Archive for the 'Counted Stitchwork' Category
While we were away, I noticed the projects I’d picked up to bring had a bit of an oceanic theme going on as well:
The colours in this crocheted face washer matched the view nicely on that grey, blustery day 
And then there were these mermaids. I put a few hours of stitching in – this is Mirabilia’s Mermaids of the Deep Blue. To be honest, I’m still in a little bit of shock that I actually cross-stitched. It’s been ages – I’d be willing to bet that most of my cross-stitch-y friends and readers have stopped following this blog, it’s been so long!
Blogtoberfest Day 6
October 06 2009 | Counted Stitchwork and In Progress and Other Craft and Yarncraft | 2 Comments »
The owner of this hand turns 2 in a week. Can you believe it?!
Oh how I wish I got the focus right in this shot – she was moving so fast I took what I could. It’s an almost great photograph
Anyway. The lovely biscornu in Niamh’s hand came to me two weeks ago. It’s from Christine, and it is a simply beautiful Pay-It-Forward gift. So sorry Christine that it’s taken me so long to let you know it arrived, and that I love it. So nicely finished – be proud of yourself!
PS. I upgraded my WordPress installation and now my smilies are all blah. I just noticed this now, will work on it tomorrow!
May 26 2008 | Counted Stitchwork | 5 Comments »
There’s no escaping it – excluding January, 2-oh-oh-8 has been a pretty lean year for me, crafting- and stitching-wise. I’m a bit bummed about that, but as usual, when I’m feeling a lot of stress about other things, I find the urge to create falls in a heap. Instead, I’ve been doing a lot more reading than usual (the highlight of which has been the very beautiful Girl with a Pearl Earring – how, oh how have I not read this before?) More recently, I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction to Packrat on Facebook (and I’m going to go ahead and blame Annette for that, even though I know she will protest!)
All has not been completely lost though. Way way waaay back in February, I did actually do a wee bit o’ cross-stitchin’ Can’t for the life of me remember where this cute heart is from (DMC??), but it was a freebie chart, and I stitched it with a pretty pink hand dyed silk from Jo.
Then, in March, I became a joiner-in-er! I sidled into a Brown Owls meeting one night, had a bit of fun stitching up my name and Tweenie panels, decided that a room full of crafty strangers wasn’t quite as scary as I thought, and became a Seconder that very night. What is Brown Owls? Why it’s ‘Brownies’ for Crafters, of course 
(or ‘my weird cult’, if you believe my sweet husband!) Bunches of crafty chicks sitting around the clubhouse drinking tea, eating bikkies, chatting, and learning and sharing bits of crafty goodness. All thanks to the Good Lady Pip.
I’ve been to another two meetings since – in April we played with hooks and yarn. After the crochet class, inspired by Lara’s collection of flowers, I came home and puzzled my way through a few online tutorials to create this bunch:
At last night’s meet we had a bit of a Mix-up – everyone brought in whatever they liked to work on, plus some Show & Tell. I was so worried I was going to be the daggiest crafter there – because it has always seemed to me that even in this atmosphere of crafty revival, cross-stitch is still stuck firmly in the ‘Nanna crafts’ category. But surprise! and yay! I wasn’t the only one who brought cross-stitch. I know… I worry about the silliest things 
Oh yes, and on the weekend, one of my red flowers made its way onto a last-minute handmade gift for my Mum for Mothers’ Day (makes me feel like I’m back in kindergarten… in a good way!)
Pretty!
But the thing that is making me happiest of all today is a small but significant breakthrough in the Finn situation. We’ll get there yet
May 13 2008 | Counted Stitchwork and Finished and Other Craft and Sewing and Yarncraft | 6 Comments »
‘Tis late. We’re not long back from ‘doing’ the Myer windows and the Boulevard lights – two Melbourne Christmas institutions if ever there were. With a stop off at Haigh’s on the way. Yum. Two happy but tired kids fell asleep on the way home. I thought I’d show you a couple of recent finished objects before I do the same.
This cushion:
which is a long awaited finish (remember the work in progress?) from Finn. He finished it in time to show his teacher last week at his (sob! sniff!) last Kinder session.
The proud boy (since having a new camera – early gift from Mum, thanks Mum – necessitated taking new playground shots of kids):
And a finish from me, which I probably shouldn’t really be showing off yet, since it’s still en route to the recipient:
This was for an ornament exchange on the Aus Xers yahoo group. I joined up before I realised what a slump in stitching I was about to experience. Blah. So I have to confess… I probably broke the rules a little bit. This stitched piece (a Drawn Thread freebie) was sitting in my ‘to be finished’ pile already(!) When I realised I had zero chance of getting something new stitched for the exchange, I picked this out and finished it up as a pillow ornament. Is that bad? Anyway, I’m not counting it as a finish for the year, but I do plan to restitch it for myself, because I think it’s really pretty. If I manage to kick myself in the butt after Christmas is over, I might just get it done before ’08!
December 18 2007 | Counted Stitchwork and Finished and General Ramblings and Kid Crafts and Other Craft and Sewing | 4 Comments »
As I confessed on Christine’s blog recently… when I set goals for myself (particularly publicly), inevitably, I succumb to some kind of weird reverse-psychology thing. Suddenly, whatever it is I have decided I should do, is the last thing I actually feel like doing. And so it was with the TW October stitchalong. I managed to scrape in a mere 7 hours of stitching for the whole month of October. Thankfully, that 7 hours was all on Storyteller, so all was not completely lost. Here are the before’n'afters:
Here:
Aaaaand here:
So. Now you see Mssr. Cuthbert, my storyteller (the dragon is Claude. You know, like ‘Clawed’. I know. Sad. 
).
And now ST is likely to return to the box from whence it came… hopefully not for all eternity!
November 06 2007 | Counted Stitchwork and In Progress | 9 Comments »
Ahem. Sorry about the unscheduled broken-time. A stupid mistake – I was upgrading my WordPress installation and then went to bed without actually testing it properly, and hey, turns out I missed that teeny tiny .htaccess file that makes it all work. So Million Stitches was broken good and proper this last 24 hours. Never mind. We’re back in business now. And I have part two of the Smalls Exchange to show you. Here are the pretties which Christine stitched for me – an Ellen Maurer Stroh biscornu (beautiful beaded edge Christine ) and fob:
Aren’t they gorgeous? You can see more images on Christine’s post, including a photograph of the extra goodies she sent me – a lovely handmade card, highlighters (staple of any stitcher’s toolkit!), doggie post-its which Finn very much fancies for himself, and the very beautiful Drawn Thread Cloister Garden kit. This is me on opening my gifties: 
October 10 2007 | Blog Blather and Counted Stitchwork and Finished | 1 Comment »
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