Category Archives: Counted Stitchwork

Show & Tell

Far overdue, may I show you in full the hardanger exchange which I stitched for Jenny. You can see it hanging on the wall in her post – here’s a slightly different angle for interest:
Hardanger Exchange

Or, you can get up close and personal with the stitching here. Although I thought finishing it as a ‘wall ornament’ was kind of uninspired (hey, I was really tired!), I was really happy with the quality of my finishing. I have a bag (or, um, three) of finished-but-not-finished projects which I’d really like to start making a dent in – Anne and Karen have started up the Focus on Finishing blog, have you seen it? That should provide me with some inspiration.

The reason I’ve taken so long to post this is because my ‘spare’ time (insert maniacal laugh here) has been taken up with Suz’s UFO for the Round Robin. She sent around Black Swan’s Lily Pond Dreams. Confetti stitching ahoy! It kicked my butt, and once again I didn’t achieve as much as I would have liked. Here are the before ‘n’ afters, clickable for biggering.
UFO-RR-Suz-1UFO-RR-Suz-2

And, just in case you aren’t all pictured out, here are pics of the three pay-it-forward packages that I know have arrived. (Should check up on the other two – Angi, Debbi, are yours there yet?). I dyed a fat 1/8 of linen or evenweave, and some stranded cotton (plus a perle for Jenna) for each person in their colour preferences. So far, so good, everyone seems to like these:

For Jenna
PIF-Jenna
For Tash
PIF-Tash
For Jinger
PIF-Jinger

Phew! I think that’s about it.

Happy Dance #1/07

We’re back! We had a great time, the small people were both (relatively) well behaved, and not even the 4am-faulty-car-horn incident (not our car) on the first night, and the blustery oh-heck-will-those-trees-drop-their-limbs-on-the-tent-? weather on the second night could ruin our happy-camper-spirits. It was nice to be back in a tent – a brand spanking new one, what’s more ๐Ÿ™‚ Our next expedition is the Port Fairy folk festival over the long weekend in March. The enjoyment factor of that festival is always heavily dependent on the weather, so all fingers are crossed.

Hardanger-Exchange-tWe spent a couple of nights at my father-in-law’s place after the festival ended, where I was able to (finally) get a move on my Hardanger Exchange piece (an exchange on the Rotation BB). I’ve dilly-dallied over this for so long (mailing date was today), but finally today I had my first HD of 2007. I didn’t quite get it finished into something yet, so it will still be delayed a bit, but hopefully I’ll have it in the mail by Friday. I can’t show you the whole thing yet, obviously, but I wanted to show a sneak preview, simply because this is the first time I’ve done ‘real’ Hardanger – I’ve never done woven bars and Dove’s eyes before, just Kloster blocks and a little bit of cutting. Obviously my cutting needs work to get those little end bits right off, but I’m pretty happy with how this turned out, nonetheless. The thread and fabric used here are both my hand-dyes (though this fabric turned out almost solid, which is why I used it for this). Can’t wait to show you the whole thing once it reaches its destination.

Recap 06.1

Still having trouble building up momentum for 2007. In the interest of looking back before I can move forward, I’ve decided to do a mad-dash blog recap of 2006, to see just what I achieved last year (other than the obvious…).

In January I… started the final unit of my Master’s degree; bemoaned the absence of Cadbury peppermint Easter eggs; involved myself unnecessarily in another person’s issues; burned the wagon big-time; stitched on Petal Fairy; reached the halfway point in my second pregnancy.

In February I… harvested good things from our garden; reeled from the terrible loss of a good friend; learned that our baby was a girl; finished my Master’s degree; stitched ‘Celtic Cross’; stitched a square for Laura’s memorial quilt; stitched on ‘Spring Dragon’.

In March I… stitched on my first conversion; hand-dyed some beautiful fabrics; became completely absorbed with dyeing floss; stitched up four small designs; dyed and stenciled some t-shirts for Finn; had troubles with my blood pressure (which eventually resolved themselves); developed gestational diabetes; went shopping for kitchen appliances.

In April I… got cranky about the diabetes; wrote a floss-dyeing tutorial; started selling some hand-dyed floss; bought a bucket load of Silkweaver fabrics in their sale; was told my baby was in a breech position, and became worried about my chances of having a VBAC; started ‘Mermaids of the Deep Blue’; dyed more fabric; got nervous about the kitchen demolition/reconstruction

In May I… kept my GD under control; was scheduled for a c-section; got uber-cranky (damn pregnancy hormones); fretted about meeting exchange stitching deadlines; taught Finn to read; sent and received some lovely exchanges; celebrated my one year ‘blogiversary’

In June I… got grumpy about spam and splogs; started ‘You Were Hatched’; HAD A BABY (by VBAC, what’s more, and this far eclipses the rest of the year, of course); became closely acquainted with sleep deprivation; never posted a birth-story, whoops; actually managed to start and finish (and frame and send) an exchange.

