Friday, February 1, 2013
The next generation
Well, today it started - I sat down with my 3yr old and began teaching her how to stitch! She's been interested for a while now, watching me when I stitch and asking lots of questions, but I wasn't sure when the best time to start her was. She had the plastic kids threading shapes and called that her stitching, and then my mum sent her a little starter kit over for Christmas. She absoltely loved it (as the picture shows) and I thought we made pretty good progress for her first time. Obviously I started her off, and finished the threads for her but the rest of it was her doing, and she followed instructions and concentrated beautifully. I did change the plastic needle they provided to a thick metal one too. The plastic one was useless for being able to thread behind the stitches for finishing off.
So now it looks like I'll be having to keep a close eye on my stash in case it's in danger of beign raided! Very happy to be sharing my love of stitching with my daugther though, and looking forward to her joining in with my stitchy group when she's older :)
I finshed one!!!!
Yay! I finally have a finish to share :D It's been so long since I have finished a project that I got REALLY excited about this one. It's only a small design, from a magazine years ago, but a finish all the same. I decided to keep hold of it (I don;t get the mags any more and only kept the patterns I liked as storage was too much of an issue) and I'm glad that I did. My 3yr old is obssessed with Meg and Mog, so once framed, it'll be going on her wall.
I feel a little more motivated with my needle now too, so hopefully some more progress will be being made on other projects soon.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
New stash
On Tuesday I had a "nice postie day" after my stash arrived. I ordered from Laurel's Stitchery when they had a 40% off sale on NYE. I was so happy with the prices and now have some awesome pieces to add to my "to do" pile. With that kind of a discount, it made sense to get a few things. Most of them had been on my wishlist for a while too, and it felt good to be spending money on myself for a change. Usually I think of Little Miss first, and then hubby so I hardly ever spend any money on myself.
It's so exciting when new stash comes in, that it's taking all my willpower at the moment to not stitch them. I have promised myself that I will get my current WIP's and UFO's tackled first, before I start anything else. I have been stitching a little bit lately but not enough to post any progress reports. I have just set myself up a little stitchy area in our front room though, so I'm hoping I'll get more achieved. I was finding that whilst it was nice to stitch in the lounge, I would too easily get distracted by the tv, and for a whole night's stitching session I might only have got half an hour of actual stitching done... I'll take a picture of my new set-up soon (once it's been tweaked a bit) and post about it.
I am sooooo excited that I have booked in our stitchy retreat too. We're going at the end of July to a place just outside Daylesford. We went last year and it was awesome! The place is completely set up for crafters so the lighting is amazing and made it possible for us to stay up til 3.30am stitching! It is set up to such a high standard and everyone was thoroughly impressed at what we got for the money we paid. I'm so looking forward to spending time with friends doing nothing but stitching, laughing and eating! ;)
It's so exciting when new stash comes in, that it's taking all my willpower at the moment to not stitch them. I have promised myself that I will get my current WIP's and UFO's tackled first, before I start anything else. I have been stitching a little bit lately but not enough to post any progress reports. I have just set myself up a little stitchy area in our front room though, so I'm hoping I'll get more achieved. I was finding that whilst it was nice to stitch in the lounge, I would too easily get distracted by the tv, and for a whole night's stitching session I might only have got half an hour of actual stitching done... I'll take a picture of my new set-up soon (once it's been tweaked a bit) and post about it.
I am sooooo excited that I have booked in our stitchy retreat too. We're going at the end of July to a place just outside Daylesford. We went last year and it was awesome! The place is completely set up for crafters so the lighting is amazing and made it possible for us to stay up til 3.30am stitching! It is set up to such a high standard and everyone was thoroughly impressed at what we got for the money we paid. I'm so looking forward to spending time with friends doing nothing but stitching, laughing and eating! ;)
Sunday, December 9, 2012
I'm baaaaack!
