Thank you ...

everyone for your lovely comments on St Georges. They mean a lot and have spurred me on to get a couple of other WIPs out of the way :)

Right now, I'm beavering away on An Open Heart (The Drawn Thread) - I had hoped to finish the last band tonight but it is past my bedtime so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Then I get to start on the whitework borders.

I did take a progress pic but it was taken at night and unfortunately it's not the best shot. Today was overcast (looks like there's more rain coming) so not the best conditions for picture taking! Hopefully, the next pic will be it finished anyway!!

Must go to bed now - I'm off fabric hunting and thread buying tomorrow ... or should I say later this morning :)

First Major 2008 Finish

Long Dog Samplers "St Georges"
Started sometime (I think) in 2006 and finished 19 January 2008
Stitched with 1 strand of Gloriana "Red Clay" silk over 2 threads
on cream 40 count linen

I was going to start Sampler Cove's Rhapsody in Red Ribbon Sampler or Spanish Rouge next but I'm still waiting on the charts and fabric (for SR) to arrive. I do have Double Dutch from The Gift of Stitching online magazine kitted up but I've decided I will pull out An Open Heart and work on that for the rest of the weekend.

WIP Updates

First up, Long Dog Samplers "St Georges" ...



Next, I managed a few more stitches in Dinky Dyes "The Dreaming" this week ...



A quick post today :) As you can see, I am very close to a finish on "St Georges"!!!

Here yesterday, gone today ...

The rain that is :)

This is what our backyard looked like yesterday after 2-3 days of constant rain:



(Please disregard the sorry excuse of a trampoline - the mat disintegrated from the heat and sourcing a new one is proving difficult.)

This is what it looks like today:



Laura commented that she couldn't imagine a city "not built for rain". Strange, I know, but because they get so very little rain here it just never enters into the equation during the construction stage (no gutters, storm drains, etc). However, when it does rain it causes complete and utter chaos! Flooding, electrical problems, traffic mayhem, etc. All schools were ordered to close yesterday and today by the Ministry of Education because of it. Our school has been affected by flooding and I believe electrical problems.

Just a quick post tonight as I'm keen to stitch a little more on Dream before I head to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow so I don't want to stay up too late but I want to finish the section I'm stitching first!

I should have some WIP update pics for you tomorrow. It is the start of the HAEDless Sampler SAL on the HAED BB and I am working on St Georges this month. There will be a finish in the very near future!

Also thank you for your comments and welcome to new readers - there are a few that I want to reply to and I hope to do that soon!

It's raining ...

my tumble dryer is kaput and my new one doesn't arrive until tomorrow! My house, therefore, looks like a Chinese laundry (must find out where that saying comes from)!!

I managed to put a length (six strands) of floss into The Encounter but it's just a pitiful blob of blue :) I then sat down to work on Dream of Purple, delved into my WIP box and came out with my WIP and the chart but not the threads or the actual page of the chart I'm working from! Figured I had put it in one of my overflow boxes which are stacked on top of the wardrobe in the spare room before we went on holidays. My search of the boxes I could reach was fruitless and since DH had gone to bed I was going to have to wait until this morning for him to get the boxes right at the top down for me so I could have a look. I could have gone back to The Encounter but I'd already taken him off the stand and the Q-snaps and put him away.

This morning my much taller DH got the boxes down and I now have my threads and the first page of the chart ready for tonight's stitching session on Dream of Purple.

During the search I came across an old WIP of Dinky Dyes' The Dreaming - that looked a more soothing stitch - so I pulled that out and worked on that instead. I'm not sure when I started it, probably sometime in 2006!

This is how it was when I picked it up last night ...



I might squeeze a little more time on it over the weekend so I'll hold off from taking a progress pic until early next week.

I also put a few more stitches in St Georges this afternoon while waiting for DD at her tap class. Thank you also for the lovely comments - it is coming along quite well and I'm really pleased with how the thread colour stitches up.

Rightio, I'm off to iron the essential uniform and work items for the kids and DH for school/work tomorrow and then settle down to reacquaint myself with Dream of Purple!

Happy Stitching!

Pay It Forward 2008

I've gone and done it now - I've joined Karen's PIF challenge :)

So, if you would like something stitched by me sometime during this year (2008) then please be one of the first five (5) people to either leave a comment here or email me at buffster_fan at yahoo dot com dot au and I will be in touch. In turn you must post to your blog the same challenge and accept five people to send to. They do the same and forward it goes :)

If I do not have five people sign up then I will send five random parcels to different parts of the globe :)

I didn't get a lot of stitching done on The Encounter yesterday - prepping the fabric (I actually dragged out the sewing machine to edge the fabric), pulling the floss and gridding the outline of the first page took longer than I anticipated. We also went out last night for dinner so I didn't really sit down to stitch until quite late. I probably managed about 20-30 stitches before I headed for bed. I will work on this some more next week after the HAED Challenge SAL which is this weekend and I will post a progress pic then.

However, I will leave you with the latest progress on my Long Dog Sampler "St Georges" - not the best photo, sorry but you can see that it is almost done! I did quite a bit of this in the last week of our holidays.



I haven't managed to stitch yet today so I'm off to make myself a cuppa and then head to my stitching chair for an hour or two!

Personality Blogthing :)

As seen on Kim's blog ...

Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ISTP)

Your personality type is reserved, methodical, spirited, and intense. Only about 6% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 8% of all men You are Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

I have been stitching away on St Georges but tonight I think I will pull out something different - not sure what yet though. Will take a dive into my WIP box and see what leaps into my hands :)

Oh, and Tannia, St Georges is being stitched with one strand of Gloriana's "Red Clay" silk over two threads on cream 40 count linen :)

A long overdue update!

Good grief I didn't realise it had been so long since I'd posted! I have been a bit preoccupied lately, mostly with health issues of close family members back in Australia, secondly with the new Sims2 expansion pack and most recently with the purchase of our home here!

Anyway, I have been stitching and have even managed to catch up with Lisa a couple of times. Every time we get together we say we will stitch but to date that hasn't happened - lol! Too busy chatting - maybe next time, Lisa?!

Okay, some pics ...

First, is my current progress on Verdure - I kept working on her after the March HAED Challenge SAL weekend as I wasn't happy with the lack of progress I made during that SAL.



Second is my current progress on Long Dog Samplers "St Georges". This is my car/travel project but I have been working on it the past few evenings as well. It doesn't require too much concentration and there are no colour changes so it is a pretty easy stitch.



I'm currently being harassed by the dog (she has her head on my thigh and is staring at me with her big brown eyes!) as she hasn't been for her morning walk yet so I will sign off for now :)