In July I… got a little more sleep; started ‘Dragonfly Jewels’; stitched my first needleroll for an exchange; went to the Zoo; had some good and not-so-good baby evenings; stitched more on ‘You Were Hatched’; had a small boy with croup

In August I… only managed to post on the blog 4 times; made friands and playdough; had a long rant about the census; finished ‘You Were Hatched’; received a great package from my Scissor Fob exchange partner; received a lovely beadwork fob from Karin; went through a dreadful run of sleepless nights; started a bit of casual employment marking assignments

In September I… became hooked on Flickr craft groups; finally caught some Niamh smiles on camera; bemoaned the post-partum falling of my hair; made a valiant attempt at some decluttering

In October I… posted every day of ‘Blogtober’; tried my hand at crochet (again); joined the UFO round robin; came clean about the number of WIPs I have (then 15); received a big stash order; watched Niamh learn how to roll over; celebrated birthday no. 31; suffered my first migraine in a long time; stitched on ‘Elizabeth’ for the UFO-RR; finished the Mirabilia ‘Bumblebee’; finished ‘Kaitlin’; won some funky scissors from Jenna; baked more friands; made a friendship bracelet; bought our digi-SLR

In November I… burned out from October’s postathon and only posted three times; signed up to ‘Pay it Forward’; started freaking out about Christmas; got angry about mixed up taxes; and also about strawberry-stealing slaters; went away to celebrate our anniversary; did lots of other stuff that didn’t end up being blogged

In December I… did a bunch of stuff that really needs it’s own recap post

Not so shabby after all. I think I counted 13 stitching finishes in there. They were all small, but I think I can live with that.

I also counted far too many moans and rants though. Got to work on that this year!

UFO Round Robin Part II

Here’s the stitching I’ve managed since you last saw me. I put about fifteen hours into Juli’s UFO before sending it on its merry way. Unfortunately, I neglected to get a ‘before’ shot, and Claire’s website seems to have disappeared, so I can’t point you to her picture. You’ll just have to believe me ๐Ÿ™‚ I stitched all of the tree (brown) you see here. Just tree. Treetreetreetreetreetree. Bo-oring, lemme tell you, but hey, I didn’t have to pull out too many colours of floss or learn too many symbols, so it was the perfect no-brain stitching for me. Plus, it advances the project (which will eventually look like this), and someone else will thank me that they don’t have to do that slab of tree!

UFO-RR-Onilyn-2

Paying It Forward

In the absence of much advice from you, dear readers, I had to make up my own mind on what to spend my recent earnings. I decided in the end to add to my dyeing stash rather than my stitching stash (is it actually possible I’m approaching SABLE with my stitching stash?) So I bought some more white fabrics (including opalescents), and have some new dyes coming to me from Kraftkolour. I’m excited about the prospect of returning to some dyeing, and I have some ideas brewing.

Which leads to my next item of business. I’ve spotted this ‘paying it forward’ concept on a couple of blogs lately, and tonight I decided to join in, on Christine’s blog. So here goes:

I will create some ‘piece of art’ for the first five people to respond to this post in the comments below. I’m interpreting ‘art’ fairly loosely here. Given my recent purchases (see above), you can probably guess along the lines of what I would like to create. So if you’re interested, comment away. Next, drop an email to me, letting me know your postal address, and I’ll be in touch ๐Ÿ™‚

The catch? You need to blog this too, and ‘pay it forward’ in your own way. Go on… it’ll be fun!

Snippets and an SBQ

I finally finished the last of my marking yesterday. I think I had just about got into the swing of it, but still, I don’t harbour any desire to do it again.

I spent much of yesterday trying to decide whether to sign up for NaBloPoMo after all. In the end, I went to bed early instead, thus missing the signup deadline, and I’m probably glad of that. Also glad of the extra couple of hours of sleep, as Niamh woke up three times again.

In a case of “don’t count your chickens” (re. the camera purchase), my tax return arrived today, and somebody at the ATO has monumentally stuffed up, doing me out of a very substantial amount of family tax benefit. I spent an hour and a half on the phone and down at Medicare today trying to sort it out. We will get the money, but it may take another month. Grrr.

I’ve signed up for another exchange even when I told myself I wouldn’t. Hardanger. Scary.

Christmas is how close? ๐Ÿ˜ฎ And I’ve realised that I have to make Niamh a Santa Sack. Like this one of Finn’s. It’s an Ellen Maurer Stroh free design – I think I’ll use the reindeer design for Niamh.

SBQ from today:

How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random, or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?