And oh dear me, how shameful is it that it's been over a year since my last post.... I was reminded the other day by my good friend Belinda that I need to get back on and post, so thanks for the kick up the rear end Belinda - much needed! :D
I'm still not happy with my blog (for some reason my layout is not how I've set it and I can't see my personal info etc that is supposed to be down the sides, but as long as my main posts show up, I'm happy enough :)
I have been coming and going a bit with my stitching over this past year - my stitchy bug has been a bit unreliable, popping in whenever it feels like it and then high-tailing it out of here without so much as a thought for what I was in the middle of. So frustrating sometimes! However, looking at the photo's on here, I do seem to have made progress. Here's the latest picture of Birds of a Feather. I really haven't worked on this one since my parents visited in February/March this year. It was meant to be a surprise gift for my dad, but it wasn't finished in time so mum suggested showing him anyway. Once that had been done (and he loved it!) the urgency was taken out of doing it, and it came to a standstill. I must get back to it soon!
At the end of June, I went away for a stitchy weekend with 8 stitchy friends to a little retreat just outside Daylesford. It was a fabulous weekend (and I might have to dedicate another post to that one a little later) but it did mean that I got some work done on my Ouroborus design. Another one that I haven't touched for a few months that is screaming out for attention, but here is the progress so far.
Little Miss is, at the moment, totally obsessed with Meg and Mog... She has some of the books and 2 dvd's of the show and whilst it was Halloween she was dressing up as a witch and casting spells whilst riding arouind the loungeroom on her broomstitck. Very cute, and it inspired me to find in my syash of many patterns a chart that I had saved from one of the stitchy magazines I used to get years ago. So currently, I am stitching a Meg and Mog design on 32 count linen. I think it's coming up pretty well, and it'll be great once the backstitch is in as that is done in 2 strands, so it should make it really pop. The other reason I am a bit excited about this design is that I have substituted the white thread for white glow in the dark thread, so it should look awesome in the dark!
Well, that's it for now, will have to update more later as now is the time for the hum-drum activity of the weekend grocery shop.
Happy stitching!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Gremlins
It seems I have a few gremlins in my blogger account at the moment - I am working my way through trying to sort them out so hapefully normal service will resume soon.
I have been stitching quite a bit recently too, so there is lots to report once I have got this working properly again.
happy stitching!
I have been stitching quite a bit recently too, so there is lots to report once I have got this working properly again.
happy stitching!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
A finish and a UFO
Well, it finally happened - I finished Jack's sampler! :D *happy dance* So here it is before the backstitch....
And after the backstitch...
I finished it last month, after taking a humungous 11 months to stitch it. Considering Megan's took me only a month, I am pretty disappointed with that length of time. However, I am pleased with the end result. I'm very glad that I took out the border that would have been of a different colour as it would have spoilt the whole thing. I would've posted pictures earlier but I've been having issues with blogger :(
Anyway, I have now resumed stitching on a long forgotten UFO. My aim is to work through my UFO's one at a time until they are eliminated and then never have any ever again LOL
The piece I have picked up is called Birds of a Feather and is a design by Dimensions. Once finished it will look like this:
This is the last progress shot I have taken, but there has been more stitching since then ;-)
It is a design I am stitching for my dad, and he'll be visiting with my mum in February so I'm hoping to have it done or at least mostly done by the time they get here. Thankfully he doesn't know anything about it yet, as it was one Mum originally bought for him and was unable to stitch it herself. It's done on 18 count Aida and Mum's eyes weren't up to it (this was in the early days of her stitching, before she got her magnifier light. I agreed to stitch it in her place but I started it 8 years ago! It's just been one of those projects that has been put to one side to get other things done first and then I completely forgot about it... Oh well, it's back now and I'm quite enjoying working on it. The cream part of the border is only half stitch so it's coming along quite easily. I did get a little bored by the border though so I have started working on the central design. Gotta vary it up a little :-D This design is also one that I am timing. I am using a stopwatch, but I am not seeing how fast I can stitch (evidently, as it's been 8 years!). Some designs I just like to see how much actual stitching time goes into it. I have a tendency to sometimes have the tv on whilst I am stitching and pay more attention to the tv so a possible 2 hour stitching session might only have about 30 minutes of actual stitching in it. I am simply starting the clock when I begin stitching and stopping it for loo breaks or when I make a cuppa, and then keeping a log of it. I don't do this for every design, mind you as it would completely take the enjoyment out of it. I'll let you know what the final tally is - I think it'll shock me more than anything :-P
In other news, I have changed jobs and moved to a childcare centre a little closer to home. I'm really enjoying it, and an added bonus is that I now get an hour for my lunch break instead of half an hour. It makes it a longer day but it also gives me the opportunity to do somethign with that time. I was contemplating taking some stitching with me but instead I decided to use the time to read and leave my stitching until the evenings when I am at home. I have begun re-reading the Elm Creek novels by Jennifer Chiaverini. They are an easy read, and I just pretend that I am reading about a group of cross-stitchers rather than a group of quilters. I do the same thing with Kate Jacobs' knitting books. I seem to get such a sense of belonging within their groups that I almost feel like I am part of the book. It also makes me feel even more lucky to have the group of stitchy friends that I do.
