Samplers, and Fairies for the months of April and May 2015

Hello everyone,

It has been a while again, Life has been a blur since I went back to work and only now have I found time for an update.
Last post I was back stitching on Twisted band sampler still on limited duties at home.  In 10 days I had gone from this

to this on the 18th of April

Heaps of progress and so glad those greens where over.. I was getting so tired of green lol.

By this stage I decided I needed a break from stitching on the black. My eyes are not what they used to be, and grabbed my Red Quaker Sampler for a quick update for Aprils section, which I managed to get done in a few hours on the evening of the 19th of April.

After this I decided some time on Firefly Fairies would be fun so switched projects again and spent a month with the fairies again. The green fairy is now complete minus a few beads.

 I have found a rotation on a monthly bases keeps me stitching and I get a fair bit done before I rotate onto the next project,  and I don't burn out constantly switching.  I've previously tried the 10 hour stitching rotation.. this got tedious fast, then a weekly rotation.. now I do a loose month long  rotation and found this to be the best.  Would love to hear from others who have a rotation and hear what works for you.

Happy stitching everyone, 

Deb

A bit of this and a bit of that

April already, Easter has come and gone and the weather in Australia is cooling down. We are entering Autumn (Fall) here though you wouldn't know it,  as it is still fairly warm during the day just a little cooler in the morning and at night.

My last update was a while ago and a heap has happened since then. I have progressed on the PR Mystery Sal - photos below and forgot to update you all about it and March's IHSW which kind of didn't happen, the reason being is that on the 25th of March I went into to hospital for surgery.

All went well and I was home after a few days. I don't resume work until the end of April and I am on limited housework duties which gives me a heap of stitching time, so I will have lots of updates on WIP and some new projects.

Before my op I had been working on my PR Mystery Sal. I have now completed up to part 10.  Parts 11-14 are waiting for me not sure when I am going to get around to them. Too many WIP not enough time lol.

I'm still not sure about the long beaded rows. I picked up some DMC white satin thread the other day. I am going to do a few stitches next to the beads and compare and decide which way to go next time I get this project out. 

While recovering from surgery I decided to do a new start something a little simpler while my head was still not quiet into complicated stitching.  Some of the Aussie girls on Facebook are part of a Sal and one of the two design choices is The Red Quaker Sampler a free design  available from needleknowledge.com which I have chosen as my Sal piece. I'm not normally into traditional samplers but one of the other ladies is doing this in purples and it looks simply stunning.  We have split the design into 12 parts for the year.  I  have selected to do mine in two Dinky Dyes silks. Rosewood 176 and Pink Diamond 160 stitched on 32ct white linen.

I started stitching on the Sunday evening after coming home from hospital - the 29th,  once my brain had de-fuzzed some what and by Good Friday I had managed to get January - March complete. 

Since Easter I have been working on Twisted band sampler again. My last up date on this WIP was back in December last year 

Yesterday morning (Wednesday 8th) I took a quick photo to see my latest progress as sometimes it feels I'm getting no where with some of the specialty stitches and was quite surprised. 

Since then I have finished band 6 and 7 and half way through band 8. Told you I wasn't allowed to do much of anything but stitching at the moment.. total bliss :) 

Well that is it for the time being hopefully it won't take me another month to post an update. 

Happy Stitching everyone, 

Deb

Time for a Taj Mahal update plus February 2015 IHSW report

Can't believe it has been just over a month since my last blog post.  Time flying again, we are almost 2 months gone this year already!

I've spent the last month blissfully progressing on  my Chatelaine Taj Mahal Mandala, I'm now well past the half way point.

Last time I updated Taj back in November my progress looked like this.

My progress from 23rd January to the 4th February.  I really started to make progress on the middle section. 

Then on the 15th February it looked like this. I didn't realise my needles had been smoking until I saw the before and after shots and how much of the middle I had got done in 11 days lol. 

I took another photo at the start the weekend of IHSW so I could see my progress before and after the weekend. My main focus was finishing the middle and getting some progress on the right hand Taj. 

February IHSW ended up being a very good stitchy weekend. In fact stitching was about the only thing I could do Friday night and Saturday day. We had two cyclones up north. One in the Northern Territory which had no real impact on us and the second was Cyclone Marcia due to hit up north Friday night or Saturday morning. Brisbane received heaps of rain.

Friday it rained all day so once I got home from work it was time to settle in for the long haul. It was predicted to rain all day Saturday and possibly Sunday too. I even made sure to have batteries for my little clip on LED lights and my rechargeable light charged in case of power loss. It was IHSW after all. Nothing was going to stop me lol.  My goal of finishing the middle section - cross stitches achieved and a good start on the right hand Taj. I so love this design. This is where I leave Taj's progress as of 22nd of February as it is time to catch up on the PR Mystery Sal before the next part comes out but firstly I'm off to check out everyone else's IHSW efforts.  

Happy Stitching everyone, 

Deb

Under the moonlight - Part 7 finished! And a Happy Dance!

In my last post I mentioned how hot and sticky the weather had been in Brisbane recently.

