First in 2009

Yes, my first finish for this year, considering how close 2010 is coming. It's about time. LOL I finally finished Twinkle Twilight for Natalie at about 2 am today. Just couldn't go to sleep while putting in the last of the metallics. My friend Joyce suggested I changed the colour of the border to purple rather than blue, and I'm really glad I did. It turn out fantastic and more fitting for a girl. Maria Van Scharrenburg designed this for a boy, but I think it could go either and the purple border made it a girly piece.



I told Amanda hopefully now Natalie will be able to sleep better now. You I finished Vivienne's piece when she was just a few months old and she has been a perfect sleeper. This one however had been a long journey. Natalie is now 14 months old and is still not sleeping very well at night.

It had been a long while since I last blogged. Life is just not like before anymore, very limited time with works + Natalie. There had been some major changes, I have now moved office and have a better view of some forrest and more sunlight which is great. Natalie is now walking more and more. Apart from TT, I have also done some other stitching including Cosima



and a new project Cirque des Carreaux by Ink Circle



What am I going to do next ? I'm not sure yet, I could start more projects or maybe finished some old WIPs or UFOs which most had become now.

Cosima

This month, I've been working on Cosima again. Just finished the 4th motif and also the second big motif. I had to do some minor adjustment as the chart wasn't very symmetrical. I've also done the letter K. This was also to check if the colour combination works, what do you all think ? The floss were Vicky Clayton's Tuscan Rose for the motifs and Attar of Roses + Zinnia for the alphabets.



This is the first time I upload a photo using my new iPhone. It was fairly easy and straight forward. This makes uploading wips much quicker from now on. Anyhow I'm off to another conference tomorrow

I'm Still Alive !!

LOL. I seemed to have disappeared from the earth. But I'm still alive. I haven't much time to do any crafts these days. Natalie had been alot more demanding than Vivienne was. Virtually no time for stitching. Thankfully the last 2 months or so she is improving. And I have managed to do some stitching last 6 weeks or so.

Since I last blogged, we've had a holiday to Hong Kong in Nov 2008. No stitching related activities there at all even though I did get some addresses of LNS. 2 weeks ago I went to Auckland for a week. That was for work and it was a very full weeks, very long days and I was a lot more tired than I've ever been. I did visit 1 LNS there called Homeworks during lunch one day. First time I visited an LNS this year. I picked the latest issue of Just Cross Stitch which featured InkCircle's growth ring, and 2 locally made kits, a small map of NZ and a mini carpet kit. This is a needlepoint kit using 42 count canvas, to be done 1 over 1. It will be very interesting.

Anyhow here are some pictures of what I've been doing. I have frogged out about 20% of my mistake for Bouquet for Cheryl, and worked on it briefly while in NZ, still haven't covered back my mistake yet, but I'm now making progress at least. Hopefully no more frogging. It was painful. Here it is now




Next is Tenderness, I've been working mainly about 1 length at a time between settling Natalie etc last few months. Only a small progress from last picture. I really like these sepia look.



Lastly, this is St Sophia. This is what I've been concentrating on last few weeks. I'm really liking the colour, though I did discover a few inconsistencies in the chart. I don't know if it was on purpose or not. I always though it was asymmetrical, but there are one or two stitches here and there just different. Easily fixed though.




Thanks for looking.

Cosima Update

How come time goes so fast ? October is gone. I haven't done much stitching at all, Twinkle Twilight now has an arm, but not much to show so I haven't taken new picture. This weekend, Amanda and the girls have gone to Sydney for some birthday party. I had to work hence stay at home alone.... Which means STITCHING time !!!!

I picked up Cosima as I was not in the mood in changing colour and finished the first motif in 2 evenings. YEAHHH. It feels great. A mini happy dance, eventhough it's only a small part.



This is actually a huge project, that's 1 out of 18 larger motifs. Ther are smaller ones and also alphabets. The stitch count is 401 x 401. To give you an idea, this is the whole fabric now on my scroll frame.



When am I going to finish this ? I'm thinking maybe 5 years. LOL. At least. I also have Clarissa, its companion which is the same size. Both were limited edition patterns which are out of print now.

Thanks for looking

Twinkle Twilights for natalie

I haven't done much stitching this past month. Natalie is very different to Vivienne was. Very unsettled at night hence lots of sleepless night for both of us. But luckily she is improving now at least she gets back to sleep after feed last 2 weeks. I also had to give a major presentation last week, hence all my free/stitching time had been taken for preparing that. Hence at least no stitching for about 2 weeks straight. I'm in withdrawal !!! LOL

I have done a bit more on TT last 2 nights. Enough to show a progress anyhow, including the cute face. This is actually Twinkle Twilight Richard by Maria Van Scharrenburg which I wil personalise to Natalie at the end. Just like Vivienne', which was from TT RIchard. It's not a very big project hopefully I get to finish it this year.

Here are the pictures

This is the placemat of the fabric weaving that I did.



I didn't end up doing the finishing myself. My MIL had a special foot on the sewing machine which did all the binding or tape around the piece. It was done in 30 second. Had I done it, I don't think it would look like that.

This is another picture on our table with the tea pot plus mug on it.


I'm probably going to weave more fabric to make some boxes in the future.

Frogs !!!!!

Okay, Natalie is more than 1 month old now. As per Chinese tradition, we are having a celebration with all the family this weekend. So we are in Sydney. As per usual, this time I decided to take a small project with me to stitch away from home. I decided on Cheryl's banquet.

So I was stitching away last night after the girls gone to sleep. Only to notice that I'm 1 stitch off. Grrrrrrr. Trace back the mistake and it was back a long while ago. Mind you, I don't work on this very often. Now I need to frog out about 20% of what I have done !! Man oh man, what didn't I notice this earlier. And of course neing a symetric pattern, I can't cheat out of it either. Needless to say, I didn't do any more stitching after.

On another note, we were at the annual Craft fair last weekend in Canberra. There was a stand there where the lady was doing some fabric weaving. It looks very intersting so I baught some of the tools. I've been trying this last 2 nights, and I have finished a small block. It will be a placemat for our teapot. Amanda's sewing machine is at service this week. So I can't do the finishing yet. Of course I had to learn using the sewing machine as well. I have will post a picture when I get back home.

Finally, Novia had finished her Orange Tree. You can see it
here. It's beautiful. So I guess I need to go and pull out my Abduction of Psych. As you know, Novia and I were trialing these beadpoint projects from Golden Kite. I beter get a whip for mine.