Anyway, better wrap it up for one night, Little Miss has gone off for the first time ever (at home with me, at least) without her dummy so I'm going to make the most of it. Before I go though, I'd like to welcome my newest followers - I'm now up to the dizzy heights of 20! I hope I haven't bored any of you too much and thanks for reading my little blog. I'll try to keep it a little more updated so you actually have something to follow :D
Happy stitching!
And after the backstitch...
I finished it last month, after taking a humungous 11 months to stitch it. Considering Megan's took me only a month, I am pretty disappointed with that length of time. However, I am pleased with the end result. I'm very glad that I took out the border that would have been of a different colour as it would have spoilt the whole thing. I would've posted pictures earlier but I've been having issues with blogger :(
Anyway, I have now resumed stitching on a long forgotten UFO. My aim is to work through my UFO's one at a time until they are eliminated and then never have any ever again LOL
The piece I have picked up is called Birds of a Feather and is a design by Dimensions. Once finished it will look like this:
This is the last progress shot I have taken, but there has been more stitching since then ;-)
It is a design I am stitching for my dad, and he'll be visiting with my mum in February so I'm hoping to have it done or at least mostly done by the time they get here. Thankfully he doesn't know anything about it yet, as it was one Mum originally bought for him and was unable to stitch it herself. It's done on 18 count Aida and Mum's eyes weren't up to it (this was in the early days of her stitching, before she got her magnifier light. I agreed to stitch it in her place but I started it 8 years ago! It's just been one of those projects that has been put to one side to get other things done first and then I completely forgot about it... Oh well, it's back now and I'm quite enjoying working on it. The cream part of the border is only half stitch so it's coming along quite easily. I did get a little bored by the border though so I have started working on the central design. Gotta vary it up a little :-D This design is also one that I am timing. I am using a stopwatch, but I am not seeing how fast I can stitch (evidently, as it's been 8 years!). Some designs I just like to see how much actual stitching time goes into it. I have a tendency to sometimes have the tv on whilst I am stitching and pay more attention to the tv so a possible 2 hour stitching session might only have about 30 minutes of actual stitching in it. I am simply starting the clock when I begin stitching and stopping it for loo breaks or when I make a cuppa, and then keeping a log of it. I don't do this for every design, mind you as it would completely take the enjoyment out of it. I'll let you know what the final tally is - I think it'll shock me more than anything :-P
In other news, I have changed jobs and moved to a childcare centre a little closer to home. I'm really enjoying it, and an added bonus is that I now get an hour for my lunch break instead of half an hour. It makes it a longer day but it also gives me the opportunity to do somethign with that time. I was contemplating taking some stitching with me but instead I decided to use the time to read and leave my stitching until the evenings when I am at home. I have begun re-reading the Elm Creek novels by Jennifer Chiaverini. They are an easy read, and I just pretend that I am reading about a group of cross-stitchers rather than a group of quilters. I do the same thing with Kate Jacobs' knitting books. I seem to get such a sense of belonging within their groups that I almost feel like I am part of the book. It also makes me feel even more lucky to have the group of stitchy friends that I do.
Anyway, better wrap it up for one night, Little Miss has gone off for the first time ever (at home with me, at least) without her dummy so I'm going to make the most of it. Before I go though, I'd like to welcome my newest followers - I'm now up to the dizzy heights of 20! I hope I haven't bored any of you too much and thanks for reading my little blog. I'll try to keep it a little more updated so you actually have something to follow :D
Happy stitching!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Motivation
I've not really been very motivated to do any stitching for a while. I think the whole having-to-rip-half-my-work-out saga really put the kybosh on it for a while. That and a few issues at work and I really haven't been myself.
