The rotation has left the building.

Being a stitcher with many WIP I often have a rotation of sorts so that my many (currently 10) WIP get some love.  I've tried many different rotations that are around.  

Firstly there was the 10 hour rotation.  Stitch on a project for 10 hours then swap. My problems with this - clock watching, it made me obsessed. Not to mention I was often switching projects every few days which was annoying as I had just got into one and it was time to switch.

Then I went to the weekly rotation.. I had the same issue with the 10 hour.  It might take me a good week to really get into a project if I have been busy and then it is time to switch again.  This progressed to switching every two weeks and then that became the once a month switch.  Now I often work on a screaming monthly rotation working on the project that screams at me the loudest for a month.

However of late I'm finding myself stitching on one project for longer and longer.  I have so many that are half finished or closer that  I am chasing a finish.. something I have not had many of in recent years.

Since 20th of July I rotated back onto the Passione Ricamo  starting part 11. This what where I was up to at end of part 10

Part 11 completed 

Half way through part 12

Part 13 finished as of 19th September (photo taken at night so fabric looks more purple than blue) 

I've actually started replacing the long rows of beads with 1 strand of satin DMC B5200 and 1 strand of cotton DMC B5200. The lower straight rows are stitched at the moment as I still need to remove the beads on the sides and top. I'm much happier with the stitches. I was not happy the straight rows did not stay well 100%  straight. 

At this time I plan to move on to part 14 unless another WIP screams at me louder!

Happy Stitching everyone, 

Deb

UFO's - not the space kind.

UFO's as stitchers we all have them. You know what I am talking about those Un-Finished Objects -  projects we have not stitched on for at least 12 months or more that go from being  WIP status to UFO status.

I currently have two. One of them is Joan Elliott's The Sewing Room. The last time I stitched on this piece was November 2012!.. Yikes.. almost 3 years since I had picked this piece up.  I was about half way through the piece too.

So for the last week of  May one of the Aussie Facebook stitching groups I belong to decided to have a little UFO week long challenge. To select a WIP or UFO that had not seen any love for a while. After a week this was my progress.  

Not as much progress for the week as I had hoped but something was better than nothing. So happy was I to get back into this project I decided to continue working on this piece for June and into July so by the 18th of July I had made great progress on  the chair area. 

So no longer in the UFO pile I hope it doesn't take me another 2.5 years to pick this piece up again :)

Happy stitching everyone, 

Deb

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