Happy birthday Buster!

OK, so no stitching to show off, but I just had to add in a picture of my gorgeous Beagle, Buster. He turned 5 today and he's soooo much more mellow than he used to be. Having said that, he caught a bird today.... Hubby heard the commotion of all the other birds screeching and went out to investigate. He managed to get Buster to drop the bird, and once I had the dog safely locked inside, hubby went to see what the damage was. The bird was able to hop around and try and fly so it was difficult to help it out, as well as 2 other birds trying to protect it from him (they obviously thought he was going to hurt it rather than help it). The best he could do was use a bucket to help it over the fence - and get it away from the dog - and hope it managed to fly away after recovering from it's ordeal. Here's the innocent looking attacker on his big day anyway (exhausted from all the excitement!)

Slightly stitchy related (grasping at straws now!), when a few of us get together for a monthly stitchy meet, we all bring something edible to share. I spotted the front cover of Super Food Ideas and thought I might give it a go. It's a Choc Mallow Jelly Slice and it'll take a day or two to put together due to the need to chill each layer but hoping it'll turn out alright. Of course, hubby thinks I'll need a practice run (or two!) so will be attempting this one later in the week. Looking forward to it, and seeing how well it goes down at the meeting next month ;)

This picture isn't fab, but I'll be taking a pic of my efforts once completed :D

ORT jar

This year I decided to keep the little ends of the threads I cut off, to give me a more visual image of how productive I have been stitch-wise (besides seeing progress on the actual designs, that it!). I have washed out an old coffee jar to use, and set it on my stitchy table. I figure I'll take intermittant pictures of it along the way, as long as some progress can be seen. I wondered what on earth was in there the other night when I saw it, and then remembered that I'd put in the glow-in-the-dark threads I used for Meg and Mog! Here's how it looks now:

When looking up an actual definition of orts, I found this explanation on about.com - so it looks like stitching can almost be connected to witchcraft! ;) "An ort is a leftover bit of thread, or the last bit of thread before snipping and removing what's left from the eye of the needle when working embroidery projects, knitting and crochet projects, or a hand quilting or sewing pattern. No one really knows where the term originated, but some suspect in may be an abbreviation of a long-forgotten term. Some believe it's an abbreviation of old ratty tails or odd remnants & threads since it often applies to bits of fabric as well as thread. While most stitchers toss their snippets of embroidery threads into the waste bin after stitching, some embroiderers have saved their orts, offering them up to the backyard birds as nesting material or displaying them in clear glass jars to create a keepsake of their endeavors. The practice of making ort jars was probably inspired by witch bottles displayed in museums that contain knotted bits of thread and string. The saved fibers were intended to ward away evil spirits or protect the home from evil spells cast by enemies. To make your own orts jar, save your snippets of thread in a small dish as you work your project, saving them for your orts display. Once you have completed a project, place the bits of thread in a decorative glass bottle or jar. Small, clear antique apothecary jars, perfume bottles, medicine jars or bottles, empty spice jars (labels removed) or salt shakers, small jelly jars, or unusually-shaped jars look particularly pretty when filled with a collection of orts."

Stash sort out

Today I spent a bit of time organising my stash. One day, I would love to have a stitchy room, so all my stash is able to be in one place, but that's just not possible right now. I recently decided that I wanted to remove my kits and fabric from the plastic tubs they have been in and put them in a storage chest/blanket box or something of the like. I had been eyeing up a chest in a store at the local shopping centre before Christmas but didn't have the spare cash for it so decided to wait. Last week I had the cash but when I went in, it wasn't there :( It would have been great as it was one with a Union Jack on (feeling quite patriotic at the moment). So once home, I decided to look on eBay and use the money I had put aside. After a few days of sweating over it, I won a wooden storage chest that was just going to be perfect, and came in under my budget! Hubby collected it for me this morning, so this afternoon I was moving my stash of kits and fabric into it's lovely new home. Here's what I started with:

And here's how it ended up:

I'll probably end up putting the frames in it too, just to make it look neater on the top but I am so pleased with it, and I think it looks so much better than it did!

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.

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! ;)

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!