However, I have sorted things out at work now (to a point) and I finally got the motivation to pick up my stitching again at the weekend, when I had a stitchy meet with my lovely stitching friends (Belinda, Bek and Cassie). It was a fantastic few hours and as hubby was out watching the footie with his dad I had to take Little Miss with me. I was a bit dubious as to how it was going to go for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was right on her normal sleep time, which meant she was either going to sleep in the car and get grumpy, or she was going to get grumpy due to not having a sleep. Neither of those things happened and I ended up putting her to bed almost an hour early that night and she was straight to sleep! It did make her a bit more tired the next day though so she's not quite ready to come out of her daytime sleep yet :) The second reason was that she's never been around my stitchy stuff before (I've always made sure it was away before she got up so she didn't get attracted to the scissors or needles. Again, I needn't have worried - there were far too many toys to play with at Cassie's place for her to worry about what we were all doing. It was a great afternoon with lovely company, good conversation and of course some stitching!
So now, this is how far I have managed to get with Jack's sampler. Besides the backstitch, the border is complete so I only have to work on the inside picture. Hopefully it won't take too long now as I feel like I have been working on this one forever. I already have my next project lined up too - Ouroborus. It's a design of a dragon, stitched in purple and I'm doing it as a stitchalong with Bek. We got it at the same time and a good friend of ours (who used to be in the stitchy group before she upped and left us to move to Germany) sent us some lovely sparkly material which was just perfect to stitch him on. I would love to get back to stitching on him but won't pick it up again until I have finished Jack's sampler (or it'll never get finished!)
At our stitchy meet, we also floated the idea of going on a weekend away towards the middle of next year, as a kind of retreat. I'm pretty excited about the prospect and have already been looking on t'internet at places to stay. Three out of the four of us are mum's to young children (Little Miss is the oldest at just over 2 years) so we don't want to venture too far away in case we need to get back, but far enough to feel like we're having a complete break. There are a few places that look promising. It'll just be nice to get away from it all, have good company, lots of stitching time and hopefully lots of laughs. maybe even a stitchy shop or two!
I hope everyone else is going well with their stitching - I'm going to attempt some catching up on blog reading, but I may be some time!
Happy stitching xx
However, I have sorted things out at work now (to a point) and I finally got the motivation to pick up my stitching again at the weekend, when I had a stitchy meet with my lovely stitching friends (Belinda, Bek and Cassie). It was a fantastic few hours and as hubby was out watching the footie with his dad I had to take Little Miss with me. I was a bit dubious as to how it was going to go for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was right on her normal sleep time, which meant she was either going to sleep in the car and get grumpy, or she was going to get grumpy due to not having a sleep. Neither of those things happened and I ended up putting her to bed almost an hour early that night and she was straight to sleep! It did make her a bit more tired the next day though so she's not quite ready to come out of her daytime sleep yet :) The second reason was that she's never been around my stitchy stuff before (I've always made sure it was away before she got up so she didn't get attracted to the scissors or needles. Again, I needn't have worried - there were far too many toys to play with at Cassie's place for her to worry about what we were all doing. It was a great afternoon with lovely company, good conversation and of course some stitching!
So now, this is how far I have managed to get with Jack's sampler. Besides the backstitch, the border is complete so I only have to work on the inside picture. Hopefully it won't take too long now as I feel like I have been working on this one forever. I already have my next project lined up too - Ouroborus. It's a design of a dragon, stitched in purple and I'm doing it as a stitchalong with Bek. We got it at the same time and a good friend of ours (who used to be in the stitchy group before she upped and left us to move to Germany) sent us some lovely sparkly material which was just perfect to stitch him on. I would love to get back to stitching on him but won't pick it up again until I have finished Jack's sampler (or it'll never get finished!)
At our stitchy meet, we also floated the idea of going on a weekend away towards the middle of next year, as a kind of retreat. I'm pretty excited about the prospect and have already been looking on t'internet at places to stay. Three out of the four of us are mum's to young children (Little Miss is the oldest at just over 2 years) so we don't want to venture too far away in case we need to get back, but far enough to feel like we're having a complete break. There are a few places that look promising. It'll just be nice to get away from it all, have good company, lots of stitching time and hopefully lots of laughs. maybe even a stitchy shop or two!
I hope everyone else is going well with their stitching - I'm going to attempt some catching up on blog reading, but I may be some time!
Happy stitching xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)