meet some friends/work colleagues of DH's for dinner. Octoberfest is on - one of our friends was particularly excited by this fact so thought it would be the perfect excuse for a night out :) Thursday night is the beginning of our weekend here. Our dinner reservation was for 7.30pm, the hotel is a 10 minute drive from our place, maybe 15. We left home at 7pm - you can see where this is going can't you? At 7.02pm we hit a massive queue of traffic - all of which appeared to be going in the same direction we were. It took us AN HOUR to get to the hotel! At 8pm we finally pull up to the front entrance of the hotel only to be told that valet parking is full (despite us having a reservation)!! We would have to backtrack to the public carpark, park there and walk back to the hotel. It would probably have taken us 25 mins in traffic to get back to the carpark (road system all one way in that area), then a 10-15 minute walk back to the hotel ... in high heels. Uh no, I don't think so! So we gave up, called our friends and apologised but we're going home! It took us less than 5 mins to get back home!

DH rang another couple that were supposed to be going and found out they were about 15 mins in the queue of traffic behind us - warned them there was no valet parking at the hotel and to park in the public carpark which they hadn't got to yet.

I've since heard there were apparently 600 people there - nobody would have heard what anyone was saying anyway!!!

Right, I'm off to clear off the dining table so we can have some lunch :)

Thank you :)

For all the lovely comments you all left on my finishing frenzy finishes! Wow, made my day :) I didn't mean to take so long to respond with my thanks but DS came down with a rather nasty cold last week and had a couple of days off school, DH was away again and DD has been quite the social butterfly recently which means I have spent quite a bit of time in my truck driving here, there and everywhere! I, who very rarely gets sick, appear to have caught DS' cold ... so nice of him to share ... NOT!

Now, some quick replies to some previous recent comments and then I'm off to try and get some sleep - we've got a busy weekend lined up!

Ruth and Sharon, info about the Spot Sampler Mystery SAL can be found here.

Speaking of the Spot Sampler, Cathy, I will eventually stitch up the ornament found on the Spot Sampler Blog - have a few other little things up my sleeve at the moment though :)

Megan, I quite enjoy stitching on black and have a couple I'm in the process of kitting up (Spot Sampler and Ink Circles Hanky Pysanky) - how insane does that make me - lol?

Good night all!

Finishing Frenzy Pictures

Here are the pics as promised. Hover your cursor over the pic for the design details.










Remember when I blogged about this? Well, I finally finished sewing on the beads and found something to put on the top of the tree. I wanted a pale pink heart but just couldn't find one so I settled on the silver star instead. I thought about another pillow finish but decided to make up a needleroll instead. This is my "pink" contribution for Breast Cancer Awareness month.



I went looking for a bigger display container and found this wooden tray tucked away in a cupboard. It works well although I need to stitch and finish a few more items to fill in the empty spaces!



Now I need to get cracking on some Halloween ornaments!

Finishing Frenzy!

Despite waking with a headache this morning and its constant presence throughout the day, I still pulled out the sewing machine and my precious stash of finishing items, and went crazy :). So much so that I'm almost out of polyfill!

Pics will have to wait until tomorrow though (sorry!) - it is well after midnight and I need sleep!

My dining room looks a mess and the dog has gone into hiding (under my desk in the study) but it has been a good productive day :)

Thanks for stopping by!

The mailman bringeth ...

My JCS 2008 Christmas Ornament issue along with this month's FOTM from CountryStitch arrived this morning. I had a quick peruse while having my second cup of tea this morning (after cycling to school with the kids and then walking the dog I was parched!) - I will have to go through it again and note down the ones I'm keen to stitch.



I didn't end up watching American Chopper on Friday night (it was a repeat of a show which we'd seen at the beginning of the summer) which meant I didn't end up stitching. Saturday was spent mostly doing laundry!

Yesterday, however, I stitched this ...



Spot Sampler Christmas Ornament
Stickideen von der Wiehenburg 2008
Stitched on black 28 count Monaco with HDF mystery spool

I joined another Stickideen von der Wiehenburg mystery SAL - this time it is a Spot Sampler. Apparently there will lots of motifs that can be used for Christmas ornaments. This one was a freebie for members of the Spot Sampler group. At the moment I'm just collecting the pages - no plans to start stitching it yet (but I am fickle so who knows!). I am toying with the idea of stitching it on black, no idea on threads yet but I am test-stitching another one of these ornaments with another HDF mystery spool in a green colourway. Will probably finish it tomorrow. Not sure if I like it or not yet.

I plan on having a finishing day tomorrow although I do need to go to the vet and get a new registration tag for the dog. I stood on her current one a couple of weekends ago when DH was giving her a bath and broke it - oops! If I do that early I should still have a good few hours to finish a few ornaments before the kids get home from school.

It's getting late so I'd better call it a night. Thanks for stopping by and I'm glad ya'll like the new look :) Ooo, which reminds me, since I'm on a real Halloween kick right now, I started pulling threads for Just Nan's Ghoulies & Ghosties today too. I really wanted to start it this afternoon but I'm short one colour *sigh*.

There is something else I was going to mention but I think I will leave it for tomorrow :)

New Look for October

Coming from Australia we've never really celebrated Halloween although autumn is one of my favourite times of year, and I've always had a thing for the fun spooky stuff :)

Of course since moving here all that has changed, and Halloween has sort of become a big thing in this house ... well for me and the kids, not so much DH :)

Hence the new look :)

I have been stitching - a HAED piece that DS chose late last year and asked me to stitch for him. It involves wizards and dragons - two of his favourite things and luckily mine too. I did start it earlier this year but unfortunately didn't get very far. There's not much to show but blobs of blue at the moment - I'll post progress pics when there's more to see. Oh, this is the chart - The Encounter - I started in the top left corner so you'll see what I mean about blobs of blue!

Thank you Rachel, Cathy, Sharon, Sally, Kim and Lelia for dropping by and admiring my latest ornament finish. Sharon and Kim, I hope you get your respective mojos back soon too!

I'm about to go and make myself a cup of tea, settle into my stitching chair and watch American Chopper :)

September Ornament

A Star, A Star by The Sunflower Seed
from the JCS 2007 Ornament Magazine

I used DMC floss and substituted Kreinik 002V #4 braid for the PB01. I also used Mill Hill 42011 beads instead of 40557. Stitched on 32 count Kiwi Illusions "Oyster" lugana.

Started and finished 30 September - put the last beads on at 11.54pm!

I haven't been doing much of anything since we returned from holidays, except to read (boy, have I read a load of books in the last few weeks!). I came back feeling restless and disenchanted. I do enjoy (for the most part) life here but there are times when the constant heat, humidity, dust, construction, roadworks and the ensuing traffic chaos get the better of me. The fact is I'm not a big city type of girl yet I find myself living in one - go figure! It was also Ramadan (officially ended today) - not being able to eat and drink in public during the daylight hours doesn't bother me - it is the morons on the road who become even more moronic on the roads, the shortened business hours and the insane amount of time it takes to do something relatively straight forward and simple. Then I get angry with myself because I have much to be thankful for. Unfortunately, this feeling of blah has affected my motivation to stitch - it just hasn't been there - in fact this ornament is the most I've stitched in weeks! I did pick up the knitting bug while away but even that has been put away.

Still, there are signs of hope of a return to normality :) I've stitched some on a HAED WIP tonight and have pulled another out of hibernation to work on tomorrow. I got my September ornament done and I have an urge to get out the sewing machine and have a finishing day - perhaps over the weekend. I've also signed up for an Ornament exchange which is the first exchange I've participated in for a long time! Last but certainly not least, I've blogged :)