Well thankfully after a week of horrid sleepless nights because it was just too too hot to sleep, the weather changed and cooled down to a much more comfortable stitching temperature from about Wednesday.
In fact it's been raining here all day today, rather pleasant after the sticky heat of last weekend. Perfect stitching weather in fact!

Last night I finished part 7 of the PR Mystery Sal - Under the Moonlight and here it is..

We are starting to see a few more features other than then border. Part 8 comes out next week and is worked under where part 7 was just stitched, so hopefully more features of our mystery subject will be revealed. I'm looking forward to trying to keep up with the Sal as the parts get bigger without neglecting my other WIP"s... gotta love a juggling act lol.

Now this week I also happen to have had a bit of a happy dance. Not the finishing a project happy dance but a happy one none the less. 

Anyone that loves Nora Corbett/Mirabilia designs,  knows how hard it is to get their hands on  the OOP  Tigerlily chart from Nora's Pixie Couture Collection.

 I have been looking with no success for a while.  I am a member of a facebook group for Australian stitchers to unload stash,  and I decided on a whim to ask if anyone who had her was willing to part with her. 

I wasn't expecting much success mind you. So you can imagine my delight when not only did someone have her but they were willing to sell her and for a very reasonable price too!!  It just goes to show you don't know until you ask.  She arrived in the mail yesterday. 

It is a holiday weekend here in Australia as Monday is Australia Day. I am hoping for a cooler weekend than we had last weekend and to spend some time with family and also hopefully get back into working on Taj Mahal Mandala. Maybe  I might also try and work out what fabric I will stitch Tigerlily on and when I am going to find time to squeeze her into my rotation. 

Happy Stitching everyone, 

Deb

January 2015 IHSW

Ack I am late with  my IHSW update.  Work sure does get in the way of blogging and stitches  some days :)

No photos this time around they are coming in my next post. I spent the weekend working on the PR Mystery Sal when I could.
 It was so hot and sticky here over the weekend that I found I couldn't sit and stitch for more than half hour at a time.
I got way too hot under my stitching lamp and trying to stitch with sweat rolling down your face is just wrong.   I was hoping to get part 7 finished but keeping cool was more of a priority. The minute you went out of fan zone you were dripping wet.

I hope everyone else managed to get more stitching done for the weekend than I did. I will be off to check out everyone's blogs later this evening.

Happy Stitching everyone,
Deb

A month with the Firefly's

Wow time flies when you are having fun.  A month ago I was wishing you all happy holidays and new years and here we are 14 days into the year.
I certainly hope everyone is healthy and well as the new year strides along.

I have kept busy over the last month.  We have quite a few birthdays in December and January so that along with Christmas makes it very festive.  As per normal I ate way too much yummy food and now resolve to get some what into shape.... round is a shape right? :)

After I put the PR Mystery Sal away I picked up Lavender & Lace's Firefly Fairies.  I have always loved this design and kind of started it a few years ago.  I braved the bleaching of the sunburst, which wasn't really has hard as I thought it would be. More so worried about destroying a perfectly good piece of fabric I guess. Then I had stitched the first star and candle-shine at the top of the design and that is where I left it. I'm not sure what year it was but 2003 for some reason keeps popping into my head! The fabric is 32 ct which suggests it was around then as these days due to my aging eye sight I find I prefer 28ct most of the time.

I had everything I needed but the beads, and they were on their way, hopefully they would turn up before Christmas while I was on my two weeks vacation.   So on the 14th of December I set about restarting. I left the original first star but unpicked the candle-shine as I wasn't happy with it and restitched it.

10 days later on Christmas Eve this is where I was up to. By this time my beads had arrived and I was starting to add some beads in too.

Then on New Year's this was my progress... 

So amazing how much stitching you can get done when work doesn't interfere with your time lol.

Nearly a month after my restart they are looking like this. almost half way done.

This is where I will leave the "girls" at the moment. Part 7 of the PR Mystery Sal is now out so I will be working on that and then Taj Mahal Mandala is calling my  name for some attention. 

Happy Stitching, everyone

Deb

Under the Moonlight - Parts 3 - 6

Hot off the scroll frame, parts 3-6 of the PR Mystery Sal.

Progress as of 13th December 2014

I'm all caught up again until January.  I spent the last few days stitching when possible due to being in hospital for minor surgery on Wednesday. So made the most of my time off  from work and stitched stitched stitched!

I'm still a bit worried about the long row of beads, trying to keep them straight. They seem to go wonky every now and then and I know I am not the only one with concerns regarding this.  A few of the ladies are actually replacing the long straight rows of beads with DMC Rayon in white and it looks rather good.

I am persevering with the beading at the moment but I do worry that it will go wonky just prior to framing and being a tad OCD it will drive me mad if any are wonky once framed.

Well we have around 11 days to go before Christmas and I'm not sure if I will manage another update before then so I will take the time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays,  and a Safe and happy new year no matter where you are in the world. May you get to spend some time with the ones you love.

Happy Stitching everyone,
Deb