Erm… I think I was kind of trying to be clever. Or something. Something about “The journey of a million stitches begins with a single cross”. Let’s call it random, anyway. I’ve been considering renaming to “Stitched By Mel” to match the url, but I’m still not sure about that. I feel like this blog is less and less about stitching at the moment, so I’m not sure either the name or the address are particularly appropriate. I have therefore also considered moving the whole blog to a new subdomain and renaming it Blogged.byMel. But I’m somewhat loathe to change the address. I suspect everything will just stay the same… I’m a great procrastinator :giggle:

Edit: Clearly, this entry was written back when the name of the blog was ‘Million Stitches’, and clearly, I eventually moved and renamed the blog ๐Ÿ™‚

Meet Kaitlin

Kaitlin
I finally sat down this morning to finish off Miss Kaitlin (while giving Finn some lessons in addition, using poker chips – something about that seems not quite right somehow!) As I backstitched the white design on her dress, I realised why I didn’t finish this off before. That is the most finicky little bit of backstitching I’ve ever done – two strands on 32-count (I think), lots of odd little stitches in an area where there’s already a lot of stitching (and I stitched this in the days when I did ¾ stitches instead of half stitches, so there’s added bulk). Ick. Anyway, she’s done now. I ripped out the ‘Kaitlin’ beneath her. I’ll either stitch ‘Niamh’ later, or nothing at all, depending on what she ends up as.

SBQ 25/10

SBQ: The Halloween edition

If you were to come across a sampler chart that caught your eye and appealed to you, would you or would you not stitch it if it had a morbid or โ€œcreepyโ€ saying on it? If not, why?

This question immediately brought to mind the Monsterbubbles design Lizzie Borden. Not a sampler, but definitely morbid! I remember a bit of a hoo-hah on the BBs when this came out – is it or is it not in ‘poor taste’? Personally, I find it kind of amusing. The Monsterbubbles designs don’t really appeal to me, but I appreciate their whimsy. Anyway, to answer the question… I’m not really in the habit of stitching samplers or anything with ‘sayings’ on. But if I did, I seriously doubt creepiness or morbidity would be offputting to me at all :giggle:

And, because I feel like answering another, this, from way back in April:

Do you do obligation or deadline-based stitching? Why or why not? If you do, do you tend to get in over your head and why?

I have done a handful of exchanges, yes. And of course there’s the UFO round robin I’m in now. I don’t really look upon these as ‘obligation’ stitching in a negative light though. Part of the reason I join these things is to motivate myself to stitch (and more importantly, to finish!). Also, I enjoy the community aspect of them. I don’t tend to get in over my head, I usually choose only one or two at a time to join.

While we’re on the topic, I recently relinquished my membership to the stitching bloggers’ exchange board. Amongst other reasons, I felt that I couldn’t really guarantee the required amount of participation while Niamh is small. There was a waiting list of people wanting membership to the board, so I hope whoever got my place enjoys it. So to all the SBEBB stitchers reading, thanks for making my stay there a good one, and… goodbye, I guess ๐Ÿ™‚ I plan instead to take part in a few exchanges on the Rotation BB as I find the time.

The Question Is…

One of the things which contributed to my Very Bad Day yesterday, was a trip into uni to pick up some student submissions for marking. Ten minutes after picking them up, Finn spilled water all over the back seat of the car, and the papers. Aaargh. They weren’t harmed much, so unfortunately I still have to mark them. Damn :giggle:

This whole thing, this marking, has been an experience I’d rather not repeat. We refer to it here as ‘my volunteer work’, due to the pittance which I am paid (the hourly rate is actually perfectly satisfactory. The problem stems from the unreasonable and unattainable time limit which is imposed on us to mark each assignment – regardless of how long it actually takes, we are paid only for the given amount of time). But, you know, volunteer work is supposed to be enriching and valuable in other ways, right? Ha.

Anyway, I decided early on that to make myself feel better, I would spend what I earned on stash. Technically this order came from some of my earnings. So now… the question is. What do I go and blow the rest on? A Silkweaver’s Trick or Treat bag? 25% off ‘almost everything’ at the SB&B Ooky Spooky sale? Any other sales on I should know about?

In other uni news, I decided officially today that paying through the teeth to wear a mortarboard and gown and sit through the endless hours of boring drivel that comprise Graduation, is not for me (again). I’m having my degree conferred in absentia. It should arrive sometime next month ๐Ÿ™‚

‘Lizzie’

Last night’s marathon (for me) stitching session took Lizzie from here to here:
UFO-RR-Claire-3

And now, her bags are packed and she’s leaving on a jet plane for America. Tracey, I hope you enjoy stitching on her ๐Ÿ™‚

I have nothing more for you tonight – it’s tax night in our house (yeah, I know, we are really, really, really late!) so I’m off to join in the fun :giggle: